Good Monday morning!

Not long ago, Tony Teixeira looked like he made it big. After years as a Democratic political operative for Ray Lesniak, Teixeira had become chief of staff to state Sen. Nicholas Scutari, who was then unexpectedly elevated to Senate president. He also chaired the Democratic Party in Elizabeth, New Jersey’s fourth-largest city.

Today, Teixeira faces sentencing for wire fraud and tax evasion. It appears that this is the last gasp of the Sean Caddle saga, which began when Caddle pleaded guilty to murdering his former associate Michael Galdieri. Caddle cooperated with the feds over a long period, even wore wires.

So far, Judge John Michael Vazquez has given harsher sentencing to the three defendants involved in the Caddle case. But that involved a murder — something Teixeira had nothing to do with. I have yet to see the sentencing materials for Teixeira, so I don’t know what prosecutors are recommending for his sentencing, but I’m guessing that the personal tragedy he suffered when his wife died following childbirth — and the increased familial responsibilities that came after that — will help mitigate it.

Based on what prosecutors said at Caddle’s sentencing, it appears likely that Teixeira will be the only politically connected person charged as a result of Caddle’s cooperation. The two men skimmed money off the network of super PACs and non-profits Caddle ran that were designed to hide the identity of donors who influenced local elections around New Jersey.

But it’s a sad state of affairs when even though these groups were clearly created to obscure money trails are being treated as victims instead of a symptom of something deeply wrong with our politics.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY: “This is the best thing I’ve ever been to, and I’ve been to the Vatican.” — Dominic Anthony, speaking about Atlantic City’s Knee-High Knuckle Buster micro wrestling, which features wrestlers with dwarfism.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY — Ned Thompson, Michael Catalini, Keith Kazmark

WHERE’S MURPHY? — Nothing

SOON SHE WILL ACTUALLY NEED NO INTRODUCTION — Health Commissioner Persichilli to retire, by POLITICO’s Dustin Racioppi and Daniel Han: Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli, who led the state’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, plans to retire this summer. Gov. Phil Murphy confirmed on Twitter a report from NJ Advance Media that Persichilli will step down next month. That would mark four years since she was named to the post. … Persichilli, a resident of Pennington, started her career as a nurse and worked her way up through the state’s health system. But her legacy will be for guiding the state through the most turbulent parts of the pandemic. Unlike most state agency commissioners, Persichilli built a public persona with her frequent appearances at the governor’s regular Covid-19 press conferences. During the Covid-19 media briefings — which were daily in the pandemic’s earliest days — Murphy referred to her as the ‘woman who needs no introduction.’ Persichilli led the department through the tumultuous period, trying to mitigate the spread of Covid-19, promoting wearing masks as well as vaccination efforts for Covid-19. The DOH’s main office building in Trenton is now named after her, in large part due to her time responding to the pandemic.”

MURPHY: EVERYONE MUST BUY ELECTRIC CARS TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE. ALSO MURPHY: New Jersey sues to block congestion pricing, by POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: New Jersey is suing to block New York’s new plan to toll drivers coming into parts of Manhattan, the governor said Friday morning. “We’ll bear the burdens of congestion pricing while New York gets the benefits,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said as he announced the lawsuit. The lawsuit challenges a federal environmental review of congestion pricing — which could add $23 to the costs of driving cars into parts of Manhattan to fund public transit. But it is a political act as well as a legal one, aimed at a long-awaited effort to reduce traffic in the nation’s largest city by asking drivers to pony up. Murphy has long telegraphed the move, which gives him an easy win back home by standing up to New Jersey’s bigger next-door neighbor. “That’s the most applause I’ve gotten in two and a half years,” Murphy said at a press conference in Fort Lee, N.J., with U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and Reps. Bill Pascrell and Josh Gottheimer, all fellow Democrats, and other state elected officials.

—“‘Punching back, Jersey style,’ Murphy signs tax credit for NJ remote worker”

—Snowflack: “Pascrell gives Murphy a lesson in Jersey etiquette”

Rejected NJ Transit HQ option was $111M cheaper than what agency chose, doc show, by North Jersey.com’s Colleen Wilson: “A February 2023 report produced by Savills, the real estate brokerage firm hired by NJ Transit to help analyze its Newark options for a new headquarters, identifies the Panasonic building as being more than $100 million cheaper, more efficient and more secure when compared to 2 Gateway, where the agency ultimately decided to move. The report echoes previous reporting by NorthJersey.com that there were less expensive options to choose from than 2 Gateway — a decision which comes at a critical time with NJ Transit facing a $120 million operating budget deficit next year and nearly $1 billion budget gap the year after that, and the agency weighing service cuts, fare hikes and layoffs to stave off those deficits. Despite that, the agency signed the lease for up to 431,000 square feet of space in 2 Gateway last month with Onyx Equities, LLC, a company co-owned by John Saraceno, who was in talks with NJ Transit officials about moving to 2 Gateway as early as 2021, well before the agency even went out to bid.”

—“Millions of NJ Medicaid dollars were misspent. How much did honest doctors return?”

—“No job, no IDs, no housing: People struggle to move on after incarceration in NJ prisons”

—Ciattarelli: ”These are the real concerns NJ voters wanted addressed in the new state budget”

—Bucco: “Why the NJ Legislature needs to stop Gov. Murphy’s extreme energy plan”

—Mulshine:”Phil Murphy’s bad Electric Vehicle plan has a great loophole”

—“Labor-Employer ads blow into Dem battlegrounds”

SCHOOLS ARE ANOTHER STORY — “This is the role NJ played in ending segregation in the US armed forces,” by The Record’s Charle Stile: “As the New Jersey National Guard actively recruited soldiers in a post-World War II overhaul, the U.S. Army bluntly reminded units in Newark that the new Guard would operate under the old rules of racism. “Under the present Department of Army policy, Negroes cannot be enlisted in white units,” read an order issued Jan. 28, 1948. New Jersey Gov. Alfred E. Driscoll had other ideas. Five days later, the Republican reformer bluntly notified Maj. Gen. Clifford Powell, the New Jersey Guard commander, to ignore the Army order. And by mid-February, the state’s adjutant general took it one step further, issuing General Order No. 4, which explicitly forbade segregation in New Jersey Guard units. … And in the months that followed, Driscoll’s action inspired other states to take steps to desegregate their National Guard units. Driscoll’s disobedience, outlined in faded mimeographs and brittle copies of old telegrams filed in the New Jersey State Archives, is a forgotten episode in New Jersey history, overshadowed by Truman’s executive order on July 26, 1948, to formally end segregation in the U.S. armed forces.”

TOO BAD HE COULDN’T TAKE THE CHAIRMAN’S FLIGHT — “In first SC visit, Christie tests anti-Trump message in Trump country,” by The Post and Courier’s Alexader Thompson: “Chris Christie’s presidential campaign is a longshot. But in deep red, socially conservative South Carolina, he may need a moonshot. The Palmetto State, if polls and the thousands that turned out to a rally a few weeks ago in Pickens in 92-degree heat are to be believed, is Trump Country. But that didn’t stop the former New Jersey governor from unleashing broadside after broadside against the former president during a town hall in downtown Columbia July 21. … ‘He failed us,’ Christie said of the man he endorsed after dropping out of the 2016 presidential primary and supported up to election night 2020, when he broke with Trump over his false claims of a stolen election. On Friday, Christie slammed Trump for the false election claims, using campaign funds to pay his legal fees, and failing to deliver on key promises like completing the southern border wall and allowing the national debt to rise substantially.”

— “Christie says DeSantis has only himself to blame for Florida education controversy”

PARENTS COMPLAINED AFTER MR. SCOPES TOLD STUDENTS EVOLUTION WAS REAL — “N.J. school board sparks outrage over policy change on teacher opinion,” by NJ Advance Media’s Deion Johnson: “The Westwood Regional School board on Thursday moved one step closer to revising a district policy that critics said would prohibit teachers from expressing their views on controversial issues taught in class. Board members voted 7 to 2 in favor of a second reading of the amendment to the controversial issues policy, which allows students to identify, understand and develop techniques to form opinions on contentious subjects with assistance from their teachers. … One teacher asked the board to consider the implications of the policy change. ‘Teachers don’t read from a script,’ she said. ‘We have unexpected conversations and engage with students in the context of the real world, and this change will discourage educators from different walks of life.’ … According to the proposal, the revised policy would: Expand the definition of a controversial issue. Mandate that teachers refrain from expressing their opinions on controversial issues and present all viewpoints. And only allow instruction on controversial issues that the board has approved. The proposed change comes as the Bergen County school district, which serves 2,777 children in Westwood and Washington Township, has been under fire in recent months following efforts to ban Pride flags and other signs outside school buildings.”

NEWARK — “Poll: Newarkers like their town but feel less safe than in the past,” by NJ Advance Media’s Steve Strunsky: “Though Newark residents tend to feel their quality of life has improved, they also feel less safe than in the past, and their attitude toward police has declined, according to results of a Fairleigh Dickinson poll released Thursday. In FDU’s poll of 1,104 city residents taken March 17-31, 34% of residents said Newark had gotten better as a place to live over the previous two years versus 26% who said it had gotten worse, and the rest perceived no significant change. The poll didn’t ask whether people felt safer than in the past. Instead, it asked how safe people were feeling at the moment and compared the response to a previous poll from 2018. Asked in March how safe people felt walking in their neighborhood at night, 41% of respondents said either ‘very safe’ or ‘somewhat safe,’ compared to 47% five years earlier.”

—“Community reacts to ‘grooming’ comment about West Milford High School LGBTQ club”

—“A working history of South Orange-Maplewood school integration, access and equity efforts”

—“Camden officials inspect ‘disgraceful’ apartment complex neglected by owner”

ADVOCATES PROTEST MURPHY’S APPOINTMENT OF SHREDDER AS TURTLE CZAR — “Tiny turtles are being squashed on roads. Here’s what N.J. is doing to save a species,” by NJ Advance Media’s Brianna Kudisch: “Diamondback terrapins — the only turtles that live in brackish water where fresh and salt water meet — are found across New Jersey from the Meadowlands down to Cape May. But, experts say they are struggling to survive as the state’s bays and waterways are getting more developed … More than 4,000 terrapins were killed on just six roads in South Jersey over a seven year time period, according to a report by the Northeast Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies. … Terrapins are currently a ‘species of interest’ in New Jersey, but that could change next year when they’re expected to be bumped up to a ‘species of special concern.’ The new status, designated by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, is not a surprise.”

NJIOU — “NJCU interim president declares worst is over, says nearly half of 30 layoffs are being rescinded,” by The Jersey Journal’s Joshua Rosario: “New Jersey City University Interim President Andrés Acebo has declared the worst is over for the financially distressed school and it’s now a ‘time of recovery.’ Want proof? The president vowed that 30 planned layoffs for the 2023-24 school year have been cut nearly in half after the school received an additional $13.8 million in aid in new state budget approved three weeks ago. That news came in a “A Mid-Year Reflection from Interim President Andrés Acebo” Thursday evening, a letter congratulating and thanking the NJCU community, state legislators, local legislators and other supporters. Just 13 months ago, the nearly 100-year-old university announced a financial emergency with a operating deficit that had ballooned to more than $22 million deficit the same day Sue Henderson resigned as president.”

—“Rutgers Senate votes no confidence in President Holloway over medical school merger plan”

—Nurse strike notice could be sent Monday to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, union leader says

—“Atco Dragway’s grandstands go on sale. What’s next in the dismantling of a drag-racing dream?”

—“Inmates are training to become Starbucks baristas while in N.J. prisons under new program”