so what was Kornacki's Saturday scoop?

[grasswire]

I can't seem to find it.

[mucifer]

1. two good threads on this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024424078

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4425276

http://www.msnbc.com/up-with-steve-kornacki for the show itself

[Cha]

21. Thanks mucifer!

[George II]

2. It turned out not be a "scoop", it was a rehash of what has already been reported in newspapers...

...earlier this week.

[mucifer]

4. I guess we weren't watching the same show. Kornacki did investigative journalism that

found that the Sandy fund oversight law wasn't being followed and that Christie's brother works for the company that was chosen to do some of the oversight.

[George II]

7. The center of that discussion, the $18M Belleville developmen t (of which $6M was Sandy funds)....

....was reported on by the Star Ledger on Tuesday. That led to Ernst and Young and Todd.

[Spazito]

10. The key difference is the Star Ledger is local, Kornacki is national...

If Rachel and Steve had not taken up the story it would still be local and would have been more likely to fade away.

Kornacki connects the dots in a way that is new, imo.

[George II]

12. I don't think the Star Ledger would agree with that, but whatever. I just wish....

....the "reporters" on MSNBC would give attribution to those who really have been following this story and providing the real scoops. To date they've only been given passing mention (although Boburg was on Maddow's show for a short spot back in January)

[Spazito]

13. Both Steve and Rachel have given credit to the local reporters, have had them...

on their shows, reporters from both the print and radio outlets so I very disagree with you on this point.

[mahina]

23. +1

Over and over, very obviously sincerely.

[Voice for Peace]

27. it was sweet to see today, I think he had two older male reporters on one segment, and

it was obvious that they were delighted with his reporting,
as one expressed directly to him.

[Spazito]

32. Yes, the local journalists have expressed appreciation to both Steve and Rachel for...

giving their local articles a higher profile and bringing a national perspective to the scandal. The local journalists and national journalists like Steve and Rachel are working in tandem, imo, as opposed to working in competition with each other. It has been wonderful to watch and see how much appreciation each has for the other's work.

[bettyellen]

34. the Star Ledger thinks they are a national paper? yeah, probably not....

seems to bug you that this is going national.

[George II]

36. If there is anything that "bugs me" it's people who use others' work without full attribution!

[bettyellen]

37. I hear Maddow and Kornacki attribute published sources all the time. Not sure what you are going on

about, got a link?

[pnwmom]

28. Had it already been reported that the Integrity Monitors had not been put into place

as required by a law passed in March 2013, which was to take effect immediately, and which was supposed to oversee Sandy funds?

[malaise]

31. Shhhhhhhhhhh!

Do not disturb

[George II]

33. I'm not going to go down the list point by point, the fact is he used a LOT of material developed...

..developed by the two guys from the Bergen Record and just expounded on it. He had to throw in some original stuff of his own.

Now, when he comes up with something NEW I'll give him a little credit. Until then.............

[msongs]

3. "there's a sucker born every minute"? nt

[Squinch]

5. It was that the Sandy money is not going to Sandy victims, and rather it is going to

projects that are beneficial to Christie politically, that the projects that are being done with the Sandy money are not being given the oversight that is required by law, and that Christie's brother is a director of the company which was hired to DO the oversight that is not happening.

It was a good show.

[bettyellen]

6. I saw a mention of Florida and Pennsylvania connection?

I think the clean up company was from Florida, but I missed the Pennsylvania connection.

[Squinch]

16. I was in and out of the room this morning while I was watching it, but I'm going to

watch it again. I'll get back to you on that.

[Squinch]

17. So the Florida thing was that before the federal dollars for Sandy recovery were

even granted, Christie had hired a Florida firm that Haley Barbour lobbies for to do cleanup. He hired them without bidding out the work, and he was pushing that company on the municipalities, even though they had gotten better prices from other firms.

In response to investigations into that very questionable contract, the New Jersey legislature passed the Integrity Monitoring Act, which requires that all the projects that use more than $5million in Sandy dollars have to have an integrity monitor.

At the same time, the legislature passed a law that said that all Sandy funds spent, all contracts granted, had to be posted on a "Sandy Transparency" site. It passed the legislature unanimously, but then Christie vetoed it.

The "Integrity Monitors" have never submitted the reports required by the law.

So far, I'm not hearing anything about PA.

[bettyellen]

18. Thank you!! I remember wondering why so many tow trucks that came to Hoboken had deep south license

plates. What a rag tag bunch. There were so many ruined vehicles just sitting there, that after the first week, they told citizens to get their insurance people to come look at cars and sign off, and then mark the cars with a code to be part of a mass towing event. And suddenly there were tow trucks everywhere for a few days, and we had heard it was because they all needed to go some huge space arranged specifically for this.
I don't see how any of that was more efficient than more using local companies. Tow trucks from Georgia, Alabama and Florida?

[Squinch]

19. But the 1% has to take care of its own! Haley Barbour and Christie and the Ernst people

had to split this money among themselves! If the local guys did the towing, that would go against the plan.

[bettyellen]

20. I had to wonder IF or where these guys slept (since hotels were booked solid) and how safe that was

and the cost of driving up there. Crazy!

[Squinch]

22. And how much money would have been recirculated around Hoboken and all those other

towns if the local garage owners had gotten the jobs, and were then able to buy some construction equipment to rebuild some damaged part of their house, and then hire the contractors to help them, and then the contractors would be able to buy equipment to allow them to take on the bigger jobs and... and... and...

Instead, the money goes to Haley Barbour.

AND, it seems from her behavior since then that Zimmer was held a bit hostage. She knew she had to cooperate where she could so as not to alienate them further and completely screw up any chances of getting money for her city. So she goes along with the advice to contract with these people. And how many other municipalities did the same?

In the end, if you live in Hoboken or any of those other affected cities, he took money directly out of YOUR pocket, because your city's economy could have been helped so much more. And worst of all, it's money YOU paid in taxes for this kind of emergency, and it's being stolen from you when you need it.

[bettyellen]

24. Zimmer's hands were tied, and some corruption was (unfortunately) expected. But hurting citizens-

and laughing about it like in Ft Lee? It is something that was beyond imagining, and it resonates with people.
What a can of worms was opened by that story. Love it.

[Squinch]

25. I do too. I also wonder if there will be any spillover to other places from this. Kornacki is

becoming famous over this. I wonder if there are any budding reporters in, say, Wisconsin or Michigan, who are willing to dig around and keep digging till they find the things they need to get rid of these slobs.

[Voice for Peace]

29. Squinch, thanks for your clear simplified summaries of this stuff.

My head gets spinning.. but you highlight the gist beautifully.

[Squinch]

30. Well, thanks. I DVR'd it. Had to watch it twice to get it.

[complain jane]

14. And if I understood correctly

Christie's brother started buying properties around the Hoboken PATH station and suddenly Christie pushed for a complete renovation of the train station, and it was approved by the Port Authority... the chairman of which also bought property in the area.

[bettyellen]

35. that was Harrison's PATH

[yortsed snacilbuper]

8. haley barbours company from ms got a no bid contract to do sandy clean up,

even though local companys could have done it cheaper!

[mucifer]

9. It's like halliburton and the military and dick cheney.

I'm not sure it's really illegal with our messed up laws. It is unethical.

[complain jane]

15. You

can rob more people with a briefcase than a gun.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

11. Well, that explains why I saw his mug, one that looked a bit worried, on Andrea Mitchell yesterday..

And Mrs. Greenspan actually drilled him a little. But I noted that Haley looked a little nervous about the whole conversation. Makes me wonder why that crooked fucker was on TV in the first place. Probably because that's what sociopaths do and they just know they can explain away their dirty deeds and they are narcissistic.

[grasswire]

26. thanks everyone nt