Christie ‘enforcer’ takes credit
Compiled from news services
David Wildstein, a former employee at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey who has been described by lawyers as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s “enforcer,” said a politically motivated closing of lanes to the George Washington Bridge in 2013 was his idea.
Mr. Wildstein testified Monday in federal court that he was the first to see that the lane closures would be a “leverage point” to pressure Mark Sokolich, the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, N.J., into supporting the re-election bid that year of Mr. Christie, a Republican. Mr. Wildstein, a prosecution witness in the trial of two former allies of the governor, also said he told Port Authority commissioner William “Pat” Schuber, a Republican appointed by Mr. Christie, about the plot in late August 2013. The lanes were closed in September.
Mr. Christie has become a centerpiece of the trial, as testimony continues to place the governor’s office and aides at the center of the scheme to close lanes to the world’s busiest bridge.
City braces for flooding
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Facing their second-largest flood in city history, Cedar Rapids leaders and residents pinned their hopes Monday on a 10-mile system of quickly erected flood barriers to protect government buildings, homes and businesses in Iowa’s second largest city.
Crews scrambled to build the floodwall over the weekend to block the rapidly rising Cedar River because, despite years of discussions, officials haven’t been able to secure funding for permanent flood barriers following a devastating flood in 2008.About half of the homes and businesses in the area expected to see flooding have been evacuated, a city spokesman said.
Mileage estimates to fall
DETROIT — Highway gas mileage estimates for about one-third of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. will fall by 1 mile per gallon because the government has changed the way it calculates the numbers on the window sticker.
The change, which begins with the 2017 model year, comes largely because people are adding more options to cars such as heated seats that use electricity and create drag on engines. They’re also running air conditioning more than in the past and driving faster, both of which cut into mileage.
44 hurt in two-bus crash
WEEHAWKEN, N.J. — A bus driver has been ticketed for an unsafe lane change after two New Jersey Transit buses headed to New York City’s Port Authority Bus Terminal collided Monday in the Lincoln Tunnel, injuring 44 people.
The crash occurred around 8:50 a.m. and the injuries aren’t considered lifethreatening, with the most serious being a broken jaw, a Port Authority Police spokesman said.
Also in the nation
SpaceX has successfully tested its Raptor rocket engine that might one day be used to transport people to Mars, company CEO Elon Musk said. … Some 60 investors representing $2.1 trillion in managed assets have joined the NCAA, entertainers and more than 200 businesses in calling for North Carolina to repeal its law limiting LGBT protections against discrimination. … The first of some 3,000 potential jurors began reporting Monday to federal court in Charleston, S.C., in the death penalty trial of Dylann Roof, 22, charged with the June 2015 slayings of nine African-Americans in a church .