Gov. Christie vetoed the minutes of the N.J. Redevelopment Authority on Tuesday, citing discretionary raises and gifts available via an employee rewards program.

Christie vetoed the actions taken at the authority’s Jan. 19 meeting at which discretionary raises of 3 percent were approved as well as funds for employees to select gifts from a catalog as part of an “employee service awards program.’’

In his letter to Authority Executive Director Leslie A. Anderson, Christie stated, “the approved Administrative Budget did not reflect line items for these inappropriate expenditures; rather, information concerning these expenditures was provided only after repeated requests for additional details.”

A day after a Florida judge ruled the entire healthcare reform act unconstitutional, U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-5th)  has called on the president to delay its implementation until it can be heard by the Supreme Court.

“In light of the ruling in Florida, it’s only appropriate that the administration cease and desist in its efforts to implement the law and wait for an opinion from the Supreme Court, which I believe will ultimately reaffirm the ruling from Judge Vinson,” Garrett said in his letter.

Judge Roger Vinson of Northern Florida ruled Monday that the individual mandate portion of the law, which requires residents to have healthcare, is unconstitutional because it violates the Constitution’s Commerce Clause.

“Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void. This has been a difficult decision to reach, and I am aware that it will have indeterminable implications. At a time when there is virtually unanimous agreement that health care reform is needed in this country, it is hard to invalidate and strike down a statute titled 'The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,'” Vinson said in his ruling.

ATLANTIC CITY - The day was about as dreary as Mayor Lorenzo Langford could have asked for and the sight of big power SUVs trying to navigate the mudflats on their way into the casino might have elicited belly laughs from Langford supporters had they been present.

The Atlantic Ocean looked like a setpiece for the reinactment of the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and yet it was precisely the hook of mother nature in her salt water form that the governor used when selling Atlantic City's rebirth. 

"We're going to be offering things Pennsylvania and Connecticut cannot offfer," said the governor, eyes rising eastward.

"The Atlantic Ocean," he added. "As hard as they try, they can't move that."