3 things you learned on the Bill Spadea Show: NJ’s water crisis and more

The week began with some very difficult stories taking place in the Garden State. We discussed the dangerous lead levels in our drinking water, as well as the tragic story of an off-duty officer who was shot and killed today in Sayreville.

Obama's Cuba trip sparks outrage among NJ legislators

NJ Congressman Scott Garrett, U.S. Representative for New Jersey’s 5th congressional district, joined us on air to discuss his displeasure with President Obama's trip to Cuba. He has been an outspoken critic on opening relations with Cuban regime. Currently, Cuba harbors New Jersey state police murderer -- Joanne Chesimard. This among, other things, Garrett says, are on a list of items that President Obama needs to discuss with Cuba to truly regulate relations with Cuba.

Congressman Garrett recently sent a letter to the president’s administration saying: “On February 18th your administration announced your trip this March to Cuba citing the significant progress made by normalizing relations. However, we fail to see any progress in extraditing the fugitives like Joanne Chesimard and William Morales, nor any improvement in the treatment of the Cuban people by their government.”  The president has yet to respond.

Congressman Garrett expresses a similar concern to Senator Bob Menendez stating “Senator Menendez and I don’t agree on many things. This is one issue we agree on.” Listen to my full interview with Congressman Scott Garrett discussing normalizing relations waiting to be resolved below.

New Jersey's water problems will get worse before it gets better

Lead in NJ's drinking water has become a bit of a crisis. We had callers today who said it this is environmentalists creating more hype than truth. This is not like Al Gore trying to tell us about global warming. This has nothing to do with it. This is about the government's basic responsibility to ensure we have clean drinking water.

Politicians are more worried about your aunt’s cherry pie being a health hazard, than carcinogens and lead in your water. It is amazing that this issue has gone unresolved for so long. The blame game has to stop. Who will take accountability?

In Newark, there are 17,000 students that need to be tested for lead poisoning. What did Corey Booker know about the lead in the drinking water and when did he know it? Are you worried about your water? Is your water safe? Why was the EPA turned away in 2003? 12 New Jersey towns fear lead exposure, but have yet to find a solution.

New Brunswick Today reporter, Charlie Kratovil shines a light on the imminent concern of lead in New Brunswick’s drinking water.  New Brunswick is one of the towns that have an issue with their drinking water. Unlike Flint, Michigan though, there problem is actually much worse. Kratovil stated, “We have a bigger problem because it was so corrupt here that the guy that was supposed to be doing the testing, well he either wasn't dong the testing or when he got bad results, he would cover them up. So we had issues with the integrity of the testing here in New Brunswick, which it makes it even harder to trust the statistics and information we get from the government."

Kratovil goes on to say that the problem lies in the infrastructure and that no matter how we decide to fix it, in the short term or push it to later on, we're going to wind up paying for it.

Breaking News: Off-duty Sayreville police officer 

During our show, a Sayreville police officer was shot and killed near Amboy Cinemas. Details are sparse and you can stay updated with all the latest on NJ 1015.com.

 Here's a frightening statistic: A police officer is lost every 60 hours. A harsh reality of what our law members face every day. When a police officer gets dressed and armed for work, they do not know what they will be faced with. Our thoughts and prayers are with the officer’s family and the entire Sayreville Police Department.

You can listen to my full discussion about NJ police officers and the daunting tasks they face everyday in the clip below.