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A2 | Friday, December 5, 2014
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
U.S. NEWS
Christie Bridge Inquiry Inconclusive
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A legislative inquiry into the
George Washington Bridge scandal couldn’t determine whether
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
knew about the controversial
lane closures before they occurred, with investigators saying
they were stymied by a lack of
access.
The 136-page report—reviewed by The Wall Street Journal—found “no conclusive evidence” that Mr. Christie “was or
was not aware” of the September 2013 lane closures in advance or while they were happening.
But the report found that accusations by a former ally of the
potential 2016 Republican presidential contender left “open the
question of when the governor
first learned of the closures and
what he was told.”
A spokesman for Mr. Christie
declined to comment. An investigation performed by attorneys
hired by the Christie administration cleared the governor in its
own report.
“The Committee has finally
acknowledged what we reported
nine months ago—namely, that
there is not a shred of evidence
Governor Christie knew anything about the GWB lane realignment beforehand or that
any current member of his staff
was involved in that decision,”
said Randy Mastro, the lead attorney in that report.
The report comes 11 months
after New Jersey Democrats
formed the committee to investigate the lane closures, which
jammed traffic in the New York
City suburb of Fort Lee for
nearly a week, and for a time
Associated Press
BY JOSH DAWSEY
AND TED MANN
Gov. Christie says he wasn’t involved in George Washington Bridge scheme.
halted Mr. Christie’s drive toward a presidential bid.
The legislative probe is separate from a closely watched federal investigation led by New
Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, who is expected to wrap
up his probe in 2015.
The legislative inquiry wasn’t
able to gain access to important
figures that prosecutors presumably would: David Wildstein,
the former Port Authority of
New York and New Jersey official who engineered the closures
and Bridget Kelly, the former
deputy chief of staff to Mr.
Christie who wrote the email
that symbolizes the scandal:
“Time for some traffic problems
in Fort Lee.”
An attorney for Ms. Kelly declined to comment on the report, but disputed a suggestion
his client had tampered with the
Report alleges that the
lane closures were
political in nature.
investigation. An attorney for
Mr. Wildstein, who has expressed
interest in getting immunity
from prosecutors, didn’t respond
to a request for comment.
While the report doesn’t im-
plicate the governor, it does allege that the lane closures were
political in nature and were related to Fort Lee’s Democratic
Mayor Mark Sokolich. The report doesn’t come to a conclusion about whether the closures
were designed explicitly to retaliate because Mr. Sokolich didn’t
support Mr. Christie’s re-election bid in 2013, a widely discussed theory.
The report doesn’t use the
word “coverup” in describing
the Christie administration’s reaction to the scandal—as some
critics have. The report criticized the “lack of curiosity”
within Mr. Christie’s office as
questions from the media, lawmakers and other elected officials mounted about why the
closures were being carried out
from Sept. 9-13, 2013.
The reaction of some of Mr.
Christie’s top aides, the report
said, “at least raises questions…about whether key people
in (the governor’s office), as
events unfolded, took increasingly implausible explanations
at face value because they knew
or suspected a more damaging
true story and preferred that it
not come to light.”
Republicans, frustrated by the
committee’s continued work, are
likely to seize on the fact there
is no smoking gun evidence as
more reason the committee
should end. The committee cochairman, John Wisniewski,
wouldn’t say how much the
committee’s work would cost,
but said so far it was “under $1
million.”
“It is what it is. Fishman’s got
things to do. We’re going to
have to let Mr. Fishman run out
his process on this,” said Mr.
Wisniewski, a Democrat.
Mutation Dulls Effectiveness of Current Flu Shot
BY CAITLIN MCCABE
This year’s flu vaccine may
not fully protect against the virus because the season’s most
common strain has mutated, or
“drifted,” from the form the shot
targets, federal officials said
Thursday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention said it is
still recommending vaccination
for most Americans because the
shot will offer some protection.
Vaccinated patients who become
infected with the drifted strain
of the virus will likely experience
less-severe symptoms, said Tom
Frieden, director of the CDC.
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“Getting a vaccine that provides at least partial protection
may be more important than
ever,” Dr. Frieden said.
More than half the flu samples analyzed from this year’s
dominant strain, influenza A
H3N2, are slightly different genetically from the version included in the current vaccine,
CDC officials said. It is too late
to change the vaccine because it
takes months to produce.
The CDC is also urging doctors to quickly prescribe antiviral
medications to patients with flu
symptoms, without waiting for a
test to confirm influenza.
The dominance of H3N2,
which accounts for more than
90% of cases this year, means
this flu season could be more severe than in recent years, the
CDC said. H3N2 typically causes
more hospitalizations and deaths
than other strains that have circulated recently. Young children,
pregnant women, older people
and people with conditions such
as diabetes or asthma are at high
risk of flu complications.
“The flu always has the potential to be serious,” Dr. Frieden
said. “H3N2 tends to be more severe.”
The number of flu cases is
currently low, officials said.
CDC officials said the agency
CORRECTIONS  AMPLIFICATIONS
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush,
in a speech to The Wall Street
Journal CEO Council’s annual
meeting, said Republicans should
not “just” seek repeal of the Affordable Care Act and urged
them to replace it with an alternative health-care overhaul. A
U.S. News article Tuesday about
the speech incorrectly said he
urged Republicans in Congress
to stop seeking repeal of the act.
The first name of Microsoft
Corp. Chief Executive Satya Nadella was misspelled as Satyam
in a photo caption in some editions Thursday.
Aéropostale Inc. adopted a
shareholder rights plan in November 2013; it expired in June
of this year. Wednesday’s Ahead
of the Tape column in Money &
Investing incorrectly said Aéro-
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postale was in the process of
adopting the plan.
A food-donation program in
Paradise, Calif., called A Simple
Gesture is based on a similar program run by the nonprofit Ashland
Food Project in Ashland, Ore. An
article in Monday’s Encore report
incorrectly implied that the California program’s founders came up
with the idea.
Readers can alert The Wall Street Journal to any errors in news articles by emailing wsjcontact@wsj.com or by calling 888-410-2667.
R E A DY, S E T, S H O P!
I N
first identified the drifted strain
in March. It wasn’t until September, though, that it was clear
how widely the strain was circulating—long after a committee of
experts had chosen which viruses to include in this year’s
vaccine. There is always the possibility that the viruses will drift
during that time, officials said.
Antiviral medication, namely
Tamiflu and Relenza, is most effective when given within 48
hours after flu symptoms are
recognized, though it can be
helpful later, Dr. Frieden said.
Typically, fewer than one in six
patients severely sick with the
flu receive antiviral medication.
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