Governor Chris Christie joined local officials in Belmar on Wednesday to break ground on a project to rebuild that town's 1.3 mile boardwalk destoryed by Sandy. 

Gov. Chris Christie kicked off his 2013 re-election campaign with a State of the State address that viewed his governorship through his own rosy lens and repeated his campaign mantra that everything the state needs – including a massive rebuilding effort after Sandy – can be achieved without raising taxes.

The pomp and circumstance of the 2013 Governor's State of the State address comes in an election year in which both the governorship and the entire state legislature are up for grabs.

+ Watch and Chat Live: NJ State of the State Address

Todd Zwillich, The Takeaway Washington correspondent, previews the 113th Congress and discusses news from the weekend along with Bob Hennelly, WNYC's contributing editor for politics and investigations, who joins us to talk about his reporting on the Sandy aid package.

→ Question of the Day: How are you waiting for action from Washington, DC to get on with your Sandy recovery?

The delay in billions of dollars in Sandy disaster aid is hurting the finances of scores of municipalities throughout the region and adding uncertainty for tens of thousands of small businesses in those towns.

The 112th Congress may have avoided a disaster by striking a last-minute compromise on the fiscal cliff-- but that's not the feeling among thousands in the New York/New Jersey region today. The House seems set to adjourn without having voted on an aid package for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Bob Hennelly, contributing editor for politics and investigations for our co-producer, WNYC looks at the package and what the delay in its passage could mean for storm victims.

Even as a grand bargain to avoid the nation from going over the fiscal cliff is preoccupying lawmakers in Washington, backers of the $60 billion Sandy relief and reconstruction bill that passed the Senate are doing their best to get it through a very distracted House.

An initiative several years in the making to reduce malpractice claims and settlement costs at the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation has paid off, according to a report released by Comptroller John Liu this week.   

More than 8,800 lawsuits were filed against the NYPD in fiscal year 2011, costing the city more than $185 million, according to a recent report that tracks suits filed against city agencies.

Sayreville was one of the first places Governor Christie went to survey post Sandy damage in the days after the storm. Now, in the hard hit section of town near Raritan Bay, the houses stand empty and the attention is gone.

Bob Hennelly, WNYC's contributing editor for politics and investigations, joins to talk about his reporting on developments on the future of power companies in New Jersey and on the latest from the Governor's office.

More than a hundred people turned out Monday night in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, at the first of a series of public hearings by the state's Board of Public Utilities, as part of a review of how the state's power companies handled Sandy.

Last week, the state legislature weighed in on the post-Sandy performance of the power utilities. This week it's the public's turn.

The New Jersey barrier island communities hit hardest by Sandy won't see full natural gas service until after Christmas, while full water lines may not get installed until after the New Year.

The New Jersey Senate and Assembly are taking a hard look at the performance of state utilities after Sandy. Jersey Central Power and Light has come under fire after many of its customers were without heat and power for two weeks after the storm. Even before Sandy, JCP&L, got poor marks for its handling of past prolonged outages. The utility's performance raises questions about out-of-state ownership of one of the state's largest suppliers of electricity.

A State Senate panel used a public hearing to press the state's power utilities on the long outages that followed the unprecedented damage wrought by Sandy. The state senators on the Budget and appropriations Committee also questioned them about a lack of communication between the utilities and local officials in the weeks that followed the unprecedented storm.

Jersey Central Power and Light  logged the most consumer complaints of the state's power companies in the aftermath of Sandy, according to statistics complied by New Jersey's Board of Public Utilities.

Jersey Central Power and Light  is asking  regulators for a rate increase to cover costs from storm damage that pre-dates Sandy.

The region’s cargo port system may have been up and running six days after Sandy struck, but the storm's unprecedented storm surge left its mark and is prompting a review of past assumptions about its vulnerabilities to another Sandy-like event.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has already rolled out his bid for re-election, months before the filing deadline. It’s giving Democrats months to decide if they want to face off against the popular governor in 2013.