The Morning Briefing - December 17, 2014
* The Morning Briefing will run its final issue of 2014 tomorrow, returning Monday, January 5. Happy Holidays to all!!
A HIGH PLACE — Nice to have friends in high places, as The New York Times reports the Obama administration is allowing a super-rich, politically-connected Ecuadorean woman, Estefanía Isaías, to enter the country after her family gave wheelbarrows of cash to Democrats. Caught in all this is Hillary Clinton, who requested the woman be allowed in, as well as Sen. Bob Menendez, who relentlessly went to bat for her, for some reason. The reason she was banned? Caught fraudulently obtaining visas for her maids, while her family is suspected of money laundering and immigration fraud, while apparently looting a bank in Ecuador.
ROSELLE—Muscle Maker Grill is getting muscled by Mayor Jamel C. Holley, who has called on the Attorney General’s office to look into the restaurant’s iffy “royalty fees” levied on franchisees. The Colonia-based franchise imposes fees on its individual storeowners for marketing and technical assistance, but Holley says those fees are simply corporate profit, while franchisees are left to languish without the resources to thrive. The result? Local Muscle Maker Grill owners are forced to close shop: “Stores are closing, jobs are being lost and these citizens have lost their investments, after never having been given a chance to succeed,” Holley said.
STATEWIDE – A new state report says New Jersey schools are seeing a decline in the number of bullying incidents. There was apparently 19,167 total incidents in 2013-14, a nine percent decrease from last year. All good news, assuming all incidents were reported, rather than quietly addressed by teachers and administrators who don’t have the time or patience to deal with all the bureaucratic, state-mandated paperwork and protocols. Bullying incidents in New Jersey schools have been slashed nearly 50 percent since schools were first required to document and investigate every allegation in 2011. (Insert raised eyebrow here.)
TRENTON – Reverberations of the failed Mack Administration are still being felt in the city, as the City Council is expected to vote tomorrow on a $350,000 settlement with a former employee who lost her job. The Trenton Times says the former youth opportunities coordinator sued former Mayor Tony Mack (and current convicted felon) for corruption, cronyism and misuse of public funds. She was one of 150 city employees who lost their jobs during the Mack mess, and claims she was bounced for not illegally appropriating grants, hiring Mack pals and handpicking contractors, rather than accepting bids.
LINDEN – Tonight is the end. It is a time to celebrate. Finally, no more red light cameras in New Jersey, after a five-year pilot program is mercifully over. No more Big Brother tickets that towns have used to reap millions of dollars from motorists, who simply didn’t have the time to go to court to fight some bogus fine from some random town, arriving in their mailbox a few weeks after the alleged crime. Yes, plenty of people were guilty of blowing through red lights. But many weren’t.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
TOKYO – Expect Japan to get a bit more jiggly, as a local lingerie maker is recalling more than 22,000 bras. Apparently the underwire pokes out when women wear the bras, prompting the massive recall. "We are sorry for the bother, but we ask customers to stop using the bras immediately," the company said in a statement. Of note: this is the same company that marketed the "Abenomics" bra, to somehow honor Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic revival plan.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day one year ago the Rock and Roll Hal of Fame announced the KISS would be inducted in 2014, prompting one of the best tribute speeches ever made, via Tom Morello.