The Morning Briefing - June 2, 2015
AT THE POLLS – For 99.9 percent of New Jersey voters, today is Tuesday. It’s also June 2. Sunrise at 5:27 a.m. Astronomers expect a full strawberry moon, whatever that means. But for a small group of politicians in contested races, today is primary election day and it means everything. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. for diehard partisan voters, as well as retirees, bored people and some jocks wandering into the polling place hoping to shoot hoops. The big winner is Dunkin’ Donuts, which gets to sell all that Box O’ Joe to half-asleep poll workers.
VENTNOR – Have you been looking for a foot-tall bust of a man? Perhaps you had the sculpture in your living room, or were using it to travel in HOV lanes during rush hour. Or maybe it was just your “special friend” who is such a good listener. In any case, the Ventnor police have it, after it was discovered on the boardwalk in November. Cops don’t have much to go on, other than the word “HILDA” etched near the bottom.
PATERSON – It’s the type of city school system that needs as many trained educators as possible. But the Paterson school district is in a hopeless financial hole – blaming the state for funding cutbacks – and now says it needs to can 175 teachers and 116 aides, and leave 200 vacant positions unfilled to save $21 million. The Paterson Press equates this mess to more than three lost teachers per elementary school. My god. How can educators try to improve schools with larger class sizes, program cuts and less attention on each pupil, especially those already circling the drain?
TRENTON— Gov. Chris Christie’s proposal to pay into the state’s strained pension system is considerably more than what previous administrations have done, but still light years away from this year’s required payment under his own reform law. NJ Spotlight reports an upcoming state Supreme Court ruling on public-employee pension funding will determine whether the state has to come up with a $2.25 billion payment or get away with the governor’s proposed plan of just $681 million. For some perspective, NJSpotlight is out with its “Top 10” list of pension payments, and the governors who coughed up the cash.
1. $1.05 billion – Corzine, FY2008
2. $1.03 billion – Christie, FY2013
3. $1.02 billion – Corzine, FY2007
4. $696 million – Christie, FY2014
5. $484.5 million – Christie, FY2012
6. $286 million – Whitman, FY1999
7. $228 million – Whitman, FY1996
8. $193 million – Whitman, FY1995
9. $165 million – Codey, FY2006
10. $106 million – Corzine, FY2009
HUDSON COUNTY – Medicare is out with its latest rankings of what for-profit hospitals charge for some common treatments, with two Hudson County hospitals having the most expensive rates in the nation. The Record says Bayonne Medical Center and Christ Hospital in Jersey City are off the charts. Some examples: Bayonne charges an average of $197,000 to treat heart failure, highest in the nation and more than 19 times Medicare’s average payment to the hospital of $10,350. Meanwhile, Christ Hospital will hit you for $173,000 to treat stroke, highest in the country and nearly 17 times Medicare’s payment of $10,241. The hospital CEO’s response? It’s all about survival.
IN THE MEDIA
NEWARK – And the best reporting gig in New Jersey goes to… Dan Ivers. He takes over the Newark beat for The Star-Ledger. He will cover the rough-and-tumble politics, the economic explosions and implosions and all the faces and places that keepNewarkso alive. Ivers, a Connecticut native who joined the paper last year, is the last remaining daily beat reporter in a city that once had legions of reporters from competing dailies pumping out thousands of stories a year. Ivers won’t be bored.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
AT THE LOCAL NEWSTAND – Can’t. Stop. Looking. At. This.
HARRISBURG, Pa. – Amazing the fortune teller didn’t look into her crystal ball to learn she would be in plenty of trouble for charging thousands of dollars to a customer. The tarot cards didn’t apparently tell her not to promise to lift a cloud of “spells and curses” on a 38-year-old Philadelphia woman, or that she shouldn’t suggest the woman not take her prescribed medicine. Her trial began yesterday for the rarely prosecuted case of “fortune telling” in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Reuters reports.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 1994 that Sharon Stone sued her personal jeweler for $12 million. Boy, if we had a karat for every time that happens to us. Sheesh!
WORD OF THE DAY
Lickspittle – noun
Definition: A slimy, groveling and devious person who will do anything to get ahead in life.
Example: “Boy, I really hate my co-worker, Mel. He’s always sucking up to the boss. Mel is a real lickspittle.”