The Morning Briefing - June 23, 2015
** The Morning Briefing will not publish from June 29-July 3, returning Monday, July 6
NEWARK – There seem to be plenty of high-fives in Newark this morning, following the long-anticipated announcement that Schools Superintendent Cami Anderson is being sent to pasture. Now everyone needs to find someone new to blame when the schools don’t achieve what everyone expects. It looks like former Education Commissioner Chis Cerf is the next sacrificial lamb, and is certainly qualified to steer this mammoth ship. But one must wonder why state officials aren’t appointing someone who already has a deep working relationship with the district and has already achieved a degree of trust in Newark education – which was always Anderson’s struggle.
NORTH JERSEY – The proposal to spend about $30 million in taxpayer money to offset construction of a couple of medical schools in North Jersey may seem a tad high, but all must remember the Christie Administration has already dumped $1.2 billion into school construction at the college level. And if these schools can create long-term white-collar jobs (aka people who can actually afford property taxes), well, heck, write that check. The plan would give $20 million to Hackensack University Medical Center’s parent and Seton Hall University to open the state’s first private medical school in 50 years, at the shuttered Roche plant in Nutley, while $10 million would help start a branch of the Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine at NJIT in Newark.
NEWARK – The scrappy Save Saint Michael’s Medical Center Coalition is keeping the pressure on, heading to Trenton at noon today to deliver 35,000 signatures to state officials and demand that Gov. Chris Christie approve the sale of the Newark hospital to Prime Healthcare. With some state officials ready to invest $30 million to educate new doctors in North Jersey, shouldn’t there be as many places as possible for them to work?
TRENTON – If the latest poll from FDU is correct, what a story. Gov. Chris Christie originally ran for office on the simple platform that he was not Gov. Jon Corzine, demonizing the guy at every turn. The strategy certainly worked, but the new poll now shows Christie’s job approval rating is somehow lower than where Corzine was in 2009, when he easily lost re-election. Again, if the poll is right, Christie now has a 30 percent rating, with 55 percent thinking he is doing a bad job. What a free-fall for a guy who was suggested as Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” in 2013.
AT BREAKFAST — Say goodbye to raspberry red, lemon yellow and orange orange. General Mills says it's scrapping all the artificial colors and flavorings in such kid’s favorites as Trix and Cocoa Puffs. Then, it'll give Lucky Charms, Count Chocula and its other marshmallow cereals a taste-lift of sorts. Instead of dyes like Red 40, Yellow 6, and Blue 1, General Mills will use natural alternatives like spices, fruits and vegetable juices to create flavors, although with duller colors. All good, but will kids still be cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
IN BED – Some “groundbreaking work” from the University of Copenhagen, now with the shocking discovery that sleep is actually good for you and can lead to good overall lifestyle habits. Whoa! This “new” information was gleaned from a painstaking study of 37,508 Finns, showing people live better when they get good sleep. Next up from this research team: Proving that those who consume food each day can live for decades.
TAMPA – One must wonder what the heck this pet rabbit did to its owner, prompting the 49-year-old man to throw Bugs into a hotel pool. If there is anything you learn today, it’s this: bunnies are lousy swimmers. The rabbit floundered a bit and then went eerily still, as its former owner coldly turned and walked away, witnesses said. The man was charged with animal cruelty and thrown in the slammer. Perhaps his attorney may say, “Yeah, my client is nuts. But if you shoot a rabbit in the woods, it is called `sport.’ What’s the difference here?”
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 2012 that U.S. track and field athlete Ashton Eaton set the new world record for the decathlon, prompting a jealous Caitlyn Jenner to purse those marvelous ruby-red lips.
WORD OF THE DAY
Smellfungus – noun
Definition: A perpetual pessimist
Example: Only a smellfungus would think the Rutgers football team would lose on Homecoming, after all those games on the road.