The Morning Briefing - July 8, 2015
SUN VALLEY, Idaho – If you are looking for Gov. Chris Christie this week, he will be attending the famous so-called “billionaire’s summer camp,” where the rich and famous meet to become, well, more rich and famous. The governor’s office tells NJ.com the trip is deemed as “personal travel,” but we have hopes and dreams that Christie may take a moment from his many roles and responsibilities to hype his home state. Perhaps a new investor or two in New Jersey could make a dent in Christie’s mysterious travel tab that often falls on state taxpayers.
FAR HILLS - Speaking of billionaires, perhaps the Governor should try to get out the rich folks' vote right here at home. NJBIZ yesterday published the first installment of its 50 Wealthiest New Jerseyans series, which reads like a prospective donors list for do-good nonprofits and political candidates. While it’s notable that Far Hills is so well represented on this list of mostly white men (three women, to be exact), it was nice to see the One Percent represented as only New Jersey can - in the form of Jon Stewart, Bruce Springsteen, and Jon Bon Jovi.
ASBURY PARK – The city is now host to a large traveling tush that a comedian is hauling cross-country to hype a pilot for his Comedy Central show called “Better, Dumber, Faster.” The big butt – which is 14-feet tall, 15-feet long, 8-feet wide and weighs 1600 lbs – made its way to the oceanfront yesterday on a flatbed truck, NJ.com reports. The butt made its trek from Los Angeles to Asbury Park, averaging 11-hours a day and attracting plenty of inquisitive stares. It might be great marketing gimmick if Comedy Central picks up the show, or it could just end up being a giant ass.
ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS – A Connecticut man apparently doesn’t know when to stop, now charged with injuring four cops stemming from a car chase that began on Sunday. The Record reports it all began when the 22-year-old man was found sprawled on the street. A woman in an SUV pulled over to help him, prompting him to steal her vehicle. Then cops chased him, prompting him to then steal a cop car in Paramus. Then, he was brought to the hospital, where he knocked a cop to the ground while a nurse was trying to give him meds. Total tally, to date, of four injured cops, $1.3 million in bail and no attorney yet listed. Anyone want this case?
UNION CITY – We can only imagine the many choice words to describe NJ Transit, as three women and two kids were stuck in the elevator for nearly three hours yesterday at the Bergenline station on the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line, the Record reports. It happened around 11 a.m. yesterday, as the elevator could not be restarted or lowered manually. So, a NJ Transit cop took an adjacent car down and pulled the five people out the back panel of the elevator. It looks as if each has deserved a free NJ Transit keychain.
MOUNTAINSIDE — Cowboys may have been better at wrangling 21 escaped horses from stables at the Watchung Reservation, spooked by a coyote. Still, it only took Springfield and Summit cops and firefighters a few hours to round up the wayward equines that broke loose from the Watchung Stables at 9 p.m. Monday and made a break toward busy Route 78. The escape was not without incident – one Springfield patrolman claims a cantankerous steed tried to ram his patrol car. No charges were filed; apparently it was just horsing around.
IN THE MEDIA
Not too long ago, the concept of leaving a reporting gig at a large daily newspaper to work for a political website would seem a ludicrous career killer. But the new world is digital – the likely reason Matt Friedman is leaving The Star-Ledger for a job at Politico, to be assigned to its new news bureau in Trenton, the Observer reports.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
NEW YORK – The incessant gum chewing and an occasional ringing phone can drive a Broadway actor crazy. So hard to imagine what the performers of “Hand to God” were thinking when a patron climbed on stage to use an electrical outlet to charge his cell phone. Ushers quickly pulled the man off the stage. The effort was pointless anyway; the outlet was a fake, just a prop. Still a public announcement was required during that July 2 show, warning patrons to stay the heck off the stage and perhaps charge their phones elsewhere.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 1960 that the Havana Sugar Kings, a minor league baseball team, fled Cuba when Fidel Castro nationalized all U.S. owned businesses as part of his little revolution. So, the Sugar Kings became the “Jersey City Jerseys,” where they played a couple of years at Roosevelt Stadium before folding because of lagging attendance.
WORD OF THE DAY
Unremacadamized – transitive verb
Definition: An unpaved road
Example: Because New Jersey has no money left in its Transportation Trust Fund, expect plenty of roads to be unremacadamized.