The Morning Briefing - September 17, 2015
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL – For those who watched the three-hour marathon GOP debate last night, the gaggle of Republicans took their swipes at Donald Trump, who, as always, relished the attention and looked particularly orange. Gov. Chris Christie tried to play above the fray, showing himself as a legitimate candidate who is more focused on slamming Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton than Trump. Christie attacked Planned Parenthood again, saying Clinton supports “the systematic murder of children” and wants “to preserve their body parts in a way that maximizes their value for sale for profit." Christie added, “It is disgusting.” We agree; that quote is disgusting.
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL – It’s morning in New Jersey, where Gov. Chris Christie wakes up and goes to fight the “crazy” liberals in the New Jersey Legislature. In last night’s debate, in explaining why he should be leader of the free world, Christie said, “I wake up every morning as an outsider! I wake up every morning with a Democratic legislature who’s trying to beat my head in and fight me because I’m trying to bring conservative change to a state that needed it desperately.” There’s more: “Every morning, I get up, I vetoed 400 bills from a crazy liberal Democratic legislature, not one of them has been overridden, I’ve vetoed more tax increases than any Governor in American history.”
ROSELLE—While presidential candidates were arguing last night over how big to build the wall, Roselle was talking about how to take it down. Borough officials last night moved closer to creating a municipal ID card program to ensure that all Borough residents have equal opportunities no matter their immigration status. Expect Donald Trump to advocate for a wall around Roselle.
JERSEY CITY – Of course, we aren’t saying there is any connection whatsoever here, but it is curious that a day after Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop teamed up with the Communications Workers of America to blast Verizon for supposedly not providing FiOS to certain parts of the city, Fulop, politickernj.com reports, sent out an invitation for a big labor fundraising breakfast on Sept. 30 that happens to include Hetty Rosenstein of the Communications Workers of America on the $5,000-per host committee. The CWA also just happens to be involved in a labor dispute with Verizon, not that there is any connection to the criticism of Verizon, of course. Wonder if he would treat Google Fiber the same way. Oh that’s right, Google is a non-union shop.
ASBURY PARK – It is ALIVE!! It looks as if the wildly popular Zombie Walk has a second chance at life, after the founder told media it cost too much money to put on the festival that attracts thousands of zombies to the boardwalk. The Asbury Park Sun reports a local bar owner will purchase the rights to the Zombie Walk, set for October 3, to kick-off Halloween. What a smart investment; this event has broke a Guinness record twice for having the largest assembly of zombies. It’s surprising a major promoter didn’t purchase the rights; such a company could make a killing on all these credit card carrying zombies.
NEW BRUNSWICK – With word that Rutgers football coach Kyle Flood has been suspended for three games, it’s even easier for the media to shine up the pitchforks, heat up the bucket of tar and ignite the torches. What we think about are the 77 or so student athletes on this team who made a commitment to Rutgers after being wooed by other good schools. This season has just started. For the sake of these good kids, can’t we just focus on the football and then decide the off-field mess at some other point? Every news story does not need to be negative to be hard-hitting – a fact that has been completely lost in the coverage of Rutgers athletics over the past few years.
ASBURY PARK – The next time you look at your property tax bill and want to know where all the money goes, here’s a story to further tick you off: Asbury Park has paid nearly $77,000 in phone bills to some company in Arkansas that never provided any service. The Asbury Park Press reports the company refunded the money in July, but the question remains how these bills went unchallenged for six years. Moreover, if no one finally checked the books, how long would this have continued?
ATLANTIC CITY – Some investors just have ice in their veins. They look at everything that has happened in Atlantic City, yet are still willing to drop $125 million on the construction of a new conference center. At 1 p.m., leaders will be at the Harrah's Resort Atlantic City casino and hotel to celebrate the opening of the 100,000-square-foot Harrah's Waterfront Conference Center.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
WASHINGTON — If you're lucky enough to owe Uncle Sam $100 million or more in federal taxes, the IRS will no longer accept your whopping personal check. Starting in 2016, checks larger than $99,999,999 won't be accepted because the Federal Reserve Bank's check-processing equipment can't handle so many digits. Federal employees have to process those checks by hand, and the IRS says it's worried about the risk of theft, fraud or mistakes. To have a tax bill so huge, you need to earn around $500 million and have a lousy accountant who can’t figure how to hide your fortune in Switzerland.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Sometimes, a Pope just rocks. Like this day in 1987 when Pope John Paul II embraces an AIDS-infected boy in San Francisco.
WORD OF THE DAY
Bardolatry – noun
Definition: A freakish, excessive admiration of William Shakespeare
Example: Hanging out with Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth is a midsummer’s night dream for those suffering from bardolatry. Time to tame the shrew.