The Morning Briefing - February 4, 2016
NEWARK - "Snitches get stitches" is an old adage that keeps people's mouths shut. Yet blabbing seems to be a part of Mayor Ras Baraka's 45-day crime-fighting plan. At yesterday's press conference, Baraka noted that residents bombarded him with social media complaints about the city's lousy attempt at snow removal. Now he's asking residents to be as vocal about their neighbors committing crime. "I want you to hashtag me and say, 'this is the guy who beat this lady up last night, this is the person I know who did this shooting.' Hit me with that. Hashtag that. Put that out on Facebook, Twitter, internet everywhere you have." Wow. Some suggested hashtags for those following the mayor's advice: #whatdidijustdo #needwitnessprotection #theyarehere #willbedeadsoon.
STATEWIDE - "You from Joisey? Well, your driver's license looks shady." That's what you may soon hear from TSA agents as you try to fly the not-so-friendly skies, even for domestic trips. Homeland Security says its starting to crackdown on states that don't yet comply with the 2005 Real ID Act. That means anyone from New Jersey, or eight other states, might need back-up ID, like a passport, to board a plane to anywhere. New Jersey got a nine-month extension, until October, to have its licenses comply with federal proof-of-identity rules. But that's no guarantee TSA agents won't give us a little turbulence.
LAKEWOOD - The public works director has quit his $117,000 post and a bunch of DPW workers who didn't show up to plow during the blizzard could face punishment. Town Manager Tom Henshaw told the Lakewood Scoop he scrambled to find private contractors to plow when union workers went AWOL and director Alvin Burdge stayed home sick. Furious residents want a DPW overhaul. Meanwhile, a union rep explains that "some of the guys had child-care issues; some guys didn't get phone calls, whether they didn't hear their phone ring or whatever." He insists absences had absolutely nothing to do with their unsettled union contract. Sounds like another snow job.
BARNEGAT LIGHT - Rick's American Cafe may be a familiar haunt to anyone who's trawled the Jersey Shore bar scene. After 35 years, Rick's is changing hands, The Sandpaper reports. No one knows if Rick's will stay the stuff of legend: A dive where Joan Jett, Edgar Winter, Bo Diddley, the Wailers, The Outlaws and others would just show up to perform. Since JoAnn Salvucci, now 77, opened Rick's in 1981, she prided her bar-and-grill bar at 4th and Broadway on its 16-ounce Pasbt Blue Ribbon "pounders;" its 50-cent Kamikaze shooters; and the fact that fishermen, stockbrokers, grease monkeys, lawyers and runway models could all rub elbows there. Let's hope Rick's survives.
WESTAMPTON - Table service slow? Maybe your waitress is older than the ketchup. Well, at least, that's the case at a Applebee's in this Burlington County town where waitress Katherine Walsh marked her 90th birthday on Tuesday with co-workers and the lunch crowd, ABC News reports. Walsh - a widow, great-grandmother and mother of eight - has toted Applebee's trays during lunch shifts weekdays for 13 years. "Miss Katherine" is the oldest of all Applebee's 40,000 employees, and she vows not to retire. "Maybe I'll have another five years. Hopefully." Good news for Applebee's customers, who have a waitress thrilled to get a 60-cent tip.
TRENTON - There's no doubt that $8.38 an hour - the current minimum wage - is woefully inadequate for a full-time employee, forced to scrape by on around $17,400 a year. Democrats hope to change that today, going for the gold by seeking to raise the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour, to the delight of virtually every Walmart employee.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
LOS ANGELES - Our (fake) Father, who art in handcuffs, cops now know thy name. It's Erwin Mena, and the LAPD busted him for posing as a Roman Catholic priest since the mid-1990s. The accused imposter-priest officiated Masses, baptisms, confessions, and a few weddings. Police say Mena, 59, swindled parishioners in Los Angeles and Orange counties out of big bucks, the L.A. Times reports. From the pulpit, "Father Phony" hawked CDs of sermons and his own book: "Confessions of a Renegade Catholic Priest." And he sold bogus pilgrimages to see Pope Francis last year. Parishes are giving do-overs for any sacraments Mena performed. He faces 22 felonies and eight misdemeanors. Doubtful a judge will let him off with reciting an "Act of Contrition" and a few dozen Holy Rosaries. Someday, he will face an even higher authority.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 1957 that the marketing gurus at Smith-Corona announced the super-convenient, extra-light typewriter - weighing "just" 19 pounds.
For perspective, the Morning Briefing staff - none with social lives of any sort - decided to weigh other stuff to see what would be similar to that "portable" typewriter, including:
- An unamused toddler
- A 5-quart KitchenAid mixer
- A car tire
- A medium-sized bag of dog food
- 80 sticks of butter (Thanks Costco)
- 19 pounds of merkin.
WORD OF THE DAY
Merkin - (MUR-kin) - noun
Definition: a pubic wig for a woman.
Example: You'd never guess what we just put on the scale.