The Morning Briefing - February 12, 2016
TRENTON – Warning: it could be a boring few days at the Morning Briefing as state lawmakers are focused on budgets, numbers and cataclysmic deficits. Yeah, there is still the $83 billion pension liability that has grown by about $2 million since you began reading this sentence. And, as the governor prepares for his budget address next Tuesday, you can be sure that Democrats and Republicans dig in their heels on what needs to be done to miraculously balance the budget by June 30.
TRENTON – Building on all the exhilarating budget chatter, let’s dive into the nonpartisan pension reform commission, given the unthankful task of analyzing possible solutions. The commission is not thrilled with the Democratic plan that would force the state to kick quarterly payments into the pension system, saying it would create a “significant, irrevocable burden on the State without specifying how that obligation would be paid for,” Politico reports. True, but the pensioners, and the Democrats they elect, see the proposed constitutional amendment as a quick fix to an unsolvable problem. While at it, the commission also slammed the proposed so-called millionaire’s tax and standard revenue growth as a suggested way to pay the quarterly bills. Gov. Chris Christie, back after 220 days on the road, is likely saying, “I told you so.”
WOODCLIFF LAKE — A day-care employee was obviously in the wrong line of work, busted this week on charges of pushing and throwing plastic blocks at infants and toddlers and shouting expletives, the Record reports. Clearly someone who should think twice about reproducing, the 27-year-old employee is accused of cursing at and pushing an 18-month-old boy to the floor after he peed while she was changing his diaper. She also bullied some other kids under the age of two. Yeah, it is tough being a child-care worker. But don’t take your frustrations out on the most vulnerable population. Perhaps do everyone a favor by taking that overnight job at McDonald’s, where there’s a deep fryer awaiting.
NEWARK – As the political fortunes of Mayor Ras Baraka have risen in recent years, he carries the legacy of trying to help gang bangers. NJ.com reports that federal agents arrested a guy who goes by “C Blaze,” of the Grape Street Crips, who authorities say now runs most of the heroin trade in northern New Jersey. In 2010, Baraka went to bat for C Blaze, writing to his parole officer that he wanted to help him find a job after serving time for drug trafficking. With the latest arrest of C Blaze, the mayor isn’t talking.
ATLANTIC CITY – What does New Jersey’s gaming resort have in common with the municipal disasters of Detroit, Flint, Mich. and Youngstown, Ohio? Unfortunately, plenty. RealtyTrac is reporting Atlantic City’s vacancy rate is now among the top five in the nation, as people flee for greener pastures. Flint – with its poisonous water – obviously tops in the country, with 11,605 vacant homes. Then there’s bankrupt Detroit, where the schools are also careening toward bankruptcy by April, sitting at Number 2. Atlantic City, coupled with Hammonton, rolls in at number five, with 4,191 abandoned properties. Looks like plenty of housing opportunity for C Blaze.
IN THE MEDIA
EMMITSBURG, MD – The president at Mount St. Mary’s University, a small Catholic school in Maryland, may not be renewing his subscription to the school newspaper, The Mountain Echo. Last month, the newspaper quoted him likening struggling freshmen to bunnies that should be drowned, the New York Times reports. His reaction? Firing the newspaper’s faculty adviser, calling him disloyal. Here is the gem from University President Simon Newman, talking to a professor: “This is hard for you because you think of the students as cuddly bunnies, but you can’t. You just have to drown the bunnies.” He added, “Put a Glock to their heads.”
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
LAS VEGAS – Anything goes in Las Vegas – except, apparently, having sex on the world’s tallest Ferris wheel. City cops had no choice but to arrest a couple on Feb. 5, when they were intertwined for about 30 minutes in a glass-enclosed cabin up in the air. Security officers warned them to cool it, while surveillance cameras captured all the action, as did tourists recording a souvenir on their smartphones. An attorney for the woman argues she had “an expectation of privacy,” as she gyrated 550 feet above the Las Vegas strip. Ferris wheel designers explain “the bottom part of the wheel is where you get off.”
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 1971 that James Cash (J.C.) Penney died at the age of 95. To memorialize the founder, the company closed for business for one-half day. Interesting how one of the richest men in America had synonyms for money in two-thirds of his name.
WORD OF THE DAY
Betwixt (bi-TWIKST) — adverb
Definition: between
Example: I am currently betwixt jobs.