The Morning Briefing - March 18, 2016
STATEWIDE - As towns across the state are eagerly trying to squeeze property taxes from non-profit hospitals, it looks like Gov. Chris Christie will be calling for a time-out today. The Record reports the governor wants legislation that would create a two-year moratorium before municipalities can start dispatching the tax bills. State tax court is now slammed with lawsuits from "me too" towns that want their fair share of new tax revenue. The flurry was prompted by a big court decision over the summer, allowing Morristown to sock Morristown Medical Center with taxes.
SPARTA - Sparta Mountain has plenty of old forest; something obviously needs to be done to ensure trees and the wildlife can thrive for future generations. And, so, New Jersey Audubon and the state Department of Environmental Protection have the tried-and-true solution: to selectively remove small patches of old forest so new forest can grow. Just like it is done everywhere else on the planet. Simple, right? Well, no, cause this is New Jersey. Here are the facts behind the plan to help Sparta Mountain.
WAYNE - Now here's a happy accident. A big bag of $20 bills popped out the back of an armored truck on Route 46 yesterday sending cash flying across the asphalt, police told WCBS. Traffic backed up for miles on the busy highway as a red-faced armored truck driver and gleeful motorists scooped up handfuls of cash. Big shock: Some money did not get returned. Police Chief James Clarke says anyone who pocketed loose cash could face theft charges. He's likely not embracing the "finder's keepers" rule.
WEST ORANGE - Some people will go to out-of-this-world lengths just to get a school named after them. That's, at least, what twin NASA astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly did. The city's school board is renaming the Pleasantdale Elementary School for its two most famous alumni, the Record says. Scott Kelly just returned from a record-setting 340-day stay on the International Space Station. Mark Kelly is a four-time space shuttle commander, married to former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. The Kellys, 52, grew up in West Orange and are local public schools grads. A re-dedication ceremony is set for May 19, right here on Earth.
HACKENSACK - You can sentence a guy to prison, but can't always make him go. At least, not if that guy is Bergen County's once-mighty Democratic Party boss Joe Ferriero. He just got another last-minute delay to start his 36-month federal prison sentence for racketeering and fraud. A federal appeals court gave Ferriero a third reprieve so his attorney has more time to argue that Ferriero stay free on bail while trying to overturn his conviction, the Record reports. A federal judge has twice pushed back Ferriero's incarceration date for various other legal excuses. Think run-o-the-mill hooligans get these same breaks?
NEWARK - The ongoing story about potential lead contamination in Newark Public Schools rages on, with reports now saying the school district has known for at least 13 years of elevated lead in the water. The EPA says it tried to work with the school district, which replied it already had a plan in place. Water fountains were replaced, lead filters installed and faucets regularly flushed to avoid lead build-up. This is one of this stories that has no ending, especially with so many old schools and infrastructure across the state. CBS reports 431 schools across the nation were found to have unsafe levels of lead over the past four years. Which New Jersey school district will grab tomorrow's headline in this never-ending mess?
FANWOOD - Getting a nasty brush-off - peppered with the f-bomb - while peddling Girl Scout cookies door-to-door in their Scotch Plains neighborhood was a blessing in disguise for two Scotch Plains sisters. When their mom turned to Facebook to complain about how her 12-and 9-year-old daughters were verbally abused, it caught notice from Dianne Howarth, assistant to Fanwood Police Chief Richard Trigo, who invited the girls to HQ with their order forms. The Home News Tribune says the sisters ended up selling over 250 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, more than $1,000 in sales, to Fanwood employees and police officers. The girls' mom says: "Now we have a mountain of cookies to deliver."
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
EAST FARMINGDALE, N.Y. - The Force may be with you ... the police force, that is, especially if your Star Wars lightsaber gets mistaken for a rifle. That's what happened at Farmingdale State College after some skittish person thought they saw a student "assembling a rifle" in a college parking lot this week, Patch.com says. The 8,700-student campus was put on lockdown during a swift, heavily armed response from Suffolk County police. Turns out the rifle was just a light-up Star Wars toy in the hands of a nerdy college-age Jedi. No arrests were made. No Imperial troopers were found.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
On this day in 1990, the largest art theft took place in U.S. history, with 12 paintings, collectively worth around $300 million, ripped off from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 81 minutes. There were a pair of thieves disguised as Boston police officers saying they were responding to a call. They remain at-large, with a $5 million reward.
Side note: If you happen to have Rembrandt's "Christ on the Storm in the Sea of Galilee" hanging in your living room, chances are it is stolen.
WORD OF THE DAY
Lumpenproletariat (lum-pen-proh-li-TAR-ee-it) - noun
Definition: Criminals, vagrants, and the hopelessly unemployed; the real underclass of a human population.
Example: The candidate for President is intentionally targeting the lumpenproletariat to score votes, thus avoiding the scrutiny of the informed.