The Morning Briefing - March 23, 2016
*The Morning Briefing is on Spring Break Next Week, Returning Monday, April 4**
ATLANTIC CITY – Gov. Chris Christie doesn’t appear to be swayed by word from Atlantic City that it won’t be able to pay its employees after April 8 without state aid. Christie would rather the city go bankrupt before he backs down on his plan to take over the city. Sorry, Atlantic City, no loans to you. And, sorry, it looks like all your non-essential employees will be taking some time off. Bailing out Atlantic City is just another fiscal Band-Aid, the governor says. It doesn’t solve the underlying problem. Apparently, state stewardship is that solution – as the state has done so well everywhere else. (See: Transportation Trust Fund.)
TRENTON – It looks like city public schools will be laying off another 164 employees. A $5.9 million revenue shortfall also means the district must close its early childhood learning center to meet a $299 million budget adopted Monday, The Trentonian reports. Last year, a $17.3 million hole forced the city school district to eliminate 226 jobs and shut a grade school. Now, one-tenth of all school positions are getting erased, including 92 paraprofessionals, 43 teachers and 31 support staff. Speaking about these latest layoffs, Interim Superintendent Lucy Feria said: “It's very painful.” Yes, agrees Little Johnny, his desk squeezed behind a pole in a packed classroom.
STATEWIDE – More bad news at four other school districts. So far, this week, media reports say Lakewood's $172.5 million budget plan will slice 68 teaching jobs and end all courtesy busing for more than 10,000 pupils. Clifton's $162.7 million school budget eliminates 50 jobs, including 25 high school teachers; Brick's tentative $150 million school budget reduces staff by 10; and the Sparta school board's $61 million budget cuts 17 jobs, including five teachers. Many more districts are grappling with multimillion-dollar budget deficits, as the carnage unfolds in the 2016-17 school budgets. Oh, and don’t drink the water.
BRIDGETON – The hottest ticket in Cumberland County seems to be its freeholder meetings. Although none of its freeholders appear to dance, sing or likely whistle, turnout at board meetings jumped sharply to more than 100 people since last summer. The board is now spending $50,000 on renovations to accommodate its bigger audience and to put TV monitors in a nearby room to handle overflow. Freeholder Director Joe Derella tells N.J. Advance Media that “bigger issues” – like a homeless trust fund, ID cards for undocumented immigrants, and contracts – prompted turnout to spike from a dozen, half-asleep people to a standing-room-only crowd, perhaps doing “The Wave.” A suggestion to offset costs: Popcorn vendors.
PATERSON – What hasn't this guy done yet? Police Director Jerry Speziale's undercover exploits inside a Colombian drug cartel will soon become an hour-long drama, N.J. Advance Media reports. That’s just the latest. Speziale, who's also part-time police chief in Hazelton, Pa., retired as an NYPD detective in 1997 after a stint on a DEA narcotics task force. He worked with the Bergen County sheriff's department and as police chief in New Hope, Pa., and then did three terms as Passaic County's sheriff. He was deputy superintendent of the Port Authority Police, and did nine months as chief in an Alabama town before he took the Paterson police director's gig. In between, he wrote a memoir, and acted and consulted on the 2010 film, “Brooklyn's Finest.” Call Hollywood – they're going need more than 60 minutes.
HACKETTSTOWN – A friendly suggestion: Never give the cops at your front door more excuses to arrest you. That's seems to be what a 26-year-old local man did when two police officers showed up at his house last weekend with an outstanding $1,118 warrant from Fair Lawn. Eager to convince the cops the warrant was no good, the man hastily rummaged through a big bag looking for proof. As he did, the two officers noticed the four syringes and a glass marijuana pipe in the bag, police told WFMZ-TV. So, they arrested him on drug paraphernalia possession charges. And, because, he never found his proof, he still faces charges in Fair Lawn.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
STUART, Fla. – A local man figured it made perfect sense to buy a $60,000 BMW with food stamps. Boy, was he surprised when the dealer said that, uh, sorry, but BMW can not run a food stamp debit card, and suggested he move on. The customer did, but returned the next night to steal the BMW, as well as the car keys for 60 other vehicles. On Friday, cops found the guy with the stolen BMW – which ran out of gas. Apparently, the gas station didn’t accept food stamps either.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Happy Birthday to one of the most versatile words in the English language: “OK.” It was this day in 1839 that the first recorded printed use of OK was used, as an abbreviation of “oll correct.” OK appeared in the Boston’s Morning Post. OK? Now, OK is somehow used as an adjective, adverb, interjection, verb and noun. OK? OK.
WORD OF THE DAY
Uxorious - (uk-SOR-ee-es) – adjective
Definition: Excessively submissive to one’s wife
Example: After painting his wife’s toenails yet a deeper shade of pastel pink, while singing, yet again, her favorite show tune from “Cats,” Mel began to wonder if he was becoming uxorious.