The Morning Briefing - May 6, 2016
??? – Which school district is the latest to announce high levels of lead contamination? The “winner” is Saddle Brook, reporting yesterday “unacceptably high” levels in some drinking fountains in the high school/middle school building and all four of its elementary schools. That comes a day after Bergenfield made the same announcement, on the heels of the grand announcement from the Newark Public Schools, kickstarting the whole mess. Expect a daily update, as this story goes from district to district to district. Etc. Etc.
HAMILTON TOWNSHIP – Besides being stuck working the graveyard shift at the pharmacy, now you need to deal with perceived drug addicts who will do anything to steal your pain pills. NJ.com reports that a masked robber pulled out a Taser gun and jumped the counter at the Rite Aid in Hamilton on Wednesday night. He grabbed Xanax and Percocet and demanded cash, before running away. No one was injured, but do retail pharmacies now need to be behind bulletproof glass to protect their employees? What is this? Chinese take-out in Newark?
TRENTON – You've got a right to remain silent. So you can’t be arrested for keeping mum, right? That’s the question a U.S. District Court judge will decide, after state troopers busted a motorist on Route 519 in Warren County for failing to answer questions at a traffic stop. She happens to be a Philadelphia attorney and just filed a federal lawsuit. NJ Advance Media says the troopers' supervisor later freed her without any charges once he reviewed a dashboard camera video of her arrest, admitting “a mistake was made.” You be the judge, watch the dash-cam footage. See it here.
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL – This Mother's Day, let mom Feel the Bern! Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders makes his first stop on a two-day Garden State swing Sunday afternoon with a rally at the 8,000-seat Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway. Doors swing open at 2 p.m. And, Monday morning, Sanders is in Atlantic City, playing to a more intimate crowd of 3,000 at Boardwalk Hall. Doors open at 7:30 a.m., as campaign workers try to pull the blue-haired ladies off the slots for an hour or so. BlueJersey has all the details. Perhaps the struggling, near-bankrupt city could use a wild dose of Vermont socialism.
ATLANTIC CITY – If you’ve been trying to follow the financial drama, it looks like the city could run out of money after making its next payroll and forwarding money due to the school district. Then, there’s the next bond payment the city needs to come up with in early June. As bills mount, we are looking at the first municipal default in the state since the Great Depression, NJ 101.5 reports. Gov. Chris Christie – no longer a Presidential candidate – is no longer blocking a bankruptcy. If the state Legislature can concoct a solution, Christie thinks that would be swell. “If they don’t, then bankruptcy would be the only option,” he says. “And while I would regret having to go down that road, it is a road that I will have no choice but to go down.”
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
IN THE AIR – Cranky airline passengers might be driven to “air rage,” after shuffling through spacious, cushy first-class to get to their hip-crushing econo-class seats. By “air rage,” we're talking about elbowing others, quibbling with flight attendants, sneaking a bathroom smoke, or refusing to buckle up. Research from the University of Toronto and Harvard Business School says “physical and situational inequality,” like seeing how much better flying first-class is, might trigger passive-aggressive antisocial behaviors, CNN reports. Of course, the researchers admit, flight delays, overcrowded terminals, high ticket prices, higher baggage fees and interminable TSA lines don't help much either.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 1994 that “Paula Jones” became a household word, as America got its first very public glimpse of President Clinton’s private hobby. Jones sued the President for sexual harassment, stemming from an incident when he was Arkansas governor. Clinton settled for $850,000 – a bargain, he would later discover.
WORD OF THE DAY
Necromancy (NEK-roh-man-see) — noun
Definition: The practice of supposedly communicating with the spirits of the dead in order to predict the future.
Example: I’m thinking of performing some necromancy this weekend to find out if the sun will ever reappear in New Jersey.
WEATHER IN A WORD
Sigh.