The Morning Briefing - May 9, 2016
ATLANTIC CITY – The last time a senior citizen whipped up a crowd in Atlantic City was when Tony Bennett came to town last July to sing with Lady Gaga. And so it begs the question: is Bernie Sanders an equally big draw this morning at Boardwalk Hall? Sure, Tony Bennett was able to perform with a woman who regularly wears a dress made of red meat. But Sanders has his own red meat – in the form of continually slamming Hillary Clinton for taking speaking fees from Goldman Sachs. Admission is free as lines formed on the boardwalk by 8 a.m.; good to see Atlantic City bringing back the Borscht Belt acts.
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL – If Donald Trump can't make Chris Christie great again, maybe he can make him debt-free again. Needing bailouts, Christie and N.J. Republicans are turning to their presidential nominee-to-be for two May 19 fundraisers. To rescue his pal Christie from $250,000 in leftover campaign debt, tickets to Trump's 5 p.m. rally at Lawrenceville National Guard Armory are going for $200–$1,000, the Wall Street Journal says. At a fancier fundraiser that same day, Trump is throwing a lifeline to state Republicans drowning in Bridgegate legal bills. Those tickets go for $25,000-per-person. Bailouts are okay; just apparently not for Atlantic City.
ASBURY PARK – A former assemblyman is still committed to public service, helping a drowning woman who toppled into Wesley Lake outside his Cookman Avenue office. Jason O'Donnell told N.J. Advance Media his training as a former Bayonne firefighter kicked in when he and co-worker Vincent Ciniello raced to the woman's aid last week. After the unconscious 60-something was pulled from the lake, O'Donnell, 45, performed CPR until EMTs from Asbury Park and Neptune arrived. O'Donnell, an Assemblyman for five years, said: “I feel lucky that I was there at the right time to help.”
FORT LEE – Sounds like anything but a routine traffic stop. It led police to confiscate $667,300 in cash, six vehicles and a fishing boat from a Bergenfield man. The 45-year-old man is now in the Bergen County jail on money laundering charges. The Record says a police detective stopped the man's van on Route 4 last Tuesday and searched it after K9 unit dogs smelled drugs. Cops came up short on narcotics, but found more than $6,000 in a secret compartment in the van's ceiling. Later, they found $661,000 hidden inside a tiled hot tub enclosure in the man's bathroom. Hmm. “Day Two” of this story should be enlightening.
AT WORK – This year, newly-minted college graduates are in for a surprise: Potential employers won’t be laughing hysterically as they wad up their resumes before filing them in the circular drawer in the corner. The National Association of Colleges and Employers says employers expect to hire 5.2 percent more new graduates than last year, the best job market since the recession. This good news, coupled with last year’s 10 percent hike in hiring, means that a college graduate can finally have some swagger and perhaps dream of paying off their loans by 2050.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
HADLEY, Mass. – It looks like it’s time for one Mount Holyoke College graduate to finally leave her college home – based on the outcome of a town-wide vote. The Republican of Springfield reports the graduate who has been living in a tiny house she constructed as an architectural student can no longer reside in the 190-square-foot house, as voters decided backyard cottages are illegal within the town limits. The graduate has been given one day to vacate, and hopes someone can cart away her house.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
The party began on this day in 1960, when the U.S. becomes the first country to legalize the birth control pill.
WORD OF THE DAY
Anacoluthon (an-ah-kah-LOO-thon) — noun
Definition: An abrupt change within a sentence to a second construction inconsistent with the first, sometimes used for rhetorical effect.
Example: I warned him that if he voted for a mysoginist Islamaphobe for President, what will become of America?
WEATHER IN A WORD
Finally!