The Morning Briefing - June 23, 2016
TRENTON – At least Gov. Chris Christie is realistic with his plan to strip school aid funding from the poorest cities and pass the money to wealthy communities. He gives himself “less than 50/50” odds of his proposal getting passed, which, for such a bombastic guy, shows what little chance this “Fairness Formula” has. Democrats have climbed all over this flat $6,500 per pupil in state aid, no matter where a kid lives. Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto is likening the proposal to communism and refuses to post the governor’s proposal for consideration. Meanwhile, Christie sees a glorious chance to embarrass his political opponents, as the majority of Democratic legislators have not weighed in. “Where's Bob Gordon on this? ... Where's Paul Sarlo on this? Where's Loretta Weinberg on this?” Christie asked, referring to Democratic senators from Bergen County. Every school system in Weinberg's legislative district would see an increase in state aid, Christie said. “How can you oppose this if your property taxes for your constituents are going to be decreasing by thousands of dollars?" he asked.
VOORHEES – Phony parking tickets keep popping up on windshields at a luxury apartment complex here. It's probably some cranky prankster, peeved over never finding a primo parking space for his shiny new Volvo. But, tenants from the Club at Main Street told WTXF TV the fake tickets are really annoying and confusing. At first glance they look like the real thing, right down to the $75 fine and the police department's phone number. Tomfoolery or not, cops say people misrepresenting themselves as police officers with faux tickets can be prosecuted. Those charges: Very real.
OAK RIDGE – If you spend your days on YouTube, you’ve certainly seen the video of the bi-pedaling black bear that walks upright on its two hind legs. The bear, named Pedals, resurfaced in Oak Ridge on Monday and, of course, was captured on You Tube and posted on Facebook. Experts tell NJ.com that this particular bear only walks on his hind legs because he has an injured leg or paw, prompting a fundraising campaign on Facebook to get Pedals the care he needs. There’s been a call for Pedals to be moved to a wildlife sanctuary in New York, but state officials think he is better off in the wild. "The bear has an indomitable spirit," one state official says. Don’t know Pedals? Meet him here.
MILLVILLE – Good news for those with messy relationships: The N.J. Supreme Court says you can’t be fired from your job just because the spouse you're divorcing, and your new squeeze, are both co-workers. The state's top court ruled Tuesday that the Millville Rescue Squad violated discrimination laws by abruptly canning its director of operations in 2006 after 17 years of unblemished service. Worried about “workplace acrimony,” the rescue squad fired him after he told supervisors he was divorcing a woman also employed there, and having an affair with female volunteer, the Press of Atlantic City reports. In the decade that this case bounced around our oh-so-speedy court system, the former employee's attorney says there was no acrimony; he just married his girlfriend and has a cordial relationship with his ex-wife.
CARLSTADT – It’s hoped the Marines can knock some sense into a graduating senior at Becton Regional High School, who is getting off without punishment for scrawling two swastikas in a school bathroom in April. The Record reports that a Marine recruiter appeared in court on the teen’s behalf, saying he applied to enlist, but needs the charge dropped before he can be sent off to basic training. The judge said “ok, see ya.”
IN THE MEDIA
ONLINE – No more anonymous character assassinations, as NJ.com is mercifully shutting down all of its New Jersey Forum pages today, citing a shrinking number of users. For more than a decade, these forum pages let people post whatever the heck they wanted, under an invisibility cloak. They could slam the Mets or the Rutgers Scarlet Knights or even the Montvale Grizzlies. Or, post a Springsteen sighting in Red Bank – whether Bruce was there or not. More commonly, the forums were an online venue for readers to trash elected officials and aspiring candidates; to smear anyone from Gov. Chris Christie down to the lowliest tax collector; or just squabble with one another, all behind cagey and wiseass aliases like WakeUpNewark, Snooky4Short, PizzaTodayFellas, GotchaBunz and BadCopNoDonuts. With all this fun ending, poster ShrinkRapper writes: “Saying 'Sayonara,' then it's off to seek real therapy.” Good riddance; if anyone has an opinion; they should be willing to put their name to it. (That sentence was written by Jonathan Jaffe.)
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
MONTPELIER, Vt.— It is universally known as “rock snot” and a common invasive species in Northeast rivers. But now researchers have come up with a startling conclusion: Rock snot, or better known among nerds as an aquatic algae called “Didymosphenia geminate,” is actually native to the northern United States. So, all the efforts to fight the spread of rock snot need to end. "The fact that we had a ban on something to avoid spreading something that was already where we didn't want it to be spread didn't make any sense," said Vermont biologist Shawn Good. Also, ask yourself, did that quote make any sense?
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 1990 that police found marijuana in Chuck Berry’s home. In other startling news, the planet is currently orbiting the sun.
WORD OF THE DAY
Inchoate – (in-KOH-ut) - adjective
Definition: Being only partly in existence or operation
Example: Gov. Chris Christie is a big deal in the inchoate transition office of a President-Elect Trump.
WEATHER IN A WORD
Spotty.