The Morning Briefing - July 21, 2016
NEW BRUNSWICK - So, it's summertime and that can mean only one thing in New Brunswick: a tuition increase at Rutgers University. But before students chain themselves to radiators in protest, while singing freedom songs arm-in-arm, a reality check is needed. Tuition and fees are only increasing 1.7 percent, to $14,372, for the "average undergraduate." In exchange, you get a respected Big 10 university in the midst of a building boom, chock full of great opportunities for those with the grades and the desire. Do we all want tuition to be less? Sure. But, this is New Jersey. And bargains like this are rare to find.
NEW BRUNSWICK - Don't mess with the Rutgers Board of Governors' stuff. That's the lesson a university staffer tried teaching to a college senior who went rooting around in board's official binders for info about the tuition increase just before yesterday's meeting. The staffer warned, then chased a School of Arts and Sciences student around the meeting room before briefly using a headlock to subdued the student until he gave up the binder, the Daily Targum reports. A campus cop later escorted the student from the room, and university police are reviewing the incident. The senior is part of a student coalition who pushed for a 2.5 percent tuition rollback.
PITTSTOWN - Perhaps it is the delicious pizza, or our knack to make a great bagel. But a 113-year-old New Jersey woman refuses to head toward the pearly gates, now deemed the oldest living American. Adele Dunlap, living in a care facility in Pittstown, became the country's oldest person earlier this month following the death of a Worcester, Mass. woman. When asked why she has lived this long, her reply: "I can't die until I know for certain if it is called Pork Roll or Taylor Ham." (OK, ok, that last quote may have been made up.)
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL - If Donald Trump wins, heads may roll down Capitol Hill. That's what Gov. Chris Christie told dozens of Republican donors behind closed doors in Cleveland on Tuesday. Reuters got its hands on an audio recording of Christie saying the White House transition team he leads is making a list of President Barack Obama's appointees who Trump would purge once he's in the Oval Office. Christie says Trump would even ask Congress for special legislation making such terminations easier, adding: "As you know from his other career, Donald likes to fire people." Apparently, his old habits die hard.
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL - Melania Trump got the chance to explain her famously plagiarized speech on "The Late Show" with Stephen Colbert. Okay ... all right, so it wasn't really the Slovenian-born, former model turned gold-digger. But, if you watch for yourself, you'll agree Tony Award winning Broadway actress Laura Benanti is a dead ringer for the would-be First Lady, a U.S. citizen only since 2006. The segment is a bit more laughable than Melania's original speech, and far more uproarious than Newt Gingrich.
HIGHTSTOWN - No action is being taken against a volunteer fire chief who let a local man film a hip hop music video at the firehouse using a couple of fire trucks as props. A one-time mayoral candidate lodged a complaint against the chief citing misuse of public property ... blah, blah, blah, permits ... and blah, blah, blah, insurance. The fire apparatus appears briefly in a video for a song called "IDK" by Jersey performer Elite Motivated and was filmed by local director Patrick Byas, NJ.com says. The mayor and council shrugged off the complaint as no big deal, a far cry from Paterson where the school board had a conniption in June when Eastside High School's principal let homegrown rapper Fetty Wap use that school in a sex-and-drug-infused video.
EAST BRUNSWICK - Another big-time toll evader just got nabbed, this township man owing $46,750 to the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. Authorities say the 56-year-old resident beat the toll plaza at the Henry Hudson Bridge 900 times over the last five years, using an E-ZPass account with a negative balance, the New York Post reports. E-ZPass tolls for the bridge that connects Manhattan with the Bronx off the Henry Hudson Parkway are $2.54, but the local scofflaw also got slapped with a $50 for each violation.
IN THE MEDIA
ON THE AIR - Some Jersey radio stations may soon be playing a different tune. This, after their Boston-based owners, Greater Media Inc., agreed to sell its 21 radio stations - including six in the Garden State - to Beasley Broadcasting for $241 million. Among the stations being transferred to the Florida chain are WCTC 1450 AM and WMGQ (Magic) 98.3 FM in New Brunswick; WDHA 105.5 FM and WMTR 1250 AM in Cedar Knolls; WRAT (The Rat) 95.9 FM in Lake Como and WJRZ 100.1 in Manahawkin. Unaffected by the sale are Greater Media's 10 award-winning weekly newspapers in Monmouth, Middlesex and Ocean counties that reach 245,000 households. And the beat goes on.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
WEST GOSHEN, PA - Police hope to grind coffee thefts to a screeching halt. Cops released surveillance photos of a woman who has stolen nearly $5,000 worth of bagged coffee from Wawa convenience stores in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. They're fairly sure this serial coffee thief is not some crazed caffeine addict because she usually makes a beeline to another Wawa store and returns the stolen merchandise for cold hard cash. Police told NJ.com the woman may be a health care worker; she's often caught on camera wears scrubs. Wawa hopes, with any luck, she's soon be drinking some watery Sanka in an orange jumpsuit.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 1984 with the first documented case of a robot killing a human in the U.S.
WORD OF THE DAY
Éclat (ay-KLAH) - noun
Definition: A brilliant or conspicuous success
Example: Donald Trump will accept the GOP nomination tonight, highlighting all his éclat over the years and how it relates to all of us.
WEATHER IN A WORD
Flip-Flops.