The Morning Briefing - October 19, 2016
STATEWIDE - As common as Pork Roll (or Taylor Ham) are our dead voters, who remain proud members of the New Jersey landscape. While they are unable to read political mailers, or watch all the commercials, you can bet they will be at their designated polling place on Nov. 8. The Asbury Park Press reports thousands of zombies on the active voting rolls this election season. Donald Trump, for one, claims there are some 1.8 million "dead voters" who will cast ballots in the upcoming "rigged" election. In New Jersey, the newspaper found 2,460 "active" voters who died in 2011 or before. Of those, 58 votes were cast between 2005 and 2015, with widespread suspicion there are many, many more.
NEWARK - The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey is out with its latest round of lawsuits this morning. This time, the civil rights group is attacking school districts that allegedly require parents to produce ID when enrolling students in school, an obvious struggle for unlawful immigrants. The ACLU targets: Fair Lawn, Jamesburg, Spotswood and Port Republic school districts, as well as the Jersey City Global Charter School. The AP did some follow up: Port Republic says the suit references an outdated page on the district's website; Jamesburg denies a driver's license is required.
STATEWIDE - While Gov. Chris Christie's approval rating is pretty much irrelevant, it's still amusing to see how low it can go. Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind says the governor is at an all-time low with an underwhelming 21 percent rating, a five-point drop from June. Meanwhile, his disapproval rate is at 72 percent. Of course, the governor would likely dispute such findings, noting a new "Chris Christie Poll" out this morning, generated by none other than Chris Christie himself, shows Chris Christie has a remarkable 100 percent approval rating ... and climbing! So, that's why we still need to listen to whatever new initiatives he concocts as he quickly fades with the sunset.
TRENTON - Of the many, many things our new governor needs to fix, a critical issue is the chronic outmigration of the state's biggest taxpayers. The New Jersey Business and Industry Association says the state has lost almost $21 billion in adjusted gross income over the past 11 years, as our very smart millionaires flee to the plethora of more tax-friendly states. Business leaders hope the bleeding can be stopped, in part, because of new legislation that phases out the estate tax by 2018. Of course, left-leaning scribes call this an outrageous give-back to the rich. True; but we can't squeeze them if they are elsewhere.
IN THE MEDIA
TRENTON - It seems like we need those great headline writers at the Trentonian to do this story justice, but here it goes: The headquarters of the Trentonian will soon be manufacturing daily globs of fat and goo, as opposed to tabloid "news," as the building will become a massive manufacturing plant for Dunkin' Donuts. The company is getting $18.9 million in tax credits to be lured into the old building, right next to Trenton Police HQ. Now city cops can go right to the source for their fix.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
NEW YORK - This Presidential campaign will likely go down as the most outrageous "infotainment" in the history of this country. And so we barely blinked when a topless statue of Hillary Clinton was erected yesterday morning outside the Bowling Green subway station. It was quickly knocked down, but it seemed the obvious response to all those naked Donald Trump statues that keep popping up. One Hillary supporter dragged the life-sized Hillary to the ground and sat on it, ensuring Trump supporters wouldn't put it back up. Some are arguing free speech, others are demanding decency. We just wearily look to Nov 8. Here is the video.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 2012 that Big Tex was no longer so big, as fire ripped through the 52-foot iconic statue during the final days of the 2012 State Fair of Texas.
WORD OF THE DAY
Colubrine [KAHL-yuh-bryne] - adjective
Definition: Relating to a snake
Example: Most of the colubrine creatures are entirely harmless, but still serve in Congress.
WEATHER IN A WORD
Beach?