The Morning Briefing - January 9, 2017
TRENTON – Gov. Chris Christie has his final “State of the State” address at 2 p.m. tomorrow, in which we will hear all his grandiose plans as our governor for one final, glorious year. It seems impossible that he can rally anyone to do anything, enjoying as much popularity as your town’s tax assessor. But, before he can be uniformly dismissed, Christie can still pack a wallop through June 30, as he puts together is final state budget, the Record notes. He can still appoint judges, he still has hand-picked commissioners running state government and – as the most powerful governor, constitutionally, across the nation – he has a swift, strong veto pen. Sure, Christie is a lame duck, but we caution, by no means, lame.
CLARK – The story of a black dummy hanging from its neck, as the Plainfield High School girls’ basketball team arrived in Clark, is a story that deserves non-stop news coverage. Really, what the hell? The girls arrived at Arthur Johnson High School Saturday, and found the dummy hanging in their locker room, its eyes bulging, its mouth gaping, TAPInto reports. The girls still played the game, losing 64-20, and then got the heck out of Clark. Plainfield school officials say reports of the incident are “of great concern” and, working with Clark, are trying to get the full story. One parent says it was a school project that has been misinterpreted. One would hope so.
ON THE STREET – Who knew it’s forbidden to support cops by painting blue lines on public streets? Dozens of New Jersey towns may be violating federal regulations that strictly limit blue street markings only for handicapped parking areas. This came to light when Clark Mayor Sal Bonaccorso phoned into N.J. 101.5 to say he got a persnickety letter from the federal Highway Administration citing its oh-so-popular “Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.” It says double yellow lines must be separated “by a discernible space” devoid of “any other markings,” like blue stripes. The mayor says: “It just made me chuckle that this is what we’re worried about in a time when police need our support every day.” We’d chuckle too, if it were funny.
EDISON – Here she comes … (hopefully) the first Indian-American woman to win the 2017 Miss USA Pageant. And yep, Chhavi Verg is a hometown girl from the Garden State’s fastest growing Indian-American community and a J.P. Stevens High School grad. Verg, 20, now a Rutgers University sophomore majoring in business, was recently named 2017's Miss New Jersey USA. She tells the Edison-Metuchen Sentinel that she’s eager to compete in June for the national crown and to vigorously promote gender equality and higher education for women of all cultures and ethnicities.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
PALMYRA, N.Y. – The good news is that some people still read newspapers. That’s at least evident in upstate New York, where a local man busted for drunk driving tried to buy up every copy of the newspaper to hide the arrest. The guy was pulled over Dec. 29 in Wayne County, and refused to be photographed or be fingerprinted. But the Times of Wayne County was able to snag a mugshot from the county jail, and happily ran 12,000 copies of the edition. The guy then scooped up about 10,000 of those copies, dropping $1.25 at the newsstand on each – great news for the circulation department. Expect the newspaper to have many, many follow-ups.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Church got a little less interesting on this day in 1904, when Pope Pius X banned low cut dresses in the presence of churchmen.
WORD OF THE DAY
Haberdasher [HAB-er-dash-er] – noun
Definition: A dealer in men's clothing and accessories
Example: I went to the local Marshall’s and asked to speak with the store’s haberdasher. Apparently, they don’t employ one.
WEATHER IN A WORD
Thermals