The Morning Briefing - January 19, 2017

JERSEY CITY – Welcome to America’s “Queerest City,” an honor just bestowed upon Jersey City by the nation’s leading LGBT publication The Advocate. Jersey City topped the 2017 list, besting bigger, more fabulous places like Orlando and St. Petersburg, FL., Buffalo, NY, and New Orleans. The magazine says Jersey City earned top honors for hosting 17 annual Gay Pride parades, for the city’s commitment provide public health benefits to transgender city workers, and for repeated theater showings of “Moonlight,” a film about growing up black and gay.

MAPLEWOOD – And speaking of super tolerant cities, here’s another one. Maplewood is apparently the first town in New Jersey that is offering immigrants “sanctuary.” The Township Committee unanimously passed a resolution that proclaims Maplewood a “welcoming community” with equal treatment of immigrants, no matter their status, reports The Village Green. Says Mayor Vic DeLuca: “Under no circumstances will we participate in dividing people based on citizenship or immigration status.” The INS may think otherwise.

SALEM – More news from our hopping Salem Bureau, noting that tomorrow will mark the 18th presidential inauguration that 91-year-old B. Harold Smick Jr. has personally witnessed. He first caught Franklin D. Roosevelt take the oath in 1941. He was 15 at the time and Smick admits it turned him into a presidential junkie, collecting inaugural buttons, photos, souvenirs and presidents’ autographs. A Democrat who voted for Hillary Clinton, Smick tells WCAU-TV “it’s a disgrace” so many Democratic lawmakers plan to boycott Trump’s big day. “He’s a different person from any person who’s ever been President of the United States.” True, there.

CAPE MAY – Shouldn’t a beer name be easy to slur after you’ve had a few too many? Well, that’s the hitch with “Demisemiseptcentennial Ale,” a commemorative brew that the Cape May Brewing Co. is releasing to mark the 175th anniversary of Villanova University. Microbrewery co-owners Ryan Krill and Chris Henke told KYW-TV they wanted to honor their Radnor, Pa. alma mater with a distinctively named Pale Ale. Krill and Henke met there as freshman in 2001. Their specialty brew, which Henke says is called “Demisemi” for short (a much simpler name for the drunks), hits hundreds of stores in New Jersey and Pennsylvania next week.

NORTH BRUNSWICK – So, what’s it like for a kid to spend hard time in jail? TAPInto New Brunswick goes behind the walls of the Middlesex County Juvenile Detention Center, where a reporter found an Xbox, some nice snacks and housing that looks better than some college dorms. And, as an added surprise, plenty of budding poets. Read more here.

IN THE MEDIA

For those who see the Washington “media elite” just twisting words for their own purposes, the detractors now have some more ammo, courtesy of CNN.  Here is the lead of CNN’s latest blaring story about Gov. Chris Christie: “Chris Christie maintained Wednesday that he would have landed a top White House job if only his wife would have let him.”  OK, wow, what a story!  But then, if you scroll down, here is what the governor actually said: “He didn't offer me a job that I thought was exciting enough for me to leave the governorship. Now why is that hard to believe? Mary Pat made really clear she wasn't coming to DC if I went.” See? Doesn’t match up, CNN.

IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS

TARENTUM, Pa. – Pre-teens often dream of owning their own mall, where they can spend countless hours wandering the wonderland with endless supplies of Auntie Anne’s butter-soaked pretzels. The dream almost became real, if these kids knew they could scrape together babysitting money and buy the “Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills.” In foreclosure, after mall owners reneged on a $143 million loan, the 1.1-million-square-foot behemoth was auctioned off for just $100 yesterday.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

If grandpop bequeathed you a ton of stock for Kodak, figuring who wouldn’t need camera film for the rest of their natural-born lives, this was a sad day in 2012, when the famous film company filed for bankruptcy protection.

WORD OF THE DAY

Katzenjammer [kat-suh-n-jam-er] – noun

Definition: hangover

Example: After guzzling pint after pint of “Demisemiseptcentennial Ale,” I experienced one heckuva katzenjammer.

WEATHER IN A WORD 

50!