The Jaffe Briefing - March 9, 2017
NEW BRUNSWICK - If you are a long-suffering Rutgers basketball fan, you are likely sitting in stunned silence, still staring blankly at your television screen, unable to string together syllables to express your disbelief and euphoria over last night's tournament win over Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament. Yes, it was a sloppy game, filled with fouls and free throws. But unpredictable RU rebounded like crazy and somehow stayed alive to the buzzer, winning its first-ever Big 10 tournament game. They play Northwestern at 9 p.m. tonight. Could this be, finally, a Cinderella team?
TRENTON - You can bet one kid's homework was damn-near perfect. That's following an ethics complaint from state judges, who say Superior Court Judge Deborah Gross-Quatrone had her law clerk do her son's homework. There's a damning email, with Gross-Quatrone asking her law clerk for an update on the homework assignment, also checking if the law clerk ordered a book needed to complete the task, NJ 101.5 reports. The state Supreme Court also believes the judge had her new law clerk begin work before the official start date without an extra pay. There's other nutty stuff, like having the law clerk check on jewelry orders, car rentals, vacation itineraries and a Macy's credit card. And yet more, like having the clerk send invoices to clients from the judge's prior private law practice - a real gavel banger.
STATEWIDE - Ticked off? Annoyed? Frustrated? Perhaps it has to do with some guy you hired to do something and he failed miserably. You are not alone, according to the state Office of Consumer Protection, which fielded 7,656 formal complaints from pissed-off people last year. Here's the "Top 5" industries for complaints, of no great surprise to anyone: Motor vehicle sales/repairs, Home improvement, Insurance, Professional/Occupational services and Health Clubs.
PATERSON - The local media is nailing the coffin on the political future of Mayor Joey Torres, reporting that the three city public works employees indicted this week on corruption charges earned more than $272,000 in overtime during the past two fiscal years. The Paterson Press reports the allegations that Torres supervised the men's work at a private liquor warehouse leased by his daughter and nephew while the three were on taxpayer-funded OT. One of those workers just happened to be the city's highest overtime earner during fiscal 2015, when all this allegedly went down. Oof.
AT THE MALL - Nordstrom no longer sells Ivanka Trump's clothing line. Neiman Marcus doesn't sell her jewelry online, while Marshall's and TJ Maxx does nothing to give the stuff an extra push over all the crap on the racks. Yet, reports The Hill, the company claims the brand is succeeding like you wouldn't believe. "Since the beginning of February, they were some of the best performing weeks in the history of the brand," says Abigail Klem, an admitted Democrat and president of the Ivanka Trump fashion brand. "For several different retailers Ivanka Trump was a top performer online, and in some of the categories it was the [brand's] best performance ever." Fake news?
CINNAMINSON - The "Pride of Cinnaminson" was sitting in a Key West jail this week, after he got plastered and tried to run over a rooster on a golf cart, FL Keys News reports. That failed, as he then flipped the golf cart, sending two passengers flying. The rooster just hopped over to the sidewalk to avoid this guy. Meanwhile, a female passenger chipped her tooth and scraped her knees in the mishap. The 34-year-old driver registered a 0.25 blood alcohol level, as he dozed off in the back of the patrol car, while randomly putting his shirt and fingers into his mouth.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
FOX CROSSING, Wis. - Call it a crazy bout with incontinence. Perhaps that's the argument of two Wisconsin men busted for stealing 100,000 diapers, valued at $45,000, from a charity. We are talking 1,800 cases of diapers between Jan. 3 and Feb. 13 from the United Way's popular "diaper bank," WLUK-TV reports. Cops confiscated eight pallets of diapers and other hygiene products, as they build their case against the two alleged diaper thieves. No defense lawyers yet for these guys. Good luck finding someone to take this case.
Happy National Get Over It Day. (So, get over it.)
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Yet more annoying trivia about late 20th Century presidents of southern European countries. Bet you'll nail this one, too. It was this day in 1995 that President Konstantine Karamanlis, age 88, resigned from what southern European country?
If you answered anything other than Greece...C'mon.
WORD OF THE DAY
Nugatory - [NOO-guh-tor-ee] - adjective
Definition: Of little or no consequence
Example: Yep, our "This Day in History" was nugatory.
WEATHER IN A WORD
Looming