The Jaffe Briefing - December 12, 2019
STATEWIDE – To the dismay and disappointment of your local bodega owner, you no longer need to enter his corner store to buy your lottery tickets. Politicoreports on a new third-party app, called Jackpocket, in which you can simply swipe to buy tickets, create pools and collect your winnings, if you happen to be so lucky. Jackpocket launches today, claiming it is one of the most convenient, safe and fun ways to play the New Jersey Lottery. Meanwhile, your local bodega owner notes there are currently no lines to pick up your cigarettes and newspapers.
EVERYWHERE – Following the fury of Newark and Elizabeth officials – tired of taking on NYC homeless – other surrounding cities are getting into line. Now, Yonkers and Mount Vernon are the latest to complain about New York’s Special One-Time Assistance program, or SOTA, which secretly paid landlords a year’s rent upfront for accepting families who had been living in city shelters. That program has pushed more than 2,000 families to New Jersey, prompting Newark and Elizabeth officials to file lawsuits. “What we saw in New Jersey scares the hell out of us,” Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano tells CBS, as Westchester communities loudly wonder how SOTA has impacted them. More importantly, what other New Jersey towns have unwillingly “participated” in this program?
TRENTON – In case you missed it, President Donald Trump is having a tough month. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-9) appears eager to pile on. He has sponsored a bill that would blow away Trump’s $10,000 cap on the federal write-off for state and local taxes. In its place — and effective immediately if the legislation passes — would be a $20,000 cap, giving a break to many tax-weary New Jerseyans. The main beneficiaries would be married couples who file jointly. These are the same folks who had their SALT deduction sliced in half courtesy of Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, NJ Spotlight reports. Yep, it was one of those “tax cuts” that somehow ended up costing many New Jersey taxpayers more money. Expect the bill to receive an icy reception in the GOP-controlled Senate.
BRIEFING BREATHER
3 Musketeers (this Jaffe Briefing editor's favorite candy bar) gets its name from its original recipe, which included vanilla and strawberry nougat in addition to chocolate. Rationing during World War II resulted in the chocolate-only candy still sold today.
DOWN THE SHORE – The typical holiday gift is remembered until, say, February. So, why not be strategic and hand out gifts that will be warmly welcomed on Memorial Day? That’s right, it’s time again for the holiday beach badge sale, in which plenty of our shore communities are offering up deeply-discounted badges for 2020. And some are even downright creative, NJ 101.5 notes, reporting that Long Beach Township is once again offering its specially-designed, limited-edition “Santa Shark” badge. Savings are substantial, like 50% off a Bradley Beach tag or an entire summer of Cape May surf for just $20. So forgo the two-ply socks and keep the Elf on the Shelf. Beach badges make the ideal stocking stuffer.
ON TV (OR NOT) – Say “Goodbye, Snooki.” Nicole Polizzi LaValle claims she’s done with “Jersey Shore.” She won't return for another season of the MTV reality show that (regrettably) made the pint-size party girl a household name and humiliated the Garden State for a decade. The 32-year-old married mother of three announced: “I hate being away from the kids, I don’t like partying three days in a row, it’s just not my life anymore.” She says the show isn’t fun anymore with “too much drama” and cattiness.” Could Snookie bring herself to just fade into obscurity? Or, could she land a starring role on some new brainless spin-off, like, how about, “Law & Order: Jersey Shore?”
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
ON THE ROAD – Nosy police K-9s sniffed out 367 pounds of cocaine and $3 million in cash, dealing huge blows to drug dealers in South Carolina and Pennsylvania. K-9 cop “Scooby” is probably getting extra Snausages for finding 142 bricks of coke, worth nearly $6 million, in a tractor-trailer that the Albany Times-Union says was hauling furniture from Canada to Tremont, Pa. Hidden in barrels of raw pork shoulders, sheriff’s K-9 dogs in Shelby, S.C. found bundles of plastic-wrapped cash totaling $3 million. Detectives tell the Shelby Star it’s one of their state’s largest hauls of drug money. Shows that you never know what’s inside that truck bearing down on your bumper. And it shows that we actually read the Shelby Star.
NEW ROCHELLE, NY – Former Rutgers star Ray Rice did all he could, but still his beloved football coach at New Rochelle High School is getting the boot. Lou DiRienzo, whose team won the state championship this year, is not only leaving football, he is also leaving the school district, where he was a long-time gym teacher. Despite protests from Rice and others, the coach was pulled from the team on Nov. 13, four days after his team won its fifth consecutive Section 1 championship. The reason? It seemed he helped a student, to whom he is related, leave campus with her parent after she was in distress. Very fuzzy and unclear. But RU fans must ponder if Rice – who was on the coaching staff – may be looking at a head coaching job at one of the most successful programs in New York.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was on this day in 1982 that $9.8 million in cash was stolen from a money transport car in New York City. Yet we haven’t seen a movie about it.
WORD OF THE DAY
WIT OF THE DAY
TODAY'S TRUMPISM
WEATHER IN A WORD
Shiver
THE NEW 60
A Jaffe Briefing Exclusive
by Andy Landorf & John Colquhoun
