The Jaffe Briefing - March 10, 2021

STATEWIDE – Do you recall a time when you left your house – GASP! – without a cell phone? Yep, very hard to imagine, indeed. And a new survey reports the average New Jerseyan is only willing to forgo a cell phone for 1.2 days. A website called GearHungry.com reached out to 3,400 Americans and asked how long they could go. The average response, nationally, was 1.6 days, showing New Jerseyans are more glued than others. The state with the hardest-core phone users? That’s North Dakota, where people could stay unconnected for a half a day, at the absolute most. And the most relaxed state? That would be Maine, where – get this – people are willing to live four, full days without a cell phone. Seems unreal. Other study findings: Nearly one-half of us look at out phones as soon as we awake, while one in five of us complain that our partner is addicted to the damn phone. And 61% say they look forward to non-tech-related activities post-pandemic. Perhaps the phone has some good suggestions. Let’s see….

TRENTON – With a pandemic that shut down the State House for a year, what is a Trenton-based lobbyist to do? Apparently make more money. State election officials say 2020 managed to be a very good year to have a career in “government affairs,” as lobbying fees hit a new record of $105 million last year. That is a 3.4% increase over 2019, with state officials attributing the bump to all the COVID 19 regulations and laws that involved both the Legislature and Gov. Phil Murphy. It all equated to plenty of billable Zoom calls.

HILLSDALE – Kids here have played “Cowboys and Indians” for generations. But the school district suggests that may now want to play “Broncos and Panthers,” with a decision to strip the two regional high schools of their mascots. Dropping the cowboys and Indians, Pascack Valley High School’s new nickname will be the Panthers while Pascack Hills High School has officially been deemed the Broncos, NJ.com reports. This final decision followed plenty of debate among members of the Pascack Valley Regional High School district, voting narrowly to make the controversial changes this week.

BRIEFING BREATHER

Some dinosaurs had feathers and were no larger than turkeys.

NEWARK – Perhaps a veteran Amtrak employee thought he figured a way to pad his retirement – accused of stealing 77 chain saws and hundreds of parts from the railroad and throwing them all online for sale. The 48-year-old Brick resident was able to reap more than $50,000 between 2016 and 2020 on this scam, cops say, taking full advantage of his access to the goods as a senior engineer and repairman. Cops landed the big evidence when a Pennsylvania buyer provided 11 shipping boxes with the employee’s return address. The online business, stretching seven states, featured a total of 103 chain saw replacement bars and 163 replacement chains, culminating in federal charges and a very likely jail sentence, if convicted.

JERSEY CITY – Ending backroom politics in Hudson County? Could it be? That’s at least what 40 people, including some elected officials, are demanding of county Democratic Chair Amy DeGise. This progressive coalition says a recent move to replace Assemblyman Nicholas Chiaravalloti on the party’s ticket “has cast daylight on a process that has long operated in the shadows: In Hudson County, it is mayors who decide who gets the county line.” They want DeGise to reform the process, allowing county Democratic committee members to screen and endorse their own candidates for elections. That’s how it works in other counties. One Jersey City councilman tells NJ.com the current process is “hard to even call … democratic.” He says it’s “what you see in authoritarian countries, where party elites in smoked-filled rooms pick the people’s representatives.” The late Mayor Frank Hague – still pulling strings.

IN THE MEDIA

ON AIR – One of the most respected broadcast journalists of the 20th century – Roger Mudd – has died at age 93. Mudd was best known as Walter Cronkite’s fill-in on the CBS Evening News, back when broadcast news just reported news. Mudd is remembered for his interview with then-presidential candidate Edward Kennedy, simply asking him in 1979, "Why do you want to be president?" The senator couldn’t offer a cogent answer, a death knell to his fledgling campaign. Mudd’s demise was reported on CBS as the network gushes over its Harry and Meghan news whirlwind - reportedly paying Oprah $7-9 million for this scoop. Mudd, Cronkite and other purists should serve as a constant reminder that the job of news organizations is to report news, not create it. And certainly not pay Oprah for it.

IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS

DENT’S RUN, PA – Hollywood screenwriters: Get your pens out. There’s a ready-made movie in the forests of western Pennsylvania, where it has been learned that FBI agents were hunting for a cache of fabled Civil War-era gold.  In the search for a literal ton of gold, FBI agents dug through the remote woods three years ago this month, according to newly-released government emails and other goodies that have been grudgingly released. Let’s call this soon-to-be-written movie “FBI-Treasure Hunters,” as the feds spent days about 135 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, following the legend of an 1863 shipment of Union gold that was likely stolen on its way to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia.  Previously, the FBI would not confirm or deny anything about why they are digging, just saying the property was a “cultural heritage site.”  So, did the FBI find something? Agents say “no,” but the Netflix release may tell a completely different story.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

It was this day in 1951 that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover says he likes his job very much, declining an offer to be baseball commissioner, or, perhaps, to excavate western Pennsylvania.

WORD OF THE DAY

Brindle – [brindl] – noun

Definition: A brownish or tawny color of animal fur

Example: My dog’s brindle perfectly matches the rug; the reason I trip over him daily.

WIT OF THE DAY

“My job is a decision-making job, and as a result, I make a lot of decisions.”

-George W. Bush

BIDEN BLURB

“I’m told Chuck Graham, state senator, is here. Stand up Chuck, let ‘em see you. Oh, God love you. What am I talking about? I’ll tell you what, you’re making everybody else stand up, though, pal.” 

-Joe Biden, inviting a Missouri state senator to stand before realizing he is in a wheelchair.

WEATHER IN A WORD

Uneventful