The Jaffe Briefing - September 15, 2021
The Jaffe Briefing will not publish tomorrow, returning Friday.
STATEWIDE – Cicadas emerge every 17 years in New Jersey, but – right now – insurance adjusters are even rarer. The Record reports that many property and vehicle owners have been waiting and waiting for an adjuster to show up following Hurricane Ida’s blast on Sept. 1. It is simple supply vs. demand. There’s just not enough adjusters working at the companies to handle this sudden hit, putting claims in a very unintentional limbo. The industry’s recommendation: Take plenty of photos of damage and have all your information available when a bleary-eyed adjuster finally finds your folder somewhere in the stack. And reading your policy terms will also be immensely helpful, so you can quickly get on the same page and further expedite things. Oh, and if you need an affordable rental car at the moment in New Jersey? Yeah, there aren’t any.
NEW BRUNSWICK – Another reason Rutgers has Scarlet Knights is perhaps because its athletic department is hopelessly in the red. It’s a story that New Jersey taxpayers have been hearing for years, and the Record is the latest to tell it. News reporters say they spent a month combing through the finances of the athletic department, as well as accessing dozens of public records and thousands of pages of financial documents, and came to the conclusion that most already know: the department is bleeding cash. But many, including us, didn’t know it had gotten this bad, with athletics racking up $265 million in debt since joining the Big 10 Conference. University officials agree this crazy spending is “unsustainable,” but no one should expect anything to change in the short term. College sports are generally not profitable, but the athletics department creates more national recognition, school pride and freshman applications than any glossy brochure you can find.
BRIEFING BREATHER
The fear of beards: Pogonophobia.
ON THE ROAD – Grab some popcorn and your favorite beverage, as you prepare for a Sept. 24 virtual meeting in which New Jersey’s commuters finally get their chance to weigh in on the proposed congestion pricing in Manhattan that is sure to cost our workers a few extra thousand dollars a year. These fees are above and beyond the outrageous criminal cost to use the Holland or Lincoln tunnels. Expect the language during this public comment period to be both colorful and consistent: This pricing plan is a money grab, pure and simple, for NYC, eager to shake more money from out-of-state commuters who need daily access to Manhattan lower than 60th Street. The cash will be used to fund MTA rail and bus service, as well as the NYC subways. Nothing, of course, for Jersey. Want to get in line to shout some expletives between 10 a.m. and noon? NYC is requiring pre registration at 646-252-6777.
IN THE MEDIA
STATEWIDE – Jeff Bezos continues to get his free “help wanted” ads in New Jersey media, with the latest Amazon press release announcing the need for more workers for his 24-hour operations. It seems like this brilliant billionaire is also getting his free plug here, with news that he needs yet another 9,000 workers in the state to fill his fulfillment centers, as the holiday season looms. As these press releases appear throughout the year, it remains unclear why media keeps running them, over and over. If they collectively stopped, maybe with a friendly call from one publisher to another, perhaps Bezos would consider paid advertising and support hyperlocal New Jersey media, often running on fumes. But, hey, why pay for what you can get for free?
ASBURY PARK – Kudos to a very scrappy Asbury Park Press, now engaged in a lawsuit with Monmouth County as the newspaper tries to extract public information. The newspaper is seeking copies of the county’s check register, including all payees and vendors, in a very fair quest to figure out where $2 billion in taxpayer dollars has been spent over the past five years. A great quote from the newspaper’s editor: “If we don't do it, who will?" The county initially rejected the request in April, likely with a guffaw, and then slapped on a $10,600 fee for the apparently laborious process of reviewing and redacting 22,000 entries from 2016 to present. The newspaper argues Monmouth County handed over the exact same information before 2016 without this “special service charge.” Regardless, let’s leave it to the competing lawyers, likely charging well more than $10,600.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
CULIACAN, Mexico — In what’s probably the most memorable Airbnb, the Mexican government is hyping a national lottery for the home of former drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who fled the country in 2014 and is now serving a life sentence in a Colorado prison. There’s been some changes at El Chapo’s modest home, such as the removal of all the high-tech surveillance cameras. Also, concrete now fills the hole under the bathtub that this narco don famously slipped through to reach a network of tunnels in his effort to escape. Preparing for the lottery, the government gave the house a fresh coat of white paint inside and out and tiled over the drug tunnels. But, if you look closely enough, perhaps there’s still some remains from the victims El Chapo preferred to personally torture and execute. Nothing personal; just business.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 1997 that Oprah Winfrey announces she will continue her show through 2000 – a big relief for those who thought she’s the type to shy away from cameras.
WORD OF THE DAY
Camion – [kam-ee-uhn] – noun
Definition: A military truck for supplies.
Example: I hope there are some new boots in that camion.
WIT OF THE DAY
“No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.”
-Abraham Lincoln
BIDEN BLURB
“Right now, local school officials are trying to keep children safe in a pandemic while their governor picks a fight with them and even threatens their salary and job.”
-Joe Biden
WEATHER IN A WORD
Beachy