The Jaffe Briefing - March 1, 2022
STATEWIDE – Suddenly, working at one of the Targets dotting the state’s landscape doesn’t seem so bad, as the company, desperate for workers, is now dangling upwards of $24 an hour as a starting salary. It is part of Target’s gigantic plan to spend $300 million more on its workforce in a fierce labor market. But the real story is the next step: If Target raises wages so high, what happens at Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy and all the other companies that are competing for the same workers within a limited pool in New Jersey? And, moreover, with all this inflation and global insecurity, how much more cost can be passed on to the consumer? A $24 hourly wage is great, especially for the employee-- as long as we are not paying $10 for a jug of milk.
TRENTON – New Jersey has a proud history of pumping our own gas, yet people keep trying to mess with it. The latest: a proposed state law that would allow for a combination of full-service and self-service at stations that have more than four dispensers, NJ 101.5 reports. We all know New Jersey is the last state in the union in which self-service is banned. But members of the state Assembly say their bill creates more choice and convenience, while also easing the burden on gas stations to find workers, especially in the middle of the night. This is serious stuff; there’s even a website - Fuel Your Way NJ - in support of the bill. Could New Jersey’s landscape be changing? And how will we learn how to open that little gas door?
BRIEFING BREATHER
The moon is (slowly) slowing the Earth's rotation.
STATEWIDE – America’s liberals would love for college loans to be forgiven, as there’s still some hope to build back better. But, as NJ.com notes, it is a big pill to swallow, $1.4 trillion. Of course, who wouldn’t want to just snap their fingers and – Voila! – no more debt, under a proposal for the feds to cover upwards of $50,000 per graduate. There’s a lot to peel here, and, of course, nothing is so simple. Such a plan is a handout for educated people who are upwardly mobile and who will ultimately have the resources to pay the loans back, despite all the grumbling and grousing. And how is it fair to all those graduates, like us, who took out loans and dutifully paid them back? Or what about all the people who never went to college, based on cost. Or those who had to drop out because they couldn’t afford it any longer. Where’s their handouts? No doubt, people should be helped with the high cost of education. But not with another blanket policy that helps those who don’t need it.
NEWARK – When you think Newark Liberty Airport, you think “less flights and higher fares.” But the feds are hoping to change that narrative a bit, reassigning 16 peak-time slots at the airport to provide “more flights and lower fares.” These slots, which had been vacated by Southwest Airlines, will now to go those ultra bargain-basement carriers, like Spirit Airlines. These are the companies that promise super-cheap travel, just as long as you don’t bring a bag, are willing to sit in a seat designed for a baby monkey, breathe minimally and agree to not eat or drink anything over many hours in the air. Of course, if the feds really want to decrease the cost of airfare, they can stop the airlines from fleecing passengers during high-volume times, like Christmas and Easter holidays, while stopping airport vendors from charging $5 for water bottles.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
SAN DIEGO – At first, it was just another ho-hum day at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That was until the dogs went crazy over a truckload of onions, driven by a 46-year-old Mexican national. Discovered amongst the onions was nearly 1,200 packages of meth, totaling more than 1,336 pounds. Street value? $2.9 million. The packages were designed to look like onions, prompting the feds to have to weed through all the boxes to collect every single drug package. One field operations guy was impressed, saying “While we have certainly seen narcotics in produce before, it’s unusual for us to see this level of detail in the concealment.”
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Capitol looks like a military zone this morning, with a thick black gate surrounding the complex. Capitol Police are everywhere, and so are military vehicles, National Guard soldiers and a large bus with “NYPD” printed on its side. Of course, no one is about to tell one wandering Jaffe Briefing reporter about the entire security protocol for tonight’s State of the Union address, but it is clear that such a high level of security is unprecedented for what is typically an annual political speech filled with plenty of theater and partisan applause. Planned protests, truck convoys and roadblocks will fill the outside of the Capitol. On the inside will be mandatory COVID tests, no guests and plenty of social distancing. At least we were allowed to take one photo before being urged to keep on walking.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Unclear if anyone with a smartphone still notices if a phone call is “toll free,” but it was certainly a big deal on this day in 1996, when the new 888 area code was introduced.
WORD OF THE DAY
Prosaic – [proh-ZAY-ik] – adjective
Definition: Dull, unimaginative, everyday or ordinary
Example: All pray for the return of a prosaic lifestyle for the people of Ukraine.
WIT OF THE DAY
“And who is the main enemy for the U.S. and NATO? We know that too. It's Russia. In NATO documents, our country is officially and directly declared the main threat to North Atlantic security. And Ukraine will serve as a forward springboard for the strike. If our ancestors had heard about it, they probably would simply not have believed it. And today we don't want to believe it, but it's true."
-Vladimir Putin
BIDEN BLURB
“Although we provided over $650 million in defensive assistance to Ukraine just this year — this last year, let me say it again: Our forces are not and will not be engaged in the conflict with Russia in Ukraine. Our forces are not going to Europe to fight in Ukraine.”
-Joe Biden
WEATHER IN A WORD
So-so