The Jaffe Briefing - June 7, 2022
DOWN THE SHORE – Summertime is getting into full swing, and that’s a real concern for Sen. Robert Singer. He tells NJ 101.5 that there’s still no grand plan to deal with the pop-up parties in places like Long Branch, where thousands of whippersnappers from North Jersey pour off the trains, flood the streets around Pier Village and create a public safety nightmare. The senator is calling for a special state task force – let’s call it “Operation Whippersnapper” – bringing together state, county and local law enforcement as well as NJ Transit, to keep those darn kids under control. There should also be a kitty of cash to help offset the cost for all the extra cops who need to break up the pop-ups and perhaps escort these out-of-towners back to northbound trains, promptly leaving every 30 minutes.
BRIEFING BREATHER
A cubic inch of human bone can bear the weight of five standard pickup trucks.
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL – Well, it’s primary election day in New Jersey and you can just feel the excitement. You can? Really? Wow. Then you must be very interested in who will lose to our congressional incumbents, as all 12 House seats in the state are up for grabs for the coveted party line. Our congress members are swatting away some annoying long-shot challengers, while Rob Menendez, Jr. will be officially anointed as the Democratic candidate for Congress in the 8th Congressional District, where he will be sleepwalking to his eventual victory during the November general election. To further underscore the apathy of it all, only 20,000 or so voters in the state took advantage of the three days of early voting, or 0.3% of the entire voter base. For those who breathlessly need to know the results tonight, check with your county election board’s website tonight to capture the latest “action.”
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL – With the trickle of voters who may or may not be showing up at the polls today, some school districts are taking all precautions to ensure the public does not interact with students. Underscoring this era of mass school shootings, schools in Trenton, Piscataway, Nutley and other towns are switching to remote learning for the day, as added security is brought into the schools to join poll workers in watching the slow wall clock. NJ.com reports schools are erring on the side of caution, as working parents now scramble to find child care as their children are home, again, for a robust day of non-learning on an 80-degree day in June, as the school calendar mercifully ticks down.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
LOS ANGELES - The New York Mets smell a rat – or at least some rat urine. The team may file a complaint with Major League Baseball after players detected a foul stench emanating from the Dodgers Stadium visiting team area. Intentional? If this is a cat-and-mouse game in a sport where gamesmanship still plays a role, the Dodgers aren’t saying. All the Mets know is that the video replay room wreaked like rodent pee, according to a report in the New York Post. The Mets, apparently full of both piss and vinegar over the matter, took their frustrations out on Dodgers by winning the final two games of a four-game weekend series, 9-4 and 5-4 in 10 innings. And then promptly fled the stadium.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 1993 that Prince celebrated his birthday, changing his name to a symbol.
WORD OF THE DAY
Rathskeller – [raht-skel-er] – noun
Definition: A restaurant patterned on the cellar of a German town hall, usually located below street level.
Example: Meet me for a beer at the rathskeller?
WIT OF THE DAY
"So here’s the thing I would like to say to Ted Cruz, the human being, and Gov. Abbott, and everyone. It’s OK to admit you made a mistake. In fact, it’s not just OK it’s necessary to admit you made a mistake when your mistake is killing the children in your state," Kimmel said. "It takes a big person to do something like that. It takes a brave person to do something like that. And do I think these men are brave people? No, I don't. I don't. But man, I would love it if they surprised me."
-Jimmy Kimmel
BIDEN BLURB
“After Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Charleston, after Orlando, after Las Vegas, after Parkland, nothing has been done. This time, that can’t be true. This time, we must actually do something.”
-Joe Biden
WEATHER IN A WORD
Seasonal