The Jaffe Briefing - September 9, 2022
Editor’s Note: Like your favorite cup of morning coffee, get ready to enjoy the Jaffe Briefing once again. Yeah, yeah, we took the summer off. And our format is changing: We will now be publishing just weekly, rather than daily, as there’s just so much time in the workday. But we’re raring to go, so let’s get our first “Week in Review” launched!
STATEWIDE? – The Queen is dead. And while that news is certainly sad after 70 years of public service, what’s more frustrating is the fact that we can’t find a single, solid New Jersey angle. Whenever there is major international news, there always seems to be some sort of local story, as someone from the Garden State seems to somehow be involved. Of course, there were some very appropriate statements of condolence issued, from the likes of Sen. Bob Menendez, Gov. Phil Murphy and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin. But that’s it. And we couldn’t even find a great story out of the Isle of Jersey, other than the fact that Her Majesty visited the island on six separate occasions since 1949. Yawn. Not so titillating. Sorry to have failed you, so early in our “new and improved” newsletter.
PISCATAWAY – It's never easy being a Rutgers football fan, especially with how the Record seems determined to highlight all the cash that gets blown. No, this is not another international story about outrageous DoorDash expenditures. Rather, the Record is now focusing on the Gator Bowl, when the good guys at RU stepped in at the last minute to take on a powerful Wake Forest team on New Year's Eve. The Record is wondering about the final cash payout from the game, reporting that Wake Forest netted a nice $2.8 million, yet Rutgers only was paid $537,000. That didn't even cover the cost for all the airfare and Band-Aids, as RU fans welcomed 2022 by watching the thrashing, 38-10. Lots of questions here about parity. But, hey, it’s a new season, with new hope, as Wagner comes to town for a 4 p.m. kickoff tomorrow. Great seats still available.
STATEWIDE - Just as media is reporting tuition increases in virtually all colleges and universities in New Jersey, maybe there's another avenue to earning the big bucks. Become a school bus driver, as desperate school officials are now dangling up to $35 an hour to anyone willing to get our little cherubs to school and, at some point, safely return them somewhere near designated bus stops. Besides some nice cash, school officials are also throwing out some nice perks, like full medical benefits, sick days and ample paid vacation. And even with all the enticement, there are still bus routes without drivers, with some frustrated school officials not seeing any relief anytime soon. NJ.com reports a recent poll showed 86% of schools in America didn't have enough bus drivers for the available routes, leading to delays, crowding, scattered scheduling and - gasp - even dad having to grudgingly handle a pick-up or two.
NEWARK – And who says local news is dead? TAPInto Newark flexed some local muscle this week, after owning the story about how workers on a school construction project were not paid prevailing wage and were dealing with unsafe working conditions. The union was livid at the construction site of the new Newark High School of Architecture & Interior Design on Jefferson Street, but the bosses didn’t seem to notice. After some more blistering TAPInto Newark stories, the state Labor Department ordered the general contractor to stop work this week. Union leaders are celebrating the win, as all sides figure this one out.
BRIEFING BREATHER
On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
STATEWIDE – The fact that disgraced former politicians are still earning state pensions is nothing new. But it is important for the media to remind us, yet again, that there are former leaders who spent time in the slammer and are now getting checks from you, me and a very ticked-off John Q. Taxpayer. NJ.com chose to highlight former Assemblyman Neil Cohen, caught looking at child porn in his legislative office. That story has been told again and again, especially back when the story broke in 2008. And Cohen now gets $3,600 a month in a pension for his former work as a public attorney. And the news site also found 94 others who are receiving those lovely checks, despite accepting bribes, abusing children and doing other dastardly acts that shatter the public trust.
HILLSBOROUGH – Stop, already, with all the giant warehouses. Residents in this leafy Somerset County enclave thought the first couple of warehouses were great for the town, bringing in some nice tax revenue without anyone having to really do anything to serve them. But then the trucks came. And more warehouses came. And more and more trucks came. And now mega-warehouses are dotting the local landscape in Hillsborough as well as other attractive towns that are near highways and byways. Gannett reports there are four more proposals to build warehouses before the township planning board, with a fifth one likely on its way, prompting the “Stop Warehouses and Trucking” campaign, with a nifty website and a petition with enough signatures to fill a medium-sized warehouse. Sure, we all love the tax revenue from these Amazonian-sized facilities. But at what cost?
IN THE MEDIA
TRENTON – New Jersey is losing another top beat reporter, moving on to greener pastures. Isaac Avilucea was an absolute gem covering our dysfunctional capital city for the Trentonian. Bravely cutting through all the madness, Avilucea was regularly disparaged, insulted, ignored, threatened and even sued as he fearlessly covered one of the nuttiest City Councils to ever be concocted in Trenton. Surely many city leaders who hated his bright, glaring spotlight are celebrating that Avilucea is leaving for Axios, an online news site, after this tabloid reporter masterfully beat them up for nine years. Without such a probing reporter, expect the Trentonian’s circulation to take a nosedive – unless the paper finds a willing replacement who shows up wearing Kevlar and a spit guard.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
TAMPA, Fla. – Is it too late to get that six-speed blender back? That’s what wedding guests were pondering after a 34-year-old groom was picked up by police for arranging a raunchy rendezvous with a Tampa tramp while his new bride was sleeping in their honeymoon suite. The self-employed businessman arrived at the Hyatt Hotel eager for a steamy night with handcuffs, just not the ones cops slapped on him as part of a local prostitution sting, the New York Post reports. A Hillsborough County sheriff said the operation netted 176 men. Wouldn't be surprised if they also collected three toasters, two candlesticks and a regifted voucher for The Olive Garden.
TORONTO – After doing a little bit of math, a rent-a-car company is apologizing to a local customer. The woman had picked up a car from Avis at the airport and drove it around the downtown, to some other local town and back to the airport, totaling 186 miles. Avis hit her with an $8,000 surcharge for the rental, claiming she drove 22,369 miles (36,482 kilometers) in three days, which is pretty much the entire distance of the Earth's circumference. That’s 25 cents per kilometer, equivalent of driving for three days straight at a speed of 310 mph non-stop. Avis now admits it may have made a mistake.
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
It was this week in 1994 that a second-rate actor got his largest payday ever, when a court awarded him $487,000 for being partially blinded by Jean-Claude Van Damme during the filming of the Mad Max wannabe flick, called “Cyborg.”
WORD OF THE WEEK
Assiduous – [uh-SIJ-uh-wus] – adjective
Definition: Showing great care, attention, and effort.
Example: Despite the fact the Jaffe Briefing is now published only on Fridays, we promise an assiduous product for all to enjoy.
WIT OF THE WEEK
“We have one great privilege which they don't have in other countries. When a thing gets to be absolutely unbearable the people can rise up and throw it off. That's the finest asset we've got -- the ballot box.”
-Mark Twain
BIDEN BLURB
“I will not stand by and watch elections in this country be stolen by people who simply refuse to accept that they lost.”
-Joe Biden
WEEKEND WEATHER IN A WORD
Beach