The Jaffe Briefing - January 27, 2023

TRENTON – Everyone hates telemarketers. If we want an extended car warranty, we will go buy it ourselves, thank you very much. Some state officials share our pain, proposing a bill that would require telemarketers 30 seconds to give their real name, their real company and the real product/service they are actually selling. New Jersey Globe reports this proposed law has been in the works for years, but hasn’t gotten traction. The law makes a lot of sense, but the hope is the state can push this legislation to the max – banning telemarketers, if that is possibly legal. The volume of “Potential Spam” on all of our phones continually surges to new and more ridiculous levels, and there seems to be no way to stop it.

TRENTON – There’s a steady stream of news stories about people who have misused pandemic funds for such luxury items as jewelry, vacations, and – of most importance here – luxury vehicles. Some of them are looking at prison. And with Politico reporting that the state used $522,783 in federal pandemic aid to buy eight SUVs, including those for the use of Gov. Phil Murphy and Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, one must wonder: what’s the difference? The rationale: These leaders “are responsible for responding to the COVID-19 public health crisis.” And, apparently, that means they need new SUVs through this emergency funding. Republicans are pouncing, with words like “disturbing” and “despicable.” Let’s assume the SUVs were used to transport emergency stocks of baby formula to desperate families. It’s easier to sleep that way.

STATEWIDE – Lots of New Jersey companies are laying off people these days, as the economy slows, but these companies clearly don’t have “Burrito Season.” Chipotle Mexican Grill is desperate for workers, trying to find 15,000 more people to scoop all that guac, The Wall Street Journal reports. As everyone knows, the official Burrito Season is March, April, and May, as the weather warms and people venture out for a well-earned burrito. Chipotle is offering its workers $16 an hour, with plans to open 285 more locations in 2023. It seems the only thing that can douse Chipotle’s growth is staffing, as the chain has already had to slash its hours because there’s simply no one around to flip all that carne asada.

BRIEFING BREATHER

The rights to the original Terminator movie sold for $1.

TRENTON – Try, try again. That’s the plan of some of our Democratic congressmembers, still trying to untangle the Trump tax cuts of 2017. You may recall that our orange-faced former president famously capped the federal deduction at $10,000 for property taxes – a direct slap to blue states like ours. Many, many people in New Jersey pay precious more in property taxes, but all that cash can no longer be deducted. Rep. Mikie Sherrill kicked off the latest effort to set things straight, with plans to introduce legislation to increase the deduction limit from the current $10,000 to $100,000 for individuals and $200,000 for married taxpayers until the cap expires in 2025, NJ.com reports. This remains a heavy lift, as Democrats did not have the votes to lift the cap last year, when they ran both houses of Congress and the White House. So, we appreciate the latest effort. We really do. But with a Republican-led House? Ugh.

IN THE MEDIA

ALL OVER – We spend a lot of time bemoaning the incredible loss of media, as many towns in the state have absolutely no reporters covering anything. The latest stat: The U.S. is losing newspapers at a rate of more than two a week, and has lost more than 2,500 of them since 2005. Let’s present the stat in a different way: the nation is set to lose a third of all its newspapers by 2025, reports Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. The result? More than 70 million Americans living in "news deserts" — places with no local news sources and taxpayers completely uninformed. Large cities like Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, and New Orleans no longer have a daily print newspaper, while Youngtown, OH has no newspaper at all, after the 150-year-old Vindicator went belly-up. The result of this mess? People like George Santos voting on actual laws in Congress.

IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS

WILBRAHAM, Mass. – It’s been a brutal school year for checked-out high school seniors eager to nap in calculus class, as Minnechaug Regional High School can’t figure out a way to turn off the damn lights. In fact, it has been 18 months and counting since a computer glitch hijacked the system, keeping the high school light and bright, 24 hours a day, every day. Fed-up teachers are now unscrewing bulbs and flipping circuit breakers just to get the lights turned off for some respite. School officials tell NBC that, yeah, this glitch is costing taxpayers a fortune, noting that powering nearly 7,000 lights in the 248,000-square-foot building costs thousands of extra dollars a month. SNL took notice.

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

Happy Birthday to the iPad, unveiled this day in 2010 during one of Steve Jobs’ glitzy press conferences.

WORD OF THE WEEK

Ziggurat – [ZIG-uh-rat] – noun

Definition: An ancient Mesopotamian temple that resembles a pyramid having successive stages with outside staircases and a shrine at the top. The word is used figuratively for any structure having stages or steps.

Example: There’s a terrific gift shop in the ancient ziggurat.

WIT OF THE WEEK

“Can’t wait for when I get to exercise my patriotic duty as an American: Complaining about how long it’s taking to vote.”

-Stephen Colbert

BIDEN BLURB

“When the Bible teaches us to feed the hungry and give water to the thirsty, the new Georgia law actually makes it illegal — think of this — I mean, it’s 2020, and now ’22, going into that election — it makes it illegal to bring your neighbors, your fellow voters food or water while they wait in line to vote. What in the hell — heck are we talking about?” 

-Joe Biden

WEEKEND WEATHER IN A WORD

Same

TRENTON – Everyone hates telemarketers. If we want an extended car warranty, we will go buy it ourselves, thank you very much. Some state officials share our pain, proposing a bill that would require telemarketers 30 seconds to give their real name, their real company and the real product/service they are actually selling. New Jersey Globe reports this proposed law has been in the works for years, but hasn’t gotten traction. The law makes a lot of sense, but the hope is the state can push this legislation to the max – banning telemarketers, if that is possibly legal. The volume of “Potential Spam” on all of our phones continually surges to new and more ridiculous levels, and there seems to be no way to stop it.

TRENTON – There’s a steady stream of news stories about people who have misused pandemic funds for such luxury items as jewelry, vacations, and – of most importance here – luxury vehicles. Some of them are looking at prison. And with Politico reporting that the state used $522,783 in federal pandemic aid to buy eight SUVs, including those for the use of Gov. Phil Murphy and Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, one must wonder: what’s the difference? The rationale: These leaders “are responsible for responding to the COVID-19 public health crisis.” And, apparently, that means they need new SUVs through this emergency funding. Republicans are pouncing, with words like “disturbing” and “despicable.” Let’s assume the SUVs were used to transport emergency stocks of baby formula to desperate families. It’s easier to sleep that way.

STATEWIDE – Lots of New Jersey companies are laying off people these days, as the economy slows, but these companies clearly don’t have “Burrito Season.” Chipotle Mexican Grill is desperate for workers, trying to find 15,000 more people to scoop all that guac, The Wall Street Journal reports. As everyone knows, the official Burrito Season is March, April, and May, as the weather warms and people venture out for a well-earned burrito. Chipotle is offering its workers $16 an hour, with plans to open 285 more locations in 2023. It seems the only thing that can douse Chipotle’s growth is staffing, as the chain has already had to slash its hours because there’s simply no one around to flip all that carne asada.

BRIEFING BREATHER

The rights to the original Terminator movie sold for $1.

TRENTON – Try, try again. That’s the plan of some of our Democratic congressmembers, still trying to untangle the Trump tax cuts of 2017. You may recall that our orange-faced former president famously capped the federal deduction at $10,000 for property taxes – a direct slap to blue states like ours. Many, many people in New Jersey pay precious more in property taxes, but all that cash can no longer be deducted. Rep. Mikie Sherrill kicked off the latest effort to set things straight, with plans to introduce legislation to increase the deduction limit from the current $10,000 to $100,000 for individuals and $200,000 for married taxpayers until the cap expires in 2025, NJ.com reports. This remains a heavy lift, as Democrats did not have the votes to lift the cap last year, when they ran both houses of Congress and the White House. So, we appreciate the latest effort. We really do. But with a Republican-led House? Ugh.

IN THE MEDIA

ALL OVER – We spend a lot of time bemoaning the incredible loss of media, as many towns in the state have absolutely no reporters covering anything. The latest stat: The U.S. is losing newspapers at a rate of more than two a week, and has lost more than 2,500 of them since 2005. Let’s present the stat in a different way: the nation is set to lose a third of all its newspapers by 2025, reports Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. The result? More than 70 million Americans living in "news deserts" — places with no local news sources and taxpayers completely uninformed. Large cities like Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, and New Orleans no longer have a daily print newspaper, while Youngtown, OH has no newspaper at all, after the 150-year-old Vindicator went belly-up. The result of this mess? People like George Santos voting on actual laws in Congress.

IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS

WILBRAHAM, Mass. – It’s been a brutal school year for checked-out high school seniors eager to nap in calculus class, as Minnechaug Regional High School can’t figure out a way to turn off the damn lights. In fact, it has been 18 months and counting since a computer glitch hijacked the system, keeping the high school light and bright, 24 hours a day, every day. Fed-up teachers are now unscrewing bulbs and flipping circuit breakers just to get the lights turned off for some respite. School officials tell NBC that, yeah, this glitch is costing taxpayers a fortune, noting that powering nearly 7,000 lights in the 248,000-square-foot building costs thousands of extra dollars a month. SNL took notice.

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

Happy Birthday to the iPad, unveiled this day in 2010 during one of Steve Jobs’ glitzy press conferences.

WORD OF THE WEEK

Ziggurat – [ZIG-uh-rat] – noun

Definition: An ancient Mesopotamian temple that resembles a pyramid having successive stages with outside staircases and a shrine at the top. The word is used figuratively for any structure having stages or steps.

Example: There’s a terrific gift shop in the ancient ziggurat.

WIT OF THE WEEK

“Can’t wait for when I get to exercise my patriotic duty as an American: Complaining about how long it’s taking to vote.”

-Stephen Colbert

BIDEN BLURB

“When the Bible teaches us to feed the hungry and give water to the thirsty, the new Georgia law actually makes it illegal — think of this — I mean, it’s 2020, and now ’22, going into that election — it makes it illegal to bring your neighbors, your fellow voters food or water while they wait in line to vote. What in the hell — heck are we talking about?” 

-Joe Biden

WEEKEND WEATHER IN A WORD

Same