The Morning Briefing - January 28, 2016
LAKEWOOD - The message from voters seems clear; they don't want to pay more school taxes. Roughly 99 percent of voters rejected a referendum for a $6.2 million school tax levy to pay for busing some 10,000 school children through the end of the school year. The Asbury Park Press says voters came out in droves Tuesday, with 7,561 shooting down the plan. Only 108 voters - probably friends and relatives of anyone close to the district's finances - sheepishly voted "Yes." The school district has a gaping $9.5 million hole, with courtesy busing driving the deficit. So, for all the kids going to private schools, it looks like no bus rides beginning Feb. 25.
PARAMUS - It's a bird! It's a plane! Nope, it's just another pesky drone. Bergen Community College just landed FAA approval for drone-flying classes, one of only three community colleges nationwide to get federal clearance. The college already offers drone design and fabrication classes, but outdoor flights were not allowed. College officials told the Record they now hope to add for-credit classes; non-credit training for people in news media and law enforcement; and summer camp flying lessons for youngsters. Wait until duffers at nearby Orchard Hills Golf Course start swatting at wayward drones with their 9 irons.
RIDGEWOOD - Speaking of Superman references, the "Man of Steel" himself raised eyebrows at a village beauty salon when workers found him - in blue tights and red cape - sitting in their lobby, apparently in a stupor, the Ridgewood Daily Voice reports. Unconvinced that Kryptonite was the cause, police took the 29-year-old Hackensack man to Valley Hospital for alcohol treatment last week, but did not press charges. The same man - who hires himself out as various costumed superheroes for parties - also caused a ruckus last Fourth of July when, dressed as Captain America, he dashed across rooftops along East Ridgewood Avenue until firefighters used a ladder truck to snatch him down.
TOMS RIVER - The second woman in Ocean County's 165-year history to serve as a freeholder took her oath of office yesterday. County Republicans picked Virginia "Ginny" Haines to replace eight-term Freeholder James Lacey, who resigned Dec. 31 leaving a one-year vacancy. Haines previously served in the state Assembly; as state Lottery Director, and on the Toms River Township Committee. The only other woman to serve as an Ocean County freeholder was Hazel Frank Gluck back in 1977. After just two years, she got elected to the Assembly. Coincidentally, during Gluck's 40-year public service career, she too did a hitch as lottery director.
HIGHTSTOWN - Promises of a shiny new borough hall have officials in this charming Mercer County hamlet gushing over an ambitious new redevelopment plan to turn a long-vacant, even-acre rug factory tract along Rocky Brook into apartments, stores, a parking garage, and a village green. The Trenton Times says some ramshackle buildings on-site would be razed, others converted to hip industrial-style lofts with ground-floor spaces for artist studios. And there's a new borough hall in the offing, big enough to also house the police and fire departments. Council President Denise Hansen says this project "is the flame Hightstown needs to start making this town change."
BORDENTOWN - Almost $300,000 meant to help people with disabilities was allegedly swindled from the N.J. Division of Developmental Disabilities since 2006 by its own head bookkeeper, the state Attorney General has charged. Using a fake woman's name and her husband's Social Security number, the 43-year-old bookkeeper collected checks for phony disability services. The bookkeeper, now suspended from her $51,000 state job, and her husband face a series of theft charges that could put them behind bars for up to a decade. Elie Honig, the state Criminal Justice Division's director, described the scheme as an "especially egregious case of public corruption." Hard to disagree.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
CHICAGO - What would Jesus do? Would he join the gaggle of nuns going to court to close a strip club near their convent? Or would he tell them that forcing this case through the Cook County courts would only get them unwanted attention? Perhaps even as far as New Jersey? Would the son of God agree that Club Allure violates prostitution regulations or that it complies with city zoning laws ... for Chrissakes?
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 1957 that the Brooklyn Dodgers announced they were bringing in famous circus clown Emmett Kelly to entertain depressed fans - as the worst-kept secret spreads through Ebbets Field about the pending departure to LA.
WORD OF THE DAY
Phobophobia (fo-bah-FO-bee-ah) - noun
Definition: A phobia for developing a phobia.
Example: Mel has a phobia of phobophobia, if that makes sense.