The Jaffe Briefing - January 17, 2018
TRENTON – So, who is this new governor that we will be consumed with for four or eight years? Well, his name is Phil Murphy. His middle name is “Dunton” and there is potential this working-class Boston native may be a closet Red Sox fan. (Spit in disgust here.) He may have become a musical actor, the former president of Harvard University’s “Hasty Pudding Theatricals Club.” Now a millionaire, he pays about $200,000 in property taxes each year on his Middletown mansion, so he certainly feels the pain. He is buddies with Jon Bon Jovi and is the part-owner of Sky Blue FC, a professional women's soccer team that plays in Piscataway. And our new governor has plenty of thoughts about raising taxes, to be dissected and debated in many, many articles to come.
TRENTON – If you need further proof of a new sheriff in Trenton, just check out Gov. Phil Murphy’s inaugural speech, in which this liberal called for his new pals in the Democratic-led Legislature to send him bills to support “women’s health and Planned Parenthood; to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour; to promote equal pay for women; to give every worker the peace of mind of earned sick leave; to tear down barriers to voting; and, to strengthen our gun laws.” Yes, already Chris Christie – and the sharpness of his well-used veto pen for such a progressive agenda – is fast becoming a distant memory.
TRENTON – The new governor is trying out these new nifty powers by first focusing on wage equality – the type of non-controversial bill that is a slam-dunk for easy applause and accolade. Just three hours into his new gig, Gov. Phil Murphy has decreed that no state agency or office can ask job applicants about their salary history or peek into their past wages until a conditional job offer is made. It is designed to finally close the gender wage gap and to ensure applicants are getting the salary commensurate to the job, rather than the salary they are grudgingly willing to take.
BACK IN MENDHAM – If you always dreamed of owning a Chris Christie bobblehead doll, but didn’t want to plunk down the cash, now is your moment. NBC reports the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame has put its Chris Christie doll on clearance, now just $13 apiece. (Originally, $20.16) The sale price, not coincidentally, is the same figure as Christie’s 13 percent final approval rating, reported by Rutgers-Eagleton. “His approval rating made for a pretty good sale price, so we went with it,” says Phil Sklar, CEO, of this hall of fame. Buy yours here, while supplies last.
BACK IN MENDHAM — Chris Christie walked out of the governor’s office yesterday. That, alone, was a feat. The newly-former governor bucked history, becoming the first chief executive in decades to leave office without breaking one of his legs. Jon Corzine broke a leg in a high-speed car crash, Jim McGreevey broke a leg on the beach, and Christie Todd Whitman broke a leg skiing, Politico reports. So, as Phil Murphy begins his daunting journey as governor, do we wish him to break a leg?
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
MOSCOW – Think this is cold weather? You are a weak, pitiful, little American. In Russia, where winter was invented and reoccurs every year with a frigid burst, the temperature in the remote Yakutia region hit minus 88.6 degrees yesterday. There are about one million people living in this frozen tundra about 3,300 miles from Moscow. School kids typically go to school in whatever weather, even when temperatures drop to minus 40 degrees. But school was actually cancelled yesterday, as many were worried people would freeze to death, forcing the kids to practice drinking their vodka at home, rather than in third period.
PHILADELPHIA – And speaking of drinking, it is impossible to imagine how much pre-game booze one Eagles fan guzzled. No question that a 22-year-old Lehigh Valley resident had to be fall-down drunk, ejected from the Lincoln Financial Field grounds on Saturday. Not only did he not have a ticket for the big game versus the Falcons, he also slugged a mounted police officer and tried to beat up his horse. NJ.com reports he smacked the horse in the face, neck and shoulders, and punched the cop. No injuries were reported, but now some judge has to determine the penalty for the rare charge of “taunting a police animal.”
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Americans set their VCRs on this date in 1984 for a U.S. Supreme Court decision deciding if it is illegal to tape shows on your VCR. (The judges voted “No,” to the relief of Dynasty fans.)
WORD OF THE DAY
Stanch – [STAUNCH] – verb
Definition: To check or stop the flowing of
Example: The supermarket stanched rumors it was sold out of break and milk, following word it may snow.
WEATHER IN A WORD
White