The Morning Briefing June 12, 2012

POINT PLEASANT BEACH – You may soon have to get the girls drunk quicker, as the town council votes tonight on a proposal to roll back closing time from 2 a.m. to midnight. Under the controversial plan, any bar that wants those two extra hours has to pay the town for additional cops to deal with sloshy drunks. Bar owners – desperate for those precious 120 minutes when patrons are too drunk to know how much they are spending on watered-down shots – have offered $800,000 over the next five years to appease the town. They even went to the state to void the ordinance. But, for this fleeting moment, it seems the town council actually has control over what happens in Point Pleasant.

SANDY HOOK – The U.S. Coast Guard is trying to find the yutz who called in the fake explosion of a yacht off Sandy Hook, wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars in manpower. The distress call came in Monday for a boat named “Blind Date,” with the caller saying the vessel had sunk, but 21 people had made it to life rafts. This prompted an all-out rescue mission – even helicopters were dispatched, the Asbury Park Press reports. But when crews reached the reported coordinates, no boat, no people, no rafts. But plenty of red, angry faces.

LOS ANGELES – Not only did the entire crowd at the Staples Center last night want the Kings to win the Stanley Cup, so did the referees. Perhaps these guys had golf trips planned this week, or just didn’t want to fly back to Newark on Wednesday for Game 7. In any case, they handed the Devils the harshest penalty in the first period of last night’s game – a five-minute power play – that ultimately led to three goals by the Kings, who easily won the Cup last night by a score of 6-1. Thank you, Devils, for a great run.

ATLANTIC CITY – A four-day stint from Beyoncé – including a visit from First Lady Michelle Obama – still didn’t create the buzz the Revel needed for May, as its revenue numbers were still at the bottom of the barrel among Atlantic City’s casinos, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Execs explain they are still testing equipment and reviewing procedures, and this time is more about getting systems in place than making money. Ah, ok.

EAST RUTHERFORD – David Diehl, a starting offensive lineman for the Giants, may still be celebrating the team’s Super Bowl win, or maybe that his native Croatia beat Ireland in the opening round of the Euro cup. The right tackle was apparently driving drunk in Queens Sunday night when his BMW slammed into a few parked cars as if they were defensive linemen for the Packers. A sober and somber Diehl was photographed in handcuffs wearing the Croatian soccer team’s national jersey.

TRENTON – With the deadline for a new state budget looming July 1, Gov. Chris Christie is preparing for the worst. The Record reports he has asked his Cabinet to prepare contingency plans in case a spending plan is not approved and state government shuts down. One bright spot is the fact Christie has backed off his across-the-board income tax cut for all New Jerseyans, and is now siding with Senate President Stephen Sweeney’s plan for an income tax credit for homeowners earning less than $250,000 a year. The big question: will Democrats in the state Legislature play ball with Christie?

TRENTON – While Democrats want to slowly roast the Governor over an open flame, at least half of New Jersey’s voters won’t show at the cook-out. The latest Rutgers-Eagleton poll shows Christie’s positives have inched over 50 percent for the first time since he entered office in 2010. Those with an unfavorable view of the Republican governor dropped to 39 percent – not a bad showing in a blue state.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

It was this day in 1992 that “Batman Returns” hit theaters. Then, he returned to the big screen in 1995, 1997, 2005 and 2008. On July 20, Batman returns in “The Dark Knight Rises”….Again.