News Roundup, Friday, July 7, 2006

by: DBK

Fri Jul 07, 2006 at 09:07:11 AM EDT

Da da da daaaa! News Roundup for Friday, July 7, 2006, and what a news roundup it is!

The top story of the day for all of New Jersey is that the budget impasse has ended and the state is back on-line. After a six day shutdown of all but essential state workers, the State Assembly and the Governor reached an agreement on the budget last night, enabling 80,000 workers to return to their jobs. For the full story: here's how the Star-Ledger tells it, here's how the Daily Record tells it, and here's how the Courier Post tells it. Many media outlets are playing this as "Corzine v Roberts", like it was some kind of boxing match. There's all kinds of talk of egos and so on, but probably the most sensible take on the whole thing is this editorial from the Herald News, which tells us that it didn't have to be this way. Too true.

Don't miss the podcast on this page in which Assemblymember Reed Gusciora interviews other members of the assembly for their views on vital stuff. I mean, really, it's all about stuff.

In other important news, the latest drought status report from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection says that we are no longer in a drought watch. We've been in a mildew watch at my house for weeks.

A seventeen acre parcel of land is being put on sale by the Edison Housing Authority, but residents claim that development of this piece of wetlands would jeopardize the wildlife that is there. The land was auctioned off a month ago, but the auction was invalidated because there had been no public notice given. The new auction requires bid submissions be in by today. This one bears watching as "[r]esidents called the entire process suspect." Hmm.

Mayor Corey Booker of Newark followed up his swearing in by announcing a new federal task force to make the city safer.

A plot by terrorists to blow up the Holland Tunnel has reportedly been stopped.

FBI agents monitoring Internet chat rooms used by extremists learned in recent months of the plot to strike a blow at the city's economy by destroying vital transportation networks, one official said.

Good work, FBI.

Just to liven up your day and give you something to mention to your co-workers, here are some fun facts about New Jersey. The state flower is the African Violet and the state tree is the red oak...African Violet? Is the African Violet native to New Jersey? Shouldn't the state flower be native to the state? I've seen plenty of red oaks around the state and even have one in my yard, but most people can't keep an African Violet blooming in their own bathrooms. CORRECTION: Reader RedDesert corrected my information regarding the state flower, which is the common violet, not the African violet as I had been misinformed by a certain web site that I will never trust for information on New Jersey again.

DBK :: News Roundup, Friday, July 7, 2006

Tags: african violet, edison land sale, Roberts, Jon Corzine, podcast, budget, (All Tags)

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News Roundup, Friday, July 7, 2006 | 2 comments

Violets (and a break from budget talk) (0.00 / 0)

Um, just a small clarification on the violets (and I don't mean this to sound cheeky): I just confirmed (on the NJ state website) that the state flower of NJ is the violet known as genus viola sororia (the website even has a picture you can download and color!). The common African violet is s. ionantha (I got that from the "everything you wanted to know about african violets" web site--that one didn't seem to have coloring pages).

I do agree with you, they are hard to grow, though.

There, I'm done. You may return to discussions on the budget, if you like.

by: RedDesert @ Fri Jul 07, 2006 at 16:33:52 PM UTC