Month: September 2016
The Governor’s Answer?
For nearly seven years I’ve been a backer of New Jersey’s Governor, Chris Christie. He’s been a strong advocate for the overburdened taxpayers in the Garden State and taken on battles that prior Governors were too weak or ineffective to tackle. Until now.
#RockPaperSpadea
Sometimes you show up at work and the team is holding a “Rock-Paper-Scissors” contest to see who has the privilege of throwing a pie in my face. After a hard fought contest with three rounds, Jillian emerged the winner. And here’s what ensued…
#BetTheOver
OK, done. I went head-to-head with the world champion of competitive eating, Joey Chestnut. Well sort of. I did participate in a contest with him and nine other competitive eaters. I didn’t puke. And I won the bet. That’s right, our friends at the Yankees AA club, Trenton Thunder challenged me to eat at least six pork roll sandwiches at their second annual pork roll eating competition. Six? I can do six. Of course most of my radio colleagues bet the under thinking that there is no way I’d be able to consume nearly two pounds. They did have good reason to make what was arguably the “safe bet”. My Chasing News colleague Jessica Nutt presented the full story today for “Chasing News” starting off with “working weekends can be fun…” Lemme explain what she meant…
Our weekend started with a “Pork Roll Pep Rally” sponsored by the Thunder at Killarney’s pub in Hamilton.
Ready for tomorrow’s competition. We’re at the pub and the trash talk has already started pic.twitter.com/n7tDRItFQ0
— Jessica Nutt (@ChasingJessNutt) September 23, 2016
#InnocentLivesMatter
Today’s conversation on the radio immediately went back to the controversy surrounding NFL players and now high school players not standing up when the song is played to start a game. I played the Star-Spangled Banner at 6:20 this morning, which is a tradition I’ll keep throughout the year. A few notes in and the phones started ringing. The conversations throughout the morning were largely supportive of my position but there was one caller who really took took a negative turn and used her time to promote the propaganda of #BlackLivesMatter. Yes, false narrative, propaganda, I’ve written on this subject before.
The challenge with many apologists for the anti-cop movement is that they refuse to acknowledge facts and instead want to perpetuate lies including the one that started it all “Hands Up Don’t Shoot”.
#BlueFriday
Today’s #BlueFriday honorees are the 17 brave young men and women from the graduating class of the Essex County Police Academy.
They started their careers as Corrections Officers on Friday morning at 6am. So of course they couldn’t listen to the show and I suspect they’ll be exhausted from Day One and may not catch Chasing News tonight. If they were able to tune in they’d hear just how much we appreciate the courage and sacrifice made by the men and women who get up every morning and put on a uniform.
Let ‘Em Work!
The news today wasn’t good for the 35,000 students expecting to start with ITT Technical Institute this month. And the news is worse for the 8,000 employees who will now be looking for work as the trade education provider announced they were closing all of the 130 campus locations across 38 states.
It got me thinking today on the radio that there’s a culture in our nation and in our education system that drives every student toward college. That culture is misguided and detrimental to an entire generation of young people getting to the age where they have major life decisions to make. Around 70% of college students take on debt in order to pursue their higher education. As many as 1 in 5 graduate with more than $50,000 in debt with nearly a third of those with debt in excess of $100,000.
#ExtendedSummer
Extend summer break. That’s right, the kids go back too soon. Labor Day is a great holiday that marks 
the unofficial end of summer. For retailers and restaurants at the Jersey shore it’s the time of year to evaluate the success of the summer and get ready for the long season until the shore is bustling again around Memorial Day.
Here’s my thought. Why not extend the summer break for kids in NJ until the Monday AFTER Labor Day? For working parents the week of Labor Day is the perfect vacation week at the shore. There’s no competition from the Philly crowds as they’re back in school immediately following the holiday. And only a need to use four vacation days as the Monday holiday is built in for just about everyone. Including me, we tape Chasing News throughout the week leading up to the holiday and the “music comes out to play” in the am on holidays.
Chasing…2.0
Chasing News has been on the air for three years. Fast paced, relevant and sometimes controversial stories delivered in an informative and entertaining style on the set five days a week. Today we recorded our 820th episode. And yes, we’re ready for the long holiday weekend. Don’t worry, we already have an episode of new stories ready for you Monday for episode 821. On Tuesday I’m happy to announce we’ll be rolling out what we’re calling “Chasing 2.0”. You’re gonna love it. Stay tuned to twitter to see glimpses leading up to Tuesday…till then, take a look at some of the things we’ve done leading up to today. Click any of the images to enlarge them. See ya next week!
