This year looks to be the most difficult year yet in placing all the girls graduating eighth grade. Schools have been asked not to send out any acceptance letters until about 110 girls that have not been chosen , are placed. Some schools have added classes for next year, while others have reduced the number of parallel classes for the ninth grade. Hopefully all girls will have an appropriate school before the letters go out in order to avoid what has happened in previous years.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has come out in favor of a good Samaritan law that would allow drug overdose victims to call 911 without fear of legal repercussions, drug policy reform advocates announced on Monday.

Christie's decision to reverse his earlier opposition to the bill paved the way for a compromise measure to pass the state Senate and Assembly by overwhelming bipartisan margins on Monday. New Jersey will join 11 other states and the District of Columbia, which have similar laws, if he signs the bill as expected.

From Star Ledger

The grants range from $101,060 for technology upgrades to classrooms at Rowan University, to $86.3 million to transform a New Jersey Institute of Technology building into a hub for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

In all, 176 higher education capital construction projects worth $1.3 billion have been approved, in what Gov. Christie called the first concerted contribution to New Jersey’s higher education infrastructure in decades.

You can't make this stuff up. Birdsall engineering which was indicted for pay to play contracts totaling tens of millions of dollars. Their highest legally listed donor is Bob Singer. Bob Singer was in turn integral in getting them all the contracts for the town against protests from the builders that they ripped off with exhorbitant fees. Now it seems they in turn gave" thanks"by sponsoring the Strand theater, a multi million dollar money losing pet project that has brought little benefit to the town. 

In fairness there seems to be a new management (the third in two years) that is trying to make the Strand profitable. But now that the main donor has filed for bankruptcy and the president of the company is indicted, it will be a harder task.

The International Flavour Festival was bigger than ever this year, drawing around 10,000 people on Sunday, organizers said.

Twenty-five of the borough’s restaurants set up stations in the White Street parking lot for the second annual festival. About 120 volunteers turned out to help, with many recruited through the organizations benefitting from the proceeds.

The cost was $5 and proceeds will benefit the Red Bank Regional Athletic Foundation, Monmouth Day Care Center and the Red Bank RiverCenter, said James Scavone, acting executive director of the RiverCenter.

After many years in the making the Lakewood Township Committee is happy to announce the opening of the newly renovated state of the art public bathrooms. These two bathrooms are located in the Lakewood Municipal Building right to the side of the courthouse. For years these foul-smelling bathrooms have been run down with leaks, broken tiles, and poor lighting. For almost a year now the bathrooms have been boarded up and closed to the public during renovations. The best engineers, architects, and contractors have quickly completed this beautiful project in under 12 months. Thanks again to the Committee and all others involved for a job well done!”

Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn (R) today introduced an amendment to the Marketplace Fairness Act that would end the practice of allowing professional sports leagues to qualify as tax-exempt organizations, a move that would hit leagues like the National Football League, the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Tour, and the National Hockey League, among others.

Since 1966, the tax code has allowed leagues to classify as 501(c)(6) charitable organizations — a classification used by trade and industry organizations — under the assumption that the leagues were promoting the general value of their sports. But Coburn’s amendment asserts that the leagues are not non-profits engaged in the promotion of their sports but instead are businesses interested solely in the promotion of their business; that is, the NFL isn’t so much concerned about promoting the general sport of football as it is concerned with promoting NFL football, because it is the NFL brand and the NFL teams and logos and products that make it a profitable business. The NFL, for instance, didn’t seem interested in promoting the general spread of football when a competitor league, the United States Football League, was formed in 1983. Likewise, the PGA Tour, NHL, and other sports leagues serve to promote their brand of their sports, not the sport as a whole.

Keeping businesses in New Jersey has been a priority for the Christie administration, which has said tax credits and incentives are crucial to keeping and creating jobs. Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-25) is a business owner who said he would consider taking his company out of the Garden State if he weren’t a senator. He told NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider that being a business person in New Jersey is frustrating because of the abundance of regulations and over taxation.

Bucco said that while he loves New Jersey — where he was born and raised — he is frustrated as a business owner. He said regulations and over taxation are driving many manufacturing businesses out of state. Bucco owns a manufacturing plant in Paterson. He said when he first started out in sales before owning his own business, there were numerous manufacturing companies to call on in New Jersey.