NEWJERSYNEWSROOM.COM

Some friends of mine have just sold their house, and now have lots and lots of money to invest. So I decided, unbidden, to give them some advice….

1. Just because you’ve been investing all of your life—for 50 or so years—doesn’t mean you know squat about investing. Investing when you’re in your 60s or 70s is very different from investing in your 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. There are new rules.

2. The first and perhaps most important new rule is: Don’t lose a lot of money. The time has come to be a VERY conservative investor. (Unless, of course, you’re so filthy rich you can afford big losses. I myself am not in such august company.)

3. Remember the wonderful advice that Ben Graham gave. He said there are two rules to follow: 1. Don’t lose money, and 2. Don’t forget the first rule.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Jimmy Hoffa was last seen outside the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Michigan on July 30, 1975. The stories have changed in the 38 years since his disappearance, but search results remain the same: no clues.

The latest search for Hoffa in Michigan is based on information from the son of a reputed Detroit mob boss. But a convicted hit man claims that Hoffa is buried in Giants Stadium in New Jersey.

Is he right?

We may never find out. But in a story in the Detroit Free Press from 1989, hitman Donald Frankos said Hoffa was shot to death by alleged New York Irish mob boss Jimmy Coonan. Then Coonan and alleged New York mob hitman John Sullivan dismembered Hoffa with a power saw and meat cleaver, put the body parts in bags, and transported them to the Giants Stadium construction site in East Rutherford five months later.

According to the Free Press, Hoffa's remains were buried in cement under Section 107 near the end zone.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Instant Racing machines allow players to bet on horse races that have already been run that the machine selects at random from a video bank. The machines have been credited with keeping horse racing alive at Oaklawn Park from Arkansas and Kentucky Downs tracks.

Representative Donald Dancer is hoping to see similar success recreated in New Jersey, and is proposing legislation to see the machines installed at state racetracks.

Dancer believes that Instant Racing machines will spark new interest in horse racing and gaming. “Blending historic races with the latest technology will put New Jersey on the cutting-edge of the next generation of gaming,” Dancer said, according to Gaming Today.

According to NJ Assembly Republicans, Kentucky has gained $356 million in revenue from Instant Racing machines in just over a year. Oregon has recently become the fifth state to allow the machines.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

COMMENTARY

Say it ain’t so.

News Gov. Chris Christie confirmed he is a Dallas Cowboys fan in Big Blue country, and has left this Gmen fan with a broken heart. I can look past his being a New York Mets fan because my Bronx Bombers are legendary for so many reasons. I can even overlook his taking Gang Green against Big Blue in Christmas Eve game on our way to being Super Bowl champs.

But the Cowboys? The Dallas Cowboys; America’s supposed team? C’mon, governor, really?

Christie, the rough and tumble Jersey Boy governor, received plenty of boos from elementary school students in Parlin when he declared his favorite sports team are those guys from that place that will no longer be named by this Big Blue fan.

"Now the last answer is one of the things that gets all of my political advisers nervous," Christie said. "My favorite football team is

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

You wouldn’t know it by the incumbents returned to office each year on Election Day, but Americans, for the fourth consecutive year, say they have less and less confidence in Congress.

The legislative body ranks dead last in the latest Gallup poll, which asked Americans how much confidence they had in American institutions. The military came out on top; with small business close on its heels and police in third.

Joining Congress at the bottom of the list are HMOs and organized labor. In fact, the poll found more Americans feel less confident this year in the medical system and the Supreme Court than last year. Whether that is tied to Obamacare is unclear.

On the upswing, according to the poll, is confidence in organized religion; banks and public schools.

American confidence in the Democratic-controlled senate and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has waned 10 percent, and is now at the lowest point on record, the poll found. Gallup also found confidence in the legislative body is the worst for any institution it has pulsed since 1973.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

State Assemblyman Paul Moriarty was cleared of drunk driving charges through dashboard camera video from the arresting officer’s car, and he wants other motorists to have the same rights.

Moriarty is proposing legislation that would make dashboard cameras standard equipment for municipal police cars used in traffic stops.

According to philly.com, in July 2012, Moriarty was charged with drunken driving by Washington Township Patrolman Joseph DiBuonaventura, who said the Assemblyman had cut off his police car.

But the patrol car’s video showed that Moriarty was driving in the opposite direction and that the officer's car had been parked on the median before he stopped Moriarty. Moriarty says he had not had a drink that day, and charges were dismissed against him in May.

“Without that dashboard camera, who knows how my case would have proceeded, and that’s a scary thought,” Moriarty said,

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Among Shakespeare’s earliest plays, “The Comedy of Errors” has been a crowd-pleaser ever since 1594 and it makes once again for an enjoyable summer’s night at the al fresco Delacorte Theater in Central Park, where director Daniel Sullivan’s quick and breezy production opened on Tuesday.

The extra trick to the Public Theater’s revival is that the story’s double set of long-lost identical twins who get mixed up in the zany course of one afternoon are played by two actors instead of the customary four.

So here, where the town of Ephesus has been nicely situated in upper New York State during the 1940s, complete with jitterbugs and swing music, Hamish Linklater portrays both Antipholuses (or would that be Antipholi?) while Jesse Tyler Ferguson scampers around as the two Dromios.  

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

During the nation’s difficult economic time, both students and parents alike are looking for the best bargain when it comes to picking a university. And it seems that an increasing number of students are enrolling at Rutgers University, according to admissions data.

This year the Rutgers New Brunswick campus saw a 7 percent increase in freshman applicants, compared to last year’s data, according to The Star-Ledger. About 300 more freshman than expected are planning to attend the New Brunswick campus in the fall.

Here’s why students seem to be flocking to Rutgers this year:

1) It’s affordable. Well relatively affordable compared to private or out of state schools. Tuition and fees averaged at $13,073 for in-state undergraduate students last year. New Jersey students looking to attend out of state schools, such as Penn State or the University of Delaware, would have paid about $28,000, reported the Star-Ledger.

2) The quality of Rutgers applicants has been increasing over the years. It might up the competition, but also the appeal to incoming freshman. The average SAT scores of applying freshman was up 12 points this year ranking at 1,769 out of 2,400

NEWJERSYNEWSROOM.COM

FORECAST DISCUSSION:

High-pressure will continue to build south and east from the Great Lakes today leading to clearing skies and lower humidity by this afternoon. Winds will be from the northwest at 5 to 10 mph by this afternoon. Temperatures will rise into the mid to upper 70's along the coast and over Long Island and upper 70's to lower 80's throughout the rest of the region.

High-pressure will move over the Philadelphia and New York City metropolitan areas tonight on through Friday with tranquil weather conditions. Scattered clouds and dry conditions can be expected through the period. Winds will be from the northwest and west at 5 to 10 mph. Temperatures will average near to slightly above normal. Low temperatures will range from the mid to upper 50's over the interior and upper 50's to lower 60's along the coast. High temperatures will range from the mid to upper 70's over Long Island; upper 70's to lower 80's along the New Jersey coast, New York City metropolitan area, and northern interior; and lower to mid 80's over the Philadelphia metropolitan area and Delaware River Valley.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Governor Christie seems to prefer slow jamming democracy more so than the news these days after deciding to contradict himself by calling for a special election, a stunt that will wind up costing the state roughly $25 million. It has caused much ire and confusion, and, in fact, lawmakers in one NJ county are going so far as to refuse to distribute the roughly $850,000 needed to fund the state's special election for U.S. Senate in mid-October.

While I still do not know exactly what the heck it is that Freeholders do and always just thought they were special people from the city of Freehold, however, are quite concerned over the needless economic burden the special election will have on tax payers. The Union County Board of Freeholders, for example, claimed the special election would create a "financial hardship" for the county. And adding more confusion, they said that they received no assurances from state officials that the county would be reimbursed for a portion of the special election's costs. It should be noted that the board is all