50 percent of New Jersey’s registered voters now approve of the job of NJ Governor Chris Christie, NewsWorks reports, which is a huge increase from a few months ago. But the GOP-boy-craze doesn’t stop there. A separate poll by Quinnipiac University shows “Pennsylvania voters now favor GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney over Obama 44 to 42 percent,” says PennLive. About 54 percent of Pennsylvanians polled say of the Obama’s job performance sucks and 52 percent of Pennsylvanians say he’s a one-term prez. Of course, these numbers probably don’t reflect Philly, which probably made up the 40-some percent of PA that supports Obama. These close numbers also indicate that PA could be a battleground state for candidates, which means we could be seeing lots of hot Democrat-on-Republican action very soon!

TLA Video at 15 and Locust Streets has its days numbered. Online streaming, mail-rentals and those dag Red Boxes are guilty of conspiring against the store’s imminent death. We’ll miss you!!

Liquor prices would skyrocket if the LCB is privatized, former state Sen. Joe Conti testified yesterday. We’re not saying he’s full of shit (are we?), but we don’t really believe him, largely because he’s the LCB’s chief executive officer. Yet, “in testimony prepared for the House Liquor Control Committee, Conti says the agency’s analysis of pricing with a new gallonage tax under HB 11 shows ‘Jack Daniels rises $1.33, Bacardi Rum $1.54 and even Grey Goose (vodka) goes up $1.08. In wines, Cavit Pinot Grigio 1.5L goes up $2.75, Yellow Tail Chardonnay 1.5L goes up $2.67 and a 5L Franzia Blush Wine Box rises from $12.49 to $25.38.”‘ Why is all of that bullshit? Wellz, more stores would be selling liquor than the current monopoly of 600 stores. That increase of competition, as we saw through the death of TLA Video, would result in better service and cheaper prices. So, we’re not really scared of Conti’s testimony. Privatizing liquor stores is only a matter of time.

Ackerman eats a lot, records show.

Remember when Philly Schools Chief Arlene Ackerman asked the City to help bail them out a few months ago because they were in a $631 million budget shortfall? New numbers from her expense account show that “Ackerman spent nearly $18,000 over about three years for local dining, travel, and other costs, or around $600 a month.”  That’s disgusting, especially considering the following:

“Not so long ago, Joanna Cruz didn’t have the money to feed her young children, so she came up with an unorthodox solution to the problem: She didn’t feed them.”   That no-so-long-ago-time was in December 2009, when we reported about child hunger in Philly. A new report released yesterday shows there hasn’t been much progress. 49.6 percent of of households with children in PA’s first congressional district live in “food insecure” homes, trailing behind only the 17th district in Florida.

Lawyers for former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi–who is charged with illegally videotaping his former roommate, Tyler Clementi, having a sexual encounter with another man– argued in court to throw out bias-intimidation and invasion-of-privacy charges after revealing Ravi had texted an apology to Clementi. Smh.