Daily Five: Cloudy Wednesday, Anniversary of 40-Hour Work Week, National School Bus Safety Week

1. Welcome to Wednesday, there will be a few showers in the early morning with a high temperature of 59 degrees, according to The Weather Channel. Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low temperature of 47 degrees.

2. On This Day in: 1788, poet Sarah Joseph Hale was born. She wrote the poem "Mary Had A Little Lamb;”  1901, Daredevil Anna Edson Taylor became the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel. She was 63 years old; 1929, in the U.S., investors dumped more than 13 million shares on the stock market. The day is known as "Black Thursday;” 1940, in the  U.S., the 40-hour workweek went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938; 1989, Reverend Jim Bakker was sentenced to 45 years in prison and fined $500,000 for his conviction on 24 counts of fraud. In 1991, his sentence was reduced to eighteen years and he was released on parole after a total five years in prison; and 2001, the U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation that gave police the power to secretly search homes, tap all of a person's telephone conversation and track people's use of the Internet.

3. This week is National School Bus Safety Week and the state Department of Motor Vehicles is reminding motorists to drive with caution around school buses.

“This week reminds us of the importance of school bus safety,” DMV Commissioner Melody A. Currey said.  “There are actions that motorists must take – watch for children, slow down in school zones, pay attention to school bus traffic and always remember to stop on the red signal of a bus.”
 
Currey said safety is the responsibility of motorists for instance, motorists should:

• Watch for children traveling to school when driving in neighborhoods with school zones. Children are unpredictable in their actions, and it is motorists' responsibility to anticipate and prepare to react to what children may do.

• Drive slowly.  Watch for children walking in the street, especially if there are no sidewalks in the neighborhood.

•  Watch for children playing and gathering near school bus stops.

4. Don’t forget to enter Patch’s Best Halloween Costume in America contest.  The winner gets $5,000.

5. The 13th Annual East Windsor Veterans Day 5K Road Race will take place at 10 a.m. on November 10. Here is a link to more information.