Briefs
Kamala Harris greeted by pro-immigrant protests in Newark, Montclair
Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Garden State Friday, touring an Essex County COVID-19 vaccination site and chatting with preschoolers in Montclair while making a push for increased child care funding. Harris was also greeted by dozens of activists who rallied outside both sites and urged the nation’s second in command to demand Democrats approve […]
New Jersey enters four-state compact to share crime gun data
New Jersey and three of its neighbors will begin sharing data on guns involved in crime, four governors announced in a joint virtual appearance Thursday. A memorandum of understanding signed by Gov. Phil Murphy and his counterparts in New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania will require law enforcement agencies in those states to share gun trace […]
Employees over 70 can’t be forced to retire under new N.J. law
Workers who are 70 and older can no longer be forced out of a job just because of their age under a bill Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law Tuesday. The new law (A681) expands New Jersey’s existing anti-discrimination statute to protect older employees and closes what Murphy called a loophole that pushed some workers […]
Appellate panel denies states’ SALT appeal
A federal appeals court shot down a bid by New Jersey and three other states to remove the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deduction Tuesday. New Jersey, along with New York, Connecticut, and Maryland, in 2018 sued the federal government in a bid to overturn the cap, charging it runs afoul of the […]
ACLU fights restraining order Hudson County officials filed against anti-ICE protestors
The temporary restraining order a Hudson County official filed against a group of anti-ICE activists who protested outside his Jersey City home violates the constitutional rights of protestors, the American Civil Liberties Union’s New Jersey chapter said in a brief filed Friday. The ACLU-NJ argues the restraining order should be dissolved because it limits the […]
Lawsuit challenges Atlantic City’s ban on safe-needle access
The South Jersey AIDS Alliance has sued Atlantic City to block a new ordinance that bans syringe access effective Oct. 12. Three anonymous residents who use the city’s Oasis Drop-In Center for syringe access are also named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in state Superior Court in Atlantic County. More than 1,200 people visited Oasis […]
Judge declines to block Rutgers vaccine mandate
A federal judge declined to block Rutgers University’s vaccine mandate Monday, ruling the anti-vaccine group that lodged the suit failed to demonstrate the action was likely to succeed or that the plaintiffs would face irreparable harm. U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi denied the bid for an injunction to block the mandate sought by Children’s […]
New Jersey City University faculty signals ‘no confidence’ vote in school’s president
Faculty members at New Jersey City University signaled they want to oust the state school’s president after a tense, two-hour Zoom meeting Monday. University senators — the school’s faculty leaders — voted 30 to 23 to cast a vote of “no confidence” in NJCU President Sue Henderson, who has been at the helm of the Jersey […]
N.J. Supreme Court rules parents cannot be forced to prove innocence in child abuse cases
The New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday family courts cannot require parents affirmatively prove they did not abuse their children, sending a case involving alleged child abuse back to family court. The decision stems from a 2018 case involving an apparently abused infant whose parents were stripped of custody after trial and appellate judges […]
New law aims to cut teacher shortages
In an effort to reduce longstanding teacher shortages, Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday signed a law that will create new pathways to the classroom for would-be teachers who lack the proper credentials. Under the law, the state Department of Education will create a five-year pilot program in which officials will issue “limited certificates of eligibility” […]
Democratic state senators must be vaccinated by Oct. 18
New Jersey’s 25 Democratic state senators must be vaccinated by Oct. 18, according to a memo from the Senate Majority Office. The vaccine policy will apply to lawmakers, staffers, and district office employees, and there will be no testing option, two Senate officials said. Lawmakers must attest to their vaccination in writing by Oct. 18, […]
New Jersey continues slow economic recovery, adding 20K jobs in August
After the pandemic led to widespread business closures and crushing job losses, New Jersey’s crawl to economic recovery continues. The state recovered another 20,300 jobs in August, the eighth straight month of gains. That brings the total number of jobs recovered since the height of the pandemic to 468,600, marking the return of about 65% […]