Health
Embattled safe-syringe site in Atlantic City gets another reprieve
An Atlantic City syringe-access site ordered to close over the summer got a reprieve Thursday, when a judge ruled city officials can’t enforce a controversial new ordinance banning safe-needle sites until a lawsuit filed in September to block the law is decided. Under Superior Court Judge Michael Blee’s order, the Oasis Drop-In Center can continue […]
Bills to expand harm reduction programs and decriminalize syringes advance
Two bills that would expand New Jerseyans’ access to safe-needle sites and decriminalize syringes advanced Monday in the Legislature, despite opposition from Republicans. The first bill would allow entities like nonprofits and health care providers to open harm reduction centers, with approval from the state health commissioner — and allow only the commissioner to close […]
N.J. bill would add safe-syringe sites statewide
When Domenick Scrivanich was homeless and addicted to heroin, he could think only of his next fix. “The number one goal was to get drugs and to be as high as often as possible,” Scrivanich said. “It didn’t matter if we had clean needles or dirty needles, we were going to get them into our […]
Americans in climate-threatened regions anxious for solutions from world summit
Flooded beach towns will be abandoned along millions of miles of coastlines. Islands will be inundated. It has already begun. Heat will become so oppressive that field workers can’t endure it and crops fail. It’s already happening. Huge wildfires will scorch millions of acres and spew toxic smoke plumes across swaths of the planet. Astronauts […]
Kids age 5 to 11 next in line for COVID-19 vaccines as White House rolls out plans
WASHINGTON — Smaller needles. Redesigned shipments to ease the storage needs in pediatricians’ offices. And enough vials of the COVID-19 vaccine to inoculate the 28 million U.S. children between ages 5 and 11. Those are among the plans announced by the White House on Wednesday as federal and state officials prepare for a regulatory decision […]
N.J. finalizes expanded protections under paid-leave law
More New Jersey workers will be protected for taking time off for family leave due to COVID-19 under new rules related to the state’s Family Leave Act, the state Attorney General’s Office announced Monday. The rules expand the law’s job protections to people who, during a state of emergency, need to care for a family […]
Lawsuit alleges N.J. vaccine mandate violates constitutional rights
A group of New Jersey public workers allege in a new federal lawsuit that Gov. Phil Murphy’s mandate that they and other public employees get vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to regular testing violates their constitutional rights. The seven-count complaint, filed the same day as the deadline for state and school workers to be vaccinated, […]
Community investment would protect public more than over-policing, report says
New Jersey communities spend far more on policing than on health and human services, an imbalance that has increased rates of police use of force and incarceration while widening racial disparities in the criminal justice system, according to a new report by New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP), a progressive think tank. Community-based crisis-response and prevention strategies […]
State board expands access to abortion in N.J. through regulation changes
The New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners unanimously agreed Wednesday to repeal several restrictions on abortion, effectively expanding access by allowing medical providers other than physicians to terminate pregnancies. The move comes six weeks after Texas lawmakers enacted a controversial abortion ban that drove abortion-rights advocates across the country to rally to preserve women’s […]
Acting A.G. takes aim at law criminalizing sexual activity by people with HIV
Acting New Jersey Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck told county prosecutors Wednesday they should exercise caution before using a decades-old state law that criminalizes certain sexual activity by people living with HIV. The 1997 law makes it a third-degree crime for someone living with HIV to engage in an “act of sexual penetration” without the informed […]
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 […]
Passaic River cleanup timeline accelerated after new agreement, officials say
Federal and state environmental protection officials announced a plan to clean superfund contaminants from a nine-mile portion of the polluted Passaic River in what is expected to be the costliest remediation effort in the program’s history. The actual cleanup of the Diamond Alkali superfund site is still likely years away, but members of the state’s congressional […]