The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
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Newark NJ, Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean said a pair of tax bills advanced by the Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee today will hurt New Jersey families, employers, and tourism efforts.
The first bill, S-2892, would increase taxes on jet fuel by eliminating certain aviation fuel tax exemptions.
Continue reading Democrat Bill to Increase Airline Ticket Prices in New Jersey
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HACKENSACK NJ, In a decision released this week, New Jersey Superior Court Assignment Judge Bonnie Mizdol has ruled in favor of the City of Hackensack in a lawsuit brought by a political opponent of the Mayor and Council, Steven Gelber, who sought to have their “Labrosse Team” Facebook page deemed a government record. Gelber was represented in the suit by Jason Nunnermacker, a former Hackensack School Board President and unsuccessful City Council candidate who lost his re-election campaign in April. The judge disagreed, citing the page’s political nature in both its content and its description and ruling that it is not an official government record subject to the Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”).
![Don-Quixote-Windmill[1]](https://theridgewoodblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Don-Quixote-Windmill1-1.jpg "New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy Charges at Windmills")
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Trenton NJ, The Governors’ Wind & Solar Energy Coalition today welcomed New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (Don Quixote )as the Coalition’s newest member.
Continue reading New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy Charges at Windmills
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Trenton NJ, Governor Murphy and Colonel Callahan today advised New Jerseyans to prepare for the potential impact of Hurricane Florence. The Office of Emergency Management will continue to monitor the conditions of the hurricane and are working with counties to address any storm related needs.
No , no proposals for a “Hurricane Tax ” ,… yet , but Governor Murphy wants you to be prepared .
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Trenton NJ, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal today announced the creation of a unit within the Office of the Attorney General to combat corruption and strengthen public confidence in government institutions. To lead the effort, Attorney General Grewal has recruited Thomas J. Eicher, a longtime federal prosecutor who has led complex corruption investigations and obtained convictions against numerous public officials, including multiple congressmen.
Continue reading State of New Jersey to Investigate Itself for Corruption
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Newark NJ, A Turkish man who owns a New Jersey defense contracting business has been charged in a scheme to fraudulently acquire lucrative manufacturing contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and for conspiring to export military technical drawings to Turkey without a license from the State Department, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced today.
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Trenton NJ, according to Steven Malanga is the senior editor of City Journal, Federal Highway Administration data on revenues that the states have available for spending on roads, bridges, and mass transit New Jersey collected the seventh-highest transportation revenues of any state, even before it raised its gas tax and every state that spent more was considerably larger.
Continue reading New Jersey Now Collects More Revenue Per Capita from Drivers than Any Other State
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EAST RUTHERFORD NJ, Recognizing the economic significance of the American Dream project to the State and New Jersey’s working families, Governor Phil Murphy today visited with construction workers at the three million square foot entertainment, retail and dining complex. The Governor expressed his appreciation to the men and women of the building construction trades and the Bergen County Building & Construction Trades Council for their contributions to the growth and expansion of New Jersey’s economy.
Continue reading Xanadu : Governor Murphy Touts American Dream Investment in New Jersey’s Economy
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Union City NJ, The NJ State Police and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey are seeking the public’s assistance identifying suspect depicted in the sketch below for allegedly stealing a car.
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Trenton NJ, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and the Division of Consumer Affairs today announced that 29 unlicensed movers have been issued Notices of Violation (“NOVs”) as a result of “Operation Mother’s Attic, a State-led undercover sting targeting public movers suspected of operating without licenses. Each unlicensed mover was also assessed a $2,500 civil penalty
The sting operation occurred over the course of four days in April 2018. Investigators from the Division’s Office of Consumer Protection (“OCP”) posed as individuals planning to move from an upscale neighborhood in Montville. The investigators found various unlicensed moving companies advertising online and hired them for their “move.” The movers drove to Montville, expecting to find a luxury home full of items to load, and were instead met by a team of OCP investigators, who issued them NOVs for operating without licenses.
Continue reading “Operation Mother’s Attic” Catches 29 Unlicensed Movers in New Jersey
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Jersey City NJ, A Jersey City man today admitted that he swindled two investors of $3.4 million by falsely representing that his businesses had secured lucrative contracts to sell olive oil to major retailers, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.
Continue reading Jersey City Man Admits Scamming Investors Of $3.4 Million
August 6,2018
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Trenton NJ, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and U.S. Marshal for the District of New Jersey Juan Mattos today announced that federal, state, and local agencies have united with the U.S. Marshals Service to help reduce gang violence across the state of New Jersey in Operation Summer in the City. The U.S. Marshals Service in the District of New Jersey and the U.S. Marshals Service NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force conducted this collaborative effort involving all levels of law enforcement as an extension of the U.S. Marshals Gang Enforcement Program. The initiative came out of a meeting between Attorney General Grewal and U.S. Marshal Mattos at which they discussed strategies for reducing violent crime across the state. This one week fugitive initiative during July targeted New Jersey’s gang members and most violent offenders. This operation resulted in the arrest of 166 fugitives, which included 61 documented gang members including 42 Bloods, 13 Crips, 3 Latin Kings, 1 Surenos, and 1 Trinitarios member.
Operation Summer in the City was conducted throughout the Cities of Newark, Trenton, Jersey City, and Camden from July 16 through July 20. The objective was to strategically target the State’s most dangerous fugitives in order to curb the violence in these cities, and have a direct impact on the quality of life for the residents in these communities. Marshals and task force officers focused on targeting fugitives with violent charges as well as documented gang members. Not only were some of New Jerseys most violent offenders apprehended during this operation, but law enforcement also seized guns, drugs, and money. Of these notable seizures, 11 firearms, 7.15 kg in narcotics, one vehicle, and $100,000 in cash were confiscated.
The U.S. Marshal for the District of New Jersey, Juan Mattos states, “The U.S. Marshals Service is thankful for the relationships that we have with our city, county, state, and federal law enforcement partners that worked tirelessly in sweltering and scorching conditions to make ‘Operation Summer in the City’ a huge success. We heard the public’s pleas for help and their expressions of gratitude for making their neighborhoods safer as a result of these arrests. We listened to you loud and clearly, and we will continue pursuing these violent fugitives that are hiding in every corner of your city.”
New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal states, “Upon becoming Attorney General, I promised to make fighting violent crime a top priority, and this operation is part of delivering on that promise in a collaborative way. Law enforcement throughout New Jersey has a tremendous partner in the U.S. Marshals Service, and our strategy in ‘Operation Summer in the City’ was to conduct the type of operations that the U.S. Marshals conduct every day, but multiply our forces so we could blanket these four cities with deputy marshals and other law enforcement officers and target New Jersey’s most dangerous fugitives. This collaboration, including the tremendous work of our county prosecutors’ offices, who are prosecuting the overwhelming majority of these fugitives, is a great example of how we are working together to reduce and prevent violent crime in New Jersey. In fact, six-month data for 2018 shows a decline of 24 percent in shooting ‘hit’ victims in New Jersey compared to the same period in 2017, and a 23 percent decline in shooting murder victims, and I think that law enforcement is having a real impact in these declines by leveraging the great cooperative relationships we have fostered and sharing intelligence to address major causes of violence. Law enforcement agencies work best when they work together, and this sweep of gang members and violent offenders is an outstanding example.”
The U.S. Marshals Gang Enforcement Program is part of the Agency’s Organized Crime and Gangs Branch (OCAG). Through strategic fugitive investigations, the OCAG seeks to disrupt and destabilize criminal networks holistically, from the street level gangster to high-ranking leaders of the most notorious Transnational Criminal Organizations. In the state of New Jersey alone, the U.S. Marshals Service Gang and Regional Fugitive Task Forces have arrested 242 documented gang members from January through July of this year. In that same time frame, a total of 1,489 fugitives have been arrested by U.S. Marshals Task Forces in New Jersey and that number continues to grow, as each and every single day, some of the most violent offenders in the state are apprehended.
The full list of participating Law Enforcement agencies include:
United States Marshals
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
United States Postal Inspection Service
Homeland Security Investigations
ICE
U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey
NJ State Police Gangs and Organized Crime Unit, Fugitive Unit, and K-9
New Jersey Parole
New Jersey State Police
New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice
New Jersey Department of Corrections
Port Authority Police Department
Essex County Sheriff’s Office
Essex County Prosecutor’s Office
Hudson County Sheriff’s Office
Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office
Union County Sheriff’s Office
Mercer County Sheriff’s Office
Trenton Police Department
Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office
Mercer County Prosecutors Office
Burlington County Sheriff’s Office
Ocean County Sheriff’s Office
Camden County Sheriff’s Office
Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office
Camden County Prosecutor’s Office
Deptford Police Department
Camden County Metro Police Department
August 5,2018
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Atlantic City NJ, on August 1st , New Jersey State troopers from the Atlantic City Marine Services Station and an off-duty registered nurse performed life-saving first aid on a unresponsive man on board a sight-seeing vessel half a mile off the shore of Brigantine City.
At approximately 2:21 p.m., Staff Sergeant Jaime Ablett, Trooper II Dan Detullio, and Trooper II Bryan Davern responded to the report of an unresponsive man on a vessel half a mile off the shore of Brigantine City. Due to water conditions, the vessel did not stop in effort to get the victim back to shore quickly. As a result, troopers pulled along side it and jumped on the moving vessel.
Once on board, the troopers discovered that an off-duty registered nurse had begun chest compressions when the man collapsed and became unconscious. The troopers teamed up with the nurse to continue CPR and deployed an automated external defibrillator (AED). The victim regained a pulse and started to breathe.
The victim was escorted back to shore, where paramedics transported the victim to Atlantic Care Regional Medical Center.The troops acted swiftly to get on the vessel and get to victim. Their outstanding life-saving and courageous efforts undoubtedly helped save the victim’s life!
August 1,2018
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Ridgewood NJ, According to a story in Philly.com, New Jersey is one of the leading exporters of college students. The website quotes the National Center for Education Statistics in that, in 2016, 31,561 high school graduates left New Jersey for college, while only a mere 4,299 came to New Jersey from other states.
That flight is the largest net loss of students in the country. The New Jersey Business and Industry Association points out that New Jersey taxpayers pay an average of $20,000 per student per year for K-12 education, and, when students leave for college they often don’t come back.
Philly.com pointed out several possible reasons for the exodus for this: the lack of a major city to attract young people, the cost of higher education in New Jersey (the fourth most expensive in the nation), and the availability of many colleges in neighboring states. The problem has caught the attention of legislators, too; the commissioned a study to identify why only 45% of New Jersey students stay in state for college.
July 25,2018
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Jersey City NJ, Yesterday, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez met with officials from Jersey City to discuss last week’s memorandum issued by the city’s Chief Municipal Prosecutor purporting to decriminalize marijuana. During that meeting, the Attorney General made clear that Jersey City’s decriminalization memorandum was an improper exercise of a municipal prosecutor’s authority and reiterated that it was void.
The Attorney General also expressed his concern that Jersey City had acted without consulting state and county law enforcement officials before issuing the memorandum. He was particularly concerned that the rushed issuance of the memorandum – which placed officers in a position of enforcing valid laws that some may mistakenly believe had been rescinded – could undermine the community trust that law enforcement officers in Jersey City and elsewhere have worked so hard to build and could jeopardize officer safety.
At the conclusion of yesterday’s meeting, the Attorney General stated that he wanted to work with criminal justice stakeholders – including County Prosecutor Suarez and the Jersey City Chief Municipal Prosecutor – to clarify the scope and appropriate use of prosecutorial discretion in marijuana-related offenses in municipal court. The Attorney General decided to convene a working group that would study these issues and advise him on a statewide directive that he would issue in August and that would provide clarification about municipal prosecutors’ authority in these cases. He also agreed to ask that municipal prosecutors statewide adjourn all marijuana-related offenses in municipal court until September 4, 2018, in order to provide time to develop the guidance. During yesterday’s meeting, the Attorney General did not commit to the final outcome of the working group or the content of the forthcoming directive. The Attorney General also reiterated that municipal prosecutors do not have the authority to unilaterally decriminalize marijuana-related offenses.
This morning, the Office of the Mayor of Jersey City issued a press release that did not accurately describe yesterday’s meeting and made it appear as if the Attorney General had already agreed to the outcome of the working group and the content of the directive. The Mayor of Jersey City did not participate in yesterday’s meeting and the Attorney General regrets the inaccuracy of the city’s press statements. The Attorney General remains deeply committed to social justice issues and looks forward to working with other criminal justice stakeholders as the state examines over the coming month the appropriate scope of municipal prosecutors’ discretion in marijuana-related cases.
As with all policy initiatives he has spearheaded during his tenure, the Attorney General believes that the best way to develop progressive solutions is through a collaborative approach that involves multiple stakeholders across law enforcement, civil rights organizations, and community leaders. Later this week, the Attorney General will announce the names of those participating in the working group described today.
