Trenton NJ, Senator Joe Pennacchio today called the right to vote one of our most paramount rights, and once again criticized Governor Murphy’s governing by edict.
Murphy declared the July 7 primary, delayed from the original June 2 date, will “mostly be vote-by-mail.”
TRENTON NJ, Nearly 70,000 new unemployment claims were filed in New Jersey last week, as the Labor Department processed another 262,000 weeks worth of federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), and saw total pandemic-related payments rise to $2.7 billion.
The number of initial claims filed since mid-March approached 1.1 million, with more than 725,000 actively collecting state and federal PUA benefits. Data shows workers in casinos, retail, food service, restaurants and airlines hit the hardest by the pandemic.
Trenton NJ, The State of New Jersey and Katie Brennan today announced a settlement in the case of Katherine Brennan v. Albert J. Alvarez, et al. The State of New Jersey will implement key survivor-centric policy reforms, including allowing State employees who are alleged victims of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation to have an advisor or support person accompany the alleged victim when he or she is interviewed by an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action (EEO/AA) investigator. In addition, the amount of $600,000 will be paid, in full, to a charity designated by Ms. Brennan to improve the health and welfare of survivors of sexual assault. In settling the matter, the parties have made no admission of wrongdoing or liability with respect to the various claims among them.
Trenton NJ, Murphy’s state Treasury Department revealed on Wednesday it had lowered revenue projections by $10 billion through next year, including $2.8 billion shortfall in the current fiscal year and $7.3 billion in the next. Without a big influx of cash through borrowing or federal aid, the consequences for public workers are dire, he warned Thursday.
Senator Kristin Corrado issued the following statement following reports that New Jersey taxpayers will be on the hook for $1.35 million of settlement payments resulting from allegations of wrongdoing by the Murphy Administration.
As the adage goes, if something can go wrong, it will; and in the worst possible way and at the worst possible time. It will cause the most damage at the most expense.
If this isn’t a cause for New Jerseyans to stop and say “WTF?” nothing is; especially with the real Murphy and his made-up laws in place. Murphy and his law have no plan for economic recovery, besides begging the federal government for a bail out. If there is a plan, he hasn’t shared it.
Ridgewood NJ, Legislation establishing a new financing mechanism to enable local units to borrow money through the issuance of “coronavirus relief bonds,” was among numerous measures approved by the full Assembly 56-20-4 on Thursday to help mitigate the effects of the pandemic in the state.
The bill (A-3971) is sponsored by Assembly members Daniel Benson (D- Mercer, Middlesex), Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) and Wayne DeAngelo (D-Mercer, Middlesex).
Trenton NJ, The fifteen members of the Senate Republican caucus sent the following letter (click here for PDF) to Senate President Steve Sweeney calling for the formation of a Senate Select Committee on the Executive Branch’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Trenton NJ, Since Governor Murphy’s indefinite order to close New Jersey’s economy without any plan for re-opening it, the State has seen a record surge in unemployment claims. More than a million workers have applied for unemployment benefits in New Jersey, but hundreds of thousands of residents are still waiting, some as long as six weeks, for their checks. We’re past crisis point.
Say If Business Workers Can Serve Customers from Behind Protective Screens, So Can Public Sector Workers
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, As New Jersey’s unemployment crisis closes in on two months, Senator Michael Testa and Senator Michael Doherty called for Governor Murphy to reopen New Jersey’s One-Stop Career Centers and staff them with idle workers from other State departments.
“A functional unemployment office during an economic downtown is the the epitome of an essential public service, yet hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans continue to go without the unemployment benefits they’ve earned for weeks on end,” said Testa (R-1). “We are calling for an end to busy signals, broken websites, and unanswered emails from the Department of Labor.”
Trenton NJ, New Jersey State Senator Joe Pennacchio has obtained copies of both New Jersey and New York memoranda to long-term nursing facilities in their states. Both correspondences admonish the facilities to take in infected COVID-19 patients. New Jersey went so far as to prohibit even the testing of patients for COVID-19 entering long-term nursing facilities.
Trenton NJ, Senator Robert Singer (R-30) relayed a sad interaction he had yesterday on Mother’s Day that highlights the absurdity of current state lockdown orders:
Slams Star-Ledger’s Tom Moran for stunning lack of journalistic ethics
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Dr. Rik Mehta, GOP frontrunner for the U.S. Senate in New Jersey, released a video today where he called out Senator Cory Booker for his gross hypocrisy on the sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden and slammed Star-Ledger Editorial Page editor Tom Moran for what Mehta said was a “stunning lack of journalistic ethics.”
Ridgewood NJ, apparently the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights are still above his pay grade . In April New Jersey governor Phil Murphy said he “wasn’t thinking of the Bill of Rights” while implementing social-distancing measures — writing off any constitutional considerations as being “above [his] pay grade.”
Trenton NJ, Senator Joe Pennacchio has obtained a letter sent by the New Jersey Department of Health dated March 31 directing hospitals and nursing care facilities not to inhibit transfer of hospital patients with COVID-19 entering post-acute care settings such as long-term nursing and rehabilitations facilities.