Washington DC, President Trump’s re-election campaign today filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania alleging the creation and implementation of an illegal “two-tiered” voting system for the 2020 General Election. Pennsylvania’s “two-track” system resulted in voters being held to different standards depending on how they chose to exercise their right to vote. In-person voters had to sign voter registrations, have those signatures checked against voter rolls, vote in a polling place monitored by statutorily-authorized poll observers, and have their votes counted in a transparent and verifiable open and observed manner.
Ridgewood NJ, according to the American Meteor Society , the AMS received over 280 reports so far about a fireball event that occurred over Connecticut and New York on November 8th, 2020 around 19:22 EST (November 9th, 02:22 Universal Time). The so called AMS #2020-5441 event was mainly seen from Connecticut and New York but we also received reports from Massachusetts, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Québec.
Trenton NJ, Governor Murphy today advised individuals traveling to New Jersey from additional states with significant community spread of COVID-19 to quarantine for a 14-day period from the time of last contact within the identified state. The updated advisory includes 10 additional states – Alaska, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Virginia, and Washington – with Minnesota removed from the list. The travel advisory applies to any person arriving from a state with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents or a state with a 10 percent or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.
Trenton NJ, With New Jersey’s legislature weighing new tax hikes during budget season, the New Jersey Business & Industry Association released an analysis today that finds the Garden State already ranked last in the region for business climate competitiveness.
“This analysis should serve as an opportunity to reclaim our competitiveness and to improve the state’s economy through comprehensive planning, not excessive taxation,” said NJBIA President and CEO Michele Siekerka. “There is no better time than now to recognize the growing challenges of doing business in New Jersey and our competitive disadvantage with neighboring states.”
NJBIA tracked six individual business costs—minimum wage rate, top income tax rate, top corporate tax rate, sales tax rate, property taxes as a percentage of home value, and the top unemployment tax rate – and compared New Jersey’s rates with those of Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania.
Applying a scoring system to the most and least competitive regional rates, New Jersey finished last of the seven states by a considerable margin.
New Jersey currently ranks last out of all states in the region in top income tax rate (8.97 percent), sales tax rate (6.625 percent) and property tax paid as a percentage of home value (2.16 percent). New Jersey is also sixth out of seven states in top corporate tax rate (9 percent). The Garden State has the third lowest minimum wage rate in the region at $8.60 per hour and, more positively, has the lowest top unemployment tax rate in the region of 5.8 percent.
However, it’s foreseeable that New Jersey’s overall regional business climate could further decline with discussions of a minimum wage increase to $15 per hour, proposals to raise the top income tax rate for those making more than $1 million, and consideration of a Corporate Business Tax increase. These are in addition to the added costs brought on by the mandatory paid sick leave bill signed into law and the proposed sales tax increase to 7 percent.
“It’s important to recognize that New Jersey businesses are already paying their fair share when it comes to tax rates and the additional cumulative costs that are being discussed and proposed could result in stagnation of our businesses, reduced staffing and hours or automation, according to our members,” Siekerka said. “We need tax and regulatory reform to address structural deficits in our economy, such as public pension and health benefits costs, and school funding. We cannot tax our way out of these challenges.”
Using data compiled by NJBIA policy analyst Nicole Sandelier, NJBIA scored the regional rates from 1 (most competitive in the region) to 7 (least competitive). New Jersey’s cumulative regional business climate score was 31 after totaling the six rates. Delaware has the best regional score at 17, followed closely by Maryland at 20. Pennsylvania (23) and New York (24), New Jersey’s largest outmigration states, finished third and fourth, respectively.
Ridgewood NJ, yes that was an earthquake you felt . An earthquake in Delaware was felt as far as North Jersey today. The United States Geological Survey reports that a 4.1 magnitude earthquake was detected northeast of Dover around 4:47 p.m. Thursday. That earthquake was about 8 kilometers deep.
“WTF was that? Was that an earthquake” a reader responded to the slight shaking and readers from New York City, all over Bergen county and as far south as Philadelphia reported a little shaking going on. Many Ridgewood residents reported feeling it.
Emergency officials have not said if there was any damage or injuries because of the earthquake. Originally the earthquake was reported as 4.4 magnitude, but the USGS later downgraded it .
New 12 reports that Today’s earthquake is reminiscent of the 2011 earthquake in Virginia. The 5.8 magnitude earthquake was felt across over a dozen states, including New Jersey, and parts of Canada.
Ridgewood NJ, Donald Trump moved another step closer to the Republican nomination , by sweeping 5 North East States in massive landslide victories .For the Cruz camp it was the end of the road , Ted Cruz is now mathematically eliminated . Trump won decisively in all 5 states getting a 50 plus % majority in every state and over 60% in Rhode Island and Delaware. After winning all five primaries tonight; Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania Donald Trump now has 949 delegates . The magic number is 1,237 delegates and there are still 651 available.
![Earthquake00[1]](https://theridgewoodblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Earthquake001.jpg "Earthquake felt in North Jersey")
