A day after a Sussex County political consultant admitted his part in a conspiracy to kill a longtime associate, one of the men responsible for the actual murder plead guilty. U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced 61 year-old Bomani Africa of Philadelphia admitted his role in the April 2014 murder on Jan. 26, a day after the U.S. Department of Justice went public with the guilty plea from 44 year-old Sean Caddle of Hamburg in connection with the scheme. According to court documents and statements, Caddle solicited one of his conspirators to commit the murder in for thousands of dollars for a longtime political associate, reported to be Michael Galdieri, the son of the late former State Sen. James Galdieri who worked on former state Assemblyman Lou Manzo’s campaign as well as Bret Schundler’s 1993 campaign for Jersey City Mayor. North-JerseyNews.com
State Democratic Chair LeRoy Jones ousted former Senate President Steve Sweeney from his role on the commission that redraws state legislative district boundaries. Jones said in a letter to Secretary of State Tahesha Way that he replaced Sweeney with Laura Matos, a longtime Democratic operative from Belmar who’s an executive at the public relations firm Kivvit. Matos is Hispanic, and advocates had complained about the lack of a Hispanic member on the Democrats’ redistricting team. Sweeney said the decision to drop him from the commission is “not legal” and he has lawyers examining whether to challenge it in court. The move comes a month after reported tensions between congressional redistricting commission’s two South Jersey members and the rest of its Democratic delegation over their proposed map and strategy. PoliticoNJ
Senate Democrats say they plan to move swiftly to consider President Joe Biden’s nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Stephen G. Breyer. President Joe Biden pledged to make history during his 2020 campaign by seating the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, is considered a front-runner to succeed Justice Breyer and was confirmed in June 2021 that included three Republican votes—Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The New York Times
U.S. economic growth accelerated to a 6.9% annual rate in the fourth quarter but lost momentum because of Omicron and supply shortages. The Federal Reserve signaled on Jan. 26 it would press ahead with lifting interest rates this year, starting in March, to rein in inflation while hoping to keep the economy growing steadily. “The path of the economy continues to depend on the course of the virus,” the central bank said in a written statement. “Progress on vaccinations and an easing of supply constraints are expected to support continued gains in economic activity and employment as well as a reduction in inflation. Risks to the economic outlook remain, including from new variants of the virus.” The Wall Street Journal
U.S. workers’ wages increased 4.4% in the fourth quarter of 2020 — with wage growth for both job holders and job switchers hitting all-time highs of 5.9% and 8.0%, respectively, according to New Jersey-based ADP Research Institute’s Workforce Vitality Report. Employment growth year-over-year increased 5%, with all sectors experiencing employment growth. While leisure and hospitality led the way with a 17.7% increase, overall employment levels for the sector remain below their high-water mark prior to the pandemic. However, wage growth for job holders and job switchers was the strongest in industries including professional business services (12.2%) and information technology (12.2%). ROI-NJ.com
New Jersey’s pension fund added about $2.3 billion in the first half of the fiscal year, closing out 2021 with a market value of roughly $98 billion, according to a Division of Investment report. That amounted to a 3.66% gain on investments, less than what the fund expects to earn and more than three percentage points lower than its long-term assumed rate of return. It was a relatively meager gain when compared with the roughly $6.6 billion the fund added during the same period in fiscal year 2021. The pension fund’s 28.63% return that year remains one of the best on record. NJ Spotlight News
With a main driver of property taxes in New Jersey stemming from schools, a bill to establish a grant program for school districts to study regionalization became law Jan. 18. The bill establishes criteria for funding for these types of studies, and would bar any regionalization that would segregate students. Additionally, the bill would protect accrued tenure and seniority, and provide financial incentives for districts losing state aid due to declining enrollment connected to regionalization. “Taxpayers need relief, and this may be one way to deliver that relief. This law encourages school districts to study the benefits of regionalization, specifically countywide and K-12 regional districts,” said Assemblyman Ron Dancer (R-12). North-JerseyNews.com
The Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education adjourned its meeting Jan. 24 after 20 of its 32 minutes were spent debating whether audience members should wear masks. The issue was first raised by board President John Carolan in the opening moments of the meeting, when he asked audience members to put on masks due to it being “a state mandate. This is not our policy. We are not taking a stance on either side of this debate.” After a 10 minute recess and a majority of those in attendance not wearing a mask, the meeting was adjourned. The Record
New Jersey earmarked $700 million from the American Rescue Plan to help struggling childcare centers, but some of that money won’t be paid out until 2023, frustrating people in the industry who say they desperately need all the funds now. The Department of Human Services previously said there will be two installments paid for the Stabilization Grant, which is meant to help childcare providers with wages, benefits, insurance, rent, sanitizing and other expenses. The grants provide up to $120,000 for licensed child care providers and up to $4,000 for family childcare providers. “The industry is struggling now. There is no good in throwing a life preserver to someone who has already drowned,” said Guy Falzarano of Early Childhood Education Advocates (ECEA), the lobbying arm of the New Jersey Child Care Association and the owner of Lightbridge Academy, which owns 42 childcare centers in the state. NJ.com
State Sen. Joe Pennacchio (R-26) is pointing to a newly released study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make his case supporting the efficacy of natural immunity in people who have recovered from COVID. “The governor and his health commissioner are missing a crucial variable in their COVID spread equation,” said Pennacchio. “People who have survived the virus have a natural defense against future infections. It is the body’s way of protecting itself, and with the rampant rate of transmission we’ve seen in the past few weeks, there are many more residents walking around with powerful antibodies.” North-JerseyNews.com
Healthcare workers in about half the states face a Jan. 27 deadline to get their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine under a Biden Administration mandate that will be rolled out across the rest of the country in the coming weeks. The mandate affects a wide swath of the healthcare industry, covering doctors, nurses, technicians, aides and volunteers at hospitals, nursing homes, home-health agencies and other providers that participate in the federal Medicare or Medicaid programs. The mandate ultimately will cover 10.4 million health care workers at 76,000 facilities. News12 New Jersey
A new variant of omicron is spreading on at least four continents, but should not be a cause for panic, according to infectious disease specialists. Doctors assured the public that there are now many tools to combat the disease, and, like its cousin, omicron BA.2 is expected to remain relatively mild. “I don’t think it’s going to cause the degree of chaos and disruption, morbidity and mortality that BA.1 did,” said Dr. Jacob Lemieux, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “I’m cautiously optimistic that we’re going to continue to move to a better place and, hopefully, one where each new variant on the horizon isn’t news.” The Record
A bipartisan group of more than 200 lawmakers, spearheaded by Sen. Bob Menendez, is asking the federal government for relief on 2020 tax returns. As of late December, the IRS still had a 2020 backlog of six million individual tax returns, 2.3 million amended tax returns and another two million quarterly tax returns from employers. The relief is being sought as not only are some people whose returns have not been processed waiting for refunds, but the backlog can cost some taxpayers a lot of money in penalties and interest. NJ.com
A State Superior Court appellate panel upheld the Immigrant Trust Directive, a 2018 order limiting local police from sharing information with federal immigration authorities. Cape May County Sheriff Robert Nolan argued that then-state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal violated the federal government’s superseding authority on immigration matters. But the court found that because the order was issued to all agencies, it falls under intra-agency communication and is thus exempt from the typically required rule-making process. New Jersey Monitor
Morristown set up a cannabis advisory board shortly after it passed an ordinance to allow marijuana businesses within its borders. The five-member board includes the mayor, business administrator, chief of police, director of law and council designee. Officials said there is entrepreneurial interest in the town and are working on an application process. The board is responsible for reviewing business applications, but council members would be responsible for granting licenses and be responsible for oversight. The Daily Record
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter weather watch for 11 counties in New Jersey and cautioned that the forecast could change rapidly as the storm approaches. While some light snow could fall early Friday, the storm is expected to crank up Friday evening and bring as much as 8 to 12 of snow to counties along the Jersey Shore with lesser amounts in North Jersey as well as sub-zero wind chill values and wind gusts of more than 40 mph that could cause power outages. NJ.com
And finally…A Paterson female wrestler is Ivy League-bound. The Record
