The summary assessment from the National Governors Associations about COVID is that the U.S. is trending in the right direction, according to Gov. Phil Murphy. “The consensus is that we are on a road from a pandemic to an endemic,” said Murphy at a press briefing Feb. 2. “The overwhelming sentiment from both sides of the aisle was we want to get to a place where we live with this thing in as normal a fashion as possible…Everyone is struggling with the road forward in that pandemic to endemic (as) none of us want to overmanage it or by undermanaging it getting clocked out of left field which we are all trying to avoid.” North-JerseyNews.com
A group of North Jersey doctors and scientists want Gov. Phil Murphy to revisit the school mask mandate. In its report titled “Children, COVID and the urgency of normal,’ the group argues waiting until Summer is too late and recommends that universal masking in schools should come to an end by Feb. 15. The group’s report stated that it is critical for children’s psychosocial health that schools return to normal operations and make masks optional. The Daily Record
Asbury Park will lift its mask mandate effective Feb. 4. The mask mandate was put into effect in early January of this year due to the highly contagious omicron variant. While the mask mandate will be lifted, city officials are still recommending wearing a high-quality mask in areas of public gathering when social distancing isn’t possible. News12 New Jersey
U.S. Special Operations commandos killed the leader of the Islamic State in a pre-dawn raid in northwest Syria. President Joe Biden said in a statement that the terrorist leader, identified by ISIS as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was killed and died at the beginning of the operation when he exploded a bomb that killed him and members of his own family, including women and children. “Thanks to the skill and bravery of our armed forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi—the leader of ISIS,” the President said in a statement. “All Americans have returned safely from the operation.” The New York Times
The state comptroller said the state’s 15 worst nursing homes are costing Medicaid more than $100 million a year and should be kicked out of the program if they don’t fix what’s wrong and provide better care. In a report issued Feb. 2, the state agency said 15 “one-star” ranked nursing homes have failed to improve for years but have not faced any significant consequences. The state has launched a digital data dashboard that allows the public to track New Jersey nursing homes—along with other long-term care facilities such rehabilitation centers—that are repeatedly rated one-star and receive Medicaid funds. NJ Spotlight News
The latest COVID-19 surge resulted in 93% of restaurants in the Garden State seeing a decline in customer demand for indoor, on-site dining. Additionally, 30% of New Jersey restaurants closed on days they normally would be open for business and 80% of restaurant operators “report that business conditions are worse now than three months ago.” The New Jersey Restaurant & Hospitality Association is lobbying Congress to add funding to the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which the federal American Rescue Plan Act established as a lifeline for struggling restaurants. North-JerseyNews.com
Private sector employment decreased by 301,000 jobs from December 2021 to January due to the effect of the Omicron variant, according to New Jersey-based payroll and human resources firm ADP. “The majority of industry sectors experienced job loss, marking the most recent decline since December 2020. Leisure and hospitality saw the largest setback after substantial gains in fourth quarter 2021, while small businesses were hit hardest by losses, erasing most of the job gains made in December 2021,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. ROI-NJ
Gov. Phil Murphy is expected to announce the nomination of Matthew J. Platkin, his former chief counsel and a close confidante, to serve as the next Attorney General on Feb. 3. Platkin will succeed Andrew Bruck, who became Acting Attorney General last July after Gurbir Grewal resigned to join the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. If confirmed by the State Senate, he would become the state’s 56th Attorney General and serve a term that would expire on January 20, 2026. New Jersey Globe
Sen. Bob Menendez criticized the Biden Administration for deporting Venezuelan immigrants entering the U.S. in search of asylum, calling it “extremely disturbing” and “unconscionable.” President Joe Biden has continued to follow former President Donald Trump’s policy of using Title 42, part of the 1944 Public Health Services Law, to prevent immigrants from coming to the U.S. and seeking asylum during a public health emergency, such as the coronavirus pandemic. “By continuing to use a page from Trump’s immigration enforcement playbook, this administration is turning its back on the immigrants who need our protection the most,” Menendez said. “Under Maduro’s cruel regime, Venezuelans who are sent back face a grim future and, in many cases, harsh consequences for seeking political asylum in the United States.” NJ.com
New Jersey is on track to receive more than $641 million as part of a nationwide opioid settlement agreement with Johnson & Johnson and the country’s three largest pharmaceutical distributors. Every one of New Jersey’s counties and municipalities that are eligible to join the $26 billion settlement have signed on, which is significant because it paves the way for the state to collect the maximum amount, according to acting Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck. The agreement with New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson and three pharmaceutical distributors—McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen—would resolve claims involving their roles in the country’s opioid crisis. The settlement money will be used to fund addiction prevention, treatment and recovery programs in the future. New Jersey Herald
Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward and her husband Michael filed a federal lawsuit challenging a subpoena from the Jan. 6 House select committee. The subpoena sought phone records from Nov. 1, 2020, through Jan. 31, 2021 as both Wards were among the Arizona Republicans who signed a bogus document claiming that Donald Trump won the state in the 2020 election. The Wards’ suit asks the court to block their phone company from delivering those records to the committee because it is “unrelated to the enabling resolution of the issuing Committee” and doesn’t make a clear connection between the records and potential legislation. New Jersey Monitor
Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law a bill that would reduce police presence on election day. The bill would protect voters from intimidation through the use of “poll watchers” and law enforcement officers, who would be prohibited from remaining or standing within 100 feet of a polling place or ballot dropbox unless voting in a personal capacity or travel to, from, or remaining within their voting residence. “A voter’s right to cast their ballot is a constitutional right that should remain unencumbered, and unthreatened,” said bill co-sponsor Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly (D-35). “Voter intimidation and suppression come in many forms and can happen anywhere. We’ve seen this done before right here in New Jersey. This new law makes it clear that there’s no place for these tactics here, in this general election or future elections.” North-JerseyNews.com
New Jerseyans will soon get to see proposed state legislative district maps from Democrats and Republicans. Former Judge Philip Carchman, chair of the state legislative redistricting commission, said the maps will be posted online Feb. 7 with each match unlabeled in order to “eliminate any bias that could be attached to a partisan designation. I do not expect these maps to be the final maps but hope that they prompt public comment, recommended changes and discussion.” PoliticoNJ
Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James has taken out nominating petitions to run for an at-large city council seat in the May non-partisan elections. The 85-year-old James, who served 18 months in federal prison after his conviction on criminal charges, may run as his son, John Sharpe James, is expected to announce that he will not seek re-election to his South Ward seat on the Newark City Council. It’s still not immediately clear whether the elder James is eligible to run for council as Superior Court Judge Linda R. Feinberg said that James could never again hold public office when he was sentenced in 2008. “Sharpe James is forever disqualified from holding any office or position of honor, trust or profit,” Feinberg wrote in her order. New Jersey Globe
Bayonne’s Second Ward City Councilman Sal Gullace announced on Feb. 2 he will not seek re-election. The move comes after Mayor James Davis told Gullace he would not be on his council slate in the upcoming May 10 municipal election, although Gullace successfully ran with Davis in 2014 and 2018. “I originally pulled my petitions to run for re-election under the impression I was still with the Davis team,” Gullace said. “After finding out I was replaced and knowing how very difficult and physical campaigning is I have decided not to run for re-election. This was a difficult decision.” Hudson Reporter
Hoboken Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher has filed a lawsuit against the city to strike down the campaign finance law that she says was illegally approved in December 2021. The suit, filed in Hudson County Superior Court, asks that the court to “nullify and void” the ordinance, which would remove the $500 limit on campaign contributions from unions to candidates for elected office in the city and follow the state guideline of $7,200 per candidate. Fisher argued that under the law, the ordinance was amended so significantly prior to the second reading and final vote that the amended version should have gone back for a new first reading. The Jersey Journal
A group of Englewood Cliffs residents and officials are asking a judge to prevent the borough from continuing to pay a law firm that has amassed nearly $1 million in legal billings related to affordable housing. That suit accuses Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac and Councilmen Timothy Koutroubas, Mark Park and Ramon Ferro of violating a state statute by hiring and paying for New York-based Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft to handle affordable housing litigation for Englewood Cliffs. The firm was originally hired in July 2021 for an amount not to exceed $100,000. Since then, Cadwalader has billed the borough for close to $1 million at an hourly rate of over $1,000 an hour. The Record
The State Supreme Court rejected Jersey City’s second attempt to have it hear the city’s appeal that ordered members of Local 245 be paid double-time per hour in March 2018 when the state was socked by a powerful nor’easter. Under the terms of the contract, Jersey City agreed to pay employees double-time during any period in which the state is under a state of emergency. The decision may have far-reaching financial consequences for the city, since these same employees have been working under the state’s declared state of emergency since March 2020, when the pandemic started. The Jersey Journal
And finally…A dangerous coating of ice and snow could make driving treacherous Friday morning. NJ.com
While children may be less susceptible to dying or becoming critically ill, they are not immune from such outcomes, nor do they have any reduction in risk of long COVID. That said, masking children and keeping the spread down is necessary, not only for the children, but for their families and other often vulnerable members of our communities. Children remain a very significant, if not the most significant vector for transmission. And more often than not, it is children who are infecting their elderly grandparents, who then die from COVID. 9 times out of 10, however, parents won’t admit that it was their children who caused grandma or grandpa’s death, even though it is often the case that families cannot attend funerals of their elderly relatives because they are infected with COVID.