Gov. Phil Murphy, like most politicians, loves a parade. And he believes municipalities around the Garden State should proceed with them this year, starting with St. Patrick’s Day celebrations next month. “There’s no reason to cancel,” Murphy said when asked about the parades at his weekly press conference Feb. 7 when he announced the school mask mandate would be lifted in March. “We should go ahead—be responsible, be smart particularly when you are indoors.” North-JerseyNews.com
The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is standing by the agency’s mask guidelines, despite the positive trends and a growing number of states—including New Jersey—ending their mask mandates. CDC’s Dr. Rochelle Walensky emphasized that now is not the time to change the recommendations or loosen restrictions aimed at preventing COVID-19 as hospitalizations nationwide are still higher than they were at the peak of the delta variant. News12 New Jersey
The lifting of the school mask mandate was not a political response, said Gov. Phil Murphy a day after making the announcement. During a television interview, Murphy said “we felt with a four-week runway, based on our dropping in cases, hospitalizations, in-school transmission, increasing in vaccinations, God willing the under-5 kids being eligible sooner than later a little bit warmer weather a month from now — that combination has allowed us to take this step. We’re constantly trying to meet the moment, not undershoot it, not overshoot it. Easier said than done, but we think this gets us in the right place.” NJ.com
A New Jersey appellate panel heard arguments Feb. 8 on a challenge to Gov. Phil Murphy’s recent executive order mandating vaccines for state and county correctional officers. Officers’ unions called the mandate “government overreach” that will cause unvaccinated officers irreparable harm by requiring them to get jabbed or lose their jobs, while the state insisted the requirement is a life-saving necessity to stop the virus’ out-of-control spread behind bars. The three Superior Court judges did not make a decision after the two-hour hearing in Trenton but promised to act soon. New Jersey Monitor
New Jersey will not have to ask an estimated 250,000 workers to repay pandemic-related unemployment benefits they received but were not eligible for after the U.S. Department of Labor updated guidance on Feb. 7 that allows states to waive overpayments in specific situations. The state Department of Labor said it is “working through the details of the updated guidance and will notify claimants eligible for the overpayment waivers of their next steps.” The average amount New Jerseyans were overpaid was about $4,400. The Daily Record
A report by an Amtrak watchdog agency warned the railroad needs to put specific procedures in place to bring the entire $30 billion Gateway Project in within budget and on time to avoid problems that resulted in other projects. Amtrak’s Office of the Inspector General raised several concerns and made recommendations in a report to be implemented by June, including creating a Gateway Program Management plan to guide the Gateway team on how the project will be developed and executed; assess resources to ensure it has the necessary staff to do the work; better internal communication protocols and use standardized reports to collect, generate and distribute Gateway information; and create a risk management process and assessment for Gateway. NJ.com
Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and former Reps. Leonard Lance and Rodney Frelinghuysen were signatories on a letter slamming the Republican National Committee for censuring Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for investigating the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. “The Republican National Committee made clear that it would rather be the ‘Big Lie’ party than the ‘Big Tent’ party by condemning two principled elected leaders while condoning conspiracies, lies, and violent insurrection,” the GOP leaders said in a letter organized by the Renew America Movement, head by former U.S. Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor who was the anonymous author of the 2018 New York Times essay, “I am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” New Jersey Globe
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) pushed back hard on Feb. 8 against the Republican Party’s censure of Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and its characterization of the Jan. 6 riot as “legitimate political discourse.” McConnell repudiated that description, saying the events at the Capitol were “a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election, from one administration to the next. That’s what it was.” The New York Times
The House passed legislation designed to keep the U.S. Postal Service financially viable, sending the measure to the U.S. Senate where it has broad support. The measure, passed the House by a 342-92 vote, would void a provision in a 2006 law that required the Postal Service to prefund its retiree health benefits, mandate postal workers to enroll in Medicare when they reach 65 years old, require that the postal service continue to deliver mail six days a week and maintain greater financial transparency. The Wall Street Journal
North Jersey House lawmakers highlighted their contributions to a recently passed bipartisan bill focused on addressing the supply chain crisis in America. Among other provisions, the America COMPETES Act establishes a new Office of Manufacturing Security and Resilience responsible for implementing a $46 billion program to map and monitor supply chain vulnerabilities, provide financial assistance to strengthen supply chains and domestic manufacturing, and equip the private sector with the tools and best practices needed to address supply chain weaknesses before they become full blown crisis. “This bipartisan legislation will help us restock our shelves and bring inflation under control today, while putting America on the strong footing we need to win in the 21st Century,” said bill co-sponsor Rep. Tom Malinowski. North-JerseyNews.com
Gov. Phil Murphy’s formal presentation of an annual budget will likely be held in-person before lawmakers in Trenton next month after the coronavirus pandemic forced him to change course for the last two budget addresses. The Murphy Administration push to delay the timing of the budget address to March 8 from Feb. 22 to allow for an in-person event comes amid a major statewide slowdown in new COVID-19 cases and in hospitalizations that is projected to continue in the weeks ahead. To help clear the way for the in-person budget message, Murphy needs lawmakers to relax a statutory deadline, and bills have already been introduced in both houses of the Legislature to do so. NJ Spotlight News
A handful of New Jersey’s urban mayors gathered with state lawmakers in Paterson to endorse a bill to jail those arrested on gun charges without bail until their cases can be heard in court. Advocates say the changes would fix a perceived flaw in the state’s landmark 2017 bail reform law, which dismantled an antiquated cash bail system that reformers said unfairly punished low-income people of color who could not afford bail. But the law has also led to the relatively quick release of many people charged with low-level offenses, including gun possession. City and state officials have pointed to this as contributing to New Jersey’s spike in gun killings over the past three years. The Record
New Jersey’s active military members and veterans will have new protections after Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law a series of four bills designed to protect this population. The legislation will expand and enhance civil service preference for veterans, increase penalties for those who misrepresent themselves as veterans, make it easier for children of military members to enroll in New Jersey’s public schools, and appropriate up to $500,000 from the General Fund to the Department of Military And Veterans Affairs for the USS New Jersey Commissioning Committee. North-JerseyNews.com
The New Jersey Apportionment Commission that is redrawing the state’s 40 legislative districts has added another public hearing for Feb. 11 after nearly 150 people signed up to speak on maps proposed by both parties on Monday. The panel has pushed up the start time of Feb. 9 hearing by two hours, to 4 PM from 6 PM to accommodate what they called an “overwhelming number of registrations.” An “overflow session” is now set for 10 AM on Friday. New Jersey Globe
A Morris County town is challenging the tax-free status of congressional candidate Phil Rizzo’s home. Rizzo in 2017 sold his Harding Township home to his City Baptist Church in Hudson County, of which he was president and sole pastor. But Rizzo, who ran for the Republican nomination for governor in 2021 and is now running for Congress in the 7th District Republican primary, announced last year that he was taking a potentially permanent leave of absence as pastor. His church, which operated out of a small Hudson County storefront, has since closed due to damage from Hurricane Ida. PoliticoNJ
Hudson County Sheriff Frank Schillari will receive a nearly 12% raise under a resolution being considered by the Hudson County Board of Commissioners. The sheriff, who first won election in 2011, would be earning $161,767 annually, an increase of more than $18,000 from his current salary of $143,000. The resolution, expected to be voted on at the next regular meeting of the commissioners Feb. 15, would take effect immediately and bring the salary in the middle range of sheriffs’ salaries in New Jersey. The Jersey Journal
Hoboken will replace approximately 4,800 linear feet of water mains on the city’s west side as part of the next phase of its Water Main Replacement Project. The project, which launched in 2018 and finished it’s first phase in 2020, aims to upgrade the city’s water infrastructure, with 13,000 linear feet of water mains being installed since then. The newest phase of the project is scheduled to begin this year, which will include new water mains, service lines, curb to curb resurfacing, and “complete” street improvements for 11 of the city’s blocks. Hudson Reporter
And finally…Robert “Bob” Mulcahy, the former Rutgers athletic director, Mendham mayor and chief executive officer of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, died Feb. 7 at the age of 85. NJ.com
