A group of House Democrats in swing districts, including Rep. Mikie Sherrill, are urging President Joe Biden to back a targeted relief package to assist small businesses currently suffering from the recent surge in Omicron-variant transmission. Sherrill, as part of the Frontline Members of Congress, wrote to the President the need to provide aid as consumer demand for businesses centered on in-person gatherings, such as restaurants and live venues, has been greatly impacted by the Omicron cases while workforce shortages for these industries have been exacerbated as transmission and hospitalizations rose. Sherrill and her fellow Democrats said the nation could see a new wave of business closures in the coming months without additional, targeted assistance. “This time is no different, and we ask that additional funding be appropriated to save our small businesses,” they wrote. “Without additional assistance, however, small businesses will face a wave of closures and bankruptcies that could cripple our communities.” North-JerseyNews.com
Jersey City restaurant owners have serious concerns that new city fees to operate their businesses on the public sidewalk will set them back again as they struggle to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. An ordinance, withdrawn by the city last week, would have required restaurants to pay $3,650—or half of the cost of a full-year permit—to open a parklet from March 15 to Nov. 30. Jersey City Restaurant Association President Carmen Mendiola said restaurant owners expected to be assessed fees for the extra seating area outside their businesses but the permit fee and additional fees of more than $2,000 is “heavy handed.” The Jersey Journal
Walt Disney World and Disneyland along with Tyson Foods became the latest big businesses to loosen their mask requirements. Walt Disney World is dropping mask mandates for fully vaccinated visitors beginning Feb. 17. All patrons will continue to wear face coverings on transportation inside the center, according to a statement on the resort’s website, and those who are not fully vaccinated will still be required to wear masks in all indoor and outdoor areas of Disney World. In a separate announcement, the organizers of the outdoor music festivals Coachella and Stagecoach said they would not require attendees to be masked, vaccinated or tested for the coronavirus. The New York Times
Thousands of county and state corrections officers have until midnight tonight to show proof of full vaccination against COVID, and a booster shot, or risk losing their jobs. The New Jersey State Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit from the Policemen’s Benevolent Association earlier this week, upholding the ruling of an appeals court on Feb. 11 allowing the mandate imposed by Gov. Phil Murphy. A recently released report found only 40% of corrections officers were vaccinated. NJ1015.com
The state revealed “someone in the Governor’s Office” ordered a corruption investigation targeting a former high-ranking Health Department official who took New Jersey to court after he was fired at the height of the pandemic. A lawyer for Christopher Neuwirth, who served as assistant health commissioner for the Division of Public Health, Infrastructure, Laboratories and Emergency Preparedness before his termination from his high-profile job in May 2020, said that admission was allegedly retracted just after Gov. Phil Murphy’s former chief counsel, Matt Platkin, became acting attorney general this week. The accusation came in a new court filing with both the governor’s office and Neuwirth’s attorney declining comment. NJ.com
President Joe Biden is opposing an effort by former President Donald Trump to withhold information from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. In a letter to the National Archives, President Biden rejected Trump’s claims that the visitor logs were subject to executive privilege and that “in light of the urgency” of the committee’s work, the agency should provide the material to the committee within 15 days. The President had similarly decided last year not to support Trump’s claim of executive privilege over other batches of White House documents and records sought by the committee, a matter that Trump lost in federal court. The New York Times
Gov. Phil Murphy pledged his support to efforts being made by Trenton lawmakers to make prescription drugs more affordable. A suite of bills in both the State Senate and Assembly are intended to advance prescription drug affordability and price transparency by capping out-of-pocket costs for insulin, asthma inhalers, and EpiPens; allowing the state to join a multi-state purchasing pool to negotiate for more competitive Medicaid drug prices; and establishing oversight mechanisms of Pharmacy Benefit Managers while prohibiting certain business and pricing practices. “We have made strong strides over the past four years to put health care back within reach of many, but we must continue to find new ways to save consumers money on health care,” said Murphy. North-JerseyNews.com
A strong holiday shopping season appears to have given New Jersey another big fiscal boost. The latest revenue figures released by the state’s Department of Treasury indicate brisk consumer activity in December 2021 helped swell state sales-tax collections by nearly $190 million year-over-year. Total revenue collections for all of the state’s major tax sources increased over the first seven months of the fiscal year that began in July by more than $4 billion compared with the same period last year. NJ Spotlight News
Republicans appeared headed for a win in Maywood, where two candidates for borough council faced-off in a do-over election of a November 2021 race that ended in a tie. Former school board member Danyel Cicarelli leads incumbent Democrat Katherine Bennin by 63 votes, 585 to 522, a margin of 52.9% to 47.1%. Bennin won the mail-in ballots, 201 to 111, but Cicarelli, a public school teacher, took the machine vote by 153 votes. Vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by 8 PM Feb. 15 will be counted as long as they arrive at the Bergen County Board of Elections by close of business Feb. 21. New Jersey Globe
Remington Arms Co. will pay $73 million to families who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in a landmark settlement that could open the door to more lawsuits seeking to hold gun companies liable for mass shootings. The settlement is the largest of its kind and first since a federal law was enacted in 2005 providing gun makers with broad protection from liability in the unlawful use of their weapons. Gun manufacturers have paid settlements in the past 17 years to gun owners over alleged product defects, but not to victims of gun violence. The settlement will be evenly divided among nine families who lost loved ones in the 2012 shooting in Newtown, CT, that left 20 children and six staff members dead. The Wall Street Journal
The African American History Act was recently introduced by Sens. Cory Booker and Bob Menendez into the U.S. Senate. The lawmakers promoted the $10 million investment in the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) as providing resources to strengthen opportunities to educate the American public about the richness and complexity of African American history, the impacts racism, White supremacy, and the struggle for justice have had on the fabric of America. “The story of Black people in America is inextricably linked to the story of America,” said Booker. “This story must be reckoned with so that we can honestly reflect upon our nation’s past moral wrongs and the long and ongoing quest for justice that has been undertaken by Black Americans.” North-JerseyNews.com
The New Jersey Legislative Apportionment Commission concluded their first day of meetings Feb. 15 without any agreement on a new legislative map. Democrats and Republicans met with the court-appointed tiebreaker, former Judge Philip Carchman, numerous times as both sides presented maps to Carchman and received some feedback, but commissioners did not have a joint meeting between both parties. Carchman and the two sides will resume meetings on Wednesday morning. New Jersey Globe
A new bill offered by two Democratic State Senators would require counties to purchase voting machines that create a paper trail when older machines age out. The proposed legislation offered by State Sens. Linda Greenstein (D-14) and Jim Beach (D-6) would allow the New Jersey secretary of state to waive the requirement for machines used in an election before the bill’s effective date but bar the office from issuing such waivers for machines purchased or leased after. Paper records can serve multiple purposes, including allowing voters to review their slips to ensure their votes were recorded correctly as well as being used in election audits and recounts. New Jersey Monitor
The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission announced that they are moving the Springfield site to a bigger location later this month. This will be the last week to complete transactions at the 34 Center St. vehicle center before the doors close permanently on Feb. 19. This is so that when the new location at 271 Route 22 east opens on Monday, Feb. 28, it is fully equipped. The new spot, in the Springfield Plaza strip mall, will feature about 21% more space as well as 84 free parking spots and a new agency layout featuring more customer service windows for transactions and ID check windows. The Record
Randolph Board of Education members did not reverse their decision to eliminate one of two Rosh Hashanah days off despite ongoing pleas from the community for the third month in a row. Board members introduced a resolution to rescind the decision but failed to pass it. Students who decide to take Sept. 27 off will receive an excused absence. The Daily Record
The Fletcher Avenue Bridge, which crosses over multiple highways near the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, could be getting a major upgrade in 2026. The Fletcher Avenue Bridge on Route 9W, which crosses over Routes 95, 1, 9, 46 and 4, was built in 1930 and is deemed in poor condition as it was found to be functionally obsolete due to the substandard deck geometry and lateral and vertical clearances, according to the DOT after a recent bridge inspection. The Record
And finally…New Jersey saw nearly $144 million bet on this year’s Super Bowl, the second highest amount for a state in the nation. NJ.com
