New Jerseyans and Garden State visitors who are 21 and older can legally purchase marijuana in New Jersey as of today, but they may have to wait in long lines to get their weed. Five of those dispensaries are in North Jersey—Bloomfield, Maplewood, Paterson, Phillipsburg and Rochelle Park. “We expect 13 locations for the entire state will make for extremely busy stores,” said Jeff Brown, executive director of the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission. “We encourage everyone to be safe – buy only from licensed dispensaries and start low and go slow. Remember that the laws against impaired driving apply to being high.” North-JerseyNews.com
Jersey City plans to ignore the state attorney general’s guidance that police officers are allowed to use cannabis while off duty. Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop tweeted April 20 that police leadership will issue a directive informing the city’s roughly 1,000 officers that they cannot use cannabis, whether on or off duty. “NJ’s policies allowing law enforcement to smoke is an outlier nationally and one that will put our officers + community at risk with impaired judgment,” Fulop wrote. “Unlike alcohol where there are tests + timelines that can create clear protection between consumption + duty, w/marijuana that doesn’t exist.” PoliticoNJ
Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis said cops in their departments can’t partake in legal marijuana as well. “As a retired police officer myself, I know that sworn law enforcement officers must be held to a higher standard and I believe that allowing marijuana use by off-duty personnel would lead to lawsuits that would endanger both taxpayers and public safety by making it harder to win criminal convictions,” Davis said in a statement released April 20. New Jersey Globe
State Sen. Vin Gopal (D-11) plans to introduce legislation to mandate parents and guardians are provided the opportunity to review any educational material on health and sex education, allowed to meet with local school officials to get any questions answered, and given the option to opt-out if they would rather teach health and sex education to their children instead of having the school district do it. “This bill will bring full transparency to our health and sex education curriculums in our 600-plus school districts by stopping the politically-coordinated misinformation campaign,” said Gopal, chair of the State Senate Education Committee, who added the legislation will further empower “parents by ensuring that their children are offered the opportunity for a comprehensive education, which is what an overwhelming majority of parents want and are entitled to as part of a quality education.” North-JerseyNews.com
The Republican-led Florida Senate passed a bill April 20 that would eliminate a special tax district for the Walt Disney Co. after the company opposed legislation restricting classroom instruction on gender and sexuality. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who called for lawmakers to consider such a bill in a special session he convened this week, has made clear he would sign it if it passes the state’s House. DeSantis and GOP lawmakers have clashed with Disney over the company’s opposition to the recently signed Parental Rights in Education law, which critics call the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, that prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity through grade three, and limits it for older students to material that is “age-appropriate.” The Wall Street Journal
A complaint was filed with the Federal Communications Commission against Republican congressional candidate Phil Rizzo for an after hours robocall. A resident of the 11th Congressional District received the call at 12:14 a.m. that was described as transphobic and offered a message attacking the front-runner in the race, former Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. New Jersey Globe
Local 713 of the International Brotherhood of Trade Unions has withdrawn its petition to have a union election at the Amazon warehouse in Bayonne. Steve Kern, the union’s lawyer, confirmed that it withdrew the petition, but said he had no other comment other than he hadn’t had time to discuss it with union leadership. The National Labor Relations Board confirmed that 30% of the 200-person bargaining unit, or 60 people, had signed cards supporting an election. The Jersey Journal
President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces on April 21 not to storm a steel plant where Ukrainian troops were holding out in Mariupol, but to blockade it completely. The Russian leader, who called a direct assault “impractical,” claimed victory in the besieged city even as Russian forces have been unable to subdue the remaining Ukrainians, who have given no indication they were ready to surrender. Meanwhile, Putin took the provocative step of test-launching a new intercontinental ballistic missile, declaring it a warning that Western nations should “think twice” before they “try to threaten our country.” The New York Times
The Biden Administration on April 20 appealed a federal court ruling striking down the mask requirement for passengers on planes, trains, buses and other public transportation after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that the mandate was “necessary” to protect the public from the spread of the coronavirus. Besides the CDC wanting to keep the mandate intact, it is pressing the appeal to preserve its public health powers. The New York Times
A majority of Americans continue to support a mask requirement for people traveling on airplanes and other shared transportation, according to an The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Survey results found 56% of Americans favor requiring people on mass transit to wear masks, compared with 24% opposed and 20% who say they’re neither in favor nor opposed in a poll conducted after a federal judge ruled against a mask mandate. News12 New Jersey
Moderna has developed a combination of the initial COVID vaccine and the new omicron shot. The company hopes to offer updated COVID-19 boosters in the Fall that combine its original vaccine with protection against the omicron variant. While the antibody increase was modest, Moderna’s goal is to produce a combination shot that specifically targets omicron. “These results really give us hope” that the next step will work even better, said Dr. Jacqueline Miller, a Moderna vice president. NJ.com
The state Department of Environmental Protection announced a new $10 million grant program to combat pollution. Resuming the battle against harmful algae blooms that have closed New Jersey lakes in recent years, the lakes management grants program will fund projects to mitigate stormwater and runoff that can flow fertilizers and pollutants into the lakes. New Jersey Herald
Two classes of New Jersey State Police troopers will commence in fiscal year 2023 to help bolster the ranks of the State Police, partly funded by the American Rescue Plan. The move comes as Democrats look to knock down attempts to call for defunding the police in their own party. In New Jersey, that state has encountered a surge in violent crime over the last two years that includes gun violence soaring and crimes such as auto theft rising to levels previously not seen in the state. “Given the stress that’s related to the pandemic, we’ve seen—whether it’s car thefts or acts of violence of some other sort—we’ve seen that we can’t be standing still here,” Gov. Phil Murphy said. “We’ve got to get bigger, stronger, more diverse. This is going to be a huge step in that direction….We are going to make sure that not only are they properly funded but properly maintained.” North-JerseyNews.com
A slate of candidates backed by the Mayor Ras Baraka appeared to sweep Newark’s school elections on April 19 as voters approved a $1.2 billion school budget that raises spending but holds down taxes as well. Newcomer Crystal Williams was the election’s top vote-getter, with 2,600 votes; trailed by incumbent running mates A’Dorian Murray-Thomas, with 2,559; and Daniel Gonzalez, with 2,475, according to county numbers. The nearest competitor was Thomas Luna, with 1,087 votes. According to the latest totals, votes to approve the district’s $1.2 billion 2022-23 school budget outpaced no votes by 2,792 to 417. NJ.com
Unofficial tallies for three April school board elections in Bergen County show that Cliffside Park and Fairview residents voted to pass their budgets, but Oakland rejected theirs. Unofficial results show that the Oakland school board’s $31.7 million budget did not pass, receiving 244 votes in favor and 306 against. The unofficial tallies included mail-in, provisional and early voting. Vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by Election Day and received at the Bergen County Board of Elections by the sixth day after the election are considered valid. The Record
The voters of Fredon and Montague selected four newcomers to sit on their boards of education as Montague’s voters approved the district’s spending plan, Fredon’s did not. Heather Bischoff earned the lone open seat on the Fredon board while Michael Zernhelt, Tasha DeGeorge and Andree Campbell won election to the Montague board. Fredon voters also rejected a ballot question that would have authorized the Township Committee to adopt a municipal budget that included services for regular trash and recycling collection, which would have increased the tax levy over the allowable 2% spending cap. New Jersey Herald
The incumbent slate of three West New York Board of Education trustees were re-elected by nearly a 4 to 1 margin. Jonathan Castaneda, Ana Sanchez, and Douglas Velasquez defeated a challenge from a slate consisting of Dorinne Auriemma, Vipul Parekh, and Jose Valdez. West New York and Weehawken voters approved their school budget but those casting a “no” vote in North Bergen defeated that board’s proposed budget. Hudson Reporter
And finally…New Jersey’s 1st Amazon Fresh grocery store to open in Paramus this Summer. NJ.com
