North Jersey lawmakers are leading the call to prohibit police officers from using cannabis-based products. Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop wrote that the Jersey City Police Department leadership would issue a directive to the city’s police officers that no matter if off or on duty, smoking marijuana will not be permitted and will result in termination. And State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-36) said he would push for legislation that would close the loophole when it comes to marijuana use by police officers. The issue arose after Acting Attorney General Matt Platkin wrote that off-duty police officers in New Jersey are permitted to consume cannabis products and should not face discipline for doing so under the state’s legal marijuana law. North-JerseyNews.com
Lines were out the door as North Jersey residents purchased legalized recreational marijuana for the first time in the Garden State April 21. The New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission had warned supplies could sell out, but that was not the case. There were “no significant supply shortages” according to a statement from the NJ-CRC, despite sales that were described as “robust….while lines were long in some locations, the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission has had to investigate only a few minor complaints.” NJ1015.com
A Stockton University poll found 56% of New Jerseyans would support recreational marijuana dispensaries setting up shop in their towns while 36% of respondents said they were opposed, and 8% were unsure. A slightly lower percentage of respondents, 50%, said they wanted the state’s hospitality and tourism industry to promote weed sales and create marijuana-related attractions. As a number of local officials have worked to slow down the process in their towns, 27% of respondents considered such delays unacceptable, while 22% said they were reasonable and 50% had no opinion. New Jersey Globe
On April 15, congressional candidates gave their first full picture of how much funding they have on hand this year. The candidates in the six districts have a total of $28.6 million cash on hand after a review of federal filings for the first three months of 2022. The power of incumbency can be clearly seen as $24.2 million of that money belongs to Congressional candidates running for re-election and the challenger with the most money is the son of a popular governor as well as the former ranking Republican in the State Senate. North-JerseyNews.com
Democrats are pressing President Joe Biden and Congressional leaders to take quick action when lawmakers return to work next week, as they hope even modest policy moves can help temper expected Republican gains in the midterm elections. Lawmakers are pushing leaders on issues ranging from student-loan forgiveness to lowering the cost of prescription drugs, steps they argue can shore up households shaken by rising inflation and economic uncertainty that Republicans have blamed on President Biden. Centrist Democrats say the focus should be on passing bipartisan legislation that can be signed into law, such as a bill designed to help the U.S. compete with China. “My hope is that we will really be thoughtful between now and the [next] Congress and put forward bills that have a path in the Senate,” said Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA). The Wall Street Journal
Despite denials, an audio clip recorded House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) telling his fellow Republicans he would ask then President Donald Trump to resign after the failed insurrection attempt Jan. 6. McCarthy and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told associates they believed President Trump was responsible for inciting the deadly riot and vowed to drive him from politics. In an audio clip, McCarthy said he would tell Trump of the likelihood of the House passing an impeachment resolution and “it would be my recommendation you should resign.” The New York Times
The European Union is nearing a legislative deal forcing Facebook, YouTube and other internet services to combat misinformation, disclose how their services amplify divisive content and stop targeting online ads based on a person’s ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. The law, called the Digital Services Act, is intended to address social media’s societal harms by requiring companies to more aggressively police their platforms for illicit content or risk billions of dollars in fines. Tech companies would be compelled to set up new policies and procedures to remove flagged hate speech, terrorist propaganda and other material defined as illegal by countries within the European Union. The New York Times
Gov. Phil Murphy has left New Jersey for a six-day trip to Europe. Murphy is spending two days in Paris in what his office said would be “personal travel” and some unspecified meetings with French companies, before embarking for four days on a trade visit to Ireland. The governor is slated to stop in both Dublin and Cork in an effort to strengthen economic and cultural ties between New Jersey and the country, including encouraging Irish companies to invest in the Garden State. NJ.com
New Jersey’s hotels are expected to see $897 million less in revenue from business travel this year than in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic. Hotels in the state are forecast to make $1.57 billion in 2022, down 36.3% from 2019, from business travel—which includes hotel stays for corporate events such as conferences and trade shows—according to a report by the American Hotel & Lodging Association. New Jersey’s projected hotel revenue losses put it in the 10 hardest-hit states in the country. The Daily Record
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week bumped Bergen County up into the “yellow” zone—meaning it has moderate community levels of COVID—as a result of the escalation in cases, said Dr. Edward Lifshitz, medical director of the state Health Department’s communicable disease division. Despite the designation, “hospitals are not at any risk from being overwhelmed” by a surge in COVID patients, according to Lifshitz. Recent holiday gatherings, a rebound in travel and an overall decline in mask-wearing were cited for the rise in COVID cases. The Record
New Jersey reported seven new COVID-19 deaths across the state and 2,369 new confirmed positive tests April 21, continuing the upward trend during recent weeks. There were 425 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases across 70 of the state’s 71 hospitals, the first time in a month hospitalizations were above 400. The positivity rate for tests conducted on April 16, the most recent day with available data, was 9.9%. North-JerseyNews.com
Philadelphia is lifting its citywide indoor mask mandate just days after becoming the first major U.S. city to reimpose such a requirement. The city’s Board of Health voted April 21 to rescind the mandate, citing improvements in local COVID-19 data such as decreasing hospitalizations and a leveling of case counts. The Wall Street Journal
Lawmakers on the State Senate Budget Committee heard praise for Gov. Phil Murphy’s plan to boost state school aid as well as familiar complaints about the funding formula impacting some districts. “With an increase of $650 million in formula aid, the vast majority of our members—many of whom were chronically underfunded for way too long—are on their way to eventually getting the resources to which they are entitled,” Jonathan Pushman, director of government relations for the New Jersey School Boards Association, told the Senate panel. But Pushman warned that schools that lost state funding when Murphy signed a 2018 law rebalancing New Jersey’s 2008 school funding formula could face further cuts unless the state boosts stabilization aid to such districts. New Jersey Monitor
The Garden State may be known for taking care of its lakes after the Murphy Administration announced $10 million in public grants to improve water quality and enhance environmental infrastructure. The Department of Environment Protection will fund projects ranging from stormwater runoff prevention to conservation efforts that will help fight off harmful algal blooms that have wreaked havoc over the last couple of years in North Jersey. “Stormwater runoff has contributed to significant problems in the state’s two most important destinations for Summer recreation in Northern New Jersey—Lake Hopatcong and Greenwood Lake,” said State Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-25). “These DEP grants are a step toward mitigating the flow of polluted water into the lakes that contributes to the unchecked weed growth and dangerous algal blooms that have harmed the crucial Summer seasons in recent years. This is an investment in the health of our lakes and the economies of our lake communities.” North-JerseyNews.com
The state Department of Transportation advanced a project to study damage to a retaining wall that supports a raised section of Route 80 near the Delaware Water Gap, which may be “subject to sudden failure,” according to the meeting’s agenda. The committee approved a request for $5.5 million in state funds to inspect the wall which stretches for more than a quarter-mile around the base of Mount Tammany known as the S-curves and come up with solutions to address the problem, which includes the deterioration of the wall and a minimum 12-inch-deep crack. The estimated cost of the repairs to the wall’s crack and deterioration stands at $51 million. New Jersey Herald
A group of Teaneck homeowners near Holy Name Medical Center is suing the township to block several recently approved ordinances related to an expansion of the hospital. In the complaint filed in state Superior Court in Hackensack, the neighbors argue that members of the Township Council and Planning Board had significant conflicts of interest that should have precluded them from voting on the ordinances related to the hospital’s expansion. The lawsuit seeks to overturn the approvals recently granted to change the zoning of the current Holy Name site and several surrounding hospital-owned properties. The Record
Republicans in Passaic County do not have a candidate for Sheriff after U.S. District Court Judge Madeline Cox Arleo upheld a state residency law that requires candidates for the position to be a resident in their county for three years. “This Court finds that a three-year durational residency requirement is narrowly tailored to further New Jersey’s significant interest in ensuring that sheriff candidates have a substantial familiarity with the relevant county and its electorate,” Arleo said in her decision that ended the campaign of former Paterson Police Chief Troy Oswald for county sheriff. “Given the sheriff’s broad powers, three years is sufficiently tailored to permit a new resident candidate to become familiar with the people and issues of the county.” New Jersey Globe
Officials are seeking a judge’s order granting access to voting machines for 30 election districts in Newark after poll workers failed to turn in ballots from those districts in April 19’s school board race. Essex County Clerk Christopher Durkin said he had no idea why employees had not turned in the ballots to the county Board of Elections, a separate county branch. “I can’t answer for the board workers on what happened. There might be a different circumstance for each one,” said Durkin. “But we ran into this problem in the past general election, and on election night, we were missing 80 districts in Essex County.” NJ.com
And finally…Food and Wine recently included Jersey City as one the 11 next great food cities.
