President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) to increase the production of baby formula hours after bipartisan lawmakers that included Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill had called for the move. Washington lawmakers believe the DPA will help speed up the production of the necessary ingredients used to make baby formula and increase domestic production. “I applaud the President for invoking the Defense Production Act, so that we can ensure no baby in our country goes hungry and that no mother or father has to struggle to find the food to feed their child,” said Gottheimer. The move comes days after Sherrill led a bipartisan group of 16 moms calling for efforts to get baby formula into the hands of parents across the country. North-JerseyNews.com
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned the global economy is in danger of entering a period of so-called stagflation, or high inflation and weak growth. “Certainly the economic outlook globally is challenging and uncertain. Higher food and energy prices are having stagflationary effects, namely, depressing output and spending and raising inflation all around the world,” stated Yellen. Inflation, particularly the rising cost of food and energy, is becoming a greater longer-term concern and will be a dominant theme among global leaders in the weeks and months ahead. “The United States in many ways is best positioned, I think, to meet this challenge, given the strength of our labor market and the economy,” she said. The Wall Street Journal
Russia’s near-total conquest of the Ukrainian seaside city of Mariupol renewed concerns that supplies of grains could be further disrupted by the Kremlin’s blockade of Ukraine’s southern ports. The blockade of Ukraine’s southern coastlines has already prevented millions of tons of grain from being exported. Meanwhile, a Russian soldier pleaded guilty in a Kyiv court on May 18 to having fatally shot a civilian, the first trial Ukraine has conducted for a potential war crime since Russia’s invasion began. The New York Times
Gov. Phil Murphy and Rep. Josh Gottheimer launched the state’s new American Rescue Plan Firefighter Grant Program that will help local and regional fire departments provide first responders with proper protective, cleaning, and sanitizing equipment. The grant program is using American Rescue Plan funds enabling fire departments to better protect their employees not just against fires and other hazards on the front lines of emergency responses, but against deadly pathogens such as cancer as well. “We’re now clawing back even more federal dollars to support our local fire departments and first responders, particularly for our smaller ones where resources are even more stretched,” said Gottheimer in Hackensack earlier this week. North-JerseyNews.com
An additional 69 families say they will be filing charges of gross negligence and incompetence related to COVID-19 by state-operated veterans’ homes administrators nearly six months after New Jersey agreed to pay $52.9 million to the loved ones of 119 residents who died in Paramus and Menlo Park during the pandemic. Attorney Paul M. da Costa of Roseland, who represented many of those involved in the initial settlement, confirmed that tort claims notices have been filed on behalf of dozens more. Of the 69 new cases, he represents 53 of those families, all of whom lost relatives to COVID-19 in the veterans’ homes. NJ.com
COVID-19 will continue to infect and hospitalize a growing number of New Jerseyans well into July, but the level of severe disease and death is expected to remain fairly stable all Summer. New diagnoses would continue to climb through mid-June before they dip slightly and rise again to reach nearly 8,000 daily cases in mid-July under modeling the Department of Health released that assumes high rates of viral spread. Under this scenario, COVID-19-related hospitalizations would climb past 1,200 in mid-June, trend slightly downward for a few weeks, then rise again to almost 1,800 patients by mid-July, doubling the current numbers. Intensive-care cases would essentially hover between 100 patients and 200 patients all Summer, with around half of them needing ventilators to assist with breathing. NJ Spotlight News
New Jersey on May 18 reported 15 new COVID-19 deaths and 3,842 new confirmed cases. There were 846 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases at the state’s 71 hospitals and of those hospitalized, 102 were in intensive care and 28 were on ventilators. New Jersey’s statewide transmission rate was 1.28 with the positivity rate at 13.5% for tests conducted on May 13. North-JerseyNews.com
Federal health officials warned that a third of Americans live in areas where the threat of COVID-19 is now so high that they should consider wearing a mask in indoor public settings. They cited new data showing a substantial jump as the seven-day average of hospital admissions from COVID rose 19% over the previous week and more than 32% of Americans now live in counties with medium to high levels of virus transmission, compared with about 24% the previous week. The Wall Street Journal
The House passed legislation on May 18 aimed at bulking up the federal government’s efforts to combat domestic terrorism, acting over the opposition of Republicans days after a gunman motivated by White supremacist ideology killed 10 Black people in a Buffalo supermarket. The measure passed on May 18 would establish three new offices—one each in the F.B.I., the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security—to monitor, investigate and prosecute domestic terrorism. It would require biannual reports assessing the domestic terrorism threat posed by White supremacists, with a particular focus on combating “White supremacist and neo-Nazi infiltration of the uniformed services.” The New York Times
Legislation sponsored by Rep. Tom Malinowski passed the House to make it easier for the Department of Homeland Security to respond to bomb threats. The bill would establish a permanent Office of Bombing Prevention within DHS, charged with providing training and assistance to organizations about bomb threats; developing a strategy for dealing with explosive devices; sharing information among federal, state and local officials and the public; and working with other countries to address terrorist attacks. NJ.com
Morris County law enforcement officials collected 674 firearms and handed out more than $100,000 as part of its gun buy-back program. The yield from last weekend’s two events in which cash up to $300 was offered for firearms no questions asked, included rifles, shotguns and handguns as well as several assault weapons and two assembly kits for “ghost guns,” or untraceable firearms that can be built at home. The Daily Record
The Murphy Administration announced they will work with the state legislature to create a statewide police licensing program, under which all law enforcement officers would have to hold Police Training Commission (PTC) licenses certifying their ability to serve in the state of New Jersey. The proposed legislation, which over 40 states in the U.S. currently have, would authorize the PTC to issue licenses dependent on passing a psychological evaluation, keeping up with training requirements, and not being a member of insurrectionist or discriminatory organizations; the PTC would also have the ability to suspend or revoke licenses following a hearing. The licensing program has the backing of community activists and the state’s largest police union. NJ1015.com
Nearly 70% of Americans prefer a limit on the number of years someone can serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released May 18. Support for limiting how long as Supreme Court justice can serve is at 69%, while 27% oppose limits; broken down by party, it is 77%-18% among Democrats, 61%-36% among Republicans, and 69%-27% among Independents supporting term limits. Additionally, 63% of respondents think the top court is motivated mainly by politics, while 32% say the impetus of their decisions is from the law. New Jersey Globe
A bear was tranquilized and removed from a tree in Haledon after getting stuck for several hours. Police were on the scene monitoring the bear and keeping people away from it until the New Jersey State Department of Environmental Protection arrived. The bear, about 17 months old, was tagged with plans to release him into the woods in Passaic County. News12 New Jersey
GOP lawmakers from New Jersey’s 24th District argue Gov. Phil Murphy shares responsibility for a recent bear attack in Lafayette after bringing the state’s bear hunt to a halt. State Senate Minority Leader Steve Oroho (R-24) said that without a responsible hunting policy, the bear population in the state was exploding which allows for the recent midday appearance over the weekend of a cub in the middle of a busy intersection in Wyckoff. “Regretfully, that will mean we will continue to see more dangerous interactions. This latest incident was a close call that could have been much worse, and it is inevitable that more residents will encounter dangerous situations if Murphy doesn’t re-evaluate his reckless position,” Oroho said. North-JerseyNews.com
Md Forid Uddin has been declared the winner for a seat on the Paterson City Council. Of the 10 candidates running for City Council and five men battling for mayor, Uddin was the only one who had not run for or held public office in Paterson in the past. Uddin, backed by former mayor Joey Torres, defetated community activist Casey Melvin by a margin to more than 600 votes in the final tally. Two incumbents, Lilisa Mimms and Maritza Davila, were the top vote-getters in the council election last week. The Record
Bikeways, raised pedestrian crossings and parking spaces have been proposed for the Sinatra Drive Redesign Project in Hoboken, with the city looking to upgrade the road alongside the Hudson River by next Summer. The city said that it plans to improve access, connectivity, and safety for all modes of transportation for the road between 4th Street and Hudson Street, as well as using Vision Zero and “complete” street strategies, and add green infrastructure to decorate the roadway and absorb rainwater during storms. Hudson Reporter
And finally…While replacing a broken water main in Hoboken, a Suez crew unearthed a pipe from 1890. The Jersey Journal
