OPINION: Memorial Day for Uvalde and America. Memorial Day is a day as a nation that we remember the fallen, many at a young age, who died while serving our country. But this weekend, Americans thoughts will be on another group of young people who lost their lives in a battle they did not choose or were drafted into. A majority of Americans want change to end the proliferation of gun violence no other country has while having the same mental health issues, social platforms and video games. In the end, it comes down to what type of country we want to be. We have tried the good guy with a gun, the police officers at schools and the hardening of campus. The 19 dead kids in Texas and the 10 Americans shot going to the grocery store in upstate New York show that is not working. The time is now to reinstate the ban on assault weapons and background checks. We will take a moment on Monday to honor those who have lost their lives serving this country. We will expand those prayers this Memorial Day weekend to include the students, teachers and families in Uvalde. North-JerseyNews.com
Legislation to curb gun violence won’t happen until Americans mobilize to demand it, said Sen. Cory Booker on NBC’s Meet the Press this past weekend. “We are at a point in this nation where we are going to have to mobilize a greater movement,” Booker said. “We need people that are going to choose to do the hard work of organizing and galvanizing like the civil rights movement, the suffrage movement, LGBTQ movement. To save our children’s lives, we have to have people get off the sidelines and get into the arena.” NJ.com
Between 2019 and 2021, 83% of the 7,411 New Jersey crime guns for which law enforcement could identify a source emerged from outside the Garden State. About 60% of the guns for which a source state was identified came from just six states with lax gun laws: Pennsylvania (15.7%), Virginia (10%), Georgia (11.6%), North Carolina (8.8%), South Carolina (8.2%), and Florida (5.5%). Pennsylvania was the origin of more crime guns used in the Garden State save New Jersey (16.8%) itself. New Jersey Monitor
Democrats in the State Senate tabled a bipartisan motion for an independent investigation of deaths at New Jersey’s long-term care facilities during the pandemic. State Sen. Nia Gill (D-34), joining legislation sponsored by State Sen. Joe Pennacchio (R-26), called for a vote on a resolution to establish the New Jersey Nursing Home Pandemic Response Investigation Committee. Gill argued that “a legislative oversight committee with subpoena power is how we provide the public with a transparent and accountable investigation as a part of our constitutional duty of oversight, information from this investigation will inform our public policy decisions to ensure that this never happens again.” North-JerseyNews.com
A Superior Court judge on May 27 took control of the Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center in Andover away from its owners, hours after the state moved to revoke the facility’s license and days after federal officials said they were cutting all funding to the nursing home over mounting concerns for the safety of its residents. The judge appointed Allen Wilen, a top turnaround expert at Eisner Advisory Group in Iselin, to serve as temporary receiver. He will have full power in consultation with the Department of Health to operate Woodland. Another hearing was scheduled for July 7, as the judge issued temporary restraints preventing the owners of Woodland from transferring assets, incurring any new liabilities outside the course of normal business, or terminating the state monitor already on site. NJ.com
Trenton public schools are the latest to reimpose a mask mandate for all students and staff, effective May 31. Superintendent James Earle notified parents in the district over the weekend that kids would be required to mask-up again as “COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations have increased in our immediate area. Although we have only seen slight increases throughout the district, the Trenton Health Department has recommended that we reinstate the mandatory masks requirement.” NJ1015.com
New Jersey on May 30 reported 15 new COVID-19 deaths and 4,053 new confirmed cases. There were 841 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases at the state’s 70 of 71 hospitals. Of those hospitalized, 101 were in intensive care and 41 were on ventilators. New Jersey’s statewide transmission rate was 1.09 with the positivity rate at 11.6% for tests conducted on May 24. North-JerseyNews.com
President Joe Biden said he would support the Federal Reserve in its effort to combat high inflation by reducing economic demand, as the central bank lifts interest rates at its fastest pace in more than three decades. President Biden outlined a broad three-part plan for addressing inflation calling for taking “every practical step to make things more affordable for families…and to boost the productive capacity of the economy over time.” He cited a list of proposals, including to upgrade infrastructure, boost housing production, lower drug prices by giving Medicare the power to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, fix disrupted supply chains and target fees charged by foreign ocean-shipping companies. Additionally, Biden’s proposal calls for reducing federal budget deficits. The Wall Street Journal
Reps. Tom Malinowski and Donald Payne Jr. where two of the lawmakers in the House that passed the the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act that gives the President the power to declare an “energy emergency” when events cause supply restrictions for consumer fuels, such as car fuel, aviation fuel, home heating oil, and liquid propane. The bill makes it illegal to sell these fuels at excessive or exploitative prices during such an emergency. It gives the Federal Trade Commission the power to penalize companies for price gouging and prioritizes companies with total sales in excess of $500 million annually for these penalties. “Oil and gas companies are making record profits while ordinary Americans bear the full economic cost of Russia’s war in Ukraine,” said Malinowski. “If there is any evidence of price gouging, I want the government to have the tools it needs to protect consumers.” North-JerseyNews.com
European Union leaders gathered for the second day of a summit aimed at pressing efforts to punish Russia while bolstering the battered Ukrainian economy. After weeks of tough talks finally led to agreement on an embargo on billions of dollars’ worth of Russian oil and a package of sanctions aimed at the Russian economy, European leaders are now wrestling with how to help Ukraine export millions of tons of grain despite an effective naval blockade from Russia that has kept ships stranded at port. But finding a way to quickly get millions of tons of grain out of Ukrainian warehouses—an issue essential for the stability of the global food supply and for tens of millions of people who could face hunger or even famine—involves a host of challenges almost inextricable from the uncertainties of the war. The New York Times
Danone will send the equivalent of about five million bottles of specialist infant formula to the U.S. as part of a broader push to alleviate shortages faced by babies with allergies. The French company will fly about half a million cans of specialized medical formula made by its Nutricia business into the U.S. in the coming weeks. Danone said the formula will come from its factory in England, which makes the Neocate line of amino acid-based products used for babies allergic to cow’s milk and other proteins. The Wall Street Journal
New Jersey has one of the harder hit states in the U.S. when it comes to the baby formula shortage. Last week, around 70% of stores across the country were out of formula, and in the Garden State 75% of stores were sold out. Many store shelves are still empty despite this week’s formula delivery from overseas as much of it went to hospitals. News12 New Jersey
U.S. military veterans residing in the Garden State could see increased aid and protections under a bipartisan push for legislation helping this cohort in the State Senate. The Senate Military and Veterans Affairs Committee advanced a number of bills, with subjects ranging from an expansion of tax exemptions, bolstering a beleaguered program designed to set-aside government contracts for veteran-owned businesses and making it easier for veterans to get help for mental health. State Sen. Kristin Corrado (R-40) introduced legislation that would allow DMAVA to help veterans with the necessary forms and conditions required by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to upgrade discharge papers for those who were separated from the military but have since been diagnosed with mental health conditions. “These veterans served our nation, and as a result they are struggling. Our concern is with getting them help, not with how or why they left the service,” Corrado emphasized. North-JerseyNews.com
Peter Navarro, who as a White House adviser to President Donald J. Trump worked to keep Trump in office after his defeat in the 2020 election, has been summoned to testify on June 2 to a federal grand jury and to provide prosecutors with any records he has related to the attack on the Capitol last year, including “any communications” with the former President. The subpoena to Navarro—which he said the F.B.I. served at his house last week—seeks his testimony about materials related to the buildup to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and signals that the Justice Department investigation may be progressing to include activities of people in the White House. The New York Times
A former U.S. Army reservist from New Jersey was convicted May 27 of storming the U.S. Capitol to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who worked a security contractor at a Navy base when he joined the pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, was also convicted of disorderly conduct and other misdemeanors. Hale-Cussanelli took the stand in his defense and claimed he didn’t know that Congress met at the Capitol building, testifying “I know this sounds idiotic, but I’m from New Jersey. In all my studies, I didn’t know there was an actual building that was called the ‘Capitol.’ It’s embarrassing and idiotic.” The Record
State Sen. Holly Schepisi (R-39) declined to say where she stands for the nomination of New Jersey Supreme Court Rachel Wainer Apter, which has been upheld for over a year by the unspoken rule of senatorial courtesy. Schepisi said Gov. Phil Murphy should focus on nominating candidates to two other Supreme Court seats, one of which is vacant after Justice Faustino Fernandez-Vina reached the mandatory retirement age in February and another of which will soon be open after Justice Barry Albin hits that same milestone in July. “It’s up to the governor’s office,” Schepisi said. “There are two seats right now that they could immediately put up, and you wouldn’t have the vacancy.” New Jersey Globe
Former Teaneck schools chief Barbara Pinsak is returning to the office on an interim basis as of June 30 to succeed Superintendent Christopher Irving. Board of Education President Sebastian Rodriguez announced that the search for a permanent replacement to lead the 3,800-student district would be conducted by the New Jersey School Boards Association. The Record
And finally…A wandering deer caused George Washington Bridge traffic to close Saturday night. The Record
