President Joe Biden on June 22 called upon Congress to suspend federal gasoline and diesel taxes for three months. Currently, the federal tax on gas is 18.4 cents-per-gallon, while the federal diesel tax is 24.4 cents-per-gallon. He also asked individual states to enact similar measures to help American citizens. The move comes after Reps. Mikie Sherrill and Josh Gottheimer voted for the House’s Lower Food and Fuel Costs Act to provide relief to American citizens. “This bill targets key problems the oil and food industries are facing and addresses them head on. We know Americans need relief from the effects of global inflation, and it’s our job to deliver. I urge the Senate to pass this critical legislation as quickly as possible,” said Sherrill. North-JerseyNews.com
New Jersey’s Democratic leaders are reluctant to suspend the state gas tax despite the call from President Joe Biden for states to consider following the federal government’s lead as inflation and the war in Ukraine cause prices at the pump to skyrocket. Gov. Phil Murphy said that since the state’s gas tax is legally dedicated to the Transportation Trust Fund, which pays for road and bridge projects, suspending it would ultimately cost more than it saves. “Here’s the problem: It’s constitutionally tied to infrastructure projects, which you’d have to stop, and then when you restarted them it would cost all of us, including taxpayers, more money,” Murphy said. New Jersey Herald
New Jersey is set to implement a 10-day sales tax holiday for school supplies and select electronics as a means of offsetting inflation later this Summer. The move would exempt school and art supplies, sports equipment, computers, and certain computer accessories from the state’s 6.6% sales tax between Aug. 27 and Sept. 5 in a program expected to cost the state roughly $75 million in lost revenue. “As inflation, I need not say but I’ll repeat, is a central worry around all of our state’s kitchen tables, now is the time to do it,” said Gov. Phil Murphy. “We can more than afford to give our students this tax break.” New Jersey Monitor
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol plans to unveil new evidence on June 23 about how Donald J. Trump tried to manipulate the Justice Department to help him cling to power after he lost the 2020 election. The panel is expect to detail how Trump unsuccessfully pushed department officials to falsely declare that there was widespread fraud in the election, file lawsuits to benefit his campaign, appoint a conspiracy theorist as a special counsel to investigate the election, trace his failed efforts to send false letters to state officials to subvert the election results and replace the acting attorney general, who refused to go along with his plans. The New York Times
The U.S. Senate began debate on bipartisan legislation intended to curb gun violence, in what would represent the first major federal change to gun laws in decades. Senators easily cleared the simple majority threshold required to advance the package, 64-34; final passage will need at least 60 votes. Debate on the proposed legislation is expected to continue through the week. Lawmakers who worked on the bill said they hope to have it pass the Senate before the chamber breaks next week for a two-week recess. The Wall Street Journal
Nine gun bills, four of which are part of Gov. Phil Murphy’s original gun control package and five of which are new as of this week, cleared the Assembly Judiciary Committee June 22, marking the first major step towards getting new gun legislation through the legislature before the Summer recess begins. Seven of the nine bills will come before the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee June 23—an eighth was already passed out of committee two weeks ago —and five of them will have a second Assembly hearing in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. New Jersey Globe
A Democratic-sponsored bill focused on veterans doesn’t do enough for the beleaguered cohort, according to Assemblyman Brian Bergen (R-25). The bill in question (A-1477) would increase annual state payments to blind and paralyzed veterans and surviving spouses to $1,800 from the current $750. Bergen noted Delaware pays disabled veterans $3,000 annually, and proposed a hostile amendment increasing payments to that $3,000 threshold. “I’m standing up before you today, because I believe what we are doing here today is not enough,” Bergen said during a recent session of the full Assembly. “Times have even gotten a little more difficult for people. Inflation is up. Gas prices are significantly up. I truly believe that everything we do in this body for veterans should always be best in class.” North-JerseyNews.com
The Assembly State and Local Government Committee unanimously approved a bill to to finance improvement for Liberty State Park, putting it on track to win final approval by the Legislature before it breaks next week for its Summer recess. The legislation, which has the backing from much of the Hudson County delegation when it was introduced last week, would appropriate $250 million toward New Jersey’s most visited park for a range of improvements. Under the bill, a 17-member task force would be permanently established within the state Department of Environmental Protection to assist with developing short-term actions to improve public use and develop a long-term master plan to improve park facilities and amenities, such as new transportation and mobility services to make the park more accessible to the public. NJ Spotlight News
A recent lawsuit filed in New Jersey’s District Court claims the Mountain Lakes school district, are promoting reverse discrimination against White students, under the guise of teaching “anti-racism.” The litigation filed expresses concern by the plaintiffs that the district has openly advanced such topics as “White privilege” and “institutional inequity.” The lawsuit alleges that “The Mountain Lakes School District has, since on or about June 6, 2020 engaged in a campaign of open racial discrimination in some of its educational programming wherein it has forced a racial political ideology onto its students which has violated its obligations under Title VI of the United States Code, and otherwise has created a hostile educational environment for its students, including (the student) who was damaged in his constitutional and statutory rights not to be discriminated against based on his race or the color of his skin.” North-JerseyNews.com
A Montclair parent has filed suit in Essex County Superior Court alleging that her daughter, who is Black, was the victim of racist bullying for nearly two years and school officials did nothing to address it. More than 50 instances are detailed in which the girl was allegedly taunted in person and in an online chat group, based on “her race, skin color, hair texture, body type and singing ability,” beginning in September 2018, when she transferred from West Orange as a seventh grader. The girl was allegedly called an array of highly offensive racial slurs, crude pictures and videos of her, sometimes doctored, were posted in online chat groups and students would tug at her hair and scalp. The Record
More than 100 residents have already been moved out of the Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center in Andover since a Superior Court named a receiver to take control over control of the facility that was already losing population in the months before. At the same time, state and federal officials say there has been no effort by its owners to forestall what appears to be the inevitable with no applications to transfer Woodland’s license by its owners. As of last week, the current census at the nursing home in Sussex County is 228. There were 450 there in February. One of the largest nursing homes in New Jersey, Woodland is licensed for 543 beds. NJ.com
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has not enforced the city’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for employees at private businesses, and has no plans to begin inspecting businesses or begin fining those that are not in compliance. “We have been focused on prioritizing education instead of enforcement when it comes to the private sector mandate, which is how we’ve been able to get more than 87% of all New Yorkers with their first dose to date,” said a spokesman for New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The New York Times
New Jersey on June 22 reported 20 new COVID-19 deaths and 2,111 new confirmed cases. There were 724 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases in the 71 state hospitals that reported. Of those hospitalized, 81 were in intensive care and 31 were on ventilators. New Jersey’s statewide transmission rate was 0.82 with the positivity rate at 11.3% for tests conducted on June 17. North-JerseyNews.com
Former Gov. Chris Christie is at 0% in a University of New Hampshire Granite State Poll of likely 2024 Republican presidential primary voters because the pollster didn’t take his prospective candidacy seriously enough to include his name. “He was not (included), largely for space reasons and lack of discussion of him,” said Dr. Andrew E. Smith, the director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. The poll showed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump statistically tied, with 39% for DeSantis and 37% for Trump. New Jersey Globe
The Paterson Board of Education is planning to borrow $8.5 million to buy the building on 16th Avenue that has housed Alexander Hamilton Academy elementary school for more than 20 years. School board Vice President Nakima Redmon said buying the building would be more cost-effective for the district as it currently pays about $1.1 million per year to rent the building. By buying the property, the district would pay about $650,000 per year through 2043 to cover its debt on the purchase. The Record
And finally…Trumpet the bloodhound wins best in show at the 2022 Westminster Kennel Club dog show. NJ.com
