Democratic lawmakers approved the biggest budget in state history, a $50.6 billion spending plan that Gov. Phil Murphy will sign on June 30. The Fiscal Year 2023 budget features a range of tax breaks and investments, including Murphy’s previously announced $2 billion property tax relief plan, fee holidays, a back to school sales tax holiday, $1.8 billion for water infrastructure, and $2.9 billion for capital projects for the Schools Development Authority, NJ Transit and the Department of Transportation. The Record
Lawmakers approved much but not all of Gov. Phil Murphy’s latest round of gun-control measures June 29, with the leverage of budget season and pressure after recent mass shootings finally overcoming months of stalemate. Seven bills made it to Murphy’s desk but a proposal to reduce the age at which a person becomes eligible to buy long guns such as rifles and shotguns wasn’t taken up in the Senate. And an idea added by lawmakers to restrict people from buying body armor similarly didn’t pass in the Assembly. NJ1015.com
Gov. Phil Murphy tweeted that he will sign state legislation on abortion passed by both states houses to create legal protections for those traveling from out of state and the medical providers who serve them. The bills would prohibit New Jersey from allowing someone to be extradited to another state to be prosecuted for a crime that involves performing an abortion, ensure the privacy of medical records of patients who have received reproductive health services, protect the license of a medical professional in the state who provided an abortion to a person who lives in a state where the procedure is illegal and prohibit any state agency or employee from responding to an interstate investigation or proceeding involving the pursuit of an abortion or other forms of reproductive healthcare. NJ.com
The first nationwide poll from Monmouth University on abortion shows a significant majority of Americans disagree with the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision but are split on what lawmakers should do. By a 20% margin, Americans disapprove of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in a survey conducted just after the decision. Additionally, the poll found two-thirds of the public feels a pregnant woman should be afforded more rights than an unborn fetus during the first trimester, and with very few respondents backing bans that provide no exceptions or support state laws that prosecute residents for having out-of-state abortions. “The high court’s legal opinion does not coincide with what the majority of Americans see as a woman’s right, at least through the first trimester,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. North-JerseyNews.com
State court battles over the future of abortion access continued to expand, as abortion providers in Ohio and West Virginia filed legal challenges to state laws curtailing access to the procedure. In Ohio, abortion-rights groups and local providers asked the state Supreme Court to block a law banning abortion after around six weeks of pregnancy that went into effect on Friday. In West Virginia, abortion providers and advocates filed a lawsuit in state court challenging a law dating back to the 1800s that has created uncertainty over whether abortion is legal in the state, causing providers to stop offering the procedure. The law has been dormant since Roe was decided in 1973 but has never been explicitly repealed. The Wall Street Journal
The Jan. 6 House committee issued a subpoena for the testimony of Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel to President Donald Trump who repeatedly fought back against extreme plans to overturn the 2020 election, after he resisted testifying publicly. In a statement accompanying the subpoena, the leaders of the committee said they were seeking Cipollone’s deposition testimony because investigators needed to “hear from him on the record, as other former White House counsels have done in other congressional investigations.” The committee said it was seeking information about Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his involvement in plans to submit false slates of electors to Congress and interfere with the Justice Department. The New York Times
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) described former President Donald J. Trump in stark terms as a threat to the republic who had “gone to war with the rule of law.” At a speech at Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California June 29, Cheney stated “At this moment, we are confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before—and that is a former president who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional republic. He is aided by Republican leaders and elected officials who made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man. Even after all we’ve seen, they’re enabling his lies.” Republicans, she said at another point, “have to choose,” because they “cannot both be loyal to Donald Trump and loyal to the Constitution.” The New York Times
Pfizer has asked the Food and Drug Administration to grant full approval of its COVID-19 antiviral pill, a step toward allowing the drugmaker to sell the drug commercially. The FDA typically has 60 days to accept the application and up to 10 months to conduct a review before issuing a decision. To date, Pfizer has been selling the drug, called Paxlovid, to the federal government under an authorization for emergency use; the federal government has then been directing the pills’ distribution. The Wall Street Journal
U.S. health officials have agreed to purchase another 105 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in anticipation of a Fall booster campaign. The $3.2 billion deal announced by the Biden Administration comes as federal scientists consider how to update the vaccines to better protect Americans from the rapidly evolving virus. Federal officials said the purchase agreement includes the option to purchase a total of 300 million doses, including a mix of doses for both adults and children. News12 New Jersey
New Jersey on June 29 reported 13 new COVID-19 deaths and 2,197 new confirmed cases. There were 807 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases in the 69 of 71 state hospitals that reported. Of those hospitalized, 80 were in intensive care and 32 were on ventilators. New Jersey’s statewide transmission rate was 0.97 with the positivity rate at 15.1% for tests conducted on June 25. North-JerseyNews.com
Fifty-two percent of American adults say they are worse off financially than they were a year ago, according to a survey conducted this month by the online research platform Momentive. That was up from 41% in April, and was by far the highest share in the survey’s five years. Only 14% of Americans said they were better off than a year ago, the worst in the survey’s history. The New York Times
Englewood Cliffs-based Unilever PLC announced Ben & Jerry’s can continue to be sold in settlements in occupied Palestinian territories despite a decision by the ice cream maker last year to end business there. Unilever has sold its Ben & Jerry’s business interests in Israel to a local licensee, allowing sales to continue in the West Bank. The news comes nearly a year after Ben & Jerry’s said it would end sales there, saying sales in the settlements were “inconsistent with its values,” citing human rights violations and an occupation that international organizations say is illegal, a claim Israel disputes. The Record
A Sussex County woman plead guilty to terrorism charges in federal court June 28. Maria Sue Bell, a Hopatcong resident, put in her plea before U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez to one count of concealing attempts to provide material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations. Bell admitted that from February 2018 to November 2018 she knowingly concealed and disguised the nature, location, source, ownership and control of the attempted provision of material support and resources to fighters based in Syria who were members Jabhat Fath al-sham, also known as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS) and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). North-JerseyNews.com
A major overhaul of New Jersey’s campaign finance laws, dubbed the “Elections Transparency Act,” was pulled from the State Senate voting schedule June 29. State Senate President Nick Scutari (D-22), who along with State Senate Minority Leader Steve Oroho (R-24) were the key driving force behind the bill, said he’s still working to make it a better piece of legislation. The bill would have double existing campaign contribution limits, sunset local laws regulating contracts with entities that have made campaign contributions, and require outside groups to report contributions of more than $7,500 and all expenditures. New Jersey Globe
The bill to establish the licensing of police officers in New Jersey cleared the Senate and Assembly June 29 with broad support in the two chambers. Under the bill passed, the National Decertification Registry must be checked before someone is hired as a law enforcement officer in New Jersey and it must be notified of an New Jersey officer who has been decertified. The legislation appoints the Police Training Commission as the group responsible for setting minimum standards for applicants and procedures and requirements for suspension, revocations and renewals. The Daily Record
Liberty State Park was allocated $50 million for a task force to develop a refurbishment plan under a bill approved by the legislature June 29. The legislation faced pushback from environmental groups who feared the task force’s wide authority could lead to privatization and commercial development. But proponents maintained that the task force will now be able to clean up contaminants in the park and create more active recreation for the community such as ball fields and basketball courts and State Sen. Brian Stack (D-33) announced this week that he would introduce legislation protecting Caven Point from private development. New Jersey Globe
North Bergen has made formal its support for a cannabis manufacturer in the township. Mayor Nicholas Sacco and the Board of Commissioners voted to approve a resolution of support for Alb Labs, LLC to be located at 2011 8th Street off of Tonnelle Avenue. The facility would be a Class 2 cannabis manufacturer location, which would see the purchase of cannabis to be manufactured, prepared, and packaged into cannabis products. The manufacturer would then be able sell the products to other cannabis manufacturers, as well as wholesalers, and retailers, but not to consumers directly. Hudson Reporter
And finally…AAA says more Americans will hit the road over the Fourth of July weekend than ever before, with 42 million residents traveling 50 miles or more. News12 New Jersey
