After returning from a bipartisan congressional trip to Israel, Rep. Josh Gottheimer is pushing for more to do be done by the federal government in fighting antisemitism. The bipartisan congressional trip included participating in discussions with senior level Israel officials regarding strengthening the historic U.S.-Israel relationship to improve defense and security cooperation; making progress toward regional normalization and economic and security cooperation stemming from the Abraham Accords; and countering the threat of Iran and its terrorist proxies to Israel, the region, and the U.S. The trip comes after a bipartisan letter that Gottheimer was a signatory on was sent to U.S. Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, calling for his department to take urgent additional action to combat antisemitism and prosecute antisemitic hate crimes in New Jersey and nationwide. North-JerseyNews.com
Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, died on July 8, after being shot while campaigning for a candidate ahead of national elections. The police arrested a suspect on an initial charge of attempted murder before Abe’s death was announced. The Japanese Fire and Disaster Management Agency said that Abe had been shot in his right neck and left chest in the western city of Nara, near Kyoto. The New York Times
Boris Johnson stepped down as British prime minister after a wide-scale rebellion in his party. The announcement on July 7 bookended a 36 hour period in which more than 50 ministers and senior government aides resigned, leaving the British government in a state of paralysis. Johnson said he would appoint a new cabinet as he stays in office until a successor is found, a process that is expected to conclude by September. The Wall Street Journal
Construction of a new tunnel under the Hudson River and rebuilding of the Portal North Bridge will begin after New Jersey, New York, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey came to an agreement on funding and planning, signing the Phase One Memorandum of Understanding as required by the Gateway Development Commission Act. The states will evenly split the local share Phase One of the Gateway Program, funded through a combination of federal and local sources, with the Port Authority providing $2.7 billion. Federal funding for the Portal North Bridge covered about 60% of the total cost, with New York and New Jersey each putting forward $386.2 million. North-JerseyNews.com
The Hoboken City Council has approved an agreement for the Yards Redevelopment plan. The agreement will pave the way for renovations to the historic Ferry Terminal, Warrington Plaza and Hudson Place, as well as the construction of two new buildings that will be commercial and residential respectively. The Ferry Terminal will be renovated to create retail space on the first floor, with the second floor having programmable commercial space. A new bus depot will be built at Hudson Place and Warrington Plaza will be renovated with movable seating and tables and pop up structures for public use. Hudson Reporter
Negotiations with Amazon to create a proposed 250,000-sq.-ft. global air freight terminal at Newark Liberty Airport have ended, officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said July 7. “Unfortunately, the Port Authority and Amazon have been unable to reach an agreement on final lease terms and mutually concluded that further negotiations will not resolve the outstanding issues,” said Huntley Lawrence, the Port Authority’s chief operating officer. The proposal, which was met with local opposition, was slated to bring 1,000 jobs to New Jersey. NJ.com
The price of gasoline in the U.S. fell for 23 consecutive days through July 7, after hitting a record high last month. The average cost of a gallon of unleaded gas was $4.75 Thursday—down about 5% since prices hit a high of $5.02 on June 14, according to data from OPIS, an energy-data and analytics provider. The decline is primarily due to diminished demand at the pump, an increased supply of gas and lower oil prices, AAA said. Crude oil futures were at about $102 a barrel Thursday evening, down about 16% in the past month. The Wall Street Journal
U.S. Senate Democrats will push to raise taxes on some high-earning Americans and steer the money to improving the solvency of Medicare. The reported proposal is projected to raise $203 billion over a decade by imposing an additional 3.8% tax on income earned from owning a piece of what is known as a pass-through business, such as a law firm or medical practice. The money that would be generated by the change is estimated to be enough to extend the solvency of the Medicare trust fund that pays for hospital care—currently set to begin running out of money in 2028—until 2031. The New York Times
New Jersey towns, including more than a dozen in North Jersey, still cut hefty checks to employees for unused sick leave despite reforms approved more than a decade ago banning such payments, a state investigation found. New Jersey Acting State Comptroller Kevin D. Walsh released his office’s investigation July 7 showing that nearly all of the 60 towns it reviewed violated some part of statewide reforms approved in 2007 and 2010 that capped how much a town could pay out to its employees upon retirement. The Daily Record
The new state budget includes a half-million dollars to help Long Branch deal with past and future pop-up parties that have overwhelmed the beachfront city. The $500,000 appropriation through the Department of Law and Public Safety was added at the behest of Sen. Vin Gopal (D-11), who has proposed legislation to fund broader responses by the New Jersey State Police to the rowdy social gatherings. Gopal said local officials will determine how the money will be used, including paying for police overtime, future prevention efforts, online monitoring and cybersecurity or other efforts. NJ1015.com
A new bill proposed by the New Jersey Legislature would require students, staff and others present at institutes of higher education to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Students who only attend the institutes virtually would not be required to get the vaccine. If the bill becomes law, it would go into effect in the 2022-2023 school year. News12 New Jersey
The New Jersey Attorney General’s office has charged a Hudson County pharmacist for selling fraudulent coronavirus vaccine cards. Christina Bekhit, a licensed pharmacist who operates the AllCare Pharmacy in Bayonne, was charged with selling fake COVID-19 vaccination record cards to individuals without actually administering the vaccine and then entering false information into a state-managed database of COVID-19 vaccination records. Beginning in January this year, the complaint alleges that on three occasions Bekhit sold the fake cards to undercover investigators for $250 apiece as well as entered false information into the New Jersey Immunization Information System database (NJIIS) database. North-JerseyNews.com
President Joe Biden is expected to take executive action July 8 to protect access to abortion. President Biden will reportedly formalize instructions to the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to push back on efforts to limit the ability of women to access federally approved abortion medication or to travel across state lines to access clinical abortion services and direct agencies to work to educate medical providers and insurers about how and when they are required to share privileged patient information with authorities. NJ.com
Rep. Bill Pascrell has called for the removal of IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig over audits of former FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. Pascrell, who chairs the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, says the audits were politically motivated as both Comey and McCabe became targets of former President Donald Trump. “If you think the audit of Donald Trump’s purported enemies was a random act of God then I have a bridge in North Jersey I’d like to sell you,” said Pascrell who first demanded Rettig’s dismissal in May. “There may be no group on the face of this earth that deserves the benefit of the doubt less than Donald Trump and his government enablers.” New Jersey Globe
The Sussex-Wantage Board of Education is pushing back against the state’s controversial new health curriculum scheduled to roll out in the Fall, saying parents should be the ones to teach their children about sex and similar subjects. The board unanimously passed a resolution stating that it “expresses its disagreement” with updated health and physical education guidelines from the New Jersey Department of Education and requests revised standards that are “age appropriate.” The measure also permits the board to use its authority to “minimize school interference in the personal and private decisions of parents/guardians related to the upbringing of their children.” New Jersey Herald
A plan by mayors in northern Bergen County to reduce flood risks by having the Woodcliff Lake reservoir lowered to 91 feet has suffered a setback after the state Department of Environmental Protection declined to back it. In early June, the Pascack Valley Mayor’s Association called on Veolia Water, the utility formerly known as Suez, to cap the height of the Woodcliff Lake reservoir year-round. The mayors argued that towns, particularly Westwood and Hillsdale, have faced ever-increasing flooding problems, even during what local officials call “no-name” storms. But in a statement this week, the state environmental department said that while it recognized the long-standing flooding problems in the area, “the reservoirs in Bergen County and their related water supply infrastructure are not designed to mitigate floods.” The Record
George Gilmore will return to the helm of the state’s most powerful Republican organization, winning back his job as Ocean County Republican Chairman by seven votes. Gilmore, who received a pardon from President Donald Trump before he served any jail time, had sought a comeback to the post he held from 1996 to 2019 before a conviction on federal tax-related charges triggered his resignation. New Jersey Globe
Hoboken on July 7 passed an ordinance reducing the citywide speed limit from 25 mph to 20 mph. The speed reduction, adopted unanimously and signed into law by Mayor Ravi Bhalla, aims to provide safer streets for all users and modes of transportation. The reduced speed limit is an action item set forth by the Vision Zero Action Plan, which aims to eliminate all traffic-related deaths and injuries by 2030. The implementation of a 20 mph speed limit will include several supplemental initiatives to help educate drivers and improve compliance rates. ROI-NJ.com
And finally…James Caan, who won fame playing Sonny Corleone in the ‘The Godfather,’ has died at the age of 82. The New York Times
