State Sen. Joe Pennacchio warned there are more settlements coming from the Murphy Administration after state officials confirmed it has agreed to pay another $15.9 million to those who lost loved ones in the state-run veterans homes in Paramus, Menlo Park and Vineland in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. The out-of-court settlement, where the state admitted no wrongdoing, resolves 71 claims alleging that the state’s negligence and incompetence were largely to blame for the deadly COVID-19 outbreak that lasted for months through New Jersey’s three veteran’s homes in early 2020. “The administration just continues to pay out taxpayer money for nursing home deaths without any public scrutiny,” said Pennacchio (R-26). “How many more secret settlements will they try to hide from taxpayers?” North-JerseyNews.com
Employees of the veterans home at Menlo Park have filed lawsuits alleging the state, the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, the Governor’s Office, and administrators of the state-operated nursing home needlessly put them in harm’s way as COVID struck. Accusing the state of being “grossly negligent, knowingly careless, and reckless” while deviating from accepted standards of long-term care when the first threats of COVID began to appear, the complaints allege disciplinary threats and possible termination for wearing masks, state and nursing home administrators deliberately releasing misinformation on the number of cases as residents kept getting sick and died, the nursing staff was directed to cease testing residents for COVID after several residents tested positive, and forced presumably COVID-positive employees to work at the Menlo Park Home. NJ.com
New Jersey on Aug. 21 reported another 604 confirmed COVID-19 cases and three new confirmed deaths. There were 946 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases reported across 698 of the state’s 71 hospitals. Of those hospitalized, 115 are in intensive care and 40 are on ventilators. New Jersey’s rate of transmission was 0.86 and the statewide positivity rate for tests conducted Aug. 16 was 10.2%. North-JerseyNews.com
Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser and the government’s top infectious-disease official, said he would step down in December. Dr. Fauci will be the second top COVID-19 official to leave the Biden administration, after Jeffrey Zients, who led the White House’s pandemic response for a year, departed earlier this year. In addition to his role as the President’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief of NIAID’s Laboratory of Immunoregulation. He will step down from all three roles. The Wall Street Journal
A bevy of speakers urged the Murphy Administration to direct federal dollars toward boosting staffing at childcare centers during a listening session on how the state should spend New Jersey’s unallocated American Rescue Plan funds. Childcare advocates and business groups said the state’s child care system is faltering in the face of surging inflation and a broader hiring crunch that has pushed up wages in other sectors, drawing workers from the low-paying field that underpins much of the state’s economy. The shortages have grown severe enough that childcare centers are, on average, running 10 seats below capacity, with especially dire gaps for age groups like infants and toddlers that require additional care. New Jersey Monitor
Bus and train travel on weekends is almost back to pre-pandemic numbers, according to Kevin Corbett, president and CEO of NJ Transit. “People clearly don’t have a problem traveling, enjoying life in the Summer on the weekends. We still see it slow though, relatively slow going into New York City and Philadelphia, for the traditional white collar commuter market,” Corbett said. For now, ridership continues to lag on Mondays and Fridays, but picks up on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with rail ridership at about 60% of pre-COVID levels during the mid-week period, while bus ridership is up around 70 to 75% during the week; on Mondays and Fridays, rail ridership is around 50%. NJ1015.com
The initial batch of documents retrieved by the National Archives from former President Donald J. Trump in January included more than 150 marked as classified, a number that ignited intense concern at the Justice Department and helped trigger the criminal investigation that led F.B.I. agents to swoop into Mar-a-Lago this month seeking to recover more. In total, the government has recovered more than 300 documents with classified markings from Trump since he left office: that first batch of documents returned in January, another set provided by Trump’s aides to the Justice Department in June and the material seized by the F.B.I. in the search this month. The New York Times
Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Aug. 22 seeking the appointment of a special master to review the materials seized by the FBI during a search of his Mar-a-Lago home and asked a judge to order investigators to immediately stop examining the items. Trump is seeking a more detailed inventory of the items taken from his private club in Florida earlier this month, as well as the return of any items seized that he says weren’t within the scope of the search warrant. The Wall Street Journal
American intelligence agencies believe Russia is likely to increase its efforts to attack civilian infrastructure and government buildings in Ukraine. The U.S. government declassified an intelligence warning on Aug. 22 to ensure that the officials’ concerns about the threat reached a broad audience. The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv then issued a security alert and once more urged American citizens to leave Ukraine. Both Ukrainian and American officials have been concerned about the possibility of intensified Russian missile attacks, potentially timed to Ukraine’s Independence Day on Wednesday and in response to a string of assaults on Russian military targets in Crimea. The New York Times
Most U.S. adults think gun violence is increasing nationwide and want to see gun laws made stricter, according to a new poll that finds broad public support for a variety of gun restrictions. The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found 71% of Americans say gun laws should be stricter, including about half of Republicans, the vast majority of Democrats, and a majority of those in gun-owning households with 59% favoring a ban on the sale of AR-15 rifles and similar semiautomatic weapons. Additionally, the poll shows bipartisan majorities of Americans support a nationwide background check policy for all gun sales, a law preventing mentally ill people from purchasing guns, allowing courts to temporarily prevent people who are considered a danger to themselves or others from purchasing a gun, making 21 the minimum age to buy a gun nationwide, and banning those who have been convicted of domestic violence from purchasing a gun. News12 New Jersey
New Jersey Democrats and Republicans are at odds over what the actual savings from renewable energy alternatives would be in the Garden State. At the center of the conflict is a recently-approved study from The Brattle Group prepared for the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU), research focused on ratepayer impacts from the New Jersey Energy Master Plan (EMP). Assemblyman John McKeon (D-27) supported the report and the EMP overall, arguing that the environmental benefits were very clear but the financial ones could be more obscure. But State Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-25) argued it made false assumptions and State Senate Minority Leader Steve Oroho (R-24) said it was a “political whitewash.” North-JerseyNews.com
S&P Global Ratings on Aug. 19 upgraded New Jersey’s credit outlook from stable to positive, marking Wall Street’s first stamp of approval for the $50.6 billion state budget Gov. Phil Murphy signed on July 1. Included in that budget is another full payment to New Jersey’s underfunded public worker pension fund, a key factor in S&P’s latest boost to the state’s credit outlook. “The outlook revision follows the second consecutive year the state has budgeted the full annual actuarially determined contribution to its retirement systems,” S&P credit analyst David Hitchcock said in a statement. NJ.com
New Jersey’s adult-use marijuana market shows monthly sales growth is outpacing that of other, more established adult-use markets tracked by BDSA Retail Sales Tracking. BDSA figures show that the state brought in approximately $200 million in legal sales from April 21 to July 31. Dollar sales have seen a compound monthly growth rate of roughly 10% from May through July 2022. As a point of comparison, Illinois posted a compound monthly growth rate of just 3% in its first three full months of adult-use sales. ROI-NJ.com
Due to a series of health issues that have limited his ability to travel to Trenton or attend community events, State Sen. Ronald Rice (D-28) will resign his Senate seat on Aug. 31. The longest-serving Black legislator in state history, Rice had a 40-year political career that saw the retired Newark police officer as a leading advocate for social justice and civil rights in the Garden State. In a letter dated Aug. 18, Rice wrote that “It is with a full heart that I tender my resignation from the Senate effective August 31, 2022. Despite the fervor of my commitment to the office and the depth of my dedication to my constituents and the people of New Jersey, circumstances beyond my control now force my retirement from this distinguished body.” North-JerseyNews.com
Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James has not ruled out a bid for State Senate in the 28th district, where a special election will be held in November to replace longtime incumbent Ronald L. Rice. James, who served in the State Senate for nearly nine years before retiring in 2007, could compete for the Democratic nomination at a special convention next month or could file petitions with the Secretary of State to run as an independent for the November 8 election. Earlier this year, James attempted to run for an at-large city council seat, but a Superior Court Judge ruled that a prior criminal conviction prohibited his ability to hold public office. New Jersey Globe
Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. wants to name the athletic complex under construction in Vailsburg Park as the “Ronald L. Rice Athletic Complex.” Located in the heart of District 28, the new athletic complex currently under construction in the park includes a football/soccer field, baseball field and softball field – all with synthetic grass surfaces – and a rubberized running track. The facilities will be available to the community and will become the home base for student athletic programs at Essex County Donald M. Payne, Sr. School of Technology and the other county vocational schools. It is scheduled to be completed in December 2022. InsiderNJ
The judge overseeing the Jersey City lawsuit to overturn the controversial ward map will make his decision on whether or not to proceed with the case on Aug. 25. A coalition of Jersey City groups alongside Councilman Frank Gilmore have sued the Jersey City Ward Commission, the creators of the map, to void the map, arguing that the commission violated state law and was political retaliation, while attorneys for the commission have defended it. The commission, which consists of City Clerk Sean Gallagher and six members from the Hudson County Board of Elections, are seeking a motion to dismiss the case. Hudson Reporter
In an effort to address an emerging safety problem, Paterson police detectives have confiscated 21 dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles this month. “They’re cutting people off, they’re causing accidents, they’re running stop signs and they’re running red lights,” Councilwoman Ruby Cotton said ofthe dirt bikes and ATVs that are prohibited on city streets and sidewalks. Municipal officials are looking to impose a tougher penalty, one that would allow the city to destroy those the police seize. The Record
Construction on Hoboken’s second hotel is expected to begin in 2023 now that the developer has closed on the property. KMS Development Partners closed Aug. 3 on the 1 Sinatra Drive South location — at the foot of Newark Street near the Hoboken Terminal — for the future 20-story Hilton hotel. The existing Frank Sinatra Post Office, built in 1931, will remain and be renovated while the hotel rises 20 stories around and above it. The hotel will include a rooftop event space, a restaurant and bar and 349 guest rooms. Neighboring blocks of Newark and First streets will be redesigned, with Newark Street becoming one-way and First Street two-way. The Jersey Journal
And finally…Paterson native rapper Fetty Wap pleaded guilty Monday in New York to a conspiracy drug charge that carries a mandatory five-year prison sentence. NJ1015.com
