Long an issue that was seen as driving out pro-life votes for Republicans, abortion is expected to have the same effect in the 2022 elections for Democrats who hope to use the issue to win votes from Independents and some GOP voters. Democratic candidates in North Jersey have used a woman’s right to choose as a rallying cry while Republicans are attempt to find a middle ground with voters in their own party that are pro-life versus national politicians such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) who has promised that a federal ban will be voted on if the GOP takes over control of Congress. The issue has been out front in the contest for the 11th Congressional District, the race pitting Rep. Mikie Sherrill against GOP nominee Paul DeGroot. Both candidates have gone back and forth on the issue in the last couple of weeks. North-JerseyNews.com
An appeals court Sept. 21 granted the Justice Department’s request to retain control of the classified materials seized at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and continue its criminal investigation into the handling of those documents, in a big win for the government. An unanimous three-judge panel disagreed with a lower court ruling, saying the roughly 100 documents bearing classification markings are by definition government property. “For our part, we cannot discern why (Trump) would have an individual interest in or need for any of the one-hundred documents with classification markings,” wrote the judges in the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta. The Wall Street Journal
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit on Sept. 21 accusing Donald Trump, his family business and three of his children of lying to lenders and insurers by fraudulently overvaluing his assets by billions of dollars. The lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, alleges Trump’s annual financial statements were a compendium of lies, with yearly records that include the company’s estimated value of its holdings and debts were wildly inflated as were the worth of nearly every one of its marquee properties—Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street in Manhattan and his golf properties in New Jersey. NJ.com
A Rutgers-Eagleton poll released Sept. 21 found Garden State residents are split when it comes to teaching the new health and sexual education standards to younger students as 51% of respondents oppose it being taught at the elementary level as compared to 46% who support it. The approvals jump as students get older—71% supportive of the subject being broached in middle school and 88% in high school. “According to these numbers, those who have been most vocal in New Jersey do not necessarily reflect a majority of residents’—or even parents’—views,” said Ashley Koning, an assistant research professor and director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. North-JerseyNews.com
New Jersey’s school districts are getting creative about how they will teach sex education in state-mandated health classes this year as they try not to offend parents while adhering to the state’s requirements. Many districts, like Clifton, are following the law and implementing the health standards with detailed presentations to assuage parent concerns and outline what students will learn. Others, like Garwood and Millstone, appear to be ignoring the new health standards by teaching them partially or leaving portions to be taught at home. The Record
Total spending per student in New Jersey’s public schools increased 7.1% during the 2020-21 school year to a statewide average of $24,543, according to the annual spending report published by the state. The K-12 district spending the least was Palisades Park at $18,663 per pupil; the highest overall spending took place in Lakewood, where it totaled $55,214 per pupil overall. NJ1015.com
The American public’s views of Donald J. Trump has remained stable across a number of different measures in recent months, even as he faces multiple investigations and remains a central figure in the midterm elections, according to the most recent New York Times/Siena College poll. Overall, 44% of voters view Trump favorably, and 53% view him unfavorably. The recent poll was fielded early this month, after news of the Justice Department’s inquiry into Trump’s handling of confidential documents. That level of Trump support has effectively been unchanged since the last Times/Siena poll, which was fielded in July amid televised hearings by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. The New York Times
The House passed legislation Sept. 21 that would overhaul the way Congress counts and ratifies Presidential elector votes, responding to efforts by Donald Trump and his supporters to try to overturn the 2020 election results. The House bill, introduced by Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), would make clear that the Congress’s role in ratifying states’ Electoral College votes is ministerial and that the vice president’s role is merely to publicly count the votes. The 229-203 vote in favor of the Presidential Election Reform Act puts the House on a separate track from the Senate, where a bipartisan group of lawmakers has proposed a similar bill to overhaul the Electoral Count Act of 1887. New Jersey Monitor
Virginia Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas and a conservative activist who pushed to overturn the 2020 election, has agreed to sit for an interview with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The committee requested an interview with Thomas in June, after it emerged that she had exchanged text messages with Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, in which she urged on efforts to challenge Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. She also pressed lawmakers in several states to fight the results of the election. The New York Times
The House Majority PAC, one of the two main national committees dedicated to preserving the Democratic majority in the U.S. House, has reserved $1.2 million for Rep. Tom Malinowski. TV ads, the content of which remains unknown, are set to begin airing on Sept. 23. The spending represents the first outside Democratic foray into the 7th Congressional District, which is regarded as New Jersey’s most competitive House race this cycle. New Jersey Globe
Assemblyman Christopher DePhillips and Assemblywoman Aura Dunn want an overhaul and restructuring of the State Health Benefits Commission after the commission recently raised health insurance premiums on state workers and teachers by double digits. To complicate matters further, individuals working for county government or local municipalities within the state have actually seen their own healthcare premiums spike to about 20%. “It’s unconscionable that the board could vote in favor of this plan when there is such a disparity between state and local employee rate increases,” DePhillips (R-40) said. “Our local governments and property taxpayers cannot bear this burden just because they did not work out a last-minute backroom deal. It’s time we make sure they have a seat at the decision-making table.” North-JerseyNews.com
The Federal Reserve approved its third consecutive interest-rate rise of 0.75 percentage point and signaled additional large increases were likely even though they are raising the risk of recession. Fed officials voted unanimously to lift their benchmark federal-funds rate to a range between 3% and 3.25%, a level last seen in early 2008. Nearly all of them expect to raise rates to between 4% and 4.5% by the end of this year, according to new projections released Sept. 21, which would call for sizable rate increases at policy meetings in November and December. The Wall Street Journal
The average retail price for gas in New Jersey is now lower than it was when Russia invaded Ukraine, according to the Oil Price Information Service. On Feb. 24, when Russia went on the offensive, the price of gas in New Jersey was $3.63 a gallon. On Sept. 21, it was $3.62. The price, which is based on a multi day average, is released every day. ROI-NJ.com
Two affiliated New Jersey companies will pay more than $300,000 in fines for claiming a registered pesticide could be used to fight COVID-19. Zoono Microbe Shield was sold around the globe to fight COVID-19 in such places as United Airlines cabins and Amazon warehouses. But officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Sept. 21 that the manufacturer gave “false and misleading claims about its effectiveness and suitability for use” as a COVID-19 disinfectant. New Jersey Herald
New Jersey on Sept. 21 reported another 2,907 confirmed COVID-19 cases and eight confirmed deaths. There were 887 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases reported at the state’s 71 hospitals. Of those hospitalized, 108 were in intensive care and 34 on ventilators. The rate of transmission was 1.04 and the positivity rate for tests conducted Sept. 17 was 12.9%. North-JerseyNews.com
Gov. Phil Murphy announced Sept. 21 he wants New Jersey to rely more on offshore electric wind generation to help the state cut its greenhouse gas emissions and run on renewable energy to fight climate change. Murphy said the new goal is for the state to increase offshore electric wind generation to get to 11,000 megawatts of usage by 2040. That’s an increase from his previous goal of 7,500 megawatts by 2035. NJ.com
The plans to build numerous recreational facilities at Liberty State Park and transform an abandoned rail line into a nine-mile park took another step forward Sept. 20. The state Department of Environmental Protection announced it is accepting quotes for firms to create the master planning and detailed design documents for the state’s most-visited park on the Jersey City waterfront and the recently acquired rail corridor to be developed as the Essex-Hudson Greenway. The Jersey Journal
And finally…The iconic ‘Sinatra’ house on the Point Pleasant Beach boardwalk is up for sale. NJ1015.com
