Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration announced in a press statement Nov. 28 that it has launched a long-awaited review of how New Jersey responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. The postmortem will be led by Paul Zoubek, who was first assistant state attorney general under former Republican governors Christie Whitman and Donald DiFrancesco. Murphy tapped a pair of outside firms—Philadelphia law firm Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads and Boston Consulting Group, a Massachusetts management consulting firm—to conduct the independent review. Work will begin immediately, but a final report isn‘t expected until late 2023. NJ.com
News of the postmortem comes after the New Jersey’s Senate Republican caucus sent a letter to urging the Democratic majority to take action regarding the investigation following reports of new outbreaks in veterans homes. “The existence of investigations by other authorities should not serve as an excuse for continued inaction by the Senate. Those investigations are likely focused on identifying criminal and civil rights violations for prosecution and enforcement actions, not on improving State policies regarding the management and oversight of these facilities, which would be our goal,” they wrote. North-JerseyNews.com
New Jersey health officials reported another 976 COVID-19 cases and 10 confirmed deaths on Nov. 28 as the statewide rate of transmission stood at 0.90. There were 1,041 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases reported at 69 of the state’s 71 hospitals; of those hospitalized, 124 are in intensive care and 55 are on ventilators. The statewide positivity rate for tests conducted Nov. 18, the most recent day for which data is available, was 8.8%. NJ.com
Antonio “Tony” Teixeira, the former chief of staff for State Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-21), admitted his role in federal court in a conspiracy to falsely inflate invoices to defraud campaigns and political action committees (PACs) with Sean Caddle, the man cooperating with authorities after pleading guilty in a murder for hire scheme. Teixeira worked for Caddle’s political consulting firms between 2014 and 2018 to defraud various campaigns, PACs, and 501(c)(4) organizations of about $107,800. Texiera then failed to report the illicit income on tax forms filed with the IRS during the time frame. Caddle was hired by former State Sen. Raymond Lesniak to create the PACs and 501(c)(4)s in order to raise and spend money to advocate on a variety of issues, including specific support for candidates in local races across the state. North-JerseyNews.com
The state has moved inmates and correctional staff out of Jones Farm, a minimum-security state prison in Ewing, in its ongoing effort to streamline operations as the prison population shrinks statewide. The 65-year-old prison, which historically has housed up to 270 inmates, was home to just 19 inmates as of early November, when the state began transferring them to the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility in Chesterfield and the East Jersey State Prison’s minimum-security unit in Woodbridge. Jones Farm’s correctional staff were reassigned to Garden State and New Jersey State Prison, a maximum-security lockup in Trenton that has had staffing vacancies. New Jersey Monitor
Chinese police have begun leveraging the powers of the country’s surveillance state to go after demonstrators who participated in rare public displays of defiance over the government’s stringent COVID-19 control policies. Under leader Xi Jinping, China has expanded its ability to track the movements and activities of its citizens. Besides hundreds of millions of cameras—some equipped with facial recognition software—that line city streets, police can access detailed mobile phone and social-media data that shows the locations of people at a given time. The government has enhanced these capabilities over the past two years as part of contact-tracing efforts to control the spread of the virus. The Wall Street Journal
Some of Donald Trump’s staunchest Jewish supporters and Republican lawmakers say they can no longer ignore the abetting of bigotry by the nominal leader of the Republican Party. Among the Jewish figures and organizations that had previously stood by Trump include Morton Klein, head of the right-wing Zionist Organization of America, pro-Trump commentator Ben Shapiro and Trump’s former ambassador to Israel David M. Friedman—all who have all spoken out since the former president dined at his Palm Beach palace, Mar-a-Lago, with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, an outspoken antisemite and Holocaust denier. The New York Times
Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker have called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to conduct oversight and enforcement of Twitter’s consent decree and to investigate potential violations of consumer protection laws. “In recent weeks, Twitter’s new Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk, has taken alarming steps that have undermined the integrity and safety of the platform, and announced new features despite clear warnings those changes would be abused for fraud, scams, and dangerous impersonation,” the Senators wrote. Most concerning to lawmakers is fake accounts included scammers impersonating companies and celebrities for cryptocurrency schemes, identity theft, and other financial crimes that have been made after attempts to sell verification for $8 a month. North-JerseyNews.com
Elon Musk accused Apple of threatening to withhold Twitter from its App Store, a move that would limit some new users from downloading the app. The action would amount to censorship, claimed Musk in a series of Tweets, with no explanation from Apple for why Twitter would be blocked. He added that Apple had also reduced its advertising spending on Twitter. Apple did not respond to Musk’s comments. The New York Times
President Joe Biden called on Congress to pass legislation that would avert a rail shutdown by imposing a proposed contract that members at four railroad unions had rejected. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said the House would vote this week on legislation to adopt the tentative agreement, which was based on recommendations from a White House mediation panel. The move would cut short a long-running labor dispute between the country’s biggest freight railroads and more than 115,000 workers that threatens to hurt the economy and disrupt the flow of goods as soon as next week. The Wall Street Journal
Even before Rep.-elect Tom Kean Jr. takes the oath of office as New Jersey’s newest congressman, House Democrats have announced plans to go after him in the next election. The House Majority PAC, the House Democrats’ super political action committee, named New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District as one of the first 19 seats it would target in the next election. The PAC supported Rep. Tom Malinowski the last two election cycles, spending a total of $3.7 million. NJ.com
Rep. Tom Malinowski will hold a final “farewell and thank you” town hall on Saturday, Dec. 10 in Springfield. Malinowski was first elected to Congress in 2018 by defeating Rep. Leonard Lance and prioritized town halls during his four years as a Congressman, hosting more than 140 during his two terms in office. New Jersey Globe
The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in New Jersey was $3.73 on Nov. 28 following the long Thanksgiving weekend, just under the biggest weekly national decline in nearly four months. AAA data showed the New Jersey average of $3.725 was about an eight-cent decrease from the price of $3.808 on Monday, Nov. 21; the average across the United States dropped approximately 12 cents in the same time, from $3.662 to $3.546. The cheapest gas available in New Jersey as November ends and December begins can be found in Warren County, at an average of $3.614 per gallon. NJ1015.com
A year after voters rejected a $35 million referendum measure, the Little Falls school district pared down the plan and will go back to voters for approval Dec. 13. Trustees last week approved a new plan for $29.6 million, a $5.8 million reduction from 2021’s plan, that would add pre-K classrooms, music classrooms and a library at School No. 2. The bond is an effort by the district to find ways to accommodate a prekindergarten program for 3- and 4-year-olds, which the state intends one day to make mandatory. The Record
Police in Holmdel Township are proposing new ordinances that would make it harder for people to steal cars in the community. If adopted, the new laws would mean new penalties for people caught peering into a window of a motor vehicle that they do not own or have license/privilege to possess, prohibit the pulling of a door handle or taking other actions in an attempt to unlock a motor vehicle unless they’re the owner, and outlaw the types of electronic devices that are capable of detecting key fobs nearby. News12 New Jersey
More families across New Jersey are seeking assistance from food pantries as inflation rises. Some locations are reporting a 280% increase in people showing up for help within the last year alone, said Adele LaTourette, senior director of policy and advocacy for the Community Food Bank of New Jersey. The high costs of things like food and gas are causing many people to seek help for the first time in their lives. NJ Spotlight News
And finally…New Jersey man crushing ‘Jeopardy!’ hits a milestone after 16th straight win. NJ.com
