You may be familiar with porch pirates, but what about “post office pirates?” This was the subject of Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s ire at a recent visit to Teaneck, where the legislator called on U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to investigate claims of fraud at the Teaneck Post Office. “Unfortunately, here in Teaneck, because of an egregious lack of oversight and action at this post office, far too many residents have to worry that they could be the next victim of mail fraud, and that the checks in those Christmas cards might get stolen or altered. The circus at the Palisades Avenue Teaneck Post Office has gone on long enough,” said Gottheimer. North-JerseyNews.com
One of North Jersey’s most powerful Democrats wants to roll back legislation that effectively eliminated cash bail amid rising crime and political lessons from neighboring New York, where another bail overhaul became a major issue in the midterms and fueled key House losses for the party. State Senate Budget Chair Paul Sarlo (D-36) is behind the new proposal, introducing legislation that would create a “rebuttable presumption” of pre-trial detention for many serious offenses and “any other crime for which the prosecutor believes there is a serious risk” of flight, danger or obstruction. PoliticoNJ
Government corruption is the “single biggest threat to our democracy,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said as he called on his fellow prosecutors to step up as the U.S. Supreme Court has made it harder to bring federal charges against public officials. Because of the high court’s rulings, state attorneys general “really are the last bastion of defense against what I consider to be a pretty pervasive problem,” he told the National Association of Attorneys General at its Washington conference last week. NJ.com
New Jersey municipalities would be able to exceed a cap on annual spending increases amid a spate of rising costs, under a bill backed by Democratic lawmakers in the State Senate. The Senate’s budget committee last week approved a bill that would move a series of expenses outside the annual spending cap such as gas and diesel fuel costs, solid waste disposal and recycling expenses. State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-36), who is also mayor of Wood-Ridge, said lawmakers must exempt those costs to head off massive service cuts that has already happened in Wayne, where town officials canceled their recycling collections contract after being quoted a 152% increase. “They’re now reducing services. They’re telling people to bring their recycling to the yard or not recycle, and they went down on garbage to one day a week,” Sarlo said. “In some areas, towns will have to cut services, police services, and others.” New Jersey Monitor
Gas prices have fallen to an average of $3.42 in New Jersey, their lowest level in a year as analysts predict continued declines. “Increasing supply and lower gasoline demand is pushing pump prices lower,” says a AAA analysis, “As demand remains low and stocks grow, drivers will likely continue to see pump prices decrease through next week.” Analyst Patrick De Haan of GasBuddy.com predicts an even bigger decline in diesel prices, good news for consumers as trucking transport companies have been passing higher fuel costs onto retailers, who have been forced to raise prices. NJ1015.com
A Libyan intelligence operative charged in the 1988 bombing of an American jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, was arrested by the F.B.I. and is being extradited to the United States to face prosecution for one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in American history, officials said Dec. 11. The arrest of the operative, Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud, was the culmination of a decades-long effort by the Justice Department to prosecute him. In 2020, Attorney General William P. Barr announced criminal charges against Mas’ud, accusing him of building the explosive device used in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 passengers, including 190 Americans. The New York Times
Rep. Tom Malinowski and Tom Kean Jr. spent more money than any pair of House candidates ever in New Jersey, making the 7th Congressional District the state’s most expensive. The two candidates spent $13.4 million on the contest, surpassing the $11 million spent by Republican Rep. Tom MacArthur and Democratic challenger Andy Kim in 2018, according to Federal Election Commission filings. NJ.com
In his last town hall as a Congressman Dec. 10, Rep. Tom Malinowski said his political plans for the future are undecided. Before being asked, Malinowski offered “I’m not going to tell you. I don’t know” about running again in 2024, but he was declarative that “I’m not going to go and be a lobbyist.” When asked how to make Tom Kean, Jr. a one-term congressman, Malinowski said he wasn’t going to talk about that, diplomatically adding, “My hope is that he does a good job.” InsiderNJ.com
North Jersey will have three seats on the important House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee this upcoming term, with Minority Leader-designate Hakeem Jeffries naming Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Bill Pascrell, Jr. to the panel on Dec. 9. Rep.-elect Rob Menendez will serve on the committee in 2023 as the representative of the 34-member Democratic freshman Class for the 118th Congress. The addition of Gottheimer, a close political ally of Jeffries, puts the influential Democratic chairman of the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus in a party leadership post for the first time. Pascrell has served on the panel for the last six years. New Jersey Globe
Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema said she was leaving the Democratic Party and would register as an independent, a move that complicates Democrats’ narrow control of the chamber. A pivotal centrist who has helped broker bipartisan deals and forced changes to major pieces of President Joe Biden’s agenda, Sinema didn’t say whether she would caucus with Democrats, but she is keeping her committee assignments controlled by the Democrats and signaled that the move won’t change the way she votes or works in the Senate. Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine are both independents but caucus with Democrats and are counted as part of their majority. The Wall Street Journal
Federal lawmakers are struggling to reach a bipartisan agreement on a year-end tax deal, as businesses and antipoverty advocates both look unlikely to get what they want. Republicans and many companies want to reverse, prevent or delay some tax increases on businesses that were scheduled in a GOP-backed 2017 tax law and that began taking effect this year. Democrats, who control the House and Senate, have expressed openness to some changes, but they want to expand the child tax credit at the same time. The Wall Street Journal
New Jersey students broadly underperformed on the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments administered in the Spring. In the first post-pandemic statewide assessment test, scores fell to the lowest in five years, according to information released by the state Department of Education last week. The lower scores in math and English were expected, mirroring drops across the nation. Students showed an 8.7% drop in language arts and a nearly 10% loss in math in NJSLA testing that aligns with state standards. The Record
Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration is planning to retire another big chunk of New Jersey’s bonded debt, this time a total of about $1 billion. According to Department of Treasury officials, school construction bonds issued through the state Economic Development Authority are scheduled to be “defeased” in February. The debt-reduction effort will be carried out using funds deposited earlier this year in a multibillion-dollar account maintained outside of the state budget Murphy and lawmakers created specifically to address New Jersey’s significant debt. NJ Spotlight News
Residents in Hanover Township, East Hanover and Florham Park will go to the polls Dec. 13 to vote on a $44.4 million plan to make upgrades at Hanover Regional High School. The money would pay for new roofs, windows and exterior doors and air-conditioning at both schools, according to a summary posted online. Heating and ventilation systems would be repaired and the two buildings would get new security vestibules outside their entrances. At Hanover Park High, a boiler room would be converted into a new STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) lab. The Daily Record
Dover residents will vote on a $69.3 million school bond referendum Dec. 13. With the township’s public school population surging, the Board of Education wants to build a second middle school and expand the high school to combat overcrowding. If the proposal is approved, work could start at the end of next year and take two years to finish. New Jersey Herald
Bayonne officials said they remain in negotiations with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for ferry service to Manhattan. The Port Authority and city declined to comment on the nature of the negotiations, but Jay Coffey, the city’s law director said the city has “expedited” them. “We are moving as quickly as we can at this juncture, and we hope to have a meeting of the minds in the first quarter of 2023,” said Coffey. The Jersey Journal
Local businessman Larry Wainstein recently announced his candidacy for mayor of North Bergen. This will be the third time Wainstein has challenged incumbent Mayor Nicholas Sacco as the GOP nominee. In 2015, Wainstein lost to Sacco by a margin of approximately 65 to 35%. Most recently, in 2019, Wainstein lost to Sacco by a margin of approximately 69 to 31%. Hudson Reporter
Doug Steinhardt, a fixture in New Jersey Republican politics and a staunch conservative, was elected to the State Senate on Dec. 10 in a special election convention to fill a vacant seat in the 23rd district. Steinhardt was unopposed in his bid to succeed Michael Doherty (R-23), who resigned on Nov. 30 to take office as the new Warren County Surrogate. Steinhardt is expected to be sworn in to his Senate seat on December 19. New Jersey Globe
The series of mysterious rumblings and vibrations felt last week throughout the state’s lower region was likely caused by supersonic test flights. A Navy spokesperson confirmed that Naval Air Station Patuxent River (NAS PAX) had an aircraft “executing supersonic test points as part of an approved test plan in a supersonic approved area” Dec. 5. The Department of Defense manages a strip of airspace known as the “Test Track.” It’s used for military testing, some of which requires supersonic speeds. It begins approximately three miles offshore over the Atlantic Ocean. NJ.com
And finally…Lawn passes are coming back to the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel and the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, formerly the BB&T Pavilion, in Camden. The Record
