Mikie Sherrill is unsure of her current title as House members remain unseated due to Republicans inability to name a Speaker of the House. “I’ll have to check with the Parliamentarian but I suspect I’m still a Congresswoman-elect because I haven’t been sworn in yet,” offered Sherrill during a 20 minute press call on Jan. 4. “Things are in a little bit of disarray here. But that’s OK. I have four kids so I enjoy bringing order to chaos. So I should do quite well in this Congress, from what I’ve seen so far.” The inability of the Republicans to govern was expected by Sherrill and other lawmakers in Washington. “We saw this coming, this is not really surprising,” she said. “There was a suspicion by many of us that Republicans would not be able to govern in the House. We took steps to make sure that we would serve the American people if they failed to govern.” North-JerseyNews.com
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) pressed for a deal with right-wing holdouts that could deliver him the speakership after days of failed votes on the House floor. McCarthy dispatched his emissaries to finalize terms with the extreme right wing of his party, including agreeing to conditions he had previously refused to countenance in an effort to sway a critical mass of defectors such as allowing a single lawmaker to force a snap vote at any time to oust the speaker. The House will reconvene today at 12 p.m., where members are expected to vote for a 12th time to elect a Speaker. The New York Times
Rep. Chris Smith, who is supporting House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy for Speaker, said he is puzzled over the deadlock caused by far-right Republicans refusing to vote for McCarthy. “I knew there were two or three maybe four [dissenters],” Smith said. “I didn’t think it would grow to 20.” At a meeting of the House Republican conference to discuss the impasse, Smith said he told his colleagues: “Having made their points, gotten their items into the rules, it takes more courage to say, ‘Now we’re going to unite.’ And I think we have to unite for the American people.” NJ.com
The estate of Brian Sicknick, the U.S. Capitol Police officer who died following the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot, filed a lawsuit on Jan. 5 against former President Donald Trump. The lawsuit, brought by a law firm representing Sicknick’s partner, Sandra Garza, claims that Trump “intentionally riled up the crowd and directed and encouraged a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol and attack those who opposed him.” The lawsuit states: “Injuries sustained by Officer Sicknick and his eventual death, were reasonable and foreseeable consequences of Defendant Trump’s words and conduct.” New Jersey Herald
President Joe Biden plans to commemorate the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot by giving medals to law-enforcement officers who protected lawmakers that day and election officials who resisted efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential contest. President Biden plans to posthumously recognize Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who died the day after the attack. Another recipients will be former Arizona House Speaker Russell “Rusty” Bowers, a Republican who lost his seat in an August primary after resisting pressure from President Donald Trump to hold a hearing in the state that could have led to changing election results. The Wall Street Journal
The investigation into the U.S. Capitol riot is the biggest criminal inquiry in the Justice Department’s 153-year history and continues to grow. Federal agents have already seized hundreds of cellphones, questioned thousands of witnesses and followed up on tens of thousands of tips in an exhaustive process that has resulted so far in more than 900 arrests from Maine to California. But the inquiry, as vast as it has been, is still far from complete: Scores, if not hundreds, more people could face charges in the year — or years — to come, spread out over the course of many months so as not to flood the courts. The New York Times
President Joe Biden on Jan. 5 announced a dual immigration strategie that would increase expulsions of migrants who attempt to cross the Southern border, while expanding opportunities for migrants from several countries to legally enter the United States. The Biden proposal will allow up to 30,000 migrants each month from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua who have U.S.-based financial sponsors and have passed a background check to enter the country legally. They would be allowed to work temporarily for two years. However, those migrants who do not follow those procedures and try to cross the border without authorization will be immediately expelled to Mexico. New Jersey Monitor
Employers added 223,000 jobs in December 2022, the Labor Department reported Jan. 6, about in line with economists’ expectations but lower than the average in recent months. The unemployment rate ticked down to 3.5 percent, back to its low point from before the pandemic. The showing brought total job creation for the year to 4.5 million as the economy continued to recover from the shutdowns early in the pandemic. The New York Times
The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits fell to the lowest level in more than three months last week, reflecting a still-robust job market despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to cool the economy and bring down decades-high inflation. Applications for unemployment aid for the week ending Dec. 31, 2022 fell by 19,000 to 204,000. News12 New Jersey
New Jersey is reworking several subsidy programs that threatened to curtail companies’ work-from-home policies, despite concerns about declining business in local downtowns. Under a measure that passed the state Legislature with bipartisan support last month, more than 800 private employers can maintain tax breaks and other incentives as long as workers show up in the office one day a week. It grants a for-now one-year reprieve to companies after state officials had proposed a three-day-a week requirement that businesses said would be hard to meet. The Daily Record
A new offshoot of the COVID-19 Omicron variant is quickly taking over in parts of the U.S., especially in the Northeast, amid signs of rising infection numbers after the Winter holidays. Medical experts say a combination of holiday gatherings and the arrival of the XBB. 1.5 subvariant is causing more COVID-19 infections, as reflected in rising hospitalization numbers and a recent climb in wastewater virus levels. Nationally, the XBB. 1.5 subvariant represented an estimated 40.5% of cases in the week ended Dec. 31, up from roughly 10% two weeks earlier, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. XBB. 1.5 has already soared to about three-quarters of cases in New England and the New York region. The Wall Street Journal
A new program at Newark Liberty International Airport is designed to detect new coronavirus variants from other countries. As part of the CDC surveillance program, travelers from 30 countries will be screened. Experts say the goal is to figure out which parts of the world are experiencing new strains in the hope of getting ahead of them. News12 New Jersey
Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law on Jan. 4 bipartisan legislation that would require the New Jersey Department of Education to develop information literacy requirements under the New Jersey Student Learning Standards. State Sen. Michael Testa (R-1), who served as one of the primary sponsors of the bill, noted the standards would help students to weigh the flood of news, opinion, and social media, both online and off. “This law isn’t about teaching kids that any specific idea is true or false, rather it’s about helping them learn how to research, evaluate, and understand the information they are presented for themselves,” Testa said. North-JerseyNews.com
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office has dropped charges against a former Palisades Park councilwoman accused of vote fraud. State Superior Court Judge Anthony Gallina had found probable cause for the charge two weeks before the November election, in which Republican Councilwoman Stephanie Jang was a mayoral challenger. On June 11, 2020, Jang allegedly violated vote-by-mail laws when she entered the Palisades Park senior center building and helped people with their vote-by-mail ballots while she was a candidate. Jang denied wrongdoing at the time, saying she was a frequent visitor to the center, and any help she offered with ballots was “by the book.” The Record
Morris County Commissioner Tayfun Selen has his first challenger as he seeks a second full term: Anthony Somma, a Randolph Republican county committeeman.“We must not settle for candidates like my opponent whose public record includes voting to raise taxes nearly 6% in a single year, running for municipal, county, and federal offices four times in six years, embracing Democrat-style spending programs, and donating to Democrats like liberal icon Bill Pascrell at the expense of Republican candidates,” Somma said in an announcement email. New Jersey Globe
Emily Jabbour is Hoboken’s new city council president after a unanimous vote at Dec. 4’s council reorganization meeting for 2023. Jabbour, serving her second term as an at-large councilmember, replaced Councilman Michael Russo, who served as council president last year. He was elected council vice president in a 7-2 vote. The Jersey Journal
And finally…The Mega Millions jackpot for tonight is $940 million. NJ.com
