Gov. Phil Murphy and the Joint Budget Oversight Committee (JBOC) are once again receiving fire from State Sen. Declan O’Scanlon. The 59-year-old Republican from the 13th district took Murphy to task for what he believes is reckless borrowing antics, driving New Jersey deeper into debt, while sitting on billions of unused COVID funds, and the JBOC for their willful inaction in dealing with inflation, costing New Jersey taxpayers over $500 million in lost revenues over the last six months. “Instead of using funds already on hand to pay for our upcoming transportation needs, the governor wants to commit to 30 years of debt while kicking the can on principal payments ten years down the road,” said O’Scanlon. “This proposed borrowing is utterly irresponsible and repeats the financial malpractice that has buried New Jersey in debt.” North-Jerseynews.com
The International Longshoreman’s Association Local 1588 has voted to help their member, State Assemblyman for the 31st Legislative District William Sampson, get his job on the waterfront back. The union voted to spend $50,000 to help him get his crane operator license back after the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor revoked it and removed him from his longshoreman position on the waterfront. Citing “excessive absenteeism,” the Waterfront Commission argued that there was no excuse for Sampson’s repeated absences in 2022 in making their decision in December last month. Hudson Reporter
Former Rep. Albio Sires officially announced Jan. 9 that he would run for mayor of West New York, a position he held from 1995 to 2006. “I’m coming home, basically,” Sires said. “That’s the whole thing.” Sires plans to put a slate of candidates together, and wants to finish some projects he did not get to during his first time as mayor, including building a new library. Also on his agenda, he said, was a new school, affordable housing for veterans and an overpass over Port Imperial Boulevard to provide better access to the waterfront. NJ.com
The House delegation of North Jersey was sworn into office in the early morning of Jan. 7 after nearly a week of votes that resulted with Kevin McCarty winning the Speaker’s gavel on the 15th round of voting. The occasion ushered in two freshman members into the 118th Congress— Rep. Tom Kean, Jr. in the 7th after a hard-fought race withe former office holder Tom Malinowski and Rep. Rob Menendez taking over from the retiring Albio Sires in the seat his father, Sen. Bob Menendez, once sat in. “New Jersey is my home, and my number one priority is to improve the lives and livelihoods of every family I was sent here to represent,” said Kean. “This includes cutting inflation, bringing jobs to our district to boost innovation and manufacturing, and keeping our communities safe.” North-Jerseynews.com
House Republicans on Jan. 9 voted for an overhaul of operating rules for the new Congress, overcoming the concerns of some rank-and-file members about concessions that Speaker Kevin McCarthy made to the hard right last week to secure his job. The package passed in a mostly party-line vote of 220-213, with just one Republican voting “no,” includes allows any single lawmaker to call a snap vote to oust the Speaker; the so-called Holman rule, which allows lawmakers to use spending bills to defund specific programs and fire federal officials or reduce their pay; makes it harder for lawmakers to raise the debt limit; and paves the way for the creation of a new select subcommittee under the Judiciary Committee focused on the “weaponization” of the federal government. The New York Times
The House voted to repeal tens of billions of dollars in Internal Revenue Service funding, advancing a bill that is unlikely to become law. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE), would rescind almost all of the $80 billion in IRS funding that Congress approved in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. While allocations for customer service and systems modernizations would not be affected, tens of billions designated for enforcement, operations, money for the inspector general’s office, the U.S. Tax Court and the Treasury Department would be rescinded. The Wall Street Journal
When it comes to immigration, New Jersey Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker are not on the same page with their fellow Democrats in the Biden Administration. The two North Jersey lawmakers released a statement on Jan. 5 with fellow Dems Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and Alex Padilla (D-CA) expressing disappointment with the border policies announced that included the extension of Title 42 and imposing a “transit ban” in the southern border. “While we understand the challenges the nation is facing at the Southern border exacerbated by Republican obstruction to modernizing our immigration system, we are deeply disappointed by the Biden Administration’s decision to expand the use of Title 42,” wrote Menendez and Booker. North-JerseyNews.com
The Biden Administration released a detailed plan Jan. 10 that will make it easier for student-loan holders to wipe out their debts using income-driven repayment plans. To prevent student-debt balances from ballooning in the future, the administration plans to halve to 5% the amount of discretionary income borrowers must pay each month on their undergraduate loans if they are enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan. Borrowers with incomes below 225% of the federal poverty line wouldn’t have to make monthly payments on their loans. The Wall Street Journal
President Joe Biden’s lawyers discovered “a small number” of classified documents in his former office at a Washington think tank last Fall, the White House said on Jan. 9, prompting the Justice Department to scrutinize the situation to determine how to proceed. The documents found in President Biden’s former office, which date to his time as vice president, were found by his personal lawyers on Nov. 2, when they were packing files at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. The White House said in a statement that the White House Counsel’s Office notified the National Archives and Records Administration on the same day the documents were found “in a locked closet” and that the agency retrieved them the next morning. The New York Times
A federal judge temporarily blocked part of a newly-enacted New Jersey law that prohibits guns from being carried in certain parts of the state. U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb issued a temporary restraining order Jan. 9 for a section of the law that specifically bans guns from being carried in public libraries or museums, bars or restaurants that serve alcohol and entertainment facilities. One catch-all provision barring guns from being carried on private property where the owner did not explicitly grant permission was also blocked, as was another section that prohibits guns from being carried in vehicles unless they are unloaded and stored in a closed area. PoliticoNJ
Former Assistant Passaic County Prosecutor Paul DeGroot appears to be gearing up for a Morris County Commissioner primary campaign against Republican incumbent Tayfun Selen, whom he beat in last year’s congressional primary. DeGroot’s wife was reportedly handing out nominating petitions last week at a Republican event in Montville, where DeGroot lives. If DeGroot does end up running, he would be Selen’s second challenger, alongside Randolph Republican county committeeman Anthony Somma. New Jersey Globe
The Biden Administration needs to halt development of offshore wind projects until it determines what is causing endangered whales to wash ashore dead on beaches in New Jersey and New York, conservationists said Jan. 9. The call came after a 30-foot humpback whale washed ashore on a beach in Atlantic City over the weekend as more than six whales have been found dead on beaches in the metropolitan area in the last 33 days. Conservationists suspect offshore wind developers using vessels to conduct mapping of the ocean floor may be causing the deaths. NJ Spotlight News
A new study found that affordability—not a lack of physical infrastructure—drives the digital divide that keeps high-speed internet service out of the hands of many low-income families in New Jersey. The study by Newark-based nonprofits Project Ready and Newark Trust for Education compared the average internet download speed by zip code in Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth, and Toms River. They found that the highest income households have internet download speeds nearly twice as fast as the lowest income households — and Black and Latino neighborhoods are disproportionately impacted. New Jersey’s average download speed is 136 megabits per second (Mbps), far faster than the 79.5 Mbps that Newark averages — even when adequate broadband infrastructure is in place. New Jersey Monitor
New Jersey Hospital Association data reveal a steady decline in the number of medically unnecessary cesarean births and pregnant women treated for hypertension and hemorrhaging. C-sections accounted for 27.7% of all hospital births in 2021, a decline of 14% from 2016 when 32.3% of all deliveries were performed surgically. That’s 10,000 fewer c-sections, which can lead to surgical-site infections and blood clots. New Jersey’s 48 birthing hospitals also treated nearly 30% fewer cases of high blood pressure — which includes preeclampsia, a serious disorder which can impair vital organs — and 15% fewer cases of excessive blood loss during and after delivery, the association said. NJ.com
Hackettstown police are investigating the theft of 18 catalytic converters from Amazon delivery trucks parked at the same location over the weekend. The devices were cut off trucks parked at an office property on Willow Grove Street between 8:30 p.m. Saturday and 10:15 a.m. Sunday, according to a release from the Hackettstown Police Department. The value of the stolen items is “in the thousands of dollars,” police said. New Jersey Herald
And finally…Morris County’s historic portrait of Abraham Lincoln is heading to the Smithsonian. The Daily Record
