Hudson County Democrats have set the final piece of their primary legislator puzzle as Assemblywoman Angela McKnight will run for the State Senate seat in the 31st Legislative District currently occupied by Sandra Cunningham. Hudson County Democratic Organization Chairman Anthony Vainieri announced the retirement of Cunningham, who has been dealing with cognitive health issues that has resulted in her being absent from Trenton since June. McKnight’s running mates will be Assemblyman Will Sampson IV and Jersey City Democratic Organization Chairwoman Barbara Stamato. North-JerseyNews.com
The “Sires Team for West New York” is calling out the “WNY Forward” slate over the number of the petitions submitted to the municipal clerk’s office at the filing deadline March 6. The Cosmo Cirillo-led team announcing they collected 12,000 signatures, but only submitted about 2,500 petitions to the clerk’s office. “Cosmo Cirillo and his team need to come clean with the people of West New York and explain why they said they have obtained 12,000 petitions when only a fraction of that number were actually submitted to the Town Clerk,” Sires team spokesman Phil Swibinski said. Hudson County View
Former Senate President Steve Sweeney is leaning against a return to the New Jersey State Senate, with Democrats now focusing on former Assemblyman John Burzichelli to take on GOP State Sen. Edward Durr n South Jersey’s 3rd legislative district. New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Doug Fisher, a former assemblyman and Cumberland County freeholder who now lives in East Greenwich, has emerged as a possible Assembly candidate as has Dave Bailey, the CEO of Ranch Hope, a well-known non-profit based in Salem County. New Jersey Globe
Assembly Minority Leader John DiMaio (R-23) and Republicans believe that Gov. Phil Murphy’s school funding plan is nothing more than political hyperbole, decrying cuts to certain school districts. “The premise that schools are fully funded is an outright lie,” said DiMaio. “It’s also a lie to call it property tax relief, just after we learned that property taxes increased yet again in New Jersey. That’s not relief. The state could fully fund schools up to adequacy and allow property taxes to actually be lowered. Neither are a priority for the governor.” North-JerseyNews.com
The State Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee plans to begin its formal scrutiny of Gov. Phil Murphy’s $53.1 billion budget at Ramapo College. The in-person public hearing, scheduled for 10 a.m. on March 14, kicks off a lengthy budget review process by lawmakers during the months leading up to the July 1 start of a new fiscal year. The Senate committee is planning a second public hearing on Murphy’s spending plan for the 2024 fiscal year on April 25, this time using an all-virtual format that was popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Assembly Budget Committee is also expected to convene its own set of public hearings, but dates for those events have yet to be made public. NJ Spotlight News
Federal Reserve chair Jerome H. Powell made clear on that the central bank is prepared to react to recent signs of economic strength by raising interest rates higher than previously expected and, if incoming data remain hot, potentially returning to a quicker pace of rate increases. Powell, in remarks before the Senate Banking Committee March 7, noted that the Fed’s fight against inflation was “very likely” to come at some cost to the labor market. His comments were the clearest acknowledgment yet that recent reports showing inflation remains stubborn and the job market remains resilient are likely to shake up the policy trajectory for America’s central bank. The New York Times
Advocacy groups including New Jersey Citizen Action joined Newark Mayor Ras Baraka in asking the federal government to set conditions for merger of Lakeland Bank with Provident Bank. In its filing with the justice department, New Jersey Citizen Action requested the Federal Reserve require a Community Reinvestment Act agreement as a condition for the merager, noting Newark has long been subject to predatory lending practices, redlining and price gouging, which have contributed to generational poverty. “That’s why we stand with NJ Citizen Action in asking the Federal Reserve before they sanction this agreement, sanction this merger, that they should enforce what the consent order said by the Department of Justice,” Baraka said. NJ.com
New Jersey officials plan to appeal a federal judge’s orders blocking parts of the state’s new gun law. Attorney General Matt Platkin told federal Judge Renée Marie Bumb he will appeal her two temporary restraining orders allowing guns in places state legislators banned them, including bars, parks, beaches, and libraries — even though such orders aren’t ordinarily appealable, according to a letter Deputy Solicitor General Angela Cai submitted on behalf of Platkin. The appeal threat comes as Bumb is considering whether to issue permanent injunctions in the case, filed by a group of gun rights advocates. Platkin’s letter says the state would withdraw any appeal if Bumb rules on the injunctions or withdraws the temporary restraining orders. New Jersey Monitor
A federal judge ruled that Missouri’s sweeping gun-rights law is unconstitutional, in a win for the federal government, which said the law hurt criminal investigations. The 2021 legislation, known as the Second Amendment Preservation Act, made it illegal for state or local officials to cooperate with federal agents to enforce orders, rules or laws that go against the Second Amendment, which protects the right to keep and bear arms. The law also gave Missourians the right to sue local police departments for $50,000 in damages if officials prevented their right to bear arms. The Wall Street Journal
New intelligence reviewed by U.S. officials suggests that a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines last year, a step toward determining responsibility for an act of sabotage that has confounded investigators on both sides of the Atlantic for months. U.S. officials said that they had no evidence President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine or his top lieutenants were involved in the operation, or that the perpetrators were acting at the direction of any Ukrainian government officials. The New York Times
Democratic and Republican lawmakers criticized a Fox News segment that showed previously unaired footage of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, saying it played down the severity of the riot, in which a pro-Donald Trump mob tried to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election. On March 6, Fox News host Tucker Carlson aired several clips of footage focused on central figures of the day, including Jacob Chansley, the self-described QAnon Shaman. Carlson said that lawmakers had intentionally overstated the violence and that members of the Jan. 6 committee established to investigate the attack “lied about what they saw” in the footage. The Wall Street Journal
Text messages released on March 7 as part of Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News offer some of the clearest evidence yet about the serious misgivings that many inside the network expressed to one another even as they told their audiences of millions a very different story of fraud and malfeasance at the polls. Among them were an private remarks Tucker Carlson made about Donald Trump, including “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,” Mr. Carlson wrote to members of his staff on Jan. 4, 2021. “I hate him passionately.” The New York Times
Henry Rhodes, the manager of two Paterson school transportation companies, pleaded guilty March 6 to charges that he put children’s safety at risk by hiring unqualified bus drivers, including some with criminal records. Rhodes admitted getting lucrative student busing contracts for the companies by giving school districts bogus information about the company’s drivers’ credentials. The guilty plea came almost three years after the first set of charges were filed against Rhodes and Shelim Khalique, the brother of a Paterson city councilman, who is the owner of one of the companies, A-1 Elegant and American Star Transportation. The Record
An investigation into stolen vehicles being shipped out of the country resulted in the recovery of 23 cars at the Port of New York/Newark. Customs and Border Protection officials conducted a five-day operation in mid-February and discovered the vehicles in less than one week, with the vehicles destined to Western African countries (Togo, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Monrovia, and Liberia) with an estimated value of $1,333,425. News12 New Jersey
North Jersey legislators in the State Senate and Assembly are taking aim at human trafficking in the Garden State as a pair of bills introduced by state Democrats moved forward in the Senate Feb. 27, while a bipartisan bill moved forward a week earlier. The Dem bills would authorize civil actions against entities that knowingly profit from human trafficking and expand the duties of the Commission on Human Trafficking to study issues related to women and children of color. A third bill, sponsored by State Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz (D-29) and Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-26), would require the State Commission on Investigation to examine human trafficking activity at businesses that employ massage and bodywork therapists. North-JerseyNews.com
New Jersey agreed to accept new applications to build more offshore wind farms along the coast, amid lingering controversies over what these projects will cost consumers and a growing clamor over dead whales washing ashore on metropolitan beaches in the past three months. In a unanimous vote March 6, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approved a window for accepting those applications, its third solicitation for offshore wind projects. So far, three projects have been approved by the BPU, but none have been built. NJ Spotlight News
A Haledon quarry will now give notifications one hour before it detonates explosives to try to make peace with a neighborhood that deals with the blasting on a regular basis. Residents have been instructed to text the word “blast” to a five-digit number for alerts from the Braen Stone Co. quarry. In the past, they were startled by the noises and shaking without any warning. Mayor Michael Johnson, meanwhile, said he will form a citizens’ panel to serve as a liaison between the borough and the quarry, a 119-year-old business on Central Avenue. The Record
Demolition of the Nabisco factory in Fair Lawn is underway, with an implosion, still to come that has homeowners living in the shadow of the complex say that they are truly afraid of their homes being seriously damaged and what their lungs may be exposed to. Glen Rock residents have complained about their homes shaking during demolition and are worried about what they may be breathing after finding out the building is filled with asbestos. News12 New Jersey
And finally…The New York Football Giants and QB Daniel Jones agreed to a four year deal, all owing the team to place the franchise tag on RB Saquon Barkley. The Record
