OPINION: Continuing the Push For an Assault Weapons Ban. Two polls released this week show why we have decided as a publication will continue to make banning assault weapons an above the fold issue. A Monmouth poll taken in March, before the most recent spate of mass shootings in Nashville, Alabama and Louisville, showed support for a ban had dropped nine percentage points to 46% from last year in the aftermath of the Uvdale massacre. But a Fox News—Fox News!!!!!—showed that 61% now wanted a ban on assault weapons. Our main premise in our series of opinion pieces over the last month is Americans have wrongly accepted gun violence and mass shootings, becoming desensitized to the damage that assault weapons such as AR-15 that are increasingly the weapons that cause multiple deaths and injuries. All of us must stop accepting that gun violence, especially those by AR-15s and other assault weapons, is something that we can do something about. Because we have done so in the past and we can do it again. North-JerseyNews.com
The FBI is offering an $80,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Francisco Oropesa, who is accused of killing five people with an assault weapon in Texas over the weekend. Oropesa had been shooting his gun in his yard in Cleveland, TX, April 28 when his neighbor Wilson Garcia approached him and asked him to stop so that his baby could sleep. Instead, the authorities said, Oropesa retrieved an AR-15 rifle from his house and walked over to Garcia’s home, where he killed his 8-year-old son, wife and three other people. The New York Times
Three months after Eunice Dwumfour was gunned down outside her home in Sayreville, the death of the 30-year-old Republican borough councilwoman remains a mystery. The family of the first-term elected official has voiced growing concerns about the thoroughness of the ongoing investigation by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s office, especially in the wake of the discovery of a missing cell phone that had apparently never been secured as evidence. NJ.com
State Senate Minority Leader Steven Oroho (R-24) is calling on the Murphy Administration to dedicate pandemic relief funds to prevent a $1 billion payroll tax increase. Oroho urged the Murphy Administration to bolster the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Fund to protect New Jersey employers during this period of economic hardship through federal funds and not a payroll tax increase. “(The) budget committee meeting with the Department of Labor confirmed that New Jersey employers will be hit with a massive $700 million payroll tax increase on July 1 to help replenish the UI Fund,” said Oroho, a member of the Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee. North-JerseyNews.com
State officials are seeking to expand access to home and community-based health services with an additional $100 million for programs to help older residents and people with disabilities avoid — or transfer out of — nursing homes. Much of the new funding in Gov. Phil Murphy’s proposed 2024 budget would be used to increase the number of caregivers available to help people remain in their communities, including $80 million for recruiting, educating, training and employee-retention programs under the Department of Human Services. Another $13 million would go to identify nursing home residents under age 65 who could live well in less restrictive settings, fund the support services needed and create new housing for those residents. NJ Spotlight News
Rutgers faculty union leaders voted April 30 to approve language for a contract that if ratified by nearly 9,000 members would end 10 months of negotiations with the university that turned into an impasse and the first-ever faculty strike on its three campuses. Along with raises retroactive to July 2022, provisions of the tentative agreement include reclassification of graduate fellows who work as teaching assistants or graduate assistants, so they can receive comparable health care benefits and pay; part-time lecturers some job security and 44% raises over four years based on a current per-class salary of $5,799; a 27.9% minimum salary increase for postdoctoral fellows, some of whom reported making $10,000 to $25,000; the right for graduate fellows to unionize; 10-month salaries of $40,000 for graduate assistants and teaching assistants by the end of the four-year contract; and a 14% raise for full-time faculty and counselors over four years. New Jersey Herald
New Jersey’s tourism industry is expected to generate $47.9 billion in state revenue this year, an increase of nearly 1% when compared with the pre-pandemic peak of $47.5 billion, according to an economic study from the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services. “The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on New Jersey’s tourism industry, which is an integral part of the State’s economy,” the OLS report said, which noted the number of overnight visitors to the Garden State continues to lag behind pre-pandemic levels. “People from around the world visit New Jersey’s beaches, casinos, and historical attractions, generating significant annual economic benefits to households, businesses, and governments.” NJ.com
Gas prices are continuing to fall in New Jersey, and analysts say the trend should continue. The statewide average for regular gasoline is now $3.48 per gallon, down four-cents lower than a week ago according to AAA. Last year at this time, New Jersey drivers were paying $4.20 a gallon for regular as prices were headed toward a record $5.05 per gallon in June. The Environmental Protection Agency recently issued an emergency waiver that will allow a cheaper blend of Summer gas to be sold beginning this month; the blend typically adds 15-20 cents more per gallon. NJ1015.com
Federal Regulators seized First Republic Bank and struck a deal to sell the bulk of its operations to JPMorgan Chase & Co., heading off a chaotic collapse that threatened to reignite the recent banking crisis. JPMorgan said it will assume all of First Republic’s $92 billion in deposits—insured and uninsured. It is also buying most of the bank’s assets, including about $173 billion in loans and $30 billion in securities. As part of the agreement, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will share losses with JPMorgan on First Republic’s loans. The agency estimated that its insurance fund would take a hit of $13 billion in the deal. The Wall Street Journal
Port Authority officials reported record-breaking activity and financial results for the first quarter 2023, but the bi-state agency said it is still feeling the effects of a $3 billion revenue loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency reported $1.5 billion in gross operating revenue was earned in the first three months of 2023—15% higher than same period in 2022, said Elizabeth McCarthy, Port Authority chief financial officer. The agency earned $597 million in net revenue after operating expenses of $902 million were deducted. That was $123 million more than earned in the first quarter 2022. NJ.com
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is committed to reaching a compromise over a proposed judicial overhaul that has sharply divided the country, even as he comes under increasing pressure from elements within his own government to advance the legislation. The bill would have been the first piece of a broader effort to weaken the power of the Supreme Court and give greater control to elected lawmakers. The Knesset reconvenes Sunday, adding urgency to the talks with the opposition as the coalition can now advance pieces of the overhaul for the first time since negotiations began. The Wall Street Journal
Russia launched a broad aerial assault at targets across Ukraine on May 1, the second wide-ranging attack in three days, as fighting appeared to intensify ahead of an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive. Explosions echoed in the skies above the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and other parts of the country before dawn as Ukrainian air defenses shot down 15 of 18 Russian cruise missiles, according to the Ukrainian military. The alert in the capital lasted for about three hours until the authorities said that “all enemy missiles and drones were destroyed in Kyiv airspace.” The New York Times
Rep. Josh Gottheimer slammed electric vehicle makers for removing AM radios from their vehicles despite the role they play in public safety. Gottheimer noted AM radio is the backbone behind America’s National Public Warning System, which is used to provide emergency-alert and warning information to the public during major natural disasters, extreme weather, chemical incidents, and more. “I would think that if Elon Musk has enough money to buy Twitter and send rockets to space, he can afford to include AM radio in his Teslas. Instead, Elon Musk and Tesla and other car manufacturers are putting public safety and emergency response at risk,” said Gottheimer. North-JerseyNews.com
New Jersey Superior Court’s Appellate Division last week decided Paterson police detectives conducted an illegal search when they entered a Manchester Avenue house where one of them allegedly saw a man with a gun run aside during an October 2017 patrol. The court ruled detectives should have gotten a warrant before searching the house because the officers did not know whether the man legally owned the gun and he had not given any indication that he was a threat to fire it at anyone. As a result, the court said, the prosecutors should not have been allowed to use as evidence the two guns and various drugs the detectives seized during the search in the trial against Michael Goodwin, the Paterson man they followed into the building. The Record
Political consultant Jim Devine has been charged with three counts of voter fraud connected to filing fake nominating petitions to put his life partner, Lisa McCormick, on the ballot as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2021. Devine faces more than eleven years in prison on one count of falsely filing nominating petitions, tampering with public records, and falsifying or tampering with records, a 4th-degree offense. Devine was McCormick’s campaign manager and the circulator of her petitions. New Jersey Globe
The Montclair town council voted April 28 to fire town manager Tim Stafford, who was put on paid leave last October after the first of three lawsuits accusing him of wrongdoing was filed. The vote capped eight months of turmoil as a steady stream of residents, mostly women, demanded to know why Stafford was still on the payroll that started after township CFO Padmaja Rao filed a lawsuit where she alleged that Stafford harassed, abused and retaliated against her after she spoke up about possible wrongdoing by the council and Stafford. The Record
Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla vetoed Hoboken rent control amendments approved in a 5-4 vote by the city council, prompting the Mile Square Taxpayers Association to vow to do a vacancy decontrol referendum. “I believe that the April 19 amendments passed 5-4 by the City Council will have the effect of gradually eliminating rent control in Hoboken within the next 10 years, or sooner,” wrote Bhalla in his veto. “The proposed amendments, which I believe to be flawed, allow landlords and property owners to bank rent increases in rent-controlled units that for whatever reason they decide not to impose on a current tenant, and then legally levy a large, banked increase on the next tenant.” HudsonCountyView.com
The superintendent of Lodi public schools has officially resigned nearly a year after being arrested for a fight in Seaside Heights last Summer. Douglas Petty was arrested last August, accused of punching a woman he was within the head during a fight outside a bar. Petty was found guilty on April 11 in Seaside Heights Municipal Court of an amended public nuisance offense that mandated he complete a 26-week batterer’s intervention program. NJ1015.com
Mount Olive School District Superintendent Rob Zywicki announced his resignation, but the conflict resulting in his October suspension by the Board of Education will continue. “For six months, the majority of the board and its legal representatives have rejected one opportunity after another to engage in meaningful settlement dialogue,” Zywicki’s resignation letter reads. “They prefer, instead, through malicious actions, anonymous letters, rumors and innuendo to make it impossible for me to return to Mount Olive and, as a practical and legal matter, they have constructively discharged me from my position.” The Daily Record
Dozens of Jersey City artists, educational arts programs and arts organizations have been awarded a total of $1 million in grants from the Jersey City Arts and Culture Trust Fund. The recipients encompass 68 arts programs and organizations (with an average award of over $14,000) and the 20 fellowship grants of $5,000 to individual artists. The Jersey Journal
And finally…The New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers will face off in a deciding Game 7 in the first round of the NHL Playoffs. The Record
