Isa M. Abbassi, the former New York City Police Department Chief of Strategic Initiatives, was officially handed the reins to the embattled Paterson Police Department, tasked with rebuilding the trust between residents and those that are sworn to protect them. Abbassi, who recently retired from his 26-year career with the NYPD where he was most recently Chief of Strategic Initiatives, was named Officer in Chief by New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin as part of the state’s take over of the North Jersey police department. “There is a need to reimagine public safety in the city of Paterson. We must accomplish this together, in partnership, with those we serve,” Abbassi stated in a press announcement at Passaic County Community College on May 8. North-JerseyNews.com
A federal jury unanimously found Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll and ordered him to pay $5 million in damages, after a civil trial in which the advice columnist alleged the former president raped her in a Manhattan department store nearly 30 years ago. The jury on May 9, following a two-week civil trial, didn’t find that Trump committed rape but found it more likely than not that he sexually abused Carroll in a dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman, sometime around 1996. Jurors also found that Trump defamed Carroll in comments he made denying her allegations, which she first made publicly in 2019. The Wall Street Journal
Rep. George Santos (R-NY) will reportedly be charged by federal prosecutors in New York, who have been conducting one of the inquiries into Santos’s financial and campaign activities. The unknown charges against Santos by the office of the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York come after months of investigation since his biography was found to be a web of lies and exaggerations. The New York Times
Inflation slowed for a 10th straight month in April, good news for American families struggling under the burden of higher costs and for policymakers in Washington as they try to wrangle rapid price increases. The Consumer Price Index climbed 4.9% in April from a year earlier, less than the 5% economists in a Bloomberg survey had expected. Inflation has come down notably from a peak just above 9% last Summer, though it has remained far higher than the 2% annual gains that were normal before the pandemic. After stripping out food and fuel to get a sense of the underlying trend in price increases — what economists call a core measure — consumer prices climbed 5.5% from a year earlier, a slight drop from 5.6% in the previous reading. The New York Times
Rep. Bill Pascrell recently introduced the Ending Wall Street Tax Giveaway Act focused on closing the so-called carried interest tax loophole. The carried interest exception was originally designed to help certain subsets of workers in speculative industries like oil and gas drilling, but Pascrell said it is now used primarily in the financial services industry. “America’s unfair two-tier system remains entrenched because of loopholes like this one,” said Pascrell. “Our tax code is littered with special breaks for the people at the very top, but the carried interest loophole stands among the most indefensible.” North-JerseyNews.com
Senate Democrats are ramping up their scrutiny of billionaire Harlan Crow’s relationship with Justice Clarence Thomas, after the Republican real-estate magnate rebuffed a request for details on his gifts to and business dealings with the Supreme Court member. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s 11 Democrats requested details on all payments or gifts worth more than $415 to any Supreme Court justice or justice’s relative, along with similar information about real-estate transactions, lodging, transportation and private club benefits. The Wall Street Journal
After a meeting with Congressional leaders about raising the debt ceiling, President Joe Biden offered a hint as to how the government might avoid a default on his bills as early as next month. President Biden signaled he was open to clawing back some unspent stimulus money included in the economic rescue bill he signed in 2021 during the pandemic. Additionally, the President acknowledged that he is considering what would effectively be a constitutional challenge to the very existence of the debt limit—a unilateral path that would face legal hurdles. The New York Times
Seventeen years after he left to take a seat in Congress, Albio Sires will be mayor of West New York once again. Sires, who served in the U.S. House from 2006 until last year, has won a seat on the West New York Town Commission by a large margin; with all four of his running mates also winning seats, he’s set to succeed incumbent Gabe Rodriguez as the town’s next mayor. Sires’ slate had a collective 61% of the vote, while a rival slate led by Town Commissioner Cosmo Cirillo had 39%. InsiderNJ.com
North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco completed his North Bergen trilogy with Larry Wainstein by securing a nearly 3-to-1 victory May 9 as his board of commissioners slate pulled off a clean sweep. Sacco was seeking his 11th term in municipal office: he was elected commissioner in 1985 and then mayor in 1991. He ran alongside Public Safety Commissioner Allen Pascual, Parks and Public Property Commissioner Hugo Cabrera, Hudson County Democratic Organization Chair Anthony Vainieri, and Board of Education Trustee Claudia Rodriguez. HudsonCountyView.com
Just 25% of Republicans in New Jersey would consider voting for Chris Christie, the state’s former two-term governor, in a GOP presidential primary, while 71% said they would support Donald Trump, according to a new Fairleigh Dickinson University poll. Moreover, 70% of New Jersey Republicans and GOP leaners said they would not consider voting for Christie regardless of who else sought the nomination in 2024. New Jersey Globe
New Jersey Republicans are looking to step up their own mail and early voting operations as party leaders warn inaction could spell doom for the GOP. Tom Szymanski, the Republican State Committee’s executive director, said the Republicans aren’t looking to outclass the opposition on pre-Election Day voting, they just want to narrow the gap. “We’re not looking to get on higher ground than them on Election Day. We’re just looking to make the hole that we’re going into Election Day morning with shallower,” Szymanski said. “That’s the metric of success.” New Jersey Monitor
The State Senate budget hearing on transportation on May 9 touched on E-ZPass, the turnpike widening, NJ Transit’s anticipated headquarters move and challenges with hiring. Senators raised more questions about why NJ Transit is moving its headquarters to a politically connected building near its current facility in Newark, as well as the controversial Transportation Department project that would spend nearly $11 billion to widen and reconstruct four sections of the New Jersey Turnpike between the area of the Holland Tunnel and the ports in Bayonne. And they had questions about what efforts are being made to help people get through to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority’s EZPass contractor, Conduent. The Daily Record
Barack Obama will recognize Newark’s success in reducing violence with an $800,000 grant to continue that work. The My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, created by then-President Obama in 2014 and now run by the Obama Foundation, will recognize Newark as a “model community” to serve as an example for communities nationwide. NJ.com
Gov. Phil Murphy signed bipartisan legislation from North Jersey lawmakers to crack down on acts of sexual extortion. The new law criminalizes the act of coercing another person to engage in sexual contact or provide explicit images or videos under threat, either of disclosing an explicit sexual image or video of the victim or to the victim’s person, property, or reputation. “Victims of sexual extortion deserve to know they are not alone and justice will be served in New Jersey,” said Assemblywoman Aura Dunn (R-25). “Sexual extortion is a growing threat and addressing it legislatively is a promise to our communities that we as public servants are committed to stopping these horrible crimes.” North-JerseyNews.com
A law signed this week by Gov. Phil Murphy makes it possible for New Jersey cannabis businesses to deduct some expenses on state tax returns by decoupling them from federal rules. Since cannabis is federally prohibited, cannabis businesses were not allowed to deduct expenses like normal businesses would. Under the new state law, the business subject to the corporation business tax will be allowed to deduct from income all ordinary expenses associated with managing a licensed cannabis business, including the opportunity to qualify for research and development deductions. NJ.com
Elected and appointed officials in Edgewater actively worked to benefit a prominent Bergen County developer, a new report from the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation found. In its report, the commission outlined how many Edgewater officials had connections to Fred Daibes, a local developer with property along the Hudson River, and that some of the ties included business contracts and, in one case, discounted rent for a luxury apartment. The Record
And finally…The New York Knicks will attempt to stave off elimination as they face the Miami Heat at home tonight.
