Americans are backing the stance of President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats when it comes to raising the debt ceiling in a clean manner. According to a Monmouth University Poll released May 24, 25% of respondents to the national poll think the debt ceiling should be tied to negotiations over spending on federal programs compared with 51% who say the two issues should be dealt with separately. The Jersey Shore polling outfit found that 42% believe not reaching a deal to raise the debt limit would cause significant economic problems. But 30% responded that it was an exaggerated claim and nearly the same amount (28%) had no opinion. North-JerseyNews.com
Wall Street is breaking out its doomsday playbook for how to survive a U.S. default if the debt ceiling is not raised, with its primary goal to keep the financial markets functioning. Under Wall Street’s plan, though, investors would be able to keep trading all U.S. Treasurys, even those with past-due interest or principal payments. Chaos and confusion would be kept at bay through a series of conference calls, each with an agenda already organized by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association trade group. The Wall Street Journal
The U.S. House on May 24 voted to overturn the Biden Administration’s one-time student debt relief plan that is currently on hold awaiting a Supreme Court decision expected within weeks. Before the 218-203 vote on the resolution, the White House said President Joe Biden would veto it, arguing that the U.S. Department of Education has the legal authority to execute the one-time cancellation of up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers who qualify, and that overturning the policy “would weaken America’s middle class.” New Jersey Monitor
There will be no trilogy in 2024 to Malinowski-Kean as Tom Malinowski, the former two-term representative of the 7th Congressional District, announced he will not seek to reclaim his seat in 2024. “It was the greatest honor of my life to represent you in Congress. And I believe strongly that a Democrat can and will win the seat next year,” Malinowski said in a statement May 23. “But that is a mountain I have climbed before and I am looking forward to climbing many new ones.” North-JerseyNews.com
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis entered the 2024 presidential race on May 24, seeking the Republican nomination is an ever growing field. The 44-year-old Republican revealed his decision in a Federal Election Commission filing before addressing his decision in a video posted on social media. He tried to discuss his decision further in an online conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk, although the audio stream crashed repeatedly. “We need the courage to lead and the strength to win,” DeSantis said in the minute-long video. “I’m Ron DeSantis, and I’m running for president to lead our great American comeback.” NJ.com
State Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-21) is airing a new cable TV ad pushing back on extremists from the left and the right while touting balance and civility. The ad features Bramnick, a stand-up comedian who has developed a reputation for outside-the-box campaign ads, on stage at a comedy club shutting down hecklers from both sides of the ideological spectrum. “It’s how I feel,” said Bramnick. New Jersey Globe
President Joe Biden implored Congress on May 24 to “please do something” to stop the flow of guns involved in mass shootings like the school massacre that killed 19 children and two teachers a year ago in Uvalde, TX. Marking the anniversary of the killings, President Biden called again for tighter laws on firearms, including a ban on assault weapons like the one used by the killer in Uvalde. “How many more parents will live their worst nightmare before we stand up to the gun lobby?” the president asked during a brief speech at the White House. “It’s time to make our voices heard, not as Democrats or as Republicans but as friends, as neighbors, as parents, as fellow Americans.” The New York Times
New Jersey hospitals saw a significant jump in the number of more severely ill patients coming through their doors in 2022, most likely a byproduct of avoiding doctor’s offices, outpatient clinics and hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report released May 24. Data collected by the New Jersey Hospitals Association shows a 21% increase between 2019 and 2022 in patients with illnesses classified as “major or extreme.” That amounts to almost 42% of all non-COVID-related patients seen last year in the state’s 70 hospitals. The Daily Record
New Jersey is no longer reporting the number of new coronavirus infections on a daily basis, more than three years after the state announced its first case. The state’s Department of Health quietly removed the daily case counts tab from its COVID-19 dashboard earlier this week. The dashboard was also updated to show lab confirmed cases grouped by week, instead of daily case counts. A department spokesperson said the new data will now be published weekly. NJ.com
An Arkansas man who became notorious for putting his foot on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk during the attack on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump was sentenced on May 24 to four and a half years in prison. After deliberating for less than three hours, a jury in Federal District Court in Washington rejected Richard “Bigo” Barnett’s testimony that he had ended up in Pelosi’s office suite while looking for a bathroom and that the 950,000-volt stun gun he was carrying that day was not working. The New York Times
A federal judge is set to sentence Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and another member of his far-right militia May 25 for conspiring to forcefully prevent the peaceful transfer of power on Jan. 6, 2021, and keep former President Donald Trump in office. Rhodes’s sentencing hearing, comes six months after a jury found him and another Oath Keepers member, Kelly Meggs, guilty of seditious conspiracy, the gravest charge the Justice Department has levied in the more than 1,000 prosecutions stemming from the Jan. 6 attack. Federal prosecutors recommended that Rhodes receive a 25-year prison term that, if ordered, would be the stiffest punishment to date in a conviction connected to the Capitol assault. The Wall Street Journal
Assembly lawmakers heard debate May 24 about state rules that cap how many liquor licenses New Jersey municipalities can award to bars and restaurants, part of a larger fight to loosen the state’s Prohibition-era liquor license laws. The Assembly Oversight and Reform Committee passed bills that would allow municipalities to auction off excess retail licenses to their municipal neighbors, create a new type of license allowing food courts to serve alcohol, and lift event and food restrictions on craft alcohol manufacturers. The committee discussed but did not vote on other measures that would drastically raise taxes for hard seltzers, lemonades, and similar products as well as allow towns to lower the retail license population limit through an ordinance. NJ Spotlight News
Republican State Senators recently raised their objections to the New York City Congestion Tax. State Senate Minority Leader Steve Oroho (R-24) along with his colleagues Michael Testa (R-1) and Declan O’Scanlon (R-13) as just another scheme for New York to keep padding its budget at the expense of New Jersey. “Manhattan’s new congestion pricing plan is yet another example of New York levying an unjust tax on New Jersey commuters,” said Oroho (R-24). “New York is trying to extract as much money as possible from New Jerseyans.” North-JerseyNews.com
New home listings in New Jersey fell nearly 29% in March compared to a year earlier as the effects of rising mortgage interest rates continue to ripple across the real estate market, data from Realtor.com showed. A total of 8,168 homes in New Jersey were newly-listed in March, according to the data. New listings in New Jersey saw the 9th steepest decrease in the U.S. NJ.com
Businesses and economists have mixed outlook for the labor market this Summer that could result in teens having an easier time finding work. “Teens that want jobs are basically working right now,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of the outplacement services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. New Jersey Herald
New Jersey joined a multi-state lawsuit against an alleged robocaller that is accused of making more than 237 million illegal robocalls to state residents, the attorney general’s office said May 23. The state said Avid Telecom and its principals made more than 7.5 billion calls across the country between December 2018 and January 2023, violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule and other federal and state telemarketing and consumer laws. More than 45 states are part of the action. NJ.com
Public commentary reached a fever pitch at a Roxbury Board of Education meeting where some 80 speakers signed up to debate banning books at the high school library May 23. Protesters waved signs showing illustrations from LGBTQ-themed books, calling them pornographic and demanding the board order them off the shelves, while right-to-read advocates argued students need books that discuss more than one point of view. NJ Spotlight News
The redesign of Liberty State Park is still in the planning stages, but the commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said there will be no privatization and commercialization of the Jersey City Hudson River waterfront park. DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette doubled down on a statement he made two months ago while discussing the park plans May 24 at the DEP’s open house at the park’s Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal. The DEP’s current plan calls for a makeover of the soon-to-be-remediated interior, the northern, southern, and waterfront sections in three phases. The Jersey Journal
The Bayonne City Council voted in favor of the local medical center acquiring $40.55 million in state and federal grants at last week’s meeting, joining their counterparts in Jersey City and Hoboken in supporting the CarePoint Health hospital chain. The grant funding that CarePoint Health is seeking, which totals about $104 million across their three facilities, will enable the hospital system to continue to provide healthcare services as a nonprofit. CarePoint’s transfer to nonprofit status at their three hospitals, the Bayonne Medical Center, Hoboken University Medical Center, and Christ Hospital in Jersey City, was approved by the State Health Planning Board in February. HudsonCountyView.com
And finally…The New York Times obit for Tina Turner, who died yesterday at the age of 83.
