New York City’s Winter JazzFest stretches to Brooklyn for the first time this year — arguably offering its best punch of innovative programming, with artists like Kneebody and Daedelus both performing at the Music Hall of Williamsburg as a part of tomorrow’s marathon.

New Jersey will offer $5,000 rebates to drivers who buy electric cars and $500 to people who install charging equipment in their home, in a bid to accelerate the nascent industry and move the state toward a 100% clean energy economy.

Gov. Phil Murphy, who signed the law Friday, said switching from gas-powered to electric vehicles is key to fighting climate change in a state where the transportation sector accounts for more than 40% of greenhouse gas emissions.

New Jersey will eliminate surcharges on motor vehicle violations, which defendants are required to pay in addition to court-imposed fines and penalties.

Lawmakers and defense attorneys said New Jersey was one of just four states that levy additional surcharges on defendants for infractions like unsafe or drunk driving, a practice they suggested disproportionately impacts poorer residents.

Playwright Jewelle Gomez was one of the lucky people who got to see jazz and blues singer and songwriter Alberta Hunter perform at The Cookery in Greenwich Village, New York.

Gomez was so inspired by Hunter's music and life that eventually she wanted to write about the legend who had a successful career from the early 1920s to the late 1950s, and then stopped performing.  Then in 1977, after twenty years of working as a nurse, Alberta Hunter successfully resumed her popular singing career until her death.