New Jersey

The New Jersey Judiciary is asking for dedicated funding in the state budget to pay for the extra personnel and equipment required to operate its pretrial system.

In 2017, New Jersey virtually eliminated cash bail, and judges began deciding whether to keep defendants in jail before trial or let them go free based on the risk they posed to the public.

The changes affected courts across the state and required additional training as well as new staff and equipment.

Rates of recidivism and failure to appear for court increased slightly after New Jersey virtually eliminated cash bail in 2017, according to a report released Tuesday by the state Judiciary.

The data was viewed as a victory by state court officials, who said the increases were statistically insignificant and suggested critics were wrong to predict that releasing more nonviolent criminal defendants before their trials would wreak havoc on the justice system.

Just hours after New Jersey legislators backed a bill that would legalize medical aid-in-dying in the state, Gov. Phil Murphy vowed to sign it into law.

“Allowing terminally ill and dying residents the dignity to make end-of-life decisions according to their own consciences is the right thing to do,” Murphy said in a statement. “I look forward to signing this legislation into law.”

The medical aid-in-dying bill was controversial, and it passed both the state Assembly and Senate with the minimum number of votes.

The New Jersey Tax Incentive Task Force, a group formed by Gov. Phil Murphy to look into the state’s $11 billion tax break programs, kicked off its first public meeting Thursday with testimony from a whistleblower who said her former employer lied to get a lucrative tax break — and kept it, despite failing to meet the requirements of its agreement.

Gulsen Kama, a former high-level employee at the tax preparation company Jackson Hewitt, said the firm falsely claimed it was considering leaving New Jersey to secure a tax break meant to keep jobs in the state.

Legislative leaders in New Jersey canceled a scheduled vote Monday on a plan to legalize recreational marijuana, citing a lack of support from members.

State Sen. President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said the Senate specifically did not have enough votes to pass the legislation, but the Assembly also called off its planned vote.

“I might’ve underestimated the challenge in getting this passed,” Sweeney said. “We’re postponing today. But that does in no way mean that we have failed or that we’re walking away from it.”

Tom Brady. NyQuil. Blue Magic.

New Jersey law enforcement authorities are urging heroin users to ditch their drugs if they see any packages stamped with these logos.

“Please, please, stay away from it. Your next fix could very likely be your last,” said Attorney General Gurbir Grewal at a Thursday press conference.

The unusual warning followed what authorities said was a major bust of a heroin production facility at a luxury apartment in Harrison in North Jersey.

Officials estimated it was churning out 15,000 doses of fentanyl-laced heroin every day.

It’s been a little more than seven years since New Jersey’s Practitioner Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment law, or POSLT was signed by former Governor Chris Christie, empowering patients to work with their preferred medical professional to create advance directives.  But still people end up in hospitals with no living will.  The Governor's Advisory Council Report on End of Life Care says more than a quarter of adults, including seniors, have no documentation available if they're not able to make healthcare decisions for themselves.

Advocates on either side of New Jersey’s school funding debate made their views clear in Trenton Wednesday, as legislators kicked off their first round of public hearings on the next fiscal year’s budget.

Although the meetings are open to anyone who wants to speak, testimony was dominated by those weighing in on recent changes to the state’s school funding formula, which reduced aid to some districts and increased it to others.

Law enforcement officials in New Jersey have announced the first criminal charges filed under the state’s new “ghost gun” law.

Signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in November, the law bans manufacturers from selling partially assembled guns that can be built into fully functional, untraceable firearms.

At a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Friday, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., all but confirmed he would pick a woman as his vice president if he won the Democratic nomination for president.

“No matter what — I’m looking you in the eye and saying this — there will be a woman on the ticket,” Booker told the crowd at the Salt Hill Pub in Lebanon.

“I don’t know if it’s in the vice president’s position or the president’s position, but if I have my way, there will be a woman on the ticket,” he added.

The man at the center of a hiring scandal in New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration said Tuesday he did not know who approved him for a job in state government months after a colleague accused him of rape. He has denied the allegation.

New Jersey’s Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a bill Thursday evening that would dramatically expand the state’s statute of limitations for sexual assault, allowing survivors to file civil lawsuits against their abusers for conduct that took place years or even decades earlier.

The upvote on a bill that had stalled in the Legislature in previous years came after hours of raw testimony from survivors about the abuse they had endured and the struggles of seeking justice with the state’s two-year limit.

Gov. Phil Murphy is again calling for New Jersey to raise its income tax rate on millionaires, a proposal that was shot down last year by legislative Democrats as the state hurtled toward a government shutdown.

In his second proposed budget, which he announced Tuesday, Murphy suggested expanding the state’s highest income tax bracket of 10.75 percent to include anyone making more than $1 million per year.

Murphy predicts it would mean additional $447 million if the state expanded its highest income tax brackets.

2010 Census statistics show most children under age 5 that weren’t counted live in what’s called “hard to count” areas.  Experts say these are generally majority minority, low poverty municipalities.

“I can say that my wife and I are taking it so seriously, that since the last census count, we’ve had three children,” said Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh, who jokes about it but understands that his city has one of the largest populations of undercounted children in New Jersey.  That’s why Paterson created a Complete Count Committee.

As the New Jersey legislature prepares to vote on a $15 minimum wage bill, advocates for restaurant employees are making their case to ensure the industry isn’t left out.

Seven states have a ‘One Fair Wage’ bill, where restaurant employees make the state minimum wage with tips on top.  Opponents of the restaurant wage hike say it would hurt the industry, particularly small businesses.  Advocates believe otherwise.

Downtown Cranford, NJ was recently voted one of the best in the Garden State.  

WBGO's Ang Santos visits the municipal building to talk with Gabe Bailer, director of Downtown Business and Economic Development in Cranford.  They discuss why the downtown district has attracted so much attention and the importance of Small Business Saturday.   

To listen, click the link above.

Many New Jersey voters encountered long lines and malfunctioning machines at the polls yesterday.  

A lot of voters who mailed in ballots in 2016 had to use provisional ballots at the polls this time. That’s because a new law signed by the governor this year that automatically lists them as mail-in voters.  It caused problems at the polls, but Murphy says it expanded voter participation.

“While it may have brought some confusion, four hundred thousand people, over four hundred thousand people voted by mail, a third of them we believe are new voters.”