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NJ Spotlight
$12.81
New Jersey has slowly increased its minimum wage for most workers to $15.13, but one class of workers remains well behind: farmworkers at $12.81 per hour. A federal lawsuit has been filed contesting the disparity, saying it violates constitutional rights to equal protection. Add to it that farmworkers can’t make overtime either.
NJ Spotlight News: August 8, 2024
We bring you what’s relevant and important in New Jersey news and our insight. Watch as the NJ Spotlight News team breaks down today’s top stories. NJ watchdog says residents with disabilities face ongoing abuse and neglect. New report details troubles, focuses on key areas where progress has...
EPA bans pesticide linked to fetal health risks
DCPA, or Dacthal, is a weed killer used on crops such as broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage and onions. The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday issued an emergency order to ban the use of a weed-killing pesticide that can harm the development of unborn babies. It’s the first emergency action of its kind taken by the regulatory agency in 40 years.
Hudson County sued by state comptroller over jail contract
Comptroller: County broke rules in no-bid health care contract. The State Comptroller’s office has now filed a lawsuit against Hudson County, intensifying the ongoing conflict between the state’s watchdog and the county government over how it awards contracts. The New Jersey Comptroller is seeking to block Hudson County...
NJ farmworkers sue for minimum wage, overtime rights
Edgar Aquino Huerta remembers his days as a farmworker and how a simple glass of water was hard to come by on a hot afternoon of picking vegetables. What started as a summer job has become his mission as an organizer for El Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agrícolas, the committee in support of agricultural workers or CATA.
Changes to school aid were supposed to ease property taxes. Here’s what really happened
Analysis of NJ property taxes in the seven years since the formula for state aid to school districts was revised. The equation politicians pitched to property owners and taxpayers in New Jersey has been simple: Increases in school aid equal property-tax relief. But to more than 1 million property owners...
NJ Lottery sales give $1B boost to public-worker pension fund
State law requires a portion of Lottery revenues to fund the pensions of retired public workers. New Jersey Lottery sales topped $3.5 billion during the last fiscal year, helping again to provide more than $1 billion for public-worker pensions, according to the latest preliminary figures. Unaudited financial results released by...
Hearings soon in two lawsuits over unreleased report on racial issues at Newark school
Newark Teachers Union filed lawsuits in 2023 and 2024 demanding release of a scathing report of Newark School of Global Studies’ cultural dynamics and related documents. Nearly two years after allegations of racial harassment at the Newark School of Global Studies first surfaced, two lawsuits demanding the release of a report analyzing the cultural dynamics at the school are scheduled to be heard in court.
NJ Spotlight News: August 7, 2024
We bring you what’s relevant and important in New Jersey news and our insight. Watch as the NJ Spotlight News team breaks down today’s top stories. Young Republicans say economic issues are attracting voters to GOP. Republicans have been leading Democrats in terms of new voter registrations. Rep....
Rep. Rob Menendez talks about strain of senator’s corruption case
Menendez: 'He's my father. Obviously it's been a challenging couple of months'. U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez says the last few months, which have seen his father, Sen. Bob Menendez, found guilty of corruption and other charges, have been challenging for his family. “He’s my father,” Rep. Menendez (D-8th) said on...
Young Republicans say economic issues are attracting voters to GOP
Republicans have been leading Democrats in terms of new voter registrations. As a suddenly energized Democratic Party tries to put the old Obama-Biden coalition back together behind Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz in the presidential race, a big part of that coalition is young voters. Young Republicans say they are making inroads into this key voting bloc.
And just like that, the sponsors of NJ budget add-ons are released
The names of the legislators who asked for nearly 500 last-minute changes to Gov. Phil Murphy’s final draft of the latest state budget are now public more than a month after that budget was signed into law. Individual “budget resolutions” documenting each of the legislative additions to the fiscal...
Killing by NJ police of a person in mental health crisis raises new questions
NJ’s Arrive Together program, pairing mental health professionals and law enforcement on emergency calls, is not available in Fort Lee, where the killing occurred. The killing by police of a Fort Lee woman experiencing a mental health crisis is raising new questions about the availability of a program that pairs mental health professionals with police to avoid such deadly incidents.
J-1 visa holders are back working at Jersey Shore at pre-pandemic levels
According to the State Department, New Jersey was in the top 10 for summer work-travel destinations. Yordan Yordanov is spending his second summer in a row in New Jersey. “It will remain my second home for life,” he said. “Even though I’ve been here … overall, six months.”
The J-1 visa process
The application, the documentation and the ‘biggest unknown variable’. For a company to hire an exchange visitor, they would have to reach out to a program sponsor to facilitate the process. “They’re going to vet you as a host organization to determine your eligibility to participate as a host,” according to Lisa Murray of the American Immigration Council. She said the council might participate in the vetting process.
4.6%
The national unemployment rate gets all of the attention — especially when it drives a stock market tumble like Monday’s — but New Jersey has its own rate that has shown improvement over the last few months, landing at 4.6% in June, the last available rate provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
NJ Spotlight News: August 6, 2024
We bring you what’s relevant and important in New Jersey news and our insight. Watch as the NJ Spotlight News team breaks down today’s top stories. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is known for his progressive politics. Why former NJ Republican governor backs Harris over Trump. Interview: Christine Todd...
Lawsuit seeks to end NJ’s storage of baby bloodspots
A group of New Jersey parents are pushing for an end to the state’s practice of retaining blood samples drawn from newborns without first getting parental consent. The standard practice by hospitals aims to screen newborns for diseases, but several parents last year filed a federal class action lawsuit when it was made public that the bloodspots were used by the state for other purposes and sometimes stored for decades.
DEP proposes new land use rules for Jersey Shore
Businesses and municipal officials push back as environmentalists celebrate. Environmentalists gathered on the boardwalk in Asbury Park Tuesday to celebrate publication by the state Department of Environmental Protection of proposed new guidelines for developing at the Jersey Shore. The Resilient Environments and Landscapes Rules, or REAL, will make homes and businesses more resilient as the state deals with sea level rise, the DEP said.
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