A defiant Sen. Bob Menendez rejected the calls to step down after being indicted for a second time while serving in office, stating “prosecutors get it wrong sometimes…I know this from previous experience.” “The allegations leveled that me are just that…allegations,” said Menendez on Sept. 25 at Hudson County Community College speaking for the first time since the charges were made public last week. “People have called for my resignation because I have lost the trust of New Jerseyans. They couldn’t be more wrong.”  “I recognize that this will be the biggest fight yet, but as I have state ..read more

For the second time in a decade, Sen. Bob Menendez has been indicted by federal authorities on corruption charges.  In an indictment unsealed Sept. 22 by the Southern District of New York, the U.S. Department of Justice is charging Menendez, his wife Nadine and three North Jersey businessmen with counts of bribery and wire fraud. Additionally, the Menendez’s are charged with conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right. The indictment includes details such as the U.S. Senator and his wife passing sensitive intelligence information, accepting gold bars and selling them und ..read more

The U.S. federal government released a scathing report on Sept. 7 of how the state violated the 14th Amendment rights of residents at the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Homes at Menlo Park and Paramus during the coronavirus pandemic. The department found “reasonable cause” to believe the residents face “unreasonable harm and risk due to inadequate infection control practices and inadequate medical care” by the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs which operates the homes, providing long-term nursing care to veterans and their families.  The inadequate infection control pr ..read more

Female students returning to school will have menstrual products available for free after Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law a bill last week. Recognizing that access to affordable menstrual products is key to the health and participation of New Jersey students, Murphy signed S-1221/A-1349 on Aug. 23 that requiring school districts to provide menstrual products free of charge in every public school teaching students in one or more of grades six through twelve.  “When students can’t access the menstrual products they need for their reproductive health, the potential stress and stigma too of ..read more

As various parental rights cases make their way through the courts, a Monmouth poll released this week showed a sizable majority of New Jersey adults believe schools should inform parents when a student asks to be identified by a different gender. Three in four New Jerseyans (77%) feel middle and high schools should be required to notify parents if their child wants to be identified as a different gender than what is on their school registration. The poll released Aug. 22 comes just days after a state judge issued a temporary injunction last week in a court case involving a handful of school ..read more

As the eight candidates get set to face off at the first GOP debate in Milwaukee tonight, a recent FDU poll showed that those tubing in may offer a path to defeating Donald Trump for the Republican nomination. A survey of Republican likely primary voters released by the New Jersey university on Aug. 15, those who pay the most attention to the news are more likely to view the indictments as legitimate and are less likely to support Trump, but are outweighed by those paying little attention to current events.  The survey, fielded before the Georgia indictments, shows that reminding Republi ..read more

A federal judge has breathed new life into one of Gov. Phil Murphy’s gun safety laws. Judge Stephanos Bibas, writing for a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reinstated a state law Murphy signed last Summer that gives the New Jersey Attorney General the power to sue gun makers and sellers for recklessly contributing to a “public nuisance.” Bibas said the National Shooting Sports Foundation that sued in November to block the law had “jumped the gun” in challenging the law because the attorney general hasn’t enforced it yet. A lower court had suspended enforcem ..read more

A state judge late last week gave an initial backing to the Murphy Administration in its battle with parental rights groups in Monmouth County.  State Superior Court Judge David F. Bauman on Aug. 18 granted a request for a preliminary injunction by the state Attorney General’s office against the policies requiring parents be notified when students ask for transgender or nonbinary accommodations until the court case is resolved. The case in question involves the Marlboro, Manalapan-Englishtown and Middletown school districts which in June passed policies requiring teachers to notify paren ..read more

A second straight of Monmouth poll numbers could be possible foreshadowing Blue New Jersey turning Red in the the 2023 and 2024 elections. The Jersey Shore polling outfit released the results of polling Aug. 17 showing that public opinion of federal officeholders in New Jersey has dipped in the past year,—and Sen. Bob Menendez is the only one who has lost ground with fellow Democrats.  Most respondents to the survey feel a current federal investigation involving the state’s senior senator has at least some impact on his ability to serve. Other poll results show that Sen. Cory Booker reta ..read more

Despite slipping a few points, Gov. Phil Murphy’s job rating continues to be in positive territory with New Jersey residents according to the latest Monmouth Poll. Released Aug. 16, one-third of respondents say Murphy has scored major accomplishments in office and the vast majority say gender and race should not be considerations in choosing a successor for the late Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver. The poll finds that Murphy’s overall job performance rating stands at 50% approve and 39% disapprove among all New Jersey adults and 50% approve and 40% disapprove among registered voters. These ..read more