Wednesday, April 17, 2013
State agency will allow qualified organizations to assist utility customers in paying electric and gas bills.
The state is asking nonprofit groups to lend a hand distributing grants to low- and moderate-income New Jersey residents to help them pay their gas and electric bills. The program, one of several that aims to ensure utility customers retain their gas and electric service, has distributed between $800,000 and as much as $3 million over the past few years to homeowners and renters who have trouble paying their bills. Unlike other programs, this one makes one-time grants available to customers to avert the turning off of their electric and gas service. To be eligible to participate, applicants must have a history of paying their utility bills in a timely manner. The money for the program comes from unclaimed utility deposits by ratepayers. …
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Buybacks take thousands of guns off New Jersey streets, but critics argue the millions spent could be put to better use.
State officials, with the help of local authorities, have been conducting a gun buyback campaign in several New Jersey cities, an effort to reduce gun-related crimes that they say was planned before the Newtown, CT, shooting. Since December, the state has spent $1.2 million on five buybacks. They’ve collected a record haul of more than 9,000 firearms, including rocket launchers, assault weapons, and submachine guns. No one seems to dispute that it's good idea to get those items off the street. But some question whether the effort is truly effective or worth the cost. Critics like Jon Vernick, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University who has co-authored two studies on the question, say there is no evidence that buybacks reduce gun violence…
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Ironically, the DEP's computer isn't smart enough to make the call when it comes to storm-water regulations.
By R. William Potter [R. William Potter is a partner in Potter & Dickson, a Princeton-based law firm. His views are his own and not necessarily those of the firm or of any client.] Ever wonder why there's so much flooding, even after a light rain? You can blame the runoff -- or most of it -- on a decision by the Department of Environmental Protection to let a computer make the call as to whether major development projects comply with key storm-water regulations. What's more, if the computer rules in favor of a developer, the DEP's experts are sidelined. And the public is cut out of the review process. That's all of the public by the way, even downstream property owners who are on the receiving end of the runoff from "impervious surfaces…
Friday, March 22, 2013
Seven-year study puts pre-K students as much as three-quarters of academic year ahead of classmates.
One of the common questions raised about preschool is, “Do the benefits really last?” According to a report to be released today, the answer is in the affirmative for New Jersey’s state-funded program. By the time they reached the fourth or fifth grade, kids who attended pre-K in the state’s poorest cities were on average three-quarters of an academic year ahead of their peers who didn’t. The study -- from the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers -- started tracking 1,000 preschool students in 15 of New Jersey’s poorest districts in 2005. These children were among the first beneficiaries of the Abbott v. Burke school equity rulings that mandated preschool. Seven years later, researchers found that these kids…
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Resolution of lawsuit, additional $80 million in funding, open way to more community placements, services.
New Jersey residents with developmental disabilities will have an easier time receiving publicly funded services at home, thanks to additional funding announced by Gov. Chris Christie in his budget address on Tuesday. Christie said that the state has settled an eight-year-old lawsuit alleging that New Jersey was violating a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision by having too many residents with disabilities live in institutions. Christie’s announcement of the lawsuit settlement, as well as $83 million in state and federal funding to support community placement and services, was praised by proponents of group homes and for providing services in residents’ homes. But the people who want the state to keep open two development centers were …
Thursday, February 21, 2013
'Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,’ reads open letter to American people.
It is no secret that Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on New Jersey power's grid, leaving millions of customers without electricity -- many for a week or longer. Get used to it, warns a new report. Extreme weather is likely to increase not only in frequency but intensity, and the nation’s energy facilities will continue to suffer major disruptions, particularly those located in coastal regions, according to a draft National Climate Assessment report. The likely consequences of those storms and of a warmer planet will be to ramp up peak electricity demand in regions like the Northeast, requiring additional generation and distribution facilities to be built, the report said. For consumers, that could mean as much as an 11 percent jump in bills…
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Legislation in NJ, which would enable medical marijuana users to get transplants, seeks to prevent repeat of controversial cases at California hospital
Should users of medical marijuana be prevented from getting needed organ transplants? Not according to a bill being considered by state legislators, which treats medical marijuana as no different from any other prescription drug. Such patients would be treated the same way as those using other prescription drugs under a bill being considered by state legislators. The measure, A-765, was prompted by a California case in which a medical marijuana user was denied an organ transplant. While some doctors have raised concerns about the potential effects of marijuana for transplant recipients, others have said marijuana has been found to be medically necessary and shouldn’t be a barrier to a transplant. The issue is further complicated by …
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
But GOP lawmakers question how to pay for program to help families with cost of aiding elderly.
Caregivers struggling with the cost of aiding older relatives would receive tax relief under a bill that is advancing in the Legislature. The bill, AA-3404, would provide up to $675 in tax credits for individuals and couples who provide care for a family member who is at least 60 years old and lives in the home of the caregiver. A Medicaid waiver the state received last year aims to encourage more seniors to live at home longer and stay out of nursing homes. But there is concern that there will be fewer at-home caregivers available, since insurance companies are reducing reimbursement rates for them. As a result, more families are expected to have to provide care themselves for their elderly relatives. The tax credit would help ease some …
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Lesniak bill calls for stormproofed substations, widely deployed smart meters, to prevent the outages that followed Sandy.
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Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Its most prominent proponent calls it the "Never Again Campaign", a curious choice of words given that one of the most trusted tenets in Trenton shared by lobbyists and politicians alike is: “Never say 'never.'’’ Nonetheless, the Legislature may soon move a bill that would require the state’s electric utilities to make significant improvements to the power grid in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, according to a veteran lawmaker. The bill's goal is to prevent the type of widespread outages in the wake of the storm, which left more than two million customers without power, some of which (on the state’s barrier islands) have yet to get their lights on. Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) said yesterday he hopes to introduce the bill early next …
Monday, December 3, 2012
Newark charter schools lift statewide averages, while advantages not necessarily shown elsewhere.
New Jersey’s ongoing debate about whether traditional public schools or charters do a better job educating students got some provocative new data yesterday, courtesy of a study from Stanford University that came down on the side of the charters -- particularly in Newark's embattled school district. According to Stanford's Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), charter school students overall made larger learning gains than their peers in traditional schools on state tests from 2007-2011. What's more, a third of the charters showed higher achievement levels than the other public schools in their districts, with a fifth doing significantly worse, the report said. But the details of the long-awaited report also present a …
MrDoughnut
2:13 am on Sunday, April 7, 2013
If these people did not have the guns they would probably use something else. more ›