Media

Struggling in NJ — 52 percent of all workers earn less than $20 an hour

Meet ALICE.

Actually, her name is Charlene. But the North Jersey woman represents hundreds of thousands of Garden State residents considered “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed” in a just-released report from United Way.

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37 percent of people in N.J. are among the working poor, study says

Charlene O'Brien doesn't want help.

The 38-year-old single mother of two has built her life on being a strong, independent woman. The Hardyston divorcee has a full-time job training educators, which she balances with raising her 7 and 10 year-old boys, the latter of which has special needs. In her spare time she runs and designs grueling obstacle courses, the kind that make even the biggest fitness buff think twice.

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26 apps and websites favored by child predators — Are your kids using them?

They pose an increasing threat in New Jersey and across the nation.

Cyber predators are constantly looking for new ways to contact and exploit children — and most parents don’t even have any idea this is happening.

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This lone N.J. Republican voted to delay Obamacare repeal

WASHINGTON -- Just nine House Republicans dissented from the party line Friday and opposed a budget resolution designed to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

And only one is from New Jersey: Rep. Tom MacArthur.

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Editorial: Age matters when sentencing juveniles

We’re glad to see the courts are affirming a longstanding belief that children and adults are not the same. The New Jersey Supreme Court last week overturned lengthy sentences for two juveniles, saying that sentencing teenagers to the “practical equivalent of life without parole” violates the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

The court’s unanimous decision followed, but expanded, standards set forth in 2012 by the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling could reduce sentences of many offenders who committed crimes as juveniles and should prompt the Legislature to review guidelines for punishing youths.

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Help In Recovering From Sandy’s Wrath

tt147-jan-12-2017.jpgImagine that your home and family are devastated by a natural disaster of almost unprecedented force. Now, think about how arduous the task is to rebuild your life and your home only to have governmental bureaucracy get in the way. For families who were affected by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 this personal nightmare rages on. When I think of Sandy victims, it’s difficult to understand how some citizens who lost the use of their homes did not receive the aid they deserved. And what is more reprehensible, some of these victims are facing foreclosure of their homes because the state has not been proactive or quick enough to provide the aid it promised.

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Greenwald, Singleton, Lampitt, Mosquera & Barclay Bill to Refinance Student Loans through County Improvement Authorities Clears Assembly Committee

Legislation Assembly Majority Leader Louis D. Greenwald and Assembly Democrats Troy Singleton, Pamela Lampitt, Gabriela Mosquera and Arthur Barclay sponsored to allow county improvement authorities to refinance county residents' student loan debt and make it easier for former college students to afford to stay in New Jersey was advanced Thursday by an Assembly committee.

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New tankers could help prevent Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst from closing

WASHINGTON -- Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is receiving a new fleet of Air Force tankers, making it more likely to be protected against any future round of military base closings.

The Air Force on Thursday selected the joint base's 305th Air Mobility Wing to house 24 KC-46 tankers, which should arrive from 2020 to 2023.

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N.J. Supreme Court issues 'significant' ruling on sentencing youths

TRENTON -- In what legal experts are calling an important decision, the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday to overhaul the way New Jersey judges sentence juveniles convicted in violent crimes that could keep them in prison until they are elderly or dead.

The state's highest court ruled 7-0 that judges must consider a number of factors -- including age, family environment, and peer pressure -- before issuing lengthy sentences to youths in serious cases.

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Christie plan to limit painkillers 'cruel,' N.J. doctors say

TRENTON -- New Jersey's largest lobbying group for physicians opposes Gov. Chris Christie's plan to prevent doctors in New Jersey from writing initial prescriptions for opioid painkillers to a five-day supply, calling it an "intrusion" on the practice of medicine and possibly "cruel" to patients.

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