State lawmakers are planning to send Gov. Phil Murphy a budget bill later this week that calls for even more spending and borrowing than he originally asked for.
The first votes on a $32.7 billion spending bill formally introduced by lawmakers on Monday are scheduled to be held Tuesday afternoon in budget committees in the Assembly and Senate.
Also scheduled for committee review on Tuesday are a series of tax hikes proposed to back up the Legislature’s spending bill.
For six months the coronavirus pandemic has loomed large over New Jersey, taking an enormous toll on the state’s public health and economy, and affecting nearly every aspect of daily life.
But you won’t find it by name in Gov. Phil Murphy’s $32.4 billion budget proposal.
WASHINGTON — If Dr. Erica Swegler, a solo primary care doctor in Austin, Texas, hadn’t gotten her bank to delay payments on one of the loans she had taken out to open her practice five years ago, she said, “I would have been out of business in April.”
Likewise, she’s sure she would have had to close if she hadn’t also received a $36,000 federal Payment Protection Program coronavirus loan to carry her over a couple of months while her patients stayed away in droves. Ditto if Medicare and Medicaid hadn’t relaxed rules to allow for compensation and better reimbursement rates for telehealth visits … Read the rest of this entry »
With nearly 90 new COVID-19 cases linked to young people who attended house parties at several Jersey Shore communities — and the potential exposure of hundreds more — state officials continue to encourage people to get tested and cooperate with contact tracers.
Roughly 100 coronavirus cases have been linked to a teen house party in Monmouth County and a separate gathering of Jersey Shore lifeguards on Long Beach Island leading state officials to urge caution for those kinds of flare ups.
“We continue to see outbreaks arising from gatherings among young people,” Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said during New Jersey 100th coronavirus briefing on Monday.
She said health officials have traced 35 new cases to a party among lifeguards on Long Beach Island. Eighteen lifeguards are from Harvey Cedars’ beach patrol and 17 from Surf City’s, according to … Read the rest of this entry »
New Jersey is the only state in the nation to see the number of new coronavirus cases drop in the last two weeks, but the pandemic’s financial impact continues to grow, according to a new Rutgers study.
The economic freeze, fueled by coronavirus restrictions that shut down businesses for months and urged residents to stay home, has found the Garden State experiencing historic losses and rebounds that would typically take years happen in just a few weeks.
James Hughes, economist and University professor at Rutgers University, warns the unstable economy is a “life force of its own.”And that, he s… Read the rest of this entry »
While Gov. Phil Murphy complained Wednesday about the latest federal stimulus proposal from Senate Republicans and its lack of funding for states, New Jersey has spent less than 3% of the almost $2.4 billion it has received from the federal government to cover general needs created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Scientists have deciphered the genetic blueprints of six of the world’s bats.
Their codes of life contain genetic clues to their “exceptional immunity”, which protects them against deadly viruses.
Researchers hope to use the information to crack the secrets of how bats carry coronaviruses without getting sick.
They say this may ultimately provide solutions to help human health during this and future pandemics.Prof Emma Teeling of University College Dublin said the “exquisite” genome sequences they have unravelled suggest bats have “unique immune systems”.And understand… Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: July 23rd, 2020 | Author:NJNewsCommons | Filed under:COVID-19 | Tags:Bats, COVID-19 | Comments Off on Coronavirus: Cracking the secrets of how bats survive viruses
President Donald Trump is preparing to visit his Bedminster golf club for the first time in more than a month.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a temporary flight restriction for the airspace around his golf club from Friday to Sunday.
Those announcements accurately have forecast Trump’s getaways to Bedminster since he became president, but he has cancelled two visits at the last minute.
It will be Trump’s second trip to Bedminister this year. His first was during the weekend of June 12-14, where he hosted a fundraiser for his re-election campaign and dined with Gov. Phil Murphy. Follow… Read the rest of this entry »
Former Gov. Chris Christie has raised close to $800,000 in committed funding for a nonprofit he started with his wife that gives $3,000 forgivable loans to small businesses struggling to remain open amid the coronavirus outbreak, the couple said Tuesday.
Christie and former First Lady Mary Pat Christie say they’ve received more than 3,000 applications from small businesses since they launched the nonprofit last month. The group, the New Jersey 30-Day Fund, has approved funding for 120 businesses from the more than 3,000 they’ve received, they said.
