Senator Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth County) today issued praise to the Supreme Court Committee on Municipal Court Operations, Fines and Fees for their comprehensive report which, after a 16 month investigation, “revealed a number of significant concerns where aggressive reform is needed. Many of those issues identified by the Committee undermine both the administration of justice and the independence of the Municipal Courts.”
“In law enforcement and judicial systems, profit is the mortal enemy of justice,” Senator O’Scanlon said. “We must take real steps towards reforming municipal court and ticketing procedures. Policing for profit is an unacceptable practice that tarnishes the reputation of all our upstanding police officers and often results in devastating consequences for petty infractions.”
“Municipal Courts should be about the administration of justice, not a profit center to plug holes in local governments’ budgets,” O’Scanlon continued. “In the twenty-five years since our Courts were last reformed, too many towns have come to rely on fines to fund their municipal operations and too many local judges have turned into de facto tax collectors. This is not justice and it has to stop.”
Assembly members Eric Houghtaling and Joann Downey
The phones were ringing off the hook at Assembly members Eric Houghtaling and Joann Downey’s Ocean Township office after Assemblywoman Serena DiMaso’s July 5th robocall informing 11th legislative district voters of Houghtaling and Downey’s support for Governor Murphy’s massive tax increases and his cuts to school funding for local school districts.
Former Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno appeared on the Tommy G Show yesterday during which she said that the $2 billion in spending increases and $1.5 billion in new state taxes are insane but that no one should be surprised.
Guadagno said that moderate Democrats who are now calling for spending cuts “sound like Republicans, that’s what we’ve been saying all along!”
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCEPA), an assembly of over 300 lawmakers from 57 countries in Europe and North American adopted “Implementing Trafficking-Free Communities,” a comprehensive resolution to combat human trafficking sponsored by Congressman Chris Smith, during their 27th annual session yesterday in Berlin.
Based upon best practices developed in the United States under Smith’s Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, the resolution encourages governments to implement multiple best practices simultaneously to significantly reduce trafficking in a community over the course of a year.
Congressman Chris Smith addresses the the 27th Annual Session of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) Parliamentary Assembly, Saturday July 7. Photo courtesy of Congressman Smith’s office
Congressman Chris Smith had a candid, firm and respectful exchange with Russian lawmakers on Saturday in Berlin wherein he confronted his counterparts, led by Pyotr Tolstoy, Deputy Chairman of the Russian legislature, on an array of human rights violations and geopolitical issues, he told MMM in an phone interview following the meeting which the 27th Annual Session of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) Parliamentary Assembly.
Smith heads the 13 member U.S. delegation to OSCE-PA. Tolstoy leads the Russian delegation.
Governor Phil Murphy, Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin came to terms on tax increased in the New Jersey FY2019 Budget today, averting a shutdown of state government.
While the Senate and General Assembly will not vote on the budget legislation before the midnight deadline tonight, Murphy said that he will not close the government. Sweeney and Coughlin announced that their Chambers will be in session at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. Read the rest of this entry »
The photo is of #NYC0071 showing the gear with buoys wrapped around the whales body. The fishing gear is inside its mouth, at the hinge of the jaw and wrapped around the top of its Rostrum/Head running across the middle of the blow hole. NOT GOOD! (Photo @araslich/@gothamwhale) pic.twitter.com/wBjGpryagk
The U.S. Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook and the NJ State Police enforced a safety zone for an entangled whale, believed to be a humpback, in the Raritan Bay this afternoon, according to an announcement by the Coast Guard.
