Insider NJ’s Morning Intelligence Briefing: 4/28/2020 – InsiderNJ

Below is Insider NJ’s Morning Intelligence Briefing for 4/28/2020:

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I think it’s a great idea. But it seems to me to violate the contracts clause of the state constitution.” – Former Senator Lesniak on Governor Murphy’s executive order waiving the prohibition of using security deposits for rental payments

TOP STORY: Admiring Ronald Reagan – Some of the Time

Senate President Sweeney sees tough times ahead for the state’s economy, according to NJTV.

Senator Bateman reiterated his call to reopen the state’s parks and golf courses.

Senator Oroho said the Governor should have ‘more faith‘ in businesses that want to reopen.

Senator Cardinale expressed support for allowing self-serve gas during the COVID-19 crisis.

Senator Testa called on the Murphy Administration to ‘take responsible budgetary measures to account for plunging revenues’ before requesting federal assistance.

Senator Pennacchio will introduce legislation to allow landlords to waive all or part of 3 months rent to businesses and receive a tax credit in exchange.

Senator O’Scanlon decried NJ Turnpike Authority toll hikes without public hearings as ‘an outrageous slap in the face to the spirit of public hearing laws’.

Assemblywoman Tucker called for additional federal funding for veterans homes to combat COVID-19.

Assemblywoman Vainieri Huttle will introduce legislation to prevent senior isolations during state of emergencies.

Assemblyman Bergen says Governor Murphy is ‘dragging his feet‘ on addressing the state’s economic problems.

Assemblymembers Peters and Stanfield called for New Jerseyans to be allowed to obtain at-home COVID-19 testing kits.

NJGOP Chairman Steinhardt released a statement urging ‘no new taxes’ and calling on Governor Murphy to ‘exercise economic restraint, and consider real economic relief’.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli issued a statement opposing borrowing money to close budget gaps.

Elected officials and progressive groups urged Governor Murphy to halt the $16B Turnpike plan to widen the Parkway and Turnpike.

Immigrant organizations called for disaster relief funding for undocumented workers. NJ Policy Perspective released a report on the impact of COVID-19 on undocumented workers.

The NJ Outdoor Alliance released a statement saying ‘there is no remaining reason not to reopen parks immediately’.

The NJ Society of CPAs granted $380k in accounting scholarships.

ICYMI: Sweeney appointed Ruiz and Singleton to fiscal recovery team; Coughlin announces new advisory panel; Scharfenberger requested salary withheld; Doherty launched petition for resuming religious services, says he no longer supports ‘draconian shut down measures’; NJOA slammed Assembly shut-down of Webber park closure challenge, blistered Murphy amid growing backlash; Senate’s rough virtual voting session

AROUND THE WEB:

Congressman’s appearance at New Jersey coronavirus briefing upsets GOP

Matt Friedman, Politico

• New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s decision Monday to invite a Democratic congressman involved in a tough reelection fight to speak at his daily coronavirus briefing angered Republicans who accused the governor of mixing essential news with partisan politics.

EMS Task Force, ‘Hidden Gem’ of New Jersey’s Coronavirus Response

Lilo H. Stainton, NJ Spotlight

• When it came time to evacuate dozens of vulnerable residents from St. Joseph’s Senior Home in Woodbridge last month, the job fell to members of New Jersey EMS Task Force and its fleet of 20-person medical transport vehicles to move them safely to another facility.

Local leaders working on Jersey Shore reopening plan

Michelle Brunetti Post, Press of Atlantic City

• Local leaders want Gov. Phil Murphy to take a regional approach to reopening the Jersey Shore soon, in recognition of both the smaller number of cases in South Jersey and the special needs of seasonal businesses here.

Where do coronavirus patients go when discharged? Leaving hospital doesn’t equal recovery

Ashley Balcerzak, NorthJersey.com

• As New Jersey’s top officials say the spike in coronavirus cases is slowing, they point to a chart that shows the state is on the road to a possible recovery. On that chart, which they display at daily news briefings, is a comparison between the number of new people hospitalized for COVID-19 and the number of discharged patients.

Could N.J. reopen schools as coronavirus lockdowns are lifted? ‘Yeah, there is a chance,’ Murphy says

Matt Arco, NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

• Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday there’s still a chance New Jersey students could return to classrooms before the end of this school year, though he has repeatedly cautioned that the state “cannot rush to reopen” schools amid the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed the lives of at least 5,938 residents.

‘I’m really worried I will have to shut down.’ N.J. small businesses desperate for federal loans.

Samantha Marcus and Jonathan D. Salant, NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

• Dean Smith, a Princeton toy shop owner, said 2020 was shaping up to be his best year in more than a decade. “We were like, wow, we’re finally over the hump and the pain and the remnants of the last financial crisis and the rise of Amazon that had befallen us,” Smith said, expecting a banner first quarter. “This is going to be our year.”

Inside the race for a vaccine

Anthony Vecchione, njbiz.com

• In March, the Janssen Pharmaceutical Cos. subsidiary of the iconic New Brunswick-based drugmaker Johnson & Johnson, announced the expansion of a partnership between Janssen and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) with the goal of developing a vaccine to combat COVID-19. BARDA and Johnson & Johnson have committed more than $1 billion to co-fund vaccine research, development and clinical testing.

No mayday needed if Gov. Murphy closes New Jersey schools

LA Parker, The Trentonian

• Access the story of Skylar Herbert and then think about New Jersey students heading back to school or playing sports in May. Herbert, 5, the daughter of two first responders, is believed to be Michigan’s youngest death victim of coronavirus. LaVondria Herbert, a Detroit police officer, told NBC News last week that neither she nor her firefighter husband, Ebbie, tested positive for CoVid-19. Still, their daughter developed symptoms and died.

Teaneck Township Council: See who’s running in next month’s municipal election

Megan Burrow, NorthJersey.com

• Voters will choose among six candidates for three seats on the Township Council in next month’s election. Michael Pagan and Karen Orgen, both members of the Planning Board, are running with Deputy Mayor Mark Schwartz on the “Moving Teaneck Forward” slate. The “People for Progress” slate is Board of Education President Ardie Walser, Gina Gerszberg and Denise Belcher, a Planning Board member.

Murphy Tells NJ We Must Battle Social Distancing Fatigue

David Matthau, NJ1015

• Have you noticed? Almost everybody is wearing a mask, but some of those face coverings are so loose they’re drooping below people’s noses, rendering them essentially useless. Staying six feet away from other shoppers in supermarkets has never been easy, but some folks seem spaced out and clueless, slowly wandering down the middle of aisles, making it impossible to steer clear of them, forcing some degree of close contact.

Longtime Surgeon Beats COVID-19, Discharged from Jersey Shore University Medical Center

Shore News Network

• Manuel Bulauitan, M.D., has cared for patients for more than 40 years as a surgeon in New York. But for the past few weeks, it was Dr. Bulauitan who needed care as he contracted the COVID-19 virus and became seriously ill. “Early in March, my father’s patients had faith that he would show up to work in midst of a pandemic, as all health care providers have been doing,” said his son Constantine Bulauitan, M.D. “But life had other plans, as he became very ill and needed to be hospitalized.”

Malinowski’s obscene appearance at Monday’s Murphy presser was an insult to every New Jerseyan

Matt Rooney, Save Jersey

• We’re under an indefinite stay-at-home order now, Save Jerseyans, and Governor Phil Murphy – who made it plain at Monday’s daily COVID-19 presser – has assumed dictatorial powers unlike anything seen in contemporary American history. It’s insane. It’s also almost impossible to recap Monday’s presser in a single post. There’s too much angering, upsetting, annoying and downright insulting to cover. Perhaps by design? More on that in another post…

As economy has faltered, New Jersey’s fishing industry gets walloped

Andrew S. Lewis NJ Spotlight

• From Delaware Bay oysters to Atlantic scallops, the state’s fisheries are struggling to survive as retail sales dry up. In the town of Port Norris, on South Jersey’s Delaware Bayshore, the first weeks of spring have for well over a century marked the beginning of the annual oyster harvest, a time when the waters of the Maurice River burst to life with a commercial fleet eager for prosperous days ahead.

NJ man’s COVID-19 death was missing from state’s nursing home statistics

Nick Muscavage, Bridgewater Courier News

• The final months Tiffany Simone had with her father were difficult. He had severe dementia, and due to social distancing protocols, she couldn’t visit, or even speak to him, while he was living at CareOne at Somerset Valley Assisted Living. Then she received news that her father, George Liptak, 83, died April 18 of COVID-19 after being transferred to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.

Bruce Springsteen: Coronavirus has exposed difference between American dream and reality

Chris Jordan, Asbury Park Press

• The coronavirus outbreak has exposed the difference between the American dream and the American reality. That was the word from Bruce Springsteen during his “Bruce Springsteen: From His Home, To Yours … Part 2” on April 24 on Sirius XM’s E Street Radio. The Boss took a break from spinning records to share his thoughts on the political implications of the outbreak.

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