Union workers striking at General Motors and the ongoing push for a higher minimum wage may be a sign of a new era of worker activism. Workforce and labor expert Carl Van Horn says “even though profits of companies have been going up, people’s paychecks haven’t been going up accordingly.” Van Horn is the director […]
NJ lawmakers unveil $40M plan to repair Wildwood Boardwalk
The Democrats said in a statement they would introduce legislation to revise the Transportation Trust Fund’s rules to permit boardwalk repairs — a move Testa says he opposes. So does Martin Robins, director emeritus of Rutgers University’s Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center. He said he is unaware of the trust fund ever being used for […]
Dying is a moral event, professor says. And N.J.’s law has finally caught up with morality.
New Jersey’s Medical-Aid-in-Dying legislation authorizes physicians to issue a prescription to end the lives of their patients who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness, are expected to die within six months, and have requested their physicians to help them do so.
Best Ways Older Workers Can Prepare For A Recession
A forthcoming article in Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging will note that long-term unemployment has remained at heightened levels. More than one in four job-seekers ages 55 and older had been unemployed for more than six months in March 2019, it says; for those 54 and younger, one in five were. “The […]
2019’s Cities with the Best & Worst Public Transportation
Bloustein Associate Professor Mike Smart is one of five featured experts who were asked how America’s public transportation could be improved, and what makes a good system in the first place, in WalletHub’s ranking of U.S. cities with the best and worst public transportation. WalletHub, September 10, 2019
You think Amazon got a sweet deal from Virginia? N.J. paid three times as much for tax breaks, expert says
Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy conditionally vetoed an extension of the programs last month. Before that, an investigative task force appointed by Murphy had said it found $500 million in questionable tax break awards to companies. A special state Senate committee started hearings on economic incentives in July. During Thursday’s hearing, Rutgers professor Michael Lahr said […]
Shady deals, corruption of ethics leaves us a poorer state
During the American Revolution, as our fledgling nation fought against the British, local committees in the major cities mobilized support for a government based on the will of the people. The committees exposed profiteers who viewed the Revolution as a chance to line their pockets. They protected the public interest, enforced standards, and set the ground […]
How Two Unrelated Hospital Measures Have Stalled in Trenton
Lawmakers in Trenton were scheduled to act on several hundred legislative items Thursday, but two controversial healthcare bills not on that agenda attracted outsized attention from hospital leaders and patient advocates. The measures have no apparent policy basis in common: One seeks to expand elective angioplasty services, currently available at a limited number of facilities; […]
Here’s how to save New Jersey from the rising tide
By Marjorie Kaplan, Lisa Auermuller and Jeanne Herb As we approach the seventh anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, we are asked – as we have been every autumn since 2012 — “Are we better prepared for the next Sandy?” Our answer: In some places and with respect to some structures and systems, we probably are, but […]
A new Senate bill would fundamentally change the internet as we know it
Overall, the legislation doesn’t do much to fix many of the largest problems with social media. Holding big companies liable for individual posts or making them stick to a nonpartisan standard does little to solve issues around privacy or targeted marketing using your data, according to Stuart Shapiro, a professor and associate dean at Rutgers […]