“I would say the two most notable impacts so far are that so many Democrats and Republican candidates, including pretty legitimate candidates with a shot at winning, [are] choosing not to go for an endorsement. That would have been unheard of before,” said Rubin, an associate dean at Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.
Topic
In the News
Stamato Commentary: Rocking the boat for democracy: Public media, under siege
Of course, the Trump administration is determined to end public support not only for PBS, but for NPR as well. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting receives and distributes over $500 million in taxpayer money to public TV and radio stations annually. Eliminating millions of dollars in federal funding to the two public media organizations amounts to a significant threat.
House SALT proposal would raise cap on deduction to $30K, but some Republicans balk
The Republican tax plan in the U.S. House would raise the cap for the state and local property tax deduction from the current $10,000 to $30,000 for families making up to $400,000. That’s according to legislation released May 12 by the Republican-led House Ways and...
Smart weighs in on possible NJ Transit rail strike
As talks continue between #NJTransit and its rail engineers' union to try to avert a walkout by the union at midnight on Thursday, professor Mike Smart weighed in on the looming issues with the WABC7 Eyewitness News Mornings @ 10 team.
This year, the NJ primary is actually competitive for a change. Get out and vote | Opinion Julia Sass Rubin
New Jersey’s lack of competitive primaries was one of many negative consequences of the county line primary ballot. Candidates who did not receive preferential ballot positions on the county line tended to drop out, leading to choiceless primaries reminiscent of elections in the former Soviet Union.
Academy Bus is paying NJ Transit over alleged fraud. But it still gets contracts
“Why didn’t anybody else bid?” Pfeiffer said. “Was there anything about the (request for proposal) that would have turned off the other bidders? Is this the best way to contract for this service if you only have one bidder?”
Senator’s Probe into Corporate Landlords in Georgia Echoes National Scrutiny of Institutional Investors
A 2024 paper by researchers Taylor Shelton of Georgia State University and Eric Seymour of Rutgers described “tangled webs of corporate property ownership which are to deliberately obscure the true ownership and concentration of such property from public view.”
Stamato Commentary: Local News, and New Jersey’s Vanishing Act
We need local news, free and independent. And so long as government support is not connected directly to any newspaper, digital or print, there is every reason for government to support it.
Bloustein faculty, staff participate in Limitless League challenge to improve mental, physical health
“Wellness is critical and something that each one of us should be thinking about every day, including in our workplace,” Deoli said. “Sometimes, it is a little push from a colleague and friend, a challenge with lovely goodies and prizes or a reminder of small things we can do in our offices, even on busy days.”
A killer turned councilman. Masked men. And lots of weed. Welcome to ‘Pot Town,’ N.J.
“There’s a lot to unpack there,” said Marc Pfeiffer, a senior policy fellow and assistant director of the Bloustein Local Government Center at Rutgers University. While Englishtown’s situation is admittedly unusual, plenty of towns have weathered dysfunction, Rutgers’ Pfeiffer pointed out.