Green light for legal weed? Presented by Pre-K Our Way

Good Tuesday morning!

Things are looking up for marijuana legalization in New Jersey.


On Friday night, we learned about the long-anticipated deal between the governor and legislative leadership on the weed legalization framework. (Although there’s some drama about the details and the fact that it leaked out).

Of course, that doesn’t mean the votes are there. Many of New Jersey’s lawmakers, who have no problem voting to expand and subsidize New Jersey’s gambling industry, are still worried about perceived social ills of weed.

But a poll release yesterday by Monmouth that shows New Jersey residents favor marijuana legalization by a nearly 2-1 margin, 62 percent to 32 percent, can’t hurt legalization advocates’ case. If nothing else, lawmakers who have concerns about weed — whether legitimate or reefer madness-like — may see this poll and come to the conclusion that legalization is inevitable.

WHERE’S MURPHY — In Piscataway to sign the paid family leave expansion legislation

DAYS SINCE MURPHY-ALIGNED GROUP INTENTIONALLY BLEW OFF SELF-IMPOSED DEADLINE TO DISCLOSE ITS DONORS: 50

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Frankly, 20 years ago, she would have been a Kean Republican” — Donor Finn Wentworth on Democratic U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill

WHAT TRENTON MADE



EXPUNGE-WORTHY? — “N.J.’s governor promised to clear weed convictions. Here’s just how hard that will be,” by NJ Advance Media’s Payton Guion: “Gov. Phil Murphy has promised to clear marijuana convictions as part of his legalization plan — expungements are in fact a crucial part of that plan and a major reason the governor says he supports marijuana legalization. the Legislature changes the rules, people seeking marijuana expungements would be thrown into the existing expungement system, which experts say is already troubled. `It’s like you’re allowing more water in, but the cracks are still there,‘ said Sarah Lageson, a Rutgers professor who runs a program helping people clear their records. The numbers are considerable. The Judiciary says the state already receives about 10,000 expungement petitions every year. The process is protracted and confusing — experts suspect only a small percentage of people are able to wipe their records” Read more here

UNFORCHIONATE — “He pushed for marijuana legalization for nearly 20 years. Now the Weedman feels sidelined,” by NJ Advance Media’s Kevin Shea: “The Weedman was free with a new governor who pledged to legalize marijuana quickly, and a little later a new mayor in Trenton who was ‘unequivocally’ in favor of recreational marijuana legalization. [Ed] Forchion openly fired up joints in public, once even in front of the Statehouse, where he got a whiff of the change: a state trooper declined to arrest him, turning away from the bait. And he had big plans to reopen NJ Weedman’s Joint in downtown Trenton and become a player in what he dreamed of and protested for nearly two decades: legal weed. But the end of 2018 and this year has been a drag for the man once known as the state’s biggest marijuana activist.” Read more here

JUST PUT TAMMY MURPHY IN CHARGE — “New toll lanes on NJ Turnpike? Gov. Phil Murphy eyes state assets to fix pension system,” by The Record’s Nicholas Pugliese: “Adding new toll lanes on the turnpike? Auctioning off naming rights to state facilities? Allowing development on state land? It’s too soon to tell whether any of that will become reality, but the administration of Gov. Phil Murphy has taken the first step toward exploring ways to ‘maximize value’ of state assets to shore up New Jersey’s ailing pension and health benefits systems and pay down its ballooning debt. The state treasurer issued a request for qualifications last week for an ‘asset financial advisor’ whose job will be to estimate the potential value of everything from airports and bridges to roads and water treatment plants, and to suggest how they could be used to help fix the state’s financial woes.” Read more here

PARCC — State reaches agreement with law groups in PARCC graduation case, by POLITICO's Linh Tat: The Murphy administration has reached an agreement with the Education Law Center and American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey over the state’s use of PARCC as a high school exit exam, laying to rest a legal battle that had left students in the classes of 2019 and 2020 unsure for weeks as to which graduation testing requirements would apply to them. The deal, which an appellate court is expected to sign off on next week, postpones for two years the effective date of the court’s recent decision to invalidate PARCC as an exit exam in New Jersey. It also gives current juniors the same options and pathways for meeting graduation testing requirements that are afforded to current seniors, according to the governor’s office and Education Law Center. Read more here

EVERYBODY NEEDS TO SACRIFICE EXCEPT FORMER MAYORS OF IMPOVERISHED SOUTH JERSEY CITIES WITH POPULATIONS OF BETWEEN 70,000 AND 80,000 — “Murphy’s romance with public workers could spell his doom on budget,” by The Star-Ledger’s Tom Moran: “Hundreds of public workers in matching red t-shirts jammed into a packed auditorium in Union County Wednesday night to tell Senate President Steve Sweeney exactly what he can do with his plan to cut their health and pension benefits. ‘I was walking into an ambush, and I knew it,’ Sweeney says. ‘I went into the lion’s den to have a discussion. We didn’t waiver, and people weren’t happy. But we did have an honest dialogue.‘ It was the lion’s den because it was the home turf for Sen. Joe Cryan, a leading liberal who had just drafted a dream bill for the public workers, one that would cut their health-care costs by shifting more of the burden to taxpayers. For some public workers, health costs would drop by more than half under Cryan’s bill. ‘It was a pretty passionate room,’ Cryan says. ‘There are a lot of people making less in take home than they did in 2010.’ Brace yourself, folks. This is going to be painful, all around.” Read more here

—“Murphy seeks new tax credits, but lawmakers raise questions” Read more here

—“Pro-Murphy group spent $503k on lobbying” Read more here

—“Parking in New Jersey's largest cities could cost more under bill” Read more here

—“NJ Transit asks federal judge to dismiss worker injury lawsuits” Read more here

—“Joe Howarth gets support from 11 of 15 GOP municipal chairs” Read more here

—“Vernon dump concerns may prompt waste law changes” Read more here

—"N.J. schools will finally teach about LGBTQ history. Here’s what kids would learn” Read more here

—“18-mile light rail in South Jersey is coming, but not for another 6 years, at least” Read more here

—“Prices at Newark Airport shops a ‘nightmare,’ GOP leader says” Read more here

TRUMP ERA



BUILD THE GREWAL — California leads 16 states in lawsuit against Trump national emergency declaration, by POLITICO’s Jeremy B. White: A coalition of 16 states, including New Jersey, filed suit to block President Donald Trump's effort to fund his border wall by declaring a national emergency, calling it a "flagrant disregard of fundamental separation of powers principles.“

"The real national emergency is a President who refuses to adhere to the rule of law," state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said in a statement. "In its effort to cater to a select few on the right, this Administration is trampling on our Constitution and circumventing the will of Congress. As the chief law enforcement officer for New Jersey, I have a duty to stand up for New Jersey's residents — including our immigrant community — and so I'm joining states across the country in challenging this emergency declaration in court." Read more here

THE ARC TUNNEL WAS SCHEDULED FOR COMPLETION IN 2018 — Schumer: Some $1.4B in budget could benefit Gateway project, by POLITICO’s Ryan Hutchins: The federal spending bill signed by President Donald Trump on Friday contains more than $1.4 billion for transportation programs that could be used to advance the Gateway tunnel project, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. While the funding remains subject to approval from the Department of Transportation, Schumer said there are at least four possible sources of funding for the long-stalled, $13 billion tunnel project that would carry trains between New Jersey and Manhattan. Read more here

BUT CAN SHE WIN REELECTION AFTER THE MORRIS GOP REVITALIZES ITSELF WITH APPEARANCES FROM DIAMOND & SILK? — “The most important new woman in congress is not who you think,” by POLITICO’s Michael Kruse: “The best-known new member of Congress is obviously the ubiquitous and magnetic Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the unreserved used-to-be bartender and millennial social media savant who has parlayed her outer-borough seat into a vanguard position at the head of a surging left. But she is not the reason Democrats are wielding a reclaimed wedge of power in the nation’s capital. [Mikie] Sherrill is. If there’s a Venn diagram of how Democrats wrested control of the House from Republicans — women, veterans, flipped districts in more affluent, more educated suburban terrain — smack at the center is Rebecca Michelle Sherrill: former Navy helicopter pilot, former federal prosecutor, mother of four (13, 11, 9 and 6). And even as Ocasio-Cortez and other younger, lefty, louder freshmen garner the limelight, ‘Mikie,’ not ‘AOC,’ is actually more materially the face of the Democrats’ fresh capacity to push legislation and check the agenda of a newly vexed President Donald Trump.” Read more here

HOW DO THESE CONDITIONS COMPARE TO JOE D’S ANNUAL PUERTO RICO SUPER BOWL RETREAT? — “Abandoned gun, moldy bread pudding and 'unrecognizable' hamburgers found in New Jersey immigrant lock-up,” by WNYC’s Matt Katz: “The inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security released a damning report Friday detailing ‘unsanitary and unsafe conditions‘ at the largest detention center for immigrants in the New York City region. Under a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, about 800 immigrants are held at the Essex County Correctional Facility in New Jersey while they wait for hearings on orders of deportation, or while travel arrangements are made for their deportations … A county jail guard left a loaded gun in a staff bathroom; it was found by an immigrant detainee who was cleaning the bathroom as part of his $1.50-a-day job. The detainee alerted officers about the weapon before anyone got hurt, but the county never told ICE, which is a violation of its contract … In the dining area, inspectors found slimy, expired and discolored lunch meat, ‘foul smelling and unrecognizable’ hamburger patties, blood from a raw chicken leaking all over a refrigerator and moldy bread … Detainees complained of food poisoning and stomach infections involving diarrhea and vomiting.” Read more here

DEMOCRATS MAY NOT BITE BUT TOFURKY DOES — Democrats don’t bite on Booker vegan flap, by POLITICO’s Noah D. McCaskill: When an interview surfaced that brought Sen. Cory Booker’s veganism to the forefront, it seemed like the New Jersey senator would be forced to do the first damage control of his nascent presidential campaign. Iowa is the No. 1 pork-producing state in the nation, after all, and the state Farm Bureau reports that 95 percent of Iowans eat meat at least weekly. But, it turns out, Democratic voters aren’t biting on the controversy. Despite Booker’s remarks about the unsustainability of “billions of people consuming industrially produced animal agriculture” and much mocking on the right about his out-of-the-mainstream diet — a Fox News panel discussed “Booker’s beef” with plates of burgers and ribs on set — Iowans seem to be greeting the revelation with a shrug. Read more here

THINK BEFORE YOU TWEET — “Cory Booker waiting ’until all the information actually comes out’ before judging Jussie Smollett attack,” by NJ Advance Media’s Jeremy Schneider: “Weeks after calling the alleged attack on actor Jussie Smollett a ‘modern day lynching,’ Sen. Cory Booker said he was withholding judgement on the incident ‘until all the information actually comes out from on-the-record sources,’ according to The Associated Press … The Smollett case has become more complicated as CNN reported this weekend that Chicago police believed Smollett paid two men to orchestrate the assault, which was originally reported to be homophobic and racist in nature with a rope going around his neck.” Read more here

—“Where Cory Booker stands on gun rights, legal weed, Medicare for all, and Trump’s wall” Read more here

CARTOON BREAK — “The governor is acting shady,” by Drew Sheneman See the cartoon

LOCAL



“Trash-filled lots and boarded-up homes: Living beside blight in Atlantic City,” by The Press of Atlantic City’s Avalon Zoppo: “A few doors down from Sheila Freeman’s quaint, bayside house sits a home with its windows boarded up and overgrown grass spilling onto the sidewalk. Vacant since Hurricane Sandy more than six years ago, it's a seemingly dead house ... Squatters, who have been drawn to the empty house for at least a year, were breaking in and seeking refuge from the cold in the winter. She alerted the city, and last week, the windows were sealed again … Last month, a team of enforcement officers walked through the neighborhood as part of an effort to update Atlantic City's 2016 list of more than 500 abandoned properties. The city's 12 compliance officers cover 11 densely populated square miles.” Read more here

—“'Drastic change' needed to address how Atlantic City handles social services” Read more here

—“The state can’t seize Atlantic City piano tuner’s house with eminent domain, court rules” Read more here

LACK OF MARIJUANA USE MAY CAUSE CONFLICTS OF INTEREST — “NJ marijuana legalization: Lawsuit cites legal weed conflict by Point Pleasant Beach mayor,” by The Asbury Park Press’ Mike Davis: “Mayor Stephen Reid is the subject of a lawsuit alleging that borough tried to cover up a conflict of interest in his dual roles as mayor and chief lobbyist for a legal weed opposition group. The lawsuit, filed by marijuana legalization advocate and blogger Patrick Duff, alleges that the borough of Point Pleasant Beach redacted Reid's private email addresses from records obtained by Duff in an Open Public Records Act request. Reid, 54, has worked as the executive director of New Jersey Responsible Approaches to Marijuana Policy since May. He was elected mayor of Point Pleasant Beach in 2015 after a term on the borough council. In one email obtained by Duff, a former owner of four California medical marijuana dispensaries, the borough clerk emails Reid at his government email account and a redacted email account, asking him to tend to something anti-marijuana related.” Read more here

—"To spice up its culinary program, a New Jersey college wants to cook with cannabis” Read more here

MAYOR THOUGHT THE BUTTON OPENED TRAP DOOR THAT SENT CRITICS TO THEIR DEMISE — “Englewood Cliffs mayor used 'panic button' to summon cops 8 times last year,” by The Record’s Katie Sobko: “The police call it an emergency button: It is hidden underneath the dais in council chambers, and a touch summons an armed emergency response. Mayor Mario Kranjac, however, sees it as a ‘call button,’ and records show he used it eight times from January 1, 2018, through January 3, 2019, to summon officers after council meetings dissolved into shouting matches. Police Capt. Brian Murphy was one of five officers who responded when the button was pressed last month during a raucous reorganization meeting where residents were speaking out of turn. Just like a 911 call, the button brings officers in off the road.” Read more here

LIFE IS LIKE THAT — “Former Readington Middle School custodian fired over box of candy sues district for $2M,” by The Courier-News’ Nick Muscavage: “A former custodian at Readington Middle School is suing the district alleging emotional distress and workplace harassment after he said he mistakenly took a $20 box of chocolate from the school. Peter Marro filed a civil lawsuit in Hunterdon County Superior Court in December claiming he was fired the previous December over a misunderstanding. ‘After working in a hostile work environment for some time, I made a mistake when I thought Christmas gifts in the maintenance area were for our crew as a thank you from staff,’ he claimed in the lawsuit. ’I picked one and put it in my car. It was a box of candy worth $20.’ Shortly after, Marro said, he was called into the main office and asked if he had taken the gift, according to the lawsuit.” Read more here

TOWN WITH MEDIAN INCOME OF WELL OVER $100K WON’T PAY MINIMUM WAGE — “Township’s minimum wage violations date back 12+ years,” by New Brunswick Today’s Charlie Kratovil: “According to public records, the Township's Recreation Department appears to have illegally underpaid as many as 46 employees since 2006. Counselors for the department's summer camp program were paid at rates as low as $3 per hour, in violation of the minimum wage set forth by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Municipal officials defended their practices, which records show have been in place for many years. But attorneys for the Township have been unwilling to back them up. It's not clear how much further back the apparent violations might go, and officials declined to address the issue directly at the February 11 Township Committee meeting. The 46 employees identified by New Brunswick Today are owed between $50 and $1,000 each, totalling somewhere between $15,000 and $17,000.” Read more here

THIS SEEMS REALISTIC AND I’M DEFINITELY NOT BEING SARCASTIC — “Atlantic County resumes bid for Amazon HQ,” by The Press of Atlantic City’s Michelle Brunetti Post: “In the wake of Amazon’s decision not to put a new headquarters in New York City, Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson has made another pitch to the company to come to the Jersey Shore. ‘Amazon HQ2 may not have been embraced by New York City, but you’ll find that is far from the case just two hours south in Atlantic County, New Jersey,’ Levinson wrote in an open letter to Amazon owner Jeff Bezos.” Read more here

— “Haddonfield commissioner accused of striking officer” Read more here

—“Only two years out of high school, these 20-year-olds are school board presidents” Read more here

—“Suspended Long Branch cop had 'red flags'; should he have been fired?” Read more here

—“Marcal Paper fire frees up more water for Garfield” Read more here

—“Ocean County GOP leaders endorse Assembly candidate in 10th District” Read more here

—“N.J. cop’s $100 tip, touching note for pregnant diner waitress brought her to tears” Read more here

—“WNY mayor files ethics complaints against town attorney; political foes call it ‘a lie’” Read more here

EVERYTHING ELSE



NEXT YOU’RE GOING TO TELL ME THE CHURCH KNEW THESE NAMES FOR DECADES AND RELEASED THEM ONLY NOW, AFTER THE MAJORITY OF THEM DIED — “Lists of NJ priests accused of sexual abuse has some notable omissions,” by The Record’s Abbott Koloff: “Advocates for children abused by priests say the lists bearing the names of nearly 200 accused clergy members that were released last week only hinted at a larger problem that they expect to be brought to light after a state grand jury reviews more detailed records … The restrictions omitted priests of religious orders who were ordained by local bishops and have been accused of sexually abusing children in diocesan churches. The lists didn't include anyone accused of abusing young adults after they turned 18. One priest whose name was not on the list stepped down from an Essex County parish in 2014 after a decades-old allegation of abuse surfaced stemming from his time in Bergen County. Church officials said it raised ‘grave concerns.’ And an unknown number of records from the Paterson Diocese were destroyed decades ago, making it impossible to know how many abuse cases were not counted from before that time.” Read more here

—“Lots of names are missing from the list of 188 N.J. priests accused of sexual abuse. Here’s why” Read more here



Follow us on Twitter Matt Friedman @mattfriedmannj