New Jersey

How New Jersey’s new affordable housing law aims to ease the housing crisis

The new law lets municipalities know exactly how much affordable housing they have to build. It’s an approach that states are increasingly trying in an effort to pressure local governments to increase affordable options.

  • By Daniel C. Vock

Sunshine Week brings attention to state efforts to overhaul open records laws

As technology renders decades-old open records policies obsolete, states look to overhaul them. It is pitting government officials against good-government groups and reporters.

  • By Daniel C. Vock

How one state has mapped out its opioid recovery plans

The Garden State is pouring more than $95 million of its opioid settlement money into harm reduction, treatment and housing as it starts to mitigate substance use disorders.

  • By Kaitlyn Levinson

Why some schools are halting Halloween celebrations

Concerns that some students may feel excluded from Halloween celebrations has prompted some districts to move celebrations outside of school hours.

  • By Kaitlyn Levinson

Predictive policing software terrible at predicting crimes

A software company sold a New Jersey police department an algorithm that was right less than 1% of the time.

  • By Aaron Sankin and Surya Mattu, The Markup

New Jersey Lawmakers Take Bipartisan Swing at Deepfake Regulation

The bill would expand identity theft statutes to criminalize deceit aided by artificial intelligence.

  • By Nikita Biryukov, New Jersey Monitor

In a City Scarred by Violence, a New Approach to Public Safety

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and others have committed to reforming policing and healing the trauma that has haunted New Jersey's largest city since a deadly uprising in 1967.

  • By Daniela Altimari

Casinos Pled Poverty to Get a Huge Tax Break. Atlantic City Is Paying the Price

Despite growing profits, casino operators used predictions of “grave danger” to convince the state to slash their tax burden, denying millions to the city, its school district and the county.

  • By Alison Burdo, ProPublica

How One State Measures Post-pandemic Recovery

Economic leaders in New Jersey can see indicators and contextualize metrics with a solution that combines government, geographic and third-party economic data into an interactive dashboard.

  • By Stephanie Kanowitz

States Expand Efforts to Squash Spread of Dangerous Insect

The invasive spotted lanternfly kills many crops and trees and can cause a state hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Several states are sounding the alarm and quarantining more counties.

  • By Andre Claudio

The Democratic States Moving to End Mask Mandates

Governors and other officials in at least five blue states took steps this week to dial back the requirements.

  • By Andre Claudio

Storm Drains Keep Swallowing People During Floods

An alarming number of people (especially children) have drowned after disappearing into storm drains during floods. The deadly problem should be easy for federal, state and local government agencies to fix, but tragedy strikes again and again.

  • By Topher Sanders, ProPublica
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Where Unemployment Rates Are Bouncing Back the Most and Least

Nebraska tops the list of states where the unemployment rates are bouncing back the most. New Jersey comes in last.

  • By Andre Claudio

Supply Chain Issues, Poll Worker Shortages Worry States Ahead of Elections

Election officials in some states are recruiting more poll workers but say getting power supplies and extension cords are also problems.

  • By Andrea Noble

Full FDA Approval of Pfizer Vaccine Prompts Swift Mandates for State, Local Government Workers

Following approval for the vaccine, some leaders across the country immediately tell public employees and college students to get vaccinated now.

  • By Kate Elizabeth Queram

Two States Now Offer Free In-home Nurse Visits for New Parents

The visits, offered in Oregon and now New Jersey, include a health and wellness check for both the baby and the parents, an effort to improve maternal mortality rates and boost family well-being.

  • By Kate Elizabeth Queram

Why New Jersey's Governor Started Memorializing Covid-19 Victims—and Won't Stop

Since March 2020, Gov. Phil Murphy has used his Covid-19 briefings to eulogize residents who died from the virus, a practice he says is necessary to remember the humanity behind the data.

  • By Kate Elizabeth Queram

Hundreds of PPP Loans Went to Fake Farms in Absurd Places

An online lending platform called Kabbage sent 378 pandemic loans worth $7 million to fake companies (mostly farms) with names like “Deely Nuts” and “Beefy King.”

  • By Lydia DePillis and Derek Willis, ProPublica

Report: Flooding has Devastating Effects on Affordable Housing

People of color, seniors and the disabled are most at risk of flooding's financial and health risks, according to academic research on coastal areas in the U.S.

  • By Brent Woodie

Analysis: US Rent Debt Totals Nearly $20B due to Covid-19

Southern states have the largest share of renters with debt, although cities with the most people behind on rent are in California, New York, New Jersey and Florida, according to a recent report.

  • By Brent Woodie

Block of Three Northeast States Will Move Toward Reopening

Governors in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut plan to ease limits on businesses beginning May 19. States in other parts of the country have already gone further unwinding pandemic-era rules.

  • By Bill Lucia