By: David Matthau | NJ 101.5 Jersey’s highest court has heard oral arguments on Kyleigh’s Law. The justices must now decide whether the law requiring new drivers to place red decals on their cars, to help police monitor their behavior, violates privacy laws. Rockaway attorney Gregg Trautmann says the case is really about his daughter Catherine – and thousands of other young women “that are going to be out there driving alone at night, having to place a decal on their car – and make them potential victims for any creep or stalker that wants to do them harm.” He  [ Read More ]

By DEREK HARPER and HOA NGUYEN Staff Writers | Atlantic City Press The TRU-ID system New Jersey was to have rolled out new TRU-ID drive’rs license and identity cards starting Monday. Drivers born before Dec. 1, 1964, were to have been allowed to renew by mail through November 2014, although that time frame now remains in question, officials said. The new eight-year licenses would double in price to $48, and would have new requirements: One proof of identity: Current U.S. passport or passport card Certified U.S. birth certificate or consular report of birth abroad Permanent Resident (Green) Card Current Employment  [ Read More ]

Published: Monday, April 30, 2012, 6:18 AM By: Star-Ledger Editorial Board Brace yourself, because this is the kind of story that can make you so crazy you may pop a blood vessel. We give you state Sen. Nicholas Sacco, the political boss of North Bergen, a man so shameless that he makes the other politicians look like selfless and decent fellows. Sacco, a Democrat, has three public jobs that bring him a combined salary of $299,000. That should be criminal in itself, but Sacco and his pals in Trenton have blocked one governor after another as they have tried to  [ Read More ]

By: Karin Price Mueller/The Star-Ledger Since 2011, New Jersey has stopped more than $100 million in improperly paid unemployment benefits, according to the state’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Each week, an average of 1,650 invalid claims are denied. Jim Holt’s claim was not one of them. In March 2010, Holt lost his job as a maintenance man for Diocesan Housing Services, an entity of the Catholic Diocese of Camden. He applied for unemployment and was approved for a weekly check of $227. Now the agency is asking him to pay it back. All $19,295 of it, thanks to  [ Read More ]

Published: Thursday, April 19, 2012, 4:03 PM Updated: Thursday, April 19, 2012, 5:22 PM By: The Jersey Journal | NJ.com NEWARK — A Jersey City man who used his New York auto repair business to perpetuate bank fraud was sentenced today to 41 months in prison for his role in the scheme, which caused four banks to lose roughly $1 million, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Syed Rehman, 45, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares to an Information charging him with one count of bank fraud, admitting he was part of a scheme involving the  [ Read More ]

A female shipyard welder who accused her employer of sexual harassment has won a groundbreaking ruling that posting pictures of nude and partly nude women is a form of sexual harassment. While rulings in other cases have found that pornographic pictures may contribute to an atmosphere of sexual harassment, the new decision is thought to be the first finding that such pictures are, in and of themselves, harassment. The judge, Howell Melton, of Federal District Court in Jacksonville, Fla., found on Friday that Jacksonville Shipyards Inc. and two of its employees were directly liable for the harassment. He rejected what  [ Read More ]

By Ed Beeson/The Star-Ledger | NJ.com Call it a warm winter hangover. Friday’s news that the U.S. economy added only 120,000 jobs in March disappointed economists and investors who were expecting employment gains closer to 205,000. But one of the theories that emerged to explain the sudden drop-off was that the mild winter spurred hiring in some sectors — construction, retail sales and temporary help — so much so that employers felt they didn’t need to add more to their rosters last month. “This could be a bit of a payback for it,” Anika Khan, an economist with Wells Fargo,  [ Read More ]

Lawmakers sped the law’s passage in 2010 after the high-profile suicide of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, whose roommate used a webcam to spy on Clementi’s intimate encounter with another man Monday, Mar 26, 2012 | Updated 9:00 PM EDT | NBC NEWS Gov. Chris Christie has signed New Jersey’s tough anti-bullying legislation into law. The law — which requires schools to develop anti-harassment programs and review how bullying is handled — was set aside earlier this year after one small school district complained about the cost of training and materials. A local mandates council agreed the law created a  [ Read More ]

Did you know that PNC Bank Arts Center is one of the top 5 most popular outdoor concert venues in the U.S.? PNC Bank Arts Center is managed by Live Nation, the 2nd major outdoor concert venue in the NYC metro area; the other, Nikon at Jones Beach Theater on Long Island. Many concert-goers love the outdoor arena; about 2/3 of the event seating is located on the lawn. The Summer concert schedule includes shows from May through September. Located off Exit 116 on the Garden state Parkway, the PNC Bank Arts Center is a great summer concert staple. 2012  [ Read More ]

Authors: Jedd Mendelson On January 9, 2012, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed into law the New Jersey Trade Secrets Act, which establishes principles governing protection of trade secrets and remedies for their misappropriation. In doing so, New Jersey has joined the mainstream in the trade secrets arena: New York, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Texas are the only remaining states without a statute modeled on the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. While the New Jersey Trade Secrets Act introduces a statutory framework governing trade secret protection, in many respects it does no more than codify existing case law. The Act became  [ Read More ]

By: APP.com | Opinion In the seemingly endless struggle to make ends meet, New Jerseyans may well find themselves falling even further behind in 2012. As staff writer Jean Mikle pointed out in the Sunday Press, there are at least “8 Things That Will Cost You More This Year.” That might be tolerable if wages were keeping pace with rising prices. But they aren’t. It’s hard to argue, as Gov. Chris Christie has repeatedly tried to do, that New Jersey has staged a “comeback” when most residents are being nickled and dimed to death, and have no assurances that regular  [ Read More ]

This post is from Bob & Liz, who own the “Sound Station” record store business in Westfield, NJ. Sadly, their business burned to the ground yesterday. As if it’s not tough enough running a Ma & Pa retail business in today’s economy, now they have been devastated by this huge loss. Here’s Bob’s FB post about it: Our store is gone. Since 1988 I’ve been behind the counter just trying to get through to people about everything I love in life. It’s all gone now & I dont know how to deal. I feel like life is lost. Nothing inside  [ Read More ]

By: App.com |12:18 PM, Jan. 1, 2012 After an up and down 2011, will 2012 be the year the economy finally breaks out of its funk? Sallee Tee’s Grille reopened Dec. 15, more than three months after the remnants of Hurricane Irene flooded the Monmouth Beach restaurant with at least six inches of water, temporarily closing the business and displacing 70 employees. In hindsight, owner Joe Amiel said, the restaurant’s $500,000 renovation probably was overdue. It now has new floors, walls and equipment. Sixty percent of the staff has returned. And Amiel, looking ahead to 2012, is hopeful. “It was  [ Read More ]

By: Laura Basset @Huffington Post First Posted: 04/25/11 06:19 PM ET Updated: 06/25/11 06:12 AM ET In New Jersey, it is no longer legal for employers to specify in their job ads that unemployed persons will not be considered. Gov. Chris Christie (R) recently signed a bill that bans overt discrimination against the jobless in print or online — the first legislation of its kind in the United States. Employers would face a penalty of $1,000 for the first offense and $5,000 for subsequent offenses. New Jersey state Rep. Celeste Riley (D-Cumberland), a primary sponsor of the bill, said she became  [ Read More ]

By John Schoonejongen – APP.com Whenever I hear Gov. Chris Christie talk about that Jersey attitude, I think back to the 1980s when my family and I moved back to the Garden State after 10 years in New York. As we were getting settled in our new home in Bridgeton, a knock came on the back door. A strongly built, older man with thin gray hair and a big smile stood there with a shopping bag filled with lima beans he had just picked from his garden nearby. “Welcome,” he told us. “I thought you might like these.” My mother  [ Read More ]