Loretta Weinberg, huge force in N.J. Legislature, to retire at end of her term
Updated Jan 14, 2021;
Posted Jan 13, 2021
State Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, is pictured in Newark in January 2020.Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media
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State Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, one of New Jersey’s most influential lawmakers and the highest-ranking woman in the state Legislature, announced Wednesday she will retire after a nearly 30-year career in Trenton when her term ends.
The 85-year-old Bergen County Democrat a veteran progressive and self-proclaimed “feisty Jewish grandmother” who has sponsored substantial laws on everything from gun control and transportation to women’s rights and preventing sexual harassment and assault said she won’t run for re-election in November but will finish her fourth full term in the Senate, which ends in January 2022.
Trenton Bureau
The New Jersey Legislature passed a resolution Monday condemning President Donald Trump for inciting a riot at the Capitol last week, despite objections from several Republicans who said the action would further political division, among other concerns.
The resolution sponsored by Sen. Ron Rice, D-Newark and chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, condemns President Trump and his extremist supporters who were incited by the president to lawlessly attack and occupy the United States Capitol on Jan. 6.
It urges Trump to resign or be removed for being unfit to serve.
The purely symbolic and non-binding resolution drew an hour of heated debate in the Senate, moreso than any other item on the chamber s to-do list of 31 bills. Lawmakers had opened their first voting session of 2021 with a moment of silence in honor of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, a South River native killed in the attack in Washington, D.C.
By MATT KADOSH
January 6, 2021 at 5:42 PM
The Capitol building in Washington is seen in this file image.
The Capitol building in Washington is seen in this file image.
Credits: TAPinto.net File Photo
January 6, 2021 at 5:42 PM
WESTFIELD, NJ State and local officials took to social media Wednesday as the nation reeled from the news that a mob loyal to President Donald Trump had stormed the Capitol building in Washington in an effort to overturn the election results.
Mayor Shelley Brindle was among the officials who took to Twitter with her thoughts on the events.
“Just heartbroken. Those traitors breaking into the capitol should be considered domestic terrorists and prosecuted as such,” Brindle said. “This is not our America.”
The political landscape in this New Year will depend on how swiftly and successfully New Jersey and the nation emerges from the nightmare that was 2020.
Hovering over the New Jersey governor’s race and contests for all 120 seats in the Legislature in 2021 is the expectation that the distribution of a vaccine will finally bring the deadly coronavirus to heel. And with that, the hope that a weary and heartbroken public can reclaim some semblance of normalcy.
Also fueling a modicum of optimism is the coming installation of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who have promised a more focused, science-based pivot from the dismissive, disordered Trump administration’s management of the pandemic.
Push is on for Murphy to deliver for minority-owned businesses
Published: December 27, 2020
State Sen. Ron Rice (c.) with Assembly members Cleopatra Tucker and Ralph Caputo (David Matthau, Townsquare Media NJ)
TRENTON Some lawmakers and activists are upping the pressure entering Gov. Phil Murphy’s re-election year for him to deliver on economic promises for minority-owned businesses.
Through its Joint Committee on Economic Justice and Equal Employment Opportunity, the Legislature is looking to boost minority- and women-owned businesses. Said Sen. Ronald Rice, D-Essex, said decades of legislative hearings have yielded few meaningful results in terms of contracts and opportunities.
“I think we have to recognize that although sometimes the governor’s going to get offended, even though many of us support the governor, for speaking truth to power,” Rice said.