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Save New Jersey’s bees: Reduce use of ‘neonics’ By Michele S. Byers New Jersey is still the “Garden State,” famous for blueberries, peaches, tomatoes, corn and other delicious fruits and veggies. But these valuable crops will not grow without the services of honeybees, wild bees like bumblebees, and other insect pollinators. Together, they pollinate nearly $200 million worth of produce a year. Bees are disappearing at an alarming rate and mounting evidence points to insecticides known as neonicotinoids, or “neonics” for short. Chemically related to nicotine,...

Three more NJ school superintendents want to unmask our kids. The start of the next school year is still more than four months away, but pressure is already mounting to do away with masks for students. Governor Phil Murphy doubled down on the mask mandate in schools this week saying he does expect both students and teachers will be required to mask up when full-time in-class instruction resumes in September. He justified the order by saying there was no vaccine approved for kids under the age of 14. Pressed on whether he might change his mind, Murphy said he wanted to unmask kids, but "I can'...

Murphy suggested that a NJ mask mandate for schools and even summer camps are more fluid as COVID-19 numbers drop and federal guidance may change.

View Comments With the campaign for governor heating up less than six months before the November election, two Republican Central Jersey state senators have lambasted Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy's requirement that children may have to wear masks when they return to school in September and if they attend day care centers and summer camps. “While children have been allowed to play sports, including wrestling, football and soccer, without masks for months, they will be forced to wear masks while playing outside at camp under old rules in place since last summer," Sen. Michael Doherty, R-Warr...

TRENTON – A bill to increase the penalties for hazing rituals is advancing in the state Assembly. The bill, passed out of the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee, upgrades hazing from a disorderly persons offense heard in municipal court to a fourth-degree crime heard in Superior Court. Aggravated hazing is upgraded to a third-degree crime.  The bills were prompted by the death of Readington resident and Hunterdon Central graduate Tim Piazza, who died after fraternity hazing at Penn State University in 2017. Piazza fell down a flight of stairs in a fraternity house after participat...