January 9, 2018
The thaw is here! Sunny with high temperatures near 40.
LAWMAKERS OK INCENTIVE PACKAGE TO LURE AMAZON
A corporate-tax incentive package intended to entice Amazon to build its new headquarters in Newark won final approval in the Legislature on Monday and has been sent to Gov. Chris Christie for his signature, John Reitmeyer reports for NJ Spotlight. The governor is expected to sign the measure, which would provide per-job tax credits worth as much as $10,000 annually to any company that is willing to hire at least 30,000 employees and invest at least $3 billion in a corporate headquarters in New Jersey. Amazon, based in Seattle, is looking for a place to build a second corporate headquarters that could employ as many as 50,000 employees.
6,800 SALVADORANS IN NJ MUST LEAVE BY SEPTEMBER 2019
The ending of a humanitarian program for Salvadoran immigrants will require 6,800 people who have lived and worked legally in New Jersey for the past 17 years to leave by September 2019. The ending of the program, called Temporary Protected Status for Salvadorans, affects 260,000 nationwide, Monsy Alvarado writes for The Record. Those who stay after the deadline will be considered undocumented immigrants and will be eligible for deportation.
CORRECTIONS DEPARTMENT REVERSES BAN ON BOOK
The state Department of Corrections has lifted a ban on the book “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” at two prisons, Vanessa Romo reports for NPR. The ban was lifted after the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter demanding that the book, which discusses the racial disparity in prisons, be available to inmates.
LEGISLATURE PASSES BILL STRIPPING NJSPCA OF POLICE POWERS
The Assembly passed a measure Monday that would turn over enforcement of animal cruelty laws to local police and county prosecutors and remove police powers from the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, S.P. Sullivan reports for NJ.com. The measure, which won approval in the Senate in December, goes to Gov. Chris Christie for his signature. The NJSPCA was sharply criticized in October in a report by the State Commission of Investigation, which said the society was run by “gun-carrying wannabe cops.”
MAN CHARGED WITH CRASHING POLICE SUV INTO HOBOKEN TERMINAL
Law-enforcement authorities have ruled out terrorism in an incident Monday in which a 46-year-old man allegedly stole an NJ Transit Police SUV and crashed it into the door of the Hoboken Terminal train station, News 12 reports. Santiago Brito-Avalos is accused of arriving at the station by train, walking into a restricted area and stealing the vehicle before crashing it into the terminal.
DEATH OF BELOVED TRENTON BAT DOG MOURNED NATIONWIDE
The Trenton Thunder minor-league baseball team announced on Monday the death of Derby, the dog that fetched bats at baseball games -- and media across the country have taken note. “RIP, good boy,” Matt Rosenberg wrote in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Derby, a 9-year-old golden retriever, died over the weekend after a battle with cancer. The dog began collecting bats for the Thunder as a 2-year-old in 2010, ESPN reports.
