Legislation that would let gay couples marry in New Jersey was passed Monday by the state Senate but would need to add three supporters to overcome Gov. Chris Christie’s promised veto. The Senate passed the bill, 24-16, adding 10 supporters since the bill failed 14-20 in January 2010. If the Assembly passes the bill, Thursday, it would head to Christie, who has said he will veto it. Such a veto could be overridden by a two-thirds vote in each house of the Legislature, meaning 27 votes in the Senate, any time through January 2014. http://on.cpsj.com/xLImA0
New Jersey announced a milestone Thursday in the long journey to convert the state’s hospitals and physicians to electronic medical records: Nearly $40 million in federal incentive funds is flowing this week from Medicaid to the first 70 healthcare providers in New Jersey to go digital. Over the next decade, state officials estimated that 3,000 providers would receive up to $500 million in Medicaid incentive payments to help defray the cost of installing the computers and software that will maintain patient records - prescription medications, lab tests, exams, surgery - in digital files that ultimately will be accessible via the Internet, anywhere in the world. http://bit.ly/zcUb0W
Two neighboring New Jersey universities are scrubbing bathrooms and other facilities after suspected outbreaks of Norovirus sickened more than 140 students in the last two weeks. Despite flare-ups at Princeton and Rider universities, the intermittent appearance of the highly contagious bug — often called "stomach flu" — is usual for this time of year in nursing homes and cruise ships, doctors say. Rider University cleaned its residence halls and buildings on its campuses in both Lawrenceville and Princeton yesterday, after 44 students were sent to the hospital with the suspected virus, which causes diarrhea and vomiting, nausea and stomach cramps. http://bit.ly/weokIA
Nearly $17 million in federal funds will be allocated by the Army Corps of Engineers to continue deepening of the Delaware River shipping channel by five feet. U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews said Tuesday he has been advised by the Army Corps the money will be released as part of this year’s allocation to the agency. While the funds are not designated for any specific purpose, Andrews, D-Haddon Heights, said the “Army Corps’ plan is to spend it on the Delaware.” The money, if allocated, would go toward deepening the river channel from 40 to 45 feet in an area between Penns Grove and the Beckett Street Marine Terminal in Camden, said Ed Voight, chief of public and legislative affairs for the Corps’ Philadelphia regional office. http://bit.ly/x0Qggd
Rep. Rob Andrews used political contributions to make multiple trips to Los Angeles that coincided with recording sessions there for his teenaged daughter, campaign records show. A Washington-based watchdog group on Wednesday renewed its call for an independent audit of Andrews’ campaign spending. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) said an FEC review was needed to determine whether Andrews’ trips were personal in nature.Andrews’s spokesman Fran Tagmire on Wednesday said the campaign’s spending practices “are fully legal and proper.” http://on.cpsj.com/x3o486
They'll start showing up next month on farms across New Jersey. Thousands of seasonal workers will plant fields and trim trees, then tend and harvest crops during the spring and summer. Up to 180 work at Joe Marino's Sun Valley Orchards in Swedesboro, Gloucester County, and many - including migrant farm hands from Mexico - earn $7.25 an hour, the state and federal minimum wage. They would see their paychecks increase under a proposal by Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver (D., Essex) to boost the state minimum rate to $8.50 and to tie it to the consumer price index, which measures the cost of living. Oliver says the move would provide "livable wages for the lowest-income earners," while helping the economy by increasing consumer spending. About 40,000 New Jersey residents currently earn the $7.25 rate. http://bit.ly/yhxQOR
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