The outbreak affecting ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn has gotten so bad that New York City officials on Tuesday declared it a public health emergency and ordered mandatory vaccinations. Though New Jersey hasn’t been hit nearly as hard as New York City, cases have continued to crop up, which is concerning considering it’s a disease that was considered eliminated years ago. While it’s unclear if New Jersey would consider issuing a mandatory vaccination order like in New York City, it does have the power to do so during a serious public health threat, among other things like quarantine. 

Located in the heart of Trenton, the New Jersey State House is history come alive. Our State House is the second oldest still in use. (Maryland has the oldest.) For more than 200 years, New Jersey Senators, Assemblymen, and Governors have been making the laws of the state in this building. In 1999, the restoration of the State House dome was completed. The project began in October, 1996. The dome is covered with 48,000 pieces of gold leaf. Each piece of gold leaf cost $1.00 and was paid for with money raised by New Jersey school kids through the "Dimes for the Dome" program. As a thank you for their contributions, the dome stands in honor of New Jersey children. The State House is open for tours on Saturday, February 16, 2019, hourly from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm. The entrance is the State House Annex at 145 West State Street. Call the Tour Office for more information, 609-847-3150.

Gov. Phil Murphy is soon expected to sign the “Aid in Dying” law, making New Jersey the eighth state to permit people with a terminal diagnosis to end their own lives using a prescription from a doctor. On March 25, when the bill won final passage, Murphy said, “Allowing terminally ill and dying residents the dignity to make end-of-life decisions according to their own consciences is the right thing to do." Who is allowed to use the law? Adult New Jersey residents who have received a terminal diagnosis, defined as an incurable, irreversible and medically confirmed disease that will end the person’s life within six months. 

The blue crab is one of the Mid-Atlantic's seafood hallmarks, a staple of Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and a prominent fixture in New Jersey. Identified by its distinctive blue claws, the crab has now become entrenched along the coast of Spain — and not in a good way, according to a report from The Guardian. “It devours everything, and the catch of local crabs and cockles has fallen as a result,” Joan Balagué.  They suspect the blue crab arrived in Spain via the ballast tanks of commercial ships and the females can produce up to two million eggs per brood. With few predators on the Spanish coast, the crabs have taken over the area in recent years. 

Gov. Phil Murphy and state legislative leaders have reached a deal in principle on how to tax and regulate marijuana in New Jersey after months of negotiations, paving the way to bringing legal weed to the Garden State. Multiple legislative and industry sources confirmed an agreement was in place on a bill that would tax marijuana by the ounce, rather than the contentious sales tax that had divided Murphy and state Senate President Stephen Sweeney. “We don’t have a final deal," Scutari told NJ Advance Media on Friday night. "There still are more details to be worked out, but the two sticking points (taxes and a commission regulating the industry), we are there. But we are not finalized.”