Don't drink the water

Good morning!

If your tap water is serviced by the Passaic Valley Water Commission, may I suggest getting bottled water for a bit?

The agency is getting sued by the Trump and Sherrill administrations in a new lawsuit that accuses the commission of ignoring demands to cover the three reservoirs to protect its water from stormwater runoff, animal waste, and other contaminants, Dana DiFilippo reports.

The lawsuit alleges the commission has failed to fully address this problem since at least 2009.

Worrisome allegations for hundreds of thousands of residents. The commission serves people in Paterson, Clifton, Passaic, Prospect Park, Lodi, North Arlington, and Woodland Park.

Read more from Dana.

Courts: The New Jersey Supreme Court overturned a murder conviction Monday because evidence in one of the cases the defendant pleaded guilty to was thrown out as the fruits of an illegal search, meaning the entire plea deal had to be tossed. The justices in the unanimous ruling urged parties entering into plea deals that cover multiple indictments to clarify their intentions on the record to avoid similar pitfalls.

Disabilities: Ashley Balcerzak and Jean Rimbach at the Bergen Record report that New Jersey has appointed an independent monitor to oversee one of its largest group homes for adults with developmental disabilities. This comes as the state is also dropping neglect charges filed against the home over charges that a resident was left on the floor for nearly seven hours with no assistance.

Hudson County: Via John Heinis at Hudson County View, an ex-North Bergen cop is suing the town alleging he was the victim of discrimination, saying a police detective hurled racial epithets at him. The plaintiff, Rasheed Siyam, was charged by prosecutors last year and accused of hanging out at his home while on duty, and is also one of the ex-cops who accused the town’s police chief of miscellaneous “disgusting acts,” including putting Viagra in coffee pots used by police officers.

Elections: Tensions between state election officials and the Trump administration boiled over during a phone call about election security Monday, via Dion Nissenbaum at Votebeat. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes got testy with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, telling them they can’t be trusted because of what Trump has said publicly about election security. “They don’t work with us, they work against us,” Fontes later told Nissenbaum. “Why should I trust them?”