Trump vs. Newark again

Good morning!

The Trump administration is targeting Newark again, this time over a directive that ordered city police officers not to answer calls for service related to migrant jail Delaney Hall.

Federal attorney Jackson Story told a judge Thursday that a June 8 memo sent to Newark cops — one that says “no officers are to handle any call for service pertaining to Delaney Hall” — means federal agents at the detention center are “forced to subdue agitators without the assistance of Newark law enforcement.”

Delaney Hall has been the site of regular protests in the last three weeks, and last week Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said his department was going to scale back its presence outside the jail, arguing that the city shouldn’t be using so many resources to protect a private facility.

“While Newark’s police department continues to be available to respond to calls to state detention facilities following the issuance of the Newark PD Memo, it hinders Newark police from doing so in connection with the one federal immigration detention facility within the city limits. Accordingly, the Newark PD Memo further formalizes and expresses the City of Newark’s discriminatory treatment toward the Federal Government and its contractors,” Story wrote Thursday.

The Trump administration is already suing Newark and three other New Jersey cities over their policy of non-cooperation with federal immigration authorities. That suit is ongoing.

Court: The New Jersey Supreme Court issued a light warning to public officials in New Jersey yesterday: Stop conducting government business using personal email. It came in a ruling that said a Bergen County school district must hand over logs of personal emails used by its board members to conduct school district business. The ruling sides with a man who said those logs are subject to the state’s Open Public Records Act. “Emails related to government business, whether stored on government or private servers, are within OPRA’s reach, so using a private email account will not shield those government records from production under OPRA,” Justice Fabiana Pierre-Louis wrote for a unanimous court.

Transit: If I were to guess, I’d say the Amtrak social media folks are none too happy about NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri saying he’ll blame Amtrak if rail transportation to the World Cup is delayed.

Agriculture: Two months after a four-day freeze killed countless crops across New Jersey, federal agriculture officials have declared all 21 counties in New Jersey natural disaster areas, a move that allows farmers to seek emergency loans to recover from their losses, which officials estimate could top $300 million.

Trenton: Supporters of a bill to protect reproductive and transgender healthcare in New Jersey, in momentary limbo after a last-minute push for an amendment, rallied in support of the legislation in Thursday in Trenton, a rally that had been meant to preview a final vote in the Assembly on the measure before the 11th hour snag.

Health: Three years ago, the Legislature approved a bill to extend the amount of time hospitals can hold a psychiatric patient against their will from 72 hours to six days. It was meant to be a temporary measure to allow hospitals time to figure out how to expand inpatient services, but lawmakers are now considering an extension. Mental health advocates are opposed.

Trump: The two-day UFC festival planned for the White House this weekend has led to accusations of corruption because of the slew of corporate advertising now on the grounds of federally owned land. Brendan Ballou, founder of the Public Integrity Project, which is suing to stop the event, said the main purpose of the UFC fights is “to enrich the President and his friends.”