Veteran homelessness

Good morning!

There are just two weeks until Labor Day, Tom Kean Jr. is still ducking the press, and Paterson and Trenton are fighting over $$$. Let’s get to it. 👇

Homelessness: Veteran homelessness dropped about 1.2% from 2024 to 2025, according to a new count from the feds, via Robbie Sequeira. Gov. Mikie Sherrill last month said the state’s push to end veteran homelessness saw more than 2,500 homeless veterans become permanently housed.

NJ-07: Tracey Tully has a good dispatch from outside a fundraiser for Rep. Tom Kean Jr. at a Warren County golf club. Kean’s campaign staff wouldn’t let her in so she waited in her car for Kean to exit — and someone called the cops on her. “I didn’t know it was just a nice little reporter waiting for an interview,” Sergeant Overko on Washington Township police said. Kean’s campaign played defense on social media all weekend, insisting Kean is indeed available to (some) press.

Courts: ICYMI from Friday, the Trump administration is officially appealing its loss in a lawsuit it brought against Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, and Hoboken that challenges those cities’ sanctuary policies for immigrants. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit earlier this summer, saying the feds had no case against the cities because even if they had no such policies, they would have had to adhere to the state’s sanctuary policy.

Paterson: Joe Malinconico reports on the fight between New Jersey and Paterson officials over $7.4 million in state aid New Jersey is withholding because the city did not increase sewer and construction fees. Paterson Councilman Luis Velez told Malinconico the state is at fault because it knows the city is “distressed.” “We can’t keep going after the taxpayers,” he said.

Politics: Alaska’s 2026 elections may be this nation’s weirdest.

D.C.: President Trump can continue construction on his ballroom project, thanks to a Friday order from U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.  The National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, a nonprofit Congress created to protect public buildings, sued to block construction late last year, arguing that Trump was not allowed to demolish a portion of the White House and proceed with the ballroom project without congressional approval. Roberts’ order gives the court more time to consider the underlying case.