American Kidney Fund Applauds New Jersey, Washington for Enacting Protections for Living Organ Donors
ROCKVILLE, MD / ACCESSWIRE / May 5, 2021 / The American Kidney Fund (AKF) commends New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Washington Governor Jay Inslee for signing into law important protections for living organ donors. The new laws prohibit life, disability and long-term care insurers from discriminating against living organ donors by declining or limiting coverage due to someone s status as an organ donor and from precluding a person from donating all or part of an organ as a condition of their policy.
AKF worked closely with New Jersey A3199/S2315 primary bill sponsor, Assemblywoman Carol Murphy, to move the bill through the General Assembly, and with Washington SB 5003 sponsor, Sen. Karen Keiser, to move the bill through the State Legislature.
These diversity and inclusion classes, which are now mandatory under a new law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday, will promote economic diversity, equity, inclusion, tolerance and belonging.
The New Jersey Department of Education will provide school districts with sample lesson plans and resources designed to promote diversity and inclusion in the classroom. The goal is to encourage welcoming environments for all public school students regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual and gender identities, mental and physical disabilities and religious belief, according to the legislation.
Diversity and inclusion courses must be incorporated as part of a public school districts implementation of the New Jersey Student Learning Standards, a set of statewide guidances on classroom instruction, which is refreshed every five years by the state education department.
And now, they say, they plan to use that political capital.
On Jan. 1, newly elected council members Karen Cohen, Fozia Janjua and Nick Moustakas joined Stephen Steglik and Kareem Pritchett, the Democrats who first took office in 2019.
In early February, the group teamed with Democratic state Assemblywoman Carol Murphy, who lives in the township, to release a transition report outlining the party s plan for the future of Mount Laurel.
The Democrats first big initiative is to create a public affairs department to engage with the township s 40,000-plus residents. Beyond that, the council wants to strengthen internet connectivity, enact a series of road projects to ease traffic congestion and transform the Rancocas Woods area into a main street.
Burlington County lawmakers push back against internet data caps
Burlington County lawmakers have pushed back against plans to charge residential internet customers a fee for exceeding data limits amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sen. Troy Singleton was one of three state lawmakers last week to introduce a bill in the New Jersey Senate that would prohibit internet service providers from increasing rates during a public health emergency.
The bill s introduction comes after Comcast began to roll out its 1.2 terabyte (TB) data plan for Xfinity internet customers in its northeast region, which includes New Jersey, on Jan. 1.
The plan establishes a monthly data usage cap of 1.2 TB for its residential internet customers. Customers who exceed the 1.2 TB data cap are charged additional fees, up to an additional $100 per month.
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Senior care providers who receive funding from the state could be required to complete cultural competency training focused on sexual orientation and gender identity if a proposed bill passes.
The bill aims to help providers better understand LGBTQ topics and eliminate discrimination that LGBTQ people fear when finding care or housing.
LGBTQ people are fearful when they enter nursing homes, said Gordon Sauer, who leads the Jersey City chapter of SAGE, a national organization that advocates for LGBTQ seniors. They re thinking, OK, do I need to hide who I am? am I going to get discriminated against? Sauer said.