New Jersey to relieve $100 million in medical debt
On Tuesday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced a plan to eliminate medical debt for tens of thousands of residents. The state partnered with the nonprofit organization Undue Medical Debt, which claims to use donations to buy medical debt and pinpoint the debt of those most in need. To pay for this program, New Jersey is using leftover funds from the federal pandemic.
Undue Medical Debt has relieved over $12 billion in medical debt since 2019 and could impact over 100,000 New Jersey residents this year. There is no formal application process for debt relief. Those who qualify are either living below the poverty line or have medical debt equal to or greater than five percent of their annual income.
Tri-state area experiences solar storm
For a brief period on Thursday evening, the northern lights were visible across the skies of New York and New Jersey, including at Ramapo College. The storm was caused by a severe geomagnetic storm, which was triggered by a solar explosion. Last week’s storm was considered a “G4 level” by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Prediction Center, which is considered “extremely high,” leading to the event being visible as south as New Jersey.
In a similar vein, the rare “Hunter’s moon” will be visible in New Jersey on Thursday evening, when it reaches 100% full. The moon will be much larger than usual and have an orange tinge to it. It will be the largest supermoon on record in 2024, with the moon being just 222,056 miles from Earth.
Florida deals with Hurricane Milton aftermath
Just two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated much of the Southeastern United States, Hurricane Milton wreaked havoc on millions of Florida residents. Some of the major consequences of the storm included the roof of Tropicana Field — the home of the Tampa Bay Rays and a space that was supposed to house thousands of first responders — being torn off, a loss of power and electricity to hundreds of thousands of people and at least 17 deaths.
Over the weekend, President Joe Biden announced the government would be providing $600 million in aid for areas affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. “There’s much more to do, and we’re going to do everything we can to get power back in your homes, not only helping you recover, but to help you build back stronger,” Biden said in a press conference.
Nebraska votes to uphold felon voting rights
The Nebraska Supreme Court voted Wednesday to allow people with felony convictions to vote after completing their sentences. With early voting already underway in the state, the decision comes at a crucial time with the general election under three weeks away. In addition to the presidential election, Nebraska is also in the midst of a highly competitive Senate race between incumbent Republican Deb Fischer and Independent Dan Osborn.
One of the reasons this is a major decision is because Nebraska is one of two states that split electoral votes between candidates. This ruling is a continuation of a 2005 decision that lifted a lifetime ban on voting for convicted felons but still required those with convictions to wait at least two years after the completion of their sentence to continue voting.
FTC requires easier subscription cancellations
The Federal Trade Commission announced on Wednesday their “click to cancel” rule, which requires different types of subscriptions to be easier to cancel. Federal regulators said they receive over 70 complaints per day about charges to subscriptions that they either forgot about or didn’t understand at the time of signing up. The new rule affects gyms, retailers and other businesses to make canceling subscriptions more transparent by making them as easy to cancel as they were to sign up for.
wjackso2@ramapo.edu
Featured photo by Jordyn Baham
