New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill dissed Philadelphia cheesesteaks earlier this summer, and she just doubled down.
“The best cheesesteaks actually aren’t in Philly,” she declares in a video posted to her social media Wednesday afternoon centered ona recent visit to Donkey’s Place in Camden. “They’re right here in Jersey, and we’re about to go have one.”
In the video, Sherrillleans against the bar next to a customer drinking a beer and sporting a Phillies cap. The first-term Democrat notes with a grin that a “real-life” Philadelphian is “here in Jersey, getting a cheesesteak!”
She noted in the post that a friend of hers from California had mentioned the cheesesteak place to her — showing that the acclaimed Haddon Avenue spot, founded in 1943, is known across the country. She said she “never doubted that New Jersey has the best cheesesteaks,” but had to visit Donkey’s to “confirm” for herself.
I never doubted that New Jersey has the best cheesesteaks, but I still had to stop by Donkey's Place in Camden earlier this summer to confirm it for myself. pic.twitter.com/48JV0PavJQ
— Governor Mikie Sherrill (@GovSherrillNJ) August 5, 2026
Anthony Bourdain felt similarly.
In 2015, Bourdain, who grew up in North Jersey, opined on an episode of his Parts Unknown show that finding the best cheesesteak in “the center of the cheesesteak universe” may require crossing the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. The restaurant proudly displays his quote on its website: “The best cheesesteak in the area might well come from New Jersey.”
During her visit to Donkey’s, Sherrill got in on the cheesesteak action with owner Rob Lucas Jr., whose father, Bob Lucas, previously owned the restaurant. The younger Lucas’ grandfather, Olympic boxer Leon “Donkey” Lucas, was the founder.
Equipped with plastic gloves and a griddle spatula for each hand, the governor assists Lucas by shaking loads of seasoning on a pile of onions.
“Take three pieces of cheese, put it right on top of that,” he directs her in the video.
Sherrill noted she loves onions, in contrast to the three orders of “no onions” ahead of her.
Donkey’s steaks are endowed with white American cheese and come with fried onions on a poppy-seed kaiser roll.
“Guys, the verdict’s in, and you probably know I’ve been going to Army-Navy in Philly for years,” Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, proudly says, sitting with her creation. “I’ve had a million cheesesteaks. There is no better cheesesteak than here at Donkey’s.”
The historic Army-Navy football game was first played in Philadelphia in 1899 and it has been hosted in the City of Brotherly Love more times than any other city. The last time it was in Philly was in 2022, and it will be hosted by New Jersey, in East Rutherford, this year before returning to Pennsylvania’s largest cityin 2027.
Sherrill visited Donkey’s in late June the same day she visited Camden’s World Cup fan fest at Wiggins Waterfront Park just days before the deadline for her first New Jersey budget. During that appearance, local officials praised the governor for showing up for South Jersey.
During a speech on the fan fest stage, Sherrill boasted that as visitors flood to the region for the World Cup, “the best cheesesteaks are not across the river, they’re right here at Donkey’s.”
The family of an immigrant from El Salvador who died in ICE custody in New Jersey on Tuesday outlined a list of demands for state and federal officials that they said would bring justice after his death.
Edwin Jeovanny López Cornejo, 41, whose family said he had been living in the U.S. for two decades, died in ICE custody on Saturday after having a medical episode at Delaney Hall in Newark. The privately run ICE facility has been the subject of complaints of poor conditions, ongoing protests, and the site of clashes between federal officials and elected Democrats.
“On the same day, we were both dead, the only difference was his heart stopped beating,” his 12-year-old daughter Ashley López said at a news conference held outside the Reformed Church of Highland Park on Tuesday streamed by Cosecha New Jersey, an immigrant-rights group. “I am going to grow up without a father. They did not even let me see him one last time before he died.”
“We had so many plans, we will never do them, because they are heartless monsters,” she added.
López Cornejo’s family members have accused ICE of neglecting to provide proper medical care to him, an accusation the federal agency denies. His mother María Cornejo questioned whether ICE gave her son his medicine for high blood pressure, diabetes, and seizures. He was detained in Plainfield in North Jersey on June 18.
ICE said Monday evening that López Cornejo’s cause of death was pending further medical review, but Sen. Andy Kim shared later that night that he died of a heart attack and cardiac arrest. Kim said López Cornejo already had a habeas corpus case calling for his release due to his medical issues.
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While speaking at the news conference, Danilo López, the brother of López Cornejo, called for an independent investigation of the incident by New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, a release of his brother’s medical records by the facility’s owner GEO Group and ICE, the closure of the detention center and the release of all those detained. He also asked Gov. Mikie Sherrill to open an investigation into health protocols at the center.
“I know that there’s nothing that will bring my brother back but if we feel our pain now maybe we can avoid other deaths,” Danilo López said in Spanish.
Davenport’s office said Tuesday it “can neither confirm or deny an investigation at this time.”
Sherrill has called for the shuttering of Delaney Hall amid a broader battle over President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Her administration is in various court fights with Trump’s administration, including one attempting to gain access to Delaney Hall for a full state health inspection.
Activists have repeatedly called for Delaney Hall to shut its doors but the Trump administration has made clear it’s not closing the facility anytime soon as it holds a crucial role in the president’s mass deportation operation.
U.S. Rep. Analilia Mejia, a progressive Democrat who represents a North Jersey district, said at the news conference that she’s spoken to people inside Delaney Hall during oversight visits who say they’re being denied their medication and proper medical care.
A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Central Jersey Democrat, said her office gets calls from families saying their loved ones aren’t receiving their medication and are getting moldy food inside the facility.
Trump officials and allies have denied there are issues inside Delaney Hall, including U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a South Jersey Republican who, prior to this incident, visited the facility and called it clean and “well-run” with “medical care, recreation, and other basic services.”
ICE said it provides “comprehensive medical care” to people in the facility, including 24 hour emergency care.
“While in custody, Lopez-Cornejo received proper medical care and was seen by medical professionals,” the federal agency said in a statement.
Danilo López said that his brother had told him over the phone that he had to fill out a form to just get Tylenol at Delaney Hall and it could be days before he received it.
María Cornejo accused ICE of lying about giving her son proper medical attention.
“I just want justice for my son and for my granddaughter who is going to grow without a father,” she said in Spanish.
Danilo López said Tuesday he didn’t know why his brother was detained because he had a valid work permit, but ICE said López Cornejo was arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol “for illegally entering the United States without inspection” in August 2006 and was sent back to El Salvador that October before returning without permission.
López Cornejo’s daughter, Ashley, said Tuesday that “no one is illegal on stolen land,” a common refrain from immigrant rights activists.
Her mother, who was not named, called the incident the result of a systemic failure.
“From the bottom of my heart I feel the system failed Edwin,” she said in Spanish. “Failed my daughter, failed me as a mom, and failed all those other kids who are suffering like my daughter is.”
New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport filed the state’s fourth open lawsuit against Amazon on Tuesday, accusing the tech giant of creating worse work conditions for lower pay through its “anticompetitive” delivery driver network.
“Today, my office is acting to stand up for thousands of New Jersey delivery drivers who are being exploited every day by one of the world’s biggest, richest corporations,” Davenport said at a news conference.
The suit homesin on Amazon’s Delivery Service Partners (DSPs) program, which the company advertises as an opportunity for prospective entrepreneurs to open their own business while partnering with the tech giant by managing a local system of drivers. But these businesses are beholden to Amazon, Davenport argues, and the tech giant’s system prevents drivers from unionizing or getting better work conditions.
“These are the workers who bring Amazon packages to our front doors,” she said. “They often show up in Amazon vans, wearing Amazon vests, carrying boxes with the Amazon logo on them. And in our view, they are working longer hours in worse conditions and for less money because of Amazon’s anticompetitive behavior.”
These drivers earn “significantly less” than drivers for UPS, FedEx, and the U.S. Postal Service, according to the complaint.
The complaint describes a work environment of employee surveillance, union busting, and drivers having no choice but to urinate in water bottles to meet Amazon’s metrics.
“They must accept invasive surveillance that monitors their every moment and action while at work and face the possibility of immediate termination for the smallest infraction or failure to meet these unreasonable requirements,” the complaint states.
Steve Kelly, a spokesperson for Amazon, pushed back strongly on the claims made in the suit and accused Davenport of choosing to hold a news conference rather than seeking a greater understanding of the program.
“This complaint is not grounded in fact. The Attorney General’s characterization of the DSP Program and the claims about working conditions are just wrong. The truth is, DSPs are independent business owners who make their own decisions about hiring, fleet management, and capacity planning — and they choose whether to work with other companies besides Amazon,” Kelly said in a statement.
“Had the Attorney General bothered to look at the facts, they would have also seen that the vast majority of routes are finished on-time or early — built on real-world data accounting for stop complexity, traffic, and geography. DSPs manage their drivers’ workday and route execution, and DSP employees are free to choose their employer and associate with who they want, full stop.”
Kelly said the company was confident that it would prevail in court.
On its website, Amazon advertises the DSP program as providing “the unique opportunity to create jobs in your neighborhood and lead a team that delivers gifts, textbooks, and pet food to your community.”
But Davenport’s office argues that the DSPs “are anything but independent.”
“Rather, Amazon keeps control of the levers that matter — setting demanding operational requirements, monitoring driver performance, controlling route allocations, and restricting DSPs from hiring one another’s drivers — with exploitative consequences for the drivers themselves,“ her office said in a release.
Davenport also alleges that Amazon monitors DSP workers with artificial intelligence and cameras inside the vehicles they drive, and that the company has intimidated and retaliated against drivers who were suspected of union organizing.
The complaint cites an incident in Queens, N.Y., in which Amazon allegedly sent drones to blacklist striking workers. It also cites an instance in Edison where workers were allegedly told that labor organizing could endanger DSP’s partnership with Amazon, putting their jobs in jeopardy.
The suit claims also accuses Amazon of blacklisting workers who support unionization from a broad network of DSPs, and cites workers who were terminated after their bosses learned they supported labor organizing.
Amazon is the dominant purchaser of this delivery driver labor, and since it is about buying rather than selling, their alleged anticompetitive practice is called a monopsony, rather than a monopoly. Davenport’s office said this is the first time a state has filed a monopsony complaint.
It adds to a list of court battles with the company.
In September 2023, former Attorney General Matthew Platkin joined the Federal Trade Commission and other states in suing the tech giant for allegedly maintaining a monopoly. Last October, Platkin filed one complaint over the company’s treatment of pregnant people and workers with disabilities, and another over how Amazon classifies certain workers as independent contractors and therefore denies them rights and benefits.
Davenport’s lawsuit Tuesday is the first lawsuit against Amazon filed under Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration, but the state’s top lawyer said the three other cases are ongoing.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, alleges violation of the federal Sherman Antitrust Act and New Jersey’s Antitrust Act and seeks damages for DSP drivers and for Amazon to stop the alleged behavior.
A 41-year-old man from El Salvador who was detained at the Delaney Hall ICE facility has died, the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement confirmed Monday evening hours after his family and a member of Congress spoke out about the incident.
Delaney Hall, a privately operated detention center under contract with ICE, has been the site of turmoil during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. It’s been the target of complaints almost since it reopened in 2025. Elected officials have clashed with the federal government over accessing the facility, and altercations between law enforcement and protesters outside the facility went viral earlier this summer.
On Monday, immigrant rights group Cosecha New Jersey shared a video identifying the person who died as Edwin Jeovanny López Cornejo.
María Cornejo, who identified herself as his mother, said in Spanish in the videothat the hospital called her to inform her of her son’s death, and that his heart was not beating when he arrived.
“There is this pain that has struck me now — it’s not just me who’s been struck by it, yet there are many people in this country who are growing tired of this pain,” his mother said in Spanish.
“If they don’t ensure that justice is served, well, they’re going to keep doing this forever, and we don’t know how many more people we’ll have to lose in this country,” she added. “Hardworking people. People who aren’t involved in other things, but who devote themselves to their work.”
Shortly after that video streamed on Facebook, U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez, a North Jersey Democrat, said in a video on X that he was showing up for an unannounced oversight visit to Delaney Hall. A few hours later, he said ICE confirmed López Cornejo’s death.
“We asked certain medical questions which ICE couldn’t give us answers to,” he said. “We have to request it or his family has to request it, which we will.”
Later on Monday, ICE said in a statement that López Cornejo experienced a medical emergency while in custody and was pronounced dead at University Hospital in Newark after medical staff “responded immediately” and called emergency services.
The agency said the cause of his death is pending further medical review on Monday evening, but Sen. Andy Kim attributed it to a heart attack and cardiac arrest in a video he posted on X later that night.
Kim, whose office said it was notified of the death Monday morning, noted that López Cornejo already had a habeus corpus case open arguing for his release due to his medical issues.
“I’m not going to jump to conclusions, but we have to get answers to what happened to Edwin to understand all of what transpired,” the South Jersey Democrat said.
Cornejo said her son took medicine for blood pressure, diabetes, and seizures. She said that while she does not know for sure whether he had access to his medicine, she believes ICE neglected to provide it to him, leading to his death.
She said she last spoke on the phone with her son on Friday — the day before his death — when he said that he felt ill and part of his face and hand had fallen asleep. He told her he was taken to the doctor that day and they were going to run some labs, but he didn’t say when.
ICE said López Cornejo “received proper medical care and was seen by medical professionals.”
Menendez said he learned that López Cornejo “complained of difficulties that he was having” on Saturday and collapsed at Delaney Hall, where CPR was performed before he was taken to the hospital.
Cornejo said her son had been in the U.S. for 20 years and was a hard worker. She said he hada 12-year-old daughter who had not been able to see him since he entered the facility six weeks ago. He previously told her on the phone that his hands turned purple from the handcuffs he was arrested in.
Danilo López, who identified himself as López Cornejo’s brother, said in the video he doesn’t know why his sibling was detained because he had a valid work permit.
“I wouldn’t wish the pain we’re going through right now on anyone, and I don’t want this to keep happening,” he said. “Because it hurts so much — it leaves a void, it leaves a daughter orphaned, and above all, it leaves an irreparable void in the family. And that’s why I’m asking for justice for my brother.”
According to ICE, López Cornejo was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol “for illegally entering the United States without inspection” in August 2006 and he was sent back to El Salvador that October.
He later returned to the United States at an “unknown date” before he was arrested in Plainfield in Union County in June, according to ICE.
Sebastiana Cornejo, who identified herself as López Cornejo’s aunt, said in the videothat he was arrested on his way to work.
She blamed her nephew’s death on ICE detaining him and called for the Trump administration to stop its mass deportations, and “that they stop separating families, leaving children orphaned with no one to care for them.”
“Why are they detaining so many working people?” she said. “We immigrants don’t harm anyone; we come to work, not to harm anyone.”
Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill said her administration is working with the state’s congressional delegation “to gather all the facts surrounding his death,” but noted that the state health department continues to struggle to access the whole facility for an inspection, which is at the heart of one of New Jersey’s court battles with Trump.
“Every effort to block oversight raises serious questions about what is happening inside Delaney Hall and what those operating the facility are trying to hide,” she said. “This tragedy is another painful reminder of why Delaney Hall should be closed.”
Sen. Andy Kim (D., N.J.) stands between federal agents and demonstrators in an attempt to prevent a clash outside the Delaney Hall migrant detention center in Newark, N.J., on May 25.DAKOTA SANTIAGO
Turmoil at Delaney Hall
Detentions have surged across the nation, from about 38,000 when Trump took office to more than 70,000 in January and standing at about 66,000 as of July. Delaney Hall, a gray, two-story building in an industrial area of Newark, has been a key part of that infrastructure.
It has also been the site of protests, complaints, and political fights between the Trump administration and New Jersey Democrats since its doors opened in May 2025.
Last year, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested outside the facility before his charges were dropped. U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver, a North Jersey Democrat, still faces federal charges over an altercation outside the facility on the same day.
Federal officials insisted there was no hunger strike and said detainees there and elsewhere in the system were being held in safe and humane conditions.
At least 22 people have died in ICE custody so far this year, according to DHS data, provoking outrage from immigrant allies who blame poor medical care, unhealthy conditions, and lack of agency training.
Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit watchdog group, calculated that more than 50 people died in ICE custody in the first 500 days of Trump’s term — the highest rate in more than a decade. It’s more than two and a half times as high as during the first Trump administration, and stands nearly four times that of the Biden administration, Human Rights Watch said.
ICE says the health of detainees ranks among its highest priorities, and national detention standards require it to provide comprehensive medical, dental, and mental health care from the moment someone arrives at a facility.
The federal agency says some people who are detained may not have received prior, reliable care for existing conditions. And some people may never before have had comprehensive medical care at all.
In December, a 41-year-old Haitian national named Jean Wilson Brutus died one day after entering Delaney Hall, succumbing to what ICE said was suspected natural causes following a medical emergency. ICE said agents tried to revive him and EMS performed life-saving measures but he died in the hospital.
Menendez said on Monday that another individual who had been in custody at Delaney Hall died just weeks ago at University Hospital after a possible seizure.
Amol Sinha, executive director at the ACLU of New Jersey, said in a statement Monday that López Cornejo’s death is “another devastating result of the rampant inhumane conditions” at detention centers across the country.
“The Trump administration’s detention and deportation machine continues to terrorize and traumatize communities at an unprecedented level, yet numbers cannot encapsulate the grief and devastation that these abuses cause,” he said.
Every Democrat in the New Jersey congressional delegation signed a letter to President Donald Trump asking him to reverse his rejection of disaster aid for a deadly blizzard earlier this year.
The lawmakers sent the letter, which was first obtained by The Inquirer, to the White House on Friday in support of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s appeal of the president’s rejection. Their plea comes after Trump denied an $84 million request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for relief for a late February blizzard earlier this month.
“Severe blizzard conditions led to widespread damage—overwhelming State and local capacity,” the lawmakers wrote.“Tragically, this fatal event resulted in 12 confirmed weather-related fatalities across nine counties, the most out of any impacted state.”
The letter was led by U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both Democrats. All members of the New Jersey delegation were invited to join, Booker’s office said, but all three of the state’s Republican members opted out. Even U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a South Jersey Republican, sat out of the effort despite initially backing the request in April.
Van Drew joined Booker, Kim, and six Democratic House members in an April letter of support for the request in which they said the public assistance and hazard mitigation funds “are crucial to the recovery of the communities” impacted by the storm.
President Donald Trump smiles while Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) stands next to him at a Keep America Great campaign rally in Wildwood, NJ on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020.HEATHER KHALIFA / Staff Photographer
The request sought money for every county in Van Drew’s district for costs related to the snowstorm, including damage from moderate coastal flooding in Atlantic County and his home county of Cape May.Van Drew, a Trump ally and former Democrat, faces a challenge from Cape May Mayor Zack Mullock for his reelection in November.
Van Drew did not respond to a request for comment.
The request included assistance for the vast majority of the state’s counties – including all of South Jersey – as well as hazard mitigation funding statewide, according to the Friday letter. Preliminary damage assessments across those 19 counties documented “extensive emergency work” such as snow and debris removal and “damage to critical infrastructure and public facilities.”
The New Jersey Office of Emergency Management estimates that disaster costs will exceed $100 million, which is more than five times more than the state’s threshold of about $18 million to qualify for federal disaster assistance.
Covered Bridge Road in Cherry Hill is Monday Feb. 23, 2026 after a power line was knocked down by the Sunday night snorwstorm.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
“The extent of the damage, the operational burden throughout the State, and the cumulative impacts of recent and related extreme weather all provide overwhelming evidence that New Jersey’s request must be granted,” they wrote. “While we commend the actions of the State and local governments to respond thus far, full recovery will require your approval of federal resources.”
The lawmakers cite National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration data that found approximately 24 inches of snow fell in less than 24 hours across central and eastern parts of the state, and eight of the state’s 21 counties recorded record or near-record snowfalls.
Power outages during the storm impacted more than 127,000 customers in the state and there were 544 motor vehicle accidents and 1,518 motor vehicle-related assists, according to the letter.
They also argued that Trump should consider that the state already had a “strained capacity to respond” because of another severe snow and ice storm weeks earlier, as well as six open federal disaster declarations — in reference to prior disasters for which the state is still working on recovery projects.
“We look forward to working with you to ensure all Americans receive protection and support from the federal government in the aftermath of a serious disaster,” they wrote.
On Thursday, Sherrill spokesperson Sean Higgins noted in a statement that the costs of the February snowstorm “didn’t care about political boundaries” and that the governor will fight for funding “regardless of political party,” in a nod to the accusations Trump is putting his thumb on the scale based on partisan favoritism.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement Thursday, before receiving the letter, that the president “provides a more thorough review of disaster declaration requests than any Administration has before him” and that he responds to FEMA requests “with great care and consideration, ensuring American tax dollars are used appropriately and efficiently by the states to supplement—not substitute, their obligation to respond to and recover from disasters.”
She also said the Trump administration is committed “to empowering and working with State and local governments to invest in their own resilience before disaster strikes, making response less urgent and recovery less prolonged.” The Trump administration previously tried to cut disaster prevention funding because it was too “focused on ‘climate change” before a group of states including New Jersey sued.
Kim,the ranking Democrat on the committee that oversees FEMA, said in an interview Thursday that he is concerned that politics were involved in the latest rejection but couldn’t say for sure.
Sen. Andy Kim wants to get to the bottom of why President Donald Trump rejected New Jersey’s request for FEMA aid over a record-breaking snowstorm earlier this year.
Winter Storm Hernando, a massive blizzard, hit New Jersey and other Northeastern states hard in February. New Jersey submitted an $84 million disaster request after tallying the damage in the weeks that followed.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) this month rejected New Jersey’s request as partof $227 million in disaster aid requests from four Democratic-led states that were denied, Politico reported Wednesday.
The decision came from Trump after regional FEMA offices and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) determined that the states met the required thresholds to receive aid, according to the report, which cited a former FEMA official calling the move to override the agencies unconventional.
Kim said in an interview Thursday that Americans need “absolute assurance” that FEMA decisions won’t be based on “the whims of the president.”
”I think we should all just declaratively be able to say that partisan politics does not belong in disaster response … I would hope that every single public servant, from the White House to FEMA to the Capitol, believes that,” he said.
Sen. Andy Kim speaks with Naimah Rutling, executive chef at Cathedral Kitchen in Camden, N.J., during a visit this month. Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
The South Jersey Democrat is the ranking member on the subcommittee that oversees FEMA, the federal agency responsible for doling out aid to communities hit by disaster.
The president must declare a disaster in order for states to access FEMA aid — and the same goes for individual assistance. Democrats have in recent weeks raised concerns that Trump has penalized blue states in these decisions.
A 16-page NOAA report indicated snowfall records in seven counties in the state, and a 12-page spreadsheet developed by FEMA and New Jersey documented the $84.4 million in costs, which were primarily for snow removal, Politico reported.
The National Weather Service reported blizzards in several counties, including in Southeast Burlington County and other parts of South Jersey. The blizzard caused disruptions to the region such as thousands going without power, school closures, and transit disruptions.
Sean Higgins, a spokesperson for New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, said the state’s request included costs incurred by the state’s municipalities and counties. He said Sherrill’s administration will appeal the denial.
“Without that aid, our local governments will be stuck with the costs of an unprecedented snowstorm that didn’t care about political boundaries … Governor Sherrill will continue to fight for every dime that New Jerseyans are owed, regardless of political party,” Higgins said in a statement.
FEMA’s cost threshold for public assistance for New Jersey is about $18 million, according to the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management, far below the assessed damage from the storm.
FEMAdid not respond to an inquiry about the rejection on Thursday, but Kim said the agencysaid it disagreed that New Jersey met the threshold.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson has told news outlets that Trump is ensuring FEMA aid is used “to supplement — not substitute” states’ “obligation to respond to and recover from disasters.”
The South Jersey senator said he has “concerns” that the rejection was political but he can’t say for sure.
“I understand that you know, the federal government’s not supposed to cover everything for everything, but … this was a situation of record snowfall in wide swaths of New Jersey and, frankly, across the country,” Kim said.
If the state’sappeal isn’t successful, Kim said he has “more tools in my toolbox to try to get my state the funding they deserve” but declined to share what those would be, saying it’s part of a “broader negotiation.”
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House Wednesday, July 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)Julia Demaree Nikhinson
The White House has maintained that Trump’s rejections have not been political. But Kim and other Democrats have cited a March Politico report that found Trump’s second administration rejected disaster aid for Democratic-run states at the highest rate in the 47 years that FEMA has existed.
The rejections underscore bigger questions of the future of FEMA. Trump previously called for the dismantling of FEMA before changing course, but his advisers have recommended an overhaul of the agency that would put more responsibility on states, NPR reported.
Trump has also caused concern among Democrats for withholding FEMA’s Homeland Security grants from states that do not comply with his administration’s requests for unredacted voter data, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Joseph Walsh, a spokesperson for the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management, said New Jersey is still in the process of “collecting and validating” the assessed flood damage. Once that’s complete, the state will decide on whether to submit a request.
“Every single state is prone to some type of disaster, and so I just don’t want a situation where we’re pitting the states against each other … I hope we can all agree that we want to be there for each other in their time of need,” he said.
A worker at EMR was impaled by a blow torch while taking apart a crane for scrap metal, according to Camden Fire Department incident reports.
Camden County had confirmed that a worker at the scrap metal plant had been transported to the hospital after suffering life-threatening injuries less than two weeks ago on July 18. The man remains in the hospital in stable condition and conscious.
Fire department documents obtained by The Inquirer through a public records request reveal that worker was injured while dismantling a crane.
He was on a stretcher with “what appeared to be a large Oxy-Acetylene blowtorch handle impaled into his left bicep and into his torso,” when Camden City Fire Department Battalion Chief Ezequiel Tirado arrived on the scene to respond to a burn victim, according to his report.
Another workerwho could not speak English had cuts on his face, and blood and mud on his hands, according to Tirado’s report. They spoke in Spanish, and the man said he was hurt but declined to be brought to the hospital, stating that he’s an undocumented worker.
“I told him, ‘Don’t worry about that. Let’s get you some help,’” Tirado wrote. “He stared at me then ran away.”
He was later found at the hospital, Tirado said.
William Scott, the night time operations manager for EMR, said he did not know what caused the workers’ injuries, according to Tirado’s report. Scott said they were using a cutting torch to cut an old crane for scrap metal.
Tirado described the site of the incident as “very dark with no lighting equipment” and lots of debris. He said emergency responders set up lighting and discovered a pool of blood near the crane and under a lift.
Camden County spokesperson Dan Keashen said Wednesday that the now-stabilized man who was impaled with the blow torchwas transported to the hospital in critical condition.He saidthe county police department is still investigating the incident.
Joe Balzano, the CEO of EMR, said on the phone Wednesday that the workers were subcontractors hired to demolish an old crane and not employees of EMR.
He said the injured worker is “a very hardworking nice man, unfortunately who was involved in a workplace injury.”
“We’re just glad that he’s doing well,” the CEO said. “It’s unfortunate, heavy industry situations have, you know, unfortunate accidents … we just hope he does continues to progress well.”
A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit from President Donald Trump’s administration that sought New Jersey’s unredacted voter files.
The case — one of more than two dozen lawsuits filed by the Trump administration against states ahead of the midterm election — predates New Jersey’s recent disclosure that thousands of noncitizens had been registered to vote in 2023 and 2024 due to a glitch in the motor vehicle system.
U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi ruled the department did not have the authority to compel New Jersey to hand over its unredacted records.
“The Constitution’s architects chose to delegate election administration to the states, recognizing local governments have the deepest understanding of their constituents’ circumstances,” Quraishi wrote in the ruling, which granted New Jersey’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
Quraishi has become the 18th U.S. District Court judge to rule against the Trump administration on the issue, according to data from the Brennan Center for Justice.
The Trump administration will likely appeal the case, as the president and his allies have made election security a focal point ahead of the November midterms. It is mounting an appeal in a similar case in Pennsylvania.
The ruling in the state’s favor came a day after New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill formally told the Justice Department she would not release personal information about noncitizen voters who had been mistakenly added to the state’s voter rolls ahead of the 2024 election.
Sherrill announced last week that about 6,600 noncitizens had been registered to vote due to a glitch in the automatic voter registration system at the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission. She said fewer than 400 had cast ballots and there was no evidence they had affected election results.
On Tuesday, she said the New Jersey Department of State had begun removing 4,500 voters from the rolls. But there is a chance the rest could actually be citizens, so counties will review those about2,000 individuals to ensure no eligible voters are disenfranchised, she said.
Following Sherrill’s disclosure last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon requested the full names, dates of birth, nationalities, and home addresses of the individuals who were erroneously registered, as well as additional information about the noncitizens who voted, within a week.
Sherrill had publicly indicated she would not hand over the data, but her letter Tuesday put it on the books.
“Here and always, I remain committed to protecting New Jerseyans’ personally identifying information,” Sherrill wrote, reiterating her stance from the previous week, when she cited concerns about federal data breaches under Trump.
In response to Sherrill’srebuffing, Dhillon said the Justice Department’s request was rooted in the legal authority to “keep ineligible voters off its rolls” and vowed to obtain the information “through all legal means!”
Sherrill’s “refusal to cooperate with federal law enforcement does nothing to protect law-abiding NJ voters,” Dhillon said on X.
Sherrill on Tuesday criticized the Trump administration for “weaponizing the government against individuals that disagree with them.”
She pointed to an issue during her campaign last year in which the federal government provided personal information about her that should have been redacted, like her Social Security number, to an ally of her Republican opponent. The National Personnel Records Center director apologized at the time and called it a rare error, but Sherrill claims her data were “weaponized” against her.
Sherrill has not shied away from the issue of voter access in New Jersey as it becomes a national talking point in the debate over election security after last week’s revelation that thousands of people had been improperly added to the voter rolls when applying for driver’s licenses and identification cards.
On Tuesday, she championed a new law, the John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act, that offers a slew of policies meant to increase voter participation.
The erroneous registrations took place between June 2023 and June 2024 under former Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration due to a software glitch in New Jersey’s motor vehicle system, which processes the automatic registration when citizens obtain an ID or a license unless they decline.
Even though they checked “no” when asked if they were a U.S. citizen, the noncitizenswere registered anyway.
Sherrill pointed a finger at her predecessor but a spokesperson for Murphy said the former governor had “no knowledge” of the glitch.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a South Jersey Republican, said he planned to hold hearings over the issue and called on Sherrill to answer a slate ofquestions.
Sherrill said Tuesday that her administration had hired a law firm to conduct an independent bipartisan investigation. One of the firm’s main partners worked under former Republican Gov. Chris Christie as attorney general and was later appointed by Christie to the Senate, she noted, saying “we have nothing to hide.”
Christie said in a post on X that Sherrill “made the right choice tapping my former AG Jeff Chiesa to lead the independent investigation into New Jersey’s voter rolls.”
“Jeff won’t hide anything from the public,” he said. “You can count on it.”
But the New Jersey GOP questioned Wednesday why Sherrill would not comply with theJustice Department if she “has nothing to hide.”
“She ran on transparency and accountability,” the partysaid in a post online. “Apparently, those were campaign promises that expired the moment she was sworn in.”
Republicans have seized on the noncitizen voter registrations to make the case for the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship like a passport or birth certificate to register to vote.
About 2,000 New Jersey voters identified last week as noncitizens could actually be citizens after all, Gov. Mikie Sherrill said Tuesday, a week after her disclosure of a voter registration glitchput the state at the center of a heated national debate over election security.
Sherrill announced last week that approximately 6,600 noncitizens had been registered to voteahead of the 2024 election due to a software glitch with the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission’s automatic voter registration program. She said fewer than 400 of those people had voted and there is no evidence that they affected the results of any election. The finding came in the midst of a political fight over President Donald Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud, including by noncitizens, and his aggressive push for an overhaul of the country’s election system.
The first-term governor said Tuesday thatthe New Jersey Department of State’s Division of Elections has begun a process to remove more than 4,500 individuals who were registered because of the software error, but that the rest of the registrations will be referred to county election officials for further review “to ensure that any lawfully registered voters are not being disenfranchised.”
“We are taking this extra step because our initial review indicates that a number of these individuals may be citizens,” she said in a statement. “That has been the case in other states where clerical and administrative voter registration errors have occurred, and we’re determined to get this right.”
Her office announced the discovery a little more than one hour after celebrating New Jersey’s new John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act, which Sherrill signed July 2. Lewis was a civil rights leader who represented Georgia in Congress from 1987 until his death in 2020.
The law, which is based on a federal proposal that former President Joe Biden unsuccessfully tried to pass, promotes equal opportunity to voting and voter outreach to communities that do not speak English proficiently, and prohibits intimidation, deception, violence, or restraint of voters or election workers.
The law lays out a process for individuals who want to file a complaint over voting rights and requires public hearings for redistricting.
If jurisdictions have a history of discrimination, the law requires approval from the attorney general before they can make changes to their election administration. It also gives the attorney general authority to enforce the law through litigation, investigations, and studies, and by representing the public in federal court.
“Here in New Jersey, if your rights are violated, you have a right of action,” Sherrill said at Union Baptist Church in Trenton.
Sherrill said New Jersey is the 10th state to enact the model, but the first to do so since an April Supreme Court ruling that weakened part of the Voting Rights Act as the court’s conservative majority ruled against a majority-Black district in Louisiana.
Supporters of the bill said they had been advocating for it for four years in New Jersey.
Sherrill’s Tuesday celebration at the church shows the governor is not shying away from the issue of voting rights even as the state becomes a talking point for Republicans whowant enact new national restrictions — including requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship to register with documents like a birth certificate or passport.
Sherrill opposes the national legislation, known as the SAVE America Act, which has been championed by Trump as a way to make elections more secure but which opponents warn could make it tougher to vote for millions of Americans.
“Trump has only one concern: winning at any cost, and he’s willing to put the right to vote at risk,” Sherrill said Tuesday. “There’s no line he won’t cross, no rule he won’t break, no norm he won’t violate. But we will not stand idly by.”
The former member of Congress will likely continue to have a role in the debate as Republicans ramp up their advocacy ahead of November’s midterm elections.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a South Jersey Republican who was elected as a Democrat in 2018 before vowing his loyalty to Trump a year later, led a public letter with other House Republicans calling on Sherrill to answer a series of questions about the noncitizen voting issue. He questioned how she knows it was “just a software glitch and not a nefarious act.”
Van Drew, who chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, said he plans to hold hearings over the issue and is “absolutely exploring” the possibility of subpoenas, Politico reported.
On Tuesday, Sherrill said Van Drew “has a very sordid history as far as elections go.” She said Van Drew’s campaign had hired a political operative who was a “known ballot harvester” — referring to Craig Callaway, who worked on Van Drew’s 2022 bid.
Sherrill said her administration hired the CSG law firm to conduct an independent investigation into the voting registration glitch. One of the firm’s main partners, Jeffrey Chiesa, served as attorney general under former Republican Gov. Chris Christie, who later appointed him to the Senate.
“We have a bipartisan, independent investigation going on right now because we have nothing to hide,” Sherrill said.
A new free shuttle bus in Burlington County will be concentrated in a small slice of the county in some of the places closest to Philadelphia and Camden, according to a draft brochure for the service.
But it’ll also serve as a transfer point for other residents in the area.
SJ Connects, a free shuttle bus service run by the South Jersey Transportation Authority (SJTA), was granted $5 million under former Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration for an 18- to 24-month trial run to improve transit in the region. All of the service’s routes already began running except for Burlington County’s bus, which is expected to start service in September despite being included in a June 1 launch announcement.
The SJTA has not yet posted the details of the Burlington County route but The Inquirer obtained its draft brochure through a public records request. The document shows that the planned 11-stop route connects Burlington County’s Palmyra, Moorestown, Cinnaminson, Mount Laurel, and Maple Shade with the Pennsauken Transit Center in Camden County.
While it will most directly service the residents who live along the route, the planned route will also connect with existing transportation centers in the area to serve as a transfer point for riders.
Locally, the bus is slated to stop at Cooper University Health Care‘s Moorestown campus, Moorestown Library and Town Hall, Cinnaminson Shop Rite, Fox Meadow Apartments, and the Mount Laurel Walmart Supercenter.
Stops at the Moorestown Mall and Pennsauken Transit Center will connect riders to NJ Transit buses that go to Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, Trenton, Camden County municipalities such as Cherry Hill, Haddonfield and Gloucester City, and other Burlington County locations such as Mount Holly and Willingboro. It will also link riders with the RiverLine and Atlantic City Rail.
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Dominic D’Amico, director of transportation services at the SJTA, said the agency designed the routes to connect with NJ Transit’s existing infrastructure and the region’s “eds and meds.”
Some parts of Burlington County that are excluded from SJ Connects — such as Pemberton and Mount Holly — have access to a separate, existing system called the BurLINK shuttle, which is administered by the county and run by a private company.
The new SJ Connects route is not slated to directly connect with BurLINK. But riders can transfer between the two services using the River Line, for example.
Assembly member Andrea Katz, a Burlington County Democrat, said in an interview earlier this month that she hopes SJ Connects will expand further into her district in the future. The long-term viability for the program will likely depend on whether its advocates can convinceDemocraticGov. Mikie Sherrill and legislative leaders that it’s worth funding in future state budgets.
“We have very little down here in Burlington County, and in South Jersey as a whole, but folks still have those issues that they need a ride to the hospital, they need a ride to a grocery store,” Katz said. “They need to get access to these things, and we’re finally starting to see this expansion into South Jersey.”
