Quarantined nurse heads home: First News

Quarantined nurse heads home: First News

Joern Pollex, Getty Images

Kacy Hickox is no longer New Jersey's problem. The nurse who was quarantined here after treating Ebola patients in Africa has been released and sent to Maine where she agreed to a voluntary 21-day quarantine.  But her lawyer hints she probably won’t adhere to it.  He cites CDC guidelines for monitoring not quarantine.

Governor Christie still believes he made the right decision to confine Hickox.

After Christie and New York Governor Cuomo announced mandatory quarantine procedures. U.S. health officials issued their own new guidelines recommending people who are at the highest risk, who had had direct contact with infected people avoid commercial travel and large gatherings of people. Even if they have no symptoms.

Is all of this confusing? You bet. And one of the reasons dates back to the birth of the nation. The U.S. constitution does grant some powers to regulate health and safety to the federal government but gives much of that power to the states.  So in the case of Ebola each state can set it's own regulations.

Meanwhile, it's unknown if Kacy Hickox will follow through with her plans to sue New Jersey over out mandatory quarantine order but if she does, she may not get far.

More chilling details have come out about the deadly high school shooting in Washington State. Investigators say 15-year-old Jaylen Fryberg invited his friends to lunch by text, and then shot them at their table. Two students died. Three are still in the hospital, including two of Fryberg's cousins. Fryberg killed himself after Friday's shootings in Marysville.

The son of a south Jersey police officer is now charged in an ambush shooting that critically injured two people in Pleasantville.  Police say 25-year old Andre Byrd lay in wait and when a couple left a local business he unloaded six shots.  We are told the three had some kind of dispute but over what, it's not clear.

Two years ago today New Jersey were bracing for superstorm Sandy as she neared land. Today's Monmouth University poll of the state's hardest hit victims shows the vast majority of them feel the state has left them behind.

 

The family of a New Jersey girl who was strangled by a teenage boy two years ago is suing several law enforcement agencies. The lawsuit claims police didn't act properly and that if they had, there's "a reasonable chance" Autumn Pasquale would be alive.  Autumn was killed after being lured to a neighbor's home to trade bike parts.  The prosecutor says the girl was already dead when she was reported missing and there was nothing more they could have done.

New Jersey has the third lowest suicide rate according to the CDC but that doesn't mean it's not a problem with our kids. A new bill moving in Trenton would require public school teachers to get suicide prevention training every year

In just a few weeks all red light cameras will be turned off in New Jersey.  Towns are lobbying hard in Trenton to keep them running.  Not for safety but for money.  Towns have found an almost endless revenue stream from the cameras.  Dozens of mayors were in Trenton Monday to talk to lawmakers and not one of them mentioned safety. They all talked about what the cameras mean to their revenue collections.

Chances are you can't take a trip to the local supermarket without driving past dozens of campaign signs, asking you to vote for this person or that person next month. These signs provide little to no information at all so what's the point?

A Jets fan who slugged a bills fan at Sundays game and was caught on video has been arrested.  He knocked the guy out then tried to leave the stadium.  State troopers grabbed 34-year old Chris Fox of Peekskill before he could leave.  He faces assault charges.

The fiance of the woman who people saw toss her baby into the ocean in Atlantic City says he doesn't believe it.  He says his wife-to-be was under a lot of stress. He suggested she was mentally unstable and discounted any talk of drugs or alcohol and says maybe she had a seizure.  Bystanders rescued both the infant and the mom and police are still sorting all of this out.

There's still an enormous need for mental health assistance, two years after superstorm Sandy. The initial shock from the storm is over but the financial and emotional stress will be here for a while.

The death of a Rutgers student last month is being ruled an accident.  19-year old Caitlyn Kovacs died of alcohol poisoning.  She became distressed at a house party in New Brunswick and was rushed to the hospital.where she died a short time later.

Over the past couple of years more than 16 thousand guns have been recovered in various buy-back programs all over the garden state. The latest one took place in Union County this past weekend.

The Rob Ford era is over in Toronto, Canada. City voters elected moderate conservative and former cable company chief executive John Tory as mayor. Rob Ford announced last month that he wouldn't seek re-election, and his brother ran in his place. Rob Ford's time in office was marked by scandals over his illegal drug use and public drunkenness.

When it comes to investing, do you have any regrets about this past year?  According to a new survey by Merrill Edge, New Jerseyans have plenty, but they're looking forward to 2015.

WEATHER from chief meteorologist Dan Zarrow:

TODAY... Partly sunny and warm. Highs 71-76

 TONIGHT... Increasing clouds. Highs 53-59

 TOMORROW... Showers. Turning cooler. Highs 62-69

 

To view Dan’s extended 5-day forecast, click HERE.

New Jersey’s First News, hosted by Eric Scott, written and produced by Matthew White and Patrick Lavery. Full podcast available here. Digital support, with additional links, by Dan Alexander.

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Categories: New Jersey News

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