EDITORIAL
BY DHIREN SHAH
Hello Readers,
Ronald L. Rice has gone from us, but he will be remembered for a long time. His commitment to helping people and handling politics is not an easy task. However, he managed very well between those tough tasks. He was thinking about the people over politics and that is the reason he was popular amongst the people.
Another respected local politician, Assemblyman Thomas Giblin, has announced that he will not run again. He has been in public service since 1977, first as a freeholder (commissioner), then member of the real estate commission, then as Essex County Surrogate, and since 2006 as an Assemblyman. As an assemblyman, he has proposed many bills, and about 37 bills have been passed according to his website. He understands the people’s needs, as well as being present in the community. His likeable personality won the people’s heart and he was voted back as an Assemblyman for over 15 years.
The Nashville, Tennessee school shooting is another mishap in our country. A 28-year-old woman who was a former student of the same Covenant Church school (up to 6th grade) with some mental problems came to the school with two assaulted rifles and a pistol with the intension to shoot and go to another place to shoot as well. She shot three children, all 9 years old, and 3 adults, all 60 years and up. In Tennessee, Governor Bill Lee signed a one-of-a-kind law in 2021 that anyone over 21 years of age can carry a handgun without a permit but cannot speak foul language or have adult oriented entertainment on public property. What a shameful display of priorities. We must find a solution for gun control and gun distribution in the streets.
On a rare occasion, lawmakers on both sides of Congress combined together to grill TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. Many of the answers he had ended with a promise to get back to them. No one is convinced that TikTok will protect the vital information of TikTok users. The platform has not convinced lawmakers that they would not pass the information to the Chinese Communist Party. Mr. Chew stated that TikTok will send information to their Chinese owner counterpart secretly decoded and will not pass it to anyone else. However, TikTok is not releasing the information about the salary of their CEO like other US registered companies are doing.
So how can we trust them? TikTok failed to hold kids under 16 to a maximum one hour a day screen usage. Also, they have not given any clarification as to how they know if a user is under 16. Anyone can lie and give their birthdate as 21 years old, TikTok has no solution. So, it seems like Congress will ban TikTok from operating in the U.S., which is the right idea in my opinion. The China-based app has 150 million users in the U.S., which is about half the nation’s population, and the majority of their users are youngsters.
A Grand Jury indicted Wildwood Mayor Pete Byron, Former Mayor Ernest Troiano, Jr., and City Commissioner Steve Mikulski over alleged fraudulent participation in the State Health Insurance Program. They all are charged with tampering with public records, theft by unlawful taking and falsifying or tampering with records. Second-degree charges carry a sentence of five to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $150,000, while third-degree charges carry a sentence of three to five years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000. Fourth-degree offenses could lead to up to 18 months in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000. The temptation makes people abuse their power, and this kind of investigation may stop corruption in the long run.
Have a wonderful week. I’ll talk to you next week.
