NJPIRG Registers Young Voters

This fall, NJPIRG student chapters registered more than 3,000 new voters at Rutgers University as part of NJPIRG’s New Voters Project.

More than 150 volunteers at the Rutgers campuses registered students through tabling and dorm storming events.

“Students were really engaged in this election,” said Jason Gulya, a student volunteer with the New Voters Project at Rutgers University-College Avenue. “From higher education funding, to the economy, to the war in Iraq, we understood that this election mattered—and that our votes count.”

Last fall, NJPIRG registered over 4,800 voters and helped turn out young voters, resulting in a 19 percent increase in voter turnout in youth-dominated Rutgers area precincts

NJPIRG, along with other consumer groups, supports more competition in the market place, including the cable industry. The industry has historically struggled to provide high quality, affordable service.

However, NJPIRG, along with our consumer coalition, opposed key provisions of the legislation.

These provisions would allow Verizon to skip over entire regions of the state like South Jersey, charge customers more without offering any new services and cut off access to local public access channels.

Despite our support of increased cable competition, NJPIRG is calling on Gov. Jon Corzine to conditionally veto the legislation so these critical flaws can be fixed.

New Standards For Home Contractors

In September, NJPIRG joined Asm. Vincent Prieto and Asm. David Mayer to highlight a bill that would result in safer building practices in New Jersey.

Last spring, a report by the State Committee on Investigations outlined contracting abuses in buildings across the state.

The problems outlined included builders disregarding architectural plans, using inferior construction materials and numerous other failures.

The report also found evidence of inspectors being negligent or accepting bribes from developers to overlook buildings not meeting code.

Current law also made consumer recourse difficult, expensive and time-consuming.

“When buying a new home, no one should have to worry about whether it will fall apart at a moment’s notice. But right now, that is a valid concern for new homeowners,” said Adam Garber, NJPIRG’s consumer associate.

The proposed legislation would help remedy numerous problems by requiring licenses for all contractors, and creating an oversight board made up of building experts. The bill would also provide legal recourse to homeowners.

Annual Report On Dangerous, Toxic Toys

NJPIRG released our 21st annual “Trouble in Toyland” report, giving safety guidance to parents when shopping for their children and identifying the relatively few, but very serious threats in the toy aisle.

This year, we focused on four categories of dangerous toys: choking hazards, toxic toys, magnetic toys and loud toys.

Choking hazards are a perennial danger; seven children died in 2005 alone from choking on toys and toy parts.

Among the toxic toys were toluene-laced nail polish from kids’ cosmetics sets, lead jewelry and plastics containing phthalates.

Magnetic toys were a new addition to the report. When two or more magnets are swallowed, they can grip each other in the child’s digestive track, harming or even killing the child.

Loud toys can damage hearing. Recent data indicates 15 percent of kids aged 6 to 17 have hearing loss.

Click here to view the full "Trouble In Toyland" report.