Attacks on NJ Transit workers tripled. New NJ law will crack down - New Jersey 101.5 FM

NJ Transit officials and employees are hoping a new law that kicked in last month will help to stop the rash of physical assaults against train conductors and bus drivers.

The Motorbus and Passenger Rail Service Employee Violence Prevention Act upgrades penalties for attacks on NJ Transit workers to at minimum third-degree aggravated assault. It allows the agency to ban offenders from mass transportation services for up to a year for a regular assault, and they could be banned for life if the attack involved a deadly weapon.

According to NJ Transit President and CEO Kevin Corbett, it’s not uncommon to have disruptions when you’re moving close to a million people a day on mass transit but the level of violence since the start of the pandemic has been nothing less than shocking.

“We noticed a significant increase. In 2020 we had 158 assaults and 2021 we had 183,” he said.

That’s more than triple the normal number of reported annual assaults.

Corbett said hopefully the new law will deter passengers from attacking NJ Transit workers.

“You know it’s one thing if somebody has a temper issue verbally, but when it actually gets to physical assault or spitting, we wanted to get more teeth in that, so there would be more serious consequences,” he said.

No excuse

He said whether somebody agrees with the federal mandate requiring passengers to wear a mask on mass transit or not, there is no excuse for assaulting transit workers.

“They’re out there every day doing their best, they’ve done a great job during COVID, providing that essential service that so many needed,” he said.

“If people think they can get away with it, somebody will punch a female ticket collector who’s just doing her job, we want to make sure the most serious consequences are taken for people who think they can get away with that," he said.

Getting back on track

He said during the omicron surge, from mid-December into mid-January, NJ Transit ridership, which had been in the 50% to 55% pre-COVID capacity range on weekdays and up to 80% on weekends, fell to the 30% range.

Corbett noted the agency had a lot of employees testing positive for the virus and calling out sick during that time frame. But with omicron fading fast, fewer employees are out sick and ridership numbers have started climbing.

“We hope it comes back as quickly as it dropped down, I think a lot of it ties in particularly to New York and also Philly,” he said.

You can contact reporter David Matthau at [email protected].

LOOK: 20 Fascinating Photos From the First Modern Olympic Games in 1896

To celebrate the history of international sports cooperation, Stacker took a look back at that groundbreaking event in Athens, when the modern Olympics were born in 1896. Keep reading to learn more about the athletes, spectators, and sports at that iconic event.

Gallery Credit: Caitlin PenzeyMoog

French Founder Pierre de Coubertin

Impressively mustachioed Baron Pierre Coubertin founded the modern Olympic Games after years of advocating and organizing in France and across Europe. He was instrumental in organizing the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which was the body that established the revived Olympic Games.

First International Olympic Committee

Pictured here are the members of the first International Olympic Committee (IOC). While Pierre de Coubertin was instrumental in organizing the body, Demetrios Vikelas served as its first president. Of Greek origin, Vikelas spent time in London and Paris, making him uniquely qualified to revive the Games in Athens. The IOC is still the governing body of the modern Olympics.

A crowd of 80,000 fills the Panathenaic Stadium

The Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, Greece, was built in 330 B.C. and used for ancient games. After centuries of neglect, the crumbling structure was excavated and restored in the 19th century for the Zappas Olympics, a Greek revival of the Olympic Games that served as a building block for the the multi-country Games in 1896. The Stadium was fully restored and held the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1896 games, in addition to serving as the venue for several competitions.

Participants from 14 nations

Pictured here are the athletes, standing in rows on the field, surrounded by crowds filling the Panathenaic Stadium. The 14 nations were all European, with the exception of the United States. A guiding philosophy of the original games was that competitors could not be professional athletes, which limited interest and resulted in most countries not bothering to send competitors.

American James Connolly became the first modern Olympic champion in over 1,500 years when he won the triple jump on April 6, 1896. He later tied for second place in the high jump and took third in the long jump. At the time, he was a student at Harvard.

100-meter race: A historic start

Pictured here, sprinters prepare for the 100-meter race. It was won by Thomas Burke, representing the United States, on April 6, 1896. He was the only runner to use a crouch position to start--now the standard.

USA wins the discus event

Establishing the first modern Olympic Games was difficult, and attracting amateur athletes from outside of Europe who had to pay their own way to Athens was one of the biggest hurdles organizers faced. Princeton's team was helped by student-athlete Robert Garrett Jr.'s family, who helped finance the trip. Garrett went on to win the top prize in the discus competition.

Germany wins gymnastic events

Carl Schuhmann sits on the shoulders of Alfred Flatow and Hermann Weingartner, who represented Germany in the first Games. Schuhmann was one of the most successful athletes in the competition, winning four gold medals and competing across gymnastics, wrestling, and weightlifting.

France dominates cycling

Leon Flameng (left) and Paul Masson set the standard of French cycling by winning gold across the first cycling events. Flameng won the 100-kilometer race, while Masson won the sprint, 2,000 meters, and 10,000 meters cycling events.

Olympics host the first competitive marathon

In this photo, Greek shepherd Spyridon Louis, winner of the 40-kilometer marathon, is joined by King George I of Greece on the last lap of his run. King George I opened the first Games, and after their success petitioned for all future games to be held in Athens. However, the next round was already scheduled to be held in Paris to coincide with the 1900 World's Fair. Athens didn't host the Games again until 2004.

Rowing called off due to bad weather

German rowers Alfred Jager and Berthold Kuttner traveled to Athens for the 1896 Olympics only for their event to be canceled. Stormy weather made the water choppy and conditions dangerous, and the first proper rowing competition wouldn't be held until four years later, at the 1900 Paris Olympics.

Fencing in the first Olympics

The final fencing match in the 1896 Olympics was held on April 9, 1896. Greek and French athletes dominated in fencing, which traces its roots from combat and duels in the middle ages to use in the military and, eventually, as a recognized sport.

Swimming champion Alfred Hajos

Pictured here is Alfred Hajos of Hungary, the first Olympic champion in swimming. The 1896 swimming competitions took place in the open waters of the Bay of Zee, and for the long-distance races, swimmers were taken to sea via boat and dropped off in the water, swimming back to shore. Hajos said of the dangerous conditions and cold water of the race, "My will to live completely overcame my desire to win."

Tennis final with spectator-turned-competitor John Boland

Shown here is the tennis men's doubles final. The pair on the right includes Irishman John Boland, who traveled to Athens to watch the Games as a spectator but joined the tennis competition after a friend signed him up. He won in both doubles and singles despite wearing leather-soled shoes with heels.

Winners receive silver medals

The actual medals given to winners in the 1896 Games were different from what we're familiar with today: First prize was given a silver medal (and an olive branch), and second prize a bronze (and a laurel branch). The medals depict Zeus and Nike. The gold, silver, and bronze medals were introduced in the 1904 Olympics.

Friedrich Traun was a German track and field runner who traveled to Athens to compete in the 100 meter and 800 meter race, but failed to qualify for both. Also a tennis player, he tried next to enter the tennis competition, but also failed to win in the qualifying rounds, being beaten by John Boland, the spectator-turned-competitor. However, Boland asked Traun to be his partner in doubles, and they went on to win that event in the Games.

12-hour cycling race

Madame Bakhmeteff, wife of the Russian minister in Athens, threw a picnic party for a group of medal winners. Among the group are marathon winner Spyro Louis and 800-meter and the 1,500-meter running events winner Edwin 'Teddy' Flack.

Greece's Spyro Louis becomes a national hero

Given that Greece is the birthplace of the Olympics and the first modern Games were held in Athens, Greeks longed to see their countrymen win the competitions. They were disappointed that the track and field, and especially the discus--a sport traced to Greek antiquity--were won by foreign athletes. However, Spyro Louis gave them a historic victory by winning the world's first marathon race. The race was based on the legend of Pheidippides, who ran 40 kilometers from Marathon to Athens to report a military victory, then died. Luckily, none of the racers to retrace his steps suffered his fate and the marathon went on to become the benchmark of long-distance racing.

NJ Diners that are open 24/7

Gallery Credit: Jordan Jansson

LOOK: Food history from the year you were born

From product innovations to major recalls, Stacker researched what happened in food history every year since 1921, according to news and government sources.

Gallery Credit: Joni Sweet

1921: Refrigerators become household appliances

It got a lot easier to keep food fresh at home in the 1920s, when the refrigerator started to become an essential appliance for every kitchen. Manufacturers produced about 5,000 refrigerators in the U.S. in 1921, according to History Magazine (via The Packer). Over the next decade, another 1 million refrigerators were manufactured in the country.

[Pictured: Men stand beside the first Frigidaire, made by Delco Light Company, a subsidiary of General Motors, 1921.]

1922: First chimichangas are invented

El Charro Cafe, the oldest Mexican restaurant in Tucson, Arizona, invented the chimichanga in 1922. The deep-fried burrito was created by accident when founder Monica Flin plunged a burrito into bubbling fat, creating a delicious mistake many have enjoyed ever since.

1924: Iodine is added to table salt

Producers began voluntarily adding iodine to salt in the U.S. in 1924 in an effort to curb the number of Americans with goiter. The move was promoted by many national health organizations, such as the American Medical Association and the American Public Health Association.

1925: Speakeasies serve up finger foods

Tens of thousands of speakeasies popped up in New York City alone by 1925 after bars and saloons in the country were shut down during Prohibition. Some started offering finger foods alongside clandestine cocktails in an effort to boost sales.

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1927: Girl Scouts publish first s’mores recipe

While the idea for a graham cracker sandwich with roasted marshmallow and chocolate had been around for some time, the first s’mores recipe didn’t make its debut until 1927 in “Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts.” The guidebook, which was intended to teach kids how to be good Girl Scouts, referred to the recipe as “Some More” for another 44 years at least.

1930: First chocolate chip cookies are baked

Ruth Graves Wakefield invented the chocolate chip cookie in 1930. At the time, she and her husband ran the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts.

1931: Transcontinental train trips popularize brunch

While the concept of brunch had been around since the late 1800s (if not earlier), it first became popular in the U.S. in the 1930s. Hollywood stars on transcontinental train journeys would often stop in Chicago for a late morning meal during that time, and restaurants across the country picked up on the trend.

1932: 3 Musketeers Bar is invented

1933: Milk is enriched with vitamin D

Milk producers began enriching their products with vitamin D in 1933, either by irradiating the milk or adding irradiated yeast to the cows’ feeds, in response to recommendations from health groups. Seven years later, they’d start using vitamin D concentrate to enrich the milk—a technique that’s still used today.

1935: Kraft Foods buys Vegemite

Already beloved by Australians, Vegemite became American-owned and -produced when Kraft Foods bought the recipe and manufacturing instructions for the yeast extract in 1935, according to What’s Cooking America. The recipe has since been slightly adjusted to include less salt.

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1937: Kraft creates boxed mac and cheese

In 1937, Kraft Foods launched its now-iconic boxed macaroni and cheese. The 19-cent product had enough food for a family of four, which made it extremely popular during the Great Depression. Around 8 million boxes were sold that year, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

1939: Government launches food stamp program

In an effort to help low-income families afford food, the federal government launched a food stamp program in 1939. It was in effect for four years, after which the country switched over to ration stamps.

1940: Government formalizes definition for enriched flour

The Food and Drug Administration developed a standard definition for enriched flour in 1940 to help reduce the rates of nutrient deficiency in the U.S. It required that flour producers add thiamin, iron, riboflavin, and niacin to any products they labeled as “enriched.”

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1944: First frozen dinner is born

The year 1944 marked the birth of the world’s first frozen dinners: Strato-Plates. Created by W.L. Maxson Co., the meal featured meat, a potato, and veggies “on a paperboard tray treated with Bakelite resin.” It allowed airlines and the Navy to serve crew and passengers a hot meal.

1945: Sliced bread makes a comeback

Commercially baked bread was sold as unsliced loaves starting in 1943 due to a shortage of steel during World War II. Sliced bread finally made a comeback in 1945 when the war ended.

1947: Pepperidge Farm opens state-of-the-art bakery

Margaret Rudkin’s dream of a new state-of-the-art bakery for her company, Pepperidge Farm, was finally realized when she cut the ribbon on a new space in Norwalk, Connecticut, in 1947. The bakery helped her streamline production and make Pepperidge Farm the brand it is today.

1948: General Mills reveals secret ingredient for chiffon cake

Los Angeles insurance agent Harry Baker invented chiffon cake in the 1920s, keeping his recipe under lock and key for 20 years. General Mills bought his recipe in 1947, and a year later, they revealed the delightfully airy cake’s secret ingredient (vegetable oil) in Better Homes and Gardens magazine in May 1948.

1950: Controlled-atmosphere packaging increases shelf life of food

The 1950s brought along the development of controlled-atmosphere packaging, according to the Institute of Food Technologists. This allowed producers to regulate the oxygen and carbon dioxide “in the packaging environment” to help delay spoilage of fresh foods.

1951: Bananas Foster is born at Brennan’s

Celebrated New Orleans restaurant Brennan’s needed a way to use surplus bananas in 1951, according to Thrillist. It invented Bananas Foster, a dessert made from bananas flambéed with butter, liqueur, brown sugar, and cinnamon, then topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

1954: California dude ranch invents ranch dressing

Hidden Valley Ranch, a dude ranch on the central California coast, invented ranch dressing in 1954, according to Slate. It became an instant hit with guests, who took bottles of the creamy dressing home as souvenirs. Less than 20 years later, the brand was sold to the Clorox Company for $8 million.

1955: Green bean casserole originates at Campbell’s

Home economist Dorcas Reilly developed the first recipe for green bean casserole in the Campbell’s Soup Co. test kitchen after a journalist at the Associated Press asked for an idea for a vegetable side dish, according to NPR. The now-iconic dish is whipped up for Thanksgiving in 30 million homes each year.

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1959: Professor invents machine-harvestable tomato

Jack Hanna, an agronomy professor, bred a “hardy, tough-skinned tomato that could be more readily harvested by machines” in the late 1950s, according to Smithsonian Magazine. It would pave the way for machines to start gathering the majority of tomatoes in California in the coming decades, improving efficiency on farms.

1960: Gelatin makes its way into every meal

Knox published “Knox On-Camera Recipes,” its collection of “gel-cookery” recipes, in 1960. It offered ways to use gelatin in every meal, from the classic gelatin salad dessert to a savory dish using mayonnaise and shrimp paste.

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1962: ‘Silent Spring’ raises awareness about pesticide risks

“Silent Spring” hit bookstores in 1962, sparking worries about the potential risks of pesticides used on food. Author and environmental activist Rachel Carson called for an end to the practice of using DDT as a pesticide on food crops.

1964: Buffalo wings debut at Western New York bar

Teressa Bellissimo, owner of Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, invented buffalo wings in 1964, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Now a Super Bowl staple, the wings were created on a whim after the bar received a delivery of chicken wings instead of the necks they had ordered.

1965: Pillsbury Doughboy makes first TV appearance

The first commercial featuring the Pillsbury Doughboy aired in 1965, helping increase sales of canned refrigerated dough. An instant hit, the mascot earned an 87% recognition factor with customers in just three years.

1966: Peet’s Coffee founder debuts French roast coffee

Alfred Peet, the man behind Peet’s Coffee & Tea, jolted Americans out of their preference for light-roast coffee when he introduced a French roast in 1966. The java was inspired by European-style coffee, which was darker, less acidic, and sometimes even slightly burnt.

1967: Pop-Tarts are frosted

It didn’t seem like Pop-Tarts could be much more popular after the first shipment of the breakfast treats in the U.S. were completely snapped up within two weeks in 1964. However, Kellogg’s took things to the next level in 1967 when it debuted the first frosted Pop-Tarts. The brand’s bestsellers are now Frosted Strawberry and Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon.

1969: Californians go wild for 'Animal Style' fries

Legend has it that In-N-Out invented its famous “Animal Style” fries in 1969 after the chefs at the Baldwin Park, California, location needed a name for the sauce that its boisterous surfer clientele put on their food. It’s one of the best-known items of the fast food chain’s secret menu today.

1970: Nutrition expert tells Senate that cereal isn’t healthy

Is cereal part of a balanced breakfast? Not according to nutrition expert Robert Choate, who told a Senate subcommittee “that breakfast cereals aren’t good sources of nutrition,” according to the Food Industry Association. Cereal makers responded by adding vitamins and nutrients to their products.

1971: Chez Panisse kickstarts farm-to-table movement

1972: First female chef heads big-name hotel kitchen

Leslie Revsin was hired as a “kitchen man”—a low-level position—at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in 1972, according to The New York Times. She would rapidly climb the ladder and go on to become the first woman to lead the kitchen of a major hotel, as well as a cookbook author and television chef.

1974: Gerber launches food for grownups

Baby product company Gerber made a brief foray into food for grownups in 1974 with the launch of Gerber Singles. The products consisted of single-serving pureed foods for adults but were packaged in jars similar to those that contained baby food. The product was met with a cold response from consumers and was ultimately pulled from the company’s lineup.

The government made the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) permanent in 1975, after a successful three-year pilot program. The food program aims to reduce malnutrition and other health problems among pregnant people and babies.

1977: Americans switch to low-fat diets

After the government published the first edition of “The Dietary Goals for the United States” in 1977, Americans overwhelmingly switched to a low-fat diet. The fat-replacers used in many processed foods during this era may have led to poorer health among Americans, according to University of Connecticut researcher Julia Reedy.

1978: Ben & Jerry’s founders take ice cream-making course

A $5 correspondence course taught Jerry Greenfield and Ben Cohen everything they needed to know about starting an ice cream empire in 1978. Later that year, they’d open their first Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop in Vermont, and the rest is history.

1979: Associated Press documents California Roll

While two different chefs claim to have invented the California Roll, Los Angeles-based Ken Seusa scored the first documentation of this type of sushi in an article from the Associated Press in 1979. The all-American creation, which puts the seaweed inside the roll, is an unconventional take on sushi.

1980: Modified-atmosphere packaging becomes available

The 1980s saw the introduction of modified-atmosphere packaging in food production. The technique flushes the insides of food packages with nitrogen gas to help protect the products from spoilage, freezer burn, and weight loss, according to the Institute of Food Technologists.

1985: Meat producers use irradiation to make pork safer

The Food and Drug Administration gave meat producers permission to start using irradiation on pork in 1985. The technique would help them control the parasite that can cause trichinosis.

1990: Government sets standards for nutrition labels

The black-and-white nutrition labels you see on food products today were standardized with the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990. It required most food products to list a breakdown of their nutritional value, including fat content and vitamins.

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1991: 'Not from concentrate' juice becomes commercialized

The 1990s saw the rise of a new product in grocery store refrigerators: “not from concentrate” orange juice. Despite being branded as fresh and pure, commercial orange juice still needed processed flavor packs to mimic the taste of fresh juice.

1995: DiGiorno disrupts the frozen pizza market

Kraft disrupted the frozen pizza market when it launched DiGiorno in 1995. The new frozen pizzas were the first to have a doughy crust that rises in the oven—in contrast to the flat, crispy crust that frozen pizzas had been known for.

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2000: Heinz creates rainbow-colored ketchup

The new millennium brought along changes to even the most basic things, like the color of ketchup. Heinz released a series of ketchups in unconventional colors like purple, blue, and orange in 2000.

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2005: New coating keeps apples fresh for longer

Scientists at the Agricultural Research Service released a new vitamin-and-mineral-based coating for apples in 2005. The coating would help keep refrigerated apple slices fresh for up to 28 days.

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2010: Food makers fish for likes on Instagram

When Instagram came on the scene in 2010, it changed the way Americans saw their food. It was no longer just something to eat—food was something to photograph and post. Food makers and restaurateurs responded by creating aesthetically dazzling dishes like color-changing noodles and rainbow bagels.

2015: Breakfast goes all day at McDonald’s

McDonald’s finally gave its customers what they’d been dreaming about for decades when it launched all-day breakfast in 2015, according to Andrew Bender of Forbes. He called it one of the top food and restaurant trends of that year.

2017: Kale sales soar

Once a humble leafy green, kale was elevated to a cool food in 2017 due to its nutrient density and versatility. That year, farmers in the U.S. harvested 15,325 acres of kale—more than twice as much as was harvested in 2012, according to the Department of Agriculture.

2020: Pandemic changes how we eat

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed how Americans ate in 2020. People started spending significantly less money eating out than before due to stay-at-home orders. They also coped with food shortages at the grocery store, and began churning out loaf after loaf of homemade bread while stuck at home.

source: https://nj1015.com/attacks-on-nj-transit-workers-tripled-new-nj-law-will-crack-down/

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