Aug. 8 (ZFJ) — The Federal Reserve maintained the target federal funds rate at 5.25-5.50% at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)’s July 31 meeting. This rate was set on July 26, 2023, and has been held steady since then. The Fed has been aggressively increasing the interest rate since raising it from 0.00-0.25% to 0.25-0.50% in March 2022 in order to fight stubborn inflation. “The labor market has come into better balance and the unemployment rate remains low,” said Fed Chair Jerome Powell in his opening remarks at a press conference.

Aug. 1 (ZFJ) — The College Board has announced that, starting May 2025, 28 AP Exams will have their standard paper testing discontinued. Instead, these exams will be administered digitally through the Bluebook app. All schools and test centers will have to administer these exams digitally, though paper exams will still be available to select students approved by the College Board. The acceleration to digital testing was done to further protect the integrity and security of AP exams.

July 30 (ZFJ) — A Fort Lee police officer responding to a mental health call fatally shot Victoria G. Lee, 26, of Fort Lee, on Sunday, July 28, according to the N.J. Attorney General’s Office (OAG). OAG said in a press release that on Sunday, at about 1:25 a.m., Fort Lee police responded to “The Pinnacle” apartment complex on Main Street after receiving a 911 call from a man reporting that his sister was having a mental health crisis and needed to go to the hospital.

EDISON, N.J., July 30 (ZFJ) — One motorcyclist was killed and one motorcyclist was seriously injured in a crash at the intersection of Route 1 North and Old Post Road in Edison on Sunday, July 28. On Sunday, at about 8:13 p.m., authorities responded to the intersection after receiving a report of a multi-vehicle crash, according to a press release from the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office. Police located Alexander Teshima Chong, 44, of Belleville, who had been operating a motorcycle at the time of the collision.

July 26 (ZFJ) — After much anticipation—two years after its initial announcement—the renowned Taiwanese restaurant chain Din Tai Fung celebrated the grand opening of its first East Coast location in New York City on July 18, 2024. Besides being the first location on the East Coast, it is also the world’s largest Din Tai Fung. Located at 1633 Broadway, the restaurant occupies a vast 25,000-square-foot space, capable of accommodating up to 450 diners and 500 employees.

July 27 (ZFJ) — At 1.50 C (2.7 F) above the estimated June average for 1850-1900, June 2024 has become the 12th consecutive month to reach or break the 1.5 C threshold set by the Paris Agreement, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). With a surface air temperature of 16.66 C (61.99 F), June 2024 was warmer globally than any previous June in C3S’ ERA5 data record.

EDISON, N.J., July 26 (ZFJ) — Joan Franklin Polanco, 37, of Edison, has been charged in connection with the fatal stabbing that occurred in Edison on Sunday, July 21, 2024, announced Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and Chief Thomas Bryan of the Edison Police Department. On July 21, Edison police responded to a call for a welfare check of the victim, according to a criminal complaint and affidavit. Shortly after, at about 4:37 p.

EDISON, N.J., July 24 (ZFJ) — Muslim students from Edison High School are alleging that one of the school’s assistant principals intimidated them over their club’s annual iftar event during a February meeting. Iftar is the breaking of the daily fast during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan. The New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NJ), a Muslim civil rights group, says that Assistant Principal Nicole Himmelstein met with eight board members of the school’s Moon and Stars Association (MSA) following their request to hold a joint iftar event and invite students from Piscataway and North Brunswick.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., ZFJ (July 19) — The Dream Food Fest has again returned to New Jersey this summer. Hosted in partnership with the American Dream Mall, the food festival was held from July 12-15 in Lot 26 of the mall in East Rutherford, N.J., gathering 120 street food vendors—including Tojo’s Kitchen, Cozy Tea Loft, and Dumpling N’ Dips—selling a variety of cuisines from around the glove: Korean corn dogs, Neapolitan pizza, Jamaican jerk chicken, and much more.

July 14 (ZFJ) — Former President Donald Trump was shot in the upper right ear in an assassination attempt while he was at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, July 13. At about 6:15 p.m., several minutes after Trump began addressing the audience, a shooter fired towards the stage “from an elevated position outside of the rally venue,” said Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the U.S. Secret Service, in a statement.