In a stunning report issued just minutes after a state Superior Court judge refused to block its release, a special governor’s task force concluded the state’s economic development program was hijacked to favor special interests when giving out billions of dollars in tax incentives.

At the same time, the highly critical report found that the New Jersey Economic Development Authority “did not have adequate procedures in place” to vet applications, including misstatements that would have led to the rejection of some applications or “a significant reduction in the amount of certain awards.”

Here’s how bad things have gotten at a local jail in Essex County, New Jersey:

Even the federal agency that oversees U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under President Trump believes it’s acting inhumanely.

This lockup, run by Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, has been making big money warehousing immigrants for the feds – tens of millions of dollars annually, to offset local property taxes.

State Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (left) and state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (right) applaud as Gov. Phil Murphy (center) speaks at the Statehouse in Trenton earlier this year.

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Democratic lawmakers will introduce their own state budget Monday that ditches Gov. Phil Murphy’s long-sought proposal to raise tax increases on millionaires in New Jersey, setting up a showdown with the progressive Democratic governor in the coming days, NJ Advance Media has learned.

In their budget, the lawmakers have also scrapped Murphy’s plans to significantly raise permit fees and enact new taxes on guns and ammunition sold in the Garden State, according to two sources familiar with the budget proposal.

Their proposal also does not include Murphy’s call for a $150-per-head penalty paid by New Jersey businesses that don’t provide health insurance and whose employees are therefore enrolled in Medicaid, the sources said.

The New Jersey Independent Victim Compensation Program will begin accepting claims related to the sexual abuse of minors by diocesan priests and deacons for all five of New Jersey’s Catholic dioceses, starting this weekend.

The program, known as IVCP, will be led by Kenneth R. Feinberg and Camille S. Biros, who have designed and administered similar programs for the Catholic dioceses in New York and Pennsylvania. They’ve also administered compensation programs for the victims of the Penn State sexual abuse claims, the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Boston Marathon bombing.

Church leaders said Feinberg and Biros will review the case of each alleged victim, then offer victims a settlement. They will determine the amount offered and it will be paid by the dioceses. Church officials will have no authority to challenge the decisions or the amounts awarded as determined by Feinberg and Biros.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s welcoming of assistance from Russia or China for his 2020 re-election campaign was “dangerous and destructive.”

So says U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, who hopes to wrest the job from Trumpnext November.

Booker was responding to Trump’s comments to ABC News that he would listen if a foreign adversary of the U.S. had damaging information about his 2020 opponent.

No.

That was the terse response from New Jersey’s most powerful state lawmaker Wednesday after Gov. Phil Murphy challenged him to let legislators vote on the governor’s plan to raise income taxes on the state’s millionaires.

“No," state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, told NJ Advance Media after an unrelated event in Jackson when asked if he’ll allow a vote on Murphy’s proposal. “I’ve said it. I don’t know how many times I can say it. We’re not changing.”