MacKenzie Scott, the novelist, billionaire philanthropist and former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has made a $1.8 million donation to be used for a STEM mobile classroom and a related building in Newark, the Girl Scouts announced Tuesday.

Scott’s gift will help fund an initiative involving the Newark Board of Education and the Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson, said Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey, a regional council for Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Somerset, Union, Warren and Middlesex counties.

NJ Transit has reached an agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s office to fix issues at five train stations on the Northeast Corridor line that don’t meet federal standards for access by people with mobility, visual or hearing issues.

The U.S. Attorney’s office identified violations of the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) at Newark Penn, Princeton Junction, MetroPark, Trenton, and New Brunswick stations, which are owned and operated by NJ Transit.

U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced the agreement on Tuesday. It avoids court action to get the repair work done. NJ Transit officials said the agency has done work needed to make the stations accessible and that only minor repairs remain.

New Jersey’s depleted state Supreme Court will soon get two new justices after the state Senate confirmed Rachel Wainer Apter and Douglas Fasciale on Monday, formally breaking a political logjam that left the state’s highest court with an unprecedented three vacancies for much of the year.

The Democratic-controlled Senate voted 23-14 along party lines to approve Wainer Apter, a civil rights attorney whose nomination had stalled for a year and a half after Gov. Phil Murphy, a fellow Democrat, picked her for the post.

By Debra Lancaster

Debra Lancaster, executive director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University, explains how the Paid Leave Outreach Collaborative is working to increase educational outreach, community engagement, and awareness and use of paid leave in New Jersey, to help reach potential leave tak

Working families thrive when they feel like they can do both successfully, but many are unaware that they can support their families financially, emotionally and physically with New Jersey’s paid leave programs. Others fear they’ll lose their job or suffer workplace repercussions if they pursue benefits that they’re entitled to have.

Many working adults, especially those with growing families or aging loved ones, feel pulled in different directions as priorities feel like they conflict with each other. For new parents, adjusting to the responsibilities of caring for a child and meeting workplace obligations can be daunting. Those challenges intensify when health circumstances unexpectedly arise and workers take on unplanned caregiving responsibilities.

Recognizing that caregiving demands and earning an income shouldn’t be “either/or” decisions, New Jersey in 2009 became the second state to implement a paid family leave program, Family Leave Insurance. The program provides working families economic security when they need to take time away from work to care for a newly birthed, fostered or adopted child, care for an ill family member or cope with domestic or sexual violence.