A 9-year-old boy who fell asleep on a school bus was left inside the vehicle and later found wandering a New Jersey school district’s transportation yard, reported ABC News.
Wanda Chandler said via the news report that her son boarded the bus about 8 a.m. Thursday for his final day of summer classes at Union Valley Elementary School in Blackwood. About two and a half hours later, Gloucester Township Public Schools called to say he had not arrived.
Chandler reportedly said the boy fell asleep during the ride and awoke alone on an empty bus parked at the district’s bus yard. He figured out how to open the door, got off and searched for help.
“I got off the bus and looked for anyone,” he said via the article. “I found this man, so I asked him, ‘Do you know where I can go back?”
He continued, “I was trying to be a big boy, so I just acted brave and normal,” he said via the report.
A district employee found him in the parking lot, asked his name and age and brought him inside, Chandler told local news reporters. The district told her that Child Protective Services had been notified. Her son was later taken to school for the rest of the day.
Chandler said officials had not told her how long her son was asleep on the bus or alone in the yard. She said he has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and the incident could have ended differently. “Thank God he’s safe, that’s number one, but what if he didn’t wake up?” she said via the article. “What if he walked out into that bus depot and a stranger took him?”
Chandler said her family recently moved into the district and enrolled the boy in the five-week summer program partly so he could become comfortable riding a school bus before the new academic year. She called the incident “unacceptable” and said the district had assured her that a driver and an aide were assigned to the bus.
Police charged a 14-year-old New Jersey boy after he allegedly displayed a handgun to other students while riding home on a school bus. The investigation also led to charges against John Mutcherson, a man accused of failing to properly secure the firearm.
The Township of Hamilton Police Department said in a statement that officers received a report on July 29 that a student brandished a handgun while traveling home on a school bus. Officers and detectives immediately launched an investigation, identifying the suspect as a 14-year-old resident of Mays Landing.
The juvenile was arrested and lodged at Harborfields Juvenile Detention Center. He faces multiple charges, including second-degree unlawful possession of a handgun, second-degree possession of a handgun for an unlawful purpose, third-degree possession of a firearm on school property, third-degree terroristic threats, third-degree endangering the welfare of a child, fourth-degree aggravated assault, fourth-degree possession of a firearm by a minor and fourth-degree juvenile possession of handgun ammunition, according to police.
Authorities did not identify the school district involved or disclose how many students were on the bus at the time of the incident. Police also did not report any injuries.
According to the police department, investigators determined the handgun had not been properly secured inside the residence where it was kept.
As a result, investigators charged Mutcherson, 39, with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child by allowing access to a loaded firearm, fourth-degree tampering with evidence and a disorderly persons offense alleging minor access to a loaded firearm.
Mutcherson was released on a summons pending further court proceedings. Police did not specify the relationship between Mutcherson and the juvenile. Following the investigation, all firearms located inside the residence were turned over to police and secured, according to the department.
The incident highlights the importance of securely storing firearms to prevent unauthorized access by minors. New Jersey law provides criminal penalties in certain circumstances when children gain access to loaded firearms that have not been properly secured.
The investigation remains ongoing. Police have not announced whether additional charges are expected or whether any school disciplinary actions have been taken in connection with the incident. Because the suspect is a juvenile, police did not release his name.
Doherty Enterprises has launched its annual Stuff the Bus school supply drive at participating Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill + Bar restaurants across New Jersey, collecting donations for students ahead of the new school year, reported WDHA News.
According to the news report, yellow school buses will remain parked outside participating restaurants through late August, serving as visible collection points for new school supplies and monetary contributions. Donated materials will be loaded onto the buses and delivered directly to local schools or community organizations that help students prepare for classes.
The Applebee’s location in Bridgewater will reportedly accept donations through Aug. 28. The supplies collected there will benefit students at Adamsville Elementary School.
In Howell Township, the local Applebee’s will collect donations through Aug. 19. The restaurant plans to deliver the supplies to Howell Township Public Schools on Aug. 31. “Supporting the communities we serve is at the heart of everything we do,” Timothy Doherty, president of Doherty Enterprises, said via the article. “Each year, our Stuff the Bus campaign brings neighbors, guests and local organizations together at their local Applebee’s to help students start the school year with the supplies they need.”
Doherty added that seeing communities come together through the campaign and make a meaningful difference for local families is “incredible.”
In addition to collecting supplies and financial donations, some participating restaurants will reportedly organize related fundraising events, including flapjack breakfasts and bake sales. Customers are encouraged to contact their local Applebee’s to learn which fundraisers and collection activities are planned nearby.
Doherty Enterprises, which operates multiple restaurant locations throughout New Jersey, has held the Stuff the Bus campaign in previous years. The company brought the program back to support families facing the expense of purchasing notebooks, writing materials, backpacks and other classroom essentials.
A trailblazing regional greenhouse gas partnership on the East Coast is considering possible changes or expansion that would allow it to keep building on its success — and the stakes grew higher last month with the reelection of Donald Trump.
The 11-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, established in 2005, is the country’s first regional cap-and-invest system for reducing carbon emissions from power generation. Since 2021, administrators have been conducting a program review, analyzing its performance since the last review in 2017 and weighing potential adjustments to make sure it continues to deliver benefits to member states.
The role of such programs is more crucial as Trump’s pledges to roll back federal climate action leaves it up to cities, states, and the private sector to maintain the country’s momentum on clean energy over the next four years. In RGGI, as the regional initiative is known, states have a potential model for scaling their impact through collaboration.
“RGGI has not only been an effective climate policy, it’s been an extraordinary example of how states can work together on common goals,” said Daniel Sosland, president of climate and energy nonprofit Acadia Center. “It is a major vehicle for climate policy now in the states, more than it might have seemed before the election.”
How RGGI works
RGGI sets a cap for total power plant carbon emissions among member states. Individual generators must then buy allowances from the state, up to the total cap, for each ton of carbon dioxide they produce in a year. The cap lowers over time, forcing power plants to either reduce emissions or pay more to buy allowances from a shrinking pool.
States then reinvest the proceeds from these auctions into programs that further reduce emissions and help energy customers, including energy efficiency initiatives, direct bill assistance, and renewable energy projects. Since 2008, RGGI has generated $8.3 billion for participating states, and carbon dioxide emissions from power generation in the nine states that have consistently participated fell by about half between 2008 and 2021, a considerably faster rate than the rest of the country.
“It has really thrived and been really effective across multiple administrations,” said Jackson Morris, state power sector director with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “RGGI is a winning model. It’s not theoretical — we’ve got numbers.”
Currently, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont are part of the program. Virginia joined RGGI in 2021, but in 2023 Gov. Glenn Youngkin repealed the state’s participation, a move immediately challenged in court; a judge ruled last month that the governor lacked the authority to withdraw the state from initiative, though a spokesman for the governor has declared the state’s intention to appeal.
There is widespread agreement that RGGI will endure despite likely federal hostility to climate measures. There was no attempt to take direct action against it during Trump’s first term, nor has there been any concerted industry opposition, said Conservation Law Foundation president Bradley Campbell, who was involved in the founding of RGGI when he was commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Supporters also note that the program has historically had broad bipartisan support: Participating states have been led through the years by both Republican and Democratic governors and legislatures.
Politics has had some influence over the years, though only at the margins. New Jersey, a founding member of RGGI, left in 2011 when Chris Christie was governor, but returned in 2020 following an executive order from his successor. Pennsylvania joined in 2022 through an executive order from the governor, but its participation is now being challenged in court.
Still, RGGI’s foundations are solid and will remain so, experts said.
“The basic infrastructure has weathered the political winds over the decades,” Campbell said.
Looking forward
Nonetheless, RGGI will need to make some carefully thought-out program design decisions during its current review to make an impact in the face of falling federal support for decarbonization.
One question under consideration is whether to maintain the existing trajectory for the overall emissions cap for the program — a reduction of 30% between 2020 and 2030, then holding steady thereafter — or to continue lowering the limit after 2030.
The RGGI states are also contemplating a possible change to the compliance schedule that would require power generators to acquire allowances worth 100% of their carbon emissions each year, and certify compliance annually. The current system calls for certification every three years, and only mandates allowances equivalent to half of carbon emissions for the first two years of each period.
The program is looking for ways to appeal to potential new participant states that have less aggressive decarbonization goals than current member states without watering down the program’s overall impact on decarbonization, said Acadia Center policy analyst Paola Tamayo. Acadia suggested possible program mechanisms such as giving proportionately more allowances to states with more stringent emissions targets to incentivize tighter limits.
“At this point it is critical for states to maintain a high level of ambition when it comes to programs like RGGI,” Tamayo said. “There are different mechanisms that they can implement to accommodate other states.”
The program review is expected to yield a model rule some time over the winter, though updates may be made into the spring as the RGGI states receive and consider feedback on how to accommodate potential new participants.
States will also need to maintain and strengthen their own climate policies to magnify the impact of RGGI, Campbell said. He pointed to Massachusetts, where Gov. Maura Healey needs to show “bolder leadership,” he said, and Maine and Vermont, where the Conservation Law Foundation has filed lawsuits in an attempt to compel the states to meet their own carbon reduction deadlines.
“It’s especially important that the states that have strong emissions reduction mandates speed up the implementation of their climate laws,” he said. “State leadership on these issues is going to be more important than ever.”
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