Reporting

UPDATE, SEP 25, 2026, 5 P.M.: Dale Caldwell has resigned.

An independent investigation commissioned by the Governor’s Office substantiated sexual harassment and two ethics violations involving Lieutenant Governor Dale Caldwell, prompting Governor Mikie Sherrill to call for his resignation. Investigators found that Caldwell told a staffer that “you young women are looking for young sperm,” a remark he denied making, and concluded that the comment violated state workplace policy.

As first reported by the New Jersey Globe, the investigation was underway before the final report became public, with few details publicly disclosed. The September 23, 2026, report provides the evidence supporting the three findings, including witness accounts, documents and Caldwell’s responses.

The Middletown Township Committee’s September 21 agenda omits public hearings on a proposed townshipwide data center ban and zoning standards for a contemplated 136-home development on West Nut Swamp Road.

A township notice viewed September 15 said the data center hearing had been rescheduled to November 9. That notice and the ordinance’s original introduction notice later disappeared from the township’s public-notices page. A separate notice announces November 9 as the rescheduled West Nut Swamp hearing.

The published agenda instead schedules hearings and possible final passage for other measures, including a first-time homebuyer incentive for eligible emergency-service volunteers and updated recreation rules. Neither omitted ordinance should be considered finally adopted or abandoned based solely on its absence from the agenda.

Mail-in ballots for New Jersey’s June primary traveled hundreds of miles off course before the problem was detected, according to a federal audit that identified a gap in how the U.S. Postal Service tracks pallets of ballots moving through its network.

The limited review documented a handling and tracking failure after the ballots entered the postal network in Trenton but did not establish an effect on the primary result. Federal auditors recommended continuous tracking of entire ballot-mail pallets, a change relevant to New Jersey voters preparing to vote by mail in the November 3 general election.

The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General issued its final audit report on September 4. The report examines election-mail operations during the 2026 primaries and describes separate corrective actions the U.S. Postal Service scheduled before November.

The Middletown Township Committee authorized an agreement to acquire and preserve approximately 83 acres and adopted new rules for special events on large farms on September 8, following public hearings that drew questions about displaced tenants, financing and which farms would qualify.

A broad array of speakers supported preserving the Chapel Hill property, but the hearing also included a tenant who said he had received 60 days to leave his home. Committee members said the transaction could not be treated as certain until there was a written agreement, while the property owner said she had tried to help him find another place.

The committee also heard concerns about the proposed redevelopment of the property commonly known as Circus Liquors and introduced a separate ordinance that would prohibit data centers throughout Middletown.