Shirley K. Turner

TRENTON – The Senate Education Committee approved legislation today sponsored by Senator Shirley K. Turner that would enact new nutritional standards for food sold in public schools, limiting the availability of high-calorie beverages and foods high in sugar or fat to students during school hours.

“Obesity is a health problem reaching epidemic proportions in America,” said Senator Turner, D Mercer. “With two thirds of Americans being overweight or obese, we need to better promote healthy eating habits, and there is no better time to begin then while we are young.”

TRENTON – Senator Shirley K. Turner welcomed today’s final legislative approval of her bill to require hospitals to inform sexual assault victims about emergency contraceptives and provide them upon request.

“All women have the fundamental right to choose when and how and with whom they have a child,” said Senator Turner, D-Mercer. “Victims of sexual assault shouldn’t have this choice taken away from them by the heinous acts of a criminal. When hospitals give these women the option to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, it is the first step in helping them feel empowered again.”

TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senator Shirley K. Turner which would regulate bounty hunters, and prohibit those with criminal records from acting as bounty hunters, was approved by the Senate today by a vote of 37-0.

“We are not trying to demonize anyone through this bill, but the fact of the matter is that without some sort of State oversight, bounty hunters put themselves and the general public in danger every time they take on a case,” said Senator Turner, D-Mercer. “Fugitive recovery has a place, and is necessary to ensure that dangerous criminals are off our streets, but we also need protections in place to ensure that bounty hunters do not trample the rights of innocent individuals when pursuing guilty ones. Bounty hunters need to be under some sort of State regulation to ensure that they operate under the mandate of the law, and not around it.”