A New Jersey councilwoman and former mayor who was sentenced earlier this year for driving while drunk with her child in the vehicle is now accused of faking signatures in order to be placed on the Democratic ballot during her township’s primary election.

On Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, Lumberton Township Committeewoman Gina LaPlaca, 47, and her husband Jason Carty, 49, were both charged with fraudulently placing LaPlaca on the Democratic primary ballot in the June 2026 Lumberton Township Committee primary race.

A nominating petition – which Carty submitted to the Lumberton Township Municipal Clerk — contained an affidavit signed by LaPlaca in which she swore she “personally circulated the petition [and] that such petition was signed by each of the signers thereof in his/her own handwriting,” investigators said.

Multiple people whose names and signatures appeared on the petition indicated they didn’t sign it or authorize anyone to do so on their behalf, however, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office.

Investigators said that without the fraudulent signatures, LaPlaca’s petition would not have had the number of required signatures for her to be a candidate for the primary.

LaPlaca is charged by summons with making a false statement under oath, knowingly filing a false petition, tampering with public records or information and falsifying or tampering with records.

Carty is charged with knowingly filing a false petition, tampering with public records or information, and falsifying or tampering with records.

LaPlaca and Carty are both scheduled to appear in Superior Court on Sept. 21, 2026.

LaPlaca previously faced legal issues in March 2025 while she was mayor of Lumberton Township. Officials said she was driving while intoxicated while her young son was in the vehicle. They also said police found an open container of alcohol while searching her vehicle.

An investigation found that LaPlaca had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .30%, officials said. In New Jersey, drivers with a BAC above .08% are guilty of drunk driving.

LaPlaca pleaded guilty in March 2026 to fourth-degree child abuse and driving under the influence.  She was sentenced to three years of supervision under a diversionary program for first-time offenders known as Pretrial Intervention.

On Tuesday, Pennsylvania took a major step in the fight against the negative impacts of social media, particularly on children. The state sued TikTok, the massive platform that it said nearly 100 million Americans use every day.

Attorney General Dave Sunday said his office filed the lawsuit against the social media giant in Allegheny County court, alleging it violated the state consumer protection law.

“To achieve a 13-plus age rating in app stores, TikTok claims mature audience content is infrequent on their apps,” Sunday said.

Specifically, the complaint alleges that through its 13-plus age rating in app stores, TikTok misrepresents the app as age-appropriate for teens as young as 13 who end up consuming adult content like profanity, drinking, drug use and sexually suggestive situations.

“That age rating gives parents the illusion of safety but actually opens the door to putting content literally in the palm of our kids’ hands whenever they want it,” Sunday said.

The commonwealth also accuses TikTok of intentionally designing a platform to be addictive to young people with an infinite scroll that in turn helps the company’s bottom line but at the cost of children’s mental well-being and development.

“Ignoring that young people are most susceptible to and harmed by those very features,” Sunday said.

Dr. Candice Biernesser, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, said there’s no documented evidence to say that social media causes addiction. Rather, there are features that teenagers talk about being problematic and that they have a hard time disconnecting from. She said apps just need better guardrails.

“There are a lot of ways that we could moderate some of these experiences specifically for young people,” Dr. Biernesser said. “They can experience creativity and entertainment on social media that we all do from time to time, but in ways that could be considerably safer.”

It’s something Sunday claims TikTok has considered but hasn’t implemented.

KDKA reached out to TikTok for co mment. A spokesperson provided the following statement:

“This lawsuit relies on misleading and inaccurate claims and deliberately ignores the concrete safety measures TikTok has voluntarily implemented to support the well-being of our community. Teen accounts have 50 preset safety, privacy and security settings built-in, and TikTok’s Family Pairing tools give parents direct control over screen time and content filters. We will vigorously defend against these claims.”

Sunday said those controls and filters are easily circumvented. He’s seeking transparency with age restriction and verification changes through this suit, saying this is just a first step, indicating more action against other social media companies in the near future.

“There are wonderful, amazing things that come with technology, but it is critical that technology does not evolve and happen at such a cost to our children,” Sunday said. “We are the people that are tasked with having to fight this fight to protect kids, and they’re worth it.”