A Aguilas del Desierto volunteer says while walking around the desert “Every bone has a story in these hostile and treacherous lands, our migrant brothers die trying to give their families a better future.” Think about it. Wouldn’t you do the same for your family? Read More

In many cases parents and school administrators are taking it upon themselves to determine what is “appropriate”  reading, despite having no qualifications or experience to judge. Why is it that so often the stories found to be “inappropriate” are those told from the point of view of the marginalized and oppressed: persecuted Jews, impoverished African-Americans and derided LGBTQ people? Read More

The next step is to help us fight an even more extreme 2022 by halting all new fossil fuel projects in the state, thus cutting on back added greenhouse gases that help bring about climate change. Read More

Voter suppression undermines democracy. Normalizing sedition undermines democracy. Accepting the Big Lie of a “stolen election” undermines democracy. Read More

Curiously, he fails to criticize Republican governors and legislatures who continue to fight mask and vaccine mandates, which are proven to be the most effective defenses against a rapidly mutating and transmittable virus. Read More

These deficiencies remained when the county depopulated the jail of people that the county was profiting from through the contract with ICE. The recent near fatal beating of Jayshawn Boyd as well as the stabbing death of Dan Gelin were tragically avoidable, but they are also evidence that the ICE contract was not the problem. The problem is that the county views the people in the jail as less than human. Read More

If you don’t want to have an abortion, don’t do it, but you cannot decide for me over my health care issues and my well-being. I refuse to become a second class citizen Read More

Republicans only know how to engage in antics shown to worsen the pandemic. Pathetic. Read More

Being in the US without authorization is a civil offense, not a criminal offense. Our neighbors are being detained for the equivalent of a lawsuit over backpay, or a slip and fall. No other civil offenses allow pre-trial confinement. Why should immigration? Even if the person has been removed previously, the criminal charge they face would be a misdemeanor. Do we detain teenagers pre-trial when they’ve been caught trespassing or having a fake ID? Of course we don’t and we shouldn’t detain our neighbors for those offenses either. Read More

Within a decade after Pilgrims arrived in 1620, Wampanoags were a minority in their own land. Europeans were converting Indian land to European owned land, and by 1930 they were converting Indians to Christianity. Neither conversion was gentle. By 1879 Native children were forcibly sent to US government run boarding schools where “Indian ways” of culture, religion, language and government were crushed under the motto of “kill the Indian, save the man.” Read More

But most New Jersey citizens decided to vote for apathy. And they do this at a time when voters in at least 18 other states, governed by Republicans, are fighting new laws that restrict the right to vote. Read More

He campaigned publicly with Bernie Sanders who called him the most progressive governor in the country.  He did not run to the middle which is the usual Democratic response when opponents drag out the “far left” label.  And he won!  With a more cooperative legislature (Good-bye Mr. Sweeney), hopefully more good legislation will get passed giving more people a reason to vote. Read More

There’s been much political labeling during this last tumultuous decade, much of it due to the false narratives and conspiracy theories kept alive on social media and selected news networks. Read More

Yes, we get vaccinated to protect ourselves, but also to protect others, especially children and those who may be immune-compromised. I wish health experts would emphasize this more. When you are vaccinated, even if you get a breakthrough infection, you are much less likely to pass it on because your contagious period is two to three days rather than seven to 10 days in an unvaccinated host. The vaccinated are also eight times less likely to become infected in the first place, according to Sanjay Gupta, MD, and other health experts. Read More

Here in the US, unlike other developed countries, we have a high rate of maternal mortality, especially amongst people of color. 26 women every 100,000 died last year for pregnancy related complications here in NJ. A Black woman is seven times more likely to die of complications than a white woman. Did you know that thanks to Tammy, Phil Murphy and the tireless work of health officials Murphy signed into law the Universal Home Nurse Visitation Program for Newborns. Read More

What he did not tell us in that communication is that he is also fighting for “Big Pharma” by opposing President Joe Biden’s proposal to let Medicare negotiate drug prices. If Menendez is truly interested in delivering results for the Garden State families whose votes put him office, he would support this change. Read More

NJ does not need another bully governor. We need calm, compassion and competence. We need Governor Murphy and we need to return him to office on November 2. Read More

Governor Murphy: history will judge us for the actions we did or did not take when the extent of potential climate devastation became clear. I urge you to put your administration on a war footing; let New Jersey lead in this fight. Read More

The arrival of Columbus’ ships to the Americas five hundred years ago did not bode well for the indigenous people already here. The arrival of European ships four hundred years ago on this continent with enslaved Africans was not an auspicious start for those black people in the New World, nor for the millions of Africans who came after them or who descended from enslaved women and girls. Read More

The general election is November 2nd. It’s time for everyone to make a voting plan- are you going to vote in person? By Mail? By dropping a ballot in one of the drop boxes? Read More

Every white person in the United States comes from immigrant stock. For those who maintain that their ancestors came in “the right way”, until the end of WWI, there was virtually no limitation on white immigration (criminals and those with infectious diseases were not admitted). There was no right way because there was no wrong way; if you were white, you got in. Read More

New Jersey has a chance to be a national leader to provide an alternative to legislative initiatives in conservative states.  In fact, after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg last year, many New Jersey legislators and Gov. Murphy supported the Reproductive Freedom Act, which would guarantee the right to abortion and expand access to essential reproductive health care services.  However, Senate President Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Coughlin have essentially blocked it for eleven months by not advancing it to committee or scheduling a vote on it. Read More

The Reproductive Freedom Act (S3030/A4848) is stuck in NJ legislature committees. In light of what’s happening in Texas, which will spread to other states, we should encourage NJ legislators to protect and expand access to birth control and pregnancy-care, including abortion in NJ. Call legislators Herb Conaway, Craig Coughlin, Stephen Sweeney, and Joseph Vitale to approve RFA now. Read More

And yet, in contrast to all the above things, wearing a mask can help prevent children from catching a disease that can kill people. Masks are non-invasive, they are cheap and they are easy. Being in the hospital is invasive, incredibly expensive and profoundly difficult. Stop catering to fool and the angry mob and do the right thing for the people of New Jersey. Read More

The Board’s reasoning rests on low “susceptibility” which implicitly is a measure of risk or probability of disease development.  But the Delta Covid variant is highly contagious. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, nationally as of August 19,, more than 4.59 million children have tested positive for COVID-19. Since the onset of the pandemic….. child cases have increased exponentially, with a four-fold increase over the past month. Read More

75% of Afghans are younger than 25, too young to remember pre-911 Afghanistan. Will these Afghans accept Taliban rule at gun point? Will they tolerate mothers, sisters, daughters being crushed under brutal sharia law? Read More

The bill is a first step in getting the counties out of the "profit by incarceration” business. The people being held in immigrant detention are not being charged with any crimes; there is no reason to keep them in jail. Read More

Also, the U.S. has to treat migrants as refugees, understanding that the only way that families stop coming to the US is that there are good conditions in their countries to stay. No one wants to leave everything behind and do one of the most dangerous trips with their children knowing that they can even lose their lives in the attempt. No one. Read More

But to make this greenway happen, the various local players have to work together—and quickly—before Norfolk Southern Corporation sells the property in pieces. As the Star-Ledger editorial argues, Gov. Murphy needs to take the lead to create a plan to buy the land and create “our own High Line” as Sen. Teresa Ruiz put it. Read More

Can we stop complaining that undocumented workers live off government programs at taxpayers’ expense? Because they don’t. Read More

Many worked to end Essex County’s contract with ICE, but now the federal government is taking the draconian step of moving those ICE detainees from the Essex County Correctional Facility to detention centers in the Deep South including Alabama, Louisiana, and Georgia. Read More

Some have labelled the Brandeis “Oppressive Language List” as the work of the “language police.” That’s, ironically, the very sort of pejorative coinage that the Brandeis students would suggest we examine. Read More

Instead of disparaging those who are fighting for immigrant justice, Mr. Moran should be screaming from the rafters at those who can influence policy. Read More

The opportunists who control both parties need to do better and come up with a path to citizenship for all. The current system—or lack of one—is deeply inhumane. Read More

Although I’m not sure this dancer was educated in New Jersey, his apparent lack of concern for basic facts led me to the New Jersey Education website to review the English Language Arts and Science Standards. I wondered if students were expected to become savvy social media readers and become scientifically literate. Read More

There are plenty of those women held in Edna Mahan that deserve to be freed and not transferred to another facility. Most incarcerated women are there for drug related crimes and non-violent crimes. More than 50% of incarcerated women are single moms and primary caregivers. Read More

The only logical adjective that fits with extraction is “forcible extraction.” Do prisoners really need to be “forcibly extracted” or “pulled from their cells” in order to perform cell checks and other routine corrections activities? Read More

Reports of abuse, violence and neglect, not only in correctional facilities but in detention centers throughout New Jersey and the US are widespread. In this most recent case “34 staff members and 10 corrections officers“ were charged in the violent beating of women inmates, clearly not a case of “one bad apple” but a thorough and systematically abusive system which dehumanizes people who are convicted of crimes, no matter how large or small. Read More

Four bills are under consideration by the NJ Legislature that would force all Counties and Municipalities in the state to adopt Forest Stewardship Plans (FSP’s) for publicly owned and managed woodlands covering 25 or more acres. FSP’s, as the draft resolution explains, are essentially a plan for mandating logging and controlled burns meant to prevent forest fires. Read More

Daycare offers no student loans, grants or scholarships. Either a family pays for daycare, or a parent stays home. A parent who stays home not only loses income, but receives less in Social Security later, because what you get depends on how much you’ve paid in. The parent who stayed home will likely never make up the lost income. We could help young families by making public school available at age three. Read More

Murphy’s commission nominees are committed to preserving the Pinelands, and not crisscrossing it with gas pipelines, as the current legacy Christie commissioners are managing to do. Let’s get the nominees approved so we can protect our natural gift. And let’s abolish the grift of “senatorial courtesy.” I see the harm it does. I don’t see the good. Read More

Rather than releasing these innocent people to await their fair hearings, other facilities and counties in other places are already rubbing their hands with glee, imagining how they too might profit on the backs of these people, eager to earn a little more blood money by receiving these new prisoners. Read More

Although family separation policy is not in effect anymore we incarcerate parents and force kids to fend for themselves or place them in foster care. We criminalize people who flee their countries. Countries they did not choose to be born in. NJ should stop profiting with the suffering of human beings. Read More

Therefore, the US first has to acknowledge this and apologize to the people of those countries. Then, it has to repair the damage, which is not easy because the democracies of those countries are weak and politicians corrupt. Read More

Traffic stops are overwhelmingly safe for police officers — they are more likely to be struck by lightning than killed during a traffic stop. So why is there so much violence by officers during traffic stops? Systemic, racist disparities make it so Black motorists are stopped more often. Black people are also more likely to be shot and killed by police. The two taken together create a substantial risk for our Black neighbors. Read More

In a report released last week, the UMW admits that many in the industry have “looked the other way” when it came to facing the inevitable fact that coal — which contributes massively to climate change — is on the way out. Read More

All those parents anticipated they would never see their children again, but their children would be alive, something not guaranteed if they’d stayed put. I don’t know that desperation. Read More

Since 2008, Essex has imprisoned immigrants for ICE; this year the contract will be worth approximately $40 million. These people are all being held in civil detention which means that they have not been charged with any crime. Read More

In general, incarcerated women were girls who suffered trauma or were institutionalized before being sent to prison. We failed them before. Let's not fail them again. Read More

Despite self-reported assets of over $6 billion as of March 2020, Horizon wants to restructure, allowing them to spin off assets into for profit entities under their existing nonprofit corporate umbrella. Horizon argues this is necessary to remain competitive, that the current structure hurts their ability to make money. Over the last 3 years though, they paid $28 million in bonuses to their CEO and other executives. If Horizon isn’t doing well, how can they afford to reward executives at this level? Read More

While some might see this merely as a bid to gain more federal funding, the decision goes beyond cost-benefit analysis. It is an expression of a bipartisan consensus that detention and deportation of immigrants promote national security. Read More

There is no justification for the implementation of cruel policies like incarcerating children and not only separating them from their parents but also losing the information to make their reunification impossible. That is criminal. Let’s embrace humanity and separate us from cruelty. Read More

Such questions reveal the motivations of the Freeholders for what they are: a desire to continue receiving blood money, filling the county coffers with millions, while innocent asylum seekers rot away. Read More

NJ Department of Correction is releasing early 2,200 people from its prisons to reduce the overcrowding and minimize the risk of contracting COVID. This is excellent news since NJ has the nation’s worst prison death rate from COVID. Read More

There are many ways for the work that many of us have done against right wing hate to continue, and this is just one example, but I hope that when the dust settles, we remember that there are people locked up in our own county who need people of conscience to volunteer to help. Read More

Since their inception these bills have been about racial justice. We now have white, connected politicians making it about them. Read More

This antiquated system ensures that voters in less populous states carry greater “weight” than those in more populous states. For instance, one analysis calculates that voters in Wyoming have three times more clout than the average citizen, while New Jersey is slightly below the average. Read More

The Commissioners should stop pretending that immigrant detention is helping the immigrants. It’s not. The county should also stop collaborating with Trump and ICE. Crossing a border in hope for a better life should not be illegal. No one is illegal on stolen land. Read More

Citizens must mobilize to ensure an overwhelming rejection of this autocratic regime in November with an incontrovertible vote: emphatic repudiation of this explicit threat to the bedrock principle of democracy. Read More

Instead this kind of blind defense in the face of incontrovertible evidence of the cruelty and misuse of lethal power on the part of some officers, only convinces us that there IS a systematic problem that MUST be covered up at all costs Read More

Economists find, time and time again, that the best way out of an economic downturn are the same policies that are always good governance: investing in communities. Read More

Also, as Angela Davis says: Prisons don’t disappear social problems they disappear human beings.” We need to stop feeding the system. Police departments and police officers have a huge responsibility, they are the “gatekeepers”. Police departments can be part of the solution on the reduction of prison population. Read More

I am writing to call on the press to stop covering Mr. Trump’s hate-filled speech because it gets you advertisers. Call out the lies. Call out the crimes. Read More

Your part in this election starts TODAY. Protect our democracy. Read More

Maybe start with not replying "All Lives Matter." Don't wave your blue lives matter flag. Instead, think about it for a minute. Imagine a world where police don't save you. Instead there’s a non-zero chance they kill you. It's uncomfortable, I see you. But it's not 9 minutes with a knee on your neck Read More

Unemployed, underemployed, and overworked New Jerseyans deserve the full support of our government, full stop. How could anyone deny the working class the basic financial support mandated by an unprecedented global health crisis, one which won’t be going away any time soon? Read More

This is yet another example of disaster capitalism using the financial crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic to privatize public lands. This opens the door for Liberty National Golf Club to nab the land from the park to build three more holes for the course. Read More

They characterize protest as inexcusable lawlessness, and forget that the largely peaceful protests, protected by the First Amendment, that have happened recently pale in comparison to the lawlessness of our Founding Fathers, who, when signing the Declaration of Independence, were reminded by Ben Franklin that they all risked being hanged as traitors, because their revolutionary protest was, in fact, breaking the law. Read More

We have federal troops in Portland with unmarked uniforms and unmarked cars. Why unmarked? Aren't they proud of their country and the job they’re doing? Read More

Instead, in commemoration of Independence Day, he stood at the foot of Mount Rushmore, the smallness of his character reinforced as he used the majestic Black Mountains for a stage to proclaim American heritage won’t be stolen—oblivious to the sad and hypocritical irony of trampled Indigenous American’s sovereignty on that sacred site. Read More

A money trail leading from Elberon to Kean University – as well as other prominent New Jersey institutions – has already been uncovered. We ask that the media stay on this story, and continue to highlight how Essex County residents, as just one example, profit directly from the imprisonment of immigrant bodies. Read More

The resolution will prove meaningless if the freeholders don’t publicly put pressure on both ICE and County Executive Joe DiVincenzo to comply with the resolution. Comply, as in release them to their families and communities, not transfer them to some other jurisdiction that complains less. And when the pandemic ends, leave them free. Read More

I am writing to commend the young people of West Orange on the clarity of their demands for the police department and the town administration. I hope that the administration follows through and commits to all of the organizers requests. Read More

There is no more time and there are no more lives to spare. Let us not try another wave of police reform that will not work. Divest from punitiveness and invest in services for the community. We know how to take care of each other. Let us start a new era. Read More

Viruses are not bound by national borders; the WHO is the existing global body with the reach and authority to track and monitor the health of people all over the world. Their scientists are working on a vaccine to keep us free of COVID-19. Read More

So why the reluctance to support a necessary and urgent humanitarian resolution, as COVID-19 continues to endanger the lives of detainees and jail inmates? Here’s one hypothesis: this is what happens to your moral compass when you fund an already-wealthy county through immigrant detention, as Essex, Hudson, and Bergen counties all do. Read More

After the pandemic, we must refuse to go back. We must commit to helping communities, supporting and funding them sooner rather than over-incarcerating residents later. We need to build community not tear it apart and incarcerate the pieces. Read More

According to ACLU NJ, New Jersey has the highest rate of prison deaths in the country, more than NY, CT, PA and MA combined. 544 prisoners, 600 correctional officers tested positive and 42 prisoners died. Read More

Last Monday Freeholder President Gill publicly stated that he will introduce a non-binding resolution to release all non-violent detainees. We are watching to see if this happens, and if it passes, or whether the Freeholders continue to abdicate their responsibilities, allowing innocent human beings to die while collecting millions from ICE to hold them against their will. Read More

Mitch doesn’t care about New Jersey. He has said, "All 100 senators may have one vote, but they’re not all equal. Kentucky benefits from having one of its own setting the agenda for the country." And New Jersey pays. Read More

We understand that Joe D cannot release anyone on his own say-so, only ICE has the authority. But there is nothing stopping him or his freeholders from publicly calling on ICE to release the detainees. Read More

It is our responsibility as residents of Essex County and New Jersey to ensure that the freeholders hear us and improve conditions at the Essex County jail for detainees. Read More

It's now too late to prevent widespread infection and death in our county jails. But these are our prisoners, your prisoners, my prisoners. We must hold our officials accountable. Read More

"For everyone held captive by ICE, the threat of an outbreak of COVID-19 has been terrifying." Read More

The county could take one further step towards public safety by temporarily freeing the 800 immigrants that it currently holds in civil detention in the Newark jail. This is civilian, not criminal detention; they are not currently being held under any criminal charges. Read More

The Reservation is a respite in one of the most densely crowded areas in the United States. Its trails, picnic grounds, ponds and fields provide a much-needed space for residents to experience and connect with a natural setting. Read More

The city of Hoboken is threatening to lay off 79 municipal employees to fix their budget deficit, citing (among other factors) the rising cost of providing these employees with health insurance, which is currently administered by a private (for-profit) third party. At Read More

With Coronavirus threatening to devastate vulnerable populations in prisons and jails (where ICE detainees are held in Newark, despite being under technically civil detention), it is a moral imperative that Joe D and the freeholders overcome their lucrative complicity in immigrant detention and publicly demand that ICE release its detainees before catastrophe strikes. Read More

There is no question that pandemic preparedness requires government-wide responses. However, in 2018, the Trump administration eliminated the government’s entire established pandemic response chain of command, including the White House management systems. Read More

Ever notice the “Vote Line A” signs for the Primary Election? Have you ever thought about what those signs really mean? Primaries are already divided by party with no competing sides vying for your vote. When you vote in the Primary on June 2nd, who would benefit from voters “voting the line” in the Primary? Read More

A supposedly progressive Board of Freeholders repeatedly follows the agenda of local politicians who are not accountable to the people who voted for them. Many residents and students have recently protested the zoo expansion, while calls to end the local ICE contracts have been ongoing for many years. Read More

Restorative practice is an excellent alternative to punitive methods, which we need to eradicate from school settings, and when it is well used, is a fantastic tool to solve conflicts and prevent them from ever happening. Read More

Thanks to Trump’s tax cuts for the richest Americans, all of us have seen the value of our homes lowered while our taxes go to carrying red states. Read More

As I enjoy these spaces, which are undoubtedly assets to our community I can’t help but think of the immigrant from Honduras who was arrested by, ICE for outstanding traffic warrants, awaiting deportation in the grimmest industrial site in Essex County. Read More

The zoo’s footprint has doubled in the past ten years to 40 acres including McLoone’s Restaurant and a mini-golf course. Read More

In our current climate crisis and with many students voicing their informed opinion that parading animals in front of a 500 person amphitheater is not the way to educate young people about conservation, residents deserve an answer: when does this stop Read More