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New Jersey

Chris Hedges: The Call

October 21, 2021 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. , , ,
On September 5, 2013, I pulled my old Volvo wagon—a bumper sticker reading “This is the Rebel Base” stuck on the back by my wife, a Star Wars fan—into the parking lot at East Jersey State Prison in Rahway, New Jersey. I had taught college-level courses in New Jersey prisons for the past three years. But neither my new students nor I had any idea that night that we were embarking on a journey that would shatter their protective emotional walls, or that years later our lives would be deeply intertwined. I put my wallet and phone in the glove compartment, emptied my pockets of coins, and dumped them in the console between the front seats. I made sure I had my driver’s license. I gathered up my books, plays by August Wilson, James Baldwin, John Herbert, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Miguel Piñero, Amiri Baraka, and a copy of Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

ILA President Warns Members Will Not Work Ships Without Crews Aboard

October 2, 2021 International Longshoremen's Association. , , ,
North Bergen, NJ - Harold J. Daggett, President, International Longshoremen’s Association has a message to any shipping companies planning to utilize autonomous container cargo ships without crew: Don’t sail them into ILA ports from Maine To Texas, Puerto Rico, and Eastern Canada – they won’t be unloaded or loaded by ILA Members! Media reports in recent week have featured stories from Norway and Japan about companies and shipping lines developing and testing container vessels that will sail with no crew aboard – fully self-piloted,” relying on satellite guidance, onboard sensors, and artificial intelligence making decisions based on these inputs,” according to a Facebook posting by Seably, a European maritime on-line training company.

Years Of Local Opposition Defeats PennEast Pipeline

September 29, 2021 Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams. , , ,
Environmental and public health advocates on Monday celebrated the demise of a proposed fracked gas pipeline across Pennsylvania and New Jersey after PennEast decided to cease development because of difficulties acquiring certain state permits. "This is a huge victory. Today, water, the environment, and people spoke louder than fossil fuels," said Jim Waltman, executive director of the New Jersey-based Watershed Institute, in a statement. "We congratulate and thank the many local, state, and federal officials of both parties and thousands of residents for their determined opposition to this unnecessary and destructive proposal." Joseph Otis Minott, Clean Air Council executive director and chief counsel, said that "PennEast's cancellation of this unneeded, dangerous fracked gas pipeline is a momentous win for the communities that have fought hard for years to defend their property and the environment."

Segregation And The Case For School Funding Reparations

September 15, 2021 Insider NJ. , , ,
The U.S. public school system is one of the most unequal in the industrialized world, and New Jersey is no exception, according to a new report by New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP). Due to racist housing practices such as “redlining” and “blockbusting,” many Black and Hispanic/Latinx students do not receive the resources they need to ensure equal educational opportunity in the Garden State. “We have long seen school funding and student outcome disparities that fall disparately by race, disadvantaging Black and Latinx communities in particular,” said Bruce Baker, Ed.D., report co-author and Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University.

‘Block The Boat’ Hits New Jersey

August 1, 2021 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. , , , ,
Last weekend activists activists held an action at a port in Elizabeth, New Jersey, attempting to block an Israeli-operated cargo ship from unloading. The Haifa-based shipping company ZIM has been targeted by the BDS movement over its connection to Israeli apartheid and last month Bay Area protestors successfully stopped ZIM from offloading in Oakland.

Immigrant Leaders Shut Down ICE ‘Black Site’

July 20, 2021 Movimiento Cosecha. , , ,
Newark, NJ — Immigrant leaders and immigration justice organizers chained themselves together and blockaded the entrance of the Newark SAC office in response to escalating abuses by ICE. Protesters are calling this unidentified office located in a desolate industrial neighborhood in Newark, NJ an “ICE black site”; and are demanding #ReleasesNotTransfers as detainees continue to be transferred out of New Jersey jails to detention centers across the country and away from their families. Advocates say this Homeland Security Investigations office is where unmarked vans bring detainees and ICE processes all deportations and transfers in the state, a “transfer roulette” brought to a halt by the blockade today.

New Jersey Activists Halted Two Deportations

June 13, 2021 Sam Carliner, Left Voice. , , ,
The Bergen County Jail in Hackensack, New Jersey has been the site of recurring actions in solidarity with detained immigrants. On Tuesday, June 8, one such action ended with cops arresting 14 protesters who were trying to peacefully stop a deportation. The 14 people arrested had camped out at the Bergen County Jail the previous night to try and stop the deportation of Marvin Jerezano Peña, a father from Red Bank, New Jersey who migrated from Mexico to the United States as a child. He had been arrested by ICE and was being held for marijuana possession, something now fully legal in the state. Nevertheless, ICE planned to deport Peña. Protesters at the jail Tuesday bravely blocked an ICE van that afternoon in an attempt to stop the deportation.

Activists Push To Invest In Community, Not Police

May 24, 2021 George Ygarza, Truthout. , , ,
Just past midnight on December 14, 2020, Osamah Alsaidi walked near a police cruiser on a dark city street of Paterson, New Jersey’s third-largest city just outside New York City. Shortly thereafter, that very same police car cut off Alsaidi’s path and out jumped officers Kevin Patino and Kendry Tineo-Restituyo. They immediately accosted the 19-year-old, striking him numerous times and dropping him to the ground where they continued their assault. The police report they filed described Alsaidi as “acting belligerent” and “screaming profanities.” That report would remain the only evidence of the incident until surveillance footage surfaced from a store just across from where the beating took place. That footage, vindicating Alsaidi’s claims, would ultimately go viral at the beginning of 2021.

NJ Transit Backs Off Plan To Build Gas-Fired Power Plant

October 26, 2020 AP News. , , ,
Newark, NJ - New Jersey Transit has backed off a plan to build a gas-fired power plant in northern New Jersey that drew opposition from environmental groups and surrounding towns. The agency announced at its board meeting Wednesday night that it will repurpose the project to focus on renewable energy sources. NJ Transit’s board approved the hiring of a renewable energy consultant and up to $3 million in stipends to project bidders. NJ Transit President and CEO Kevin Corbett called the project “a critical resiliency project that ensures we can maintain limited, but vital, rail service for our customers in the event of local and regional power interruptions.”

Protest At Rutgers Against Austerity Response To Pandemic

June 23, 2020 By Sarah Jaffe, Dissent Magazine. , , ,
Two months into the pandemic-induced crisis at Rutgers University in New Jersey, the unions representing 20,000 of the university’s workers came together and held a car caravan to the university president’s house to protest layoffs. Protest signs reading #WeRNotDisposable and calling on the university to “protect the most vulnerable” decorated car windows; inside the cars, union members and their supporters wore red and their face masks. The coalition of unions includes AAUP-AFT, the Part-Time Lecturer Faculty Chapter of Rutgers AAUP-AFT, AFSCME Local 888, and the Union of Rutgers Administrators-AFT; together, the unions have proposed a work-sharing program where some workers would accept furloughs, allowing them to replace their income with CARES-Act mandated expanded unemployment benefits, in order to prevent layoffs. But so far, the workers say, the university hasn’t listened.

Wrong On Weed – Blacks And Marijuana Myths

May 7, 2020 Linn Washington, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
When New Jersey State Senator Ronald Rice roadblocked legislation to legalize adult use of marijuana in the ‘Garden State’ last year he cited a litany of long debunked theories and specious assertions like legalization will inundate minority communities with “marijuana bodegas.” The stance of Rice, an African American, helped stall efforts by New Jersey’s Governor and civil rights organizations to end racial inequities related to marijuana laws, like pot possession arrest rates for blacks being much higher than arrests for whites despite similar usage rates among the races. Ending documented racism in enforcement of marijuana laws is a key impetus for efforts nationwide to end the prohibition on pot. That prohibition is rooted in federal legislation initially approved in 1937.

Could New Jersey Solve The Local News Crisis?

April 30, 2020 Joshua Benton, NiemanLab.org. , , ,
Americans, generally speaking at least, think it is right and good that they and their neighbors have access to books. And magazines and newspapers. And internet access when you need it. And places to sit and read. And a trusted source you can call when you have a question you can’t figure out the answer to. These things cost money, and it’s unlikely the magic of the marketplace will find a way to make all of them universally accessible. So people in nearly every community nationwide have funded and supported these things called libraries. In many places, those libraries are funded by a special dedicated tax or fee, which goes to buy those books, pay for that internet access, keep the lights on, and so on.

Controversial Pinelands Coal Plant To Shut Down Not Convert

March 2, 2019 Staff, Insidernj.com , ,
Long Branch, NJ — Clean Water Action sang the praises of today’s overnight news that the owner of the BL England (aka Beasley Point) power plant in Ocean City has decided to retire it instead of continuing with a controversial plan to try and convert if from dirty coal to equally problematic frack gas power. The decision is perhaps the last nail in the coffin for South Jersey Gas’ even more controversial proposed pipeline through the core forest of New Jersey’s Pinelands as the plant was the pipeline’s justification to exist and get approval from the Pinelands Commission.

Another Critical Watchdog Report: Rotten Food, Decaying Mattresses At New Jersey ICE Contract Lockup

February 19, 2019 Madeline Buiano, Publicintegrity.org , , , ,
Prior Inspector General reports have found medical neglect and other violations at other immigrant detention centers A Newark, New Jersey immigrant detention center has been feeding detainees moldy, spoiled and foul-smelling food — an abuse that’s led detainees to file scores of grievances and to report symptoms of food poisoning, according to a report released Friday by the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General.

Immigrants Launch Hunger Strike To Demand Drivers Licenses In NJ

November 28, 2018 Staff, LaHuelga.com , , ,
Trenton, NJ - Immigrant families, activists and allies launched an indefinite hunger strike, billed as the “Fast for Licenses” at the statehouse on Monday, calling on state legislators to pass pending legislation that would allow half a million undocumented immigrants in the state of New Jersey (NJ) to drive without fear of being ticketed, arrested or transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 12 immigrant leaders are participating in the hunger strike, and more are expected to join as momentum grows. The Governor of NJ and Democrats in the State Legislature have promised to pass legislation by the end of the year, and immigrant communities are calling for the bill sponsors to make good on their promises to the immigrant community.
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