New Jersey (NJ)

Segregation And The Case For School Funding Reparations

September 15, 2021 Insider NJ. Educate! Education, New Jersey (NJ), Racism, Reparations

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. Resist! Block the Boat, Israel, New Jersey (NJ), Palestine, Protests

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. Resist! Blockade, ICE, Immigration, New Jersey (NJ)

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. Resist! Deportations, ICE, Immigration, New Jersey (NJ)

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. Create! New Jersey (NJ), Police, Police Abolition, Systemic Racism

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. Resist! Clean Energy, Fracked Gas, New Jersey (NJ), Public transportation

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. Resist! Austerity, COVID-19, New Jersey (NJ), Workers Rights and Jobs

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. Educate! Black America, Marijuana Legalization, New Jersey (NJ), Reefer Madness

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. Create! Local Media, New Economy, New Jersey (NJ), Public Funding

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 Resist! Fossil Fuels, New Jersey (NJ), Pipelines

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 Educate! Abuse, Detention Centers, ICE, Immigration, New Jersey (NJ)

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 Resist! Hunger Strikes, Immigration, New Jersey (NJ), Undocumented

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.

Teachers In Jersey City Begin Strike As Demands For Walkouts Expand Across The US

March 19, 2018 Staff, Wsws.org Resist! Labor, New Jersey (NJ), Strikes, Teachers

Approximately 4,000 public school workers in Jersey City, the second largest school district in the US state of New Jersey, walked off the job on Friday afternoon. It is the first strike at the city’s school system since 1998. In addition to teachers, school staff such as nurses, paraprofessionals, guidance counselors, administrative assistants and others joined the picket line. The strike is part of a growing wave of working-class opposition in the US and internationally, following the shutdown of the West Virginia teachers strike earlier this month. The teachers’ unions ended the West Virginia strike based on a rotten agreement that fails to address rising health care costs and pays for inadequate pay increases through cuts in social programs. However, the struggle in West Virginia, which temporarily broke out of the straightjacket of the unions, has inspired teachers throughout the country.

The Jersey Shore Would Rather Fight Flooding With Walls Than Retreat

May 6, 2017 Christopher Flavelle, www.bloomberg.com Educate! Floods, New Jersey (NJ)

By Christopher Flavelle for Bloomberg - In coastal New Jersey, the debate about whether the climate is changing has been superseded by a more urgent question: What to do about it? While local officials such as Spodofora want to build walls against rising seas and fiercer storms, environmentalists say that delays the inevitable. The best policy, they say, is to encourage people to move inland and let the most vulnerable areas disappear into the water. They may have found allies in the Federal Emergency Management Agency. After spending more than $278 billion on disaster relief over the past decade, the agency has begun to consider a change in tactics. In March, Bob Fenton, FEMA’s acting administrator, told a meeting of state emergency directors that governments need to find ways to reduce risk. “We need to move out of threatened areas,” he said. New Jersey shows just how hard that will be. Sea levels along the Jersey coast are projected to rise as much as a foot by 2030 and close to 2 feet by 2050, according to a 2016 report by Rutgers University. By 2100, if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, more than three-quarters of the property, by value, in some towns will be underwater.

4 Nonprofit Hospitals Pocketed $1.7 Billion In Profits In 4 Years

December 23, 2016 Lynn Petrovich, www.endtheillusion.com Educate! Hospitals, New Jersey (NJ), Non-Profits, Profit

By Lynn Petrovich for End The Illusion - Cumulative surplus for these four nonprofit entities totaled over $2.2 Billion, cash in the bank and/or Wall Street investments/brokerage firms. In addition to the above, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (EID #22-6029397), whose mission includes “promoting the health and health care of New Jerseyans and to support research, evaluation, learning and communication efforts that can improve the nation’s health” reported almost $10 Billion in surplus funds as of 12/31/14. In 2012, Barnabas Health, NJ’s largest nonprofit conglomerate, paid its outgoing CEO, Ronald Del Mauro (he was mentioned in my May 2011 request to Monmouth Medical Center), a precedent setting severance package of $21.6 million.

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