Category Archives: News you should know

Garden State residents believe Gov. Phil Murphy is more concerned about his own political future (45%) than he is with governing the state (45%), according to a Monmouth University Poll that also showed only three out of ten people in the state think the Democratic governor is presidential material. A majority— 56% — said MurphyContinue reading “New Jersey nixes a Phil Murphy presidential campaign”

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act was signed into law by former President Barack Obama on April 4, 2012. Ten years later, anyone who takes the time to take stock of the STOCK Act will see that it is a terrible failure. The STOCK Act had three principal objectives: increase public trust inContinue reading “Effort to stop Congressional stock trading has been a big failure”

Brian Varela praised President Biden’s decision to use the Defense Production Act to boost American production of critical minerals that are key to building up our clean energy supply chains and the release of one million barrels per day for six months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which will moderate unreasonably inflated gasoline prices. Varela,Continue reading “Congressional candidate Brian Varela praises President Biden’s leadership”

For the better part of a decade, former state Senator Raymond Lesniak’s closest political associates were Elizabeth Democratic Party chairman Tony Texeira and confessed killer Sean Caddle, whose guilty plea stunned observers while news about the aide’s cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors has set many powerful people on edge. Now, Caddle is sitting at homeContinue reading “Lesniak says Caddle is an opiate addict: Blame drugs, not political corruption”

Two long-time civil servants and community activists have announced their candidacy in the June 7 primary election for two Roselle Borough Council seats, one at-large and another that will represent the Fourth Ward. Brandis A. Puryear, a detective sergeant in the Irvington Police Department with 17 years of law enforcement experience, has filed petitions toContinue reading “Brandis Puryear, Travis Amaker seek Roselle Borough Council seats”

Bald eagle mass death events from vacuolar myelinopathy (VM) in the southeastern United States may be one downstream effect of human activity, and Susan B. Wilde was awarded the 2022 AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize for hunting the eagle killer and identifying the cyanobacterial neurotoxin that causes it. The American Association for the Advancement of Science,Continue reading “‘Eagle killer’ research wins international award”

Joined by local elected leaders and activists, Sen. Robert Menendez made a big show in support of Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first African American woman nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, but there is a question about whether the lawmaker will support Rahway’s challenger Casey Probus against the nearly-Republican Mayor Ray Giacobbe. Probus is runningContinue reading “Will Senator Menendez support African American women in Rahway?”

by Adam Rappaport Ginni Thomas finds herself in the news a lot these days. Controversies surrounding the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas range from her husband’s conflicts of interest to texts she sent pushing former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to overturn the 2020 presidential election to her roles in organizationsContinue reading “Ginni Thomas should be on the board managing Library of Congress funds”

A Union County, New Jersey, man today admitted robbing a bank in Rutherford, New Jersey. Seneca Wilson, 43, of Clark, New Jersey, pleaded guilty by videoconference before U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi to an indictment charging him with one count of bank robbery. According to U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger, documents filed in thisContinue reading “Clark man admits robbing bank”

The clapboard house sits off a gravel road on the outskirts of town, partly hidden behind a fence and a heaping pile of trash. Here, amid grassland that stretches for miles, 77-year-old Cyndy Jackson is the official gatekeeper for more than 350 companies that operate in the United States and around the world. The stateContinue reading “Gatekeepers for nearly invisible companies”

The Senate put Ketanji Brown Jackson on a clear track to be confirmed later this week as the Supreme Court’s 116th justice — and its first Black woman — after three Republicans joined Democrats to advance her nomination in a Monday vote. The full Senate could vote on her confirmation before the Easter recess, whichContinue reading “Ketanji Brown Jackson is now poised to win US Senate Supreme Court approval”

Here’s to Chris Smalls and his best friend, Derrick Palmer. As co-founders of the first Amazon labor union, the two 33-year-old Black men have given a much-needed boost to the labor movement in this country. And, on the 54th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., they have breathed new lifeContinue reading ““Dangerous unselfishness” forms first Amazon labor union in Staten Island”

George Bratsenis, 73, last residing in Bridgeport, Connecticut, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer in New Haven to 96 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for committing armed bank robberies. According to Leonard C Boyle, the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, court documents andContinue reading “Caddle’s hitman sentenced to 8 years for armed bank robberies”

by Sophie Nieto-Munoz, New Jersey Monitor On December 10, Josè Martinez sat with an organizer at the American Friends Service Committee to apply to the state’s Excluded New Jerseyans Fund. It’s been nearly four months, and Martinez still hasn’t received his money, he said. He was notified in mid-March the state had accepted his andContinue reading “Thousands still waiting for money from immigrant workers fund”

President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address urged that Congress take immediate action to address the prohibitive cost of insulin for people living with diabetes, but lawmakers have been slow to respond to the urgency of this problem. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) applauded his call said Congress should take swift actionContinue reading “Biden says cost of insulin must be lowered for people with diabetes”

by Dana DiFilippo, New Jersey Monitor A New Jersey appellate court on Monday reinstated the dismissed indictment of former Assemblyman Jason O’Donnell, who state investigators say took a $10,000 cash bribe from an attorney during his unsuccessful 2018 bid for Bayonne mayor. Superior Court Judge Clarkson Fisher, writing for a three-judge panel, rejected O’Donnell’s argumentContinue reading “Appeals court reinstates bribery indictment of ex-assemblyman”

A three-alarm fire killed 20-year-old twins who were trapped in a house in Trenton, where firefighters were injured. The Trenton Fire Department responded to a three-alarm fire at 834 Carteret Avenue at about 6:45 pm on Saturday night. The fire resulted in two fatalities, 20-year-old male twin brothers. While two residents managed to evacuate theContinue reading “20-year-old twins die in Trenton fire”

Award-winning Roselle Park photographer and videographer Mario Cornejo will join Patrick Busch, an IT specialist from Summit, and Janet Vera Reynolds of Westfield, as Democrats for Change team candidates for Union County Commissioners. Reynolds was a member of the original 2010 Democrats for Change team, which launched Linden Mayor Derek Armstead into the office heContinue reading “Democrats for Change team files Union County candidates for June 7 primary”

Two days after the 2020 election, Virginia Thomas, the wife of US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, texted an old friend, Mark Meadows, then chief of staff to President Donald Trump, in which she suggested that election officials should be arrested. She sent messages that had been making the rounds on pro-Trump sites, where angerContinue reading “The wife of a US Supreme Court justice appears to have supported coup d’etat”

By Dan Carroll In the United States, transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. It will require investments and innovations across many domains to achieve the White House’s goals in emissions reductions, including micromobility platforms like fleets of e-bikes or e-scooters. Carnegie Mellon University’s Corey Harper, an assistant professor in the Department of CivilContinue reading “Study finds that micromobility could replace one out of five short car trips”