Posted by Essex County Politics · June 09, 2020 3:32 AM
By Tracey Tully
THE NEW YORK TIMES
June 8, 2020
Maurice Gordon, 28, was studying chemistry at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
---
Maurice Gordon’s mother and sister were at home in London when the call came.
Mr. Gordon, a 28-year-old black man who had moved to the United States from Jamaica to work and attend college, had been shot and killed by a New Jersey State Police trooper during a traffic stop on May 23. There had been a struggle, his mother said she was told, and Mr. Gordon had been shot four times.
The shooting occurred two days before the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis after a white officer held a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes, setting off weeks of nationwide protests by demonstrators demanding an overhaul of policing and increased accountability.
Read more
Add your reaction
Share
Posted by Essex County Politics · June 09, 2020 3:22 AM
Posted Jun 08, 2020
A sign outside Saigon Cafe in Jersey City notes its dining room is closed but its kitchen is open for take-out.
---
In mid-March, before the coronavirus prompted the state to order eateries closed to all but delivery and takeout orders, Tim McLoone owned a dozen restaurants and had a staff of about 700 in New Jersey.
Three months later, McLoone said hes had to close two of those restaurants permanently — and possibly a third — and his workforce has winnowed to 40 or 50.
Restaurants have been hard hit by the mandated closures sparked by the pandemic. Dining rooms are still off limits to patrons, and it’ll be another week before they’re allowed to offer outdoor dining.
Read more
Add your reaction
Share
Posted by Essex County Politics · June 09, 2020 3:17 AM
JON HURDLE | JUNE 9, 2020
NJ Spotlight
Volunteers load food boxes into cars during a food distribution by the Food Bank of South Jersey in Riverside, Burlington County on June 6.
---
New Jersey food banks are expecting demand for food assistance will remain strong for months to come because of high levels of unemployment even as businesses begin to reopen from their nearly three-month COVID-19 shutdown.
The 1.2 million New Jerseyans who have filed for unemployment benefits since the pandemic shutdowns began in March won’t all restart their jobs or find new ones right away, and that’s going to keep pressure on the state’s three major food banks to make sure hundreds of food pantries are stocked with extra food for people who could otherwise go hungry.
Demand for food boxes has surged by around 50% since mass layoffs began in March, and is likely to remain high for a year or more as the state’s economy struggles to recover from the devastation of the coronavirus, food bank executives said.
Read more
Add your reaction
Share
Posted by Essex County Politics · June 08, 2020 3:34 AM
PATRICK WALL, CHALKBEAT NEWARK | JUNE 8, 2020
NJ Spotlight
Children wearing masks wait to enter a school in Strasbourg, France, May 14, 2020.
---
Face masks, temperature checks, and social distancing will be mandatory in Newark schools this fall, officials said as they begin sharing plans for reopening schools amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
In addition, students might have to eat lunch in their classrooms and forgo outdoor recess and gym, according to surveys sent to families, staffers, and students that list safety precautions the district is considering. Schools may need to combine in-person and virtual learning, and students could come to class in shifts or on separate days in order to reduce the risk of infection, according to the surveys.
The district is still weighing its options and awaiting reopening guidelines from the state. It’s also considering how to catch up students who fell behind during months of remote learning, all while anticipating state funding cuts.
Read more
Add your reaction
Share
Posted by Essex County Politics · June 08, 2020 3:31 AM
Posted Jun 07, 2020
By Sarah Ricks
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned that the doctrine of qualified immunity Court, “sends an alarming signal to law enforcement officers and the public. It tells officers that they can shoot first and think later, and it tells the public that palpably unreasonable conduct will go unpunished.” (illustration)
---
It’s time for the Supreme Court to make it easier to sue police by limiting the defense of “qualified immunity.”
When a police officer violates a person’s constitutional rights, you’d think a court necessarily would hold that police officer responsible for paying civil damages. You’d be wrong. Instead, police are protected by a legal rule called “qualified immunity.”
The idea that animates qualified immunity makes sense. It’s rooted in fairness to civil rights defendants. Briefly, police are responsible for violating a person’s constitutional rights only if the officers should have realized their conduct violated specific civil rights or constitutional law. And constitutional law is not static but evolves.
Read more
Add your reaction
Share
Posted by Essex County Politics · June 08, 2020 3:23 AM
JOHN REITMEYER | JUNE 8, 2020
NJ Spotlight
Testifying before the Assembly Budget Committee in 2019, Sheila Reynertson of New Jersey Policy Perspective urged lawmakers to build up budget reserves, even if it meant also raising taxes.
---
New Jersey is slashing funding for property-tax relief, getting ready to defer public-worker pension-system payments and holding aid for K-12 school districts flat, all in response to steep revenue losses caused by the ongoing pandemic.
The state is also the only one in the nation to extend its fiscal year because of the health crisis, and lawmakers are now considering a virtually unprecedented emergency borrowing proposal by the governor that could stick taxpayers with debt and interest payments stretching out over 30 years.
All these measures are being taken, at least in part, because New Jersey didn’t have enough money socked away in budget reserves to help absorb the revenue losses occurring in an economic downturn set off by the response to the pandemic. New Jersey went into what could be a still-unfolding recession with only a fraction of its total annual spending in reserve, despite being urged repeatedly by fiscal-policy experts — and even the state’s own treasurer — to change course.
Read more
Add your reaction
Share
Posted by Essex County Politics · June 06, 2020 3:42 AM
Posted Jun 05, 2020
Friday, June 5, 2020 - Bloomfield Public Safety Director Sam DeMaio, left, greets rally organizer Matthew Arnold after Arnold called him to speak to the crowd. in front of the Bloomfield Police Department.
---
Rain Friday evening didn’t stop several hundred people from gathering in Bloomfield at a peaceful demonstration that saw Black Lives Matter activists and police officers side-by-side to protest the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The planned march was held in conjunction with local police and began at Bloomfield High School before ending at the Bloomfield Police Department. Officers watched as speakers captivated the peaceful audience, including a Black township resident named Miles who told a story about a time he was pulled over on Bloomfield Avenue. He and his white friend, he said, were treated differently by police.
“That’s when I finally realized that racism is real in America and in Bloomfield,” he said.
Read more
Add your reaction
Share
Posted by Essex County Politics · June 06, 2020 3:38 AM
COLLEEN O'DEA | JUNE 5, 2020
NJ Spotlight
Fabiana Pierre-Louis
---
If ultimately confirmed to the New Jersey Supreme Court, Fabiana Pierre-Louis would become the first black woman to serve on the state’s highest court, the third black justice in its history and its first black justice in a decade. She clerked for the last black justice, John Wallace Jr., who was denied tenure by former Gov. Chris Christie in May 2010, setting off a firestorm in legal circles.
Her confirmation would bring to three the number of women on the seven-member court. Given her age, 39, Pierre-Louis could potentially serve for more than three decades on a court that has been known nationally for groundbreaking decisions in the areas of school funding and housing discrimination and been criticized as “activist” by conservatives.
Read more
Add your reaction
Share
