January 9, 2018

TAPintoNEWARK

Central Ward Councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins takes out petitions to run for mayor today, launching her bid to unseat Mayor Ras Baraka.

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Newark Central Ward Councilman Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins began her campaign today to become the first female mayor of New Jersey's largest city, attacking the record and character of Mayor Ras Baraka. Chaneyfield Jenkins also framed her run within the struggle of women in Newark and across America to assert themselves as part the growing movement against sexual assault and harassment. 

"I've never seen myself as just a Central Ward councilwoman. Every vote I cast impacts every ward of the city. I'll putting it all out there on the table. It's about the city, and we can do better," said Chaneyfield Jenkins, 58, after she picked up the petitions at the city clerk's office needed to be filled out to enter the May 2018 municipal election as a mayoral candidate."You have to be willing to challenge the system, especially when you know it's broken." 

Baraka had previously announced his re-election on the steps of City Hall in June, surrounded by the eight other council members as well as a contingent of political supporters, including Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo and Phil Murphy, who will be sworn in as governor next week.

By NICK CORASANITI

THE NEW YORK TIMES

JAN. 9, 2018

After eight years as governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie delivered his final State of the State address on Tuesday.

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TRENTON — In a speech that was boastful and reminiscent, Gov. Chris Christie delivered his final State of the State address on Tuesday, capping a tumultuous eight-year tenure as the Republican governor of New Jersey marked by soaring highs, brought by reforms and a tough-talking style, and historic lows, from scandal and a failed presidential bid.

In a nearly 90-minute address, the governor, who has the lowest approval rating in New Jersey’s history, spun a rosy tale of a state he rescued from financial travails, citing a tally of accomplishments seemingly at odds with his constituents’ current view of him.

“Today, I want us to take a breath,” Mr. Christie said as he began, still basking from the nearly four-minute standing ovation he received as he entered the floor of the State House. “We need to remember where we were nine years ago: on the brink of financial ruin as a state.”

By JONAH ENGEL BROMWICH and BENJAMIN MUELLER

THE NEW YORK TIMES

JAN. 8, 2018

“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” by Michelle Alexander galvanized prison reform activists.

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New Jersey said it had lifted the ban on a best-selling book about mass incarceration after the American Civil Liberties Union called for an immediate end to what it said was an “ironic, misguided, and harmful” instance of censorship.

The state’s decision to reverse a prohibition on “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” by Michelle Alexander, at the two prisons came hours after the A.C.L.U. of New Jersey on Monday sent a letter to the state’s corrections commissioner, Gary M. Lanigan.

The letter argued that the book’s presence on a list of banned texts at New Jersey State Prison and Southern State Correctional Facility violated the First Amendment and the department’s own regulations.

January 8, 2018

TAPintoNEWARK

Essex County College is reporting a favorable annual financial audit and says the report is a step in the right direction to remove itself from probation instituted by the Middle States Commission.

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Newark, NJ – Essex County College is reporting a clean bill of health on its annual financial audit.

The audit, completed last month by certified public accounting and auditing firm PKF O’Connor Davies, found no material weaknesses in the college’s internal controls and found ECC to be in compliance with all federal and state sponsored programs. In addition, the college says that all material weaknesses found in the 2016 audit have been corrected.

Although the audit does not affect accreditation, the college hopes that the clean audit finding will contribute to demonstrating compliance with accreditation, according to a college spokesperson.

By Alyana Alfaro • 01/05/18

Observer

Will New Jersey become Amazon’s latest hub?

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A bill that could provide billions of dollars of state tax credits to Amazon if the company decides to locate its second headquarters in New Jersey cleared two legislative committees on Friday, paving the way for a vote in both houses of the Legislature next week.

According to estimates from the New Jersey Senate, Amazon’s second headquarters could bring between 30,000 and 50,000 jobs to the state and generate $10 billion in direct and indirect economic activity. In order to woo the corporate giant, New Jersey’s bill (S3631/A5340) would make Amazon eligible for $10,000 in tax breaks annually for each full-time job created by putting the headquarters in New Jersey.

“This is an opportunity to create good paying jobs and to generate long term economic growth for New Jersey,” said Senator Ray Lesniak (D-Union), one of the Senate co-sponsors of the legislation. “We should go for it. We possess the assets that will allow Amazon to thrive with a skilled workforce, a quality transportation infrastructure, the best research universities in the country and, a strategic location. By presenting Amazon with a specific plan showcasing our strengths and offering tangible incentives, we put New Jersey in a very strong competitive position.”

By JONAH ENGEL BROMWICH

THE NEW YORK TIMES

JAN. 5, 2018

Legislators in New Jersey have proposed allowing self-service at gas stations, but the public backlash was ferocious.

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At 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, New Jersey became the last state in the nation where drivers are not allowed to pump their own gasoline around the clock.

That is when Oregon, the only other holdover from the full-service era of the 1970s, loosened its restrictions. Its new law allows residents of most counties with fewer than 40,000 people to fuel up their cars themselves.

That leaves Jersey, only Jersey, with its dense tangle of highways and byways, its turnpike rest stops named for state luminaries and its status as the home of the first drive-in theater, as the sole state where it is illegal everywhere to fill your own tank 24 hours a day.

Donald Trump and Phil Murphy may be political opposites, but they have a couple things in common.

Both made a fortune in New York before going into politics. And both face a big problem when it comes to infrastructure: They want to do lots of things but they have little money.

In Trump's case, his vaunted plan to spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure has run aground on the reef of reality. That's because it relied on the idea of the public-private partnership.

By DAVID STOUT

THE NEW YORK TIMES

JAN. 4, 2018

Gov. Brendan Byrne looking over a copy of the state budget during a news conference in February 1977.

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Brendan T. Byrne, the former New Jersey governor who helped lure professional teams to a new sports colossus in the Meadowlands and won passage of the state’s first income tax, a feat that prompted some pundits and pollsters to write his political obituary prematurely, died on Thursday. He was 93.

His death was announced by Gov. Chris Christie, who did not say where Mr. Byrne died or provide any other details.

A Democrat, Mr. Byrne could be a controversial governor and in many ways a contradictory man. Sometimes he spoke in a distracted monotone; other times he displayed an easy, self-deprecating wit.