A gleaming new public high school envisioned for training Newark students in the construction trades is being built with non-union laborers who are being underpaid for their work, according to complaints filed by workers and union officials.
Last year, Newark Public Schools entered into a $160 million lease with a real estate developer to build the future Newark High School of Architecture & Design at the site of the former St. James Hospital in Newark’s Ironbound. The school will offer classes in construction technology, architecture and traditional trades such as plumbing, electrical and HVAC.
“It’s an unheard-of initiative,” Newark Public Schools Superintendent Roger León said when first announcing the lease plan last year.
But according to complaints filed with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development and interviews with union officials, the workers are not getting paid prevailing wage, which the union argues is required under New Jersey law.
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By David Wildstein, August 15 2022
Newark Bay Bridge that connects the New Jersey Turnpike's main line with Hudson County and the Holland Tunnel.
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Opposition to a $4.7 billion proposal to widen the eight-mile section of New Jersey Turnpike between Exits 14A and 14C will likely force Gov. Phil Murphy into choosing between local officials and progressive activists in Jersey City and Hoboken and blue-collar construction unions.
Hoboken passed a resolution opposing the Turnpike expansion this week, and Jersey City is expected to follow this week in a bid to stop a project they say will lead to massive congestion in their communities.
The New Jersey Turnpike Authority wants to widen the span that connects Jersey City to the Holland Tunnel.
Murphy has veto authority over NJTA actions and he’ll ultimately make a final decision.
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The hit-and-run violations against Jersey City Councilwoman Amy DeGise will be heard in Essex County Superior Court, court officials in Newark said Friday.
The case against the 36-year-old DeGise, who struck a cyclist in Jersey City July 19 and fled the crash scene, was moved from Jersey City Municipal Court because of DeGise’s position as at-large councilmember. Another factor in moving the case out of Hudson County is that DeGise’s father is Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise.
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Paying a phone or electricity bill might not seem like a task for a child. But for Laura Bustamante, the policy and campaign manager for the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, that was her reality growing up because her parents didn’t speak English very well.
“I would have to sometimes miss out on sports or extracurricular activities, and sometimes even school, so I was able to show up and translate for my parents, whether … they were doing something at the DMV (or) they were doing something for my brother,” said Bustamante.
“And that has this pressure to essentially be the adult in the family,” she added.
Bustamante is not alone. About 155 languages are spoken in the state. Over a third of New Jerseyans over 5 years old speak a language other than English at home. About 12% of residents, or over 1 million people, say they don’t speak English very well, according to the U.S. Census American Community Survey.
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, BUDGET/FINANCE WRITER | AUGUST 9, 2022
A bill granting many temporary workers in New Jersey with what labor advocates are calling much-needed protections has finally been sent to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk more than a month after a legislative mix-up delayed its final adoption.
The measure, dubbed the “Temporary Workers’ Bill of Rights,” cleared the Senate on Monday during a rare August voting session.
Among its key provisions, the legislation would require temp agencies in New Jersey to keep written records that spell out key terms of employment like hours worked and the rate of pay to be earned by each worker.
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Addressing a gathering at Gateway U’s new student center in the Teacher’s Village mixed-use development in Newark, Deja Johnson said she was a senior at Seton Hall University in the Fall of 2017 when her father died, triggering financial and other hardships that kept her from finishing her undergraduate degree in social work.
“Even though I was one semester from graduating, I could not get my degree,” said Johnson, now 26, who then had to put aside plans that included a master’s degree and founding her own childcare center.
But Johnson, a Newark native now living in Queens, New York, is back on track to earn her bachelor’s degree, this time through Gateway U, a higher-education hybrid learning institution launched last year to provide students from Newark and the surrounding area with undergraduate educations and diplomas. Gateway U also helps make sure they can pay for and complete their degrees and then go on to make the most of them in the workforce.
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More than 1 million New Jersey drivers will likely pay more to insure their vehicles after Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday signed a controversial bill into law.
The measure will hike the minimum amount of liability insurance in the Garden State from its current $15,000 coverage to $25,000 beginning in 2023, and a minimum of $35,000 starting in 2026. Industry officials said about 1.1 million drivers will pay roughly $125 more each year.
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Published: Aug. 04, 2022
The Supreme Court is out of step with the American ethos. Its conservative majority has stripped the constitutional right to abortion, expanded gun rights in a country with 400 million firearms, shredded environmental protections, unleashed the power of money for special interests, facilitated partisan gerrymandering, eviscerated voting rights, kneecapped public sector unions, and denied health care coverage to millions of poor people.
And this rightward drift has occurred under a cloud of illegitimacy -- manipulated by a Senate Republican leader who flouted the rules and weaponized by a Republican president elected without a popular majority, with its members hand-picked by the Federalist Society, which is funded by dark-money billionaires who often have business before the court.
So we welcome a bill proposed by Sens. Cory Booker and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) called the Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization (TERM) Act, which seeks to restore balance and legitimacy to the highest court by imposing term limits and authorizing the president to nominate one new justice every two years.
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Hobby's Delicatessen, a beloved city landmark, reopened in downtown Newark after a more than two-year absence.
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NEWARK, NJ — In a moment that for many is both a miracle and a mitzvah, Hobby's Delicatessen reopened in downtown Newark, fixing a hole in some hungry hearts and stomachs.
"It took a love of the business and a love of family to make it back," said Marc Brummer, sitting next to his brother and co-owner Michael amidst the happy cacophony of a busy deli back to work after more than two years of a COVID created shutdown. "Our customers never stopped reaching out to us. This is very emotional."
Hobby's has faced challenges since the Brummer family took over the restaurant in 1962. They survived the conflagration in the streets during Newark's 1967 civil disturbances. They got through two fires inside their four walls, the second occurring just three years ago. But when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the doors shut in March 2020, a commitment was made.
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By Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
A restored wooden bench in Newark Penn Station's waiting room is a taste of things to come in a multi-million dollar rehabilitation of the station.
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NJ Transit riders who use Newark Penn Station can soon tell agency officials their ideas and ask questions about a $191 million planned restoration and rehabilitation of the historic train station.
The first of three public meetings will be held online from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 9. Registration can also be completed online. Once registered, participants will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
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