John Van Vliet

HAWTHORNE, NJ - The Hawthorne Fire Department obtained $20,000 from the New Jersey American Rescue Plan Firefighter Grant. Hawthorne joins 353 other fire departments around New Jersey in obtaining...

New Jersey politics has seen one of the greatest upsets of the electoral institutions within living memory. The March 29 ruling by US District Judge Zahid Quraishi signaled the end of the “Party Line” system, unique to New Jersey, where county organizations levied undue influence and ballot-placement advantage to their endorsed candidates in primary elections.

Monday evening's ACLU of NJ Vote Your Values: 2024 NJ Democratic Senate Primary Debate held at the South Orange Performing Arts Center was moderated by Michael Hill of WNYC. The candidates, since the departure of First Lady Tammy Murphy from the Democratic primary, were Congressman Andy Kim, Dr. Patricia Campos-Medina, and Lawrence Hamm.

Many municipalities have their own Environmental Commission that acts as the public face of their town or city's environmental education and action wing, whether increasing awareness about local wildlife, PFAS in water, planting native trees and flowers, polystyrene collection, proper disposal of household chemicals, and more. The American environmental movement itself is about sixty years old, with Earth Day having celebrated its 54th year in 2024. But what many readers may not be aware of is that Fair Lawn's Robert M. Gordon, who has shifted from a long career in the public sector to private, had a role in championing the environmentalist movement at its infancy.

“Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Passaic County, where we lay our scene, from ancient grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.”

“In this country,” Voltaire wrote in the late 1750s referring to Great Britain, “it is good to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.” Voltaire was writing in reference to British Admiral John Byng, who was, by all accounts, unfairly executed in 1757 on the deck of his ship. His crime, the Admiralty judged, was his failure to capture the Spanish island of Minorca during the Seven Years War the year prior. In Byng's judgment, after assessing the situation, he deemed the mission was impossible and he abandoned the operation rather than risk certain destruction of British ships and lives. Called a coward, one who shirked his duty, the court martial had his own marines gunned him down.

At each level of New Jersey’s ongoing political narrative, from the presidential election, to the US Senate race, to the allegedly crooked backroom deals by an elite powerbroker, it appears that there is one consistently present element: the courts. The judiciary has always played a key role in shaping the political narrative, by enabling or[...]

This island of deep wooded valleys and cold rushing streams in a sea of Midwestern farmland boasts one of the highest concentrations of spring creeks in the world.

Senator Bob Menendez, 70, now found guilty of all 16 charges against him Tuesday, is, as of this writing, still a candidate.

Apart from actual tectonic activity in the Garden State, namely a series of tremors stemming from a 4.8 quake that shook New Jerseyans, to a meteor which tore across the sky over New York City and New Jersey Tuesday, there have been more than a few shake-ups in the political realm as well this year.[...]