Free Republic

The leaders of New Jersey cities who have promised to protect undocumented residents from federal immigration law enforcement officials grappled Wednesday with President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting so-called “sanctuary cities.” Trump’s executive order, signed Wednesday, would take away federal funds “except as mandated by law” from municipalities that refuse to hand over non-criminal undocumented immigrants for deportation. “Newark will continue to protect undocumented immigrants despite whatever executive order is issued,” Mayor Ras Baraka said in a statement to NJ Advance Media. […] Baraka vowed after Trump’s election last year to protect the city’s immigrant population, and only arrest undocumented...

Catholic Caucus: Cardinal Joseph William Tobin leads Archdiocese of Newark (Pictures)  

In a historic moment for the Archdiocese of Newark, Archbishop John J. Myers on Monday is expected to announce his successor, Cardinal-designate Joseph W. Tobin, currently the archbishop of Indianapolis, NJ Advance Media has learned. Tobin, a moderate leader who has supported a greater role for women in the church, has also expressed the need for more dialogue over gay parishioners and has sparred with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence over the resettlement of Syrian refugees. Tobin has served as archbishop of Indianapolis since October 2012. Pope Francis named him a cardinal last month. The designation takes effect. Nov. 18. The appointment...

Dubbed a "business necessity" rather than a leisure destination, Newark in New Jersey, US, has landed the top spot as the world's least friendly city. Newark's "extreme traffic and poor signage" have been cited as reasons for the city's lack of congeniality, while its status as an airport city is said to make it crowded and overpriced. One disappointed traveller recently said Newark was "one of the saddest looking cities" they had ever seen.

On Saturday, Mayor Ras Baraka had asked the citizens of Newark to observe 24 hours of nonviolence, but violence flared nevertheless. Six people were shot and killed in Newark in a little over 72 hours — a time spanning Friday night to early Tuesday morning. In addition to the 25-year-old man shot Tuesday, three people were killed Friday night, one person Saturday night and one person Sunday night.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Tuesday proposed overhauling the state’s education funding formula to provide all public school districts with a flat rate of $6,599 per student. Calling it his “Fairness Formula” in policy statements on Tuesday, Christie said aid for special needs students would continue even with any potential formula change. Schools are funded through property taxes, which in New Jersey are some of the highest in the nation because of the state’s “unaffordable and broken school funding formula propped up by special interests and misguided Supreme Court precedent,” Christie said in a statement. …

#BREAKING Port Authority says unspecified threat made to plane due to land at EWR this hour. 219 people onboard flight from London. 3 retweets 0 likes

Management of the New York City area’s three major airports is fed up with long lines at security check points, and they have given the Transportation Security Administration an ultimatum: Either shorten the lines or we’ll find someone else to do it. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, tasked with running John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports, is threatening to privatize the process of screening passengers before boarding their flight, according to a document sent from the Port Authority to TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger. “We can no longer tolerate the continuing inadequacy of the TSA passenger...

NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — Two suspects were arrested and charged Friday in the fatal shooting of a New Jersey Institute of Technology student who was killed during a burglary at a fraternity house in Newark. As CBS2’s Meg Baker reported, Nafee Cotman, 18, was in taken custody earlier Friday. Taquan Harris, 22, who had been the subject of a manhunt, was located and arrested in Irvington Friday afternoon, CBS2’s Brian Conybeare reported.

Newark’s Field of Dreams has been sold. The former home of the Newark Bears minor league baseball team — left to languish along Broad Street since the hard-luck franchise folded in 2013 — has been sold to a New York-based developer for $23.5 million. The site at the corner of Broad Street and Orange Street has been sold to the Lotus Equity Group, city officials confirmed this week. Lotus plans to demolish Riverfront Stadium and build a mixed-use, high-rise tower in its place. […] Once hailed as a beacon for a new era of development and prosperity in Newark, the...

Newark will test 17,000 children for lead poisoning after elevated levels of the toxin were found in the drinking water at nearly half of the schools in New Jersey’s biggest city. […] In the week since the higher lead levels were first reported, officials have urged calm. They say the lead levels in some of Newark’s schools don’t compare to the crisis that has plagued Flint, Michigan. …

Aaron Burr, Patriot and Vice President On February 6, 1756, a boy was born into privilege in Newark, New Jersey. Young Aaron Burr, Jr. was son of the president of the College of New Jersey, and grandson of Jonathan Edwards, the Calvinist theologian regarded as a leader of the evangelical movement of the 18th century, an equal to the great preacher George Whitfield. Privilege then wasn’t quite what privilege is today, of course; there were no Rolls-Royces to drive, no Waldorf Astorias to stay in during constant vacations, no jet-setting to Monte Carlo, no celebrity photographers and magazines to put...

A Newark, New Jersey deli owner who shot and killed an armed man will not face charges, police and prosecutors say. Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray as well as Newark Police Director Eugene Venable say that the owner of the deli had a permit for the gun that he used to defend himself. New Jersey is notorious for having some of the strictest gun regulations in the nation. The robber apparently thought that meant there was no legal way for his would-be victims to arm themselves. According to Guns.buzz, Mark Robinson’s last words inside the New Neighborhood Deli Supermarket...

Workers from nine U.S. airports are planning to block bridges, march through terminals and protest at airline headquarters during a day of civil disobedience on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The workers - a mix of cleaners, baggage handlers, fuelers and wheelchair attendants - will risk arrest at airports and other locations including the Mall, to bring attention to their campaign for better wages, the Service Employees International Union said. The actions are the latest in the airport workers' campaign for a $15-per-hour minimum wage, a benefits package and job protections. They're also protesting threats against their efforts to unionize....

A fight broke out during a rally meant to oppose violence in the city of Newark. Two rival groups got into a fistfight. The photo header shows a fight between Tyrone Barnes and Abdul Mohammed, with other photos following. The fight was covered by NJ.com, which authorities say happened without a permit. "For all intents and purposes, this hurt the possibility that Newark can have in addressing this problem once and for all. Until there's some sense of a unified front among the leaders, there's never going to be an impact on the people at large." Mohammed is a former...

If you're thinking about ringing in the New Year in two New Jersey cities you want want to think again, according a new study by WalletHub. Analysts at the consumer and small business web site probed the 100 biggest cities based on 17 levels of criteria ranging from the average price of a New Year's Eve party ticket, weather and the legality of fireworks. As for the two New Jersey cities on the list? Jersey City and Newark brought up the rear at No. 98 and 99 respectively.

When Dale Russakoff began writing about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million gift to help fix the failing schools in Newark, N.J., she assumed she would end up telling an uplifting story of transformational change. "It sounded to me at the time like, well, that's enough money to do anything," Russakoff recalled of watching Zuckerberg announce the gift before a whooping "Oprah" audience in 2010, joined by a political odd couple in the form of Newark's charismatic, reform-minded Democratic mayor at the time, Cory Booker, and New Jersey's Republican governor, Chris Christie. "I didn't think it was going to be...

Former mayor Rudy Giuliani was a hero with two associates Thursday, when they saved a man from a dramatic FDR Drive car wreck. Emergency responders, and Giuliani’s worried wife, at first thought Giuliani was in the crash. “There was an accident this morning people thought I was involved in,” Giuliani told Page Six Thursday. He and colleagues Sal DeSalvo and Marc Mukasey were headed north on the Drive from Newark Airport at 8:45 a.m. when “Marc was half-sleeping . . . We took the red-eye [from California]. I was half-sleeping. Sal was driving. He was wide awake when we heard a big...

Even as Pope Francis and Catholic leaders from around the world debate ways to make the Catholic Church more inclusive, Newark Archbishop John Myers has given his priests strict guidelines on refusing Communion to Catholics who, for example, support gay marriage or join an organization that rejects Church teaching.In the two-page memo, Myers also orders parishes and Catholic institutions not to host people or organizations that disagree with the Church.He says Catholics, “especially ministers and others who represent the Church, should not participate in or be present at religious events or events intended to endorse or support those who reject or...

In 2012 the Daily Caller Ran this article http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/11/america%E2%80%99s-most-dangerous-cities-are-run-by-democrats/ which showed that 8 out of 10 of the most dangerous cities in America were run by democrats. (other 2 independents) So I looked into and found the current ten cities with the highest murder rates. http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/top-lists/highest-murder-rate-cities/ And found the results are quite similar with at least 8 out of 10 of the most dangerous cities (ones with highest murder rates) still being run by democrats. 1 East St. Louis, IL (Emeka-Jackson Hicks,Democrat) 2 Camden, NJ (Donna Red, Democrat) 3 Gary, IN (Karen Freeman Wilson, Democrat) 4 Chester, PA (John A...