Tucked in desk drawers and filed away in email inboxes in every local and county office in New Jersey are government secrets. To find them, news reporters, attorneys and even local gadflies, using access laws like the Open Public Records Act, sift through the...
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NJ
Newark Schools Mull $2.5B For Repairs. Should City Taxpayers Shoulder Cost?
Questions are mounting after the price tag to fix Newark public schools more than doubled in the past five months from $1 billion to $2.5 billion, a mushrooming bill that the city’s Superintendent says city residents will have to pay. But elected officials and...
Many N.J. seniors, especially in cities, wouldn’t get much help from property tax cut plan, analysis shows
Supporters of a sweeping new property tax cut proposal for New Jersey seniors say a big goal is to entice older residents across the state to stay by making their lives here more affordable — so they won’t skip out and spend their golden years elsewhere. But while the...
N.J.’s population center still tilts north. This town considers it a badge of honor.
The center of population shows where Americans are moving and migrating. As people move, the center of population shifts, James Hughes professor at Rutgers Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, which is neighboring New Brunswick. Hughes added that he’s not...
No more Democrats and Republicans in Red Bank? Voters asked to change town government
The commission stated, “The partisan system has caused elected officials to oppose the other party's ideas for strictly political reasons in divided government, and when there is one-party control, there has been infighting on public display that has prevented...
Cameras to catch speeding on NJ roads? Illegal now but public could support it
The idea of automated speed cameras along roadways may get more support from the public, as well as policymakers, if the technology were promoted as a way to reduce racial profiling by law enforcement. That's according to a new study out of Rutgers University. But it...
NJ alleges familiar benefits fraud in Wildwood
When we saw the words "health benefits fraud" in a headline recently, our first thought was finally, a step toward justice in the massive kickbacks to public employees in South Jersey for submitting bogus prescriptions to their lavishly funded state health...
2022 Meck Memorial Lecture: A Multi-Perspective View of Affordable Housing
Affordable, equitable access to shelter remains a pressing societal challenge despite landmark federal and state mandates.
Inclusive Healthy Communities Grant Program Funding Opportunity
The grant program seeks to advance practice, systems and environmental changes to enhance healthy community outcomes for people with disabilities who also may experience societal discrimination as a result of, but not limited to age, race, socioeconomic or immigration status, and/or sexual orientation.
State efforts to close the K-12 digital divide may come up short
In 2021, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced that education officials in his state had “closed” the digital divide by ensuring that every public school student had a laptop or tablet and internet access. “Closing the digital divide wasn’t just about meeting the...