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GOVERNMENT / POLITICS -- AND, SADLY, CRIME
CRIME-- Sadly, 'crime' must take the lead this week, since Plainfield's fifth homicide of 2006 happened yesterday -- a fatal stabbing in broad daylight on a busy downtown street. There was a brief in today's Courier; full stories are sure to follow tomorrow. Wasn't the new administration supposed to rescue us from this continuing bloodshed?
The FBI released its preliminary 2005 UCR data, and it was widely noted in the media that violent crime is up in small cities across the country (they consider small to start at 100,000 -- not to deflate our hometown pride). The New York Times ran a regional story and included a tri-state stats chart. With last year's record number of homicides, and now five this year, Plainfield is reflecting that national pattern.
Plainfield police cooperated in a nationwide roundup of immigrant gang members and sexual predators, as noted in the Courier, the Ledger, and the New York Times.
A young woman faces weapons charges for bringing a knife into the High School building through an unlocked door, apparently in search of a romantic rival, as reported by the Courier. The point here is that she was able to avoid the guarded entrances. This is the flip side of the Library's problems that students are getting out of the building unnoticed during the day to rendezvous in apparent drug transactions on College Place near the rear of the library building. What gives? Meanwhile, the school district is under the spotlight for the hiring of the High School's athletic director, where it seems there was an insufficient background check, as the Courier brought to light. The matter is editorialized in today's Courier.
Operation CeaseFire, the state's pilot anti-gang effort is expanding to another round of cities. Inexplicably, Plainfield is not one of them. Is that because the administration doesn't think the anti-gang program is worthwhile? Or because the administration didn't apply to be included? Or because this administration lacks clout in Trenton? Or because admitting Plainfield has a problem would embarass this administration? Whatever the reason, not being in the program leaves us without another tool to fight gangs and crime.
Check out the state's online resource: "New Jersey's 'Gang Free' website"
Cold cases are unromantic and underreported, but police doggedness can pay off, as in the case of the 1983 murder of Marcus Jones on the corner of South Second Street and Clinton Avenue. Tracked down in Florida, where he had been living for yearrs, a former South Plainfielder admitted his guilt in court this past week. The Courier and the Ledger covered the story.
Lastly, news of a new tool that Plainfield police are expecting to get through a Urban Enterprise Zone grant: Segways. The Ledger gave quite an extended story to the two-wheeled contraption's introduction into gingerbread-studded Ocean Grove, complete with a photo gallery illustrating the Segway team at work.
GREEN / MORIARTY / SWEENEY PROPOSAL & STATE BUDGET -- Assemblyman Green's budget team was at the center of a swarm of reporting and comment on the state's budget situation throughout the week. On Wednesday, the Ledger's Tom Moran wrote a column reporting on the rough time Sen. Sweeney got at the AFL-CIO convention.
The press war between Corzine and the Green team continued: on Thursday, the Ledger reported Corzine telling the state worker unions to "never mind" the legislators' ideas for givebacks. The Green team replied by pressing the Gov again about the contracts, as reported in Friday's Ledger.
The Courier reported on Saturday that lawmakers were eyeing cutting the state's pension contribution as a way to ease the budget crisis. The same day, the AP wire carried the results of the Quinnipiac poll showing voters oppose Corzine's sales tax proposal by a considerale margin. Meanwhile, the Ledger reported on a stormy Friday afternoon meeting between Corzine and his staff and Assembly leaders, who told him the sales tax hike was dead before arrival.
On Sunday, the Ledger posted a large chart for keeping watch over the budget process (which I intend to scan and post), and the Courier reported on the developing complexity of the budget negotiations.
Writing on the PoliticsNJ website, the highly respected David Rebovich tried to tie all the loose ends together in a piece titled "Campaigning for and against the budget." Which I am sure he will try again this week. Good luck! More to come...
SCHOOLS CONSTRUCTION -- Though ground was broken Tuesday for the new Emerson School, the Plainfield school district is hardly out of the woods on the construction front. The Courier reported on the groundbreaking. On Thursday, the New Dems political club sponsored a forum on the issue at the Unitarian Society, with co-sponsorship by the church's Social Justice committee. The forum, which Dan promoted in Plainfield Today, featured Joan Ponessa of the Education Law Center, who is charged with monitoring the state's construction efforts in response to court rulings. More than 40 people listened attentively and joined in a Q&A afterward. Bernice reported back in detail in the Plaintalker.
MASTER PLAN -- Thursday was a busy evening -- with the schools construction forum, the Plainwood Square outdoor concert, AND the public hearing to kick off the Planning Board's review and rejiggering of the 1998 Master Plan. Dan gave it two boosts on Plainfield Today and the Courier did a nice 'pre-' story. Over 40 people turned out for the presentation and Q&A period -- about a third of them chugging along from the earlier school construction forum. The Ledger's new Plainfield beat reporter -- Alexi Friedman -- was seen busily taking notes. Dan's 2¢ worth about what this all may mean were in his Friday HITS post on Plainfield Today.
Last Friday's H.I.T.S.: "HITS: Friday, June 16"
More on $$$ missing from tax office... Parking... Schools construction... Master Plan...
Last Monday's TW3: "TW3: Jun 5 - June 11, 2006"
Guns & gunplay... the missing $41,000... Plainfield Health Center on a roll?... Green vs. state workers...
Mondays, PLAINFIELD TODAY is a digest of Plainfield-only news from the past week: That Was The Week That Was -- or TW3 -- with links to the online stories.
COMMUNITY
Film Festival: "Pride Film Festival running this weekend" -- and a link to films being shown
HIV Health Fair: "Health Center, Muhlenberg will sponsor HIV fair"
Internet Café to the rescue!: "Still No Phone" -- Bernice logs in at the Internet cafe...where you can, too!
Park-Madison Office Building: "County honored for Park Madison complex"
Plaintalker: "Plaintalker At One Year" -- Happy Birthday, Plaintalker! And many more...
Plainwood Square Summer Concerts: "Summer concert series launches tonight at 6 PM"
Pride Picnic: "Plainfield pride"
Red Cross: "Singing at Carnegie Hall? Unbelievable!"
Speaking Out: Joan Hervey: "Same-sex couples relegated to second class"
Obituary: "Daniel Gilbreth, 88, one of the 'Cheaper by the dozen' kids"
..... - The Gilbreths originally lived in Plainfield, moving to Montclair ca. 1922
CONNECTIONS? FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Abbott Schools: "Preschools fail to clear teachers"
Abbott Schools: "Advocates demand Abbott school reform"
Accessibility: Joan Whitlow: "An obstacle course for the wheelchair-bound"
Animal Charity Fraud - SL: "Jersey court shuts down abused-animal charity"
Animal Charity Fraud - CN: "State slams alleged faux fundraiser with fine"
Attorneys: "Office of Attorney Ethics releases annual 'Good lawyers gone bad' report"
Code Enforcement: "Mayfair getting luxury makeover" -- Code violations used to drive renovation
Crime Stats: "Violent crime rate grows in large cities"
Crime Stats: "UCR - 2005 Preliminary - New Jersey" -- Spreadsheet as a graphic, click to enlarge
Daylaborers: "NYC to Consider Job Centers for Day Labor"
Dems: "Distancing Dems from Lynch, municipal chairman ousted"
Development: "New Brunswick high-rise short 25 parking spaces, must remedy"
Development: "Builder let go in Devils arena flap over cost"
Development: "Compromise sought over South Amboy development plan"
Disaster Planning: "NJ cities aren't ready for disasters; Evacuation plans faulted"
Drugs: "More than 100 drug abusers have died from J&J's synthetic narcotic Fentanyl"
Drugs: "Newark officer arrested in Oxycontin prescription drug scheme"
Dual Officeholding: "Advocates demanding end to double-dipping"
... - Full text of the NJPP report "One To A Customer" [PDF file]
Emergency Rooms: "ER care in critical condition, study finds"
Eminent Domain: "Property owners gain a shield in reform bill"
Eminent Domain: "Assembly panel weighs state eminent domain reforms"
Eminent Domain - Editorial, CN: "Eminent domain should be tough sell"
Eminent Domain - NYT: "Battle to Revise Eminent Domain Law Escalates"
Foster Care: "Advocates serve as voice for kids in foster care"
Guns/Gunplay: "Ex-grid star shot to death after New Brunswick party"
Human Trafficking: "Judge wants 11 deported Hondurans back in N.J."
Immigrants: "Danbury Mayor Cuts the Noise on Immigration"
Immigrants: "Dollars and Dreams: Immigrants as Prey"
Liquor Licenses: "Montclair tables action on 'parking' liquor license at garage"
Lynch, John: "Cash took same route as building interests"
Medicaid: "States' Changes Reshape Medicaid"
Official Misconduct: "Newark construction official stripped of license"
Pay-to-Play: "Opponent of limits on donors backs off"
Philanthropy: "Scholars Hatch From Former Professor's Nest Egg"
Planning Boards: "Bound Brook board member removed over 'racist' letter"
Preschools: "Preschool director indicted with 2 others in theft case"
Preschools: "Preschool stole funds from kids, state says"
Privatizing Toll Roads: "Strapped States Try New Route, Lease Toll Roads to Foreign Firms"
Same-sex partner benefits: "Montclair workers to reap benefits for same-sex mates"
School Cell Phone Ban: "School Phone Ban Stirs, Yes, a Lot of Talk"
Students: "Teens take a stand to aid Rwanda genocide survivors"
Superfund Sites: "Senators assail EPA for laxity in cleaning up Superfund sites"
Tax Increases: "Perth Amboy residents decry huge tax hike"
Teacher Contracts: "With no contract, teachers wearing their gripes"
Terrorism Drill: "Terrorism drill sparks alarm in Westfield"
Union County Parks: "Boulders and plants to cut pollution at Warinanco"
Vas Campaign: "Consultant says Vas campaign owes her $4,000"
Wal-Mart: Tom Moran: "Don't let the prices fool you: Wal-Mart is no bargain for N.J"
Williams, Jayson - CN: "Williams loses bids on two retrial motions"
Williams, Jayson - SL: "Supremes to decide if Williams retrial will see cover-up evidence"
World Cup: "A little bit of Costa Rica in Bound Brook"
Zoning Board 'Special Meeting' fees: "Fees increasing for nearly everything"
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