Hightstown 
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Thu May 03, 2007 at 09:24:09 AM EDT
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The Biondi Apology Tour continued with a meeting yesterday with representatives of the Black Ministers' Council of New Jersey. He will apologize to the full Assembly and promised to work against racism and for social causes as a result of the meeting. Rev. Jesse Jackson has said he'd like to meet with Biondi.
The Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey and the Hispanic Directors Association of New Jersey held press conferences in Hightstown and Morristown yesterday to call for immigration law reform in both Our Fair State and on a national level. The two towns have opposite approaches to illegal immigrants.
Ethics complaints are expected to be filed today against several Republican legislators, including State Senators Joseph Kyrillos and Bob Singer and Assemblyman David Wolfe, in regards to a federal probe that Democratic leaders allege is unfairly targeting just one party.
The state yesterday introduced an "Olmstead plan" to meet the needs of disabled residents in less restrictive housing. The plan will take eight years to move approx. 1,850 people with developmental disabilities into group homes and apartments in compliance with a 1999 Supreme Court ruling.
Gov. Corzine's town hall meetings on the budget continued yesterday, but without the gov. Treasurer Bradley Abelow led the meeting in Red Bank yesterday with several other officials.
Conservative columnist Phyllis Schlafly paid a visit to The College of New Jersey yesterday to give a speech for the College Republicans and was met with students protesting her position on the ERA and other issues.
The state DoT is installing devices on Rt. 80 and I-287 that measure traffic speed by pinging cars' E-ZPass transmitters. They say personal info will be scrambled, but the idea is to give an accurate reading of travel time for traffic web sites. A 511 system for traffic info is also in the works, to be done by the end of this year.
On Tuesday there was a brief interruption in the Disney Channel on Comcast, during which porn was broadcast. Comcast says it was a localized problem and they have taken steps to assure it won't happen again. At least one subscriber states she will cancel her subscription- after the NHL playoffs are over. Ahh, priorities.
Have time to go to the ultimate garage sale? The Sands in AC publicly opens their gone-out-of-business sale today, with every tacky detail of casino decorating for sale.
Open Thread: What do you want to talk about today, Blue Jersey?
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Tue Apr 24, 2007 at 11:00:30 AM EDT
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A couple of weeks ago, the Washington Post ran an article on how some cities are adopting a don't-ask policy on immigration status. Residents can access city services, including calling the police, without fear of immigration status questions or problems. The small central Jersey borough of Hightstown was a frame for this story:
In the aftermath of a series of raids in 2004, the town council in this historic borough of 5,300 -- transformed in recent years by an influx of at least 1,300 Latin Americans -- unanimously approved a sort of immigrant bill of rights.
Joining a growing list of cities enacting a no-questions-asked policy on immigration status, Hightstown now allows its undocumented residents to officially interact with local police and access city services without fear of being reported to federal authorities.
It has opened new lines of communication here, officials say. One illegal immigrant at the complex where the raids were staged called on the police recently to help place a family member in alcohol rehabilitation; others have reported domestic abuse, extortion, theft and other crimes. Some are calling the town's pro-immigrant mayor for advice on City Hall weddings and landlord troubles. Hightstown has added services aimed at immigrants, including free bilingual computer classes last month. Noting the shift, one Spanish-language newspaper recently dubbed Hightstown the "Paradise Town" of New Jersey.
The backlash was swift.
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Tue Apr 10, 2007 at 11:03:09 AM EDT
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Many at Blue Jersey have been critical of Riverside and Morristown for their harsh approach towards illegal immigrants. But is there really an alternative? Today's Washington Post has a story Looking the Other Way on Immigrants: Some Cities Buck Federal Policies. It's mainly about Hightstown, New Jersey. It's now considered a sanctuary city, where police officials have been instructed not to ask about immigration status. The result: Crimes are reported, and the town is flourishing:
Hightstown Mayor Robert Patten, who hails from the core German-Irish stock in this heavily Democratic town, sees things differently. The town square, once peppered with empty storefronts, is brimming with new Latin American restaurants and remittance centers. Last year, the town closed the streets for an Ecuadorian festival that brought together hundreds of residents
"Most of us know this town would have a heck of a time trying to run itself these days without the immigrants," said Patten, a Republican. "They're working at the grocery stores, the fast-food places, they're opening businesses and keeping this town alive and young. We're just being practical by telling them, 'Look, we want you in our community, and we want you to feel like you belong.' "
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Tue May 16, 2006 at 02:36:16 PM EDT
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That's how the property tax problem was described last night by a resident of East Windsor Township. In the pouring rain a few hundred people came out to talk to and hear from the 12th LD's elected representation: State Senator Ellen Karcher, Assemblyman Michael Panter and Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck in a School Funding Forum hosted by the East Windsor Regional School District. The district consists of E. Windsor and Hightstown Borough; along with more than 50% of the districts statewide, they voted down their budget this year. (All comments in quotes are from residents at the forum.)
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Wed Apr 26, 2006 at 09:39:56 PM EDT
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( - promoted by jmelli)
It was with disappointment that I learned that the Hightstown-East Windsor school budget was defeated again this year. Working through this process last year was one of the most challenging and frustrating experiences in my tenure on Borough Council. I was disappointed in myself, that I ultimately voted along with everyone else to support the proposed cuts. Although it would have been at best a token gesture to be the lone dissenting voice, I promised myself that night that I would not be making that mistake again.
Here we are.
Why will I not be supporting any cuts and why will I be aggressively encouraging all of my counterparts to do the same? With all due respect to the comitted voters who came out last Tuesday to make their voices heard, the extent of challenges in our community, state, and nation transcend that of yet another increase in our school taxes. We have allowed ourselves to get into a situation where we live with a punitive and regressive tax system, where local property owners make up for misguided income tax cuts, and generally fiscal irresponsibility, at the State and Federal level.
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