Residents grow increasingly frustrated with spotty USPS

Residents grow increasingly frustrated with spotty USPS

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — No post on Sundays … or most other days, according to many frustrated U.S. Postal Service customers. Many residents from towns throughout Essex and Union counties have reached out to the newspaper in the past few weeks to complain that their mail is arriving late — if at all. A woman […]

Orange Police Community Council meets in-person

Orange Police Community Council meets in-person

ORANGE, NJ — For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic turned daily life upside down, Orange’s Police Community Council had an in-person meeting. Residents set up socially distanced lawn chairs in the parking lot of Bethel Baptist Church on July 16 and discussed community policing issues with officers in the Orange Police Department, Councilwoman […]

SOMSD, Black Parents Workshop reach settlement agreement

SOMSD, Black Parents Workshop reach settlement agreement

SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD, NJ — In February 2018, the Black Parents Workshop filed a federal lawsuit against the South Orange–Maplewood School District, drawing attention to the marginalization of black students in the district and the segregation seen in the district’s elementary schools. On July 13, the South Orange–Maplewood Board of Education approved a settlement […]

Murphy unveils plan to address digital divide for students

Murphy unveils plan to address digital divide for students

IRVINGTON, NJ — On July 16, Gov. Phil Murphy unveiled his administration’s plan to address unmet technological needs for students in New Jersey schools, from pre-K through 12th grade. Efforts to ensure reliable internet connectivity and access to one-to-one digital devices are critical as the state looks ahead to the 2020-2021 school year and the […]

Bloomfield officials discuss inequities in health care

Bloomfield officials discuss inequities in health care

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Bloomfield continued its community conversations on July 15, hosting a Zoom meeting about race and health equity with Michellene Davis, the executive vice president and chief corporate affairs officer for RWJBarnabas Health. Moderated by Mayor Michael Venezia and Councilwoman Jenny Mundell, Davis talked about inequity in the health care system that disproportionately […]

WOTC passes three police-related ordinances

WOTC passes three police-related ordinances

WEST ORANGE, NJ — The West Orange Township Council passed three police-related ordinances at its meeting on July 14, all unanimously, putting into effect the demands that the West Orange Youth Caucus asked for in a petition at the Black Lives Matter protest on June 6. One ordinance, which was approved on second reading, bans […]

CHS welcomes new principal Frank Sanchez

CHS welcomes new principal Frank Sanchez

MAPLEWOOD / SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — A pandemic might have closed the South Orange–Maplewood School District’s school buildings in March, but Frank Sanchez has been walking the halls of Columbia High School since July 1. He’s allowed to, though — he just became the school’s new principal. “I’ve been there every day getting to know […]

East Orange woman makes accusations against senior apartment complex

East Orange woman makes accusations against senior apartment complex

EAST ORANGE, NJ — The Arlington House Senior Apartments, an apartment complex for independent senior citizen private living located at 55-57 S. Munn Ave. in East Orange, has one area resident questioning management’s actions. At the height of the COVID-19, visitors were reportedly kept away from their loved ones who lived there. East Orange resident […]