NJ Voices

You've got opinions, New Jersey

So, is it really going to be Democrats who walk away from the altar? Really?  After the long and romantic courtship of the state’s gay and lesbian electorate.  After the invites to hundreds of long-overdue gay weddings are in the mail?  After all the promises to say, “I do” when the vote got posted.  As the sun begins to... Full story »

A review of this week's Star-Ledger editorials: • Eight years after a Connecticut town seized land under eminent domain to sweeten a package deal to lure Pfizer, the drug giant decided to move on, taking 1,400 jobs elsewhere and leaving behind a huge office complex and acres of vacant, weedy lots. New Jersey should take heed and move swiftly to... Full story »

Khalif Williams was 16 when he was charged with raping and robbing a 19-year-old East Orange woman at gunpoint while she waited at a Newark bus stop in 2007. He was charged as an adult and, in May, he was sentenced to 15 years in state prison. Under state law, Williams, now 18, must serve about 12 years of... Full story »

  Early detection works We have always heard that the early detection of cancer saves lives, yet a governmental task force has now made a recommendation for women to begin their mammogram screenings at age 50 instead of age 40 in an effort to avoid false positives requiring more biopsies ("Cut back on mammograms, fed panel urges," Nov. 17).... Full story »

By Aref Assaf/ NJ Voices Blogger/ While Islam-bashers in the U.S. Congress, media, academic and other circles are sometimes careful to claim that their hostility to Muslims or Arabs or Islam is limited to the “extremists,” the goal and the impact of these campaigns is, nonetheless, in fact to demonize entire countries and communities.  Full story »

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  The political fight for control of the state Senate is over, barring a miracle. Now the victors are turning to the job of revenge. Their first victim is Sen. Joe Vitale, the champion of children’s health care, who will be stripped of his role as chairman of the Health Committee. "This isn’t personal," says Sen. Steve Sweeney, a... Full story »

  "Precious," the movie, which is based on "Push," the novel, irritates some African-Americans who say the harsh portrayal of one teenager’s life demeans the black community. The worst thing since "Birth of a Nation," one critic suggested. "Precious" is fiction. Some children, however, are in fact abused by the parents who are supposed to love and protect them.... Full story »

  Democrats who are nervous about political fallout over gay marriage have been making squeaky little noises lately about retreat. Maybe they should take a look at the latest poll, and man up. Like other polls on this question, this one shows that most people in New Jersey are greeting this supposed threat to civilization with a collective shrug.... Full story »

  What would Christie do? That’s the big question for New Jersey in the Senate’s $849 billion health care proposal. It includes a "public option," but adds an escape hatch for states that don’t want to offer a government-run insurance plan to their residents. If South Carolina or other states want to wave the flag of state’s rights, blast... Full story »

  Giuliani playing to the crowd I almost laughed myself sick reading about Rudy Giuliani’s opinion that the trial of terrorists in New York City is a bad idea ("Giuliani criticizes terror trial in N.Y.," Nov. 16). Considering that he was a federal prosecutor in New York, I say that if he were in that position today, he would... Full story »

By John J. Myers/ Star-Ledger Guest Columnist/ Despite concerted and well-financed efforts to establish same-sex marriage in numerous states in recent years, most Americans know better. They won’t support it. In every state where same-sex marriage has been put to a vote of the people, the people have said "No." In fact, only a minority of Americans wants to redefine marriage, according to a CBS News/NY Times Poll conducted this past summer and reported on by both organizations. And support is falling, down almost 10 percent this year.  Full story »

By Aref Assaf/ NJ Voices Guest Blogger/ Since 1999, US immigration authorities have, for a variety of reasons, denied Imam Qatanani's petition to become a permanent resident. The 47-year-old Imam has since 1996 served as the spiritual leader of the tri-state’s largest Muslim mosque, the Islamic Center of Passaic County. Over a year ago, a Newark Federal Immigration, in a much publicized trial, ruled in favor of the Imam. In his 71-page ruling, the judge dismissed the government’s case as "patently incomplete" and two federal agents’ conflicting testimonies as "not credible."  Full story »

Yesterday it was announced that the new one-a-month handgun law which is going to take effect next month will have another undesired consequence besides making honest citizens criminals – the law did not provide an exclusion for legitimate gun shops. Don’t even get me started on how the bureaucracy will be overloaded by criminals waiting in line to get... Full story »