Free Republic

NEWARK, Aug. 25 - With its gangs, police shootings and struggles to modernize, this city seems to have enough problems. Now it has one more. Dewey Street used to be a proud middle-class neighborhood, a chamber of peace and quiet in Newark's gritty heart. But last year when the state cleared out tracts of land to build a school, most of the families were driven away. And now that the money for the school has evaporated, more than three dozen lots sit abandoned, one after another. James Searcy is one of the last residents here, a 74-year-old man with milky...

Teacher, cop charged with gun trafficking Friday, February 18, 2005 NEWARK - A schoolteacher and his wife, who is a police officer, were arrested Thursday as part of an undercover operation to crack a gun trafficking ring that included the teacher's brother-in-law, authorities said. Five rifles were sold for $9,200 over the course of the investigation, according to court papers. FBI agents found a 9mm handgun in the coat pocket of the teacher, William Mayes, as he was preparing to leave home for his ninth-grade class at Success Academy, part of West Side High School in Newark, Special Agent Steve...

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) _ Atlantic City has become the fourth school district in New Jersey to recognize Muslim holidays. The city's board of education approved districtwide days off for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, two sacred Islamic holidays, for the upcoming school year. Previously, under state law Muslim students and teachers were allowed to take off Islamic holidays without being penalized. According to Superintendent Fredrick P. Nickles, about 560 of the city's 7,800 children are Muslim. Board member Cornell Davis, who is Muslim, called the decision ``courageous'' in light of current tensions between Americans and Islamic extremists. ``It shows...

Student gun sales armed N.J. gang, authorities sayAn indictment alleges collegians were used to funnel dozens of weapons from an Ohio store to Newark.By Troy GrahamInquirer Staff Writer   Federal prosecutors in New Jersey have indicted the owner of an Ohio gun store and three members of a violent Newark street gang in the first gun-trafficking case of its kind.The merchant sold guns to intermediaries, all of them students or former students at Wilberforce University, a small private school in Ohio. The students then funneled the guns to the Double ii Bloods street gang, authorities said.The case, which will...

<p>WASHINGTON -- New Jersey's U.S. attorney told Congress yesterday that violent street gangs represent a growing public threat and must be attacked with the same force and methods used against traditional organized crime families.</p> <p>Christopher Christie's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee came as his office in Newark announced charges against an East Orange man they said helped provide firearms to gang members in Newark and other parts of Essex County.</p>

Group sues on behalf of child in paper Gun Incident Irvington case reopens zero tolerance debateWednesday, March 05, 2003 BY KEVIN C. DILWORTH AND REGINALD ROBERTS Star-Ledger Staff The Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based civil liberties organization, is taking a second New Jersey school district to court for what it sees as overzealous school officials overstepping their bounds in handling student conduct. The institute filed a lawsuit against the Irvington Board of Education on behalf of one of two boys arrested nearly two years ago under the district's "zero tolerance" policy for playing with a paper gun. The suit, filed last...