Free Republic

The Star-Ledger is planning to consolidate its two printing plants to offset economic losses, a move that could result in the elimination of some union jobs, employees were told yesterday. The plants, in Piscataway and Montville, employ roughly 600 full and part-time workers. The notifications were sent to 365 employees in five unions -- press operators, mailers, drivers, machinists and platemakers. "We have to save money by cutting our costs," said George Arwady, publisher of The Star-Ledger. "Revenues are falling." Plant employees were notified last December the company would be seeking economic relief. Shop stewards posted notices then that said...

NEW YORK The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., has lost at least $11.5 million in advertising in the past year, according to a letter to staffers from Publisher George Arwady, which predicts the paper will have to undergo serious cutbacks and plans to ask its four unions for work-rule changes in their current contracts. "As a result of several years of such trends, your newspaper is losing money -- a lot of money. If you’ve attended any of my employee meetings, you've been hearing about this situation in detail for some time," Arwady wrote in the letter to numerous employees before...

To the laborers sitting in the waiting room of a temp agency in Elizabeth, she is simply "La Se ñora." She's the woman to see for a warehouse or manufacturing job at plants just a short drive away. Even at agencies that hire temporary workers, it is against the law to hire people who entered the country illegally. Federal laws re quire employers to verify a worker's status with identity and work authorization documents, such as a Social Security card, before they hire someone. But in May, Dilcia "Dee" Mem breno at Nielsen Staffing Services -- La Señora --made an...

Dalila and William Timal look like any other couple signing a home mortgage. They've picked out paint colors for their new four-bedroom house and can't wait for their 18-month-old son to play in the yard. But they differ from others you'd sometimes see at a loan officer's desk: Neither is a U.S. citizen nor a legal resident. The Timals came to this country from Guatemala in the late '90s and illegally overstayed their visas. Advertisement They are the beneficiaries of a new program by Fifth Third Bank that bases mortgages on an individual taxpayer identification number, or ITIN. Nationwide, increasing...

South Orange, NJ, Oct. 31, 2005 (CNA) - An associate dean at Seton Hall University has been demoted after publicly stating that the Catholic Church is unfairly attacking homosexuals and making them scapegoats for the sex-abuse scandal.  W. King Mott, who is openly homosexual and lives with his partner, published his views in a letter that appeared in The Star-Ledger of Newark Oct. 19. The following day, the school's dean, Molly Smith, asked Mott to step down, saying it was inappropriate for the associate dean to publish his comments while identifying himself as part of the administration at the Catholic...

New Jersey's largest city is engaging in pay-to-praise journalism. Newark is paying a newspaper 100-thousand dollars to publish positive stories about the city. The no-bid contract was awarded to the Newark Weekly News. The city already advertises heavily in the paper. The newspaper must generate stories based on leads from the city's public information office. Newspaper owner Howard Scott tells The Star-Ledger of Newark he's providing a service much the same way as other newspapers print legal advertisements for municipalities.

Nearly a quarter of a century ago, during another presidential debate, challenger Ronald Reagan dared voters to ask themselves: "'Are you better off than you were four years ago?... Is America as respected throughout the world as it was? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that we're as strong as we were four years ago?" Good questions, then and now. The answers for 2004, overwhelmingly, are no. No, we're not better off than we were four years ago. In four years, the nation's budget surplus has been erased, and the national debt has soared to a staggering...

<p>Many of my readers are puzzled as to why I insist the Republican Party should dump George W. Bush and find another nominee for president.</p> <p>Simple. Because I'm a right- winger. He's not.</p> <p>If you doubt that, imagine for a second that Al Gore had been elected president. Imagine he had retained Bill Clinton's CIA director and, based on faulty intelligence, gotten the United States involved in a costly and apparently endless war in Iraq. And imagine that Gore said he was doing it for the good of the Iraqi people, that he felt we Americans had a duty to spend tens of billions helping these poor foreigners.</p>

Circulation of the Nation's 20 Biggest Newspapers The Associated Press Published: Nov 3, 2003 Average weekday circulation of the nation's 20 biggest newspapers for the six months ended Sept. 30, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period. 1. USA Today, 2,246,996, up 0.7 percent 2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,091,062, up 16.1 percent (a) 3. The New York Times, 1,118,565, up 0.5 percent 4. Los Angeles Times, 955,211, down 1.1 percent (b) 5. The Washington Post, 732,872, down 1.9 percent 6. New York Daily News, 729,124, up 2.1 percent...

JOB RATINGS BECOME MORE PARTISAN Echoing findings in the nation as a whole, President George W. Bush’s job approval rating has declined here in New Jersey. However, he is generally well regarded in the state, with a majority of 56 percent who approve of the job he is doing. But there are some key shifts as we approach the 2004 election. Evaluations of Bush have become increasingly partisan over the past year and New Jerseyans are of two minds when it comes to evaluating the president’s performance in specific policy areas. Overall, a margin of 56 to 37 percent, more...

<p>Feel like a trip to Florida?</p> <p>That's where the New Jersey Supreme Court seems to be taking us. The decision yesterday to let Frank Lautenberg run for the U.S. Senate on the Democratic ticket raises the prospect of a repeat of the Bush-Gore contest two years ago.</p>

Copyright 2002 U.S. Newswire, Inc. U.S. Newswire December 30, 2002 Monday SECTION: State Desk LENGTH: 441 words HEADLINE: Citizen's Group Blasts New Jersey Legislation For Endangering Civilians While Exempting Police DATELINE: NORTH BRUNSWICK, NJ, Dec. 30 BODY: The following is a statement from the New Jersey Coalition for Self Defense concerning Governor McGreevy's signature on the "Smart Gun" legislation: Governor James McGreevy signed into law legislation that will make New Jersey citizens guinea pigs for unproven technology. This action will cost more New Jersey citizen's lives than it will ever save. The so called "Smart Gun" legislation will eventually restrict...

<p>Gov. James E. McGreevey cast himself as an unabashed champion of gun control last year. He made the topic one of the linchpins of his campaign against Republican gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler and pledged to enact a first-in-the-nation law to require "smart gun" technology on all handguns sold in New Jersey.</p>

<p>NEW YORK -- Amid chants of "We Support George" and "U-S-A! U-S-A!," Robert Cuellari held a sign bearing a picture of his 19-year-old son, Air Force Private Robert Cuellari Jr., who is serving in the war. "He's not there for Bush, he's there for you," Cuellari's sign read as the Freehold resident stood amid 1,300 people gathered in Times Square yesterday for a rally to support the military effort in Iraq.</p> <p>"I don't want my kid coming back to anti-war protests. It should be unconditional love for these kids and the country," Cuellari said.</p>

We got to Times Square shortly before noon, and there were well over 1000 patriotic people there! We started out up front, but my dad was uncomfortable and we kept going back and back and back and back... Therefore the only speaker photos I have are of the lady from the Christian Coalition and a couple of FReepers.By the time we left, there were at *least* close to 3000 flag-waving, "USA! USA! USA!"-chanting patriots squeezed into the area near the ticker tape in Times Square.I didn't see any other threads on this, so I apologize if this is a duplicate.

Episcopalian leader lashes out at Bush for 'reprehensible' policy Tuesday, January 14, 2003 BY KEVIN ECKSTROM RELIGION NEWS SERVICE WASHINGTON -- The top bishop of the Episcopal Church, in a stinging rebuke of American foreign policy, said the United States is rightly "hated and loathed" around the world for its "reprehensible" rhetoric and blind eye toward poverty and suffering."I'd like to be able to go somewhere in the world and not have to apologize for being from the United States," Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold 3rd said Friday in an interview with Religion News Service. Griswold, head of the 2.3million-member...