Jeffrey Conway, a man who protested at an Orange town meeting, was found innocent of any charges that could have been brought against him. For months the town government has been going after him in court, and for what? He held up a sign the size of a regular sheet of paper in protest against Mims Hackett, the mayor of Orange. For holding up a sign and refusing to put it down he was hauled away to jail despite the fact that other people were also holding up signs and that he was just practicing his first amendment right.

Here is the news article.

Visit DPA Action Alert Page to let your representatives know you oppose mandatory minimums for nonviolent drug offenders. 

Kleykamp, Meredith, et al. Wasting Money, Wasting Lives: Calculating the Hidden Costs of Incarceration in New Jersey. Drug Policy Alliance; May 28, 2008.

This report is the first-ever analysis of the hidden and comprehensive costs of incarceration in New Jersey.  In addition to the cost of prison beds (the usual measure of incarceration costs), the report examines hidden costs such as lost wages during the time people are incarcerated, lost lifetime wages that result from diminished employment opportunities, lost taxable income, and lost child support. At a time when the state is facing severe budget deficits and cutting critical social programs and services, the report finds that the state is losing literally billions of dollars in direct and hidden costs as a result of the harsh and ineffective overuse of incarceration. The report looks at costs state-wide and also provides a snapshot of costs for New Jersey’s largest city, Newark.

Report [PDF]

The NJ school system was in the news today for a couple of reasons. One, Corzine wants to borrow $2.5 billion to restart school construction across the state. Two, NJ schools have received very poor marks on tutoring and transfers. There is very few options for students in bad schools who are not performing well. The New Jersey mentality is that to have a good education you need to tax the living hell out of your residents and borrow billions of dollars and since the children are our future there is no limit in the amount of money we should spend. This is a false prophecy that only serves to enrich bureaucrats and provide jobs for politicians to give away as gifts to campaign henchmen and loyalists.

Dear Friends, Activists and Fellow Libertarians,

I've just returned from the Libertarian National Convention, held this past week in Denver. I know a lot of people are stunned and some are still angry that Bob Barr won. Although I am exhausted, I wanted to get a message out about where we go from here.

Just now getting in from an incredible experience at our convention in Denver. As tired as I am, I feel compelled to write because it is my opinion we have incredible opportunities to grow our party exponentially with a Barr/Root/Scheurer ticket this year. To do that we must get Jason on the ballot. We need 1200 signatures in 6 days. This is an easy accomplishment if everyone does just a little. I am asking each and everyone of you to pledge to get just 10 signatures. That's just 10 signatures from friends and family. Here is a chance to get involved with minimum effort and yet help our party grow. At the very least please respond back and let me know your level of commitment.

Thanks to John, the Upper Freehold Board of Ed will be now be providing more detail as to the reasons it is going into executive session.