News
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Student Rights
As a senior at Allentown High School, I served as vice president of Life-Savers, a club dedicated to preventing student substance abuse. This year our Board of Education proposed a policy that would require students who wish to participate in extracurricular activities to submit to random urinalysis tests for illicit drug use. While I understand the desire to do more, I believe the policy will do more harm than good. My fellow students and I are organizing against this policy, which is ineffective, discounts student input, invades privacy and erodes trust.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
Libertarian Attorney Walter Luers is doing some good work opening up Interlaken Borough's local government (Monmouth County). As reported by the June 4, 2008 Asbury Park Press:
Luers cited three examples to prove that the council did indeed break the law. In January, Luers said that members of the council met at the home of Councilwoman Elizabeth Brown with Ocean Township Police Chief Antonio Amodio to discuss a possible contract with the township for police services.
Read the story here.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
Advocate questions closed-door policies
John Paff concerned White Twp. Committee too vague. He also wants Web site created.
Monday, June 02, 2008
BY SARA K. SATULLO
The Express-TimesWHITE TWP. | A state advocate for open government is raising questions about the township's closed-door session policies and its lack of a Web site.
John Paff, chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Open Government Advocacy Project, is concerned the township committee is being too vague when it goes into closed-door sessions.
See the rest of the story HERE
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Selected Blogs
I used to think [the Libertarian Party was] just a bunch of crazy, gun toting, out-of-touch intellectuals. After meeting them, I now know how wrong I was. - Howard Kupferman
The following was posted on May 30, 2008 on a blog at http://lhtblogger.blogspot.com. It's the story of a long-time Democrat who found a home in the LP.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
TRENTON – The State House steps overflowed with hundreds of taxpayers rallying against higher taxes and outrageous spending habits in Trenton today. Long-time Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan was leading the charge as Americans for Prosperity brought residents out from every corner of the Garden State to the Trenton to say “No!” to higher taxes.
Read the full article at the American's For Prosperity website.
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- Written by: Sean Colon
- Category: NJ Libertarian Blog
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.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Latest News
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]
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- Written by: Sean Colon
- Category: NJ Libertarian Blog
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.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Candidates and Elections
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.
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- Written by: Lou Jasikoff
- Category: Candidates and Elections
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.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
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.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
After reading a Press of Atlantic City article that said that an employee in Atlantic City destroyed public records, I asked the Atlantic City Prosecutor to investigate the employee--Marisol Rosario--for a possible violation of the Destruction of Public Records Law, a crime of the third degree. See the letter and news article HERE.
Subcategories
NJ Libertarian Blog
Imported from NJ Libertarian News from the published feed
Videos
This is a page of various videos that we have either created or found interesting. Be sure to check out and follow our YouTube page.
Open Government Advocacy Project
The Open Government Advocacy Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to ensure transparency and accountability at all levels of government. Articles posted here are a subset of the work of the committee. For more information visit the Open Government Advocacy Project blog.
If you would like to demand accountability and ensure that your local governing body or school board adheres to the Open Public Records Act we can help you request information from them. Contact John Paff, the project chair here.
Insight New Jersey
NJ government is huge and complex. Private industry is shrinking while the size and cost of government bureacracy continues to grow. The articles posted here provide a guide of the NJ State Government and can be used by citizens and candidates for office to evaluate what departments can be reduced drastically in size.
We'll start with just some of the departments and provide a breakdown on what they do (or purport to do), how many employees they have and how big their budget is.
Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
The New Jersey Libertarian Party's Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project (“the Project”) seeks to get New Jersey municipalities to repeal loitering ordinances that should have been -- but were not -- repealed when the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice was enacted in 1979. The Project has successfully had loitering ordinances repealed in over 30 towns. For a summary listing of all the towns see Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project page.
Police Accountability Project
The Police Accountability Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to search out cases of police misconduct, file former Internal Affairs (IA) complaints when appropriate, and to publicize violations of rules and laws by the police. There may be other stories posted on the NJLP Police Internal Affairs Complaint Blog page.
If you would like to help or know of a case we should be looking at, contact the committee at
Legislative Affairs Committee
The Legislative Affairs Committee was created to allow a select core of Volunteers to take action on legislation and policies which directly affects the people of New Jersey.
[INTRO VIDEO - HOSTED ON NJLP STATE YOUTUBE AND EMBEDED HERE]
Staff
Legislative Director and Committee Chair
Volunteers: