Who is your candidate and what does he do?

Reporter’s Notebook By Cheryl Hehl As the election draws closer and voters throughout the county prepare to cast their ballots for candidates running for vacant seats, there is one burning question on my mind: Who are these guys anyway? While I hate to reduce any election to the level it appears to be getting at, […]

Watch out! Reformers are on the loose

Left Out By Frank Capece Jeff Brindle, Executive Director of the New Jersey Election Law Commission that oversees campaign contributions, is railing against the “blitzkrieg” of outside political spending in campaigns. He cites a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision known as the Citizens United ruling which allows unlimited independent spending in federal elections by corporations […]

A peek behind the curtain

Left Out By frank capece When Summit Councilman Tom Getzendanner spoke at last week’s meeting of the Union County Freeholders, pressing for studying a merger of the County Police with the Sheriff’s department, he became part of a diverse group who are giving a closer scrutiny to the budgets and operation of law enforcement. Getzendanner […]

The talk on Skyline Drive

Left Out By Frank Capece Mike Altmann picked the border street of Skyline Drive in Clark to walk on Sunday, spreading his message that a change in local government is needed. A Democratic challenger for one of three councilman-at-large seats he is trying to unseat a long standing Republican majority. He knew it wouldn’t be […]

Fire Prevention Week

Fire Prevention Week begins Sunday and continues through Saturday, Oct. 13. This annual observance, now sponsored by the National Fire Prevention Association, has been presented every year since 1911, when it was launched to mark the 40th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire. Because that conflagration in the Windy City occurred Oct. 8, 9 and […]

The talk on Evergreen Avenue

Left Out By frank Capece Marc Krauss, a Republican Committeeman running for re-election in Springfield, knows, better than most, the axiom “all politics are local.” Campaigning last Sunday on Evergreen Avenue in his township, he faced the normal pleas over high taxes, an occasional reference to the township’s long-stagnant downtown, and some personal gripes. Krauss […]

A responsibility to all the kids

Left Out By Frank Capece The first question posed to Beverly Powell: Why does a top-flight legal secretary working in the city for a big, intellectual-property firm run for the Hillside Board of Education? The answer was unexpected. With only one adult child, Powell said she wants to instill “upward mobility and better citizenship” for […]

A matter of great difference

Left Out By Frank Capece Over the coming weeks, people in the area may be brushing up on the history of the federal Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. With the chances growing of East Coast shipping being brought to a halt by a dockworkers’ strike, “it will make a great deal of difference to a great […]

The Birchwood Battle is just beginning

The Aug. 23, LocalSource editorial compared Cranford’s efforts opposing the Hekemian Group’s development of Birchwood Avenue to the futility of resisting the assault on the Alamo. Resistance may be as futile in August 2012 as it seemed in March 1836, but we hope not. Cranfordmay take hope from another battle that took place inTexassix weeks […]

Cranford’s rapidly ending mystery

The bus trips fromCranford’sOrange Avenuepool to theCountyCourthouseinElizabethwill soon be ending. Residents who are attending court sessions, and are justifiably concerned over a 360-unit apartment building proposal in the Birchwood area of town, are getting some painful lessons in the affordable-housing saga. At this point, it’s reminiscent of the line by Basil Rathbone in a 1943 […]