FBI Task Force Arrests Elizabeth Gang Members

ELIZABETH—The FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force, in conjunction with the Union County Prosecutor’s Office, has arrested six members of the infamous Bloods street gang – including two from Elizabeth—along with nine of their criminal associates. This wave of arrests began Monday evening, according to Weysan Dun, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Newark Field Office.

During mid-2008 through mid-2009, the task force, in conjunction with the Union County Prosecutor’s Office began to target the activities of the Bloods street gang operation in Union County. Through the use of various sensitive law enforcement techniques, the task force identified the subjects listed below as major figures in the Bloods criminal operation, officials said.

As a result of the investigation, the task force seized approximately a half kilogram of cocaine and a quarter kilograms of heroin, four firearms, and one vehicle. State arrest warrants were issued for the below individuals for various drug and weapons violations, all based on allegations made in criminal complaints:

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Conservative Endorses Lonegan

STATE – Texas Congressman Ron Paul endorsed conservative Steve Lonegan in the New Jersey Republican Gubernatorial Primary today. The former presidential candidate announced his support in an email sent to thousands of New Jersey Republicans.

“I was very impressed by Steve Lonegan’s record of budget restraint as Mayor of Bogota, NJ,” Paul said. “Steve has been a vocal critic of runaway spending and taxpayer funded bailouts, and he understands that we must reject the nanny state and return government to its proper, restrained role.

“Sending Steve Lonegan to Trenton would be a tremendous victory for the people of New Jersey.”
Lonegan will face liberal Republican Christopher Christie, who earned fame as United States attorney for New Jersey, appointed by President George W. Bush, in the primary election on June 2.

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County Begins Seat Belt Enforcement Campaign Monday

UNION COUNTY—The Union County Police Department will join with more than 470 police agencies in the state in this year’s “Click It Or Ticket” campaign. The nationwide program is a zero tolerance enforcement effort to increase safety belt use and prevent serious injury or death in traffic crashes. Stepped up enforcement will be conducted from May 18 to May 31.

In 2008 there were 592 traffic crash fatalities. A large percentage of the motor vehicle occupants killed in traffic crashes were not wearing a safety belt. The most recent statewide survey, undertaken in June 2008, determined the seat belt usage rate in New Jersey to be 91.75 percent.

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Arts Organization Seeks True Stories That Document Current Life In America

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – First Person Arts is going across to the nation to find the best videos, photographs and stories that describe how individuals, families, and communities are managing during these hard times. The contest, First Person America: In These Hard Times, invites artists and everyday people to document how this generation of Americans is coping with one of the hardest economic periods since the Great Depression. The website for the contest is at www.firstpersonamerica.org.

First Person Arts hopes to gather stories from all 50 states.  Inspired by the artists of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), who documented the experiences of Americans in every part of the country, First Person Arts is asking artists to help create the first draft of the history of our era by capturing, in photographs, on video, or in writing, the stories of America and its people during these difficult times.

One of the unexpected outcomes of the Great Depression was a decade of creative outpouring that covered the U.S. map. Under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), thousands of artists fanned across the country documenting the experiences of everyday Americans as they worked to maintain their families, their communities, and their way of life in the face of a national economic crisis.

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Edison Sergeant Receives 2009 D.A.R.E. Officer of the Year Award

EDISON—Edison Police Sgt. Robert Dudash Jr. was recognized by the state D.A.R.E. Officers Association as a 2009 D.A.R.E. Officer of the Year.

Sgt. Dudash is the D.A.R.E. coordinator for the Edison Police Department and is also the supervisor of the Edison Police Department’s Community Resource Unit. The D.A.R.E. program instructs students on how to make the correct choices when it comes to avoiding involvement with drugs, gangs and violence.

Mayor Jun Choi congratulated Dudash. “His efforts as a public servant have made a positive impact on our community, particularly on our youth,” the mayor noted.

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Clark Woman Celebrates 100th Birthday at Osceola Church

Clark Woman Celebrates 100th Birthday at Osceola Church—Jean Rathyen of Clark, fourth from left, celebrates her 100th birthday with her family and her church family at Osceola Presbyterian Church in Clark on Mother’s Day. Her two daughters, son and their spouses and children gathered at the church’s Fellowship Hall to help cut the cake and share the brightly decorated confection that announced her birthday. (Photo by Susan M. Dougherty)

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“Star Trek” – The Way They Were – 3 popcorns

By Michael S. Goldberger, film critic

While the old calendar on the wall proclaims June 21 the first day of summer this year, fans of that cultural phenomenon known as the Summer Blockbuster will contend “Star Trek’s” recent arrival in movie theaters more aptly heralds the season. Either way, this prequel’s chronological hocus pocus will have you scratching your time continuum.

Indeed some techies, who doubtless include beaucoup Trekkies, will be able to explain just why the time travel plot at the heart of director J. J. Abrams’s interpolative freefall makes complete sense. Good for them. They probably also passed organic chemistry. I figure no great harm in taking their word for it and just looking at the pretty pictures.

There’s certainly an eyeful. Enhanced more than ever by the newest special effects, the noble idealism that creator Gene Roddenberry originally breathed into his TV series lives and prospers. Centuries from now, but only a flash of an eye before we first knew them, this tells how Kirk and Co. joined their stars in the resolve for a better and safer world.

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