Public Square Amplified

Building community Last December, Jennah Reddick found out about the proposed data center in her hometown of Bayonne through posts on Facebook and Reddit. “I waited three days to see if anyone would do anything about it,” the 26-year-old Reddick said, but despite the deluge of complaints she saw on the posts, no one did.

This [two-part] series was produced as part of the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University’s 2025 NJ News Commons Investigative Reporting Initiative, and supported with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood, Gustavo Alcocer had a blueprint for what resilience could look like.

Election Day 2026, 6:00 am - Bangor, Maine It’s Election Day 2026, and the sun hasn’t fully risen yet as the clock strikes 6 and polling sites across New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Maine, and just over half of Kentucky open to voters. Not long after the first voters step inside, the raids begin. ICE and CBP agents dressed in low-level military tactical gear storm several public transit hubs next to or directly across from polling sites.

This [two-part] series was produced as part of the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University’s 2025 NJ News Commons Investigative Reporting Initiative, and supported with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. On the corner of Frelinghuysen Avenue in Newark’s South Ward, the skeletal frame of what will become the Lionsgate Film and TV Studio rises from the dirt where the Seth Boyden public housing complex once stood.

Ras J. Baraka speaking to a crowd of demonstrators outside the Frank Lautenberg Post Office & U.S. Courthouse in Newark, New Jersey, on Oct. 21, 2025. Photo credit: Anthony Orlando for Public Square Amplified. Mayor Baraka and Reps. Coleman and Menendez Jr. joined the demonstrators outside the courthouse to support McIver in person. They were also joined by Congress members from outside New Jersey, including U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D) from Minnesota, Rep.

Image credits: (Left) “Welcome to Class” door sign in Abington Avenue School in Newark, New Jersey, taken on Oct. 30, 2025.(Right)Graphic depicting Newark, Jersey City, and Hoboken as designated sanctuary cities in New Jersey. Photo/graphic credits: Anthony Orlando for Public Square Amplified. Newark, NJ - Newark is one of only four sanctuary cities in the state of New Jersey.

Newark, NJ - What began as just another day waiting to start work had turned into what could be a life-altering sequence governed by the intersection of chance and systems that treat humans as capital assets. He always said goodbye to his wife and children as if he might never come home. But today he was closer to that reality than he’d ever imagined, and his heartbeat thumped so loudly it seemed to silence the regular sounds of the day continuing around him. He was trying to catch his breath.

Frackville, PA - Supporters of political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal led a 12-day, 103-mile march demanding an end to medical neglect and elder abuse in prisons, as well as to free Abu-Jamal. The march began on Nov. 28 in Philadelphia where Abu-Jamal was a member of the city’s chapter of the Black Panther Party and ended on Dec. 9 at the SCI Mahanoy Corrections Facility in Frackville where he is now incarcerated.

Trenton, NJ - The New Jersey Food Democracy Collaborative commends state leaders and philanthropic partners for acting quickly when the first-ever disruption of federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits occurred this fall, helping coordinate emergency food access and stabilize many households. Yet this unprecedented event must result in more than short-term triage — it should serve as a turning point for how we think about food security in New Jersey.

Trenton, NJ - The NJ Legislature is close to passing the Climate Superfund Act, which would compel companies liable for pollution and ecological destruction to pay $50 billion to fund part of the cost of climate adaptation projects. Proponents of the bill, modeled after similar legislation in New York and Vermont, hope it is passed in time for outgoing Governor Murphy’s signature in January. The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing on the bill on Jan.