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Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Early voting for NJ primary begins June 3. Here's where and when to vote
Early in-person voting for the June 10 primary election will begin on June 3. Registered voters can begin to cast their votes on that day in their county's select early voting locations. They will be asked to vote for their party's gubernatorial candidate as well as local, state and federal races. There are three ways to vote in New Jersey for the primary: a vote-by-mail ballot, going to the polls for early in-person voting or heading to the polls on June 10, primary day. Early voting begins on Tuesday, June 3 and will go until Sunday, June 8. The designated early-voting location polls will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., except for Sunday, which will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot is June 3. Unaffiliated voters interested in voting in the primary by mail must complete and submit a party affiliation declaration form to their county commissioner of registration by June 3 to get a mail-in ballot as well. Bergen County saw an increase in early voting numbers last November during the presidential race. Over the nine days of early in-person voting, 112,607 people voted in Bergen County, breaking the record of 19,563 early voters in the 2022 general election. Election day will take place on June 10 with polls open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voting takes place at specific early locations in each county that are likely different from the local polling place used on Election Day. Fort Lee — Jack Alter Community Center, 1355 Inwood Terrace Garfield — Nutrition Center & Senior Citizens building, 480 Midland Ave. Hackensack— County administration building, One Bergen County Plaza Paramus — Bergen Community College, Tech Building, 400 Paramus Road River Vale — Community Center, 628 River Vale Road Teaneck — Richard Rodda Center, 250 Colonial Court Woodcliff Lake — Tice Senior Center, 411 Chestnut Ridge Road Wood-Ridge — Senior Citizen Center, 495 Highland Ave. Wyckoff — Public Library, Shotmeyer Room, 200 Woodland Ave. Clifton — Clifton Public Library, 292 Piaget Ave. Haledon — Haledon Recreation Building, 83 Roe St. Hawthorne — Louis Bay 2nd Library Community Center, 345 Lafayette Ave. Passaic — City Hall, 330 Passaic St. Paterson — The Heritage Center at Alexander Hamilton, 685 E. 34th St. Paterson — Fire Department headquarters, 300 McBride Ave. Wanaque — Passaic County Community College, Wanaque Campus, 500 Union Ave. Wayne — Main Library, 461 Valley Road West Milford — West Milford Township Library, 1470 Union Valley Road Woodland Park — Boys & Girls Club, 8 Memorial Drive Bloomfield — Watsessing Park Community Center, Bloomfield Avenue and Conger Street East Orange — East Orange City Hall lobby, 44 City Hall Plaza Fairfield — Fairfield Recreation Center, 221 Hollywood Avenue Irvington — Municipal building, 1 Civic Square West Newark — Cherry Blossom Welcome Center at Branch Brook Park Newark — Essex County Complex Parking Garage at West Market Street entrance Newark — Weequahic Park Community Center, Meeker and Elizabeth avenues Newark — West Side Park Community Center, 600 South 17th Street Verona — Community Center, 880 Bloomfield Ave. West Orange — Berson Family Center at the South Mountain Recreation Complex at 560 Northfield Ave. Boonton — Municipal building, 155 Powerville Road Denville — Municipal building, 1 Saint Mary's Place Hanover — Community Center, 15 N Jefferson Road Madison — Hartley Dodge Memorial, 50 Kings Road Morristown — Municipal building, 200 South Street Mount Arlington — Mount Arlington Civic Center, 18 North Glen Avenue Mount Olive — Municipal building, 204 Flanders Drakestown Road, Budd Lake Parsippany Troy Hills — Morris County Central Avenue Complex, 2 Executive Drive, Morris Plains Cochran House Professional Building in Newton (There will be parking on Trinity Street) Sussex-Wantage Branch Library in Wantage Louise Childs Branch Library in Stanhope This article originally appeared on Early voting for NJ primary 2025 begins June 3. Where to vote
New York Times
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Every Love Letter Had Its Rose
Amy Milagro Badia and Daniel Naranjo share a 'memory box' from their 12-year relationship. In it is a plane ticket from his first trip to Moca, Dominican Republic, where her family is from; an Eiffel Tower key chain from their vacation to Paris; the cork from the champagne bottle they popped the night of their proposal; and love letters they wrote each other in high school. Ms. Badia took out mementos from the box a few days before her wedding, getting emotional as she reminisced. 'One of the first things Daniel ever taught me was how to draw a rose,' Ms. Badia said of their high school years. 'And on all of our love letters, there's little roses that we've drawn each other.' 'You could just see the love from the beginning,' she added. 'We've talked about this day for so long, and now, it's here.' Technically, Ms. Badia and Ms. Naranjo, both 29, met in prekindergarten in Englewood, N.J., where they're both from, but she doesn't remember him. He does, though: 'She was part of the cool kids in the pre-K class,' he said. (During their adult years, they discovered photos together from prekindergarten, including a photo of them posing at his birthday party.) After prekindergarten, Mr. Naranjo and his family lived in West Palm Beach, Fla., for a few years before returning to Englewood, where the two attended the same middle school and high school. In middle school, he said, he sent her some messages on Myspace, but she never responded to them. (Again, she doesn't recall this.) One weekend in May 2012, during her junior year and his senior year, a friend hosted two parties when his parents were out of town. At the first party, Mr. Naranjo was too shy and nervous to even look at Ms. Badia, she recalled: 'I was like, 'Is this guy gonna talk?'' 'I was so shy that first day because I was like, 'Yo, I don't want to mess it up,'' Mr. Naranjo said. At the second party the following night, Mr. Naranjo loosened up, and they started chatting. 'We just hit it off like if we were together forever,' she said. He walked her home, and they messaged each other the whole night. That summer, they spent many nights climbing ladders on buildings for scenic rooftop views. 'Our dates were super simple because we were in high school, so we didn't really have money to do stuff,' Ms. Badia said. One of those nights, when they saw a shooting star, they made wishes. When she asked him what his wish was, he said, 'That you're my girlfriend.' Ms. Badia responded: 'I'm already your girlfriend.' 'It was so high school, just like so cheesy,' she said, but endearing. [Click here to binge read this week's featured couples.] In the fall of 2012, Mr. Naranjo went to Bergen Community College to study fine arts, eventually dropping out to pursue a career as a tattoo artist. Ms. Badia graduated from Rutgers University with a bachelor's degree in public health. In September 2019, they moved into an apartment in Englewood. 'We were having a ton of fun,' Ms. Badia said. 'We finally had money.' And in November 2022, Mr. Naranjo proposed in Chiang Mai, Thailand, during a dinner at a waterside gazebo. In December 2023, the couple moved to Scottsdale, Ariz., so that Ms. Badia could pursue a career in aviation. She currently works as an administrative coordinator at Merriman Market Analyst. Mr. Naranjo is a tattoo artist at Monarch Studio in Phoenix, and he is an owner of Ink Wave Studio, a tattoo shop in Hackensack, N.J. On April 16, the couple were married at Bel Vino Winery in Temecula, Calif., in front of 35 guests. The ceremony was officiated by Hector Duron, a minister from an officiant service in La Verne, Calif., called Joining Hearts. On the morning of the wedding, they had breakfast together before splitting up to get ready. They met at the venue for their first look, and they read their vows to each other privately. After the ceremony and dinner, the night ended with music and dancing. The D.J. played traditional Latin American genres like bachata, merengue and salsa, as well as hip-hop, R&B, reggaeton and dembow. Looking back at it, Ms. Badia said that the first night they spoke at their friend's party in high school was when she knew he was the one. 'We were walking home and there were some sprinklers because it was nighttime, and Daniel playfully picked me up and ran through the sprinklers,' Ms. Badia said. 'When he touched me, I had this sensation inside and I was like, 'Whoa, what happened?' That feeling is the same feeling that I get now to this day when he hugs me.'
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Repeat after me
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) attends a Town Hall at Bergen Community College on April 5, 2025, in Paramus, New Jersey. Earlier in the week, Sen. Booker spoke on the Senate floor for over 25 hours, protesting President Trump's agenda, breaking a record set by Sen. Strom Thurmond's 24-hour, 18-minute filibuster against the Civil Rights Act in 1957. (Kena Betancur | Getty Images) 'Cory Booker. Cory Booker. Cory Booker.' Say it again, as a mantra, and once more for good measure. Say it with hope. Say it like you mean it, if for no other reason than for it to not only energize you but others, as if creating a ripple effect. Say it with respect for the courage and fortitude that was fueled by anger from a Democratic leader who not only showed his level of intellect but of one who speaks loud and clear for so many of us (and it should be each and every one of us) whose voices are raised in unison, saying, 'Enough!' After reading numerous news reports of Booker's marathon Senate speech from various news sources that I depend on as a writer of commentaries and as an American (I highly suggest that you turn to news sources that have not only stood the test of time but who consistently deliver solid reporting that has been checked and checked again), it's important to note that Booker's 25-hour and 5-minute speech broke the record set by South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond who held a time of 24 hours and 18 minutes for his filibuster against the 1957 Civil Rights Act. That timeframe represents a period of 68 years. And even if you know very little about that earlier time period, the mere fact that Booker broke that record is as significant (and perhaps even more significant) as the points he raised in his speech, finally extinguishing the limelight that had previously belonged to Thurmond. And if you can't connect the dots, then we've lost more than we think we've lost. It's a crucial time in American history; listen and listen with intent. 'As powerful as Thurmond was,' Booker said, 'the people were more powerful.' It's yet one more declarative sentence that repeated becomes so very deeply ingrained in each of us. In a Tuesday night post on X, Booker said, 'This is a moment where we cannot afford to be silent, when we must speak up.' He went on to call it a 'moral moment,' as his fiery speech resonated throughout the Senate chambers and he called to task, to accountability, to responsibility, all that the Trump administration has dismantled or intends to dismantle. There's a great scene from the movie 'The Untouchables,' where Sean Connery's character, Malone, poses this question to Eliot Ness, played by Keven Costner, 'What are you prepared to do?' With one voice, let's do what the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis urged people to do when insisting on justice, 'Get in good trouble.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Cory Booker urges Democrats to act in first public appearance after record-breaking speech
PARAMUS, NEW JERSEY - APRIL 5: U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) attends a Town Hall at Bergen Community College on April 5, 2025, in Paramus, New Jersey. Earlier in the week, Sen. Booker spoke on the Senate floor for over 25 hours, protesting President Trump's agenda, breaking a record set by Sen. Strom Thurmond's 24-hour, 18-minute filibuster against the Civil Rights Act in 1957. (Photo by) PARAMUS — Sen. Cory Booker urged a crowd of about 1,000 people at a town hall in this Bergen County town Saturday to speak up against the Trump administration, days after Booker won attention nationwide for a record-breaking, anti-Trump speech he delivered on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Appearing at Bergen Community College on a day of nationwide protests against President Donald Trump, Booker spoke to people gathered in the school's gym about funding threats to Medicaid, attacks on the LGBTQ community, and stronger leadership within the Democratic Party. 'One of the greatest lessons from history that I've learned … is that the only thing necessary for bad things that happen in any democracy is for good people to say nothing,' said Booker, a Democrat. Audience members told the New Jersey Monitor that Booker's Senate floor speech — which started Monday night and lasted for 25 hours and 5 minutes — was the first concrete action they had seen any Democrat take against the Trump administration, and they came to hear more from the senator. 'He just stood there and would not give up. That's why I'm here today: to support him. He's supporting America. We need more of that,' said Deborah Brown from Hackensack. Saturday marked Booker's first public event since the attention-grabbing speech, which surpassed a previous record when South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The town hall, and Booker's speech, come as voters have pushed Democratic Party officials to take more action against plans by Trump and congressional Republicans to slash funding to social services, deport scores of undocumented immigrants, and implement tariffs that will push consumer prices skyward. As Booker walked out to 'I Won't Back Down' by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, the crowd applauded and chanted 'Cory, Cory, Cory.' Booker opened by saying that he's heard from thousands of constituents telling him to help protect social services and the country's democratic freedoms. At one point, several protesters asked him to do more for Palestinians in Gaza. As law enforcement escorted them away, Booker said he respects their right to free speech but that he did not want others to be disrupted from sharing their stories. He later said he wants more members of the public to stand up for their rights, encouraging them to 'do a little bit more' by posting on social media or attending rallies. 'Find out what you can do. Do not let your inability to do everything undermine your determination to do something,' he said. Courtnay Johnson-Suffern, president of the Bergen County NAACP, asked Booker what he would say to young people who feel disenfranchised and discouraged from running for office. Booker responded by saying Democrats are unfairly accused of being 'alarmists.' 'When our country is taking on the tactics of authoritarian leaders in authoritarian countries, when you see books being band from libraries across the country … those [are] tactics of authoritarian countries,' he said. After the town hall, Booker spoke to reporters about what Democrats can do in this moment, as more young voters and voters of color express their disappointment in the party and in the political system at large. 'The party's going to do great if they make the center of their focus the people and people struggling, people suffering right now,' he said. He also said he recognized his party needs to take more action, but also highlighted the importance of convincing Republican politicians to vote against Trump's policies. 'All of us have to be asking us right now, what can I do to help to appeal to the conscience of people who are many of them are in districts that are purple, districts that many of them — it's clear that what Donald Trump is doing is wildly unpopular amongst their voters,' he said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
The Guardian
05-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Cory Booker urges action in first event since historic speech: ‘This is a moment for America'
The Democratic senator Cory Booker took a version of his record-breaking Senate floor speech on the road Saturday to a town hall meeting in a New Jersey gymnasium, calling on people to find out what they can do to push back against Donald Trump's agenda. Booker took questions at suburban New Jersey's Bergen Community College the same day that more than 1,200 'Hands Off' demonstrations took place around the country. The town hall event was punctuated both by celebratory shouts of 'Cory, Cory' as well as at least a half-dozen interruptions by protesters. It was Booker's first in-person event in his home state since his speech this week, where he held the Senate floor for 25 hours and 5 minutes in opposition to Trump's policies. In doing so, he broke the record for the longest floor speech, which was set by the segregationist senator Strom Thurmond in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Questioner after questioner asked what they could be doing to show their disagreement and worry over the president's policies. Booker told them it only takes a little bit more – could they afford a trip to Washington to lobby against budget cuts? One of the loudest moments of applause came after he addressed a woman who said she worried about what potential Medicaid cuts could mean for her son with autism. 'A gathering like this can't be the end of our activism,' Booker said. 'This has got to be a moment in America where all of us begin to say, what more can I do?' The questions and Booker's response mirror what voters and other Democrats have been hearing during town halls. He said he didn't want to focus on the Democratic party, which has struggled to find a message since losing the 2024 election. Instead, he said, he would focus on 'the people of our country'. 'I think the Democratic party lost a lot of elections because people didn't believe that they cared about them. So let's stop worrying about the politics and get more focused on the people,' Booker said. After the event, Booker said he was reluctant to tell people the exact tactics to use, citing civil rights activists like the late John Lewis. He said creativity has a role to play. 'I know one thing it's not, is sitting down and doing nothing and just watching on TV and getting stuck in a state of sedentary agitation,' he said. 'Everybody has to be taking measures to put the pressure on to change.' Booker, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2020, said after the event that he was focused on running for re-election to the Senate in 2026 and that 2028 'will take care of itself'. Booker, 55, is in his second full term in the Senate. He chairs the Strategic Communications Committee, his party's messaging arm. His team is focused on boosting Senate Democrats' presence across social platforms through more frequent and casual content. Booker himself has amassed one of the largest followings on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and X, where his commentary appears to connect with the party's base. But staffers are now focused on how to transfer that success to Booker's fellow senators, who are often less digitally fluent and face different political landscapes in their home states. That has involved turning the communications committee into a nerve center for testing and coordinating the easiest-to-use formats for lawmakers looking to boost their digital brands. Booker hopes to double the engagement that senators receive with their content directly online and increase the caucus's appearances with online digital media personalities. The start of Saturday's event included six disruptions, including by several people who decried the treatment of Palestinians. Police in the gymnasium escorted them from the arena. 'I hear you and I see you,' Booker said.
