Top Story
Trenton, NJ – Governor Phil Murphy’s proposed 2026 budget spells bad news for local news, with funding to New Jersey Public Broadcasting (NJ PBS) being quartered from $1 million to $250,000, and the complete elimination of funding for the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium. The Consortium, which was established through state legislation signed by Murphy in 2018, received $3 million in funding in the 2025 budget. With that funding now slashed to zero, the Consortium and its dozens of grantee news organizations are unrelentingly advocating for the governor and the legislature to rethink the budget supporting independent and public media.
News Poem
This morning I got up
slowly.
My hip ached.
Sleep stayed far away.
The weight of the world arrived early,
pressing down on my chest
before I’d even had a chance to rise.
It felt like failure.
It felt like defeat.
But it’s not.
It’s the echo of effort,
the cost of carrying on
when so much feels lost.
I haven’t failed.
Neither have you.
We are tired, not broken.
Quiet, not absent.
Still standing
even when we wish we could lie down
and let the world forget our names for a moment.
Other News
Community Events:

PSA on Media
More from the PSA Newsroom
Newark, NJ - It was well known, prior to 2020, that police protection did not extend to certain segments of the population, specifically Black men, women and children. However, the response to the uprisings of 2020 by the governmental structures of civil society, were exposed as not only violent, but in direct opposition to the demands of the community.
Too Black and Rasul A. Mowatt’s book, Laundering Black Rage, The Washing of Black Death, People, Property, and Profits explain the response of the state, through a process they have coined as “laundering.”
Newark, NJ – In especially challenging times where reactionary forces have been empowered to roll back much of Rev. Dr. Martin King Jr’s work in civil rights and economic justice, 15-year-old Montclair NAACP Youth Council President Ife Joseph moved through the inaugural MLK People’s Convention for Social Justice & Resistance at Essex County College on April 26, undaunted and steadfastly optimistic.
Newark, NJ - May 1st will see citizens across the United States participating in over a thousand protests and rallies led by May Day Strong, a coalition of nearly 200 grassroots and civic organizations nationwide, many of which were behind the National Hands Off campaign on April 5th. The goal of these protests is to unite the public in addressing and preventing what organizers have described as a “billionaire takeover” of the American government.
From the Community
Newark, NJ - Candidates in the 2025 Newark School Board Election declared their campaign positions at a public forum sponsored by the NAACP-Newark on Thursday, March 13.
Every April, the Newark Board of Education holds an election to select candidates to serve a three-year term with oversight responsibility for the development and approval of regulations for the operations of the overall public school system.
Community News
Community Calendar
Hover over shaded dates to see more information, or visit our Community Calendar page for all events.
Postings
Subscribe to Public Square Amplified.
Your community is us.