A collaboration with the Westfield High School Journalism ProgramJune 2024: A BittersweetFarewell to High SchoolJune 2024. Bittersweet is the only appropriate word to describe it. The rush of emotions that range from sadness to joy. This has been the date that was given to us from the beginning, the...

Zigbone Farm sits in a valley, nestled inside a verdant dip where sheep graze, donkeys bray, and contented cows moo, making farmland music. Last month, eight of us writers gathered at this one-hundredacre oasis in Western Maryland. We stayed in the original farmhouse insulated with strawbales that b...

New Jersey legislators eviscerated governmental transparency last week when both the House and the Senate voted to approve sweeping changes to the state’s Open Public Records Act (OPRA). Now it sits on the desk of Governor Phil Murphy for his signature or veto.The bill, which restricts access to com...

TRENTON, N.J. – Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz stands with government transparency advocates in opposing the majority party’s latest power grab, the dismantling of New Jersey’s open public records act.The fast-tracked legislation (S2930/A4045), introduced in March by Democrats but pulled from considerati...

Proof by Counterexample: Indians in AthleticsA collaboration with the Westfield High School Journalism ProgramTrue freshman Parvej Khan is one of the best mid-distance runners in the NCAA. The 19-year-old is not only leading the best track and field team in the country at the University of Florida b...

While I am relieved that congress has finally passed the bill to provide the much needed aid to Ukraine, I am dismayed that Tom Kean Jr. and his party withheld this aid for six months at a critical time in Ukraine's defense against Russia, causing undue loss of life and the surrender of hard fought ...

The 49th Friends of the Westfield Memorial Library Book Sale ran from April 24 through April 28. Over 1,000 people attended the sale and over 60 volunteers gave their time and energy to make the sale a success. Volunteers came from all over New Jersey. They included members of the Friends, WHS stude...

An insidious effect of repeated propaganda, known as the “firehose of falsehood” technique (ironic considering my topic), is both drowning out facts along with interest in finding truth, as people become overloaded by endless back-and-forth controversy. For months, we’ve experienced a deluge of fals...

A patient in my psychotherapy practice started many sessions in tears: “My son will not talk to me. I text and call him to discuss what’s wrong, but he ignores me. I can’t stand it!” This person is not alone in being iced out by key family members or friends.One friend with three far-flung adult kid...

In early January, I traveled to Israel on a Birthright trip with seventeen other Americans between the ages of eighteen to twenty-six. We were the first Birthright trip to Israel since Hamas’ attack on October 7th and unsure what our experience would be. But going in January, when so many chose to s...