Carlos Gonzalez

Gov. Jon Corzine in Newark today 

NEWARK - Gov. Jon Corzine stood with Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark), Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer (D-Newark) and other lawmakers in the East Ward today and promised to back legislation to pay for new urban schools construction.

"We need action before June 30th, so that we can fulfill our Constitutional obligation to provide our children with a thorough and efficient education," said the governor, moments after taking a tour of the Oliver Street Elementary School.

Coutinho, an Ironbound native who cosponsored the legislation with Spencer, described dilapidated and overcrowded conditions in the facility.

North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato, left, welcomes U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews to Newark. 

NEWARK - U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) today said he has so far heard no response from the campaign of Sen. Frank Lautenberg in response to his seven-debate challenge.

"I don’t think he has an obligation to me," said Andrews. "I think he has an obligation to the people of the state to do that, so we can have a real test of ideas and so we can see what people want to do."

They hear it on the streets of Newark.

But on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, members of the City Council can be sure to receive a barrage of complaints from residents who are worried not only about the murders and gangs but about the cost of living and the threat of corporate interests upending local concerns.

"You're supposed to be standing up and fighting for us," the poet Amiri Baraka cried during the public comment forum of a meeting. "Until I see you fighting, then you're not a good council."

"You're giving tax abatements to developers," cried resident Frank Hertz. "You'd better justify this tax abatement."

And always there is the complaint about the scarcity of jobs.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker personally apologized to those young people employed by the city who have not received their checks in a timely manner, and promised to try to rectify the problem in speedy fashion.

Today, the 2,100 children employed this summer by Newark Works went to Symphony Hall for a pizza party on the mayor. Inside there were processing stations set up for those kids among them who have not yet submitted key information such as social security cards or birth certificates. The goal was to get as many of the 600 remaining unpaid children their checks by the weekend.

The poetry of the mayor’s phrasing leaves young audiences whispering that Barack Obama has nothing on Cory Booker, but the gruffest old time Newarker-naysayers found - or dragged - some youthful allies here Wednesday to join their baleful chants about managerial mayhem in the city.

The fact that almost half of the children participating in Newark Works’ summer employment program didn’t receive their paychecks on time enabled the anti-Booker forces to fit another generation - and another rack of feathers into their war bonnets as they descended on City Hall to berate a likewise chagrined Newark City Council.