English Bulldog Puppies for Sale in Newark, NJ

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced Oct. 29 BermudAir’s launch of nonstop flights from Newark Liberty International and LaGuardia airports to Bermuda, marking the airline’s newest entry into New Jersey and New York. The LaGuardia service began Oct. 29 and the service from Newark Liberty launched on Oct. 26.

From Newark Liberty, BermudAir departs at 11 a.m. every Thursday and Sunday. From Bermuda, planes arrive at Newark Liberty at 9:30 a.m. every Thursday and Sunday.

From LaGuardia Airport, flights depart at 11 a.m. every Wednesday and Saturday. From Bermuda, planes arrive at LaGuardia at 9:35 a.m. every Wednesday and Saturday.

With nonstop twice-weekly flights from the Port Authority’s network of airports, BermudAir gives tri-state travelers direct access to L.F. Wade International Airport, near Hamilton, the capital of Bermuda. All flights operate on Embraer E175 and E190 aircraft.

“The addition of BermudAir service from Newark Liberty and LaGuardia airports highlights our ongoing commitment to expanding convenient, affordable travel options for the tri-state region,” said Port Authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole. “We look forward to BermudAir service at our airports that will provide even more travel options for our airport customers in New Jersey and New York and for the people of Bermuda to see what our region has to offer.”

To celebrate the launch, BermudAir Holidays is offering a 100% flight discount with vacation package bookings from Newark and LaGuardia through Dec. 6, 2025, for travel between Dec. 1, 2025, and March 31, 2026.

The new service from the Port Authority’s airports expands BermudAir’s East Coast presence to eight U.S. airports and strengthens connectivity to Bermuda from Canada. Prior to the launch of service this week from Newark and LaGuardia, BermudAir served the New York-New Jersey region through Westchester Airport in White Plains.

The Bermuda Tourism Authority said 63,281 travelers have visited the island by air travel so far in the first half of 2025, an increase of 2.7% over 2024.

United Airlines and JetBlue also offer direct service to Bermuda.

A faster way to get through part of the Transportation Security Administration screening process is coming to Newark Liberty International Airport Thursday.

All you have to do is show your face.

New facial recognition “eGates” for members of the CLEAR pre-screening program debuted Thursday at some TSA security screening checkpoints at Newark.

It allows travelers to bypass presenting physical documents and identification to a TSA screener at a security checkpoint.

Does that mean CLEAR customers can leave their Real ID documents at home?

Joining CLEAR’s paid service will speed the process but it won’t eliminate the need to have a Real ID compliant form of identification, a CLEAR official said.

Showing a Real ID document became mandatory for domestic air travel on May 7 throughout the nation. Real ID complies with 2005 laws that increased security after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Domestic air travelers over age 18 are required to show a Real ID. Passports and Global Entry cards also meet Real ID requirements. Real ID regulations also apply to enter federal court houses and other federal buildings.

That deadline created a demand for appointments at New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission for drivers obtaining or upgrading a standard license to a Real ID-compliant license.

New Jersey has issued a total of 1.626 million Real ID licenses and identification cards as of July 7, officials said.

But a video of how the eGates work shows travelers looking at a biometric screen that captures their image without displaying identification documents. The process takes about five seconds and two plexiglass gates open once the CLEAR member is verified.

In some cases, TSA agents may conduct follow-up screening that would require travelers to present physical IDs, including a Real ID document, CLEAR officials said

Newark joins LaGuardia, JFK, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Reagan National, Seattle-Tacoma and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airports where the biometric gates have previously been installed.

The eGates conduct “real-time” biometric verification of a traveler’s identity by matching the facial image captured at the gate with their identity document and boarding pass.

That happens by transmitting limited data of the live photo, boarding pass, ID photo used for CLEAR enrollment and identity information. Clear gates open when a traveler’s identity has been verified, a process that takes about five seconds.

What eGates don’t do is have ultimate control of those gates, which still remains with the TSA. The eGate has no access to watchlists, it can’t override TSA decisions, and doesn’t manually open gates.

Once a travelers identify is verified, they proceed to the physical TSA screening process of individuals and carry on bags performed by security officers .

Among the reasons for starting the eGate program is in advance of the FIFA World Cup games this summer and to speed the security screening of the estimated 20 million international soccer fans expected to travel to and from the U.S.

New Jersey-New York was one of several host cities selected last year by FIFA for the World Cup games in July 2026. The men’s 2026 World Cup is set to feature a 48-team tournament, with 60 matches played in the U.S. Ten matches will be hosted by Canada and Mexico.

The eGate program also will help with holiday travel surges at airports and general increases in traveler volume, which has been seen at regional airports.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark, LaGuardia and JFK airports, reported a 2.6% increase in passenger volume to 13.78 million in September, agency data said.

“We are proud to help make America’s airports great ahead of the World Cup. The U.S. should be leading on security, hospitality, and the travel experience,” said Caryn Seidman Becker, CLEAR CEO in a statement.

“This partnership with TSA is a powerful example of how public and private sectors can work together to enhance security and improve the aviation ecosystem,” she said.

The eGate initiative was announced in August 2025 and the technology was installed at no cost to taxpayers, she said.

Prosecutors allege that Amazon exploited delivery drivers, and tried to drive away pregnant employees and workers with disabilities.

New Jersey has slapped Amazon with two lawsuits in the span of a week.

On Wednesday, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General announced that it filed a complaint in state superior court, accusing the largest private employer in the state of trying to drive pregnant employees and workers with disabilities out of its workforce.

According to the attorney general’s office, employers are required to provide these workers with “reasonable accommodations” under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination – as long as it doesn’t create an “undue hardship.”

State prosecutors are alleging that Amazon violated the law by doing the following things:

In one case, a pregnant employee asked her bosses to let her use a wheelchair – and was placed on unpaid leave while the request was pending, prosecutors alleged.

Another pregnant worker asked not to lift heavy items because she was at high risk of a miscarriage. Amazon closed the request because she didn’t file the paperwork within seven days, something that state law doesn’t allow, prosecutors said.

In another case, a worker told their boss that they had trouble lifting heavy things or reaching for things on the highest shelf because of a disability. Instead of working with the employee to find a suitable accommodation, Amazon terminated them just weeks later, investigators alleged.

Amazon currently employs nearly 50,000 workers in its dozens of warehouses across the state. The company’s internal records show that it receives thousands of requests for accommodations from workers with disabilities and pregnant workers in its warehouses every year, prosecutors said.

The lawsuit was filed after a years-long investigation at dozens of Amazon warehouses across New Jersey.

The state is seeking an injunction to stop Amazon from “discriminating against pregnant workers and workers with disabilities,” as well as civil monetary penalties and punitive damages, prosecutors said.

“Put simply, Amazon has exploited pregnant workers and workers with disabilities in its New Jersey warehouses,” Attorney General Matt Platkin alleged.

“In building a trillion-dollar business, Amazon has flagrantly violated their rights and ignored their well-being – all while it continues to profit off their labor,” Platkin added.

An Amazon spokesperson disputed the state’s allegations, offering the following statement to Patch:

“The claims that we don’t follow federal and state laws like the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act or the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination are simply not true. Ensuring the health and well-being of our employees is our top priority, and we’re committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for everyone. The fact is we offer employees comprehensive accommodations throughout their pregnancy journey and postpartum. Since 2022, we’ve processed more than 72,500 pregnancy accommodations requests in U.S. Operations alone, and our current approval rate for pregnancy accommodation requests is higher than 99%. We also offer up to 20 weeks of fully paid leave for eligible birthing parents.”

According to Amazon’s website, the company offers up to 20 weeks of fully paid leave for birthing parents, including four weeks before the baby is born.

“Amazon welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate fully and equally in the hiring process and on the job,” the company’s website says. “Reasonable accommodations are offered at every turn, so if you have a disability, you're encouraged to apply.”

FLEX DELIVERY DRIVER LAWSUIT

Earlier this week, state prosecutors filed a separate lawsuit against the company involving Amazon Flex delivery drivers.

Flex drivers deliver packages for Amazon to commercial and residential locations, using their own vehicles and paying for their own expenses, including gas, insurance, maintenance and tolls.

Prosecutors are accusing Amazon of misclassifying the workers as “independent contractors” instead of regular employees – depriving them of wages, benefits and legal job protections.

While Amazon Flex drivers may have a choice when they work, the company has “significant control” over how they perform their work – such as the time, method and manner of how deliveries are made, investigators said.

“Furthermore, Amazon caps the number of shifts drivers can sign up for each week, but the company does not restrict the actual hours drivers work, nor does Amazon pay drivers for routes that take longer than anticipated,” prosecutors alleged.

Meanwhile, if a driver needs to complete extra tasks in a day or week to follow Amazon’s delivery policies – such as returning undeliverable packages – the company does not pay them, even if its policies cause the driver to work over 40 hours a week, prosecutors said.

Thousands of Flex drivers have been working in New Jersey since at least 2017, authorities said.

The lawsuit seeks to “stop Amazon’s ongoing unlawful behavior, obtain wages improperly withheld from Flex drivers, impose fines and penalties, recover unpaid monies and associated penalties and interest due to the State Unemployment Compensation and Temporary Disability and Family Leave Insurance funds, and recover reasonable costs of enforcement, including attorneys’ fees.”

Amazon defended its Flex practice, saying the service allows drivers personal breaks and that employees are offered the minimum dollar amounts allowed for delivery blocks – money that is still earned even if a driver completes a route early.

“We’re still reviewing the lawsuit, but one thing is already clear: it’s wrong on the facts and the law, and misrepresents what Amazon Flex is and how it works,” a spokesperson told NJ Advance Media.

Authorities have argued otherwise.

“Let’s not make any mistake about this: when a trillion-dollar company says it is providing you with ‘a flexible way of earning extra money on your own schedule,’ it is not offering this opportunity for your benefit,” Platkin alleged.

“Amazon is looking out for itself,” the attorney general said.

The state’s lawsuit got a thumbs-up from local advocacy group Make the Road New Jersey, which has been a vocal critic of the retail giant.

“Flex drivers have been sounding the alarm bell over Amazon’s illegal practices for years, and today, [state prosecutors] have taken a powerful step to ensure that workers are treated with dignity and respect,” said the group’s director, Nedia Morsy.

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com. Find out how to post announcements or events to your local Patch site.

City, state and federal officials joined doctors and even a historian in Newark on Thursday to proudly break ground on a long-awaited expansion and modernization of University Hospital, the state-owned trauma center that has loomed over Bergen Street since the 1970s, adjacent to its affiliated medical school.

Hosted by University Hospital Interim CEO Dr. Kaitlin Baston, the groundbreaking ceremony brimmed with pride as the seat of leading public healthcare and medical education institutions, including the hospital’s affiliate, New Jersey Medical School.

It overflowed with expressions of gratitude toward elected leaders who had helped secure state and federal funding for the project. Those efforts were in keeping with a longstanding promise that the hospital would provide quality care to residents after the city provided the land for the medical school, originally known as the College of Medicine and Dentistry, half a century ago.

“The promise that these health care professionals have kept alive for decades will finally be matched by the physical plant,” said Gov. Phil Murphy.

Murphy said he had undergone a medical procedure the day before and left early, though not before joining other officials in scooping up a ceremonial shovelful of dirt.

The $325 million project will involve a nine-story glass tower along Bergen Street at 12th Avenue. It will be occupied by 11,000 square feet of clinical care space for patient treatment and administrative space for Rutgers Health, a division of the state university that oversees the New Jersey Medical School and dental, nursing and pharmacy schools that also share the University Heights campus.

The cost figure also includes the construction of a separate medical office building for outpatient care. The building would house offices now located in the original hospital complex, which will later undergo rehabilitation for other uses.

Another component of the project is a parking deck with 875 spaces.

Work began a few months before Thursday’s groundbreaking, with demolition of temporary structures, referred to as trailers, that had occupied the site.

Hospital officials anticipate completion of the multi-part project sometime in 2027.

The first of the event’s 13 speakers, introduced by Baston, was veteran Newark civil rights lawyer and city historian Junius Williams, who provided a history of the hospital.

He recalled initial local opposition to a state plan to take 150 acres of land for the medical school. The acreage was eventually cut to 17. The opposition also resulted in a set of agreements, known as the" Newark Accords, “under which state officials pledged that residents’ care would not be diminished as a result of the medical school’s creation or the hospital’s use as its clinical affiliate.

Instead, Williams said, “The quality of healthcare has increased momentously” for residents, while the hospital/medical school campus has served as “an economic hub” for the area.

Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka thanked all those present who had worked to make the hospital expansion a reality.

“I’m super-proud to be here today,” he said. “What you did today was give everybody permission to love Newark.”

Other speakers included Rutgers President William F. Tate IV, who was named to the post in May to replace Jonathan Holloway.

Tate, a Chicago native, told the gathering he was “born in the heart of the Big 10,” which is Rutgers’ NCAA Division I athletic conference and academic alliance. And he urged attendees to take pride in Newark asd the host of a “Big 10 medical school” and affiliated hospital.

The dean of New Jersey Medical School, Dr. Robert Johnson, also spoke. So did the hospital’s incoming CEO, Carole Johnson, a former state human services commissioner who was named to the hospital post last month but hasn’t officially begun.

U.S. Reps. Lamonica McIver and Rob Menendez, who represent parts of Newark, were also on hand. Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo spoke briefly, as did the state Senate majority leader, Sen. Teresa Ruíz, who invited her assembly colleagues from the 29th Legislative District, Eliana Pintor Marin and Shanique Speight, to join her.

Speight noted she was born just across Bergen Street from University Hospital, in a yellow brick art deco building formerly known Martland Hospital, now used by Rutgers Health as educational space.

In addition to overseeing New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers Health also controls Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick.

The two schools are now merging, a lengthy process approved by the Rutgers Board of Trustees in 2023 that will create a single institution called the Rutgers School of Medicine, with separate campuses in the two cities. Proponents say the merger will enhance the quality of education, name recognition and recruitment for the combined school, while improving care at University Hospital.

But some local healthcare advocates oppose the merger, convinced it will shortchange the medical school’s Newark campus and its affiliate, University Hospital.

A handful of merger opponents were gathered near the site of Thursday’s groundbreaking, including members of the People’s Organization for Progress and other groups. They were unconvinced by officials’ assurances that the new project would improve care at the hospital and that resources would be divided fairly between the two medical school campuses.

“It’s a lie,” said Deborah Edwards, a member of the group Protect University Hospital. “This is designed to co-opt the services that are under the hospital.”

Newark’s mayor had been among the officials praising the project. Echoing Williams, the historian, Baraka said the hospital expansion represented the growth of a local anchor institution and that Newark neighborhoods would feed off and thrive around it.

“We are intentionally ‘Eds and Meds,’” Baraka said, referring to the city as a mecca for educational and medical institutions. “If we actually leaned into that, Bergen Street would look entirely different.”

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BHNA_Y9xwuhi2kmzBnmLKxbYs6Cn65tabMqA-Pi9btY/edit?gid=368601624#gid=368601624

Ghosts, ghouls, and history buffs are invited to wander through Newark's past at Mount Pleasant Cemetery on Nov. 1.

NEWARK, NJ — The following news release comes courtesy of The Friends of Historic Mount Pleasant, Inc. Find out how to post announcements or events to your local Patch site.

Ghosts, ghouls, and history buffs are invited to wander through Newark’s past at Mount Pleasant Cemetery from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 1 during the Halloween History Tour & Trick-or-Treat, hosted by the Friends of Historic Mount Pleasant. Admission is free (donations are welcome).

This family-friendly celebration blends local history with Halloween fun. Guests of all ages will stroll along the cemetery’s winding paths and visit gravesites where costumed actors portray more than a dozen notable Newark residents — including inventor Seth Boyden, brewer Peter Ballantine, insurance pioneer John Dryden, and suffragist Florence Eagleton. Each character will share their life stories… and offer treats along the way!

More than just seasonal entertainment, the event provides an engaging opportunity to explore Newark’s rich legacy of 19th-century innovators, artists, and reformers.

Tours will run in small groups for safety and accessibility. Visitors are encouraged to bring trick-or-treat bags, cameras, curiosity, and a sense of adventure. Costumes are highly encouraged.

Don’t miss this rare chance to meet the spirits of Newark’s past—and enjoy a safe, spirited Halloween celebration among autumn leaves and historic tombstones.

Mount Pleasant Cemetery is located at 375 Broadway in Newark.

About Friends of Historic Mount Pleasant

The Friends of Historic Mount Pleasant, Inc. is a volunteer-led nonprofit dedicated to preserving and promoting Newark’s oldest cemetery as both a historic landmark and a community resource. Through tours, events, and educational outreach, the Friends work to keep local history alive for future generations.