Taylor Jung 鍾永春

Freelancing with a small community outlet that covered the protests in NJ! njurbannews.com/2025/10/20/n...

Youth programs at risk after Brooklyn nonprofit loses EPA grant to Trump DEI cuts Brooklyn’s El Puente lost vital federal grants, jeopardizing its youth advocacy program. These cuts threaten environmental justice and community programs across the city.

My latest, for @chalkbeat.org: El Puente, a leading environmental justice organization in Brooklyn, is fighting for its future after losing a $3M EPA grant due to cuts by the Trump administration. Decades of youth leadership and community work are at risk.

Grand Jury Declines To Charge Officer Who Killed Victoria Lee The decision comes almost one year after Fort Lee Police killed Lee while responding to her mental health emergency.

"Victoria Lee should be alive...we do not, today, find any hope or reason in the workings of the law in New Jersey." - Statement from AAPI NJ @dosocialjustice.bsky.social @njaij.bsky.social @zellieimani.bsky.social @stopaapihate.org @faithinnewjersey.bsky.social

Our traditional demographic categories often just don’t work for people like Kamala Harris and Zohran Mamdani! This doesn’t mean they’re being disingenuous, it means our paperwork needs to be better, ... TikTok video by Nicole Holliday

@mixedlinguist.bsky.social dropping facts on multiracial people not fitting census categories:

www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8h6Tk71/

Mamdani’s Win Sparks Hope For Many New Jerseyans Zohran Mamdani’s NYC win sparks progressive energy in New Jersey, fueling hopes for housing, transit, and political change.

Zohran Mamdani’s NYC mayoral primary win is inspiring hope and action across the river in NJ. Organizers and young voters see his campaign as a blueprint for change. They're pushing local leaders to listen to working families. By Priyanka Bansal, edited by me: njurbannews.com/2025/07/02/m...

New Jersey Council Recommends Reparations Policies In Historic Report On Juneteenth, NJ’s reparations council released a report urging action to address the legacy of slavery and racial injustice in the state.

The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice released its landmark report on Juneteenth, providing sweeping policy proposals to enact reparations in NJ. It also provided a detailed history on why NJ is called “the slave state of the North.” My latest: njurbannews.com/2025/06/19/n...

Burning water, insufficient food, toxic air. These are the conditions people faced inside a Newark immigrant detention facility leading up to last week's protests. My latest:

Thank you for posting my story!

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey mayor is arrested at ICE detention center where he was protesting its opening, acting US attorney says.

60 Minutes found no criminal record for 75% of the Venezuelan migrants the U.S. sent to a mega-prison in El Salvador. https://cbsn.ws/4lC4Vp5

Cory Booker urges Democrats to act in first public appearance after record-breaking speech • New Jersey Monitor Sen. Cory Booker told Democrats in Paramus not to let their inability to do everything undermine their determination to do something.

Cory Booker urges Democrats to act in first public appearance after record-breaking speech newjerseymonitor.com/2025/04/05/c... via @taylorjung.bsky.social

Meet this ‘moral moment,’ Booker challenges in record speech | NJ Spotlight News New Jersey's senior senator denounces Trump agenda, mindful that he broke record set by segregationist Strom Thurmond.

@booker.senate.gov news is everywhere today but check out @bhulac.bsky.social's story for full context and fun facts you only get being there IRL.
@njspotlightnews.bsky.social
www.njspotlightnews.org/2025/04/book...

An ICE Contractor Is Worth Billions. It’s Still Fighting to Pay Detainees as Little as $1 a Day to Work. GEO Group, whose stock is valued at $4 billion, says that state minimum wage laws don’t apply to the cleaning services that it’s asked detained migrants to perform at facilities where they’re kept.

NEW: GEO Group, whose stock is valued at $4 billion, says that state minimum wage laws don’t apply to the cleaning services that it’s asked detained migrants to perform at facilities where they’re kept. @mckenziefunk.com

'Segregated facilities' are no longer explicitly banned in federal contracts The Trump administration cut a clause from federal contracting rules that had been on the books since the 1960s: Companies are no longer explicitly prohibited from having segregated facilities.

The Trump administration cut a clause from federal contracting rules that had been on the books since the 1960s: Companies are no longer explicitly prohibited from having segregated facilities

Families face long wait for justice after police shootings | NJ Spotlight News Families whose loved ones were killed by police can spend years waiting for a resolution.

Families often wait a long time for justice--if they even receive justice. These grand jury decisions can take years to happen.

Trying to transform crisis response in NJ | NJ Spotlight News It’s a year since Gov. Murphy signed a crisis response law, transforming how mental health calls would be addressed.

Advocates have fought hard for stalled police accountability bills. #AndrewWashington and #VictoriaLee were also fatally shot by police responding to their mental health crises over the last 2 yrs. Advocates say this underscores the urgent need for reform.

Over two years later, a state grand jury has decided not to criminally charge officers that killed #NajeeSeabrooks. His killing sparked a watershed movement in NJ, where advocates + communities pushed for police reform and non-law enforcement crisis emergency response programs.

Thank you for always supporting me and my work 🙏

After seven years, my time at NJ Spotlight News has come to an end. I'm leaving with immense gratitude for the stories I've told and the people I've met. I'm excited for what's next and remain passionate about social justice reporting.

thank you for sharing! 🤍

Families of ICE detainees say hard to locate loved ones in system | NJ Spotlight News Families say lack of information distressing amid already heightened concern over threats of deportation, arrests under Trump administration.

Mahmoud Khalil's case is, unfortunately, not unique. Families are showing up to NJ's detention center, only to find out their loved ones are no longer there. It's becoming more difficult for families and lawyers to locate detainees. My latest: www.njspotlightnews.org/2025/03/ice-...

NJ advocates slam plans for new immigrant ICE detention center | NJ Spotlight News Advocates fear what a new immigrant detention facility in Newark would mean for ICE arrests and detentions in New Jersey.

Expired food. Drinking water from their hands. Conditions are deteriorating at New Jersey's only immigrant detention center. Advocates are sounding the alarm as plans move forward for a new facility that will quadruple the state's detention capacity.

“I was yelled at, intimidated by men with guns on their hips,” she said. “One man got right in my face and screamed that my attitude was fucking shit.” (From a reporter attempting to re-enter her own country.)

Then she asked me a question I hadn’t considered before. What is the difference between a bias and expertise? In a previous newsroom she worked in, there were a few people who had pilots’ licenses. When a plane crash happened, those people were looked to as experts. Similarly, newsrooms seek to hire people with military experience, seeing that as expertise as opposed to bias. Many news outlets sent reporters to cover Hurricane Maria who were either Puerto Rican or had lived in Puerto Rico. Ho believes she’s a better business reporter because she worked in banking for three and a half years. So why do we consider some lived experiences — being a woman, being a person of color, being queer, having had an abortion — biases, and others expertise? From: https://longreads.com/2018/03/29/is-journalism-a-form-of-activism/

The next time someone calls a reporter "biased" or an activist — especially someone who is a woman, a person of color, LGBTQ+, an immigrant, and/or disabled — ask them to articulate the difference between bias and expertise: longreads.com/2018/03/29/i...

being neurodivergent means figuring out every day (maybe every hour) what scrunched up position you're going to work in

ICE expands detention capacity with Delaney Hall Facility in New Jersey The facility will expand ICE’s detention capacity in the Northeast, enhancing the agency’s ability to manage the region’s growing enforcement and removal operations.

ICE announced it will turn Delaney Hall into NJ's next detention center. Geo Group is the company which responded to ICE's original RFP. It also filed a complaint against NJ, which is currently battling CoreCivic over its law that (effectively) bans detention centers.

NPR's chief diversity officer to retire, with DEI in the political spotlight Chief Diversity Officer Keith Woods announced he'll retire after a 46-year career in journalism and 15 years at NPR, as the issue he has championed takes center stage in political discourse.

News: NPR chief diversity officer Keith Woods to retire, amid broad attack on DEI

He told colleagues today that he has been planning his retirement since 2023 but delayed after home destroyed last year by Helene.

It follows PBS's ouster of DEI execs.

www.npr.org/2025/02/26/n...

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GOP advances plans to slash social programs | NJ Spotlight News Medicaid is in the crosshairs for Republicans in Congress, who are forging ahead with plans to cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew told reporters this afternoon he's undecided about to vote in his party's budget deal.

That's scheduled for tonight.

Van Drew on the fence not a good sign for passage.

What this proposal means for NJ -->
www.njspotlightnews.org/2025/02/cong...
@njspotlightnews.bsky.social

During World War II, These Teens Used Music and Fashion to Resist the Nazis Get to know the Zazous, the Swing Kids, and the Edelweiss Pirates.

Youth subcultures used flamboyant fashion and jazz to reject Nazi conformity.

Read more here ⤵️