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"Every public school district in New Jersey would be required to set guidelines on how its employees communicate with students online under legislation set for a vote in the state Senate today. The bill (S441) would require that the policy be written, and include "provisions designed to prevent improper communications between school employees and students made via e-mail, cellular phones, social networking websites, and other Internet-based social media." If it passes both houses and is signed by Gov. Chris Christie, school districts would have four months to adopt the policy."

"The new student of multimedia narrative may want to bookmark an archive on digital storytelling by Mark Berkey-Gerard, who teaches online journalism at Rowan University, in New Jersey. A Columbia Graduate School of Journalism alum who has won awards for innovative teaching, Berkey-Gerard logged resources and learning tools on a site called Campfire Journalism: Notes on Digital Storytelling"

"Some residents of Seaside Heights and several other barrier island communities are being allowed to drive back to houses in their own vehicles for the first time since Hurricane Sandy ravaged the Jersey Shore two weeks ago today."

"New Jersey is moving to a "new normal" in the wake of Sandy as more residents move out of shelters, get their power turned back on and send their children back to school, Gov. Chris Christie said. In one of his first acts to return to pre-Sandy days, Christie said he's lifting the odd-even gas rationing system beginning 6 a.m. Tuesday that has been in place for 12 northern counties since shortly after the superstorm caused widespread destruction in the Garden State."

"An 8-year-old third grader who came to school wearing a No. 18 Broncos jersey was sent home to change this week because the number on the jersey violates a gang apparel ban in the district, which is located about an hour north of Denver."

"A northern New Jersey school district's code of conduct that extended to off-campus behavior was struck down today by an appeals court that said the policy exceeded the authority given to local districts by the state. The case stemmed from a policy instituted in 2009 by the Ramapo Indian Hills School District in Bergen County. It sought to ban students from extracurricular activities if they were charged with illegal activities, regardless of whether the alleged behavior occurred on school grounds."

School districts around the state are considering disciplining students for their off-campus transgressions, even though such a policy may spark lawsuits from parents and free-speech advocates. A similar off-campus policy at a Bergen County school is being debated in the New Jersey courts. High schools around the country have had to deal with these incidents for decades, but social network sites are making it easier for school officials to nab teenage culprits.

The Obama administration has freed New Jersey and nine other states from the requirements of No Child Left Behind which was widely criticized for labeling some of the state's top school districts as "failing."

In the latest edition of Time Magazine, author and Yale law professor Adam Cohen presents an overly simplistic portrayal of New Jersey's new "cyberbullying" law as a "model" for the nation.

In the latest edition of Time Magazine, author and Yale law professor Adam Cohen presents an overly simplistic portrayal of New Jersey's new "cyberbullying" law as a "model" for the nation. Cohen's method of analysis, which typifies the reasoning of many state legislators, can be reduced to this: "Bullying is a big problem. This is a tough legal response. Therefore, it is good." Well, maybe. But when even the lobbyists for school administrators are publicly fretting that the schools are being given too much authority (or as they see it, too much responsibility), then you have to wonder whether the train has jumped the rails.

Article that deals with how cyberbullying laws like the one in New Jersey might impact student free speech rights. Includes an interview with Avery Doninger.

Fourth- and eighth-graders in New Jersey ranked near the top in the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests in math and reading, posting the second-highest reading scores in both grade levels, according to data released today.

A Superior Court judge let a lawsuit seeking marriage for same-sex couples in New Jersey proceed, but she sharply pared down the number of allegations in the case against the state. If the law creating civil unions does not give same-sex couples the same protections as married heterosexual couples, it has to be examined as to whether it is constitutional, Mercer County Assignment Judge Linda Feinberg said during a hearing in Trenton this afternoon.

People of all ages pay $2,500 a night to sleep where Snooki and the gang do their reality TV show. 'It's like you are buying 15 minutes of fame,' one says.

TRENTON - A Pennsylvania coal power plant long blamed for belching toxic pollution into Warren, Sussex, Morris and Hunterdon counties must clean up its act within three years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ruled yesterday, handing a major victory to New Jersey officials.

By the time Margaret Campbell-Harris and her family checked into the Residence Inn in West Orange, the hotel was completely booked and the front desk phones rang constantly. "This is the first place we called after we lost power on Saturday around noon," she said, "and we were very, very lucky to get a room." Campbell-Harris, of Upper Montclair, is staying at the hotel with her husband, her son and her dog, Archie, until Friday. She's not very confident that her electric company, Public Service Enterprise Group, will have the power back on by the end of the week.

"Letters: Congressman Lance's vote on TRAIN Act wasn't in New Jersey's best interest To the Editor: Congressman Leonard Lance voted against New Jersey's interest by supporting a bill that will affect our health and economy. Lance, who is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, voted in favor of the TRAIN Act, (H.R. 2401), an outright attack on clean air. This legislation would block health safeguards issued by the Environmental Protection Agency and prevent mercury standards from being adopted. Lance represents the 7th District in Central Jersey, an area that was ranked number 17 on a list ranking the nation's worst air quality, particularly for smog. Representing an area that is already burdened with poor air quality and pollution makes Lance's decision even worse. Thousands of Americans die every year from illnesses related to poor air quality. These numbers will increase if we continue on this path, costing thousands of lives and billions of dollars in health bills. Lance not only voted against our health, but our economy as well."

A 15-year-old Hoboken girl was assaulted in a Downtown Jersey City park Friday night by a group of roughly 30 girls who stole her cellphone, police reports said.

While President Obama and the assorted GOP contenders for the 2012 presidential nomination push their ideas for getting the country back in the black, there are some U.S. cities and counties on the brink.

Coming in at No. 9 on the list is Camden. The city has been beset with money issues for quite a while, highlighted by a mass layoff of its police officers and firefighters earlier this year. The city collected $181,257,000 in revenue in 2009, but was in debt to the tune of $103,284,000 during that same year.

The late Eric Ross, a New Jersey philanthropist and Holocaust survivor, has left $17.2 million to the Golda Och Academy, a Jewish day school in West Orange, the school announced this week.