Brenda Flanagan

Florida, Newark

Senior Correspondent at NJ Spotlight News

Brenda Flanagan is a Senior Correspondent for @NJSpotlightNews @MyNJPBS Tweets are my tweets. (And yes, I wear a mask. Meow Meow.)

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Articles

Attorneys battle over ICE detainment centers in NJ

2 weeks ago | njspotlightnews.org | Brenda Flanagan

Immigrant advocates marched from Philadelphia’s Independence Hall to the federal courthouse to show support for a New Jersey law against privately-run immigration detention centers. It’s an especially volatile issue, since the Trump administration ramped up arrests and deportations sweeping up thousands, but desperate for space to lock them up.
Nadine Menendez appeals to Trump after conviction

3 weeks ago | njspotlightnews.org | Brenda Flanagan

Nadine Menendez stood beside her defense attorney after a Manhattan jury on Monday convicted her on all 15 counts of bribery, fraud conspiracy and corruption for taking gold bars, bags of cash, a Mercedes-Benz and more in return for selling the political influence of her husband, disgraced former Sen. Bob Menendez. “I’m devastated by the verdict. We fought hard,” Menendez’s lawyer Barry Coburn said. But prosecutors presented a slam-dunk case, said former federal prosecutor Chris Gramiccioni.
Nadine Menendez found guilty in bribery case

3 weeks ago | njspotlightnews.org | Brenda Flanagan

Nadine Menendez, wife of former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, was convicted late Monday in her federal bribery and corruption trial. Sen. Menendez was previously convicted on similar charges. Nadine Menendez was accused of acting as her husband’s “partner in crime” in a scheme that allegedly exchanged political favors for gold bars and large sums of cash.
Parental rights coalition quizzes Republican candidates for governor

1 month ago | njspotlightnews.org | Brenda Flanagan

Veterans of Trenton’s culture wars over parental rights, gender policies and medical freedoms want to drive Republican voters to the polls for the gubernatorial primary. Five groups with conservative roots recently joined forces as the N.J. Parental Rights Coalition and created their own forum on YouTube. And they sent a litmus test of questions to three top GOP candidates for governor: former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, former radio show host Bill Spadea, and Sen.
Pizzas sent as threats in name of judge’s murdered son

1 month ago | njspotlightnews.org | Brenda Flanagan

“We are facing what appears to be a targeted strike against judges in the form of intimidation by unknown sources,” U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas said during “Speak Up For Justice!,” a nationwide online forum Tuesday to address an escalating storm of retributive political outrage and covert retaliation against U.S. judges from angry extremists. Salas described a new tactic: “Hundreds of pizzas have been delivered to judges all over this country in the last few months.
Haitian workers in N.J. face uncertain future after status revocation

1 month ago | nj.com | Brenda Flanagan

Editor’s note: This story was shared as part of a content-sharing agreement between Mosaic.NJ.com and NJ Spotlight News. You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter (or X). Many Haitians who fled to New Jersey fear deportation by the Trump administration after working here for years under special legal protection. The U.S. granted thousands of humanitarian parole and temporary protected status permits to people from Haiti after disaster and gang violence devastated the island nation.
Stock market volatility roils NJ retirement funds

1 month ago | njspotlightnews.org | Brenda Flanagan

President Donald Trump Wednesday suddenly backed down on most of the reciprocal tariffs he ordered just last week, offering most nations 90 days to meet his demands on trade agreements. The reversal — announced without warning on Truth Social — spurred a big afternoon rebound on Wall Street, after days of whipsawing stock markets that worried people who watched their retirement investments tank amidst the ongoing volatility.
Lawmakers grapple with impact on NJ of volatile market, federal cuts

1 month ago | njspotlightnews.org | Brenda Flanagan

At a hearing of the Senate budget committee on Tuesday, forecasts from the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services urged caution, warning that Gov. Phil Murphy’s $58 billion budget proposal spends about $1 billion more than New Jersey will raise in projected revenues. At current spending levels, New Jersey would burn through its current $6 billion surplus by 2028, according to OLS estimates.
Trump’s shocking deportation of 238 Venezuelans sparks outrage

1 month ago | nj.com | Brenda Flanagan

Editor’s note: This story was originally published by NJ Spotlight News and shared as part of a content-sharing agreement between Mosaic.NJ.com and NJ Spotlight News. You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter (or X). Immigrant advocates in New Jersey are slamming recent deportations by the Trump administration. On March 15, 238 Venezuelans were forcibly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador, a move the Trump administration justified in part under the Alien Enemies Act.
Critics slam Trump for how Venezuelan migrants were deported

1 month ago | njspotlightnews.org | Brenda Flanagan

Immigrant advocates in New Jersey are slamming recent deportations by the Trump administration. On March 15, 238 Venezuelans were forcibly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador, a move the Trump administration justified in part under the Alien Enemies Act. Critics called the move propaganda for a political agenda that’s masquerading as immigration enforcement. Amy Torres with the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice said the implicit suggestion is, “Look how dangerous these people are.