EDITORIAL
BY DHIREN SHAH
Hello Readers,
Local Talk will be celebrating its 25th anniversary on November 1, 2025. Thanks to the entire Local Talk team and volunteers in these 25 years, advertisers, contributors, and best of all the readers. Without our readers, we cannot continue. You gave us inspiration to work more and more.
For these 25 years, I would like to thank all the judges in our High School Speaking Contest for 5 years, judges and volunteers, donors for the contest and of course the participants – local high school students. We gave out a $5,000 prize to the winner of the contest, along with prizes for second and third place. Thanks to Patricia for her generous contribution.
Once again at this juncture I cannot forget Dr. Margaret Lucas, who was the inspiration to start Local Talk Newspaper to help the community, and especially to uplift the quality of life. That became our motto: “LET’S TALK FOR THE BETTERMENT OF OUR COMMUNITIES.”
We are trying our best to improve the quality of life for the community as a whole. However, the quality has not improved per our expectations. More and more money people (builders) come into the community to take control through our politicians who were elected by the people, but help the money people instead. Yes, it is necessary to improve the quality, but at the same time, we must think about the community that has supported the neighborhood. People who live in the community have a heart for their cities, and the elected officials must take care of the community first.
A Charlotte man, DeCarlos Brown Jr., 34, stabbed a Ukrainian woman, Iryna Zarutska, 23, to death. Brown has been charged with first degree murder, and many asked the judge for maximum punishment. He was later hit with federal charges that could trigger the death penalty. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that it’s a “direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people.”
Brown had 14 previous arrests and was released with mostly psychological evaluations. Our system must be fixed. When someone does not pay their parking tickets, maybe for a few thousand dollars, they can be caught and sent to jail, but when someone has criminal records, the system is lenient. Our lawmakers, congress, assembly and council persons should work to correct these laws.
Last week, three Essex County Sheriff’s officers under Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens II and Essex County Sheriff Amir Jones announced, “Three officers Jimmy Rodriguez of Kearny, Fabian Coicedo of East Rutherford and Erik Udvarhely of Belleville were charged with theft on August 28, 2025 from an incident in January 2023. They have been charged for stealing taking items including high-end sneakers during an investigation.” What kind of punishment will these officers receive? Would it be lenient, or what a layperson would get if they did the same thing?
Tariffs have become problematic for everyone. Since the system is not clear, some of the prices are going up and some of the grocery giants are holding back and taking it on themselves right now for the tariffs. As I heard from one of the grocery store owners, the wholesalers have not released some of the groceries for the past month, as they can raise the prices on the stock they are holding. Understand the tariff situation will take some time. The Supreme Court has taken up the case as to whether or not President Trump has the authority to actually levy the tariffs.
Israel wants to eliminate Hamas altogether. Israel made a strike on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar’s capital, in retaliation for a Jerusalem bombing. However, Hamas claimed that none of the Hamas leaders have been affected, except one. Six people died in these attacks. Five people might be the citizens of Qatar. President Trump said that he was disappointed that Israel attacked Qatar, an American ally.
Have a wonderful week. I’ll talk to you next week.
