Free Republic

Federal auditors are questioning more than $500,000 in Hurricane Sandy debris removal costs in Belmar, saying the town awarded two contracts that did not comply with federal rules and lacked paperwork to support other expenses. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General today released its findings about the hard-hit Monmouth County borough, marking the third time a federal audit of a Jersey Shore town’s debris removal work following the storm has been made public. The way two contractors charged for cleanup work accounted for more than half of the expenses flagged in Belmar’s audit. Federal auditors said Belmar...

Belleville, New Jersey (My9NJ) - Longtime Belleville Councilwoman Marie Strumolo Burke is in hot water after allegedly going on a racist rant back in October. Mayor Raymond Kimble says her rant was picked up in the background of a voicemail to another councilman, who played it for the Mayor. On the recording you can hear a woman say: “This is going to be a f****** n***** town.” (snip) The councilwoman reportedly denies it’s her voice on the recording and accuses the mayor of dirty politics. (snip) “Listening to it repeatedly using critical listening skills that I’ve developed over 30 years,...

STORRS, Conn. – A University of Connecticut professor asserted that he came from an ape on Tuesday as he went wild during a campus gospel presentation that included discussion on evolution. James Boster, Professor of Anthropology at University of Connecticut, spent over two hours attempting to draw students away from several evangelists that were open-air preaching and distributing gospel literature on campus. Evangelist Don Karns of Hampton, Virginia told Christian News Network that Boster approached him as he was holding a sign about evolution and became condescending and confrontational. “He asked me if I had accepted Darwin as my lord...

On the same week that former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin doubled down on waterboarding remarks she made, the campaign of CD3 GOP Primary candidate Steve Lonegan said it would welcome Palin in to campaign with the movement conservative candidate. “Darn right I’d do whatever it takes to foil [terrorists’] murderous jihadist plots – including waterboarding,” Palin, a Republican, wrote in a Facebook post Monday night, following up on controversial comments made last weekend at the annual National Rifle Association meeting in Indianapolis. “Well, if I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we’d baptize terrorists,” Palin told...

The slaughter of Democrat sacred cows continues and writing it off as mere coincidence becomes harder. It started several weeks back with a series of FBI raids; on the Speaker of the Rhode Island Assembly, an openly Gay married bi-racial man. From there in rapid succession there were FBI raids/arrests and/or indictments of the Black mayor of Charlotte North Carolina – bribe taking; a White Illinois State Senator – child pornography; a Black New York State Assemblyman – padding his expense account; a Black female Indiana County treasurer – stealing county funds; a Chinese American California State Senator- gun running...

Marie Strumolo Burke, a Democrat running for mayor of Belleville, N.J., is allegedly heard on tape ranting about her fear that her village could become a ‘f------ n----- town.’ A candidate for Mayor of a small New Jersey town was caught on tape allegedly spewing a racist rant in which she said she didn’t want her village to become a “f—— n—– town.” Marie Strumolo Burke, who is running for mayor in Belleville, N.J. as a Democrat, was reportedly heard making the vitriolic comments on a voicemail from 2013, according to NJ.com. In the voicemail, left by the former chairman...

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy has issued a warning to Republicans who continue to question the integrity of the agency’s scientific data: we’re coming for you. McCarthy told an audience at the National Academy of Sciences on Monday morning the agency will go after a “small but vocal group of critics” who are arguing the EPA is using “secret science” to push costly clean air regulations. “Those critics conjure up claims of EPA secret science — but it’s not really about EPA science or secrets. It’s about challenging the credibility of world renowned scientists and institutions like Harvard University...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who spoke Saturday at the Maine Republican Convention, was the big winner in the party’s straw poll. Paul took 26 percent of the vote, to 14 percent for the second-place finisher, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). With 690 ballots cast at the convention in Bangor, the order of finish was: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.): 176 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas): 98 Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: 70 Dr. Ben Carson: 62 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: 60 Jeb Bush: 57 Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.): 37 Mike Huckabee: 28 Condoleezza Rice: 26

The movement to change how presidents are elected is gaining steam and proponents of the long-stalled popular vote initiative are predicting victory by 2020. Eleven states/jurisdictions have enacted the National Popular Vote (NPV) bill, giving the proposal 165 electoral votes — 61 percent of the 270 electoral votes needed to trigger the new voting system. Legislatures that passed the law include California, Illinois, New Jersey. Massachusetts, Maryland, Washington, Washington, D.C., Hawaii, Rhode Island and Vermont. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signed a popular vote bill into law last week. All of these states, as well as the nation’s capital...

The founder of a radical Islamic website that praised figures like Osama bin Laden and Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan has been sentenced to 2½ years in prison for using the site to threaten Jewish groups. Yousef al-Khattab, 45, of Atlantic City, N.J., had converted from Judaism and started the Revolution Muslim website in 2007. …

Chris Christie offered a challenge to critics who allege the New Jersey governor created a culture of intimidation that led to so-called “Bridgegate”: Prove it. The Republican defiantly made his case Thursday at a town hall meeting in Ocean County after an attendee told the governor that his friends and family believe that Christie must have cultivated a toxic environment that allowed such an abuse to take place. Point Pleasant Beach, N.J. resident Len Ludovico, 71, said he wanted to know what argument he could make to such critics, insisting he knows Christie would not risk his “political career and...

A federal judge in Newark has thrown out a lawsuit against the New York Police Department for spying on New Jersey Muslims, saying if anyone was at fault, it was the Associated Press for telling people about it. In his ruling Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martini simultaneously demonstrated the willingness of the judiciary to give law enforcement alarming latitude in the name of fighting terror, greenlighted the targeting of Muslims based solely on their religious beliefs, and blamed the media for upsetting people by telling them what their government was doing. The NYPD’s clandestine spying on daily...

A Washington, D.C.-based secular organization has filed a lawsuit against the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. The American Humanist Association announced Monday that a New Jersey school district will be the latest entity sued over the two words. David Niose, attorney for the American Humanist Association's Appignani Humanist Legal Center, said in a statement that he believes the pledge's words are religiously coercive. "Public schools should not engage in an exercise that tells students that patriotism is tied to a belief in God," said Niose. "Such a daily exercise portrays atheist and humanist children as second-class citizens,...

Should the U.S. keep ObamaCare? Yes No I don't know

A New Jersey college professor says he was suspended for posting online a photo of his daughter wearing a "Game of Thrones" T-shirt with a "threatening" quote on it. Francis Schmidt, an art and 3-D animation professor at Bergen Community College in northern New Jersey, told The Record he posted the picture of his 7-year-old daughter Jan. 12 wearing a T-shirt with the "Game of Thrones" quote, "I will take what is mine with fire and blood."... ...A day after posting the photo, Schmidt told The Record that he was questioned as to whether the photo was a threat against...

MAURICE RIVER TWP. — A Cumberland County woman argues that the state Motor Vehicle Commission’s alleged denial of issuing an “8theist” license plate violated her First Amendment rights, according to a lawsuit filed on Thursday.

Governor Cuomo has signed off on the National Popular Vote Compact, giving New York's 29 electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. SILive: Count New York in. The Empire State has joined the National Popular Vote compact with legislation signed Tuesday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. States that have signed on to the interstate agreement will award electoral votes for president to the candidate who receives the majority of the national popular vote. "With the passage of this legislation, New York is taking a bold step to fundamentally increase the strength and fairness of our nation's presidential elections,"...

A mother was charged Wednesday with trying to kill her three teenage children by driving into the Delaware River, the Burlington County Prosecutor and Florence Township Police announced. “The car was nose down into the water. I heard screaming,” says Darnell Taylor. Taylor was driving by when he saw what was happening and jumped in to help the three teenagers — ages 13, 14 and 15 — and their mother to safety. “The car was going under fast. Once the back window got kicked out, the water started coming in through the window and it was filling up even more,”...

New Jersey Governor and potential 2016 presidential candidate Chris Christie said during a speech at a forum on drug and alcohol abuse that he is pro-life and he tied his opposition to abortion to his respect for human life, chrischristie4saying he is pro-life both before and after birth. Christie was a featured speaker at the conference, held at Saint Peter’s University. His comments on abortion came during a conversation with former Gov. Jim McGreevey. “It’s great to be pro-life, but you need to be pro-life after they get out of the womb, too,” Christie said to applause. Video and transcript...

Mozaffar Khazaee, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen who worked for defense contractor Pratt & Whitney, was arrested last week for allegedly trying to smuggle boxes of documents related to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the plane expected to be the Pentagon’s next generation fighter jet. He was picked up in New Jersey on his way to Iran.