Free Republic

A state federal judge has struck down a lawsuit challenging New Jersey’s ban on “sexual orientation change efforts” or SOCE, as they are referred to in court. This is the second time in nine months a judge has dismissed a lawsuit against a practice called conversion therapy. Gov. Chris Christie signed the law that banned the practice in NJ last year, according to the Associated Press.

Inside Hoboken’s combined junior-senior high school is a storage closet. Behind the locked door, some mothballed laptop computers are strewn among brown cardboard boxes. Others are stacked one atop another. Dozens more are stored on mobile computer carts, many of them on their last legs. That’s all that remains from a failed experiment to assign every student a laptop at Hoboken Junior Senior High School. It began five years ago with an unexpected windfall of stimulus money from Washington, D.C., and good intentions to help the district’s students, the majority of whom are under or near the poverty line, keep...

In October of 2013, a Pennsylvania resident named Shaneen Allen drove into New Jersey’s Atlantic County and was pulled over by police for an “unsafe lane change.” When the detaining officer arrived at her car window, Allen informed him that she was carrying a concealed firearm, and presented her Pennsylvania carry license as proof of eligibility. Unbeknownst to her at the time, however, was that New Jersey is among the 20 states that do not recognize Pennsylvania’s permit. In consequence, she was arrested. If convicted of the charges that the state has elected to bring, she will be locked in...

The chairman of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) is refusing to campaign for the GOP's nominee for New York governor. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is heading the GOP's gubernatorial efforts across the nation, was campaigning in Connecticut when reporters asked him whether he would campaign on behalf of Rob Astorino in his race against sitting New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. According to Christie, the answer is a nearly-unqualified no.

A Philadelphia mother of two is facing three years in prison after she mistakenly entered New Jersey, where she was stopped for a traffic violation and found in possession of a handgun loaded with hollow-point bullets. Shaneen Allen, 27, was pulled over in New Jersey’s Atlantic County after making an unsafe lane change in the early morning hours of Oct. 1. Allen then told the officer that she had the .380 Bersa Thunder handgun, as well as a concealed carry permit for Pennsylvania, unaware that her permit was not transferable to The Garden State. “The gun charge was not proper...

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) — A Jersey City police officer will be disciplined, after allegedly posting information online about possible gang retaliation after police shot and killed a man who murdered a fellow officer. As WCBS 880’s Marla Diamond reported, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and Public Safety Director James Shea said rumors of more violence crop up frequently when a police officer is shot. “We have had, in the past, allegations of potential retaliation against police officers but that is a fairly common occurrence and we haven’t been able to attach any credence to it,” Shea said. In this...

Meet the honest 27 year old single mom from PA who faces 3 years in a New Jersey prison Shaneen Allen is no dangerous criminal. She's a single mom working 2 jobs who's already been robbed twice while traveling alone at night in Philadelphia. Her family suggested that she carry a gun for protection. She took a gun safety course, applied for and was granted a concealed carry permit, and bought a gun. Then she made the mistake of driving into New Jersey. Now she's going to prison. Allen said that she didn't know her permit didn't apply to New...

In what could be the latest move toward a 2016 presidential bid, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) offered a wide-ranging critique of President Obama’s domestic and foreign policies. Speaking to reporters at the National Governors Association on Saturday, Christie labeled Obamacare, the administration’s signature legislation, a “failure on a whole number of levels” and said it should be repealed. “But has to be repeal and replace with what. It can’t just be about repeal,” Christie told the audience. “What I’ve said before is, what Republicans need to be doing is putting forth alternatives for what should be a better...

Partly blaming unrest in the Middle East on President Barack Obama, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Saturday that Obama has not spoken firmly and forcefully on Israel’s behalf and that the country no longer trusts it has the full support of the United States because of him. The Republican governor’s remarks came as Israel targeted civilian institutions with suspected ties to the militant organization Hamas and declared it would step up its bombardment of northern Gaza. Israel says it is acting in self-defense against Hamas rockets. …

Jersey City Police Chief Robert Cowan is alleging that Mayor Steve Fulop planned to snarl traffic outside of the Holland Tunnel the same month he announced plans to sue the Port Authority for $400 million.

Twenty years before he killed a cap on magazine rounds, the Republican entered politics explicitly to fight for an assault-weapons ban and bullet limit. A gun control bill landed on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s desk on July 2, the same day that two parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, took to the Trenton State House to try to convince him to sign it. When Christie vetoed the bill instead—not even blinking at the pleas from the victims’ families—he sent a message to conservatives and gun-rights groups that he is still a...

Joe Scarborough on Tuesday slammed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s refusal to meet with the parents of the Sandy Hook shooting, calling his defense one of the “stupidest arguments” he’s ever heard. The Republican governor declined to meet with the families of children who were killed in the December 2012 shooting at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School, who wanted to discuss gun control legislation. Christie last week vetoed a state bill that would have banned ammunition magazines that held more than ten rounds. The governor said that it would have been “really hypocritical” to meet with the families who wanted...

Every Fourth of July, some Americans sit down to read the Declaration of Independence, reacquainting themselves with the nation’s founding charter exactly as it was signed by the Second Continental Congress in 1776. Or almost exactly? A scholar is now saying that the official transcript of the document produced by the National Archives contains a significant error – smack in the middle of the sentence beginning “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” no less. The error, according to Danielle Allen, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, concerns a period that appears right after...

The Showboat Atlantic City Hotel and Casino is closing after more than 27 years of operation, according to an official with the city’s largest casino workers union. Unite HERE Local 54 president Bob McDevitt said Showboat’s 2,100 employees will receive WARN Act notices Friday. The federal law requires covered companies to give workers at least 60 days notice if plans are in place to shut down a job site or execute mass layoffs. “We were notified earlier today from Caesars that they’re issuing WARN Act notices to Showboat employees tomorrow and we immediately began notifying our members,” McDevitt said Thursday...

The woman who police say viciously attacked a New Jersey mother in front of her two-year-old son has turned herself into authorities. Latia Harris, 25, surrendered to police on Monday night in relation to last week's brutal that was captured on video.

TRENTON — Democratic state Senate President Stephen Sweeney has been traveling all over the state, pitching his "Sandy Bill of Rights" bill — a tour many see as laying the groundwork for a run for governor. Republican lawmakers who never dared challenge Gov. Chris Christie this month openly opposed a series of tax and fee hikes in his budget, including a tax on e-cigarettes first proposed by the governor. Nobody knows if the Republican governor will prepare a White House run in the next year. But already, lawmakers from both parties have been staking claims and thinking of a post-Christie...

A Salem City woman is being sought by police for her alleged role in a brutal attack on a 27-year-old woman Tuesday. Latia Harris, 25, is accused of assaulting Catherine Ferreira and threatening to kick the woman's 2-year-old son while a crowd of onlookers stood and watched, some of them recording the beating with their cell phones rather than intervening.

Salem City Police Chief John Pelura III has a simple message for video beating suspect Latia Harris: "Turn yourself in. You've been charged and you are going to have to face the consequences." Harris, 25, of Salem remained on the lam Friday, Pelura said.

Authorities in South Jersey are searching for a McDonald's employee caught on video violently beating a young mother in front of her toddler. A 54-second long video, recorded by an on-looker and posted to the internet, shows a woman, wearing a red McDonald's uniform, briefly exchanging words with the victim in a grassy area in Salem City, New Jersey. Moments later, she throws the young mother to the ground, sits on top of her and unleashes a series of punches to the victim's face and chest. Motorcyclist Parks Legally, Still Issued 15 Tickets in 3 Months "Mommy!" the victim's young...

A brutal video was captured of an assault Tuesday night in Salem. Police said Latia Harris, 25, allegedly attacked a woman for spreading rumors about her. A crowd of bystanders watched, but the only one who tried to stop the attack was the victim's 2-year-old son. Someone is getting savagely beaten in front of her small child? Quick, grab your phone! The dozen people who witnessed an attack a New Jersey police chief labeled "physically sickening to watch" did not try to stop Tuesday's assault in Salem or use their phones to call police. Instead, they stood by and make...