Free Republic

Roughly 50 people lined up in front of Hobby Lobby’s new Totowa store Saturday to protest the company’s role in a recent Supreme Court decision that says the company can choose not to cover contraception for its employees through the Affordable Care Act.The Oklahoma City-based arts and crafts chain is owned by a Christian family that says it tries to run the business applying its religious beliefs. One of the parties in the decision by the high court, the family had argued that the Obamacare requirement that all contraception be covered violated a 1993 federal law that protects religious...

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Obamacare, the administration’s signature legislation, a “failure on a whole number of levels” and said it should be repealed.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. …

“Today was a horrible day for Jersey City,” said Jersey Mayor Steven Fulop who held a press conference this morning at the Jersey city Medical Center announcing the death of Officer Melvin Santiago. Santiiago was pronounced dead at the Jersey City Medical Center after being shot while responding to a report of an armed robbery at the Walgreen’s store at Communipaw Avenue and Kenndy Boulevard early this morning, Fulop said

ATLANTIC CITY - The list of casinos closing or expected to close here just keeps growing. Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino will likely shut its doors for good in mid-September. Trump Entertainment Resorts told The Associated Press that it expects the casino to close its doors Sept. 16. No final decision has been made, the company said, but it “expects that it will terminate the operations of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino on or shortly after September 16, 2014.”

A new danger has been lurking in the waters of the largest lake in New Jersey, in the form of a potentially dangerous snake. As CBS 2’s Tracee Carrasco reported, a boa constrictor that could be up to 20 feet long is on the loose around Lake Hopatcong, and neighbors have been worried.

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.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s administration has awarded a public subsidy worth more than a quarter of a billion dollars to a politically connected manufacturing firm. Holtec International, which makes components for power plants, this week secured a $260m tax break from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) – the third-biggest corporate subsidy that the state has awarded. George Norcross, a powerful Democratic Party “boss” in southern New Jersey, who reportedly struck an important non-aggression pact with Christie, a Republican, during Christie’s re-election campaign, sits on the company’s board of directors. Holtec had been threatening to move 160 workers...

Camden, New Jersey, with a population of 70,390, is per capita the poorest city in the nation. It is also the most dangerous. The city's real unemployment—hard to estimate, since many residents have been severed from the formal economy for generations—is probably 30–40 percent. The median household income is $24,600. There is a 70 percent high school dropout rate, with only 13 percent of students managing to pass the state's proficiency exams in math. The city is planning $28 million in draconian budget cuts, with officials talking about cutting 25 percent from every department, including layoffs of nearly half the...

Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a gun control bill Wednesday that would have banned ammunition magazines holding more than 10 rounds. In his veto message, the Republican governor rejected the idea that limiting the number of bullets that guns can hold will put an end to mass shootings, calling it a "simplistic" and "trivial" approach. The bill would have reduced the legal ammunition capacity from 15 to 10 rounds.

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie today vetoed a gun control bill that would have reduced the permitted size of ammunition magazines, saying it would do nothing to reduce gun violence. “This is the very embodiment of reform in name only. It simply defies common sense to believe that imposing a new and entirely arbitrary number of bullets that can be lawfully loaded into a firearm will somehow eradicate, or even reduce, future instances of mass violence,” Christie said. “Nor is it sufficient to claim that a ten-round capacity might spare an eleventh victim.” The move came less than an hour...

A Jersey City man has been charged burglarizing a home after he was surprised by the return of the residents and then bit a man, gouged his eyes and then scratched a woman, authorities said.

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.

The American Red Cross has employed an expensive New York law firm in an attempt to hide information about how it spent Hurricane Sandy donations, ProPublica reports. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman wrote to the Red Cross last June requesting information regarding how the organization spent the money it received for Hurricane Sandy relief. ProPublica filed a public information request for the information given to the attorney general’s office, but Red Cross attorneys stepped in. Gabrielle Levin, of New York’s Gibson Dunn, appealed the request and wrote to the attorney general’s office to block the release of information. Levin...

MAHWAH, N.J. – Two New York men are suing the New Jersey Lottery after they threw out a Powerball ticket worth $1 million. Salvatore Cambria and Erick Onyango, of Suffern, New York, argue in their federal lawsuit that the lottery didn't quickly update its website with the winning numbers from the March 23 drawing. Cambria tells The Record (http://bit.ly/1lgeKlD ) newspaper he asked Onyango to check the website soon after the 11 p.m. drawing. Cambria tossed the ticket when the numbers didn't match. The men now think the site was showing the previous drawing's numbers.

Shocking Video: Mom beaten as toddler tries to intervene

(Newser) – Apparently Chris Christie has a problem with bridges. Federal prosecutors' investigation into the George Washington Bridge scandal has now widened to include several other bridge closings, the New York Times reports. So far they're focused primarily on repairs to the Pulaski Skyway, and while the allegations aren't nearly as sensational as the allegedly politically-motivated George Washington Bridge closing, they still could lead to felony charges. Christie's administration is accused of pressuring the Port Authority into paying for the Skyway's repairs, even announcing that it would do so before an agreement had been reached. That's a problem because the...

I wonder how Leroy Jones, the black chairman of the Essex County Democratic Committee, looks at himself in the mirror. I wonder how he looks at his family and the members of his community. I wonder how he feels as he sits in the pews of the black church he attends, and how he feels while sitting in the black barbershop. More specifically, I wonder how the people of Essex County, New Jersey, as a whole feel about Jones. In his capacity as chairman of the Essex County Democratic Committee, Jones has provided aid and comfort to one of the...

Democrat Cory Booker, running for reelection after less than a year in office, holds a double-digit lead over Republican challenger Jeff Bell in New Jersey’s U.S. Senate race. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely New Jersey Voters finds Booker with 48% support to Bell’s 35%. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and 13% are undecided.

On Tuesday, The Daily Caller‘s Mirror blog reported that Alaskan Republican Rep. Don Young was clowning around on the House floor during the naming of a post office. He stuck his fingers in his ears and made funny faces, much like Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble on The Flintstones. Post office namings, as you might imagine, are not terribly exciting legislative moments in Washington. But this one actually meant something. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) sponsored the bill to honor a fallen solder.