Free Republic

A brutally murdered 19-year-old New Jersey man was allegedly targeted by a self-proclaimed homegrown jihadist who called it a “just kill,” Fox News has revealed. Brendan Tevlin, of Livingston, was stopped at a red light driving home from a friend’s house on June 25 when Ali Muhammad Brown allegedly walked up his car and fired ten rounds, striking him eight times. Mr. Brown then drove the car, with Tevlin’s lifeless body still in it, to a parking lot in West Orange and left him there, Fox News reported. Police initially announced the arrest of three suspects in Tevlin’s murder, calling...

The U.S. Justice Department investigation into New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s role in “Bridgegate” has thus far uncovered no information he either knew in advance or directed the closure of traffic lanes on the George Washington Bridge, federal officials tell NBC 4 New York. The September 2013 closures—where several entrance lanes to the George Washington Bridge in Ft. Lee were shut down causing a traffic nightmare for commuters—has been the subject of several federal and state investigations. […] According to one former federal prosecutor, who had no involvement in any of the probes into the bridge closure, investigations of this...

A proposed ordinance in Montville, New Jersey could give police officers broad powers – including entering private property – if underage drinking is even suspected.

PATERSON — The raising of a flag at City Hall on Sunday was like any of the dozen or so similar events held in the city each year in a nod to its diversity.   Except it wasn’t.  That’s because the flag raised — for the first time in Paterson, and possibly at any city hall in the United States — was Palestinian. Symbols or assertions of Palestinian statehood are fraught with political sensitivities, and Khader Abuassab, the event’s organizer, said he received harassing phone calls before Sunday’s event. But no problems were on display Sunday when the flag was...

A new government report confirms what pro-life advocates have long feared: President Obama's health care reform law allows for taxpayer-funded abortions. In a report to Congress, the Government Accountability Office found 28 states with no laws restricting qualified health plans that limit abortion coverage. In Massachusetts, only two of the 111 state-approved plans comply with the historic Hyde Amendment, which prohibits abortion funding except in cases of rape or incest. Five states (Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont) don't offer any qualified plans that follow Hyde's precedent, in place since 1977. That directly contradicts the president's 2010 executive...

TRENTON — Three city residents were arrested Thursday following an early morning gunpoint robbery. The robbery occurred in the 600 block of Beatty Street around 2:45 a.m. on Thursday after a Wilquan Anderson, 19, of Trenton allegedly invited his friend over to see some girls, Lt. Mark Kieffer said. Unfortunately for the victim, it turned out there were no girls, only the barrel of a gun. According to Kieffer, the 21-year-old victim fled to a nearby McDonalds and called police. ** snip ** The officers stopped the teen [that left the house] who became nervous when the patrolmen began to...

Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino closed its doors early Tuesday, the fourth Atlantic City casino to go belly-up so far this year. When it opened on May 14, 1984, Donald Trump called it the finest building in Atlantic City, and possibly the nation. But since then, The Donald has left town and cut ties to its casinos. And the Plaza, like many Atlantic City casinos, has seen better days.

PATERSON, N.J. (WABC) -- A disabled veteran was thrown out of a fast food restaurant because of his service dog. The incident itself is troubling enough, but you won't believe what happened after the Eyewitness News investigators arrived at the restaurant to demand answers. It's one of the most bizarre exchanges Eyewitness News has ever had on a story. Federal law is very clear: Dogs are recognized as service animals and all businesses open to the public, including restaurants, must allow them in. But a U.S. Army veteran says a Subway restaurant in Paterson, New Jersey, blatantly ignored the law,...

What is happening to us, and what can we do about it? Confronting violence starts with confronting our anxiety about it.I know, the world is a violent place. But doesn’t this summer, and the last few weeks, seem especially so? From the global scene to the most personal, we seem to have settled for violence as the “new normal” at every level. This week, we observed the 13th anniversary of 9/11. That terrible day affected all of us, each of us being able to describe where we were and what we felt as the Trade Center towers fell. Yet, 13...

When the Baltimore Ravens released Ray Rice earlier this week, the NFL followed suit with its own punishment and suspended the running back indefinitely. How long that suspension may last is unclear, but it sounds like Rice plans to fight it. Citing multiple media reports, NBC Sports' Pro Football Talk says Rice intends to file an appeal Monday that "will be handled by the NFLPA and by an outside lawyer retained by Rice." Initially, Rice received a two-game suspension in July, after an initial video showed him dragging his unconscious then-fiancee, Janay Palmer, out of a casino elevator in New...

PATERSON, NJ -- A disabled veteran was thrown out of a fast food restaurant because of his service dog. The incident itself is troubling enough, but you won't believe what happened after the Eyewitness News investigators arrived at the restaurant to demand answers. It's one of the most bizarre exchanges Eyewitness News has ever had on a story. Federal law is very clear: Dogs are recognized as service animals and all businesses open to the public, including restaurants, must allow them in. But a U.S. Army veteran says a Subway restaurant in Paterson, New Jersey, blatantly ignored the law, and...

A New Jersey grand jury indicted 42 alleged drug dealers Friday in connection with a series of arrests last November that prosecutors are calling the largest drug bust in Camden in more than a decade. Prosecutors said the 56-page indictment, which stemmed from a takedown dubbed “Operation North Pole,” takes aim at a violent narcotics network with ties to Mexican cartels whose participants dealt millions of dollars in cocaine and heroin each year.

TRENTON, N.J. -- The pretrial intervention program offered to Ray Rice in the assault case involving his wife was granted in less than 1 percent of all domestic violence assault cases from 2010-13 that were resolved, according to New Jersey Judiciary data obtained Friday by "Outside the Lines." Rice and his then-fiancee, Janay Palmer, were arrested on Feb. 15 and charged with simple assault after an incident at an Atlantic City casino. Janay's charges were later dropped, but on March 27, an Atlantic City grand jury increased Rice's assault charge to aggravated assault-bodily injury in the third degree causing bodily...

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services cut New Jersey's credit rating one notch to A on Wednesday because of concerns about budgetary pressure from the state's underfunded public pension system. The action makes New Jersey the second-lowest rated U.S. state for S&P, behind only Illinois, rated A-minus with a negative outlook. S&P also rates California A, but that state's outlook is positive. It was the eight consecutive downgrade for New Jersey, but S&P's action contained a silver lining: the rating agency removed a warning of possible further downgrades in the near term and revised its outlook to stable from negative.

Trump Entertainment Resorts filed for bankruptcy Tuesday and threatened to shut down the Taj Mahal Casino Resort, which would make it the fifth Atlantic City casino to close this year. The company owns Trump Plaza, which is closing in a week, and the Taj Mahal, which has been experiencing cash-flow problems and had been trying to stave off a default with its lenders. The company said the Taj Mahal could close Nov. 13 if it doesn't win salary concessions from union workers.

Mallory Musallam filed a class action complaint against CBS Broadcasting, CBS Corporation and the retiring late night host’s Worldwide Pants Inc. for herself and everyone who has ever been an intern on the show. "Named Plaintiff has initiated this action seeking for herself, and on behalf of all similarly situated employees that also worked on The Late Show with David Letterman, all compensation, including minimum wages and overtime compensation, which they were deprived of, plus interest, attorneys’ fees, and costs," says the jury demanding filing in New York Supreme Court ... Claiming that the production company and CBS intentionally wrongfully...

Republican Gov. Chris Christie's administration issued a directive Monday allowing the state's casinos and racetracks to offer sports betting, a move likely to be challenged in court by sports leagues. The governor said he took his cue from previous federal court rulings that found that nothing in New Jersey law prohibits the casinos and horse racing tracks from offering sports betting, so long as it's not sponsored or licensed by the state. Soon afterward, one racetrack, Monmouth Park in Oceanport, said it was preparing to offer sports bets "in the very, very near future."

Green Sky workers being told that the recycling plant is closing. A prominent Clifton-based recycling company abruptly closed its doors on Friday, informing more than 100 employees that they had worked their final day while dozens of North Jersey towns scrambled to forge temporary arrangements with other collectors. Green Sky Industries, which promoted itself as the stateÂ’s largest private recycler with 75 municipal contracts, many in Bergen and Passaic counties, announced in a letter to towns on Thursday that it was shutting both of its plants, in Clifton and Carteret in Middlesex County. The companyÂ’s Clifton employees on Friday were...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie appears to have largely moved past the lane-closing scandal that rocked his administration and threatened to derail his political career one year later. But many outside his tight inner circle are still waiting for investigations to conclude before making up their minds. What happens next will depend largely on the outcome of the investigation by the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey into the lane realignments that started a year ago Tuesday on the George Washington Bridge and were apparently hatched by the Republican governor’s aides as political payback. That includes how close they cut to...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has given two different timelines of when he learned of lane closures on the George Washington Bridge after they were imposed by his aides, allegedly for political reasons. Local lanes of the bridge connecting New York City to New Jersey were diverted for five days in September, ostensibly for a traffic study. It later emerged that Christie allies had engineered the closures, which caused massive traffic jams in Fort Lee, N.J., whose mayor didn't endorse Mr. Christie. The governor said he had no knowledge of his allies' involvement in the closures.