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Everyone involved seems to be trying to put the best face on it, but Barack Obama went so far as to suggest senior Democrats like Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who take a hard line on Iran, are doing so purely to appease their donors. Obama said that as a former senator himself, he understood how outside forces — like special interests and donors — can influence senators to act, one of the senators recounted.

In the pages of the Times of Trenton on January 20, a psychologist named Ronald J. Coughlin published an op-ed titled “Fundamental Changes Would Better American Society.” Mr. Coughlin is worried about a lot of the right things: alcohol abuse, the divorce rate, childbearing out of wedlock (particularly among teens). But what ideas he has for “fundamental changes”! The idea, for instance, that because science tells us about the maturing brain we ought to raise the drinking age to twenty-five is going to go over big, with an electorate that can vote at eighteen. (Mr. Coughlin may want to...

In naming an emergency manager for Atlantic City on Thursday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie left the door open for the seaside gambling resort to file for bankruptcy if it can’t get its finances under control. The Republican governor and likely presidential candidate appointed a corporate turnaround specialist as the city’s emergency manager, and tabbed the man who led Detroit through its municipal bankruptcy as his assistant. Corporate finance consultant Kevin Lavin will have broad powers over Atlantic City’s finances and operations. Kevyn Orr, who helped lead Detroit through a financial crisis, will serve as special counsel to Lavin. Christie...

A handful of “pro-life” lawmakers have sabotaged a vote House Republican leaders planned for today to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on scientific evidence showing unborn babies feel pain in abortions. As LifeNews reported yesterday, Rep. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina along with Reps. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania and Jackie Walorski of Indiana — each of whom have pro-life voting records — objected to a vote on the bill on the grounds that the language in the bill did not do enough to allow women who have been victimized by rape to have abortions. Together, they reportedly...

The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has broken ranks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling U.S. officials and lawmakers that a new Iran sanctions bill in the U.S. Congress would tank the Iran nuclear negotiations. Already, the Barack Obama administration and some leading Republican senators are using the Israeli internal disagreement to undermine support for the bill, authored by Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Robert Menendez, which would enact new sanctions if current negotiations falter. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- supported by Republican Senators Lindsay Graham and John McCain -- is pushing for his own legislation...

Jim VandeHei sees dead people. On today's Morning Joe, the Politico honcho agreed with Joe Scarborough's suggestion that Chris Christie is like Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense: [politically] dead but doesn't know it. Ironically, Scarborough distanced himself from his own suggestion, twice saying that he didn't believe it. But when he asked his guest if the characterization was fair, Vandehei replied "I think it is. At best he's a live man stumbling." View the video here.

In the video, the mood changes in a flash when Days tells his partner about the gun and starts yelling, "Show me your hands!" The driver, Leroy Tutt, raises his hands immediately. Reid does not at first. Days, still yelling, reaches into the car and appears to remove a gun. "I'm going to shoot you," Days shouts, at one point addressing Reid by his first name. "You're going to be f---ing dead. If you reach for something, you're going to be f---ing dead." Days tells his partner, "He's reaching for something." Faintly on the video, Reid can be heard telling...

Menendez: Obama Admin Statements on Iran 'Sound like Talking Points Straight out of Tehran'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A heated exchanged between President Barack Obama and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) broke out Thursday over whether the U.S. should reimpose sanctions on Iran amid ongoing negotiations over the country's nuclear program, according to two senators who were in the room. Menendez, the leading Democrat pushing for additional sanctions against Iran, forcefully pressed Obama on the need for additional sanctions during a meeting in which Obama urged Menendez and other senators to drop their efforts to pass sanctions legislation. Additional sanctions, Obama argued, could torpedo ongoing negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. The unusually sharp exchange, between...

A New Jersey mother is accused of setting her newborn baby on fire, killing her. Hyphernkemberly Dorvilier, 22, of Pemberton Township, New Jersey, is charged with one count of murder after she allegedly doused her newborn daughter with an accelerant and then set the child on fire. Pemberton Township Police officers were called to Simontown Road just before 11 p.m. Friday after a resident called in to report a fire in the roadway. When they arrived, they found the baby girl on fire and quickly doused the flames.

A New Jersey woman who authorities say put her newborn baby in the middle of a road and set the child on fire was charged Saturday with murder. Burlington County prosecutors said Hyphernkemberly Dorvilier, 22, of Pemberton Township was jailed on $500,000 bail. It wasn't known if she has retained a lawyer. Police responded to a Friday night call about a fire in the middle of a residential road in the township, about 30 miles east of Philadelphia. Officers found the baby in flames and put out the fire. The child reportedly was alive and breathing at the time she...

The owner of a New Jersey deli shot and killed a man who police say was attempting to rob the store at gunpoint. New Jersey has made it almost impossible for law abiding citizens to own guns and concealed weapons permits are nearly impossible to acquire. Thugs in the state are not expecting an armed response and for this would be criminal, it will be his last attempt.

PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBS) — Police say a newborn child was found burning in the middle of a road in Pemberton Township, New Jersey. It happened late Friday night along the unit block of Simontown Road. Sources say neighbors witnessed a woman, in her 20’s, douse a newborn child in an unknown flammable substance and then set the infant on fire. Responding officers doused the flames and the child was flown to St. Christopher’s Hospital For Children with second and third degree burns on the entirety of the baby’s body. The child’s condition was not immediately known. Police have not...

As Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush engage in an increasingly bitter fight over big donors and fundraisers, another Republican eyeing the presidency could get squeezed out: Christopher James Christie. The New Jersey governor is suddenly moving quickly to build a campaign infrastructure in the wake of announcements by Romney and Bush that they are exploring White House bids. Christie has brought on a finance chairman, is launching a leadership PAC and is heading to Iowa for a cattle call later this month. A big chunk of his State of the State speech this week was about the rest of the...

Chris Christie could be setting up a leadership political action committee before the end of the month to help raise money with an eye toward the White House in 2016, according to a published report.... ....advisers and supporters insist his timetable hasn’t budged with news that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney may campaign in 2016. Christie is unlikely to make a formal announcement before the end of the spring, the newspaper reported.

The proposed Port Ambrose deepwater LNG terminal near New York City has been denounced by environmentalists as a dirty and dangerous export terminal in disguise. The reality is that LNG is the safest and cleanest fuel available and natural gas is critical in efforts to eliminate air pollution and save lives in New York City. Protesters showed up at a public hearing January 7 on Long Island to encourage Governor Cuomo to veto the proposal for the terminal. The Port Ambrose LNG terminal should be appreciated by environmentalists as a technological marvel that helps provide much needed seasonal supplies of...

If two out of three adults are considered to be overweight in America, it is no surprise that losing weight tops New Year’s resolutions every year. Regardless of age, race, or gender, the battle of the bulge unites many of us. Heck, I even hired a personal trainer since I can’t get it together on my own. And while most of us will abandon our nutrition and exercise routines before January is over, there is a man whose dedication to health in 2015 could make all the difference in the 2016 elections. His name is Chris Christie, governor of New...

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s (R) administration is proposing more gun control in the form of “security requirements” for firearm retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers–and employees of the same–in the state. The proposals originated with the State Police and are the result of “several thefts and lapses in oversight…that led to at least one death” during the past 10 years.

In the latest blow to New Jersey, which is still staggering from the recession, Mercedes-Benz USA said on Tuesday that it would move its headquarters to Georgia from Montvale, N.J.

<p>Nearly two of every three families making an interstate move involving New Jersey last year were leaving the Garden State, the highest rate in the country.</p> <p>New Jersey had the greatest percentage of outbound moves of any state nationally last year with almost 65 percent departing, according to a company which bills itself as the largest transporter of household goods in the country.</p>