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The New Jersey Senate will not vote on a bill that would have raised the gas tax and cut the sales tax in the Garden State. Action News learned Thursday the Senate is not satisfied with the bill that was approved by the Assembly, and senators are working to draft their own legislation. The current legislation would have raised the gas tax to 37.5 cents a gallon from 14.5 cents and cut the sales tax from seven percent to six percent. The gas tax money would be used to pay for road and bridge work for eight years. Gov. Chris...

TRENTON, New Jersey — Republican Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday touted an anti-tax crusader's endorsement of a proposed 23-cent- per-gallon gasoline tax hike along with a sales tax cut, sweeping aside objections raised by Democratic leaders in the state Senate and voicing confidence that the measure would be passed in that chamber. Christie all but dared lawmakers not to act on his plan during a statehouse news conference, a day after the Assembly passed the plan to pay for a $2 billion a year transportation trust fund for eight years. The fund runs out of borrowing authority Friday, and Christie's...

"A Princeton woman woke up early Wednesday to a stranger sexually assaulting her in her house, police said...Arias-Santiago is from Guatemala and living in the country illegally and federal immigration authorities were notified of his arrest, police said."

In the English language, a certain type of baked chocolate dessert is known as a "brownie." This is very problematic, of course, because a lot of people have brown skin. If you say the word "brownie" out loud, you might hurt the feelings of a person with brown skin. And that's bad. That's why we have the police. On June 16, police were called to an unlikely scene: an end-of-the-year class party at the William P. Tatem Elementary School in Collingswood. A third grader had made a comment about the brownies being served to the class. After another student exclaimed...

A former top Clinton administration diplomat who used his political sway to garner support for the Iran nuclear deal apparently was being bankrolled the entire time by Boeing -- which is set to make billions off a jet deal with Tehran now that sanctions have been lifted. ADVERTISEMENT Thomas Pickering, who also served as co-chairman of the board examining the Benghazi attack response, publicly pushed for the nuclear deal before its approval last year. He did so by penning op-eds, writing to high-level officials and even testifying before Congress. With the deal in place, Boeing has since moved forward on...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ-05) released the following statement in response to reports that Boeing has reached a multibillion-dollar deal to sell commercial passenger planes to Iran. Boeing is one of the largest beneficiaries of the Export-Import (Ex-Im) bank which perpetuates corporate welfare to mega corporations by handing out taxpayer-backed loans. "This agreement between Boeing and the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism is extremely troubling and shows that crony capitalism remains alive and well in Washington. Not only has Boeing lobbied for years to keep the taxpayer-backed Export Import bank alive, it now has also used its...

Immigrant advocates are asking Hudson County to end its participation in a federal program that permits county officers to identify and arrest undocumented immigrants. The county's current agreement to participate in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement program, known as 287(g) for the section of the 1996 law that authorized it, expires on June 30. Advocates for immigrants asked county freeholders at their meeting tonight to urge the county to sever its relationship with ICE A county home to so many officials who claim to be pro-immigrant should not participate in the 287(g) program, Chia-Chia Wang, organizing and advocacy director...

Friends and family are defending the trio stopped at the Holland Tunnel as they said they headed to rescue a teen girl whose friend died of a heroin overdose. Being arraigned in court Wednesday in Jersey City, N.J., were John F. Cramsey, 50, owner of Higher Ground Tactical, an indoor shooting range and gun dealership in Upper Milford Township; Dean S. Smith, 53, of Upper Milford Township; and Kimberly Arendt, 29, of Lehighton, Pa. The trio were on a mission to help a 16-year-old girl they believed was in trouble after a friend overdosed in New York City, according to...

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Tuesday proposed overhauling the state’s education funding formula to provide all public school districts with a flat rate of $6,599 per student. Calling it his “Fairness Formula” in policy statements on Tuesday, Christie said aid for special needs students would continue even with any potential formula change. Schools are funded through property taxes, which in New Jersey are some of the highest in the nation because of the state’s “unaffordable and broken school funding formula propped up by special interests and misguided Supreme Court precedent,” Christie said in a statement. …

Three people were arrested with multiple loaded guns, rifles and ballistic vests at the Holland Tunnel Tuesday when police stopped them for driving with a cracked windshield, authorities tell NBC 4 New York. The three individuals, two men in their 50s and a woman in her 20s who may be from Pennsylvania, were stopped on the New Jersey side of the tunnel around 8 a.m., authorities said. A search of their vehicle revealed the weapons cache. The guns seized included long-range weapons as well as handguns. A camouflage helmet with what appeared to be night goggles was also recovered.

West Long Branch, NJ – In a head-to-head contest for president, Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by 7 points among registered voters and by 8 points among likely voters. The Democrat’s lead shrinks by a point when potential third party support is taken into account. Both major party nominees remain unpopular, but more voters say it is important to keep Trump rather than Clinton out of the White House. The latest Monmouth University Poll also finds that attitudes towards terrorism and the Republican nominee’s proposed Muslim ban have not changed much since the Orlando tragedy. Currently, Clinton holds a 7...

The school board last night adopted a new policy that proponents hope will make the public schools more accommodating to transgender students. >>>>>>>The new policy requires the district to issue student ID cards in the name that reflects the student's gender identity; requires school staff to address students by the names and pronouns corresponding to their gender identity, even if the students have not obtained court-approved name changes; and allows students to dress in accordance with their gender identity. The policy also bans the district from forcing students to use restrooms or locker rooms that conflict with their gender identity....

Mayor Bill de Blasio is facing at least a half-dozen federal, state, and local investigations into his fundraising, accompanied by ugly headlines and the lowest approval ratings of his tenure. Last week’s arrest of Norman Seabrook, the powerful head of the city's corrections officers’ union, on federal corruption charges in a case involving a de Blasio fundraiser, only crystallized what more and more New York Democrats are starting to believe: With next year’s election looming on the horizon, the progressive mayor is becoming vulnerable to a primary challenge. While a few prominent local politicians are toying with the idea, it’s...

JERSEY CITY -- The Muslim Federation of New Jersey has condemned the mass shooting that killed 49 people inside an Orlando night club, and called the shooter a "self-proclaimed Muslim" who "clearly knows nothing about his faith." "We as a Muslim community are extremely heartbroken by the news coming out of Orlando," Imam Saifun Nabi said this afternoon. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims in all our religious congregations since hearing the news."

Link only: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-13/christie-pans-democratic-proposal-to-double-new-jersey-gas-tax

Former Attorney General Eric Holder has come out against proposals in Chicago and New Jersey to require fingerprint background checks of drivers for ride-hailing platforms such as Uber and Lyft. Why would President Obama's onetime top lawman come out against regulation that is supposed to protect the riding public? Credit the intersection of two forces. First, Holder's tony corporate law firm, Covington & Burling, represents Uber. Also, as Holder sees it, requiring drivers to submit fingerprints may "have a discriminatory impact on communities of color." I was surprised to read about Holder's opposition, as I have trouble seeing Holder as...

Two Republican officials in New Jersey are switching political parties over what they say are racist comments made by presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. Hackensack Mayor John Labrosse and Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino changed their party affiliation to independents on Thursday. […] Labrosse and Canestrino say there was not a specific comment that influenced their decision. They say it was the general tone of the campaign. …

On Tuesday Donald Trump closed the door on the Republican nomination for President by winning all five of the remaining primaries — New Jersey, South Dakota, Montana, New Mexico and California. Trump won the last 16 Republican contests. Trump has 1,536 delegates and counting. Trump may also be the first candidate in the modern era to have funded his campaign by himself during the primary season. Although his results are much more impressive, he only spent a quarter the amount of money as Democrats Clinton and Sanders. He proved to be the real capitalist in the primary while Clinton and...

Trump closed out the primary election season with wins in South Dakota, New Mexico, New Jersey, Montana, and California. While Sen. Bernie Sanders remains actively campaigning for the Democratic nomination against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Trump became the GOP’s presumptive nominee shortly after winning Indiana’s May 3 primary election. The American businessman surpassed 2012 nominee Mitt Romney’s and 2008 nominee John McCain’s primary election vote totals by late in April according to Politico calculations. Previous record holder George W. Bush received just 10.8 million votes in 2000, a number far surpassed by Trump’s over 13 million votes with...