Free Republic

With most of New Jersey's voters residing in the northern half of the state, Republican presidential nominee will most likely make his appeal to Jerseyians via a Parsippany home base, according to The Daily Record. District 25 senator and NJ campaign co-chair for Trump, Joseph Pennacchio, told The Daily Record that the office will probably open shortly at Powder Mill Plaza on eastbound Route 10. A Trump campaign office did open in Edison this past May, but closed shortly after. Pennachio explained to The Daily Record, "About two-thirds of the state population lives north of Middlesex County, so it makes...

Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday rejected legislation to increase the sales of smart guns, saying the measure would make the state “inhospitable” to legal gun ownership. Christie, a Republican, conditionally vetoed the measure that would have required state gun retailers to keep an inventory of smart guns, which can be fired only by authorized users. He sharply criticized the Democrat-led Legislature, which sent him the bill for the second time this year in June. He had previously pocket-vetoed the measure. “This bill is reflective of the relentless campaign by the Democratic legislature to make New Jersey as inhospitable as possible...

Vetoes Propose Deleting “Justifiable Need” As a Carry Permit Requirement, and Clean Repeal of the Smart Gun Law Mandate with No Strings Attached! “Conditional Veto” Format Would Allow the Legislature To Accept Governor Christie’s Conditions and Immediately Implement Them Please Tell Legislators to Accept Governor Christie’s Conditions! Wednesday August 24, 2016: In a blockbuster announcement today, Governor Christie conditionally vetoed two pieces of anti-gun legislation (A3689 and S816), imposing dramatic conditions that would change them into pro-gun measures establishing shall-issue right-to-carry and repealing New Jersey’s 2002 “smart gun” law mandate with no strings attached. Copies of the vetoes are available...

By 2015, she had risen through the ranks at Paramus Catholic High School, her alma mater, to dean of guidance in just four years, and she had been serving as head coach of the elite Lady Paladins basketball team since the retirement of the longtime coach, Al Roth, the year before.But in January, she lost it all.  Drumgoole, of Bogota, says the school fired her from both of her jobs after administrators learned that she was married to a woman.  Now, she has filed a lawsuit in Superior Court in Hackensack alleging that Paramus Catholic; its president, James P. Vail;...

New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton formally announced his resignation on Tuesday, marking the end of a second term as the NYPD’s top cop. He will work at Teneo, a Clinton-tied firm. He will head a new division of the consulting company founded by Declan Kelly, a former State Department special envoy, and Doug Band, once Bill Clinton’s personal assistant. The company, launched in 2011, served as an adviser to the Clinton Global Initiative, and ex-President Clinton served for a short time on the Teneo advisory board. Among Teneo’s past employees is Huma Abedin, who pulled in $15,000 a...

A 42-year-old city man was fatally shot Saturday night, marking the third shooting death in two days. Akbar J. Scott was shot around 9:45 p.m. on the 600 block of Irvine Turner Boulevard near the city's Upper Clinton Hill neighborhood, acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray and Newark Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose announced in a statement.

TRENTON, N.J. (CBS) – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has a little over 16 months left in his term. So what does he do after that? Believe it or not, he’s thinking about life after Trenton. If Donald Trump doesn’t win the White House in November, Christie does not go to Washington. He’s already putting one child through college, with two more due to start when he leaves office. A reporter asked him about a couple recent appearances as a substitute sports talk host on New York radio.

A New Jersey hospital advertises its services to pregnant Russian women who want to give birth in the U.S., enabling their children to qualify for dual citizenship This is the first in a series of articles investigating Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center. In this story we take a look at the facility’s AmeriMama birth-tourism program. Our second story details the hospital’s questionable business practices; the third, its ties to powerful NJ politicians.. A company based in the Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center has been advertising online to Russian citizens, encouraging pregnant women to come to the Secaucus facility to give birth —...

— Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday rejected a bill that sought to automatically register New Jerseyans to vote when they visit a Motor Vehicle Commission office to either get or renew their driver's license. The governor went as far to mock bill's sponsors, saying in his conditional veto it should have been dubbed "The Voter Fraud Enhancement and Permission Act." Christie rejected the bill (A1944) that would have automatically registered people when they applied for a permit, license, identification card or renewed a license unless the resident specifically chose to opt out.

Three men were shot after gunfire erupted five times in less than six hours in the southern portion of the city overnight, officials said. Four of the shootings are believed to be related and involve "two groups with a long standing history," Jersey City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said. The six-hour stretch of violence came approximately 24 hours after a shooting at a Jersey City church hall left a 17-year-old dead boy dead and two girls injured. Morrill said police do not think the the church hall shooting is connected to the five shootings that followed.

BLOOMFIELD — A 62-year-old man was beaten with a crowbar by a complete stranger who allegedly took issue with the man's Donald Trump T-shirt, police said Tuesday. The man was walking on West Passaic Avenue on Wednesday when a man he did not know pulled up in an older gray car, Bloomfield police said. The driver questioned the 62-year-old about the Donald Trump shirt he was wearing, and then followed him into the parking lot of the Friendly's restaurant on Broad Street, police said. The man then got out of his car with a crowbar, and during an altercation, struck...

A New Jersey suburb known for its tree-lined streets and stately, multimillion-dollar homes has been transformed into a battleground over both a proposed mosque and the free speech rights of residents who oppose the project. ADVERTISEMENT Bernards, a township of about 27,000 an hour west of New York City, has been cleaved by controversy since 2011, when its Planning Board took up a proposal for a 4,250-square-foot mosque in a residential neighborhood known as Liberty Corner. The applicant, Islamic Society of Basking Ridge, is led by a former Bernards mayor and has filed a federal civil rights suit accusing members...

Five years ago, Erin and Marianne Krupa chose to start a family. They moved to Montclair, N.J., from a more conservative environment in North Carolina, and decided that Erin would carry their first child. Erin Krupa remembered her fertility doctor looking her in the eye and promising to help her become pregnant. But there were complications. At an appointment with her doctor in 2013, Ms. Krupa, then 33, learned that she had benign cysts on her uterus and Stage 3 endometriosis, in which the tissue that normally lines the inside of the uterus grows outside. That meant she was infertile....

“Violators could face a $200 to $400 fine for the first offense and a $400 to $600 fine for a second offense. A third or subsequent offense could mean a fine of $600 to $800 and up to a 90 day license suspension, as well as motor vehicle points,” according to nj.com.

NEW JERSEY (WTXF) Some lawmakers in New Jersey have proposed a bill that would have police in the Garden State cracking down even harder on distracted drivers. And that means some big fines for something as simple as eating while you're behind the wheel. However, not everybody's on board with the proposed bill.New Jersey has been involved in a constant battle to crackdown on distracted driving. Texting or talking on cell phones while driving is already illegal but some legislators believe that's not enough.Penalties would be up to $400 for a first offense and a license suspension for multiple offenses....

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Veterans and others in New Jersey are waiting on Gov. Chris Christie to decide whether they'll be allowed to legally treat their post-traumatic stress disorder with marijuana. Lawmakers last week sent a bill to Christie's desk that would allow marijuana to be used for PTSD symptoms that are not treatable with conventional therapy. Christie has until later this summer to decide whether to approve the measure to make New Jersey the 18th state to allow medical marijuana to be used to treat PTSD. Christie declined to comment on his plans at a statehouse news conference this...

The FBI and other law enforcement officers fanned out across the region on Friday, executing a number of search warrants involving a local union boss and a Philadelphia city councilman. Agents were searching the home of Johnny "Doc" Dougherty, a bar called Doc's Union Pub, the headquarters of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98 and Councilman Bobby Henon's offices. Just recently, Action News has learned Local 98 dropped upward of $80,000 on lavish parties and events for honchos and lobbyists at the Democratic National Convention.

EGG HARBOR TWP., NJ — Leroy "Blast" Bill Black was much loved, as evidenced by the fact that he has two obituaries printed in today's Press of Atlantic City. It might have looked like a mistake on the obituary page this morning when two identical-looking (at first glance) listings appeared on top of one another, but the two different, but similar, obituaries were placed by his wife and girlfriend, respectively. Black died at home Tuesday of lung cancer at the age of 55, the obituaries state. And depending which one you are reading, he was survived by his "loving...

New Jersey's education commissioner has nullified two voter referendums in Freehold Borough and ordered a $32 million school expansion to alleviate overcrowding in a district with a growing number of children from families of unauthorized immigrants. Education Commissioner David Hespe on Thursday agreed with the opinion of an administrative law judge, who found that the improvements are needed, despite opposition from local residents.

NEW BRUNSWICK — Tuition and fees for Rutgers University's undergraduate students in New Brunswick will increase 1.7 percent, or about $241 this fall, the lowest price hike in five years at New Jersey's state university. Under the plan approved by the Rutgers' Board of Governors on Wednesday, the average in-state undergraduate on the New Brunswick campus will pay $14,372 in annual tuition and fees in 2016-2017. The university is also raising the price tag for room and board by 1.7 percent. With room and board considered, the average undergraduate from New Jersey on the New Brunswick campus will see a...