Free Republic

An anaconda snake is loose in New Jersey's Lake Hopatcong, and a local reptile expert said Friday he's breaking his silence after animal control told him to keep quiet about the dangerous reptile. "I've known it was an anaconda since last week, but I was told by animal control and state police not to say anything," Gerald Andrejcak, who works for Common Sense for Animals, told The New Jersey Herald. "Officials were afraid that if it came out that the snake was an anaconda it would cause mass hysteria. It needed to come out, it is a public safety issue."

FULL TITLE: Art teacher, 45, who engaged in sexually explicit conversations with 17 male students as young as 12 is sentenced to 15 years jail A high school teacher who engaged in sexually explicit conversations with male students, including asking them for semen-stained tissues to make art projects, has been sentenced to 15 years jail. Charles Reilly admitted he also instructed the 17 boys, aged 12 to 16, at New Jersey's Pine Hill Middle School how to masturbate over a five year period. Authorities said the 45-year-old soccer coach, who'd worked at the school for more than a decade, also...

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) — A Jersey City police officer will be disciplined, after allegedly posting information online about possible gang retaliation after police shot and killed a man who murdered a fellow officer. As WCBS 880’s Marla Diamond reported, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and Public Safety Director James Shea said rumors of more violence crop up frequently when a police officer is shot. “We have had, in the past, allegations of potential retaliation against police officers but that is a fairly common occurrence and we haven’t been able to attach any credence to it,” Shea said. In this...

The Bloods have vowed to kill more Jersey City cops to avenge the thug the police shot dead this week after he executed a rookie officer, The Post has learned. The violent street gang has threatened to “kill a Jersey City cop and not stop until the National Guard is called out,” a senior law enforcement source revealed. Police are even being warned that violent Bloods gang members may be traveling from out of state to target officers in New Jersey, according to an internal New Jersey State Police advisory obtained by The Post. “New Jersey State Police has received...

Meet the honest 27 year old single mom from PA who faces 3 years in a New Jersey prison Shaneen Allen is no dangerous criminal. She's a single mom working 2 jobs who's already been robbed twice while traveling alone at night in Philadelphia. Her family suggested that she carry a gun for protection. She took a gun safety course, applied for and was granted a concealed carry permit, and bought a gun. Then she made the mistake of driving into New Jersey. Now she's going to prison. Allen said that she didn't know her permit didn't apply to New...

Along with Mass and adoration, the Dominican sisters at the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, N.J., gather for prayer seven times a day. Courtesy photo Within the walls of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, New Jersey, rows of simple crosses mark the graves of sisters who have gone before. It’s a potent symbol of life in the monastery, where women enter cloistered life intending never to leave, even in death.These Dominican nuns have been in this place of peace for almost 100 years, sustaining the Church every day through their prayer...

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...

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.

In a stunning confrontation caught on video, a man was apparently knocked out cold after aggressively going after a man, who appeared to be a vendor, and his cart on the boardwalk in Atlantic City. While it’s unclear what sparked the exchange, a man in cargo shorts is seen on video trying to knock over the apparent vendor’s cart. When that doesn’t work, he aggressively approaches the man, who tries to retreat. After exchanging a few words that were inaudible on video, the suspected “bully” is seen taking a swing at the vendor.

The Showboat Atlantic City Hotel and Casino is closing after more than 27 years of operation, according to an official with the city’s largest casino workers union. Unite HERE Local 54 president Bob McDevitt said Showboat’s 2,100 employees will receive WARN Act notices Friday. The federal law requires covered companies to give workers at least 60 days notice if plans are in place to shut down a job site or execute mass layoffs. “We were notified earlier today from Caesars that they’re issuing WARN Act notices to Showboat employees tomorrow and we immediately began notifying our members,” McDevitt said Thursday...

Police have identified the owner of a high-performance sports car found abandoned burning near the George Washington Bridge. Deankarte E. Ditchfield-Agboh, 33, of Palisades Park, NJ, is the owner of the 2008 Lamborghini Murcielago, Port Authority Police spokesman Joe Pentangelo said. The Lamborghini was found on fire and unoccupied in the westbound lanes near the bridge toll plaza in Fort Lee early Monday.

Steve Lonegan is a wonderful family man and patriot. He would have been a superb member of the House. But the DC RINOs, led by John Boehner, were opposed to him. You see, he would have been an independent conservative and they cannot stand that in the Capitol Building. So, the RINOs put up a candidate against Lonegan who they can control, and will control, and who loaned his campaign millions to use in an endless series of attack ads. This is the new modus operandi of the RINOs in all the races across the country. During the course of...

While examples of the old media using their power to push for ever more restrictive gun laws are so common as to be the norm, this segment by CBS is a particularly clear example: Newtown families have high hopes for N.J. gun ammo bill Exactly one family was said to be present lobbying for the bill; the father cites a theory with little to no evidence to support its premise.  An emotional father who lost a son is pushing for more gun restrictions that are virtually irrelevant to mass shootings;  the mass shootings are a tiny segment of homicides...

Steve Lonegan, a libertarian-leaning former mayor, is running slightly behind self-funded insurance executive Tom MacArthur in a sharp-elbowed New Jersey GOP primary race for a House seat. The two candidates clashed repeatedly during a May 21 radio show, when MacArthur portrayed Lonegan as a big spender, and Lonegan portrayed MacArthur as a crony capitalist tool of the Chamber of Commerce. Lonegan said that MacArthur won the chamber’s support by agreeing to back the “comprehensive immigration reform” plan, which would increase levels of immigration. “You have to answer ‘yes’ to that question to get that endorsement,” Lonegan said.

NORTHEAST and SOUTH There are numerous important House Primary Races! And places where we can WIN! PLEASE contribute! And if you can't contribute money ... the least we can do is go to their pages and give them a "like" or a tweet. All of these candidates are involved in primaries that are close (or could be close) against generally more moderate or liberal Republicans. All of these districts are winnable in November. Maine: BRUCE POLIQUIN, MAINE-2, JUNE 10th .... Open Seat Endorsed by: Maine Right to Life, Freedom Works Bruce Poliquin -- FACEBOOK -- TWITTER -- DONATEFreedomWorks: "As a...

The gun ban that has gone to Governor Christie for signature has been described as a "gun magazine restriction",  but it bans numerous common sport and hunting rifles.   The ban has no exemption for rifles with fixed magazines, including most common .22 rimfire rifles that are used for sport and small game hunting, and almost never used in crime.  Assembly Bill 2006 bans rifles that meet this definition: (4)   A semi-automatic rifle with a fixed magazine capacity exceeding [15] 10 rounds. The bracket and underline show the existing and proposed law.  There are no exemptions for grandfathering.   Anyone...

New Jersey --(Ammoland.com)- As you may already know, the New Jersey Second Amendment Society (NJ2AS) is engaged in litigation against the State of New Jersey Division of State Police in an effort to receive a copy of the “New Jersey State Police Firearms Applicant Investigation Guide” (I know, try saying THAT three times fast). Three years ago we began a quest to obtain a copy. It started out simply enough. We wrote to the then head of the NJSP Firearms Unit and asked for a copy. We were denied.For those of you who may be scratching your head and asking,...

Virginia Gun Owner Being Unfairly Prosecuted In NJ For Accidentally Bringing A Gun Into The StateVirginia Citizens Defense League Covington VA --(Ammoland.com)- A Virginia CHP holder, Guy Ackerman, inadvertently brought a handgun with him into NJ.He discovered the gun in his car and rather than leave it in there with valet parking, he took the unloaded revolver to his room and locked it in the room safe. The valet had noticed the gun when it was in the car and told the police, who arrested Guy and charged him with unlawful weapon possession – a felony in NJ.The prosecutor is refusing...

A Washington, D.C.-based secular organization has filed a lawsuit against the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. The American Humanist Association announced Monday that a New Jersey school district will be the latest entity sued over the two words. David Niose, attorney for the American Humanist Association's Appignani Humanist Legal Center, said in a statement that he believes the pledge's words are religiously coercive. "Public schools should not engage in an exercise that tells students that patriotism is tied to a belief in God," said Niose. "Such a daily exercise portrays atheist and humanist children as second-class citizens,...

We are all miserably accustomed to being informed that our rights must be curtailed because the Founders “couldn’t have imagined” the way in which they would eventually be exercised. “Well, sure it made sense to have an armed population back when the people only had muskets,” this argument tends to go. “But now that four-year-old children can buy semi-automatic nuclear death-rays with their Happy Meals, it’s just anachronistic.”