Free Republic

A beatification Mass for Sister Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, who died in 1927 at age 26, will be led Saturday by Cardinal Angelo Amato at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark. It is the third in a four-step process toward sainthood.

Gov. Christie's job approval rating dropped to 46 percent among New Jersey voters, one of his lowest, in a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. At the same time, President Obama's approval rating hit an all-time low in New Jersey of 41 percent among registered voters, according to a Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press poll also released Wednesday.

<p>CLIFTON — Some people have very nice cars. Some of those people park like jerks to keep the plebes of the world from parking too close.</p> <p>Kyle DeMattia, 20, of Clifton, encountered such a person Sunday at the local Red Robin.</p>

— To Alexis Simms, a custodian at Augusta Elementary School, it was "just a cub, the cutest thing you had ever seen." But to animal control officers and the local police who had tracked it for more than an hour through the closely packed backyards of this Essex County town, it was an addled and frightened black bear that had reared up as if to charge. Taking no chances, the police shot and killed the 218-pound bear about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. It was the second bear in five days to be killed after wandering into an urban area where a...

A New Jersey high school student and her family have entered the ongoing legal battle over a lawsuit by an atheist group seeking to remove "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. Samantha Jones, a senior at Highland Regional High School in Blackwood, and her family filed an official response to a lawsuit by the American Humanist Association. "If anyone wants to remain silent, that is their right. But it is not their right to silence me," said Jones in a statement. "When I stand up, put my hand over my heart and say the Pledge of Allegiance, I am...

The bear began to follow the hikers and they scattered... Four of them regrouped but Patel was missing and they contacted police, it said. Patel's body was found about two hours later. "Evidence at the scene indicated that the victim had been attacked by a bear. ... In New York state, a bear killed a 5-month-old girl in 2002 after knocking her out of a stroller and dragging her into the woods of the Catskills Mountains.

Influential Republicans in early presidential primary states believe New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is poised to once again become a frontrunner for the party’s 2016 nomination, following a news report that federal scrutiny of a bridge-closing scandal has not implicated him. “If he had been found in the wrong, he would have been irreparably damaged,” said Matt Moore, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. “This is hugely helpful.”

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...

They want to look nice for the prom. They want to “put down a good base” for their upcoming Shore trip. They want to do it because it’s free on Tuesdays. While most nationwide teenagers appear to be heeding the warning to avoid tanning beds, nearly a third of white high-school girls still use indoor tanning devices.

The man accused of gunning down a Livingston [NJ]teenager in his car earlier this summer told investigators the murder was an act of retribution for U.S. military action against Muslims in the Middle East. . . .[Ali Muhammad]Brown, 29, also confessed to killing the other men, all of whom, like Tevlin, were shot multiple times in isolated areas late at night. He described the murder as a “just kill” – carried out against an adult male who was not in the company of any women, children or elderly persons, court papers said. . . .

Robert Lintner, 64 was seen holding his wife outside his home and calling for neighbors to call police.  He had been stabbed in the neck by his wife in a domestic dispute.   His wife is 65.   She was arrested, and he was treated and released.  Then it gets interesting.   Remember, this is New Jersey, where the government says that you have no rights to weapons, only what the state allows you.  From nj.com: Following standard protocol, officers responding to the domestic incident tried to secure any weapons in the house, the chief said. When Lintner would not...

A New Jersey police officer under investigation after he was videotaped making disparaging comments about President Barack Obama and the Constitution has resigned. Part-time Officer Richard Recine was called to the Helmetta town hall Monday because resident Steve Wronko was seen videotaping inside. …

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.