Free Republic

An illegal alien from Mexico, Juan Jimenez-Olivera, pled guilty on Wednesday to strangling 30-year-old Sviatlana Dranko in her home, stealing $6,000 from her, setting her body on fire, and lying to police about his crimes in April 2014. The two worked together in a pizza parlor; little did Dranko’s employer know, he or she would have blood on his or her hands for hiring an illegal alien in defiance of federal law. On April 29, New Jersey police and firefighters responding to a call found Dranko severely burned with a pillowcase pulled over her head. Investigators determined she had died...

An off-duty New Jersey state trooper chased after three unarmed teenagers and shot at them early Sunday after they accidentally knocked on his door, officials said Wednesday. Trooper Kissinger Barreau told investigators he believed the teens were trying to break into his Sparta home, CBS New York reported. Police said they are investigating the shooting, but Barreau remains on active duty and hasn’t faced any charges. One of the teens, 18-year-old Jesse Barkhorn, said he and his friends were dropping people off after a party Sunday. They mistakenly knocked on the trooper’s door, having mistaken it for a friend's house,...

Township council on Tuesday unanimously agreed to charge businesses that call for police assistance more than 10 times a month or demand an officer respond to a shoplifting incident that doesn't result in an arrest. The fine will be $500, under the ordinance proposal.

New Jersey authorities have responded to a request by pro-lifers to investigate a suspicious arrangement between two abortionists. Marie Tasy of New Jersey Right to Life says the organization filed complaints about two notorious abortionists, Steven Brigham and Vikram H. Kaji. Brigham, who has lost or surrendered his medical license in several states, ran into problems in New Jersey where he owns six abortion clinics. Tasy says that's because the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Board of Medical Examiners started proceedings to revoke Brigham's license. "This all came to light when they performed an abortion on a woman and...

A New Jersey couple is suing the couple that sold them their $1.3 million dream house, along with the realtor and an unidentified alleged stalker dubbed "The Watcher," who they say forced them to flee by sending creepy letters. The couple, whose names are being withheld out of concern for their safety, received the first of many messages just three days after they plunked down $1.3 million for their new home in the tony New Jersey borough of Westfield, according to their lawsuit, first reported by NJ.com. "Why are you here? I will find out," read part of the first...

A new phenomenon is sweeping across Sparta as more and more students come forward claiming to have encountered the flightless Dodo bird. Caught somewhere between a pigeon and a dove with its gray feathers and unmistakable yellow scowl, the Dodo bird stood at an intimidating one meter tall back in the 17th century when it became extinct--barely a century after its discovery. The Dodo bird was not known for its impact on this planet while it lived, but, rather, remains a point of contention and activism because of its death. The extinction of this bird has been overwhelmingly attributed to...

ORANGE, N.J. (AP) — Prosecutors say a man armed with a knife was shot and seriously wounded by two police officers after he lunged at one of the officers. The two officers also suffered undisclosed injuries in the confrontation, which occurred Saturday morning in Orange....

A first for me -- I've been asked to be one of the "references" for a friend getting her NJ firearms ID. Do any fellow Garden Staters know the questions that get asked when they call? Thanks

Carol Bowne knew her best shot at defending herself from a violent ex was a gun, and not a piece of paper. And it was paperwork that left her unprotected when Michael Eitel showed up at her New Jersey home last week and stabbed her to death, say Second Amendment advocates, who charge local police routinely sit on firearms applications they are supposed to rule on within 30 days. Bowne, 39, had a restraining order against Eitel when he killed her in her driveway last Wednesday, but she was still waiting for Berlin Township Police Chief Leonard Check to approve...

Link only - Memory of Rahway World War II vets kept alive in park

U.S. authorities announced charges on Wednesday against a former Drug Enforcement Administration supervisor and a technology specialist at the agency for failing to disclose their ownership stake in a New Jersey strip club. David Polos and Glen Glover, the DEA employees, made false statements to the government by not disclosing they were part owners of Twins Plus Go-Go Lounge in South Hackensack, according to a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan. The club features scantily clad and sometimes topless women, many of whom were undocumented immigrants illegally in the United States, the complaint said. Prosecutors said the men did...

A township view 200 years in the making has changed, after a historic tree town officials thought was protected by municipal ordinance was lawfully cut down by a developer. The swamp white oak tree at 29 Ocean Street had been designated a "bicentennial tree" in Millburn – one that town officials believed to be at least 200 years old. It was one of 23 trees designated as such in the town's 2014 Environmental Resource Inventory Report. The township had an ordinance prohibiting the removal of the historical trees, and named trees to the protected list via resolutions. "I looked at...

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey's top court weighed the budget repercussions of ruling on a pension dispute between Gov. Chris Christie and public workers' unions on Wednesday while one justice wondered if the state had engaged in a "bait and switch." The state Supreme Court probed whether the state has a contractual obligation to pay what it agreed to in a 2011 pension overhaul law and tried to get lawyers from both sides to explore whether such a finding would represent an overstepping of the courts' role and put it in the middle of the state budget process every...

Dramatic police dash cam footage, provided by New York’s Fox affiliate WPIX, caught the recent rescue of a New Jersey woman getting pulled to safety out of her overturned convertible – just in time. Kinnelon Police Officers Mark Ehrenberg and Ricky Ferriola arrived at the crash scene where they saw the 2006 Toyota Solara convertible toppled over with smoke fuming out, while forty-five-year-old Dawn Milosky, remained unconscious and pinned inside. The officers rushed to Milosky’s aid, and can be heard on the tape yelling: “Can you hear me?” Despite their attempts, there was no response. After cutting through the seat...

Jim Boggess, whose "White History Month" sign at his New Jersey deli ignited a firestorm, has posted a new placard. This one says: "Forced Out of Business." And he's also created a GoFundMe page pleading for money from strangers. On the crowd-sourcing site, Boggess writes,"On march 1st, I hung a sign in my deli window saying, 'Celebrate your white heritage in March, White History Month". . . Then the bottom dropped out and customers were no longer coming into my deli." Saying he was forced to close his dying business, Boggess bemoans his fate and says he lost "my American...

Trenton, N.J., Mar 26, 2015 / 04:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A New Jersey law crafted to ban the Archdiocese of Newark from selling cemetery headstones might not pass muster under judicial review, according to a constitutional law expert. Matthew Franck said the law “may well be violating the freedom of religion” guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution because it “singles out religious organizations for disfavored treatment.” Franck directs the Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution at the Princeton, N.J.-based Witherspoon Institute. He characterized the law as “a direct assault on the freedom of churches to offer services to the bereaved...

NEWARK, New Jersey, Apr. 4, 01 (CWNews.com/LSN.ca) - Father Peter West, a staff member at the Priests for Life group in New Jersey, was recently physically thrown out of a Catholic school hall while a pro-abortion politician was being honored inside.    While not a Priests for Life-sponsored event, Father West and a group of 15 pro-lifers protested the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Newark on Sunday, March 18. Their complaint was that pro-abortion politician Jim McGreevey, the Democrat candidate for governor, was appointed grand marshal of the parade. Father West noted that much of the parade and events afterward...

The bishop of the Paterson Diocese has asked priests in Morris County to contact organizers of the Saint Patrick's Day parade in Morristown and express their concerns that a group that supports abortion rights plans to participate. In a letter dated Feb. 13, Bishop Arthur Serratelli wrote that the National Organization for Women's support for "abortion, birth control and reproductive rights for all women ... stands against the teachings of the Church and the Catholic values that St. Patrick in his life as a missionary and bishop worked tirelessly to promote." The county chapter of NOW has marched in the...

Members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) have voted to make the 1.8-million-member, 10,000-congregation denomination the largest Protestant group to formally recognize gay marriage allow same-sex weddings. The Presbytery of the Palisades in New Jersey cast the necessary 86th vote Tuesday night to establish that a majority of the church’s 171 regional presbyteries now support an amendment to the church constitution that redefines marriage, the Associated Press reported. “Marriage involves a unique commitment between two people, traditionally a man and a woman, to love and support each other for the rest of their lives,” the church’s Book of Order will read,...

We’ve learned a lot about Hillary Clinton over the past few days and as the evidence against her continues to stack up, it is becoming clear that she will likely be charged with a crime. If convicted, it’s likely she could face jail time. I stayed up late last night reading into all of the allegations against Hillary and it is worse than we previously thought. A few days ago, it was revealed that during her entire time at the State Department, Hillary Clinton only used a private email address (even to conduct official business). Now, we’re finding out that...