Free Republic

Phil Murphy, the Democratic front-runner in the 2017 race to replace Gov. Chris Christie, picked up the endorsements of New Jersey's Democratic U.S. Senators on Monday and vowed to disobey orders from a President Donald Trump that would violate the constitution or are "un-American." Murphy appeared at his campaign headquarters in downtown Newark to tout the endorsements of U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Robert Menendez. "I will not take orders from an Administration that are unconstitutional or un-American," Murphy vowed.

Catholic Caucus: Cardinal Joseph William Tobin leads Archdiocese of Newark (Pictures)  

A transgender man is suing a Catholic hospital in New Jersey for canceling his hysterectomy surgery after his doctor deemed the procedure “medically necessary” as part of his sex transition. The surgery was scheduled at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Paterson, but an administrator canceled the operation because of the hospital’s religious affiliation.A lawsuit filed on Thursday claims that a Catholic hospital denied a transgender man a hysterectomy due to ethical and religious directives from the US Conference of Bishops. The man, Jionni Conforti alleges that doing so violated his patient’s bill of rights that states hospitals will provide medical services...

A 13-year-old transgender boy from Woodcliff Lake described feeling isolated as he watched friends do something as simple as going to the bathroom at school, while he used a restroom in the nurse’s office.Other North Jersey teenagers said they wondered whether they were alone before they researched what it means to be transgender. A 7-year-old girl expressed questions about her gender identity, and her parents are helping her find out whether she is a boy or a girl. And an 11-year-old boy who has been bullied drew a self-portrait as half boy and half girl.“This is how I feel,” he...

Footage from the Newport Centre Mall in New Jersey shows two people attacking each other as security guards frantically try to keep the situation from boiling over. The fight broke out close to a queue of children waiting to meet the shopping centre’s Santa. One shopper, known only as Larissa, told the New Jersey Journal: “I just seen a bunch of flying fists and I seen the securest guards getting punched and anyone that was in the way getting punched.

PARAMUS ― Nicholas Oresko was soldier of slender build and small stature ― he stood about 5 feet 7 inches ― but his heroics were the stuff of legend. A recipient of the Medal of Honor, he survived enemy fire and killed a dozen German soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. “Nick changed the course of the war,” said Joe Cutolo, commander of American Legion Post 21 in Cresskill. “When I got to know him, he said he got up on that morning, looked up and said, ‘God, I’m cold and tired. If I die,...

The USS Ling has been berthed in the Hackensack River for more than 40 years – and it might be stuck there. The 312-foot, 2,500-ton World War II-era submarine is the featured exhibit of the New Jersey Naval Museum, which occupies a trailer on land that was once the headquarters of the North Jersey Media Group, which was sold to Gannett in July and publishes The Record. The Ling has been anchored off the riverbank behind the newspaper’s former headquarters for decades. Now, however, museum officials are grappling with the logistical and financially daunting challenge of moving the submarine, which...

A classroom assignment on Islam says one negative effect of the Crusades is that Christians are still treating Muslims harshly. “I almost fell over,” said Barbara Light. Mrs. Light, of Westwood, New Jersey, was helping her 13-year-old daughter prepare for a World History test when she discovered some rather shocking lessons. “The Christians’ harsh treatment of Muslims in the Holy Land led to bitterness that has lasted to the present,” one worksheet stated.

One teen was arrested and another suffered a minor injury when a large fight broke out inside Newport Centre mall Wednesday afternoon, police said. A 14-year boy from Carbon Place in Jersey City was arrested for pushing and scuffling with a police officer who had responded to the fight, Jersey City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said. He was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer and resisting arrest in the incident, which occurred at about 4 p.m. A 14-year-old boy, of Ocean Avenue in Jersey City, suffered a small puncture to his buttocks from an unknown object, Morrill said. He...

MORRIS TOWNSHIP -- A few people in the crowd wore familiar-looking red baseball caps with white lettering. But no, unlike the ones sported by Donald Trump supporters, they didn't read, "Make America Great Again." Instead, the hats read, "Steve Rogers for Governor." Rogers, a township commissioner in Nutley, has formally joined the ever-growing race to succeed Chris Christie as New Jersey's governor, kicking off his campaign for the Republican nomination with a Trump-like message Thursday.

Anyone seeking to understand the psyche of Donald Trump might want to visit a nearly century-old packaging company just off Route 19 in Paterson. There sits Levine Industries, an operation owned by three generations of the same family — most recently by Ted Levine, a 68-year-old businessman who has a few similarities to the billionaire real estate mogul who is now the front runner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. He doesn't look like Trump. But his personality? "We are going to have the best product that ever existed," Levine exclaimed Friday while discussing an innovative alternative to the hazardous...

Christie says he doesn't pay attention to credit ratings, but maybe he should have. They've been trying to tell him (and other states) something. Since Gov. Chris Christie took office in 2010, New Jersey has seen its credit downgraded 10 times by the "big three" credit rating agencies. Seriously, though, the state's pension systems are a total mess. When Christie came into office in 2010, New Jersey was facing a $54 billion funding shortfall to pay for current and future retirees. He immediately set about tackling the problem—to his credit—and in 2011 the state passed a pension fund rescue plan...

Worshippers at a New Jersey church cheered Donald Trump on Sunday, telling the president-elect to “follow his heart.” Trump arrived at Lamington Presbyterian Church in Bedminster Township for services at 10 a.m. and left to enthusiastic applause at 11:15 a.m. The church is just two miles from The Donald’s Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, where the president-elect was set to interview cabinet candidates. Congregant Jim Tiesi, 66, shook Trump’s hand and told him the nation has his back. “I just told him that I hope he understands the country supports him and not to be distracted by the noise,” said...

Public protests and criticism of President-elect Donald Trump is growing in Essex County, including the county’s largest city, Newark. NEWARK, NJ — Public protests and criticism of President-elect Donald Trump is growing in Essex County, including the county’s most populous city, Newark. Dozens of large, anti-Trump protests have been reported across the nation since his surprising election day win over Hillary Clinton, including a massive action planned for downtown Washington D.C. on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20. In Newark, a group of protesters clogged streets as they marched from Rutgers University to City Hall and Newark Penn Station on Saturday, marshaling...

As we prepare to enter the final two weeks of this presidential campaign, here's how things shape up: On the one hand, we have a candidate who's accused of hiring crazed fanatics to aid in her campaign. On the other hand, we have a candidate who gets crazed fanatics to help in his campaign for free. Who's going to win? At the moment the most reliable poll in recent history is giving a slight edge to the guy who fires up fanatics for free. That's Donald Trump, and as of Saturday the Investors Business Daily/TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence Poll had him...

Amid one of the most hotly contested presidential elections in generations — and one in which the Republican presidential candidate has claimed that the balloting process if “rigged” — thousands of New Jersey voters are at risk of not having their votes counted in November. Clerks in at least three Republican-heavy counties have reported that hundreds of mail-in ballots were erroneously returned to voters instead of being delivered to the county election boards. The problem is with new Post Office equipment that was unable to properly read the mailing address on some — but not all — ballot envelopes mailed...

Mayor Ras J. Baraka has a message for the country's gun manufacturers: start employing safe weapons technologies, or the City of Newark will take its business elsewhere. Surrounded by clergy and bi-partisan groups on the steps of Newark City Hall Thursday afternoon, Baraka called on all New Jersey mayors to convene before purchasing additional weapons for their law enforcement agencies and create a list of manufacturers who are listening to their concerns, chiefly: safer gun distribution practices and technologies. "We put our money in places, with people who support what we think is right for our community," Baraka told NJ...

TRENTON — Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno is breaking with Gov. Chris Christie and says she will not vote for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and hasn't decided if she'll vote for a third party candidate or forgo casting a vote for president and only vote in the down-ballot races. So, too, is the only declared 2017 GOP governor candidate, state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli (R-Somerset), who says he likely won't vote for president in November, and is calling on Trump to voluntarily step aside.

The locomotive's recorder has information on train speed. National Transportation Safety Board vice chair T. Bella Dinh-Zarr said she's hopeful the data recorder in the cab control car in the front of the train is functional. Investigators haven't been able to extract that recorder because it's under a collapsed section of the train station's roof. Dinh-Zarr said the train's engineer told investigators the train was operating properly before it crashed Thursday morning. The engineer also said the train was operating at 10 mph as it approached the station. He told investigators he has no memory of the accident.

A Manville, NJ student was suspended and ordered to go under a psychological evaluation after it was found out he was doing an assignment arguing against gun control.Student Frank Harvey was doing a project for class that was on gun control, arguing against it, when he left his flash drive with the project on it in the school library. The flash drive was then found and handed over to the school administrators. After discovering the contents of the flash drive, which in the report included anti-gun control political cartoons and videos and reports of armed citizens defending themselves from criminals,...