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The first time I asked Gov. Chris Christie a question we were 2,000 miles from New Jersey. I was a year into my first newspaper job in southeast New Mexico. Christie, just eight months into his first term, was there to stump for Susana Martinez's campaign for governor. Noting the candidate's law-and-order record, Christie played up the Jersey shtick that worked so well for him. "We invented pay-to-play," Christie joked to a crowd that treated him like a celebrity. And then I asked the unoriginal question he'd gotten plenty already: You here to lay the groundwork for a presidential run?

Police in Long Branch, NJ are reportedly requesting ambulances to a scene of an active shooter with an AK-47 rifle, according to multiple reports. “Multiple subjects down,” according to police scanner traffic. This story is Developing.

An Obama-era plan to have the federal government finance half of a $13 billion rail tunnel project ran into a red light Friday from the Trump administration. The plan, proposed under President Barack Obama in 2015, includes revitalizing a deteriorating Amtrak tunnel connecting New Jersey to New York City, repairing damage to a dual-tunnel conduit, and reconstructing the New Jersey railroad network’s aging Portal Bridge, Crain’s New York Business reported. Amtrak, which owns most of the rail tunnels and tracks between Boston and Washington, D.C., contends that the existing tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York City is damaged and...

Denver, Colorado just took a step closer to being and smelling like India. The Denver City Council gave their city a big flaming bag of poop for Christmas. On Monday the city council unanimously voted to decriminalizing low-level crimes like pooping on the sidewalk. NO Clean Up On Aisle 5 In Denver, people are required to dispose of dog poop, but humans defecating can just leave it anywhere they like. You would think they would stop there, but noooooooo!

Despite poor polling and a recent corruption trial that ended in a hung jury, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., has few 2018 challengers because of the unpopularity of President Donald Trump and the GOP, Politico reported. Richard Pezzullo, the runner-up in the New Jersey Republican 2014 Senate primary, is the sole candidate currently for the GOP nomination next year, the outlet reported. He told Politico he, too, is puzzled by the lack of candidates.

LIVINGSTON, N.J. — Politically speaking, Livingston is not the bluest of the suburbs surrounding New York City. But there are few places where people are feeling any more anxious about the potential impact of the federal tax bill proposed by Republican leaders in Washington. “They’re crippling us,” said Walter Levine, who has lived in this New Jersey community since 1976. As Mr. Levine sees it, Livingston, a fairly affluent town with a population of about 30,000, could become even less affordable as residents face rising tax bills and falling home values. They could be left with less disposable income to...

New Jersey will look at "all available means — both legal and otherwise — to challenge this or compensate for it," Murphy says.

(NJ) Abandoned baby boy laid to rest by Delbarton (Catholic High School) students

Jury selection is underway in the trial of Darien Allen, the former Passaic housing authority chairman and city school district employee who is charged with dealing cocaine and possession of an illegal handgun. Allen, 47, is due back in Superior Court on Tuesday morning for a second day of jury selection with Judge Sohail Mohammed presiding. More than three years after his arrest, Allen will get the chance to defend himself against drug-dealing and weapons charges that could send him to prison for 10 years or more. "He maintains he is innocent of all the charges," said his attorney, Miles...

Gov.-elect Phil Murphy will nominate Bergen County prosecutor Gurbir Grewal as the state's next attorney general, NJ Advance Media has learned. Grewal would be the nation's first Sikh attorney general. Murphy plans to announce his appointment at 11 a.m. in Trenton, according to three sources with knowledge of his decision. The sources were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter prior to the press conference and requested anonymity.

Forty-four years ago, Brendan Byrne was elected New Jersey governor, amassing a record plurality of 721,378 votes and, in the process, driving the Republican membership in the General Assembly to a historic low - 14 seats. The partisan divide - 66 Democrats and 14 Republicans - meant the Democratic Party held 83 percent of the seats in the Assembly. For every one Republican, there were five Democrats. It was the kind of electoral beatdown that is almost impossible to absorb and still survive. Senate Republicans were spared the devastation because the state Senate was not on the ballot that year....

NEWARK -- Essex County College's accrediting agency issued its most severe rebuke yet to the institution on Monday, citing the college's ongoing troubles and placing it on probation. The escalated action moves the college one step closer toward having its accreditation revoked, which would mean students are no longer eligible for federal financial aid and in most cases would be unable to afford attending the school and ending a revenue stream that could shut the college's doors. Losing accreditation is very rare but for Essex County College, which serves more than 10,000 students and employs 500 people, the consequences could...

NEWARK — The community college serving one of New Jersey’s largest counties has been embroiled in controversy for the better part of the last two years. What started with the quick, unexpected ouster of its president last Spring has spiraled into one scandal after another that are now threatening the federal funding that keeps Essex County College’s doors open. The six scandals below have contributed to the Middle States Commission last week putting the college on probation. The school has another year to fix its finance and governance issues or risk losing its accreditation.

TRENTON -- An Essex County welfare division employee has been indicted on charges she filed bogus claims for more than $7,000 in wage reimbursement and disability payments for work she claimed to have missed because of car accidents, authorities said Wednesday. Fatu K. Rimbert, 31, of Perth Amboy, was charged with insurance fraud, impersonation and theft by deception, according to the state Attorney General's Office. Rimbert is accused of submitting "forged and altered" documents to insurance firms in order to get wage reimbursement and disability payments for days she was purportedly out of work after two vehicle accidents, prosecutors said.

The last Republican to win Essex was probably Tom Kean Sr. in 1985. When did Essex County trend sharply to the left? I live in NJ, but I do not know much about Essex politics since I am a Central Jerseyan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey_gubernatorial_election,_1985

-snip- But let me focus on one historical instance of a tax-reform plan gone wrong. That was pointed out to me by my old high-school buddy Jim Byrnes, who was just re-elected to the township council of Berkeley Township, which includes Bayville as well as a chunk of oceanfront across the bay. It concerns big boats. Back in 1991, President George "Read My Lips; No New Taxes" Bush signed into law a bill meant to reduce the deficit by imposing a 10 percent "luxury tax" on yachts costing more than $100,000. What Bush forgot is that yachts really are a...

It was a bad week for establishment Republicans from New Jersey running for governor. And I'm not talking about just Kim Guadagno. Ed Gillespie managed to lose a big race as well. Both were New Jerseyans: Gillespie by birth, Guadagno by marriage. Let us dispense first with Guadagno, who was born in Iowa and came here after completing law school. From the beginning of this campaign it was obvious that her chances of getting elected governor rested with Chris Christie. -snip- Or in other words, it is run the same way the national party is run: by people like Ed...

A New Jersey animal shelter’s annual pet blessings has prompted a federal lawsuit by a group called American Atheists Inc. of Cranford. The Bergen County Animal Shelter is accused of violating the First and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution over two events held in 2016 and 2017. Each event featured a member of the Franciscan Order of the Divine Mercy in North Arlington. Plaintiffs say that animal blessings at the facility are tantamount to an endorsement of religion. They seek an injunction to stop the annual event, and legal fees.

TRENTON -- State Senate Republican leader Tom Kean Jr. on Thursday said he'd support an increase in the state's minimum wage in exchange for a middle class tax cut. And he said Gov.-elect Phil Murphy should dump his called-for "millionaire's tax" increase. Kean, R-Union, said he was willing to raise the state's minimum wage to a level that is "modern and fair," but stopped short of agreeing to the $15 per hour sought by Murphy.

Thousands of noncitizens have been found on the rolls in both states, and no one knows how many more there may be A potentially messy fight over absentee ballots in Atlantic City, New Jersey, highlights Election Day concerns Tuesday about the possibility of fraudulent voting. The Atlantic City mayoral race — which went to court Monday — turns on absentee ballots, which elections experts say is the easiest part of the voting system to exploit. In addition to organized fraud, however, some experts contend America’s failure to safeguard voter rolls creates the potential to influence the outcome of very close...