Free Republic

He's not going back to school. There aren’t enough grief counselors, well wishers or positive prayers to make Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg return to the school where his classmates were massacred unless Florida lawmakers pass gun control legislation. “I’m not going back to school on Wednesday until one bill is passed,” Hogg said at gun control rally Sunday in New Jersey.

LIVINGSTON, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — A sizable crowd gathered at a synagogue in Livingston, New Jersey Sunday to hear three survivors of the Parkland, Florida school massacre speak. As WCBS 880’s Ethan Harp reported, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students David Hogg, Ryan Deitsch, and Matthew Deitsch all took part in a rally at Temple B’nai Abraham in support of what they call common sense gun legislation.

A state assemblywoman accused of driving while intoxicated must face the charge against her, despite claims that a blood sample taken the night of a crash was drawn illegally, a judge has ruled. Maria Rodriguez-Gregg, R-Burlington, sought to suppress results of a blood test, arguing that the sample was taken without her consent because she did not sign all the necessary forms, and also challenged whether there was probable cause for the test.

The catastrophe of the mass murder in Parkland, Florida has elevated the issue of assault weapons to the forefront in the forthcoming November, 2018 elections.  There is now an overwhelming national consensus developing for the enactment of a national ban on assault weapons. The National Rifle Association (NRA) will be very much in the forefront of opposition to such a measure.  Because of their controlling influence with both President Donald Trump and the Republican majority leadership in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, the enactment of such a ban will be impossible unless the Democrats win control...

She travels from Middletown to Trenton nearly every day and has her own office down the hall from Gov. Phil Murphy. She has plum speaking roles at public events. And some political insiders privately refer to her as "co-governor." New Jersey's new first lady, Tammy Murphy, is so hands on in her husband's fledgling administration that she helps shape policy. And the governor makes no bones about it: His wife will be front and center over the next four years.

BAYONNE -- Ten years after first renting out the basement of the St. Henry's Church school for prayer services, the Bayonne Muslim community will finally get have their own place of worship on the east side of town. It's been a long road for the Bayonne Muslims, whose controversial application to build a community center and mosque was denied last year amid ardent resistance from a segment of the town's population. But after filing a federal lawsuit against the city, which the group settled Wednesday for $400,000, the application now only needs to be publicly approved at a hearing in...

Former Gov. Chris Christie has landed a TV gig, NJ Advance Media has learned. Christie has been hired as an occasional contributor to ABC News, according to sources familiar with the discussions. The hiring is scheduled to be announced Tuesday on “Good Morning America” during the 7 a.m. hour, according to the sources, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss it publicly.Christie will return in the evening to comment on President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech. The former governor is a longtime Trump friend and fellow Republican. …

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, both the most powerful and endangered member of the New Jersey congressional delegation, announced Monday that he would not seek re-election at the end of his 12th term in the House of Representatives. Frelinghuysen, R-11th Dist., gave no reason for retiring. He joins Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd Dist., as New Jersey lawmakers retiring at the end of the year. Both were elected in the Republican landslide of 1994.

Gov. Phil Murphy rushed to a church Thursday that has provided sanctuary for immigrants, hours after two Indonesians were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Gunawan Liem, of Franklin Park, and Roby Sanger, of Metuchen, were detained as they dropped their kids off at school Thursday morning, said the Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale, of the Reformed Church of Highland Park. Murphy went to the church, which has been housing immigrants for years, on Thursday afternoon to hear the concerns from some of those immigrants, including one who avoided detention by not answering his door. "Everybody's terrified. We can't believe ICE...

New Jersey –-(Ammoland.com)- With the take over of the New Jersey Governors office by rabid gun banning Democrat, Phil Murphy, the first attack on NJ gun owners rights and property, of what will be many, has been launched. The proposed bill would ban most all the rifles and shotguns you currently own and legally bought under the current NJ laws. Sponsored by state senator Senator Nia H. Gill this bill would “strengthen” the State’s current assault weapons ban by revising the definition of an “assault weapon” to include: rifles with detachable magazines and one military style feature; semi-automatic shotguns...

Chris Christie (R) gave New Jersey residents 90 days to surrender bump stocks – or else – in one of his final acts as Governor of the state. No crimes committed with bump stocks in New Jersey were cited. Rather, Christie signed the Democrat-sponsored ban in light of the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas attack. According to NJ.com, the use of bump stocks was already banned in New Jersey, so the law Christie signed will simply broaden that ban to outlaw possession of bump stocks as well. Moreover, the new ban also covers trigger cranks, which were not even used...

Trenton, NJ – On the day of the swearing in of New Jersey’s new Governor, Phil Murphy, NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt delivered an important message to the people of New Jersey: . “New Jersey is our home and I serve as Chairman of the Republican Party here, because this is where I chose to raise my family,” said Steinhardt. “I made that conscious choice twenty some years ago, because I wanted the same opportunities for my children that New Jersey offered my parents, grandparents, sister and me. I want the best for my family, my community and our state, but...

You have a new governor, New Jersey. Phil Murphy, a Democrat entering elected office for the first time, was sworn in as the Garden State's 56th governor just before noon Tuesday during a ceremony at the Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton. Murphy, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany and multimillionaire former Wall Street executive, succeeded Chris Christie, a Republican who left office after eight years. Surrounded by his family, Murphy -- a 60-year-old Middletown resident -- was sworn in by state Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner in the midst of a festive ceremony.

It felt like a homecoming. The setting was perfect for it -- a pitch dark gymnasium illuminated by strobe lights that danced to the blaring club music while people stood around waiting for the action to get started. And it was a homecoming, at least in a sense, for the people who helped Phil Murphy get elected and transition him into leading New Jersey. He thanked them all -- especially the millennials -- from the stage Sunday night.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose popularity soared during his first term but then fell from grace, leaves office Tuesday. The Republican served a term-limited eight years in a majority blue state and spent much of that time in the national limelight as he built a reputation as a "tell-it-like-it-is" politician. But the Bridgegate scandal, a losing campaign for president and a day spent on a closed beach during a government shutdown left him with the lowest approval ratings for any governor in New Jersey history. In Christie's first year, a YouTube video of a press conference went viral when...

On his last full day in office, Gov. Chris Christie cleared his desk of 150 pieces of legislation Monday. The state Assembly and Senate rushed to approve a long list of bills in the last month before the two-year session ended on Jan. 9. Christie had to decide before he left office on noon Tuesday whether he would sign the pile of legislation on his desk, or do nothing and let it expire — also known as a "pocket veto." Among the many bill signings, Christie endorsed regulating the use of drones, disbanding the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty...

Isn’t it just the best thing that we’ve finally got a President of the USA who calls a shithole a shithole? In fact of all Donald Trump’s many qualities, I think this may be his greatest and his most underrated strength. But you’re not supposed to say this. At least not in respectable company. Even now – after all his incredible achievements – you’re still only allowed to praise Donald Trump if first you’ve preceded it with lots of disclaimers about how much you deplore his sexism, his brashness, his incoherence and general uncouthness…

Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno was clobbered by Phil Murphy in November’s election. But a town-by-town map of the election results is kinder to Gov. Chris Christie’s two-time running mate. The Republican candidate won 295 of the state’s municipalities. Murphy won 25 fewer towns. But unlike the presidency, there’s no electoral college selecting New Jersey’s governor, so Murphy won the way it counts: total votes. Murphy got 1.2 million votes to Guadagno’s 899,583, which was the fewest amount for a GOP nominee since 1989.

Gov.-elect Phil Murphy kicked off his inaugural weekend at a Newark reception Friday highlighting New Jersey's diversity and offering it as rebuttal to anti-immigration comments from President Donald Trump. Standing in front of supporters seated in the pews of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Murphy joined religious leaders of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and other denominations for an interfaith prayer service. "Boy, I would love to invite the leadership of this country to come into this cathedral and say, 'This is the United States of America,'" Murphy said.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — President Trump’s dismissal of Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as “s-hole countries” whose inhabitants are not desirable for U.S. immigration shocked people around the world and provoked swift condemnation. “The African Union Commission is frankly alarmed at statements by the president of the United States when referring to migrants of African countries and others in such contemptuous terms,” said Ebba Kalondo, the spokeswoman for the African Union. The reaction from the United Nations human rights spokesman, Rupert Colville, was uncharacteristically blunt. He described the remark as “racist.” In Haiti, people took to Twitter to share...