Free Republic

Outrage spread through New Jersey's Muslim communities after one town's Muslim mayor was banned from attending an Eid-al-Fitr ceremony this week at the White House.Mohahmed Khairullah, who was recently sworn in for his fifth term as Prospect Park's mayor was told by Secret Service Monday, May 1 that he had not been cleared for entry. Khairullah received the news just hours before he was set to arrive. He said the move "reeks of Islamophobia." The Council on American-Islamic Relations New Jersey's chapter called it "unacceptable and insulting," and demanded an apology from the White House and the Secret Service. The...

<p>The attention American Legion posts receive every Memorial Day is often overshadowed by what happens during the rest of the year; and what’s been happening for the last several decades.</p><p>The once-thriving membership of veterans — from World War I and World War II, followed by the Korean and Vietnam wars are getting older. But George Van Der Wall, station commander at the post in North Haledon in Passaic Counry, isn’t ready to give up the fight just yet.</p>

Count it as one more way that anti-Trump hysteria skews news coverage: Story after story treats the fraud in this year’s Paterson, NJ, City Council election as somehow proving that nothing can go wrong with mass mail-in voting. A judge this week ordered a re-vote on Nov. 3 for the 3rd Ward race, where “winner” Alex Mendez faces state fraud charges — as do 1st Ward Councilman Michael Jackson and two workers for 2nd Ward candidate Shahin Khalique’s campaign. (Khalique’s race ended in a tie and will also be re-voted in November.) Weeks after the May election, state Attorney General...

PATERSON, N.J. – A judge has ruled that a new election will be held in November for a disputed Paterson City Council seat, just weeks after the race's apparent winner and a sitting councilman were charged with voter fraud. State Superior Court Judge Ernest Caposela issued his ruling Wednesday. Alex Mendez had won a special election on May 12 to fill the seat, but claims of voter fraud were soon raised. An investigation was then launched after the U.S. Postal Service's law enforcement arm told the state attorney general's office about hundreds of mail-in ballots located in a mailbox in...

And here I thought we had it on the highest authority that mail-in balloting didn’t have more risk for fraud and manipulation. Don’t tell that to New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, who just indicted four men for voter fraud connected to hundreds of fraudulent mail-in ballots. Two of suspects are city council members in Paterson, in fact: Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced voting fraud charges against 1st Ward Councilman Michael Jackson, 3rd Ward Council-Elect Alex Mendez and two other men, weeks after the May 12 local election in which the Passaic County Board of Elections decided not...

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal filed voter fraud charges Thursday against two Paterson city officials who allegedly engaged in a mail-in ballot scheme in connection to a special election in May. Grewal levelled the charges against Paterson City Councilman Michael Jackson, Councilman-Elect Alex Mendez, and two other men after the Postal Inspection Service warned Grewal’s office that hundreds of mail-in ballots were found in a Paterson mailbox, InsiderNJ reported Thursday. The attorney general’s Office of Public Integrity & Accountability (OPIA) began a probe after the Postal Inspection Service issued the warning. Paterson authorities decided to conduct the May 12...

Boy who died of asthma attack wanted two things: Be like Spider-Man and donate his organs

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Another child has died in the deadly viral outbreak at a long-term care facility in New Jersey, which has already claimed the lives of six young patients and has hospitalized nearly a dozen others. The state Department of Health confirmed the seventh death on Wednesday morning, as it continues to work with the Centers for Disease Control to investigate the deaths in Haskell in northern Passaic County. "The New Jersey Department of Health learned last night that unfortunately another child who was hospitalized due to adenovirus passed away yesterday," said health department spokeswoman Donna Leusner. "The young child's death was...

“First it was explosions and then the chopper was so low that our house was vibrating,” resident Larry Pizzichetta added. Most of the residents on the block came running outside in panic. John Emmolo said his daughter called 9-1-1 to find out what was happening, but got a short answer. “They said, ‘Well, you have to talk to state police about it,'” Emmolo said. Eventually, they learned members of the U.S. Armed Forces were training in secret for three nights. So CBS2 went to both local and state police to find out why the residents weren’t informed. Neighbors said they...

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All this commotion over campaign signs? Proving that more often than not, Republicans are their own worst enemies, a Wayne, New Jersey, councilman has been hit with a harassment complaint after a profanity-laced tirade directed at a fellow party member. Passaic County Regular Republican Organization employee Susan Enderly filed the complaint against Councilman Richard Jasterzbski after a heated argument Sunday about campaign signs being removed from the PCRRO headquarters, according to The Record. Unfortunately for Jasterzbski, the exchange was captured on video… by the woman’s daughter, who was standing right there! “You would be so lucky if I were f—ing...

Dive Brief: Passaic County, NJ, has announced its intention to sue the state's Department of Transportation for costs resulting from Gov. Chris Christie's order to shut down all projects funded through the near-empty Transportation Trust Fund (TTF), according to The Record.Citing safety issues, Passaic County officials said they used their own funds to continue with certain state projects after the shutdown, such as a $330,000 repaving project that left raised manhole covers exposed. The county has a multimillion-dollar lineup of infrastructure projects now on hold.Passaic County Counsel William Pascrell, who notified the state DOT of Passaic's intention to sue over...

A man who lives across the street from a prominent drug treatment program was arrested Tuesday night on charges involving almost 1,900 packets of heroin, according to authorities. The suspect, 24-year-old Lirse Jones, was wearing an ankle bracelet because he is on probation stemming from a previous drug conviction, according to Passaic County Sheriff Richard Berdnik. Narcotics detectives spotted Jones pacing back and forth near the corner of Straight Street and 20th Avenue while on his cell phone, the sheriff said. Shortly after that, a man driving a black Range Rover pulled up to the curb and made an exchange...

PATERSON, N.J. (WPVI) -- A teenager accused of throwing a vicious punch on a Paterson street corner as part of a "Knockout Game" attack made his first court appearance Wednesday, one day after turning himself in to police. The suspect, 18-year-old Kristian Gonzalez, pleaded not guilty. He surrendered around noontime Tuesday and is due back in juvenile court on February 25. His attorney asked for isolation because both he and his client have received a number of threats. The incident occurred in December on Rosa Parks Boulevard and Van Houten Street, but the brutal violence had people living in the...

Police in West Milford have released five photos taken by 22-year-old Darsh Patel before he was killed by the 300-pound black bear while hiking with four friends in the Apshawa Preserve. The photos show the bear behind a fallen tree in the woods. Investigators say the phone was found with puncture marks from the bear. ... West Milford police and the state Environmental Protection Department said last month that the bear did not seem interested in food and exhibited “stalking type behavior.”

Hikers were undeterred Friday, but people who live in bear country were unnerved by a fatal black bear attack earlier this week near a West Milford hiking trail.Darsh Patel, 22, a Rutgers University student from Edison, was found dead by police in the 576-acre Apshawa Preserve after he and four friends ran from a 4-year-old, 300 pound black bear that was trailing them. Patel’s body was found with bite and claw marks on it. Authorities, who searched two hours for Patel, shot and killed a bear that was found near his body acting aggressively.“They’re normally so docile,” said Suzie...

PATERSON — The raising of a flag at City Hall on Sunday was like any of the dozen or so similar events held in the city each year in a nod to its diversity.   Except it wasn’t.  That’s because the flag raised — for the first time in Paterson, and possibly at any city hall in the United States — was Palestinian. Symbols or assertions of Palestinian statehood are fraught with political sensitivities, and Khader Abuassab, the event’s organizer, said he received harassing phone calls before Sunday’s event. But no problems were on display Sunday when the flag was...

The mystery winner of a $338 million Powerball jackpot has come forward, according to a report on NorthJersey.com. Pedro Quezada, a 44-year-old father of five who owns a bodega on 8th Street in Passaic, showed up at the liquor store where the ticket was sold to claim his prize this afternoon, the report said.

 At 30 years old, Sister Danielle Gonzalez is the youngest of 19 nuns at the community of Mary Help of Christians Academy in North Haledon. No lightning-bolt moment brought Danielle Gonzalez to the convent at St. Joseph's Provincial Center, just a gentle and consistent call that only she could hear.  Gonzalez, 30, who grew up in Pequannock, was a senior at the College of New Jersey who enjoyed wearing Jones New York suits by day and dancing at clubs with friends by night. She earned a black belt in karate before the idea of becoming a nun ever entered...