Free Republic

NEWARK - Nearly four dozen leaders and associates of an international criminal enterprise have been charged in six indictments - forty-three of them were arrested over the weekend in New Jersey and other states - with running a smuggling ring that brought large quantities of counterfeit cigarettes, millions of dollars in high-quality counterfeit U.S. currency and drugs into the United States through Port Newark and other domestic ports, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced. The indictments, including three racketeering indictments, charge 57 individuals. Of those, several were arrested beginning on Friday as they arrived in Atlantic City to attend a...

Republicans must still have nightmares about it. When Doug Forrester was running for U.S. Senate in 2002, and incumbent Democrat Robert Torricelli was besieged by ethics questions, the GOP could just about taste victory. Then, with six weeks to go, Torricelli dropped out and the Democrats drafted former Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who went on to win. Now with the race for governor heating up, Republican State Committee Chairman Tom Wilson has proposed an unusual deal to his Democratic counterpart: Promise you won't dump your candidate, and we'll promise not to dump ours.

Tom Foley is the emergency management coordinator for Atlantic City, a place that would make a juicy target for terrorists on a busy day when up to 260,000 people cram into town for some fun at the casinos. He is also a deeply frustrated man these days. Because he can't get his fair share of money from Trenton to buy the equipment he needs. His problem: The legislators who represent his city are all Republicans. And the pot of money has been controlled by Democrats. "This is a nightmare," Foley says. "Until they realize that Atlantic City needs this equipment,...

Republicans yesterday called on Attorney General Peter Harvey to explain why his office distributed 93 percent of state homeland security equipment grant money to towns in Democratic legislative districts over the past three years. Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) said the attorney general must release the criteria used to award towns in Democratic-controlled districts $21.3 million while giving towns in Republican districts just $1.6 million. "Mr. Harvey owes all of us an explanation," said Lance. "He needs to assure the people of New Jersey that everything is being done to protect them regardless of which party represents them in...

Acting Gov. Richard Codey had a conversation recently with this wife, Mary Jo, about his next career move. She didn't like his new idea. Because the suggestion on the table was a move to the United States Senate. If Sen. Jon Corzine wins the gubernatorial election in November, he'll appoint his own replacement in Washington to serve out the final year of his term. Codey, by far the most popular politician in the state, now says he might want the job. "I think about it," he says. "People have raised the issue. They say to me, 'Dick, how can any...

OCEAN CITY - South-end visitors are defending their amateur fireworks displays after police cracked down on Monday's illegal celebrations. Police wrote 25 tickets and confiscated enough fireworks to fill six 55-gallon drums. But police were not prepared for the angry reaction they got from many south-end residents, who hurled eggs and insults. Some people tried to block in police cruisers. Others reportedly spit at police.

Nearly one-third of all births in New Jersey in 2002 were to immigrant mothers, the most ever, according to a new study that examines how the massive influx of immigrants is transforming communities and posing new challenges for the nation's education and health care systems. "We've never been here before," said Steve Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank that conducted the study. "We're headed into uncharted territory in terms of the size of the second generation." In New Jersey, immigrants make up 18 percent of the total population and accounted for...

GLENEAGLES, Scotland - President Bush has named former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson to help shepherd his yet-to-be named Supreme Court nominee through the Senate, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Wednesday. Thompson, a Republican and actor on the NBC television series "Law & Order," agreed to accept the post in a telephone conversation with the president on Monday, McClellan said. He said Thompson would serve as an informal adviser to shepherd the nomination through the Senate.

BRIDGETON -- Three strikes and you're out. That might be the message city residents who have been involved in a hit-and-run accident, or have a loved one who has, send to their representatives in the Statehouse and the nation's capital if they don't heed City Council President John Ewing's third call for a summit to address the issue of unlicensed motorists driving uninsured, unregistered vehicles.

It was still pitch black outside on that February day when Maria Juega's phone rang shortly after 5 a.m. The caller was a stranger, her voice nearly hysterical. She told Juega that someone was knocking on the door and yelling "policia." That door, Juega learned, stood between the "policia" and seven illegal immigrants. If the caller opened the door, like so many others around New Jersey had done in the past year, she would see the home swarmed by immigration agents, and her friends and relatives hauled away in handcuffs and deported.

That nose job might get more expensive. A number of states are considering taxing certain cosmetic surgery procedures, including face-lifts, tummy-tucks and Botox injections. The idea behind the taxes -- dubbed "vanity taxes" or "Botaxes" by some -- is to boost state coffers and raise revenue for government initiatives such as health care for poor children. The proposals have stoked the ire of plastic surgeons and their patients, who have been lobbying hard to keep their procedures tax-free. New Jersey passed the first cosmetic surgery tax law last summer. Since then, lawmakers in states including Texas, Illinois, Washington, Arkansas, Tennessee...

Soaring property taxes are a top worry in state legislatures across the country, where lawmakers are trying to appease disgruntled homeowners and, in some cases, courts that are demanding change in the system so schools are more equitably funded. Some states are weighing plans to lower taxes. Others just want to keep them from rising too fast. Still others are aiming to substantially change the tax system and find another way to help pay for schools that closes the quality gap between wealthy and poor communities. "People are facing being taxed out of their homes," said Ted Harris, a 69-year-old...

TRENTON -- Faced with the possibility of not having driver’s licenses if President George Bush signs the "REAL ID Act," hundreds of thousands of immigrants, many of them undocumented Latinos, will not be able to work, some fear. Martin Perez, president of The Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey, yesterday called on Acting Gov. Richard Codey and state legislators to "consider the economic and humane ramifications of suspending or denying the licenses to hundreds of thousands of hard-working immigrants.

With hopes dimming for their $2 billion dream stadium in Manhattan, the Jets are closing in on a 10-year extension to the team's lease at Giants Stadium, state officials said yesterday. The new lease would firm up the Jets' right to remain in Giants Stadium until 2018, providing the team with a serious backup plan if its proposed West Side stadium project falls through. It also gives the team major leverage in upcoming talks with the Giants, who need the Jets' approval to build a $750 million stadium in the Meadowlands next to the existing one. Carl Goldberg, chairman of...

"I don't get it. Do we as legislators live in fear of the restaurant lobby, the tobacco lobby?" Vitale said. "If that is the case, then they really ought to rethink why it is they're in office."

PRINCETON BOROUGH - The mock filibuster being staged at Princeton University grew rowdier in its eighth day yesterday, as about 20 members of the College Republicans led a counter-protest in support of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's proposal to eliminate judicial filibustering. Waving Bush/Cheney '04 signs and posters with slogans like "Yay or Nay without delay," they positioned themselves directly in front of cameras recording the anti-Frist demonstration for last night's episode of "Hardball with Chris Matthews." "This little exercise has gone on for a while now and today we are here to support Sen. Frist and show people around...

Five months after Gov. James McGreevey left office in disgrace, a new public opinion poll shows that 49 percent of New Jerseyans would consider voting for him in a future election. The poll by Zogby International was commissioned by the gay rights advocacy group Garden State Equality to measure public support for gay marriage (which remains at 55 percent statewide). The group piggy-backed the McGreevey question onto the poll, largely in an effort to test electoral support for gay and lesbian candidates.

Let us consider politics in terms of the two types of beer. It would be perfectly logical to proclaim that all beer is bad. But it would be idiotic to proclaim, for example, that lager is evil while ale is morally sound. It would be similarly illogical to proclaim ale evil and lager good. Let us now apply that logic to the two systems of totalitarian government jointly responsible for killing off 100 million or so innocent people in the 20th century. It is perfectly logical to argue that all totalitarianism is evil. But it's silly to argue that Nazism...

The constitutional convention planned for later this year to address New Jersey's rampant property tax problem is in serious trouble in the state Senate, according to four top lawmakers from both political parties. As a result, three legislators and a powerful union will endorse an alternative plan today that would slash property taxes for schools in half but raise the state income tax on most residents.

A broader survey found Democrat Jon Corzine, who faces no serious primary rival, retains a solid, though shrinking, lead over the Republicans. Corzine held a 47 percent to 33 percent lead over Schundler, and a 46 percent to 36 percent edge over Forrester.