Free Republic

Sayreville, New Jersey, Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour was gunned down outside her home late Wednesday, crashing her car after being repeatedly shot while behind the wheel, officials said. Dwumfour, 30, was found dead in her white Nissan SUV after it crashed near the Camelot at La Mer apartment complex in Sayreville, ABC 7 News reported. The Republican councilwoman was found with multiple gunshot wounds, and pronounced dead at the scene, officials told the outlet. Some locals told RLS Media that the gunman was spotted racing off to the Garden State Parkway, which edges the complex. No other details were given on...

New Jersey Turnpike Authority officials approved a $10 million agreement to rebuild two Garden State Parkway service areas, including one that has been criticized by Bloomfield officials for including a Chick-fil-A restaurant. The agreement, approved by a unanimous vote by the board of commissioners Tuesday, would reimburse Applegreen Ltd. and Sunoco for $10 million the companies would spend to build new facilities at the Vauxhall service area on the Parkway north in Union and at the Brookdale Service area on the Parkway south in Bloomfield. The Turnpike authority runs the Garden State Parkway. A Shake Shack, Popeyes, Dunkin’, and a...

A $48-million contract awarded March 23 to AECOM to study impacts of widening 34 miles of the most rural southern part of the 117.2-mile New Jersey Turnpike has upset state environmental activists who say the project conflicts with the state's push to combat climate change; officials say construction remains at least five years off. The contract is the latest step in the overall $1.1-billion turnpike expansion plan outlined last year that focuses on addin a third lane in each direction to the section stretch between exits 1 and 4 through Camden County. But it also renewed criticism from advocates who...

It’s a done deal. Tolls on the states three major toll highways are going up in September, after Gov. Phil Murphy gave a final approval of the increases and the multi-billion dollar construction plans they fund. Murphy signed the meeting minutes on May 27 and sent confirmation letters to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and South Jersey Transportation Authority, said Jerrel Harvey, a spokesman for the governor. The approvals came on the same day boards of both agencies met, held lengthy public hearings and approved the toll increases. Governors have the option to approve authority board minutes, or not to...

What is good for the goose evidently isn't so good for the gander when it's New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine doing the honking about New York City's congestion-pricing plan. Leading up to yesterday's deadline for New York state lawmakers to vote on the proposal, Corzine weighed in last week by saying that he was dismayed by the scheme and would bring suit against New York if it went ahead with the proposal to charge motorists $8 and truckers $21 to drive into the most heavily trafficked parts of Manhattan; the N.J. governor was angry as well that the fees...

The governor never tires of telling us that he grew up on a farm. Gee, who'da thunk it? Well, me for one. Over the course of these "town meetings" on his multibillion-dollar toll-and- spend scheme, our governor has undergone a personality change. The first few sessions featured docile crowds that were willing to sit back and absorb the wisdom of a Wall Street whiz who spoke with great authority on matters of high finance. But once the crowds wised up, Gov. Jon Corzine started to look like the bumbler he was when he first entered politics eight years ago. The...

In New Jersey, one's home is not one's castle after all. The real castle, it turns out, is the car. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled 4-3 yesterday that police do not need a reason to ask permission to search someone's home. The same court four years ago issued rules saying police must have a good reason before asking motorists if they can search their cars. Yesterday the court said the rules for cars -- which prohibit police from asking motorists if they can conduct a search unless they have "a reasonable and articulable suspicion" of criminal activity -- are...

Who's laughing now? New Jersey, the state that spawned a thousand wise-guy bumper stickers and became the butt of a million late-night jokes, is actually a nice place to live. The research group Morgan Quitno crunched the numbers this year and yesterday ranked New Jersey the fifth-most-livable state. As for its neighbors? Pennsylvania finished 30th, New York 32d. "The people we talk to say they wouldn't live anywhere else, and I have to go along with that," said Mark Moran, a Bloomfield resident and one of the editors of Weird New Jersey magazine. "Whether it grows on you or people...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Americans taking to the roads during the July 4 holiday weekend are almost certain to encounter a traffic bottleneck somewhere, but the biggest is likely to be west of Portland, Oregon, the American Highway Users Alliance said Thursday. The road between Oregon's Willamette Valley, where Portland sits, and the Pacific coast is known for recreation, wineries and beauty. This weekend, it will also be known for slow traffic, the group said in a study titled "Are We There Yet?" Interstate 64 in the Tidewater region of southeastern Virginia is second on the group's list of vacation bottlenecks,...