Free Republic

After 16 months of delays, Jewish community leaders from across New Jersey traveled to Trenton last week, prepared to testify before the Assembly Community Development and Women’s Affairs Committee about why Jews need a definition of hate that protects them. Instead, Democratic Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter opened the hearing by canceling the scheduled vote and announcing it would be “discussion only.” Her reason? “These issues are complex.” Antisemitism is not complex. It’s hate. It’s direct. It’s deliberate. It’s deadly. Imagine arriving at your own state capital, prepared to speak your truth, only to be told that the threats you face and...

The Department of Justice on Monday unveiled a record-shattering crackdown on the corrupt underbelly of America’s health care system. A jaw-dropping 324 defendants — including 96 medical professionals — have been charged in 50 federal districts and 12 states for orchestrating over $14.6 billion in intended fraud, largely targeting Medicare, Medicaid, and federal health programs meant to serve the elderly, disabled, and the poor. The takedown, spearheaded by the DOJ’s Health Care Fraud Unit in coordination with HHS-OIG, the FBI, the DEA, and over a dozen state attorney general offices, marks the largest health care fraud bust in U.S. history....

US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced that the USDA is moving to assist the New Jersey farmer whose 175-year-old family farm is facing seizure by local government through eminent domain. Rollins posted on X that she had spoken directly with the farm’s owner, Andy Henry, after Cranbury Township approved a plan to take his 21-acre property for the development of affordable housing. “The city govt has approved seizing his 175-year-old family farm via eminent domain for affordable housing units,” Rollins wrote. “Whether the Maudes, the Henrys or others whom we will soon announce, the Biden-style government takeover of our...

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. left a liberal Democratic congressman who was trying to smear him during a hearing red-faced by exposing a damning flip-flop on his part.As The Hill reported, RFK Jr. testified before the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee on Tuesday morning regarding the department’s fiscal 2026 budget request and the Trump administration’s determination to “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.During the hearing, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) tried to slander Kennedy as a conspiracy theorist. He accused the HHS Secretary of advancing a “dangerous pseudoscience” and putting American lives in danger by firing civil servants and eliminating...

A House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing came to a brief halt Tuesday as the Republican chair asked Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to retract his accusations that a Democratic member’s stance on vaccines was influenced by campaign contributions from pharmaceutical companies. Kennedy appeared before the subcommittee to defend the Trump administration’s budget request, which includes steep cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, used his time to blast the firings at HHS and the apparent lack of transparency...

Columbia University graduate student and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil has landed in New Jersey, telling reporters that he will continue to fight for his country 'even if they kill me.'

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. government to free former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from the immigration detention center where he has been held since early March while the Trump administration sought to deport him over his role in pro-Palestinian protests. Ruling from the bench in New Jersey, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said it would be “highly, highly unusual” for the government to continue to detain a legal U.S. resident who was unlikely to flee and hadn’t been accused of any violence. In reaching his decision, he said Khalil is likely...

ANew Jersey family trying to save their 175-year-old farm from being seized by a local government are getting support from the Trump administration.The Cranbury city government announced its intention to seize the 21-acre farm through eminent domain in order to build low-income apartments, but the Henry family is resisting. On Tuesday, Agriculture Sec. Brooke Rollins said the power of the federal government would intercede in the case on the side of the family."On the phone with Andy Henry of Highland Ranch in Cranbury, NJ. The city govt has approved seizing his 175-year-old family farm via eminent domain for affordable housing...

Politics Judge orders release of Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil from ICE detention By Updated on: June 20, 2025 / 3:13 PM EDT / CBS News A federal judge in New Jersey on Friday ordered that Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil must be released from detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as his immigration proceedings play out. During a hearing before U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz, Khalil's attorneys asked him to free Khalil from detention or transfer him to New Jersey. Farbiarz agreed, determining that Khalil is not a threat to the community, not a flight risk and that his detention...

A Mexican national who federal prosecutors say illegally reentered the United States three times was sentenced to nearly a decade behind bars on drug charges. Anastacio Santiago Chaparro, 41, was found by police with a backpack that they say contained 10 kilos of cocaine that he was planning to sell. Chaparro, aka Arnoldo Urquidez, was previously charged in the United States with assault and re-entered the country twice before his most recent arrest. Anastacio Santiago Chaparro, 41, pleaded guilty in a Camden, NJ federal court to possession with intent to distribute cocaine and illegal reentry by a convicted felon. The...

Former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez turned himself in to federal prison on Tuesday for an 11-year sentence after he was found guilty on bribery and corruption charges. Last year, Menendez was found guilty on all 16 counts, including extortion, obstruction of justice, acting as a foreign agent for Egypt, bribery, and conspiracy. He had accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of bribes from three once-prominent New Jersey businessmen — Wael Hana, Fred Daibes, and Jose Uribe. He was the first sitting member of Congress to be convicted of acting as a foreign agent. Menendez had been chairman of...

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing First Choice, a faith-based pregnancy center, are asking the Supreme Court to allow it to challenge in federal court an unconstitutional investigation by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin. Platkin served a subpoena demanding that First Choice identify—by name—the donors behind nearly 5,000 donations and produce up to 10 years of its internal, confidential documents. The First Amendment protects donor identities from unjustified disclosure and prohibits a state official from retaliating against speech with which he disagrees. “New...

An estimated 50,000 people marched across New York City as part of nationwide protests against the Trump administration, according to early estimates from the NYPD. The demonstrations took place on city streets largely without incident. NBC New York’s Chris Jose report What to Know Protests against the Trump administration's immigration enforcement policies have been ongoing in New York City and across the country since last weekend, when unrest erupted in Los Angeles and the president ordered in the National Guard. Demonstrations are taking place nationwide on Saturday for what organizers are calling 'No Kings Day' with the goal of protest...

Hamas supporter Mahmoud Khalil, a green-card holder who led pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University in New York City, will not be released from ICE custody, a New Jersey District Judge ruled on Friday. New Jersey District Judge Michael E. Farbiarz rejected Khalil’s request for release, ruling on Friday that the anti-Israel agitator “did not put forward factual evidence as to why it might be unlawful to detain him” on a second charge, and “failed to make meaningful legal arguments.” “The Court preliminary enjoined the Respondents from detaining the Petitioner on a particular charge,” Judge Farbiarz wrote, noting, “It would be...

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley are co-sponsoring a bill that would ban discrimination against transgender military members.The Fit to Serve Act would prohibit the Department of Defense from banning transgender service members from the military and would ban the department from listing gender identity as a qualification for service.The Fit to Serve Act was led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and co-sponsored by other senators, including Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)

Recently indicted Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) claimed Thursday on MSNBC’s “The Weeknight” that “Republicans have sold their soul for Donald Trump.” Discussing Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) being forcibly removed from a press conference, McIver said, “It was disgraceful. I mean, to see it honestly brought tears to my eyes. someone had dropped it in a chat to me. I watched the whole video and just the idea of how they were handling him with no regard, just throwing him on the floor, his hands up. I mean, it just brought back just a time that you don’t want to be...

“In the mid-1970s, California Congresswoman Karen Bass, who is now under consideration to be Joe Biden’s running mate, was an organizer for the Venceremos Brigade… An event blurb in an October 1975 issue of the communist Daily World newspaper describes Bass, then 22, as “leader of the Venceremos Brigade in southern California….As a ‘brigadista’ and then organizer for the Venceremos Brigades, Karen visited Cuba every 6 months.” (Tablet magazine, 7/28.) In that heady Age of Aquarius hundreds of starry-eyed college kids were volunteering to “help build Cuban Socialism” and “fight U.S. Imperialism,” mostly by joyfully cutting Cuban sugar cane and...

For three decades, Andy Henry has declined $20-30 million offers for his 21-acre, 175-year-old farm. Ironically, local government is using his perseverance to take the entire property via eminent domain and replace pasture with affordable housing. Grass for concrete? Legacy surrendered? No deal, Henry says. Period. Full stop. On South River Road, in Middlesex County, N.J., warehouses and industrial buildings have replaced the once abundant farms of yesteryear—except a lone holdout. “My family sacrificed on this land for 175 years,” Henry adds. “All the other farms disappeared. We did not. We will not.” In 1850, Joseph McGill—Andy Henry’s maternal great-grandfather—bought...

About 50 inmates at Delaney Hall, the ICE detention facility in Newark, banded together and pushed down the wall of a dormitory room when meals were hours late, a lawyer told NJ Advance Media.Mustafa Cetin, an immigration lawyer who represents a detainee inside the private, contracted jail on Doremus Avenue, said his client told him that simmering dissatisfaction over the quality and timeliness of meals in the facility boiled over late Thursday afternoon. It’s about the food, and some of the detainees were getting aggressive and it turned violent,” Cetin said. “Based on what he told me it was an...

Democrat LaMonica McIver Indicted over Storming of ICE Detention Center, Faces 17 Years in Federal Prison 449 Ras Baraka, mayor of Newark, right, and Representative LaMonica McIver, a Democrat from NeYuki Iwamura/Bloomberg/DHS John Binder10 Jun 20251,480 3:06 A federal grand jury has issued a three-count federal indictment against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) after she was reportedly caught on camera storming an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Newark, New Jersey, last month. On Tuesday, a federal grand jury in Newark returned an indictment against McIver, charging her with forcibly impeding and interfering with ICE agents while they were...