Free Republic

Newark Cardinal Joseph Tobin has launched an appeal to Catholics to voluntarily forgo their Second Amendment rights by refusing to bear arms. “It’s true that we have a second amendment right to bear arms, but rights always involve responsibilities — in this case, the responsibility to protect the innocent and to secure public safety and good order,” the cardinal declares in a recent pastoral letter. “The mass shootings we are witnessing almost weekly now are a grave threat to the lives and well-being of all people.” In what he calls his “most challenging and controversial proposal,” Tobin urges “voluntary self-restraint”...

Police have arrested a suspect nearly four months after a New Jersey Republican councilwoman was gunned down in her car as she was nearing her home. Rashid Ali Bynum, 28, was arrested and charged in the murder of 30-year-old Eunice Dwumfour, who was shot and killed on the evening of February 1. Dwumfour and Bynum knew each other from working together at Champions Royal Assembly, a Nigeria-based prosperity gospel church in Newark, police said, according to ABC 7. “This was a very complex, extensive case with painstaking police work every single moment until today and it will continue after today,”...

Bynum is currently being held in his home state awaiting extradition to New Jersey. A 28-year-old Virginia man has been arrested in connection with the February murder of a Republican New Jersey Councilwoman. Rashid Ali Bynum allegedly shot and killed Eunice Dwumfour, 30, outside her home. Bynum, a resident of Portsmouth, was apprehended in Chesapeake City, Virginia on Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder. While authorities believed the shooting to be targeted, no motive has been revealed. According to the New York Post, Bynum is currently being held in his home state awaiting extradition to New Jersey. Upon arrival, he...

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced Wednesday that a New Jersey medical group had settled for $100,000 for refusing to allow religious exemptions to the company’s influenza vaccine policy, according to a press release. Six employees were denied requests to obtain a religious exemption to Inspira Medical Centers’ (IMC) policy requiring the influenza vaccine for all staff in compliance with a “New Jersey statute that requires health care employees to get the influenza vaccine,” according to the Wednesday press release. The EEOC found that the company had failed to meet the requirements for religious accommodation under the Title...

When Governor Murphy and the New Jersey Democrats rushed a flurry of gun laws through the legislature last June of 2022, one of the laws rammed through was under the guise of banning guns with no serial numbers.This law banned millions of rifles, shotguns, handguns, hunting guns, target shooting guns, military surplus guns, and virtually ALL muzzleloaders, black powder guns, antique guns, air guns and BB guns.There are NO exceptions and there is NO grandfathering. This was the largest gun ban ever passed in the history of the United States. The law bans ALL firearms with a “…firearm frame or...

PORTSMOUTH (AP) — A Portsmouth man was arrested Tuesday on murder and gun charges in the February killing of a New Jersey councilwoman who was found fatally shot in her SUV outside her home, prosecutors said. Middlesex County, New Jersey, prosecutor Yolanda Cicconne said in a press conference that 28-year-old Rashid Ali Bynum, of Portsmouth, Virginia, was arrested outside a home in Chesapeake, Virginia, on first-degree murder and two second-degree handgun charges in the death of Sayreville Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour.

An arrest has been made in the case of murdered New Jersey councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour, who was gunned down outside her home in early February, according to reports. The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, which has led the investigation, has been notoriously tight-lipped about its progress, but it will hold a 4 p.m. press conference to update the public, ABC7 reported Tuesday. The 30-year-old Republican was killed Feb. 1 after an unknown gunman pumped several rounds into her SUV — while Dwumfour’s 12-year-old daughter sat inside their Sayreville home. Witnesses said they saw a man dressed in black running from the...

A county in New Jersey voted unanimously to oppose an offshore wind farm proposed for its coastline, citing the project's negative impacts on the environment, tourism industry and beach vistas. In a 4-0 vote this week, the Cape May County, New Jersey, Board of Commissioners passed a resolution green-lighting reasonable use of all the county's resources to oppose the wind projects developed by Danish multinational energy company Orsted. The county is also considering legal options and appealed a state public utility permit it says would transfer "real property interests" from residents to Orsted. "At first, the County of Cape May...

The Department of Justice is investigating whether expensive gifts were given to New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez and his wife, including a Mercedes-Benz, a luxury D.C. apartment, money and jewelry, sources familiar with the matter said. According to sources, investigators want to know if the gifts — which would be valued in the tens of thousands of dollars — came from the owner or associates of an Edgewater, N.J., business that won a controversial exclusive contract to perform Halal meat certification with the Egyptian government — even though U.S. Department of Agriculture officials complained that the firm had no previous...

Former Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is preparing to announce his entrance into the 2024 GOP presidential race “in the coming days,” according to a report. The report came from “New Hampshire Today” host Chris Ryan on Thursday, who cited “multiple sources with direct knowledge.” The report notes that the Christie campaign will focus on New Hampshire and have the “financial backing” of billionaire New York Mets owner Steve Cohen. Hedge fund founder Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served in the Trump administration, said Wednesday that he plans to back Christie in the GOP primary and also expects Cohen and...

A federal judge has blocked sections of New Jersey's new concealed carry law that prohibits firearms in "sensitive" areas following a legal challenge from gun rights groups. In the ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Renee Marie Bumb issued a preliminary injunction barring the state from enforcing sections of a law preventing licensed firearm owners from carrying guns in government buildings, libraries, public transportation and daycare centers, among other locations. "The Constitution leaves the states some measures to combat handgun violence," she wrote. But what the Second Amendment prohibits the States from doing, and what the state of New Jersey has...

New Jersey’s latest round of tougher gun laws faced a setback on Tuesday, as a federal judge blocked the state from enforcing much of its ban on concealed carry in "sensitive" public places. U.S. District Judge Renee Maria Bumb, appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, found the state’s attempt to restrict legal gun owners from carrying firearms at roughly two dozen public spaces to be unconstitutional — for all but playgrounds and youth sporting events, on the grounds that it interfered with Second Amendment rights. “The State has failed to offer any evidence that law-abiding responsible citizens...

Former President Donald Trump is backed by 70 percent of Kentucky Republicans in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, according to an Emerson College/Fox 56 Lexington poll.The poll published Sunday shows that 70 percent of “very likely” GOP primary voters in Kentucky say they support Trump for the nomination, giving him a 56-point advantage over his nearest potential competitor, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who is at 14 percent. Trump’s edge has grown by a net 17 points in just one month, as April’s Emerson College/Fox 56 Lexington poll out of Kentucky showed him leading DeSantis 62 percent to 23...

A New Jersey educator was passed over for nearly four dozen promotions because he is white, he claims in an explosive new lawsuit. Thomas F. Franco alleges the Paterson, NJ school district won’t promote him to an administrative position solely because of his skin color, according to the discrimination lawsuit filed last month. The 58-year-old Ringwood resident contends he’s applied for “more than 45 positions” since he was hired in 2016, and has only been interviewed once. “Nearly all administrative level positions within the PPS [Paterson Public Schools], greater than 95%, are held by Black and Hispanic individuals,” according to...

Senator Michael Testa called on Governor Murphy to clarify the intent of a request from the Department of Health (DOH) for proposed rule revisions on vaccine requirements for students. “It is abundantly clear that the Murphy administration is attempting to railroad parental rights by soliciting egregious vaccine recommendations from anonymous stakeholders,” said Testa (R-1). “When the government tries to sneak in policy changes that would impact a child’s quality of education behind closed doors, that should immediately send a red flag to parents. There is no greater stakeholder in a child’s life than their parent or guardian.” The DOH sent...

...Here’s a sample of some of the most interesting essays, which have been edited for clarity and length: ... People fly off the handle so fast now, always ready to argue or fight. In the past when two people would have an argument or a physical altercation, people might have tried to step in and try to calm everyone down. Now everybody just reaches for their phone to make sure they can post it. ... The following Wednesday, I taught my last class at Rutger...For me, there is no such thing as a “post-COVID” world. I continue to “mask up”...

It’s good that New York’s progressive elected officials and transit advocates are outraged by Jordan Neely’s killing on a Manhattan subway train Monday. Neely’s life mattered — and so did the lives of the 27 other people violently killed on the subway since March 2020. Where was the progressive outrage then? It might have prevented the latest death. Monday afternoon, Neely, 30, was menacing people on an F train in Lower Manhattan, according to witnesses, when another passenger put him in a chokehold.

Last month, Insider reported that Smalls had been caught on video fighting an Amazon employee outside the Staten Island warehouse. The video also showed Palmer restraining the employee as Smalls hit him. Smalls was arrested last year on assault allegations unrelated to the fight outside the warehouse and taken to court over some $20,000 in overdue child support, which he eventually paid. Some core union members are questioning Smalls' leadership, saying he seems more focused on fame than a union contract...When reached via email by Insider for comment on the charges against Palmer, Smalls responded: "Listen I'm so sick of...

A transgender female pedophile who filmed her seven year-old daughter being sexually abused for horrific porn videos is being housed in a New Jersey women's prison despite still having a penis, it is claimed. Marina Volz, 34, is serving her 25 year sentence at the notorious Edna Mahan Correctional Facility alongside her accomplice Ashley Romero, 30, who joined in the abuse of the girl. Volz, born a man named Matthew, is now recorded as 'female' in official prison records, with her presence at Edna Mahan said to be causing terror among biological women housed there. Shockingly, Volz is even said...

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...