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May the fourth is widely known among fans of the sci-fi series as Star Wars Day, and thus, a local business themed around the franchise wanted to put on a promotion to celebrate it. Coco Vanilla Galactic Cantina Owner Bradley Whalen told LNN that it very quickly went off the rails and put one of his employees in serious danger.“We had music playing in the parking lot, we had one of our staff dress up as a stormtrooper kind of waving to people walking up and down the road, we had people stopping by and getting pictures with the stormtrooper,...

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy will announce Monday that all public and private schools in the state will remain closed for the rest of the academic year, POLITICO has learned. Murphy will make the announcement at his daily briefing — scheduled for noon in Trenton — alongside state Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet, according to a statement from the governor’s office obtained by POLITICO. “This is a difficult decision and I know that many students, parents, and staff would like to be able to return to school,” Murphy said in the statement. “However, I have been unwavering on the message that...

TRENTON — A top official in the administration of Gov. Philip D. Murphy described in wrenching testimony on Tuesday the lack of urgency among aides to the governor after she accused a member of Mr. Murphy’s campaign of sexual assault. The emotional narrative marked the first day of legislative hearings into how Mr. Murphy’s administration has handled a case that threatens to thwart his ambitious agenda and cast a stain over his progressive image. The official, Katie Brennan, spoke slowly and sternly as she detailed her allegations against Albert J. Alvarez, whom she accused of sexually assaulting her after a...

As I read CNN trying to get Trump by playing up the apparent murder of a Saudi citizen by the Saudi government, I'm reminded that in 2003 CNN and the NY Times both admitted that they hid all sorts of atrocities being committed by Saddam Hussein in exchange for access. They admitted that Saddam and his sons told them in advance of planned assassinations that they didn't report. They admitted that they knew of instances of torture and brutality against not just Iraqi's but even against their own cameraman in one torture instance and they kept all that quiet too....

Aztec human sacrifices were far more widespread and grisly that previously thought, archaeologists have revealed. In 2015 archaeologists from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) found a gruesome 'trophy rack' near the site of the Templo Mayor, one of the main temples in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, which later became Mexico City. Now, they say the find was just the tip of the iceberg, and that the 'skull tower' was just a small part of a massive display of skulls known as Huey Tzompantli that was the size of a basketball court.

Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday that absent a last-minute deal with his fellow Democrats who run the New Jersey Legislature, he will be forced to cut $855 million in spending from the state budget lawmakers passed last week. "That's unfortunately the option that we'd be left with," Murphy said at a news conference at his office in Trenton. The Legislature passed a budget on Thursday that, in defiance of Murphy, does not include his plans to raise taxes on personal income over $1 million or boost the state sales taxes from 6.625 percent back to 7 percent. Murphy would not...

Came across an odd e-mail in the state department area of Wikileaks. Apparantly after the big earthquake there in 2009, former PA Governor Ed Rendell was trying to get Haitian orphans out of Haiti and into Pennsylvania. He had, according to several earlier e-mails, gotten many out but there were 14 that the Haitians gave permission to go but who for some reason the State Department wouldn't let him bring back. This played out over months and at least one died waiting. Some exceprts: "I just spoke to Gov. Rendell, and he is strongly urging the WH/State Dept. to allow...

Grethe Kiley didn't think much about the film crew that set up in front of her family's market in Haddon Heights in July. Maybe the store would someday show up in a toilet paper ad, she speculated in passing. Instead, the facade of John's Friendly Market - an institution in the New Jersey town - is front and center in a presidential television campaign commercial that Donald Trump began running last week in nine battleground states, including Pennsylvania. Kiley, who took over the store with her sister in 2011 after their father, John Johnson, died, learned about the commercial only...

Sometimes you eat the catfish, and sometimes the catfish falls from the sky and smacks you in the face. Lisa Lobree learned that lesson Labor Day morning when she was walking to meet her CoreFitness class near the Art Museum, heard a "rustling" in the trees, and then -. Lisa Lobree, of Fairmount, was struck in the face Monday by an estimated five-pound catfish that fell out of the sky. She was in bad shape immediately after, but posed with the fish later on. "Suddenly I was slammed by something," Lobree recalled Friday. "I was like, 'What?!' I was freaking...

Did a search today on Godwin's law. You know, that one that says any disagreement online will eventually compare someone to the nazis or to Hitler. I just wanted to see the "official" definition. Here's what I got. Note that the law is thus proven, QED.

A suicide bomber who blew himself up after being turned away from a music festival in southern Germany was a Syrian man who had been denied asylum. The 27-year-old killed himself and injured 12 others when he detonated an explosive device after he was denied entry to the event in Ansbach, Bavaria, attended by around 2,500 people, the Bavarian interior minister said. "We don't know if this man planned on suicide or if he had the intention of killing others," Joachim Herrmann said, adding that three of the 12 victims suffered serious injuries.

Jodie Foster's film — reuniting stars Julia Roberts and George Clooney — makes its world premiere Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival hours before it starts rolling out in the U.S.; 'Captain America: Civil War' crosses $200 million domestically for a global total of $737.8 million. Jodie Foster's financial thriller Money Monster is eyeing a bearish opening in the U.S., where it is looking at a debut in the low-teen millions, if tracking is correct. Sony/TriStar insiders are being even more conservative and suggesting their pic will open in the $10 million range, thanks to another kind of monster —...

Ashton Carter announced on Twitter that President Obama called to tell him he'd be nominated to be the next defense secretary. "President Obama phones me announcing his decision to appoint me as Defense Secretary. I'm honoured and happy," Carter tweets. CNN confirms: Ashton Carter, the former second-in-command at the Pentagon appears to be the top choice to replace outgoing Secretary Chuck Hagel. Barring any last minute complications, Ash Carter will be President Barack Obama's choice as the new Secretary of Defense, several U.S. administration officials told CNN.

Over 300,000 Americans have already been infected with the potentially fatal 'kissing bug disease' called Chagas but U.S. healthcare workers lack of knowledge about the illness is letting many cases of the parasite unnoticed. Some doctors are calling it the 'new AIDS' because of the way it develops.

President Obama and Vice President Biden might not see eye-to-eye on immigration strategy. A hint of an apparent disagreement was on display during Obama's lunch with congressional leaders on Friday at the White House. "The meeting was tense at times, according to a senior House Republican aide. The aide was not authorized to describe the back-and-forth publicly by name and spoke only on condition of anonymity," the Associated Press reports. "Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, about to lose his grip on the upper chamber, barely said a word. The aide said at one point as House Speaker John Boehner was...

At a press conference today in Ramallah, President Barack Obama addressed the assembled journalists while standing under a Yasser Arafat banner:"Hope everyone saw presser. If not there, it was notable that Obama and Abbas spoke from under a banner bearing pictures of Arafat and Abbas. Also another big banner was hanging on wall nearby with Abbas kind of superimposed on Arafat," the White House pool reporter notes.

Today, November 9, is a pivotal date in American history. It was 70 years ago today where America began a slow but relentless transformation from a free society where the people are sovereign to one where we are tokens of the government. In 1941 Roscoe Filburn harvested wheat he had planted on his own land and he sold a portion but he kept the rest for his own use. This was a problem, because the government had passed a law in 1938 that said you could only grow so much wheat; it planned to prop up prices by limiting supply....

TMZ first reported that retired NFL star Junior Seau was found dead Wednesday morning, and that the police were investigating after his housekeeper found the NFL legend with a fatal shotgun wound to the chest. He was 43 years old. The report has been confirmed by the North County Times: Pro football great and Oceanside sports legend Junior Seau has apparently committed suicide, found by a housekeeper with a gunshot wound to the chest, according to multiple sources.Oceanside Mayor Jim Wood said he learned of the death from police Chief Frank McCoy.Police responded to Seau's home on The Strand on...

I've never posted a vanity before so I'm ready for the scolding I'll get for doing it, but I need help. My wife and I are considering buying a handgun and while I've fired a variety of guns previously at a range with friends, I've never bought or owned one. I know FR is full of 2nd amendment advocates and was hoping I could get some help as to what to buy. It would be for both my wife and I for occasional use at a range and, in the unlikely event of a home invasion, self defense. I don't...

BERLIN (AP) -- German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg increased the pressure on aerospace firm EADS going into crucial negotiations Thursday in Berlin about the company's demand for more government financial help with its troubled A400M military transport plane. "Be assured: We want the A400M, but not at any price," Guttenberg told weekly Bayernkurier. Guttenberg's comments came ahead of a meeting of high level representatives from EADS and the A400M customer nations -- Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey -- at the German Defense Ministry.