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Yahoo picked up a fluff AP article that distorted Democratic NJ Governor Jim McGreevey’s 2004 resignation. It perpetuated the success of what should have been a politician’s attempt to cover allegations of corruption by using his closeted sexuality to distract an incurious and complicit media. This puff piece kept alive McGreevey’s pattern of announcing something socially startling to draw attention away from the incredible graft, scandal and alleged sexual harassment that would have otherwise defined his administration. When threats to McGreevey's reputation arise, he uses his status as a gay man to deflect unwanted attention, and the AP went along...

DENVER -- When John Amaechi told the world he was gay, he steeled himself for a torrent of negativity that never really materialized, the former pro basketball player told the Republican Party's largest gay organization Saturday. "I underestimated America. I braced myself for the wrath of a nation under God," Amaechi said at the Log Cabin Republicans' annual convention. "I imagined that it would be a firestorm, that it would be some insane number of letters demanding my deportation or my death. "And in fact, 95 percent of the correspondence I've had have been overwhelmingly supportive and positive," Amaechi said....

<p>Gay former Gov. Jim McGreevey is ramping up an increasingly contentious divorce from his estranged wife, suggesting she's homophobic and asking a court to bar her from dragging their 5-year-old daughter on tours to promote a much-anticipated tell-all.</p> <p>In the latest motions detailing his demands for joint custody of the girl, Jacqueline, the former New Jersey governor asks a judge to ensure he's not cut off from her as a result of Dina Matos McGreevey's "seemingly irrational fears" about his sexuality.</p>

With legislative races this year expected to do little to tilt the balance of power in Trenton, the hottest race in New Jersey could very well be the one for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Frank Lautenberg. Although voters will not decide the race until November 2008, Lautenberg is filling his campaign treasury, with three fund-raisers down and others planned for Palm Beach, Fla.; Austin, Texas; Denver, and Los Angeles. Tim Yehl, Lautenberg's chief of staff, expects the race to cost each candidate up to $15 million. That's bad news for Lautenberg, who loves being a senator but...

Congressman Bill Pascrell (D) invites you to join him and 37 year Marine Combat Veteran & Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha at Montclair State University, Montclair New Jersey.October 23 starting at 3:00 until 4:30. John Murtha will be discussing his views on National Security and Ending the War in Iraq. contact number for more information 973-523-5152 ( office of B. Pascrell)

URGENT BULLETIN: The New Jersey Supreme Court will hand down its ruling in the marriage equality case Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at 3:00 pm. THIS SUPERCEDES THE COURT'S EARLIER ANNOUNCEMENT THAT THERE WOULD BE NO DECISIONS COMING DOWN ON WEDNESDAY. The Court will post the decision at http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/opinions/index.htm Please attend Garden State Equality's statewide rally for marriage equality Wednesday night at 7:00 pm, Unitarian Church of Montclair, 67 Church Street, downtown Montclair. The rally supercedes any other event we have e-mailed you about. Right now please call as many people as you can, and please forward this e-mail to every...

I received a notice yesterday from the State of New Jersey, Office of the Attorney General, Department of Law and Public Law and Safety, Division of Elections The letter said: Dear Voter: A review of the statewiud voter registration system indicates that your date of birth is missing from your registration record. Please be advised that a missing date of birth will not affect your right to vote. However, we need this missing information to assure that your records are correct and properly maintained. Please provide your date of birth on the line below and mail this letter back in...

Some see it as an exodus. Others call it a mass migration. But it's really a financial flight. In interviews with dozens of New Jersey residents, financial advisers and estate planning attorneys, one thing becomes apparent: People are being taxed out of New Jersey. "I've always felt there's a level of taxation where people say, 'Enough is enough,'" said Curtis Dubay, an economist with the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C., nonpartisan tax research group. "If any state has pushed the line, it's New Jersey." According to the foundation's 2006 State Business Tax Climate Index, New Jersey has the third highest...

Mr. McCullough suggests below that our country has a “new superhero” class of extra-marital fornicators: “Who are they? Men who engage in same-gender sexual activities!” Episcopal bishop (Vickie) Eugene Robinson for example, and, of course, the lastest: Former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey. Mr. McCullough noticed, as did many puzzled Christians, how many times Jim McGreevey invoked the name of God, stating repeatedly that his open embrace of homosexuality is part of his “path back to godliness.” There could be no greater lie. Jesus Himself said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15)…the same Jesus...

Jim McGreevey may have blabbed too much in his tell-all autobiography - and not just about his sex life......the gay former gov's confessions about NJ's notorious "pay-to-play" politics and his ties to a parade of corrupt power players could get him criminally prosecuted....... Ed Stier, a former federal and New Jersey state prosecutor told The Post..... "McGreevey's book may inadvertently supply enough information - to suggest that an already-closed investigation be reopened or expanded" ....McGreevey describes political patronage as "the coin of the realm" in NJ, a "form of sanctioned bribery" .......citing land deals and board appointments as examples of...

Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey sexually harassed and assaulted Golan Cipel during his tenure as the state's homeland security chief, the former Israeli Army officer told the Daily News yesterday. 'He put his hands to my chest and pushed me into the bedroom. He pushed me onto the bed and jumped on me. We wrestled and he stopped. And there was this moment when ... I asked him, 'Why did you think I was gay?' And he said, 'Everybody's a little bit gay.'" Golan Cipel Cipel relayed quite a different reality from the one McGreevey recounts in his new...

In his highly anticipated memoir, former Gov. James E. McGreevey writes of his deep love for the man who ended his political career, the destruction of his second marriage and the events that forced him into his stunning admission on national television that he is gay. In "The Confession," the former governor also touches on New Jersey's sometimes seamy political landscape, where cash, cronyism and a handful of powerful men intersect. But the 384-page book focuses mostly on McGreevey's secret life, from his frequent sexual encounters with men at highway rest stops to his infatuation with Golan Cipel, the Israeli...

INDIANA BAT RINGWOOD -- Ford's toxic waste dump may be home to a tiny newcomer, posing a big problem for neighbors seeking a speedy cleanup.  The Indiana bat, a nationally listed endangered species, may be in the area. And that has interrupted tree clearing at the dump even though residents say the contamination is making them ill and should be removed as soon as possible.  Wildlife personnel are investigating whether the bats, which winter in mines and summer in the bark of large trees, are living at the Upper Ringwood site."We realize some work has stopped and we understand...

New Jersey, dominated by Democrats in recent elections, has become the best Republican prospect for winning a Democratic-held Senate seat this year. New polls last week indicated appointive Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez falling back to an even race with his Republican challenger, state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. Quinnipiac University's poll showed Kean gaining nine percentage points in one month to take a two-point lead. The Monmouth University/Gannett poll's first Senate survey had Kean trailing Menendez by one point, but enjoying a 15-point lead among key independent voters. Kean's edge in the Quinnipiac survey marked the first time a New Jersey...

New Jersey politicians have reached an agreement that will end the state budget crisis. The deal will be announced later this afternoon by Gov. Jon Corzine at a news conference. That conference is tentatively scheduled at 4:30 p.m. NBC 10 News and NBC10.com will live video coverage. Corzine hammered out a deal with his fellow Democrats, who were fighting him over a proposed sales tax hike, according to sources. The deal was reached six days after state government shut down, a high-ranking Statehouse official said. "They'll be announcing the final elements later this afternoon," said the official, who spoke on...

TRENTON, N.J. -- New Jersey lurched into a financial crisis Friday as the midnight deadline to adopt a budget neared and a dispute over the governor's plan to increase the sales tax remained unresolved. Gov. Jon S. Corzine was expected Saturday morning to order an unprecedented state government shutdown after an hourlong meeting Friday night between Corzine and top legislative officials ended without agreement and significant differences remaining. "Over the last several days the administration has worked on contingency plans for the orderly shutdown of state government," Corzine spokesman Anthony Coley said. "At this time, it looks like we may...

A Quinnipiac University poll found 60 percent of New Jersey voters oppose Gov. Jon Corzine's proposed 1 percent sales tax increase, which is seen by a number of Democrats as the only alternative to help close a $4.5 billion budget deficit.

TRENTON, N.J. - Commentator Ann Coulter's incendiary words about outspoken 9/11 widows have led two state lawmakers to calls for a boycott of her book in the widows' home state of New Jersey. Assemblywomen Joan M. Quigley, D-Hudson, and Linda Stender, D-Union, on Thursday called on New Jerseyans to stop buying the book, "Godless: The Church of Liberalism," and for retailers in the state to stop selling it. "Coulter's vicious characterizations and remarks are motivated by greed and her desire to sell books. By making these claims, she proved herself worse than those she is attempting to vilify - she...

1. If the election were held today, whom would you support Robert Menendez, the Democrat, or Thomas Kean Jr., the Republican? Thomas Kean, Jr. 35% Robert Menendez 35% Undecided 30%

<p>An arsenal of exotic weapons - including a sniper rifle, a spear and a set of 8-inch metal claws - were seized from a 23-year-old Jersey City man after his worried father called cops. When South District cops responded to the Greenville home yesterday morning, they found the sniper rifle - with a powerful scope and a laser sight - as well as three Glock handguns and more than 1,200 rounds of ammunition, reports said. Among the bullets were illegal "hollow-point" rounds, police said. In addition to the spear and metal claws, cops found a number of savage-looking knives, including one that had blades coming out of each end of its carved wooden handle. The owner of the weapons lived with his father, his brother and two younger brothers, police said.</p>

Disclosure reports: Corzine gave cash gifts to top aides The Associated Press Published: Saturday, May 6, 2006 Updated: Saturday, May 6, 2006 TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - New Jersey's multimillionaire governor dipped into his personal fortune to give nearly $100,000 cash gifts to top aides late last year, just weeks before his Jan. 17 swearing in, according to recently released financial disclosure reports. Officials in Gov. Jon S. Corzine's administration acknowledged that each gift was kept under $11,000 so that neither the staffers or Corzine would have to pay taxes. "A gift is just that, and a number of Jon Corzine's...

The son of former Governor Tom Kean (R) now has a seven percentage point advantage in New Jersey's U.S. Senate campaign. The latest Rasmussen Reports election poll in the Garden State shows Republican Tom Kean, Jr. leading Senator Robert Menendez (D) 43% to 36%. Seven percent (7%) of voters say that they will vote for some other candidate and 14% remain undecided in this Democratic leaning state. A month ago, Kean held a two-point advantage, 41% to 39%. Kean has solidified support among Republicans since our last poll while Menendez has lost ground among Democrats. From an ideological perspective, Kean...

April 18, 2006--The son of former Governor Tom Kean (R) now has a seven percentage point advantage in New Jersey's U.S. Senate campaign. The latest Rasmussen Reports election poll in the Garden State shows Republican Tom Kean, Jr. leading Senator Robert Menendez (D) 43% to 36%. Seven percent (7%) of voters say that they will vote for some other candidate and 14% remain undecided in this Democratic leaning state. A month ago, Kean held a two-point advantage, 41% to 39%. Kean has solidified support among Republicans since our last poll while Menendez has lost ground among Democrats. From an ideological...

This is the great thing about rabid fundamentalism. You really just don't have to give a damn. Take the environment. I mean, isn't it just a little pointless to care so damn deeply about the air and the soil and the water and the stupid little disposable animals on this silly spinning ball of expendable rock when the Second Coming is imminent and a blood-soaked fire-breathin' Jesus who looks remarkably like Mel Gibson will return very soon to smite the heathens and the gays and the vegetarians and the Francophiles, and who will rescue all those who worship patriarchy and...

I am searching for a few good things. Things to counteract, to dissolve the simmering dread, to deflect the waves of nausea and karmic pain induced by the incessantly depressing media maelstrom and the appallingly hateful gloat of the GOP convention and by the most tyrannical administration and least articulate American president in 100 years. You know how it is. And you say to yourself, these things, these radiant gems that live outside the mass-media miasma, I need them because they provide some balm, soften the fact that the nation feels massively off track and blinded and war torn and...

Bunny-curdling screams were heard throughout the Beltway last week and Laura Bush herself got all flustered and confused as vice president and noted hunk of rabid warmongering neoconservatism Dick Cheney broke ranks with his party of other hunks of rabid warmongering neoconservatives and admitted, in public, that he thinks gay people are, you know, mostly OK. Sort of. A little. In small doses. "With respect to the question of relationships, my general view is that freedom means freedom for everyone. People ought to be able to free -- ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they...

And isn't it funny how at least 13 members of Congress have actually requested that the United Nations monitor this year's U.S. presidential election, just because, just in case, just to ensure there's no voter rolling and election rigging and chad hanging and outright shameless Florida reaming like last time? And isn't it even more funny how, when firebrand U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, from Florida, brought the issue up on the floor of Congress, she was actually shouted down by the Republicans, scolded that she was out of order and told her comments should be stricken from the record? And...

So then a largish envelope comes in the mail and it's from my mother and it contains a single, well-used comic book sealed in a plastic Zip-Loc bag, a book from my childhood she found in a storage box in the garage in our family's cabin getaway up in northern Idaho. And my mother, being smart and attuned and with the times as she is, she noticed the comic's title, and the main characters, and her eyebrows went up and she thought I might want to see it. Here's why: It's a Spider-Man comic. It's from 1976. It's in excellent...

How good and refreshing and inspiring is it, in these war-drunk, anti-everything, BushCo-ravaged times, to discover a gem of pure unadulterated free-thinking humanity and funkiness and animal tenderness sitting just outside the teeming city walls? How life affirming and encouraging is it to stumble, quite randomly, quite unexpectedly, across what is probably the funniest, most caring, most quirky, most unexpected, most hugely popular, intensely local veterinarian in the entire Bay Area even though I can't verify that because I've only been to like, two, but I'm willing to risk saying it anyway? I am here with an answer: It is...

No one in his/her right mind truly believed that San Francisco's landmark same-sex marriages would stand the test of the scowling California Supreme Court or the white-hot glare of the rabid homophobic war-drunk BushCo Right. It was almost no contest, a leather-clad dove versus an archaic, oily tank from the word go -- or, rather, from the words "I do."