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TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie today criticized a controversial tweet sent out by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Lonegan's staff last week, calling it "inflammatory and inappropriate." "The proof that it was (inappropriate) was that Steve ordered it taken down," Christie, who beat Lonegan in the 2009 Republican gubernatorial primary, said at a news conference in Trenton. "Steve never backs away from something controversial." The incident unfolded Thursday night as Newark Mayor Cory Booker, the favorite to win the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, participated in a televised debate with his three primary opponents. During the broadcast, a Twitter account run...

Camden County voting records show Faustino Fernandez-Vina, who today was nominated to the state Supreme Court by Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, has been a registered Democrat since 1972. But if you ask Phyllis Pearl, the county’s superintendent of elections, she tells a different story. “He’s a Republican,” Pearl said in a brief telephone interview. “We’ve had some data corrupted and people’s party affiliations have been changed, and I think that’s the case here.” When asked how she, a Democrat, knew Fernandez-Vina’s party affiliation, Pearl responded, “I just do.” She said the discrepancy was never caught because Fernandez-Vina has only...

Twenty-six cents almost cost Sergio Branco his life. Twenty-six cents. Most of us could scrape that up from under our couch cushions or on the floor of a car. Sergio Branco has 26 cents, too. The question was whether or not he would be permitted to pay it. Branco, a 33-year-old father of three, was a truck driver for Russell Reid, a Keasbey-based waste-management company. "In his spare time, he would play with his children, liked having barbecues and people over for gatherings," his cousin Sandy Marujo said. "He is a big kid at heart." In January, Branco wasn’t himself....

With the number of heroin overdoses skyrocketing nationwide, a growing number of law enforcement agencies are dusting off strict, rarely-used drug laws, changing investigatory techniques and relying on technology to prosecute drug dealers for causing overdose deaths. The aggressive change in tactics comes as more people turn to heroin because of crackdowns on powerful prescription opiate painkillers that make them more expensive and inaccessible. The popular prescription drug OxyContin has also been reformulated to make it difficult to crush and snort, making it less desirable on the street, law enforcement officials said. Nationwide, the number of people who said they...

FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP -- The day U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg died, Alieta Eck was treating a patient at the free health clinic for the poor and uninsured she operates with her husband in Somerset County. The patient, she said, had just learned her minimum-wage job was being cut from 37 to 29 hours a week, with her employer blaming the costs associated with President ObamaÂ’s health care overhaul. "She didnÂ’t know what she was going to do," Eck said. "I realized: Obamacare is going to hurt people. How are we going to stop it?" Eck paused. "Then," she said, "I got...

Travel mag Conde Nast Traveler asked its readers to name (and shame) the friendliest and unfriendliest cities in the US and across the world. The "unfriendliest" winner in both categories was deemed to be Newark, New Jersey, which one reader say they would not recommend for anything except as "a cheaper/less busy airport to fly into while visiting other cities." Other winners and losers: -- The next four unfriendliest cities in the US? Oakland, New Haven, Detroit, and Atlantic City, which one voter calls a "pale shadow of Las Vegas." -- Globally, Islamabad, Pakistan; Luanda, Angola; Kuwait City, Kuwait; Lome,...

EXCLUSIVE Cory Booker pocketed “confidential” annual payouts from his former law firm while serving as Newark mayor. Booker, the front-runner in New Jersey’s Senate race, received five checks from the Trenk DiPasquale law firm from 2007 until 2011. During that time, the firm raked in more than $2 million in fees from local agencies over which Booker has influence. “This was a settlement buyout for my interest in the firm,” the mayor told The Post at a campaign stop in Jersey City yesterday. “I had an equity stake, and we had a negotiated settlement.” Booker worked at the West Orange...

The Talk Shows August 11th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Steve King, R-Iowa; Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; Anu Bhagwati, executive director, Service Women's Action Network.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Reps. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., and Peter King, R-N.Y.; Michael Hayden, a former head of the CIA and the National Security Agency.THIS WEEK (ABC): Edward Snowden's father, Lon; Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; Reps. Ed Royce, R-Calif., Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, and Louie Gohmert, R-Texas; Donald Trump.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN):...

Newark Mayor Cory Booker appears to be a slam dunk to win next week’s Democratic primary for the US Senate in New Jersey. Booker got an overwhelming 54 percent of the support — compared with 17 percent for nearest rival Rep. Frank Pallone and 15 percent for third-place Rep. Rush Holt — in the latest Quinnipiac University poll. The winner will run in October’s special election to replace Frank Lautenberg, who died in June at age 89 — and Booker leads that poll over GOPer Steve Lonegan by 25 points.

The 15-year-old son of CNN President Jeff Zucker stepped down from the advisory board of Cory Booker’s Internet startup Wednesday — hours after a news report revealed the Newark mayor and Senate hopeful was receiving stock options for the role. The quick resignation by teenager Andrew Zucker followed revelations about the company, Waywire, and its lineup of wealthy Silicon Valley investors like Google’s Eric Schmit. In an amended disclosure filed just last month, Booker admitted a stake in the startup worth millions, the New York Times reported.

The Republican party is at a crossroads and will have a big decision to make on its direction should Gov. Chris Christie enter the 2016 presidential contest, former Gov. Tom Kean said in an interview today. Kean, an elder statesman in New Jersey and a popular figure in national political circles, said should Christie enter the race, Republicans will be faced with the choice of fielding a candidate who can win or fielding an ideologue to promote party purity. "They can nominate somebody who touches all the conservative bases and you'll get 40 something percent of the vote and the...

But he refused to sign 5 others so everything is ok, right?Um...no: Two of the bills Christie signed were opposed by gun-rights activists: One bars gun purchases by people on the federal terrorism watch-list; the other makes it mandatory for the state to submit information on people who are banned from gun ownership to a national database. Christie has not tipped his hand as to whether he will sign or veto the other five bills, which include an outright ban on the sale of the highest caliber rifle Christie's handling of the gun bills was just another day of walking...

TRENTON – One of the bills Gov. Chris Christie signed into law today deals with keeping guns out of the hands of those on the Terrorist Watch List. In signing A3687, Christie talked in an accompanying statement about the need to balance national security needs with a desire to ensure law-abiding citizens are not improperly implicated with wrongdoing. He said that “To the extent that this bill will keep guns out of the hands of known terrorists, or those who have taken active steps to support terrorist activities, my signature on this bill represents my commitment to keeping the citizens...

New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie signed 10 pieces of gun legislation into law Thursday. Christie, widely seen as a probable GOP candidate for president in 2016, signed off on the slate of bills, most of which were non-controversial, while leaving five more contentious bills still awaiting his signature or veto. One of the new laws will disqualify any person on the federal terrorist watch list from obtaining firearms identification cards or permits to purchase handguns. “To the extent that this bill will keep guns out of the hands of known terrorists, or those who have taken active steps to...

Christie's positive support from 21 per cent of GOP voters polled by Rasmussen Reports topped a field including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. But his negatives totaled 31 per cent. That's nearly one in three GOP voters, all saying they don't want him to run. The national telephone survey asked 1,000 voters on August 1 and 2 whom they would vote for if the party’s primary in their state were held today. Rubio ran a close second, with an 18 per cent showing. Bush took 16 per cent, Paul - who...

the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene headquarters, which cost taxpayers $316 million, is overrun by bed bugs. The building is 21 floors, and five of those are home to a bed bug infestation. That’s no shock, since the city itself has been ranked the worst in the nation when it comes to bed bugs. This is the second time in under a year that bed bugs have been found in the facility, which is only three years old. Critics say that the city is actually underreporting the problem ... Other major New York landmarks have become...

Justin Robinson admitted in court Wednesday that he murdered 12-year-old Autumn Pasquale inside his family's home in Clayton, N.J. Robinson was 15 years old when he was arrested for her murder along with his older brother Dante, who was 17 at the time.

The conference room in the Mountain View, Calif., headquarters of LinkedIn was packed with the stars of Silicon Valley. Top executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter gathered around a table; the billionaire Sean Parker looked on from a back row. The guest of honor: Cory A. Booker, the mayor of Newark. "He's part of this tide," said Gina Bianchini, an entrepreneur who was at the meeting, in May 2009. "It feels like he's one of us." Mr. Booker personally has obtained money for the start-up, called Waywire, from influential investors, including Eric E. Schmidt, Google's executive chairman. A year after...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie conflated statistics when he claimed Sen. Rand Paul’s “pork-barrel spending” is the reason Kentucky receives more federal funds than New Jersey for every tax dollar it sends to Washington. The figures cited by Christie are affected very little by pork-barrel spending.Moreover, Senate Republicans have imposed a voluntary ban on earmarks — otherwise known as pork-barrel spending — since the Kentucky senator took office in 2011. So Paul hasn’t brought any of the traditional pork-barrel spending to Kentucky.Paul also added some confusion to the issue when he seemed to suggest that Kentucky’s ratio was the...

Three New Jersey Democrats running in a special U.S. Senate election got their first crack Monday night at the front runner, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, in the first debate among all four candidates in the abbreviated campaign. At times, they tried to gang up on Booker to show he’s less liberal than them on issues such as using public money to send children to private schools or revising health insurance laws even further. But largely, the four candidates found themselves in agreement and their differences were relatively nuanced. The four are running in a hastily scheduled Aug. 13 primary to...

HBO’s Bill Maher thinks the Department of Homeland Security has outlived its usefulness. On Friday’s episode of “Real Time,” Maher and his guests debated the DHS’s usefulness during a discussion of the debate between Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul and New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie. “There was a huge verbal slap by the Republican Party this week between Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, and Rand Paul,” Maher said. “And it was sort of I think a fight for the soul of the Republican Party — where they’re going to go because, OK, next month is the 12th...

The barbs are personal, the differences are multiplying among Republicans, a party divided over spending, foreign policy, a willingness to risk a government shutdown in order to defund the health care law and more. “I didn't start this one and I don’t plan on starting things by criticizing other Republicans,” Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said recently as he and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie likened one another to various cuts of a butchered pig. “But if they want to make me the target, they will get it back in spades.” …

A new Chris Christie re-election ad highlights a phenomenon in New Jersey known as “ChristieCrats” – Democrats who support Gov. Christie for re-election. The ad features a report from radio station WNYC on New Jersey Democrats who support the governor after he welcomed President Obama to the state to tour storm damage in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Update: A Christie spokesman emailed to clarify that the campaign has not paid money to broadcast the campaign's YouTube video promoting Chris Christie's relationship with Democrats on television or radio.

New Jersey's law requiring residents show a “justifiable need” to get a permit to carry a handgun in public was upheld by a federal appeals court. A mandate that residents demonstrate an “urgent necessity for self-protection” to get authorization to publicly carry a handgun doesn’t run afoul of U.S. constitutional protections of the right to bear firearms, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled Wednesday. “The justifiable need standard is a longstanding regulation that enjoys presumptive constitutionality,” the panel wrote. The ruling comes more than four months after the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed a similar...

A gun-rights group in the bellwether presidential primary state of New Hampshire has warned New Jersey Governor Chris Christie that signing gun control bills passed by his state's Legislature could have consequences if he runs for president in 2016. The Pro-Gun New Hampshire coalition urged its members this week to call and email Christie to ask him to veto the proposed laws, posing a political dilemma for Christie as he seeks re-election in November in the Democratic-leaning state while also eyeing the national stage. Christie has a September deadline to sign a number of firearm-related bills seen by their supporters...

Camden, New Jersey (My9NJ) - Tent cities have popped up across New Jersey including the state's poorest city. Meg Baker chased the story of Camden's tent city. Residing off Route 38 at Wilson Boulevard under an overpass, through woods and down a path of trash lays a community of people living in tents. This particular community was relocated from Federal Street and it's inhabited by an array of people: addicts, people who have fallen on hard times and some with mental illness. Baker took a tour of this run down community and the pictures show just how heart-wrenching this situation...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Thursday that he sides with Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz because they are not afraid to ask important questions, and it is disheartening to watch establishment Republicans like Gov. Chris Christie "grow hysterical." "I consistently have been on the side of having the courage that Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have and I think it's sad to watch the establishment grow hysterical, but frankly they're hysterical because they have no answers," Gingrich said while appearing on "The Laura Ingraham Show," Politico reports. Gingrich was on Ingraham's show to offer his opinion on the...

Way back in 1975, a Republican agitator named Ronald Reagan had this to say about an esoteric young movement that was roiling politics: “If you analyze it, I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.” Neither the GOP old guard nor the rowdy libertarians ever quite bought that argument. They both lay claim to the same conservative economic philosophy. But libertarians are more isolationist and antiwar than Republican orthodoxy allows on foreign policy and more permissive on social issues. Still, in the nearly four decades since Reagan made those comments, the two have managed — at least...

Revolutionary War reenactors at Princeton Battlefield. Douglas Sherlock, a bombardier, in the Continental Army, help pull the canon, during a Revolutionary War reenactment held at the Princeton Battlefield, May 25, 2013. Mary Iuvone/For The TimesPRINCETON — Preservationists opposed to the Institute for Advanced Study’s plan to build faculty housing on land they say was a Revolutionary War battlefield have appealed a court decision allowing the construction project to proceed. The appeal filed Friday continues a long-running dispute over the historical significance of the site next to Princeton Battlefield State Park. The planning board approved the construction project last year and...

ATLANTIC CITY — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Barbara Buono issued a blistering attack on Gov. Chris Christie today, saying he lacks the political courage to address national issues of race and has failed to lift the state's economy from the recession. Buono chose a friendly crowd to deliver one of her most forceful challenges to the incumbent Christie: a ballroom full of members of AFSCME, which represents 30,000 public workers across the state and that has already endorsed her candidacy. Christie has yet to offer an opinion on the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to strike down key portions of the...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) turned down an offer by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to get a beer and end a nearly week-long feud. "I’m running for re-election in New Jersey. I don’t really have time for that at the moment," Christie said to Eric Scott on 101.5 FM's "Ask The Governor" program on Wednesday, according to the Asbury Park Press. "You know, if I find myself down in Washington, I'll certainly look him up. I don't suspect I'll be there anytime soon. I've got work to do here."  A few hours earlier, Paul said he would like to...

Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday night he’s a little too busy with his re-election bid this year to have a beer with Sen. Rand Paul. The senator from Kentucky made the pitch earlier in the day, hoping to ease tensions that have escalated in the past week between the two potential 2016 Republican presidential contenders. But Christie gave no indication he plans to take up Paul on the effort. “I’m running for re-election in New Jersey, I don’t really have time for that at the moment. If I find myself in Washington, I’ll certainly look him up,” Christie said on...

(CNN) – Choosing who to vote for in a potential 2016 matchup between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Rand Paul would be hard for Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican joked in an interview published Wednesday. "It's gonna be a tough choice," McCain, laughing, told "The New Republic."The 2008 Republican presidential nominee hasn't hidden his opposition to some of Paul's positions in the past, including the libertarian-minded senator from Kentucky's stance on drones and U.S. intervention in foreign conflicts. Condemning Paul's 13-hour filibuster over the use of drones, McCain called his colleague, along with fellow Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, "wacko...

Sen. Rand Paul is upping the ante in his ongoing spat over national security with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, calling it “sad and cheap” for Mr. Christie to invoke victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to make his point. “It’s really, I think, kind of sad and cheap that he would use the cloak of 9/11 victims and say, ‘Oh, I’m the only one who cares about these victims.’ Hogwash,” Mr. Paul said Monday on Fox News’ “Hannity.” “If he cared about protecting this country, maybe he wouldn’t be in this ‘gimme, gimme, gimme all the money’...

Oprah Winfrey is lending her star power to Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s Senate bid. The talk show queen is set to host a fundraiser for Booker in New Jersey on Thursday. The event, flagged by the Sunlight Foundation, will be held at Liberty House restaurant, and tickets start at $1,000. Booker and Oprah have been pals for a while. The mayor made an appearance on Winfrey’s show “Oprah’s Next Chapter” last year. And Winfrey gushed about him in a Time magazine feature....

The way this feud is progressing, I half-expect Christie to reply, “And you’re the queen.�Ostensibly Paul means “bacon� in terms of “pork,� i.e. wasteful federal spending. Which I guess means he’ll be referring to Christie as “Porky� before the week’s out. “This is the king of bacon talking about bacon,� Paul said about Christie. Both are considered potential 2016 contenders for the Republican presidential nomination…“What does he want to do, shut down military bases in Kentucky?� he said.Fort Campbell and Fort Knox, both Army bases, are located in Kentucky. New Jersey itself is home to a large joint military base...

(CNN) – The feuding between Republicans Chris Christie and Rand Paul continued Tuesday as the senator from Kentucky cautioned the governor from New Jersey was picking a fight with the wrong guy. In an interview on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer," Paul defended himself against Christie's most recent allegations that the senator was bringing home too much money for his state. "This is the king of bacon talking about bacon," Paul said about Christie. Both are considered potential 2016 contenders for the Republican presidential nomination. Earlier in the day, the outspoken governor chastised Kentucky for taking more federal...

A new survey of the Jewish population in the Greater New York area contradicts the conventional wisdom about the subject. It has long been assumed that any portrait of American Jews must tell us a story about an aging, liberal population that is rapidly assimilating. But, as the New York Times reports, the latest results show that the population of the largest center of Jewish life outside of Israel is actually growing. The survey’s estimate of New York City’s Jewish community pegs it at about 1.1 million, with 1.54 million being counted when you include the surrounding suburban counties on...

Rand Paul needled him last night on Hannity’s show for taking a “gimme, gimme, gimme� attitude towards federal spending on Sandy relief. Here’s Christie needling him back by accusing Paul and his home state of Kentucky of being a couple of deadbeats: “I find it interesting that Sen. Paul is accusing us of having a ‘gimme, gimme, gimme’ attitude towards federal spending when in fact New Jersey is a donor state and we get 61 cents back on every dollar we send to Washington,” Christie said. “And interestingly, Kentucky gets $1.51 on every dollar they send to Washington. So if...

Paul needled him last night on Hannity’s show for taking a “gimme, gimme, gimme” attitude towards federal spending on Sandy relief. Here’s Christie needling him back by accusing Paul and his home state of Kentucky of being a couple of deadbeats: “I find it interesting that Sen. Paul is accusing us of having a ‘gimme, gimme, gimme’ attitude towards federal spending when in fact New Jersey is a donor state and we get 61 cents back on every dollar we send to Washington,” Christie said. “And interestingly, Kentucky gets $1.51 on every dollar they send to Washington. So if Sen....

LAWRENCE - A Trenton woman shoplifted $250 worth of dresses from Macy’s Saturday afternoon, pushed a security officer, and then led police on a one-mile car chase before crashing and fleeing into a marsh along the highway, police said today. Shabrika Laster, 24, was captured after a 20-minute police search of the marshy area near Route 1 and Interstate 95, Sgt. Joseph Amodio said. Laster was in Macy’s at Quaker Bridge Mall at around 3:10 p.m., and had allegedly stuffed $251.98 worth of dresses under her tube top. “She was approached by Macy’s security,” Amodio said. “She was stopped outside...

BENNINGTON, Vt. — An infestation of bedbugs has forced the temporary closure of a homeless shelter in Bennington, Vt. ... In the meantime, the women and children who would normally stay there are being placed in temporary locations, including motels

"We still got a ways to go. And in the last 60 days, we were given a reminder that we still have to fight — because if we go to sleep, there are those that never intended for us to get this far, that would turn back on everything that was achieved." Sharpton delivered the message as thousands prepare to join together on the Aug. 28 anniversary of King's speech and the 1963 March on Washington. Sunday's rally was meant to "prime the pump" for that event, said the Rev. David Jefferson Sr., pastor of the Newark church. .... Jefferson,...

UNION COUNTY — The county freeholders have added their collective voice in support of gay marriage. In what same-sex marriage proponents say is the first such instance in New Jersey by a county-level governing body, the all-Democratic board adopted a resolution this week urging members of the Legislature to overturn Gov. Chris Christie's veto of Senate and Assembly bills that would have legalized gay marriage. Freeholder Alexander Mirabella, who introduced the board-sponsored resolution, said he hoped the board's action would spur freeholders in other counties to pass similar declarations and build momentum and ultimately encourage state legislators to override. “It's...

METUCHEN – GOP Senate candidate Steve Lonegan opened his main headquarters here this morning, bashing Obama Democrats, dismissing Newark Mayor Cory Booker as a "failed mayor," and lustily embracing the movement conservative wing of the Republican Party. “You pick a mentor when you go to the U.S. Senate,” the Republican front-runner told a roomful of backers. “My two choices are Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.” Proudly pro life and pro gun, Lonegan said he couldn’t wait to see the look on the face of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) on the occasion of Lonegan’s inaugural escort at the Capitol Building....

Pantano asserts the court erred in finding no justifiable need, and, in the alternative, he argues the justifiable need requirement infringes his right to bear arms under the Second Amendment. U.S. Constitution, amendment. II. Although Concealed Carry Laws are on the books in New Jersey, judges and police chiefs have almost unanimously declined concealed carry permits to everyone but, other police, judges, politicians and famous friends of the aforementioned Effectively New Jersey does not have Concealed Carry, and contrary to mainstream media reports, is still the only state in the USA where its citizens can not defend themselves outside their...

In the last month, conservatives looking for a possible 2016 presidential candidate with a serious approach to defense and foreign policy were starting to wonder if they would be stuck with outliers rather than frontrunners. The only reason why people like former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton and Rep. Peter King—men who are respected voices on these issues but not likely to have a chance at the nomination—were getting even minimal attention for their presidential trial balloons was the fact that all of the likely contenders have been ignoring the question of America’s need to maintain a forward position in...

Republican rivals Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky are escalating their feud over national security policy and liberty. In comments at a forum of Republican governors in Aspen, Col. Thursday, Mr. Christie said the libertarian strain championed by Mr. Paul currently coursing through the veins of political parties — as evidenced by broad, although ultimately unsuccessful, lobbying in the House of Representatives against NSA surveillance programs this week — is dangerous. “This strain of libertarianism that’s going through parties right now and making big headlines I think is a very dangerous thought,” Mr. Christie...

Friday, 26 July 2013 10:31 Chris Christie Finds Liberty a "Dangerous Idea" Written by Jack Kenny On the eve of a House vote Wednesday on his amendment to curb the National Security Agency's daily dragnet collection of Americans' phone records, Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) tweeted, "Washington's elites fear liberty. They fear you." On Thursday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (shown) demonstrated just how eager he is to join the Washington elite. Speaking at the Republican Governors Conference in Aspen, Colorado, Christie delivered what Aaron Blake at the Washington Post described as a "clear broadside" against Republicans of a libertarian bent,...

ASPEN, Colo. — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Thursday offered a clear broadside against Republicans drifting toward a more libertarian view of foreign policy, lumping Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in with them and suggesting they explain their position to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The House earlier this week narrowly voted against a reduction in funding for the National Security Agency, as libertarian-leaning members from both sides joined together to vote for the amendment. “As a former prosecutor who was appointed by President George W. Bush on