Free Republic

The federal government will re-try the corruption case of Sen. Bob Menendez, after the judge in the case declared a mistrial in November. Menendez was able to walk away from federal court last year because the jury was deadlocked. The New Jersey Democrat is up for reelection this year, and another trial could complicate his campaign efforts. In the former bribery case, prosecutors claimed Menendez took gifts from wealthy Florida donor Salomon Melgen, between 2006 and 2013, in exchange for political influence.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The government has told a federal judge in New Jersey it will seek a retrial of Sen. Bob Menendez, whose 11-week corruption trial ended in a hung jury in November. The filing to the judge on Friday seeks a retrial of the Democrat “at the earliest possible date.”

A man in his mid-20s who graduated from Atlantic City High School is believed to be the first American member of the Islamic State terror group to be filmed beheading a prisoner, according to a report in The Atlantic magazine published Saturday. Zulfi Hoxha, whose family immigrated to the United States from Albania and formerly owned a pizzeria in Margate, is believed to have connected with another man, David Wright, through online video games possibly as early as 2010, the magazine reported. Wright put Hoxha in touch with others who then helped Hoxha travel to a part of Syria controlled...

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie learned the drawbacks of ordinary life Thursday morning when he tried to bypass the TSA line and was denied entry to a special entrance at Newark Liberty International Airport, normally reserved for VIP guests, dignitaries and elected officials, according to a source familiar with the matter. When Christie arrived at Terminal C in the airport with his New Jersey State Police detail and was taken to the entrance, which is located near the exit of the restricted area of the terminal, a Port Authority officer refused to let Christie use the special entrance, informing...

Seven members of a cable television crew have been arrested after they tried to sneak a fake explosive device through a security checkpoint at Newark Liberty International Airport, the Transportation Security Administration said Thursday. A law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation said that the team was filming for cable network CNBC, which is based in Englewood Cliffs. The TSA did not release the names of the people they said were arrested, and the Port Authority only said that it was investigating the incident. The law enforcement source said the crew likely would be charged by the Essex County...

New Jersey's highest court overturned a day laborer's conviction of sexually assaulting three women on the streets of Dumont and Englewood -- in part because prosecutors revealed during his trial that he was in the country illegally.

The 57-year-old man was hit by a pick-up truck Tuesday evening in Hackensack. The Record reports police say he was not in a crosswalk when he was hit.

Chris Christie (R) gave New Jersey residents 90 days to surrender bump stocks – or else – in one of his final acts as Governor of the state. No crimes committed with bump stocks in New Jersey were cited. Rather, Christie signed the Democrat-sponsored ban in light of the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas attack. According to NJ.com, the use of bump stocks was already banned in New Jersey, so the law Christie signed will simply broaden that ban to outlaw possession of bump stocks as well. Moreover, the new ban also covers trigger cranks, which were not even used...

A crazed, bug-eyed Cory Booker, junior senator from New Jersey, blasted Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristjen Nielsen during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday on immigration. Booker became so unhinged in his staged outrage that he repeatedly threatened Nielsen, with clenched fists pointed in her direction. Equal to Booker's overt violation of Nielsen's right to be treated without hostility and intimidation was the deranged content of his tirade. Nielsen had stated earlier she did not hear the president say the "s-hole" word at last week's White House meeting on DACA. Booker went ballistic and accused Nielsen of covering up...

Christie granted 26 orders for clemency, almost all pardons, bringing his eight-year total of such actions to just 55. Among those granted relief were media consultant Brian Aitken and Marine Sgt. Hisashi Pompey, men who had been arrested and found guilty of criminal weapon possession even though they had clear records and owned guns legally bought outside the state. NJ.com reported of the list of 26 granted clemency last week, at least seven others — Meghan Fellenbaum, Brandon Fregm, Brian Murphy, Adrian Rubio, Antonio Scott, Angel Cordero and Christopher O’Sullivan — were pardoned over unlawful possession of a weapon.

en. Cory Booker, D-N.J., was enraged during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday and admitted he was "seething with anger" over President Trump's alleged "shithole comments" and a Cabinet official's statement that she did not recall the incident. “I had tears of rage," Booker bellowed at Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen in reference to when he first heard of Trump's "shithole countries" remark last week. "And for you not to feel that hurt and that pain and to dismiss the questions of my colleagues, with tens of millions Americans hurting right now because they're worried about what happened...

Trenton, NJ – On the day of the swearing in of New Jersey’s new Governor, Phil Murphy, NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt delivered an important message to the people of New Jersey: . “New Jersey is our home and I serve as Chairman of the Republican Party here, because this is where I chose to raise my family,” said Steinhardt. “I made that conscious choice twenty some years ago, because I wanted the same opportunities for my children that New Jersey offered my parents, grandparents, sister and me. I want the best for my family, my community and our state, but...

You have a new governor, New Jersey. Phil Murphy, a Democrat entering elected office for the first time, was sworn in as the Garden State's 56th governor just before noon Tuesday during a ceremony at the Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton. Murphy, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany and multimillionaire former Wall Street executive, succeeded Chris Christie, a Republican who left office after eight years. Surrounded by his family, Murphy -- a 60-year-old Middletown resident -- was sworn in by state Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner in the midst of a festive ceremony.

It felt like a homecoming. The setting was perfect for it -- a pitch dark gymnasium illuminated by strobe lights that danced to the blaring club music while people stood around waiting for the action to get started. And it was a homecoming, at least in a sense, for the people who helped Phil Murphy get elected and transition him into leading New Jersey. He thanked them all -- especially the millennials -- from the stage Sunday night.

New Jersey has some of the best public schools in the country. But our current system is not operating on a level playing field. While wealthy suburban schools continue to provide rich educational experiences for their mostly white student population, too many Latino and African American students attend segregated schools hampered by intense poverty. We allowed segregation to permeate our state education system for too long, institutionalizing a separate but equal doctrine. New Jersey's schools are among the top five most segregated in the country. This decades-long failure continued under both parties. The Latino Action Network is heartened that Governor-Elect...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose popularity soared during his first term but then fell from grace, leaves office Tuesday. The Republican served a term-limited eight years in a majority blue state and spent much of that time in the national limelight as he built a reputation as a "tell-it-like-it-is" politician. But the Bridgegate scandal, a losing campaign for president and a day spent on a closed beach during a government shutdown left him with the lowest approval ratings for any governor in New Jersey history. In Christie's first year, a YouTube video of a press conference went viral when...

Isn’t it just the best thing that we’ve finally got a President of the USA who calls a shithole a shithole? In fact of all Donald Trump’s many qualities, I think this may be his greatest and his most underrated strength. But you’re not supposed to say this. At least not in respectable company. Even now – after all his incredible achievements – you’re still only allowed to praise Donald Trump if first you’ve preceded it with lots of disclaimers about how much you deplore his sexism, his brashness, his incoherence and general uncouthness…

The lead promoter and founder of East Coast Comicon, Cliff Galbraith, bragged on social media about banning Christian conservative actor Kevin Sorbo from the upcoming geek convention in New Jersey because of the actor’s friendship with Sean Hannity. “I turned down Kevin Sorbo for East Coast Comicon,” organizer Galbraith wrote on Facebook over the weekend. “He’s pals with Sean Hannity. Just can’t do it.” As with video games, YA literature, and tech, the comic book and nerd culture convention circuit has become progressively left-leaning over the past few years–and East Coast Comicon is no exception. Its founder, Cliff Galbraith, advertised...

New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) officials have announced the section of what is now I-95 in New Jersey from the Scudder Falls Bridge over the Delaware River to the Route 1 Interchange in Mercer County will be redesignated as I-295 in early 2018.This change is part of a larger project in which a new interchange is being constructed to connect I-95 to I-276/Pennsylvania Turnpike in Bristol Township, Pa. The Pennsylvania Turnpike connects to the New Jersey Turnpike at Interchange 6 via the New Jersey Turnpike Pearl Harbor Memorial Turnpike Extension in Florence, N.J. When the new I-95/Pennsylvania Turnpike interchange...

Higher taxes on millionaires coming this year? Not so fast, says a report by the outgoing administration of Gov. Chris Christie. The report, released Wednesday, warns of the financial repercussions of spooking wealthy residents into fleeing the Garden State. When the very rich leave, the report says, it has an outsized impact on New Jersey tax collections. The report reflecting on 24 years of taxpayer movement in and out of New Jersey comes days before Gov.-elect Phil Murphy, who has said he wants to raise taxes on income over $1 million, takes office. Christie himself has warned that wealthy residents...