Free Republic

A proposed mega-mosque in the pretty little town of Bridgewater, New Jersey, was rejected by the town council last year, “citing an ordinance that limited houses of worship to major roads.” Reasonable enough. Municipal officials argued that the purpose of the ordinance was to “preserve the residential character of its various neighborhoods.” But Islamic supremacists and Muslim Brotherhood organizations like CAIR called upon their lapdogs at the Department of Justice, who sued Bridgewater. The DoJ has become the de facto legal arm of terror-tied Muslim Brotherhood groups in this country. What small town can go up against the U.S. government’s...

The Orthodox Union, the umbrella organization for Orthodox Jewish congregations throughout the United States, has responded to an Internet blog post by a Teaneck rabbi and criticized it for what it called “wholesale demonization” of Muslims. The rabbi, Steven Pruzansky of the Bnai Yeshurun congregation, the largest orthodox synagogue in Teaneck, had posted a blog calling for a harsh response by Israel to Palestinian terrorists, including the destruction of entire villages found to be the homes of two or more attackers. “We cannot countenance a response to terror that resorts to wholesale demonization, advocates for the collective punishment of Israeli...

Philadelphia rap artist Beanie Sigel was shot Friday morning in Pleasantville, New Jersey, but he was not the intended victim, according to an attorney for Sigel's family. The shooting happened around 9 a.m. in the 800 block of Spruce Avenue. Police say the victim, whose real name is Dwight Grant, was shot in the abdomen. He was admitted to the hospital with a life-threatening injury and was in critical condition. A second person was also injured after what appeared to be a scuffle. That person has refused treatment and, police say, has not been cooperating with the investigation. There was...

As LifeNews previously reported, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released its national abortion report last month and the new statistics show the number of abortions in the United States have declined to a historic low. However, unfortunately, a new analysis reveals that out of the ten states where the most abortions occurred, 60.48% of the babies killed were African American and Hispanic. blackbaby6According to the Census Bureau, Blacks and Hispanics comprise only 13.2% and 17.1% of the population respectively; however they get 37.3% and 22% of all abortions. Additionally, while it definitely isn’t news that Planned Parenthood targets minority...

A substitute teacher who was charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old Manchester Regional High School student Thursday, was only hired to teach on an as-needed basis for an absent science teacher during the 2014-15 school year, the principal said. Linda Hardan of Prospect Park, 21, was arrested Friday for allegedly taking the teenager to a location in Wayne outside of school hours and sexually assaulting him, according to a senior Passaic County assistant prosecutor.The high school serves students from Haledon, North Haledon and Prospect Park. Hardan was on a list of eligible substitute teachers kept by the Passaic County Educational...

Viorel Florescu/staff photographer Retired Washington Township math teacher Miriam Moskowitz, 98, leaving federal court in New York City on Thursday with Caren Ponty, left, and her nephew Ira Moskowitz, after U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled against her petition to reverse her 1950 felony conviction related to atomic espionage. Miriam Moskowitz has been called a lot of things in her 98 years of life — feisty, aggressive and possessing a violent temper, among them. But the one label that bothers her most is spy for the former Soviet Union — a moniker given to her by the government.  That...

If Governor Christie does decide to run for president, he’s already locked up one of the most prolific fundraisers in Republican presidential politics.  Ken Langone, 79, is the billionaire founder of Home Depot whose willingness to back Christie for president not only creates the possibility of millions of dollars in donations but also the potential to block possible rivals by keeping them from adding this powerful ally.  “I’ll do everything I can do to help get him elected,” Langone said in a recent interview. “Whatever he asks me to do, I’ll do. I’m particularly good at fundraising, so I suspect...

Orthodox rabbis have distanced themselves from a Teaneck rabbi who wrote in an online blog post that Israel should permanently prohibit the creation of a Palestinian state, destroy the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and jail Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas as a war criminal. Writing in his blog last Friday, Rabbi Steven Pruzansky also called for Israel to deport relatives of terrorists, “up to and including first cousins,” and destroy their homes, and if a second terrorist is found in a village to destroy that village and deport all its residents. Pruzansky, who leads the Bnai Yeshurun congregation,...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced a pair of unusual appointments on Tuesday, adding two prominent Democrats to the governing body of Rutgers University, including a former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Christie added both Susan McCue, Reid's former top aide, and Mark Angelson, a former deputy mayor in Chicago under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, to the Rutgers Board of Governors. Neither of them currently lives in New Jersey; both are graduates of the university. The McCue appointment is particularly intriguing as she worked for a super PAC that spent millions to try to keep New Jersey's...

An Irvington employee contends in a lawsuit that Township Mayor Tony Vauss forced her to have sex with him last June in a municipal office. The employee claims she told Vauss “no” twice, but he wedged her against a desk and performed the sex act, according to a lawsuit she filed last month against Vauss and the township. She alleges the sex act was part of an ongoing pattern of “sexual harassment” by Vauss, the lawsuit states. She claims the harassment occurred before and after Vauss was elected mayor in May.

Paterson, New Jersey (My9NJ) - In Paterson, New Jersey only 19 kids who took the SAT's are considered college ready. This means that they scored at least a 1500 out of 2400 on the standardized test, and this number is truly shocking considering how large the school district is. Paterson resident Jason Williams is one of the lucky ones. He just graduated high school last year and has been enrolled in college since September, after taking the SAT's three times determined to score over 1500. He says that the key to his success was not falling victim to the streets....

Of the 894 automatic rifles municipalities in New Jersey received through a U.S. Department of Defense program, Jersey City received 170 of them -- by far the most of any town in the state and nearly 20 percent of the total amount distributed to Garden State towns, according to today's Star-Ledger.

DON SMITH/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER An air permit issued on Nov. 6 by the state Department of Environmental Protection allows Buckeye Partners to accept large amounts of Canadian tar sands oil at its newly renovated oil terminal in Perth Amboy. As debate rages in Washington over the environmental risks of allowing Canadian tar sands oil to be pumped across the U.S. in the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, the Christie administration has quietly approved a permit that essentially opens New Jersey’s rail lines to carry that kind of oil through densely populated towns, past thousands of homes and businesses.  An air permit,...

New Jersey’s openly gay state assemblyman, who was called “numbnuts” [1] in 2012 by Gov. Chris Christie (R), thinks he can do what Christie has never been able to do, numb or not: get New Jerseyans to stay in New Jersey.Assemblyman Reed Gusciora’s (D) solution is astoundingly simple. He wants to offer state home and business owners the opportunity to slash their property taxes by 25 percent.The New Jersey Legislature would then be tasked with figuring out how to make up the difference through budget cuts.The best Christie has been able to offer is a cap on future property...

MICHAEL KARAS/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Attendees recently sat around Kean University's custom-made oak conference table. Breaking News: Legislator calls for investigation into Kean University's $219K conference tableIt costs more than $44,000 in tuition to attend Kean University for four years, and many of the school’s students struggle to pay the bill.  But the taxpayer-supported school in the township of Union spent $219,000 so far and has authorized up to $270,000 — about the average price of a house in the nearby working-class neighborhood — for a custom-made, circular conference table that seats 23 and features data ports, microphones and an illuminated...

Imagine this: A man woos a woman to bed with tales of his riches, fast cars and a vacation home in Monaco. But he actually lives in his mother’s basement. Or this: A seemingly wealthy widow convinces a younger man to sleep with her on the notion that they may marry and he’ll inherit her money. In reality, she’s broke. In both cases, someone lied about his or her status in order to have sex with someone else. Under a bill recently proposed by a south Jersey lawmaker, such actions would not only be considered dishonest. They could prompt charges...

NEWARK – A small crowd of about 50 labor leaders, community members and elected officials in Newark on Friday applauded a big move by U.S. President Barack Obama. On Thursday night, Obama announced he would use his executive authority to prevent the deportation of up to five million undocumented immigrants and allow many to work legally. The move echoed from Washington, D.C. to the steps of Grace Episcopal Church on Broad Street. “I am so, so happy. I want to say thank you to President Obama for this executive order. Me and my husband will benefit from this,” said Celia,...

I’m pretty sure that Iowa Congressman Steve King thought that his detractors would give it a rest for a while after he defeated his Democrat opponent by 24 points earlier this month.  Yet once again headlines like, “Stay away from Steve King,” have been published this week.  This time it’s not the liberals who are ranting and raving about King, its nameless “Republican insiders” and a conservative blogger from the Washington Post. On Tuesday, King announced that he is partnering with Citizens United to put on a 2016 presidential forum in Des Moines on January 24th called the Iowa Freedom...

Federal prosecutors say a former Newark city employee has admitted producing fraudulent New Jersey birth certificates that were later sold by a co-conspirator. Cory Cooke, of Newark, faces up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty Friday to a single count of producing false identification documents. Prosecutors say the 45-year-old Cooke worked in Newark’s Office of Vital Statistics and was responsible for issuing official state birth certificates. …

On immigration, the GOP primary will have little room for nuance Obama's announcement could affect 2016's probable candidates President Obama on thursday announced his much-anticipated executive action on immigration, and in doing so he lobbed a grenade squarely into the 2016 Republican primary race. ... Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush upset the rank and file earlier this year by calling for a compassionate aspproach to immigration. In April, he said undocumented workers who enter the country illegally do so as "an act of love" because they "are actually coming to this country to provide for their families." Then there's New...