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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A prominent Florida eye doctor accused of political corruption was convicted of Medicare fraud Friday, increasing the odds that federal prosecutors could pressure him to testify against New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez. Dr. Salomon Melgen faces 15 to 20 years in prison on 67 counts, including health care fraud, submitting false claims and falsifying records in patients' files, if he doesn't strike a deal before his sentencing, scheduled for July 14. The senator denies any wrongdoing. The doctor, 62, collected more money from Medicare than any other physician in the nation — $21...

A prominent Florida eye doctor accused of political corruption was convicted of Medicare fraud Friday, increasing the odds that federal prosecutors could pressure him to testify against New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez. Dr. Salomon Melgen faces 15 to 20 years in prison on 67 counts, including health care fraud, submitting false claims and falsifying records in patients' files, if he doesn't strike a deal before his sentencing, scheduled for July 14. The senator denies any wrongdoing. Federal prosecutors in New Jersey say Melgen's gifts to Menendez were actually bribes. In return, they say, the senator obtained visas for the...

TRENTON -- Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli on Monday survived an attempt by rival Kim Guadagno to knock him off the GOP primary ballot. Supporters of Guadagno, New Jersey's lieutenant governor, filed a complaint that questioned the validity of more than 700 petition signatures Ciattarelli had handed in to qualify for the June 6 primary for the GOP nod to succeed Gov. Chris Christie, who is in his final year in office. But an administrative law judge on Monday threw out only about 180 of those signatures, which wasn't enough to boot Ciattarelli, a member of the state Assembly from...

Atlantic City police officers confiscated 62 realistic-looking toy guns from a Boardwalk shop, police said Tuesday.

New Jersey millennials may be sad to hear that the Garden State isn’t the best place to be. A new Wallethub study found that New Jersey is ranked 40 out of 51 states for quality of life among millennials. When asked why New Jersey was ranked so low, Wallethub stated that housing difficulties were a key factor. “Forty-five percent of millennials are still living with their parents, that is what really dragged New Jersey down,” said Jill Gonzalez, a analyst for Wallethub.

TRENTON -- Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, the early Republican front-runner for governor, told NJ Advance Media on Tuesday she would slash New Jersey's notoriously high property taxes by up to $3,000 a year for homeowners who pay more than 5 percent of their household income on school taxes. Guadagno said her proposal -- which she plans to officially roll out Wednesday morning -- would cut property taxes by $1.5 billion annually across New Jersey and aims to benefit those "who need property tax relief the most," such as younger residents, middle-class families, and senior citizens. "It's the kind of plan...

MS-13, a group that was started by Central American immigrants in Los Angeles in the 1980s, is known for its ruthless and violent tactics. Most of the founding members were from El Salvador and fled to the U.S. during the country’s civil war that lasted 12 years, from 1980-92. Since then the gang’s membership has ballooned to at least 10,000 members in the United States and more than 30,000 worldwide, according to the FBI and Treasury Department. “[MS-13] is one of the most dangerous and rapidly expanding criminal gangs in the world today,” Philip Holloway, a legal analyst and former...

3 A Union City grandfather who was facing deportation will be allowed to stay in the U.S. for at least another year. Catalino Guerrero, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was granted a stay of a removal by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a spokesman for the agency said.  "I am very relieved to see Catalino has been granted an opportunity to pursue every legal avenue to stay where he belongs: In his adoptive country, in his home and with his family here in New Jersey," said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, who said he called Guerrero with the news. 

As the Trump administration expands its aggressive enforcement efforts against those who may have entered this country illegally, John Tsoukaris is responsible for implementing the president's new policies in New Jersey. Tsoukaris, the Newark Field Office Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, said the administration's executive order that expanded the definition of "criminal aliens" has changed the rules of engagement for his agency. "The executive order basically expands who we should be arresting," he said during an interview in his 11th floor conference room in the federal building in Newark.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- A decorated Marine veteran facing a mandatory three years behind bars on a gun charge will not be going to prison, after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie stepped in and commuted his sentence Friday. Marine Sergeant Hisashi Pompey's conviction stands, but the penalty is gone. Additionally, a full pardon remains under review. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, this isn't April Fools, right?" he said, when we told him the good news. "I don't know how to react. I'm grateful, grateful." As we told you exclusively earlier this week, Pompey was fighting for...

RED BANK -- The borough council voted along party lines at its meeting Wednesday night to declare Red Bank a "welcoming and inclusive community" in regards to immigration. The three Democrats on the council voted for the resolution, while the three Republican members voted against it. Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna, a Democrat, broke the tie with a "yes" vote. The resolution acknowledges the immigrant community in Red Bank, but stops short of declaring the borough of 12,000 people a "sanctuary city

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is the most unpopular governor in the United States, a new poll finds. Seventy-one percent of New Jersey votes disapprove of Christie while just 25 percent approve, according to the Morning Consult poll released Tuesday. Christie edged out Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) as the nation’s least popular. Brownback had a 66 percent disapproval to 27 percent approval, the poll found. […] On the flip side, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) was rated the most popular governor, with 75 percent approval to 17 percent disapproval. Following Baker on the list were Maryland Gov. Larry...

The FBI announced Wednesday it added an alleged gang member and illegal immigrant wanted in connection with a gruesome killing in New Jersey to its “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list. Walter Yovany Gomez and another man murdered fellow MS-13 gang member Julio Matute inside a Plainfield home in 2011, striking him in the head with a baseball bat, stabbing him 17 times in the back and slitting his throat with a screwdriver, law enforcement officials said. The killers may have suspected Matute was getting too close with a rival gang. When police tried to arrest Gomez, a Honduran national, he...

Sen. Robert Menendez ongoing corruption case could upend the New Jersey Democrat’s reelection bid in 2018, with the longtime politician scheduled to go to court this fall. The Supreme Court delivered another blow this week to the embattled senator when it refused to dismiss the case. The trial is scheduled to begin about a year before the midterm elections. Federal prosecutors charged Menendez, who has pleaded not guilty, in April 2015 on 14 criminal counts, including conspiracy to commit bribery. Menendez is expected to head to trial on Sept. 6,facing a potential criminal conviction even as he would normally be...

Suuchi Ramesh was born and educated in India. But her New Jersey-based clothing startup has one core goal: keep all of the manufacturing in-house and in the United States, by making it faster and smarter. Powered in part by tech tools, Suuchi Inc. runs as a one-stop shop out of North Bergen handling fabric sourcing, product design, manufacturing and sales. "We are a completely made-in-America operation and proud of it," Ramesh, 36, told CNNMoney. Suuchi Inc., which launched in early 2015, specializes in limited quantity production of women's clothing, bags and a few home goods like cushion covers. The company...

CAROLINE COUNTY, Va. – New Jersey officers arrested a suspect in a malicious wounding case at a Central Virginia gas station off Interstate 95 that left one man bloodied, and his boat and Porsche damaged. Members of the Essex County, N.J. Sheriff’s Office, Fugitive Unit, arrested 26-year-old Angela Jones Wednesday in connection with the April 1 assault at the Carmel Church Exxon station located on Route 207, near I-95, in Caroline County. Witnesses described seeing who they believed to be Jones, use a hammer to inflict damage to a 2016 Porsche S.U.V. and a boat being towed by the S.U.V....

Frank Fleming, New Jersey feels your pain, and shares your fury. You may not know him, but Fleming this week became the voice of New Jersey after a simple derailment at Penn Station knocked our fragile rail system on its butt for the entire week. Fleming was heading to Citi Field for the Mets' opening game on Monday, when he fell into a pit of hell at Secaucus Junction, along with many thousands of others. The trip from his home in Belleville took five hours. Five more to get home.

New Jersey high school senior Ifeoma White-Thorpe said she couldn't believe it when she heard back from all eight Ivy League schools and Stanford University -- and they all accepted her for the fall. “I was shaking, I was like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, like this might be eight out of eight,” she said when she got her last Ivy League acceptance notice online. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, UPenn, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Princeton, and Stanford all want to see on their campuses in the fall. White-Thorpe, a hopeful future global health professional, told WABC that “so many of them...

A Muslim New Jersey high school student who answered a Stanford University application question “What matters to you, and why?” with “#BlackLivesMatter” — written 100 times — ended up getting accepted to the school. Ziad Ahmed confessed that he was surprised he got in.

Jersey City is mourning the deaths of Russell Maffei and Marie Tauro, two longtime fixtures on the local political scene who were killed in North Bergen last night. Maffei, 57, the chair of the Jersey City Republican Party, and Tauro, 80, were struck and killed as they walked across Paterson Plank Road outside the Coach House diner at about 8 p.m Sunday, friends of the two told The Jersey Journal. The driver of the SUV that struck the two fled the scene, according to media reports. The two were meeting up at the Coach House with other local Republicans to...