Tag: new jersey

New Jersey Democrat Assemblywoman Sponsors Vulgar ‘F**K ICE’ Bill to Sue Federal Immigration Agents

Democrat New Jersey Assemblywoman Katie Brennan has co-sponsored a bill called the “Fight Unlawful Conduct and Keep Individuals and Communities Empowered Act,” or “F-CK ICE” Act.

The legislation aims to make it easier for individuals to file civil lawsuits against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents for alleged constitutional violations during immigration enforcement operations.

A video clip of Brennan promoting the bill has gone viral on X, as conservatives blast it and the unhinged left cheers.

In the footage, Brennan smirks while explaining the bill’s “spicy name” and its serious intent to “sue the hell out of ICE” for what she calls unlawful conduct.

“Because right now, it’s really hard to hold them accountable or to press any criminal charges despite all of their unlawful conduct,” Brennan says in the video. “No, we’re gonna sue the hell out of them if we can.”

The bill was introduced on February 24 and is co-sponsored by Brennan and Assemblyman Ravi Bhalla, the former mayor of Hoboken.

An identical version has been introduced in the Senate.

According to the official summary from the New Jersey Legislature, the act “permits civil action for violations of US Constitution related to immigration enforcement.”

It would allow New Jersey residents to sue federal immigration officials in state courts for monetary damages, including punitive and psychological damages, attorney’s fees, and other relief if their constitutional rights are violated.

The bill requires the use of body-worn cameras and the provision of identification upon request by agents.

Brennan, a first-term assemblywoman representing parts of Hudson County including Jersey City, has defended the bill’s name and purpose.

In statements reported by NJ.com, she said the measure “speaks for itself,” adding, “There have to be real consequences if ICE breaks the law.”

The Ridgewood Blog, a conservative New Jersey outlet, called it “a new low for the Garden State,” pointing out that ICE agents in New Jersey recently arrested migrants with convictions for child-sex crimes.

The bill has been referred to the Assembly Oversight, Reform, and Federal Relations Committee, with a potential vote expected soon before heading to Governor Mikie Sherrill’s desk.

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NJ Girl Scouts troop in hot water for selling cookies outside pot shop to meet high demand

Their cookies are baked — and so are their clients!

A New Jersey Girl Scout troop set up their stand outside a cannabis dispensary in New Jersey to cash in on “munchies”-prone potheads — but steaming-mad senior leaders reportedly aren’t sweet on the idea.

The enterprising troop teamed up with with Daylite Dispensary in Mount Laurel to sell the treats near the shop’s exit after regional leaders rejected the idea last year, NJ.com reported. 

“You use cannabis, you get the munchies,” Daylite Dispensary owner Steve Cassidy told the outlet Wednesday. “There’s a connection between snacks and cannabis and the fact that we don’t have to pretend that doesn’t exist anymore is really awesome.”

The cookies were in such high demand that some customers skipped the weed and went straight to the booth first, the outlet reported.

“I don’t think five years ago we would’ve seen anything like this,” said Cassidy, whose shop opened in 2023.

But after Cassidy made headlines yesterday, he said the troop may have landed in hot water with higher ups.

“It was about community,” Cassidy told The Independent. “If that means the local Girl Scout troop got in trouble, that is absolutely not what we wanted.” He declined to comment further.

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New Jersey Cities Must Explain Marijuana Business Denials, Court Says

New Jersey’s cannabis industry scored a victory Tuesday when a state appellate panel ruled that municipalities must explain why they deny requests for local support to open dispensaries, a decision that could have implications for legal weed retailers statewide.

The 23-page decision rejects an argument by the Burlington City Council that it is allowed to reject those requests without explaining why. The council was sued by the owners of a planned cannabis dispensary after council members denied the owners’ request for a resolution of local support, a document required to open recreational cannabis dispensaries in New Jersey.

“While the City Council was permitted to consider all relevant evidence and has wide discretion under its general police powers to deny the issuance of an ROS, we hold that the City Council has to provide a discernible reason for its determination,” reads the ruling by Judge Lisa Perez Friscia.

Tuesday’s decision rejects a lower court judge’s ruling that required Burlington to issue the resolution of support to the owners of the planned dispensary, called Higher Breed. The newer ruling requires the Burlington council to reconsider Higher Breed’s request for support and then issue a resolution that provides a basis for the council’s decision.

A request for comment from Higher Breed’s attorneys was not returned.

New Jersey voters opted in 2020 to legalize cannabis, but the state’s legalization law allowed towns to opt out of cannabis sales, and about 70 percent of towns did so. The Cannabis Regulatory Commission, which is tasked with approving cannabis retail licenses, requires prospective license holders to obtain a resolution of local support from the town where they plan to operate.

In December 2023, Higher Breed, owned by Jim and Karen Waltz, applied to the Burlington City Council for a resolution of local support for a store on East Route 130. After hearing from a real estate broker who does not live in Burlington and claimed the property’s owner was “dishonest” and owed him a real estate commission, the council ultimately rejected Higher Breed’s request for a resolution of local support. Higher Breed then sued.

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Grand Jury INDICTS Democrat Former New Jersey Mayor and Police Sergeant for Drugging and Sexually Assaulting a Child He Met Online

A Democrat politician who once held executive office in Bergen County, while simultaneously serving in law enforcement, is now facing some of the most serious criminal charges imaginable after a grand jury handed down a sweeping indictment last week.

Andrew LaBruno, 44, of Dumont, a former Democrat mayor and current Jersey City police sergeant, has been indicted on multiple felony counts, including official misconduct, first-degree aggravated sexual assault, second-degree sexual assault, and third-degree endangering the welfare of a child, according to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office.

LaBruno, who previously served as mayor of Dumont, New Jersey from 2020 to 2023 after holding a borough council seat, allegedly initiated contact with a juvenile online before arranging an in-person meeting at the child’s residence in Englewood while the victim’s parents were not home.

According to the affidavit of probable cause filed in the case, LaBruno reportedly sprayed an unknown substance into his hand and placed it over the victim’s mouth and nose, causing the minor to become dizzy and cognitively impaired prior to the alleged sexual assault.

Authorities were alerted to the situation after a 911 call from a concerned member of the public. Responding investigators found the juvenile in what court documents described as a state of “cognitive impairment.”

The indictment includes an additional charge of official misconduct, which prosecutors say stems from LaBruno allegedly identifying himself as a police officer during the encounter in an attempt to hinder his own apprehension, according to NJ.com.

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New Jersey Medical Marijuana Program Sees Steep Drop In Registered Patients

New Jersey’s steep decline in medical marijuana patients continued with another 20 percent drop since the beginning of 2025.

Between January and December, roughly 14,000 people let their medical marijuana registration lapse, a trend that has continued since the recreational market launched in April 2022.

As of mid-December, 51,776 people are registered medical marijuana patients, according to the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission. In June 2022, that figure was nearly 130,000.

Medical marijuana cardholders get some benefits.

Dispensaries hold patient-only hours, give patients special parking, and let them skip ahead of recreational users in line. Patients also avoid paying cannabis taxes and can purchase up to 3 ounces of cannabis per month.

Before the recreational market opened, patients were the only New Jerseyans who could legally buy marijuana.

In recent years, officials have attempted to attract people back to the medical program by dropping the price of a registration card from $200 to $10 (there’s also a free digital option). People must also obtain a card from doctors who qualify to write medical cannabis prescriptions for treatment of conditions like epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, cancer and more.

The drop in enrollment has reflected the trends other states have seen when launching adult-use weed. But most other states allow people to grow their own marijuana at home, particularly medical marijuana users, while New Jersey still fully bans it.

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Head of major NJ LGBTQ group resigns after being charged with assaulting foster son

The director of New Jersey’s most prominent LGBTQ rights group resigned after he was accused of pulling a foster child out of bed and slapping him repeatedly across the face.

Christian Fuscarino, who has ties to top Dems including Gov. Phil Murphy and Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill, was charged with child endangerment and simple assault for an alleged attack that was caught on camera last month.

“Garden State Equality takes allegations against our staff seriously and we oppose violence of any kind. When we learned about the charge against Mr. Fuscarino, we immediately placed him on leave,” the organization said in a statement.

He later resigned from the group — which he has led since 2016 — and claimed in a statement that the incident was a “private family moment.”

Fuscarino was allegedly caught on security camera yanking the boy out of bed at a home in Neptune City on Nov. 9, according to court records obtained by NJ.com. 

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Former State Trooper Sentenced To 7 Years In Child Sex Sting

A former New Jersey State Police trooper who prosecutors say committed a profound breach of public trust has been sentenced to seven years in state prison for attempting to arrange a sexual encounter with a child during an undercover operation last summer, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago announced Friday.

33-year-old Shane H. Dempsey of Brick received the sentence Wednesday from Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Henry P. Butehorn. He must serve at least two years before becoming eligible for parole and will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law. The sentence also subjects him to Parole Supervision for Life, mandates forfeiture of his public position and permanently bars him from public employment in New Jersey.

The case began when an undercover Prosecutor’s Office detective on the social media app Whisper was contacted by a user later identified as Dempsey. Authorities said Dempsey solicited sexually explicit images and discussed paying for a sexual act with someone he believed to be a 14-year-old girl.

Dempsey was arrested after arriving for the arranged meeting in his police-issued vehicle.

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WEAPONIZATION EXPOSED: Justice Thomas Corners New Jersey AG’s Counsel — Confirms Subpoena for Pro-Life Donors Issued Even Though NO ONE Complained

Justice Clarence Thomas forced New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin’s chief counsel to admit that the state launched an intrusive investigation into a pro-life pregnancy center without receiving a single complaint about the organization.

During oral arguments in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin, Justice Thomas methodically dismantled the state’s justification for issuing a donor-snooping subpoena targeting First Choice, a faith-based, pro-life pregnancy support network that has operated for over 40 years.

Justice Thomas drilled into a simple, devastating question: “You had no basis to think that they were deceiving any of their contributors?”

Sundeep Iyer, chief counsel to AG Platkin, conceded that New Jersey received zero complaints about First Choice Women’s Resource Centers.

Instead, he claimed the state merely “canvassed public information” before issuing a sweeping subpoena demanding years of internal records, including confidential donor information.

Iyer further admitted that the state did receive complaints about other pregnancy centers, but not First Choice.

First Choice, a faith-based pro-life nonprofit operating in New Jersey since 1985, provides free ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, counseling, and material support to women. It is fully upfront about its pro-life mission, stating on every page of its website that it does not provide or refer for abortion services.

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A Single Warehouse in Jersey City Moved Over A Thousand Tons of Military Cargo to Israel Every Week

A single warehouse in Jersey City, New Jersey, packaged and transported over a thousand tons of military equipment to Israel every week in the first eight months of 2025, according to a report jointly released today by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and Progressive International (PI). A network of businesses based in New Jersey uses the privately owned warehouse to inspect, organize, and move military equipment, including Merkava tank parts, F-16 parts, ammunition, military gear, and armored and unarmored vehicles. The equipment is then packaged and delivered to nearby airports and sea ports and sent to Israel, researchers revealed.

The transfer of military gear to Israel is spearheaded by three overlapping Jersey-based companies—Interglobal Forwarding Services (IFS), G&B Packing Company, and G&G Services—which are all seemingly owned and operated by the same people. IFS and G&B serve as contractors with the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD), which works closely with U.S. weapons manufacturers to purchase weapons. IFS primarily handles administrative matters; G&B Packing Company handles, packages, and loads the equipment onto trucks; and G&G Services makes shipments to local ports with its own fleet of trucks.

The PYM and PI’s report documented that 91% of all Israel-bound sea exports of military gear that did not go through a U.S. military base passed through the IFS and the G&B warehouse.

Until now, little has been known about the Jersey-based companies that operate the warehouse and their role transferring U.S. weapons to Israel. The revelation of the warehouse, which serves as a significant pit-stop in the military equipment supply-chain, comes as Israel continues its assault on Gaza, despite a U.S.-brokered “ceasefire.”

Between January and late August 2025, the month when the PYM and PI report was compiled, an average of 878 tons of sea cargo and between 263-525 tons of air cargo passed through the Jersey warehouse weekly, according to the bills of lading tabulated by the researchers. The equipment often travels “from the IFS warehouse to Port Newark–Elizabeth Marine Terminal, where they are loaded onto a Maersk vessel on the MECL line, dropped off in Tangier, Morocco, and picked up by another Maersk vessel on the Med Loop C to be taken to Haifa,” researchers found.

The majority of the shipments are for tank and armored vehicles. In addition to shipments to the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD), IFS handles packages for private Israeli military companies, including Rafael Advanced Systems and the Israeli Military Industries (IMI). One 2025 shipment to IMI contained “340 tons of rifle ammunition,” researchers calculated. The warehouse is “the default location for any export of military goods to Israel,” researchers claim. In one Israeli government document, the IMOD requires companies to label cargo with G&B Packing’s address.

As recently as November 6, G&B Packing was listed as a point of contact for shipments to the IMOD in a U.S. government contract bid that is open for moving “unclassified spare parts in support of C-130, T-6, F-15, and F-16 aircraft” until February 2026, according to federal contracting data reviewed by Drop Site.

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New Jersey Governor’s Special Election Trick Is ‘Blatant Political Corruption’

As legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi was fond of saying, winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing. Lombardi didn’t invent that declaration of excellence, nor did he believe that everything included rigging the rules to one team’s advantage. 

The Democratic Party on the other hand has taken the mantra to mean doing everything — and anything — to win. Victory at all costs includes rigging primary timelines to benefit the preferred candidates of party bosses, Republicans allege. 

Special Leftists

While most pols have turned the page from this month’s blue state liberal wins to next year’s pivotal midterms, there’s still some electoral business to finish before the close of 2025. 

Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District is in the homestretch of a special election slated for Tuesday. The race pits Republican and military vet Matt Van Epps against state Rep. Aftyn Behn, a Nashville Democrat, to fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Mark Green. 

Van Epps is running with the endorsement of President Donald Trump, who won the sprawling congressional district by more than 22 percentage points last year. Behn, known as the “AOC of Tennessee” in no small part because of her stated belief that men can have babies, has the backing of a long list of big-name leftists.

And then there’s New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District special election to fill the seat vacated by Democrat Rep. Mikie Sherrill by virtue of her victory earlier this month in the Garden State’s gubernatorial race. Following Sherrill’s resignation from the congressional seat she’s held for nearly seven years, outgoing New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy set a rather hasty special election timeline. 

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