Congressman Smith Leads Dialogue With Russian Lawmakers In Prelude To Trump-Putin Summit

Congressman Chris Smith addresses the the 27th Annual Session of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) Parliamentary Assembly, Saturday July 7. Photo courtesy of Congressman Smith’s office

Congressman Chris Smith had a candid, firm and respectful exchange with Russian lawmakers on Saturday in Berlin wherein he confronted his counterparts, led by Pyotr Tolstoy, Deputy Chairman of the Russian legislature, on an array of human rights violations and geopolitical issues, he told MMM in an phone interview following the meeting which the 27th Annual Session of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) Parliamentary Assembly.

Smith heads the 13 member U.S. delegation to OSCE-PA. Tolstoy leads the Russian delegation.

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Democrats Budget Compromise Talks Stall

Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin and Governor Phil Murphy. NJGlobe photo by NIKITA BIRYUKOV

The Democrat debate in Trenton over which taxes to raise on New Jersey residents and by how much ended last evening with no deal.  Voting sessions scheduled for today in the Assembly and the Senate where cancelled.  Legislators were told to report to Trenton on Saturday.

If Governor Phil Murphy, Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin do not make a deal that is approved by the legislature by midnight on Saturday, New Jersey’s state government will shutdown for the second consecutive year.

Governor Murphy wants to increase income taxes on millionaires and the sales tax on everybody.  Sweeney and Coughlin want to raise taxes on businesses to the highest in the nation, expand the sales tax to internet purchases, real estate sales, and impose a new tax on vacation rental homes and Airbnb rentals.

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Trump: US, allies attacking Syria to stop chemical weapons

The United States, France and Britain together launched military strikes in Syria to punish President Bashar Assad for a suspected chemical attack against civilians and to deter him from doing it again, President Donald Trump announced Friday. Explosions lit up the skies over Damascus, the Syrian capital, as Trump announced the airstrikes from the White House.… Read the rest of this entry »

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Facebook Rolling Out Unsend Message Feature

Facebook doesn’t have a feature that allows users to unsend messages, but for some reason CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been allowed to permanently delete messages in secret. Now that Zuckerberg’s secret is exposed, the social media giant is planning to appease users by rolling out an unsend feature to its platform. TechCrunch recently reported that three… Read the rest of this entry »

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Feds take down Backpage.com, an online haven for sex ads

WASHINGTON — After a fight that pitted foes of sex trafficking against advocates of free internet speech, the Justice Department Friday seized the Backpage.com website and raided the home of its co-founder. The site, long a haven for sex ads, began shutting down Friday morning, as FBI agents began taking down a network of web pages… Read the rest of this entry »

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Armed Officer “never went in,” “did nothing” during Parkland shooting

The armed school resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida “never went in” during the Feb. 14 school shooting that left 17 people dead. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel says SRO Scot Peterson was suspended and then chose to resign following Thursday reports that he did nothing during the massacre. Israel told reporters Thursday… Read the rest of this entry »

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Women Encircle a Crying Mom Whose Toddler Was Having a Meltdown at the Airport

While airports might typically be associated with stress, they can also be places for strangers to help out during those very times of travel anxiety. One such incident happened to Beth Bornstein Dunnington when she was flying out of Los Angeles earlier this month. The mom from Waimea, Hawaii was at LAX waiting to board her… Read the rest of this entry »

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Russians sentenced to prison in largest hacking prosecution in U.S. history

The numbers were staggering by any measure. More than 160 million credit card numbers were stolen. According to federal prosecutors, the losses were in excess of $311 million. And at least 17 large financial institutions, retailers and other entities that processed credit card transactions were hacked in an audacious and complex operation that operated under the… Read the rest of this entry »

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Murphy fires Scharfenberger for skipping his press conference

Freeholder Gerry Scharfenberger takes the Oath of Office on Feb 3.

Republican Freeholder Gerry Scharfenberger was fired from his job in the Murphy administration this afternoon. PoliticsDW broke the story.

“I paid the price for not attending the press conference,” Scharfenberger said when reached by MMM.  The freeholder was referring to Governor Murphy’s event in Marlboro last week to promote his scheme to convert property taxes into charitable donations as workaround to the new federal tax law which caps the deduction for state and local taxes at $10,000.  Murphy claimed bi-partisan support for the scheme, but only five Democrat mayors from Monmouth County showed up to support the governor.

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Equifax data breach affecting 145M customers worse than initially disclosed

The Equifax data breach exposed more of consumers’ personal information than the company first disclosed last year, according to documents given to lawmakers. The credit reporting company announced in September that the personal information of 145.5 million consumers had been compromised in a data breach. It originally said that the information accessed included names, Social Security… Read the rest of this entry »

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