By Jon Craig Daily Voice - A fire department in Monmouth County has received a federal grant to upgrade its equipment. The Belmar Fire Department will receive $223,571 from the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program to replace critical firefighter equipment that in some cases has become dangerously outdated, according to US Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican. “The volunteer firefighters of the Belmar Fire Department put their lives on the line every day to protect people and property i... Read more

By Olivia Liu Asbury Park Press Staff Writer - Every day and night Olga Kika of Neptune City calls her friends and family still living in Ukraine. “We can see the world is tired because of the war in Ukraine,” Kika said. “But Ukrainians have no choice.” In Memorial Park here, a crowd of about 100 people gathered for Ukraine’s Independence Day on Wednesday. That day also marks the sixth month since Russian invaded Ukraine in February. The event was hosted by the Ukrainian National Women’s League ... Read more

By Nicolas Fernandes | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com The Army Corps of Engineers will visit the Manasquan Inlet next week to survey a large sandbar that has formed in the waterway, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-4th Dist., said Wednesday. Sands at the inlet have shifted before, but the low-tide sandbar is larger than anything seen there before, the congressman said. “We are gravely concerned that it will pose a serious hazard to navigation,” Smith said. The Corps’ survey will determine any actions that ... Read more

Karen Wall, Patch Staff Posted Sat, Aug 20, 2022 — An emergency survey of shoaling and a sandbar on the Point Pleasant Beach side of the Manasquan Inlet shows the inlet channel is safe for boat traffic, officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Friday. Rep. Chris Smith, who represents New Jersey's 4th District, pressed the Army Corps to conduct the emergency survey after boat captains raised their concerns about the shoaling to Smith. The sonar survey was conducted Thursday afternoon,... Read more

By NF Staff The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is making an emergency survey of the Manasquan Inlet next week to assess a large and potentially dangerous sandbar that has developed in the inlet, which is located at Mile Zero of the New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway (NJICW), about six miles south of Shark River and 13 miles to the northeast of Toms River, N.J. The Corps visit is a result of Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) meeting with various leaders in the New Jersey fishing industry while surveying the in... Read more

By Dan Radel, APP Staff The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will return to Manasquan Inlet next week to do an emergency survey of the growing sandbar issue, said U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J. A sandbar, or shoal, has been forming in the inlet for most of the summer, which the Corps said is likely being caused by the strong southerly wave energy that the Jersey Shore has been experiencing this summer. The shoal has become a concern of fishing boat captains who navigate the inlet daily. Local officia... Read more

By: News 12 Staff Ocean waves have been breaking the wrong way between Manasquan and Point Pleasant Beach, forming a huge sandbar that threatens boat traffic in and out of area. Queen Mary Capt. Cole Riebak, who sails through here every day with his father, says that weeks of southerly winds scoured sand from replenished beaches along Barnegat Bay Island, south of the inlet, and dumped it in the channel. He says about a third of the narrow inlet is now unpassable, and a closure would be devastat... Read more

By Zelda Caldwell for CNA July 16, 2022 Catholic News Agency China is exploiting children in the Democratic Republic of Congo, forcing them to work under hazardous conditions to mine the cobalt that powers electronic devices and electric cars, witnesses at a congressional hearing on human rights violations testified this week. “On the backs of trafficked workers and child laborers, China exploits the vast cobalt resources of the DRC to fuel its economy and global agenda,” said Rep. Christopher ... Read more

By Catholic News Service and Staff Reports - In a strong bipartisan vote of 401-20, the U.S. House of Representatives July 26 overwhelmingly passed critical anti-trafficking legislation – the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022. T he bill, written by U.S. Rep Chris Smith, R-N.J., together with U.S. Rep Karen Bass, D-CA, reauthorizes the historic Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and provides more than $1 billion over five years to... Read more

By Jessica Donohue, Correspondent When discerning which projects to bring to the forefront for inclusion in a recent congressional spending bill, U.S. Rep Chris Smith (R-NJ) knew immediately that there was one within the Diocese of Trenton that would be at the top of his list: Providence House Domestic Violence Services of Catholic Charities in Ocean County. The mission of Providence House, which serves people of all faiths, is to provide shelter and care for victims of domestic violence, and “... Read more