Rep. Chris Smith sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking her to investigate how a group of New Jersey National Guard members got sick after eating possibly “tainted” food while deployed to protect the US Capitol. Smith (R-NJ) noted that the roughly 30 members of the Garden State Guard became ill, as did troops from other states, after being provided with “tainted and unhealthy food from a private-sector vendor.” “Some have even reported vomiting in the Senate parking lot,” Smith wrot... Read more

BY KAYLA MARSH of THE OCEAN STAR — Significant damage to the borough beachfront caused by recent winter storms has brought together officials across all sectors of government to find solutions to help bring some relief to the impacted area. Mayor William Curtis recently met with Congressman Chris Smith [R-04], U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Commander Lt. Col. David Park, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s [NJDEP] Director of the Division of Coastal Engineering William Dixon, Ocean... Read more

By Jonathan Salant - In the last Congress, Marci and Seymour Josephson saw the U.S. House pass without opposition legislation named for their late daughter, murdered after getting into a fake Uber car while at college. But the Senate never took up the measure and it failed to become law. Now Rep. Chris Smith, who counts the Josephsons as his constituents, is trying again. Smith has reintroduced what is known as “Sami’s Law,” requiring vehicles for ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft cl... Read more

By ELIZABETH A MEYERS Representative Chris Smith (NJ-4) has renewed his effort to bring "Sami's Law, named in honor of Samantha “Sami” Josephson, a Robbinsville resident, who was kidnaped and brutally murdered by a predator pretending to be her Uber driver near the University of South Carolina just months prior to her graduation in 2019, to the President's desk. HR 1082, sponsored by Smith, a federal Sami’s Law will require transportation networking companies (TNCs) like Uber and Lyft to deploy ... Read more

John K. “Jack” Rafferty, the legendary public servant who served as Hamilton’s first full-time mayor from 1976 to 2000, died Wednesday of undisclosed causes. He was 82. “Mayor Rafferty left an indelible mark on Hamilton Township,” current Mayor Jeff Martin, a Democrat, said of the former Republican mayor. “We can all learn from his example and strive to be more like Jack.” When Hamilton Township amended its governing structure to the mayor-council form of government in the 1970s — separating the... Read more

By Caroline Fassett | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com John K. “Jack” Rafferty, a one-time New Jersey state assemblyman but better known as the long-time mayor of Hamilton, Mercer County, died Wednesday at the age of 82. Rafferty dedicated roughly 30 years of his life to public service, serving six years on the then Hamilton Township Committee (now council) prior to being elected the municipality’s first full-time mayor from 1976 to 1999. From 1986 to 1988, he also represented the 14th Legislative D... Read more

By Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman It’s back to the drawing board for Sami’s Law. New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith has reintroduced legislation regulating the ride-share industry, because U.S. Senate members failed to pass a companion bill during the last session of Congress. “We must establish safety protocols and accountability in the system to protect rideshare customers who remain extremely vulnerable,” Smith, a Mercer County Republican, said Wednesday in a press statement. “As the nation looks to e... Read more

By Jean Mikle, APP Staff - Standing at the edge of a cliff at the top of a damaged dune about 15 feet above the beach, Mayor Bill Curtis had a dire prediction about what could happen if more strong storms hit a shoreline that's already badly eroded. "Two more storms like we had two weeks ago, and this will be gone," Curtis told Lt. Col. David Park, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District. "It is a safety issue. If a child were to get down on the beach, they wouldn't b... Read more

Jean Mikle Asbury Park Press As the sea continues to carve into the storm-battered dunes on Bay Head's beach, Mayor Bill Curtis says he hopes an emergency permit to make repairs will soon be approved by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The borough plans to use one of its on-call contractors to lower the slope of eroded dunes that Curtis said have become increasingly dangerous since a strong nor'easter struck the Jersey Shore earlier this month. "Right now we have a very dangero... Read more

Congressman Chris Smith met on the dunes in Bay Head on Friday with officials from the Army Corp of Engineers, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection and local leaders from Bay Head and Ocean County to address the 18 foot cliff that developed as a result of Winter Storm Orlena. Smith organized the meeting with Lt Col David Park, Commander of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Philadelphia Region and William Dixon, Director of the NJDEP Division of Coastal Engineering, after receiving an urge... Read more