By Steve Strunsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com The Kansas junior college where former Neptune High School football standout Braeden Bradforth died on his first day of practice last summer will hire an outside law firm to investigate the 19-year-old’s death, the Garden City Community College Board of Trustees voted Tuesday night. “After a time of advisement from counsel, the GCCC Board of trusteeshas authorized President (Ryan) Ruda and college attorney Randy Grisell to begin the process of ret... Read more

By JONATHAN SALANT of NJ.com Seymour Josephson warned Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers when they met that the tears could flow at any minute. “You’re getting this raw,” the Robbinsville resident told the Republican congresswoman from Washington state during a meeting Wednesday in Rep. Chris Smith’s office. By the time they finished, McMorris Rodgers had reached for a tissue and Josephson was wiping his eyes yet again. Just five weeks earlier, Josephson’s 21-year-old daughter Samantha, a senior at the... Read more

Erik Larsen Asbury Park Press USA TODAY NETWORK - NEW JERSEY WASHINGTON - Legislation that would require enhanced safety measures for ride-share companies such as Uber and Lyft is being advanced by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and has bipartisan support on Capitol Hill. The proposal for a new law comes several weeks after Samantha Josephson, 21, a University of South Carolina student from Robbinsville in Mercer County, was murdered after authorities said she accidentally got into a car she mistook ... Read more

Stephen Edelson, Asbury Park Press Published 9:47 a.m. ET April 24, 2019 | Updated 2:37 p.m. ET April 30, 2019 On April 23, less than two weeks after Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., appeared to broker a long-awaited meeting between the president of a Kansas college and the grieving mother of a former Neptune High School football standout who died there last summer, the face-to-face encounter was put on hold. Now more lawmakers are getting involved. All 12 New Jersey members of the House of Representat... Read more

New Jersey’s U.S. House delegation called Tuesday for an independent investigation into the heatstroke death of a Kansas community college football player from their state. The state’s 12 representatives wrote to Garden City Community College President Ryan Ruda requesting the probe of 19-year-old Braeden Bradforth’s death. Bradforth, who was a defensive lineman from Neptune High School, died in August about an hour and a half after practice. An autopsy report from December blamed his death on e... Read more

The Association of University Centers on Disabilities' (AUCD) host of "Tuesdays with Liz" recently interviewed Congressman Chris Smith to discuss what Smith's recently introduced legislation, the Autism CARES Act of 2019, does and why it is important that Congress re-authorize funding for CARES by September 2019. The weekly video series highlights current issues in disability policy, and is hosted by Liz Weintraub, a long-time disability advocate, and produced by AUCD. Congressman Smith provides... Read more

By WOBM Radio Morning News Anchor Vin Ebenau Jersey Shore Republican Congressman Chris Smith spent the beginning of Tax Week joined by NJ charitable and philanthropic organizations as he advocates for his new bipartisan legislation to give taxpayers maximum flexibility to make tax-deductible charitable contributions. “In the first tax year since the 2017 tax law was enacted, we’ve already seen reports of a decline in the number of donors to charitable causes,” Smith said. “We need to fix the tax... Read more

A Monmouth County mother is looking for answers after her 19-year-old son died of heatstroke while working out for his college football team. Braedon Bradforth died last August while attending Garden City Community College in Kansas. The 6-foot 4-inch, 300-pound lineman previously played football at Neptune High School. “I feel like he literally died trying to please a coach,” says mother Joanne Atkins. Atkins says that her son had to complete 36 50-yard sprints – each in eight seconds. She says... Read more

Jersey Shore Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), appeared in Avon-by-the-Sea on Friday saying that he intends to fight for full transparency and accountability for Braeden’s family after Garden City Community College, the Kansas college where Bradforth died last year on his second day on campus, "stonewalled the family’s request for an independent investigation into his death." Smith was joined at a press conference by Bradforth’s mother, Joanne Atkins-Ingram. “From day one, I’ve just been trying to... Read more

NEPTUNE, New Jersey (WABC) -- A mother from New Jersey is still heartbroken and angry months after her son's sudden death on the football field. Braeden Bradforth, 19, collapsed after practice at Garden City Community College in Kansas on Aug. 1, 2018, and died a few hours later -- apparently due to heat stroke. The sudden tragedy has raised a lot of questions that have been ignored, according to Bradforth's family and supporters. His mother broke her silence on Friday and is now demanding answe... Read more