By APP Columnist Steve Frank - The Dad stood on the jetty holding his 3-year-old daughter. He, smiling and waving. She, learning to wave. Out on the water, cruising in was the fishing head boat Jamaica, its rail lined with scruffy, tired men returning with their day’s catch. Exhausted? Maybe. But not so much that they couldn’t smile and wave back. The fishermen on the rocks, thinking they were being waved at, re-waved. The three couples heading out for cocktails on their cabin cruiser returned t... Read more

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) was a guest on New Jersey 101.5 FM on Tuesday morning to talk with host Bill Spadea about an explosion in reported cases of Lyme Disease and other tick-borne diseases in New Jersey and other states. Smith recently authored and introduced HR 5900, the National Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Control and Accountability Act, which would establish the Office of Oversight and Coordination to create and implement a new national strategy on tick-borne disease, expand and enhance res... Read more

State officials, family and friends of a New Jersey man imprisoned in Iran held a vigil at Princeton University Friday to call for his release. Princeton graduate student Xiyue Wang was studying Farsi and 19th Century Iran in the country when he was arrested and convicted of spying in 2016. His family says that he is innocent. Wang’s wife says that she had given up hope until three Americans were released from North Korea this week. "That is encouraging and that is a huge thing for me and I hope... Read more

Japan remains a haven for parental child abductions and a U.S. lawmaker Wednesday urged the Trump administration to do more to pressure the country to fulfill its obligations under international law. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said during congressional testimony that between 300 and 400 children of international marriages have been abducted from the U.S. to Japan since 1994, and that more than 35 are still awaiting reunification with their American parents. “Every day these children are separated... Read more

The US administration needs to press China harder over the detention of hundreds of thousands of Muslim Uighurs in ‘‘political education centers,’’ including dozens of relatives of reporters working for Radio Free Asia in Washington. That’s the message conveyed in a letter from Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, and Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, the cochairmen of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, to the US ambassador in Beijing, Terry Brandstad, on Wednesday. Rub... Read more

By Staff Writer Jay Cook - An administrative law judge rendered a searing decision on Jersey Central Power & Light’s proposal to build a controversial, high-voltage transmission line project through five Monmouth County towns. Judge Gail M. Cookson announced on March 8 that JCP&L “has not met its burden of proof” in determining the feasibility or need for the $111 million Monmouth County Reliability Project (MCRP) – a 10-mile-long, 230-kV transmission line spanning five towns from Aberdeen to Re... Read more

By Jonathan D. Salant of the Star Ledger/NJ.com When federal lawmakers from New Jersey and New York met with President Donald Trump last September, they left the White House believing he supported the Gateway Tunnel project. Now that Trump would rather shut down the federal government than fund Gateway, those same officials want to return to the White House to see if they can get the president to change his mind again. "We've got to do a further full-court press with Trump himself," said Rep. Ch... Read more

BY APP Staff Writer David Willis - An administrative law judge has sided with a residents group in its battle against Jersey Central Power & Light's proposed high-voltage $111 million power line between Aberdeen and Red Bank. The decision by Judge Gail Cookson comes nearly two years after JCP&L proposed to build a 10-mile transmission line alongside the North Jersey Coast Line train tracks. It would have put a 230-kilovolt line in close proximity to hundreds of homes in Middletown, Holmdel, Hazl... Read more

Congressman Chris Smith (NJ04), founder and co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Coalition on Heart and Stroke, was asked by the Hill Newspaper to contribute a piece on heart health for its recent pull out section on heart disease. This article originally ran on page 24 of the Hill Newspaper's Feb. 28, 2018, edition and can be found online at http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/375916-fighting-americas-no-1-killer Click here to read online version or read article below. Read more

By Jonathan D. Salant of Star Ledger/NJ.com Don't expect to see oil rigs off the Jersey Shore. That was the message the state's Republican lawmakers walked away with following a meeting Tuesday with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. "If it's not off the table, it will soon be off the table," said Rep. Chris Smith, R-4th Dist., one of four GOP representatives from the state who joined other Atlantic Coast lawmakers and Zinke at the U.S. Capitol. That was the message the state’s Republican lawmakers ... Read more