The NJ Pinelands Commission on Friday approved construction of a 22-mile natural gas pipeline through the Pine Barrens, home to numerous rare species and filter for some of the purest drinking water in the country. The approval represented a switch in policy attributed to Gov. Chris Christie’s appointees. And now environmentalists, conservationists and others are concerned the same thing will happen to the NJ Highlands, as Christie has stacked the Highlands Commission with pro-development members.

A defensive, and still elusive, U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11) recently issued a press release claiming that despite his refusal to show up at Town Hall-style meetings throughout the county, his pre-arranged visits with select groups and bizarre “telephone town halls” keep him apprised of the wishes of his constituency.

Democrats in Sussex County continue to stand up and proclaim themselves, and Tuesday night two of them announced plans to do so in Trenton.

In the wake of the election that brought us Trump as president, Sussex County’s Democratic Party has seen attendees at local and countywide meetings filling all the available chairs, unusual to say the least in this counties GOP-dominated culture. Its FB page has jumped from 400 to more than 600 “likes” in a scant three months. It is experiencing an influx of new people who are either part of the 18,000 registered Democrats who previously felt intimidated to declare in public or part of the unaffiliated who now see activism in the Democratic Party as a viable way to fight back.  The SCDC is far from alone.

U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11) has been in Congress for 12 terms, and over them his voting record has moved from somewhat progressive in the beginning (in areas such as reproductive freedom, for example) steadily to the right, to the point that his most recent voting record is 100 percent along GOP lines.

Gail Phoebus, a Republican currently representing New Jersey’s twenty-fourth legislative district in the State Assembly, has petitioned to run for the State Senate, challenging incumbent Steven Oroho.