Northeast
Every county in one blue state shifts further left in 2025 governor race despite GOP hopes
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Every county in New Jersey shifted further to the left during the high-stakes 2025 gubernatorial election when compared to the 2021 race, according to post-election data.
New Jersey Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill emerged victorious in her campaign to serve as the Garden State’s top leader, defeating Republican candidate Jack Ciattatrrelli, who also ran as the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee in 2021.
The election was highly anticipated following the 2024 federal election, which showed the deep blue state move closer to the right as voters increasingly voted for President Donald Trump — though not enough for the state overall to flip red. Trump saw five counties flip red, and narrowed his 2020 losses in the state from 16 points to six points in 2024.
The inroads gave hope to Republicans in the state that voters could move toward Ciattarelli, but post-election data shows voters overall shifted further to the left in 2025.
DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD OF TRUMP CUT NEW JERSEY REPUBLICANS DOWN TO SIZE
Every county in New Jersey shifted further to the left in the 2025 gubernatorial election compared to the 2021 election, according to post-election data. (Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The 2021 gubernatorial election teed up a battle between incumbent Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and Ciattarelli in his second campaign for Drumthwacket, the official residence of the New Jersey governor. Murphy earned 51.2% of the vote that year, compared to Ciattarelli’s 48% support.
In 2025, Sherrill earned 56.5% of the total 3,256,410 votes cast compared to Ciattarelli’s 42.8%.
Fox News Digital took a look at the New Jersey counties that recorded the biggest shifts, including in counties that historically have been more conservative.
DEEPER BLUE
Along the Jersey Shore, where voters frequently lean more to the right, Monmouth County saw a roughly 10-point shift to the left compared to the 2021 election, with Ciattarelli securing 54% of the total votes in 2025 compared to winning 58.8% of the vote in 2021, Associated Press election data shows. While nearby Ocean County saw a 1.4 point margin shift in 2025 toward the Democrats.
New Jersey candidates for governor Mikie Sherrill and Jack Ciattarelli (Reuters)
FOX NEWS POLL: NEW JERSEY GOVERNORSHIP REMAINS DEMOCRATIC WITH SHERRILL WIN
New Jersey is home to 21 counties, which stretch from small city jurisdictions nestled in New York City’s backyard, to neighborhoods of sprawling mansions and vast farmlands that bookend the state in the north and south.
Each of the counties saw a shift to the left, with Sussex County in the most northern portion of the state seeing a 16.2 point shift, according to the Associated Press’ data. Sussex County is another county that historically leans to the right, and saw Ciattarelli earn 66.8% of the total vote in 2021, falling to 59.2% in 2025.
President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign town hall, Oct. 14, 2024, in Oaks, Pennsylvania, during his presidential campaign. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Cumberland County, located in South Jersey, also saw a 16.2 margin shift benefiting Democrats compared to the 2021 gubernatorial election, according to the Associated Press’ data. The 2021 election saw 55.6% of its voters support the Republican ticket, but dropped to 47.6% in 2025, delivering Sherrill a win in the coastal county.
FINAL FACEOFF: DEMOCRAT, REPUBLICAN NOMINEES IN KEY RACE FOR GOVERNOR BLAST EACH OTHER ON DEBATE STAGE
Gov. Phil Murphy delivers the State of the State Address at the State House in Trenton, New Jersey, on Jan. 10, 2023. (Aristide Economopoulos/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
When comparing the 2025 gubernatorial election to the 2024 federal election, five counties flipped back to the Democrats. Trump flipped Gloucester, Cumberland, Atlantic, Morris and Passaic just over a year ago, but each of those counties voted for Sherill in 2025.
The New Jersey election cycle was one of just a handful of high-profile campaigns during the off-year cycle, with Democrats also winning Virginia’s gubernatorial election, and socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani elected as the next mayor of New York City. The 2025 elections are viewed as a bellwether for the 2026 midterms, when the political party holding the White House typically loses seats in Congress.
Read the full article from Here
Northeast
Brown University shooter confessed in videos to planning attack for long time, showed no remorse: DOJ
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday released transcripts of short videos they say were recorded by the gunman responsible for a mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor in Massachusetts.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said investigators recovered an electronic device containing the videos when they executed a federal search warrant on Dec. 18, 2025, at a storage facility used by Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, whom authorities described as “the Portuguese national responsible for the senseless murders.”
The videos were recorded in Portuguese and later translated into English, prosecutors said. In the recordings, Neves Valente described the attack as the culmination of long planning.
“It’s done. It was, it was six months, man. Not six months, six semesters. Uh. I had already planned this for a little more,” he said in one video, according to the transcripts.
DISPATCH RECORDS FROM BROWN UNIVERSITY SHOOTING CAPTURE CHAOS OF DEADLY CAMPUS ATTACK
Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts released this image showing the man identified in deadly shootings of Brown University students in Rhode Island and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor in Massachusetts. (Justice Department)
Authorities said Neves Valente identified Brown University as his intended target but did not provide a motive for shooting students at Brown or for killing the MIT professor, Nuno Loureiro, 47. Prosecutors said the investigation into a motive will continue.
Two Brown students, Ella Cook, 19, and Muhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, were killed in the Dec. 13 shooting on the Providence, Rhode Island, campus, and nine other people were wounded, authorities said. Just two days later, Loureiro, a professor at MIT, was killed in Brookline.
In the transcript, Neves Valente repeatedly refused to express remorse.
BILLIONAIRE TRUSTEES STAY SILENT AS BROWN UNIVERSITY FACES MOUNTING CAMPUS MURDER FALLOUT
READ THE TRANSCRIPTS – APP USERS, CLICK HERE
“So, what has been done now… I’m in a storage space in Salem, I’ve had this here for three years, I think. I still have money. … I am not going to apologize, because during my lifetime no one sincerely apologized to me.” He also rejected that mental illness was to blame, saying: “that’s all bull—- excuses.”
“I am – I am sane,” he said. “I’ve always been, more or less [sane].”
Neves Valente also said President Donald Trump was right to “have called me an animal, which is true.”
“I am an animal, and he is also, but uhm, I have no love–I have no hatred towards America, I also have no hatred at all. This was an issue of… of opportunity.”
BROWN UNIVERSITY HIRES FORMER US ATTORNEY ZACHARY CUNHA AS POSSIBLE CAMPUS SHOOTING LAWSUITS LOOM
Despite its role as Brown University’s highest governing authority with direct power over presidential oversight and long-term strategy, the board of trustees has declined to comment in the wake of the murders that exposed serious lapses in campus security. (Photo by David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
MIT PROFESSOR SHOT DEAD IN BROOKLINE HOME, MASSACHUSETTS STATE POLICE LAUNCH HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION
Prosecutors said Neves Valente “showed no remorse” during the recordings and blamed victims for their deaths.
In the transcript, he criticized people’s responses during the shooting, saying, “Because they were kind of stupid.”
He also dismissed how the world would view him after he carried out the mass shooting on the college campus.
“I don’t give a d— about how you judge me or what you think of me,” he said, while also saying, “I also have no interest in being famous.”
Images of Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente displayed on a projector screen at a news briefing in Providence, Rhode Island. The 48-year-old former student and Portuguese national has been identified as the gunman behind a mass shooting that killed two students and wounded nine. (Andrea Margolis/Fox News Digital)
BROWN UNIVERSITY CUSTODIAN TOLD SECURITY SUSPICIOUS MAN WAS ‘CASING’ BUILDING WEEKS BEFORE SHOOTING: REPORT
Throughout the transcript, he focused on the injury he sustained, saying: “As you can see, my eye is kind of f—– up.”
Neves Valente said that he was injured in what he called a “shell round” that “bounced” into his eye.
A split image showing multiple still frames from the surveillance video taken near Brown University of a person of interest before and after a school shooting. (FBI Boston)
An autopsy previously found Neves Valente died by suicide two days before his body was discovered in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Authorities said Tuesday they do not believe there is any ongoing public safety threat associated with the shootings and that additional updates will be provided.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz and Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.
Read the full article from Here
Boston, MA
Florida-based breakfast chain makes Boston debut with newest location
Boston just got a new breakfast spot that’s serving up freshly made juices and dishes from morning until the afternoon.
Florida-based chain First Watch opened its first Boston location at 777 Boylston St. on Wednesday, Jan. 7.
The opening marks the second First Watch location in Massachusetts, joining its Hanover restaurant that opened in January 2025.
First Watch was founded in Pacific Grove, California in 1983. The company later moved its headquarters to Bradenton, Florida in 1986 and is now headquartered in Sarasota.
Before breaking into New England, First Watch was recognized in other markets for its modern take on breakfast, brunch and lunch food. All dishes are made to order using fresh ingredients in a kitchen without heat lamps, microwaves or deep fryers.
Staples include the Lemon Ricotta Pancakes — a mid-stack of whipped ricotta pancakes topped with lemon curd, strawberries and powdered cinnamon sugar — and Million Dollar Bacon — four slices of hardwood smoked bacon baked with brown sugar, black pepper, cayenne and a maple syrup drizzle.
First Watch also offers seasonal items that rotate roughly five times a year. Sample offerings during the winter include the fan-favorite B.E.C. Sandwich — a bacon, egg and cheddar sandwich served on griddled artisan sourdough bread — and the Strawberry Tres Leches French Toast that’s made with challah bread and topped with strawberries, dulce de leche, whipped cream and spiced gingerbread cookie crumbles.
First Watch’s fresh juice program is a company staple as well. The juices are made in-house every morning and change based on the season. Examples include the “Morning Meditation,” “Kale Tonic,” and “Purple Haze.”
First Watch also serves Project Sunrise coffee, which is made from coffee beans sourced by women coffee farmers in South America.
First Watch Boston is open 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily.
Pittsburg, PA
Commanders sign athletic former Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback
The Washington Commanders have signed former Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Darius Rush to a reserve/future contract, the team announced.
Rush joined Washington in August after he was released by the Cleveland Browns, and spent the entire season with the team. Now, he will get a chance to showcase what he can do in the offseason and make a roster push.
Rush was also previously with the Kansas City Chiefs, but was waived/injured at the beginning of training camp.
The Steelers released Rush in last October, freeing him up to become a member of the Chiefs. He initially made the active roster, but after a rough preseason, the team went in another direction to locate some help, which they found in James Pierre.
Rush, a 2023 fourth-round pick out of South Carolina by the Indianapolis Colts, was cut by the Colts out of training camp. The Chiefs proceeded to claim Rush off waivers following his release, before the Steelers then signed him weeks later in 2023.
With Pittsburgh, Rush took on the role of dimebacker against the Tennessee Titans a season ago, playing 21 snaps in his NFL regular-season debut. He would win a starting gunner role to start the year in Pittsburgh, but not hold onto it after pressure from Pierre.
-
World1 week agoHamas builds new terror regime in Gaza, recruiting teens amid problematic election
-
News1 week agoFor those who help the poor, 2025 goes down as a year of chaos
-
Science1 week agoWe Asked for Environmental Fixes in Your State. You Sent In Thousands.
-
Business1 week agoA tale of two Ralphs — Lauren and the supermarket — shows the reality of a K-shaped economy
-
Politics1 week agoCommentary: America tried something new in 2025. It’s not going well
-
Detroit, MI4 days ago2 hospitalized after shooting on Lodge Freeway in Detroit
-
Politics1 week agoMarjorie Taylor Greene criticizes Trump’s meetings with Zelenskyy, Netanyahu: ‘Can we just do America?’
-
Health1 week agoRecord-breaking flu numbers reported in New York state, sparking warnings from officials