EDITOR'S NOTE:  Here and there around New Jersey politics.

Many elected officials are less than enthralled with the press, notwithstanding comments to the contrary.

Hard to forget that Phil Murphy signed legislation to weaken the state's Open Public Records Act, or OPRA.

Still, Analilia Mejia was quick to criticize the president's ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico from entering the White House.

"The president has taken an authoritarian turn," the CD-11 congresswoman said in a recent post. "Trump has attempted to silence voters, corrupt the courts, interfere in our elections, and now restrict the free press."

To that end, it was comforting to see Monday that ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox have opted to stop "pool coverage" of the president in solidarity with the banned news outlets.

Pool coverage is when one outlet provides video from presidential events and shares it with other news organizations. This traditionally occurs when space constraints make it difficult for every news outlet to send its own camera crew.

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Last Saturday was Olde Suckasunny Day in Roxbury, an annual street celebration that commemorates the town's history. One of the main sections of the township is today known as Succasunna.

This is CD-7, the battleground congressional district where Tom Kean Jr. is trying to hold off Rebecca Bennett.

It's also very Republican. Kean won the town in 2024 by about 2,400 votes.

But this is 2026 and things in Roxbury are a bit uncertain.

A proposed federal ICE detention center in town has prompted a lawsuit from the township and the state. The proposal also prompted the GOP council to take a swipe at Kean, saying in a release that he had not been the strongest advocate for their cause.

So, last Saturday was a chance for the congressman to come by, sample the cuisine - sausage sandwiches, hot dogs and burgers - and make amends.

There was even a "news hook." The township police department is a hundred years old and that always demands a congressional proclamation.

Local Republicans said Kean was expected, but then things changed. He never showed.

In truth, Kean is not overly popular in Roxbury these days.

The congressman's social media page said he did attend an Elks Lodge event in Long Hill Township that day.

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The specter of AI continues to do the unthinkable - bring Republicans and Democrats together.

Democrat Josh Gottheimer and Republican Mike Lawler, who represents a slice of New York state just north of Bergen County, did just that last week.

They held a joint press conference to hype the Stop Rogue AI Act, which they say would "establish clear, practical guardrails for the powerful new AI 'agents' now operating inside America's networks."