Jason Watters wrote:
[Q1.] Would the physical laws that we have determined on earth apply
everywhere else in the universe?

There is evidence that physical laws are the same at great distances
and great times in the past.

The spectra of light radiated from reionized HI gas in distant quasers
has been observed. The spectra radiated from distant reionized HI gas
is similar to the spectra from gas in nearby objects, except it is
redshifted. This observation indicates that the basic structure and
physical laws involving hydrogen, the most prevalent substance in the
observed universe, is at great distances (and a great times in the
past) the same as the physical laws governing hydrogren on Earth in the
present. Using quasers sufficiently distant to reach back to 5% of the
current age of the universe, Tubbs concluded the spectra of HI gas was
similar at that early time as it is today.

Tubbs, A.D. Wolfe, A.M. March 1980. Evidence for large-scale uniformity
of physical laws. Astrophysical Journal, Letters, 236:L105-108.
NASA ADS Link:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/np...pJ...236L.105T

[Q2.] [C]ould light somehow be manipulated as it travels
through space and cause stellar objects to appear either much closer or
much more distant than actual?

Tubbs looked at reionized HI gas spectra at various distances from Sol.
There was no indication that the nature of the spectra changed at
farther, as opposed to closer, distances.

A quaser example used by Tubbs (1980) is "QSO B0235+1624", currently
overhead at J023838.93+163659.3. Although this 15.5 magnitude quaser
is not visible in most amateur telescopes, you can bring up a picture
of it using the Simbad query database and scrolling down the Aladin
Java Applet.
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/sim-fid.pl

Studies using ionized hydrogen from quasers to probe the early universe
continues today. For an overview, see -
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~kstanek/astro200/hao2.pdf#search='21cm%20astronomy%20hydrogen%20spe ctra'

- Canopus56