The Jersey City Independent "

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We read the JJ so you don’t have to:

It’s a TV-tabloid-news kinda day at the Journal, so we don’t have much for you. Mostly its car crashes, 2-year-olds being shot, bank robberies, dog “maulings” and celebrities at a trading firm (Joe Montana in Jersey City…sorry, I think that’s the only time I’ll ever be able to write that phrase).

HudCo is planning to establish an Office of Planning and Energy, as part of the HudCo Improvement Authority, to oversee renewable energy initiatives. Just another locality trying to jump on the Obama money train. Good to see it took the County this long to set something like this up. Also, if, as Freeholder Bill O’Dea says, “There’s no greater infrastructure investment than investing in energy efficiency in public buildings,” why is the huge roof of the County’s new building conspicuously missing solar panels? In our opinion, its a perfect spot for solar, and it’s not like the County can’t afford the initial outlay.

The Society of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick of Hudson County is trying to get an “Irish Famine Monument” built in Liberty State Park. So far the group has: the backing of Healy, Tom DeGise, and unnamed other pols; as well as $25k of the $65k they need. But what they are lacking is state DEP approval. The DEP’s Division of Parks and Forestry told the Society in July that its application was denied because there are other monuments in LSP “directly or indirectly” dedicated to the same idea. The group intends to keep raising cash and lobbying the state.

Ward E council candidate Frank Scalcione, better know to some as the Pizza Man, has a letter in today’s paper that must have been written weeks ago, about the Liberty Science Center bailout. His letter breaks with Scalcione tradition and actually makes sense, and is reasonably well-argued (well, *mostly*). He raises questions we have thought about as well: Why approve the loan before getting a detailed look at the Center’s finances?

In statewide news:

- The Obama administration is set to announce former DEP commissioner Lisa Jackson as the new head of the EPA

- Embattled Rutgers athletic head Robert Mulcahy was fired yesterday, after more and more revelations of the department’s unchecked power and shady dealing in pushing for big-time football (Note to Rutgers president Richard L. McCormick: you actually will have to change policy too, not just fire some high-profile officials. We’re watching.)

- Same-sex marriage could become a big campaign issue next year’s Gov. race.

- Republican Congressmen Smith and Frelinghuysen vote with the entire NJ Dem. contingent on the auto industry bailout