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- HudCo officials expect the county’s number of homeless people to increase with the recession continuing and unemployment rising. For more, read JCI‘s reports on the annual homeless count and rising unemployment in Jersey City.

- Businessman Joshua Levitt has officially announced his challenge to incumbent Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop in the May election. Levitt is the co-founder of a company that sells used computer equipment and is on the board of directors of the Grove Pointe Condominium Association. He also apparently doesn’t like tattoo parlors or 99 cent stores. Like Fulop, Levitt will run as an independent. Based on facebook photos of the two in Aruba, it appears they are friendly, and it isn’t clear what precipitated Levitt’s decision. Levitt could not be reached for comment late yesterday afternoon, but Fulop told JCI that Levitt told him he was thinking about running a few months ago, and that he welcomed the competition. “More candidates create better dialogue,” he said.

- The “Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz: Ask Chuleta” show of three videos currently at the Jersey City Museum gets a good review from the New YorkTimes. “Despite the fact that identity politics in art has been out of fashion for a decade, [Raimundi-Ortiz] continues to make angry, difficult but also poignant and occasionally riotously funny works about being a Latina in the United States,” the Times says. “But unlike a lot of identity-based art, her work is never tepid or academic.”

In statewide news:

- The state is currently sending checks for millions of dollars to companies that are claiming refunds on state corporate taxes they overpaid based on projected profits that failed to materialize last year. This comes as the state is already facing falling tax revenues and a looming budget gap. Legislators briefed on January’s tax revenue numbers said they would show a continued collapse of the state’s two largest taxes, the income tax and the sales tax. Sales tax collections were reportedly down 12 percent, and income tax collections declined about 15 percent, from collections a year ago.

- The NJ Supreme Court issued a stay of an appellate ruling that overturned a bail enhancement for an undocumented immigrant in a sexual assault case. The decision is expected to test the power of courts to set higher bail to prevent deportation while criminal charges are pending. (Story not available online.)

- Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez urged President Obama yesterday to nominate Paul J. Fishman, a prominent defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor, as the next U.S. attorney for NJ.

- The New Jersey Historical Society is cutting costs by eliminating its public hours beginning Monday and giving unpaid furloughs to some of its 15 staffers. The state’s oldest cultural institution will continue its education programs but will be open to the public only by appointment.

- The Center for American Progress estimates that $17.4 billion of the federal stimulus bill will come to NJ, including payments both to public agencies and direct payments to the public from tax cuts and increased government benefits. The state’s congressional delegation voted along party lines for (Democrats) and against (Republicans) the bill.

- Former Glen Ridge Mayor Carl Bergmanson announced this week that he will challenge Gov. Corzine in the Democratic primary.