The Jersey City Independent "

- The state is proposing to stop requiring performance audits in the future for municipalities like Jersey City that receive extra financial aid from the state due to their fiscal distress. The current set of audits will begin being released to the public next week. Meanwhile, Jersey City remains the target of conservatives’ rage on the issue.

- Returning from a national summit on bedbugs where she spoke, Assemblywoman Joan Quigley says she “came home more frightened than I was when I went.”

- Mayor Healy has been dubbed the 9th Greenest Mayor in America by MSN. Bob Dixson of the tiny hamlet of Greensburg, Kan. (population 850) took the top honor.

- A 59-year-old man entering Healy’s campaign office in the Heights was shot in the leg by a pellet gun wielded by two teenagers.

- A walk to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society is slated for Sunday at 10 am. It kicks off in the Newport section of Jersey City. Check out the walk’s website for more details.

- Today’s Jersey Mom column looks at senior safety and the JCPD Senior Citizen Police Academy.

- The Provident Bank recently collected more than $10,000 in donations for the Community Food Bank of New Jersey through its “Deposit $1 of Hope” fundraising campaign at the bank’s 82 branches.

- Capital Moving & Storage Co. recently acquired the industrial building at 150 Theodore Conrad Dr. near Liberty State Park from Triboro Fastener and Supply Co. for $5.8 million.

- Hudson Catholic Regional High School will induct five new members into its Hall of Fame on April 26.

In statewide news:

- The unemployment rate rose in New Jersey for the 14th straight month, up to 8.3 percent in March from 8.2 percent in February. The state’s rate still comes in just under the national rate of 8.5 percent.

- Rutgers University officials say they will lay off workers, cut courses and raise tuition to fill a $60 million hole in the university budget brought on in part by state aid reductions included in Gov. Corzine’s proposed budget.

- Gov. Corzine’s plans to furlough state workers would close motor vehicle offices and inspection centers for one day each in May and June.

- The Treasury Department says the state’s pension funds, used to pay retirement benefits to teachers, firefighters and government workers, faced a $34.4 billion long-term deficit as of June 30, up $6 billion from the previous year.

- Ten severely polluted sites — all in South Jersey — will share more than $120 million of the cleanup money that the Environmental Protection Agency is distributing nationwide from the recently enacted economic stimulus plan.

- Teen drivers will soon get a new set of rules, including being required to place an identifying decal on their vehicles.

- Preliminary tax information released by Gov. Corzine shows he had a 2008 adjusted gross income of minus $2.75 million, mostly due to investment losses.

- The Chicago-based owner of four malls in New Jersey has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

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