The Jersey City Independent "

- Today is election day for three seats on the Jersey City Board of Education. Polls are open from 2-9 pm. To find your polling place, click here. To see the JCI questionnaires of eight of the 12 candidates, click here, here and here.

- The two animal control oversight ordinances introduced by Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop saw vigorous debate at last night’s City Council caucus, and they may be pulled from this week’s council agenda.

- The city is set to announce today that the Jersey City Incinerator Authority (JCIA) has hired 20 former employees from the Ready, Willing & Able program to clean streets through the JCIA. The Ready, Willing & Able program, which also provided housing assistance, job training and social services to ex-offenders, closed its Jersey City branch in February. Meanwhile, the city has also partnered with the Urban League of Hudson County, Mothers and Daughters-N-Touch Ministry, C-Line, and Friends of Lifers Youth Community Organization to apply for a $375,000 grant (through the federal stimulus package) to operate a full-service second chance prisoner re-entry program.

- The Jersey City Housing Authority has been awarded $720,000 by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to help public housing residents with education, job training, employment services and homeownership counseling.

- The city and the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency began remediation of the Turnpike Dump Site #5 yesterday. The site, which sits at the southern end of Monmouth Street near the Medical Center, will eventually be used as a municipal building for city services and a public parking garage.

- Gun shots were heard during a Little League baseball practice last week at Gateway Field, causing some parents and coaches to want to move the league.

- The Jersey City Community Charter School (128 Danforth Ave.) has nearly doubled in size, thanks to a 20,500 square foot addition.

In statewide news:

- Major pharmaceutical companies including the Garden State’s own Johnson & Johnson have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways — including some in NJ — that often provide drinking water, the Associated Press reports.

- The state Department of Environmental Protection says no state parks will be closed this year to offset budget cuts.

- State prison authorities are weighing whether prisoners will be allowed to read a published collection of poems and prose penned by other prisoners, or if it is “inflammatory” material.

- The Tri-State Transportation Campaign says that NJ’s use of federal Build America Bonds — authorized by the federal stimulus package — to pay for the expansion of the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway violates federal law.

- State election law officials have adopted new rules that will prevent politicians from using campaign funds to pay their legal bills in criminal cases.

- Former NJ environmental commissioner Chris Daggett launched an independent run for governor yesterday.

- Records show that 58 NJ Transit rail passengers were bruised or hobbled last year in slips, trips and other mishaps involving the gap between the train and the platform.

- Many people who are unemployed are finding frustration as they deal with the overburdened state unemployment system, but officials say the web and phone filing systems are holding up fine.

- The new Institute for Ethical Leadership at Rutgers-Newark will hold its inaugural conference on May 27.

- Twenty-one NJ-based companies landed on this year’s Fortune 500 list.

- Republican gubernatorial hopeful Rick Merkt wants six debates with the two other GOP candidates — Chris Christie and Steve Lonegan — one for every week left of the primary.

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