Friday Morning News Roundup
By Jon Whiten • May 22nd, 2009 • Category: Blog- Our Lady of Victories Catholic School will definitely close June 30, despite efforts by the community to keep it open.
- Ballot positions for the Ward A and Ward F City Council runoff races were drawn yesterday. Incumbents Michael Sottolano (Ward A) and Viola Richardson (Ward F) both drew the top spot. They are running against Rolando Lavarro and Ron-Calvin Clark, respectively.
- The city expects the renovations at Hamilton Park, which began late last month, to take between nine and ten months.
- The Aaron Siskind Foundation has named Jersey City photographer Juliana Beasley one of six recipients of the $7,000 Individual Photographer’s Fellowship grants for 2008-09. This comes just months after Beasley was awarded a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
- The Gateway Restaurant and Bar (543 Martin Luther King Dr.), a new entertainment hot spot, opened its doors a few months back, but to spread the word, the venue is having a launch party tomorrow. Owner Trevor Vaughan says he opened the Gateway because he saw an opportunity in the neighborhood. “There’s no other place that does entertainment every night,” he says.
- Hartz Mountain says its ongoing $5.5 million guestroom renovation of the Doubletree Hotel on Washington Boulevard should be completed by August 1.
In statewide news:
- Already under state and federal corruption indictments, Joe Vas has been hit with a 19-count state grand jury indictment for accepting when he was mayor of Perth Amboy $25,000 in free home improvements from a city contractor, having a contractor cover a $58,006 catering bill for a reception at the opening of at the city’s police and courts building, billing the city for $5,926 in medical bills and accepting fraudulent campaign contributions during his 2006 bid for Congress, when he ran to represent Jersey City in the 13th District.
- As the economy continues to lie in the gutter, enrollment in the National Guard is up in New Jersey.
- In separate rulings, one appellate court has improved New Jerseyans’ ability to see public records under OPRA, while another has made it harder.
- The state Assembly has overwhelmingly approved legislation that would require health insurers to provide coverage for treatments of autism-spectrum disorders.
- The Assembly has also approved a measure that would bar anybody convicted of a sex crime against a child from working for a range of youth groups, including social, cultural and athletic organizations.
- Home and business owners may get higher rebates for installing solar panels manufactured in New Jersey under a new program that the state Board of Public Utilities will consider next month.
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Jon Whiten is the founding editor of the Jersey City Independent; he now works for a public-policy nonprofit in Trenton.
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