The Jersey City Independent "

- As the City Council prepares to have its caucus meeting today, there are questions about whether or not council president Mariano Vega will keep his job. He no-commented the Journal last week when asked about the push — led by Ward E councilman Steven Fulop — to have him resign his post. Ward A councilman Michael Sottolano says it is “premature” to ask Vega to resign, but that it would “behoove” the council president to step down from the closed-door tax abatement committee, which he chairs.

- We all know that Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy is Official 4 in the criminal complaints made public last week. Now we know that his former chief of staff, Carl Czaplicki, who is the director of the city’s Department of Housing, Economic Development & Commerce, is Official 3. Czaplicki, like Healy, has not been charged with anything.

- Federal investigators have subpoenaed information from the city regarding the seven city employees who were charged in the corruption sweep. The records, which are being collected by the city’s law department, include emails, phone records, appointment books, calendars, message pads and telephone logs.

- Outside of federal court in Newark, the attorney for L. Harvey Smith says the Assemblyman “is completely innocent and was just doing conscientiously his job as an elected official for the people of his district.” Meanwhile, Lori Serrano’s attorney says she “is caught up in the web of deceit.”

- The Record looks at the links between powerful development interests and New Jersey policymakers in the wake of the corruption probe. The paper, pointing to recent legislation tilted towards developers, finds the ties have never been stronger.

- Many of the politicians and officials caught up in last week’s sweep are likely to claim entrapment as a legal defense; they’ll say that the CW, Solomon Dwek, set them up just to get himself out of a jam. But legal experts tell the Star-Ledger that this strategy rarely works in court; they also rightly note that few of those accused will opt to face a trial, given the tapes that exist and the recent heavy sentences meted out in corruption cases. Look for a lot of plea deals, and perhaps some flipping on others — a scenario explored in a little more detail by Bob Braun.

- The Times asks the question: Why is New Jersey so corrupt? The paper finds a “culture of corruption so ingrained that it has become impossible to resist when the envelope appears.”

- Writing in TIME, New Jersey native Bill Saporito takes a moment to look at the bright side of last week’s bust: “It shows how wonderfully diverse New Jersey has become,” he writes. “Look at the names on yesterday’s arrest list, and it’s a beautiful rainbow of wretchedness.” Also: “None of those charged has been fingered by the Feds as being a member of the Mafia. So many new groups are now involved in corrupting New Jersey that the Mob must have been crowded out of the market. We’re talking progress, people.”

- An attorney in the PNC Bank case against Solomon Dwek notes that his role as an FBI informant was the “worst-kept secret in New Jersey.”

- The corruption probe has given Republican state Sen. Marcia Karrow a new reason to criticize the amount of money the state gives ailing cities in municipal aid. Karrow is calling for a freeze in the aid and an audit.

In other news:

- OK, we all know that New Jersey’s roads — particularly Jersey City’s — are in sore shape. Many of them are getting fresh looks — paving, light repairs, etc. — from an injunction of federal stimulus dollars. “But the stimulus money is a one-shot deal to finance repairs long delayed,” transportation planners tell the Times. “To redress years of neglect, states would need to find a way to significantly increase spending and refocus their priorities.”

- A Hudson County jury has awarded $70,000 to a corrections officer for economic and emotional damages stemming from alleged violations of worker compensation and discrimination laws.

- Six people were injured in a shooting early Saturday morning.

In statewide news:

- Gov. Corzine on Saturday tapped Bergen County Democrat Loretta Weinberg as his lieutenant governor. The Record has a good piece on her roots in local activism.

- Meanwhile, Corzine is calling for tougher gun control laws, and painting himself as tougher on crime than his opponent Chris Christie.

- Leaders at the agencies most responsible for New Jersey’s child-protection agency say the state will no longer publicly disclose the details of DYFS prior actions when a child it has supervised dies from abuse or neglect.

- The state Attorney General’s Office has filed a motion to dismiss the Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s lawsuit against the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection over that agency’s approval of permits for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority to widen the Garden State Parkway.

- The wet June weather has wreaked havoc on the summer’s butterfly population, causing a steep decline throughout much of New Jersey.

Like what you've read here? Please consider making a donation or becoming a sustaining member. As a grassroots news organization, we rely on community support -- as well as paid advertising -- to survive.