The Jersey City Independent "

- Hope you all enjoy your Labor Day. If you missed the blog post yesterday, City Hall is closed today and parking rules are not being enforced. Garbage and recycling pickup will not be affected by the holiday. We at JCI will be off for the rest of the day; we’ll be back Tuesday.

- Turns out the FBI dropped in on Mayor Jerramiah Healy one day before they arrested scores of public officials in the corruption probe. That’s about all of the detail that is being confirmed at this point, so if you want to daydream about what might have been discussed at said meeting, let your imagination run wild.

- Meanwhile, multiple unnamed sources tell the Reporter that political consultant Jack Shaw was picked up by federal agents one day before July’s corruption arrests; they were allegedly trying to convince him to turn and become a cooperating witness, a proposition he apparently had no interest in. Shaw died in his apartment in the days following the arrests, in what some have speculated was a suicide.

- In the wake of last week’s release of what seems to be a damning deposition of Ward C councilwoman Nidia Rivera Lopez, Healy says he will continue to stand behind her as others try to prove she is not a Jersey City resident. While not commenting on the specific allegations, Healy said he is “confident that Nidia Lopez is a resident of Jersey City’s Ward C.”

- Council president Mariano Vega*, who was arrested on federal corruption charges in July, says he plans on presiding over the City Council at its caucus on Tuesday and the council meeting on Wednesday.

- Cops say the driver who struck two pedestrians on a Downtown street Thursday night had a suspended license and has several aggravated assault convictions on his record.

- Veterans Affairs director Jaime Vazquez was reunited over the weekend with fellow Marine veteran who he’d been trying to track down for four decades. Vazquez and Lory Segawa has last seen each other briefly in 1968 at fire base C-2, less than two miles from the North Vietnamese border. Segawa found Vazquez via the web, and they met in Hawaii on Friday, where Vazquez gave Segawa keys to his city, a citation from the Veterans Affairs office and an 18-inch replica of the Statue of Liberty.

- Transportation planners are working with the state Division of Parks and Forestry on a study that looks at installing a one-mile long historic trolley line within Liberty State Park as well as a separate track designed to bring historic rail equipment to the park. To become a reality, the project needs state or federal funding, which its backers are currently applying for.

- An unnamed 54-year-old Jersey City woman was allegedly held against her will in an automobile over the weekend; once she called the cops to report it, the driver took them on a 90-minute, 150-mile car chase up and down the New Jersey Turnpike before surrendering in Bayonne.

- NJCU’s student newspaper The Gothic Times has returned for the school year. It has reports on labor negotiations at the university over the summer; a swine flu scare; and the NJCU Board of Trustees’ summer meeting.

- The mixed-use building at 393 Central Ave. in the Heights has been sold for $1.2 million. The building, which dates back to 1915, has 14 apartments and 4,000 square feet of retail space. The buyers are two partners from the Midwest and New England making their first purchase in Jersey City; no word on if any changes to the building are planned. The apartments are all currently occupied.

- Foodie news: The Hamilton Park Pizza Cafe on 7th Street (corner of Brunswick) is becoming Delenio. Its still-under-development website promises “fine Italian cuisine.”

In statewide news:

- On this Labor Day, the New Jersey director for the Service Employees International Union tells Star-Ledger columnist Bob Braun “it’s a critical time for unions.” He points to the Employee Fair Choice Act, federal legislation that would make union organizing easier. The bill faces an uncertain future in Congress.

- Democratic leaders are worried that with Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts declining to run for re-election, the fight for leadership in both houses of the Legislature could divide the party just when Gov. Corzine needs unity the most in his re-election bid.

- The Hackensack Chronicle takes a look at the role that women could play in the gubernatorial election.

- Gov. Corzine has received the endorsement of the New Jersey Dominican-American Organization.

- Wayne’s plan to heat, cool and power public buildings with a money-saving “green” system is alive and well, but suffering growing pains.

- Concerned about the increasing number of children being injured by falling furniture and televisions, lawmakers in New Jersey want manufacturers to do more to help prevent such tip-over accidents.

- Faced with a difficult budget situation, Rutgers University is asking more of its deans to fund raise.

- Auctioneers expect more luxury properties to go to auction in New Jersey as owners of million-dollar homes try to attract hesitant buyers in a struggling market.

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