Friday Morning News Roundup
By Jon Whiten • Oct 9th, 2009 • Category: Blog
- As we noted yesterday, the big news was the seventh guilty plea in the federal corruption probe. Housing activist and former Ward F City Council candidate LaVern Webb-Washington pleaded guilty to accepting $15,000 in bribes from a purported developer in exchange for potential political favors. As a result, the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency is seeking to sever all ties with Webb-Washington and her son related to a project on Martin Luther King Drive.
- Prosecutors don’t expect a trial date on federal corruption charges until spring for former Assemblyman and longtime mayoral hopeful Lou Manzo and his brother and political advisor Ron.
- The state Police and Fire Retirement System, which approves all pensions for cops and firefighters and their survivors before pension checks start being mailed, will vote next week on a new policy to fast-track payments for widows whose spouses die in the line of duty. The move comes after it was revealed that the widow of Jersey City cop Marc DiNardo failed to receive her first check for several months.
- Employees at the Jersey City Medical Center took part in a surprise drill yesterday to help prepare for any potential H1N1 virus, or swine flu, outbreak.
- The VH1 Save The Music Foundation, Comcast and Houlihan’s Restaurants are giving $60,000 worth of new musical instruments to restore instrumental music education programs in Jersey City Public Schools for the coming school year. The donation, which is part of a $3 million nationwide program, will be marked with a ceremony this morning at 10 am at the Ezra L. Nolan School No. 40 (88 Gates Ave.).
- Crime blotter news: Three fake cops beat and rob a man; a gunman says “I’m sorry” as he robs a gas station; and a man is stabbed in the throat as he waits in a Burger King drive-through.
In statewide news:
- A statewide organization and immigrant advocacy groups are urging Morristown’s mayor against signing off on the controversial 287(g) federal program that deputizes police officers to work as immigration agents.
- A new report from New Jersey Policy Perspective says that if Congress fails to pass universal health care reform, New Jerseyans will likely see their insurance premiums rise, more employers will drop coverage and the middle class will suffer.
- Families coping with autism soon may see the benefits of a database designed to track cases and direct people with the disorder to health care and other services.
- The lieutenant governor candidates held their first debate last night at Monmouth University. Politicker says Republican Kim Guadagno and Democrat Loretta Weinberg were “aggressively going after each other while independent candidate Frank Esposito played the mostly subdued middleman as the candidates debated everything from taxes to mammograms to weight.”
- The New Jersey Restaurant Association has endorsed Chris Christie for governor.
- The Election Law Enforcement Commission says Democratic Assembly candidates have raised and spent more than twice as much as Republicans, and overall spending is down across the board from 2005.
- The leadership battle in the state Senate took an interesting turn yesterday, as Republicans lined up behind Tom Kean for the Senate presidency. With 17 Republican votes, Kean has more votes than either of the two Democrats — Sens. Steve Sweeney or Dick Codey — who have publicly battled for the position. Any candidate needs 21 votes to become Senate president.
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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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