The Jersey City Independent"

- A 29-year-old Jersey City man jumped to his death off the New Jersey Turnpike extension yesterday.

- Officials at the Jersey City Medical Center are seeking the public’s help to identify an 89-year-old Asian woman suffering from dementia who walked into the hospital early on Wednesday.

- NJCU students, faculty and staff react to the election of Chris Christie as New Jersey’s next governor.

- There will be a memorial hockey game to honor fallen Jersey City detective Marc Anthony DiNardo on Sunday, Dec. 13; the JCPD hockey team will take on a team of New Jersey Devils Alumni in a 3 pm match-up at Newark’s Prudential Center.

- Dislocations has a report on what it dubs the “arborcide” happening on Christopher Columbus Drive as part of that street’s widening.

- In NJCU’s Gothic Times, Jan Aguilos has a quick primer for students on the “cast of characters” that make up our beloved City Council.

In statewide news:

- The budget news keeps getting worse: The state is telling bond investors it is facing a $1 billion hole in this year’s budget, a shortfall five times bigger than previously disclosed. To try to close the gap, the state plans on cutting funding for schools, municipalities, higher education, hospitals and pension plans to close the gap. And representatives of those groups, most of which have already faced devastating cuts over the past few years, are now wondering: What else can possibly be cut? Gov. Corzine says he’ll have the answer to that question by Christmas.

- Reacting to the news that former CNN blowhard Lou Dobbs might be gunning for his Senate seat, Bob Menendez offered up the best quip we’ve heard in a while: “I’m concentrated on jobs, not Dobbs,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

- Corzine has sent President Obama a letter asking him to declare much of the Shore a disaster area in the wake of the recent nor’easter.

- A lawsuit filed by the state prison investigators’ union alleges that senior officials at the Department of Corrections are illegally blocking internal investigations into bribery, cell phone smuggling and gang activity.

- A recently released federal report accuses the Federal Aviation Administration of endangering public safety by not changing landing procedures at Newark Liberty International Airport.