The Jersey City Independent "

- Former deputy mayor Leona Beldini is facing a slew of additional charges related to the federal corruption probe. Beldini, who is accused of promising to help a federal informant secure building approvals for a development project in exchange for $20,000 in illicit campaign contributions to Mayor Healy, is now charged attempted extortion and accepting things of value to influence and reward, according to a new indictment handed up Nov. 19. The new indictment seems to further implicate our mayor in the corrupt dealings involving informant Solomon Dwek, as Healy is identified often in the report. However, the mayor has not been charged as of yet and he continues to maintain his innocence. Beldini is scheduled to go to trial in January.

- Meahwhile, Healy responds to criticism of the Hudson County Democratic Organization leveled by Union City’s Brian Stack last week, and says the organization has done plenty to reach out to minorities.

UPDATE: This cut in aid payments will only affect municipalities that operate on a calendar year budget; as such, Jersey City will be spared since it operates on a fiscal year budget:

- Gov. Corzine is reportedly set to announce a cut of $20.7 million in aid payments to the New Jersey’s municipalities as part of his plan to close the state budget gap.

- “Black & Whites,” a new exhibition from Uno, opened at Fish With Braids Gallery on Friday, and Dislocations was there.

- Legislation to expedite the payment of accidental pension death benefits for the families of fallen police and firefighters was approved Monday by an Assembly committee. The bill was spurred by the nearly three-month-wait endured by the widow of JCPD detective Marc Anthony DiNardo after he was killed in the line of duty in July.

- Jerry Walker of Team Walker responds to the residents who are trying to keep him from opening an after-school center for children on Pine Street in Lafayette, and who turned out in force at last week’s council meeting to state their case. “I understand the concerns of the citizens around there, but the kids that I deal with, they know how to behave,” he tells the Journal. “I don’t think there will be a problem or an issue with the safety of their families.”

- In an effort to get President Obama to be the guest speaker at the 2010 graduation ceremony of all the city’s public high schools, school children from Grades K-12 have written their personal requests to the president emphasizing what his appearance would mean to them.

- An autopsy has determined there was no foul play involved in the death of a 63-year-old Jersey City woman whose body was found in the aftermath of a Heights fire this weekend.

- For the third time in four years, the members of the West Bergen Knitting & Crocheting Club at the West Bergen Branch Library will be donating knitted and crocheted items for people in need. The club will present its items to the Jersey City nursing home Liberty House next Monday at 10:30 am.

- New Jersey City University has been named a winner of the NCAA’s 2008-09 Overall Diversity in Athletics award.

- The Hari Om Tat Sat Cultural Center, which mostly serves Caribbean Hindus, has purchased a mixed commercial/residential building on Kennedy Boulevard close to the Jersey City-Bayonne border.

Today’s Best Bets:

- Stop by LITM at 7 pm for “Little Wonders,” the third annual small works show featuring work by dozens of artists; it should be a great opportunity to snag some unique holiday gifts — and they’ll even have free gift wrapping tonight. At 9 pm, you’ve got two options on 2nd Street — Melissa Surach’s BabyHole is at the Lamp Post (she’s collecting canned food for Let’s Celebrate! so bring anything extra you’d like to donate) and Kellsey from Pillow Theory and Rik Mercaldi will play a free show at Lucky 7′s.

In statewide news:

- Some Democratic state lawmakers are aiming to change the way U.S. Senate vacancies are filled to ensure that Republican Gov.-elect Chris Christie would have to appoint a Democrat, should there be an opening over the next four years.

- The Assembly State Government Committee has approved legislation to set lower and more uniform fees for copies of official state government documents. (For more on the bill, check out the guest opinion piece we ran yesterday from open government advocate Ron Miskoff.)

- A New Jersey prisoner has won a settlement that allows him to preach at services inside the prison.

- An official in New Jersey’s Military and Veterans Affairs Department has admitted he falsely claimed a heroic record in the Vietnam War as a paratrooper and artilleryman, and has resigned from his position.

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