The Jersey City Independent "

- Hudson County judge Maurice Gallipoli is scheduled to hear arguments tomorrow on whether Hudson County violated the state’s pay to play law when it awarded a contract to Correctional Health Services for prison medical services. That company’s president, Geoffrey Perselay, donated $1,000 to Hudson County freeholder Anthony Romano on May 30, 2008. The contract was awarded to his company in April of this year.

- Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone, who represents Bayonne and part of Jersey City, pleaded not guilty along with his wife at their arraignment yesterday on campaign fraud charges. “It was a step toward my vindication and a resolution of this matter,” he tells the Journal. “I’m eager to put this behind me and move on.”

- Jersey City held its 22nd annual World AIDS Day event yesterday. The director of the Hudson County HIV/AIDS Services Planning Council says there are more than 6,665 people in Hudson County living with HIV and that number continues to grow.

- WNYC reporter Jenna Flanagan and Exeter Properties’ Eric Silverman talk about the retail scene around the Grove Street PATH in another segment of the public radio station’s “Main Streets” series.

- The Beacon has been named the Project of the Year in the 2009 Land Use Awards, which are handed out by the Northern New Jersey District Council of the Urban Land Institute. The nonprofit credited the project’s developer, Metrovest Equities, with creating “a new neighborhood with market-rate housing and access to mass transit, while restoring the beauty of the original construction.”

- A 53-year-old homeless man has been charged in connection to the brutal Thanksgiving-day beating on the 200 block of First Street. The 58-year-old victim remained in critical condition and hooked to a ventilator yesterday.

- Jersey City’s Baruti Kafele, who is the principal of Newark Tech High School, has won a Milken Educator Award, an honor known to some as the “Oscar of teaching” that comes with a $25,000 prize.

- McNair Academic High School, one of the most successful Jersey City public schools, gets the Daily News treatment.

- Deer here: A deer spotted yesterday in the Exchange Place area jumped into the Hudson River and made it to Governors Island in New York Harbor. It was eventually tranquilized by New York animal officials, and it is reportedly OK.

- At a forum in Jersey City, leaders including former U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt talked about how New Jersey is well-positioned to be a leader in medical fields like human genetics, biologics and pharmaceuticals.

- A 21-year-old Jersey City man has been arrested in connection with a fire at a Tonnelle Avenue motel in North Bergen.

Today’s Best Bets:

- Did you know that Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are has been screening at the Liberty Science Center? Today is one of the last few days to check out a showing; the run will end on Friday. If you didn’t get a chance to check out Uno’s “Black & Whites” at Fish With Braids Gallery when it opened last Friday, there’s a closing reception for the short-run exhibit tonight.

In statewide news:

- Many of New Jersey’s leading Democrats are calling on the party to bring the same-sex marriage bill to a vote during the legislature’s lame-duck session; and NJN News reported last night that it looks like the bill may indeed see the light of day, as it has been put on a draft schedule for Monday’s meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee. (You can sign a petition asking legislators to vote on the bill here if you’d like.)

- Meanwhile, fresh off a little vacation, Gov.-elect Chris Christie came out swinging at state legislators yesterday for a variety of lame-duck proposals, including progressive criminal justice reforms, saying “we simply do not have the money” to spend on, well, apparently anything. Christie also called a proposal afoot to change the way that empty U.S. Senate seats are filled “garbage.”

- A State Commission of Investigation report released Tuesday concludes the lucrative perks paid to some local government workers — bonuses and severance packages including six-figure cash payouts — is costing New Jersey taxpayers millions.

- Groups around New Jersey are planning protests today against President Barack Obama’s strategy to escalate the war in Afghanistan.

- As the real estate markets for offices, residences and stores in New Jersey have gone through peaks and valleys over the years, the market for industrial real estate has always stayed reliable. But that’s all changing.

- Liquor license brokers say the market for the licenses — which municipalities sell to businesses — is 30 percent lower than what it was in 2007.

- A new report finds that New Jerseyans paid an average of $1,103.53 per vehicle in annual auto insurance premiums in 2007, making the Garden State once again the most expensive state in the country; D.C. had the highest rates. (Aren’t you glad you live in Jersey City, where you don’t need this kinda stuff to get by?)

- A loyal reader has alerted us to a fight for forests that might interest some Jersey City residents. The McClellan Old Growth Forest in West Orange, one of Jersey’s few remaining urban Old Growth forests, stands on part of Seton Hall Prep’s property. Much of the forest has already been cut down for athletic fields, and the school is now looking to cut down even more. There’s a public meeting Thursday night at 8 pm; for more info visit this site.

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