The Jersey City Independent "

- Does Ward E councilman Steven Fulop finally have another council member on board with his call for embattled At-Large councilman Mariano Vega* to resign? Judging by Council President Peter Brennan’s comments to the Journal, the council may finally be turning against Vega*, who was arrested on federal corruption charges in July and indicted on those charges last week. “Any of the other individuals that got indicted, the mayor asked them to resign or they were terminated,” Brennan says, adding that it would have to be Vega*’s decision (wink wink) to resign. “After the holidays we will have to sit down and talk about it and present it to the mayor and ask him to step down. If it’s good for everybody else, it’s good for Mariano. … I don’t think there should be an exception.”

- A 19-year-old Jersey City man was shot and killed on Corcoran Street early Saturday morning, and a 31-year-old man was sent to the hospital with serious injuries, in what authorities are describing as a wild shootout.

- U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez is reportedly so concerned about the poor Democratic turnout in Hudson County in this year’s gubernatorial race that he’s seeking to replace Mayor Healy as the head of the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) before Healy’s term is officially up in June. Menendez is facing a re-election battle in the 2010 Congressional midterms, and, like all Dems running for statewide office, will need high turnout in HudCo to seal the deal — something the HCDO failed to deliver for Gov. Corzine this November.

- NIMBY Alert: Some Bergen County residents are none-too-pleased with the $800 million extension of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail into their communities. They say the rail line, which NJ Transit predicts will serve 24,000 commuters a day, would ruin their bucolic small-town life. One person quoted in this Bergen Record story even takes the so-wrong-it-must-be-right “environmental concern” tack, saying that the rail line will cause cars to stop at rail crossings, thereby “increasing traffic congestion, air and noise pollution.” As we pointed out last month, the rail extension will not only help increase the woeful percentage of Bergen commuters who use rail (17 percent, about half of Hudson’s percentage), it will open up new access to an entire region — and, yes, jobs in that region — for those of us in Hudson who lack an automobile or simply choose not to use it.

- The medical examiner has ruled that the death of a 17-year-old Jersey City girl last Tuesday was not a suicide, triggering an upgrade in the charges against her 19-year-old boyfriend, who is now accused of murdering her with a gunshot.

- Did you hear? It snowed a little on Saturday night. The storm wreaked some havoc in the area, causing the usual airport delays, flight cancellations, and screwed up traffic. Here in Jersey City, the Incinerator Authority deployed 70 plows and salt-spreaders and used 2,000 tons of salt to get the roads under control. And David Cruz has a little slice o’ life from his walk around the neighborhood on Sunday morning. And Cruz, you’re not alone — they were doing that “shovel out the car, pile the snow in the middle of the street” thing on my block too.

- Meanwhile, it took firefighters nearly eight hours to tame a nasty fire Saturday night in the Heights that burned through four buildings and left families homeless.

- The main Jersey City post office branch at Washington and Montgomery is one of the few in the area that will remain open until 5 pm on Thursday.

- Jersey City-based artist Hulbert Waldroup was arrested Friday for installing a sculpture outside a Harlem gallery, purportedly without permission from the gallery’s owner.

- A new Gold’s Gym is coming to Communipaw Avenue.

- Hundreds of people came together this weekend in Jersey City to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Muslim Journal, a weekly newspaper based out of Chicago that used the occasion to honor actor and comedian Bill Cosby, football legend Jim Brown and a host of Hudson County figures.

- The auditorium of School #8 has been formally dedicated to William “Willie” Wolfe, a former freeholder and county sheriff who founded his own civic association and the Washington Park Little League. Wolfe died in May 2006.

- The Hudson County Sheriff’s office is welcoming four canines to the force.

- The Times‘ “The Hunt” column is back in Jersey City, this time at the Hamilton Square development on Hamilton Park.

In statewide news:

- Five Republican state Senators, arguing that there’s not enough support to pass a marriage equality bill, say they’re going to focus on strengthening the state’s civil union law instead; Garden State Equality’s Steven Goldstein doesn’t think that’s such a good idea.

- New Jersey is spending more than most other states on each highway project being built with federal stimulus money, but creating fewer jobs.

- Many state employees are keeping their eyes open for new jobs as they prepare to have a new boss.

- As the real estate market seems to be stabilizing nationally and the number of foreclosed homes across the country fell for the fourth straight month, a closer examination of local markets shows that New Jersey is not following that trend. However, with the depressed market investors are finally getting back to purchasing real estate.

- The New Jersey Turnpike Authority is replacing 153 signs on the turnpike and 36 signs on the parkway with variable message signs, or VMS. The new signs will allow the agency to give motorists more detailed, real-time updates about road conditions.

- AAA Mid-Atlantic says slightly more than 2 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home for the holidays. That’s down 2.6 percent from last year, a drop the auto club blames on the struggling economy.

- More towns around North Jersey are using cell towers to boost their struggling municipal budgets.

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