The Jersey City Independent "

- Two high-paid city employees who recently received large pension payouts upon retirement have now been rehired as contract employees for city agencies. Assistant Business Administrator Roger Grego and Chief of Administrative Services Kathy Dealy both retired Feb. 1 to get out before the pension reform bills moving through Trenton cap the amount an individual can take out of the pension system. Greco got a one-time payout of $238,138, while Dealy received $133,447. As the Journal points out, that’s on top of their annual pensions of $83,024.55 and $62,972.16, respectively.

- The 18-year-old Jersey City man who was shot in the face by police last month was blind and wheelchair-bound when he made his first court appearance Friday with others arrested in Thursday’s sweep of suspected drug-dealing gangs. The prosecutor says the evidence tying him to the gang was collected prior to his being shot in the face. Meanwhile, a prominent civil rights activist is asking residents to withhold judgment on the man until the shooting and the new drug charges he faces are investigated.

- A state Superior Court judge has ordered the Hudson County freeholders to hold a hearing on a North Bergen strip mall that would be carved into the foot of the Palisades Cliff and decide to either sign off it, discard it or send it back to the planning board.

- St. Peter’s College has laid off 14 employees (five part-timers and nine full-times), one of several cost-cutting moves that a college representative says will save the school more than $1 million each year.

- Jersey City NAACP president Kabili Tayari says Gov. Christie’s pick of Bret Schundler to lead the state Department of Education “gives the appearance of an attack on public education.”

- Yesterday’s big 4th Street Arts Chili Cook-Off was a rousing success, as hundreds of folks came through Parlay Studios to taste some of the best chili local restaurants and amateur chefs have to offer. Our Michelle Weber was there as a judge; we’ll have her wrap-up tomorrow.

- A Christ Hospital doctor, back from Haiti, shares his story with the Journal. “They are survivors,” he says of the Haitians. “At the hospital, they all have horrible wounds, and most of them are alone, but I have not seen anybody crying. They appreciate any help they can get.”

- Gov. Christie has tapped state Sen. Bill Baroni, a Republican from Mercer County, to head the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

- Hudson Shakespeare Company creator L. Robert Johnson died earlier this month; he was 76 years old.

- The Insider runs us through some Hudson County history with the story of former Union City police chief Herman Bolte, who passed away earlier this month.

- New Jersey Monthly has released its latest list of top places to live in New Jersey; the Journal has reaction from local pols to where their towns fall on the list.

- State officials say the Jersey City residents who say their backyard fences were flattened by state-operated snow plows in last week’s snowstorm should file claims with the state.

- For the second year in a row, Joshua Casquejo, an 8th-grader at West New York Middle School, has been crowned champ of the Jersey Journal‘s Hudson County Spelling Bee.

Today’s Best Bet:

- Author and global policy wonk Michele Wucker comes to NJCU for a lecture this afternoon (4 pm) as part of the university’s 2009-2010 University Lecture Series.

In statewide news:

- As he slashes education, health and transit funding, Gov. Christie says he’ll eliminate a corporate business tax surcharge that has been renewed annually since 2006.

- “Most politicians and political experts agree the war between Christie and the unions is unique in Statehouse history,” says the Ledger. “No previous governor ever opposed the unions so directly and with such gusto, and the unions never fought back so readily.”

- Sen. Frank Lautenberg announced on Friday that he’d been diagnosed with stomach cancer. He said having his first chemotherapy treatment, also on Friday, capped “a week from hell,” but he remains confident he’ll be able to keep working on his priorities in Washington.

- Gov. Christie headed down to Washington this weekend for the annual winter meeting of the National Governors’ Association, where the Record says he “shunned the national spotlight over the weekend to play a supporting role … a change of pace for the former prosecutor who revels in being the center of attention.”

- Paterson is the first North Jersey city to sign up with a recycling incentive program that provides residents points that can be redeemed online for retail goods or discounts.

- A New Jersey lawmaker is seeking permanent funding for a peer counseling program that helps thousands of veterans dealing with mental health issues.

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