Monday Morning News Roundup
By Jon Whiten • May 10th, 2010 • Category: Blog- Men Fined for Dumping Waste: Four Jersey City men have been charged with illegally dumping 18 barrels of suspected industrial ink and solvents in a city lot last week, but the business that asked them to do it has not yet been charged — or named — by state investigators.
- Immigration Protest at Jail: Roughly 100 demonstrators from various immigration groups protested outside the Hudson County jail yesterday to highlight immigration laws and enforcement that they say unnecessarily separate detained parents from their families — sometimes for years.
- Art Therapy at St. Joseph’s: At a Thursday event for National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, adults from the New Jersey Foundation for the Blind visited JC’s St. Joseph’s School for the Blind to host art-therapy classes.
- Homicide Ruled Out in Burned Man’s Death: Homicide detectives say the death of a 42-year-old Jersey City man who was burned alive beneath a bridge in Greenville last week was either accidental or a suicide, but the case will remain open until a final report on the death is completed by the state Regional Medical Examiner’s Office in Newark.
- Three Shot Outside Bar: Cops say three people standing outside a bar at Communipaw Avenue and Halladay Street were shot early Saturday when a hooded gunman unleashed a barrage of gunfire. All three victims reportedly suffered non-life-threatening wounds.
- Film Shooting Dowtown: The independent mafia-themed short Lily of the Feast, set in 1970s Williamsburg Brooklyn, has been shooting around Downtown Jersey City recently.
- Ex-model Sues Judge in Fight Over Aunt: Stephanie Adams, who won guardianship of her 83-year-old aunt in late 2008, has been trying to move her from the Atrium nursing home to a place in New York, but it has taken more than a year. As a result, Adams has filed a complaint against Superior Court Judge Thomas Olivieri with the state Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct.
In Statewide News:
- Christie to Unveil Cap on Public Worker Raises: Gov. Christie will reportedly propose a permanent 2.5 percent limit on annual raises for public workers, including police, firefighters and teachers, and will allow towns to discard civil service rules governing employee hiring and firing.
- Court Overturns Christie’s Limit on Labor Donations: Gov. Christie’s controversial executive order curbing political donations by public worker unions was rejected Friday by a state appeals court, which said Christie’s action infringed on separation of powers with the Legislature, and such donation limits cannot be imposed by a governor unilaterally.
- Nuclear Leak Reaches Water Supply: Radioactive water that leaked from the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant has reached a major underground aquifer that supplies drinking water to much of South Jersey. The Department of Environmental Protection has ordered the plant, the oldest nuclear plant in the nation, to halt the spread of contaminated water underground, even as it says there was no imminent threat to drinking water supplies.
- Auto Repair Shops Upset Over Law Change: Auto repair shops are steamed that they had to install the expensive equipment a month ago — only to learn the state is eliminating motor vehicle inspections for mechanical defects beginning July 1.
- Smoking-Cessation Programs on the Chopping Block: All state-sponsored smoking cessation programs are in limbo because Gov. Christie’s proposed fiscal year 2011 budget cuts just about all funding for them.
- Good Livin’ in NJ: Asian Americans living in New Jersey live better than any other ethnic group in any other state, according to a new report from the American Human Development Project.
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Jon Whiten is the founding editor of the Jersey City Independent; he now works for a public-policy nonprofit in Trenton.
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