The Jersey City Independent "

- 5-Year-Old Shot: A 5-year-old girl was shot in the neck Friday night at the Montgomery Gardens housing complex in Jersey City. She will undergo surgery today to remove the bullet, which pierced her neck and hit her spine. An 18-year-old Jersey City man has been charged in connection with the shooting.

- Murder Conviction Overturned: An appellate court has reversed the felony murder conviction of a 30-year-old Jersey City man who had been convicted of using two women to distract a man with sex during a burglary and then killing him when the plan went awry.

- Funding for Parades & Festivals Cut: City budget cuts have diminished the funding for each of the numerous parades and festivals the city puts on by 80 percent in 2010, and organizers are worried about deeper cuts next year.

- Chiappone’s Assembly Seat: The Insider takes a look at the first real test for new Hudson County Democratic Organization leader Mark Smith — appointing a replacement for disgraced Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone, who pleaded guilty last month to campaign finance fraud.

- Moment of Silence for DiNardo: The JCPD will hold a moment of silence at 9:14 pm tonight to honor Detective Mark DiNardo, who was fatally wounded on July 16 last year during a shootout on Reed Street with robbery suspects. The time tonight represents the moment DiNardo was declared brain dead.

- ‘Deplorable’ Conditions in Apartment: A judge has ordered a Hudson County Corrections officer to pay $3,100 in damages to a man who was living in a Bramhall Avenue building owned by the officer, in an apartment city officials say was illegal. The judge called the conditions “deplorable” and said “the apartment was unfit for human habitation.

- Manzo Opposing Kagan’s Supreme Court Nod: Former Assemblyman and perennial mayoral candidate Lou Manzo, who was arrested and charged in last year’s federal corruption sweep, appears in a video on The Justice Integrity Project website urging the the U.S. Senate to deny confirmation to Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.

- Restoring Victorian Homes: From his Jersey City office, designer and craftsman Robert J. Olsen has restored Victorian houses here, as well as in Bayonne, Teaneck and Clifton. He talks to the Record about his work.

- Neurologist Charged: A Bergen County neurologist with a practice in Jersey City was indicted Thursday by a state grand jury in connection with a prescription drug trafficking and Medicaid fraud ring.

- Woman Charged After Leaving Kids Alone: A 20-year-old Jersey City woman has been charged with endangering the welfare of her two toddlers and her 7-month-old baby after leaving them at home alone for hours Saturday night into Sunday morning while she allegedly went clubbing in Manhattan.

- Heights Home Boarded Up: Jersey City fire officials have boarded up a two-family house on Zabriskie Street after finding animal and human feces inside the apartments and the house in complete disarray.

In Statewide News:

- When Will Tax Cap Go Into Effect? The 2 percent property tax cap rushed into law this month by Gov. Christie and state Senate president Steve Sweeney won’t apply at all to this year’s property tax bills, and many questions remain admittedly unanswered when it comes to figuring how the new cap will work when it does go into effect for next year’s budgets.

- Senate to Take Up ‘Toolkit’: Meanwhile, the state Senate today will begin considering nearly three dozen bills designed to help towns, counties and school districts contain costs; an essential part of the property tax cap plan.

- Slow Progress on Recycling: New Jersey adopted the nation’s first mandatory recycling law in 1987 and set an ambitious goal, five years later, of recycling at least 50 percent of our household trash and other garbage. We’re not there yet, and we’re actually further away from the goal than we were in 1995, when recycling of municipal solid waste peaked at 45 percent. Less than 38 percent was recycled in 2008, compared with the national average of 33.2 percent. Hudson County was one of the worst-performing counties, at 29.5 percent. Advocates say several bills in Trenton, including one that would impose a 10-cent, refundable deposit on plastic and glass bottles and aluminum cans, along with increased spending on education and enforcement, would get New Jersey closer to the 50 percent recycling goal.

- Prison Population Declines: The state’s prison population fell 14.8 percent from 2000 to 2009 without any need for such drastic actions, according to new federal statistics. New Jersey is one of only six states to reduce the number of prisoners over the decade.

- NJ Businesses Getting Immigration Compliance Warnings: In the past 10 months, federal immigration officials have warned 25 businesses in New Jersey that they may face fines if they failed to ensure that their employees are eligible to work in the U.S.

- DEP’s Priorities: Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin has unveiled his environmental policy priorities for the Christie administration and his plans to make the agency what he describes as more consumer friendly.

- The Declining Horse Racing Industry: A special governor’s commission is expected to release its recommendations soon on what to do about New Jersey’s horse racing industry, which lost tens of millions of dollars last year and the year before that. Despite the heavy losses, they support thousands of jobs and generate millions in revenues — including $5 million in profits expected from off-track wagering this year and another $3.3 million in account wagering.

- Businesses Betting on Clean Energy: Public and private companies across New Jersey are committing their own capital, or that of large investors, to building wind and solar farms and developing other types of renewable power, as well as smart-grid and energy-storage technologies.

- Turnpike’s Reforestation Plan Thrown into Limbo: A program to replace trees damaged or removed by the Turnpike widening project in Mercer, Burlington and Middlesex counties has been thrown into limbo after a state Department of Environmental Protection official confirmed that funds for potential replantings will instead be used to operate state parks.

- Aiding Workers Affected by Outsourcing: New Jersey will receive more than $1.2 million from the U.S. Department of Labor to assist workers who have lost their jobs as a result of outsourcing and foreign trade.

- Future World Cup Games and NJ: Rutgers University’s Yurcak Field and the Hyatt Regency Hotel New Brunswick are both included in the USA Bid Committee’s bid proposal for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

- Special Needs Registry: In order to better comply with federal requirements, the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management has implemented a new online registry for residents with special needs.

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