The Jersey City Independent "

- TDR Plans: Jersey City planning officials hope to employ Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) to turn the industrial area along Jersey Avenue, between 10th and 18th streets, into a neighborhood resembling nearby Hamilton Park. Officials also have their eye on Montgomery Street between Grove Street and the waterfront. Public meetings about the process are currently underway.

- Liberty Humane Cleans Up, but State Never Shows: Despite a threatening letter telling Liberty Humane Society it had until Friday to fix inhumane conditions, the state didn’t pay a visit to the shelter. “We were so disappointed. We worked so hard,” interim board member Diana Jeffrey tells the Journal. “Everybody worked really, really hard.”

- Cathy Coyle: The former Jersey City assistant superintendent “has emerged as a central character in the drama” around the controversial contract for superintendent Charles Epps, with former BOE member Gerald McCann accusing Coyle of angling for the job with board members and Downtown councilman Steven Fulop of championing the cause of a national search so the post could be handed to Coyle. Both Coyle and Fulop have repeatedly denied the claim.

- Students Leaving High Tech & County Prep After Sports Were Cut: After the Hudson County Schools of Technology Board of Trustees jettisoned the athletics programs at High Tech and County Prep earlier this year because of cuts in state aid, some students are opting to transfer out of the county schools.

- Schillari Assault Case Videotape: Security video appears to show only minimal contact between Hudson County undersheriff Frank Schillari and Sheriff’s Office Chief John Bartucci in the incident that resulted in assault charges that were filed by Bartucci.

- Pagan Sentenced for Fixing Tickets: Former Jersey City Municipal Court Administrator Virginia Pagan was sentenced to three years in prison Friday for illegally “fixing” 215 tickets.

- Healy Running for a Third Term? Although most think Mayor Healy will not run for a third term in 2013, the Insider now says Healy just might do so, because he only listens to his “enablers.”

- Motorcyclist Dies After Chase: A 33-year-old motorcyclist evading police died in a Saturday night crash on Fulton Avenue.

- JC Men Accused of Cockfighting: Eatontown police arrested two brothers from Jersey City early Sunday morning on multiple charges of animal cruelty for engaging in illegal cockfighting. After being pulled over, cops inspected the inside of the car and reportedly four live roosters and four dead roosters in the trunk, in addition to hypodermic needles and syringes authorities say were used to drug the roosters, and sets of metal spurs that are attached to rooster’s legs during a cockfight.

- Honeywell Institute for Ecosystems Education: Teachers from Jersey City were among those participating in the third annual workshop, which takes teachers into the Hackensack River Watershed to give them a firsthand look at nature and to impart teaching techniques they can take back to the classroom.

- JC Native Pens Children’s Book: Caroline and Rebecca: Rebecca Gets Into Trouble, the first book by 19-year-old Alyssa Pierce, was released in July.

In Statewide News:

- - The Empty ‘Tool Kit’: Gov. Christie proposed a tool kit of reforms in May, aimed at helping municipalities meet their local budgets. But four months on, just one of the reforms — the property tax increase cap — has been enacted, and mayors are getting antsy.

- Changing Teacher Tenure: Revoking tenure in New Jersey is such an arduous undertaking that school officials are usually reluctant to pursue it unless a teacher is clearly insubordinate or dangerous. The process can drag on for years and cost a district hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now a movement is afoot to make it easier to weed out teachers who don’t help students learn, while rewarding superb educators and helping teachers with potential to improve.

- Pension Crisis: The Times takes a look at the state’s “long-brewing” pension payment crisis. The crux of the problem, which has been passed on from governor to governor for years: “When the state puts in less than the required contribution, that increases the long-term deficit, which in turn raises the amount the formulas will tell the state to pay in future years.

- Family Planning Cuts: Under Gov. Christie’s 2011 budget, the of state funds for 58 family-planning centers across the state has plummeted from $7.5 million to zero. Advocates claim the move will leave 40,000 current clinic patients in the cold — and produce unintended pregnancies, while Christie maintains low-income women will be able to access equivalent services elsewhere.

- Low Immunization Rate: Why does New Jersey have one of the lowest immunization rates in the nation for babies and toddlers? Public health experts say it is a combination of low-income and immigrant communities, who lack health insurance and may not understand the immunization process, as well as a growing resistance to all vaccines by others.

- Rethinking Energy Plan: With the Christie administration re-assessing New Jersey’s two-year-old energy master plan, the factors contributing to high energy bills for residents and businesses may emerge as the crucial issues in what changes are made in the document and, more importantly, in whether ratepayers see their bills go down.

- Christie’s Teachers: When Gov. Christie made a frontal assault on New Jersey’s public school establishment the opening centerpiece of his administration, few people were more taken aback than his former teachers in Livingston.

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