The Jersey City Independent "

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- SEC Looking into Jersey City Hedge Fund: Yorkville Advisors, which recently reported $864 million of assets under management, has disclosed to investors that it provided information to the Securities & Exchange Commission at the direction of securities regulators.

- Decapitated Body Remains Unidentified: Homicide detectives have not yet been able to identify the decapitated, decomposed body of a man found along the Conrail train tracks on County Road in Jersey City on Saturday.

- Toll Brothers Returns to Profitability: With sales volume still 65 percent below the peak of the housing boom, luxury-home builder Toll Brothers returned to profitability in the third quarter. The New Jersey-based company is slated to develop towers in the Powerhouse Arts District, but hasn’t yet broken ground.

In Statewide News:

- More Race to the Top: The U.S. Department of Education has released video footage contradicting Gov. Christie’s claim that Washington bureaucrats refused to allow the state to fix a simple error in its application for $400 million in education grants. Meanwhile, state Sen. Barbara Buono has filed an Open Public Records Act request with the state Department of Education for information regarding how the Christie administration handled the failed application.

- Municipal Checklist Tied to State Aid: The Christie administration sent a detailed questionnaire to each of the state’s 566 municipalities this week along with a warning that they must furnish a certain number of “yes” answers in order to receive their full allotment of state aid. MORE from NJ Spotlight and the Asbury Park Press.

- Unfunded Mandates: Local officials are making sure state lawmakers get the message that unfunded mandates drive up property taxes and make it tough on Garden State residents. The opposition to unfunded mandates has united municipalities with business interests, according to NJ Biz.

- Family Planning $: Trenton Democrats will try to override Gov. Christie’s veto of $7.5 million in funding for family planning clinics on September 20, despite a pledge from Republicans to sink the effort.

- New Energy Provider to Enter NJ: Constellation Energy, the largest supplier of power in the U.S., says it is entering the New Jersey residential electric market, promising homeowners price reductions of up to 12 percent on their utility bills.

- New Jersey Association of Counties: A freeholder who oversees the taxpayer-financed New Jersey Association of Counties told 22 trustees — most of them elected officials – they could skirt public-records laws with this advice: “Keep these documents solely in your personal possession.”

- Christie’s Earnings: Newly released financial disclosure statements show Gov. Christie and his wife earned more than $500,000 in the past year.

- New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition Wins Grant: The New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition has won a competitive grant from REI Inc. under their “REI Gives” grant program. It will be used to fund operations for the NJBikeSchool, a free, comprehensive bicycle safety program that educates children about sharing the road safely with motor vehicles and pedestrians.

- Weird NJ’s New Book: The magazine has released a new book on the odd New Jersey poet Alfred Starr Hamilton.

- Secular Group Bombing Trenton with Billboards: The Freedom From Religion Foundation is blanketing Trenton with 19 billboards going up this week for a month, saying: “Imagine No Religion,” depicting the face of a penny with the words “In Reason We Trust,” warning “God & Government a Dangerous Mix” and saluting Charles Darwin in a billboard depicting his image and saying “Praise Darwin: Evolve Beyond Belief.”