The Jersey City Independent "

FYI: We’re taking Monday off in honor of the Labor Day holiday. This is our last roundup until Tuesday. Enjoy the holiday weekend, if you don’t have to work.

- Liberty Humane Fight Gets Ugly: Liberty Humane Society board member John Hanussak has filed a report with the Jersey City Police Department after a person posting to the Liberty Humane Society Uncensored fan page on Facebook urged others to take the fight over killing animals to board members’ homes and offices. Hanussak and others have been bombarded with calls since the upstate New York group Pets Alive posted their phone numbers of the web. (Ironically, this reporter witnessed Pets Alive leader Matt DeAngelis threaten Liberty Humane with a lawsuit for posting his phone number on its Facebook page last week, an equation he seems to have no problem being on the other side of.) DeAngelis and others held a rally last night outside of the shelter to protest what they claim is an unfair killing of some of Liberty Humane’s animals.

- Stealing Trade Secrets: A 54-year-old Jersey City man who was formerly a chemist for a suburban Chicago paint company Valspar has pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets valued at up to $20 million.

- Grand Jury Indictments for Alleged NJCU Thieves: The former office manager for a student government organization at New Jersey City University has been indicted, along with her husband, by a federal grand jury today for allegedly stealing more than $420,000 from the group.

- Bad Earnings News for Hovnanian: Hovnanian Enterprises, the largest homebuilder in New Jersey and the developer of luxury projects like 77 Hudson in Jersey city, has reported a third-quarter loss that was bigger than analysts expected as sales fell following the expiration of a homebuyer tax credit.

- Attempted Carjack of Jitney Bus: A jitney bus driver gave an alleged carjacker a big dose of pepper spray outside the Newport Centre Mall in Jersey City Wednesday night.

- Fire on Grand Street: A two-alarm fire at a Grand Street brownstone displaced a family last night.

In Statewide News:

- FamilyCare Budget Cuts Lawsuit: Seton Hall Law School’s Center for Social Justice has filed a class action lawsuit against New Jersey on behalf of low-income legal immigrants who have been denied state-funded Medicaid health insurance under the FamilyCare program due to recent budget cuts.

- Federal $ Could Help Ease Education Cuts: The Christie administration is proposing to divide up $268 million in late-summer federal relief for schools along the same lines as the state aid cuts the districts have endured, meaning as much as a quarter of each district’s lost state aid could be restored for specific classroom jobs. But now it’s up to the federal government to decide whether that will be allowed.

- We’ll Get Some Race to the Top Funds After All: The U.S. Department of Education has awarded a total of $330 million to two coalitions of states — both of which include New Jersey — to create a new generation of standardized tests that will assess national standards for what students should learn in school.

- NJN’s Future: The Christie Administration has submitted a proposal to the legislature to accomplish the conversion of New Jersey Network from a government body to an independent entity, either to a non-profit corporation or through a sale or transfer of assets to an existing public broadcasting entity.

- More State Debt: As if New Jersey weren’t in enough debt, the state also owes the federal government $1.7 billion for the unemployment insurance trust fund, according to ProPublica.

- SIDS Deaths on the Decline: The number of babies dying from sudden infant death syndrome has dropped significantly in New Jersey, far outpacing the decline nationwide, according to a new report from the SIDS Center of New Jersey.

- New NJ Transit Trains: NJ Transit has awarded a $267 million contract to Bombardier Transportation for 100 new railcars.

- The Hunt for Big Trees: The state Division of Parks and Forestry has begun updating a list, first created in 1954, of the largest known specimens of each native and naturalized species of tree in the state. The list was last updated in 1998.

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