The Jersey City Independent"

Although the municipal budget has been at the center of much council brouhaha lately, the hottest issue at this week’s meeting was the council’s consideration of the labor contracts with the city’s police and fire unions. A brief flareup between former mayor Gerry McCann and Ward E councilman Steven Fulop, perennial rivals, added to the atmosphere of tension in the room.

- NJ Transit Fare Hikes May be ‘Adjusted’: NJ Transit’s executive director says that the amount of the proposed fare hike will likely be lowered. “At this time, a 25-percent increase is an extraordinary, extraordinary burden, so we’ll take that into consideration,” Jim Weinstein says, adding that the adjustment won’t likely be huge. Still, he [...]

- The 9-month-old Jersey City boy stabbed multiple times in a brutal assault that claimed his mother’s life in a Downtown apartment building Tuesday is now listed in critical but stable condition after undergoing surgery. Authorities are looking for a man who lives in the building that they’ve spotted on a video; he is not [...]

Editor’s note: Sometimes we receive traditional letters to the editor rather than comments on stories. We will begin sharing them every once in a while in “The Mailbag.”
This week’s letters both concern the City Council’s vote last week to move forward with the purchase of the Parking Authority’s building on Central Avenue, despite calls from [...]

- The Reporter has more on the Friends of Liberty State Park’s loss in court last week, and what it means for the group’s ongoing fight against the “Empty Sky” 9/11 memorial being built in the park.
- The City Council’s vote to move forward with the purchase of the Parking Authority building shows that the [...]

If the council members thought they’d be able to breeze through Tuesday’s pre-Thanksgiving City Council meeting, they were sorely mistaken.

At 824 Garfield Ave., the Jersey City Incinerator Authority stores salt for roads in the winter. But new tests show toxic materials have been stored there for several years as well. How did they get there, and why didn’t the city notice them until yesterday?

At Wednesday night’s City Council meeting, the main topic on the agenda was the city’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget, but there were also eight ordinances signed into law, four ordinances introduced, a bunch of resolutions passed and … a couple of Lyndon LaRouche supporters.

Despite having 25 scheduled speakers in the public comment portion, Wednesday’s City Council meeting clocked in at a svelte 1 hour 47 minutes. Seven ordinances were introduced, two were voted into law, and a handful of citizens spoke on a few different topics.