Hudson County

Local news, events, sports & more from Hudson County, NJ

TRENTON -- The Jersey City Medical Center will receive half the $44 million state officials announced yesterday they are doling out to six financially struggling hospitals to help keep their doors open during the economic crisis.

Gov. Jon Corzine said the money is needed to make sure the poor have access to health care.

Kuehne Chemical in Kearny has been cited and fined by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for 33 worker safety and health violations, including lapses that could lead to a toxic chlorine release, an advocate group and OSHA officials confirmed yesterday.

On Nov. 10 and 14, OSHA issued citations to Kuehne for violating federal standards and assessed total penalties of $48,650, said officials with the NJ Work Environment Council (WEC), an alliance of 70 labor and community organizations.

Jeff Boss, the Guttenberg man who ran for president and U.S. senator last month under the slogan "Vote Here," has announced his candidacy for governor of New Jersey.

"I want to put our country and our state back on track," said Boss, who runs the Immortal Corporation, a firm that freezes deceased pets in hopes they can be resuscitated once a cure is found for the cause of their death.

Byron Smith / The Jersey JournalComic book collector Mariam Turner speculates on what might have happened to the 600 comic books that were stolen from her basement.

HOBOKEN -- Superheroes have always been a part of Miriam Turner's life.
Her mother was gaga over Superman, to the point her father would grow jealous when he came home from work only to find his wife watching the Man of Steel on television.

"'What does he have that I don't got?' he'd say. We thought it was funny," Turner said.

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Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey JournalGregory Mallard of Jersey City is arraigned at Central Judicial Processing Court in Jersey City via video link from the Hudson County jail in Kearny today.

A 19-year-old Jersey City man has been charged with murdering a young man in a city public housing complex during an eruption of gunfire which also wounded the defendant, officials said.

"I got shot first," Gregory Mallard argued over the judge's advice to remain silent during Mallard's first appearance on the murder charge in Central Judicial Processing Court in Jersey City today.

Tyrell Harris is back in jail, officials said, after having escaped from a halfway house last month.

Cops grabbed an escaped prisoner in Jersey City this afternoon, sending him back to the slammer after he escaped from a halfway house exactly one month ago, officials told The Jersey Journal.

Tyrell Harris, 22, of Eastern Parkway, was arrested by officers of the state Corrections Department's Fugitive Unit and the New Jersey State Police, Corrections spokeswoman Deirdre Fedkenheuer said.

Details of the arrest were not immediately available.

Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey JournalJersey City Firefighter Robert Verpent talks to his public defender Richard Sonntag in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Barry P. Sarkisian during a bail hearing today.

Bail was set at $25,000 this morning for Jersey City Firefighter Robert Verpent, who is charged with punching his captain in the face while battling a three-alarm blaze in July.

"When ordered to go back into the fire, Firefighter (Robert) Verpent struck the captain in the face," said Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Peter Stoma at the bail hearing for the 47-year-old firefighter.

There was a bit of excitement at Veterans Memorial Elementary School in Union City yesterday when New York Jets starting center Nick Mangold visited, thanks to a contest first-grader Donovan Sanchez won.