Tapes secretly recorded for the federal government by Peter Caporino, 69, who owned the Character Club in Hoboken and allegedly had ties to the Genovese crime family, are expected to be the centerpiece of the March 20 trial of reputed mobster Joseph Scarbrough, accused of running illegal sports betting out of Hudson County.

Caporino, according to court papers filed by the government, spent more than two years building the key evidence in the case: Recording roughly 800 hours of conversations with fellow mobsters and others, including unidentified public employees.

"Democracies die behind closed doors. A government operating in the shadow of secrecy stands in complete opposition to the society envisioned by the framers of our Constitution."
--- Judge Damon Keith, of the 6th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, 2002.

The Hoboken Reporter newspaper reported that on February 7, 2006, Mayor Roberts' education initiative held an invitation-only event for about 40 community leaders who have a stake in the city's educational system.

The meeting, which was closed to the press, was held at the house of Stevens Institute of Technology's President Harold Raveche. Roberts said that the press was not invited to the meeting so that it would not be politicized. According to Roberts, attendees included almost every Hoboken elected official from the City Council and the Board of Education, district administrations, city educators, and local business and civic leaders.