>New rules will force N.J. law enforcement to beef up training, publicize complaints against officers
Law enforcement agencies in the state will have to police themselves much more vigorously under sweeping new rules announced today by Attorney General Paula Dow. (Rizzo and Megerian, The Star-Ledger)
>Ridgewood : Do away with down town parking meters
Parking meters here in Ridgewood are failing because in a down economy, no one wants to get fined if they shop too long. Yeah, that’s the ‘ticket’! Less business in our CBD!
Do away with the meters, do away with the meter guy, reassign the parking police to where traffic safety is lacking and maybe we might save money instead of losing it because the village can’t run it correctly.
>Math Wars: How to Pick a Math Curriculum for Homeschooling
By Lisa Love, eHow Contributor updated: May 05, 2011
Choosing a math curriculum for your homeschooled child should not be a daunting task, though it’s an important one. Base your decision on your child’s learning style and ability — not what everyone else is using to teach their children at his or her grade level. The point of homeschooling is to teach your child at a pace that enhances his or her abilities. Finding the right tools to support your family’s core educational beliefs and values, is the first step.
>Crunch of pension, benefit costs may be hitting N.J. now
New Jersey’s long-term pension and benefit costs for government workers may not just be a ticking time bomb; it also could be costing taxpayers right now. (Method, Gannett)
Sen. Diane Allen and Sen. Michael Doherty are diving into the debate over the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative with the assistance of a conservative former gubernatorial candidate who has consistently railed against the pact. (New Jersey Press Media)
Garage sale proceeds go to Concerned Residents of Ridgewood
Readers sound off …
“pish shaw…you won’t c me there……I want the hospital to expand to provide the best services for my family and I…..just because you were stupid enough to buy a house next to A VERY LARGE BUILDING and now your getting screwed and you want me to pay for your mistake by suffering a reduction in services because the VERY LARGE BUILDING want to get BIGGER ! here’s a thought …..KISS MY ASS ! NIMBY”S”
and
“I went this a.m. and found fantastic things and all very reasonably priced! The plants were great and would make nice Mother’s Day gifts. What a great community effort to preserve the quality of life in Ridgewood. Valley may be a force to be reckoned with but this group (and this sympathizer from a nearby town)hopes they are deterred from turning a community hospital into a huge medical center compromising the residents quality of life”
>U.S. prosecutors seek names of firefighters, officers who used steroids from Jersey City doctor
Published: Sunday, May 08, 2011, 8:00 AM Updated: Sunday, May 08, 2011, 1:51 PM By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
Federal prosecutors have issued a subpoena seeking the names of hundreds of law enforcement officers and firefighters who obtained anabolic steroids through an unscrupulous Jersey City doctor, part of a wider criminal probe targeting physicians who improperly prescribe the drugs.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark served the subpoena on the New York State Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, which collects data from pharmacies on every prescription they fill for steroids and other controlled dangerous substances, according to two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the investigation.
The drugs were shipped to the officers and firefighters in New Jersey from a pharmacy in Brooklyn.
The officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said prosecutors do not intend to bring charges against the steroid users unless it’s determined they sold the substances.
Rather, one of the officials said, the aim is to find out if the officers and firefighters obtained the drugs from other doctors after the death of Joseph Colao, a Jersey City physician who prescribed steroids and human growth hormone when they weren’t medically necessary.
>Pay per mile: A timely tax idea, or a privacy threat?
Once again the Obama administration draft proposal for study of mileage fee spurs interest.
msnbc.com updated 5/5/2011 5:36:53 PM ET
As transportation officials struggle to raise enough tax dollars to maintain the nation’s highway and transit systems, a tentative new proposal could put Americans on the hook for every mile they drive.
Department of Transportation officials have drafted legislation that would study a vehicle tax to track how far drivers travel and charge them by the mile. The proposal would create a “Surface Transportation Revenue Alternatives Office” to conduct trials of the concept.
The draft proposal was first reported this week in Transportation Weekly, a trade publication. A White House spokeswoman told The Hill newspaper that the draft “does not represent the views of the president” and is in no way an administration proposal.
The White House put the brakes on a similar proposal floated early in Obama’s presidency, with then-spokesman Robert Gibbs said that a mileage tax “is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration.”
Does Newark spend $24,500 or $17,000 per pupil to educate its students? Or is it closer to $10,000? Depends who’s counting.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says the first, the state Department of Education uses the middle number and urban-school advocates use the lowest figure.
It’s more than an academic debate: The amount of money spent per pupil can also hold sway over state Supreme Court justices, who, for more than 30 years, have forced the state time and again to spend more on education and are on the cusp of deciding a case that could impel the state to spend an additional $1.7 billion on schools.
“They are sensitive to both their duties to uphold and interpret the Constitution as well as the realities of politics,” said Ben Dworkin, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University. “So new numbers and new calculations may well have an impact.”
Then there’s sticker shock—especially when annual numbers start to look more like college tuition. Mr. Christie is on a quest to convince people that money does not equal success in public education.
The celebrations of mothers and motherhood occur throughout the world and can often be traced back to ancient festivals .One of the earliest historical records of a society celebrating a Mother deity or Mothers Day can be found among the ancient Egyptians, who held an annual festival to honor the goddess Isis, who was commonly regarded as the Mother of the pharaohs. The ancient Greek cult to Cybele or the Roman festival of Hilaria are also examples. The modern US-celebration of Mother’s Day is not directly related to any of these.
Julia Ward Howe lead the early call to celebrate Mother’s Day in the United States in the “Mother’s Day Proclamation” Written in 1870, The proclamation was reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. The Proclamation was tied to Howe’s belief that mothers had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level.
International Women’s Day was celebrated originally on 28 February 1909, in the US, by which time Anna Jarvis had already begun her national campaign in the US. It is now celebrated in many countries on March 8.