>Gov. Rick Perry calls global warming “all one contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight.”
Rick Perry to delight climate sceptics by running for president
Perry calls global warming “all one contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight.” Unlike many of the other GOP presidential candidates, he hasn’t expressed concern about climate change in the past, so he won’t have to do any back-pedaling. Notorious climate denier Marc Morano is a big fan: “Based on climate views alone, anyone who is holding their nose voting for Mitt Romney because there’s no other viable candidate will now rejoice to have an option with Rick Perry.”
State Trooper Says Someone With Keys Went In Underground Vault
LEMONT FURNACE, Pa. — State police in Uniontown said a 29-hour loss of landline phone service was caused by an act of criminal mischief when someone went into locked underground Verizon vaults and shut off the power.
Trooper Timothy Kirsch said there was no forced entry at the sites on Main Street and on Route 119 in Lemont Furnace, near the Penn State Fayette campus. Police believe whoever shut off the power had keys.
Police are trying to determine if the incident, which began at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, is related to an ongoing strike by Verizon landline workers.
The local state police barracks was without phone and computer service for 21 hours, police said. Calls had to be forwarded to dispatchers who worked out of another barracks several miles away.
>I’m confused! So please explain to me the reasoning for Dr. Gabbert’s increase.
1. Did he do a wonderful job and save the Village thousands of dollars? If, so, why are our taxes going up by 7%? Where are the savings? The initial termination of employees last year, was followed this year by substantial rehirings! The budget this year is substantially greater than last year! Essential services have been reduced. Snowplowing, street paving, the Library, etc…
2. What is the rational: That he is entitled to a raise, since union employees got raises (as a result of his negotiation of the their contracts)? If so, then the more of a raise in the Union contract the more he should have gotten! Even by this irrational logic, is he entitled to a 12% raise rather than the 4% the Union’s got?
3. Why is he, the Village Manager of Ridgewood, entitled to a greater salary than the Governor of the State of New Jersey, the Mayor of Newark or the Village Managers of Paramus and the other Bergen County Towns and Villages?
4. If the Deputy Mayor draws an analogy to the private sector (as he did when he supported incentive raises for management employees) can he justify giving the Chief Executive (our Village Manager) a raise when the Village is losing money? In the private sector, the Chief Executive of a losing business many times takes a substantial reduction, until the business begins to make money?
5. Shouldn’t more light be shone on the strange coincidence that last year Dr. Gabbert got an additional $20,000 as the CFO, (until a shift in internal positions was made, not a new hiring) and this year he got a raise of $20,000? This appears to indicate that there may have been promises made to him that were never disclosed to the public when he was hired?
6. All this aside. Even if Dr. Gabbert was the absolute best Village Manager ever to walk the Earth, he should be fired if the outragous remarks attributed to him are accurate. Greater men than he have been discharged for tasteless remarks that were less offensive than his! He is an insensitive (you fill in the blank)!
7. Finally, every person who is offended by what the Village Council did, has an obligation to attend the Village Council meetings and during the public comment portion, express their anger at the Council for this dastardly deed!
>Appeals court rules against Obama healthcare mandate
By Jeremy Pelofsky and James Vicini
WASHINGTON | Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:26pm EDT
(Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law suffered a setback on Friday when an appeals court ruled that it was unconstitutional to require all Americans to buy insurance or face a penalty.
The U.S. Appeals Court for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, ruled 2 to 1 that Congress exceeded its authority by requiring Americans to buy coverage, but it unanimously reversed a lower court decision that threw out the entire law.
The legality of the individual mandate, a cornerstone of the healthcare law, is widely expected to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Opponents have argued that without the mandate, which goes into effect in 2014, the entire law falls.
>U.S. Consumer Confidence Drops to Three-Decade Low
By Jillian Berman – Aug 12, 2011 10:39 AM ET
Confidence among U.S. consumers plunged in August to the lowest level since May 1980, adding to concern that weak employment gains and volatility in the stock market will prompt households to retrench.
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment slumped to 54.9 from 63.7 the prior month. The gauge was projected to decline to 62, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.
Former New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli has job lobbying government for owners of Bayonne Medical Center, who are in deal to buy Hoboken University Medical Center
Former New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli is a government lobbyist for the Bayonne Medical Center, whose for-profit owners are close to sealing a deal to buy Hoboken University Medical Center.
Torricelli’s Lambertville-based firm, Rosemont Associates, represents Bayonne Medical Center and its affiliated companies as a governmental affairs consultant on legislative and regulatory matters, said Sean Jackson, a spokesman for Rosemont Associates. (Hack, The Jersey Journal)
> Village mayor and council failing to support local business
Letters to the Editor
FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 2011
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Village mayor and council failing to support local business
To the editor:
I almost missed the article on the incentive bonuses (“Incentive bonuses to replace raises”; Ridgewood News; July 29; page A1) because it was ironically overshadowed by your article on the fire department contract (“Concessions to save millions”; Ridgewood News; July 29; page A1).
It seems hypocritical for our mayor, Village Council and village manager to vote for incentives for senior managers (disguised as an incentive program) when others are taking pay cuts and paying more for their benefit packages. When the senior managers accepted their positions, they knew what their pay scale was and they are expected to work diligently. If they are unhappy with their position or compensation, they should resign. It is offensive that our local government (aside from Councilman Paul Aronsohn) voted to increase our property taxes by 7.4 percent so they could give pay hikes and hire back employees that were laid off a few years ago. They are doing this at a time when most private businesses are slashing bonuses and cutting salaries.
When owners of solar systems generate electricity, they earn credits subsidized by ratepayers. The same will be true if, and when, offshore wind farms start generating power about 20 miles off the coast of New Jersey. Now developers of tidal power want a piece of the action.
A developer pushing tidal power as a viable energy source in New Jersey, yesterday called on the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to adopt a pilot program to develop 10 megawatts of tidal capacity from currents off the Jersey coast. (Johnson, NJ Spotlight)
>Graydon Swim Team coach Jane Morales ‘unsung hero’
Letters to the Editor
FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 2011
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Graydon Swim Team coach ‘unsung hero’
To the editor:
We would like to give our heartfelt thanks to a person who has worked tirelessly for over 18 years running the Graydon Swim Team.
From registering 3,000-plus children, overseeing yearly setup at the pool with the Recreation Department, searching and finding wonderful dedicated coaches, running the Lake League, credentialing swimmers for the County Championships, ordering trophies and swim gear, supervising the yearly dinner, judging, timing, organizing hundreds of volunteers to personally hand writing award ribbons, Jane Morales is a true unsung hero.
Thousands of swimmers have benefitted from her calm, easy manner and legions of parents need never know the mountains of paperwork, miles of e-mails and endless phone calls that have been made on their children’s behalf by Jane. She worked so hard so that our kids could become stronger, more confident swimmers and enjoy the camaraderie of team sports and the thrill of competition.
>Four Village Council ‘yes’ votes now amounts to a strong vote of confidence for Dr. Gabbert
Nothing ‘fishy’. No ‘scam’ here. An elected body hired somebody they liked. That person is doing a good job, vastly better than the previous guy. Four out of five members of the elected body (i.e., more than half) decide he deserves a raise, so he gets it.
Basic civics.
What is your point, that raises to non-union town employees should be approved unanimously by the Village Council? If so, I wonder whether you believe that anyone would receive a raise under such a rule.
The fact that the raise was approved 4-1, rather than 3-2, means that for each one of the four that voted in favor of the raise, the decision was clear. Otherwise, at least one of the four could easily have voted no in order to score points as a hard-nosed budget hawk while at the same time avoiding blame for putting the kibash on the raise. Instead, each of the four ‘yes’ votes now amounts to a strong vote of confidence for Dr. Gabbert, much to Aronsohn’s chagrin. Aronsohn simply wants to create a reputation as the ‘great dissenter’. This really only means that he is willing to vote ‘no’ only when a ‘no’ vote will have no real effect other than to provide him with a soapbox.
I agree that we need a second railway tunnel. However, the proposal that was on the table was ridiculous. It went to the wrong place in Manhattan and cost way too much, and had New Jersey paying for way too much of it. Let New York pay their fair share, route the tunnel to Penn Station, and allow non-union labor to bring the costs down. Then it would make sense.
Schools prepare for bigger role in fighting bullying problem
The number of reported bullying incidents in New Jersey schools is expected to increase this year as officials deal with the problem more aggressively.
A state law that takes effect Sept. 1 strengthens and expands the role and responsibilities of schools in dealing with bullying behavior. Attorneys and experts leading a workshop for school officials Thursday at Richard Stockton College said they expect increased vigilance to lead to more reported cases.
“There may be people worried about being held liable if they don’t report something,” said Ray DiNovi, a school anti-bullying specialist with Rowan University and the Educational Information and Resource Center. (D’Amico, Press of Atlantic City)
Commuter Tax: Gov. Christie ‘unlikely’ to back NJ-NY toll hike
Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday he’s unlikely to support a proposal to sharply increase tolls on bridges and tunnels between New Jersey and New York, but he didn’t rule out smaller toll increases to pay for infrastructure improvements.
The proposal by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey would increase tolls by $4 for E-ZPass customers and $7 for cash-payers as soon as September at the Outerbridge Crossing, Bayonne, Goethals and George Washington bridges and at the Holland and Lincoln tunnels. An additional $2 increase would happen in 2014. (Delli Santi, The Associated Press)
>FLAGS ORDERED FLOWN AT HALF-STAFF FRIDAY, AUGUST 12
Upon Executive Order from Governor Chris Christie, flags at Ridgewood schools will be flown at half-staff on Friday, August 12, 2011, in recognition and mourning of a brave and loyal American hero, United States Army Sergeant Alessandro Plutino, a 2001 graduate of Pitman High School who lost his life in Afghanistan while serving his country.
