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>Kendra Wilkinson, Jane Lynch and Dyan Cannon at BOOKENDS

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KendraWilkson theridgewoodblog.net

Kendra Wilkinson Wednesday, September 21st @ 12:00 Noon Star of the Reality series Kendra and The Girls Next Door, Kendra Wilkinson, will sign her new book, Being Kendra: Cribs, Cocktails, and Getting My Sexy Back. Books available Sept. 20th.

Janelynch theridgewoodblog.net

Jane Lynch **New Time Wednesday, Sept. 21st @ **5:00pm Star of GLEE, Jane Lynch, will sign her new book: Happy Accidents. Books available Sept. 13th.

DyanCannon theridgewoodblog.net

Dyan Cannon Thursday, September 22nd @ 7:00pm Famed Actress, Dyan Cannon, will sign her new book:  Dear Carey:  My Life with Cary Grant.  Books available Sept. 20th

Appearing authors will only autograph books purchased at Bookends and must have valid Bookends Receipt.
Availability & pricing for all autographed books subject to change.Bookends cannot guarantee that the books that are Autographed will always be First Printings.Autographed books purchased at Bookends are non-returnable.Please call the store for details.

Bookends, 211 E. Ridgewood Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ   07450   201-445-0726

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>Village Council Special Public Meetings Concerning Proposed Valley Expansion

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ambulane chasers theridgewoodblog.net



Village Council Special Public Meetings Concerning Proposed Valley Expansion

The Ridgewood Village Council will be holding Special Public Meetings concerning the proposed Valley Hospital expansion in the Ridgewood High School Campus Center, 627 East Ridgewood Avenue, on the following dates: September 19, October 13, October 24, November 3, November 22, and November 29, 2011.

The meetings will begin at 7:00 p.m. The doors will open at 6:45 p.m. and seating will be on a first come, first served basis. The meetings will also be televised on Cablevision Channel 77 and through computer video streaming (limited viewers due to bandwith limitations). Agendas for each meeting will be posted on the Village’s website prior to the meeting.

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>NJ Transit Train Service : Main/Bergen County Line Service Adjustments due to Ongoing Disruption of the Port Jervis Line – Effective Monday, September 19 Until Further Notice

>Main/Bergen County Line Service Adjustments due to Ongoing Disruption of the Port Jervis Line – Effective Monday, September 19 Until Further Notice
September 16, 2011

Limited rail service is restored between Port Jervis and Harriman. Customers utilizing rail service will be transported by bus between Harriman and Ramsey-Route 17 stations.  For details on this service and additional options provided by Metro North, visit mta.info/pj and click on the Alternate Travel Options link.

To address overcrowdingthatresulted from the suspension of Port Jervis Line service, peak-period schedules are revised between Suffern and Hoboken.

Additional New Jersey schedules are temporary and subject to change concurrent with restoration of train service between Port Jervis and Harriman.
Click here for a complete morning peak period schedule.
Click here for a complete afternoon/evening peak period schedule.

Service changes are summarized below.  Please refer to pdf peak period schedules for times at specific stations and connecting train times.

AM Peak

Train 1142 will now depart Suffern two minutes earlier, at 5:15 a.m., and add a stop at Ramsey-Route 17 at 5:19 AM.
Train 1192 will depart Suffern at 6:56 a.m. and make all stops to Allendale, then operate express to Secaucus and Hoboken.
Train 1194 will depart Suffern at 7:32 a.m. and make all stops to Ramsey, then operate express to Broadway station, Secaucus and Hoboken.
To alleviate overcrowding conditions for Broadway customers using Train 1154, Train 1194 will stop at 7:57 AM, replacing Train 1154 at 7:50 AM.  Train 1154 will no longer stopat Broadway station.
Train 1198 will depart Suffern at 8:21 a.m.and make all stops to Allendale, then operate express to Secaucus and Hoboken.
PM Peak

Train 1195 will depart Hoboken at 5:40 p.m., Secaucus at 5:50 p.m., and operate express to Ramsey, Ramsey-Route 17, Mahwah and Suffern.
Train 1197 will depart Hoboken at 6:11 p.m., Secaucus at 6:21 p.m., and operate express to Allendale, then make all remaining stops to Suffern.
With the added express service, Train 1169 will resume its previous schedule and no longer stop at Ramsey-Route 17.
PM Trains 1209 and 1355:

Train 1209, the 4:15 p.m. departure from Hoboken, will terminate at Ridgewood and be renumbered as Train 1311.
Train 1355, the 4:29 p.m. departure from Hoboken, is extended to serve Ho-Ho-Kus and Waldwick. It will be renumbered as Train 1267.
Main Line Customers using Train 1209 for local trips Ho-Ho-Kus and Waldwick may transfer at Ridgewood to Train 1267.
Midday

Former weekday Port Jervis Line trains that continue to operate between Suffern and Hoboken only have been renumbered as follows.  No schedule times have been changed.
Train 62, the 12:54 p.m. Suffern departure, is renumbered 1136.
Train 66, the 4:39 p.m. Ridgewood departure, is renumbered 1292.
Train 68, the 10:53 p.m. Suffern departure, is renumbered 1182.
Train 45, the 9:47 a.m. Hoboken departure, is renumbered 1153.
Train 67, the 9:58 p.m. Hoboken departure, is renumbered 1179.
Train 41, the 12:40 a.m. Hoboken departure, is renumbered 1141.
Weekends
Connecting bus service will continue to operate between Port Jervis Line stations and Ramsey Route 17, until further notice.

Former weekend Port Jervis Line trains that continue to operate between Suffern and Hoboken only have been renumbered as follows.  No schedule times have been changed.

Train 70, the 6:12 AM Suffern departure, is renumbered 1702
Train 74, the 10:12 AM Suffern departure, is renumbered 1710
Train 76, the 12:12 PM Suffern departure, is renumbered 1714
Train 78, the 4:35 PM Suffern departure, is renumbered 1772
Train 82, the 10:12 PM Suffern departure, is renumbered 1734
Train 75, the 1:25 PM Hoboken departure, is renumbered 1769
Train 81, the 9:30 PM Hoboken departure, is renumbered 1785
Train 69, the 12:40 AM Hoboken departure, is renumbered 1791

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>Rasmussen Consumer Index : 11% Say Economy Getting Better, 65% Say Worse

>Rasmussen Consumer Index : 11% Say Economy Getting Better, 65% Say Worse
Sunday, September 18, 2011

The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, gained another two points on Sunday to 67.9. Consumer confidence is up six points from a week ago and up two points from a month ago. However, it is still down seven points from three months ago.

Looking at all of 2011, the Consumer Index is 25 points off its peak and just eight points above the year-to-date low.

Just 11% of adults think the economy is getting better, while 65% believe it is getting worse.

The Rasmussen Investor Index gained five more points on Sunday, capping a gain of 13 points in three days.  Still, despite the surge, the Investor Index is up just three points from a week ago and seven points from a month ago. It is down four points from three months ago.

These updates are based upon nightly telephone surveys and reported on a three-day rolling average basis.

Detailed supplemental information, including a daily history and month-by-month trend data, is available for Platinum Members

https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/indexes/rasmussen_consumer_index/rasmussen_consumer_index

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>ARTHUR LAFFER from June 2010: Tax Hikes and the 2011 Economic Collapse

>ARTHUR LAFFER from June 2010 :Tax Hikes and the 2011 Economic Collapse
Today’s corporate profits reflect an income shift into 2010. These profits will tumble next year, preceded most likely by the stock market.
By ARTHUR LAFFER
JUNE 6, 2010

People can change the volume, the location and the composition of their income, and they can do so in response to changes in government policies.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the nine states without an income tax are growing far faster and attracting more people than are the nine states with the highest income tax rates. People and businesses change the location of income based on incentives.

Likewise, who is gobsmacked when they are told that the two wealthiest Americans—Bill Gates and Warren Buffett—hold the bulk of their wealth in the nontaxed form of unrealized capital gains? The composition of wealth also responds to incentives. And it’s also simple enough for most people to understand that if the government taxes people who work and pays people not to work, fewer people will work. Incentives matter.

People can also change the timing of when they earn and receive their income in response to government policies. According to a 2004 U.S. Treasury report, “high income taxpayers accelerated the receipt of wages and year-end bonuses from 1993 to 1992—over $15 billion—in order to avoid the effects of the anticipated increase in the top rate from 31% to 39.6%. At the end of 1993, taxpayers shifted wages and bonuses yet again to avoid the increase in Medicare taxes that went into effect beginning 1994.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/130059953_Tax_hikes__service_cuts_likely_as_Irene_costs_towns__61M.html

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>Tax hikes, service cuts likely as Irene costs towns $61M

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maplefield irene theridgewoodblog.net

Tax hikes, service cuts likely as Irene costs towns $61M

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011  
BY STEPHANIE AKIN AND ZACH PATBERG
STAFF WRITERS
THE RECORD

Hurricane or not, Irene is on track to becoming one of the most expensive natural disasters in North Jersey’s history, with preliminary estimates from the region’s municipal governments totaling in the tens of millions of dollars, public records show.

With damage yet to be tallied in many of the hardest-hit towns, Bergen County’s public agencies had reported more than $19.3 million in damaged public buildings, buckled roadways, garbage pickup and other government expenses by late last week, according to numbers compiled by The Record. And those costs will be at least partly passed onto residents and taxpayers in the form of higher property taxes, service cuts or loss of use to public facilities that are not immediately repaired, officials in several towns said.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/130059953_Tax_hikes__service_cuts_likely_as_Irene_costs_towns__61M.html

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>FORTY TOP NJ COUNTY COPS DO THE DOUBLE-DIP: HOW 16 SHERIFFS & 24 UNDERSHERIFFS POCKET MILLIONS IN PENSIONS PLUS SALARIES

>FORTY TOP NJ COUNTY COPS DO THE DOUBLE-DIP: HOW 16 SHERIFFS & 24 UNDERSHERIFFS POCKET MILLIONS IN PENSIONS PLUS SALARIES
Intro by Steve Lonegan AFP

(BERGEN COUNTY- NJ) In an investigative report released yesterday, Mark Lagerkvist of NJ Watchdog ( https://newjersey.watchdog.org/2011/09/14/xxx/) reports that “Forty of New Jersey’s top county cops are double-dipping from public coffers,” scamming the pension system and New Jersey taxpayers to the tune of $2.88M a year!

According to the NJ Watchdog exposé, sheriffs across 19 New Jersey counties are raking in anywhere from $134-$252 THOUSAND DOLLARS in combined pension and salary! Some 24 undersheriffs have also struck gold by scamming the system.


Earlier this year, Governor Christie and the Legislature passed a package of pension and health benefit reforms requiring public workers, including teachers, firefighters and police, to pay more towards their retirement and health plans.

These measures were a marked step in the right direction toward addressing New Jersey’s ticking pension time bomb. However, those reforms did nothing about preventing this kind of brazen and rampant abuse of a broken and massively underfunded pension system; nor were any steps taken to phase out the pension system in favor of defined contribution, 401k-style plans that would also put an end to such taxpayer rip-offs.

Instead, once again, New Jersey taxpayers find themselves on the losing end while the politically-connected enrich themselves at our expense.

Read more : https://newjersey.watchdog.org/2011/09/14/xxx/

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>People turn to church a decade after 9/11 attacks

>People turn to church a decade after 9/11 attacks
By The Record

HACKENSACK, N.J. – In ornate sanctuaries and simple chapels, with soaring anthems and moments of silence, worshipers across New Jersey and the country last weekend remembered the dead, consoled the living and sought to find meaning in the unfathomable losses of a decade ago.

Many Christians were in church at 8:46, 9:03, 9:37 and 10:03 a.m. Sunday – the times when planes hit the towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the ground in Shanksville, Pa., 10 years ago.

“I just felt it was the right thing to do, to go to church and bring my daughter today. I felt it was the right place to be,” said Christine Mainwald of Wyckoff’s Grace United Methodist Church, who wore a T-shirt “in lasting memory” of a lost firefighter…

“Each year we have a Mass of Remembrance for all the victims, but most especially for the 10 members of our parish community who died that day,” said Monsignor Ronald J. Rozniak, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church in Ridgewood, where the death toll ranks among the highest of any American church…

https://www.leadertelegram.com/features/religion/article_1d5f846e-f14d-5547-9090-a0bf3dc52189.html

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>Motor Vehicle Accident East Ridgewood and North Pleasant

>Motor Vehicle Accident East Ridgewood and North Pleasant
Boyd Loving


(RIDGEWOOD- NJ) Several individuals were injured in a two (2) vehicle crash on Saturday evening at the intersection of East Ridgewood Avenue and North Pleasant Avenue.  The most seriously injured victims were transported to Hackensack University Medical Center.  One of the vehicles involved was a minivan, which was reportedly occupied by a family traveling with small children.  Ridgewood Police Chief John Ward was on the scene assisting with a post-crash investigation.


Update : Readers Report 


A Scion travelling at a high rate of speed was travelling west on Ridgewood Ave and lost control. It came across a lawn, hit some bushes and a fire box and then hit the mini-van which was waiting for the light on North Pleasant Ave. Both the van and the Scion wound up in the bushes of the house on the northwest corner of Ridgewood Ave. Nine people were injured; several went the hospital. Some needed to be cut out of the cars.

I live near that section of Ridgewood Ave and it needs better traffic enforcement. Cars fly down Ridgewood Ave at night. Obviously, the Scion was moving pretty damn fast to a stationary mini-van off the street move it probably 15′ and turn it sideways.

Once cars pass the lights at Pleasant or Paramus Road, it’s literally a speedway for them. I’ve seen cars tearing through here for years, particulary at night. There’s at least two or three fender benders a week heading east between Pleasant and the Duck Pond because people finaly get through town and speed but they forget that people actually turn into Walthery, Pershing and the Duck Pond.

accident theridgewoodblog

accident theridgewoodblog.net

Photos courtesy of Boyd Loving 

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>WSJ OpEd: Obama Jobs Package Really a Blue State Bailout

>WSJ OpEd: Obama Jobs Package Really a Blue State Bailout
Friday, 16 Sep 2011 08:20 AM
By Forrest Jones

Portions of President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs package are really designed to bail out weak finances in Democratic states, a new study finds.

The plan seeks funds for infrastructure, education and other projects that states should fund but cannot.

Many blue states have run up state debts, as nationwide, state debt is running around $3 trillion — tack on another trillion or even more if unfunded pension liabilities are factored in.

“These vast contributions to the coffers of state and local governments, though pitched as a jobs bill, are in reality the latest in a series of bailouts for debt-ridden state and local governments,” Paul E. Peterson and Daniel Nadler, both Harvard academics, write in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

“They are of special benefit to states in the blue regions of the country where the president’s most fervent supporters reside.”

A Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance study finds states with legislatures that are heavily Democratic and have a highly unionized public-sector work force must pay interest rates that are often an extra half a percentage point higher than those in red states.

https://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/Obama-Jobs-Bailout/2011/09/16/id/411233?s=al&promo_code=D123-1

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>48% See No Further Need for Labor Unions, 30% Disagree

>48% See No Further Need for Labor Unions, 30% Disagree
Friday, September 16, 2011

Half of American Adults (48%) think labor unions have outlasted their usefulness, but there’s a sharp difference of opinion between Republicans and Democrats on the question.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 30% disagree and say that unions have not outlived their role. Twenty-one percent (21%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

These findings are consistent with attitudes found two years ago.  At that time, 45% said labor unions actually make America weaker, while 26% believed they make the country stronger and 13% said they have no impact.

Yet while 68% of Republicans and 54% of adults not affiliated with either of the major political parties believe unions have outlived their usefulness, 52% of Democrats still see a need for them.

Among working Americans who do not belong to a union, just 13% would like to join a labor union where they work. That’s up slightly from nine percent in March 2009.  Seventy-eight percent (78%) would not like to join a union.

https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/jobs_employment/september_2011/48_see_no_further_need_for_labor_unions_30_disagree

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>34th Fabulous Fall Festival to Take Place October 1, 2011

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ponyrides theridgewoodblog.net



34th Fabulous Fall Festival to Take Place October 1, 2011

Come out and support a Ridgewood tradition. The Cooperative Nursery School of Ridgewood (aka “The Co-op) is having its 34th Fabulous Fall Festival on October 1st (rain date October 8th) at Graydon Pool in Ridgewood.  This event is the school’s biggest fundraiser. It promises to have something for everyone.  There will be games, pony rides, a petting zoo, inflatables, face painting and crafts for the kids including sand art and pumpkin painting. There will be musical acts all day including a local band, some of whose members are co-op alumni.  There will be over 50 vendors selling jewelry, toys, handmade items and holiday gifts.  Food will be on hand and there will also be a bake sale. Come join us for a great day with family and friends.

For more information on the event, please call or email the school at (201) 447-6232 or ridgewoodcoop@gmail.com.

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>Valley’s latest full-page (s)ad

>Valley’s latest full-page (s)ad

Occupying the entire back page of the first section of the September 16 issue of the Ridgewood News (and maybe other publications? don’t know) is an ad from Valley Hospital, stating that it was paid for by the group of people co-opted by Valley Hospital and listing “625 registered supporters–and counting!” who favor the Valley Occupation.

With each family member listed separately, including matching lists of non-Smith, non-Jones surnames totaling up to six per name, the total may be something of an exaggeration; but let’s say every individual resident matters and every spouse or child truly and deeply agrees with the prevailing spouse or parent regarding Valley’s hopes and dreams. Among signers listing their degrees, 21 are MDs, three are dentists, one is a podiatrist, and one is a psychologist. (This is not counting their listed family members.) Fine; it’s not surprising that health care professionals want the hospital to expand.

Here’s the trouble with such lists and expensive ads: this issue is never going to referendum. The number of residents who want things to go one way or the other is not relevant. Those in charge must do hard research, reread their notes, and base their decisions on their findings and their own best judgment. Feeding that judgment will be facts, if they can be discerned in such an overwrought environment, and the leaders’ vision of how changes such as those proposed by Valley might affect the immediate and distant face and future of the Village.

If one Friday we should open our copies of the paper to find that the entire issue had been bought by Valley and was bursting with a list of 24,000 residents of the Village, ages one day to 110 years, it should have no effect on what the right decision regarding the proposed expansion would be. Even if every resident of the town wanted Valley’s petition to succeed or fail, we are only the residents of today. We are not talking, say, about how to celebrate next July 4, whose effects would end after the cleanup on July 5, and in which current residents’ opinions would be of interest. We are talking about how permitting the erection of a gigantic edifice in a residential neighborhood surrounded by schools and with endless traffic would affect the residents of tomorrow and beyond, from Phase One to Phase 101 or however many Phases were required to get the Taj Mahal in gear.

We vote people into positions of authority and power because we trust them to do the right and best thing, not the popular thing–not that we really know precisely to how the town is split on this issue. But it doesn’t matter. Even the popular thing, and even when its supporters are worthy people or many people or medical people, may be the wrong thing for the Village at large.

Most heartbreaking is the absurd waste of funds–and it will probably get worse as the hearings proceed–on publicity and marketing, surveys, attorneys’ fees, and other attempts to sell us the hospital’s requests. Those millions ought to have gone to patient care, or indigent care, or reasonable hospital upgrades–or taxes.

  Hand 200x200

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>NJ hospital defends answer to state query

>NJ hospital defends answer to state query
The Record, September 16, 2011

Hackensack University Medical Center avoided a key question — Did anyone die? — when it submitted its answers to the state health department’s questions regarding the proposed reopening of Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood. Staff at the Department of Health and Senior Services had asked the medical center if anyone died as a result of the increased travel time to other emergency rooms after Pascack’s closure in 2007

https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/LED-270998/NJ-hospital-defends-answer-to-state-query