Month: April 2012

>

>the Prisoner by hook or by crook

>Why Airport Security Is Broken— And How To Fix It

Air travel would be safer if we allowed knives, lighters and liquids and focused on disrupting new terror plots. A former head of the Transportation Security Administration, Kip Hawley, on embracing risk.

Airport security in America is broken. I should know. For 3½ years—from my confirmation in July 2005 to President Barack Obama’s inauguration in January 2009—I served as the head of the Transportation Security Administration.

You know the TSA. We’re the ones who make you take off your shoes before padding through a metal detector in your socks (hopefully without holes in them). We’re the ones who make you throw out your water bottles. We’re the ones who end up on the evening news when someone’s grandma gets patted down or a child’s toy gets confiscated as a security risk. If you’re a frequent traveler, you probably hate us.

More than a decade after 9/11, it is a national embarrassment that our airport security system remains so hopelessly bureaucratic and disconnected from the people whom it is meant to protect. Preventing terrorist attacks on air travel demands flexibility and the constant reassessment of threats. It also demands strong public support, which the current system has plainly failed to achieve.

https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303815404577335783535660546.html

>Glen Rock brush fire injures firefighter, suspends NJ Transit service for 2 hours
Published: Saturday, April 14, 2012, 4:39 PM     Updated: Saturday, April 14, 2012, 4:39 PM

GLEN ROCK — A brush fire along the train tracks near the Glen Rock fire station injured one firefighter and suspended train service for two hours this afternoon, firefighters said.

At 1:28 p.m. firefighters received a call of a large brush fire burning in a quarter-mile wooded area along the train tracks said Glen Rock fire chief Tom Jennings. The cause of the blaze is unknown but was one of a few brush fires in the state on the dry, warm afternoon.

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/04/glen_rock_brush_fire_injures_f.html

>The Internet Taxes that Could Be Coming
Mike Brownfield April 12, 2012 at 9:02

If you’ve ever bought anything on the Internet, over the phone, or from a catalog, you might have noticed that when you buy from some stores, you don’t pay any state sales tax, but if you buy from other stores, you do. That’s because a Supreme Court decision protected out-of-state businesses from revenue-hungry states. But a new bill working its way through Congress would change all that, turning every online retailer into a sales tax collector. And that’s legislation Congress should reject.

Back in 1992, the Supreme Court ruled in Quill Corporation v. North Dakota that a state cannot force a retailer who doesn’t have any physical presence in that state to collect sales taxes from Internet, phone or catalog sales. So if you ordered a book online from BarnesandNoble.com and there’s a Barnes and Noble store right down the street from your house, you’d have to pay sales tax. But if you ordered that book online from a mom and pop bookstore with one location halfway across the country, they wouldn’t have to collect sales tax from you.

In the Quill case, North Dakota tried to force out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes and remit them to North Dakota, even if they didn’t have a physical presence in the state. Quill Corporation, which sells office supplies and is based in Delaware, had offices and warehouses in Illinois, California and Georgia, but didn’t have any bricks, mortar, employees, or sales representatives in North Dakota. It did, however, have 3,000 customers there and $1 million in annual sales, so North Dakota wanted Quill to collect tax on those sales.

https://tinyurl.com/7o4cd8m

>Just a reminder as you vote on a new Ridgewood School Budget : Mike Doherty’s Fair School Funding could save Ridgewood $42,050,037

State Senator Mike Doherty has drafted legislation that will provide an equal amount of school aid for every student in New Jersey, regardless of where they reside. Mike’s legislation is consistent with Article VIII, Section IV, Paragraph 2 of the New Jersey State Constitution, which states that “the fund for the support of free public schools . . . shall be annually appropriated to the support of free public schools, and for the equal benefit of all the people of the state.”

Under Mike Doherty’s plan of Fair School Funding, Ridgewood Village will get back $42,050,037 more each year for school funding!

A draft of Senator Mike Doherty’s bill appears below:

An Act concerning State school aid and supplementing Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes.

Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

Whereas, Article III., Paragraph 1, of the New Jersey State Constitution states, “The powers of government shall be divided among three distinct branches, the legislative, executive, and judicial. No person or persons belonging to or constituting one branch shall exercise any of the powers properly belonging to either of the others, except as expressly provided in this Constitution.”

Whereas, Article VIII, Section IV, Paragraph 1, of the New Jersey State Constitution states, “the Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all children in State between the ages of five and eighteen years.”

Whereas, Article VIII, Section IV, Paragraph 2, of the New Jersey State Constitution states, “the fund for the support of free public schools . . . shall be annually appropriated to the support of free public schools, and for the equal benefit of all the people of the state.”

Whereas, Article VIII, Section I, Paragraph 7.a. of the New Jersey State Constitution states, the income tax is to be “annually appropriated . . . exclusively for the purpose of reducing or offsetting property taxes.”

1. Notwithstanding the provisions of P.L.2007, c.260 (C.18A:7F-43 et al.) or any other law to the contrary, State school aid for the first school year beginning after the effective date of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) and for each subsequent school year shall be provided to school districts as follows:

Where TDE is the total number of students enrolled in a school district;

TSE is the total number of students enrolled in public schools in New Jersey;

TITR is the total projected income tax revenue to be collected by the State of New Jersey;

and TDSA is the total amount of school aid to be provided to a school district.

a. The Department of Education shall determine each public school district’s projected resident enrollment (TDE) for the budget year and the total Statewide public school resident enrollment (TSE) of children between the ages of five and eighteen years of age.

b. The State Treasurer shall determine the total projected revenue from the State income tax (TITR) for the budget year.

c. State aid for each school district (TDSA) for the budget year shall be determined pursuant to the following formula:
(TITR/TSE) x TDE = TDSA

2. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

This bill establishes a new formula for the allocation of State aid to school districts to satisfy the Legislature’s constitutional responsibility to provide for a system of free public schools and provide property tax relief through the appropriation of revenues generated by the state income tax.

The bill provides school district State aid by determining a per pupil amount of State aid and multiplying that amount by the school district’s projected resident enrollment for the budget year. The per pupil State aid amount is determined after the State Treasurer projects the total revenue amount from the State income tax for the budget year.

Following the determination of the projected total State income tax, the Department of Education is to divide that amount by the total projected resident enrollment of the school districts. The department determines each school district’s State aid by multiplying this per pupil State aid amount by the district’s projected resident enrollment.

>

Valley’s position:whatever it takes


Valley’s position:


“We will climb any wall. If we can’t climb the wall, we will jump over it. If we can’t jump over it, we will pole vault over it. If we can’t pole vault over it, we will parachute over it, but whatever it takes to pass the Valley Expansion, we will do it!”


Believe it.

>

STOP, LOOK AND WAVE: better idea. the current situation in town is a game of “freeze tag” with cars

This is a much better idea. The current situation in town is a game of “freeze tag” with cars. I step off the curb and the cars must freeze. This is a dangerous lesson to be teaching the pedestrians.

Common sense must prevail. If you want to cross, stop, look around, and when it is safe, start to cross. I have done this all my life, even in NYC, and it works. I believe it is called “Stop. look and listen”.

I was also taught ” Don’t cross the street in the middle of the block”. I am a survivor.

>

>