>Village Council members Paul Aronsohn and Bernadette Walsh, along with Village Manager Ken Gabbert, met with residents of nearby properties and tour disputed Route 17 property
FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2012 STAFF WRITER THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Neighbors of a landscaping operation along Route 17 allege that little is being done to reduce what they say are negative effects from the businesses’ activities on their quality of life, but village officials are urging caution so the matter can be settled without legal action.
As The Ridgewood News first reported in February, residents of the Commons at Ridgewood Condominium Association have been vocal with Ridgewood officials about issues of dust, odors and noise generated on the adjacent property, which is leased by a landscapers’ outlet and numerous contractors for operations and equipment storage.
>MINORITY REPORT: STUNNING LACK OF DIVERSITY IN OBAMA CAMPAIGN, PHOTOS REVEAL BY: Andrew Stiles – April 9, 2012 12:24 pm
A photo of Obama’s “army” originally posted on the campaign’s Tumblr site and run in conjunction with a BuzzFeed story on the Obama campaign reveals a stunning lack of diversity among the president’s Chicago staff.
The Obama campaign’s Chicago headquarters has it all—from Jack Daniels and Ping Pong to bouncy balls and ironic desk mementos.
Yet the “army of twenty-somethings” campaign manager Jim Messina has assembled in the president’s hometown is almost uniformly white, according to photos contained in a detailed BuzzFeed report Monday.
>Obama administration diverts $500M to IRS to implement healthcare reform law By Sam Baker – 04/09/12 05:15 AM ET
The Obama administration is quietly diverting roughly $500 million to the IRS to help implement the president’s healthcare law.
The money is only part of the IRS’s total implementation spending, and it is being provided outside the normal appropriations process. The tax agency is responsible for several key provisions of the new law, including the unpopular individual mandate.
> O’KEEFE VOTER FRAUD INVESTIGATION: YOUNG MAN OFFERED ERIC HOLDER’S BALLOT by BREITBART NEWS
In a shocking new video, James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas demonstrates to the Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder, just why he should be concerned about lack of voter ID laws – by walking into Holder’s voting precinct and showing the world that anyone can obtain Eric Holder’s ballot. Literally.
The video shows a young man entering a Washington, DC polling place at 3401 Nebraska Avenue, NW, on primary day of this year – April 3, 2012 – and giving Holder’s name and address. The poll worker promptly offers the young man Holder’s ballot to vote.
Holder has maintained that voter fraud is not a major problem in the United States, and that voter ID would not curb voter fraud in any case.
>Supreme Court’s Poll Ratings Jump Following Health Care Hearings Monday, April 09, 2012
Just before the highly publicized hearing on the constitutionality of President Obama’s health care law, ratings for the U.S. Supreme Court had fallen to the lowest level ever measured by Rasmussen Reports. Now, following the hearings, approval of the court is way up.
Forty-one percent (41%) of Likely U.S. Voters now rate the Supreme Court’s performance as good or excellent, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. That’s up 13 points from 28% in mid-March and is the court’s highest ratings in two-and-a-half years.
>Emmanuel Baptist Church in Ridgewood offers free English lessons
FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2012 BY GLORIA GEANNETTE MANAGING EDITOR THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The Rev. Linda Hart Green, senior pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Ridgewood, is feeling very blessed these days, and she is working to spread those blessings to the community at large with the English as a Second Language (ESL) program offered free of charge at the church every Thursday night.
Carmen Payrouton, ‘Miss Pat’ Walden, Aleksandra Todorovich and Napoleon Davila socialize a little before class. The classes started two years ago when a former pastor, the Rev. Dorcas Diaz Shaner, noticed that many of the people attending the Biblical studies sessions she taught in Spanish were struggling to integrate into the local community. They were being held back from any chance at advancement in work or studies by their inability to speak English. The church decided to help them by offering the language classes.
State rules on use of technology proposed for texting during public meetings
The idea is to bring open government principles to the era of smartphones.
Under a pair of bills under consideration by New Jersey lawmakers, town council members would no longer be able to text each other during public meetings, government agencies that have websites would have to use them to provide information about their meetings, and official video and audio recordings of meetings would be included as public records. (Mulvihill, Associated Press)
NJ Gift card law doing damage to business reputation
Like the Republican presidential primary process, it took longer than we expected, but we are finally seeing the consequences of a state law intended to allow New Jersey to seize the balances of unused gift cards.
The governor signed off on this gimmick in June 2010 as a way to raise nearly $80 million for the state budget. But retailers immediately took to the offensive, with an industry group taking particular issue with a requirement for stores to collect ZIP code data on all gift card sales, to verify they were being sold to New Jersey residents. (NJBIZ)
NJ’s first virtual charter school a screen test for online learning
New Jersey’s first comprehensive charter school to hold all of its classes online is beginning to enroll students from across the state for next fall, even as questions persist to how exactly the new breed of schools will operate and be funded.
The New Jersey Virtual Academy Charter School (NJVACS), operating under contract with the for-profit online education company, K12 Inc., has begun advertising its New Jersey program through traditional press releases, email blasts and informational events. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced today it has settled a swap transaction that was terminated by BNP Paribas, the investment bank on the other side of the transaction, for $60.3 million.
The payment the PANYNJ will make to Paribas is about $6.7 million less than the agency had anticipated. (Isherwood, PolitickerNJ)
Gov. Chris Christie and a team of advisers finished a weeklong trade mission and political outreach trip to Israel last week in which the headline business deal came in a letter.
Teva Pharmaecuticals, an international maker of generic drugs, promised to “give the state its full and thoughtful consideration for future growth.” Christie, in a telephone news conference, said he expected a deal to be announced soon. (Method, Gannett)
Bill would expunge drug records for nonviolent, first-time offenders
A report generated as part of the Public Safety Performance Project, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts, indicated that in 2006 the Garden State incarcerated drug offenders at one of the highest rates in the nation — 32 percent of the prison population compared to the national average of 20 percent.
If two reform-minded state legislators get their way, that could change.
State Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Jerry Green, D-22nd District, and Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-15th District, plan to introduce a bill that would automatically expunge the criminal records of first-time, nonviolent drug offenders who complete New Jersey’s drug court program. (Spivey, Gannett)
A top state lawmaker is questioning whether the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission charges customers too much for services, and says officials should discuss lowering fees and returning money to taxpayers.
Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D., Passaic), vice chairman of the Budget Committee, said during a transportation budget hearing last week the proposed 2013 budget for the commission calls for collecting $1.1 billion from motor vehicle customers. (Duffelmeyer, Associated Press)
>An incident in Ridgewood on the corner of Monte Vista and Heights
Last night, Mary was walking home from a friend’s house with two boys and another girl. She was supposed to get a ride from the other girl’s parents, but they decided to walk instead. On the corner of Monte Vista and Heights, a black four door car with jersey plates stopped and they asked for directions. While they were stopped, one of the boys (blonde, tall, 17-20 years old) got out and approached one of Mary’s friends. He asked where he was from and when he answered “Ridgewood,” the guy punched him and knocked him to the ground and started choking him. Somehow, he got away and they all ran to my house, then I called the police. The boy is fine, but they are all shaken up. One of the police officers said the exact same thing happened in Glen Rock the night before.
I’m writing to tell you all because you have middle schoolers, too. I hope you spread the word because obviously, the police don’t think it’s important to have information that there is a group of young men preying on innocent kids. Please spread the word and tell your kids not to talk to ANY stranger in a car.
Obviously, the list of people I’m sending this to is not comprehensive. We’re getting ready to leave on our trip, but I did think this was important enough to take a few minutes.
Ridgewood High School Needs to Get Serious About Its Drug Problem Apr 7 ,2012 Peter Coti RHS Student
(RIDGEWOOD-NJ) Seriously, how can an institution claim to have a zero tolerance policy on drugs despite not actively enforcing any type of drug testing on sports teams? From what I hear from a reliable source 1/2 of the girls soccer team is on some form of drug and has not been tested. What is more amazing is the school has the authority to test any athletic player throughout the school year. Why the hell are they not doing that?
Let us look at other schools in the area that had a drug problem that got severely out of control. At Ramsay High School you can go into the forest during lunch and see students possessing and using illegal substances. I can definitely see a similar scenario coming to RHS in the next five years if no action is taking.
Responsibility also does not just lie on the administration, but also the parents of this “fine” town. Where do most kids get their drug money? Their parents. Parents should only be giving limited amounts of money to their kids, by that I mean not a copious amount with no justification. Also, I would urge most parents to drug test their kids whether or not they are an honors student or an athletics.
Why should I care if my kids are on drugs or not? Here are some good reasons why. Let us start with a mild scenario. Your little girl has been a great student and is earning a 3.6 GPA. You are proud for her and you have high hopes for her in life, but after a few semesters you learn their grades are going down and she is more and more isolated from you. By the end of her senior year the only college she can get into is Bergen Community. Not even liberal arts schools want her.
Ok, what can I say, I like to poke fun at liberal art colleges. Now here is a bit more of a serious scenario. It is dinner and you and your family are sitting down for a lovely dinner, you call down for your son but he does not respond. You go upstairs and find him lying on his bed lying face down, foam coming out of his mouth and he is blue around his lips. Congrad-u-fuckinglations, your kids dead because you did not care enough to notice that he had been using cocaine and other controlled substances. Is this something you would like to witness?
In short Ridgewood High School and parents need to step up their enforcement regarding students using controlled substances because, a) it can allow students to keep in good academic standing, and b) prevent death. Seriously, if I were a parent I would totally be against anything that could cause death.
