>Beware the unholy alliance of state and internet By Evgeny Morozov
Surveillance means safety. This is the argument wherever and whenever governments seek new powers to monitor their citizens. Proposed legislation in the UK to enable police and intelligence services to access emails, Skype calls and Facebook messages is another such example. It is also another case of the unnecessary and dangerous expansion of state power, in collaboration with companies, into our online – and offline – lives.
The UK government has said that without a warrant it could only get “who, when and where” forms of data – times, dates, numbers and addresses of communications – not the content of emails, chat messages or Skype calls. The latter would still require a warrant, according to the government. Some critics are sceptical, and rightly so.
The Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration Committee is proud to announce their theme for the 2012 celebration. The theme will be “Born in New Jersey ”. The Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration Committee will sponsor its annual celebration on Wednesday,July 4, 2012.
This year’s theme is “Born in New Jersey,” which includes: 1. Famous people who were born here (including but not limited to Bruce Springsteen and Frank Sinatra) 2. Things invented here (for example, Edison’s light bulb) 3. Events that occurred here that gave new direction to our country (Washington Crossing the Delaware, Morristown encampment) Groups are encouraged to use this theme in the design of floats and other entries.
The purpose of the Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration is to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the USA and its history and to honor American Patriots of all times. For 2012, we would like to focus on the history of New Jersey. We will celebrate the wonderful people, inventions and events that all came from our state.
The Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration began in 1910 when the local papers, the civic section of the Woman’s Club and the Ridgewood Fire Department joined forces to create a “safe and sane” holiday with an emphasis on Patriotism. It has grown into one of the largest celebrations in the New York City area.
For many years the Readers of 201 Magazine have named our parade and fireworks as best in their Best of Bergen poll. Additional information and answers to many of your questions can be found on the Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration Committee’s website at www.ridgewoodjuly4th.org.
The Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration is organized by the Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration, Inc., an all-volunteer community group. All aspects of this annual Celebration including fireworks, bands, evening performers, insurance, and police and fire personnel are funded by voluntary contributions from businesses and individuals.
Be a part of the Tradition – Participate in the parade, be a financial supporter or join the committee.
>Ridgewood’s school board trustees tenure reform bill Tuesday April 3, 2012, 11:28 AM BY DARIUS AMOS STAFF WRITER The Ridgewood News
Ridgewood’s school board trustees believe changes to the state’s teacher tenure system are necessary, but agree the reform bill currently on the State Senate floor is not the answer to all the problems.
Board of Education (BOE) members last Monday opted to pass a resolution advocating changes to legislative bill S1455, the Teacher Effectiveness and Accountability for the Children of New Jersey (TEACHNJ) Act.
Ridgewood’s move comes on the heels of a hearing earlier this month led by the bill’s author, state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark). During that session in Trenton, which was held for discussion purposes only, Ruiz’s bill was lauded by supporters and challenged by critics.
Despite Gas Prices, Hybrid Sales Stall Apr 03, 2012, 11:26 AM By AnnaMaria Andriotis
Car sales are up again, but despite rising gas prices, few consumers are buying hybrids. Instead, they’re choosing less fuel-efficient – and less costly — subcompacts and mid-size vehicles.
March sales rose 22% from the previous month and 13% from a year ago to an annualized rate of 14.3 million vehicles, according to data released today by Edmunds.com. Experts credit rising gas prices as a leading factor for this spike in consumer demand. Sales of subcompact cars and mid-size cars made up 24% of total market share in March, up three percentage points from a year ago – the biggest growth in any category, according to forecasts by Kelley Blue Book. But despite the large swings in gas prices, hybrid sales have barely budged: they made up just 2.1% of market share last month, almost unchanged from a year ago. Of the 1.4 million cars that sold last month, less than 30,000 of them were hybrids. “Interest in hybrids is not as high as one would think especially in light of high gas prices,” says Jesse Toprak, vice president of market intelligence at TrueCar.com.
>April is National Safe Digging Month – PSE&G Reminds Everyone to Dial 811 to Call Before You Dig
(April 3, 2012 – Newark, NJ) – April is National Safe Digging Month, and PSE&G is reminding customers, contractors and excavators that they must call before digging to avoid hitting underground gas and electric lines. To make it easy to call, 811 has been designated as the national dialing code to have underground lines located and marked.
When you call 811, you are automatically connected to the New Jersey one-call center which collects information about the digging project. The one-call center then provides the information to the utility companies who will send representatives to mark the locations of underground lines in the immediate vicinity of the planned work location with flags, paint or both. Once lines have been properly marked and your locate request becomes valid, you are free to carefully dig around the marked areas.
Every digging project – even a small project like planting a tree or building a deck – requires a call to 811 whether you’re hiring a professional or planning to do the job yourself. Striking a single line can cause outages and result in repair costs and fines.
What you need to know before digging:
• Underground gas and electric lines are everywhere, even on individual properties. You can easily damage them if you don’t know where they are. Digging into these lines can disrupt vital utility services and result in costly delays, expensive repairs and environmental or property damage. Worse, you can seriously injure yourself or others.
• Whether planning a major home improvement project or installing something as simple as a fence or mailbox post, a call must be placed beforehand to know where it’s safe to dig.
• Call 811 or 1-800-272-1000 at least four business days before each job to have underground pipes, wires and equipment located. Utility workers will respond and place markers where utility lines are buried, free of charge.
• Be sure to wait three full business days after calling before doing any digging. Don’t dig until lines have been marked.
• Respect the marks. Always hand dig within two feet of marked lines.
• It’s not only a good idea to call before you dig, it’s the law.
For additional information about the Call Before You Dig program, visit the PSEG Web site at: www.pseg.com/call811 or the New Jersey One Call site at: www.nj1-call.org.
In a move that sent shock waves through the journalism world, South Jersey Democratic leader George Norcross II yesterday added the region’s largest newspaper to his growing political, business and civic empire.
Norcross, arguably the most powerful Democrat in New Jersey, and Lewis Katz, a former parking lot magnate who helped engineer the rise of former Democratic Gov. Jim Florio, will serve as managing partners of Interstate General Media Company L.L.C., the partnership that purchased the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and its website, Philly.com, for $55 million yesterday. (Magyar, NJ Spotlight)
Clean energy advocates and lawmakers like to tout the success of New Jersey in developing the nation’s second biggest solar market, a distinction they say has created thousands of jobs in an economy that otherwise has been shedding jobs like paper. Now, a new report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests the state may not have that much to brag about — at least compared to its neighbors in the Northeast. (Johnson, NJ Spotlight)
The good news for drivers and transit riders: Neither NJ Transit fares nor Motor Vehicle Commission fees will increase with the fiscal 2013 state budget.
Directors of both NJ Transit and the Motor Vehicle Commission delivered that good news during the Assembly Budget Committee hearing on the state’s transportation budget Monday afternoon. (Higgs, Gannett)
The internal fighting among New Jersey’s Democrats will move to election booths in June as the party’s high-profile primary battles in two congressional districts take center stage.
In both cases, Districts 9 and 10 in North Jersey, the winner of the June 5 primary are considered favorite to win the general election in November. They are two of the nine districts with a primary battle for at least one of the parties, but the only ones expected to be close. (O’Dea, NJ Spotlight)
>Theater Project honors Young Playwrights Published: Monday, April 02, 2012, 12:00 PM
The three plays by young playwrights Justine DeSilva of Ridgewood, Emma Hathaway of Rutherford, and Angel Shin of River Vale differ from one another in many ways, but they have one thing in common. They were all winners of the Tenth Annual Young Playwrights Competition sponsored by The Theater Project, the award-winning professional company founded in 1994.
A reading of each winning play took place at the competition’s awards ceremony at the Cranford Community Center’s theater on March 10.
In addition to the the first, second and third prize winners listed above, Dennis Gribben of Brick , Victoria Grayner and Kelly Sheridan, both from Dumont, received Honorable Mentions. Each winner received a savings bond, and the Honorable Mention writers received citations and gift certificates.
American Express has become the first company to pull its gift cards from New Jersey pharmacies, groceries and convenience stores rather than attempt to comply with a new wrinkle in the state’s unclaimed property law.
AmEx spokeswoman Vanessa McCutchen told The Associated Press that the company began pulling gift cards sold through third-party retailers last week. As of Monday, the only way for New Jersey residents to buy AmEx gift cards, which can be used practically anywhere, is directly from the company. (Delli Santi, Associated Press)
>Join Friends of the Ridgewood Public Library Today!
The mission of the Friends is to stimulate community awareness and use of the Ridgwood Library and to support the Library in developing its collections, its reference and research facilities and its programs. To this end, we shall attempt to raise funds for the purchase of items and equipment outside the normal Library budget, to encourage charitable gifts and to enhance public support for the Library’s programs.
Friends sponsored programs include:
Family Fun Nights Annual Reel Voices Film Festival Sunday Concert Series English as a Second Language Services Lectures, Special Cultural Events and so much more! For membership information, or to contact Friends of the Library please call 201-670-5609 Download A Membership Form :https://www.ridgewoodlibrary.org/pdf/FOL%20membership%20form%20web%202010.pdf
Superintendent Dr. Daniel Fishbein will make a final public presentation on the proposed 2012-2013 school budget
On Tuesday, April 3, the Board of Education and Superintendent Dr. Daniel Fishbein will make a final public presentation on the proposed 2012-2013 school budget. Please plan to attend at the Ridgewood High School Library Media Center at 7:30 p.m.
Any Ridgewood resident who is a registered voter may vote in the Annual Election on Tuesday, April 17, either at regular polling locations or by mail-in ballot. Applications for mail-in ballots must be received in the Bergen County Elections office by Tuesday, April 10. Full information may be found on the Bergen County website or by clicking here. Forms are also available at any Municipal Clerk’s office or other public agency. For further information, please call the Superintendent of Elections office at 201-336-6100 between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
> The Valley Heart & Vascular Institute to Conduct Research with Leading Russian Heart Hospital
(RIDGEWOOD_NJ) March 28, 2012 — Electrophysiologists at The Valley Heart & Vascular Institute have signed an agreement with their peers at the busiest cardiovascular hospital in Russia to collaborate on clinical research projects to improve the diagnosis and treatment of arrhythmias.
Representing Valley’s Arrhythmia Institute – a component of The Valley Heart & Vascular Institute — was director Jonathan S. Steinberg, M.D., who signed the agreement with Evgeny Pokushalov, M.D., Ph.D., head of the Arrhythmia Department and Electrophysiology Lab at the State Research Institute of Circulation Pathology in Siberia. Cardiovascular surgeons, cardiologists, and electrophysiologists at the Russian hospital perform 4,500 cardiac surgeries and procedures every year.
“This agreement is a huge opportunity for our Valley electrophysiologists to collaborate with an incredibly smart and talented group of Russian electrophysiologists conducting research at a state-of-the-art facility in Novosibirsk, Russia’s third largest city and the cultural and industrial center of Siberia,” says Dr. Steinberg, a member of The Valley Heart & Vascular Institute’s Executive Council.
Electrophysiology is a specialized area of cardiology that involves the diagnosis, treatment, and management of arrhythmias, disturbances in the heart’s intricate electrical system.
Dr. Steinberg and his fellow Valley electrophysiologists will be conducting research with Dr. Pokushalov and his research team on atrial fibrillation, a common, yet complex arrhythmia that involves multiple regions of the heart. The American and Russian researchers will work to develop advanced technology to treat atrial fibrillation, including refining catheter ablation procedures.
The Arrhythmia Institute at The Valley Heart & Vascular Institute’s New Jersey office is located at The Valley Hospital at 223 N. Van Dien Avenue in Ridgewood. The New York City office is located at 5 Columbus Circle. For more information, visit www.valleyheartandvascular.com, or www.arrhythmia.org.
US Postal Service Wants Out Of Government-Provided Health Insurance By Patrick Burke March 30, 2012
(CNSNews.com) – The United States Postal Service (USPS) is currently working towards delivering a private health insurance plan to its employees and wants to opt out of the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan (FEHBP.)
“If provided the authority to do so, we believe that we can provide our employees and retirees with the same or better health coverage for significantly less cost, ” said Postmaster General and CEO Patrick Donahoe during his testimony to the House Oversight Committee.
The financially strapped USPS recently released a plan to cut costs by 2016 to adapt to a marketplace in which there is less demand for hand delivered mail.
