US Economy Faces Risk of ‘Fiscal Cliff’: Fed Officials
Published: Tuesday, 1 May 2012 | 2:32 PM ET Text Size
By: Margo D. Beller
Special to CNBC.com
Two Federal Reserve officials Charles Evans and Dennis P. Lockhart warned Tuesday that the U.S. could be heading for a “fiscal cliff” at year’s end if mandated tax increases and spending cuts are implemented.
Charles Evans of the Chicago Fed called the cliff a “big uncertainty” while Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart said there could be a “financial shock” if markets begin to anticipate that Congress and the White House do little to address this situation.
The expected tax increases and spending cuts were triggered when a congressional “super committee” failed to come up with a way of closing the federal budget deficit.
Both Fed officials spoke during the Milken conference in Los Angeles. Earlier Tuesday, on CNBC, both agreed the slowing U.S. economy is disappointing, but differed on the need for continued stimulus.
…The fly has learned that Paul Aronsohn supporters are fleeing in droves after last night’s pathetic display of arrogance.
The CRR people have launched a “Dump Aronsohn” campaign behind the scenes. It seems that the mood now is to make sure Aronsohn doesn’t get reelected AT ALL!!
The Ridgewood moms feel strongly that Jane S. will round out the Council with another female voice to compliment Bernie Walsh.
Keith is earning praise left and right for staying above the political fray and really showing his leadership by not getting sucked into Aronsohn’s political ploy.
Aronsohn continues to take outside $ from State political operatives that have no affiliation with Ridgewood (check his ELEC NJ filing). He also continues to reap the benefit of free medical benefits for his entire family with a $5.00 COPAY. Wow don’t we all wish we had a $5.00 COPAY? ALL AT RIDGEWWOD TAXPAYER EXPENSE. That single benefit amounts to a 1000% raise for Paul over his $3000.00 per year Council salary.And he has the nerve to make a big deal about a 6% raise for the Village Manager. Yes that’s right 6%..not 12% as he would like you to believe. Check the records, it’s all public information…
Christie, rewriting rules for graduation, will fill in blanks later
After much talk since taking office, Gov. Chris Christie yesterday finally released his plans — some new, some old — to raise the requirements for gaining a high school diploma in New Jersey.
But it will be some time for the changes to take hold, if they get that far. The first students to face the requirements will be today’s fourth graders when they reach high school in 2016.
Christie and his top education staff yesterday used a visit to West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional High School North — one of the state’s higher performing schools — to unveil a much-anticipated list of proposed changes to what will be required to graduate from a New Jersey high school. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
Gov. Christie: Teachers, public employees should take days off to serve in Trenton
Gov. Chris Christie today said the days of making it easier for public employees to serve as lawmakers in Trenton should come to an end.
He said if police officers, teachers and other public employees want the responsibilities — and salary — that come with being a lawmaker, they should be required to take days off from their full-time jobs when coming to Trenton for votes and committee meetings.
“They should take time when they come down and serve,” Christie said during a news conference in Plainsboro. “People in the private sector are not getting that benefit, so I don’t know why people in the public sector should.” (Renshaw, The Star-Ledger)
Village Council Elections: LIAR-LIAR- PANTS ON FIRE!!!
Well what do you know, Paul Aronsohn showed his true colors last night at the League debate and flip flopped on Valley. By his endorsement of the two pro Valley candidates he has assured the residents that there will be 10++ YEARS of construction, noise , filth and foundations cracking all around Valley.
What a joke when Al Puccarelli offered to be on a “Council committee” to negotiate with Valley if elected. HELLO!..his law firm works for Valley..do you think it’s easy to predict where those negotiations would go.
Paul Aronsohn is a despicable opportunist that will do anything to seize control of the Council and bring partisan politics to Ridgewood. He will populate every position with political hacks and Ridgewood will become his “trading card” for political paybacks. He had the nerve to sit there and throw Mayor Killion under the bus when everyone knows that Keith has worked tirelessly for the last four years as an advocate for every resident regardless of their political persuasion.
CRR MUST withdraw their endorsement of Aronsohn or you will suffer the dire consequences should he get elected with his “pro Valley” team. Keith and Jane will ensure that Aronsohn’s campaign of dirty politics will never have a place in Ridgewood. The time is NOW!!! Speak to your friends and neighbors…..Valley has cast it’s web.
MUNICIPAL ELECTION – Candidates Debate : Beware all. Benedict Arnold on Valley
Killion does speak from the heart and is sincere. There are just some things that cannot be disguised. His sincerity comes through.
Jane is sincere so I guess you are not in the mood to attack her tonight.
Russ is loud and a little rough around the edges.
Gwenn was concerned with Valley and Valley and Valley and wait, can you repeat the question. As noted above maybe something synthetic.
Paul, Speaks his mind but didn’t really tell it like it is since what it is is Mayor. Paul can never be mayor with the council the way it is currently structured so there has to be a really big change at Village Hall for Paul to be Mayor. So the truth, or tell it like it is, Paul gets Mayor with support from himself, Gwenn and AL with the two opposing votes from Tom and Bernie. Then Paul reciprocates and Al would be the deputy mayor with support from Paul and Gwenn, Of course this cozy little setup would have to be negotiated and one could only imagine what was leveraged to broker the deal. Could it be 1.2 million square feet with a 200,000 square foot parking garage?
Paul speaking his mind? Hardly. For if he did he would have been crowned not mayor but rather Village Traitor.
Phone-a-thon : Do they really need the coffee bar?
I am not saying the Library should not be modernized, however, last year was a phone-a-thon for one thing and now this. Seems to me our taxes should be paying for this along with other improvements within the district. If I began calculating “donations” into my tax bill it would probably be 20% more than I am currently paying. Perhaps the monies that have been used to repeatedly repair damaged turf would have been better spent elsewhere. After donating during the last phone-a-thon maybe I will sit this one out. Is there a “do not call list”?
Last year they raised $55,000. Even $100,000 would not be enough for this project. What is the plan and the cost? If they do not raise the money in the phone-a-thon what will they do? More fundraising or scale back? The Ridgewood News did not have a lot of detail and the HSA has provided very little.
Do they really need the coffee bar? Can the pampering end here? Money is tight and I do not feel obligated to fund everyone’s pipe dream.
With all of the money raised in tax revenues why is there no money for a project as small as this? This is not huge by any means and we did just pass a budget. Was this in the budget? If so, where is the money and if not, why not? This is poor planning on the part of the BOE and once again, maybe we need a good accountant at Cottage Place.
The Ridgewood Historical Society has won first prize in both the poster and DVD categories of the Kevin M. Hale Publications Awards competition of the League of Historical Societies of New Jersey.
The poster and video were created to publicize the society’s current exhibit at the Schoolhouse Museum, 650 E. Glen Ave. “The Civil War Years: At Home and on the Battlefield” commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. The exhibit runs through July 29.
Paul Arohnson has received thousands of campaign dollars from Democratic politicians to establish an outpost in Ridgwood. He is a professional politician and was former Gov. McGreavey’s press secretary. The last time I check his fund raising for this campaign was close to $10,000. Most of this money is coming from direct democratic sources in Trenton and is union backed.
Paul Arohnson is running with Gwenn Haulk and Albert Puccarelli and has openly asked the voters of Ridgewood to sweep them into power.
Keith Killion and Jane Shinazuka have relied on a few hunded dollars to win this campaign.
Neighbors and residents of Ridgewood, you know what to do, who to vote for.
Keep dirty, professional politics out of Ridgewood.
Vote for Killian and Shinazoka (and even Russ Forenza who is not affiliated with Paul Arohnson, thank God!)
Four Ridgewood schools have been designated as Reward Schools under the state’s new accountability system.
A Reward School is one with outstanding student achievement or growth over the past three years. The district’s four Reward Schools are Ridgewood High School (RHS) and Hawes, Orchard and Willard elementary schools.
The Reward Schools designation is based on a three-year average of growth and proficiency and uses final test scores and graduation rates from the 2011-2012 school year. New Jersey has 112 Reward Schools out of 2,500 public school districts.
We Are in Age of ‘Late Great Depression’: Shiller
Published: Monday, 30 Apr 2012 | 6:44 AM ET Text Size
By: Catherine Boyle
Staff Writer, CNBC.com
The world is in a state of “late Great Depression,” well-known economist and author Robert Shiller told CNBC Monday
The Yale economics professor, who helped devise the Case-Shiller index for housing market trends, and famously called the dotcom bubble of the early 2000s and the housing market bubble later in the decade, told “Squawk Box Europe” that the world is in a “new age of austerity.”
“Our whole economy has been affected by variations in confidence. Central banks are sort of trusted, but the actions they have often affect people’s confidence by appearance rather than substance. We’re not in the most trusting mood now,” Shiller said.
Due to budget constraints the Village of Ridgewood May day parade has been canceled
In many countries, May Day is also Labor Day. This originates with the United States labor movement in the late 19th Century. On May 1, 1886, unions across the country went on strike, demanding that the standard workday be shortened to eight hours. The organizers of these strikes included socialists, anarchists, and others in organized labor movements. Rioting in Chicago’s Haymarket Square on May 4th including a bomb thrown by an anarchist led to the deaths of a dozen people (including several police officers) and the injury of over 100 more.
The protests were not immediately successful, but they proved effective down the line, as eight-hour work days eventually did become the norm. Labor leaders, socialists, and anarchists around the world took the American strikes and their fallout as a rallying point, choosing May Day as a day for demonstrations, parades, and speeches. It was a major state holiday in the Soviet Union and other communist countries.
Labor Day is still celebrated on May 1 in countries around the world, and it is still often a day for protests and rallies. In recent years, these have often been targeted against globalization.
May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half a year from November 1, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European pagan and neopagan festivals such as Samhain. May Day marks the end of the unfarmable winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations. As Europe became Christianized the pagan holidays lost their religious character and either changed into popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or were merged with or replaced by new Christian holidays as with Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and All Saint’s Day. In the twentieth century, many neopagans began reconstructing the old traditions and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival again.
May Day Festivities : Occupy Wall Street Plans Global Disruption of Status Quo May 1
By Henry Goldman and Esmé E. Deprez – Apr 30, 2012 12:00 AM ET
Occupy Wall Street demonstrators, whose anti-greed message spread worldwide during an eight-week encampment in Lower Manhattan last year, plan marches across the globe tomorrow calling attention to what they say are abuses of power and wealth.
Organizers say they hope the coordinated events will mark a spring resurgence of the movement after a quiet winter. Calls for a general strike with no work, no school, no banking and no shopping have sprung up on websites in Toronto, Barcelona, London, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney, among hundreds of cities in North America, Europe and Asia.
