A consortium headed by South Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross has submitted a proposal for the state’s first renaissance school.
The school, called the KIPP Cooper Norcross Academy, will be built in Camden, one of three cities statewide approved for the schools under the Urban Hope Act signed by the governor in January.
If approved, the school will eventually serve 2,840 Camden students in grades pre-K through 12 and provide guaranteed enrollment for children in the Lanning Square neighborhood. The first class of kindergarten students would begin in 2014. It will offer a college preparatory curriculum , with the goal of at least doubling the number of Camden students who attain a four-year college degree by 2030, according to an announcement from the group. (Isherwood, PolitickerNJ)
Rep. Black’s healthcare prescription doesn’t include the government
By Sterling C. Beard – 07/30/12 05:00 AM ET
Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) is a woman of firsts.
She was the first member of her family to receive a degree in higher education, an A.D. in nursing from Anne Arundel Community College in 1971.
She was the first freshman member of the 112th Congress to have a bill become law, and she was one of only two freshmen appointed to the House Ways and Means Committee.
There’s one thing she’s already experienced ahead of many others, though, that she has no desire to see again: universal healthcare.
Black got into politics because of her opposition to TennCare, a statewide pilot program for universal coverage that was launched in 1994 as the Clinton White House was pushing for healthcare reform.
Four Ridgewood graduates will play football in college
FRIDAY JULY 27, 2012, 1:08 PM
BY JIM MCCONVILLE
CORRESPONDENT
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD — Four Ridgewood High School football players who graduated this year will be looking forward to the beginning of practice in a few short weeks as they take their skills to the college level.
Anthony Balboa (Susquehanna), Michael Johnson (Amherst), Mike Camporini (Springfield) and Blake Feagles (Avon Old Farm, CT) will carry the Maroon football torch into the fall, with all four hoping to make an instant impact on their respective teams.
“It is a good fit for all four of them,” Ridgewood head football coach Chuck Johnson said. “They all did a great job for us last season, and I know they’ll be contributors on their new teams as well.”
The number might have been higher if not for a few of the Maroons accepting lacrosse scholarships. Most notably in this group are Tripp Telesco (Lehigh) and Peter Reuter (Bowdoin).
A new survey of America’s commuters reveals the Women More Prone to “Road Rage” than men
July 29,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, A new survey of America’s commuters reveals the Women More Prone to “Road Rage” than men The Harris Interactive study conducted between May 14 and June 4 of this year of over 3,800 full-time employed commuters
Harris found that America has some very angry drivers, and quite a few who aren’t entirely safety-conscious. Chief among the finding were that many folks text and drive, and far more especially women have a tendency to fly off the handle and go into “Road Rage” .
Here are the major takeaways:
Chief among them: many folks text and drive, while far more — especially women — have a tendency to fly off the handle.
Women are more prone to road rage than men. Of those surveyed, 61% of women said that they had experienced road rage, compared to 56% of men.
Younger drivers are more prone to road rage than older ones. Roughly 68% of respondents between 25 and 34 years old said they experienced road rage, while just 47% of those 55 and older said the same.
It’s too darn hot (for road rage): 17% of those surveyed said they experienced less road rage during the summer months, while 10% said they experienced more.
Roughly 9% of commuters have actually gotten into a fight with another commuter.
Almost one in four commuters — 24% to be precise — has been involved in an accidenten route to work. We’d expect that figure to be a little higher because…
Fully 30% of commuters have sent text messages while driving to and from work.
Hatch urges extending all Bush-era tax rates to avert ‘Taxmageddon’
By Russell Berman – 07/28/12 06:00 AM ET
A senior Senate Republican used the party’s weekly address to call for a full extension of the George W. Bush-era tax rates to avoid “Taxmageddon” at year’s end.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, pushed for congressional action to prevent tax hikes through an expiration of the current tax rates or an unadjusted Alternative Minimum Tax.
“In just over five months, middle-class families, job creators and seniors will get hit with a massive tax hike unless the president and Congress act,” Hatch said. “This would mean that taxes would go up on virtually every single taxpaying American.”
The tax battle has taken center stage in Washington in the two weeks before lawmakers go on their annual prolonged summer recess. The Senate on Wednesday approved a Democratic plan to extend the lower Bush-era tax rates on family income up to $250,000 and rejected a GOP plan to extend the rates across the board. The House is expected to vote on both plans this week, with the Republican proposal likely to win passage.
Republicans have labeled the Democratic plan a “small business tax hike” that will hit job creators.
“The uncertainty caused by this tax crisis -or Taxmageddon – is contributing to America’s lackluster economic recovery,” said Hatch, the author of the GOP plan. “That’s not a Republican talking point; that’s based on what job creators across the country are saying.”
He noted that Obama had agreed to extend the full slate of tax rates in 2010 when the economy was in a similarly precarious condition.
Obamacare : coverage will not necessarily translate into care:
Doctor Shortage Likely to Worsen With Health Law
By ANNIE LOWREY and ROBERT PEAR
Published: July 28, 2012
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — In the Inland Empire, an economically depressed region in Southern California, President Obama’s health care law is expected to extend insurance coverage to more than 300,000 people by 2014. But coverage will not necessarily translate into care: Local health experts doubt there will be enough doctors to meet the area’s needs. There are not enough now.
Creepy Computer-Generated Avatar Greets Travelers At Newark Liberty
Port Authority Of N.Y./N.J. Spends $180,000 On New ‘Help’ For Area Airports
NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — The future was among the arrivals at Newark Airport on Friday, in the form of a computer-generated greeter at the gate.
Travelers met “Libby.” She’s Newark Airport’s newest — and perhaps most chipper — customer service rep. You may have noticed that she’s a bit shallow, and she’s completely two-faced, but she’s always smiling, and she never complains.
Brain Cancer Patient Enjoys Productive Life Thanks to Effective Focal Therapy at The Valley Hospital
July 25, 2012 — Over the past two years cancer survivor Rachael Harris has played in soccer tournaments, gotten married, and continued to work as a vice president and operations manager for an investment bank in New York City. State-of-the-art focal therapy she received at The Valley Hospital to treat three cancerous brain tumors saved not only Harris’ life but also her ability to work and enjoy leisure activities.
Harris’ focal therapy at Valley’s Daniel & Gloria Blumenthal Cancer Center combined complex neurosurgery to remove three golf-ball-sized tumors that had metastasized to her brain from breast cancer with an advanced type of radiation therapy called TomoTherapy. This focal therapy targeted only cancerous tissue in her brain and did not harm surrounding healthy areas of her brain, thus saving her intellect and the very essence of who Rachael is.
A Diagnosis of Cancer
In December 2007, at the age of 27, Harris was shocked to learn that a hard breast lump she suspected was a bruise sustained during a soccer game was instead an aggressive type of breast cancer. Chemotherapy and surgery followed.
Says Harris, a resident of Glen Rock: “My boyfriend, Jonathan, proposed to me two weeks after my surgery, and life went on over the summer of 2009. I felt well, played soccer again, and planned our wedding.”
But in October 2009 Harris began suffering severe headaches and fainted in her kitchen. Tests revealed that the breast cancer had spread to her brain.
Advanced Treatment for Brain Tumors
The brain is a common site for breast cancer metastasis, says Valley’s Director of Neuro-Oncology Disease Management, Anthony D’Ambrosio, M.D., because chemotherapy often cannot cross the blood-brain barrier that protects the brain.
“Because Rachael is young and the rest of her body was healthy, focal therapy was an ideal treatment for her,” explains Dr. D’Ambrosio, Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. “Focal therapy, which can include surgery, radiation, or a combination of both, is a targeted method of treatment for brain tumors that meet certain criteria. Our Neuro-Oncology team is one of the few in the area using this type of treatment.”
During a multidisciplinary conference of the Neuro-Oncology team, it was decided that surgery for all three tumors, followed by TomoTherapy would be best for Rachel. The Blumenthal Cancer Center was one of the first in the tri-state area to offer TomoTherapy, which delivers three-dimensional beams of radiation that conform to the exact contours of a tumor. For Rachel, the TomoTherapy destroyed any microscopic cancer cells remaining after surgery. In January 2010, she began the 20-treatment regimen, with her mother, a Valley employee, always at her side.
“By using TomoTherapy we avoided radiating her whole brain and preserved her ability to think, reason, remember, and function in her job,” says Chad DeYoung, M.D., Co-Medical Director of the Blumenthal Cancer Center’s Radiation Oncology Department.
Rachel, who on May 7, 2010, married Jonathan, says she put her complete trust in her Valley cancer care team: “I received wonderful care from everyone, directed by doctors at the top of their game.”
“If Rachael had instead undergone whole brain radiation, which is the standard in many hospitals, she would not have been herself and would have lost her neurocognitive function during the past two years,” states Dr. D’Ambrosio. “Her positive attitude and family support have greatly enhanced her treatment.”
The Gamma Knife Center
Focal therapy is just one component of the Blumenthal Cancer Center’s cutting-edge capabilities for diagnosing and treating brain tumors. Another is gamma knife radiosurgery. The Cancer Center’s newly opened Gamma Knife Center is the first in the region to feature the Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion, recognized worldwide as the best of the best in stereotactic radiosurgery technology.
For more information, call the Institute for Brain and Spine Radiosurgery at 201-634-5585.
Retiring in Ridgewood is not an option for some families
FRIDAY JULY 27, 2012, 1:16 PM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
After each high school graduation, there are celebrations and summer barbecues. There are also goodbye parties.
Some residents move out of the village after their children graduate. Longtime resident Dom Nizza, however, vowed to ‘never move again’ after coming to Ridgewood.
After 20 years in Ridgewood, Mike Marchlik, who with his wife, JoAnn, raised four children in the Ridgewood school system, is moving to the Atlanta area this weekend.
This past June, Tim Marchlik was the family’s third child to graduate from Ridgewood High School (RHS). Even though his youngest son Sam was still attending Somerville, a career opportunity prompted the early move for Marchlik.
Ridgewood residents Nancy Reilly and Paul Brennan receive Homescape Awards
FRIDAY JULY 27, 2012, 1:06 PM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
There’s an answer to the mystery of those nearly 5-foot-tall wooden sunflowers that suddenly appear in village gardens each summer. They are the work of the Project Pride Committee, which for the past 12 years has been giving Ridgewood homeowners with especially attractive front yard gardens surprise Homescape Awards. Recipients can display the sunflowers in their gardens for two weeks.
Five-foot-tall wooden sunflowers have been placed in the gardens of village residents who are recipients of this year’s Homescape Awards.
According to Ridgewood resident Nancy Reilly, the award has prompted a playful competition with her neighbor Paul Brennan, who both won this year. They each have now won the award at least twice, Reilly said.
So now, “it’s (jokingly) on.”
“When he plants his garden and I plant my garden, we say, ‘May the best man win,'” said Reilly, a science teacher at Ridgewood High School. “It’s all in good fun.”
Reilly, who loves to garden and has won the award three times, said that getting the award on June 24 – her wedding anniversary – was especially exciting.
State says it will use trust funds for affordable housing
The Christie administration said Thursday that the money it confiscates from municipal affordable housing trust funds will be used to support a range of housing programs for low- and moderate-income New Jerseyans.
The statement from the Department of Community Affairs came two days after it sent letters to 372 municipalities, demanding that they turn over to the state all unspent portions of those funds.
While it states that the trust funds will be spent on various housing initiatives, the DCA did not detail the specific state programs that will receive the money or how much additional funding will go to each. The state budget initially set aside $200 million to be collected from the trust funds, although this week DCA put the anticipated figure it would collect at $161 million. (Lipman, The Record) https://www.northjersey.com/news/163977886_State_says_it_will_use_trust_funds_for_affordable_housing.html
REMINDER: NJ TRANSIT ADVISES CUSTOMERS OF UPCOMING CONSTRUCTION ON THE ALEXANDER HAMILTON BRIDGE
NJ TRANSIT to cross honor bus passes on trains from July 16 to July 31
July 9, 2012
Attention Ridgewood Bus Customers Route 175 Ridgewood – New York
NEWARK, NJ — Beginning on or about Friday, July 13 and continuing through late-Fall, one of the three eastbound lanes on the Cross Bronx Expressway at the Alexander Hamilton Bridge in the Bronx will be closing for repairs. This New York project will impact NJ TRANSIT bus customers who travel across the George Washington Bridge due to a significant reduction in vehicular traffic capacity along the eastbound Cross Bronx Expressway between Manhattan and the Bronx.
Many of NJ TRANSIT’s bus routes traveling at the inbound George Washington Bridge and points in and around Fort Lee, New Jersey will operate with significant delays as buses will experience increased traffic congestion, especially near the immediate construction zone.
Additionally, some bus routes traveling from New York City to New Jersey may operate with delays due to buses arriving late at the George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal.
Retail Renaissance spreading in Ridgewood ?
July 28,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Despite the recent closing of Blend there does seem to be a noticeable improvement in the retail climate in the Central; Business District .
In recent weeks a new bakery has opened on Ridgewood Avenue , signs are up for a new bridle shop on Ridgewood Ave , a new aquarium shop on Broad street and yes there are still many spaces available for rent.
Rumors continue to fly that big box retailer Urban Outfitters has leased the old Citizens or Bank of America on Ridgewood Avenue .
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH 535 IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1000 PM EDT FOR THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS
. NEW JERSEY COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE
ATLANTIC BERGEN BURLINGTON
CAMDEN CAPE MAY CUMBERLAND
ESSEX GLOUCESTER HUDSON
HUNTERDON MERCER MIDDLESEX
MONMOUTH MORRIS OCEAN
PASSAIC SALEM SOMERSET
SUSSEX UNION WARREN
Flash Flood Warning FLASH FLOOD WARNING
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
240 PM EDT SAT JUL 28 2012
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN UPTON NY HAS ISSUED A
* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR…
PASSAIC COUNTY IN NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY…
WESTCHESTER COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST NEW YORK…
NORTHERN BERGEN COUNTY IN NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY…
ROCKLAND COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST NEW YORK…
PUTNAM COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST NEW YORK…
SOUTHEASTERN ORANGE COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST NEW YORK…
* UNTIL 545 PM EDT…
* AT 235 PM EDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED
FLASH FLOODING FROM AN AREA OF THUNDERSTORMS OVER THE WARNED AREA.
RAINFALL RATES OF OVER TWO INCHES PER HOUR ARE EXPECTED WITH THIS
ACTIVITY…RESULTING IN FLASH FLOODING ACROSS PORTIONS OF THE WARNED
AREA.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A FLASH FLOOD WARNING MEANS THAT FLOODING IS IMMINENT OR OCCURRING. IF YOU ARE IN THE WARNING AREA MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND IMMEDIATELY.
RESIDENTS LIVING ALONG STREAMS AND CREEKS SHOULD TAKE IMMEDIATE
PRECAUTIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CROSS
SWIFTLY FLOWING WATERS OR WATERS OF UNKNOWN DEPTH BY FOOT OR BY
AUTOMOBILE.
Ridgewood Library features artwork of longtime resident Lillian Fendrock
FRIDAY JULY 27, 2012, 1:10 PM
BY EILEEN LA FORGIA
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
“Flowers and fruits of summer make for a colorful show,” said Ridgewood resident Lillian Fendrock. “The Play of Light and Shadow in Still Life and Landscape” is her exhibit being held at the Ridgewood Library’s Bolger Auditorium this month.
“Painting has always been a challenge and a great pleasure,” she said. “I love all of them – especially lilacs, pansies and geraniums.” Oil paintings include sunflowers, tulips, red roses, bouquet of daisies, yellow roses, hydrangeas and daffodils. Because her garden is mostly in shade, Fendrock buys the flowers she paints from farm stores and supermarkets. She also paints arrangements set up by the instructors at the Ridgewood Art Institute.
