D.C. area power outages after storm could last for days
By Donna St. George, Ted Trautman and Mihir Zaveri, Updated: Sunday, July 1, 12:22 PM
As the temperature crept past 90 degrees at noon on Sunday, the number left to swelter without out power in the Washington region crept down by degrees, but many people will be without air conditioning, lights and refrigeration for days to come.
The number without power was dropping by the hour — 739,187 at noon, down by almost 40,000 since 8:30 a.m. — but many people were forced to seek refuge in malls, coffee shops and emergency shelters.
NJ TRANSIT OFFERS EXTRA SERVICE AND SAVINGS FOR INDEPENDENCE DAY
Money-saving Family Super Saver Fare in effect continuously from June 29 until July 9
June 27, 2012
NJT-12-051
NEWARK, NJ — NJ TRANSIT today announced a special extension of the Family Super Saver Fare, which allows up to two children 11 and younger to travel free with each fare-paying adult. Usually limited to weekends and holidays, the Family Super Saver Fare will be in effect continuously from 7 p.m. Friday, June 29 until 6 a.m. Monday, July 9, on all trains (except for travel to/from Metro-North stations), buses and light rail lines in honor of Independence Day.
In addition, NJ TRANSIT will offer extra service in advance of Independence Day and on the holiday itself to give customers more travel options, whether leaving work early to get a head start on festivities or attending fireworks displays on the Fourth of July.
On Friday, June 29, extra buses will operate from the Port Authority Bus Terminal on more than two dozen bus routes starting around noon. Visit njtransit.com for details.
On Tuesday, July 3, extra outbound trains will operate on the Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast, Raritan Valley, Morris & Essex, Pascack Valley and Port Jervis lines starting at approximately 1 p.m. Extra buses will operate from the Port Authority Bus Terminal on more than two dozen bus routes starting around noon. Visit njtransit.com for details.
On Independence Day, Wednesday, July 4, trains will operate on a weekend/major holiday schedule on all lines. Hudson-Bergen Light Rail will operate on a weekend schedule. Newark Light Rail will operate on a Saturday schedule. River Line will operate on a Sunday schedule. Bus schedules vary by route—customers are advised to check their timetables or visit njtransit.com for schedule information.
Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Service
To accommodate spectators traveling to the New Jersey Waterfront to view the annual Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks display over the Hudson River, NJ TRANSIT will supplement existing weekend rail service on the Morris & Essex Lines with additional trains to and from Hoboken Terminal. An additional trip will also operate to Hoboken on the Port Jervis Line. Hudson-Bergen Light Rail will operate additional trips between Tonnelle Avenue and Hoboken starting after 4 p.m.
Also on July 4, extra trips will operate to and from the Port Authority Bus Terminal on selected bus routes.
Detailed service information is available at njtransit.com/fireworks.
Summer Savings
With the summer season in full swing, now is a great time for customers to take advantage of NJ TRANSIT’s discounted travel packages to destinations including the Jersey Shore, Six Flags Great Adventure and Monmouth Park:
Beach Packages: Save up to $6.50 on admission to one of five beaches— Long Branch, Asbury Park, Ocean Grove, Bradley Beach and Belmar—by purchasing round-trip train fare and a beach pass for one price at NJ TRANSIT ticket vending machines (choose “Special Promotions” and select “Beach Package”) or at ticket windows. Customers can purchase the package for $31.50 from New York Penn Station or any station on the Main, Bergen County or Pascack Valley lines (except from Metro-North stations), and for $23.50 from Hoboken Terminal or Newark Penn Station.
o Shore EZride Jitney provides shuttle service to beaches, shopping and dining locations in Long Branch, Asbury Park, Ocean Grove and Bradley Beach Friday through Sunday. Starting July 4, NJ TRANSIT customers can ride the jitney FREE on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays plus Independence Day and Labor Day with a coupon available at njtransit.com/summer. For jitney info and shore activities, go to visitmonmouth.com.
Six Flags Great Adventure or Hurricane Harbor: Save up to $51 by purchasing round-trip bus transportation and park admission together. NJ TRANSIT provides express bus service to Six Flags from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York, Newark Penn Station, Philadelphia Greyhound Terminal and the Walter Rand Transportation Center in Camden.
Monmouth Park: Board a train anywhere on NJ TRANSIT’s rail system and save up to $6.00 when you travel to Monmouth Park Racetrack. Simply purchase a round-trip package to Monmouth Park from NJ TRANSIT ticket vending machines (choose “Special Promotions” and select “Monmouth Park”) or at ticket windows, and receive Grandstand Admission and an official track program for $1 plus round-trip train fare.
For details on NJ TRANSIT’s Summer Services and customer discounts, visit njtransit.com/summer.
Important July 4th Commuter information : Bus Route 163 – Detour in Ridgewood
June 27, 2012
On Wednesday, July 4th from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., Paramus Road and Ridgewood Avenue in Ridgewood will be closed from Paramus Road and Grove Street to the Ridgewood Bus Terminal due to a parade and festival. During this time, Bus Route No. 163 will operate on a detour.
Buses traveling toward Ridgewood will travel from Paramus Road and Grove Street, make a left at Grove Street, right on Prospect Street, right on Dayton Street. Customers will board and discharge at the church across from the terminal.
Buses traveling toward New York will travel from the Ridgewood Terminal , continue on Dayton Street, make a right on Maple Avenue, left on Prospect Street, left on Grove Street, right on Paramus Road and proceed on the regular route.
We regret any inconvenience this may cause. For further information, please call NJ TRANSIT at 1 (973) 275-5555.
Christie orders special legislative session, pushing tax-relief plan
SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 2012
BY MELISSA HAYES AND STEPHANIE AKIN
STAFF WRITERS
THE RECORD
Governor Christie got his restructuring of higher education and mandatory drug treatment for non-violent offenders through the Legislature. But he didn’t get his 10 percent income tax cut, and so on Saturday he demanded that legislators get back to work.
He ordered them to appear in Trenton on Monday for a special legislative session to consider his tax cut, a plan the governor has pitched across the state and at several Republican events across the country since he proposed it in January.
Amazon Cloud Hit by Real Clouds, Downing Netflix, Instagram, Other Sites
By Christina DesMarais, PCWorld Jun 30, 2012 7:02 AM
Digital cloud services aren’t immune to the impact of real clouds, and that meant some bad news this weekend for the folks at Amazon and sites that rely in its web services.
Severe storms that wiped out power to more than 2 million people across the eastern United States Friday night also took down Netflix, Pinterest, Instagram and other sites due to an outage of Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud in northern Virginia.
According to Amazon Web Services, at 8:21 p.m. PDT it was “investigating connectivity issues for a number of instances” in the East region. By early Saturday morning, Amazon said it was “continuing to work to recover.”
Netflix, Pinterest were back up, but as of early Saturday Instagram was still down.
Free speech at parades Some say leave message home
SUNDAY, JULY 1, 2012
BY REBECCA BAKER
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
According to Jane Tappen, the “Choose Life” banner she carried in Leonia’s Memorial Day parade this year wasn’t an antiabortion message; it was a tribute to the nation’s servicemen and servicewomen.
“If their parents had not chosen life, they wouldn’t have been here,” she said.
But some along the parade route were offended that a day meant to honor the military and men and women who died serving their country had been politicized. Criticism filled an online community comment board, bringing an apology from the American Legion organizer, who said he didn’t know the slogan has been adopted by abortion opponents.
….The Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration Inc., a non-profit, bars groups from using the town’s parade as a “platform for political, commercial or special interest groups.” It bans elected officials from campaigning and requires them to ride in motorized vehicles. It also prohibits anyone from distributing handouts along the parade route and limits marchers to one sign identifying the group.
“What happened in Leonia has been specifically prohibited in our parade for years,” said Margie Downs, a member of Ridgewood’s July Fourth committee. “We monitor any signs they carry to guard against prohibited activity. We have always sought to be sure that our parade remains a community event that is not inherently political.”
Zurofsky said Ridgewood’s rule appears to violate the First Amendment because the committee and village are “intertwined.” Perhaps worse, he said, the committee is violating the spirit of Independence Day….
Governor Christie vetoes Trenton Land Grab the New Jersey Residential ForeclosureTransformation Act
June 30,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ , Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the New Jersey Residential Foreclosure Transformation Act Friday that amounted to a huge land grab by the state , It would have paved the way for the state to assume even more debt for the purpose of buying up foreclosed properties and turning them into low-income housing.
Critics dubbed the bill the “Neighborhood Destruction Act” fearing it would make the state a huge land owner with little care as to how it would disrupt and destroy neighborhoods and depress and already depressed real estate market. Under the act the state would seize foreclosed property and pretty much do as it pleased putting anything from a Jail to a drug rehab next to your local school.
The New Jersey Residential Foreclosure Transformation Act was passed in the state Senate June 25 and in the Assembly June 28. In his veto message, Gov. Christie objected to proposals adding spending separate from the Appropriations Act, calling the practice “a thinly veiled attempt to circumvent the tough choices required to meet the constitutional obligation of passing a balanced budget.”
Simple market based alternatives were ignored by the bill and the legislation would have created a new state super agency called the New Jersey Foreclosure Relief Corp., which would operate under the jurisdiction of the state Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency and would be vested with the authority to float an unlimited number of bonds backed by the state. Sticking the tax payer with a huge debt .Proceeds from the bond sales would finance the purchase of foreclosed homes, with additional funds coming from municipalities’ affordable housing trust funds.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR AND CANDIDATE FOR U.S. SENATE JOE KYRILLOS ON SUPREME COURT DECISION
Kyrillos: “The massive, expensive health care overhaul voted for by Senator Menendez is bad policy.”
Middletown, June 28…State Senator and Candidate for U.S. Senate Joe Kyrillos released the following statement today regarding the Supreme Court’s ruling on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.
“Today’s Supreme Court decision may have confirmed the constitutionality of the legislation, but one fact remains: the massive, expensive health care overhaul voted for by Senator Menendez is bad policy.
Government run healthcare spends money we don’t have, loots Medicare, limits patient choice, and continues to place a cloud of uncertainty over our economy. Congress can and must repeal and replace it with more sensible reforms like providing coverage for those with pre-existing conditions.
Here in New Jersey, we’ve seen how the Corzine-Menendez pattern of raising taxes, spending more and leaving the bills to future generations does not work- it left us nearly bankrupt.
We need change in Washington. Real, meaningful change. The same kind of change Governor Christie is bringing to New Jersey. And I intend to deliver that kind of change as your Senator.”
