New Jersey struggles to capitalize on its historic past
When officials gathered last month in an attempt to get more attention for a Revolutionary War site, they were swimming against the tide of recent history.
Despite the lingering effects of the recession, tourism remains big business in New Jersey. The Garden State accounted for $38 billion of the nation’s $1.2 trillion tourism revenues last year, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
That total made tourism New Jersey’s third-largest industry, behind pharmaceuticals and chemicals. With more than 900,000 tourists, New Jersey was America’s ninth most-visited state, according to the World Travel Association.
Even before the economic downturn, though, many involved with “heritage tourism” were concerned about some trends in how travelers view art and history. (Tyrrell, NJ Spotlight)
NJ lawmakers begin study of online education in charter schools
Online education in charter schools — in all its different and controversial forms — will get the first of what could be several Statehouse hearings this week, as legislators start to sort out what is growing to be one of the state’s more contentious issues.
The Joint Committee on the Public Schools will host the hearing on Wednesday morning, at 11 a.m., with presentations by three national proponents of online education.
The three are Susan Patrick of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning; Michael Horn of the Education of Innosight Institute; and Jeanne Allen of the Center for Education reform.
The new co-chairman of the joint committee, state Assemblywoman Connie Wagner (D-Bergen), said she wants the first hearing to be devoted to defining the issue, one that has become easily confused with a host of different terms for the different kinds of programs. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
Now that it really counts, school districts across New Jersey have to figure out how they are going to evaluate their teachers — and fast.
It’s a complicated question. And under a state law signed last month to make tenure harder to get and easier to lose for educators, districts need to find answers by the 2013-14 school year. The most vexing issue is expected to be determining exactly how standardized test results should fit into the picture.
District officials and teachers unions alike wonder whether that gives most schools enough time to make such big changes. (Associated Press)
VFW Post 192 Youth Contests, Teacher, and Civil Servant Recognition
LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT COULD WIN A TRIP TO WASHINGTON, D.C. AND A $30,000 SCHOLARSHIP IN VFW’S VOICE OF DEMOCRACY COMPETITION
VFW Post Commander Stanley A. Kober of the Washington Elm Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post #192 (Ho-Ho-Kus—Ridgewood), announces the kick-off of this year’s National VFW and its Ladies Auxiliary “Voice of Democracy (VOD) Scholarship Competition.” High school students in this area have the opportunity to compete in the annual audio essay competition and win thousands of dollars in scholarships, a trip to Washington, D.C., as well as dozens of other awards. This program is endorsed by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).
High School students begin by competing at the local Post level. Deadline for the student’s original entries to arrive at VFW Post #192 is November 1, 2012. Post awardees advance to District. District awardees compete in the NJ state competition. The state awardee will enjoy an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C., March 2-6, 2013, along with the awardees from every state, the District of Columbia, the Pacific Areas, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe.
During the more than 60 years that the Veterans of Foreign Wars and its Ladies Auxiliary have been involved with Voice of Democracy, more than 7 million high school students have participated. Students compete by writing and then recording in their own words a three-to-five minute audio/essay expressing their views on this year’s patriotic theme, “Is Our Constitution Still Relevant?”.
All State awardees receive at least a $1,000 national scholarship but any one of them could win the $30,000 first place scholarship award. A total of $152,000 in national scholarships is awarded to national finalists in addition to the scholarships and awards given at the preliminary levels of competition.
Interested high school students and teachers from Ho-Ho-Kus, Ridgewood, Saddle River, and Upper Saddle River should contact the Washington Elm VFW Post #192 (Ho-Ho-Kus—Ridgewood) by telephone at 201-445-1121 or immediately write to the Washington Elm VFW Post #192 (Ho-Ho-Kus—Ridgewood) at 620 Cliff Street, Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ 07423 for an application.
Applications also are available on the Post 192 website at www.vfwpost192-nj.com ABOUT VFW>CONTESTS AND SCHOLARSHIPS.
May God continue to Bless America!
/s/ Stanley A. Kober
Stanley A. Kober
Commander,
Washington Elm VFW Post #192
Ho-Ho-Kus—Ridgewood
620 Cliff Street
Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ 07423
Tim Gunn, Monday, September 10th @ 7:00pm
Co-Host of Project Runway, Tim Gunn will sign his new book: Tim Gunn’s Fashion Bible
Appearing authors will only autograph books purchased at Bookends and must have valid Bookends Receipt.Availability & pricing for all autographed books subject to change.Bookends cannot guarantee that the books that are Autographed will always be First Printings.
Autographed books purchased at Bookends are non-returnable.
While we try to insure that all customers coming to Bookends’ signings will meet authors and get their books signed, we cannot guarantee that all attendees will meet the author or that all books will be signed. We cannot control inclement weather, author travel schedules or authors who leave prematurely.
Bookends, 211 E. Ridgewood Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 201-445-0726
PSE&G rate payer subsidies for solar energy hits home
September 9,2012
the staff of theRidgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ ,A month ago when Governor Chris Christie signed into law S1925/A2966. This law directs the electric utilities in the state like PSE&G to increase the amount of electricity they supply to their customers from solar panel generation. By signing this law the Governor basically created a solar subsidy.
Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G) runs a program known as Solar 4 AllTM Program. This is the program that gave the state those controversial telephone pole solar panels that have been so hotly debated on this blog .PSE&G also uses this program to fund solar panel farms
which the Governor spoke at a groundbreaking event celebrating the start of construction at the PSE&G Solar Farm in Hackensack, July of this year.
Like may of you I’ve been waiting for the punch line and wondering ,sounds great but how is PSE&G going to fund more projects like these? The answer it seems is a simple one PSE&G simply asked for rate increases from the Board of Public Utilities (BPU).
In the rate increase announcement, PSE&G emphasized, like the Governor did before that the jobs that this $800 million plus rate increase would create.According to the company the number of jobs is 300 which translates into each job costing $2,943,333.00 to create.That still better than n the first phase of Solar 4 All, when the company spent about $550 million and created 175 jobs.at $3,142,857.00 per job.( www.https://conservativenewjersey.com)
Screwing the rate payer in New Jersey is hardly a news worthy item now a days but the best part is that other politicians will also be paying the price. Many local elected officials have come to realized that any increase in utility rates will affect town budgets with the 2% cap on budgets, the increases could further pressure many towns and municipalities.
Westwood Mayor John Birkner: “We’ve got a serious mandate to maintain our budgets, and unfortunately increases coming from utilities are over 2 percent,” Birkner said.
From the town council in Glen Rock: “The Borough of Glen Rock finds it disingenuous that now PSE&G will raise the rates of its residents to subsidize the cost of installing those same solar panels that are supposed to, by their own admission, bring monetized value to their customers,” the resolution reads.
The Borough of Hillsdale had this to say: WHEREAS, the Borough of Hillsdale finds it abhorrent that PSE&G is expecting its residential customers to finance a loan program for its business customers;
North Arlington weighs in with this: If it’s true that the rate increase is due to the solar panel programs, the initial pitch for Solar 4 All as being a cost-saving measure was misleading, North Arlington officials claimed.
And from Fair Lawn this one comes from a councilwoman who isn’t the brightest blub on the string: “I just feel as much as I support solar energy,” said Councilwoman Lisa Swain at the council work session on Aug. 14, “taxpayers should not pay.” (https://conservativenewjersey.com)
So are some elected officials actually waking up and realizing just what a farce these programs are? One would hope so but could other forces be at work against the small town politicians.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has scheduled another National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day which will take place on Saturday, September 29, 2012, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The Ridgewood Police Department will be the drop off site.
This is a great opportunity for those who missed the previous events, or who have subsequently accumulated unwanted, unused prescription drugs, to safely dispose of those medications.
Referendum on Bergen County police merger blocked
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2012
BY JAMES QUIRK
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
Voters won’t get a chance to weigh in on whether the Bergen County Police should be merged with the Sheriff’s Office, after a Superior Court judge on Friday invalidated a move by the county freeholders to place a non-binding referendum on the November ballot.
However, Judge Menelaos Toskos did rule that the freeholders can proceed with an ordinance, that if passed, would dissolve the county police and transfer their function to the sheriff’s office. Toskos said the court cannot be asked to intervene before the process runs it course — the proposed ordinance must go through a second reading with a public hearing and then must be delivered to the county executive who can sign the measure into law or veto it.
Though Friday’s ruling amounted to a somewhat split decision, in a statement Friday night, Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan called it a “victory for taxpayers and public safety.”
The case for liberating physicians from the dictates of third-party payers
Of all the people in the healthcare system, none is more central than the physician. As I explain in my book Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis, fundamental reform that lowers costs, raises quality, and improves access to care is almost inconceivable without physicians leading and directing the changes. Yet of all the actors in modern healthcare, none are more trapped than our nation’s doctors. Let’s consider just a few of the ways your doctor is constrained, unlike any other professional.[1]
Sometime in the early part of the last century, all the other professionals in our society—lawyers, accountants, architects, engineers, and so on—discovered the telephone. It’s a handy device. Ideal for communicating with clients. Yet, telephone consultations are not on Medicare’s list of about 7,500 tasks it pays physicians to perform. (At least, it’s not there in a way that makes telephone consultations practical.) Private insurance tends to pay the way Medicare pays. So do most employers.
Sometime toward the end of the last century, all the other professionals discovered email. In some ways, it’s even better than the phone. But reading and responding to emails doesn’t make Medicare’s list in a practical way, either.[2]
At a time when doctors feel that third-party payers are squeezing their fees from every direction, most are going to try to minimize their non-billable time. Because patients cannot conveniently use modern media to consult with physicians, they make unnecessary office visits. The result is more rationing by waiting at the doctor’s office, which imposes disproportionate costs on chronic patients who need more contact with physicians. This might be one reason why so many are not getting what they most need from primary care physicians and what is most likely to prevent more costly problems later on: prescription drugs.[3]
The ability to consult with doctors by phone or email could be a boon to chronic care. Face-to-face meetings with physicians would be less frequent, especially if patients learned how to monitor their own conditions and manage their own care.
West Bergen Tea PartypresentsThe NJ Strategic Plan
Gerard Scharfenberger Dan Kennedy
NJ Office of Planning Advocacy The Economy Professor Murray Sabrin , Anisfield School of Business Ramapo College
Join us 7 pm, Tuesday, September 11at the Larkin House 380 Godwin Avenue, Wyckoff (1/4 mile North of Stop & Shop on the right) Overflow Parking at Stop & Shop with Shuttle to the Larkin House More information: 201 891-5918 conservative_caucus@verizon.net https://www.westbergenteaparty.com/
Ridgewood Police Commuter Alert Ridgewood Train Station
The Train station parking lot will be closed for paving starting at Midnight on Sunday 9/9/12 through Wednesday evening 9/12/12. Any vehicle parked in the lot after it has been closed will be towed. During these three days UP3 Permit holders may park for unlimited time at street meters or nearby parking lots without ‘feeding the meter’. UP3 Hangtag must be displayed. Other commuters can park in nearby lots and pay at the meter as they do in the Station Lot. The nearest lots to the Station are Hudson & Broad; Chestnut; Franklin & Walnut .
Thank you for your patience and understanding during this project.
FCC backpedals from Internet tax
By Brendan Sasso- 09/09/12 06:00 AM ET
The Federal Communications Commission is rapidly backpedalling from a proposal to tax broadband Internet service after a public outcry over the issue.
Democrats and Republicans at the agency are now blaming each other for pushing the idea in the first place.
Neil Grace, a spokesman for Chairman Julius Genachowski, said the commission only made the proposal “following the urging of Republican Commissioners and members of Congress.”
“The Chairman remains unconvinced that including broadband is the right approach,” he said.
Robert McDowell, the only Republican on the commission when the proposal was floated earlier this year, flatly rejected that he ever supported the idea.
“I have never suggested taxing broadband Internet access,” he told The Hill.
PSEG Has Over 150 Open Positions Posted On New Jersey’s New Job Search Tool
OnRamp is a free job search tool that finds candidates based on specific skill sets
(August 31, 2012 – Newark, NJ) – Despite the sputtering economy, PSEG currently has over 150 positions posted on New Jersey’s new job search tool Jobs4Jersey.com.
Nearly 100 employers and business association leaders recently gathered at PSEG’s corporate headquarters for Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno’s unveiling of OnRamp, a new Internet tool designed to help employers effectively find qualified workers. The Lt. Governor was joined by PSEG chairman, president and CEO Ralph Izzo, and Labor Commissioner Harold J. Wirths.
“Many people continue to seek jobs, but many employers are also struggling to find skilled workers for key positions,” said Lt. Governor Guadagno. “While state training programs have helped many workers upgrade their skills for these positions, today New Jersey is making it easier for employers to find and put qualified New Jerseyans to work.”
OnRamp is a free service for both employers and job seekers. A state-owned site, Jobs4Jersey.com, uses cutting edge technology that not only allows employers to search for candidates based on specific skills instead of job titles, but also has a unique feature that allows employers to “clone” the resume of a highly qualified worker. This means that employers can take the resume of a skilled employee, feed it into the OnRamp system, and the tool will retrieve other candidates with similar skill sets.
As PSEG continues to make significant investments in transmission and renewable energy infrastructure, it is the human resource demand that will continue to increase. The company sees OnRamp as an opportunity to help meet those demands.
“We have an ongoing need for people with a good grounding in science, technology, engineering and math,” said Izzo. “We cannot afford to miss anyone with the right combination of skills we need for our workforce. The state’s new website will help us to find people with the required expertise. Our HR people have put this new tool to the test and it has the potential to be incredibly valuable in supporting our workforce recruitment efforts.”
Headquartered in New Jersey, PSEG is one of the state’s oldest companies and largest employers. The company employs about 10,000 people, the bulk of whom live and work in the Garden State.
“We thank the Christie administration for developing this new tool and for making it available to job seekers and employers,” said Izzo. “We hope everyone who wants a job takes full advantage of this resource.”
Low prices and favorable interest rates make it easier for young people to buy a home
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2012
BY VIOLET SNOW
SPECIAL TO THE HERALD NEWS
THE RECORD
Colin Schmitt is considerably younger than the typical home buyer. He started a lawn mowing business in his River Vale neighborhood at the age of 13, and this year, at age 21, he bought his own house.
With low prices and favorable interest rates, the current real estate market is ideal for young people purchasing their first home. Another help for young buyers is the FHA loan, which allows a down payment of only 3.5 percent of the purchase price — but borrowers may have to take responsibility for inspection issues.
As captain of his high school football team, which reached state-level competition, says Schmitt, “I learned discipline and learned to work hard.”
He went on to study horticulture and landscape design at Bergen Community College, registered his business as a limited liability company, and built it up to about 70 accounts.
“I had so much equipment at my parents’ house, I had to move out,” he explains. “I also liked fixing things up on my father’s house, which raises the price and property value.”
As he became aware of the money-making potential of his construction and repair skills, he started looking at homes for sale.
At an open house last fall, he met Elena McLean of Coldwell Banker in Hillsdale, who guided him through the buying process.
