Fall sports preview: History on horizon for Ridgewood volleyball team
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2012
BY RON FOX
CORRESPONDENT
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD — The immediate goals are clear for the Ridgewood High School girls volleyball team. A return to the county and state tournaments is the most urgent desire. Joining the all-time elite list is in the background.
The Maroons are just three wins short of becoming the sixth New Jersey high school girls program to reach 600 career wins. And, with enough experience carrying over from last year, they should notch that historic win quickly.
Reporters Using ‘Fake Names’ to Buy Obama Campaign Merchandise at the DNC
By Hunter Walker 9/06 9:55pm
CHARLOTTE, NC — Members of the media have apparently been using “fake” names to buy official Obama gear and contribute to the Obama campaign inside the Time Warner Cable Arena where the President is due to speak in a few minutes. During our travels around the arena, Politicker spotted a souvenir stand in one of the press stands selling T-shirts and buttons supporting President Barack Obama, “Democrats Are Hot” bumper stickers and other official Obama merchandise.
The souvenir stand was in a secure area only accessible to those with a media credential and buying campaign gear means contributing to the campaign, so we asked the woman working the cash register whether anyone at the press stand had been making purchases. Her answers were quite surprising.
The woman working at the souvenir stand told us she hadn’t been “too busy” during the day, but had seen business pick up in the past half hour or so. She then asked us whether we wanted to buy anything. When we informed her that our status as a reporter means we don’t buy campaign gear, she suggested a strategy other members of the media have apparently used to pick up their Obama swag.
“Have you ever thought of making up a fake name? That’s what the other guys do,” she said.
Stalkers Have Returned
https://whatismyipaddress.com/ip/173.70.18.36
The Fly Swatter 173.70.18.36 Submitted on 2012/09/07 at 8:23 am
Yawn……no one cares what you think
your blog is dying a slow death and stuff like this ain’t gonna help stop that Urbanization : The Fate of the “Ken Smith” Property Maybe its time for an apology to Ken Gabbert
Anonymous 173.70.18.36 Submitted on 2012/09/06 at 5:58 pm
“So what ever happened to all the negative attacks on the Village manager . That is the questions the puzzles many of our readers.”
By the responses here it looks like NONE of your readers agree with you. Maybe its time for an apology to Ken Gabbert
Anonymous 173.70.18.36 Submitted on 2012/09/06 at 5:37 pm
An apology for telling the truth. That doesn’t make any sense! Maybe its time for an apology to Ken Gabbert
Anonymous 173.70.18.36 Submitted on 2012/09/06 at 2:34 pm
ha ha ha ha……..thanks for the laugh Maybe its time for an apology to Ken Gabbert
Anonymous 173.70.18.36 Submitted on 2012/09/06 at 8:47 am
what a crock of shit this is….. Maybe its time for an apology to Ken Gabbert
Anonymous 173.70.18.36 Submitted on 2012/09/05 at 4:44 pm
You #2 are the one who is CLUELESS!!!!! “Town Garage” looks to make a comeback
Anonymous 173.70.18.36 Submitted on 2012/09/01 at 5:29 am
this guy will never e as good a mayor as Killion was Mayor’s Office Hours for Ridgewood Residents Available to All Residents
Anonymous 173.70.18.36 Submitted on 2012/08/31 at 7:20 pm
After many years (the last 8 years at least) of horrible Mayors we have finally got a Mayor who cares and is willing to devote his time to the Residents he serves. Thank you Paul for your dedication to the Village! Mayor’s Office Hours for Ridgewood Residents Available to All Residents
Anonymous 173.70.18.36 Submitted on 2012/08/31 at 8:09 am
Easily, since Killion was a lier and a failure as a leader like Obama
Urbanization : The Fate of the “Ken Smith” Property
September 6,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ ,We’ve heard Ken Smith’s Motors closed their service center last Friday.In addition, the whole dealership will be closed by the end of the month. If you drive by the dealership, there have been numerous less cars on the lot than last week.
Many of the cars had come from All Americans other dealerships and I presume they’re moving them back.The storyis that All American Ford/Mercury would be moving into Ken Smith’s location from Route 17 in Paramus. Once Route 17 is vacated, the building there would be renovated. After renovations are complete, All American would move back. At that time, Ridgewood would be sold.
Rumors for the property abound at one time someone was looking at at for a hotel with an option of condos if the hotel didn’t work. While other rumors are that the land is being sold with an eye towards development of a 400 unit apartment building.
Well with all this development there goes the Village. now it will be the City of Ridgewood and all that comes with that name.
Ridgewood to gauge interest in parking plan
Thursday September 6, 2012, 3:16 PM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
The Village Council will enter the first step of an exploratory process to determine if a parking plan proposed by members of Ridgewood’s business community can truly be self-funding, as its drafters believe it can be.
At Wednesday night’s council meeting, the governing body decided to move forward with a request for proposal (RFP), while also engaging in a continued conversation about the downtown’s future and the potential implications of the parking proposal.
An RFP would attempt to solicit developers interested in building on the village-owned parking lot between The Gap and Gilsenan Realtors on East Ridgewood Avenue.
“[An RFP] would basically see what we could get from a developer, pique their interest,” said Chamber of Commerce president Tom Hillmann, owner of Hillmann Electric & Lighting.
Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce Presents 19th Annual Car Show
Friday, September 7th from 6PM to 9PM – around Memorial Park at Van Neste Square and along E. Ridgewood Avenue from Broad Street to Walnut Street – The Fall Car Show attracts an entertaining variety of vehicles, from classic old cars to modern dream machines. Whatever your age or taste, there is a car on display for everyone!
For the past year or so I have espoused the opinion that chaos in Europe is good for the US because of capital flight from Europe to the US. That capital is funding the Last Ponzi Game Standing, the US Treasury market and US economy.
Here’s how that works. As Europe destabilizes, big money exits the problem markets of Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and particularly Spain. Ireland and Italy have stabilized somewhat in recent months, but money is still pouring out of Greece, Portugal, and Spain. Much of it is transferred to the US to purchase Treasuries and probably big cap stocks to some degree. These purchase funds flow into the US Treasury and US bank accounts. The Treasury subsequently spends the cash it borrowed from these sources, and it ends up in US bank accounts.
Of every dollar the US Government spends, on average over the course of the year approximately 35 cents comes from borrowing. Some of that borrowing comes from domestic sources. About 8% of it over the past year has come from foreign central banks. Of the rest, the US Treasury TIC report says that Europeans made net purchases of $76 billion of US Treasury Bonds in the second quarter. That was equivalent to 30% of the new Treasuries issued. In other words, it appears that European capital flight accounted for 30 cents of every dollar of debt the Treasury raised. That debt accounted for 35 cents of ever dollar the government spent. Therefore, roughly 10 cents of every dollar of US government spending driving the US economy came from European capital flight.
Given those cash flows, anyone who argues that what’s bad for Europe is bad for the US is simply wrong. If Europe somehow manages to ameliorate its problems, or even create the impression that it is doing something to solve them, then these flows would slow down or even stop. The obvious effect would be that long term US bond yields would be forced to rise in order to attract investors. Alternatively, the US government would need to spend less or tax more in order to reduce borrowing. Any of those outcomes would slow the economy. The other option would be for the Fed to step into the breach to monetize the debt. No doubt that would have an immediate response in the commodities pits, driving the cost of energy, materials, and food into the stratosphere, which in turn would crush the US economy.
So the last thing the US needs is for the European situation to improve. In fact, the worse things are over there, the greater the capital flows from there into the US.
It is true that some of the capital flooding out of Spain, Portugal, and Greece heads to Germany. As a result European bank deposits in total have remained relatively stable. But that doesn’t account for all of the capital flowing from those countries. Some of it heads for the UK and elsewhere, and it seems clear that some of it heads for the US where it funds the Last Ponzi Game Standing.
Bethlehem Lutheran Celebrates Music
Sunday September 30 3:00pm
The members of Bethlehem Lutheran Church invite everyone to an organ concert on Sunday,
September 30 at 3:00PM. Please join us for this free performance in our sanctuary located at 155
Linwood Ave. in Ridgewood, NJ. We will be celebrating the important part music has played at
Bethlehem. This concert is a part of our 100th anniversary celebration.
This musical celebration will feature organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn,
Jean Langlais, Jan Bender, Ron Boud, and Michael Burkhardt. Two piano and organ duets,
arranged by Tedd Smith and Don Hustad, will be performed, in addition to a solo piano
arrangement of the hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” There also will be congregational singing
of several traditional hymns, including “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” and “Now Thank We
All Our God.” The concert will be performed by Bethlehem’s current organist, Elena Crudge,
and their former music director, Mark Meyer.
The organ at Bethlehem Lutheran Church was built in 1959 by the Schantz Organ Company
of Orville, Ohio. Pastor Ewald Mueller did much of the work on specifications and voicing.
The Swell division is located in the front of the church, to the right of the chancel area. The
Great, Choir and Pedal divisions are located to the left of the chancel area. The organ has three
manuals, and 54 ranks of pipes. There are 66 stops (draw knob units). Each stop produces a
different quality of sound, like a musical instrument. The list of stops includes a wide range of
both Baroque and Romantic character to allow playing all styles of music.
The organ was renovated in 2003. The renovation eliminated all electro-pneumatic actions from
the console itself, which no longer needs air pressure for its operation. One of the improvements
was a multi level combination unit (preset system) plus solid state switching equipment. Before
the renovation our organ had 7 presets. Each preset allows the organist to set a combination of
sounds to be stored in the organ’s memory. A single musical piece can involve several presets.
Since the renovation, we have 99 levels of memory with 7 presents on each level, giving almost
700 combinations.
Elena Crudge, organist and pianist, is a native of Russia. She graduated from the Moscow State
Music College “Gnesini” and the Voronezh State Institute of Arts with honors. She majored in
piano and qualified as a teacher, accompanist and soloist of the Chamber Ensemble.
After graduation, Moscow Region Music College employed Elena for 10 years as accompanist
for chorus and individual instruments. She performed in public concerts arranged by the college.
Elena has been the organist at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Ridgewood since 1994. She is a
member of American Guild of Organists (AGO).
Mark Meyer was the Director of Music at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Ridgewood, NJ, from
1979 until 1991. During that time he served as organist and directed Bethlehem’s Chancel,
Youth, Children’s, and Handbell Choirs, as well as assisting with the Christian Education
program at Bethlehem. From 1996 until 2009, Mark Meyer was Administrative Assistant for
The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada while the headquarters was located at Boston
University. Since 2005 he has been Music Director at historic St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in
Newburyport, MA.
His undergraduate studies were at Concordia College, Bronxville, NY and at Concordia
University, Chicago. He received a Master of Church Music degree from Concordia, Chicago.
Admission is free, however a free will offering will be welcome. Refreshments will be served
following the performance.
The members of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Ridgewood want you to know that God has a plan
for you and he loves you. Our faith is in Christ. Our guide is in the Bible. Our love is for all.
Come celebrate with us. We offer 2 Sunday services: Contemporary Praise Service at 8:45am
and Traditional Worship at 11am, with Sunday School and Bible Class at 10am. Please join us
at 155 Linwood Avenue, Ridgewood.
New Jersey officials will meet Thursday morning in Trenton with the companies that will submit proposals to take over and privatize the management of the New Jersey Lottery, an initiative that could include launching the state’s first Internet lottery games. The state’s request for proposals requires the winning bidder to make an upfront payment of $120 million to the state.
Since it was launched in 1970, the New Jersey Lottery has contributed more than $20 billion to education and state institutions, according to the state.
Potential bidders will attend a mandatory 10 a.m. public “pre-proposal conference” Thursday at Treasury’s Division of Purchase and Property, with Nov. 15 the deadline for bids. (Fitzgerald, NJBIZ)
Court rulings help illegal immigrants’ college-bound children
Several states with financial difficulties have moved quietly in recent years to reduce spending on college education by denying low tuition rates and financial aid to American citizens who are the children of illegal immigrants.
But in separate decisions over the past month, courts in New Jersey and Florida have rebuffed those efforts, adding new limits to the measures state officials can take to crack down on illegal immigrants by denying benefits to them and their families. (Preston, The New York Times)
Christie task force recommends education law changes
Gov. Chris Christie’s task force on education said Wednesday that the state should implement the governor’s major education recommendations, as well as get rid of regulatory provisions in an effort to give schools and their teachers more leeway for spending their resources and organizing their classrooms.
The recommendations range from big ideas — using public money to send some students to private schools — to small ones — ending the mandate that school districts employ one janitor for every 17,500 feet of building space.
In its final report, the Education Transformation Task Force convened by Christie a year ago called for changing the law to allow schools to lay off more experienced teachers if less experienced ones get better marks on evaluations and to put in place new standards for how schools under state control can become independent again. (Mulvihill, Asbury Park Press)
Red Tape Report released, will Department of Education start cutting?
The Christie administration finally released its report yesterday on ways to ease red tape and regulations that put New Jersey’s public school districts in a bind — from what kinds of paper districts must use to teacher professional development and licensing.
Covering more than 450 recommendations in all, much of the 239-page Education Transformation Task Force report ordered by Gov. Chris Christie more than a year ago addressed mundane issues such as paperwork and procedures.
Red tape reviews are common to nearly every administration. But this project went a step further in several regards, down to proposing language for new administrative code in several major areas and a schedule for seeing them passed. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of a New School Year
Amy PayneSeptember 4, 2012
As of today, the vast majority of American students have begun a new school year. As lunches are packed and carpool lines grow, Heritage reviews the good, bad, and ugly in education.
The Good
Support for school choice is at an all-time high. In a poll released in August, school choice favorability jumped 10 percentage points since last year, a sign that the proliferation of options such as vouchers, education savings accounts, and online learning is creating a welcome choice for families across the country.
Options like the education savings accounts implemented in Arizona, statewide vouchers in effect in Louisiana, and tuition tax credits benefitting children in Florida provide families with greater control over education—something more and more parents are expressing they want.
Social promotion is becoming less popular. In North Carolina, legislators approved a measure to end social promotion. Rather than automatically passing students on to the next grade, all third-grade students will be required to read at grade level before advancing to the fourth grade. Other states that have implemented this policy suggest that it is helpful in boosting student achievement.
Online, customized learning is on the rise. Individualized online learning options allow more emphasis on areas where students are struggling, without holding back their peers who may be ready for the next level.
Teachers union membership is declining. The National Education Association is projecting a loss of 308,000 members since 2010. One of the union’s top officials, treasurer Becky Pringle, blames “stupid” education reform: “We’re living with a recession that just won’t end, political attacks that have turned brutal, and societal changes that are impacting us—from stupid education ‘reform’ to an explosion of technology—all coming together to impact us in ways that we had never anticipated.”
The Bad
The Administration is singling out minority students for government “help” instead of raising them up through increased options. Over the summer, President Obama signed an executive order to form the new White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans. According to the White House, the new initiative, which will work across federal agencies, “aims to ensure that all African American students receive an education that fully prepares them for high school graduation, college completion, and productive careers.”
Parents and taxpayers would be correct to be skeptical of a new Washington initiative to improve student outcomes. A new evaluation by Matthew Chingos of the Brookings Institution and Paul Peterson of Harvard shows a far more promising route to improving academic opportunity for the students the President’s initiative aims to help: school vouchers. The study of low-income students in New York City found a 24 percent increase in college enrollment among African-American students who were awarded and used vouchers to attend private schools.
This success has already proven the vital role of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. Students who have used vouchers to attend private schools in the nation’s capital have a 91 percent graduation rate, while graduation rates in D.C. public schools hover around 60 percent.
The Ugly
Average per-pupil spending in public schools is reaching historic highs. Nationally, average per-pupil spending exceeds $11,400 this year, meaning a child entering kindergarten today can expect to have no less than $148,000 spent on his or her education by the time the child graduates high school. In all, more than $570 billion will be spent on public K-12 education this year.
Continual increases in the money spent per child and in overall spending haven’t led to increases in academic achievement. Heritage’s Lindsey Burke notes:
We continue to fund institutions—sending that money to schools—instead of actually funding children. Imagine if a child could put those dollars in a funding “backpack” and take that $11,400 to any school—public, private, or virtual. As in every other sector of American life, we would likely see outcomes improve as a result of competitive pressure placed on the government school system.
Despite the successes of more individualized learning and school choice, the Obama Administration wants to further centralize education in Washington through national standards and tests. It has been trying to entice states with waivers from the onerous No Child Left Behind law, which it gives to states that agree to adopt the Administration’s standards instead.
Implementing Washington-controlled education standards means that states, local school boards, and ultimately parents will have less say in their children’s education. This year’s homework assignment for conservatives: continue the fight for increased parental control, individualized options for students, and decreased government interference in education.
2012 Elections: KYRILLOS CLOSING THE GAP IN NEW POLL
Middletown, September 5… The Kyrillos Campaign today released the results of a new survey showing U.S. Senate Candidate Joe Kyrillos is closing the gap with his opponent. With 65 days until Election Day, Senator Kyrillos has surged to within 4-points of Senator Menendez making this race neck and neck. The survey also shows an incumbent still unable to break 50% and weakened by upside down favorability and job approval ratings.
The topline results can be viewed here.
“Joe’s message of creating jobs for the middle class and working together with members of both sides of the aisle is resonating with the voters of New Jersey,” said Kyrillos Campaign Manager Chapin Fay. “It’s clear New Jerseyans want change and, if this surge continues, in two months they will have it when Joe Kyrillos is elected the next US Senator from New Jersey.”
“This marks another poll in which Menendez is yet again under 50%,” said Adam Geller of National Research, the Kyrillos campaign’s pollster. The survey was conducted by Magellan Strategies on August 30th and September 3rd, 2012 and sampled 746 likely voters for a margin of error of +/- 3.59%.
