Village Hall Flu Clinic – October 11 and 23 – Appointment Required
Flu clinic at Village Hall Community Center – Anne Zusy Youth Center, Level One are scheduled for Thursday, October 11th from 9am until 12Noon and Tuesday, October 23rd from 9am until 11am. Appointments are required. Please call 201 291-6090 in advance of these scheduled dates.
Maybe its time for an apology to Ken Gabbert
September 5,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ , So what ever happened to all the negative attacks on the Village manager . That is the questions the puzzles many of our readers. Well before the recent Village Council campaign we seem to remember the Village manager was accused of everything from playing favorites to Union busting by the current administration ., the Patch and the Ridgewood News ?
Since election day the critics of Village Manager: Ken Gabbert have been silent . Some would suggest this bears out the criticism leveled against the current regimen the Ridgewood blog post , “Make no mistake about it Paul Aronsohn thinly vain attempts to discredit the Village Manager has its roots in politics” https://theridgewoodblog.net/make-no-mistake-about-it-paul-aronsohn-thinly-vain-attempts-to-discredit-the-village-manager-has-its-roots-in-politics/
In this post the author went into detail claiming Paul Aronsohn’s soul purpose for discrediting the Village Manger is purely personal gain. It is all about the fact that Aronsohn is a “Jim” McGreevey Democrat and Gabbert a Republican .
So at this point it looks like some members of the community were just blowing smoke with all their attacks on Ken Gabbert ,ie…his “pay raise” ,the fake “7% budget increase” and so on and so on . Maybe its time for an apology.
Concussion Management Program Set for September 10
ImPACT Baseline Testing For Kids Playing Sports
August 29, 2012 — The Valley Hospital Sports Institute is providing this valuable service for local youth sports participants. Football, hockey, girls’ and boys’ soccer, and lacrosse are contact sports with a high risk of head injury – including concussions.
ImPACT (Immediate Post Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing) is an innovative computerized evaluation system that assesses the effects and severity of a concussion and helps determine when it is safe for an athlete to return to contact sports following a concussion.
Baseline testing is suitable for athletes ages 10 and older. Testing includes a battery of computerized neurocognitive evaluations, including measures of verbal and visual memory, attention span, brain processing speed, and reaction time. If an athlete experiences a concussion, he or she is re-tested and the baseline data is compared to the post-concussion data to monitor recovery and to help determine when it is safe for the player to return to active sports.
Get your child tested BEFORE he or she has a head injury. Testing takes place on Monday, September 10 at 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. at Valley’s Kraft Center, 15 Essex Road in Paramus.
Registration is required and the fee is $25. Space is limited. For more information, please call 201-447-8133.
$16,000,000,000,000
Amy PayneSeptember 5, 2012
Yesterday, the U.S. national debt passed $16 trillion. On President Barack Obama’s watch, the debt has increased by 50 percent, as campaign promise after campaign promise has drowned in a sea of federal spending.
When he was running for President, Obama condemned George W. Bush for adding $4 trillion to the national debt over eight years, calling it “irresponsible” and “unpatriotic.” Now—in less than four years—Obama’s Administration has already added almost $6 trillion to the debt. That means he is on track to triple Bush’s debt increase over eight years.
It is important to understand the magnitude of this debt increase and what it means for the country. Several terms are often used to describe the debt, but they are not interchangeable. Here is a quick guide to the U.S. debt.
National debt or “gross debt,” which just passed $16 trillion: This includes what we think of as federal debt plus intergovernmental debt—money the U.S. government has loaned itself from one part of the budget to another. An example of intergovernmental debt is transfers from the general fund to Social Security.
The “debt ceiling” applies to this measure of the debt. At this rate, it will hit the ceiling again—meaning Congress will have to act and will likely raise the limit again—perhaps as early as November of this year.
At $16 trillion, this number has passed total U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), the measure of all that is produced in the economy.
Since Obama took office, the national debt has increased from about $10.6 trillion to more than $16 trillion—a 50 percent increase.
Debt per taxpayer: $111,414 and counting
Publicly held debt or “debt held by the public,” which stands at about $11.3 trillion: The debt held by the public is publicly traded debt, so it can be bought and sold in the credit markets. It does not include the intergovernmental loans mentioned above.
Since Obama took office, publicly held debt has increased from about $6.3 trillion to about $11.3 trillion—a nearly 80 percent increase.
This total—and the 80 percent increase—is actually more significant, because President Obama has added more to the publicly held debt than any previous President.
The federal budget deficit, which is on track to top $1 trillion for the fourth straight year: The deficit shows how much government spending has exceeded revenue in a given year, or the money the government is taking in from taxes. In contrast, the publicly held debt is the total of all past deficits and surpluses. The U.S. government spends more than it takes in. To cover the deficit and continue spending, government bonds and notes—essentially IOUs—must be issued.
President Obama vowed to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term.
Instead, Obama has averaged deficits nearly three times that of his predecessor.
These numbers are staggering. In just a few years, the U.S. will be spending more on just the interest on the national debt than on our entire national defense budget. As Heritage’s Romina Boccia explains:
Countries like Greece and Italy demonstrate the economic pains that result from procrastinating on solving a nation’s major spending and debt challenges. Only Congress can decide whether to make the prudent and intentional decisions to ward off a fiscal crisis, or whether to stand idle until forced to act by unnecessarily painful events that could have been avoided.
As it is, children born in the United States today—who won’t pay taxes for years yet—are saddled with a more than $50,000 share of the national debt. If Congress and the President refuse to rein in spending, these children may grow up in the new Greece.
Rutgers Poll: NJ voters unconvinced of ‘Jersey Comeback’
It seems state residents aren’t buying the New Jersey comeback, despite long running efforts by the governor to convince voters it is alive and well.
According to a new Rutgers- Eagleton poll, more than two thirds of New Jersey residents believe Gov. Chris Christie has overhyped the “comeback,” while less than a third believe the governor’s narrative.
The numbers break heavily along party lines with 56 percent of Republicans believing in the comeback, joined by 29 percent of independents and just 12 percent of Democrats.
The soft support for the comeback storyline has not hurt Christie as 48 percent of registered voters say the state is headed in the right direction and 47 percent say he deserves another term, versus 46 percent say it’s time for someone new. (Staff, PolitickerNJ)
https://www.politickernj.com/
In North Carolina, student insurance costs rise under Obamacare
CNN Political Reporter Peter Hamby
Charlotte, North Carolina (CNN) – President Obama’s health care reform law, which expands preventative care and lets young people remain on their parents’ health insurance plans well into their 20s, is a central part of his election year pitch to college students.
And perhaps nowhere are students more critical to the president’s re-election chances than in North Carolina, a state jam-packed with colleges and universities that were blitzed by Obama campaign organizers in 2008.
But as the president fights to keep the conservative-leaning state in his column this November, education officials here are complicating his campaign message by citing “Obamacare” as a reason for the rising cost of student health insurance plans on campuses from Asheville to Wilmington.
Greg Wu named 2012-2013 Ashby Award Winner
September 4,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The 2012 winner of the coveted Ashby Award is Greg Wu, Assistant Principal/Grade Administrator at Benjamin Franklin Middle School.
The Ashby award was established in 1966 to honor former Superintendent Lloyd W. Ashby and his wife, Lois, for their distinguished service to the community. The recipient is selected from nominees submitted by staff members and is someone who, in the opinion of his or
her peers, has carried on our district’s long tradition of service and contribution. This is the highest honor that the Ridgewood Public Schools can bestow on a staff member.
The Ashby has been awarded every year since 1992 when Dennis Carroll became the first recipient
To read Dr. Fishbein’s remarks at the Ashby Award presentation at Convocation on September 4. https://tinyurl.com/9ze3634
Food-Stamp Use Climbs To Record, Reviving Campaign Issue
By Alan Bjerga – Sep 4, 2012 2:24 PM ET
Food-stamp use reached a record 46.7 million people in June, the government said, as Democrats prepare to nominate President Barack Obama for a second term with the economy as a chief issue in the campaign.
Participation was up 0.4 percent from May and 3.3 percent higher than a year earlier and has remained greater than 46 million all year as the unemployment rate stayed higher than 8 percent. New jobless numbers will be released Sept. 7.
“Too many middle-class families who have fallen on hard times are still struggling,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in an e-mailed statement today. “Our goal is to get these families the temporary assistance they need so they are able to get through these tough times and back on their feet as soon as possible.”
Food-stamp spending, which more than doubled in four years to a record $75.7 billion in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2011, is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s biggest annual expense. Republicans in Congress have criticized the cost of the program, and the House budget plan approved in April sponsored by Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the party’s vice- presidential nominee, would cut expenses by $33 billion over 10 years.
Under Obamanomics US Slips Down the Ranks of Global Competitiveness
Published: Wednesday, 5 Sep 2012 | 4:06 AM ET Text Size
By: Ansuya Harjani
Assistant Producer, CNBC Asia
The United States has slipped further down a global ranking of the world’s most competitive economies, according to a World Economic Forum (WEF) survey released on Wednesday.
The world’s largest economy, which was placed 5th last year, fell two positions to the 7th spot – marking its fourth year of decline.
A lack of macroeconomic stability, the business community’s continued mistrust of the government and concerns over its fiscal health were some of the reasons for the downgrade, according to the annual survey.
“A number of weaknesses are chipping away at its competitiveness…the U.S. fiscal imbalances and continued political deadlock over resolving these challenges,” said Jennifer Blanke, Economist at the Geneva-based WEF.
Study Illustrates Connection Between Overworked Nurses, Infections: Could NJ Hospitals Be At Risk?
Richard P. Console Jr
August 31,2012
A recent study highlighting a dangerous trend among hospital nurses has many Marlton medical malpractice attorneys concerned as to how this is affecting New Jersey hospitals. The study, published in the American Journal of Infection Control, found that for every additional patient that is added to a nurse’s workload there was one additional hospital-acquired infection (per 1,000 patients). What this study seems to suggest is that the more overworked and overloaded the nurse is, the greater the chance that a patient will develop an infection while in that hospital.
According to an NBC report the study highlighted that, “The nurses cared for an average of 5.7 patients apiece, and when even one extra patient was added to that load, the result was an additional 1,351 infections within the hospital population studied.”
This is not an issue that is exclusive to one location. It seems to be occurring all of the country, including New Jersey. The data on hospital-acquired infections was collected from throughout Pennsylvania and then combined with national data.
The New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) keeps detailed records of incidents occurring in hospitals both good and bad. One section of their annual report addresses patient safety indicators (PSIs), or the occurrence of dangerous incidents, for each hospital in the state.
In their 2011 report, they showed that Virtua-West Jersey Hospital in Marlton was higher than the state average for occurrences of post-operative wound dehiscence (where a wound breaks open along a suture putting the patient at an increased risk for infection), post-operative hemorrhage or hematoma (abnormal or excessive bleeding), and post-operative pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis (two serious types of blood clots).
Virtua-West was also rated by the Leap Frog Group in their 2011 Hospital Safety Score and that showed that they had a higher than average occurrence of central line-associated bloodstream infections, which occur when a central line placed in a patient’s neck or chest is not inserted or cleaned properly. Although the study had a section to report on employees and employee practices, Virtua-West Marlton did not disclose this information.
Taking into consideration the information from the recent study, is there a problem with the amount of patients being assigned to each nurse that could be causing an increase in infections? Hospitals have an obligation to their patients not to cause further harm or injury to them while under the hospital’s care. Failure to do so be it through medical error or instances of malpractice may entitle the victim or their family to seek monetary compensation for the resulting injuries.
It is important that all patients receive accepted medical care in a safe and clean environment. If you or someone you love developed a serious infection or suffered other harm as the result of medical error, speak with knowledgeable medical malpractice attorneys in New Jersey today.
Links:
Marlton medical malpractice lawyers: https://www.consoleandhollawell.com/pages/virtua-west-jersey-hospital-marlton-medical-malpractice-lawsuits/
NBC report: https://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/30/12994989-burned-out-nurses-linked-to-more-infections-in-patients?lite
2011 report: https://web.doh.state.nj.us/apps2/hpr/docs/2011/report.pdf
2011 Hospital Safety Score: https://hospitalsafetyscore.org/hospital-details.html?location_id=1537
medical malpractice attorneys in New Jersey: https://www.consoleandhollawell.com/new-jersey/medical-malpractice-lawyers/
State seeks to cut back ambitious energy reduction goals
Say adieu to the state’s aggressive goal of reducing energy use by 20 percent by 2020, a target once considered crucial to achieving equally ambitious goals in curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
The state expects to achieve far fewer reductions in energy use — at least in the short-term — from consumers and businesses as a result of changes it is proposing to its clean energy program.
In a straw proposal outlining its spending plans from 2014-2017, the state Office of Clean Energy estimates it will cut energy consumption by 17 percent by 2020, a 3 percent decline from an earlier goal in the Energy Master Plan adopted by the Corzine administration. (Johnson, NJ Spotlight)
Take the train to the Giants Cowboys Game tonight at MetLife Stadium
September 5,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
MetLife Stadium Information Public Transportation
Ridgewood NJ, MetLife Stadium encourages all ticket holders to consider taking mass transit to Giants football games. Ticket holders who have used the following mass transit options have found them to be easy and convenient.
NJ Transit Rail Service : The new rail system connects the northeast corridor to the Frank R. Lautenberg train station in Secaucus, N.J., which allows fans from the region to quickly and efficiently reach the MetLife Stadium.
The rail station is located next to MetLife Stadium and the travel time between the Secaucus Junction train station and the Stadium station is approximately 10 minutes. The round-trip fare from Secaucus to MetLife Stadium is $4.50. Rail service commences three (3) hours prior to kickoff and ends two (2) hours after the game. For more information, please visit NJTransit.com.
From Ridgewood Train station Take either Main line or Bergen County Line train and switch at Frank R. Lautenberg train station in Secaucus to MetLife Stadium.
There is also bus transportation via either Route 163 or 164 , but due to traffic we highly recommend the rail road .
“Town Garage” looks to make a comeback
September 5, 2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, With the Village facing a “”Park-pocalypse” next week the Village council looks to continue discussions during the councils next work session on the recently proposed “Chamber of Commerce” parking plan for the Central Business District and a new plane for the you guessed it “Town Garage” property.
As previously reported members of the Ridgewood business community presented an elaborate, through expensive multifaceted plan last month that included not one but two parking structures and a new retail space as well as a strategy to fund the entire venture. This plan has become known as the “Chamber of Commerce” parking plan.
Criticism has centered on whether the plan can come in on budget to meet the very aggressive requirements to fund the parking complexes without risk to tax payers. A rosie scenario was presented but given the Villages past inability to meet construction budgets ie, the $2 million Village Hall that became a $9 million fiasco or the $400,000 ‘Golden Toilet” at Vets field that much chronicled on this blog leaves readers with doubts .
Tonight the “Town Garage” project is expected to be resurrected by the owners .Village Council members are expected discuss the plan at length. Past plans for the property have always been based on the socialized taxpayer financing with profits kept in the hands of the few. Taxpayers in Ridgewood up till now have been in no mood to finance someone else’s profits., but with the new regime the jury is still out.
There is also the issue of old fuel tanks , and soil contamination at the site if needed with no one really sure what the Village is on the hook for.
State Board of Education : Christie administration launching new turnaround strategies for low-performing schools
What they are doing: For the first week of school in most New Jersey districts, the State Board of Education takes up a host of major policy issues, including a crowded session of public testimony. On the agenda are charter schools, teacher quality, and interdistrict school choice. With the Christie administration launching new turnaround strategies for low-performing schools, its new staffing and other programs for these schools may also come up. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
https://www.njspotlight.com/
Prevent Mosquito-borne West Nile Virus
The Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Health are urging state residents to take precautions to protect themselves from mosquito-borne West
Nile Virus by taking some simple steps to reduce populations of the insect on their own properties.
Late summer and early fall are typically the most critical times of the year to be aware of the potential for the dangers of contracting West Nile Virus from mosquito bites. Mosquito activity can continue until late October. Mosquitoes also can become more active throughout the entire day at this time of year.
Concerns are elevated this year because of increased mosquito activity due to weather conditions that have been ripe for mosquito breeding, and which could increase the risk of mosquito-borne diseases, including West Nile virus.
The DEP offers the following tips on how to limit mosquitoes on your property:
Dispose of tin cans, plastic containers, ceramic pots or similar water-holding containers that have accumulated on your property. Pay special attention to discarded tires that may have accumulated. The used tire has become the most important domestic mosquito producer in this country. Drill holes in the bottom and elevate recycling containers that are left out of doors. Clean clogged roof gutters on an annual basis, particularly if the leaves from surrounding trees have a tendency to plug up the drains. Roof gutters are easily overlooked but can produce millions of mosquitoes each season. Turn over plastic wading pools when not in use. A wading pool becomes a mosquito producer if it is not used on a regular basis. Turn over wheelbarrows and do not allow water to stagnate in bird baths. Aerate ornamental pools or stock them with fish. Water gardens are fashionable but become major mosquito producers if they are allowed to stagnate. Clean and chlorinate swimming pools that are not being used. A swimming pool that is left untended can produce enough mosquitoes to result in neighborhood-wide complaints. Be aware mosquitoes may even breed in the water that collects on pool covers. Use landscaping to eliminate standing water that collects on your property. Mosquitoes will develop in any puddle that lasts more than four days. Maintain mechanical barriers, such as window and door screens, to prevent mosquitoes from entering buildings. Barriers over rain barrels or cistern and septic pipes will deny female mosquitoes the opportunity to lay eggs on water. If you have problems controlling mosquitoes, contact your county mosquito control agency by calling 888-666-5968.
