FOOD POLICE: Complaints Mount Against Michelle Obama’s New Lunch Menu
Sep 23, 2012
Kyle Olson
In Wisconsin, high school athletes are complaining about not getting enough to eat each day, due to the skimpy new school lunch menu mandated by the United States Department of Agriculture and First Lady Michelle Obama.
The story we published earlier this week on that subject is unfortunately not unique. Students across the country are complaining about the new school lunch regulations.
Perhaps the real motive is to starve students into slimming down. Just ask students in Pierre, South Dakota who, too, are in an all-out revolt.
“I know a lot of my friends who are just drinking a jug of milk for their lunch. And they are not getting a proper meal,” middle school student Samantha Gortmaker told Keloland.com.
Despite the fact that the new regulations have increased the cost of a lunch 20 to 25 cents per plate, it’s not pleasing students.
Some are throwing away their vegetables while others are adapting to the rules by becoming industrious. In New Bedford, Massachusetts, students have created a black market – for chocolate syrup.
The film, the second-highest-grossing political documentary in U.S. box-office history, has made $32 million domestically since opening in mid July but took in only $938,000 during the recent weekend for a per-screen average of $771, down 27 percent from $1,060 per screen in the previous weekend, according to BoxOfficeMojo. Overall, the movie’s boxoffice dropped 53 percent in the most recent weekend compared with the previous one, its largest decline since opening 10 weeks ago.
It’s a cool Caribbean Calypso party this year at the 10th Annual Mary Therese Rose Fund
Dinner, UNDER THE SEA 2. You and your family are invited to join us on Sunday October
21 at the Sheraton Crossroads in Mahwah. Ease into the evening with the sounds of the
Caribbean during the hors d’oeuvre and cocktail hour. Then enjoy dinner and featured artists,
The Tropical Beat Steel Drum Band. Cool down at the end of the evening with our delicious ice
cream sundae dessert bar! Kids can make their own music video and learn what is really under
the sea from our guest marine biologist at the touch tank in this year’s kids’ room, open from
4:00 to 5:30 PM. Our dinner and entertainment will follow.
Wear your best beach cabana-wear and we’ll see you on October 21st for some cool times Under
the Sea! $160 Per Adult • $80 Per Child • $1200 Per Table
Mary Therese Rose Crilly was born in 1998 with Joubert Syndrome a rare genetic disorder
which left her profoundly disabled. Though physically limited, Mary’s limitless love and courage
inspired those closest to her to establish a fund in her name to benefit special needs children
being treated out of the Kireker Center for Child Development. The Fund provides needed
therapies and equipment that are so often denied by insurance companies because of lifetime
insurance benefit limits or simple denial of reasonable claims.
Each year The Mary Therese Rose Fund helps families pay for needed equipment like orthotics,
braces, and standers. It also funds activities such as horseback riding that are therapeutic and
brighten the lives of these special kids. It is the goal of The Mary Therese Rose Fund to help
these special children reclaim some of the simple joys of childhood denied them by their
disabilities. Though Mary passed away in 2003 her brief life was filled with joy. In gratitude,
and to honor her memory, supporters of the Mary Therese Rose Fund continue to work so that
other special children can experience some of childhood’s simple joys as Mary did. For more
information on the Mary Therese Rose Fund, go to www.marythereserose.org.
Your tax deductible contribution benefits local special needs kids through The Mary Therese
Rose Fund. Reserve your tickets for this special event by calling Jack Crilly at 201-394-5940 or
e-mailing jackcrilly@hotmail.com.
VILLAGE COUNCIL SPECIAL PUBLIC MEETING : Appointment of Municipal Court Judge
SEPTEMBER 26, 2012
7:00 P.M.
1. Call to Order – Mayor
2. Statement of Compliance with the Open Public Meeting Act
MAYOR: “Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by a posting on the bulletin board in Village Hall,by mail to the Ridgewood News, The Record, and by submission to all persons entitled to same as provided by law of a schedule including the date and time of this meeting.”
3. Roll Call
4. Comments from the Public
5. Resolution to go into Closed Session
6. Closed Session
A. Personnel – Municipal Court Judge
7. Resume Open Portion of Special Public Meeting
8. Resolution #12-233 – Appointment of Municipal Court Judge
9, Discussion of Timing for Village Council’s Public Workshop Meeting on October 3, 2012
Board of Adjustment Public Meeting
09/25/12
7:30PM
AGENDA
September 25, 2012
7:30 P.M.
1. Call to order
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. Statement required by the Open Public Meeting Act “Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by a posting on the bulletin board in the Village Hall, by mail to the Ridgewood News, The Record and the Herald News and by submission to all persons entitled to same as provided by law of a schedule including date and time of this meeting”.
4. Roll call
5. New Business:
257 East Ridgewood Avenue, LLC – An application for preliminary site plan approval, minor subdivision approval to consolidate interior lot lines and variances so as to permit the redevelopment of property at 253-257 East Ridgewood Avenue, Block 3703, Lots 4, 6, and 8.01. The proposed project calls for the construction of a new five-story addition to an existing commercial building located on the property, which will contain fifty-seven residential dwelling units, as well as structured on site parking.
Editors Note : this project is kown as “The Enclave”
A pilot program for extending the school day and school year
What it is: A bill that would create a pilot program for extending the school day and school year, with the state providing a financial incentive. The legislation, sponsored by some high-powered Democrats, will be heard in committee today.
What it means: Having kids spend more time in the classroom is not a new idea, but it has been restricted by a lack of financing. This new approach calls for rolling it out a few districts at a time. The proposal calls for up to 25 districts to be chosen to test longer schedules and calendars, with $144 million being made available over three years through private contributions and state tax credits.
The stated aim: “The goal of the pilot program shall be to study the effects of a longer school day and school year on advancing student achievement, enhancing the overall school learning environment, and increasing student enrichment opportunities and educational offerings.” (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
Like too many other long-reigning fixtures on Capitol Hill, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) doesn’t appreciate the magnitude of the challenge to the authority he presumes to hold over America’s job and wealth creators. Or maybe he does, and frustration over that fact explains why he besmirches companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard.
Levin presided over a Senate hearing last week devoted to examining the “loopholes and gimmicks” used by these multinational companies to avoid paying taxes – and to branding them dirty tax scofflaws. Well here’s a news flash for the senator: incentives matter.
The byzantine U.S. tax code, which Senator Levin – over his 33-year tenure in the U.S. Senate (one-third of a century!) – no doubt had a hand or two in shaping, includes the highest corporate income tax rate among all of the world’s industrialized countries and the unusual requirement that profits earned abroad by U.S. multinationals are subject to U.S. taxation upon repatriation. No other major economy does that. Who in their right minds would not expect those incentives to encourage moving production off shore and keeping profits there?
Minimizing exposure to taxes – like avoiding an oncoming truck – is a natural reaction to tax policy. Entire software and accounting industries exist to serve that specific objective. Unless they are illegal (and that is not what Levin asserts directly), the tax minimization programs employed at Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard are legitimate responses to the tax policies implemented and foreshadowed by this and previous congresses. If Levin is concerned about diminishing federal tax collections from corporations (which, of course, reduces his power), the solution is to change the incentives – to change the convoluted artifice of backroom politics that is our present tax code.
Combine the current tax incentive structure with stifling, redundant environmental, financial, and health and safety regulations, an out-of-control tort system that often starts with a presumption of corporate malfeasance, exploding health care costs, and costly worker’s compensation rules, and it becomes apparent why more and more businesses would consider moving operations abroad – permanently. Thanks to the progressive trends of globalization, liberalization, transportation, and communication, societies’ producers are no longer quite as captive to confiscatory or otherwise suffocating domestic policies. They have choices.
Of course many choose to stay, and for good reason. We are fortunate to have the institutions, the rule of law, deep and diversified capital markets, excellent research universities, a highly-skilled workforce, cultural diversity, and a society that not only tolerates but encourages dissent, and the world’s largest consumer market – still. Success is more likely to be achieved in an environment with those advantages. They are the ingredients of our ingenuity, our innovativeness, our willingness to take risks as entrepreneurs, and our economic success. This is why companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Hewlett-Packard are born in the United States.
But those advantages are eroding.
While U.S. policymakers browbeat U.S. companies and threaten them with sanctions for “shipping jobs overseas” or “hiding profits abroad” or some other manifestation of what politicians like to call corporate greed, characterizing them as a scourge to be contained and controlled, other governments are hungry for the benefits those companies can provide their people. Some of those governments seem to recognize that the world’s wealth and jobs creators have choices about where they produce, sell, and conduct research and development. And some are acting to attract U.S. businesses with incentives that become less necessary every time a politician vents his spleen about evil corporations. Not only should our wealth creators be treated with greater respect from Washington, but we are kidding ourselves if we think our policies don’t need to keep up. As I wrote in a December 2009 Cato paper:
Governments are competing for investment and talent, which both tend to flow to jurisdictions where the rule of law is clear and abided; where there is greater certainty to the business and political climate; where the specter of asset expropriation is negligible; where physical and administrative infrastructure is in good shape; where the local work force is productive; where there are limited physical, political, and administrative friction.
This global competition in policy is a positive development. But U.S. policymakers cannot take for granted that traditional U.S. strengths will be enough. We have to compete and earn our share with good policies. The decisions made now with respect to policies on immigration, education, energy, trade, entitlements, taxes, and the role of government in managing the economy will determine the health, competitiveness, and relative significance of the U.S. economy in the decades ahead.
Since another hearing devoted to thanking these companies for their contriubtions to the U.S. economy is unlikely, perhaps Senator Levin should at least consider the perils of chasing away these golden geese.
New Jersey is a decidedly blue state, but that hasn’t stopped Mitt Romney from competing for the financial gains to be found in one of the wealthiest regions of the country.
President Obama narrowly leads the Republican candidate in the total amount raised here with $5.3 million to Romney’s $5.1 million. However, Obama’s total comes from nearly 36,000 contributions, while Romney’s comes from 6,300, indicating that Republican supporters are backing their candidate with larger checks.
If you were to map out the number of Obama’s contributions from New Jersey against Romney’s, the state would be entirely blue. But the dollar amount presents a different picture. (Sagara, The Star-Ledger)
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie defended Mitt Romney’s decision not to release his full tax returns as the general election looms and ripped Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for attacking the GOP nominee on the issue.
“I think every candidate’s got to make the issue on the tax returns for themselves,” Christie told Nevada reporter Jon Ralston on Thursday, the day before Romney released his return for 2011. “You don’t think anybody in America’s gonna make their decision upon Mitt Romney’s tax returns — that’s just silly.”
Christie slammed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for allegations an anonymous Bain investor told the Nevada Democrat that Romney had not paid any taxes for 10 years.
“Of course, Harry Reid wants to talk about that,” the governor said. “Harry Reid has been part of the problem.” (Cervantes, Politico)
New Jersey maintains 4th highest unemployment rate
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released unemployment rates in all 50 states today, showing New Jersey maintains the fourth highest rate in the nation.
Preliminary numbers released today show only Nevada (12.1), Rhode Island (10.7) and California (10.1) maintain higher jobless rates than New Jersey, which hit 9.9 percent in August.
But while New Jersey’s rate of unemployment has risen a half of a percent since August 2011, the state has added the eighth highest job total in the nation at 51,400 new jobs over that span. (Isherwood, PolitickerNJ)
Staten Islanders Furious As MTA Considers A $15 Toll To Cross Verrazano Bridge Residents Go Ballistic As Congressman Vows To Make Sure It Never Happens
September 22, 2012 9:29 PM
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – One woman told 1010 WINS’ Steve Sandberg that she doesn’t even have to leave Staten Island to feel the burden of high tolls.
“It’s actually cheaper for tolls in Brooklyn than for tolls in Staten Island,” she said Saturday.
Now, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority wants to hike the Verrazano Bridge toll to $15, and Staten Islanders are banding together to say “enough is enough” with all these tolls.
Trenton Stuck on Stupid : Doggie seat belts loom in N.J. as budget challenges grow
New Jersey’s unemployment rate is the highest in more than three decades. Revenue trails Governor Chris Christie’s projections by $100 million. And its assembly is considering making the state the first in the U.S. to require drivers to restrain pets in their vehicles.
Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer, a Newark Democrat who owns a Pomeranian named A.J. along with five cats and a rabbit, has introduced a bill to require motorists to secure dogs and felines with a seatbelt-like harness if they’re not being transported in crates. Violators would get a $25 ticket that might escalate to an animal-cruelty charge with a fine of as much as $1,000 in extreme cases, such as having an unrestrained pet in the bed of a pickup. (Dopp, Bloomberg)
Why is the NJ unemployment rate rising while the state gains jobs?
Another increase in New Jersey’s unemployment rate — this time to 9.9 percent — prompted the Christie administration Thursday to wonder aloud if there was something wrong with the survey itself.
Charles Steindel, chief economist for the state Department of Treasury, said the jobless rate told a story that was 180-degrees different from another survey that showed the state added 5,300 jobs in August.
If the unemployment rate is accurate, “this would mean we were losing 600 jobs a day in August, including weekends,” Steindel said in a conference call with reporters. “It didn’t happen.” (Diamond, Asbury Park Press)
Facebook raises fears with ad tracking
By Emily Steel in New York and April Dembosky in San Francisco
Facebook is working with a controversial data company called Datalogix that can track whether people who see ads on the social networking site end up buying those products in stores.
Amid growing pressure for the social networking site to prove the value of its advertising, Facebook is gradually wading into new techniques for tracking and using data about users that raise concerns among privacy advocates.
Double Whammy For Monday Morning Rush Hour Route 17 Commuters
September 24,2012
Boyd A. Loving
8:15 AM
Ridgewood NJ, On Monday morning, rush hour commuters using Route 17 through Ridgewood were treated to a “double whammy;” two separate accidents near Paramus Road, one northbound, the other southbound. Minor injuries were reported at the southbound accident scene, there was no one injured in the northbound mishap. Traffic through the area was choked for more than an hour as tow trucks cleared the northbound roadway. Ridgewood PD, FD, and EMS responded to the southbound incident. The northbound incident did not require EMS response.
