State police have prepared a composite sketch of the suspect, which was released Thursday afternoon.
Westwood Police investigating possible luring
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2012 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY OCTOBER 18, 2012, 8:04 PM
BY REBECCA D. O’BRIEN AND DEENA YELLIN
STAFF WRITERS
THE RECORD
WESTWOOD — Police are investigating a possible luring incident that took place Thursday morning, the latest in a string of reports involving men accosting children on Bergen County streets.
At around 7:10 a.m. Thursday, a 13-year-old junior high school student was walking alone to school on Lafayette Avenue, when a gray four-door hatchback pulled up alongside her, police said.
The driver tried to engage the girl in conversation, Police Captain Frank Durante said.
The driver, described as a white middle-age male with a crew cut and receding hairline, asked the girl if she wanted a ride to or from school, Durante said.
The student continued to school, where she reported the incident to administrators, who called the police.
The perpetrators in recent luring incidents in Maywood, Oradell, Hackensack, Hawthorne and Fair Lawn have also been described as white, middle-age men, police have said. The victim of an Oct. 12 luring in Ridgewood described three young black men who tried to get her into their car, police said. In Oradell and Washington Township, the car described was a small gray car. The car in Hackensack was described as a black Jeep, authorities have said.
The Ridgewood Police Department is investigating a report of an attempted luring incident which occurred on Friday October 12, 2012 at approximately 3:30pm. A female student from George Washington Middle School reported that she was walking home from school on Lincoln Avenue near McKinley when an older model, small, black, 4 door vehicle slowed down beside her. She reported that the vehicle was occupied by three black males, with short hair, in their twenties. She reported that the occupants began making comments about her appearance and asked her to get into the vehicle. After she refused, the vehicle continued to travel south on Lincoln Avenue toward Glen Rock. It then reportedly made a U-turn and again approached the female victim. The occupants made more requests for the victim to get into the vehicle. The victim ran home without further incident.
Anyone with information about this incident or similar incidents is encouraged to contact the Ridgewood Police Department – 201-652-3900, or Detective Peter Youngberg – 201-251-4537, or email him at pyoungberg@ridgewoodnj.net
Thank you. Sincerely yours, Daniel Fishbein, Ed.D. Superintendent of Schools
Is CNN actively Aiding and Abetting Cover up of Benghazi Terror Attacks
CNN puts out talking points to staff defending ‘superb’ debate moderator Candy Crowley and her Benghazi ‘point of fact’
By TOBY HARNDEN IN WASHINGTON
PUBLISHED: 22:06 EST, 17 October 2012 | UPDATED: 08:00 EST, 18 October 2012
CNN has sent out talking points to its staff, directing them to say that Candy Crowley was merely ‘stating a point of fact’ about the Libya ‘terror’ row and insisting that Barack Obama only got more time than Mitt Romney because he speaks slowly.
In an email to all CNN staff, the network’s managing editor Mark Whitaker congratulated his anchoron her role as moderator and washing over the controversy over her effectively siding with Obama over Romney on a question concerning the U.S. Consulate attack in Libya last month.
Whitaker wrote: ‘Let’s start with a big round of applause for Candy Crowley for a superb job under the most difficult circumstances imaginable.’
President Obama continues to demonstrate Cluelessness on Personal Finance
Pension Envy: Who Has More—Obama or Romney?
Published: Wednesday, 17 Oct 2012 | 2:37 PM ET Text Size
By: Jeff Cox
CNBC.com Senior Writer
Retirement packages sparked one of a series of confrontations during the Tuesday debate between President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
The exchange took place during a discussion of China policy, with the president accusing the former Massachusetts governor of hypocrisy when it came to tough talk against the nation that boasts the world’s second-largest economy.
Romney conceded that a blind trust that manages his money does have investments in China, but countered that he wasn’t alone.
“Mr. President, have you looked at your pension? Have you looked at your pension? Mr. President, have you looked at your pension?” Romney challenged.
In one of the debate’s lighter moments, Obama countered, “I don’t look at my pension. It’s not as big as yours so it doesn’t take as long. I don’t check it that often.”
The remarks sparked some audience laughter — and yet another Romney rebuke.
“Let me give you some advice: Look at your pension. You also have investments in Chinese companies, you also have investments outside the United States,” he said.
On that score, Romney is likely correct.
Many public pension funds have a diversified foreign investment portfolio that includes China. For instance, the California Public Employees Retirement System, or CalPERS, recently announced a $530 million investment in two real estate funds that target China.
Most other public pension funds have directed increasing allocations to emerging markets and alternative investment classes to generate returns and bridge exploding funding gaps.
As far as size?
From the standpoint of a public pension, Obama is well-heeled.
As president, he will receive $191,300 annually for life — win or lose in next month’s election — and receives a travel allotment as well as mailing privileges. Should Obama lose, his presidential pension kicks in immediately after leaving office.
A Multivitamin a day may reduce cancer risk
October 17, 2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Does a multivitamin a day keep the doctor away? The answer according to a large scale study ,The Physicians Health Study II of almost 15,000 men for 11 years came to the conclusion that ,those who took the pills were 8% less likely to develop cancer of any kind
The “modest” reduction is thought to mirror the benefits of eating a healthy diet high in fruit and vegetables.Multivitamins contain a wide range of nutrients that might be missing from a less than ideal diet.
The AP reports that researcher Howard Sesso, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston said: “Many studies have suggested that eating a nutritious diet may reduce a man’s risk of developing cancer. “Now we know that taking a daily multivitamin, in addition to addressing vitamin and mineral deficiencies, may also be considered in the prevention of cancer in middle-aged and older men.”(https://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/vitamins-may-reduce-cancer-risk-143845025.html )
The Physicians Health Study II (PHS II) trial involved male American doctors who received either a daily multivitamin tablet or an inactive placebo pill.
Over an average 11.2 years, a total of 2,669 cancers were diagnosed, including 1,373 cases of prostate and 210 cases of bowel cancer.
During the follow-up period, 2,757 (18.8%) of the men died, including 859 killed by cancer. Compared with men not taking multivitamins, pill users experienced an 8% reduction in total cancer incidence.Results of the study were presented at the Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research meeting in Chicago and also published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. ( https://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/vitamins-may-reduce-cancer-risk-143845025.html )
So yes a multivitamin pill a day does seem to reduce a man’s risk of cancer.
Study: Black Americans Feel Less Empowered Under Obama Than They Once Did
By ELIZABETH FLOCK
October 17, 2012
Four years after Barack Obama was elected president, this is not exactly a “post-racial” America.
A new study from Washington University in St. Louis finds that under Obama, many black Americans feel less free than whites when it comes to political participation.
[SEE: Political Cartoonists Take On President Obama]
From 2005 to 2011, only 45 percent of blacks said they believed the government would allow them to make a public speech, while 67 percent of whites believed they could, the study found.
The study found that while the election of Obama initially boosted feelings of political empowerment among black Americans, those sentiments significantly faded in the years that followed—especially among conservative and religious blacks.
These two groups make up a large segment of the black population, with 56 percent of blacks identifying as “born again,” and 39 percent of blacks as “somewhat conservative,” according to the study.
“First we saw the ’empowerment effect,’ the boost that happens when a member of your group gets elected to an important political position,” says study author James L. Gibson, a professor of government and African-American studies at Washington University. Gibson’s findings are based on national surveys conducted between 2005 and 2011.
In 2009, the year after Obama was elected, 71 percent of blacks reported feeling as free to speak one’s mind as they used to.
Bruce Springsteen Endorses Obama’s Runaway American Dream of High Unemployment, Rendition, Wiretaps
Nick Gillespie|Oct. 15, 2012 12:30 pm
Over at Mediaite, Andrew Kirell takes note of Bruce Springsteen’s recent endorsement of Barack Obama for a second term and is moved to write an open letter to the Boss. Snippets:
Your recent re-endorsement of President Barack Obama doesn’t offend me on its own — everyone saw it coming. But what offends me is what you are abandoning by diving headfirst into the endorsement game.
More evidence of White House deception on Benghazi attacks in Libya
By Jennifer Rubin
President Obama’s attempts to wriggle free from his own words and actions on Libya are making things worse.
American Crossroads, taking exception to Obama’s announcement last night that he really had declared Benghazi to be an act of terrorism, has sent out a memo, which reads:
The President clearly misled the American people with this claim, because if Obama’s Rose Garden speech was indeed the White House position, it did not inform any subsequent statement by the White House press office — and was even directly contradicted by his own spokesman several days later.
On September 20 — eight days after Obama claims to have called the Benghazi attack an “act of terror” — Jay Carney affirmed to reporters that the White House had never called it “a terrorist attack.”
From the gaggle on Air Force One, en route to Miami, 9/20/2012: Q: Can you — have you called it a terrorist attack before? Have you said that? MR. CARNEY: I haven’t, but — I mean, people attacked our embassy. It’s an act of terror by definition. Q: Yes, I just hadn’t heard you — MR. CARNEY: It doesn’t have to do with what date it occurred. Q: No, I just hadn’t heard the White House say that this was an act of terrorism or a terrorist attack. And I just —
MR. CARNEY: I don’t think the fact that we hadn’t is not — as our NCTC Director testified yesterday, a number of different elements appear to have been involved in the attack, including individuals connected to militant groups that are prevalent in eastern Libya, particularly in the Benghazi area. We are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al Qaeda or al Qaeda’s affiliates, in particular al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Here, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney actually affirmed Gov. Romney’s position that the White House did not call the Benghazi attack an act of terrorism. Carney also said the now infamous video “precipitated some of the unrest in Benghazi” the day before.
The memo goes on to argue that Obama’s position on Libya is “untenable.” That’s about the shape of things. Did he call it an act of terror and go around misleading the country for two weeks that it was a spontaneous reaction to the anti-Muslim movie? Or did he not call it terror on Sept. 12 and lie to the voters last night?
There is another problem with Obama’s response. Recall this part of his answer: “So as soon as we found out that the Benghazi Consulate was being overrun, I was on the phone with my national security team, and I gave them three instructions. Number one, beef up our security and — and — and procedures not just in Libya but every embassy and consulate in the region. Number two, investigate exactly what happened, regardless of where the facts lead us, to make sure that folks are held accountable and it doesn’t happen again. And number three, we are going to find out who did this, and we are going to hunt them down, because one of the things that I’ve said throughout my presidency is when folks mess with Americans, we go after them”
So there was no actual meeting of the National Security Council at which everyone could share information and get on the same page? (David Axelrod has refused to say.) It doesn’t sound like it. But you know Obama was busy that day — flying to Las Vegas for a campaign event. So really, why have a meeting? Well, the weeks of confusion and dissembling that followed should answer that.
Moreover, if he actually did instruct his team to heighten protection for the Libya Consulate, why was the consulate left unsecured so that CNN could waltz in to grab Ambassador Chris Stevens’s diary? Did Obama not make himself clear, or were his instructions not followed?
The more we learn the more we see how both dishonest and incompetent has been the handling of this entire incident. The Obama White House may be out spinning the press to buy into the Obama-Crowley line, but no one is buying it. As the rest of the information comes to light, the president retains less and less credibility. Like a fish on a line he flops this way and that, trying to break free of his self-created trap.
Report: Welfare government’s single largest budget item in FY 2011 at approx. $1.03 trillion
The government spent approximately $1.03 trillion on 83 means-tested federal welfare programs in fiscal year 2011 alone — a price tag that makes welfare that year the government’s largest expenditure, according to new data released by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee.
The total sum taxpayers spent on federal welfare programs was derived from a new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on federal welfare spending — which topped out at $745.84 billion for fiscal year 2011 — combined with an analysis from the Republican Senate Budget Committee staff of state spending on federal welfare programs (based on “The Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government Finance”), which reached $282.7 billion in fiscal year 2011.
EMAIL ALERT : Do not open “CNN Breaking News — Mitt Romney Almost President.”
From a very reliable source. Do not open “CNN Breaking News — Mitt Romney Almost President.”Security Alert from Kim Komando’s Bulletin
We reviewed other sites that appear to agree that it is a true virus.
****IMPORTANT SECURITY ALERT****
There’s a dangerous phishing email going around with the subject line: “CNN Breaking News — Mitt Romney Almost President.”
“If you receive this email, I recommend you delete the email immediately!
Inside the email are legitimate-looking links that will take you to a malicious website. This site will put a virus on your computer that leaves it wide open for hackers. They can steal your information, including online passwords and financial data.
This is a good reminder to be cautious when opening unsolicited email, especially one containing links. If you have doubts about an email, visit the site referenced in the email manually instead of clicking the links in the email.
Stay on your guard and have a fantastic weekend!” “Taken from Kim Komando’s weekly bulletin”
North Jersey parents, school officials tense over reports of man luring kids
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2012
BY DENISA R. SUPERVILLE
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
Reports of strangers approaching, and sometimes following, youngsters in Maywood, Oradell, Hackensack, Hawthorne, Ridgewood and Fair Lawn have parents, youngsters and school officials on edge throughout North Jersey.
Fairview Police Department is the latest to disclose a possible luring after an 11-year-old boy reported last week that a man in a van had followed him home from school. The boy told the school resource officer that the man was in a gray van and had been staring at him while he played outside during lunch time, police said.
No arrests have been made in connection with the incidents and investigators, who are working together, said Wednesday they do not have a suspect and haven’t determined if the cases are related.
“We are not at all certain that it’s the same person,” Oradell Police Chief Frank Florio said. “There are some similarities in the descriptions and the vehicles, but it’s not in any way certain that it is just one person or that they are related in any way. That’s what we are looking to figure out.”
With the exception of one of the Ridgewood incidents, all the perpetrators have been described as white and middle-aged. The vehicles have been described as a Jeep Wrangler in Hackensack and a small gray car in the Oradell and Washington Township incidents.
Ridgewood Water OK’s $800K to buy, install new water meters
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2012
BY DARIUS AMOS
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
WYCKOFF SUBURBAN NEWS
Ridgewood Water will purchase more than $800,000 worth of cold water meters and install them throughout its distribution area as part of the village department’s capital projects.
The governing body agreed to appropriate $815,000 to cover all costs of procuring and installing the meters. The price includes a $40,750 down payment.
Ridgewood Water officials recently presented a wish list of other capital projects and expenditures. The total bill associated with the projects, as presented by Ridgewood Water director Frank Moritz, is approximately $1.1 million.
Requests by Ridgewood Water, as well as other village departments, are still being refined, Village Manager Ken Gabbert said. The projects will be up for council approval as early as Oct. 24.
file photo by www.artchick.biz
According to Moritz, Ridgewood Water — which serves Wyckoff, Midland Park, Glen Rock and the village — is seeking $350,000 to conduct general improvements to the distribution system. This project, he said, includes the replacement of water pipes that have been broken for several years.
Court finds pharmaceutical company not liable for teen’s overdose on stolen pills from Ridgewood’s Harding Pharmacy
October 17,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, A state appeals court has ruled that a pharmaceutical company cannot be held responsible for a teen’s overdose on stolen prescription pills.
The Guardians for Scott Simon, who lived in Bergen County at the time of the overdose, had sued Whitestone, N.Y.-based Kinray Inc. for damages following the overdose, which has left him in a coma for years.
Kinray had a long-standing partnership with Ridgewood’s Harding Pharmacy, supplying them with drugs such as Xanax, according to court documents.
In 2006, the Ridgewood’s Harding Pharmacy hired Marc Malajian as a clerk, despite knowledge that he had previously struggled with drug addiction..
Ridgewood’s Harding Pharmacy was found to have violated more than 90 federal regulations and was lax in adhering to rules requiring the drugs to be safely locked away.
As early 2007, the DEA contacted the pharmacy to advise them that Malajian was suspected of stealing drugs from the pharmacy. The owner testified that he was asked not to reassign Malajian or change anything about his operations, so as not to interfere with the investigation.
Malajian stole Xanax pills from the pharmacy on Sept. 22, 2007, , which he later took to a party at Simon’s house. At the party he provided the 17-year-old with the drugs, despite observing that he seemed “messed up” and had a tendency to get “a little crazy (with drugs) at times”, according to court documents.( https://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2012/10/court_finds_pharmaceutical_company_not_liable_for_teens_overdose_on_stolen_pills.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter )
The party was shut down, but the crowd moved to the home of another teenager whose parents were away. When Malajian woke in the morning, he found the teen “unresponsive, with shallow breathing and blue-tinged skin.” Simon was taken to the hospital and eventually revived, but has failed to wake up from a coma due to “catastrophic injuries” related to his overdose.
Simon’s guardians filed suit against Kinray, Malajian, Harding Pharmacy, its owners and various others. All except Kinray agreed to settle, but a judge ruled last year that Kinray could not be held responsible.
Harding Pharmacy & Liquors in Ridgewood, N.J.,reached a $1.9 million settlement in December of 2007 after Simon overdosed on stolen Xanax in 2007. The drugs were given to Scott Simon, now 21, by a former Harding employee Malajian at a party, and Simon’s lawyers successfully argued the drugstore should have better safeguarded them.( https://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/16/new-jersey-settlement-houston-death-highlights-business-culpability-versus/#ixzz29eMvF7Fc )
They appealed and In their appeal argued that the drug company had failed to properly oversee and regulate conditions in Harding Pharmacy that led to the theft of the Xanax.
To a casual observer it would appear unrealistic for a drug company to police its distributors at the micro management level. The state panel ruled that it would be “burdensome” for a company to attempt to exercise such oversight, and that it was right to expect that pharmacies would comply with regulations on the storage of dangerous drugs.
The case was famously intertwined with the Whitney probe named after singer Whitney Houston ( https://theridgewoodblog.net/drugs-of-choice-whitney-probe-lesser-known-nj-case-raise-questions-about-personal-responsibility/ )
N.J. $5.7M Anti-Terror Program a Practical and Fiscal Failure
Written by Raven Clabough
According to Judicial Watch, the U.S. government has spent almost $6 million on an experimental “anti-terrorism” program in New Jersey called “Text Against Terror.” The plan, which encouraged the public to send in tips regarding potential terrorism via text messages from their cellphones, has proved to be a significant practical and fiscal failure.
The initiative was the invention of NJ Transit Police Chief Christopher Trucillo, who was a Port Authority police captain on September 11, 2001. Following that time, he was sent to Israel to study counterterrorism techniques.
The project began in June of 2011. According to the press release for Text Against Terror’s initiation on the NJ Transit Police’s website, the plan was that customers would be able to “report suspicious activity, packages or vehicles around NJ Transit facilities or onboard the system by sending a text message to NJTPD (65873).” Messages are routed directly to the NJ Transit Police Department.
The program was meant to complement the NJ Transit’s existing security hotline, 1888-TIPS-NJT, a number that customers could use to call in suspicious activity or unattended packages.
Municipal pension bills across New Jersey are going down by $116 million this year thanks to an expected reduction in local government payrolls and downward pressure on wage growth.
Gov. Chris Christie made the announcement today, hailing it as further evidence that his 2011 pension overhaul is delivering relief to taxpayers.
“Our willingness to make the tough choices and achieve progress on meaningful reforms in a bipartisan way is continuing to deliver millions in long-term, sustainable property tax relief for our middle-class families,” Christie said in a statement. (Renshaw, The Star-Ledger)
