Dear Maple Avenue Neighbor, On behalf of Audrey Meyers, Maria Mediago, Robin Goldfisher and myself, thank you for making the time to attend our meeting this past Sunday. We all look forward to working with you. Next week I will send meeting minutes via both regular email and mail, asking those who were not able to attend to provide their email address so we can quickly and efficiently communicate any news. In the interim, I wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving. Regards, Megan Fraser Vice President – Communications, The Valley Hospital (201) 291 6306
• HealthGrades recognition as one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Care, Cardiac Surgery, Coronary Intervention, Orthopedic Surgery, Joint Replacement, and Gastrointestinal Care; numerous Clinical Excellence Awards for cardiology and women’s health.
• Designation as one of only 65 hospitals in the nation to be a Leapfrog Group Top Hospital; recognition as Grade “A” for patient safety.
• J.D. Power and Associates Distinguished Hospital Program Awards for Outstanding Inpatient and Emergency Department Care.
• Magnet Designation for Nursing Excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center since 2003.
• 11 Joint Commission Gold Seals for Cardiac, Oncology, Joint Replacement, and Stroke Care.
• Best Places to Work in New Jersey Designation from NJBIZ.
For more information please visit www.valleyhealth.com/awards
Democrats push to redeploy Obama’s voter database
By Craig Timberg and Amy Gardner, Updated: Tuesday, November 20, 7:22 AM
If you voted this election season, President Obama almost certainly has a file on you. His vast campaign database includes information on voters’ magazine subscriptions, car registrations, housing values and hunting licenses, along with scores estimating how likely they were to cast ballots for his reelection.
And though the election is over, Obama’s database is just getting started.
Senate bill rewrite lets feds read your e-mail without warrants
Proposed law scheduled for a vote next week originally increased Americans’ e-mail privacy. Then law enforcement complained. Now it increases government access to e-mail and other digital files.
Declan McCullagh
by Declan McCullagh
November 20, 2012 4:00 AM PS
A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans’ e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law.
CNET has learned that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans’ e-mail, is scheduled for next week.
Leahy’s rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies — including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission — to access Americans’ e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge. (CNET obtained the revised draft from a source involved in the negotiations with Leahy.)
It’s an abrupt departure from Leahy’s earlier approach, which required police to obtain a search warrant backed by probable cause before they could read the contents of e-mail or other communications. The Vermont Democrat boasted last year that his bill “provides enhanced privacy protections for American consumers by… requiring that the government obtain a search warrant.”
Is Disgraced Former Governor Jim Mc Greevey making a Political comeback?
A tipster said Jim McGreevey is telling people he’s interested in running for U.S. Senate, but the former governor denied it.
“It’s not zero — it’s negative on my meter in life,” McGreevey said. (NJBIZ)
Governor’s Office – After Registering with FEMA then Letter from FEMA Starts Process
LETTER FROM FEMA IS THE STARTING POINT
The Governor’s Office has provided the following important information.
After registering with FEMA, disaster survivors receive a letter from FEMA concerning the status of their application. The letter is a starting point about whether or not the applicant will receive disaster assistance.
Applicants should read the letter carefully. Even if the letter says that you are ineligible, the reason might simply be that you have not provided all the information or documentation required. It does not necessarily mean “case closed.” When applicable, the letter explains what additional information is needed or how to appeal a decision that you do not qualify for assistance.
Ask for help if you don’t understand the letter. Call the helpline at 800-621-FEMA (3362) or TTY 800¬-462¬-7585 or visit a Disaster Recovery Center where you can talk with a FEMA representative about your particular situation. To find the nearest center, log on to www.fema.gov/drclocator. You may not have qualified for financial help right away, but that decision may change if you submit additional documents. Some of the reasons for an initial ineligible decision can be that you:
* Have not submitted a settlement or denial determination from your insurance company.
* Did not provide FEMA with all the information needed to process your application.
* Have not provided proof of ownership or occupancy.
* Did not provide records that showed the damaged property was your primary residence at the time of the disaster.
* Did not sign essential documents.
FEMA can never duplicate assistance from insurance or other government sources, but FEMA may be able to cover some of your uninsured losses. Providing the requested information or taking the required actions outlined in the letter might change FEMA’s determination. The letter also explains how to appeal a determination. Appeals must be filed within 60 days of the date of the ineligible decision.
Remember: the letter from FEMA is a starting point. You should:
* Read the letter carefully.
* Ask questions and ask for help.
* Tell FEMA if you think the decision is incorrect. You have the right to ask FEMA to reconsider the decision.
The majority of state governors are Republicans, and they have the power to disarm the health-care law
November 20 ,2012
Capretta and Levin
Champions of ObamaCare want Americans to believe that the president’s re-election ended the battle over the law. It did no such thing. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act won’t be fully repealed while Barack Obama is in office, but the administration is heavily dependent on the states for its implementation.
Republicans will hold 30 governorships starting in January, and at last week’s meeting of the Republican Governors Association they made it clear that they remain highly critical of the health law. Some Republican governors-including incoming RGA Chairman Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Ohio’s John Kasich, Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and Maine’s Paul LePage-have already said they won’t do the federal government’s bidding. Several Democratic governors, including Missouri’s Jay Nixon and West Virginia’s Earl Ray Tomblin, have also expressed serious concerns.
Talk of the law’s inevitability is intended to pressure these governors into implementing it on the administration’s behalf. But states still have two key choices to make that together will put them in the driver’s seat: whether to create state health-insurance exchanges, and whether to expand Medicaid. They should say “no” to both.
At its core, ObamaCare is a massive entitlement expansion. Between vastly increased Medicaid eligibility and new premium subsidies, it is expected to bring 30 million more people onto the federal government’s entitlement rolls. The law anticipates that the states will take on the burden of implementing the expansions, but states can opt out of both.
Running the exchanges would be an administrative nightmare for states, requiring a complicated set of rules, mandates, databases and interfaces to establish eligibility, funnel subsidies, and facilitate purchases. All of this would have to take place under broad and often incoherent statutory requirements and federal regulations that have yet to be written.
They are on opposite sides of ObamaCare, but President Obama and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal met in September in LaPlace, La., for a briefing regarding Hurricane Isaac.
The exchanges would create unsustainable pressures on each state’s insurance market, treating similarly situated people differently by providing far greater subsidies for those in the exchanges than those in employer plans-yielding perverse incentives that distort consumer and employer decisions and increase costs.
States would endure all this simply to become functionaries of the federal government. The idea that creating state exchanges would give states control over their insurance markets is a fantasy. The states would be enforcing a federal law and federal regulations, with very little room for independent judgment.
Governors know this. A group of them has already indicated that they will not build the exchanges, and several more seemed ready to opt out as the administration’s deadline for state decisions approached on Nov. 16. Predictably, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius tried to head them off by extending the deadline to Dec. 14. She will try to use the extra month to twist governors’ arms. They should resist.
By declining to build exchanges, the states would pass the burden and costs of the exchanges to the administration that sought this law. And it is far from clear that the administration could operate the exchanges on its own.
Congress didn’t allocate money for administering federal exchanges, and the law as written seems to prohibit federally run exchanges from providing subsidies to individuals. The administration insists that it can provide those subsidies anyway. But if the courts read the plain words of the statute, then federal exchanges couldn’t really function.
Thus states that refuse to create their own exchanges would effectively be repealing a large part of the law-sparing their citizens from the job-killing employer mandate and from assaults on their religious liberty. In some cases people would even be spared from the individual mandate to buy coverage, since in the absence of exchange subsidies more families would qualify for exemptions from the mandate.
The Medicaid expansion, meanwhile, would throw millions of additional Americans into a system that is already bankrupting state governments and increasing costs in the private-insurance market. Medicaid’s payments for services are so low that many existing beneficiaries have trouble finding physicians and other health-care providers who will accept them as patients. Enrolling more people without reform will push the system to the point of collapse.
In refusing the Medicaid expansion, governors should notify Washington that doing so means freeing themselves of ObamaCare’s “Maintenance of Effort” requirements. These would prohibit states participating in the Medicaid expansion from reforming their Medicaid systems to reduce costs.
Instead of following the Obama administration’s plan, states should seek real reform. For example, they should demand that Washington transform the federal portion of Medicaid for non-disabled and non-elderly beneficiaries into a uniform block grant, with state discretion over eligibility and benefits. The goal should be to turn Medicaid into a premium-assistance program rather than government-run insurance. Medicaid could then be used to help people enroll in mainstream insurance plans. This is the way to help the low-income uninsured get the same kind of coverage as other Americans.
President Obama won re-election and Democrats maintained control of the Senate this month, but the states hold the future of ObamaCare in their hands. Knowing the harm the law would do to their citizens, to the economy and to American health care, governors should refuse to become its enablers.
Mr. Capretta is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Mr. Levin is a fellow at the EPPC and editor of National Affairs.
Call/ Contact Governor Christie and tell him to say NO to creating state health-insurance exchanges and to expand Medicaid.
He should say “no” to both.
Office of the Governor
PO Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625
609-292-6000 OR
GLEE Star Chris Colfer at Bookends Tuesday, November 20th @ 7:00pm.
The New York Times Bestselling Author and Star of GLEE will sign his new book: Struck by Lightning. Books available Nov. 20th. We Take Phone Orders if you can’t make the event!
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
Having own utility helps Park Ridge get power back quickly
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY NOVEMBER 19, 2012, 8:06 AM
BY TATIANA SCHLOSSBERG
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
PARK RIDGE — The day after superstorm Sandy, while much of Bergen County was sitting in the dark, Park Ridge had turned most of the lights back on. Four days later, the whole town was electrified.
Park Ridge is one of nine municipalities in New Jersey that run their own non-profit electricity companies. Park Ridge purchases its power wholesale in bulk from a few different suppliers, and has already bought its power through 2016, said William Beattie, the Board of Public Works’ director of operations.
While the town does buy some of its electricity from PSE&G or other area suppliers, once PSE&G’s power is transferred to Park Ridge substations, it is owned by the borough, which manages, meters and distributes the power.
That also means that the borough employs its own line workers, who were out in force after Hurricane Sandy. Beattie also brought back two retired lineman for extra help. Beattie himself was also trained as a lineman, and he helped make some repairs as well.
Eighty percent of Park Ridge had power the day after Sandy hit.
What does Wall Street know that Washington lawmakers fail to see?
By Erik Wasson and Bernie Becker – 11/19/12 08:23 PM ET
Wall Street is signaling confidence that lawmakers will strike a deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” baffling Washington insiders, who see less reason for optimism.
Stocks began to make a comeback Friday after President Obama and congressional leaders suggested that talks on the cliff’s spending cuts and tax increases were off to an auspicious start.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average continued the rally on Monday, rising 207 points and ending the day up more than 300 points since Friday’s meeting at the White House. The S&P 500 edged up 27 points.
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and Nasdaq Chief Executive Robert Greifeld were among the financial players expressing confidence about the negotiations in Washington.
Hurricane Sandy turned the social networks into virtual, 24-hour, non-stop newsrooms for many people. Whether or not you had power, whether you checked your pages on a desktop or mobile devices, it seemed everyone everywhere in affected areas (and beyond) were communicating, updating, and commiserating on the social networks.
I will freely admit that although my home was unaffected by the weather, I became utterly obsessed with checking in with followers, friends, and fans on Facebook, which became the visual ground zero for me for all things Sandy. I shared and soaked up countless compelling, frightening, and sad images posted by everyday people, news organizations, and bloggers. I posted updates, news, announcements on my wall for people to see. I got hooked on a newfound page, Tri-State Weather, where a lot of my weather-related posts came from. From the devastation on the Jersey Shore to the decimation on Staten Island, Queens, and other areas of New York, I and so many others came together in a newly formed online community that rallied ’round the storm victims (human and animal) to create a new kind of news organization.
Many people took to tweeting constant updates using various storm-related hash tags and I did follow the headlines there, and shared some updates throughout that first week. But for me, the double-whammy of existing relationships and all those photos and videos on Facebook truly became the newsroom of the moment. One friend created a new group page devoted solely to post-hurricane news: a place where people can share volunteer meetups, donation drives, tips on how to get to badly hit neighborhoods to deliver goods, who needs what and where and when. I was thoroughly gripped by this, actually unable to focus on my work that week as I was driven to be part of the breaking news.
I believe that this large-scale disaster has ramped up social media’s place in news reporting . . . not journalism per se, as I am not stating that good, authentic, in-depth news reportage has been replaced. But it certainly was pushed aside a bit to make room for all the ordinary and extraordinary people who were reporting from the field in a way not seen before. We have all grown accustomed to local newscasts running video that was sent in by viewers, and I’ve noticed Twitter handles and hash tags in bugs on the screen during news programs more and more.
Ted Turner’s visionary idea decades ago for a real-time, worldwide, 24-hour news station has given birth to a whole different way to do breaking news on social networks. I would never have thought, as a young copywriter working on the launch of CNN in the early 1980s, that I would be part of the news cycle in some small way during a natural disaster years later. The experience was absorbing on a level I could not have foreseen and I was gratified to hear that people who were following me were getting useful information. Now that the initial wave of Sandy has passed and the long, hard work of reconstruction begins, I hope I don’t ever have the “opportunity” to feel compelled again to become a citizen journalist in times of struggle and darkness. I’d much rather stick to informational posts, newsy tidbits about advertising, marketing, or public relations, and promotions for my clients on my Facebook business page, my LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/carynstarr, or on Twitter or Google+.https://plus.google.com/109671485828000103433/posts
Ridgewood Teacher Charged with Shoplifting
November 20,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Patrolman Paul Dinice responded to Whole Foods on a report of a shoplifter in custody. A loss prevention officer for Whole Foods had observed the accused fill a canvas bag with items, and then walk out of the store without paying for the items, police said.
Dinice arrested Adolfo Noya, 47, of Wyckoff on charges of shoplifting. Noya was released pending an appearance in Ridgewood Municipal Court. Adolfo Noya is a Spanish teacher at George Washington Middle School. Employed by the Ridgewood Public School district since 2000. Noya was released pending an appearance in Ridgewood Municipal Court on Jan. 3.
Ridgewood School District Superintendent Daniel Fishbein took the high road and told the Ridgewood News , “Allegations or accusations made against any person are not the same as findings of guilt,”
“Based on the information we have at this point, the district has decided to wait for this matter to be resolved by the legal system,” Fishbein continued. “When and if guilt is determined or someone’s presence is a detraction to the educational process and action is necessary, please be assured all necessary statutes and codes will be followed.” ( https://www.northjersey.com/news/Superintendent_Ridgewood_teacher_wont_be_suspended_while_facing_shoplifting_charge.html )
Troop 1326 members Ruby, Celeste, Katie, Erin and leader Bernie Walsh pose by the wrought iron gate made by Girl Scout founder Juliette Gordon Low in Savannah, Ga.
Ridgewood Girl Scouts return with trainload of goods for storm victims
MONDAY NOVEMBER 19, 2012, 10:09 PM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Through charity, goodwill or service, every Girl Scout at some point in their career has felt a family connection between individual troops.
A group of Ridgewood girls experienced the sisterly bond between scouts this past weekend after traveling to Savannah, Ga., for an annual conference. There, the local scouts, who were part of a large contingent from northern New Jersey, teamed with the Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia to collect much-needed supplies for victims of Hurricane Sandy.
Knowing that a group from New Jersey was headed to the conference, the young ladies from Georgia started the collection even before their counterparts arrived. The Savannah scouts requested and received hundreds of donations, ranging from batteries and blankets to clothing and trash bags.
Upon learning of and seeing the other scouts’ efforts, the 122 members of the North Jersey delegation, including 11 girls from Ridgewood and their three scout leaders, were floored.
Alleged Ridgewood OWS Bomb-maker Doctor to Appear in Court Today
November 20,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood doctor Roberto Rivera, who was arrested over the weekend and charged with amassing bomb-making chemicals is scheduled to appear in Central Municipal Court in Hackensack today
Authorities said they found a large amount of chemicals often used to make explosives at the home of Roberto Rivera. They also said they found assault rifles and other weapons. Rivera was being held Monday at the Bergen County Jail on $1 million bail.
Rivera, 60, was active in the Occupy Wall Street movement , and is currently unemployed . He has an active medical licence in New York State. Rivera last worked at St Vincents hospital in New York City where he was either let go when the hospital closed or fired for stalking depending on who you talk to .
Ridgewood police showed up at Rivera’s home on Saturday after a hazardous-material report was made .The FBI and a county bomb squad joined the search and found the weapons and chemicals.
Rivera is charged with recklessly creating a risk of widespread injury, unlawful possession of a destructive device, unlawful possession of an assault firearm, unlawful possession of a large capacity ammunition magazine, and unlawful possession of a stun gun.
Treasury Secretary Geithner: Lift Debt Limit to Infinity
By Elizabeth Harrington
November 19, 2012
(CNSNews.com) – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Friday that Congress should stop placing legal limits on the amount of money the government can borrow and effectively lift the debt limit to infinity.
On Bloomberg TV, “Political Capital” host Al Hunt asked Geithner if he believes “we ought to just eliminate the debt ceiling.”
