THE VALLEY BALL
Fri, December 14, 2012 , 6:30 PM
The Venetian, 546 River Drive, Garfield, NJ
Ridgewood NJ , The 67th annual Valley Ball, sponsored by the Ridgewood Branch of the Valley Hospital Auxiliary, will be held on Friday, December 14 at the Venetian in Garfield, NJ. Cocktails begin at 6:30pm followed by dinner at 8pm and an evening of dancing to the sounds of Soul Solution.
All porceeds benefit the Auxiliary’s pledge to raise $1.5 million for the expansion of The Valley Hospital Breast Surgery Program at the Luckow Pavilion and to support Valley Home Care’s Butterflies Program; a palliative care and hospice program for children. For more information or to purchase tickets, please contact Valley Ball Chair Sarah Strauss at 201-857-4195 or email rockstrauss @hotmail.com
WWE’s Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka & Jon Chattman Saturday, December 8th at Bookends
Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka & Jon Chattman Saturday, December 8th @ 2:00pm**New Time
WWE Hall of Famer, Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, and coauthor Jon Chattman, will sign their new book: Superfly Books available Dec. 1st 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
It has come to our attention that there are several challenges that we are facing with our Calendar Contest this year. Therefore we are changing the rules & regulations of the contest as of Monday, November 26, 2012, to make photos more visible to others and make the contest easier for those using a Facebook App. **All photos that have already been submitted will automatically be entered into the contest & all previous “likes” will be counted. ** Starting today, please submit your photos for the contest either by Facebook message, or by emailing them to us at: contact@ ridgewoodvet.com. Upon receiving the photos we will post them into a photo album specifically for the calendar contest. Please make sure that you identify your pet’s first & last name when submitting the photos. ( https://www.facebook.com/Ridgewoodvet?ref=ts&fref=ts )
Please read official rules, regulations and instructions located in our notes section for further details. Hopefully, this will eliminate the problems we have been having thus far and we will have a fun, successful contest with a fabulous calendar turn out. Thank you all for your patience and participating!
Rules, Regulations and Instructions :
a. You must be 18 or older to participate
b. The contest is in no way supported, sponsored by or affiliated with Facebook.
c. You must be able to submit a regular sized digital (Jpeg) to RVH upon winning. A horizontal photo is preferred, but not necessary.
d. By participating in the contest you are allowing us to use and distribute the image of your pet on any of our online sites and related marketing of Ridgewood Veterinary Hospital. Therefore, you must have complete and exclusive rights to the original photograph and be the pet owner. If the entry photo also has a picture of a person or group of people, you must be that person, or the parent and/or guardian of that person.
e. By participating in the contest you understand that by posting photographs on Facebook (or any other internet website) your photographs may be available for public viewing and/or use. Ridgewood Veterinary Hospital is in no way responsible for any distribution of your photograph beyond our normal marketing by any other individuals or companies.
f. In order for your photo to be considered, please submit your photos for the contest either by Facebook message, or by emailing them to us at: contact@ ridgewoodvet.com. Upon receiving the photos we will post them into a photo album specifically for the calendar contest. Please make sure that you identify your pet’s first & last name when submitting the photos.
g. If you win the contest you may be contacted via email so please email us at: Contact@ridgewoodvet.com upon uploading your pet’s picture. Please include the entry photo’s title in the subject box and include in the message your full name, pet’s name, email and contact phone number.
h. Your contact information will not be used for anything other than to contact you to inform you if you win this contest.
i. You may only upload 1 picture of each pet, however, you may enter as many pets as you wish. You may also submit a group photo of your pets for consideration as well as individual pictures.
j. Contest ends on December 14, 2012. Winners will be notified by December 31, 2012.
k. Winner will be determined by whichever picture receives the most “likes” on Facebook by December 14, 2012 at 5:00 p.m.
l. There will be 12 winners in total. The first prize winner will win: A $250 Gift Certificate to Ridgewood Veterinary Hospital, as well as their photo featured on the cover of the calendar and a select month of the year. The second prize winner will win: A $100 Gift Certificate to Ridgewood Veterinary Hospital, Winners 1-11 will be featured as the photograph of a select month of the year.
m. Any questions, concerns etc. should be directed to Ridgewood Veterinary Hospital. Contact@ridgewoodvet.com
To learn more about our hospital as well as past and future events, please visit our website:
WWW.RIDGEWOODVET.COM
Fmr. Thatcher advisor Lord Monckton evicted from UN climate summit after challenging global warming — ‘Escorted from the hall and security officers stripped him of his UN credentials’
Monckton to UN: ‘In the 16 years we have been coming to these conferences, there has been no global warming’
Calls to ‘deport Monckton’ from UN conference in Qatar
Thursday, December 06, 2012By Marc Morano – Climate Depot
By Jean Chemnick, E&E reporter
Published: Thursday, December 6, 2012
[Reprint from E&E Greenwire – December 6, 2012 – subscription required]
Excerpt: UK’s Lord Christopher Monckton gets evicted
After the news conference, and as diplomats gathered for the climate conference president’s assessment of how close countries are to agreement, Monckton quietly slipped into the seat reserved for the delegation of Myanmar and clicked the button to speak.
“In the 16 years we have been coming to these conferences, there has been no global warming,” Monckton said as confused murmurs filled the hall and then turned into a chorus of boos.
The stunt infuriated negotiators and activists here who gather every year to address what they believe is one of the world’s top threats, the steady rise of man-made global warming.
As Monckton was escorted from the hall and security officers stripped him of his U.N. credentials, several people noted that just a few hours earlier a group of young activists had been thrown out of the convention center and deported. Their crime: unfurling an unauthorized banner calling for the Qatari hosts to lead the negotiations to a strong conclusion.
By late today, several activists attending the conference had posted calls to “deport Monckton” on their Twitter feeds.
If U.S. hikes taxes, high-income Californians might pay almost 52 percent
POSTED AT 9:21 PM ON DECEMBER 5, 2012 BY ERIKA JOHNSEN
Whether it’s because we end up going over the fiscal cliff or because Republicans agree to President Obama’s plan of not extending the Bush tax cuts on America’s wealthiest earners, the possibility of an effective tax hike means that higher-income Californians may be in for a whopping aggregate marginal tax rate. The super-liberal state already succeeded in approving their own rate hike with Proposition 30 in the November election, and combined with the potential federal raises, they could be looking at a top bracket with a marginal income tax rate of just under 52 percent:
Gerald Prante, an economics professor at Lynchburg College in Virginia, and Austin John, a Lynchburg economics student, calculated marginal tax rates — the highest rates on the highest levels of income — for all 50 states. They combined state, federal and, where applicable, local income taxes, plus payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare and included the deductibility of some taxes.
Proposition 30 added three percentage points to the marginal state income tax rate for California’s highest-income taxpayers, bringing it to 13.3 percent. That action raised California over other high-tax jurisdictions to a marginal rate of 51.9 percent, slightly higher than New York City’s level. Hawaii was the only other place with a calculated rate above 50 percent.
…Ouch. We already knew that California was headed for a fall, but here’s yet another problem with top-down government and specifically with President Obama’s proposals to hike taxes across-the-board on those he deems wealthy, i.e. families making more than $250k/year. As Joel Kotkin writes for Forbes, it’s kind of odd that blue states voted so overwhelmingly against their own self-interest in reelecting Barack Obama, because the tax hikes he campaigned on will come down disproportionately hard on the economies of blue states. The demographics and costs of living in different geographic regions suggests that being rich means very different things to different regions:….
Ridgewood officials freeze school district’s budget…Yep you heard that right
Thursday December 6, 2012, 10:30 AM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
In case of a decrease in anticipated federal funds in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Ridgewood’s superintendent has frozen the school district’s budget, asking administrators to be more cautious when making purchases.
According to Assistant Superintendent for Business Angelo DeSimone, principals are being asked to first run their purchases by him and Superintendent Daniel Fishbein.
Because the government has previously cut school budgets mid-year, Ridgewood is preparing for the worst, administrators noted, adding that principals may be asked to hold off on less-essential purchases.
The state is set to provide the district with about $2 million this year – less than 5 percent of its total budget, said BOE President Sheila Brogan. Because it provides the money in smaller installments from September through June, Ridgewood has so far received two months of its anticipated state revenue.
The BOE is preparing for a scenario in which the rest of Ridgewood’s anticipated revenue will instead be distributed to hurricane-ravaged districts in New Jersey that are no longer receiving the property and sales taxes they need to support education programs.
Ridgewood officials introduce bond ordinance for storm cleanup funds
Thursday December 6, 2012, 10:45 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
The Ridgewood Council has introduced a bond ordinance that, if approved on Dec. 12, will appropriate $613,000 for emergency capital improvements and work performed during and in the days after Hurricane Sandy.
Funding will be used to satisfy the village’s end of nine separate contracts awarded to outside vendors for extraordinary unspecified services (EUS). Those contracts were formalized during the Nov. 28 council meeting.
In response to questions raised by resident Boyd Loving, Village Manager Ken Gabbert said the standard bidding process was bypassed because of the nature and timing of the work.
“It’s a little different since it is an emergency situation where the work has to be done whether you have one potential vendor or five,” Gabbert said. “We do contact as many … landscapers as possible and secure the bids. We then go back and refine what we’re asking them to do to reach a better accommodation.”
New village vehicles, capital improvements approved in Ridgewood
Thursday December 6, 2012, 11:28 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
The Ridgewood Council has approved three bond ordinances and the appropriation of more than $5.7 million, a move that will allow several municipal departments to complete various capital expenses.
The governing body’s unanimous support of the three capital ordinances drew little opposition and question from residents at Wednesday’s council meeting.
Most of the groundwork and discussion leading up to this week’s vote took place over the course of several weeks this fall, when department heads presented their project wish lists to council members. The village manager’s office was then tasked to work with the separate departments to trim those lists and the associated costs.
Will Increased Competition in Health Care Exchanges Actually Raise Costs?
By Cory Bennett | National Journal – Sun, Dec 2, 2012
The Political Landscape is a weekly conversation with National Journal writers, editors, and outside experts on the news of the day.
With President Obama’s reelection, it became a near certainty that the major components of the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, would be going into effect on Jan. 1, 2014. Primarily, by then each state is expected to have what’s called a healthcare exchange.
Essentially, these exchanges are an online marketplace for those who don’t receive insurance through an employer or for those who work at a very small business. Various insurers will be required to provide information about their different plans on this online marketplace, and individuals can go there and, in theory, easily compare plans by price, range of coverage, etc.
It’s been pitched as a way to not only bring insurance to many uninsured Americans, who have no easy way of finding plans, but also as a way to lower costs. The rational behind these lower costs? More competition. And transparent competition. In theory, the health care exchanges allow two things. One, it gives insurers an easy way to promote their plans. And two, it gives consumers an easy way to price compare.
Basic economic theory would say that more competition and less market monopoly leads to lower prices.
Maybe not, says Dana Goldman. Goldman is the Chair in Medicine and Public Policy at the University of Southern California, and the director of the of the Center for Health Policy and Economics at the USC Price School of Policy, Planning, and Development. He co-founded Precision Healthcare Economics, a healthcare consulting firm, and writes for the New York Times’ Economix blog.
In a recent piece he co-authored, Goldman wrote, “In financial markets, we ask if banks are too big to fail. When it comes to health care, perhaps we should ask if insurers are too small to succeed.”
Our show this week in two parts.
Part 1: We talk to National Journal health care reporter Margot Sanger-Katz. She’ll explain exactly what these exchanges are, and how they’re being rolled out. The department of Health and Human Services was sitting on many exchange regulations until after the election, so only now are we getting a sense of how this will unfold.
Part 2: We explore the economic theory behind these exchanges. Dana Goldman will explain why basic economic theory may not apply to health care markets, which, as he explains, are imperfect. And if health care markets are imperfect, why are we assuming insurance cost reductions will come from increased competition?
IRS finalizes new tax for medical devices in healthcare law
WASHINGTON | Wed Dec 5, 2012 5:18pm EST
(Reuters) – The U.S. Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday released final rules for a new tax on medical devices, products ranging from surgical sutures to knee replacement implants, that starts next year as part of President Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare law.
The 2.3-percent tax must be paid, effective after December 31, by device-makers on their gross sales. The tax is expected to raise $29 billion in government revenues through 2022.
Companies including Boston Scientific Corp, 3M Co and Kimberly-Clark Corp have been lobbying the U.S. Congress for a repeal of the tax.
A repeal bill passed the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives in June, but it has not been voted on by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Many medical devices that are sold over-the-counter – such eyeglasses, contact lenses and hearing aids – are exempt from the tax, as are prosthetics, the IRS said.
The tax applies mostly to devices used and implanted by medical professionals, including items as complex as pacemakers or as simple as tongue depressors.
Ridgewood NJ, Pedestrian Safety is one of the main concerns of the Traffic Bureau. The Police Department has worked with the engineering Department and the Citizen Safety Advisory Council to make physical changes in the business district to increase pedestrian safety.
Over the past several years lighting has been improved, crosswalks changed and added, and intersections such as E. Ridgewood Avenue and Oak Street have been redesigned to increase pedestrian safety.
Physical changes help but are only part of the equation. Educating pedestrians and the motorists is paramount. We have been doing this with programs such as endorsing the Stop Look Be Seen Be Safe program in the schools and the pedestrian decoy program where officers in plain clothes enter crosswalks to ensure motorist compliance.
Bid Notice – Furnishing and Delivering of 53 Sets of Personal Safety Escape System
Sealed bid proposals will be received by the Village of Ridgewood Fire Department, in the Chief’s Office, 201 East Glen Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey 07451 on Thursday, December 27, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. prevailing time, and then publicly opened and read aloud for following project:
“Furnishing and Delivering of 53 Sets of Personal Safety/Emergency Escape Systems”
The work of the contract shall consist of providing 53 sets of Personal Safety/Emergency Escape Systems compatible with Globe GXcel Turnout Bunker gear suitable for structural firefighting, including onsite training to the Village of Ridgewood Fire Department as specified and described in the bid documents.
Specifications and bid forms may be obtained by mail from the office of the Fire Chief, Village of Ridgewood Fire Department, 201 East Glen Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey 07451, telephone (201) 444-8822, for a non-refundable fee of $10.00, per set of bid documents. Documents may be examined or picked up in person between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. at the Fire Department, 201 East Glen Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey 07451, Monday through Friday. Prospective bidders requesting bid documents be mailed to them shall be responsible for providing their own postage/delivery service remuneration. No Specifications and/or Proposal forms shall be given out after 4:30 p.m. on Monday, December 24, 2012.
Prices quoted must be net and exclusive of all federal, state and local sales and excise taxes. Bids may be submitted in person or by mail. Mailed bids shall be addressed to the Office of the Chief of the Fire Department. The Village assumes no responsibility for loss or non-delivery of any bid to the bid opening location sent to it prior to the Bid opening.
The contractual obligation of the Village of Ridgewood under this Contract for these Items is contingent upon the availability of appropriate funds from which payment for this Contract can be made.
Each bid must be enclosed in a sealed envelope with the name of the bidder thereon and endorsed, “Furnishing and Delivering of 53 Sets of Personal Safety/Escape Systems for the Village of Ridgewood” and must be accompanied by the following: a certified check, cashier’s check, or Bid Bond (Schedule B), drawn to the order of the Village of Ridgewood for ten percent (10%) of the amount bid, or $20,000, whichever is less; a Consent of Surety (Schedule A); a Corporation or Partnership Statement (Schedule C); a Non-Collusion Affidavit (Schedule D); and a Statement of Responsibility (Schedule E). Any award or awards may be made at a later or subsequent time or meeting of the Village Council. All required schedules, that is Schedule A, B, C, D, and E, are required to be submitted on the forms enclosed in the bid documents. No other forms will be accepted.
All contractors, their subcontractors, and material suppliers shall comply with all applicable provisions of the Contractor Business Registration Program, pursuant to Public Law 2004 Chapter 57. Evidence of satisfactory registration(s) shall be submitted at the time of the bid. All bids submitted shall contain a copy of the bidder’s New Jersey Business Registration Certificate in accordance with N.J.S.A. 52:33-44.
The successful bidder shall furnish and deliver to the Village of Ridgewood a performance and payment bond in the amount of 100 percent of the accepted bid amount as security for the faithful performance of the Contract. Additionally, the successful bidder shall furnish policies or Certificates of Insurance required by the Contract. In default thereof, said checks and/or bid bond and the amount represented thereby shall be forfeited to the Village of Ridgewood as liquidated damages, not as a penalty.
Proposals submitted by Bidders and/or Bidder’s Insurance Company(ies) not chartered in the State of New Jersey, must be accompanied by proper certificate(s) from the Secretary of State, indicating that such Bidders, Bidder’s Insurance Company(ies), and/or Surety Company(ies)’s is (are) authorized to do business in the State of New Jersey. The Village of Ridgewood reserves the right to reject any or all bids, to waive any informalities or to accept a bid which, in its judgment best serves the interest of the Village. No bids may be withdrawn for a period of sixty (60) days after the date and time set for the opening of bids.
“BIDDERS ARE REQUIRED TO COMPLY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF N.J.S.A. 10:5-31 et seq. and N.J.A.C. 17:27. A complete statement as to these requirements is included in the specifications.”
The Least Harmful Ways to Raise Government Revenue
Guidelines for Fiscal Cliff Negotiators
Washington, D.C., December 5, 2012—With the fiscal cliff looming, lawmakers are looking for new revenues as part of a bipartisan deal to reduce the federal deficit. While raising new revenues may be politically necessary to seal a deal, lawmakers must keep in mind that not all revenue raisers are equal. With that in mind, the Tax Foundation has released an analysis of revenue options, ranking them from least to most harmful.
Research from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has established a hierarchy of which taxes are most and least harmful for long-term economic growth. They determined that the corporate income tax is the most harmful for long-term economic growth, followed by high personal income taxes. Consumption taxes and property taxes were found to be less harmful to economic growth relative to taxes on capital and income.
“If lawmakers decide that new revenues must be part of any long-term effort to solve the budget crisis, they must choose the least harmful way of raising new revenues or else they risk compounding the crisis by slowing economic growth,” said Tax Foundation president Scott Hodge. “Our list of revenue measures is not comprehensive, but it should give lawmakers some guidelines on how to avoid the most economically harmful options.”
The number one recommendation for raising revenue is the simplest: economic growth. This may seem obvious, but whether or not we have sufficient new economic growth to generate more revenue is directly dependent upon the rest of the economic policy decisions made by Congress. A pro-growth agenda will generate more tax revenue organically as conditions improve across the board, while tax increases that slow growth will create stagnation that will actually lose money for the Treasury.
Also at the top of the list for bringing new money in the door are asset sales, requiring government-sponsored businesses to start paying income taxes, and raising user fees and leases on government goods and services. The value of mineral rights owned by the federal government, for example, has been estimated at over $1 trillion. Privatizing certain government-run enterprises would also turn tax-subsidized operations into tax-generating ones. To learn more about unlocking the potential of mineral ownership, visit doggettland.com. Their expertise can help mineral owners maximize returns and navigate complex ownership processes.
Options in the middle of the pack include taxing currently untaxed businesses (like credit unions, electrical coops, and some hospitals and insurance companies), increasing Medicare premiums, and raising the amount federal employees must contribute to their own health care and retirement costs.
The least attractive options include raising individual income tax rates, increasing the estate tax, and raising rates on capital gains and dividends. Worst of all for economic growth, however, would be increasing corporate income tax rates, which are already the highest in the industrialized world.
Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact No. 344, “Raising Revenue: The Least Worst Options,” by Scott Hodge is available here.
The Tax Foundation is a nonpartisan research organization that has monitored fiscal policy at the federal, state and local levels since 1937. To schedule an interview, please contact Richard Morrison, the Tax Foundation’s Manager of Communications, at 202-464-5102 or morrison@taxfoundation.org.
THANK YOU FOR SERVING: Upon Executive Order from Governor Chris Christie, flags at Ridgewood schools will be flown at half-staff on Thursday, December 6, in recognition and mourning of a brave and loyal American hero, United States Marine Corporal Christopher M. Monahan Jr. of Island Heights who tragically lost his life while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. He was a 2005 graduate of Central Regional High School in Bayville.
