By Craig McCarthy | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on April 29, 2017 at 11:25 AM, updated April 29, 2017 at 1:28 PM
One of the people at the center of the Fyre Festival fiasco, Billy McFarland, is a New Jersey native and college dropout, who’s been referred to as Ja Rule’s “tech partner.”
The 25-year-old co-organizer told Rolling Stone on Friday the planners were “overwhelmed” and “a little naive” in trying to pull off the botched luxury festival in the Bahamas, which promised a genre-spanning lineup of bands.
Even though he has spent much of his career writing songs about the working man, Bruce Springsteen will be the first to tell you he hasn’t done much in the way of hard work himself.
As part of the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, the Boss sat down with actor Tom Hanks for a conversation about his life and music. “The only honest work I’ve ever done in my entire life was at 14 or 15 when I was a lawn boy,” he told the crowd at the Beacon Theatre. “I painted houses and tarred roofs in the summertime – that was to get the money to buy my first guitar.”
But the fans still love him all the same, and over the course of the hour, Hanks attempted to get to the bottom of that long-held affection. Here are some the highlights from their discussion.
Ridgewood NJ, Bergen County Parks Department initiated a master planning process for the Bergen County Park system. The goal is to identify the characteristics of the Bergen County recreation and open space system, accommodate the needs of current residents, and respond to projected future growth of the County.
WHO: All Bergen County residents interested in parks YOU’RE INVITED!
WHY: Topics for discussion include: • balance of nature conservation and active recreation • environmental & historical stewardship • enhancement of existing park facilities • multi-modal transportation • potential green connections • events and concessions management …and more!
This is your opportunity to voice any ideas, concerns and desires for the future of County parks. Please join us for some more great conversations!
At this second series of Community Meetings, we will discuss conceptual ideas for the parks using what we learned from 8 Public Information Sessions in Jan/Feb and more than 2100 survey responses. To help create a Master Plan for parks & recreation in the future.
5/9 HACKENSACK Two Bergen County Plaza (next to the Bergen County Court House) 7-10 PM
5/10 WYCKOFF James A. McFaul Environmental Center 150 Crescent Avenue 7-10pm
5/11 LYNDHURST Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands 1280 Wall Street West, (5th Floor) 7-10pm
The upscale grocery chain is valued at almost $12bn, but six straight quarters of declining sales have led to speculation of a takeover bid. What went wrong?
Lunchtime customers at Whole Foods in Manhattan’s Union Square had little trouble expressing the shortcomings that have led the once high-flying, organic-focused retailer to become linked with a takeover.
“I love the sushi, but I wouldn’t shop here except maybe for a special ingredient,” said Argentinian software designer Benjamin Vinas. “People say Whole Foods is for pretentious people, and I can see why. It’s too expensive. I don’t have the budget.”
Vinas was not the only customer to express a similar point of view. Others said that for their groceries they went several blocks north and west to lower-cost rival Trader Joe’s, where products may not be so exquisitely selected but are, in general, more uniformly discounted.
Maria Johnson, a postgraduate student, said Whole Foods’ pricing, with some items marked competitively and other expensive, was inconvenient.
New Jersey’s next governor stands to inherit a still-stalled plan to build a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River, a transit system racked recently by maintenance and safety issues. and a driving public unhappy about recent gas tax increases.
| April 29, 2017, at 9:22 a.m.
By MICHAEL CATALINI, Associated Press
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s next governor stands to inherit a still-stalled plan to build a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River, a transit system racked by recent maintenance and safety issues, and a driving public unhappy about gas tax increases.
The issues were highlighted this week after Amtrak announced repair work at New York’s Penn Station that would stretch rail delays into the summer and after state transportation officials hailed an eight-year funding plan financed by a gas tax hike during a hearing before New Jersey’s Democrat-led Legislature.
New Jersey and Virginia are the only two states with governor races this year.
Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican who is term limited and can’t seek re-election, has remained on the defensive over his 2010 decision to scrap a trans-Hudson rail project. That project’s successor, called Gateway, has broad support but an uncertain funding source.
But Christie has gone on the offense against Amtrak and all but declared victory, saying that Amtrak’s plans to repair tracks satisfied his demands that the railway certify its tracks before the state resumes making nearly $200 million monthly maintenance payments.
Christie’s ultimatum came after recent derailments at the station.
May 1 2017 7:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Location Ed Center, 49 Cottage Place, Ridgewood, NJ
The public is invited to attend the meeting, or watch it live on Fios channel 33, Optimum channel 77, or on the “Link in Live” tab of the district website at www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us.
Ridgewood NJ, 2017-18 School Budget Info:
On Monday, May 1, the Ridgewood Board of Education will hold a public hearing prior to voting on the proposed 2017-2018 school budget. The hearing will be held at the Education Center, 49 Cottage Place, starting at 7:30 p.m.
Click here to view the following budget summary in PDF format:
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood district parents and guardians will have the opportunity to provide anonymous feedback to the Board of Education in May, through a satisfaction survey distributed by email.
The 2016-2017 satisfaction survey will solicit parent / guardian opinions in a variety of areas, ranging from the quality of their children’s education to their satisfaction with school facilities. The middle school and high school surveys will also include questions on the district’s 1:1 Chromebook Initiative, which distributes laptops to all students in grades 6-12 for use at school and home.
The survey period will run from Tuesday, May 8 through Friday, May 19. All district parents and guardians with email addresses on file with the district will be sent a link to the brief survey for each school that their children attend. Instructions will be included to complete the questionnaire based on their youngest child’s experience at each school.
The surveys are set up to be completely anonymous and cannot be tracked back to responders. Survey results will be collated and shared with the community and used by the Board of Education and administration as part of their evaluation of district policies and practices. A dedicated email address has been set up to take questions or concerns about the 2016-2017 satisfaction survey at survey17@ridgewood.k12.nj.us
Mark Krulish , Staff Writer, @Mark_Krulish2:57 p.m. ET April 27, 2017
RIDGEWOOD — In an effort to add parking spaces at the train station, the council is weighing a plan to reduce the size of a grass median and create new spots for compact cars.
The design, presented by Village Engineer Chris Rutishauser to the council Wednesday, calls for narrowing the island on the western side of the train tracks by 4.5 feet to accomodate parking for compact cars on both sides of the median. The new layout would add 41 spots.
Ridgewood NJ, Calling all High school sophomores and juniors! We know how hard it is to find the right school! Join us for our first annual College night featuring catholic colleges and universities both near and far!
Our Lady of Mt. carmel Parish Center
(lower level of the church – please use passaic street entrance)
1 Passaic St., Ridgewood, NJ
May 11, 2017
6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Representatives from the following schools have agreed to be present to answer all your questions!
Assumption College
Boston College
Cabrini University
Caldwell University
Catholic University of America
College of Mount St. Vincent
College of St. Elizabeth
DeSales University
Dominican College
Felician University
Georgian Court University
Iona College
Kings College
Manhattan College
Misericordia University
Mount Saint Mary College
Neumann University
Providence College
Sacred Heart University
Salve Regina University
Seton Hall University
Siena College
St. Anselm College
St. Bonaventure University
St. Francis University
St. John’s University
St. Peter’s University
Santa Clara University
Stonehill College
University of Dayton
University of Scranton
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview that an open and free internet is vital for America in the 21st century.
During a speech at the Newseum on Wednesday, Pai said he plans to roll back the net-neutrality regulations and to restore the light-touch regulatory system established by President Bill Clinton and Congressional Republicans by the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
Net neutrality passed under former Democrat Tom Wheeler’s FCC in 2010. The rule, known as the Open Internet Order, reclassified the internet as a public monopoly. Critics chided the rule, stating that it would diminish the freedom of the internet. Proponents argue that the regulations prevent Internet service providers from discriminating against content providers.
Chairman Pai said during his speech that the internet prospered before net neutrality was enacted. Pai said, “The internet is the greatest free market success in American history.”
Breitbart News asked the FCC chief why he thinks that net neutrality is a problem, and why we must eliminate the rule. He said:
Number one there was no problem to solve, the internet wasn’t broken in 2015. In that situation, it doesn’t seem me that preemptive market-wide regulation is necessary. Number two, even if there was a problem, this wasn’t the right solution to adopt. These Title II regulations were inspired during the Great Depression to regulate Ma Bell which was a telephone monopoly. And the broadband market we have is very different from the telephone market of 1934. So, it seems to me that if you have 4,462 internet service providers and if a few of them are behaving in a way that is anticompetitive or otherwise bad for consumer welfare then you take targeted action to deal with that. You don’t declare the entire market anticompetitive and treat everyone as if they are a monopolist.
Going forward we are going to propose eliminating that Title II classification and figure out the right way forward. The bottom line is, everyone agrees on the principles of a free and open internet what we disagree with is how many regulations are needed to preserve the internet.
He’s not unprecedented. He’s not going to change. And 11 other lessons the media still haven’t learned about the president.
By POLITICO MAGAZINE
May/June 2017
There was lots of hand-wringing after the election about how the media had messed up. Were we too quick to believe the polls? Did we have any idea what real Americans actually thought? Did we give Donald Trump too much attention—or not enough? Now that journalists have spent a few months covering President Trump, we asked a range of media critics, political operatives, historians and more: What does the press still get wrong about Trump, and what do we just not get at all?
Ridgewood NJ, According to NJ Advance Media ,Six New Jersey residents were among the thousands of people left stranded when a week-long luxury music festival in the Bahamas backed by singer Ja Rule abruptly went bust leaving people stranded in what many have described as worse than a refugee camp half-constructed venue.
The Bahamas Music festival backed by a host of A-list models and with packages costing up to $13,000 has descended into chaos amid reports guests have been stranded at an unfinished site overrun by feral dogs , rat droppings and marauders robing people .
The festival homepage, co-organised by rapper Ja Rule, featured a host of top models including Emily Ratajkowski, Bella Hadid, Alessandra Ambrosio, Hailey Baldwin and Joan Smalls relaxing on the beach and swimming through crystal clear waters, but revelers reported finding unfinished site, piles of trash and feral dogs.
Fyre Festival set out to provide a once-in-a-lifetime musical experience on the Islands of the Exumas.
Due to circumstances out of our control, the physical infrastructure was not in place on time and we are unable to fulfill on that vision safely and enjoyably for our guests. At this time, we are working tirelessly to get flights scheduled and get everyone off of Great Exuma and home safely as quickly as we can. We ask that guests currently on-island do not make their own arrangements to get to the airport as we are coordinating those plans. We are working to place everyone on complimentary charters back to Miami today; this process has commenced and the safety and comfort of our guests is our top priority.
The festival is being postponed until we can further assess if and when we are able to create the high- quality experience we envisioned.
We ask for everyone’s patience and cooperation during this difficult time as we work as quickly and safely as we can to remedy this unforeseeable situation. We will continue to provide regular updates via email to our guests and via our official social media channels as they become available.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Hirsh Singh today said he filed a formal request with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) to allow him to participate in the 2017 Republican primary gubernatorial interactive debates.
Singh argued that although he has not accepted public funds for his campaign he nonetheless “has over $900,000 in campaign contributions on hand.”
“As I’ve said all along, our campaign has the resources we need to compete with the other candidates in the race, to get our message out, and to defeat Phil Murphy in November,” said Singh, who cited N.J.A.C. 19:25-1.4 as the basis for his legal argument demanding entry to the debate forum.
Ridgewood NJ, Bergen County is sponsoring a free event – “A Historical Portrayal of Jackie Kennedy Onassis” presented by the American Historical Theatre – Tuesday, May 2 at 11 a.m. in Village Hall Court Room. All are welcome!
Washington Township NJ ,The resultant force of a two (2) vehicle crash sent one (1) vehicle up onto the lawn of a home at 575 Washington Avenue, Washington Township on Friday morning, 04/28. Washington Township PD and EMS responded to the incident. One (1) driver, an adult male, complained of minor injuries and was evaluated on the scene by EMTs, but refused ambulance transport to a hospital. The other driver, also an adult male, was not injured. Both wrecked vehicles were removed by flatbed tow trucks. No word as to whether any summonses were issued in connection with the incident.
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