> What a disgrace : First Responders Snubbed; Not Invited to 9/11 Ceremony
by Fox and Friends Posted in: 9/11, Ground Zero
They were the first ones on the scene when the towers fell on September 11, 2001, but ten years later, the 9/11 first responders are being told that they will not be invited to take part in this year’s ceremony at ground zero. The city announced that due to security and space issues, there’s no room for the first responders. Instead, they’ll be invited to a private ceremony on a different date
>Taking, Or Being Taken By, Valley’s Door-to-Door Survey
A young man came to my far-West Side front yard the other evening seeking opinions about the Valley expansion (always called “renewal”). The survey team has clearly been instructed to keep trying; this was at least the second and possibly the third or more time an attempt to do so had been made at my house. Last week I saw someone with a clipboard walking away after I’d decided not to answer the door, and this man also said he had tried earlier the same day, when no one was home. This time it was a lovely evening that had invited some time out on the patio, with no place to hide.
I was tempted to send him packing but felt that because I live far from Valley, it was important to put my views on the record. So we let him talk before we hit him with both barrels, in a refined sort of way. The information he provided was incomplete and inaccurate in many respects, and I called him on this. Either he truly didn’t know certain facts or he was deliberately misled. I won’t elaborate here lest Valley use any such tips to “improve” the process to its advantage.
When he seemingly innocently asked if we thought the hospital should be kept up to date, I said that everyone did, but that the 15-20% expansion previously requested was plenty–not 100%. I said everybody understood that hospitals needed to be upgraded sometimes. I don’t think he wrote any of that down. In fact, his notes were cursory compared to the amount that I was saying–maybe three sentences.
I asked whether he was a Valley employee. No. Asked who employed him: Data and Field Services, Brooklyn. The catchphrase on its website: Grassroots Mobilizing for the 21st Century. That fits right in with the faux-grassroots website that Valley set up. But however hard they try, Valley’s demands will never feel like a true grassroots effort because it is precisely the opposite, and everybody knows it.
At the end, with seeming nonchalance, he pulled out from under the other papers on his clipboard a list taken from the Village property tax rolls (a surprisingly difficult and prolonged task, since by then his hands were shaking badly) showing the owner’s name listed for my address, and asked for confirmation. I felt trapped and found this disingenuous in the extreme because the list should logically and fairly have been revealed at the very beginning. I was tempted to say “no” but that would have been stupid since these lists came directly from the Village. The unstated implication throughout the conversation is that he is just wandering around–not so.
I had kept him standing on the steps to keep him somewhat unsettled and didn’t turn the light on until I started to feel sorry for him when he kept flipping through his clipboard, looking for the right page. I also wanted him to leave before I slugged him, because he seemed nice, but my patience was wearing thin.
This survey is anything but anonymous, people. When it’s done, Valley will have obtained not only the opinions of many or most residents, as interpreted by professionals writing down whatever they please, but also who said what and where we live.
>Survey results: Most parents are pleased with Ridgewood schools
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2011
BY JOSEPH CRAMER
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
District statistics indicate that parents are slightly more pleased with Ridgewood Public Schools than they were last year, according to the results of the Board of Education’s second Parent/Guardian Survey released Thursday. Overall participation in the survey increased this year as well.
“The Board of Education is appreciative of the effort made by district parents to respond to the 10-11 Parent Survey, and we are pleased to see once again that a large majority of respondents are satisfied with the quality of their child’s educational experience,” said BOE President Michele Lenhard.
The survey was created last year by a BOE communications committee made up of board member Sheila Brogan, former member Laurie Goodman, and district administrators, including Superintendent Daniel Fishbein. For this second year, the survey was sent out to parents and guardians via e-mail in May. A total of 2,969 parents – 40.5 percent of the district – filled out a survey, up from 38 percent participation last year.
New Jersey teachers’ raises drop to average of 2 percent
Average raises for teachers under contracts negotiated this year have dropped to about 2 percent, data released Wednesday by the New Jersey School Boards Association show.
But the number of districts with starting teacher salaries of at least $50,000 will double this year to 162, New Jersey Education Association data show.
More than 200 expired contracts remain in negotiation, compared with the 158 that remained unsettled at the same time last year. Representatives of both the NJSBA and the NJEA said the economy, state budget and new state laws governing pensions and benefits have contributed to slower negotiations.
Locally, about 15 districts in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and southern Ocean Counties are still in negotiations. (D’Amico, Press of Atlantic City)
>HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
258 PM EDT WED AUG 17 2011
NORTHERN FAIRFIELD-NORTHERN NEW HAVEN-NORTHERN MIDDLESEX-
NORTHERN NEW LONDON-SOUTHERN FAIRFIELD-SOUTHERN NEW HAVEN-
SOUTHERN MIDDLESEX-SOUTHERN NEW LONDON-WESTERN PASSAIC-
EASTERN PASSAIC-HUDSON-WESTERN BERGEN-EASTERN BERGEN-WESTERN ESSEX-
EASTERN ESSEX-WESTERN UNION-EASTERN UNION-ORANGE-PUTNAM-ROCKLAND-
NORTHERN WESTCHESTER-SOUTHERN WESTCHESTER-NEW YORK (MANHATTAN)-BRONX-
RICHMOND (STATEN ISLAND)-KINGS (BROOKLYN)-NORTHWESTERN SUFFOLK-
NORTHEASTERN SUFFOLK-SOUTHWESTERN SUFFOLK-SOUTHEASTERN SUFFOLK-
NORTHERN QUEENS-NORTHERN NASSAU-SOUTHERN QUEENS-SOUTHERN NASSAU-
258 PM EDT WED AUG 17 2011
THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHERN
CONNECTICUT…NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY AND SOUTHEAST NEW YORK.
.DAY ONE…TONIGHT.
HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS NOT EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.
.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN…THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY.
SCATTERED THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT IS POSSIBLE THURSDAY AFTERNOON
THROUGH FRIDAY. THE STRONGEST STORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING
STRONG WIND GUSTS AND LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN.
Citing debt and benefits, Fitch lowers bond rating for New Jersey
Despite its efforts to cut spending, New Jersey is a riskier investment, one of the leading ratings agencies said on Wednesday as it lowered the state’s credit rating, citing heavy debt and benefits obligations.
Fitch Ratings lowered its assessment of New Jersey’s general obligation bonds one notch, to AA– from AA. Fitch’s ratings for Kentucky and Michigan are also AA–; only California and Illinois have worse ratings.
In June, Gov. Chris Christie and the Legislature agreed on health care and pension changes for public workers that will save New Jersey billions of dollars. That deal added to other large budget cuts Mr. Christie had passed since taking office in January 2010, as well as savings he hopes to get in continuing contract talks with public-employee unions. (Pérez-Peña, The New York Times)
Overtime pay “flows like water” at the Port Authority, New York State’s top auditor said Wednesday, days before a vote on the agency’s proposed largest-ever toll and fare hikes.
The bi-state authority paid $85.7 million in overtime last year to 5,360 of its 6,977 employees, an audit by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli found. More than two dozen of the top overtime earners boosted their total pay to more than $200,000 in 2009, in many cases more than doubling their base salaries, the audit found. It concluded that the agency has failed to rein in extra pay.
“Management has no clear strategy to achieve its own benchmarks and goals for curbing costs,” DiNapoli said. “Before the Port Authority asks for more money to fund its operations, the agency should take a long, hard look at whether its business model for managing overtime really makes sense.” (Boburg and Reitmeyer, The Record)
A majority of New Jersey voters disapproves of the way President Obama is handling his job, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released early Wednesday that also shows Democratic Sen. Robert Menendezfacing significant headwinds going into his 2012 re-election campaign.
Just 44 percent of New Jersey voters approve of Obama’s job performance, the lowest score ever recorded in the Quinnipiac poll, while 52 percent disapprove. In mid-June, half of New Jersey voters approved of Obama, while 46 percent disapproved. Garden State independents have turned sharply on Obama: Now, just 39 percent of independents approve of his job performance, while 57 percent disapprove.
A slight plurality (49 percent) also says that Obama does not deserve to be re-elected, while 45 percent feel that he does deserve re-election. (Shepard, National Journal)
>Bachmann to Warren Buffett: ‘Write a Big Check Today’
Wednesday, 17 Aug 2011 11:31 AM
By Jim Meyers
Vote Here Now!Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has delivered a sharp response to investor Warren Buffett’s plea for the wealthy to pay more in taxes, saying the billionaire should “write a big check today.”
In a New York Times op-ed piece published on Sunday, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Buffett said he and other super-rich Americans “have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.”
Buffett wrote that he paid only 17 percent of his taxable income last year, less than anyone else in his office. He called on Congress to raise the tax rate for households with taxable incomes of more than $1 million, with an additional hike for households making $10 million or more.
At a campaign stop in South Carolina on Tuesday, ABC News reported, Rep. Bachmann told the gathering: “We believe, unlike Warren Buffett, that taxes are high enough already.
>AOL Gets Last, Best Hope in Private Equity
By Joseph Ciolli and Rita Nazareth – Aug 17, 2011 10:39 PM ET
For a private equity firm that’s looking for the cheapest way to get online, AOL Inc. (AOL) is trading for 57 cents on the dollar.
The Internet pioneer spun off from Time Warner Inc. (TWX) in 2009 plunged to a record low last week after cutting this year’s profit forecast because of slowing growth in display advertising sales. With its market capitalization reduced to $1.3 billion from a peak of $3.1 billion last year, New York-based AOL is now the cheapest relative to its net assets of any U.S. Web company with a value of more than $500 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
AOL has posted net losses of almost $800 million in less than two years as a standalone company as the profitable dial-up Internet business becomes obsolete and online advertising sales on websites from the Huffington Post to Moviefone fail to make money. With AOL trading at a 43 percent discount, the company may now attract private equity buyers that can still extract $1.5 billion in cash out of the access business within three years, according to B. Riley & Co.
Group says bills would lead to more supermarkets in NJ
A group of proposed laws designed to ease the path for supermarkets to open in New Jersey is being touted by the New Jersey Food Council as a way to bring quality foods to residents who currently are unable to get them.
The legislative agenda includes everything from tax incentive programs to regulatory reforms, which advocates say will promote the growth of the food retail and distribution industry.
That industry, said Food Council President Linda Doherty, “accounts for 9 percent of gross state product and 17 percent of all New Jersey jobs.”
Six of the proposals are already in the form of legislation.
Among them is a measure to increase the number of liquor licenses a supermarket can hold from two to 10. (Staff, Gannett)
Gov. Chris Christie’s N.J. poll numbers on the rise while President Obama’s ratings drop
Gov. Chris Christie’s poll numbers have improved while President Obama’s hit a new low in the Garden State, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this morning.
New Jersey registered voters are split on what they think of Christie, with 47 percent approving and 46 percent disapproving. That’s slightly better for Christie than a June Quinnipiac poll, when 44 percent approved and 47 percent disapproved.
Obama’s approval ratings have suffered, with 52 percent of voters disapproving and 44 percent approving — down from a positive 50 percent to 46 percent in June.
And U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, up for re-election next year, also saw his rating drop, to 39 percent and 42 percent disapprove – down from a positive 45 percent to 38 percent in June. (Friedman, The Star-Ledger)
> Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce Presents the 18th Annual Car Show.
Memorial Park at Van Neste Square and E. Ridgewood Ave. on September 9th from 6-9:30pm for a fun filled night. Enjoy music by “Take 4”. Trophies will be awarded at 8:30pm. This event is free and open to the public.
photo by P Goodman
For more info contact: [email protected], 201-445-2600 or visit
Fri, September 09, 2011 Time: 6:00 PM – 9:30 PM
Location: Memorial Park at Van Neste Square/E. Ridgewood Ave, Ridgewood, NJ
Event Description
This event is always fun for anyone who loves cars of all ages.
Northfield resident is trying to generate support for proposal to give more state aid to suburban, school districts
A Northfield resident is trying to get local support for a North Jersey state senator’s proposal to give more state aid to suburban and wealthy school districts to offset property taxes.
But Dennis Mahon may be facing an uphill battle. Both Democratic Sen. Jim Whelan and his Republican challenger, Assemblyman Vincent Polistina, said they do not support the so-called Fair School Funding plan proposed by Sen. Michael Doherty, R-Warren, Hunterdon.
Doherty’s plan would provide the same amount of state aid for every child no matter where he or she lives. He calculates that amount at about $7,500 per student based on current state income tax revenue. (D’Amico, Press of Atlantic City)
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is quietly pushing the Bloomberg administration to give him more control over his role in the nationally televised ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, said people familiar with the discussions.
In high-level talks between city and state aides, the governor’s office has sought greater influence over the several-hour program, questioning whether Mayor Michael Bloomberg should be in charge of an event his office has controlled for the past decade, the individuals said.
The changes sought by Mr. Cuomo leave open the possibility that he’ll address the gathering with substantive remarks, the individuals said. In past Sept. 11 anniversary ceremonies, governors have read brief lines of poetry. (Gershman, The Wall Street Journal)
