> Ridgewood Teachers : “They’re just asking for their fair share.”
That is a platitude. You must say specifically what it is you think is unfair and then maybe a real discussion can start.
Educated, professional people with good salaries under the protection of a union, guaranteed job security, nearly incomparable benefit plans and more time off than any of us sounds like the unfair part to all the other people…
The union must appreciate that sentiment among the tax base when the word “fair” is being thrown around – especially in this economy. Without any acknowledgment it can’t be a real negotiation. It doesn’t help the teachers’ argument and drives away the centrists and those genuinely do want what’s best for them, i.e. a fair resolution to this dispute. However, “the best” this year can’t possibly be compared with “the best” of better economic times
> POSTMAN: AYERS FAMILY PUT ‘FOREIGNER’ OBAMA THROUGH SCHOOL Claims he met young Barack who boasted he’d someday be president
CHICAGO – Did the parents of former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers help finance Barack Obama’s Harvard education?
Did Ayers’ mother believe Obama was a foreign student?
And was the young Obama convinced at the time – long before he even entered politics – that he was going to become president of the United States?
A retired U.S. Postal Service carrier who delivered mail to Tom and Mary Ayers in a Chicago suburb in the late 1980s and early 1990s and claims to have met Obama in front of the Ayers home emphatically says yes to all three questions.
> Obama’s tax hikes threaten a new US recession By Martin Feldstein
The recent payroll gains and the declining unemployment rate in the United States have raised hopes that the economy will now start growing faster than the tepid 1.7 per cent rate of last year. Optimists are expecting growth rates as high as three per cent for this year and next.
I hope they are correct. The recession that began in December 2007 was deep and painful and the recovery that began in June 2009 has been slow and grinding in spite of unprecedented fiscal outlays and an even larger monetary stimulus. House prices have continued to fall and housing construction remains dormant because of the Obama administration’s failure to reduce the large number of homeowners whose mortgage debt exceeds the value of their homes. Business investment has been depressed by the anti-business rhetoric and policies of Mr Obama’s government.
> At two-year mark, health law’s legacy is confusion States and employers wait for guidance By Paige Winfield Cunningham-The Washington Times Monday, March 19, 2012
Two years after congressional Democrats squeezed out enough votes to pass President Obama’s health care overhaul, confusion still reigns among the states, insurers and average Americans struggling to comply with the hundreds of pages in the law.
Some states say they can’t move forward until the government issues more rules to clarify exactly what kinds of services need to be covered, while other states dispute that, saying enough information is available to plow ahead.
>Reader Questions constitutionality of “Ravi” verdict
RE: “If the law does not require that the prosecution prove that the defendant has a guilty mind, or ‘black heart’, in that he intended to intimidate the victim, the law is an ass and should be revised or repealed.”
The law should be repealed regardless.
It is unconstitutional since it sets up a protected class of citizens making them more important than other citizens.
Had Tyler been a heterosexual and Ravi did the EXACT same thing, he would not be convicted of bias intimidation since he could not be charged with that crime since “NJSA 2C:16-1 – Bias Intimidation” only protects intimidation based on “race, color, religion, gender, handicap, sexual orientation, or ethnicity”
NJSA 2C:16-1, like all “hate crime” laws, is a bad law.
>Reminder for Wednesday’s Networking Event Scarpelli, Scott – NJ [email protected]
Networking Event March 21, you are confirmed to attend this week’s Networking Event.
BiBi’z restaurant in Westwood on Wednesday March 21 is hosting a business card exchange from 6pm-8pm. If you would like to meet other professionals in the North Jersey area and extend your personal network of people, this event will is for you. The cost to attend is $15 at the door. BiBi’z will offer Happy Hour drink specials and a delicious food buffet. BiBi’z serves Global American food with influences from around the World. Please RSVP to [email protected] if you can attend and if you will bring a guest so the restaurant can accommodate for enough food
>House GOP budget to slash taxes By Erik Wasson and Bernie Becker – 03/19/12 06:48 PM ET
House Republicans will roll out a fiscal 2013 budget on Tuesday that will slash tax rates for both corporations and individuals, setting a marker for future negotiations with Democrats on taxes and other fiscal matters.
The plan from House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) would collapse the current system of six tax brackets for individuals into two marginal rates: 10 percent and 25 percent, according to GOP aides. The proposal would also lower the top corporate tax rate to 25 percent, and scrap the Alternative Minimum Tax.
>EDWARD W. SZAWIEL candidate for Senate to speak at NJ Tea Party Coalition
The speaker will be candidate for Senate: EDWARD W. SZAWIEL
Ed obtained his BS at the University of Detroit, summa cum laude,, Finance Management at Stanford University and his master’s in Business administration at Harvard Business School. His business experience encompasses, but is not limited to, Business Operations, General Management, Profit Enhancement and Cash and Asset Management Ed served in the military as U.S. Army, Captain, Artillery, Honorable Discharge – received 2 Bronze Stars, 1 Meritorious Unit Citation
All will have time to ask questions at the end of his presentation.
7:00 PM – 124 Essex Street, Rochelle Park, NJ – Harley Davidson Building
>The Ridgewood Historical Society Presents :Adam Badeau
March 19, 1895, marks the death of Adam Badeau, a Ridgewood resident and Civil War general, who had a surprising connection John Wilkes Booth.
Few, if any, Ridgewood residents could claim as strong a connection to 19th century American history as Adam Badeau.
Prior to the Civil War, Badeau was a theater critic for a Sunday newspaper in New York. In this role he met many of the famous actors of the day. When war broke out, Badeau became part of General Sherman’s staff. A serious injury en route to Vicksburg disrupted his military career, and he returned to New York City to recover.
While in New York, he was reportedly cared for by two New York stage actors he had befriended as a theater critic – Edwin Booth and his younger brother, John Wilkes Booth! The following year, Edwin Booth would save the life of Abraham Lincoln’s oldest son, while John Wilkes Booth would, of course, become best known for assassinating the president in 1865.
Upon recovering, Badeau became a member of General Grant’s staff and was present at Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. He later worked for the State Department and was the U.S. Consul to Cuba and England. Thefinal years of Badeau’s life were full of legal troubles, a U.S. Supreme Court case regarding payment for his services to the government. Fortunately for Badeau, he was eventually found eligible for military retirement payments.
To learn more about Adam Badeau and the Civil War in New Jersey, visit the Ridgewood Historical Society’s Schoolhouse Museum, on East Glen Avenue. The museum is open Thursdays and Saturday 1-3pm and Sundays 2-4pm. Please visit www.ridgewoodhistoricalsociety.org. for more information.
>Ridgewood parents asked to take pledge against underage drinking Monday March 19, 2012, 11:34 AM BY DARIUS AMOS STAFF WRITER The Ridgewood News
As prom and graduation season creeps closer, the Ridgewood Municipal Alliance is hoping parents throughout the village take a pledge that could end up saving their children’s lives.
The committee recently launched the Safe Homes Parents Network, which encourages parents to join a growing team whose collective goal is to combat the underage use of alcohol and drugs.
The formation of the network spawned from a Municipal Alliance meeting last fall, when several parents identified specific worries regarding their children. According to Sheila Brogan, chair of the alliance, approximately 230 people attended that meeting at Ridgewood High School, and many expressed concern about underage drinking.
New Jersey’s $38 billion tourism business – the state’s third-largest industry – may be back on a roll after posting a 7 percent revenue increase in 2011 over the year before.
And the particularly warm winter, which has attracted throngs of out-of-season visitors to the Jersey Shore, may extend the upward trend into the 2012 summer season, officials predict. (Urgo, The Philadelphia Inquirer)
>Auto Insurance PIP: medical care a “pot of gold to abuse”
Last summer, the Christie administration called the part of New Jersey auto insurance policies that helps pay for accident victims’ medical care a “pot of gold to abuse” after doctors and at least one Hudson County hospital submitted wildly inflated bills.
Officials stressed that personal injury protection, better known as PIP, is the fastest-growing auto insurance cost in a state where rates are already among the highest in the nation. (Livio, The Star-Ledger)
Garrett Visits the Bergen Arts and Science Charter School
(RIDGEWOOD-NJ) Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ-05) visited the visit Bergen Arts and Science Charter School (BASCS) in Hackensack to tour the facilities and speak with the students about their school.
“It was a pleasure to speak with the students at Bergen Arts and Science Charter School about their academic goals,” said Garrett after the visit. “The students I spoke to certainly have a healthy curiosity for the world around them. I encourage them to keep their positive attitude and continue to challenge themselves to be better students and citizens.”
