Monday, Dec. 19 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM Tuesday, Dec. 20 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM Wednesday, Dec. 21 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM Thursday, Dec. 22 10:00 AM to 8:30 PM Friday, Dec. 23 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM Saturday, Dec. 24 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Monday, Dec. 26C L O S E D Monday, Jan. 2C L O S E D
Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
~Gary, Barbara and Collin”
The Tobacco Shop of Ridgewood | 10 Chestnut Street | Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450 Phone: 201-447-2204 | Email: [email protected] Hours: Monday – Saturday 10:00AM – 5:30PM and Thursday Night 6:30PM – 8:30PM
Game of congressional redistricting drawing to a close
Congressional redistricting is a game of musical chairs that starts once a decade, when the census updates population figures. This year, both Pennsylvania and New Jersey grew more slowly than other states, so each is losing a seat in the House of Representatives.
Pennsylvania, like most states, lets its legislature draw the new map. On Tuesday, the state House released a map that combines two southwestern districts, which could pit two incumbent Democrats against each other next year. It also redrew some competitive districts to protect Republican incumbents. Democrats were particularly peeved at the remapping of a Philadelphia-area district, the Seventh, which would take in parts of five counties. They likened its shape to an oil spill. (Farrell, The Philadelphia Inquirer)
>On a voting spree, N.J. Senate backs winery sales December 16, 2011|By Maya Rao, Inquirer Trenton Bureau
TRENTON – Small wineries could directly ship wine to consumers and retailers under legislation that passed the Senate, 23-13, on Thursday, one of dozens of bills that lawmakers sped through in their last voting session of the year.
“New Jersey wineries are by and large considered among the best in the country, but consumer access to these wines is still severely limited. This legislation will change all of that,” Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), a sponsor, said in a statement.
The legislation affects wineries that produce up to 250,000 gallons of wine a year.
Attempts to lift the state’s requirement that wineries sell to state-licensed wholesalers have long stalled in the Legislature. And a federal court ruling last year struck down an arrangement under which New Jersey allowed small wineries to sell wine at a few locations without wholesalers because it did not allow out-of-state wineries the same option.
I am teaching for 7 years now. I make just about 60K. They are taking more and more out of my paycheck each year. The pension and benefits I was promised when I went into the profession later in life are obviously not going to come to fruition. My husband is out of a job and I have 2 kids in college. Think I am not hurting? Think again. Shame on you. I care more about my students education on a daily basis than many of them do, and sadly, more than many of their parents do.
Could not agree more to the comment “welcome to reality” I have worked int he private sector all of my adult life and let me tell you I have paid and paid for my health and dental insurance over the years. I own a small home in the Lawns section of Ridgewood and pay high taxes, have family also ouyt of work, must pay for child’s education as well as all of my health benefits. I do not feel sorry for teachers at all – it is about time you pay your share – the rest of us do – greatly with paying your salaries. I also agree way too much importance put on the Ridgewood school system with their athletic programs. Get real – americans before it is too late!!
>Israeli leader shuns New York Times op-ed offer Dec 16, 11:30 AM (ET)
JERUSALEM (AP) – A senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the leader has refused an offer to write an opinion piece for the New York Times, accusing the paper’s opinion pages of anti-Israel bias.
The unusual public refusal appears to reflect the hardline Israeli government’s increasingly prickly relations with much of the outside world.
>Congressmen can’t say ‘Merry Christmas’ in mail by Mark Tapscott Editorial Page Editor
Looks like the PC police have threatened members of the House of Representatives against wishing constituents a “Merry Christmas,” if they want to do so in a mailing paid for with tax dollars.
Members who submit official mailings for review by the congressional franking commission that reviews all congressional mail to determine if it can be “franked,” or paid for with tax dollars, are being told that no holiday greetings, including “Merry Christmas,” can be sent in official mail.
“I called the commission to ask for clarification and was told no ‘Merry Christmas.’ Also told cannot say ‘Happy New Year’ but can say ‘have a happy new year’ – referencing the time period of a new year, but not the holiday,” said a Hill staffer who requested anonymity.
>House cybersecurity bill would establish federal overseer By Gautham Nagesh – 12/16/11 11:31 AM ET
Members of the House Homeland Security Committee introduced a cybersecurity bill on Thursday that would establish a quasi-governmental entity to oversee information-sharing with the private sector.
Like the other cybersecurity bills offered by the House GOP, the Promoting and Enhancing Cybersecurity and Information Sharing Effectiveness (PrECISE Act) encourages private firms to share information on cyber threats but stops short of mandating new security standards for sectors deemed critical to national security.
The reason for their decision was summed up in one word by the chief marketing officer of the company. The show “sucked”.
Posted: 15 Dec 2011 12:40 PM PST
A few weeks ago the Learning Channel started broadcasting a show called “All American Muslim”. The show follows five American Muslim families in Dearborn, Michigan which has the largest concentration of American Muslims in the United States. The first show started with a “fair” rating for cable with a 0.9 among adults 18-49 and 1.74 million viewers. The second show had a 55% drop in ratings and has continued to lose viewers with each succeeding show. It seems that once people have seen “All American Muslim” once, that is all they can palate and move on to shows of more redeeming value, like “Moonshiners” on the Discovery Channel. “All American Muslim” has also attracted the attention of other groups that have rightfully labeled it for what it really is, just a bunch of Islamic propaganda.
The Florida Family Association expressed their concerns that “All American Muslim” was nothing but propaganda to the show’s sponsors. They said that if these companies continued to sponsor the show, they would have to recommend to their members that they think twice about doing business with those companies. Because of this AND the next to nothing ratings for “All American Muslim”, some of the companies who Florida Family Association say have withdrawn their sponsorship of the show are:
>New Jersey Association of Realtors honors members for commitment Thursday, December 15, 2011 The Ridgewood News
Ridgewood/Glen Rock — The New Jersey Association of Realtors honored a group of Realtors and Realtor-associates for their long-term commitment to the organization during a recent awards ceremony at the Triple Play Realtor Convention and Trade Expo in Atlantic City.
Fifty-eight members achieved the Realtor Emeritus designation, which signifies 40 years of membership in the organization. Additionally, NJAR welcomed 201 new members into the Quarter Century Club, recognizing 25 years of membership in the association.
>Simon Wiesenthal Center: Time for left Wing bloggers to clean up the discourse By Jennifer Rubin
Over the last week, Ben Smith, my colleague Greg Sargent and I have reported on the controversy concerning the Center for American Progress’s Think Progress bloggers and others in the left blogosphere who have deployed language that invokes anti-Semitic tropes of dual loyalty and who have peddled extreme anti-Israel views.
>Congress Should Stop Subsidizing Warren Buffett’s Health Care, Not Increase His Taxes Kathryn Nix and Bob MoffitDecember 7, 2011 at 9:17 am(4)
Reports have surfaced that conservatives in Congress may propose further increasing income adjustment in Medicare to lessen the program’s insolvency. This is a great idea. While the left continues to argue for higher taxes for the likes of Warren Buffett to maintain the status quo of a costly, failing Medicare program, it makes more sense that Congress should simply stop subsidizing them.
As Congress continues to pursue solutions to the entitlement spending crisis, one question that must be answered is whether the United States should even have universal federal entitlements to begin with. Considering the wreckage of the nation’s finances, the answer is clearly no. It’s not only that we cannot afford it, but the very creation of popular dependency on government itself threatens prosperity.
For wealthier Americans like Buffett, the policy options are clear. The Obama Administration and its allies in Congress are obsessed with imposing higher taxes on them, regardless of the impact on investment in the economy and despite the fact that they already pay the bulk of federal income taxes. The intent behind this course of action is to maintain, largely unchanged, the existing federal entitlement regime.
The alternative is to introduce reform that uses market forces to control costs, part of which would be to reduce or eliminate taxpayer subsidies for entitlement benefits for upper-income Americans while letting more Americans of all income classes keep more of their own money.
>Though it was promised Obamacare would reduce costs by increasing participation and competition, so far reality has been just the opposite
The health insurance cost for my small biz went up 16% from 2010 to 2011 and now that plan is being completely discontinued for 2012. The closest replacement we can get will be almost 20% more than we paid in 2011.
That’s (for 2012) now with a $5000 deductible too (for a single employee, $10,000 for family). In 2011 that was $3000/6000. In 2010 it was $1000/2500. It’s basically become catastrophic insurance, and it is pretty hard to afford anything else right now.
For 2012, we will also offer employees another plan with a $1500 in-network ded ($4500 out of network), but the cost per month is nearly $2000 for a family and over $600 for a single employee.
We will pay for the high-ded plan but anyone wanting the other will have to pay the cost diff. I sure won’t be able to afford that other plan myself– the cost on a fam. basis comes to nearly $24,000 a year, more than double the cost of the high-ded plan on same basis.
Welcome to the new world of health insurance. Though it was promised Obamacare would reduce costs by increasing participation and competition, so far reality has been just the opposite – lots more cost, less benefits, more out of pocket and higher premiums- as well as carriers simply dropping some plans entirely because they claim they lose money on them.
Meanwhile, our biz’s revenue declined during 2011 vs. 2010. We had no choice but to lay off some employees and are down to lowest staffing we’ve had in many years.
Teachers need to face the fact that many of those who pay all the costs are hurting badly.
The fact is that this year as the owner of our small biz, I’ll make less myself than what I used to be able to pay some employees, which is also less than many Ridgewood teachers make. Most of the firms we compete with have had similar experiences lately.
>Despite success on the field, big-spending Rutgers athletics is saddled with its largest deficit ever
It was a sea of scarlet.
Rutgers University’s newly expanded football stadium was jammed with 52,737 boisterous fans for the 2009 home opener against the Cincinnati Bearcats, a sellout crowd that brought in $1.6 million in ticket sales, shattering attendance records.
More than 30,500 of the fans had bought season tickets, including 892 who shelled out hundreds of dollars for new luxury club seats, built to attract wealthy supporters and potential donors. A new state-of-the art scoreboard adorned the southern end zone like a resplendent trophy. Despite the eventual loss, there was an optimistic energy in the air.
That heady day seems long ago now. (Renshaw, The Star-Ledger)
>Market Competition and Consumer Choice Act (S-2664)
Anthony Bastardi
The NJ Senate has been considering the Market Competition and Consumer Choice Act (S-2664), a bill that will let our state “break loose from the past and begin building it’s future” according to Anthony Bastardi, Chairman of the Board of New Jersey Foundation for Public Broadcasting. This billmodernizes the telecom regulations – something that has not been changed in about a century (since the Ma Bell days).
“These rules, created decades ago before the iPhone, laptop computer or the Internet were even dreamed of, hamstring the communications marketplace and prevent competitors from operating on a level playing field. As it stands, government red tape is slowing innovation and preventing communicationsproviders from creating jobs in New Jersey.” (see Bastardi’s entire letter here:
