Pelosi Statement Condemning Antifa Violence in Berkeley
August 31,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ , Democrats finally begin to take antifa violence seriously and start to distance them selves.
San Francisco, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement denouncing the violent protests carried out this weekend in Berkeley, California:
“Our democracy has no room for inciting violence or endangering the public, no matter the ideology of those who commit such acts. The violent actions of people calling themselves antifa in Berkeley this weekend deserve unequivocal condemnation, and the perpetrators should be arrested and prosecuted.
“In California, as across all of our great nation, we have deep reverence for the Constitutional right to peaceful dissent and free speech. Non-violence is fundamental to that right. Let us use this sad event to reaffirm that we must never fight hate with hate, and to remember the values of peace, openness and justice that represent the best of America.”
Ridgewood NJ, The PSE&G gas line construction project on E. Ridgewood Avenue will be going through the intersection of Pleasant Avenue on Thursday 8/31/17. The intersection will be completely closed to traffic in all directions from 7:00am to 5:00pm. Detours will be in place . Expect delays if traveling through the area.
CHORAL MASTER CLASS With Maestro Steven Fox, Music Director Saturday, September 16, 2017 Time: 1- 3pm Place: Bethlehem Lutheran Church 155 Linwood Ave., Ridgewood, NJ Cost: Be our Guest!! Maestro Steven Fox invites you to join Pro Arte Chorale in a MASTER CLASS of vocal exercise, singing techniques and a discussion of chorale repertoire. This complimentary master class will conclude with a rehearsal of various choral pieces from different periods, and in different styles, including Medieval Chant/Renaissance, Classical with element of Baroque, Romantic and Contemporary (20th Century). Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from, and sing with, Grammy-nominated Maestro Steven Fox and the Pro Arte Chorale!! To reserve your seat contact [email protected]or call 201-497-8400
file photo by Boyd Loving Sun, September 10, 2017 Time: 12:00 PM – 3:30 PM Location: Memorial Park at Van Neste Square, E Ridgewood Ave and Oak St
Ridgewood NJ, Paint Out in Downtown Ridgewood September 10 @ 12:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Call to Artists, Members and Friends of The Ridgewood Art Institute!
Save this Date: September 10, 2017
Please join us to Paint Out in Downtown Ridgewood during The Ridgewood Guild’s Music Festival
• Register in the RAI tent located in the park from 12 to 1
• Paint from 1 to 3:30 (please note that the Music Festival
will take place in the park from 1 to 6)
• Join us along Ridgewood Ave. near the park to display and sell
(if desired) your plein air paintings from 4-6.
• Artists should bring their own easels and paint supplies*
• There is no registration fee – but donations will be appreciated!
Painting subjects will range from
musicians – to the crowd -to downtown scenes.
A great opportunity to share the day with family and friends too!
*Watch for more news to come about related RAI plein air
demos and instruction.
Ridgewood NJ, the CDC and multiple states are investigating a multistate outbreak of human Salmonella infections linked to contact with pet turtles.
Thirty-seven people infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Agbeni have been reported from 13 states.
Illnesses started on dates ranging from March 1, 2017 to August 3, 2017 Of 33 people with available information, 16 have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported. Twelve (32%) ill people are children 5 years of age or younger.
Epidemiologic and laboratory findings link the outbreak of human Salmonella Agbeni infections to contact with turtles or their environments, such as water from a turtle habitat.
In interviews, ill people answered questions about contact with animals during the week before becoming ill. Fifteen (45%) of the 33 people interviewed reported contact with turtles or their environments, such as water from a turtle habitat, before getting sick.
In interviews with 9 ill people about where their turtles came from, 6 reported buying a turtle from a flea market or street vendor, or receiving the turtle as a gift.
In 2015, state and local health officials collected samples from turtles at a street vendor. Whole genome sequencing(https://www.cdc.gov/pulsenet/pathogens/wgs.html) showed that the Salmonella Agbeni isolated from ill people in this outbreak is closely related genetically to the Salmonella Agbeni isolates from turtles. This close genetic relationship means that people in this outbreak are more likely to share a common source of infection.
Do not buy small turtles as pets or give them as gifts.
Since 1975, the FDA has banned selling and distributing turtles with shells less than 4 inches long as pets because they are often linked to Salmonella infections, especially in young children.
All turtles, regardless of size, can carry Salmonella bacteria even if they look healthy and clean. These outbreaks are a reminder to follow simple steps(https://www.cdc.gov/Features/salmonellafrogturtle/) to enjoy pet reptiles and keep your family healthy.
This outbreak is expected to continue since consumers might be unaware of the risk of Salmonella infection from small turtles. If properly cared for, turtles have a long life expectancy.
Nicholas Katzban, Staff Writer, @NicholasKatzban Published 7:38 p.m. ET Aug. 29, 2017 | Updated 8:41 p.m. ET Aug. 29, 2017
A Superior Court judge in Bergen County ruled Tuesday that a former Ridgewood councilman was not in conflict when he voted to rezone areas of downtown for multifamily homes, a council move that caught the ire of some residents who decried the push toward higher densities in their sleepy bedroom community.
Following four major amendments to the village’s master plan in 2015 that nearly tripled the allowable density in certain municipal zones, a group calling itself Ridgewood Citizens for Reasonable Development sued the Village Council, looking to block the ordinances that codified those amendments.
The group alleged that then-Mayor Paul Aronsohn and Councilman Albert Pucciarelli had discussed and approved the ordinances despite two separate conflicts of interest.
Cigars are kept in a state-of-the-art walk-in humidor. Enjoy Davidoff, Avo, Camacho, Padron, Ashton and many more. For pipe smokers, or those who roll their own cigarettes, we have over 40 fine tobacco blends, as well as a large selection of pipes. Experience a wide selection of cigars in one of our two lounges. Relax and unwind in our custom leather smoking chairs.
Waldwick NJ, Wanamaker Avenue, a middle-class neighborhood that according to residents has recently become infested with rats. After finding them all over their property some Waldwick residents say rats are taking over their neighborhood.
According to neighbors the first signs of the rats was in the spring, since then, the issue has begun to tailspin, with more and more neighbors reporting sightings of the animals, both dead and alive. Some have even set traps.
Residents claim the sudden invasion started with nearby construction of Waldwick Station a Russo Development and Terminal Construction Corporation project that began building an 111-unit apartment complex on Zazzetti Street, along the NJ Transit rail, last summer .
Ridgewood NJ, There are two events coming up in the Village. These events are designed to help us create a more connected and vibrant community. Numerous organizations are collaborating on this effort. The Village of Ridgewood has given their endorsement as has the Chamber of Commerce and The Ridgewood Guild.
The first event is a forum which will be held at the Ridgewood Public Library the evening of September 26. It is titled, Moving Forward Together: Fostering a Pedestrian Friendly Community. There are several panelists who will speak about the benefits of experiencing our village on foot. When we encourage residents to walk whenever possible we strengthen our bond as a community, we add to our personal health and well-being and we create a safer environment for pedestrians.
The second event is a village-wide, month-long walking initiative that will take place during October titled Walktoberfest. Guided walks are being scheduled to entice residents to learn more about our village and its businesses. There will be historic, architectural, food, fashion, beauty, parks, interfaith and municipal building tours available.
Glen Rock NJ, Glen Rock native Olivia Cecoltan, a Moldovan-born New Jersey girl attending Bergen County Academies, noticed the differences between the lives of children in Moldova and the United States began. In Bergen County pizza dinners and Toys-R-Us trips are a common part of a child’s life, it is difficult to understand that there are many places worldwide where other children do not have basic necessities.
Unlike many Olivia decided yo do something about the plight of children and set up the Hand in Hand Project (HIHP) a not-for-profit organization committed to improving the lives of underprivileged children in Moldova.
Moldova is known as the poorest country in all of Europe, so you can imagine the struggles children endure there. Moldova is a nation sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine in Eastern Europe. The area was occupied by several tribes until it was officially under Roman rule. The medieval Principality of Moldavia was constantly invaded and taken over by various European powers; it was eventually part of Bessarabia and then part of Greater Romania until World War II. It became part of the Soviet Union until the Moldovan people declared independence in 1991. It is now known as the poorest country in Europe. The median income is about 4909 Moldovan Lei, or $249 US Dollars. The Moldovan median income is less than the average monetary value of gifts each American child receives each Christmas, or $271.00!
This summer, Hand in Hand Project held the “Hand in Hand Project Summer Camp” for children exposed to domestic violence at “Mary’s House” in Moldova! The also set up a crowd funding and raised $2000 to aid in their efforts .
The Hand in Hand Project is currently partnering with several organizations in Moldova, including the Orphanage of Straseni which currently serves 58 children from ages 7 to 16.With almost no publicity due to the country’s small size and little impact on the world, orphans in Moldova are in dire need of assistance.
Another goal of this project is to spread awareness of the cause that the Hand in Hand Project stands for among students, faculty, and staff at the Bergen County Academies in Hackensack, NJ. In such a highly competitive school, in which it seems like getting a 4.0 GPA is the goal in life and anything lower makes a student a second-class citizen, many children need to take a step back and be more appreciative of the grand opportunities afforded them and the amazing lives they already lead by the age of 18.
Ridgewood NJ, Amazon and Whole Foods Market today announced that Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods Market will close on Monday August 28, 2017, and the two companies will together pursue the vision of making Whole Foods Market’s high-quality, natural and organic food affordable for everyone. As a down payment on that vision, Whole Foods Market will offer lower prices starting Monday on a selection of best-selling grocery staples across its stores, with more to come.
In addition, Amazon and Whole Foods Market technology teams will begin to integrate Amazon Prime into the Whole Foods Market point-of-sale system, and when this work is complete, Prime members will receive special savings and in-store benefits. The two companies will invent in additional areas over time, including in merchandising and logistics, to enable lower prices for Whole Foods Market customers.
“We’re determined to make healthy and organic food affordable for everyone. Everybody should be able to eat Whole Foods Market quality – we will lower prices without compromising Whole Foods Market’s long-held commitment to the highest standards,” said Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumer. “To get started, we’re going to lower prices beginning Monday on a selection of best-selling grocery staples, including Whole Trade organic bananas, responsibly-farmed salmon, organic large brown eggs, animal-welfare-rated 85% lean ground beef, and more. And this is just the beginning – we will make Amazon Prime the customer rewards program at Whole Foods Market and continuously lower prices as we invent together. There is significant work and opportunity ahead, and we’re thrilled to get started.”
“It’s been our mission for 39 years at Whole Foods Market to bring the highest quality food to our customers,” said John Mackey, Whole Foods Market co-founder and CEO. “By working together with Amazon and integrating in several key areas, we can lower prices and double down on that mission and reach more people with Whole Foods Market’s high-quality, natural and organic food. As part of our commitment to quality, we’ll continue to expand our efforts to support and promote local products and suppliers. We can’t wait to start showing customers what’s possible when Whole Foods Market and Amazon innovate together.”
Here’s what will be new in Whole Foods Market stores on Monday and what customers can expect over time as the two companies integrate:
Starting Monday, Whole Foods Market will offer lower prices on a selection of best-selling staples across its stores, with much more to come. Customers will enjoy lower prices on products like Whole Trade bananas, organic avocados, organic large brown eggs, organic responsibly-farmed salmon and tilapia, organic baby kale and baby lettuce, animal-welfare-rated 85% lean ground beef, creamy and crunchy almond butter, organic Gala and Fuji apples, organic rotisserie chicken, 365 Everyday Value organic butter, and much more.
In the future, after certain technical integration work is complete, Amazon Prime will become Whole Foods Market’s customer rewards program, providing Prime members with special savings and other in-store benefits.
Whole Foods Market’s healthy and high-quality private label products—including 365 Everyday Value, Whole Foods Market, Whole Paws and Whole Catch—will be available through Amazon.com, AmazonFresh, Prime Pantry and Prime Now.
Amazon Lockers will be available in select Whole Foods Market stores. Customers can have products shipped from Amazon.com to their local Whole Foods Market store for pick up or send returns back to Amazon during a trip to the store.
This is just the beginning – Amazon and Whole Foods Market plan to offer more in-store benefits and lower prices for customers over time as the two companies integrate logistics and point-of-sale and merchandising systems.
Whole Foods Market will continue to grow its team and create jobs in local communities as it opens new stores, hires new team members, and expands its support of local farmers and artisans. The company will maintain operations under the Whole Foods Market brand, preserve its high standards and commitment to providing the finest natural and organic foods, and continue to source from trusted vendors and partners around the world. John Mackey will remain as CEO and Whole Foods Market’s headquarters will stay in Austin, Texas.
Expanding Educational Opportunities For Children And Families
August 29,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, Governor Christie has improved the authorizing and application process, encouraged more charter school applicants, created greater flexibility with administration and finances, and allowed districts to convert failing public schools into charters. The Christie Administration has increased the overall number of charter schools in New Jersey to 89 in the current fiscal year, while relentlessly focusing on quality and holding all schools accountable for results as 21 low-performing charter schools have closed during the past eight years.
The Host District Support Aid funding category created in fiscal year 2017 continued in fiscal year 2018, and ensured the base per pupil funding provided to charter schools is not less than the prior year base per pupil funding. In addition, the Interdistrict Public School Choice Program is increasing educational opportunities for students and their families by providing students with the option of attending a public school outside their district of residence without cost to their parents.
The Fiscal Year 2018 budget is projected to support more than 52,000 charter school students and more than 5,000 choice students in 129 choice districts in the 2017-18 school year.
Governor Christie continues to support educational options for our children by providing over $51 million for Charter School Aid in fiscal year 2018. This funding supports over 52,000 students projected to be in our charter schools in FY2018. This is in addition to the tens of millions of dollars in State Aid that flow through the districts to charter schools. In certain districts, like Newark and Camden, charter and renaissance schools are educating more than 1 out of every 4 of the public school population.
Easing The Regulatory Burden Facing Charter Schools
In 2016, Governor Christie announced a series of reforms at the 8th annual New Jersey Charter Schools Conference born from input received through meetings with charter school leaders in the fall of 2015. The New Jersey State Board adopted these reforms in 2017. Among the reforms adopted were:
• The state will allow single-gender charter schools that meet appropriate criteria and single-purpose charter schools for educationally disadvantaged students, such as a school serving over-age, under-credited students who, because of life circumstances, are unable to graduate in four years.
• Charter renewal will be expedited for schools with a track record of high academic performance and no fiscal or organizational issues. Charter schools that do not meet fiscal management/ compliance standards or present concerns regarding their fiscal viability will remain subject to deeper review.
• Weighted lotteries will be expanded by adding language explicitly allowing weighted lotteries for educationally disadvantaged students. Redundancies will be reduced by removing the requirement that charters send corrective action plans to the Executive County Superintendent as they already are submitted to the DOE Charter Office.
• The funding monitoring requirement will be relaxed since it has become unnecessary because of the new charter performance system. DOE will continue to monitor if charter schools are adequately allocating funds to impact what is happening in the classroom. And, cash fund procedures, which are difficult to navigate, will be updated and simplified.
• Districts will be required to report to DOE, on a rolling basis, any closed, unused or unoccupied school facility available for lease that would be posted online in order to facilitate cooperation between districts and charter schools.
• Satellite campus regulations will be redefined to allow charter schools to operate on multiple campuses within their approved district or region of residence. The requirement that charter leases cannot exceed the length of the charter – a barrier to obtaining financing – will be removed.
• New regulations will clarify renovations, expansion and reconstruction exemptions from the Charter School Act’s restriction on construction with State of local funds.
• The Christie Administration approved the expansion of several of the state’s highest performing charter schools.
• In March, 20 charter schools were approved to expand to provide more than 5,000 additional seats in high performing schools in the coming years.
• According to an independent report by The Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), “Compared to the educational gains that charter students would have had in a traditional public school (TPS), the analysis shows that students in New Jersey charter schools on average make larger learning gains in both reading and mathematics:
In Newark: “When we investigate the learning impacts of Newark charter schools separately, we find that their results are larger in reading and math than the overall state results.”
“On average, charter students in New Jersey gain an additional two months of learning in reading over their TPS counterparts. In math, the advantage for charter students is about three months of additional learning in one school year. Charter students in Newark gain an additional seven and a half months in reading and nine months in math.”
Among Black Students: “Black students enrolled in charter schools show significantly better performance in reading and math compared to Black students in TPS.”
Among Hispanic Students: “In both math and reading, Hispanic students in charter schools perform significantly better than Hispanic students in TPS.”
• According to a 2015 independent report on Urban Charter Schools by The Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), students enrolled in charter schools in Newark, on average, make statistically significantly greater gains in both reading and math compared to their counterparts enrolled in Newark’s traditional public schools. While, in Newark, charter schools on average are doing a better job of closing achievement gaps than are traditional public schools.
K-8 Schools:
From 2009 to 2014, charter schools serving K-8 students improved 6 percentage points in Language Arts Literacy and 15 percentage points in Mathematics, in the aggregate, on the NJASK.
Based on NJASK data in 2014, 64 out of 74 charter schools outperformed their comparative districts in language arts literacy.
Based on NJASK data in 2014, 64 out of 74 charter schools outperformed their comparative districts in mathematics.
° High Schools:
From 2009 to 2014, charter schools serving high school students improved 17 percentage points in both Language Arts Literacy and Mathematics, in the aggregate, on the ‘Banked’ HSPA.
Based on HSPA data, in 2014, 15 out of 15 charter schools outperformed their comparative districts in language arts literacy.
Based on HSPA data, in 2014, 12 out of 15 charter schools outperformed their comparative districts in mathematics.
Across all charter schools in 2014, the graduation rate was 90% compared to a state-wide graduation rate of 89.
• 2016 Charter Schools PARCC Data
Charter schools continue to outperform their district counterparts. In the elementary grades 3-5, 63 percent of charters outperformed the average across their district elementary schools in Math and 84 percent did so in ELA. In the middle school grades 6-8, 84 percent of charter schools outperformed their district middle school average in Math and 89 percent did so in ELA.
Charter schools serving grades 6-8 showed impressive gains in academic performance, as measured by median School Growth Percentiles (mSGPs). Almost half of all charters serving grades 6-8 achieved growth scores that are better than those of two-thirds of all public schools serving grades 6-8 in the state.
• Newark Charter Schools PARCC Performance
Charter schools in Newark are effectively accelerating student learning: in a district typically underperforming statewide achievement results, for two consecutive years students in grades 3-8 in Newark charter schools have met or exceeded expectations on PARCC assessments at the same rate as their peers around the state. For example, in 2015-16, the last year with available data, 51 percent of students in grades 3-8 in Newark charter schools met or exceeded expectations on a PARCC assessment in ELA compared to 50 percent of students in grades 3-8 across the state. In the same year, the percent of students in grades 3-8 who met or exceeded expectations on a PARCC assessment in math was 43 percent for Newark charter school students compared to 43 percent statewide.
Charter schools in Newark are effectively accelerating student learning for traditionally underserved subgroups: Students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and minority students enrolled in grades 3-8 in Newark charter schools are meeting or exceeding expectations on PARCC assessments at a greater rate than their counterparts across the state. For example, in 2015-16, 63 percent of Hispanic students enrolled in grades 3-8 in Newark charter schools met or exceeded expectations on a PARCC assessment in ELA compared to 36 percent of Hispanic students statewide.
Newark charter schools have virtually eliminated the achievement gap for economically disadvantaged students. In 2015-16, statewide proficiency rates for students eligible for free or reduced price lunch trailed those for non-eligible students by 30 percentage points in both ELA and math. Those gaps shrinks to 3 and 2 percentage points, respectively, in Newark charter schools.
• Since taking office, state funding to support the local share of funding for students transferring out-of-district to approved school choice districts has increased by over $40 million.
• School choice funding has increased commensurately, and has surpassed $55 million in fiscal year 2018.
• Announced pilot educational program between Harlem Children’s Zone and City of Paterson.
Improving Oversight
The Christie Administration has worked to improve accountability for charter schools by instituting an oversight program that sets clear expectations for charter school performance and serves as the basis for school evaluation, monitoring, and intervention.
The Performance Framework sets the academic, organizational and fiscal standards by which all New Jersey public charter schools are evaluated, informing officials about school performance and sustainability.
NJDOE officials expanded the rigorous standards and metrics by which each and every public charter school is evaluated. This enabled NJDOE officials to take multiple factors into account when evaluating public charter schools across the state.
Posted: Aug 27, 2017 3:54 PM EDT <em class=”wnDate”>Sunday, August 27, 2017 3:54 PM EDT</em>Updated: Aug 28, 2017 12:43 PM EDT
Despite its fearsome legacy, witchcraft is rising in popularity in New York state and especially in the Hudson Valley.
News 12’s Tara Rosenblum spent four months exploring and gaining access to a mysterious, secretive world that most people don’t even know exist: a thriving underground community of witches.
Watch “Speak No Evil,” only on News 12, starting Tuesday to learn about the modern-day magic and ancient rituals at the center of their faith. Tune in to meet some of the most powerful witches in New York and see what happens when they come together to perform a white magic ritual and summon sacred spirits.
Nicholas Katzban, Staff Writer, @NicholasKatzban Published 10:37 a.m. ET Aug. 28, 2017
Two years ago, the Village of Ridgewood proposed to ease its parking crunch by building a garage in the Central Business District.
As the chosen site for the project still lays in disrepair, and the council aims to designate the area “in need of redevelopment,” some locals and officials are beginning to question how a seemingly straightforward objective has grown so long in the tooth.
Seeking to streamline the process, the council unanimously approved a resolution on Aug. 9 to hire the village planner, Brigette Bogart, to determine whether the Hudson lot meets the criteria for an area in need of redevelopment.
That option was presented to council members by Village Attorney Matthew Rogers during a workshop meeting the prior week. Rogers explained the designation would allow the village to negotiate directly with a chosen contractor, rather than work through a public bidding process, to “save some time, save some money” and “be able to approach this in a faster and more efficient manner.”
