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Joe Piscopo laughs off reports of Russian hacking

BORIS

BY JUDY KURTZ – 03/23/17 05:32 PM EDT

Joe Piscopo, currently mulling a New Jersey gubernatorial bid, is laughing off reports of Russian-backed hacking during the 2016 elections, calling them “comical.”

“It’s a ruse. It’s a joke. They got nothing. The Russia thing is comical because it won’t go away,” the “Saturday Night Live” alum told Mediaite on Thursday when asked what he makes “of all this Russia business.”

“I ask this with respect, with respect to the Russian theorists — you talk about conspiracy theories, I mean, this is what this is — did the Russians come to my county in Jersey in the middle of nowhere and did they hack into my mechanical voting both so when I switched — I voted for somebody, they switched my vote?” Piscopo told the site.

Piscopo has repeatedly floated running for governor of New Jersey as a Republican. With a filing deadline looming, he now says he’s “more serious” about running as an independent.

The 65-year-old comedian and radio show host said, “I mean, get to the — there’s no way they could hack it! If they hacked into the Democratic Party, if indeed they did, who cares? They think, like, the voters are dumb.”

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Your iPhone’s dirtier than a toilet — and so are these other everyday items

cell phones

Then next time you answer your smartphone and press it firmly to your face, consider this: Are you touching fecal matter right now?

Quite possibly. Researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine found fecal matter on one out of every six smartphones in a 2011 study. Add to that the work of Charles Gerba, a famed University of Arizona microbiologist who found cell phones carry 10 times the bacteria of most toilet seats.

Familiar items we touch every day, from cellphones to kitchen sinks, swarm with far more germs than our toilets. And while 80 percent of infections come from what we touch, we rarely clean these ordinary items as often as our porcelain thrones.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/03/23/your-iphones-dirtier-than-toilet-and-so-these-other-everyday-items/99530570/

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Ridgewood Public Library Launches Bookmatch service

Ridgewood Public Library by ArtChick
file photo by ArtChick
March 24,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, You could write to the New York Times, I suppose, or you could ask the experts right in your own backyard at the Ridgewood Public Library. Check out our Bookmatch service https://buff.ly/2niypNH. Simply email us a few books you loved and a few books you hated and we will give you a personalized list of suggestions.

125 N Maple Ave
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
(201) 670-5600
www.ridgewoodlibrary.org/localhistory/
Library · Government Organization
Opens at 9:00am 9:00AM – 6:00PM

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New Jersey Family Magazine Ranks the Best Places in New Jersey For Families

The+Partridge+Family+PartridgeFamily

March 24,2017

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, New Jersey Family Magazine ranked the top towns in New Jersey for families.

To come up with the ranking, they looked at the entire state—more than 500 towns in all—and measured each municipality against a host of important factors, including school district quality, crime rates, affordability, commute times, percentage of families who live there, access to hospitals and general lifestyle factors.

How did Ridgewood rank:  # 55 Ridgewood , population 24,999

Ridgewood neighbors fared a bit better in overall ranking , #3 Glen Rock Bergen 11,631, #10 Midland Park population 7,131, #22 Ho-Ho-Kus Borough population 4,085.

https://www.njfamily.com/Best-Towns-for-Families-The-List/

 

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Reader Says The encounter between Mrs. Taddei and Mrs. McWilliams contained no yelling or obscenities as erroneously stated

New Ridgewood Village Council

file photo by Boyd Loving

Pasquale Taddei , “It is with regret that I am forced to reply to this slanderous tale of a supposed event that occurred last evening after the open discussion forum of the Village Council Meeting. While this article may be presented as “news” it is nothing more than an attempt at intimidation to silence those most strongly opposed to the recently enacted parking ordinance on Bogert and Cambridge.
The encounter between Mrs. Taddei and Mrs. McWilliams contained no yelling or obscenities as erroneously stated in the comments above. It is also factually incorrect to state that I in anyway restrained or physically dragged my wife down the hallway. Any suggestion that I would act in such a brutish way towards the person most important to me is further evidence of this slanted commentary.
Finally for those readers who were not present at the Council Meeting and are reading this please note that I, Pasquale Taddei take full and public ownership of the contents of this response and juxtapose that with the owner of the previous comments who was unwilling to provide a full name. What are you hiding “James”?”

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Ridgewood FAC Garage Report Misses the Mark

titanic_theridgewoodblog

March 24,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, at the Village Council meeting the Financial Advisory Committee seemed to be caught with”alternative facts” .

The FAC presented a report still talking about a 350-space garage, which is no longer on the table. This sunk their entire report and made it’s over zealous estimates flawed from the git-go.

The next problem was the allocation tables that would have to change since more personnel resources would be expended toward managing the garage, so any surplus from the parking authority would most likely be less.

And finally, the $500,000 surplus that they seemed to think would be an annual surplus was a one-time amount, in large part because of insurance payment for the pilfered quarters; there was no evidence given that this surplus would ever reach this level again.

The FAC did not have the FACTS so their report was a complete waste of time.

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More parking planned at Ridgewood train station and at Wilsey Square

ridgewood train station parkiong

March 24,2017
Boyd A. Loving

Ridgewood NJ, During Wednesday evening’s Village Council Work Session, Village Engineer Christopher Rutishauser was asked to ascertain the feasibility of adding approximately 40 additional parking spaces at the Ridgewood train station.  Mayor Susan Knudsen suggested that additional parking spaces might be added by removing the large, grass & tree covered center island in the current parking lot.

Rutishauser was also tasked with determining the possibility of creating more parking spaces along the east side of Wilsey Square, just south of the train station’s parking lot.  Grass & trees currently occupy this area as well.

No date was given as to when the results of the Village Engineer’s study would be available for Village Council review.

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Suburban Immigration Lawyer Gets 15 Months For Asylum Scam

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March 23, 2017 6:19 AM

CHICAGO (CBS) — Robert Dekelaita cheated the immigration system like “a well-oiled machine,” the feds say.

When he found a client seeking asylum in the United States, typically from Iraq, the suburban attorney would quickly forge that person’s name on an application and pepper the person’s life story with horrific hardships, including kidnappings, bombings and religious persecution — all false. He drew inspiration from news articles he collected.

Then, prosecutors say he would employ a team of co-conspirators to help him forge documents, even allegedly bribing an immigration prosecutor, to usher the applicant through the asylum process. He fancied himself “a Robin Hood of refugees,” they said.

But Robin Hood was an outlaw. And nearly a year after Dekelaita’s own criminal conviction, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly sentenced him to 15 months in prison Wednesday. The judge noted that, even if Dekelaita chose to break the law out of noble intentions, “you have to be willing to pay the price for it.”

https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2017/03/23/suburban-immigration-lawyer-gets-15-months-for-asylum-scam/

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Bob Woodward: Obama officials possibly facing criminal charges for unmasking scheme

bob-woodward-political-books

By DANIEL CHAITIN (@DANIELCHAITIN7) • 3/22/17 9:07 PM

The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward warned on Wednesday that there are people from the Obama administration who could be facing criminal charges for unmasking the names of Trump transition team members from surveillance of foreign officials.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said earlier that he had briefed Trump on new information, unrelated to an investigation into Russian activities, that suggested that several members of Trump’s transition team and perhaps Trump himself had their identities “unmasked” after their communications were intercepted by U.S. intelligence officials.

The revelation is notable because identities of Americans are generally supposed to remain “masked” if American communications are swept up during surveillance of foreign individuals.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/woodward-obama-officials-possibly-facing-criminal-charges/article/2618185

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Work on Meadowlands mall has stalled and developer won’t answer questions

Xanadu_main_theridgewoodblog

the curse of Xanadu strikes again

By Fausto Giovanny Pinto | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on March 23, 2017 at 8:52 AM, updated March 23, 2017 at 4:28 PM

EAST RUTHERFORD — Work on the American Dream mall has been just about non-existent, months after it was reported in December that construction had stalled.

Cranes were at a standstill and a hardhat could not be found at the American Dream mall site in East Rutherford. Work was been stalled since December. (Fausto Giovanny Pinto | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)Fausto Giovanny Pinto | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Borough Mayor James L. Cassella says he has been in the dark about the billion-dollar mega-project, but is hopeful construction will start again soon.

“I haven’t seen much, maybe a few people, a couple of cars parked,” said Cassella last week. “There aren’t a lot of people down there.”

https://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2017/03/work_on_meadowlands_mall_has_stalled_and_developer_wont_answer_questions.html#incart_2box_nj-homepage-featured

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More tax data to go online in N.J.

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Dustin Racioppi , State House Bureau, @dracioppiPublished 1:41 p.m. ET March 22, 2017 | Updated 14 hours ago

Gov. Chris Christie signed a measure into law Wednesday that expands property tax data online, giving taxpayers a broader and more detailed view of their bills and how they compare with others’. But Christie signed the bill on the condition that the new law not include tax relief data that his administration removed three years ago.

The bill, A-312, requires the Department of Community Affairs to post property tax and local government tax data for the past 10 years, as well as information on county, school and fire district tax levies, among other data.

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/new-jersey/2017/03/22/more-tax-data-go-online-nj/99494890/?utm_campaign=new-jersey-politics&utm_content=2017-23-03-9215348&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=New%20Jersey%20Politics

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Work making you sleepy? It’s happening to many in NJ

Ridgewood_Train_station_train-_is_coming_theridgewoodblog

By Patrick Lavery March 23, 2017 3:28 AM

SADDLE BROOK — New York is known as the city that never sleeps, but across the crowded state of New Jersey, something’s always going on. That may be why a recent poll of 1,000 workers, both here and around the country, found many of them are practically dozing off on the job.

The Accountemps survey released earlier this month revealed 74 percent of all professionals admitted being tired at work, 43 percent of them “somewhat often” and 31 percent “very often.” Millennials led the pack, with 86 percent of respondents saying they felt tired, compared with just half of workers age 55 and over.

A gender split was almost even: 77 percent of men reported work sleepiness, as did 71 percent of women in the survey.

To “get to the root of the drowsiness,” said Ryan Gatto, Saddle Brook-based regional vice president of Robert Half, the staffing firm agency that runs Accountemps, managers should keep an open dialogue with their employees.

“Encouraging your staff to take their scheduled breaks, I think, is important,” Gatto said. “Workers also tend to follow their managers’ lead, so if a manager’s taking the time to rest and recharge, then more often than not the employee will follow suit.”

One avenue that’s been explored to help sleepy employees is the concept of a “nap room,” but 31 percent of those surveyed were wary of that, for a few reasons. They said it might make them even sleepier, it would reduce the amount of work they were able to complete, and they might be perceived around the office as slackers.

“It’s an interesting idea that some companies have instituted, but at the same time, many of the individuals that responded just don’t believe that that would be a good use of their time,” Gatto said.

Read More: Work making you sleepy? It’s happening to many in NJ | https://nj1015.com/work-making-you-sleepy-its-happening-to-many-in-nj/?trackback=tsmclip

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N.J. voters would raise taxes on the rich to fund public worker pensions, poll finds

for sale Ridgewood_Real_Estate_theRodgewopodblog

file photo by Boyd Loving

By Samantha Marcus | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on March 21, 2017 at 6:18 PM, updated March 21, 2017 at 8:14 PM

TRENTON — The majority of New Jersey voters are willing to let the state’s wealthiest residents pick up the tab for government worker pensions but don’t want tax increases on lower-income residents, according to a new poll.

Seven in 10 Garden States voters polled by the Quinnipiac University Poll said they support raising taxes on people with annual income greater than $1 million, the so-called millionaire’s tax, to shore up the seriously underfunded public pension system.

Twenty-seven percent of those polled were opposed, and of the Republicans polled, 55 percent were opposed.

https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/03/poll_finds_nj_voters_would_raise_taxes_on_the_rich.html#incart_most-read_politics_article

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Wife sues driver who killed her jogging husband

BergenCountyCourthouse

By Anthony G. Attrino | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on March 21, 2017 at 6:35 AM, updated March 21, 2017 at 8:48 AM

TENAFLY – The wife of a man struck and killed by a car during an early morning jog last fall has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the driver, according to court documents.

Robert E. Hyer Jr., 63, was killed as he tried to cross East Clinton Avenue at Woodland Street in Tenafly. (Google Maps)

Robert E. Hyer Jr., 63, of Tenafly, was killed Oct. 25, 2016, as he crossed East Clinton Avenue at Woodland Street in Tenafly, according to a lawsuit filed March 13 in Bergen County Superior Court.

The driver was Raffaella Garritano, 58, of Englewood Cliffs, according to attorneys for Hyer’s wife Andrea McDermott Hyer, 54.

“Garritano operated that vehicle in such an inattentive, careless, reckless and negligent manner so as to strike and violently knock (the victim) to the ground,” the suit states.

https://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2017/03/wrongful_death_suit_filed_against_driver_who_hit_j.html?ath=a661ed5d8cb41fa9dc524c06f451a07d#cmpid=nsltr_strybutton

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The MOMS Club of Ridgewood announces its first ever Preschool Preparedness Series

The MOMS Club of Ridgewood

March 23,2017

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, the MOMS Club of Ridgewood is delighted to announce its first ever Preschool Preparedness Series. This series is designed to provide a guiding hand to the parents of preschoolers and expected preschoolers as their children explore the world around them and embark on their first school experiences.

The first event, Preschoolers and Lead: What You Need to Know, will take place on Thursday, March 30th from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the Ridgewood Village Hall Youth Center followed by a Preschool Information Fair on Saturday, April 1st from 11: 00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the Ridgewood Public Library. The Preschool Information Fair will have information about starting preschool as well as kindergarten and summer camp options.
Both events are free and open to members of the public.

We hope you can join us for both events.