Ridgewood NJ, the Ridgewood blog has conducted an investigation of series of conflict of interest changes surrounding the “Whispering Woods ” hearings .Initially Valley’s attorney Jonathan Drill challenged planning board member Wendy Dockray for being part of the “campaign team” of then Village Council Candidate Jeff Voigt.
In a letter to Planning Board Chairmen Charles Nalbantian Drill asked that Wendy Dockray recuse herself or the planning board should disqualify her.
Drill referenced a letter posted on the Ridgewood blog in which Jeff Voigt expressed both skepticism and opposition to the Valley Settlement. Drill used Jeff’s own words against him by quoting him saying a board member should recuse if “even a whiff of a conflict of interest” .
Kevin Mattessich ,Wendy Dockray’s attorney fired back using Mr.Drill’s arguments against him ,challenging Planning Board attorney Gail Price and her husband Richard Brooks who was at the time running for Village Council , Mattessich went further saying not only Price but Price’s law firm should recuse and board should retain independent council. Observers speculate if applied consistently the entire “Valley Expansion” process can be viewed as tainted and undermined .
photo #ArtChick #Phillyfaces Posing with the Famous #CaliforniaRaisin ( Joe Mazz ) #churchstreetstudio
The Great Koran Controversy: Will Muslim Martyrs Get 72 Raisins Instead of Virgins, & Other Speculations
January 16, 2008
According to an Islam tradition, Muslim martyrs will go to paradise and marry 72 black-eyed virgins. But some Koran scholars point to a less sexy paradise. While beautifully written, Islamic texts are often obscure. The Arabic language was born as a written language with the Koran, and growing evidence suggests that many of the words were Syriac or Aramaic.
Specifically, the Koran says martyrs going to heaven will get “hur,” and the word was taken by early commentators to mean “virgins,” hence those 72 concubines. But in Aramaic, hur actually meant “white” and was commonly used to specifically mean “white grapes.”
The exact number of virgins (or raisins) is not specified in Koran, but the number 72 comes from a quotation of Muhammad recorded in one of the lesser-known Hadith. (“Hadith” is an Arabic word meaning traditions.) After Muhammad’s death, several collections of his deeds and sayings were collected to form the Hadith, which is the second most authoritative document is Islam, after the Koran.
The philologist “Christoph Luxenburg”, (who always uses a pseudonym for security reasons) notes that grapes would actually make more sense, because the text compares them to crystal and pearls, and because contemporary accounts have paradise abounding with fruit, especially white grapes.
Okay, so for the sake of argument, lets say that Luxenburg is right and martyrs will get some grapes rather than young maidens, but what’s the big fuss? The real controversy is the notion that translations of Islamic holy text, including the Koran, have ever existed in the first place.
Porn. We are a society that consumes so much of it, while we also demonize it and blame it for our sexual problems. But is the industry really to blame?
As a sexologist, I have seen firsthand how porn can be destructive. From men who create false intimate relationships with the women on the screen, to others who expect their partners to perform like porn stars and some who suffer from erectile dysfunction and performance anxiety when comparing themselves to the men on these films.
Some woman feel inadequate sexually, often questioning why they can’t have an orgasm or enjoy anal sex like porn stars. Many measure good sex based on their ability to perform and please a man (a common scenario in adult films).
We are also now seeing the effects on today’s youth with porn being accessed at an earlier age and these actors being seen as role models. Young teens think this is what real sex looks like and the issues we are seeing in adults are becoming more prevalent in a younger generation.
As the Obama administration prepares to publish a long-delayed accounting of how many militants and noncombatant civilians it has killed since 2009, its statistics may be defined as much by what is left out as by what is included.
Release of the information was first envisioned three years ago this month, as part of strict new guidelines President Obama announced for the United States’ controversial use of drones and other forms of lethal force to battle terrorism abroad. Such operations, Obama said in a 2013 speech at the National Defense University, would also be subject to new transparency and oversight.
U.S. productivity growth, the greatest determinant of living standards, has been lower for the past five years than any five-year period on record. New data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that productivity growth has averaged 0.4%per year over the past half-decade. This is 82% below the average of the prior six decades, which is as far back as this data extends.
The importance of productivity growth has been described in blunt terms by:
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, who stated that “the most important factor determining living standards is productivity growth.”
the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which reported that “a small change in the growth of productivity” over an extended period can inflict more harm than recessions, because lower productivity reduces economic “output by an ever-increasing amount.”
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics economist Betty W. Su, who wrote that “high productivity growth” affords people with a “higher standard of living and quality of life.”
Productivity growth is especially vital for people with low incomes, because low-wage workers in highly productive nations have much better standards of living than their peers in less productive ones. For example, McDonald’s workers in the U.S. can buy about 2.4 Big Macs with their earnings from an hour of work, but this drops to:
2.2 Big Macs in Western Europe,
0.8 Big Macs in Eastern Europe, and
0.4 Big Macs in Latin America.
This amounts to a stunning 500% premium in purchasing power in the U.S. versus Latin America. As detailed by Princeton economics professor Orley C. Ashenfelter, McDonalds’ workers across the world perform the same jobs with the same levels of productivity, but because they live in nations with different levels of productivity, these workers have vastly different standards of living.
Ridgewood NJ, Improving economic conditions have finally caught up to millennials, providing them with a brighter job market, according to the United States Department of Labor.
But a recent Federal Reserve Bank of New York report says the devil is in the details. Not all new college graduates are doing equally well. The kind of degree they earned is an enormous factor in the job hunt.
“There’s no question that your field of study significantly alters your prospects, but even having chosen the right field is no guarantee,” says Matt Stewart, an entrepreneur and co-founder of College Works Painting (www.collegeworks.com), an internship program that provides practical business experience for college students.
“How you approach your field, such as engagement at an internship, can boost your professional prospects immensely.”
For example, interns with College Works Painting operate their own house-painting business with hands-on guidance from mentors. They learn valuable leadership skills by functioning as leaders in a business.
“Unemployment for our alumni has remained at less than 4 percent, including when youth unemployment exceeded 16 percent a few years ago,” Stewart says. “This kind of challenging yet fun student experience helps ensure a good career for college graduates right out of the gate.”
He offers tips about what students should look for in an internship so they can gain the professional experience they need to land a job after graduation.
• Know what you will actually be doing. While simply being in a company’s culture has value, many businesses assign students to their lowest-level work. Grunt work, to some extent, is a fact of life in most professions. But that kind of work won’t propel a student’s career. Consider an internship that gives you real responsibility and provides experiences that will definitely come in handy in your future career. • Consider a company’s internship recognition. Don’t accept an internship with just any organization. Think about the business awards the company has won, the type of articles that have been written about the company, and how the company contributes to their industry and community. If you can, get information on how other former interns fared. • For any student, real experience is crucial. Whether you’re an artist, athlete, musician, theater major, English student, a STEM-field student, or a business major or future entrepreneur, getting experience often comes with a heavy price. This includes the loss of personal or family finances. Look for opportunities that provide guidance while allowing you to apply skills to real-life challenges such as budgeting, marketing, and managing employees. These are transferable skills that apply to any industry.
“Regardless of how the economy is doing, you’ll want to put forth your best effort,” Stewart says. “As we’ve seen, the market can take a nosedive at any time.”
About Matt Stewart
Matt Stewart is co-founder of College Works Painting (collegeworks.com), which provides business experience for thousands of college students each year. The award-winning program also offers high-quality house-painting services for homeowners.
Ridgewood NJ, When it comes time to apply to colleges, we may not be serving our children well.
That’s according to a growing chorus of voices who work with youth and their academic endeavors. For example, Malcolm Gladwell, one of the most recognizable public intellects, regularly asserts that brand prestige from an Ivy League name doesn’t necessarily suit the needs of individual students.
Jeffrey Leiken, CEO of Evolution Mentoring International, agrees. He provides mentoring for teens and young adults, going beyond the typical work of a therapist by building a relationship so that they come to see Leiken as a trusted confidant who answers their late-night text messages and isn’t quick to label them.
“We continue to be obsessed with being associated with the top 1 percent of anything, whether it’s wealth, looks, social media followers or achieving that Ivy League status,” says Leiken, author of “Adolescence is Not a Disease: Beyond Drinking, Drugs and Dangerous Friends – The Journey to Adulthood” (www.Leiken.com).
“Far more important is not the school’s brand and our cultural obsession with it. Rather, it’s helping to ensure that every student who attends any school gets closer to reaching their potential.”
What criteria should students and parents look for when determining where to apply for college? Leiken offers some crucial guidelines to keep in mind.
• Seek a college with programs that may help with lifelong skills. Self-awareness, self-leadership, self-actualization – those qualities are often overlooked when considering higher education. Learning the tangible skills for a future job is important. However, those requirements change over time. Coursework, professors and other programs that speak to a student’s ethical intuition, however, make up the educational gold that is enduring. • Look beyond the typical menu of schools. There is a common denominator among millions of 17-year-olds: an anxious balance between their “reach” schools and their “safety” schools. It turns out that many college counselors guide these kids to a similar list of “reach” and “safety” schools – about 50 of them. Between public and private institutions, there arethousands of other schools to choose from! • Ask yourself, “Where will I flourish?” Learn more about the culture of these institutions. There are two distinct stages for young adults in college life: the time where students adjust to a new environment and, later, when students realize they are becoming independent adults. A name-brand school isn’t necessarily the best place for millions of kids to best reach maturity.
“Just as we don’t all wear the same size clothing,” Leiken says, “the intellectual development of young adults doesn’t always fit into the same small box of name-brand schools.”
About Jeffrey Leiken
Jeffery Leiken (www.Leiken.com) is the CEO of Evolution Mentoring International and is co-founder of HeroPath International. Leiken also is author of “Adolescence is Not a Disease: Beyond Drinking, Drugs and Dangerous Friends – The Journey to Adulthood.” He has presented at TED in Athens, Greece; guest lectured at Stanford University; and facilitated programs for teenagers on three continents and in seven countries, among other accomplishments. He has a master’s degree in educational counseling.
Lucy Horton says she could scarcely believe her ears. Hours after she had called Delran’s mayor Ken Paris “unprofessional and unethical” on her Facebook page, a township police sergeant was on the phone, “informing me that if I didn’t take the Facebook post down, the mayor would be pressing harassment charges.” David O’Reilly, https://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20160521_In_Delran__Facebook_post_brings_a_cop_s_call.html
The over-developers paired with the Paul V.s of the village are playing the long game to draw families here to multi bedroom rentals with our schools as the magnetic force. It is very simple. Problem is, our schools are over capacity and our high school is well past capacity. So, how will our schools stay at the top? They can’t. That doesn’t concern the local developer, he’ll have sold by then. It will be someone else’s problem. It is simple and undeniably true. They lie about Brogan and Ken Smith parking spaces needing to be replaced, spots that are not a part of the public parking inventory. “Smiling faces with hidden agendas”.
The garage is the Trojan Horse. The village now admits, we don’t need more parking, we don’t even utilize what we have.
The full day kindergarten should be voted DOWN in Nov. When studies were presented for multifamily housing, the ‘expert’ assumed new staffing for full day kindergarten was already in place. If we vote the full day Kindergarten down, then the schools will not have funding for new teachers needed to serve newly built apartments. At that point hopefully the builders will be charged an impact fee, instead of sneaking the higher cost caused due to apartments in the name of the KG program.
Ridgewood is where it is because our Council has been governing for the benefit of the few and not for the benefit of the many. The tax payers have been fed a steady diet of “take it or leave it”, oversized initiatives with no option to compromise. Why? Because the Council majority has been answering to Valley and the developer special interest groups. If Valley Hospital could have moved off of its completely unreasonable expansion plan 10 years ago, they’d be finished with their construction by now and we’d have a more modern hospital. Whose fault is that? Same goes for the CBD – not a single person who thinks 35 units per acre is too dense has ever advocated for vacant car dealerships. That is the rhetoric of the now-vanquished Ron Simoncini and his “Truth About Ridgewood.” The recent election has shown that two thirds of the electorate favor more moderate development projects. It’s time to undo what the last Council has put in place and start over. Smaller hospital, smaller garage, smaller apartments.
Towns facing these dilemmas have turned to professional planning groups and we need to do the same. One was outlined in the auditions at BF for the multi-family studies the village did. The professional planners from BFJ Planning https://www.bfjplanning.com/ came and talked about how they worked with places like Bedford, NY as they talk about here:https://youtu.be/FEfkeQQJn4I?t=2h5m20s
Our planner is outgunned for the jump, he’s part time, has limited experience and has not seen the scale of assault that this village is under. We need to redirect our spend in planning to real pros who do this work at scale, have far broader experiences and deeper expertise. The answer to the questions is not the same old pap that Al and Paul and others use when they site the 1967 study. The future is coming, our village is lacking the expertise in planning and far too influenced by the local developer and the big CBD landowners to get it right with out outside expertise.
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Police are reporting that a Black Bear was spotted eating garbage from the garbage can of a Grove Street residence along the PSE&G right of way on the Glen Rock border at 3:30pm. The bear then disappeared into the wooded area that backs up to the Ridgewood sewage treatment plant.
Black bears by nature tend to be wary of people. However, if you encounter a black bear in your neighborhood or outdoors while hiking or camping, follow these common-sense safety tips.
Do not feed bears! Never feed or approach a bear!
Remain calm if you encounter a bear. Do not run from it.
Make the bear aware of your presence by speaking in an assertive voice, singing, clapping your hands, or making other noises.
Make sure the bear has an escape route.
If a bear enters your home, provide it with an escape route by propping all doors open.
Avoid direct eye contact, which may be perceived by a bear as a challenge. Never run from a bear. Instead, slowly back away.
To scare the bear away, make loud noises by yelling, banging pots and pans or using an airhorn. Make yourself look as big as possible by waving your arms. If you are with someone else, stand close together with your arms raised above your head.
The bear may utter a series of huffs, make popping jaw sounds by snapping its jaws and swat the ground. These are warning signs that you are too close. Slowly back away, avoid direct eye contact and do not run.
If a bear stands on its hind legs or moves closer, it may be trying to get a better view or detect scents in the air. It is usually not a threatening behavior.
Black bears will sometimes “bluff charge” when cornered, threatened or attempting to steal food. Stand your ground, avoid direct eye contact, then slowly back away and do not run.
If the bear does not leave, move to a secure area.
Black bear attacks are extremely rare. If a black bear does attack, fight back!
If you observe the bear please call the Ridgewood Police 201-652-3900.
$81,000 average salary for Ridgewood teacher. Glen Rock, Fairlawn, Wyckoff are around $72,000 average. A $102,000,000 budget for around 5,500 students is approx $18,000 per student. Ridgewood also ranks high for greater number of teachers making over $100,000. Easy commute, easy district, unlimited fundraising from parents to fund better technology, environment and resources, not to mention intelligent students served by private tutoring, parent involvement and less negative secondary factors. I love and respect our teachers and feel fortunate to have such a wonderful school district for my kids. But, I need either more information or stronger argument from teachers to be convinced they are getting a bad deal in these negotiations. Anyone?
These teachers need to understand the private sector reality – taxpayers cannot be subsidizing better benefits for teachers than they have themselves, it doesn’t work.
“This generation of young people have been trained throughout middle school, high school, and college to be subservient to authority,” Camille Paglia, the noted cultural critic, university professor, and Salon columnist, toldReason’s Nick Gillespie in a recent interview. “[It’s] everything my generation stood against.”
The conversation, which took place in late April at Reason Weekend 2016, also covered Beyonce’s Lemonade, Prince’s career, and why she Paglia prefers early Madonna.
“Follow the money.” That telling phrase, which has come to summarize the Watergate scandal, has been a part of the lexicon since 1976. It’s shorthand for political corruption: At what point do “contributions” become bribes, “constituent services” turn into quid pro quos and “charities” become slush funds?
Ronald Reagan was severely criticized in 1989 when, after he left office, he was paid $2 million for a couple of speeches in Japan. “The founding fathers would have been stunned that an occupant of the highest office in this land turned it into bucks,” sniffed a Columbia professor.
So what would Washington and Jefferson make of Hillary Rodham Clinton? Mandatory financial disclosures released this month show that, in just the two years from April 2013 to March 2015, the former first lady, senator and secretary of state collected $21,667,000 in “speaking fees,” not to mention the cool $5 mil she corralled as an advance for her 2014 flop book, “Hard Choices.”
Throw in the additional $26,630,000 her ex-president husband hoovered up in personal-appearance “honoraria,” and the nation can breathe a collective sigh of relief that the former first couple — who, according to Hillary, were “dead broke” when they left the White House in 2001 with some of the furniture in tow — can finally make ends meet.
No wonder Donald Trump calls her “crooked Hillary.
