Ridgewood NJ , Ridgewood Police and the Ridgewood Board of Ed took proactive measures Tuesday after Police in nine North Jersey towns received bomb threats on Monday evening and on Tuesday morning, disrupting the school day for thousands of local students . Schools in Bergenfield, Clifton, Englewood, Fair Lawn, Garfield, Hackensack, Leonia, Teaneck, and Tenafly received the threats. Some school systems instituted lockdowns while others evacuated. While threats turned out to be a false alarm Ridgewood Police and BOE rightfully took no chances .
We have received several inquiries today concerning threats to area schools today. Approximately 9 schools throughout Bergen and Passaic Counties received threats and have taken appropriate measures to address their specific needs. Although our schools have not received any threats, the Ridgewood Board of Education and the Ridgewood Police upon hearing of the regional issues, took proactive measures, conducting school security checks of all schools. This proactive approach is part of our ongoing efforts with Dr. Fishbein and the Board of Education towards enhancing the safety of our schools and community.
Emails from Hillary Clinton’s home server contained information classified at levels higher than previously known, including a level meant to protect some of the most sensitive U.S. intelligence, according to a document obtained by NBC News.
In a letter to lawmakers, the intelligence community’s internal watchdog says some of Clinton’s emails contained information classified Top Secret/Special Access Program, a secrecy designation that includes some of the most closely held U.S. intelligence matters.
Two American intelligence officials tell NBC News these are not the same two emails from Clinton’s server that have long been reported as containing information deemed Top Secret.
The letter doesn’t make clear whether Clinton sent or received the emails in question, but in the past, emails containing classified information have tended to have been sent to Clinton, not written by her.
The new revelation underscores the extent to which the email classification issue could continue to dog Clinton, as State Department and intelligence officials review sensitive information within messages that were blacked out before being released to the public.
Confidence in race relations in America continues to fall, with hopes for the future at their lowest level yet.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 50% of American Adults now think race relations in this country are getting worse, up from 44% a year ago and 30% as recently as January 2014. Only 20% believe race relations are getting better, a new low that compares to 38% five years ago. Twenty-six percent (26%) say race relations are staying about the same. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Only 18% rate race relations in America today as good or excellent, unchanged from last year at this time but down from 34% two years ago. Thirty-three percent (33%) now consider race relations poor, up from 15% in 2011 and 29% last January.
Interestingly, unlike most questions related to race, there isn’t a wide difference of opinion on these questions between blacks and whites. Other minority Americans are the least pessimistic.
Ridgewood NJ , Scott Garrett (R-5th Dist.) now faces scrutiny over his “reported comments” that he was not contributing to the House Republicans’ fundraising arm because it backed gay candidates and “Democrats think he is more vulnerable and he might be more vulnerable, but we don’t have empirical evidence that he is more vulnerable.” https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/08/will_voters_remember_nj_rep_scott_garretts_comments_next_fall.html
Since this is revelation of “reported comments” , some say leaked by DC establishment republicans during the Speaker John Boehner feud who were uncomfortable with a real Republican chairing a powerful financial services subcommittee watched closely by the industry and filled with lucrative donors .
The New Jersey media who works hand in hand with the states Democratic party has been filled with Garrett donor defection stories .
So now the hated “Wall Street” has suddenly been elevated to the moral arbitrator of all things , despite heavy donations to the Clinton Campaign with its dubious ties to serial women abuser and accused rapist ex- President Bill Clinton as well as its ties to Twitter would be porn star ex Congressmen Anthony Weiner .
At a September possible Democratic candidate Gottheimer fundraiser that came less than a week after James Cicconi, the RINO Republican head of external affairs at AT&T Inc., and JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Peter Scher hosted another one for the Democrat.Attendees included executives from Blackstone, Comcast, Verizon, McGraw Hill, U.S. Telecom Association, Tribune Media, United Health, Ogilvy & Mather, Raben Group and Akin Group. The invitation for the event had said it was “an excellent opportunity to oust one of the most conservative members of the House of Representatives.”
Bloomberg News, which was the first to report plans for the Cicconi fundraiser, said some business executives had already been growing tired of Garrett. They were apparently bothered by his vote against big spending former Speaker John Boehner,and were troubled that he has opposed the crony driven , taxpayer funded corporate welfare, Export-Import Bank.
Garrett has said about the Ex-Im bank, “It’s hard to imagine anything more unfair and un-American than having the government financially support mega-corporations at the expense of small businesses and American workers. But that is exactly what has been happening, and it will continue to happen if we don’t let the Export-Import Bank expire next month. It rewards those with close relationships with Washington bureaucrats and makes victims of startups that dare to compete against them—literally picking winners and losers in our economy.
“Ex-Im has transformed the role of government from a disinterested referee that guarantees a free and open marketplace into a biased actor that tilts the scales in favor of its friends in businesses. We have the opportunity to save capitalism from cronyism and to fulfill a promise to the American people to work for them instead of a select few with special connections in Washington. For the sake of the American taxpayer and the preservation of the free enterprise system, Congress should put the Export-Import Bank out of business.”
Garrett has also made enemies by his unrelenting disapproval of Dodd-Frank which has codified the disastrous “too big to fail” policy and mega Wall Street bail outs . “Garrett says , “the Dodd-Frank Act has stifled economic growth, made it more difficult for Main Street businesses to obtain credit, and increased the likelihood that taxpayers will be on the hook for additional Wall Street bailouts. Most importantly, this law has and has made it harder for Americans to find a job, buy a home, and save money for their family’s future. ” Garrett went on , “Despite creating new bureaucracies that have imposed thousands of pages of rigid, invasive, and unworkable regulations, Dodd-Frank did nothing to reform the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose actions caused the 2008 financial crisis.”
The Democrats great hope is Joshua S. Gottheimer ,so who really is Joshua S. Gottheimer . Gottheimer was (born c. 1975) is an American lawyer, speechwriter, and public policy adviser. He has been active within the Democratic Party as a speechwriter for Bill Clinton and an advisor for the presidential campaigns of Wesley Clark, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton. He has also worked for Burson-Marsteller, the Federal Communications Commission, Ford Motor Company, and Microsoft. He is currently running for the United States House of Representatives in New Jersey’s 5th congressional district. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Gottheimer )
So Mr Gottheimer is another PR person like Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn not sure many residents will share any enthusiasm given the bad taste the Jim Mac Greevey mouth piece has left in Ridgewood .Gottheimer it seems is funded by Big Government ,pro Wall Street bailouts, pro-corporate welfare , pro-crony types looking to remove the last impediment to getting their hands on more tax payer money.
JANUARY 19, 2016 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2016, 1:21 AM
BY JEAN RIMBACH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
n the wake of his switch to the Democratic Party, Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino has been accused of fraud by county Republican Chairman Bob Yudin, who labeled him a traitor and said he should return thousands of dollars raised recently under the guise that he was a member of the GOP.
“Mr. Saudino perpetrated what basically amounts to fraud among Republican donors here in Bergen County,” said Yudin. “Recently, Mr. Saudino raised tens of thousands of dollars from Republican residents under the ruse he was one of them. I call on Mr. Saudino to return this ill-gotten money immediately.”
Yudin noted that Saudino held a comedy night in November that drew nearly 1,000 people; a flier for that event said tickets were $125. But the county chairman said he’s referring to any money raised recently by the onetime Republican.
“He should return those monies, because they were secured under false pretenses,” Yudin said. “If these people had known he was going to be a Democrat, that he was going to be running on the ticket of Clinton or Bernie Sanders, that he was going to be in the same party as Barack Obama, most of them wouldn’t have given him a penny.”
JANUARY 15, 2016 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 2016, 12:31 AM
BY GREG TARTAGLIA
SPORTS EDITOR |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Ridgewood High School gets much better odds playing the numbers 1-13-16 on the ice than in Powerball.
Those digits represent the date of the Maroons’ latest Bergen County hockey tournament victory, a 5-1 decision over Paramus/Lyndhurst/Hackensack Wednesday at the Ice Vault in Wayne.
The date of Ridgewood’s last prior county win? Jan. 16, 2013 (1-16-13) over Mahwah in the opening round. The team dropped its 2014 opener to Tenafly and did not qualify in 2015 following a slow start to the season.
This year’s first-round triumph gives the No. 8-seed Maroons a quarterfinal match-up with No. 2 St. Joseph tonight at the Ice Vault. RHS defeated the Green Knights to reach the 2012 semifinals, its furthest advancement in the tourney’s five-season history.
Senior Cooper Telesco led the offense against No. 9 Paramus/Lyndhurst/Hackensack (7-4-1) with two goals and one assist. He was one of four different Maroons to light the lamp in the third period, along with Ryan Carius, Liam Seston and Justin Klatsky.
Klatsky, Matt Cafarella, J.P. Kelly and Tim Anzano added an assist apiece, and goalie David Woodford made 26 saves as RHS moved to 9-3-1.
The win was welcomed after the Maroons sustained their first loss of the calendar year last Saturday, 6-2 against Big North Patriot foe River Dell/Westwood.
Ridgewood began 2016 by topping Clifton, 10-3 on Jan. 2, and RD/Westwood, 8-2 on Jan. 3. After splitting the season series with the latter, the team was 5-1 in the division, good for first place over the Golden Hawks (3-1-1).
Three education tips to grow a young mind.
Annie Holmquist | January 15, 2016
It’s no secret that American students are sadly falling behind. One look at the Nation’s Report Card tells us that not even half of students at the 4th, 8th, or 12th grade levels are able to achieve proficiency in math, reading, history, or any number of other subjects.
To an outsider, such scores would lead to the conclusion that American students are dumb.
But American children are not dumb; instead, they are the victims of education methods which fail to inspire true learning.
In 1923, British educator Charlotte Mason penned a work entitled Towards A Philosophy of Education. In it, she posited that children have far greater intellectual ability than adults give them credit for:
“Our schools turn out a good many clever young persons, wanting in nothing but initiative, the power of reflection and the sort of moral imagination that enables you to ‘put yourself in his place.’ These qualities flourish upon a proper diet; and this is not afforded by the ordinary school book, or, in sufficient quantity by the ordinary lesson.”
So how do we give this “proper educational diet” to our children? Ms. Mason suggests three ways:
1. Avoid Regurgitating Facts
“But the children ask for bread and we give them a stone; we give information about objects and events which mind does not attempt to digest but casts out bodily (upon an examination paper?). But let information hang upon a principle, be inspired by an idea, and it is taken with avidity and used in making whatsoever in the spiritual nature stands for tissue in the physical.”
2. Read books
“[A]s soon as a young child begins his education he does so as a student. Our business is to give him mind-stuff, and both quality and quantity are essential. Naturally, each of us possesses this mind-stuff only in limited measure, but we know where to procure it; for the best thought the world possesses is stored in books; we must open books to children, the best books; our own concern is abundant provision and orderly serving.”
3. Avoid Excessive Explanation
“I believe that all children bring with them much capacity which is not recognized by their teachers, chiefly intellectual capacity, (always in advance of motor power), which we are apt to drown in deluges of explanation or dissipate in futile labours in which there is no advance.”
Is it time we cultivate the intellectual abilities of American children and give them an education which actually encourages their minds to grow?
By Myles Ma | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 19, 2016 at 10:10 AM, updated January 19, 2016 at 10:47 AM
Multiple Bergen and Passaic county schools received bomb threats, Jan. 19, 2016. (File Photo)
High schools in at least nine school districts in Bergen County and Passaic County received threats Tuesday morning.
Schools in Leonia, Tenafly, Teaneck, Garfield, Fair Lawn, Hackensack, Englewood and Bergenfield received threats, Anthony Cureton, a spokesman for Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino, said.
Police are investigating whether the threats are related, Cureton said. It’s also possible all the calls were automated, he said.
Fair Lawn Police Sgt. Brian Metzler said Fair Lawn High School received a threat over the phone at about 9 a.m. All the students have been moved to Memorial Middle School.
Affordable housing divide: Judges to reconcile differing estimates of need in NJ
JANUARY 18, 2016, 11:25 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2016, 7:41 AM
BY MARINA VILLENEUVE
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Last spring, a study commissioned by a housing-rights group found that New Jersey municipalities must collectively provide more than 200,000 units of low- and moderate-income housing by 2025. Now, a new report paid for by 230 towns has put the need at just under 37,000.
Which calculation is correct — or, as the case may be, more correct — will be up to state Superior Court judges in 15 regions. The state Supreme Court last spring tasked them with reviewing the plans of hundreds of New Jersey municipalities to provide housing for people of modest means.
Units of measurement
There’s a wide disparity in estimates of how many more affordable-housing units are needed in New Jersey over the next 10 years. Here’s what a housing advocacy group and a consultant working for 230 municipalities suggest:
Fair Share Housing Center: 200,000+
Econsult Solutions: fewer than 37,000
Which calculation is correct — or, as the case may be, more correct — will be up to state Superior Court judges in 15 regions. The state Supreme Court last spring tasked them with reviewing the plans of hundreds of New Jersey municipalities to provide housing for people of modest means.
The Supreme Court’s ruling effectively disbanded the state Council on Affordable Housing, which for 15 years failed to implement affordable-housing guidelines that furthered decades-old state Supreme Court mandates.
The difference between the two reports stems from disagreements over how to interpret the Supreme Court’s action, the future of the state economy and whether to count any housing need that went unfulfilled during those 15 years. Those issues are likely to be hashed out over the next several months in court.
Meanwhile, civil rights groups in New Jersey are lambasting the municipalities’ report, saying it severely undercounts tens of thousands of working families, seniors and people with disabilities.
“If mayors across New Jersey refuse to do the right thing, we are going to have to force them to through the courts,” Frank Argote-Freyre, the president of the Latino Action Network, said in a statement last week. “New Jersey can be better than this and is better than this — but it is going to take continued work to overcome their discrimination.”
It is not clear how the matter will be resolved, said Joe Burgis, whom the courts have selected as a “special master” to review the housing plans of five Passaic County municipalities.
Will the 15 judges “be getting together to come up with a definitive set of numbers, or will the individual judges go out on their own and make their own individual determinations for their region as to what their numbers should be?” said Burgis, whose Westwood-based firm, Burgis Associates, represents municipalities in North Jersey, including Bergen County. “We still don’t know the answer to that question yet.”
Depending on what happens, some municipalities might also file new affordable-housing plans or amendments based on the report that Econsult Solutions, a Philadelphia-based consulting firm, prepared at the behest of the 230 municipalities, Burgis said.
It’s the latest head-scratcher in decades of debate over how much affordable housing New Jersey municipalities must provide under the terms of a series of state Supreme Court decisions. Those rulings, which are collectively called the Mount Laurel doctrine, established that a municipality’s land-use regulations must “affirmatively afford a reasonable opportunity” to fill its “fair share” of its region’s affordable-housing obligation.
Municipalities that met a court deadline last year were granted five months of immunity from “builder’s remedy” lawsuits, which allow developers to successfully argue that their multifamily housing projects could help satisfy a municipality’s affordable-housing obligation.
Their natural habitats are shrinking and they are looking for nesting places all along the busy highways, turnpikes etc. where the can gather dead wood. They build huge nests. They check an area out long before they lay their eggs and maybe noise isn’t one of their concerns.
Thank you James for this article. Ever since I’ve learned about The Schedler Bald Eagles I have been reading up on them. In 1782 the Bald Eagle became the national/ bird symbol of the USA. It was chosen because it was native to North America and known for its ” majestic beauty, great strength and longevity.” In 1940, the Bald Eagle was protected under the National Emblem Act . During the years of DDT use, their numbers shrank at an alarming rate. They are now on the endangered species list and cannot be ” hassled, sold, killed or disturb their nesting sites.” I don’t know a single kid/ young adult who would choose a 90 foot field if it meant the loss of the woods that have become a possible home for two pairs of American Bald Eagles. We can have a smaller field, save the woods, protect the neighbors from noise and particle pollution and protect our national bird at a cost of nothing! What a great deal. Now to convince the council majority and the village manager.
I know of several individuals who feel they have been targeted by the village after making complaints. At the time, I told them to contact the village manager. I thought that was the way to go. Most people feel too uncomfortable expressing their concerns at a public meeting. I now feel that is the only way to go. My own personal experience occurred two years ago. I had sent a letter to the Ridgewood News. I had forwarded a copy to the council. At a council meeting, I was approached by the mayor and he asked me to pull it. I said I couldn’t because it was past the deadline and I was under the impression they were printing it. It was not an inflammatory letter. It was not printed and I later found out through many sources that the mayor had gone to the paper and intervened. The mayor had implied that I had gotten it all wrong but later admitted that he had. I think at best , the actions taken by the mayor and subsequent cover up was problematic.
Many people believe that the email to Mike Sedon’s place of employment did come from the village as it was sent immediately after his petition was handed in at that location. I hope it wasn’t so but it seems like a familiar pattern.
If somebody knocks on your door with the permit inspection hammers swinging within a month of a public comment including that homeowners Name recording at a meeting…doesn’t take much imagination to connect the pieces and possible motives here…for goodness sake Rwood take back your Town…
This whole matter goes back to yet another ill-conceived comment made by a man that wants to be our next Mayor. Regardless of whether there’s any correlation to surprise inspections and summons’ to Mr. Pucciarelli’s very public threat, one has to question the man’s judgement for making the comment in the first place. This is not the first time Mr. Pucciarelli has spoken before thinking.
The town should have data from parkmobile. That should be the FIRST step to identity exactly how many spots are needed, instead of just pushing for a garage closer to the new proposed development by a company where Mayor’s wife used to work.
They are trying to use old data – 15 years ago to justify the demand. Many people say that you can always get the parking, you just need to know where to park. There are hidden spots. e.g. YMCA lot. The town can negotiate partnership with those private lots to provide parking. We can convert some streets to one way only to increase parking spaces. We can limit all street parking to 30 minutes and make it free – and all long term parking – longer than 30 minutes should be in these paid parking spaces not on the street – not in front of the shops. That will free up most lots and noone will have to circle around, if the street lots are free and are for LIMITED time – you park – do the business and go away.
Anyway – first order of business – IDENTIFY HOW MANY SPOTS ARE NEEDED – WITH A RECENT STUDY – WHICH CAPTURES DATA FOR MULTIPLE DAYS – NOT FOR ONE WEEK, NOT FOR A FEW HOURS. DON’T SPEND TAX PAYERS 15 MILLION DOLLARS ON YOUR PERSONAL AGENDA BY JUSTIFY IT USING FAKE REPORTS.
Ridgewood NJ , Maser Study Says Downtown Lots Half Full at Peak Times
-Delivered to village on or about October 16, 2015
-Vote on garage bond was November 3, 2015
-Study was first posted on old village website on 12/30/2015, 75 days after it was received.
-Councilwoman Knudsen and Councilman Sedon have stated in village council meetings they never saw the study before it was posted on 12/30/2015
-The 3 remaining council members have not answered, after much questioning by the public, when they saw the study.
Study says of the current Ridgewood parking load:
Page 11: This factor was deemed to be conservative for the purposes of our analysis as the surrounding surface lots were observed to be at approximately 50% of their capacity during peak hours and none of the surface lots appeared to approach their maximum capacity simultaneously. Thus, we justified that the site would operate at 50% capacity during both the AM and PM peak hours, or that a minimum of 206 of the proposed 412 parking spaces would be occupied during these times.
Why wasn’t this study shared with the public before the election, or before the first vote on the one and only design the village offered?
Why does Ridgewood need a garage?
Why does it need to be higher the neighboring Mt. Carmel Church?
Now, the village is pushing to have the county finance this garage. Who is it for if the surface lots are 50% full at peak?
Late last week, Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino shocked the county when he announced that, though he was planning on pursuing reelection, it would not be as a Republican. He announced that he would be switching his party affiliation and running as a Democrat in November. Now, Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO) Chairman Bob Yudin is speaking out against Saudino’s party shift and outlining what steps the Bergen GOP plans to take moving forward.
“We are starting to reach out,” Yudin said of finding a replacement on the ballot for Saudino. “We have a number of people who have expressed interest.”
According to Yudin, the BCRO selects county candidates using a convention. Usually, the deadline to submit a letter of intent to run would be February 1. Because Saudino defected just two weeks shy of that deadline, Yudin says he is considering extending it to February 15 in order to give potential candidates more time.
“He had told both myself and many of my lieutenants that he was running as a Republican,” Yudin said. “So the actual timeframe for people to make a decision, instead of being months or a year or so, is less than two weeks. In all fairness to everyone who is thinking about this, I probably will extend the deadline.”
Yudin also had some harsh words to say about Saudino’s decision. When he spoke to PolitickerNJ the chairman recalled a conversation he had with the Sheriff before the party-switch bombshell was revealed. According to Yudin, Saudino disclosed that he had met with Bergen County Democratic Chairman Lou Stellato about potentially switching parties. Yudin went on to say that the Sheriff assured him he would remain a Republican and that he told Stellato that he was reassured by Yudin’s leadership style, supposedly citing that Stellato would try to impose more control over the governance of the Sheriff’s department.
“That is what the Sheriff told me,” Yudin said. “I took it as a compliment. I was very proud for the Sheriff to say that and for him to have said that to Lou Stellato. That is what I mean when I say I was so blindsided by this treacherous, treasonous act. It is a very, very despicable and dishonorable thing this man has done.”
Yudin said he believes Saudino’s decision to switch his party stems from his perception that he has a higher likelihood of reelection as a Democrat than as a Republican.
