Ridgewood NJ, Local Patch editions publish sex offender map as Halloween warning across the state . Do you think the Patch sites should publish these maps or leave it up to parents to look up the information?
While we do agree parents have a right to know and should know , we are not sure this is the best and most effective way to notify the public .
On several occasions the Ridgewood blog has been asked by readers to publish everything from sex offenders to property tax delinquents of the Village and we have up till know differed. We did however publish the properties who were fined for for violations of the Stage 4 watering because after 15 years of summer water restrictions its seemed justified on many levels . We have also been guilty of nagging non compliant winter snow sidewalk scofflaws as well.
We have always been been concerned about creating a “witch hunt” atmosphere in the the Village or doing significant damage due to a misidentified address.
Unlike some of our detractors we try to focus on the issues and leave the personal to the personal . Some issues however seem to straddle both realms.
This weekend was an inflection point in the Republican presidential race — a moment in which some significant part of the GOP establishment came out of denial and realized Donald Trump might well become their party’s nominee.
“The Republican establishment, for the first time, is saying, off the record, this guy can win,” noted Joe Scarborough on MSNBC Monday morning. “I’ve heard that from everybody. I don’t hear anybody saying he can’t win the nomination anymore.”
That doesn’t mean Republicans have made their peace with a Trump victory. On the contrary — some are preparing to do whatever it takes to bring him down. Which could lead to an extraordinary scenario in which GOP stalwarts go to war to destroy their own party’s likely nominee.
Poll: Trump Hits Highest Mark Yet, But Carson Is Close Behind
by CARRIE DANN
Real estate mogul Donald Trump remains the front-runner in the Republican presidential field, while former neurosurgeon Ben Carson holds a close second place, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows.
With the backing of 25 percent of Republican primary voters, Trump is at his highest level of support in the poll since entering the 2016 race. Carson now gets the support of 22 percent of Republican voters, remaining within the margin of error of his first-place rival. Last month, 21 percent of GOP primary voters said Trump was their first choice for the party’s nomination, while 20 percent picked Carson.
With an election for New Jersey Assembly two weeks away, the numbers don’t look good for the fiscal reform urgently needed in Trenton.
The staggering $194 billion liability for public employee pension and health benefits is seldom debated in campaigns for the 80 Assembly seats up for grabs on Nov. 3.
The status quo is a 47-32 advantage for Democrats over Republicans with one seat vacant – a balance not likely to change much. The incumbents have outspent challengers $10 million to $2.2 million, according to a report by a New Jersey election commission.
Even more lopsided, incumbents enjoyed a 10-to-1 cash-on-hand advantage – $5.2 million to $496,000 – over their opponents, as of Oct. 2.
That big edge in campaign finances helps them run for re-election while running away from their failure to solve New Jersey’s fiscal dilemma. The Assembly has been in recess since June – a spell approaching four months.
“The situation is not only getting worse, but is fast approaching a point at which it will be beyond remedy,” warned Gov. Chris Christie’s bipartisan, blue-ribbon Pension and Health Benefit Study Commission in a report released in February.
Keeping benefits at their current level would require a 29 percent hike in state income taxes or increasing the sales tax to 10 percent, the study estimated.
“The already narrow window for a reasonable solution is closing fast. Only decisive action now can preserve a solid foundation of public employee benefits before the ever-growing hole the state has dug itself into becomes too deep for the state to dig itself out of without crushing tax increases and deep cuts to employee benefits and public services,” the commission stated.
That was eight months ago. Since then, Christie and lawmakers have failed to realign New Jersey’s costly benefits to a level comparable to what private-sector employers offer their workers.
Now the unfunded liabilities have reached a staggering $194.5 billion, according to aNew Jersey Watchdog analysis of State Treasury records. Here’s a breakdown of that debt:
New Jersey’s public pensions are underfunded by $113.1 billion. The state bears $80.5 billion of that burden. Local governments are responsible for the remaining $32.6 billion. State and local governments are also on the hook for $81.4 billion in unfunded health benefits for retired and active workers. The state owes $65 billion; the local share is $16.4 billion. The total shortfall is nearly six times higher than New Jersey’s total annual budget, currently $33.8 billion. To wipe the liability clean, each household in the state would need to write a check for more than $60,000 per household.
At the present pace, the shortfall for public employee pensions and health benefits will exceed $210 billion next year.
“That, in brief, is New Jersey’s future without meaningful public employee benefits reform – a future that is bleak, burdensome and unacceptable to everyone,” the commission concluded.
None of the New Jersey Senate’s 40 seats are on the Nov. 3 ballot. The next statewide election will be in 2017, when Christie’s second and final term expires.
“A just-released inspector general report found that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is conducting a massive consumer data-mining operation without the security safeguards to protect the sensitive data from cyberattacks.” Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah
10/13/2015 05:25 PM
Privacy: The most powerful unaccountable agency in Washington is mining and amassing all your personal financial data. While that’s bad enough, it also isn’t adequately protecting them from hackers and identity thieves.A just-released inspector general report found that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is conducting a massive consumer data-mining operation without the security safeguards to protect the sensitive data from cyberattacks.
The CFPB is collecting and stockpiling more than 600 million credit card accounts, along with personal data from millions of mortgage loans, but “has not yet fully implemented a number of privacy control steps and information security practices,” warned CFPB Inspector General Mark Bialek in a 10-page memo to CFPB Director Richard Cordray.
More alarming, the agency is sharing the massive databases with outside contractors and storing sensitive private information on unsecured clouds, making the data extra vulnerable to cyberattacks “from outside governments and organized groups.”
American consumers have no idea that the government is doing this. They’re not being alerted about the sharing of data from their private financial accounts, and they’re not being given the right to opt out of the government programs to gather and retain their most sensitive personal information.
The Big Brother operation is being done surreptitiously, with the reluctant cooperation of banks. It’s an unprecedented invasion of privacy, even for the feds — and the Obama administration has no good answers for why it’s amassing this information on private citizens.
In a recent House banking committee hearing, Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, tried to get answers from Cordray, who explained, unconvincingly, “I’m just looking at overall patterns in the market.”
Read More At Investor’s Business Daily: https://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/101315-775415-ig-warns-cfpb-not-protecting-millions-credit-card-accounts-from-hackers.htm#ixzz3p7Gh92F8
“This administration views the Internet as a threat.” Senator Ted Cruz
Oct. 19, 2015 9:57pm Oliver Darcy
Ted Cruz said Sunday evening that the “threats to Internet freedom” have “never been greater” and could have the potential of affecting independent online news outlets like the Drudge Report.
Speaking to TheBlaze Sunday evening in Dallas, Texas, the Republican presidential candidate respondedto reports that Congressional review of digital copyright law could threaten aggregator news websites.
“I think threats to Internet freedom continue growing,” Cruz said. “This administration views the Internet as a threat.”
OCTOBER 19, 2015, 6:19 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2015, 6:25 PM
BY PETER J. SAMPSON
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Two cousins, one dressed in a black suit and tie, the other in an orange jail uniform and shackles, stood before a judge Monday and formally denied weapons charges relating to two incidents in which more than 40 bullets were fired into the Old Paramus Reformed Church in Ridgewood, damaging the historic structure.
The church was unoccupied on Nov. 16 and Dec. 26, 2014 when, authorities allege, rounds from a high-powered rifle were fired, breaking a stained glass window dating to 1875 and sending one bullet through the front of the building and out a rear wall.
A Bergen County grand jury returned an eight-count indictment against Joseph Galli, 22, of Somerville and his cousin, Alexander Norrell, 23, of Ridgewood, on Sept. 2. Both are charged with possession of a CMMG Inc. MK-47 assault rifle with the purpose to use it unlawfully against the property of another between the two dates in question.
Toward the end of every summer, my husband sends me a list of 20 or so dishes he would like me to cook for him. It’s different every year and includes things like Frito pie, gumbo, clam chowder, taquitos, ribs.
No, we’re not going through “Mad Men” withdrawal or pining for Eisenhower’s America. This is how we observe the very modern ritual of football season. But the NFL’s greedy investment in Thursday-night games is threatening a schism in the Gridiron Church.
My husband’s dish list keeps me busy while he lounges on our couch watching the games. Some years, I don’t get to all of them, and they roll over to the following year. Some dishes become beloved and therefore frequently repeated.
On Sundays during the football season, my husband doesn’t accompany me to the many children’s birthday parties that our kids get invited to. We don’t make plans to go out. My husband isn’t responsible for errands. We don’t do any shopping. I don’t engage him in conversation about anything more complicated than “What’s the score?” and “So you want more of that?”
“Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views,” William F. Buckley once observed, “but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.” He might have been writing about some of the nation’s newsrooms.
Many media establishments obsess over diversity of pigment, while remaining ideologically monochromatic. This produces big blind spots and glaring examples of unconscious bias.
Here is one such example. A recent Wall Street Journal article on bicycle helmet laws began this way: “Helmets help prevent head injuries, so laws requiring cyclists to wear them would seem obvious.”
Really? Why?
Helmet laws seem “obvious” only if you take several things as already given: (1) that government should force people to do what is in their own best interest; (2) that government actually can know what is in other people’s best interest; and (3) that laws designed to promote people’s best interests actually will do so.
The point of the article, however, was to note that cycling advocates take what it calls a “surprising” position: Mandatory helmet laws “make cycling less convenient and seem less safe, thus hindering the larger public-health gains of more people riding bikes. All-ages helmet laws might actually make cycling more dangerous, some cyclists say, by decreasing ridership. Research shows that the more cyclists there are on the road, the fewer crashes there are.” It goes on to cite research showing that the reduction in head injuries is offset by increased obesity caused by people not riding, which thus produces “a net negative health impact.”
In short, given No. 3 might be wrong: A government program passed with good intentions might have unintended consequences.
An instructive example out of Kenya (and a few from our own backyard).
Elizabeth Nolan Brown|Oct. 20, 2015 8:00 am
One of the most baffling things about the newfangled “liberal” push for laws against so-called hate speech is their inability to imagine these bans backfiring. In their zeal to punish those who spread sexist, racist, transphobic, or otherwise out-of-fashion speech, they seem to forget that history has a bad track record of using censorship to suppress religious, social, sexual, and political minorities. And that’s exactly what’s been happening in Kenya, according to Nairobi-based newspaper The Star.
“There is growing evidence that the government is using prosecution for hate speech as a tool to silence its opposition critics,” writes John Onyando. “The norm is incendiary speech by pro-government politicians and online activists going unchecked while law enforcement agencies enthusiastically pounce on the mildest expressions by critics.”
The agency tasked with prosecuting hate speech in Kenya is called the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC); it was formed in 2008 to address ethnic conflicts in the nation. Onyando asserts that NCIC has ignored the bulk of complaints it has received and acts “more like an arm of the ruling coalition” than an independent agency, honing in only on those who speak out against the Jubilee Alliance, a coalition established in 2013 to support the candidacy of current President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto.
Increasingly, many school referenda are based on the need to buy iPads or other tech devices for students. These devices, it is implied, will diminish achievement gaps and bring learning to new heights.
However, research has shown such “needs” to be misguided, particularly as “there is little solid evidence that greater computer use among students leads to better scores in mathematics and reading.” And as reading expert Nancie Atwell recently noted in The Washington Post, the tactic most likely to set students on the path to success is the good old-fashioned technology of a book.
“As reading researcher Richard Allington put it, ‘If I were working in a high-poverty school and had to choose between spending $15,000 each year on more books for classrooms and libraries, or on one more [teaching assistant], I would opt for the books … Children from lower-income homes especially need rich and extensive collections of books in their school …’
And they need actual books, not electronic devices that store books. Real books don’t require electricity or batteries. They survive rapid changes in technology and digital storage. While my students did experiment with e-readers and Kindles, all of them reverted to paper books. They said they missed the sense of geography they enjoy with a real book, where they’re aware of how many pages the author has left to resolve the plot, and when they can flip back with ease to clear up a confusion.”
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Interfaith Ministerial Association and Ridgewood Police are hosting Police Chaplain Training. Seen in the photographs are members of Clergy and law enforcement from the region participating in Basic Police Chaplain Training given by the Police Chaplain Program of New Jersey.
OCTOBER 19, 2015 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2015, 10:08 AM
BY MARK KRULISH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
After a lengthy public hearing on Oct. 14, the Village Council decided to move forward with the process of procuring a grant for phase one of the Schedler Park project and accept a monetary gift from the Ridgewood Baseball/Softball Association (RBSA).
The approval of the two resolutions came with the notion of exploring other possible sites for a 90-foot field while scaling down the playing field at Schedler to a 60-foot diamond, which was supported by some residents in attendance.
Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld started the hearing with an update to the grant money available to the village. Sonenfeld reported that Bergen County received a high number of requests and the village lowered its amount to $75,000.
The RBSA also decided to increase the amount offered in its gift to the village to $150,000, Sonenfeld said.
OCTOBER 19, 2015 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2015, 10:45 AM
BY MARK KRULISH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The latest drawings for the proposed Schedler Park, which includes a large multi-purpose field, were unveiled last week during a presentation made by village officials.
The Schedler property and the historic Zabriskie-Schedler house have come back to the forefront in recent weeks with a resolution passed by the council to endorse recommendations made for the site in the 2012 Open Space report and the submission of an application for a matching grant that would fund preliminary cleanup work in the area.
Some of the features of the potential park include an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessible walking path, restrooms and playground, a woodland and nature area, and the most-discussed feature, a 90-foot baseball field with multi-purpose field overlay for soccer, lacrosse and football. A parking lot at the southern end of the triangular shaped parcel contains 74 spaces and a drop-off lane.
Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld emphasized this was “the beginning stages of a public discussion on the actual design of the park.”
“What Would Yogi Do? Guidelines for Athletes, Coaches and Parents”author John McCarthy will speak to the Community Relations Advisory Board of Ridgewood and Glen Rock Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 7:30 P.M. in The Village of Ridgewood Municipal Building, 131 North Maple Ave. Ridgewood, NJ in the first floor Garden Room.
Professor John McCarthy provides specific strategies to get athletes, coaches and parents on the same page. Referring to the three entities of sports as co-dependent parties, McCarthy uses Yogi Berra’s career and his own life experiences to illustrate how sports done the right way can enhance everyone’s life.
John McCarthy is an adjunct Professor at Montclair State teaching, “Coaching Principles and Problems,” in addition to, “Sports Psychology,” and “Social Problems in Sports.” McCarthy is a former two-sport, first team, nonpublic All-State athlete. He is co-founder of the Institute for Coaching.
The Advisory Board has been working to expand its, Respect, Give it to Get it Campaign by encouraging a community wide dialogue regarding civility.
All Advisory Committee meetings are open to the public and provide a safe environment for community members experiencing or witnessing bias-related crime to be heard.
Individuals working or living within the Ridgewood Environs who have experienced bias intimidation, housing discrimination, racism, sexism, or an injustice based on their sexual orientation are urged to contact the board at [email protected].
The Community Relations Advisory Board, Appointed by the Mayors of Ridgewood and Glen Rock was created to overcome bias attitudes toward persons or groups based on their race, color, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or disability. The all-volunteer Board meets the third Wednesday of each month. Visit us on Facebook @ Community Relations Advisory Board of Ridgewood and Glen Rock.
The following letter appeared in The Ridgewood News on October 16, 2015.
To the Editor: At our October 5th Board of Education meeting and in last week’s letters to the editor, several of our teachers voiced opposition to the employee healthcare premium contributions phased in over the last four years under state law, known as Chapter 78. We would like to clarify the information on the healthcare contribution. The rates by which Ridgewood teachers contribute to their individual healthcare premiums is determined by a graduated structure, with employees at higher end of salary grades paying a greater percentage of their individual premiums than those at the lower end.
The highest paid teachers contribute 35 percent of their plans’ premiums while the lowest paid teachers pay 12 percent. The contribution level of 35 percent is applied to salaries of $95,000 and above when the employee has single coverage and $110,000 and above when the employee chooses family coverage. The majority of our teachers are enrolled in the School Employee Health Benefits Plan NJ Direct 10. At present, premiums are $10,610 for single coverage and $29,177 for family coverage.
The teacher who earns $95,000 and has single coverage would contribute $3,713 and a teacher earning $110,000 enrolled in the family plan would contribute $10,212. This year the total health insurance premium cost for the REA members is $10,228,960. Of that amount, they contribute $2,628,843. The net health insurance cost to the district is $7,600,117. With insurance premiums increasing annually, sometimes dramatically, controlling the growth of health care costs is challenging for all employers, in both the public and private sectors.
With the legislated 2 percent cap on property tax increases, keeping the school district’s overall costs within the cap is particularly challenging when cost drivers such as healthcare grow at a rate in excess of 2 percent. This year, the district offered employees 20 different plans through the School Employee Health Benefit Plan. Some of these plans have lower premiums. With lower premiums, the amount spent on insurance and the contribution cost would decrease.
The Board respects our teachers and appreciates the work they do. We share their concerns about rising healthcare costs as well as the increasing demands brought about by state mandates and our collective efforts to improve and update our curricula and programs. We know that through their great work our students thrive and our school district is well respected. Our appreciation is demonstrated in their compensation. Our teachers’ average salary of $82,500 is near the top of all Bergen County districts, while our starting salary of $55,693 for a first-year teacher with a Bachelors of Arts degree is at the very top (based upon collective bargaining agreements on file at the New Jersey School Board Association). Currently, 107 of our 520 teachers earn $100,000 or more. As stated at the Board meeting, our negotiating team is willing to meet with the REA team to settle the contract.
Ridgewood Board of Education
Sheila Brogan, President Vincent Loncto, Vice President Christina Krauss Jim Morgan Jennie Smith Wilson
