What would you say if you found out New Jersey taxes just went up $540 million? Surprise! They have. And they will grow by a half-billion dollars each year because of the state’s highest-in-the-nation property tax — even with the 2 percent cap. State and local leaders have run away from cutting this burden on homeowners. Why? Who profits from your tax misery? Why is this tax driving people out of state? Paul D’Ambrosio, Asbury Park Press Read more
“I truly wish that the Bergen Dems came up with an innovative bag of tricks rather than pulling out the same old, tired ones that they use time and again. Here’s the real deal. Zur is in trouble, so they’re attempting to muddy up John. It is imperative that we (all) stand firmly behind John Mitchell and help him return to the Bergen County Freeholder Board. I will be voting for him on November 3rd.” Dierdre Paul
Bergen Dems Claim GOP Freeholder Candidate ‘Turned Back on Taxpayers’
By Alyana Alfaro | 10/09/15 4:34pm
A statement released by Bergen County democratic freeholders Tracy Zur, Steve Tanelli and Tom Sullivan alleges that former freeholder and current Republican candidate John Mitchell “turned his back on taxpayers” when he was serving on the Board of Chosen Freeholders.
The group claims that Mitchell “did not want to get involved” in an April 2012 action by then County Executive Kathleen Donovan to cut benefits and pensions from part-time commissioners of the Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority.
The Democrats’ statement alleges that “Mitchell’s unwillingness to take action set off a costly legal process that began with Donovan’s firing of commissioners two weeks later.” It also claims that “it is difficult to imagine that John Mitchell would have experienced such reluctance had he not been trying to protect some of his political buddies.
Oil Painting – Landscape, Seascape, Still Life & Portrait for Adults
With Instructor: Rebecca Leer
[email protected]
Wednesday and/or Thursday 10am – 1pm
Click here for additional details
With Instructor: Diana Gibson
[email protected]
Wednesday and/or Thursday 7pm – 9pm
Click here for additional details
Drawing for Adults, Figure & Still Life
With Instructor: Susan Hope Fogel
[email protected]
Thursday 7pm – 9:30pm
This class is to be held on Friday Mornings 10 am – 1 pmin the West Studio.
If interested, please send a resume, brief class description and six JPEG images of your most recent work to:
Laura Paray
Education Chairman
The Ridgewood Art Institute
12 East Glen Avenue
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
file photo by Boyd Loving
By By Matthew Stock | Reuters
By Matthew Stock
Keeping calm behind the wheel could get easier thanks to a new car seat that actively monitors a driver’s physical and mental status to offer an on the move therapy session.
The “Active Wellness” seat is the world’s first health-monitoring car seat, according to automotive suppliers Faurecia. It uses a biometric sensing system built into the seat lining that can detect if the driver has a drop in energy levels or is under stress and responds with a specific massage pattern, along with air flow through the seat’s ventilation system.
“The Active Wellness seat is Faurecia’s vision on the next level of personalized comfort,” said Olaf Biedermann, director of innovation at Faurecia. “What we basically do is to monitor respiration rate and heart rate in the seat, and we derive stress and energy level from that. Then, having this kind of wellness being information, we now can offer a closed-loop comfort system; so in case you are stressed you get a relaxation massage, in case you have low energy levels you get a very energizing massage.”
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/intelligent-car-seat-detects-drivers-stress-level-100406941.html
By Megan McArdle
October 10, 2015 | 5:15am
Facebook is following you around the Web. You knew that, right?
How else would Facebook know to serve that panda video straight into your news feed, and leave your college friend’s ill-informed rant about Pacific trade deals in the dark bowels of its servers? How else would it know to serve you with 7,000 ads for wedding dress vendors the very day you announce your engagement?
Facebook knows what you like. It knows what you don’t like. It probably knows whether you have been naughty or nice, and will be selling that data to Santa this Christmas season.
This bothers many people, especially since Facebook keeps expanding the list of things it knows about you, and the ways it is willing to use that data to make money.
The recent announcement that Facebook would soon target ads using your “likes” and “shares” has triggered some Olympic-level teeth- gnashing from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, because Facebook will get information from you not just when you actually like, “like” something, but when you load a page that has a “like” button on it.
The EFF wants Facebook to agree to use a “Do Not Track” standard that will keep all that potentially profitable data from the greedy eyes of advertisers.
Of course people should be able to hide data about what sites they use. But there’s a perfectly good way to do this: Stay signed out of Facebook and tell your browser not to accept cookies or otherwise let advertisers follow you around.
The problem is, this level of security is incredibly inconvenient, because you have to spend a lot of time painfully re-entering data. The other problem is that naive users, who probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about privacy, won’t bother.
https://nypost.com/2015/10/10/yes-facebook-is-stalking-you-thats-the-price-of-free-social-media/
Schools teach kids to throw bottles, staplers at gunmen
by Deirdre Reilly
Ask your high schooler how his or her day was, and if you’re lucky, you’ll get a brief snapshot — classes, friends, maybe sports or club activities after school.
But have you heard, “Oh, today we had an ALICE drill”?
An ALICE drill is training for students on how to respond if there is an active shooter on school grounds or in the building itself. The training is designed for students of all grades, but it is tailored to age. And it’s quite the controversy among those in the school safety community.
ALICE stands for Alert-Lockdown-Inform-Counter-Evacuate and has similarities to conventional school safety programs that contain alerts, lockdowns, and evacuation plans in the event of a shooter.
Gwenn Hauck does not need to comprehend the report. Whoever keeps writing to her during the meetings will tell her what to say. Yes, Gwenn, we see that you are busy reading and writing during meetings, we see the glow of your device shining off your glasses. Your handlers are providing most of what you say. You are best when you go off script and start rambling on about people should all be nice to each other. You need to be reminded that you are one of the nastiest people in the room. Just last week you went after Mike Sedon like a pit bull, no that is a bad analogy, unfair to the pitt bull. You were badgering him and hammering him, just as we have seen you do to Bernie Walsh, Tom Riche, Susan Knudsen and others. Honey child, you need to look in the mirror – you can lecture the crowd about how you are always so respectful, and you can reprimand the naysayers, but in fact you have shown repeatedly that you can be a class-A B*TCH.
Ridgewood NJ , School board must talk healthcare costs with union no truer statement has ever been said and since the teachers unions were overwhelming supporters of Obamacare for the rest of us ,its high time they participate in the “healthcare” they pushed on the rest of America .
OCTOBER 9, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2015, 12:30 AM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
BOE must talk healthcare costs with REA
To the Editor:
I am proud to say that I have been educating 6 and 7 year olds in this community for 32 years. Many of these children have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, actors, and most dear to my heart, teachers, as well as numerous other professions. The one thing they have in common is Ridgewood and the superior education they received here.
As I enter into my 33rd year of teaching, I look into the eyes of my current students, knowing the path in front of them will lead them to a successful future because of the dedicated teachers and administrators who work here.
Each year, teachers are asked to do more and more for less and less. We all understand the economic realities that face us today. Teachers are taxpayers, too, and we all have our own budgets to balance.
As a member of the REA, this is my 11th contract negotiation, and it is sad to observe that every negotiation has become more and more acrimonious; however, never in my 33 years has a Ridgewood Board of Education refused to discuss all of the topics that need to be negotiated, specifically healthcare.
Every day I come to work knowing both parents and administrators expect me to be keeping the best interests of my students in mind. I would like to think that the board is doing the same for my colleagues and me. My personal contribution in 2012 to our health benefit package was over $2,200. In 2015, I am now contributing almost $10,000, which is a 350 percent increase. However, my salary certainly did not increase that much. It actually increased by 4.9 percent over the same time period. Anyone retiring from Ridgewood within the next five years will not be able to make the same amount of money that he/she did in 2012. That is just wrong!
All that I am requesting of our Board of Education is to have respect for us as educators, professionals, and community members and to sit down with the REA to talk about the cost of our healthcare benefits.
Donna Pedersen
Ridgewood
Ridgewood 55 and Older Community Survey
The Ridgewood Community Center Advisory Board, comprised of Ridgewood residents, is charged by the Village Council with maintaining and improving the Community Center and serving the broader Ridgewood community. To aid in that mission we wish to learn more about the priorities, needs and concerns of Ridgewood residents age 55 and older.
Please pardon the length of this survey. We know some questions apply more to some of you than others. We truly want to learn more about everyone in this age group in Ridgewood and encourage you to share with us as much as you can.
This is an anonymous survey. Please complete the survey if you are age 55 or over and a Ridgewood resident. One survey per person. More than one person in a household is welcome to complete the survey.
Village Hall & The Stable Will be Closed Oct 12th – In observance of Columbus Day
Village Hall, the Stable, and the Recycling Center are closed on 10/12/15 in observance of Columbus Day and there will be no garbage or recycling pickup on that day.
Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, talks to West Bergen Tea Party members at their monthly meeting at Larkin House in Wyckoff on Aug. 25, 2015
Speaker fight gives Scott Garrett a boost in D.C.
OCTOBER 11, 2015, 8:39 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2015, 10:36 PM
BY HERB JACKSON
RECORD COLUMNIST |
THE RECORD
In July, moderate Republicans in the House wanted Speaker John Boehner to strip Rep. Scott Garrett, New Jersey’s most conservative congressman, of his subcommittee chairmanship. That effort came a short time after Garrett told Republican leaders that he would not contribute to or raise money for his party’s campaign committee because it supported gay candidates.
But last month, it was Boehner who decided to give up his gavel, and last week the man he favored to succeed him as speaker, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, withdrew his candidacy. A major factor in both events was opposition from the 30 to 40 members of the arch-conservative House Freedom Caucus, co-founded by Garrett.
Now Garrett’s position as chairman of a subcommittee that regulates Wall Street may have become even safer. As a leader of a group the next speaker will be seeking to woo, Garrett appears less likely to face a reprimand for not paying his party dues.
While it could still turn out that moderates get the next speaker to marginalize the power of the Freedom Caucus — Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said Friday that the group “should have been crushed long ago” — the only way a Republican could become speaker without Freedom Caucus votes is by brokering a deal with Democrats.
What is far from clear, however, is whether the leadership battle will provide a long-term political boost to Garrett himself.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/jackson-speaker-fight-gives-scott-garrett-a-boost-in-d-c-1.1430349
Hello Ridgewood HS Alumni, family and friends…
The Class of 1980 organizers would like to open up their 35th Reunion to anyone that would like to come to an awesome party…
When: Saturday, October 24th
Where: Mahwah Sheraton from 7p-11p
Cost: $99 + processing fee (link below) – No tickets at the door and ticket window closes Saturday, Oct 17th
I know this is a last minute invite, but unfortunately we don’t have enough people from our own class at this time attending, so if you didn’t go to your last reunion, or just want an excuse to take your honey out for a good time, then come and join us.
https://www.payit2.com/collect-page/65097
By Tim Hume, CNN
Updated 1614 GMT (2314 HKT) October 11, 2015
(CNN)Iran has successfully test-fired a new precision-guided, long-range missile, state-run media reported on Sunday.
The Emad (Pillar) surface-to-surface missile, designed and built by Iranian experts, is the country’s first long-range missile that can be precision-guided until it reaches its target, said Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehqan, Iran’s defense minister.
“To follow our defense programs, we don’t ask permission from anyone,” he said, according to state-run news agency IRNA.
The new rocket is “capable of scrutinizing the targets and destroying them completely,” IRNA reported.
The Emad would be Tehran’s first precision-guided missile with the range to reach its enemy, Israel.
Israel is bitterly opposed to Iran’s nuclear program, and observers have speculated that it could be prepared to launch pre-emptive strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in an effort to derail their progress.
Dehqan said following the launch that the Emad would greatly increase Iran’s strategic deterrence capability, state media reported.
https://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/11/middleeast/iran-ballistic-missile-test/index.html
photo courtesy of RHSMB
Ridgewood High School Marching Band
1st Place
Best Music
Best Effect
Best Percussion
Overall performance
Score – 84.550
Congratulations to RHSMB!
OCTOBER 11, 2015 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2015, 9:56 AM
BY ELISA UNG
RESTAURANT CRITIC |
THE RECORD
Janice Tinari, a longtime stay-at-home mom who turned her devotion to the Betty Crocker cookbook into a culinary career, has spent the last 14 years building a Ho-Ho-Kus neighborhood spot known for its breakfast tacos, moist short ribs, creamy risotto and striking flourless chocolate cake.
Just Janice defied many of the odds of the notoriously risky restaurant business: It managed to remain popular and in business for many years as a small, non-chain, family-run bistro with no liquor license.
Then in the early-morning hours of Sunday, Aug. 2, a driver careened through the front of the restaurant, breaking the front windows, causing structural damage and destroying outdoor furniture and some indoor tables. The 55-seat restaurant was closed at the time and no one was seriously injured.
More than two months later, the once-lively dining room still sits empty and dusty as Tinari struggles with insurance companies that, she says, paid her less than she needs to reopen. The 60-something owner had been counting on one day selling the restaurant to fund her retirement. Now she’s just hoping she can keep it in business.
“At my age, I’m scared to death. If this doesn’t work out, after this, what do I do?” she said.
Tinari’s situation illustrates the risks of running a small business in an industry with thin profit margins: She and her son and manager, David, say they made less than 10 percent profit (the National Restaurant Association says the national average is 3 to 6 percent). Tinari adds that she had been living paycheck to paycheck since getting divorced in 2013 and buying out her ex-husband and partner, John.
