On Monday, October 5 the Kelly Creegan Memorial Fund will host its second annual golf outing at Apple Ridge Country Club in Mahwah. Founded in 2012, the Kelly Elisabeth Creegan Memorial Fund seeks to share the memory, life and spirit of Kelly Creegan through community philanthropy. Last year’s event funded two scholarships for the Ridgewood High School class of 2015. This year the hope is to continue and expand that mission.
Registration is at 8 a.m. with shotgun start at 10:30 a.m. Golfers will enjoy a full breakfast and lunch with auction along with their round of golf. Price is $200 per golfer. For further information and sponsorship opportunities please visit our Facebook page, Kelly Creegan Memorial Fund, or email [email protected].
Just three years ago, President Obama famously ridiculed GOP opponent Mitt Romney’s statement that Russia remained America’s main geopolitical foe by taunting: “The 1980s are calling to ask for their foreign policy back.”
Four years before that, Obama stood at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to declare that once he became president, all people would join him around a global campfire, hold hands and put an end to the world’s evils and miseries.
Well, seven years into Obama’s presidency, the promised worldwide Kumbaya is instead global chaos — caused in large measure by his willful retreat from America’s position of leadership.
Washington’s traditional allies increasingly feel abandoned, its enemies emboldened. The United States isn’t even leading from behind — it’s cowering in weakness.
And no one is taking better advantage of this than Vladimir Putin, now storming headlong into the yawning chasm of American retreat and reasserting Russia’s global influence and power — just as Mitt Romney said.
Putin remains unchallenged in his invasion of Ukraine, leaving him free to intervene — again unchallenged — in the Middle East.
In Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world hasn’t ended the threat of terrorism. On the contrary, it has seen the rise of “JV team” ISIS and new power for the Taliban. Israelis and Palestinians remain as far apart as ever — because only Israel has been targeted to make concessions.
This president accuses his political foes of wanting to wage war as their first option and warns of the limits of unilateral military power.
But in his eagerness to leave office as the president who ended America’s wars, he refuses to consider any use (or even a credible threat) of US force — even when hundreds of thousands are being massacred in Syria, many by the chemical weapons he claimed to eliminate.
The first Sussex County resident elected to Congress in 90 years could be getting a seat at the head table as Republicans choose the next Speaker of the House.
That is compelling from a local perspective, whether or not one is a fan of U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett of Wantage.
Garrett, true to form, has been circumspect on the maneuvering to replace Speaker John Boehner.
The election to succeed Boehner is scheduled for Thursday. Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the frontrunner, met Oct. 1 with some members of the House Freedom Caucus, CNN reported.
Garrett is one of the nine founding members of the caucus. It was launched by hardline conservatives in January soon after a failed effort, backed by Garrett, to oust Boehner.
Garrett is the only caucus founder from the Northeast, which generally elects Republicans less conservative than elsewhere. The caucus does not disclose a roster, but several published reports place its membership at about 40.
The CNN report did not say whether Garrett attended the meeting with McCarthy. His office did not respond Friday to a request for comment.
Assuming members vote as a block, the caucus will have considerable influence on Thursday’s votes for speaker and majority leader.
The next speaker — still likely to be McCarthy, despite his monumental gaffe last week in implying that damaging Hillary Clinton’s presidential prospects was a motive of the Benghazi investigation — will need a majority of the House members showing up to vote.
With the 435-member House consisting of 247 Republicans, “no” votes on McCarthy from more than 29 could force a second round of voting, sort of the House equivalent of a brokered presidential convention.
A deep enough divide among Republicans could give Democrats the ability to determine which Republican gets to be the next speaker — an unacceptable scenario for the majority party.
The only other announced candidate is Florida Rep. Daniel Webster, who got Garrett’s vote when he challenged Boehner in January.
Garrett, as of Saturday morning, had not endorsed a candidate.
The Village Council of the Village of Ridgewood shall conduct a Public Hearing in the Sydney V. Stoldt, Jr. Court Room on the fourth floor of the Ridgewood Village Hall, 131 North Maple Ave., Ridgewood, NJ at its October 14, 2015 Regular Public Meeting, which meeting begins at 8:00 p.m.
The purpose of this Public Hearing is for the Village Council to receive comments and suggestions from the public for the Village of Ridgewood’s 2015 Bergen County Open Space Trust Fund Municipal Park Improvement and Development Grant application. The Village has applied for this grant for Phase 1 work on the Schedler Park property, located at 460 West Saddle River Road, Ridgewood, NJ. Phase 1 would encompass basic infrastructure improvements to include: installation of underground utilities (water, electric, sewer); demolition of two-car garage, small shed; capping of inoperable well; selective removal of down, dead, diseased trees; site clean-up; and cut in proposed parking lot driveway entrance.
Ridgewood NJ , October is Pedestrian Safety Awareness Month . This campaign is designed to not only promote awareness of pedestrian safety measures (pedestrian signals, crosswalks, etc.) and associated safe behaviors, but also stimulate knowledge utilized by the two target audiences, as well as all other public and private sector audiences. The primary goal is to reduce pedestrian injuries and fatalities. This can be accomplished by focusing on raising awareness and changing behavior through education, enforcement and engineering. This campaign strives to:
Motivate drivers to look for and stop for pedestrians.
Motivate pedestrians to use crosswalks and designated crossing locations.
Educate pedestrians about, and encourage the proper use of, pedestrian signals.
Encourage pedestrians to make themselves more visible in the dark, by wearing reflective clothing or carrying a flashlight.
House lawmakers pepper Cordray over dealer reserve
Wednesday, Sep. 30, 2015, 11:59 AM UPDATED 11:28 AM
By Nick Zulovich
Editor
WASHINGTON, D.C. –
Two of U.S. House membesr who are two of staunchest defenders of dealers and how the indirect auto financing model currently operates — one that still includes dealer reserve — peppered the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau who made his semiannual appearance before the Financial Services Committee on Tuesday.
Like many of his fellow lawmakers, Rep. Scott Garrett referenced a series of recent reports from American Banker recapping internal memos and other documents about the CFPB’s use of disparate impact to generate a “tipping point” enforcement action that might discontinue the practice of dealer participation altogether.
The New Jersey lawmaker then directly asked CFPB director Richard Cordray, “Are you working to eliminate dealer reserves?”
Cordray replied with, “We have been working to try to address a practice that we believe is discriminatory, discretionary markups.”
He added that the CFPB is out “not necessarily to eliminate,” dealer participation. “We had an enforcement action (Monday) in which it would limit dealer reserve, not eliminate it. And we think that might be a fair way to try to address the issue,” Cordray went on to say.
What Cordray referenced was the CFPB enforcement action against Fifth Third Bank, which included a mandate to cap dealer markup at either 1.25 percent or 1 percent depending on the length of the vehicle installment contract.
During a back-and-forth exchange between Garrett and Cordray that had each individual interrupt each other multiple times, the House lawmaker insisted he was asking these questions because “dealers are on the front lines of making these loans.”
Cordray replied with how the Dodd-Frank Act was written that created the CFPB four years ago.
“We have authority in the statute. It doesn’t exempt the auto industry. It exempts auto dealers. It doesn’t exempt auto lenders. We have a responsibility to address auto lenders. We understand we are exempted from addressing auto dealers,” Cordray said.
“Congress drew the statute. I didn’t draw it. I have to live with it. It exempts auto dealers, but gives us responsibility over auto lenders. I’m not sure that makes a lot of sense, but we’re trying our best to observe the lines that Congress drew,” he continued.
“It’s a funny provision in the statute. I’m not sure it’s very logical,” Cordray added.
Before Garrett’s time for questioning expired, Cordray also told the lawmaker that vehicle financing is “made by the auto lender. The auto lender controls the auto lending program.”
And with institutions such as Fifth Third Bank as well as American Honda Finance now restricted on how much dealer markup is allowed, Garrett also questioned whether the CFPB understands the implications on dealerships and their ability to generate revenue by these enforcement actions.
“What I would say is this,” Cordray said, “As we do our work … it does effect auto dealers. I would agree with you on that. That’s why the provision is not very logical.”
Finally, Garrett tried to get Cordray to acknowledge the CFPB’s actions are increasing the consumer costs of making a vehicle purchase based on a wide array of studies from the American Financial Services Association, the National Automobile Dealers Association and other organizations.
Ramsey Councilman Ken Tyburczy and Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno.
OCTOBER 4, 2015 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY MARINA VILLENEUVE
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
RAMSEY — A Republican candidate for Bergen County freeholder, campaigning on the importance of fiscal management, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2011.
Ramsey Councilman Ken Tyburczy said his failed coupon business taught him the “importance of debt management.”
“I took a risk, and it didn’t work out,” he said in a phone interview Friday evening. “I filed for bankruptcy. It was a rough period for my family.”
He is one of three Republican candidates running for freeholder. Democrats currently hold a 5-2 majority on the board. Three seats currently held by Democrats are up for election, and that gives the GOP an opportunity to regain control of the Freeholder Board.
Tyburczy said he was sole proprietor of the Hudson County business Super Coups, which tried to help small businesses deliver discounts by mail.
According to the bankruptcy filings, Tyburczy reported $538,598.85 in assets and $581,045.12 in liabilities.
He reported $163,720 in credit card debt, including $56,408.65 in a student loan and more than $79,000 in business debt. He reported taking out a first and second mortgage on his home and that creditors Bank of America Corp. and BAC Home Loans/Countrywide held $417,324.49 in secured claims.
He listed the current value of his interest in a home at 133 Orchard Place in Ramsey as $440,000. He reported $98,598.85 in personal property including cash on hand, a 2003 Toyota Highlander, a 2000 Ford 150 pickup truck, two watches, a wedding band and $68,425.06 in an IRA.
With his $500 stipend as a councilman and his wife’s income, the couple reported an average monthly net income of -$1,073.16.
“Basically, to sum it up, I never had the good fortune of being given anything,” Tyburczy said.
He framed the experience of filing bankruptcy as an important life lesson he can use in county government, where he hopes to reduce debt.
“It’s something that’s a primary focus and concern of mine, and I keep bringing it up in my campaign,” he said.
Nowhere has there been so much hand-wringing over a lack of “affordable housing,” as among politicians and others in coastal California. And nobody has done more to make housing unaffordable than those same politicians and their supporters.
A recent survey showed that the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco was just over $3,500. Some people are paying $1,800 a month just to rent a bunk bed in a San Francisco apartment.
It is not just in San Francisco that putting a roof over your head can take a big chunk out of your pay check. The whole Bay Area is like that. Thirty miles away, Palo Alto home prices are similarly unbelievable.
One house in Palo Alto, built more than 70 years ago, and just over one thousand square feet in size, was offered for sale at $1.5 million. And most asking prices are bid up further in such places.
Another city in the Bay Area with astronomical housing prices, San Mateo, recently held a public meeting and appointed a task force to look into the issue of “affordable housing.”
The coach of the women’s softball team at a Christian college in Rockland County tried to turn his players into porn stars by offering to help them get jobs in the adult entertainment industry — and even invited well-known skin-flick actress Allie Haze to a practice so she could deliver “life counseling sessions,’’ bombshell lawsuits state.
Kurt Ludwigsen, 44, was arrested in April for improper sexual conduct with his Nyack College players. Lawsuits filed Friday by three of them charge he would routinely slap their butts, grab their breasts and make them sit on his lap.
“I am going to ear f–k you. This is your punishment. You are going to stand here and take it,” Ludwigsen told a pitcher after she lost a game in March 2015, according to her Manhattan federal court lawsuit. “Ludwigsen then began to lick [her] ear. When [she] tried to pull away, Ludwigsen held her tighter and said, ‘Stop moving. I told you that you are going to stand here and take it.’ ”
The suits also accuse Ludwigsen of “inviting Haze to practice and directing students to life counselling sessions with her.”
We have former Mayor and now appointed local judge Pfund to thank. Without Ordinance 3066, passed purposely in July 2007 when many residents were down the shore, applications to amend the Master Plan would never have even been considered. Then the developers used an old anchoring by applying for 50 units, only to say they’d “comprised” down to 35. The anchor number used should have been the 12 in the Master Plan, and they should have comprised at 18-24, reflecting current Village densities. Development is surely need in the CBD – it’s an eyesore with too much dead space and decaying remnants of the past – but Ordinance 3066 and the 50 number should have never happened in the first place. That’s Pfund’s folly…. These wheels have been in motion since 2007
I had little hope going into last night’s meeting. I am so proud of everyone who came and stood up for our village. Bottom line, we have to repeal ordinance 3066. Also, say no to ordinances requesting our Master Planner. Our Master Plan should be treated with the respect it deserves. It has been in place for decades, protecting our village from the potential high density developments that are on the table now. Should development occur, yes, but within the safeguards of the master plan. Developers: get a variance and if appropriate for Ridgewood it will pass. If the densities are to low for your project and potential profits, to bad, come to the table with something else. But don’t threaten residents with statements “if you don’t give us this, we’ll do something you really won’t like”. That is not neighborly or nice.
We should have been signing petitions to repeal Ordinance 3066 five years ago or more. I agree that 35 units is too high, but that’s because developers are allowed to submit proposals to amend the Master Plan under Ordinance 3066 (passed by then Mayor Pfund under cover of July summer vacations in 2007 to help out his pals at Valley), and its easy to anchor the debate initially at 50 units and then say you’ve “compromised down to 35 units even though the initial anchoring of the discussion should have been at 12 units as per the existing Master Plan.
OCTOBER 4, 2015 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015, 12:29 AM
BY NICHOLAS PUGLIESE
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
NEW YORK — In the five years since Tyler Clementi committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge, concerns about online bullying and harassment have only increased as daily interactions are mediated more and more by technology.
Victims of online abuse — in the form of threats, personal data breaches or “revenge pornography” — often feel powerless to hold aggressors accountable, given the anonymity that the Internet provides and an opaque regulatory environment that lags advances in technology.
On Saturday, the New York Law School launched the Tyler Clementi Institute for Internet Safety, the country’s first pro bono clinic at a law school that represents victims of what is commonly known as cyberbullying. The institute, started in coordination with the Tyler Clementi Foundation and run by Celementi’s parents, aims to make lawyers available in all 50 states who will advocate on behalf of victims in schools, corporate settings and courts.
“It’s very encouraging,” said Clementi’s father, Joseph. “The Internet now allows people to make comments, post photographs, do all kinds of things that are in cyberspace forever and can be constantly referred to by anyone who chooses to look at it. The humiliation is amplified.
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Bookkeeper from Dumont draws nine-year sentence for embezzling $500K from Ramsey company
OCTOBER 2, 2015, 5:56 PM LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2015, 5:58 PM
BY PETER J. SAMPSON
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
A bookkeeper who authorities said embezzled more than $500,000 from a Ramsey flooring company and lost most of it gambling at casinos was sentenced Friday to nine years in state prison.
Monica P. Arencibia, 51, of Dumont told state Superior Court Judge Margaret M. Foti that she has been living “under the control of a dark secret” — a gambling addiction — and that she wished she could “undo” the harm she had caused.
She acknowledged that she had “violated the trust” of her employer, Gary Perazzo, the owner of Modern Floor Co., Inc., and said she had wanted to tell him what she was doing, but felt “too ashamed.”
Ex-Ridgewood inspector apologizes for stealing nearly half a million dollars in quarters
JULY 9, 2014, 2:39 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 2014, 2:57 PM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
HACKENSACK — Ridgewood’s former public works inspector repeatedly apologized on Wednesday for stealing nearly half a million dollars in loose parking meter quarters from the village.
“I am sorry for what I have done,” Thomas Rica told Judge Patrick Roma moments before being sentenced to five years’ probation. “I am very sorry. I’m…I’m just sorry.”
Rica, who lives in Hawthorne, was employed by the village for 10 years before his arrest early last year.
As part of a plea deal accepted by Roma Wednesday, Rica plead to four counts of third-degree theft, and will pay back a little more than half of what he admits he stole from his former employers.
Rica admitted in March to taking the coins over more than two years from a storage room within Village Hall.
By JULIANNA GOLDMAN CBS NEWS October 3, 2015, 2:41 PM
Vice President Joe Biden is nearing a decision on whether to run for president, and it could come as early as within the next seven to 10 days, according to three people familiar with his deliberations.
Two of those people said he is leaning toward entering the race. Still, they caution that family considerations remain the overriding concern and would be the reason he doesn’t run. His wife, Dr. Jill Biden, has said that should the vice president launch a bid for the Oval Office, “of course” she would “be on board.”
Even if Biden decides to seek the Democratic nomination before the party’s first debate on Oct. 13, he likely would not participate, sources told CBS News.
They said he’d need time – perhaps a couple of weeks – to put together the foundations of a campaign and raise money looking ahead to several ballot deadlines. States like New Hampshire, Texas and Florida have deadlines beginning in November.
Biden has been weighing a White House bid for the last few months, with several Democratic fundraisers even pledging their support should he launch a presidential campaign.
Some donors who have met with the vice president in recent weeks told CBS News they came away with the impression that he was going to run.
