Faced with the difficulties of benefits reform, some stakeholders’ instincts have been to stand still and resist change. The state’s current position, however, is untenable: It faces an $82 billion pension deficit which, in the absence of funding increases beyond the realm of reason, will lead to state workers’ pensions beginning to run out of money within a decade. Credit ratings agencies this week again stressed the state’s need to reduce its employee benefits costs. Moody’s Investors Service concluded in assessing the state’s creditworthiness: “Without meaningful structural changes that improve the affordability of the state’s liabilities, the state’s structural imbalance will persist and/or pension liabilities will grow, and the state’s rating will continue to fall.” Samantha Marcus, NJ.com Read more
GOP pollster’s legs ‘shaking’ after Trump focus group
August 25, 2015, 08:23 am
By Jesse Byrnes
Republican pollster Frank Luntz reported wobbly legs after hearing from a group of Donald Trump supporters, according to TIME.
Luntz conducted a focus group of 29 people from Washington, D.C. and its suburbs that either like or adore the GOP front-runner, paying each participant for the more than two-hour session Monday night, the magazine reported.
“I used to sleep on my front porch with the door wide open, and now everyone has deadbolts,” one man said during the session, according to TIME. “I believe the best days of the country are behind us.”
“I’m frustrated beyond belief. I feel like I’ve been lied to,” a woman said. “Nothing’s getting better.”
“We know his goal is to make America great again,” another woman said. “It’s on his hat. And we see it every time it’s on TV. Everything that he’s doing, there’s no doubt why he’s doing it: it’s to make America great again.”
After the group watched recordings of Trump’s political flip flops and remarks on women, the individuals reportedly said they liked Trump even more.
“You guys understand how significant this is?” Luntz asked reporters, according to TIME. “This is real. I’m having trouble processing it. Like, my legs are shaking.”
“I want to put the Republican leadership behind this mirror and let them see. They need to wake up. They don’t realize how the grassroots have abandoned them,” Luntz continued. “Donald Trump is punishment to a Republican elite that wasn’t listening to their grassroots.”
Luntz conducted a focus group aired live on Fox News immediately following the first GOP debate early this month, finding mostly negative views of Trump – then also the front-runner.
AUGUST 24, 2015, 5:31 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2015, 7:40 AM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Three Bergen County freeholders want the private operator of the county-owned Bergen Regional Medical Center to expand its drug detoxification unit to help deal with the epidemic of heroin addiction in the county.
But hospital officials say they have already taken the first steps toward increasing the 54 beds currently available for short-term treatment of recovering drug and alcohol addicts.
The issue comes at a time when the heroin-related deaths in Bergen County have spiked. The New Jersey Medical Examiners office reported in June that there were 42 heroin-related deaths in 2014, a 61 percent increase over 2013 and the third largest increase of any county in the state.
Freeholders Thomas Sullivan, Joan Voss and Tracy Zur sent a letter Thursday to County Executive James Tedesco asking him to “pursue a dialog” with Bergen Regional officials about expanding services.
“We are all well aware of the heroin epidemic in our midst,” the freeholders wrote. “We have attended too many funerals for people who have lost their battles to addiction.”
AUGUST 25, 2015 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2015, 9:36 AM
BY MARK KRULISH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The Village Council took action this month to pass a resolution settling a long-standing matter between Ridgewood Water and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) dealing with a contested permit violation.
The settlement requires the village to withdraw its request for a hearing regarding the contested violation with the NJDEP Commissioner and administrative courts and pay $55,000, which will come from water utility revenues.
At the end of the Aug. 12 public meeting, Village Attorney Matthew Rogers explained the decision came down to how much money the matter would cost to litigate versus what the potential result might be of an administrative process involving the NJDEP. More than $120,000 in penalties were sought by the NJDEP.
“After probably two full years of trying to work with DEP and then litigating with DEP, we came to the conclusion this is the best way to approach it and to resolve the matter where we know there’s an outcome and resolve it to the point where we can rely now on newly issued permits that take into consideration what those exceedances were before and hopefully cover us in the future,” Rogers said.
One of those 3 60×90 fields is a mess. Lower Hawes barely fits 90 foot baselines. First and third are at the edge of the infield. I think the RBSA has proposed addressing this field but have been turned down by the BOE and the neighborhood. The Somerville field is in good shape and functional but is also a full dirt infield, not the best for ‘true’ baseball. The primary field at Vets was in rough shape at the end of the high school season. Too many teams playing too many games on that field.
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I’m a broken record — let’s thank the Willard school district for all of this. They helped pass the vote for getting their school extended while including the field changes at the high school and BF (removing a 60×90 and a softball field). We can go back further to who proposed putting into that vote the field changes and Willard changes. Can’t continue to post-blame at this point.
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Let’s look at what’s needed to support the needs of youth sports in town. If soccer, baseball, softball, lax and other field sports can use the field, why is that such a bad thing? I believe (and could be wrong) that there was a review of the field usage and needs in town and we came up short. Schedler will help alleviate these needs.
AUGUST 24, 2015, 4:19 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2015, 7:50 AM
BY JAMES M. O’NEILL
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
A new online mapping tool that covers flood-prone neighborhoods along a six-mile stretch of the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook in Bergen County was unveiled Monday, the fourth in a series of maps designed to help residents in numerous Passaic River basin communities get better information about potential flooding from oncoming storms.
The newest maps show stream flows, water depths and streets likely to be flooded during various brook cresting heights for the area from White’s Lake Dam in Waldwick, downstream through Ho-Ho-Kus to Grove Street in Ridgewood.
The interactive flood inundation maps, a collaboration between federal and state agencies, are expected to help the towns’ emergency management officials plan evacuations and road closures – and make it easier for officials to persuade people in a projected flood zone to evacuate, reducing the risks for emergency personnel who must rescue stranded residents in the middle of major flooding.
Ridgewood NJ, Bike lanes are still major concern for safety at the Ridgewood rail underpass. Most observers failed to see the logic from the beginning of of the construction for changing from two lanes to one and adding extremely dangerous bike lanes under the trestle .
Like the ADA elevators to nowhere that proceeded it resident were quite skeptical at its introduction . Contrary to the elevators ,which seem good for a laugh , the bike lane presents a clear danger to bikers . Not to mention the slow down to emergency services through town .
Recent developments like the continued effort to fill the “east side” with sports fields have refocused a light on what may have been the real purpose of the so called ‘ “traffic calming”. Resident now speculate that it is another attempt to inhibit traffic into the west side of town making it more difficult for new residents living in the new high density housing to enter the west side . There also seems to be a movement growing to bus any new children to Hawes school and not to the select schools in the west side like Orchard and Willard .
Residents again speculate that the bike lane is being used as an excuse to further divide the town like Englewood , giving certain types of politicians a voting block to ensure their perpetual election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For much of the economy’s fitful and sluggish six-year recovery from the Great Recession, analysts have foreseen a sunnier future: Growth would pick up in six months, or in a year.
That was then.
The latest Associated Press survey of leading economists shows that most now foresee a weaker expansion than they had earlier. A majority of the nearly three dozen who responded to the survey predict tepid economic growth, weak pay gains and modest hiring for the next two years at least.
Nearly 70 percent said they thought the economy’s growth would remain below its long-run average of 3 percent annually through 2017. The economy hasn’t attained that pace since 2005.
And if they’re right, don’t expect much of a pay raise: Fifty-eight percent of the economists think wage increases for the next two years will remain stuck below a long-term annual average of 3.5 percent.
What’s more, if growth doesn’t pick up from its modest post-recession pace of 2.2 percent a year, nearly six in 10 expect hiring to fall to an average of 175,000 jobs a month or below, down from its pace of 243,000 jobs a month for the past year.
At the start of the year, many economists thought falling gas prices and strong hiring would finally produce 3 percent economic growth for 2015 as a whole.
“We no longer have reason for optimism that the economy is going to accelerate,” said Mike Englund, chief economist at Action Economics. “The real question is, when is the next downturn coming?”
Peter Schiff Warns “The Fed Is Spooking The Markets, Not China”
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/24/2015 – 16:35
The correction may soon morph into a full-fledged bear market if the Fed makes good on its supposed intentions to raise interest rates this year. Have no illusions, while most market observers are quick to blame the sell-off on China, this market was given life by the Fed, and the Fed is the only force that will keep it alive. Unfortunately for the Fed, it won’t be able to get away with doing nothing for too much longer. Events may soon force it to show its hand. Then perhaps some may notice that the Fed is holding absolutely nothing and has been bluffing the entire time.
Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY1:19 p.m. EDT August 24, 2015
The brokerage is directing online account holders to a toll-free phone number to complete trades.
Investors encountered problems accessing their online stock accounts and completing trades through brokerage TD Ameritrade on Monday morning amid a feverish sell off in the broader markets.
TD Ameritrade first confirmed the issue in response to traders on Twitter who complained about the problems. The firm directed traders to a toll-free phone number and a special website address to complete trades.
Scotttrade also experienced issues as investors flocked to execute trades.
Collectively, the issues exposed creaking digital infrastructure not capable of handling a massive surge in trading on a day with heavy interest in the equity markets.
TD Ameritrade spokeswoman Kim Hillyer told USA TODAY in an email that the firm’s site experienced “industry-wide latency issues” during the morning rush.
“The sell-off is causing wide-spread issues in multiple areas of the market. We saw a significant increase in trading volumes at the open, and volumes remain above average,” she said. “Client trades were and continue to be executed, although there has been some slowness in some cases, related to these industry-wide issues and the historic nature of the day.”
The company wasn’t the only online brokerage to experience troubles during the selloff.
Separately, brokerage Scottrade also experienced problems with its site. The firmacknowledged the problems on Twitter and said it had restored its access after a brief outage
NOTICE TO BIDDERS – Cold Water meters and Accessories 2015 – 2016
NOTICE TO BIDDERS
Sealed bid proposals will be received by the Village of Ridgewood, in the Office of the Water Department/Director of Operations, Level 5 of Village Hall, 131 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey 07451 on Wednesday, September 2, 2015 at 10:30 a.m. prevailing time, and then publicly opened and read aloud for following project:
BID NO. 022-2015 – COLD WATER METERS AND ACCESSORIES 2015-2016
The work of the Contract shall be to supply Neptune Cold Water Meters and Accessories or approved equal, for the Ridgewood Water Operating Center at 205 E. Glen Ave., Ridgewood, New Jersey 07451, as needed and described in the contract specifications.
Specifications and bid forms may be obtained by mail or in person from the office of the Director of Operations, Ridgewood Water, 131 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey 07451, telephone (201) 670-5521, for a non-refundable fee of $10.00, per set of bid documents. Documents may be examined or picked up in person between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. at the Operations Division, Ridgewood Water, Village Hall, 131 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey 07451, Monday through Friday. Prospective bidders requesting bid documents be mailed to them shall be responsible for providing their own postage/delivery service remuneration. No Specifications and/or Proposal forms shall be given out after 4:30 p.m. on Monday, August 31, 2015.
The contractual obligation of the Village of Ridgewood under this Contract for these items is contingent upon the availability of appropriated funds from which payment for this Contract can be made.
Prices quoted must be net and exclusive of all Federal, State and Local Sales and Excise Taxes. Bids may be submitted prior to the bid opening in person or by mail, addressed to the Office of the Village Clerk. The Village assumes no responsibility for loss or non-delivery of any bid sent to it prior to the Bid opening.
Each bid must be enclosed in a sealed envelope with the name of the bidder thereon and endorsed, “BID responding to BID NO. 022-2015 –COLD WATER METERS AND ACCESSORIES 2015-2016, Do Not Open Until September 2, 2015 at 10:30 AM” and must be accompanied by all required forms.
Any award or awards may be made at a later or subsequent time or meeting of the Village Council. All required schedules, that is required forms are to be submitted on the forms attached to the bid documents. No other forms will be accepted.
The successful bidder shall comply with all applicable provisions of the Prevailing Wage Act, as determined by the New Jersey Department of Labor. All contractors, their subcontractors, and material suppliers shall comply with all applicable provisions of the Public Works Contractor Registration Act, pursuant to Public Law 1999 Chapter 238 and the Contractor Business Registration Program, pursuant to Public Law 2004 Chapter 57.
The successful bidder shall furnish and deliver to the Village of Ridgewood a performance and payment bond (Schedule F) in the amount of 100 percent of the accepted bid amount as security for the faithful performance of the Contract. Additionally, the successful bidder shall furnish policies or Certificates of Insurance required by the Contract. In default thereof, said checks and/or bonds and the amount represented thereby shall be forfeited to the Village of Ridgewood as liquidated damages, not as a penalty.
Proposals submitted by Bidders and/or Bidder’s Insurance Company(ies) not chartered in the State of New Jersey, must be accompanied by proper certificate(s) from the Secretary of State, indicating that such Bidders, Bidder’s Insurance Company(ies), and/or Surety Company(ies) is (are) authorized to do business in the State of New Jersey. The Village of Ridgewood reserves the right to reject any or all bids, to waive any informality or to accept a bid which, in its judgment best serves the interest of the Village. No bids may be withdrawn for a period of sixty-days (60) after the date and time set for the opening of bids.
“BIDDERS ARE REQUIRED TO COMPLY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF P.L.1975, C. 127. (NJAC 17:27) regarding Affirmative Action, and Executive Order No. 11246 regarding equal employment opportunity, as amended”. A complete statement as to these requirements is included in the specifications.
By Order of the Village Manager Publication date: August 21, 2015
Water Restrictions Update and Street Signs Disappearing – August 24
Dear Resident,
I hope your summer has been enjoyable and relaxing. I’d like to update you on two separate issues – water conservation status and stolen street signs.
I would like to thank residents for their overall compliance with Stage II water restrictions. It has eased the operational difficulties of the overall water system to a degree but weekends are still challenging the limits of system capacity. I know that some of you have commented to me about stricter enforcement and I have indicated that we have been strengthening enforcement. As an update, enforcement has included warnings to hundreds of violators and 16 summonses have been issued to repeat violators. One recommendation that I have received from a resident is that we should mandate the use of rain sensors; we currently mandate their use on newly installed sprinkler systems but not existing. Use of rain sensors is a good conservation method and we do recommend their use.
We cannot predict with certainty when we will be able to ease restrictions but the public will be informed through the usual channels when we do. We encourage residents to check our website at water.ridgewoodnj.net for the most up-to-date information.
Once again street signs are disappearing from local streets. The occurrence of this seems to increase right before colleges begin. At this moment we have 37 missing signs! It used to be that just the signs were stolen but now we are also seeing a new tendency to also uproot the pole. Clearly from a taxpayer perspective this is costly; potentially even more important is the impact it may have on our timeliness to respond to medical and other emergencies if a public safety worker is not totally familiar with our streets. I think you will agree with me that this is totally unacceptable. This is a criminal offense and if we find anyone in possession of Ridgewood street signs we will prosecute them. From now through September 15th, we will have an amnesty program where we will provide an opportunity to anyone who is currently in possession of Ridgewood signs to return them to the Police at Village Hall without facing criminal charges. I appreciate your help in getting this issue resolved.
Fair Lawn NJ, Freeholder candidate John Mitchell made the rounds in Fair lawn over the weekend and there is nothing like a picnic in Fair Lawn hosted by the Cosgrove Team.
Even on this beautiful warm summer day however, there was a cold chill in the air as the conversation turned to the possibility that Iran will be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. Nonetheless, the people I spoke with remain confident that our elected officials “will come to their senses” and reject this deal for the sake of our own U.S. citizens as well as for our long time ally, Israel. Hope springs eternal..!!
Move would signal yuan maneuvering in the past two weeks is backfiring
By
LINGLING WEI
Updated Aug. 23, 2015 6:38 a.m. ET
BEIJING—The People’s Bank of China is preparing to flood the banking system with liquidity to boost lending, according to officials and advisers to the central bank, as its recent currency moves are squeezing yuan funds out of the market and renewing concerns over capital leaving Chinese shores.
The planned step—which involves cutting the deposits banks are required to hold in reserve—signals that the Chinese central bank’s exchange-rate maneuvering in the past two weeks is backfiring, forcing it to again resort to the reserve-requirement reduction, the same easing measure that so far has failed to help spur economic activity.
The move, which could come before the end of this month or early next month, would involve a half-percentage-point reduction in the reserve-requirement ratio, potentially releasing 678 billion yuan ($106.2 billion) in funds for banks to make loans.
It would be the third comprehensive reduction in the reserve requirement this year. Another option being considered at the PBOC is to target the cut only at banks that lend large amounts to small and private businesses—the ones deemed key to China’s future growth—though such a strategy hasn’t proven effective in the past in channeling credit to those borrowers.
AUGUST 24, 2015 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015, 1:20 AM
BY MARINA VILLENEUVE
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
SADDLE RIVER — Borough officials are considering allowing hunters to control the deer population, and state-certified Animal Control Officer Carol Tyler says her experiences in the field confirm that something has to be done.
There are so many deer in town, she says, that it’s led to more getting hit by cars, impaled by fences and becoming so dependent on feeding by residents that “The deer I’m pulling out of the woods are skeletons that didn’t know how to deal with winter.”
“Do we have a humane issue, do we have a deer population that we can’t control?” she continued, “Did we cause it? Yes, we did. We have to do something about it.”
Tyler spoke at a presentation last Wednesday night held by the Borough Council’s wildlife management committee and attended by Ramsey Board of Health members, an Allendale council member and residents.
