HACKENSACK – The whole of New Jersey might be embroiled in casino controversy chaos, but to Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco, the case is clear: any future North Jersey casino should be built in the Meadowlands in his own Bergen County. (Bonamo/PolitickerNJ)
the report focuses on the different parenting styles found in black and white households and argues that these cultural differences help create an achievement gap not fixable by schools
REPORT: NEGLIGENT PARENTING HURTS BLACK STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE
by JOHN SEXTON15 Jun 2015209
A newly-published report says that some parenting choices and attitudes can hurt the success of black students in school.
The Economic Policy Institute is a left-leaning think tank funded in part by unions. After noting that their report does not describe “all lower-social-class families” the authors look at social factors which depress student performance.
In its first key finding, the report focuses on the different parenting styles found in black and white households and argues that these cultural differences help create an achievement gap not fixable by schools. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey EPI produces the following chart:
By Eric Katz
June 16, 2015
The Office of Personnel Management will notify many more individuals their personal information was compromised than the 4.2 million current and former federal employees the agency initially informed, officials said on Tuesday.
The timing of the second round of notifications, as well as the number of employees who will receive them, is still unknown by OPM. The agency’s director, Katherine Archuleta, confirmed to a congressional panel that OPM discovered, in the course of looking into the initial hack it uncovered in April, a second hack that targeted background investigation and security clearance data.
Archuleta said it will notify the those who went through background investigations their data was compromised “as soon as practicable,” with OPM’s Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour adding the agency first had to identify exactly whose information was hacked. The initial notifications began going out June 8 and will continue through June 19.
Representatives from the Homeland Security Department, Office of Management and Budget, Interior Department — where OPM’s hacked servers were housed — and OPM all said they were taking steps to upgrade systems and boost security protocols. The other agencies noted, however, the hack was OPM’s responsibility. Archuleta said, in turn, she inherited “decades old” legacy systems that she was doing her best to modernize them.
file photo by Boyd Loving
JUNE 16, 2015 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2015, 8:56 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Verizon Wireless has withdrawn its application seeking variances and waivers to construct a cellular telecommunications facility on Valleau Cemetery property, according to Board of Adjustment Chairman Joel Torielli.
Torielli announced Verizon’s withdrawal during the June 9 zoning board meeting.
During the same meeting, at which Verizon representatives were not present, the board chairman also announced the continuation of the company’s application to install a cellular antenna on top of the cross at West Side Presbyterian Church. The public hearing for that application has been rescheduled to resume July 14.
Earlier this year, Verizon filed an application to build a cellular facility at the cemetery, but company officials did not have the opportunity to present the plans to the Board of Adjustment. The board, meanwhile, had approved AT&T’s request to maintain a temporary cell tower along Route 17 as the firm prepared to upgrade its nearby permanent monopole.
Judy Fairweather, attorney for AT&T, revealed last month that Verizon officials approached her and her company and sought permission to build on the permanent Route 17 tower. As a result of the collocation along the highway, use of the Valleau site by Verizon is no longer needed.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/verizon-pulls-application-to-build-cell-site-on-cemetery-1.1356453
By Jordan Fabian – 06/16/15 12:56 PM EDT
President Obama admits HealthCare.gov was a “well-documented disaster,” but says it helped the federal government better understand how to handle technology.
“With all the crises we were dealing with — the economy collapsing, the auto industry on the verge of collapse, winding down wars — this did not get the kind of laser-focused attention until HealthCare.gov, which was a well-documented disaster, but ended up anyways being the catalyst for us saying, ‘Okay, we have to completely revamp how we do things,’ ” Obama said in aninterview with Fast Company published Monday.
Obama’s comments come as he’s trying to promote his administration’s efforts to overhaul the government’s ancient technology infrastructure.
The president said outdated procurement rules and a lack of technological expertise hampered large-scale government projects, such as HealthCare.gov. But he said his administration has adopted new rules and recruited staffers from Google, Facebook and Twitter to beef up its tech efforts.
“If we are able through the U.S. digital team to recruit a baseline of talent and create a — pipeline — on a regular basis … what I do believe will happen is the government as a whole will start thinking about its relationship to citizens differently,” Obama said.
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/245128-obama-healthcaregov-a-well-documented-disaster
MEIR RINDE | JUNE 16, 2015
But near-insurmountable difficulties remain to be resolved — such as where the requisite $15 billion will come from
Two century-old tunnels that carry Amtrak and NJ Transit trains into New York City
The urgent need for new rail tunnels under the Hudson River is finally getting some serious attention after years of little activity.
At a closely watched summit of transportation leaders in New York last month, a top official from the Obama administration called Amtrak’s proposed Gateway tunnel between northern New Jersey and Manhattan “the most important rail project in the United States.” Peter Rogoff, the acting undersecretary of transportation, said the two states must act immediately to advance a plan, sparking attendees’ hopes that the highly complex, expensive, long-stalled project might finally get underway.
“It was like, ‘Whoa! We finally are hearing it from Washington,’” Martin Robins, the dean of New Jersey transportation experts and a conference participant, said after the meeting. “I wish it had come earlier.”
The sign of possible movement comes five years after Gov. Chris Christie canceledNJ Transit’s ARC (Access to the Region’s Core) tunnel project under the Hudson, citing the project’s potential high cost. It comes two and half years after Hurricane Sandy ravaged the existing, 105-year-old tunnels, raising the prospect of a long shutdown of at least one tunnel for repairs that could cripple rail travel in the near future.
“Closure of that tunnel, and the 50 percent to 75 percent reduction in capacity, would have a disastrous effect on the regional economy. That can’t be overestimated,” said Pat Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.
New tunnels are needed to prevent such a crisis and to allow continued economic growth, the conferees said. Rail travel across the Hudson has increased 140 percent in the past 25 years, even as auto travel has declined, and is projected to double again by 2040, according to the Regional Plan Association, which organized the conference with the Port Authority.
“This conference isn’t about transportation. It’s about jobs,” Foye said during a panel discussion. “It’s about protecting and retaining the jobs the region already has and creating the platform for future job growth. It is not an overstatement to say the region’s economic prosperity is at stake.”
But even with that looming risk and the kick in the pants from Rogoff, fundamental questions remain unanswered. Most importantly, which agency will own and direct the project? And where will the required funding, which could reach $15 billion or more, come from?
How will Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who are both under pressure to pay for other transportation needs, somehow agree to support such a massive undertaking? And what role will be played by the powerful but politically vulnerablePort Authority, which needs to spend billions on other projects and remains under a cloud of Bridgegate-related scandals?
REMEMBER GRAYDON POOL IS SHARK FREE
By Women’s Health
June 16, 2015 | 11:13am
If you go to the beach, it’s probably crossed your mind at least once: Shark attacks can happen.
It’s hard not to think about it since they’re in the news every summer. The latest terrifying story is of two teens who were attacked by sharks on Sunday in two separate incidents along the same stretch of beach in North Carolina.
According to the Associated Press, a 12-year-old girl lost part of her arm and suffered a leg injury, and a 16-year-old boy lost his left arm a little more than an hour later. Even scarier, both were in waist-deep water.
The most recent attacks weren’t the only ones the area has seen. A shark bit a 13-year-old girl’s foot a few days before, about 15 miles away.
There were 52 reported shark attacks in the U.S. last year, none of which were fatal, says Andrew Nosal, Ph.D., a marine biologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. California, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas are where they happen the most often, he says.
While that number seems low when you think about everyone who hops in the ocean each year, any shark attack is one too many. Should we be worried?
Probably not, says John Carlson, Ph.D., National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries shark expert. “While we can’t downplay the tragedies that occurred with these teenagers, we have to emphasize that shark attacks are an extremely rare event,” he says.
Carlson also points out that sharks don’t usually seek out humans and only attack when they confuse us for their natural prey.
Enhanced North Jersey Coast Line express weekend service to beach towns launches Sunday, June 21
Enhanced Saturday, Sunday and holiday rail service on the North Jersey Coast Line will operate from June 21 through September 12 and utilize the agency’s dual-powered locomotives to provide a one-seat ride.
“This one-seat ride rail service from New York is a sound investment that not only gives visitors and residents easier access to some of our most popular beaches and boardwalks, it also helps take cars off the roadway and boosts tourism and the economy in our shore communities,” said Transportation Commissioner and NJ TRANSIT Chairman Jamie Fox.
“Our Shore service provides a safe and reliable way to get people where they need to be to enjoy time in the sun and expands transit options for travelers along the state’s costal region,” said NJ TRANSIT Executive Director Veronique “Ronnie” Hakim. “NJ TRANSIT is grateful for the continued support of the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) without whom funding for this service would not be possible.”
Four round-trip express trains will operate between Penn Station New York and Bay Head. This service also features hourly train service between Bay Head and Long Branch from approximately 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Two of the round-trips will be geared to beach travelers, with an additional two round-trips providing service during the early morning and late night timeframes.
The express service will serve Penn Station New York, Secaucus Junction, Newark Penn Station, Elizabeth, Rahway, Aberdeen-Matawan, Red Bank, Long Branch, Asbury Park, and then all station stops to Bay Head, without the need of a transfer in Long Branch. A travel time savings of approximately 25 minutes is expected from the normal travel time between New York and trains such as Belmar, Manasquan and Point Pleasant.
Seating will be limited aboard the express service. Customers are strongly encouraged to purchase round-trip tickets or discounted beach packages to Long Branch, Asbury Park, Ocean Grove, Bradley Beach and Belmar (a savings of $6.50) prior to the start of their trip. NJ TRANSIT beach packages are available at some ticket windows and ticket vending machines. More information on beach packages is available on njtransit.com/summer.
Customers can also purchase NJ TRANSIT tickets using MyTix mobile ticketing.
Express trains will supplement NJ TRANSIT’s regular hourly rail shuttle service between Long Branch and Bay Head, and will operate using the statewide transportation agency’s new ALP-45 dual-powered locomotives. These specialized trains will operate in electric mode between New York and Long Branch and will switch to diesel operation for travel between Long Branch and Bay Head – allowing for the one-seat ride.
The announcement follows the May 11, 2015 endorsement of the service by the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA), which authorized a $273,000 allocation through the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ) to fund the new service.
Detailed schedules are available on njtransit.com.
STEVEN MALANGA • | JUNE 15, 2015 | 12:01 AM
The New Jersey legislature, looking to solve a budget crisis back in 1992, passed a bill that changed some of the accounting principles of the state’s government employee pension system. The technical changes, little understood at the time, made the system seem in better financial shape than it actually was, allowing the legislature to reduce contributions for pensions by $1.5 billion over the next two years. Legislators seized those extra dollars and redirected them into other spending.
Jersey officials could manipulate their pension system because local governments have latitude in how they run their own retirement plans. So what they did was not unique. Around the country, state and local officials have increasingly discovered over the years that they can exploit the complex and sometimes ill-defined accounting of government pension systems, as well as loopholes in their own laws governing those pensions.
Over time, elected officials came to promise workers politically popular new benefits without setting aside the money to pay for them, declared “holidays” from contributions into pension systems and changed their own accounting systems midstream to make the systems seem better funded — all just ways of passing obligations on to future taxpayers. In the process, government pension systems became one of the chief vehicles that state and local politicians used to massage their budgets.
Now we face the consequences. Our elected representatives played a deceptive game of chicken with pension funds. And now the chickens have come home to roost.
848 JUN 3, 2015 12:19 PM EDT
By Josh Rogin
Hillary Clinton’s record as secretary of state became a hot-button issue this week after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Bloomberg Television that the Barack Obama administration’s failed “reset” policy with Moscow was her “invention.”
Here’s why it matters: Her campaign chairman, John Podesta, gave an interview to Bloomberg View’s Al Hunt in April in which he said holding up the “major accomplishments” from her State Department tenure would be a centerpiece of her campaign. Podesta may want to reconsider that plan. Running on Clinton’s signature diplomatic initiatives is fraught with risks because, on closer inspection, most that he mentioned don’t hold up to scrutiny.
“She put together that sanctions package that’s led to at least the possibility of having a deal on the Iran nuclear program,” Podesta told Hunt in the interview, which was aired on PBS’s “Charlie Rose” show. “That took very careful and longtime careful diplomacy.”
In fact, the State Department under Clinton vigorously opposed almost all of the Iran sanctions passed by Congress while she was in office. Top officials, including Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman, openly advocated against many bills, including the sanctions on Iran’s central bank, which dealt the true crippling blow to the Tehran regime. The Senate passed that bill 100-0 and Obama reluctantly signed them into law. The State Department did implement them, but was criticized by lawmakers and advocacy groups for using waivers in the law to exempt several countries, including China and our allies Japan and South Korea.
Clinton can also expect to be pressed during the campaign over her involvement in the secret negotiations that led to the controversial Iran nuclear negotiations now nearing completion. Her deputy, William Burns, and her top foreign policy advisor, Jake Sullivan, heldmonths of clandestine meetings with Iranian officials to set up the talks. In the run-up to her campaign announcement, Clinton wascautiously supportive of the nuclear talks; leaving herself some wiggle room by saying she won’t render a final judgment until the deal is done.
Podesta then went on to say that Clinton “restored America’s place in the world, which had been very badly battered through the previous administration.”
While it’s true that global opinion of the U.S. soared when Barack Obama was first elected president, during Clinton’s State Department tenure of 2009 to 2013 there was no measurable upswing in foreigners’ views of America, according to the Pew Research Center’s polling on global attitudes. In most major countries, approval of the U.S. actually went down by the time Clinton left office, including by 11 percentage points in each of France, Germany and the U.K.
A poll conducted in 33 countries by the BBC World Service just after Clinton stepped down as secretary found that overall world opinion of the U.S. by 2013 was the lowest since the presidency of George W. Bush. If Clinton wants to run on having polished America’s image abroad, she’ll be hard pressed to come up with data to back it up.
“She engineered the so-called ‘pivot to Asia,’ ” Podesta continued. “Her first trip was to China.”
Clinton did lead parts of what the White House now calls the “rebalance” to Asia, but as Governor Scott Walker, a top Republican contender, pointed out last week, that policy has fallen well short of expectations. With China building fake islands around the South China Sea and threatening to enforce an air-exclusion zone in the area, the pivot policy now looks inadequate.
Along with Treasury Department officials, Clinton initiated a newstrategic dialogue with China, but after several high-level summits, the effort has produced few if any tangible results. The State Department did succeed in creating an opening with Myanmar, an effort led by her top Asia official, Kurt Campbell. Unfortunately, the military junta has not eased up its brutal persecution of Muslim minorities, leading to a vast refugee crisis in Southeast Asia, and political reform has now slowed to a crawl.
“She put some new issues on the table for American diplomacy,” Podesta went on, “including internet freedom, the importance of women’s rights as human rights, of LGBT rights as human rights, as part of our diplomatic package, which I think restored values to the way America projects its power around the world.”
This is hard to square with the fact that, in her first visit to China, Clinton insisted that human rights advocacy “can’t interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis, and the security crisis.” Clinton’s State Department repeatedly waived lawsthat would have cut aid to countries guilty of gross human rights violations, such as Egypt. This record won’t be helped by Clinton’s family foundation having taken millions of dollars from foreign governments that systematically abuse their citizens and deny basic liberties to women.
If Casinos didn’t help Atlantic City what makes you think they can help North Jersey ?
No one should look to the gambling industry to revive cities, “because that’s not what casinos do.”
Baltimore is a troubled city, as you know from The Wire. Like many troubled cities, Baltimore has turned to casino gambling as its solution. On August 26, a new Caesar’s casino will open on the site of an old chemical factory, a little more than 2 miles from the famous Inner Harbor and Camden Yards baseball stadium. Yet there’s already reason to expect the casino to disappoint everyone involved: the city looking for tax revenues, the workers hoping for jobs, the investors expecting hefty returns.
Outside of Las Vegas—now home to only 20 percent of the nation’s casino industry—casino gambling has evolved into a downscale business. Affluent and educated people visit casinos less often than poorer people do for the same reasons that they smoke less and drink less and weigh less.
Unfortunately for the casino industry’s growth hopes, downscale America has less money to spend today than it did before 2007. Nor is downscale America sharing much in the post-2009 recovery. From a news report on the troubles of a recently opened Ohio casino:
Ameet Patel, general manager of the property, says the softness in casino revenue that he and other operators have seen has been driven by a key demographic: women older than 50 who used to bet $50 to $75 per visit. The weak recovery has squeezed their gambling budgets, and their trips to casinos are fewer, he says.
What’s true in Ohio applies nationwide. Casino revenues had still not recovered their 2007 peaks as of the spring of 2014, when again they went into reverse in most jurisdictions. Moody’s now projects that casino revenues will drop through the rest of 2014 and all of 2015, slicing industry earnings by as much as 7.5 percent.
Enters crowded Republican presidential field with the party faithful divided over the GOP’s direction
Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton are the two most “bought and paid for ” political hacks to run for office in the history of the presidency
If the GOP cant win this time around it may be time to close up the party and go home
By BETH REINHARD
Updated June 15, 2015 7:33 p.m. ET
MIAMI— Jeb Bush, heir to one of American’s most successful political dynasties, sought to jump-start his presidential campaign Monday as a scrappy political outsider after failing in recent months to emerge as the undisputed front-runner for the 2016 Republican nomination.
“Not a one of us deserves the job by right of resume, party, seniority, family or family narrative,” said Mr. Bush, kin to two American presidents and a former two-term Florida governor. “It’s nobody’s turn. It’s everybody’s test, and it’s wide open.”
In the six months he has been building his campaign, Mr. Bush has dropped in the national polls and finds himself unable so far to break from a crowded pack of GOP candidates, even though he is expected to raise the most money and has nabbed name-brand political talent.Mr. Bush is reviving the logo he used for three gubernatorial campaigns—Jeb!—to emphasize that he is running not as a political scion but as his own man. Casting himself as a can-do chief executive, Mr. Bush drew his strongest contrasts to date with GOP rivals serving on Capitol Hill, including his former protégé, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
“Executive experience is another term for preparation, and there is no substitute for that,” Mr. Bush, who appeared without jacket or tie, told a cheering crowd his staff estimated at 3,000 people. “We are not going to clean up the mess in Washington by electing the people who either helped create it or have proven incapable of fixing it.”
By Gillian B. White
The Atlantic
June 15, 2015
There have been many labels thrust upon the Millennial generation, especially when it comes to their work ethic. The group has been called lazy, entitled, and spoiled—but at the same time the generation has also been heralded for its collective innovation and desire to work for something other than money.
While America may still not know quite how to pin down the drive and desires of this generation, it does seem that their views on jobs and careers differ from their Boomer parents and the Gen Xers who came just before them. The most recent Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor poll separated respondents into a younger group of those “just starting out” and an older group of participants who were more established in order to determine whether or not these groups saw things differently on a variety of issues. In many instances there are, in fact, generational differences in perspective, but on some questions, Americans aren’t quite as far apart as they might seem.
When asked what their primary concern was during their first job, about 64 percent of older Americans talked about making as much money as possible or learning new skills. When asked the same question, younger Americans were much more likely to say that their top priority was doing something that they found enjoyable or making a difference in society, with 57 percent choosing one of these options.
Compared to their counterparts in recent years, high-school seniors in the mid-1990s appeared to have more faith in social mobility and less confidence in the power of having money.
Eric Thayer / Reuters
JOE PINSKER
JUN 15, 2015
In 1996, when asked a series of questions about the brightness of her future, one high-school senior in an unnamed Midwestern state said, “There’s been extraordinary examples of people that have been poor and stuff that have risen to the top just from their personal hard work … not everybody can do that, I realize, but I think a lot of people could if they just tried.”
In 2011, a survey with identically worded questions was done in the same state, with the same age group. “You can always work hard, but if you aren’t given the opportunity or you don’t have the funds to be able to continue working hard then you never get the chance to get out of where you are,” said one student.
What a difference 15 years makes. In the 1990s, those loosed upon the world after high-school graduation faced a booming economy and relatively sunny job prospects; more recently, high-school and college graduates have faced less hospitable conditions. A study published recently in the Journal of Povertyjuxtaposes adolescents’ perceptions from those two eras, and the results, while qualitative and limited by their small sample size, suggest that young Americans’ outlook on social mobility has gotten bleaker. (The study’s findings align with a more-expansive survey of young people suggesting an erosion of confidence in the American Dream.)
It’s certainly not needed like it once was. Maybe if we keep talking about it we will never need it. Outside of inconveniencing a few restaurant goers on Saturday nights, Ridgewood Sales Days, and Christmas shopping, what the hell is the point in spending $10 million on this thing ?
Dont build for max capacity at peak useage. Bad business reasoning. This is Eco 101
It’s horiffic.. Where are the residents of Ridgewood when the council meets? a huge parking garage will cause huge congestion in that small street as cars line up to park and get out of garage. Will they charge in the garage after 6 p.m.
How much to park in the garage during daytime? It will change character of town. Will look monstrous; but fit in with high buildings of new high density housing.
What a laugh. No one really cares.
