Photo credit: Boyd A. Loving
New career Ridgewood FD firefighters sworn in
May 13,2015
Boyd A. Loving
9:49 PM
Ridgewood NJ , Two (2) new career Ridgewood Fire Department firefighters were sworn in atWednesday evening’s public meeting of the Ridgewood Village Council.
The first was Anthony Dinice, son of Ridgewood PD Patrol Officer Paul Dinice and grandson of the late Anthony Dinice, who served as a Ridgewood PD Patrol Officer from 1956 until his retirement in 1981.
The second was Henry Van Wageningen III
, who served as a Ridgewood FD volunteer firefighter from 2010 until his appointment to the full-time career department. Henry’s father in law, James Bombace, was Chief of the Ridgewood Fire Department when he retired in 2010.
Before the dead were counted and the facts known, the craven, partisan ghouls in our mainstream media were already using a terrible domestic tragedy to call for more government spending.
The media’s politically-loaded word of the day is “infrastructure.” This comes as absolutely no surprise when you understand that the foundation of all media bias is to increase the size and power of our centralized government. And what better way to do that than to feast off the fresh corpses of those killed on a passenger train run by our bloated, incompetent federal government.
And what better way to distract from the fact that 6 innocent people died on a passenger train run by our bloated, incompetent federal government than to blame-shift to the selfish taxpayers and the evil Republican Party.
You see, Amtrak is like Baltimore: although government has had its fingers in everything for decades, the only solution is more government.
Heads up! This is the media’s game-plan for the rest of the week: At least through the Sunday shows, the media will exploit the Amtrak tragedy to call for more government spending and blame Republicans.
That makes this a perfect time to arm yourselves with the facts:
The Federal Government Owns and Operates Amtrak
Amtrak Loses Hundreds of Millions of Dollars a Year
American Taxpayers Subsidize a Service They Don’t Use
Very Small Percentage of the Population Use a Government Service We All Pay For
Amtrak Has Already Been Subsidized to the Tune of a Whopping $45 billion
Amtrak Is Set to Receive Another $7 Billion Over the Next 5 years
Amtrak Is Not Under-Funded, It Is Criminally Mismanaged
American People Subsidize $60 of Every Amtrak Ticket Sold
Taxpayers Subsidize Passengers Who Can Afford to Make Amtrak Profitable
There Is No Good Reason for The Government To Own Amtrak
The Amtrak Derailment Might Be Yet Another Failure of the Federal Government
Transportation funding could hit a dead-end at the end of the month. On May 31, the Highway Trust Fund’s authorization to pay for the nation’s highway and mass transit projects will expire.
Even worse, the fund is running a $13 billion cash flow deficit this year and is expected to exhaust all its money sometime in July unless lawmakers take action.
Here’s a snapshot from Heritage’s latest Backgrounder on what you need to know about the Highway Trust Fund:
What is the Highway Trust Fund?
The Highway Trust Fund was established in 1956 to pay for the construction of the Interstate Highway System. Although it was intended to be temporary, it is now the primary federal mechanism to finance transportation projects across the country.
The fund is financed mostly by the gas tax—an 18.3 cent tax on gasoline and a 24.3 cent tax on diesel fuels. It spends over $50 billion every year on roads and mass transit, which includes rail, buses, streetcars and other forms of public transportation.
What’s the problem?
Like most federal programs, the Highway Trust Fund consistently spends more than it receives in revenues. Congress has constantly had to bailout the fund with money from the Treasury in order to keep its balance in the black, and has spent $62 billion covering the fund’s shortfalls since 2008.
This year, the Congressional Budget Office projected the Highway Trust Fund’s spending will top its revenues by $13 billion.
Why is the fund in such bad shape?
Unable to relinquish the taxing and spending authority that should have expired when the Interstate Highway System was completed in the 1980s, Congress has expanded the Highway Trust Fund far beyond its intended scope.
The fund now spends more than ever and diverts billions from roadways to projects that should be left to states and localities. These boondoggles not only include unnecessary mass transit projects, but things like sidewalks, roadside landscaping and bike paths.
And spending increases have vastly outpaced fuel tax revenues, which have flattened as cars have become more fuel efficient. The result is a meandering, unsustainable fund that is plagued by special interests and unreliable for state transportation planning.
What should Congress do about it?
Some members of Congress are saying that they should just provide more money to the trust fund, either through a bailout or a gas tax hike, so that it can continue its profligate spending.
This is the wrong approach.
Congress needs to examine the inherent flaws in the way the nation invests in transportation infrastructure. The current system of taxing drivers and then redistributing their money through the federal government to projects unrelated to highways no longer makes sense.
Instead, Congress should end the top-down approach that breeds inefficiency and special interest handouts at the expense of prudent infrastructure investment.
The right approach would be to let states and localities—which are more in touch with the needs of their citizens—make their own decisions on transportation. Allowing them to tax and spend on infrastructure as they see fit without the interference of Washington would inject a much-needed degree of accountability and reliability into transportation investment.
For more information on the Highway Trust Fund and the upcoming deadline, see Highway Trust Fund Basics: A Primer on Federal Surface Transportation Spending.
Accusations of hate speech are so mainstream, they scare or force opponents into silence
Christina Hoff Sommers has been speaking on college campuses for two decades challenging students to embrace what she calls “equity feminism” over “gender feminism.” In her view, the former is focused on legal equality between men and women, the latter on disempowering women by portraying them as perpetual victims of the patriarchy.
This heretical view now requires campus security.
Prior to a mid-April lecture at Georgetown University, the American Enterprise Institutescholar was deemed a “rape apologist” by campus feminists for challenging statistics that she says overstate the rate of rape on campus. “The postings were so frantic that Georgetown sent undercover security into the audience,” Sommers told me.
An Oberlin College lecture a few days later met the same fate. The Oberlin Reviewpublished an open letter, “In Response to Christina Sommers’ Talk: A Love Letter to Ourselves” two days before Sommers’ visit. Usually people wait to offer a “response” until after an event has occurred, but not so in our Brave New World. The students wrote that Sommers’ presence on campus was “harmful,” and lamented that “her talk is happening, so let’s pull together in the face of this violence.”
In case you missed that: A differing viewpoint is an act of violence.
A sign outside the lecture read “Rape Culture Hall of Fame” with the names of past and present members of the libertarian and Republican student group that invited Sommers. The Oberlin Review reported that “activists organized a safe space … (that) was attended by approximately 35 students and one dog” as Sommers spoke.”The irony is (the complaining students) postings were so extreme that the administration provided me with security,” Sommers said.
Moynihan was an interesting character. He grew up in East Harlem and Hell’s Kitchen and worked as a longshoreman before becoming a Harvard intellectual and liberal icon. The Moynihan Report made him a pariah to the liberal Democrats and should have ended his career, The report was too honest and undermined the liberal agenda of the day. He found an odd bedfellow in Richard Nixon who recruited him to his White House staff in 1968. Another Republican, Gerry Ford, made him Ambassador to the UN. After restoring credibility on the international stage, the Democrats accepted him back and he had a successful run as a Senator from NY–still a liberal but also still an independent thinker. He often took stances at odds with the liberal agenda, such as his opposition to Hillary’s original health care scheme.
Moynihan was one of the last of a dying breed…a real New York character… he ascended from a tough start in life and became an icon as well as a forward thinker…and he loved his little drink now and then… I would see him hoist a few at Langans on occasion and he was funny as hell… my 3 favorite quotes from him were 1) when a reporter asked him if he had a drinking problem, he responded “Madame, I do not have a problem drinking” , 2) as UN ambassador, when the UN passed a resolution equating Zionism with racism, in front of the whole assembly, put his arm around the Israeli ambassador and loudly said to him “F_ck them!”… and 3) when he referred to hillarycare as “boob bait for bubbas”…
Andy Kapyrin, the director of research, a partner and a chartered financial analyst with RegentAtlantic in Morristown says home prices are increasing, stock returns on Jersey companies are rising, as well as employment and income levels.
“What we are seeing is a broadening is what’s improving the wealth,” Kapyrin said. “The single biggest piece of good news is actually the level of the index.” (Cutter/NJ101.5)
MAY 12, 2015, 5:42 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, MAY 12, 2015, 10:11 PM
BY MARINA VILLENEUVE
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
David Kushner has resigned as president of the Alpine Country Club, officials of the club in Demarest said Tuesday, days after Kushner and his wife, Nanci, pleaded not guilty to charges that they stalked and harassed the Cresskill High School basketball coach.
Investigators tied the Kushners, both 49, to anonymous emails sent to the coach by tracing the IP addresses of the emails, according to records obtained on Tuesday. The emails had come from the Kushners’ home in Cresskill and from the Manhattan offices of David Kushner’s company, Paradigm Capital Funding Group, the records said.
The Kushners also were charged with harassment last week in Tenafly, where police say they sent anonymous emails to a former friend.
Police are also investigating a house party Friday night at the Kushners’ home. A juvenile boy was taken to the hospital for evaluation after suspected alcohol consumption, and authorities seized alcohol, suspected marijuana and drug paraphernalia, officials said. David Kushner told police he was out of state at the time, records show.
The quick succession of events brought an abrupt shift for a family well-known over the years in Bergen County society and at high profile charity functions.
MAY 13, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 2015, 1:21 AM
THE RECORD
Elie Kahlon
Novo, Ridgewood
Novo, a refined modern Mediterranean restaurant, may be the first restaurant that 28-year-old Elie Kahlon has ever been in charge of, but the Israeli native clearly knows what he’s doing. In January, The Record gave the elegantly subdued Ridgewood spot a 3 1/2 out of 4 star review. Novo has also won OpenTable Diners’ Choice award in 2014 and 2015.
Before becoming the opening executive chef of 8-month-old Novo, Kahlon worked at some of the most prominent restaurants in Tel Aviv and New York City, including one-Michelin-star Oceana and the now-closed two-Michelin-star Gordon Ramsay at The London.
Here, he discusses his favorite local restaurant, his favorite kitchen tool and what most annoys him about diners.
Dish I’m most proud of: There are two, actually. One is the appetizer called taboon cauliflower. Everyone talks about it. Everyone wants to know how I make it. Even people who don’t like cauliflower like this cauliflower dish. I bake a cauliflower dressed in a green tahini sauce in a taboon, a brick oven, making the cauliflower taste buttery, and then sprinkle black currants, pine nuts and fresh herbs over it to give it a sweet, crunchy, nutty flavor. And the most popular main course is our seafood couscous. The couscous is homemade; so is the seafood stock. It is a nice composed dish that is completed with chickpeas and homemade pickled kohlrabi, to give it crunch.
What annoys me most about diners: Last week, one diner asked that we cook grouper medium-rare. I said no. I know how to cook each and every fish, and I didn’t want the customer not to have an enjoyable experience. It wasn’t going to taste good. The manager had to talk to him, and he agreed to have me cook it exactly as it should be cooked. He enjoyed the grouper. He cleaned his plate.
Expect bike racks across the country to be busy during National Bike to Work Week (May 11-15) — not that they aren’t the rest of the year.
Biking to work has jumped more than 60 percent over the past decade, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and with more than half of the U.S. population living within five miles of their workplace, bicycling is a feasible and eco-friendly way to get to work.
But the streets aren’t the only place you’re seeing more bikes. It’s gaining new popularity in a different space: online.
A growing community of ‘dot-bike’ (.bike) websites have emerged since the domain option was released in January of 2014. More than 12,000 domains have since been registered. Owners range from bike shops to bike clubs to bike enthusiasts.
Empty nesters have been selling their houses to families with young children for generations in Ridgewood and we’ve done just fine. Now the developers and their friends on our Council want to build hundreds of apartments in town for empty nesters. This is a pipe dream – we all know that these apartments will attract families with school children from nearby cities with school systems that lag behind Ridgewood’s.
A couple things are going to happen that nobody wants to talk about. 1. Kids who live in the apartments will go to Ridge, Willard and GW where class sizes are already beginning to tick up. 2. If empty nesters trying to sell their houses are competing with developers renting apartments to families with kids, the value of your house will go down.
We are being sold a bill of goods by special interest groups, specifically developers and labor unions, that are supported by 3 members of our Council. Their “studies” have produced laughable results – traffic will decrease and school population will stay flat. False and false.
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood High School is ranked 15th within New Jersey. Students have the opportunity to take Advanced Placement® course work and exams. The AP® participation rate at Ridgewood High School is 68 percent. The student body makeup is 51 percent male and 49 percent female, and the total minority enrollment is 30 percent. Ridgewood High School is the only high school in the Ridgewood Public Schools.
Rankings / Awards
This details how this school compares with others based on U.S. News ranking criteria.
Medal Awarded Gold
National Rank
#307
State Rank
#15
STEM Rank
#222
Students / Teachers
These counts and percentages of students and teachers are from data reported by schools to the government.
Total Enrollment 1,694
Total Minority Enrollment (% of total) 30%
Total Economically Disadvantaged (% of total) 1%
Full-Time Teachers 132
More About Student Body
Test Scores
U.S. News calculates these values based on student performance on state exit exams and internationally available exams on college-level course work (AP®/IB exams).
Proficient in Language 98%
Proficient in Mathematics 96%
College Readiness Index 60.4
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Daylight on Wednesday revealed the destruction and devastation caused by an Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia that left at least six people dead and injured dozens more, several critically.
Some survivors had to scramble through the windows of toppled cars to escape. One of the seven cars was completely mangled.
The accident has closed the nation’s busiest rail corridor between New York and Washington as federal investigators begin sifting through the twisted remains to determine what went wrong.
Train 188, a Northeast Regional, left Washington, D.C. and was headed to New York when it derailed shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday. Amtrak said the train was carrying 238 passengers and five crew members.
Mayor Michael Nutter, who confirmed five deaths, said the scene was horrific and not all the people on the train had been accounted for.
Temple University Hospital’s Dr. Herbert Cushing said Wednesday a person died there overnight from a chest injury
“It is an absolute disastrous mess,” Nutter said. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”
He said all seven train cars, including the engine, were in “various stages of disarray.” He said there were cars that were “completely overturned, on their side, ripped apart.”
More than 140 people went to hospitals to be evaluated or treated.
MAY 12, 2015 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, MAY 12, 2015, 10:13 AM
BY MARK KRULISH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Building Safety Month is happening all across the United States and the public safety awareness campaign has come to Ridgewood with initiatives to help individuals, families and businesses understand what it takes to create safe homes and buildings.
The Ridgewood Building Department is planning a public forum that will include presentations on constructing environmentally conscious structures, energy savings and disaster mitigation.
May has been designated National Building Safety Month by the International Code Council and each year there is a different theme. Building departments are encouraged to promote that particular theme, said Ridgewood’s Building Department Director Thomas Yotka.
This year’s theme is “Resilient Communities Start with Building Codes,” which aims to spotlight various areas of building safety and offer tips on how to prepare for disaster and prevent fires and other household accidents.
To give the exercise more local meaning, a public forum will be held on May 20 to not just expand upon the national theme, but apply it to how residents in the village can be affected.
The forum will include presentations on building environmentally conscious structures, energy savings and disaster mitigation. There will also be a presentation focusing on what the local Building Department does and what residents can expect when going through the permit application process.
Telecom giant Verizon announced Tuesday it will be buying AOL for $50 per share, or about $4.4 billion. (Tweet This)
AOL’s stock was up more than 17 percent after the announcement. Verizon’s stock was down slightly.
AOL co-founder Steve Case tweeted his approval.
The transaction will be completed this summer and will take the form of a tender offer followed by a merger, after which AOL will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Verizon, the announcement said.
“Verizon’s vision is to provide customers with a premium digital experience based on a global multiscreen network platform. This acquisition supports our strategy to provide a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertisers to deliver that premium customer experience,” said Lowell McAdam, Verizon’s chief executive.
Tim Armstrong, AOL’s chairman and CEO, will remain at his position once the deal is finalized.
“Verizon is a leader in mobile and OTT (over-the-top video) connected platforms, and the combination of Verizon and AOL creates a unique and scaled mobile and OTT media platform for creators, consumers and advertisers,” Armstrong said in the announcement.
