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Reps. Garrett, Maloney Introduce the Restoring Main Street Investor Protection and Confidence Act of 2015

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Congratulations to Nicole Eskow, a student at Bergen County Academies, on being named an Intel Science Talent Search finalist. During a recent visit to my office, Nicole explained her cancer research that earned her this prestigious recognition. Keep up the great work!
May 4, 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representatives Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), Chairman of the House Financial Services Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee, and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises, today introduced H.R. 1982, the Restoring Main Street Investor Protection and Confidence Act of 2015.

H.R. 1982 would reaffirm and clarify key protections for ordinary investors that were put in place when Congress passed and amended the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA).  In particular, the bill aims to properly shield innocent individual investors who have already been defrauded and financially devastated by Ponzi schemes perpetrated by Bernie Madoff,  Allen Stanford, and others from further “clawbacks” by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) Trustee.

“This bill is about creating confidence in our markets and protecting innocent investors—investors with their life savings on the line—from abuse, and malfeasance,” said Garrett.  “If Americans lose faith in our securities markets, and the government agencies that give them their seal of approval, it could have a devastating impact on our capital markets and our economy.  If enacted, this legislation will bring confidence back to Main Street investors by ensuring fairness for victims, enhancing efficient functioning of U.S. securities markets, and strengthening the oversight and accountability of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC).”

“The last thing a defrauded investor needs is an additional shakedown from the Securities Investor Protection Corporation,” said Maloney. “This important legislation would shield mom and pop investors from these so-called clawbacks, and ensure we go after the criminals, not the victims. It’s a pleasure to work with Representative Garrett on this important legislation.”

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Freeholders hold off on Bergen Community College project financing until miscommunication cleared up

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MAY 4, 2015, 7:07 PM    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, MAY 4, 2015, 7:07 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

A communications mix-up Monday led the Bergen County Freeholders to postpone action on a proposed $3-million bond issue to renovate a building at Bergen Community College.

Three freeholders who serve on the Board of School Estimate were about to discuss the measure when County Administrator Dominic Novelli said he had not seen the proposal.

There was also concern over whether adequate notice was given for the vote, which several freeholders said took them by surprise as well.

“The conclusion that we came to is that the meeting was not properly noticed,” Freeholder David Ganz said after the Board of School Estimate voted to adjourn until an unspecified date.

“You don’t want — with the dollars amounts what they are — to make a mistake,” he added.

College officials had sought approval for $3 million for renovating Ender Hall on the Paramus campus.

They also sought $1.5 million toward upgrade of information technology equipment.

College President B. Kaye Walter explained that Ender Hall started out as a temporary building many years ago.

She said there are plans to use the building for a number of new initiatives, including a pre-college program for high school students studying engineering.

At first, freeholders sought to accommodate the request, which came during a budget hearing for the college.

Ganz and Freeholder Joan Voss convened a meeting of the board of estimate, which normally includes three freeholders and two college trustees.

They even temporarily swore in Freeholder Tracy Zur to fill in for Freeholder Steve Tanelli, who was not present.

But they quickly recessed the meeting after Novelli pointed out that the administration had not approved the spending.

“Quite frankly, I’m not familiar with this request for additional funding,” he said.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/donors-start-backing-wyckoff-man-as-potential-garrett-challenger-for-congress-1.1325275

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Tenafly residents detained in North Korea says he crossed into country on purpose

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Won Moon Joo in a photo from his 2012 Tenafly High School yearbook.

MAY 4, 2015, 9:02 AM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, MAY 5, 2015, 10:06 AM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

TENAFLY — An interview that CNN aired Tuesday morning with a Tenafly college student detained in North Korea shed little light on why he entered the country or what will happen to him.

Won Moon Joo, 21, told CNN that he purposely crossed into North Korea from China, passing two barbed wire fences and a river before he was stopped by soldiers. Asked why: “I thought by my entrance — illegally I acknowledge — I thought some great event could happen and hopefully that event could have a good effect in the relations between the north and south,” he said, appearing relaxed and even smiling during the interview.

The interview did little to answer the questions that have swirled in North Jersey’s Korean neighborhoods since North Korea announced Joo’s arrest on Saturday for having illegally entered the country. In community centers, groceries and media offices, people have been asking how he ended up in such a terrible situation and worrying for his family.

It’s a nightmare for any family — hearing that a son with so much promise travels abroad and takes a risky action that ends with him in prison. North Korea’s government detained Joo on April 22, and while South Korea is fighting on his behalf, his fate remains unclear.

“I hope I will be able to tell the world how an ordinary college student entered the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) illegally, however with the generous treatment of the DPRK that I will able to return home safely,” he said in the interview.

Joo also told CNN he has had no access to phone or Internet and has not been able to talk to anyone from the U.S. or South Korean governments yet, but has been treated well.

“I’ve been fed well. I have slept well and I have been very healthy. I would just like to apologize for creating a lot of worry among my loved ones,” he said in the interview.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/tenafly-residents-detained-in-north-korea-says-he-crossed-into-country-on-purpose-1.1324910

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Donors start backing Josh Gottheimer of Wyckoff as potential Garrett challenger for Congress

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ABC News Photo

MAY 4, 2015, 5:37 PM    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, MAY 4, 2015, 5:39 PM
BY HERB JACKSON
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT |
THE RECORD

Top veterans of the Clinton and Obama administrations are lining up to help raise money for Josh Gottheimer of Wyckoff, a former speech writer for President Clinton who is preparing to run for Congress next year against Rep. Scott Garrett.

Gottheimer, 40, raised more than $219,000 in March and was set to add to that on Monday night at a fund-raiser at the Washington, D.C., home in of Patti Solis Doyle, a former adviser to then-first lady Hillary Clinton and to President Obama’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012.

Other names among the 28 hosts for the fund-raiser include Mack McLarty, who was President Clinton’s chief of staff; Julius Genachowski, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission; Sandy Berger, former national security adviser to Clinton; Paul Begala, Clinton political strategist and media commentator; and Jennifer Palmieri, communications director of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

The outpouring of support for a challenger is unprecedented this early in the campaign cycle in the Republican-leaning 5th District, a place Democrats in North Jersey have repeatedly said they could win if a candidate could raise enough money to define Garrett on New York television.

Gottheimer is a North Caldwell native who moved back to North Jersey with his family three years ago. A corporate strategist for Microsoft, he previously worked for the FCC and on the presidential campaigns of John Kerry in 2004 and Hillary Clinton in 2008.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/donors-start-backing-wyckoff-man-as-potential-garrett-challenger-for-congress-1.1325275

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Emergency Room Visits Continue to Rise Under Obamacare

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The health law was supposed to reduce pressure on emergency care facilities. It hasn’t.

Peter Suderman|May. 4, 2015 2:40 pm

In September, 2009, President Obama gave a prime time speech to the joint Congress making the case for the health care law that would come to be known as Obamacare. Much of the speech was devoted to explaining and justifying the law’s major components. Subsidies, he argued, were necessary to ensure that health coverage would be affordable enough that people would actually buy it. The individual mandate requiring most people to maintain coverage was necessary to ensure that free-riders didn’t take advantage of the law’s regulations and subsidies to wait until sick before purchasing coverage.

“Such irresponsible behavior costs all the rest of us money,” Obama said. “If there are affordable options and people still don’t sign up for health insurance, it means we pay for these people’s expensive emergency room visits.”

Nearly six years later, the mandate is in force, and the subsidies are offsetting a hefty chunk of the premiums for most of the people who’ve gained private coverage through the law’s exchanges. Millions of people have been covered by the law; last month, Gallup reported that the national uninsurance rate had dipped to its lowest point since 2008.

And yet in the time since Obamacare’s major coverage expansion has kicked in, the number of emergency room visits has not gone down. Nor has it held flat. Instead, it appears to be growing, perhaps quite a bit, according to a survey of nearly 3,000 ER doctors notedin The Wall Street Journal.

https://reason.com/blog/2015/05/04/emergency-room-visits-continue-to-rise-u

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Dog Days for Ridgewood

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Owning a dog is slightly less expensive than being addicted to crack.

May 4 , 2015
Boyd A. Loving

A chocolate brown Cocker Spaniel residing on South Irving Street received the Village’s first 2015 dog license, which was issued by a Village of Ridgewood Health Department employee shortly after 8:30 AM on Monday, May 5th.

Remember:  A Late Fee of $20.00 per dog will be assessed for applications received after June 30th.

It is the dog owner’s responsibility to renew the dog license when it expires. It is also the dog owner’s responsibility to maintain their pet with a valid rabies vaccination. The health department sends out reminders as a courtesy and to inform residents of the free rabies clinic.

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Residents concerned over rising Ridgewood class sizes

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MAY 4, 2015    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, MAY 4, 2015, 9:59 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

Ridgewood school board trustees approved the 2015-16 budget without objection, but their vote last Monday night didn’t go unnoticed.

Nearly 80 parents and teachers crammed inside the Education Center, where two dozen of the attendees appealed to the board for reconsideration of several staffing decisions proposed for the upcoming academic year. Each of them claimed that rising student enrollment numbers without an accompanying increase in class sections would hinder the educational experience for their students.

In a brief budget presentation to the board and public, Alfredo Aguilar, the schools’ business administrator, pointed to various budget highlights, including $1.5 million in technology upgrades and a new generator for the Education Center. He also noted the budget was adjusted for “enrollment shifts between grade levels.”

One of those adjustments was the recent addition of kindergarten sections at two schools.

“There have been some concerns voiced in some of our sections in the elementary schools,” said BOE President Sheila Brogan. “Willard kindergarten [enrollment] is creeping up. That is an area of concern.”

 

https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/rising-class-sizes-cause-concern-1.1324921

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Unusual calendar causes quirk to schedule at Ridgewood’s Graydon Pool

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MAY 4, 2015    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, MAY 4, 2015, 10:57 AM
BY MARK KRULISH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

An early start to the school calendar, a late Sept. 7 date for Labor Day and the return of many teachers on the last day of August has caused a quirk in the schedule for Graydon Pool this year.

The pool is currently scheduled to cease weekday operations on Aug. 31.

During a work session last Wednesday, the Village Council discussed potential ways to make up for the lost days of available swimming, including the possibility of opening earlier during the pre-season.

This fall, students will return to school on Sept. 2 with teachers arriving on Aug. 31, which impacts the village’s ability to properly staff Graydon Pool during that final week before Labor Day.

Councilman Michael Sedon floated the idea of opening the pool to residents during the morning in June. Beginning on June 6, Graydon is scheduled to open at noon and close at 7:30 p.m. on weekdays while opening at 10 a.m. on weekends. Sedon proposed to have Graydon open at 10 a.m. on all days until regular season hours commence on June 19.

“I thought maybe a compromise might be opening it up in the pre-season earlier for an additional two hours,” Sedon said. “You would already have staff there, you would already have everybody doing what they would do at the pool, you would just have to do it two hours earlier for, I believe, nine days in the pre-season and there is a cost associated with that.”

 

https://www.northjersey.com/news/unusual-calendar-cuts-days-at-pool-1.1324950

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FEC chief: We can’t stop election abuse

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“People think the FEC is dysfunctional,” she added. “It’s worse than dysfunctional.”

By Mark Hensch

The head of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) said in an article published Sunday that her organization is powerless to safeguard against misconduct in 2016 presidential campaign fundraising and spending.

“The likelihood of the law being enforced is slim,” FEC Chairwoman Ann M. Ravel told The New York Times.

“I never want to give up, but I’m not under any illusions,” Ravel said.

“People think the FEC is dysfunctional,” she added. “It’s worse than dysfunctional.”

Ravel told the newspaper that the commission’s partisan gridlock is its fatal flaw. The agency’s six commissioners often find themselves locked in unbreakable ties along ideological lines, she added.

Ravel, a Democrat, vowed she would “bridge the partisan gap” upon becoming the agency’s leader last December. Five months later, she finds herself embroiled in the exact conflict she hoped to avoid.

“What’s really going on is that the Republican commissioners don’t want to enforce the law, except in the most obvious cases,” she told the Times.

https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/fundraising/240896-fec-chief-we-cant-stop-2016-election-abuse

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Reform still an issue at troubled Port Authority

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Posted: May 03, 2015 11:37 AM EDTUpdated: May 03, 2015 11:38 AM EDT
By DAVID PORTER and MEGHAN BARR

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – The indictments against two former allies of Gov. Chris Christie and the guilty plea of a third, all stemming from the George Washington Bridge lane closing scandal, and the still-looming investigation involving the former chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have underlined the need for reform at the agency.

David Samson wasn’t mentioned in the indictment that charged a former Port Authority official and a former Christie aide with several wire fraud and conspiracy counts on Friday, meaning the separate investigation stemming from his time as chairman could yield further embarrassment for the bistate authority.

But despite the scandals, its leadership is optimistic about the future.

Port Authority Chairman John Degnan, who is leading the agency through the turmoil, said there’s an opportunity to learn from the indictments, “if there’s anything we missed that we should do.”

“In the seeds of disaster were the potential for reform. I view the indictments as another step in the healing process, reformation process,” Degnan, who was appointed by Christie last year after Samson resigned, told The Associated Press last week.

After the release of the indictments Friday and the guilty plea of David Wildstein, a former Port Authority official and Christie ally who said he orchestrated the lane closings with the help of former Port Authority official Bill Baroni and former Christie deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly, Degnan stressed that the agency’s new whistleblower policy is “one of the most aggressive in the country.”

Degnan said it supports employees who come forward if they see any potential violations, a policy he said could have avoided the lane-closing scandal since some employees likely were afraid to report the actions of superiors.

Degnan also said he understands the public’s frustration with the fact that both governors vetoed reform bills in their respective states in late December in favor of adopting a lengthy internal reform proposal. But he questioned the necessity of the reform legislation.

https://www.njherald.com/story/28963871/reform-still-an-issue-at-troubled-port-authority

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Ridgewood AIDS Walk raises funds to provide services

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MAY 3, 2015, 4:17 PM    LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, MAY 3, 2015, 10:22 PM
BY MINJAE PARK
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

RIDGEWOOD — Having lost an uncle to AIDS two decades ago, when HIV — the virus that causes the condition — was a protracted death sentence, Johnisha Gooch feared the worst when she tested positive on Sept. 21, 2012, a date she remembers like her birthday.

“I honestly thought my life was over,” said Gooch, a Hackensack native.

But strolling a scenic, sunny path along Saddle River at the Saddle River County Park for the annual New Jersey AIDS Walk on Sunday, Gooch showed that the daily pleasures of life can continue as before. She enjoys walking — “This is perfect,” she said — and she also relishes spending time with her brother, sister and mother, cooking soul food, shopping and reading urban fiction. She takes an antiretroviral drug once a day.

“I move ahead of HIV,” she said. “I do what I have to do every day.”

The walk was hosted by the Buddies of New Jersey, a non-profit that offers services for those with HIV/AIDS in Bergen and Passaic counties. The goal was to raise $58,000.

Other AIDS walks were also taking place Sunday in Morristown, Newark, Asbury Park and Atlantic City.

Gooch lives in the Robert A. Harrison House, an assisted-living facility in Paramus for people who are HIV-positive. It is on the grounds of the Bergen Regional Medical Center and is run by Buddies of New Jersey.

“The main thing is trying to prevent new infections,” said Mark Anderson, the executive director of Buddies of New Jersey.

With 4,659 AIDS cases and 1,608 HIV cases reported by the end of last year, Passaic County ranks third among New Jersey counties in disease prevalence, behind Hudson and Essex counties, according to a state Department of Health website. Bergen County has 2,550 AIDS cases and 967 HIV cases reported.

The population with HIV/AIDS is aging in New Jersey, with numbers growing for those aged 45 to 64, and 65 and older, according to a state report from December 2014.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/ridgewood-aids-walk-raises-funds-to-provide-services-1.1324678

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Brad Garrett comes to Bookends in Ridgewood

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MAY 4, 2015    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, MAY 4, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY VIRGINIA ROHAN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

BOOKS

WHO: Brad Garrett.

WHAT: Signing “When the Balls Drop: How I Learned to Get Real and Embrace Life’s Second Half.”

WHEN: 7 tonight.

WHERE: Bookends, 211 E. Ridgewood Ave., Ridgewood. 201-445-0726 or book-ends.com.

HOW MUCH: Free with purchase of book ($25).

Brad Garrett once called John Gotti “Mr. Peanut” to his face and lived to tell the tale. He also survived doing a killer impression of Bill Cosby on “Tonight” when Cosby was guest-hosting that show and had specifically told Garrett to avoid that mimicry. And during his years on “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Garrett endured frequent emissions of silent-but-deadly flatulence from a certain co-star — whose identity he now has no problem revealing.

Details about these incidents and many more can be found in Garrett’s new book, “When the Balls Drop: How I Learned to Get Real and Embrace Life’s Second Half,” which he’ll be signing tonight at Bookends in Ridgewood. But the 276-page book is less showbiz tell-all than memoir about what the 6-foot-8 actor and comic has learned along the way to middle age, including how he deals with the indignities of midlife anatomical changes (hence, the book’s title).

“It’s midlife and reflecting back on everything and reflecting forward,” Garrett, on the phone last week, said in that distinctive gravelly, deep-as-it-gets voice. “It’s like a coming-of-age book for the 50s.”

https://www.northjersey.com/arts-and-entertainment/comedy/actor-comedian-muses-on-midlife-1.1324871

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8th-Graders Stumped by U.S. History and Geography Tests, Study Finds

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Jack Linshi @jacklinshi
April 29, 2015

A study shows only about a quarter of eighth-graders are proficient in U.S. history, geography and civics

America’s eighth-graders are failing tests in U.S. history, a national study says.

Only 18% of eighth-graders rated proficient or above in U.S. history, just 27% rated proficient or above in geography and 23% in civics, according to the Nation’s Report Card 2014, a federal survey of more than 29,000 eighth-graders published Wednesday.

“The lack of knowledge on the part of America’s students is unacceptable, and the lack of growth must be addressed. As a country, we must do better,” said Terry Mazany, chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the survey.

Here’s a breakdown of how eighth-graders performed across the three subjects:

https://time.com/3839840/8th-graders-history-geography-civics-tests/

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Isis on the run? The US portrayal is very far from the truth

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Sunday 3 May 2015
PATRICK COCKBURN

The map issued by the Pentagon to prove that Isis had lost territory shows how false optimism dominates the actions of the outside powers towards the Middle East.

A graphic illustration of Western wishful thinking about the decline of Islamic State (IS) is a well-publicised map issued by the Pentagon to prove that the self-declared caliphate has lost 25 per cent of its territory since its big advances last year.

Unfortunately for the Pentagon, sharp-eyed American journalists soon noticed something strange about its map identifying areas of IS strength. While it shows towns and villages where IS fighters have lost control around Baghdad, it simply omits western Syria where they have been advancing in and around Damascus.

The Pentagon displayed some embarrassment about its dodgy map, but it largely succeeded in its purpose of convincing people that IS is in retreat. Many news outlets across the world republished the map as evidence of the success of air strikes by the United States and its allies in support of the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria. The capture of Tikrit after a month-long siege is cited as a further sign that a re-energised Iraqi state is winning and one day in the not too distant future will be able to recapture Mosul in the north and Anbar province in the west.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/isis-on-the-run-the-us-portrayal-is-very-far-from-the-truth-10221225.html

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Neil deGrasse Tyson Says Space Ventures Will Spawn First Trillionaire

The Robot from Lost In Space

MAY 3 2015, 10:32 AM ET
by KATIE KRAMER and NBC NEWS

A passion for exploration is the fuel to an innovative economy, says astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

In an interview with CNBC’s On the Money, the host of the new National Geographic Channel show StarTalk — based on Tyson’s podcast and Sirius XM radio show of the same name — described the dynamic implications of scientific discovery.

“You have to innovate,” said Tyson, arguably the most famous astrophysicist in America. When “an engineer comes out with a new patent to take you to a place — intellectually, physically … that has never been reached before, those become the engines of tomorrow’s economy.”

When it comes to space innovation, many of the headlines about exploration beyond Earth have been generated by private enterprises like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, tech giant Google and even Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Separately, Sir Richard Branson founded Virgin Galactic and Space Adventures, companies that offer tourism opportunities for non-scientists.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/cosmic-log/neil-degrasse-tyson-says-space-ventures-will-spawn-first-trillionaire-n352271