New Jersey is one of five of the states where government union membership rates exceed 50 percent.
How powerful are public employee unions in your state?
By Jason Hart / February 26, 2015 | Watchdog.org
More than half of the public employees in 13 states are union members, and government union membership rates exceed 25 percent in 27 states.
Labor unions work against employers — local, state and federal taxpayers, in the case of public employees. While slamming labor reforms as “anti-worker,” America’s four largest unions enrich themselves and their members at taxpayer expense.
The National Education Association, Service Employees International Union, American Federation of Teachers and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees have a combined total of more than 7.5 million members.
Over 3.3 million unionized public employees work in California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, five of the states where government union membership rates exceed 50 percent.
West Side Presbyterian Church ,Ridgewood, New Jersey
Special Guest
Ramapo College Chorale – Dr. Lisa Lutter, Director
Soloist
Diana Powers Rettie – Flute
Buy Tickets Now https://ridgewoodband.org/purchase/singleticket.aspx
Program Highlights
American Hymnsong Suite – Dwayne Milburn
Major Dwayne S. Milburn is a native of Baltimore, Maryland. In 1986 he graduated from UCLA with a BFA in Music and received a Masters of Music in Orchestral Conducting from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1992. In 1993 he became the Director of Cadet Music for the Unites States Army Military Academy at West Point. He received his Ph.D. in Music from UCLA in 2009 and is in great demand as a conductor, composer, arranger and clinician. Milburn notes that “American Hymnsong Suite is firmly rooted in [his] family history as church musicians.” He grew up singing and playing many different hymns, including the four hymns featured in this work: Prelude on “Wondrous Love” (“What Wondrous Love Is This”), Ballad on “Balm in Gilead,” Scherzo on “Nettleton,” and March on “Wilson.” Milburn says that “whilst many audience members will certainly make various religious connections to the piece, the ongoing goal is to introduce all listeners to the richness of our American musical heritage.”
Program notes compiled by Marcie Phelan.
Lincoln Portrait – Aaron Copland
Lincoln Portrait was commissioned by Andre Kostelanetz for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in early 1942. Copland initially chose Walt Whitman as his subject, but immediately picked Lincoln instead when Kostelanetz suggested a historical government figure. For the narration, which occurs only in the Portrait’s third and final section, Copland used Lincoln’s words, adding his own brief descriptions of the former president. Characteristic of Copland’s populist and patriotic music, Lincoln Portrait quotes traditional popular tunes: “Springfield Mountain” and Stephen Foster’s “Camptown Races,” while the largest portion of the musical work is Copland’s own genius.
Program notes compiled by Marcie Phelan.
Battle Hymn of the Republic- Peter Wilhousky
Battle Hymn of the Republic originated when Julia Ward Howe, the wife of a prominent Boston abolitionist, visited a Union army camp in Virginia during the Civil War. There she heard soldiers singing “John Brown’s Body” to a tune attributed to William Steffe, a Philadelphia insurance salesman, and probably composed in 1855 or 18566. Howe decided to write new verses more fitting to the conflict between the North and theSouth. Her “Battle Hymn” was published in The Atlantic Monthly in February 1862 and has expressed America’s resolve during every conflict since. The arrangement heard here was prepared by Mr. Wilhousky, a New York-based chorus master. This setting has become the definitive rendition of the work as it never fails to stir the emotion of its audience.
Program notes compiled by Marcie Phelan.
Washington Greys – Claudio Grafulla/L. Schissel
This classic march is Grafulla’s most widely known composition, and it has been arranged and rearranged for countless contemporary bands. Research indicates that The Washington Greys were the 8th Regiment of New York, based at Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx. Their name is chiseled in stone in the Armory entranceway. The 8th became the 258th Field Artillery and is still part of the 42nd InfantryDivision (Rainbow) of the Army National Guard. Prior to the Civil War, gray was a standard color for military uniforms; it was not until the development of the Confederacy that the Union uniform color became blue. The Washington Greys were the original honor guard for George Washington when he was welcomed back to New York City after the British evacuated in 1783. The Washington Greys March is Grafulla’s most famous work because of the way the march is constructed. It is musically cohesive, with its running sixteenth notes and a responding rich bass voice making a magnificent counterpoint. This very spirited march demands virtuosity from its performers.
Program notes compiled by Marcie Phelan.
Marching through Georgia – John Philip Sousa/Brion
Sousa marches often bear a dedication to people, places, or events. Marching Through Georgia is a powerfully inventive patrol setting of Henry Clay Work’s immensely popular 1865 civil war song. It was written to commemorate William Tecumseh Sherman’s famed and decisive Union Army “March to the Sea” which historically broke the backbone of the rebellious Confederacy. The patrol setting gives the listener the aural view of the band approaching from the distance, sounding full as it passes, and fading in its retreat.
Program notes compiled by Marcie Phelan.
Spring Song – Jean Sibelius arr. Patrick Burns
Sibelius wrote extensivelyand wonderfully for orchestra, yet relatively few of his tone poems are performed regularly in this country, apart from Finlandia, and the Swan of Tuonela. Spring Song is a hymn to nature tinged with a hint of the wintry melancholy that can linger into the sub-arctic spring of Sibelius’s beloved Finnish homeland. Mr. Burns has honored both the composer and the Ridgewood Concert Band with his concert band arrangement of this Sibelius jewel composed originally in 1894. Although gentle and wistful in its opening, the work also contains some lovely and memorable melodies that will now be available to performers and audiences alike in this delightful new setting, as the Ridgewood Concert Band premiers this new arangement.
Program notes compiled by Marcie Phelan.
Precious Metal – D.J. Sparr
Precious Metal is a concerto for flute and winds and is based on the three metals of which the flute is made. Each metal is a descriptive title that influenced the construction and materials of each movement of the work. In the first movement, Silver Strettos, the flute is heard as bright and pristine within the simple and pure melodic material and the call and response canonic orchestration. In the second movement, Platinum Sheen does not have the glimmer of silver, so the orchestration in this movement is not as flashy as in the first movement, but as with platinum, the orchestration is strong and durable – using the low instruments of the ensemble for a strong foundation. Gold Rush begins with a solo flute motive based on material from the first movement but now in a minor key. The ensemble interrupts with a pulsating crescendo that leads to a virtuosic flute cadenza. The middle section of this movement features a long accelerando with a soaring flute melody that ultimately leads to a musical accompaniment to a westward bound journey into the sunset, a search for gold and riches.
NJ Department of Education Unit “Q” Double-Dippers collected roughly $5.9 million last year
March 2,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Speaking of salaries, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports on an investigation from New Jersey Watchdog that found that an obscure unit of the NJ Department of Education called Unit “Q” employs 40 “double-dipping” staff members, who collect pensions as well as paychecks. For example, Cathy Coyle, who collects an annual pension of $73,765 from the State, also takes home $151,862 for her DOE job as a “special services” employee in Unit Q.
From the Inquirer:
• Two-thirds of NJDOE’S top 60 Unit Q special services workers collect state pensions.
• Those 40 employees collected roughly $5.9 million last year – nearly $2.9 million in state pay plus almost $3 million from retirement checks.
• Thirty-eight of the double-dippers have six-figure incomes. Five receive more than $200,000 a year.
Most of them seem to work as either County Superintendents (irony alert: they control merit bonuses for district superintendents; see post below this) or Regional Achievement Center Executive Directors, who oversee NJ’s most troubled districts.
Data collected by https://watchdog.org/category/new-jersey/ and the https://www.philly.com/inquirer/
Readers also Voice Concern on the Mayors Overly Cozy Relationship Stephen Borg, Publisher and President, North Jersey Media Group
Stephen Borg, Publisher and President, North Jersey Media Group. Chris Harris reporter for the Record De facto Press Secretary for our Mayor and of course our Mayor former Press Secretary to Gov. Mc Grievy. What do you think folks. Do you think your get the full story from North Jersey Media or is it slanted towards our Mayor and his deeds.
Is there a liberal slant to The Record’s news coverage? A number of readers who participated in recent telephone interviews with our market research team said they think there is.
The focus of interviews conducted over 10 days in March centered on what “jobs” readers want fulfilled by The Record. “Tell me the truth” stood out as a key job, but several readers added that they want the truth objectively – not from a reporter’s personal angle. That led to expanded conversations.
“A good portion of these people feel The Record is politically liberal,” said Joe Ferrara, market research manager. “Some of that may mirror a broader perception about media generally having a political agenda. But some people made the distinction between The Record’s editorial pages and news content, saying ‘Your opinion pages are sneaking over into your news articles’.”
Readers feel the Mission of the “Civility Forums” is nothing more than Censorship and Control political speech of Village residents.
I have not been able to attend the the so-called Civility Forums initiated by Paul Aronsohn of Ridgewood. I am sure that most of us would like to have the volume lowered in public discourse. The irony is that much of the high volume public discourse is perpetrated by politicians, pundits, and the print and electronic news media. I agree with the blogger that it is elitist that elected officials, a lobbyist, and a newspaper publisher would use their position and power to imply that anonymous bloggers are in someway destructive to the democratic process. I should not have to remind the participants that history is riddled with people in power who have sought to control and re-write the public narrative to their satisfaction. Mr. Tedesco and Paul Aronsohn should read Robert’s Rules of Order to maintain orderly public meetings. Public opinion, free speech, and dissent are the domaine of all the people including those who choose to remain anonymous.
“Ed Koch once said ,”If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist.”
But not according to Stephen Borg, Publisher and President, North Jersey Media Group, who insisted that the whole problem is that since people have found their voice through social media they have come to so many different opinions civil discourse has fallen .Things were so much better when North Jersey Media had a monopoly on public discussion and could always dictate terms . Borg implied that elites like himself we the only ones qualified to make those decisions. Borg pointed out how this blog and its anonymous posters are the greatest enemy to not only American Democracy but to the dominance of North Jersey Media Group. While I was rather flattered that the Publisher and President, North Jersey Media Group thought this blog shook the very foundations of civil discourse and was viewed as the barbarians at the gate , I would suggest the far larger problem might be the totally bias, and slip shot reporting of his Media Empire. Borg set the tone for the evening which came down silencing critics and reasserting the elitist “we know better than you ” , so time to be quite .https://theridgewoodblog.net/civility-forum-moves-forward-to-squelch-public-dissent/ “
Yes, it does sound as if some Gruber-like sentiments about the general public were expressed at the most recent event of Mr. Aronsohn’s series of discussions designed to lay the groundwork for the Obama administration’s plans for naked and direct government censorship of the political speech of individual citizens.
The general public, as a whole, has and regularly displays, far more integrity than do, as a whole, the self-appointed elites in this country. That’s why the following sentiment has always rung so true:
“I would sooner be governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than by the two thousand members of the faculty of Harvard.”― William F. Buckley Jr., Happy Days Were Here Again: Reflections of a Libertarian Journalist
Hillary Clinton, pining for Aronsohn-style “civil discourse”…as if! Sounds suspiciously like Borg with her complaint about non-standard media sources.
Hillary Clinton Blames ‘Different Media’ For Dividing Country by Charlie Spiering/Breitbart , the Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton complained that “different media” are dividing the country, making it impossible for people to even have a conversation with each other.”
the fly has heard claims that the Maroons Soccer Clubs business practices fall far short ……. The fly has learned that many in town claim the Maroons organization that provides the competitive youth soccer program for Ridgewood, is currently being run as a personal fiefdom by Paul Boogaert (President) and others on the Board of Trustees. Sources say a few self-serving Trustees run the organization as they please, for their own personal gain or to protect their (and some of their fellow Trustees’) personal interests.
If you don’t know the Maroons are a 501(c)(3) organization, co-sponsored and heavily supported by Ridgewood, serving hundreds of our town’s families. The odd thing is all these people who never played a sport are suddenly clamoring to be on the board of the travel soccer program in town? Is it just a thirst for local power or as critics have called it joining the “sports mafia” . Some join boards to protect there child or some say promote their child at the expense of yours .
Sources claim the Maroons Board has engaged in improper elections aimed at stacking the Board ; many “red flag” financial irregularities ;improper (and undisclosed) Board compensation; self-dealing ; conflicts of interest and interested party transactions.The Board even let the 501(c)(3) lapse yet the when questioned the Board has been known to bring in lawyers . These are serious allegations that a simple audit would put to rest .
Reader says Mr. Sedon is not the only wronged party. This was an act against our community, against our clean election system.
The village should initiate an investigation immediately.
This crime was committed against Ridgewood as well as against Mr. Sedon. Our elected officials should have authorized whatever legal fees would be needed to pursue the facts and bring the perpetrator to light. It is two years later, but it is still not too late. Draft a resolution or whatever it is you do, and let’s get on with it. Unless there is some reason that someone on the dais does not wish to pursue this???
There are 2 reasons why the Council have drag their feet. One is the longer it goes the harder it is to investigate. Second is they don’t want the public to know the answer. The answer may not fit in their civility matrix. The three amigos should be just a upset as Councilman Sedon and the public because an investigation show Transparency in the council and something similar could be done to them in the upcoming election. So why are they not pursuing this? I will leave it up to the readers to speculate.
This incident will remain an appalling blot on Ridgewood forever whether it is investigated or not, but especially if it is not. I’m still in shock that the truth has not been pursued avidly. Failure to pursue this points a gigantic finger at those in charge. They are failing in their duty to preserve democracy (forget civility) while making it clear that they are implicit. Developments should be on the front page routinely as they are for the theft of our quarters–which morally and as an insult to the electoral process was LESS bad.
Double Dipping Starts at the Top with Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck and 17 other assembly and senate incumbents
March 1,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, In New Jersey, elected officials can start collecting their lawmakers’ pension once they qualify for it (based on a complex system of accumulating so-called retirement credits), yet stay in office and also garner a salary.
New Jersey state senator, Loretta Weinberg, and mentor to our mayor justified taking nearly a $41,000 pension while still collecting a $49,000 salary on grounds that she had lost money in the Bernie Madoff scandal. Despite taxpayer anger after press reports of her dual incomes, Ms. Weinberg’s colleagues elected her majority leader in November 2011.
This continues a disturbing pattern in the Garden State. Last year, during Jersey’s state legislative elections, 18 assembly and senate incumbents from both parties who double-dip were up for reelection, including Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, who in addition to her $49,000 a year legislative salary receives a pension of nearly $41,000 annually. In her case, both incomes are for the same job because Jersey allows legislators to retire while still in office and get both a pension and salary. All 18 legislators won reelection. Their retirement checks annually cost the overburdened pension system nearly three-quarters of a million dollars.
Elected officials also continue to employ a host of staffers who double-dip, including those working for the governor, the state’s comptroller and the attorney general. Rather than simply resign their state jobs when appointed to the staff of an official, these employees retire, grab their pension and take home a salary, too.
Double-dipping by New Jersey public officials continues to thrive for one big reason: Too many legislators either directly profit or quietly condone a costly practice that drains untold millions from state pension funds.
New Jersey Watchdog found 18 state lawmakers who receive retirement checks totaling $782,000 a year in addition to their legislative salaries. The roster includes leaders of each party in both the Senate and Assembly. (See full list below)
The Assembly’s roll of double-dippers features Deputy Speaker Connie Wagner, D-Paramus; Deputy Majority Leader Joseph Egan, D-New Brunswick; Majority Conference Leader Gordon Johnson, Teaneck; Minority Conference Leader David Rible, R-Wall Township; and Appropriations Officer John DiMaio, R-Bridgewater.
Ranking twin-scoopers in the Senate include Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck and Minority Conference Leader Robert Singer R-Lakewood.( https://watchdog.org/category/new-jersey/)
The biggest dipper in the Legislature is Sen. Fred Madden, D-Turnersville, who collects nearly a quarter-million dollars a year from two public jobs and a state pension. In addition to $49,000 in legislative pay, theSenate Labor Committee chairman receives $85,272 from a State Police pension and $111,578 as dean ofLaw & Justice at Gloucester County College.
“Obviously, I don’t have a problem with people doing it,” Madden told New Jersey Watchdog last year.
“It’s not appropriate,” countered Sen. Jennifer Beck, R-Red Bank, one of the few legislators to openly oppose double-dipping. “The pension system is intended to support you at a time you are no longer working. So when you are an active employee, you should not be able to tap into both.”
Gov. Chris Christie has welcomed double-dippers into the ranks of his administration. A New Jersey Watchdog investigation last year found 19 state retirees were rehired under Christie.
Christie’s deputy chief of staff, Louis Goetting, gets $228,860 a year — $140,000 in salary plus an $88,860 pension as a state retiree.
“The governor called him out of retirement,” said spokesman Michael Drewniak. “And we are grateful to have him,”
Also in Christie’s corner are two prominent double-dipping Essex County Democrats who crossed party lines last month to publicly endorse the GOP governor’s re-election bid. (https://watchdog.org/category/new-jersey/)
RIDGEWOOD SCHOOLS : DELAYED OPENING MONDAY, MARCH 2
Due to winter conditions, the Ridgewood Public Schools will have a DELAYED OPENING on Monday, March 2. Under the delayed opening plan, the school day will begin two hours later than usual. School bus schedules will operate two hours later. The morning kindergarten will be canceled; the afternoon kindergarten will follow the regular hours (12:20-3 p.m.). Children in grades 1-5 who have not ordered lunches must bring a bag lunch to school. There will not be sufficient time for children to go home for lunch when there is a delayed opening.
Jindal: Obama ‘Unfit to be Commander in Chief,’ More Intent on Warning About the Crusades
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said President Obama “seems more intent on telling us warnings about the Crusades, criticizing America” than fighting terrorism.
Jindal, the 2016 hopeful playing the most hardball lately, emerged from a governors’ meeting with Obama at the White House yesterday to declare the president “unfit to be commander in chief.”
“I take no joy in saying that,” said Jindal, in town for the National Governors Association meeting, to reporters. “I don’t say so for partisan or ideological reasons.”
Jindal elaborated on Fox this morning, saying Obama “disqualified” himself from being fit to lead the country and its military as he “refuses to identify one of the main military threats we face by name: radical Islamic fundamentalism.”
“You listen to those quotes from his own administration. Eric Holder says, ‘We’re not at a state of war.’ You’ve got the State Department saying, ‘We’re not going to kill our way to victory,’ at a time when these barbarians, they’re beheading Christians, they’re torturing, prosecuting Christians, Muslims, Jews, other religious minorities, they are — they killed over 100 schoolchildren, they’re actually killing editorials, because they don’t like their cartoons,” he said.
The governor also cited two “fundamental mistakes” Obama makes in his authorization of military force request to Congress.
“One, he puts an arbitrary timeline, a three-year deadline in there. We know we’ll be done when we’ve hunted down and killed these terrorists, not some political deadline. And then secondly, he bars the use of ground troops,” Jindal said.
“We need to enlist our military commanders. We need to go to them and say, ‘Give us a plan to hunt down, to kill, to eradicate these terrorists.’ We don’t need a president who’s trying to appease (inaudible), trying to be politically correct. He won’t even name the enemy we face, and now he’s refusing to give our military the tools — all the tools they need to go and win this war.”
Media Ignore Deposed UN Climate Chief: Fighting Climate Change Is ‘My Religion’
By Tim Graham | February 28, 2015 | 9:57 AM EST
As Joseph Rossell noted earlier, Dr. Rajenda Pachauri, the scientist leading the fight against “climate change” at the United Nations, resigned after some sexual-harassment allegations surfaced against him in his home country of India, and the networks completely ignored it.
So it’s also obvious that they also ignored the shocking admission in Dr. Pachauri’s resignation letter: fighting against global warming, he said, was “my religion.”
“For me, the protection of planet Earth, the survival of all species and sustainability of our ecosystems is more than a mission. It is my religion and my dharma [the path of righteousness].”
Investors’ Business Daily explored this on its editorial page on Friday:
And all this time we were supposed to believe that global warming and climate change were about rigorous science. Pachauri’s admission merely confirms what we have said for years. The zealots have concocted a warming religion .
This is an observation also made by Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who told a gathering at the Cato Institute in fall 2009 that all of environmentalism, not just the climate-change belief system, “is a religion.”
University of Wisconsin law professor Ann Althouse made a similar remark a year later. “When everything is evidence of the thing you want to believe, it might be time to stop pretending you’re all about science,” she wrote in her blog.
I’m not sure which is more absurd, for the media to be up in arms about former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s statement that he doesn’t believe that President Obama loves America or for them to mug Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker for declining to weigh in on the subject.
Many of us have been speculating for years about Obama’s affinity for this country as founded. He promised to fundamentally transform this nation — something he wouldn’t have done if he embraced the American idea.
There is so much evidence that Obama has a different feeling about America than all of our past presidents that it borders on disingenuous to pretend otherwise. What other president has ever denigrated the Founding Fathers as “men of property and wealth”? What POTUS has repeatedly apologized for the United States and its record? Obama has done so, often on foreign soil, complaining to Europe about America’s arrogance, admitting to the Americas that we have sometimes dictated our terms, telling the Turkish Parliament that we have “our own darker periods in our history,” sending a letter to the Afghan president apologizing for coalition forces inadvertently burning copies of the Quran but failing to object to the killing of U.S. troops in return, apologizing to Japan for our nuclear bombing of its cities, criticizing Americans for distrusting Islam, and even going so far as to blame America for the rampant gun violence in Mexico. What other president has belonged to a church whose pastor was openly racist and anti-American? What other president has scoffed at the idea of American exceptionalism?
What other president has bad-mouthed his own country’s record on civil rights to the United Nations Human Rights Council and submitted U.S. laws and policies to that council for review? Has another POTUS married someone who admitted to never being proud of America in her adult life before her husband was elected president?
Even venerated conservative commentator Thomas Sowell has said, “I think this is a man who has enormous resentments toward this country, especially towards those people who have flourished and prospered here.” Giuliani’s statement was neither outrageous nor unique. Some of the rest of us have been talking and writing about it for years now.
What about the media’s hysteria over Walker’s refusal to contradict Giuliani, saying that Giuliani was free to speak for himself and that he was not going to comment on whether Obama loves America.
What is wrong with that answer? Why should the media ask Walker about it? He didn’t make the statement. The Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank skewered Walker for “avoiding anything that might resemble leadership,” because Walker wouldn’t condemn Giuliani and because he hadn’t fallen for the media’s loaded question on whether he believes in evolution.
In Wyckoff, building materials become issue in proposed health care center expansion
MARCH 1, 2015 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY MARINA VILLENEUVE
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
WYCKOFF — Residents opposed to the expansion of the Christian Health Care Center say January’s fire at the Avalon at Edgewater apartment complex shows what can happen if the center developer is allowed to use combustible construction material, as it wants to.
State law currently allows such material, and that has become a point of potential conflict over the expansion application as opponents call on the township’s zoning officials to stand their ground after recently refusing to allow such materials.
In 2013, the center’s representatives signed an agreement with Wyckoff that it would use only non-combustible construction materials. But then they asked to be allowed to use cheaper, combustible materials like wood framing. The non-profit, which previously agreed to scale down the project from 258 units, to 199, says its fire detection and suppression systems exceed code standards.
In December, the Zoning Board of Adjustment voted, 6-1, to deny the request to amend the agreement.
FEBRUARY 23, 2015 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015, 9:59 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
When Bergen County Protect and Rescue fell into desperate times late last summer, the general public stepped up with an overwhelming response to assist the county’s only no-kill animal shelter. Though given a crutch, the Cliffside Park-based operation is still in constant need of community support, as it barely covers the monthly $10,000 operating costs to care for some four dozen cats and dogs until they’re ready for adoption.
Ridgewood has taken notice.
The Willard School community took a different approach while planning its annual theme day, which took place earlier this month to rave reviews and overwhelming positive feedback.
A school-wide program, theme days in the past were typically geared toward student enjoyment and learning. Previous theme days incorporated events such as spelling bees or “Amazing Race” style activities that promoted cultural diversity and education.
“They were fun, but we wanted to do something that put the emphasis on the children making a difference during the day rather than another fun event,” said Pam Chmiel, this year’s theme day coordinator. “Willard has a great track record in bringing conscious programs to the school … so we presented our theme as ‘philanthropy’ – giving time, talents and treasure and taking action for the common good.”
Chmiel, together with the Willard Home and School Association, Principal Caroline Hoffman and other parents, rebranded theme day as Willard Service Day 2015, which they hosted on Feb. 4. Student activities still focused on fun and learning, but they also centered on “giving back to those less fortunate or going through a difficult time.”
Obama, Netanyahu on Collision Course 6 Years in the Making
WASHINGTON — Feb 28, 2015, 12:41 PM ET
By JULIE PACE and MATTHEW LEE Associated Press
For six years, President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been on a collision course over how to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a high-stakes endeavor both men see as a centerpiece of their legacies.
The coming weeks will put the relationship between their countries, which otherwise remain stalwart allies, to one of its toughest tests.
Netanyahu is bound for Washington for an address to Congress on Tuesday aimed squarely at derailing Obama’s cherished bid for a diplomatic deal with Tehran. At the same time, Secretary of State John Kerry and other international negotiators will be in Switzerland for talks with the Iranians, trying for a framework agreement before a late March deadline.
In between are Israel’s elections March 17, which have heightened the political overtones of Netanyahu’s visit to Washington.
The prime minister is speaking to Congress at the request of Republicans. His visit was coordinated without the Obama administration’s knowledge, deepening tensions between two leaders who have never shown much affection for each other.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal Jewish advocacy group J Street, said Netanyahu was “crossing some lines that haven’t been crossed before and is putting Israel into the partisan crossfire in a way it has not been before.”
But the largest pro-Israel lobby in the U.S., the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has tried to play down the partisanship.
“AIPAC welcomes the prime minister’s speech to Congress and we believe that this is a very important address,” spokesman Marshall Wittmann said. “We have been actively encouraging senators and representatives to attend and we have received an overwhelmingly positive response from both sides of the aisle.”
