ObamaCare consultant Jonathan Gruber has been subpoenaed for documents related to his work on the healthcare law after refusing to give details about his compensation to House lawmakers.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) issued the order late Thursday, asking for a full account of Gruber’s contracts with federal and state health insurance exchanges.
The decision follows a tense hearing earlier in the week in which Gruber, infamous for his comment that the “stupidity of the American voter” helped ObamaCare to pass, repeatedly declined to say how much he was paid as a consultant on the law.
Issa vowed to follow through with a subpoena and to possibly bring Gruber back to testify. The California Republican will be replaced as chairman in January by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah).
“As one of the architects of ObamaCare, Jonathan Gruber is in a unique position to shed light on the ‘lack of transparency’ surrounding the passage of the President’s health care law, however he has so far been unwilling to fully comply with the Oversight Committee’s repeated requests,” Issa said in a statement Friday.
Earth to Bob: Obama has already failed!
December 11, 2014 1 Comment
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Everyone’s favorite Caribbean tourist Bob Menendez (D-Ecuador/Dominican Republic) sat down with Cory Booker (D-Twitter) and television’s Steve Adubato on Wednesday evening, Save Jerseyans, for an interview billed as focusing on issues facing the new Congress.
Booker did his Booker thing and spoke in vague generalities. Menendez chose to recycle rejected Democrat campaign themes from the 2014 election cycle. “Is there a universe of members in the Congress of the United States who would do anything to see the president not succeed? I do believe that,” Menendez told Adubato, answering his own question.
I’ve got news (?) for your Bob: Your president has already failed! In spectacular, awful, it’s going to take us decades to recover from his idiocy fashion! And I’m hardly alone in my assessment. Had he not failed in a strong majority of Americans’ estimation (e.g. destroyed our health care system, failed to jump-start a sluggish economy, left us weaker in international affairs), Harry Reid would still be Majority Leader come January, you’d still be Chairman of Foreign Relations, and the Republican Party wouldn’t be in its strongest electoral position since before the Great Depression. https://savejersey.com/2014/12/menendez-obama-booker-interview/
Why Japan has bet its revival on humanoid robots
By David R. Baker
Updated 8:53 pm, Friday, December 12, 2014
TOKYO — Tap a touch screen in the Miraikan science museum, and a woman seated nearby on a plush white chair beams a placid smile. Tap another icon, and her too-smooth face twists into a scowl.
Watch a corner of the screen, and see the museum through a camera embedded in one of her eyes. Speak into a microphone, and your voice comes out of the robot’s mouth.
“This is just a trial,” said Yuko Okayama, the museum’s manager of international affairs. “But in the future, people might live with this. We want visitors to think what it’s like, living with robots.”
Japan loves robots, a fascination nurtured by decades of manga and anime. And if the Japanese government gets its way, that love could spark a revolution.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe calls robots a “pillar” of his efforts to revive Japan’s stalled economy and deal with the country’s shrinking, aging population. And he’s not just talking about industrial robots like the ones that powered Japan’s rise to auto-manufacturing dominance in the 1980s.
Japanese researchers have created humanoid robots that can walk and run, and some with faces that mimic emotions with startling accuracy. Abe foresees robots helping out in nursing homes and hotels. Others, humanoid or not, could respond to disasters like the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. It is a growth industry, he says, that Japan should lead.
Ridgewood, NJ market stats 2014 vs 2013 from Michael Shetler, Keller Williams Realty. 201.421.0506 cell or 201.445.4300 x231 office.
How has the year been for Ridgewood median home prices, inventory and days on market?
Carleen Jeffers, Sam Halvorsen, Kelly Cleary, Olympia Martin, Named All-Suburban Girls Cross-Country Teams
December 12, 2014 Last updated: Friday, December 12, 2014, 12:31 AM
By Greg Tartaglia
SPORTS EDITOR |
The Ridgewood New
RIDGEWOOD — Indications began showing at the end of last year that Ridgewood was in for a big-time 2014 girls cross-country season.
The Maroons wrapped up 2013 with a sixth-place finish in the State Meet of Champions and delivered on the high expectations that carried over. They took third at this season’s SMOC and topped things off with a ninth-place showing at Nike Northeast Regionals.
As a result, four Ridgewood girls have been named to the All-Suburban first team. Immaculate Heart and Northern Highlands garnered two spots apiece, while Glen Rock and Indian Hills have one each among the four seniors, two juniors, two sophomores and two freshmen.
Kelly Cleary of Ridgewood and Colleen Buckley of IHA are four-time overall picks – Cleary makes her second appearance on the elite unit (2012 and ’14) and Buckley her third (2011, ’13-14). Indian Hills’ Julia Guerra (2012-14 first team) and Northern Highlands’ Veronica Mahler (2012 first team, ’13-14 second team) are three-time honorees overall.
Ridgewood’s Olympia Martin moves to the first team from the Freshman of the Year spot, which this season is occupied by Northern Highlands’ Isabel Hebner.:
Kelly Cleary
GRADE: Senior
SCHOOL/HOMETOWN: Ridgewood
PREVIOUS HONORS: 2011 Freshman of Year, 2012 first team, 2013 second team
SEASON BEST: 19:09
FAST FACTS: Cleary had perhaps the season’s most memorable run at the Bergen Group A meet. After taking ACT exams that morning, she arrived just in time to start the race and clocked an 11th-place 19:33 despite not being able to warm up. One week later, she set a new PR with her 14th-place run at the BMOC, and she was 15th in North 1, Group 4.
Carleen Jeffers
GRADE: Senior
SCHOOL/HOMETOWN: Ridgewood
PREVIOUS HONORS: 2013 first team
SEASON BEST: 17:59
FAST FACTS: Jeffers began her second year of cross-country by winning the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational at Penn State. The softball-player-turned-distance-runner finished in the top four of every major North Jersey meet and took things to the next level at season’s end, placing ninth at the SMOC and 10th at Nike Cross Northeast Regionals.
Sam Halvorsen
GRADE: Junior
SCHOOL/HOMETOWN: Ridgewood
PREVIOUS HONORS: 2012 Freshman of Year, 2013 first team
SEASON BEST: 17:59
FAST FACTS: Halvorsen shared the No. 1 spot in the lineup with neighbor and fellow first-teamer Carleen Jeffers. She won gold at the North 1, Group 4 meet, leading Ridgewood to its third state-sectional title in five years, and added bronze in the Shore Coaches, Big North Freedom, BMOC and State Group 4 races.
Olympia Martin
GRADE: Sophomore
SCHOOL/HOMETOWN: Ridgewood
PREVIOUS HONORS: 2013 Freshman of Year
SEASON BEST: 18:45
FAST FACTS: Martin followed up a breakthrough rookie campaign by establishing herself as a consistent No. 3 for the Maroons. Her four top-10 outings included a fifth at the Bergen Group A meet and an eighth at the North 1, Group 4 sectional, and at the SMOC, she eclipsed the 20-minute mark at Holmdel for the first time in her career, placing 49th in 19:48.
Menorah Lighting takes place at Memorial Park at Van Neste Square – Tuesday, December 16 at 5:30PM. Lighting times are posted for the rest of the week on the fence in the park.
December 12, 2014 Last updated: Friday, December 12, 2014, 12:31 AM
The Ridgewood News
Jack Lorenz
As flags flew at half-staff last week, the community remembered the side-by-side relationship it shared with Jack Lorenz, who for years was entrusted with the education of perhaps Ridgewood’s most impressionable citizens.
Written and spoken tributes to Lorenz, 69, who served as Ridgewood High School principal from 2006 to 2011, quickly emerged soon after the brief details of his passing surfaced during the latter half of this past Thanksgiving weekend.
December 12, 2014 Last updated: Friday, December 12, 2014, 1:51 PM
The Ridgewood News
To the editor:
Thank you to all who planned and worked, mentally and physically, to ring in the Christmas season, attract and please all the faiths in town, make everyone feel welcome, and spread friendliness and joy.
The music, speeches, tree decorated, Santa on his way, shops waiting a busy time … and then it rains.
My family and I moved to Ridgewood in 1950. I have led a very active volunteer life and was often involved with outdoor events, so I well know that awful feeling about the weather, so my heart goes out to all who were in charge for the lovely Christmas tree lighting event. Again, thank you to all.
After having raised a family in a house here in town, I moved to a then-brand new apartment near the railroad station and for years have enjoyed a view of the tree from my living room, so I have shared with so many the beauty of our village at Christmas.
Every week, I read your paper regarding the plans and dreams of the brave people who volunteer to tackle the past, present and not tested problems of the future. I would like to warn that going the way of a lot more apartments is going to change the feeling of the town, not only in appearance but the people whom would be interested in occupying them.
I do not know whether the apartments will be rentals or condos. They would draw different people. Really, neither would be particularly interested in the life of the town particularly if they commute to work. In many cases, if the tenants or owners are retired, there is a good chance they would have a second home some place other than New Jersey.
It Doesn’t Matter Whether Republicans or Democrats Win: the National Debt Keeps Rising
Stephen Moore / @StephenMoore / December 13, 2014
Sorry, but this one you can’t blame on either party. Yes, President Obama has made the problem much, much worse, but the scary truth is that the national debt keeps rising inexorably no matter who or which party is in office. That’s the new law of American politics.
When I first arrived in Washington in the early 1980s, the debt was roughly $2 trillion. This week, 30 years and five presidents later, the debt for the first time exceeded $18 trillion. We have been in the red in all but four of the last 40 years.
That’s $18,000,000,000,000. We all know that $18 million is a lot of money. This is $18 million times another million. The number is so gigantic we won’t or can’t try to fathom it.
Why worry? We owe it to ourselves, we’re told. The mighty American economy is big enough to absorb it. This country was built on debt. There is no better time to borrow than when interest rates are at a 40-year low.
There’s some truth in all these claims. Sure, we have a near–$18 trillion economy, but the problem is that the debt is outgrowing the economy. In just the last seven years — the last year of George W. Bush’s presidency and the first six of Obama’s — the debt has increased by roughly $7.4 trillion. That’s ten times the entire debt incurred in our first 200 years as a nation.
My view is that government debt isn’t inherently evil. The wisdom of borrowing depends on what you use the money for. We borrowed trillions (in today’s dollars) to win World War II. Surely that was worth it. We borrowed another $1.8 trillion during the Reagan years to finance winning the Cold War and rebuilding the private economy with growth-hormone tax cuts. That has clearly benefited future generations — so they should bear some of the cost.
But what we have bought with most of our debt of the last two decades has been a bigger, more expansive welfare state. Almost half of all American households, according to the Census Bureau, get a government check or some direct benefit from government today. More than one-third of households get some kind of unearned welfare.
Obama called his spend-and-borrow policies a “stimulus.” Really? What do we have to show for Obama’s debt? Solyndra. Forty-six million people on food stamps. The Obamacare debacle. Etc. Etc. This is one of only two times in American history (the post–Vietnam War era is the other) that we have opened up the flood gates on borrowing even as we have severely slashed the military budget.
Here is the biggest worry about an $18 trillion debt: What happens if/when interest rates start to drift back upward? Answer: This is the economic equivalent of the nuclear option.
Each 1-percentage-point rise in interest rates causes the U.S. deficit to rise by more than $1 trillion over ten years. So a 300-basis-point rise in rates — nothing more than a return to normalcy — would mean about $5 trillion in federal deficits.
If that happens, the debt-servicing costs grow astronomically and interest payments would become the biggest expense item in the budget. We start to pay more and more taxes just to finance past borrowing. This is what happened in Detroit; look at how that turned out.
Maybe this debt bubble won’t burst. Let’s pray that it doesn’t. If it does, the 2008–09 real-estate crash could look like a picnic by comparison.
The politicians think they are pulling a fast one here, but the vast majority of Americans feel in their gut that the economy is headed in the wrong direction, in no small part because of this debt time bomb. It explains why Barack Obama’s policies were so thoroughly routed during November’s midterm elections. A great nation doesn’t ring up unpaid bills month after month, year after year, decade after decade. The basic common sense of Americans tells us that you don’t borrow your way to prosperity.
Oh, and we’re still borrowing half a trillion a year, so the debt will likely hit $20 trillion sometime before 2018. Have a nice day.
An Open Letter To The Republican Leadership In Congress
John Hawkins | Dec 13, 2014
While it would certainly be cathartic to flog the GOP for the lousy omnibus bill House Republicans just passed, it seems more productive to tackle a bigger issue. After a historic, yet unearned (Obama was the real GOP MVP) election victory, isn’t it time for the Republican leadership to try to heal the rift with the base that’s tearing the party apart?
Do Republican leaders REALLY want to spend the next two years of a presidential election cycle getting trashed the way they are right now by activists, Tea Party leaders and radio talk show hosts? Anyone who thinks the base is going to sit down and shut up or that the GOP can thrive over the long-term with this kind of intra-party feuding going on is kidding himself.
So realistically, here’s what the Republican Party leaders need to do to help get everyone back on the same page.
1) They should never, ever, under any circumstances trash their base again. That means if the words “Tea Party, “Senate Conservatives Fund,” “Mark Levin,” “Rush Limbaugh,” “Club for Growth,” “Heritage Action,” etc., etc., come out of their mouths, then they better be saying something nice at best or neutral at worst. Additionally, staffers who mouth off about the base should be unceremoniously fired. At first, Republican politicians shouldn’t expect to have that favor to be returned, but if you’re a politician who wants unconditional love, go buy a dog.
2) The GOP has to keep its promises — and quite frankly, more than a few Republicans seem to have a pre-YouTube era mentality about that. They think they can say anything they want on the campaign trail and then do something completely different in the office without people being any the wiser. For example, after the NRSC backed Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio, I fought it tooth-and-nail over that decision. After he won, Marco Rubio was one of my favorite politicians, but the moment he lied to us by breaking his campaign pledge to fight amnesty, he was dead to me. I will NEVER forgive Rubio for his dishonorable behavior, no matter what he does. Don’t lie through your teeth to people who took you at your word and then expect us to be stupid enough to trust you again.
3) It’s fine for the Republican Party to recruit candidates, but it should ALMOST NEVER be involved in primaries. If you want to know what an exception looks like, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Sr. were right to endorse the guy running against David Duke back in 1989. Everybody has a role to play and an organization that is supposed to represent all Republicans absolutely should not be involved in a race between two Republicans. It creates an ocean of bad blood so big that there aren’t enough towels in Texas to clean it up.
4) The GOP leaders need to open up some lines of communication and if they have good motives, explain what they’re trying to do and the strategy they’re using with talk radio hosts, big websites, activist groups, etc. Locking influential conservative groups out of discussions of what the GOP should be doing BEGS for them to make trouble because it’s the only way they can get their opinion heard.
4A) A few years back, Republicans in leadership did reach out a bit and while it may have helped a little, it ultimately wasn’t very effective because they looked at it as a way to try to sell what they were doing instead of having a conversation about shared goals. A lot of people, myself included, suspect the reason this isn’t done is because we don’t have the same aims on a lot of major legislation any more. I don’t think the GOP leaders have any intention of seriously trying to stop Obama’s executive amnesty. I don’t believe they’re committed to the repeal of Obamacare. I was even forced to agree with NANCY PELOSI and ELIZABETH WARREN (vomit) about the GOP’s omnibus bill decision to make it easier for big banks to gamble with derivatives and the sleazy campaign finance reform that was designed to undercut activist groups. Would the GOP leadership really want to explain something like that beforehand? Ultimately, it wouldn’t be that hard to get grassroots leaders to line up behind smart strategies to achieve conservative policy goals, but it’s an open question whether the GOP’s leadership believes in the Republican Party’s own platform enough to fight for it anymore.
5) Speaking of fights, the GOP leaders need to prove they’re willing to fight and WIN on something that really matters to conservatives. At this point, the expectation of the Democrats, the mainstream media and even the GOP base is that the Republican Party is going to cave in every time. At some point, Republicans have to prove they can go head-to-head with the Democrats and win on something that matters. Of course, congressional aides could probably name 10 things that people don’t care about that much where they’d claim to have “fought and won,” but that’s like a football team that’s behind 70-0 complaining it isn’t being given enough credit for all the 1st downs it’s gotten in the game.
6) People feel so burned by Boehner and McConnell that it would take AN INCREDIBLE amount of work for them to ever be trusted again. If someone like Jeb Hensarling took over in the House or John Thune took over in the Senate, he’d immediately get a much longer leash from the base because he’d be given the benefit of the doubt while people evaluated his performance. On the other hand, when it comes to Boehner and McConnell, symbolic gestures aren’t going to cut it because we’re at a Cold War level of trust. It doesn’t matter how much Castro tells you he loves democracy and freedom; you’ll believe it AFTER Cuba has a free election.
Last but not least, there’s toxic residue in this area that goes all the way back to the end of Bush’s first term that has never been addressed by the GOP leadership in an effective manner. There are a lot of conservatives who feel like they’ve been SCREAMING at the GOP for a decade and haven’t been respected or heard. As long as the GOP leadership insists on maintaining a system where the only way conservative activists can make an impact is by raining hell down on the GOP leaders, they better keep a lot of ice water handy because that’s exactly what they’re going to continue to get.
Nick Barnabic, Ken Marshall, Billy Byrne Named All-Suburban Boys Cross-Country Team
December 12, 2014 Last updated: Friday, December 12, 2014, 12:31 AM
By Greg Tartaglia
RIDGEWOOD — The top three boys cross-country teams at this season’s Bergen Meet of Champions (BMOC) were Don Bosco Prep, Ridgewood and Indian Hills.
The latter two added state-sectional titles, and Don Bosco – whose group does not crown section champs – tied for first place at the State Non-Public A meet. All three schools went on to qualify for the State Meet of Champions (SMOC).
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the trio dominates the All-Suburban first team, which features five Ironmen, three Maroons and two Braves. The 10-man squad includes four seniors, four juniors and two sophomores.:
Nick Barnabic
GRADE: Junior
SCHOOL/HOMETOWN: Ridgewood
PREVIOUS HONORS: 2013 second team
SEASON BEST: 15:58
FAST FACTS: Barnabic was one of the Maroons’ top three runners and also took a couple turns at the No. 1 spot. He led Ridgewood with a second-place finish in the Big North Freedom Division meet, where the team held off Indian Hills for the title, and added a sixth-place showing at the Bergen Group A meet to pace his squad to second behind Don Bosco.
Billy Byrne
GRADE: Sophomore
SCHOOL/HOMETOWN: Ridgewood
SEASON BEST: 16:04
FAST FACTS: Byrne qualified for the SMOC as a wildcard by clocking a 23rd-place 16:35 in the State Group 4 finals at Holmdel Park, a 40-plus second improvement from his previous course best. He logged top-five finishes at the Big North Freedom (fifth) and North 1, Group 4 (fourth) meets, helping the Maroons to championships in both.
Ken Marshall
GRADE: Junior
SCHOOL/HOMETOWN: Ridgewood
PREVIOUS HONORS: 2013 second team
SEASON BEST: 15:55
FAST FACTS: Marshall emerged as the Maroons’ No. 1 runner down the stretch, leading them in every meet from the BMOC onward. He won the individual title at the North 1, Group 4 meet — where Ridgewood captured its fifth straight sectional crown – and finished 20th at the Group 4 finals to earn an SMOC wildcard bid.
L E D Message Broad infront of Village Hall and West Side Flag Pole
December 11,2014
the staff of the Ridgewood bl;og
Ridgewood NJ, The Village council approved by a 3-2 vote to approve L E D Message Board . ( guess which 3 votes for the message board)
A Village resident Boyd Loving caution the council that people driving maybe distracted reading these signs The Village Manager replied that the placement of the L E D Message Board at Village Hall will be placed so people could pull their vehicles over and get out to read the sign. Really, did you ever try to park in front of Village Hall and I suppose that people will be out of their car read the sign during a hurricane or blizzard.
BMW takes out utility pole on West Glen Ave in Ridgewood
December 13,2014
Boyd A. Loving
1:38 PM
Ridgewood NJ, The driver of a 4-door BMW sedan was transported to Bergen Regional Medical Center in Paramus after losing control of her vehicle and crashing it into a utility pole in front of 239 West Glen Avenue, Ridgewood at 11:40 AM on Saturday, 12/13. Ridgewood PD, EMS, FD, and Emergency Services units all responded to the scene. West Glen Avenue remains closed between North Monroe Street and Alpine Terrace due to the downed pole. No loss of electric power was reported in the area.
PHOTO COURTESY OF GARCIA FAMILY
Alfredo Garcia Jr. has managed to blend a high level career in finance with his love for the piano
Longtime resident wins Van Cliburn competition
DECEMBER 12, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2014, 12:31 AM
BY GLORIA GEANNETTE
MANAGING EDITOR |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Alfredo Garcia Jr., a longtime Ridgewood resident, who recently moved to Ho-Ho-Kus, has achieved every amateur pianist’s dream – he was named the winner of the highly competitive Van Cliburn Amateur Video Contest. Forty entrants from six countries and 19 U.S. states submitted five to ten-minute performance videos. Garcia won with more than 1600 votes. His win grants him automatic entry into the seventh International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs to be held in the summer of 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas.
The contest drew more than 66,000 views from 97 countries, with 3,286 voters casting 11,041 total votes. Each person was allowed to vote for his or her favorite once per day during the 15-day voting period.
How were you introduced to the piano?
Born in Havana, Cuba, on Nov. 24, 1953, I felt a very strong connection to classical music from an early age. Inspired by two cousins who were studying the piano, I pleaded with my parents to take lessons. I was 8 years old when I truly began playing; and I was very fortunate to have excellent, classically-trained teachers who instilled me with an “old school” foundation and a passion for the great masters .
