long-term jobless Americans forced off federal extended benefits program
May 11 2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood ,NJ Over 200,000 long-term jobless Americans in California, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Colorado, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Texas will lose their unemployment checks this week, when eight states roll off the federal extended benefits program.
Nearly half of them live in California. The federal extended benefits program has provided the jobless with up to 20 additional weeks of unemployment checks after they’ve run through their state and their federal emergency benefits, which together last up to 79 weeks.
But the extended benefits program is expiring throughout the country as the the Obama administration claims the economy improving. States must show that its unemployment rate is at least 10% or more to be eligible for the program .
State unemployment rates have been falling as more and more workers exit the workforce and the job market shrinks .
Already, 25 states have rolled off the extended benefits program, with 15 of them exiting last month alone. But more unemployed folks will be affected by this week’s cessation than April’s, when about 135,000 people saw their payments end.
Project Pride Committee will plant the large containers with a wide variety of colorful flowers for the summer season on Saturday, May 12th starting at 9am at the Clock tower at Van Neste Square. If you are able to volunteer and help, please call 201/670-5560 for more details.
Lugar Loss Highlights how out of touch DC insiders are to voters
Friday, May 11, 2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood ,NJ America’s Political Class.continues to act in ways contrary to the people they are supposed to represent . Many in Washington, D.C. took delusional comfort over the past year in polling data showing that fewer voters now consider themselves part of the Tea Party movement.
According to Rasmussen In recent surveys only 13% of voters identify with the tea party today, just about half its peak in 2010. This gave comfort to those in power, suggesting voters were willing to let the politicians return to politics as usual.
But recent events such as the defeat of 36-year incumbent Senator Richard Lugar in the Indiana Republican primary election who was often viewed by the Tea Party members as the poster boy for the inside the belt way kiss -asses has given DC insiders pause for panic again.
Politicians seemed to have missed that the supposed declining membership in the Tea Party did not mean a decline in anger at the Political Class. The Tea Party has highlighted over and over the twin problems of continuous government spending growth and a self-serving Political Class that is totally out of touch with voters.
The disconnect is highlighted by the fact that government spending has gone up every single year for 58 years even though voters have continually elected politicians who promise every election to cut that spending. Contrary to popular belief voters are ready to make the hard choices needed to cut spending and balance the budget, but the Political Class is more interested in pursuing its own agenda.
Again according to Rasmussen only 33% of voters are even somewhat confident that their representative in Congress is looking out for the best interests of their constituents ,with only eight percent (8%) are very confident.
Sixty-five percent (65%) are angry at the policies of the federal government, and few see anybody in Washington willing to take on the status quo. There is a strong belief that Democrats are the party of big government while Republicans the party of big business with 7-out-of-10 believe big government and big business work together against the rest of us.Therefore it’s no surprise that 53% believe that neither Republican nor Democratic leaders have an understanding of what the country really needs today.
The project to renovate the flagpole at the corner of North Maple and Linwood avenues in Veterans Field.
Readers asked how they can make a donation ,make donations to the Ridgewood Rotary Foundation, P.O. Box 1152, Ridgewood, NJ 07450-1152 clearly marked “flagpole project.”
According to Chris Stout of American Legion Post 53 that, although the American Legion and VFW are key supporters of the project, the project is being driven by elements of Rotary International, led by the Rotary Club of Ridgewood A.M.
Bill Clinton blockbuster:Barack Obama is an ‘amateur’
By CARL CAMPANILE
Last Updated: 11:34 AM, May 11, 2012
Bill Clinton thought so little of President Obama — mocking him as an “amateur” — that he pressed his wife last summer to quit her job as secretary of state and challenge him in the primaries, a new book claims,
“The country needs you!” the former president told Hillary Clinton, urging her to run this year, according to accounts of the conversation included in Edward Klein’s new biography of Obama.
The title of Klein’s explosive, unauthorized bio of Obama, “The Amateur” (Regnery Publishing), was taken directly from Bill Clinton’s bombshell criticism of the president, the author said.
“Barack Obama,” Bill Clinton said, according to book excerpts, “is an amateur.”
Shelly Kennedy will speak on the dangers of Agenda 21 and the Redevelopment Plan and the Foreclosure Act
NJTPC General Meeting- May 15, 2012 -(Tuesday) – 7:00 PM
124 Essex Street, Rochelle Park, NJ – Harley Davidson Building
Rochelle Park, NJ, Agenda 21 issue has been on the forefront since last year and on Tuesday night NJTPC will feature a very special guest speaker, Shelly Kennedy.
Shelly Kennedy is a local NJ activist, and our resident “go to informed person” for Agenda 21matters . She is a member of the NJ Tea Party Caucus and works to inform and advise on the dangers of Agenda 21.
Shelly has been a recent guest speaker on the Tea Time cable show. She will be discussing how the Redevelopment Plan and the Foreclosure Act converge to enforce mandates on your individual towns and how it may affect your home residence as an asset. She will answer your questions and explain what you can do to avert Agenda 21 and its attacks on private property
Fort Lee cracks down on jaywalking after 3 deaths
May 11,2011
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ The Fort Lee Police are cracking down on jaywalking, steering pedestrians into the crosswalks or pay a significant fines.
Tickets for jaywalking in Fort Lee are $85 . According to police the idea is to save live lives . Police Chief Thomas Ripoli told the Bergen Record newspaper more than 20 pedestrians have been struck in the town this year. Three people have been killed. I am not sure of the numbers but I am sure the numbers in Ridgewood are significantly higher .
The Fort Lee Police have stopped 575 jaywalkers since the beginning of the year and issued 117 tickets since mid-March. Capt. Keith Bendul tells the Record that the police are also targeting motorists who do not stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, as required by law.
Ridgewood Native Julian Lynch Recognized as 2012 Scott Kloeck-Jenson Fellow
Global Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has awarded Julian Lynch a Scott Kloeck-Jenson Fellowship in support of his graduate work in Anthropology and Ethnomusicology, specifically on the role of festivals and music in India and their place within narratives of social change. Lynch, from Ridgewood, NJ, is recognized for his work that deepens international understanding and promotes global social justice. More information on Lynch, along with each of the other five fellows and their individual projects, can be found at https://global.wisc.edu/skj/fellows/.
The work of this year’s fellows embodies the Wisconsin Idea, the belief that education should influence and improve the lives of people beyond the university classroom. Scott Kloeck-Jenson, after whom this award is named, lived his life by this principle.
This year’s fellows again represent a broad range of country interests and disciplinary approaches. In addition to Lynch, the following graduate students will conduct research & internships in memory of Scott and his legacy:
• David Bresnahan, a doctoral student in African history, whose current research interests focus on pre-colonial coastal East Africa.
• Erin Kitchell, a master’s student in geography, whose academic interests include land-use planning in pastoral zones, local responses to climate risk in the Sahel, and the role of social learning in decision-making about environmental issues.
• Vijay Limaye, a joint Ph.D. student in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and Department of Population Health Sciences, who will be working as an intern at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi, India, exploring the health consequences of ambient air pollution (particulate matter and ozone), a growing problem in many Indian cities.
• Nancy Rydberg, a doctoral candidate pursuing a joint degree in Educational Policy Studies and Development Studies, whose current research focuses on how war, forced migration, displacement and war-related poverty relate to gendered changes in the material and social circumstances of communities living in northern Uganda.
• Bethany Wilinski, a doctoral student pursuing a joint degree in Educational Policy Studies and Curriculum and Instruction, who this summer will work as an intern for USAID in Ethiopia, assisting with an education project focused on facilitating home-school connections for children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS.
In its 12th year, the Scott Kloeck-Jenson Fellowship and Global Studies have provided 102 students with travel to more than 50 countries to pursue work and research on peace and social justice issues. Scott was completing doctoral work on rural poverty in Mozambique province of Zambezia with his family on a Fulbright scholarship. There, he was also the field director for the Land Tenure Center’s Mozambique project. He was due to return to the U.S. in January 2000 to complete his dissertation with UW–Madison but, tragically, on June 23, 1999, Scott, his wife, Barbara, and their two children, Zoe and Noah, were killed in a car accident in South Africa.
I do wish them well. Wishing they will be successful in all (or even some) of the pledges they made as candidates is wishing a positive outcome for all in town , isn’t it?
I also expect them to hold true to those promises and if they do not, then we all need to stay on them to do the things they pledged, which is what put them in office.
The hard reality though is that we have been running an unsustainable model here for a long time now, and it’s time to change that and focus on getting the basics fixed like infrastructure that is falling apart all over town.
The current VC (and BOE) found “magic money” for lightning detection systems and all kinds of other things that — while perhaps are nice to have if you have unlimited bucks – are not nearly as impt to me as having decent streets, curbs, working storm drains, sewers and other “mundane” stuff. Though maybe not as sexy as all the extras, that stuff affects nearly everyone in town every day. Yet those things have been badly neglected for years — and all the while money was found for all kinds of other projects.
Meanwhile, taxes go up-up-up, money is also found for retro raises and bonuses, and yet there’s never any money to fix the basics. I really hope the new group will give some long needed attention to that.
Facebook Co-Founder Saverin Gives Up U.S. Citizenship Before IPO
By Danielle Kucera, Sanat Vallikappen and Christine Harper – May 11, 2012 12:10 PM ET
Eduardo Saverin, the billionaire co- founder of Facebook Inc. (FB), renounced his U.S. citizenship before an initial public offering that values the social network at as much as $96 billion, a move that may reduce his tax bill.
Facebook plans to raise as much as $11.8 billion through the IPO, the biggest in history for an Internet company. Saverin’s stake is about 4 percent, according to the website Who Owns Facebook. At the high end of the IPO valuation, that would be worth about $3.84 billion. His holdings aren’t listed in Facebook’s regulatory filings.
Saverin, 30, joins a growing number of people giving up U.S. citizenship, a move that can trim their tax liabilities in that country. The Brazilian-born resident of Singapore is one of several people who helped Mark Zuckerberg start Facebook in a Harvard University dorm and stand to reap billions of dollars after the world’s largest social network holds its IPO.
Water Main Break – Godwin & West Side Avenues
Boyd A. Loving
May 11 ,2012
1:04 PM
Ridgewood, NJ Construction crews working on a gas main replacement project for PSE&G struck a water main this morning at the intersection of Godwin and West Side Avenues.
Personnel from Ridgewood Water arrived at the scene within 30 minutes to repair the break.
Ridgewood PD officers directed traffic, and Ridgewood FD personnel stood by to assist in the event escaping water made its way into any nearby homes.
Restaurant review: Village Green in Ridgewood
FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2012
By ELISA UNG
RESTAURANT REVIEWER
The dishes at Village Green look so striking that it’s almost a shame to eat them. Almost.They are constructed with such care and precision, it’s as if the ingredients were precious jewels. Thick chunks of crabmeat drape over delicate wontons; long, crisp-skinned gnocchi nestles in with pine nuts and cubes of butternut squash. Chambord pastry cream smothers layers of puff pastry.
I first awarded three stars to Village Green in 2008, and am now cheering on its evolution under chef Kevin Portscher, who purchased the restaurant last summer. The Culinary Institute of America graduate’s résumé includes five years in one of the most prestigious kitchen jobs in Ridgewood – chef de cuisine at Latour.
New Jersey lawmakers can be stunningly tone-deaf when it comes to ethical missteps
New Jersey lawmakers can be stunningly tone-deaf when it comes to understanding how their actions appear to the public. Or maybe they just don’t care.
Consider, for instance, Assemblyman John Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, the Democratic state party chairman who always seems willing to dismiss this or that outrage in Trenton as “the way things get done.” According to PolitickerNJ, late last year, Wisniewski was one of three co-sponsors of a bill that would have exempted Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus from new caps on excessive charges for outpatient procedures related to auto insurers’ personal-injury protection policies. (Courier News)
Some sour notes as arts education tries to strike balance in schools
A new report on the state of arts education in New Jersey reflects the quandary of how to strike a balance between the recognized needs for music and the visual arts with the financial and testing realities that public schools face.
While the report paints a picture of how schools are coping with that balance, the news was not all rosy, with fewer students — and teachers – in art classes. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
Residents are misguided if they think Paul Aronsohn is a layup for Mayor
The election is over and two new faces have emerged on the Village Council. What makes you all think they are going to bow down and kiss the feet of Paul Aronsohn?
Al Pucciarelli has been a valued member of both the zoning and planning boards for years. He’s had more than an admirable career as an attorney. He has sound judgment and pledged to the residents to be fair and impartial. He will hardly vote lock step with anyone.
Gwenn Hauck has lived here her entire life. She’s volunteered her time graciously and has never been involved in mudslinging.
I’ve been privy to the scores of emails by Ridgewood council wannabes who have indicated that “Paul will lead them” on the right path. Their only job moving forward is to make good on all the campaign promises they made as individuals. Not on what Paul Aronsohn wants or demands.
