Ridgewood Girl Scouts propose old-school fitness idea
APRIL 14, 2014 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2014, 4:39 PM
BY BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
A global fitness initiative that boomed in the 1970s has been making its way back into the worldwide psyche, including locally, where four Ridgewood Girl Scouts are shaping their Silver Award project around the idea. Their project, in fact, would produce a greater benefit to the community and coincide with several ongoing healthy living and awareness campaigns.
Three seemingly random apparatuses are currently located alongside trails at Veterans Field and near Maple Park. The equipment is actually part of Ridgewood’s old parcourse, an internationally-embraced concept that rose to popularity in the ’70s. A typical parcourse consists of walkways or trails marked with outdoor fitness equipment that is installed at varying intervals along the path.
Ridgewood’s parcourse was installed in the 1970s, said Troop 1326 leader Bernadette Walsh, who also serves as village councilwoman. In the past, it was a “series of 18 exercise stations … [that] provides warm-up, stretching, muscle strengthening, cardiovascular conditioning and cool down exercises combined with walking, jogging and running.
Glow-in-the-dark roads make debut in Netherlands
11 APRIL 14 by LIAT CLARK
Studio Roosegaarde
Light-absorbing glow-in-the-dark road markings have replaced streetlights on a 500m stretch of highway in the Netherlands.
Studio Roosegaarde promised us the design back in 2012, and after cutting through rather a lot of government red tape we can finally see the finished product.
One Netherlands news report said, “It looks like you are driving through a fairytale,” which pretty much sums up this extraordinary project. The design studio like to bring technology and design to the real world, with practical and beautiful results.
The Summer Music Academy provides lessons and performing opportunities for beginning, intermediate and advanced level musicians. Students from all districts are welcome! Program highlights include string orchestras, jazz bands, woodwind, brass and percussion ensembles, drum set classes and the 2014 Guitar Camp. All students are encouraged to join this dynamic program.
Click here for the brochure and registration form.
Sign Up for Space Camp at Hawes School
Two sessions: June 27 – July 11 or July 14 – July 25
Is your son or daughter interested in Space? Have they completed grades 2-4? Sign them up for summer space camp where they learn astronomy by going into a planetarium, build and launch model rockets, learn about the history of flight, solve problems in groups, play space games, enjoy physical fitness (rope climbing, zip lining, and more), perform experiments and make art projects. It’s going to be a blast!
Tax Revenues Hit Record for First Half of FY 2014
April 15, 2014 – 2:49 PM
By Ali Meyer
(CNSNews.com) — Inflation-adjusted federal tax revenues hit a record $1,320,793,000,000 in the first half of fiscal 2014, but the federal government still ran a $413,264,000,000 deficit during that time, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement for March.
Each month, the Treasury publishes the government’s “total receipts,” including all revenue from individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, social insurance and retirement taxes (including Social Security and Medicare taxes), unemployment insurance taxes, excise taxes, estate and gift taxes, customs duties, and “miscellaneous receipts.”
Security holes in power grid have federal officials scrambling
In Congress, the vulnerability of the power grid has emerged as among the most pressing domestic security concerns.
By Evan Halper
April 7, 2014, 3:00 a.m.
WASHINGTON — Adam Crain assumed that tapping into the computer networks used by power companies to keep electricity zipping through transmission lines would be nearly impossible in these days of heightened vigilance over cybersecurity.
When he discovered how wrong he was, his work sent Homeland Security Department officials into a scramble.
Crain, the owner of a small tech firm in Raleigh, N.C., along with a research partner, found penetrating transmission systems used by dozens of utilities to be startlingly easy. After they shared their discovery with beleaguered utility security officials, the Homeland Security Department began sending alerts to power grid operators, advising them to upgrade their software.
The alerts haven’t stopped because Crain keeps finding new security holes he can exploit.
“There are a lot of people going through various stages of denial” about how easily terrorists could disrupt the power grid, he said. “If I could write a tool that does this, you can be sure a nation state or someone with more resources could.”
Those sorts of warnings, along with vivid demonstrations of the grid’s vulnerability, such as an incident a year ago in which unknown assailants fired on a power station near San Jose, nearly knocking out electricity to Silicon Valley, have grabbed official attention. In Congress, the vulnerability of the power grid has emerged as among the most pressing domestic security concerns.
Obamanomics: if you have money, the democrats want it.
In Case You Didn’t Notice
Happy New Year America
Here is what happened on January 1st 2014:
Top Income tax bracket went from 35% to 39.6%
Top Income payroll tax went from 37.4% to 52.2%
Capital Gains tax went from 15% to 28%
Dividends tax went from 15% to 39.6%
Estate tax went from 0% to 55%
Remember this fact: if you have money, the democrats want it.
These taxes were all passed with Democrat votes only no Republicans voted for these taxes!
These taxes were all passed under the affordable care act, aka Obamacare.
If you think that it is important that everyone in the U.S. should know this, please pass this on to everyone you know.
Wake up America !
RBSA Opening Day Parade & Family Fun Day will be held on Saturday, April 26 from 9am to Noon. The Parade begins at the Ridgewood Train Station followed by Family Fun Day at Veteran’s Memorial Field. Bring your family and enjoy food, activities and the RHS Varsity Baseball Game. We are looking for parent volunteers. If you would like to participate as a volunteer please contact Brendan Buckley; [email protected]
Road Warrior: Distracted driving crashes, deaths called an ‘epidemic’
APRIL 14, 2014, 12:47 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2014, 7:33 PM
BY JOHN CICHOWSKI
RECORD COLUMNIST
THE RECORD
If you’re wondering why police at driver-inattention checkpoints are pulling over a record number of motorists as if they were stray cattle at a roundup, New Jersey’s chief law-enforcement officer offered a compelling reason Monday during a traffic-safety event in Paramus.
Driver inattention contributed to 1.4-million crashes during the 10-year period ending in 2013, said Acting Attorney-General John Hoffman outside Paramus Borough Hall as traffic whizzed by on nearby Route 17. The figure represents roughly half the road crashes reported by police during that period as captured in state Department of Transportation records.
It also includes 1,600 deaths, factors Hoffman described as an epidemic.
“We need to put an end to the epidemic… and close the book on the distracted driving decade,” Hoffman said. What troubled him most, he added, was the general perception that the epidemic “seems to be getting progressively worse.”
In 2004, distractions represented 42 percent of all road crashes, a figure that gradually rose to 53 percent last year, he added.
Weather Channel Founder To Retire–Called Global Warming A ‘Scam’ –Said Al Gore was full of it
John Coleman, a TV weatherman for more than 60 years, including the last 20 at KUSI Channel 9/51, has decided to retire.
The station planned to announce Coleman’s decision on its 6 p.m. news Thursday, at which time it would air a retrospective of his career.
Coleman, 79, currently is on vacation. He notified the station he is retiring immediately, so there will be no farewell appearance. Late in the afternoon, after the news broke of his decision, Coleman tweeted: “On the beach and I did it my way No speeches. Just out the door. LIG”
Known for his trademark “K-uuuuuuuuuuu-S-I” exclamation, Coleman wrote a farewell letter to his KUSI colleagues titled “THANK YOU AND GOOD BYE.” He wrote, in part, “now is the time for me to wind down the professional, working part of … my life and make the most of my private time in the years I have left.”
Pondering the complexity of the tax code on Tax Day
By SCOTT GARRETT
As you finalize this year’s tax returns, I hope you realize you are not the only one feeling frustrated. In fact, Albert Einstein once quipped that “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” Interestingly, this wasn’t always the case.
In 1913, the tax code was a far more manageable 400 pages. When Einstein passed away in 1955, the U.S. tax code had grown to about 14,000 pages — 10 times as long as the novel “War and Peace.”
Today, now eclipsing 74,000 pages, the code is more than five times as large as it was in Einstein’s time. For those of you doing the math that means since its adoption in 1913, policymakers have added an average of two new pages to the code every day for the last 100 years.
Besides causing a headache for you, your loved ones and your neighbors, the complicated tax code is a colossal drag on our nation’s economy. According to a 2013 report published by Mercatus Center scholar Jason Fichtner, “Americans spent more than 6 billion hours complying with the tax code in 2011.” He writes, “The compliance burden results in estimates of foregone economic growth from $148 billion to $609 billion annually.”
A simpler, fairer and flatter tax structure is the solution to this problem. It is time for us to simplify every Americans’ tax filing, saving time and hard-earned money, and creating much-needed certainty for job creators and small business owners.
Before the House Ways and Means Committee last April, Sam Griffith, president and chief executive officer of National Jet Co., said “the current tax code is a maze of mismatched provisions which provide disincentives to grow our businesses and hire new employees.” The 2013 Small Business Survey compiled by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has found that eight out of 10 small businesses support reforming the tax code.
State tax policy is a good, small-scale example of what can happen on the federal level. The governors of Texas, Wisconsin and Indiana, for example, have openly and actively recruited out-of-state businesses to relocate and enjoy their states’ lower taxes and less burdensome regulations. It’s time for the federal government to follow suit.
Just like the states near Wisconsin, Texas, and Indiana, the United States loses business to other countries because of our high, overly complex tax code. But, rather than working to enact across-the-board reform, our policymakers just insert exemptions or “carve-outs” for politically favored businesses.
These tax carve-outs are unfair to Main Street coffee shops, florists, local factories and any business that doesn’t get the same kind of treatment. As we know, when the government picks winners and losers, we end up with stories like that of Flabeg Solar U.S. Corp. — the failed solar energy company that cost the American taxpayers more than $10 million.
Americans want to be treated fairly and they want to earn a living to support their families. The tax code is crying out for significant, substantive reform. Meaningful, structural reform will free up Americans’ time and money so they can put it into greater creativity and productivity.
With comprehensive tax reform, we have a chance to reignite the entrepreneurial, hardworking American spirit that is being stifled by mountains of antiquated tax policies that no one — even a world-renowned physicist — can understand.
U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett represents the 5th Congressional District of New Jersey, which includes most of Warren County.
Codey slams DiVincenzo, over Norcross controlled Assembly comments
TRENTON — What’s that? Did state Sen. Richard Codey saying something nice about George Norcross, the state’s most influential Democrat and the lawmaker’s political nemesis?
Well, kind of — but at the expense of another frequent target of his, Joseph DiVincenzo, the Essex County executive and fellow Democrat.
In a profile of Gov. Chris Christie that appeared in last week’s New Yorker magazine, DiVincenzo longingly described Norcross’ considerable clout, noting that the South Jersey insurance executive and newspaper owner could count on the votes of seven senators and 12 Assembly members.
“I don’t have what George has,” DiVincenzo whined to the reporter. “George has seven and 12! I have two senators and five Assembly people.”
To Codey, DiVincenzo wasn’t just saying those legislators were his allies. He was saying he controlled them.
“I think it’s disgraceful,” Codey said. “It’s belittling those senators and those Assembly people. … To say that is so demeaning, and shows you not only is he corrupt and unethical, he’s also dumb as dumb can be.”
Codey then gave Norcross credit. (This is where the reader asks to be pinched.) “I’ve never seen George say that he controls them,” he said. “He has a brain. Joe doesn’t.”
DiVincenzo aimed his own barbs at the veteran lawmaker. (The Auditor/Star-Ledger)
APRIL 14, 2014, 10:30 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2014, 10:32 PM
BY JOHN REITMEYER
STATE HO– USE BUREAU
THE RECORD
Four days after a downgraded credit rating, New Jersey has more bad financial news: Tax collections were once again short of Governor Christie’s already lowered expectations.
This time, the gap was $145 million for March – a full 7 percent short of what Christie projected for the month, according to data released Monday by the state Department of Treasury.
That means the Christie administration has to make up that gap with just three months left in the state’s fiscal year, time that includes the crucial income tax collection month of April. Already, the administration has said it cut nearly $700 million in spending to help balance Christie’s $33 billion budget after an earlier shortfall. More money was also raised this year by restructuring state tobacco bonds.
Treasury officials attributed the weaker-than-expected March tax collections to the lingering effects of harsh weather in February, and also to taxpayers’ use of new technology that is allowing income tax refunds to go out at a much faster rate than in prior years.
“Accelerated refund payments, in addition to February’s harsh weather, constrained March cash collections compared to projections,” Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff said. “We do not believe these factors will carry over to April and the balance of the fiscal year.”
The latest Reason-Rupe poll asked Americans if they would support or oppose changing the federal tax system to a flat tax, where everyone pays the same percentage of his or her income, finding that 62 percent favor the flat tax and 33 percent are opposed. When asked where they would set the flat tax, the aveage response was 15 percent.
This reflects another recent Reason-Rupe poll finding that 67 percent of Americans say it is “not the responsibility of the government to reduce the differences in income between people with high incomes and those with low incomes,” while 29 percent say it is.
Strong support for a flat tax extends across income groups (62 percent) among those making less than $30,000 a year and 73 percent among those making more than $110,000 a year. Similarly across education groups and age groups, 6 in 10 say they support the flat tax.
Support for a flat tax extends beyond partisanship, with 66 percent of Republicans, 68 percent of independents, and 52 percent of Democrats in support. Nevertheless, Democrats are more likely to oppose the flat tax (43 percent) compared to Republicans (29 percent) and independents (29 percent).
Americans who say the less government the better and that the free market can better solve problems than a strong government, favor a flat tax by a margin of nearly 50 points (roughly 72 to 25 percent). However, those who think government should be doing more and that we need a strong government to solve problems favor a flat tax by only 8 points (roughly 51 to 45 percent).
IRS chief: New rule on the way for tax-exempt groups
WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service is prepared to rewrite a proposed rule regulating the political activities of non-profit groups to address complaints from the right and left that it goes too far, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said Monday.
“In all likelihood we will re-propose a redefined rule and ask for more public comment,” Koskinen told USA TODAY’s Capital Download. It’s a process he predicts will take “until the end of the year and beyond” to complete. The proposed regulation of groups known as 501(c)(4)s drew a record 150,000 comments before the deadline in late February.
He said the new rule would take into account backlash from conservative Tea Party groups as well as some liberal advocacy organizations that the agency’s proposal – intended to address concerns that the tax-exempt groups were engaged in partisan warfare – would bar, even voter education and registration programs.
He was interviewed on the eve of Tax Day, the April 15 deadline for Americans to file their returns.
“I think we have to take all of that into consideration,” Koskinen told the weekly video newsmaker series. “There are very thoughtful comments and concerns, and one of the questions that has evoked a lot of comment is, once you define what political activity is, to what organizations should it apply in the 501(c) context and how much of it should be allowed? All of that is going to be very important.”
