Report: Toys ‘R’ Us says it will cut 200 jobs at headquarters
MONDAY MARCH 3, 2014, 6:57 PM
BY JOAN VERDON
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
Toys “R” Us is expected to announce layoffs at its headquarters in Wayne, and some 100 store closings in the coming weeks, according to industry sources.
Toys spokeswoman Kathleen Waugh would not comment Monday on a New York Post report that the retailer is preparing to eliminate up to 200 corporate jobs, but toy industry sources said they expect cutbacks will be announced soon.
“We’re all waiting for the shoe to drop,” said one toy analyst.
At the American International Toy Fair in New York City two weeks ago, several manufacturers said privately that Toys executives had told them they would be making cuts and streamlining operations in order to improve the company’s focus.
Valley Medical Group’s Benita Burke, M.D., Named Chair of the Bergen Passaic Heart Walk
February 24, 2014 — Cardiologist Benita Burke, M.D., Medical Director of Valley Medical Group’s Heart Care for Women practice, has been named the Chair of the 2014 Bergen Passaic Heart Walk.
The Heart Walk is the American Heart Association’s signature fundraising event. It is a community celebration that encourages people to get active while raising funds to support the mission of building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.
The 2014 Bergen Passaic Heart Walk will take place on the morning of Sunday, June 8, in Van Saun Park, Paramus. For more information and to register online, please visit www.bergenpassaicheartwalk.org.
“I am pleased to be part of this important event,” Dr. Burke said. “Partnership with the American Heart Association (AHA) seemed like a natural fit as both the AHA and Heart Care for Women share the same passion: to empower women to take control of their heart health to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease.”
Valley has been a longstanding supporter and participant in the annual Heart Walk and recently received three recognition awards for participation in last year’s Meadowland’s Heart Walk. Valley’s Center for Women’s Heart Health (now part of Heart Care for Women) was named the top Fundraising Team; Pamela Pate, administrative assistant, The Valley Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute, was named a Fundraising Walker; and the Center for Heart Health (now Heart Care for Women) received the Lifestyle Change Sponsor Award.
Valley Medical Group’s Heart Care for Women’s all-female cardiology group provides specialized services for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiovascular disease in women. Because there are differences in the signs and symptoms of heart disease in women can be different than men’s, it is important to have specialists experienced in the treatment female patients. To make an appointment with one of the cardiologists please call 201 444-1587.
The Heart Care for Women Screening Program also offers a free heart risk assessment to identify potential risks for heart disease so that women can take steps toward prevention. For more information about the Screening Program please call 201-447-8535.
Valley Medical Group is a multispecialty group practice comprising more than 200 doctors and advanced practice professionals representing more than 30 medical and surgical specialties who practice at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, Valley’s Blumenthal Cancer Center in Paramus, eight urgent and primary care centers in New Jersey and New York, and community-based physician practices throughout the region. Valley Medical Group is part of Valley Health System, which includes The Valley Hospital and Valley Home Care.
Caption for the Photo above : Cardiologist Benita Burke, M.D., Medical Director of Valley Medical Group’s Heart Care for Women practice, has been named the Chair of the 2014 Bergen Passaic Heart Walk. In addition, Valley’s Heart Care for Women practice was recognized with three awards for participation in last year’s Heart Walk. The announcements were made at an awards celebration and kick-off breakfast. Shown seated (from left to right) are: Parminder Savalia, Health Education Supervisor, Community Health and Community Benefit; Pamela Pate, administrative assistant, The Valley Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute, who was named a top Fundraising Walker; Pat Delaney, Director of Cardiac Outreach, The Valley Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute, with the award for Lifestyle Change Sponsor; Dr. Burke; Ashley Allison, administrative assistant, The Valley Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute, with the award for top Fundraising Team; and Mary Collins, Cardiac Surgery APN Supervisor.
Doubters have been poo-pooing Texas’ economic growth ever since it shook off the economic recession even as the rest of the country continues to try to scrape the thing off its shoes. Yeah, Texas may be creating jobs, they say, but only for burger-flippers. But data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas shows that those must be some well-paid burger-flippers. Texas, according to a new paper, outstrips the rest of the country when it comes to creating not just jobs, but jobs that pay well..
Start off the First Day of SPRNG with NEW Relationships
North NJ Networking Events will host a Business Card exchange on Thursday. March 20th 2014from 6:00 pm-8:00pm at COURTYARD Marriott located at 100 Chestnut Ridge Rd, Montvale, NJ 07645. Located upstairs 2nd floor Hamilton/Burr Room. If you would like to meet other professionals in the North Jersey area & extend your personal network of professionals, this event is for you. The cost to attend is $15 at the door which includes food & Cash bar, RSVP to [email protected]. Let Kurt know if you can attend and if you will bring a guest.
Maritime industry: New Jersey responsible for own salt shortage
The maritime industry is suggesting New Jersey’s transportation commissioner concocted an elaborate snow job when he blamed a nearly century-old shipping law for bottling up a 40,000-ton supply of roadway salt.
The salt, which had been stuck in a Maine port and is needed for New Jersey’s roads this snowy winter, is now being shipped to Newark by a barge. But the barge will need three more trips to complete the delivery, the state Department of Transportation said.
“The barge was our Plan B,” department spokesman Steve Schapiro explained.
Last week, state Transportation Commissioner James Simpson complained the salt was stranded on the docks of Searsport, Maine, because the federal government had refused to grant New Jersey’s request for a waiver from the 1920 Merchant Marine Act. Also known as the Jones Act, the law bars foreign ships from making domestic deliveries to U.S. ports.
Simpson said he wanted the waiver so that a foreign-flagged ship, already in Searsport, could pick up New Jersey’s salt supplies and deliver them to the port of Newark. When the federal government denied the waiver request, finding it unwarranted, Simpson asserted that bureaucratic red tape was jeopardizing the lives of New Jersey motorists.
“I’m just ticked,” Simpson told reporters while discussing the salt crisis after a New Jersey Turnpike Authority board meeting Feb. 25. “This is a serious public safety issue.” (Wittkowski/Press of Atlantic City)
State Teachers Union Shatters Records for Political Spending
Total of nearly $20 million in political expenditures by NJEA and its PACs far exceeds lobbying budget for any other special-interest group.
The New Jersey Education Association finished 2013 with its biggest tab yet for lobbying and political spending – in fact, the amount far exceeded spending by any other individual lobbying organization in the state.
The teachers union, representing nearly 200,000 teachers and school staff statewide, spent more than $3 million on lobbying efforts last year, according to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.
Adding in record spending by its PAC and super PAC brings the union’s estimated total to more than $19.5 million spent in 2013, according to ELEC. (Mooney/NJSpotlight)
Planning Board Amended Meeting Schedule – March 10, 18, 31
PLANNING BOARD
AMENDMENT TO MEETING SCHEDULE
Special Public Meetings: March 10, March 18, March 31
In accordance with the provisions of the “Open Public Meetings Act,” please be advised that the Planning Board has scheduled special public meetings for:
• Monday, March 10, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium at the Benjamin Franklin Middle School, 335 North Van Dien Ave., Ridgewood, NJ, at which time the Board will continue the public hearing on the proposed H-Hospital Zone amendment to the Master Plan.
• Tuesday, March 18, 2014, at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium at the Benjamin Franklin Middle School, 335 North Van Dien Ave., Ridgewood, NJ, at which time the Board will continue the public hearing on the proposed H-Hospital Zone amendment to the Master Plan and have discussion regarding the North Walnut Street Redevelopment Plan.
• Monday, March 31, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium at the Benjamin Franklin Middle School, 335 North Van Dien Ave., Ridgewood, NJ, at which time the Board will continue the public hearing on the proposed H-Hospital Zone amendment to the Master Plan.
The Board may take official action during these Work and Public Meetings.
If it seems like your paycheck is mysteriously shrinking every year, it’s probably true and it’s certainly not a mystery as health insurance costs continue to climb steadily.
“Our latest report finds a continuing increase in healthcare premium costs for employees, with an emphasis on shifting costs for family members, spouses and dependents, going up at an even higher rate than for employees,” said Julie Stone, a senior consultant at Towers Watson Management.
“Nearly 50 percent of employers are increasing the cost for dependents at a higher rate or faster rate than employees, and here is also a large number of organizations that have implemented the spouse surcharge when the spouse doesn’t have coverage elsewhere,” Stone said.
So how much more do workplace benefits cost, on average?
“Costs have gone up for the last couple of years for employers in the neighborhood of 4 to 4½ percent,” Stone said. “But employees are picking up a good share of that, with the average employee increase over the past five years being 5 percent a year. That may not sound like a lot but it’s twice the CPI, it’s a lot more than people’s salaries are going up, so it’s pretty significant from a paycheck perspective.” (Matthau/NJ101.5)
Summer Job Openings Hoping to be Filled at YWCA Bergen County Job Fair
Become Part of the YWCA Team as a Summer Camp Counselor or Lifeguard
YWCA Bergen County will be holding a job fair in search of individuals who want to join our team as Summer Camp Counselors and Lifeguards. Positions available for three of our Summer Camps throughout Bergen County as well as Lifeguarding opportunities at our camps and Englewood swim programs.
Job fair will be held from 6:30 – 9:30 pm on March 27, 2014 in the Salamone Room at YWCA Bergen County, 112 Oak Street, Ridgewood. There will be information regarding summer camps, applications available, raffles and giveaways as well as on-site interviews with camp directors. For those interested in lifeguarding, there will be a FREE prerequisite water skills test occurring that night.
Camp Counselors must be at least 18 years of age and available to work June 23 – August 22, 2014. Lifeguards must be at least 15 years of age and able to work May 24 – August 31, 2014. For more information, please contact Kerry Jannicelli at 201-345-1906 or visitwww.ywcabergencounty.org.
Malaysia Airlines loses contact with plane en route to Beijing with 239 aboard
CBS/REUTERSMarch 7, 2014, 8:12 PM
A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing went missing over the South China Sea on Saturday, prompting China to send ships to scour the water for possible wreckage.
The airline, speaking several hours after the plane had been due to land in the Chinese capital, said it was still too early so say whether the aircraft had crashed. It said there had been no distress signal and it cited early speculation that the plane may have landed in Nanming in southern China.
As news of the disappearance filtered through to distraught friends and relatives who had been waiting for the flight to arrive in Beijing, Malaysia Airline said it was still investigating and took no questions at a brief news conference.
“Our team is currently calling the next-of-kin of passengers and crew,” the airlines’ group chief executive officer, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, said in a statement. “Focus of the airline is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members,” he said.
Putin mocks the West and threatens to turn off gas supplies
By Damien McElroy, Donetsk
Russian leader says does not want ‘new cold war’ but threatens to disrupt European gas supplies
Vladimir Putin has mocked diplomatic efforts to end the Ukraine crisis as Russia threatened to disrupt European gas supplies by cutting off sales to Kiev over its unpaid debts.
The Russian president said through his official spokesman that, despite deep disagreements with the West, he did not want a confrontation over Ukraine to spiral into a “new cold war”.
Nevertheless Dmitry Peskov ridiculed Western demands for direct talks between the Kremlin and the new Kiev government, claiming that the loss of credibility involved “puts a smile on our face”.
IRS agrees to hand over Lerner emails
By Bernie Becker
The IRS has agreed to turn over emails and other documents from Lois Lerner, a key player in the agency’s targeting controversy, the House Ways and Means Committee said Friday.
Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) threatened last month to subpoena those documents after criticizing the IRS for failing to comply with his request.
“This is a significant step forward and will help us complete our investigation into the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups,” Camp said in a statement.
Battle of the Brats : Teen suing parents rages at ‘spoiled’ baby boomers
By Alex Dickinson, Tara Palmeri and Jeane MacIntosh
March 7, 2014 | 9:01am
The New Jersey parents being sued for tuition by their entitled teenager were excoriated in a Friday rant on her new Facebook page as “spoiled” baby boomers who would rather feather a retirement nest than pay their kids’ college bills.
“I have been stunned by the financial greed of modern parents who are more concerned with retiring into some fantasy world rather than provide for their children’s college and young adult years,” a poster — presumed to be Morris Catholic HS senior Rachel Canning or a supporter — wrote in the pre-dawn web screed.
“Suburban baby boomer types are the spoiled lot, they make massive amount of money a year, they are used to flying to luxury destinations when they want, and buy things that they don’t need, people should be inclined to see things my way.”
Today I am writing to share with you the personal news that I was recently diagnosed with a rare type of breast cancer. While this news is admittedly difficult and challenging, I am grateful to report that I am working with a wonderful team of outstanding medical professionals in Boston who specialize in my type of cancer and that treatment has already begun.
My doctors are completely aware and fully supportive of my intent to maintain my professional and personal commitments during treatment. They know that GWMS is a top priority for me and they are on board with my goal to travel from Boston to Ridgewood between chemotherapy treatments so that I can be present at school as much as possible.
As many of you know, another top priority is the upcoming adoption of my son from China this spring. My doctors and I are very optimistic that this trip will go forward as planned and that I will bring home a son in April.
I have full confidence that during my periodic absences our school’s excellent administrators and staff will continue to move the school forward and that there will be minimal disruption to our learning community. In addition, in anticipation of my trip to China, the Ridgewood Board of Education recently approved the hiring of an excellent interim principal, Gene Solomon — a seasoned educator, Ridgewood resident and former middle school principal in Upper Saddle River — who will be covering for me during my adoption leave.
Much as I have confidence in the GWMS staff, I am also certain that our students will be fine. I care deeply about our GWMS children and for that reason I am planning to speak to them today via video, to tell them about my diagnosis and treatment plan and to reassure them that everything will be fine. News of illness can be difficult and frightening for children and it is important that their fears and concerns are addressed. I would encourage you to answer their questions with the same honesty and optimism that I share my news with you. In addition, our staff and professional counselors are always available to you and your children and can be reached by calling the main office.
At GWMS we continually stress the importance of respect, compassion and teamwork. These elements are the basis of a strong support system. Just as I am fortunate to have such a skilled and caring medical team managing my case and have complete confidence in their judgment and abilities, I am also grateful to have such a wonderful and compassionate body of staff, students, parents and guardians that make up the GWMS family.
These next several weeks will no doubt bring challenges and opportunities for learning those important lessons that go beyond the classroom. I thank you in advance for your thoughts, prayers and respect for my privacy during this very personal time and I look forward to sharing good news in the near future.
When I lived in Ridgewood, I often proposed solutions to Ridgewood’s many problems.
They were all good ideas. They were mostly ignored.
After 40 years, I had to move because of the village’s high taxes, but I still follow news about Ridgewood and now there is an issue I really can solve.
Some 400-plus kids in the village can’t cope with lunch that is provided by the schools or in a home-fixed brown bag.
Maybe their parents don’t like bags or don’t want to be bothered. So these kids need personal lunches.
Understandably, school staffers don’t want their days disrupted delivering personalized lunches and worrying about an extra threat to school security. Not so understandably, some parents who want personalized lunches for their kids – and some delis – are suing the school system.
There is a solution so simple no one can oppose it: Let the delis deliver a lunch to each child at home, just before he or she leaves for school.
