Record High in U.S. Say Big Government Greatest Threat
Now 72% say it is greater threat than big business or big labor
by Jeffrey M. Jones
PRINCETON, NJ — Seventy-two percent of Americans say big government is a greater threat to the U.S. in the future than is big business or big labor, a record high in the nearly 50-year history of this question. The prior high for big government was 65% in 1999 and 2000. Big government has always topped big business and big labor, including in the initial asking in 1965, but just 35% named it at that time.
Christie takes on “Pajama Boy” encouraging volunteerism
Christie hits back at Obama’s health care ad by encouraging volunteerism
Wednesday December 18, 2013, 6:28 PM
BY MELISSA HAYES
STATE HO– USE BUREAU
The Record
From the Political State blog on NorthJersey.com
Governor Christie has joined the growing number of people criticizing the Obama administration’s new ad aimed at enrolling people in health care plans.
Christie, a Republican, visited Eva’s Kitchen in Paterson Wednesday to feed the homeless and working poor as part of his administration’s annual “Season of Service” effort.
Afterward he tweeted, “In New Jersey, we are spending the cold days of December volunteering. #GetOutOfYourPJs #SeasonofService,” with a link to a picture of himself in a blue apron and plastic gloves serving burgers at the soup kitchen.
“Get out of your pajamas, put on and apron and get volunteering,” read the text alongside the image
Target Confirms Unauthorized Access to Payment Card Data in U.S. Stores
MINNEAPOLIS — December 19, 2013
Target today confirmed it is aware of unauthorized access to payment card data that may have impacted certain guests making credit and debit card purchases in its U.S. stores. Target is working closely with law enforcement and financial institutions, and has identified and resolved the issue.
“Target’s first priority is preserving the trust of our guests and we have moved swiftly to address this issue, so guests can shop with confidence. We regret any inconvenience this may cause,” said Gregg Steinhafel, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Target. “We take this matter very seriously and are working with law enforcement to bring those responsible to justice.”
Approximately 40 million credit and debit card accounts may have been impacted between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15, 2013. Target alerted authorities and financial institutions immediately after it was made aware of the unauthorized access, and is putting all appropriate resources behind these efforts. Among other actions, Target is partnering with a leading third-party forensics firm to conduct a thorough investigation of the incident.
More information is available at Target’s corporate website. Guests who suspect unauthorized activity should contact Target at: 866-852-8680.
NJT ANNOUNCES COMPLETION OF SYSTEMWIDE RAIL MOBILE TICKETING ROLLOUT
Convenient, easy ticket purchases now available through MyTix app for all NJ TRANSIT rail lines
December 18, 2013
NEWARK, NJ — NJ TRANSIT today announced the completion of a systemwide rail rollout of its mobile ticketing program, as MyTix expanded to the remaining two rail lines: the Northeast Corridor and Atlantic City Rail Line. MyTix enables customers to purchase and display rail one-way tickets, weekly passes and monthly passes anytime, anywhere, using their smartphones.
With the final phase of the mobile ticketing rail rollout complete, customers may now use MyTix for travel to and from all 165 NJ TRANSIT rail stations.
NJ TRANSIT first introduced MyTix in April 2013 as a pilot program on the Pascack Valley Line, as well as between Penn Station New York and the Meadowlands Rail Station for special events, to test the functionality of the app and determine the feasibility of expanding it to include other rail lines. In September, NJ TRANSIT expanded MyTix to the Main/Bergen County and Port Jervis lines, followed in October by the Montclair-Boonton and Morris & Essex lines, and most recently in November to the North Jersey Coast and Raritan Valley lines, as part of a gradual systemwide rail rollout of the program. Some improvements made to the agency’s MyTix app were the direct result of valuable feedback from customers using the app during the gradual rollout.
“As part of our ongoing efforts to tap into the latest technology to improve the overall customer experience, we aimed to place our mobile ticketing app into the hands of all of our rail customers by the end of this year, and we have met our goal right on schedule,” said NJ TRANSIT Executive Director James Weinstein. “All rail customers now have the ability to treat their smartphones as both a ticket vending machine and rail ticket or pass all in one, providing for a seamless experience just in time for the busy holiday travel season.”
MyTix is available for free download on any web-enabled iOS or Android operating system, via the App Store for iOS devices and the Google Play Store for Android devices. To purchase tickets via MyTix, customers must first install the app and then create an account, which will save customers’ profile information and history of ticket purchases for ease of use. Purchased tickets must be activated prior to boarding the train and displayed to train crews upon request (one-way tickets expire two hours and 45 minutes after activation; monthly passes self-activate on the first day of the calendar month and remain active for the entire month; weekly passes self-activate at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday and remain active through 6 a.m. the following Saturday). Customers transferring at Secaucus Junction or traveling to and from Newark Liberty International Airport Station will need to scan the ticket barcode on the fare gate readers to pass through the gates.
MyTix was designed with input from customer focus groups, as well as NJ TRANSIT frontline rail employees and customer service staff.
For more information on MyTix, visit njtransit.com and go to “Ticket Options,” then click on “MyTix” from the drop-down menu.
Franklin Lakes man indicted for posing as ‘Real Housewives’ lawyer
Wednesday, December 18, 2013 Last updated: Wednesday December 18, 2013, 9:55 PM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
A Franklin Lakes man charged with falsely representing himself to police as a lawyer was formally indicted this week.
Mark J. McGuire, 53, told Ridgewood police last April he was an attorney representing “Real Housewives of New Jersey” stars Jacqueline and Christopher Laurita, authorities said.
McGuire was arrested by police in September, charged with a single count of unauthorized practice of law.
McGuire spent more than 45 minutes with the Lauritas as they were interviewed by police in April, following their involvement in a fracas at the grand opening of a salon in Ridgewood.
file photo Ridgewood Train Station closed at 6am and 17 degrees
Well PJ, it happened again. Today, for the second day, the Train station was CLOSED at 6 am, due to the cashier being on Vacation. Being only 17 degree’s, we ( About 30 of us ) were all glad the train was on time.
The inside is a joke. No trim on windows, it looks so unfinshed. How about the Assist. to the Village manager drive from her house on Woodland ave opening the Station at 5:30 ? Yeah …right. It least it will be warmer toward the end of the week. Why do I feel it will happen again ?
With sidewalks barely clean of snow ,Council considers sidewalk smoking ban at Valley, schools
Wednesday December 18, 2013, 10:37 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
The Ridgewood Council is weighing the pros and cons of a request to prohibit smoking on public sidewalks, specifically the village-owned walkways that abut all Board of Education and Valley Hospital properties.
Preliminary discussion on the appeal, which was made by school and hospital officials, has yielded split thinking among council members. The council entertained similar discussion earlier this year when it passed an ordinance creating a smoking ban in municipal parks.
“I had conversations with Dan Fishbein as well as Audrey Meyers … both of them would like us to extend our smoking ban in parks to the sidewalks,” said Mayor Paul Aronsohn of his recent talks with the Ridgewood schools superintendent and Valley’s chief executive. “This is a request from both of them, but more so from Dr. Fishbein and the Board of Education that we make it so no one can smoke on the sidewalks adjacent to the public schools and Valley Hospital.”
The Case That Could Topple Obamacare
By Pema Levy / December 17 2013 3:05 PM
Obamacare may have its problems, including more bugs than you can find in the cornfields of Nebraska, but its legal worries were meant to end after the Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate, the heart of the Affordable Care Act.
Now, as the technologists charged with making healthcare.gov work report progress, lawyers are re-entering the fray. A little-heard of challenge currently making its way through the court system may represent opponents’ last best hope of, as they are fond of saying, driving a stake through the heart of the law.
It all started in 2011, when Jonathan H. Adler, a conservative law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, shot an email to his friend Michael Cannon, a health policy expert at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. Adler thought he had spotted an error in Obamacare that could unravel a significant portion of the law.
At issue are the federal subsidies for individuals buying insurance in their state’s health care exchanges. The law stipulates that those subsidies should be allotted for plans purchased “through an Exchange established by the State under Section 1311” (italics added), a reference to the section of the law that establishes state-run exchanges.
Moody’s lower N.J. debt outlook to negative, citing slow recovery
TRENTON — Wall Street analysts at Moody’s Investors Service today lowered their outlook on New Jersey’s debt from stable to negative, saying the state remains hamstrung by rising costs and “a sluggish economic recovery” despite Gov. Chris Christie’s efforts.
The analysis by Moody’s warns that public workers’ retirement benefits and other costs are climbing rapidly, and that revenue is not growing fast enough to bridge the gap.
Although Moody’s gives Christie credit for taking a “proactive approach” to control pension and health benefit liabilities, the overall assessment was dire for the Republican governor at a time when his advisers are pushing for a 10 percent tax cut.
“The state will face challenges in improving its very weak liquidity position, due to the state’s sluggish economic recovery, which has hindered revenue performance,” Moody’s analysts wrote in a note to investors today. (Rizzo/Star-Ledger)
Seventy percent of New Jersey’s school districts and charter schools have volunteered to take part in field testing this spring for the new state tests from PARCC — the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.
Fifty-seven districts in Bergen County and 17 in Passaic County will participate, ranging from small, affluent suburbs such as Alpine to large cities struggling with poverty such as Paterson and Passaic.
The state Department of Education said there would be no consequences for students, teachers or schools in the trial run of the new online tests for math and English. The 19-state partnership is developing the tests, coming in spring 2015, to reflect the goals of the Common Core, a voluntary set of national standards that aim to add clarity and rigor to what children learn in each grade.
District officials have said they want to participate in the dry run of the online tests to make sure their technology works. Some parents, however, have complained that students who take the field test will spend excessive time in assessments because they will also have to take the current regimen, the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge. State officials countered that students taking the PARCC field test in March or May will take only a portion of it, and only one or two classrooms in each school will participate. (Brody/The Record)
Bergen GOP Rivals Donovan and Yudin declare peace pact for 2014 campaign
HACKENSACK – On a snowy day in Bergen County’s capital, Hackensack still did not freeze over. But for many political observers of Bergen’s strife-torn Republican Party, Hell did.
Longtime GOP rivals Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan and Bergen Republican Chairman Bob Yudin stood together in front of a crowd of close to 50 people at Bergen GOP headquarters in Hackensack and declared a truce, proclaiming unity in the face of what could be a bruising 2014 re-election campaign for Donovan.
“Kathe Donovan has been in Bergen County elective office for many years, and her name recognition and record of service to the residents of our 70 municipalities is unparalleled,” Yudin said. “We don’t always agree on the issues, but that’s what makes the Republican Party stronger – respect for our differences. I support Kathe Donovan for her re-election to County Executive, and ask that all Republicans come together and do the same. Only together will we win in November.
“This has been something that needed to be done,” Yudin added. “The unity of our party in Bergen County is paramount above all. There is so much at stake this November.” (Bonamo/PolitickerNJ)
Mug shot ban headings for vote; news group adamantly opposed
TRENTON — New Jersey lawmakers plan to vote on legislation to make police booking photos of suspects confidential — a bill that’s opposed by the group that represents 20 daily newspapers and other media outlets serving the state.
Bill A-3906, which would make mug shots off-limits unless there is a conviction, has been scheduled by Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver, D-Essex, a primary sponsor, for a vote Thursday. The proposal has yet to be taken up in the Senate. It would need approvals in both houses before it could be sent to Gov. Chris Christie for his signature.
Laws governing access to public records vary from state to state, but the proposal would make New Jersey one of the few places where newspapers and websites wouldn’t be allowed to use mug shots at the time of a booking.
The New Jersey Press Association, a media trade group, said the legislation is “contrary to New Jersey’s long-standing, strong public policy of open government, including ready access to government records.’’ (Jordan/Asbury Park Press)
Incomes drop in Bergen and Passaic counties
Tuesday December 17, 2013, 11:34 PM
BY KATHLEEN LYNN AND DAVE SHEINGOLD
STAFF WRITERS
The Record
Incomes in Bergen and Passaic counties remain well below the levels of 2000, according to U.S. census figures released Tuesday — the result of a deep recession, a listless job market, and the flow of jobs and affluent households east to New York City and urban Hudson County.
The incomes posted small gains in 2012, but since 2000, Bergen’s median household income declined 6 percent after inflation, to $84,300, while Passaic County incomes plummeted 15 percent to $57,500.
Most towns in the two counties registered income losses. The declines were based on data collected for the 2000 census and a five-year period running from the start of 2008 through 2012.
Will Your College Go Out of Business Before You Graduate ?
Posted on January 26, 2013
I’ve been getting a lot of questions from High School kids asking whether or not they should go to college. The answer is yes.
College is where you find out about yourself. It’s where you learn how to learn. It’s where you get exposure to new ideas. For those of us who are into business you learn the languages of business, accounting, finance, marketing and sales in college.
The question is not whether or not you should go to school, the question for the class of 2014 is what is your college plan and what is the likelihood that your college or university you attend will still be in business by the time you want to graduate.
Still in business ? Yep. When I look at the university and college systems around the country I see the newspaper industry.
The newspaper industry was once deemed indestructible. Then this thing called the internet came along and took away their classified business. The problem wasn’t really that their classifieds disappeared. It was more that they had accumulated a ton of debt and had over invested in physical plant and assets that could not adapt to the new digital world.
When revenue fell the debt was still there, as were all the big buildings they had purchased, all those presses they had bought and the acquisitions they had made declined in value, but the debt accumulated to pay for them never went away.
