By JOSH GERSTEIN | 12/16/13 1:36 PM EST Updated: 12/16/13 2:32 PM EST
A federal judge ruled Monday that the National Security Agency program which collects information on nearly all telephone calls made to, from or within the United States is likely to be unconstitutional.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon found that the program appears to violate the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. He also said the Justice Department had failed to demonstrate that collecting the so-called metadata had helped to head off terrorist attacks.
The Food and Drug Administration says Monday, there is some evidence antibacterial soap may pose health
By MATTHEW PERRONE
— Dec. 16, 2013 2:07 PM EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — After more than 40 years of study, the federal government said Monday it has no evidence that the anti-bacterial chemicals used in countless common soaps and washes help prevent the spread of germs, and it is reviewing research suggesting they may pose health risks.
Regulators at the Food and Drug Administration said they are revisiting the safety of chemicals such as triclosan in light of recent studies that suggest the substances can interfere with hormone levels and spur the growth of drug-resistant bacteria.
The government’s preliminary ruling lends new support to outside researchers who have long argued that the chemicals are, at best, ineffective and at worst, a threat to public health.
“The FDA is finally making a judgment call here and asking industry to show us that these products are better than soap and water, and the data don’t substantiate that,” said Stuart Levy of Tufts University School of Medicine.
Under a proposed rule released Monday, the agency will require manufacturers to prove that anti-bacterial soaps and body washes are safe and more effective than plain soap and water. Products that are not shown to be safe and effective by late 2016 would have to be reformulated, relabeled or removed from the market.
Village Planning Board Executive Session – December 17 at 7PM
Executive Session – 7 PM
to Precede December 17, 2013 Meeting
In accordance with the provisions of the “Open Public Meetings Act,” please be advised that prior to the start of the December 17, 2013 Planning Board Work Session and Public Meeting which is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Village Hall Courtroom, 131 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey, the Planning Board will hold an executive session at 7:00 p.m.
With the exception of Executive Sessions, all meetings of the Ridgewood Planning Board (i.e., official public meetings, work session meetings, pre-meeting assemblies and special meetings) are public meetings which are always open to members of the general public.
Creamer-Sanzari suit against NJDOT over road work goes to court
Monday December 16, 2013, 7:21 AM
BY KAREN RO– USE
STAFF WRITER
The Record
The contractors who said they could not complete the Route 3 bridge project before the Super Bowl without an infusion of cash from the state are suing the New Jersey Department of Transportation for money they say they are owed on an unrelated project nearby.
Creamer-Sanzari — a joint venture of the major construction contractors J. Fletcher Creamer & Son Inc. and Joseph M. Sanzari Inc. – sued the transportation department a year ago over a project at Route 120 and Paterson Plank Road. The job involved widening Route 120, redecking two bridges, and making improvements to the road surface, traffic signals, sidewalk and drainage, among other work.
The contractors said in the suit that when NJDOT opened up the project to bidders in 2008, there was concern that the target completion dates were not realistic given the amount of time that utilities would need to relocate infrastructure.
“The bidders questioned how the project could be completed in 22 months when the utility relocations of PSE&G alone, exclusive of notice periods, required 44 months of work,” the lawsuit said.
“NJDOT essentially told the bidders not to worry,” the lawsuit contended.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/235973981_Dispute_over_road__work_goes_to_court.html#sthash.bvnWAXgG.dpuf
The disastrous ObamaCare rollout unmasks liberalism’s paternalistic dishonesty.
Matt Welch from the January 2014 issue
Back in 2009, to accuse President Barack Obama of lying about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was to crawl onto a pretty lonely branch. In December of that year, when I leveled the charge in response to the president’s knowing mischaracterization of the Congressional Budget Office’s scoring of his signature piece of legislation, I was called “flagrantly dishonest” by none other than the (rightly respected) civil liberties blogger/reporter Glenn Greenwald.
As recently as November 2012-more than two years after the administration published grandfathering regulations as part of its health care legislation, rendering ludicrous the president’s frequently repeated pledge that “if you like your health plan you can keep it”-much of the liberal commentariat was calling the electoral contest between Obama and Republican Mitt Romney a referendum on political honesty. The only way for truth to prevail, they argued, was to vote for the Democrat.
“We may find out whether a ‘post truth’ candidate can be elected president,” Washington Post “Plum Line” blogger Greg Sargent warned just before the election. “If there is one constant to this campaign, it’s that Romney has startled many observers by operating from the basic premise that there is literally no set of boundaries he needs to follow when it comes to the veracity of his assertions.”
RIDGEWOOD BOARD OF ED MEETS TONIGHT, MONDAY, DECEMBER 16
RIDGEWOOD BOARD OF ED MEETS TONIGHT, MONDAY, DECEMBER 16: The Board meets on floor 3 of the Education Center, 49 Cottage Place, starting at 7:30 p.m. The agenda link is pasted below.
• Link in Live: Ridgewood Board of Education public meetings may be viewed as live webcasts via the district website (www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us).
• Meetings are also televised live on Optimum channel 77, and FiOS channel 33.
• After the live streaming event, Board meetings will be archived and can be found in the BOE section of the website under “Board of Ed Webcasts.”
The Valley Hospital’s Center for Family Education is offering a “What is Cord Blood Banking?” January 14
The Valley Hospital’s Center for Family Education is offering a “What is Cord Blood Banking?” This one-session class will discuss the topic of cord blood banking, which is the collection and storage of the stem cells found in your newborn’s umbilical cord. Today, cord blood stem cells have been used successfully in the treatment of over 70 life-threatening diseases. When you bank your baby’s cord blood, you are making a choice that could potentially provide a life saving treatment for your child or a family member.
This 1 hour class will be held on Tuesday, January 14 from 6:15 p.m. – 7:15 p.m., at the Destination Maternity’s Learning Studio, located at Neptune Plaza, 332 Route 4 East, 2nd floor, Paramus. To register online, please visit www.ValleyHealth.com/FamilyEducation. For more information or if you have any questions, please call 201-291-6151.
Poll finds nearly 4 in 5 blame Obamacare for changes in their health insurance
Sunday December 15, 2013, 10:54 PM
BY RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR AND JENNIFER AGIESTA
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Americans who already have health insurance are blaming President Obama’s health care overhaul for rising premiums and deductibles, a new survey has found, and three of every four respondents said the rollout of coverage for the uninsured has gone poorly.
The Associated Press-GfK Poll found that the issue of health care remains politically charged going into next year’s congressional elections. Keeping the refurbished website HealthCare.gov running smoothly is only one of the president’s challenges.
The poll found a striking level of unease about the law among people who have health insurance and aren’t looking for any more government help. Those are the 85 percent of Americans who the White House says don’t have to be worried about the president’s historic push to expand coverage for the uninsured.
In the survey, nearly half of those with job-based or other private coverage said their policies will be changing next year — mostly for the worse. Nearly four in five (77 percent) blamed the changes on the Affordable Care Act, even though the trend toward leaner coverage predates the law’s passage.
Sixty-nine percent said their premiums will be going up, while 59 percent said annual deductibles or copayments are increasing.
Ridgewood High School played host to the National History Bee and Bowl
Photo: Varsity History Bowl team members Thomas Cleary, Benjamin Bechtold, Syed Raza and Peter Coti pose with their second place award.
Ridgewood NJ, On December 7, Ridgewood High School played host to schools participating in the National History Bee and Bowl, with nearly 40 RHS students participating. Several Ridgewood teams made it to the finals, with one varsity team taking second place. Anthony Tokarz won second place in his individual history bee junior varsity tournament. Four RHS teams have qualified for the state tournament, to be held next month at Seton Hall University.
Ridgewood Football’s Eric Lewis is The Record Defensive Player of the Year
Sunday, December 15, 2013 Last updated: Sunday December 15, 2013, 9:35 AM
BY KEITH IDEC
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Chuck Johnson figured it’d be quite some time before a Ridgewood linebacker became the next Tripp Telesco.
It didn’t take long, however, for the middle linebacker who became a starter the season after Telesco set Ridgewood’s single-season record for tackles in 2011 to make Ridgewood’s longtime football coach change his mind. Eric Lewis evolved into such a tackling machine for the Maroons he broke both Telesco’s single-season mark and Ridgewood’s record for career tackles.
Lewis led Ridgewood (11-1) with 141 total tackles this season, including 25 1/2 for losses. The Record Defensive Player of the Year also finished with 236 career tackles in just two seasons as a starter (23 games), four more than Greg St. Pierre produced as a three-year starter in 27 games from 1988-90.
Donor drive last resort for ailing 22-year-old
Monday, December 16, 2013
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
RIDGEWOOD — For two years, Anthony Daniels has been fighting a ferocious form of cancer, twice beating it into remission. Months ago, the cancer returned.
Now, the 22-year-old village resident is praying for a Christmas miracle — one that might take place Saturday.
Just four days before the holiday, Ridgewood Village Hall will host a donor drive, aimed at finding possible matches for Daniels.
During the drive, which runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., healthy people ages 18 to 44 will undergo a cheek swab. Volunteers must be willing to donate to any patient.
A match could mean a lifesaving bone marrow stem cell transplant for Daniels, a Fordham University business student and former Ridgewood High School hockey player who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 20.
Reader says so the storm came and went ,and now the mess … from leaves mingled into snow plowed piles, storm drains blocked.
if the town doesn’t have the resources to pick up the leaves and clear the streets in a timely manner (before the arrival of winter storms), then perhaps it is time to rethink the trees.
They are large and many (contrary to the town’s belief) are not healthy -infested with carpenter ants, trunks hollowed. Cut the large trees down.
Replace with smaller flowering pear trees (this is a type of tree not one that actually grows pears but instead grows in a pear shape) … and if the town can’t afford this – then allow me as a homeowner to do so to the trees (perhaps grant me a tax break for paying myself to remove your tree and replace it) …
something has to give … new ideas. new thinking. because currently, this is a mess.
oh and super tall PSE&G poles – make me laugh. I saw poles and wires down because of TOWN TREES … not because the wind knocked over the poles. any hoot.
this comment is just meant to get us all thinking outside of the box on how as a town we can manage the leaves
Sewer service nj – All sewer and drain service in NJ by A1 sewer and drain 201-645-0888
Thousands of HealthCare.gov sign-ups didn’t make it to insurers
Posted by Sarah Kliff on December 14, 2013 at 10:00 am
Enrollment records for close to 15,000 HealthCare.gov shoppers were not initially transmitted to the insurance plans they selected, according to a preliminary federal estimate to be released Saturday.
While these cases pose a challenge for the Obama administration, officials say they believe the situation is improving. Since early December, fewer than 1 percent of HealthCare.gov enrollments did not make their way to health insurance plans.
Reports of erroneous WA health exchange debitsbank accounts
by ELISA HAHN / KING 5 News
Posted on December 10, 2013 at 8:28 AM
For the second week in a row, the Washington Healthplanfinder website is down, and it’s causing problems for people who are dealing with billing issues. Some of them say the website is mistakenly debiting their accounts.
Shannon Bruner of Indianola logged on to her checking account Monday morning, and found she was almost 800 dollars in the negative.
“The first thing I thought was, ‘I got screwed,’” she said.
The Bruners enrolled for insurance on the Washington Healthplanfinder website, last October. They say they selected the bill pay date to be December 24th. Instead the Washington Healthplanfinder drafted the 835 dollar premium Monday.
Josh Bruner started his own business this year as an engineering recruiter. They said it’s forced them to pay a lot of attention to their bills and their bank accounts.
“Big knot in my gut because we’re trying to keep it together,” said Shannon Bruner. “It’s important to me that this kind of stuff doesn’t happen.”
They’re not alone.
One viewer emailed KING 5 saying, “They drafted my account this morning for a second time.”
Another woman on Facebook with a similar problem commented, “We are all in the same boat.”
Stable Gallery in Ridgewood hosts photography exhibit
Friday, December 13, 2013
BY EILEEN LA FORGIA
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
Teaneck resident Dena Florczyk is using her photography to help raise awareness of the challenges facing school children in Nigeria.
Her photography exhibit, “No Longer Afraid to Dream,” is being held at the Stable Gallery in Ridgewood during December.
Florczyk is a teacher at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Teaneck. She is also the founder and director of The Nigerian School Project, a non-profit educational organization that assists teachers and school children in Nigeria, West Africa.
Florczyk first visited Nigeria 10 years ago.
“I became aware of the need and I felt I could help in some way, so I came back and created an organization, ‘The Nigerian School Project.’
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/arts_entertainment/art/235690461_Stable_Gallery_in_Ridgewood_hosts_photography_exhibit.html#sthash.130cO926.dpuf
