Train Station Pedestrian Tunnel Closed from October 7 to End of October
Beginning on or about Monday, October 7 and continuing through the end of October 2013, the pedestrian tunnel at Ridgewood Station will be closed from all five points of entry (stairs and ramps) due to rehabilitation of the tunnel walls.
During this time, customers may use the stairs or elevators serving the Franklin Avenue underpass for access to and from Garber Square, Wilsey Square, North Broad Street and the center platform serving tracks 3 and 1.
Customers should allow for additional time during this time.
We regret any inconvenience and thank you for your patience
Even in shutdown, Feds get overtime, comp time, ‘Sunday pay’
By PAUL BEDARD | SEPTEMBER 30, 2013 AT 2:19 PM
A federal government shutdown will temporarily cut off pay of thousands of Uncle Sam’s workers, but for those considered “excepted employees,” there could be a nice salary bump thanks to rules allowing overtime, compensatory time and other benefits provided to those the administration feels too important to furlough.
In advance of the potential shutdown, the Office of Personnel Management distributed a 30-page “Guidance for Shutdown Furloughs” that spells out who will get what, if anything, if President Obama and House Republicans can’t negotiate a break in the budget stalemate by Monday night, the end of the fiscal year.
Most workers won’t be considered excepted employees, but OPM emphasized that it’s not because their work isn’t valued. “Excepted employees include employees who are performing emergency work involving the safety of human life or the protection of property or performing certain other types of excepted work,” said the guide.
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As a result, they won’t receive pay during the shutdown, though in the past Congress has approved backpay.
Climategate II: leaked emails show struggle to deal with warming lull
Published September 20, 2013
Associated Press
STOCKHOLM – Scientists working on a landmark U.N. report on climate change are struggling to explain why global warming appears to have slowed down in the past 15 years even though greenhouse gas emissions keep rising.
Leaked documents obtained by The Associated Press show there are deep concerns among governments over how to address the issue ahead of next week’s meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Climate skeptics have used the lull in surface warming since 1998 to cast doubt on the scientific consensus that humans are cooking the planet by burning fossil fuels and cutting down CO2-absorbing forests.
The IPCC report is expected to affirm the human link with greater certainty than ever, but the panel is under pressure to also address the recent lower rate of warming, which scientists say is likely due to heat going deep into the ocean and natural climate fluctuations.
“I think to not address it would be a problem because then you basically have the denialists saying, ‘Look the IPCC is silent on this issue,”‘ said Alden Meyer, of the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists.
Halperin: Obama Okay with Shutdown Because Media Has His Back
Intentionally or not, Monday on Morning Joe, Time’s Mark Halperin revealed to the world how the American media’s pro-Obama bias will in part be to blame for any coming government shutdown. When asked if President Obama had an incentive to negotiate with the GOP, Halperin explained that, “The White House does not have much incentive. They think the trends are going to go in their direction at the end of the week, or early next week at the latest; because again, the press is largely sympathetic to their arguments on this.”
In short: The government is going to shut down because Obama knows the media has his back and therefore feels no pressure to enter into negotiations that might avert a shutdown. In fact, Obama is apparently okay letting the government shut down because he knows the media won’t make him pay a political price for it.
So what we have here is the media’s pro-Obama bias as a big factor in a potential shutdown.
As we have seen all year, when it comes to settled laws on issues such as gun control, voter ID, and immigration, the media are big believers in the kind of “civil bipartisan compromise” that results in changing those laws — as long as all that “civil bipartisan compromise” comes from the GOP.
But the media have completely abandoned their championing of “civil bipartisan compromise” with respect to this budget crisis, and as a result, Obama knows he has the media on his side and is therefore comfortable in his position not to negotiate. And Obama’s refusal to compromise is hurtling America towards a government shutdown.
Saturday, October 5th – Join your friends and neighbors for an evening of literary and epicurean delights to benefit the Ridgewood Library Foundation. Be a guest at one of 20 Ridgewood dinner parties, each based on a different literary theme with a matching menu. You need not read the book to have a great evening. DINNER at 7:30PM – then on to the Library for dessert and dancing!
Proceeds from this event will support the Library Renaissance, beginning with the new Teen Center on the first floor.
Event guests will join friends and neighbors at one of 20 Ridgewood dinner parties featuring tantalizing menus inspired by a book selected by the host. Book selections include “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Like Water for Chocolate” by Laura Esquivel and “50 Shades of Grey” by E.L. James.
After dinner, guests will make their way to the Ridgewood Library for the Dessert Party featuring Ridgewood ’s own Dads’ Night Band, sumptuous desserts, and an open bar.
For questions, please email cyurgelonis@ridgewoodlibrary.org.
On October 5th the Ridgewood Cooperative Nursery School is Hosting the Fabulous Fall festival at Graydon Pool in Ridgewood, NJ. This fair has been in existence for 35 years. This year’s festival will feature food, crafters, local businesses, kids area, music and more. The hours are from 10:00 am to 4:30 pm Rain Date October 12th For more information or to become a vendor email [email protected]
Obesity up 25 percent in NYC
By Carl Campanile
September 30, 2013 | 3:40am
Reduce the obesity rate in New York City? Fat chance!
More New Yorkers than ever are living large, despite Nanny Bloomberg’s war on sugary drinks and fast foods, statistics obtained by The Post reveal.
The city’s obesity rate among adults has skyrocketed 25 percent since Mayor Bloomberg took office in 2002, city Health Department figures show.
That year, nearly one in five New Yorkers was considered obese. Now almost one in four is.
The figures are surprising given Gotham’s residents are doing better according to other health indicators.
For example, the percentage of adults who drink one or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day dropped to 28 percent last year from 36 percent in 2007, says the Health Department’s Take Care New York 2012 report.
Ridgewood NJ, The Couture Baby Celebrates 1 Year Anniversary , Fri, October 04, 2013 from 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM The Couture Baby, 82 E. Ridgewood Avenue
Award Winning Author, Songwriter, & Silhouette Artist Clay Rice will be in our store on Oct. 4th for Story time, songs and beautiful silhouettes.
You can start booking your appointments Aug. 19th. Appointments are from 10:30am-4:30pm (5min per child) with music & story times at 11:30am & 3:00pm. **SPECIAL OFFER** Everyone that books an appointment will receive a coupon to use in the store for 15% off store purchases and an exclusive free headband made just for the event! **Coupon only good day of event with paid booking, no cash value, in store only, not valid for christening gowns/outfits
Will Obamacare hurt job creation and marriage?
Diana Furchtgott-Roth Archives
Sept. 27, 2013, 6:30 a.m. EDT Commentary: Families and employers pay the price
At one time, getting a job was not that much of a problem. Neither was getting married. But the Affordable Care Act appears to create substantial disincentives both to hiring and marriage, potentially changing the fabric of American society in serious ways.
Let’s first look at hiring.
The Affordable Care Act is partly responsible for the slow jobs recovery. If employers with 50 or more employees do not offer the right kind of health insurance, and at least one employee gets subsidized coverage on the exchange, they are faced with penalties of $2,000 per employee per year. Since the first 30 workers are exempt from the penalty, moving from 49 to 50 workers can cost an employer $40,000 a year.
No wonder that many small businesses are opting to stay at 49 workers. If they decide to expand, they can use temporary workers or contract employees.
Bob Funk, president and founder of Express Employment Services, the fifth-largest employment agency in America, told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published last week, “Obamacare has been an absolute boon for my business…We’re up 8% this year. But it’s just terrible for the country.”
Funk continued, “Firms are just very reluctant to hire full-time workers. So they are taking on more temporary help, which is what we do.”
Companies can get around the penalty by hiring part-time workers, because they do not owe the $2,000 penalty on those who work fewer than 30 hours a week. Many companies such as SeaWorld SEAS -1.05% , Wal-Mart WMT -0.35% , and Lands’ End SHLD -2.20% , are substituting part-time for full-time workers.
House Republicans say Dems trying to run out clock on government shutdown
By Julian Pecquet and Molly K. Hooper – 09/29/13 04:22 PM E
Trading in colorful metaphors just hours after sending a spending bill to the Senate, the conservative group, led by Republican Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-Wash.), accused Democrats of refusing to negotiate. The Senate and President Obama have vowed to reject the Republican’s effort to delay the president’s healthcare law by one year.
Washington’s shutdown blame game is already in full force – and the government isn’t even closed yet.
About 20 House Republicans gathered on the steps of the United States Senate on Sunday afternoon, a time usually reserved in the city for watching the Redskins. Instead, tourists gathered to watch Republican after Republican demanding that the Senate come back in session, accusing the Democratic controlled chamber of being “lazy” and Majority Leader Harry Reid of taking his ball and going home rather than negotiating with GOP leadership over the weekend.
Boehner Attacks Senate ‘Arrogance’ as Deadline Approaches
WASHINGTON–House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) issued a statement blasting Democrats for not reconvening the Senate sooner, in the latest round of recriminations over a rapidly approaching government shutdown.
ABC’s Jonathan Karl: ‘Chances of a Government Shutdown at 99.9%’
ABC is reporting that it is now almost certain Congress and the White House will not reach an agreement to avoid a government shutdown.
On Sunday’s This Week, ABC’s chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl said, “I would now put the chances of a government shutdown at 99.9 percent”
Wall Street braces for volatility as shutdown seems likely
By Ryan Vlastelica | Reuters – 14 hours ago
By Ryan Vlastelica
NEW YORK (Reuters) – As a last-minute deal to resolve spending negotiations in Washington appeared less likely, U.S. stock investors braced for what had previously seemed remote: a shutdown of the U.S. government that could spark a major equity decline.
Rising polls boost Lonegan campaign in Senate race against Booker
By Ted Sherman/The Star-Ledger
BOGOTA — Steve Lonegan was 35 points down to Newark Mayor Cory Booker a few weeks ago, but having a good time.
His campaign for the U.S. Senate seemed a desultory sort of affair, not far removed from the kind he ran when he would go house to house, knocking on doors seeking votes to become mayor of Bogota, the blue-collar Bergen County town he still called home, and where he once proposed banning Spanish-language billboards.
Surrounded by a small, young staff of true believers with a devotion toward their candidate bordering on religious zeal (many living at his house, which has become the de facto campaign headquarters), the die-hard conservative was raising money at gun ranges. He does a lot of gun ranges.
He went to Newark to shake hands and tweak Booker, his Democratic opponent in the upcoming Oct. 16 special election to fill the seat of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.). He called for the decriminalization of pot. Banning abortions. Killing Obamacare. And he expressed admiration for tea party darling Ted Cruz, the outspoken senator from Texas reviled these days even by some members of his own party.
He made people mad; made them laugh — both favorite pastimes.
Then he woke up one morning last week to find that he was only 12 points behind.
And although many people think a margin of 12 percentage points is not accurate, nor a turning point, officials in this maverick campaign are suddenly in high gear, calling the race far from over.
Glenn Greenwald working on new NSA revelations
By JENNY BARCHFIELD
Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Two American journalists known for their investigations of the United States’ government said Saturday they’ve teamed up to report on the National Security Agency’s role in what one called a “U.S. assassination program.”
The journalists provided no evidence of the purported U.S. program at the news conference, nor details of who it targeted.
Jeremy Scahill, a contributor to The Nation magazine and the New York Times best-selling author of “Dirty Wars,” said he will be working with Glenn Greenwald, the Rio-based journalist who has written stories about U.S. surveillance programs based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
“The connections between war and surveillance are clear. I don’t want to give too much away but Glenn and I are working on a project right now that has at its center how the National Security Agency plays a significant, central role in the U.S. assassination program,” said Scahill, speaking to moviegoers in Rio de Janeiro, where the documentary based on his book made its Latin American debut at the Rio Film Festival.
STUDY: 47% of jobs at risk of being automated in next 20 years..
What Undercover Boss and The Jetsons Tell Us About the Future of Jobs
By Miles Brundage
In the early days of artificial intelligence research, it was commonplace for the well-educated academics in the field to (mistakenly) think that being “intelligent” meant being good at things that other well-educated academic researchers struggled at, like playing chess. We now know, however, that it’s far harder to get robots to do things that come naturally to us (like identify objects and pick them up) than it is to get them to prove logical theorems or find patterns in huge volumes of data—things we humans struggle at. This and other counter-intuitive trends in AI and research on the nature of human intelligence have discouraged researchers from trying to predict which jobs will be automated, but a provocative new study by Carl Frey and Michael Osborne at Oxford University tries to do just that, and their findings are alarming.
By Sandhya Somashekhar, Lena H. Sun and Sarah Kliff, Published: September 27 | Updated: Saturday, September 28, 12:07 AM
Buying health insurance will be as easy as purchasing a plane ticket or shopping on Amazon, the president has promised.
Maybe, but perhaps not on Tuesday — the day that millions of Americans are supposed to be able to start buying coverage under the sweeping law referred to as Obamacare.
Widespread reports of computer problems and logistical glitches are casting a pall over what many supporters envisioned would be a triumphant day for the embattled program. State and federal health officials have said in recent days that some key functions of the online insurance sites called “marketplaces” will not be ready right away. Some of the consumer guides meant to help people sign up for coverage are not yet certified to do so.
Some people who had planned events in conjunction with the opening of the marketplaces have called them off.
“We just kind of laughed and said, ‘Well, I guess we’ll have to reschedule,’ ” said Jason T. Andrews, an insurance broker in California. He had planned on Tuesday to get on the state’s online marketplace and enroll a couple of people who were excited about the health-care law and wanted to be among the first to sign up for coverage.
But he hasn’t been certified by the state to do the work. He hasn’t been able to see the exact rates his clients would have to pay on the marketplace. And he’s not confident that California’s site will be up and running, and fully functioning, come Tuesday. California officials insist the marketplace will be ready, and that the brokers will be certified in early October.
Obama administration officials have warned there might be rough spots in the early days. They also have said those problems aren’t likely to prevent people from signing up for coverage that starts Jan. 1, when many of the law’s benefits and consumer protections kick in.
Second-in-command of the country’s nuclear arsenal is suspended as he is investigated for GAMBLING
By Associated Press
PUBLISHED: 11:41 EST, 28 September 2013
The No. 2 officer at the military command in charge of all U.S. nuclear war-fighting forces has been suspended and is under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigation Command for issues related to gambling, officials said Saturday.
The highly unusual action against a high-ranking officer at U.S. Strategic Command was made more than three weeks ago but not publicly announced.
Air Force Gen. Robert Kehler, the commander of Strategic Command, suspended the deputy commander, Navy Vice Adm. Tim Giardina, from his duties on Sept. 3.
He is still assigned to the command but is prohibited from performing duties related to nuclear weapons and other issues requiring a security clearance, she said.
