Author: James

Three former North Jersey chiropractors Including one from Ridgewood sentenced in insurance fraud scheme
Monday, September 16, 2013    Last updated: Monday September 16, 2013, 8:01 PM
BY  JOHN PETRICK
STAFF WRITER
The Record

Three former chiropractors from Bergen and Passaic counties were sentenced to five years of probation Monday for setting up a fraudulent practice in Paterson and cheating more than 30 insurance companies out of what prosecutors say was millions.

One of the three, Charles Nisivoccia, of Little Falls, was additionally sentenced to a year in the Passaic County Jail. Prosecutors say he was the architect and initiator of the scheme. Nisivoccia has until Sept. 23 to surrender and begin serving his sentence. The Passaic County Sheriff’s Department could agree to accept him by then into an alternative term of detention that would restrict his movements while he wore a monitoring bracelet.

Nisivoccia and co-defendants Marco Esposito, of Haledon, and Craig Klein, of Ridgewood, were also ordered by state Superior Court Judge Greta Gooden Brown in Paterson to forfeit their licenses for five years.

Nisivoccia and Klein were ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution, while Esposito was ordered to pay $50,000. That money will be distributed among the various victim insurance companies as the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office sees fit.

All three pleaded guilty to theft by unlawful taking in October. The pleas resulted from a yearlong investigation by the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office’s Insurance Fraud Unit.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/haledon/Three_former_North_Jersey_chiropractors_sentenced_in_insurance_fraud_scheme.html#sthash.qhdaUacY.dpuf

Obamacare will question your sex life
By Betsy McCaughey
September 15, 2013 | 7:56pm

‘Are you sexually active? If so, with one partner, multiple partners or same-sex partners?”

Be ready to answer those questions and more the next time you go to the doctor, whether it’s the dermatologist or the cardiologist and no matter if the questions are unrelated to why you’re seeking medical help. And you can thank the Obama health law.

“This is nasty business,” says New York cardiologist Dr. Adam Budzikowski. He called the sex questions “insensitive, stupid and very intrusive.” He couldn’t think of an occasion when a cardiologist would need such information — but he knows he’ll be pushed to ask for it.

The president’s “reforms” aim to turn doctors into government agents, pressuring them financially to ask questions they consider inappropriate and unnecessary, and to violate their Hippocratic Oath to keep patients’ records confidential.

Embarrassing though it may be, you confide things to a doctor you wouldn’t tell anyone else. But this is entirely different.

https://nypost.com/2013/09/15/obamacare-will-question-your-sex-life/

USA Today Poll: 53% of Americans Disapprove of Obamacare

The Affordable Care Act: Still a tough sell

According to a recent USA Today poll years after President Obama signed his signature health care overhaul, Americans are as negative toward it as they have ever been, and disapproval of the president on the issue has reached a new high. Here are findings from a USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/09/16/usa-today-pew-poll-health-care-law-opposition/2817169/

 

September is National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

To PSA or Not to PSA?
September is National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

RIDGEWOOD, NJ – September 12 – Most urologists say yes; the United States Preventive Task Force (USPTF), a governmental agency, says no.

PSA is a protein produced by cells of the prostate gland. The PSA – prostate-specific antigen – test measures the level of PSA in a man’s blood. An elevated PSA level can be indicative of prostate cancer.

The PSA test has recently come under scrutiny by the USPTF. The agency feels that screening for prostate cancer does not save lives and puts men at risk for complications of treatment when there is a slow-growing prostate cancer.

Arguments on behalf of the effectiveness of PSA testing include:

A European study on PSA screening initially showed a 20 percent benefit in terms of mortality, which increased to 30 percent benefit several years later.

A Scandinavian study (Goteborg study) that showed an almost 50 percent benefit in mortality.

The U.S. mortality from prostate cancer has dropped approximately 40 percent since the onset of PSA testing.

Metastatic disease at presentation has dropped 75 percent since PSA testing began.
Prostate cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer deaths in men.

“PSA testing does not necessarily lead to definitive treatment,” says Howard Frey, M.D., Medical Director, The Valley Hospital Urologic Oncology Center. Active surveillance is used much more commonly to address slower-growing cancers that perhaps don’t need active treatment.

“Rational healthcare decisions are more easily made when you are armed with information,” Dr. Frey says. “Ultimately, whether you should or should not have a PSA test is something you will have to decide after considering your overall risk and discussing it with your doctor.”

To find a Valley Urologist near you, visit www.ValleyMedicalStaff.com or call
1-800-VALLEY 1.

Ridgewood officials must decide: Who will police Heermance Place?
Monday September 16, 2013, 1:21 PM
BY  DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News

Street maintenance and other Village of Ridgewood employees were advised by their supervisors this week to avoid work along Heermance Place, which was recently determined to be private property belonging to the Board of Education (BOE). Orders are considered effective until the village and school district reach a consensus regarding future upkeep and rules enforcement along the roadway.

Surveys and a full title search recently revealed that the BOE owns most of Heermance Place, the thoroughfare passing between the high school and Stadium Field. The portion of Heermance that fronts two residential homes is owned by the Village of Ridgewood.

The BOE subsequently converted the 23 parking spaces along the road from first come, first serve to faculty-only spots.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/223934881_Ridgewood_officials_must_decide__Who_will_police_Heermance_Place_.html#sthash.3FPbbnqZ.dpuf

Climate Change Reconsidered II to be Released on September 17
by Jim Lakely
August 29, 2013

The Heartland Institute and the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) have been hard at work since 2011 on a new edition of Climate Change Reconsidered. The first volume of the new report, titled Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science, will be released in digital form in September to coincide with the release of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report. A second volume on “Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerabilities” is slated for release in March or April 2014.

Heartland is planning to hold a press conference in Chicago on Sept. 17 at which it will announce the findings of the 1,200-plus-page report and release an executive summary. The organization will also host a “book launch luncheon” on Sept. 18 in the Heartland Institute library featuring three of the report’s lead authors. More details of the unveiling of Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science, will be released in the coming weeks.

The research effort has been led by Craig Idso, Ph.D., chairman of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change; Robert Carter, Ph.D.,  Former Head of the School of Earth Sciences, James Cook University (Australia), and S. Fred Singer, Ph.D., president of the Science and Environmental Policy Project and professor emeritus of environmental science at the University of Virginia. An international team of lead authors, section authors, contributors, and reviewers is participating in the effort.

The first two volumes published in the Climate Change Reconsidered series, in 2009 and 2011, were widely recognized as the most comprehensive and authoritative critiques of the alarmist reports of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Reviews and the complete texts of both volumes are available here and here. In June, a division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences published a Chinese translation and condensed edition of the two volumes.

Congress: Hillary’s Benghazi Investigation Let Top Officials Escape Blame
by Josh Rogin Sep 15, 2013 6:00 PM EDT

A new report reveals that the State Department’s Benghazi investigation failed to hold senior officials accountable for the deaths of four Americans. Josh Rogin reports.

The State Department’s investigation into the Sept. 12, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi was not independent and failed to hold senior State Department officials accountable for the failures that led to the death of four Americans, according to a new investigative report compiled by the House Oversight Committee.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/15/congress-hillary-s-benghazi-investigation-let-top-officials-escape-blame.html

Janet Yellen at a crucial point in Fed’s future

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By JIM PUZZANGHERA AND DON LEE | Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Two momentous decisions involving the Federal Reserve are coming to a head, with significant implications for the U.S. and global economies.

Janet L. Yellen, a former University of California, Berkeley economist, stands in the middle of both of them.

As vice chair of the central bank, Yellen will take a leading role this week, when policymakers decide whether to start rolling back the Fed’s massive monetary stimulus after several years of providing extraordinary support for the weak economy.

The prospect of an imminent policy shift by the Fed has already shaken financial markets from Brazil to India, marking the end of an era of super-low interest rates.

Soon after, President Barack Obama is expected to nominate his selection to succeed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, whose term expires at the end of January.

Yellen is one of two leading candidates for that increasingly powerful position, and her views on the economy and financial regulations have become the subject of intense interest among economists, investors and policymakers around the world.

“The interest is more outsized than normal because we’re still in very unusual times,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, referring to high unemployment as well as the unprecedented intervention by the Fed.

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/14/202170/janet-yellen-at-a-crucial-point.html#.Ujc2Nn8vzFJ

The Auditor: Naming names in the Ferriero indictment
By The Auditor/The Star-Ledger
on September 15, 2013 at 7:21 AM, updated September 15, 2013 at 9:38 AM

It’s time for one of The Auditor’s favorite games: Name the public officials referred to anonymously in an indictment.

The 72-page federal corruption indictment of Joe Ferriero, the former Bergen County Democratic chairman, handed up Wednesday included many such opportunities, but The Auditor’s interest was piqued by only a few unidentified officials.

According to the indictment, Ferriero — accused of taking payments from the developer of the still-dormant Meadowlands complex formerly known as “Xanadu” to influence public officials — got a state senator to withdraw a bill that would have hurt the development.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Records show that was state Sen. Joseph Coniglio (D-Bergen), who served 16 months in federal prison for an unrelated corruption conviction.

https://blog.nj.com/njv_auditor/2013/09/the_auditor_naming_names_in_th.html

Bags stuffed with ads irk Ridgewood officials, who explore ban
Monday, September 16, 2013
BY  CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
The Record

RIDGEWOOD — The Village Council wants to eliminate those plastic bags stuffed with advertisements that are tossed onto residents’ driveways.

Officials are considering such a ban to prevent the companies behind such advertorial publications from distributing them in town.

Mayor Paul Aronsohn said the council received an email last month from a resident perturbed by the ad-heavy papers.

“Why do we have to tolerate this?” Aronsohn asked the council recently, arguing the bagged ads were not protected forms of free speech.

Waving a plastic bag filled with ads, Deputy Mayor Al Pucciarelli said the freebie publications constitute little more than litter.

“The cars go up the street and stop at every home, and you hear them at 6:30 in the morning,” Pucciarelli explained. “They throw this package onto our driveways, and to me, that’s litter.”

The bags of ads, Pucciarelli contended, place a burden on the village’s recycling efforts.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/223864251_Bags_stuffed_with_ads_irk_Ridgewood_officials__who_explore_ban.html#sthash.MdcmEmXE.dpuf

Insurers limiting doctors, hospitals in health insurance market

Insurers in California’s new health insurance exchange are holding down premiums by limiting choices, raising concerns that patients will struggle to get care.

By Chad Terhune

September 14, 2013, 6:34 p.m.

The doctor can’t see you now.

Consumers may hear that a lot more often after getting health insurance under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

To hold down premiums, major insurers in California have sharply limited the number of doctors and hospitals available to patients in the state’s new health insurance market opening Oct. 1.

New data reveal the extent of those cuts in California, a crucial test bed for the federal healthcare law.

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-insure-doctor-networks-20130915,0,2814725.story

Spanish scientists create self-healing ‘Terminator’ plastic
UPI 9/14/2013 12:05:30 AM
LONDON, Sept. 13 (UPI) —

Spanish scientists are reporting the world’s first self-healing polymer that spontaneously and independently repairs itself without any intervention.

The new material, dubbed a “Terminator” polymer in tribute to the shape-shifting, molten T-100 terminator robot from the “Terminator 2” film could be used to improve the security and lifetime of plastic parts in everyday products such as electrical components, cars and even houses, the researchers wrote in the Materials Horizons journal of Britain’s Royal Society of Chemistry.

It is the first self-healing polymer that can spontaneously achieve quantitative healing in the absence of a catalyst, they said, and after being cut in two and the pieces pressed together, a sample displayed an impressive 97 per cent healing efficiency in just two hours, being unbreakable when stretched manually.

https://www.breitbart.com/system/wire/upiUPI-20130913-192726-9432

New Arrivals at the  Tobacco Shop of Ridgewood

New Arrivals:

Alec Bradley Prensado TAA
Special Edition Figurado

Casa Miranda Chapter Two

Quesada Oktoberfest Limited Edition

Reinado Grand Empire Reserve

Available now at
The Tobacco Shop of Ridgewood

~Gary, Barbara and Collin
The Tobacco Shop of Ridgewood

The Tobacco Shop of Ridgewood | 10 Chestnut Street | Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450
Phone: 201-447-2204 | Email: [email protected]
Hours: Monday – Saturday 10:00AM – 5:30PM and Thursday Night 6:30PM – 8:30PM

file photo Boyd Loving

Cory Booker faulted for not fixing a house he owned in Newark
Sunday September 15, 2013, 12:31 AM
BY  MICHAEL LINHORST
STATE HO– USE BUREAU
The Record

On a block of Court Street in Newark between the Gigi Foushee Towers public-housing project and the abandoned, decaying Krueger-Scott Mansion is a boarded row house with a “NO LOITERING” sign above the door.

Until a few months ago, the building was owned by Newark’s mayor, Cory Booker — now in the home¬stretch of a run for the U.S. Senate — who paid $175,000 for it in 2009.

Less than three weeks after Frank Lautenberg said he would retire from the U.S. Senate — formally opening up the race for his seat — Booker sold the property, one of two he purchased while mayor, for $1. The gift to Newark Now, the non-profit Booker founded in 2003, was “an opportunity to give back to Newark,” his campaign said on Friday.

To neighbors who’ve complained about the overgrown back yard and the squatters who live inside, the property stands as a marked contrast to Booker’s public image as an urban crusader, a politician building a national reputation by confronting inner-city blight.

“He bought it and promised to be a good neighbor, but that hasn’t occurred,” said Robert El, who owns the row house attached to Booker’s. “Shortly after he bought it, the squatters started moving in.”

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/Cory_Booker_faulted_for_not_fixing_a_house_he_owned_in_Newark.html#sthash.6Y1goYlL.dpuf