DHS employee behind website promoting race war on paid leave
The Department of Homeland Security said Friday that an employee who runs a racist website predicting and advocating a race war has been put on paid administrative leave.
Ayo Kimathi, an acquisitions officer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement who is in charge of buying weapons and ammunition for the government, operates the website named “War on the Horizon.” It includes descriptions of an “unavoidable, inevitable clash with the white race.” Kimathi is black.
Kimathi, who calls himself the “Irritated Genie,” told his supervisors that the website was set up to sell concert and lecture videos.
Lavallette Police Chief Colin Grant arrested for allegedly assaulting girlfriend
August 27, 2013
the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, In another black eye to the Jersey shore News 12 is reporting that Lavallette Police Chief Colin Grant, 48, of Toms River, has been arrested for assault as the result of a domestic dispute .
Police say Grant’s girlfriend told them she was assaulted late Friday night in the house she shares with Grant. After officers noticed injuries on the female while interviewing her Police determined Grant assaulted her.
Grant was arrested and has surrendered his service and personal weapons.
Lavallette is known to motorist as a major speed trap at the Jersey Shore .
DID YOU KNOW THAT THE BOE RUNS A DAY CARE CENTER AND AFTERSCHOOL KINDERGARTEN ENRICHMENT PROGRAM?
The Infant Toddler Development Center (ITDC), a program of the Ridgewood Board of Education, is celebrating its 30th anniversary by offering some improvements to meet the needs of today’s families. ITDC, a fully licensed day care/preschool program for children ages six weeks through five years of age, is open to the public, with discounts offered to teachers. In addition to daycare and pre-school, the ITDC offers afterschool enrichment classes for half-day kindergartners.
Busing is provided from Ridgewood elementary schools. New hours of operation are 7:00am to 6:30pm, with flexible scheduling options available. The ITDC is located at 865 E. Glen Ave., Ridgewood, NJ. For more information, please call 201-445-0642 or email [email protected].
Raising the minimum wage reduces the availability of these entry-level positions
Raising the Minimum Wage to $9 Would Harm Most Vulnerable Job Seekers
James Sherk
April 12, 2013 at 1:00 pm
When the price of something rises, people—both consumers and employers—purchase less of it. Americans responded to the higher cost of gas by driving less. Businesses similarly respond to higher minimum wages by hiring fewer low-skill workers. The vast majority (85 percent) of the most reliable economic studies find that raising the minimum wage reduces employment.
Liberals often respond by arguing that the benefits to the workers who get the raise nonetheless outweigh the costs to those who get laid off (or never get hired in the first place). These arguments miss the primary value of minimum-wage positions—they provide on-the-job training for unskilled and inexperienced workers. They teach workers basic employability skills, from the discipline of getting up for work on time to how to interact with customers. As workers gain experience and skills, they become more productive and command higher pay. That is why two-thirds of minimum-wage workers earn raises within a year. The minimum wage is a learning wage, the first rung on many workers’ career ladders. A higher minimum wage saws off this rung.
Raising the minimum wage reduces the availability of these entry-level positions. This makes gaining the skills necessary to get ahead harder. States that raised their minimum wages in the 1990s saw workers earning less a decade later.
Worse, higher minimum wages particularly hurt the most disadvantaged. Most minimum wage workers are between the ages of 16 and 24—many teenagers and college students working part-time. These youth employees are secondary earners; their average family income exceeds $65,000 a year.
Increasing the minimum wage encourages more teenagers and college students to apply for minimum-wage jobs—the higher pay makes working more attractive. These new workers crowd-out adult applicants. Even the studies that find that minimum wage hikes have small overall employment effects find very large substitution effects: Companies hire many more teenagers and many fewer adults.
But teenagers do not need the work experience nearly as much as the disadvantaged adults do. A higher minimum wage makes it more difficult for the most vulnerable workers—those adults who do support themselves on minimum-wage jobs—to get hired and move up.
The President may have good intentions, but raising the minimum wage would make it harder for disadvantaged workers to get ahead.
How Well Do State Education Departments Report Public School Spending?
New Jersey Scores a 78.00 grade C+ rank 10
Summary of Findings
Public schools are usually the most costly item in state and local budgets. Yet despite tremendous and persistent spending growth in the last half-century, the public vastly underestimates the true cost of public education.
To better understand the source of this misperception, this report examines the spending data that all 50 state education departments make available to the public on their websites. It reveals that very few state education departments provide complete and timely financial data that is understandable to the general public.
Half of all states report a “per pupil expenditures” figure that leaves out major cost items such as capital expenditures, thereby significantly understating what is actually spent. Alaska does not even report per pupil expenditure figures at all.
Eight states fail to provide any data on capital expenditures on their education department websites. Ten states lack any data on average employee salaries and 41 states fail to provide any data on average employee benefits.
When the state education departments provide incomplete or misleading data, they deprive taxpayers of the ability to make informed decisions about public school funding. At a time when state and local budgets are severely strained, it is crucial that spending decisions reflect sound and informed judgment.
The table below provides summary “grades” on financial transparency for state department of education websites. A description of how these grades were derived is presented in the Grading Criteria section, and detailed ratings appear on the individual pages for each state.
Back-To-School Shopping Costs: How Much Parents Should Expect To Spend This Year
The Huffington Post | By Rebecca Klein
Whether your child attends public school or private school, high school or college, back-to-school shopping is always an added expense. But this year, the cost is expected to be slightly less per family than it was last year.
While back-to-school spending last year averaged $688.62 for families with K-12 children, spending this year is expected to average $634.78, according to the National Retail Federation. In total, families are expected to spend a total of $26.7 billion for K-12 children, although that number reaches $72.5 billion when college-aged kids are added to calculations.
The biggest cost for back-to-school shoppers? Apparel and accessories, followed by electronics.
While average spending is predicted to fall from last year, the president of the National Retail Federation said in a statement that “spending levels are still well above where they were a few years ago.”
“The good news is that consumers are spending, but they are doing so with cost and practicality in mind. Having splurged on their growing children’s needs last year, parents will ask their kids to reuse what they can for the upcoming school season,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. “As they continue to grapple with the impact of increased payroll taxes, Americans will look to cut corners where they can, but will buy what their kids need.”
Capital One broke down the cost of back-to-school shopping per child, finding that 32 percent of parents plan to spend $100 or less per child, and that 21 percent plan to pay more than $200 per child. Still, 21 percent of parents spend more on September school supplies than they save for their child’s college education each year, according to Capital One’s data.
Huffington Post blogger Adam Levin recently pointed out that it is important for parents to have an established budget before they start shopping. He also noted that sometimes it is better for parents to shop without their kids, in order to avoid pressures to make unnecessary purchases.
“Unless it is absolutely necessary (or a family bonding exercise) to have them with you, it’s best to leave the munchkins at home,” writes Levin. “If you want to know their preferences, browse with them online before hitting the stores. The last thing you need is to be weaving through crowds at Staples, Kmart or Target, or navigating several online retailers, while fending off cries of, ‘Mommy, I really NEED to have this.'”
Ridgewood BOE Taps Cheryl Best as assistant superintendent for curriculum
New administrators beginning work in the district this fall.
August 27,2013
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood BOE has appointed three administrators, including one to a newly created position, at its meeting Monday night.
In a major move Cheryl Best, a former director of curriculum for the Franklin Lakes K-8 district, will take over the position of assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and assessment on Oct. 1 at an annual prorated salary of $160,000.
Best fills the position after Regina Botsford left after a decade at the post. Botsford accepted a job as the superintendent of a regional district in Southbury, Conn. in July.
Best comes to Ridgewood Schools after the Franklin Lakes BOE voted 5-4 against renewing her contract as curriculum director. Best, received a laudatory performance review and recommendation by Superintendent Dr. Frank Romano
and endorsements by other administrators and parents.Romano, who tendered his resignation April 28.
The record also reported that skills and Knowledge were an area of concern. Even
Romano has acknowledged that test scores have declined in recent years.
Urciuoli went on , “It seems that for today at least, New Jersey ASK is still the best tool in measuring our growth and success compared to our peers.”
Concerned Residents of Ridgewood begins to introduce testimony in Valley expansion hearing
Monday August 26, 2013, 2:27 PM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
The Valley Hospital raised several objections to documents that the Concerned Residents of Ridgewood (CRR) organization intends to use during its presentation to the Planning Board.
At a hearing last Tuesday night, attorney Jonathan Drill contended that CRR’s use of the hospital’s lawsuit and accompanying arguments to stop the reopening of the former Pascack Valley Hospital by Hackensack University Medical Center and an investment group is irrelevant to Valley’s current application.
Drill also claimed that the grassroots group’s retention of new legal counsel so late in the process was a “strategic decision” by CRR’s leaders, and he took exception to the organization’s submission of a recommended version of a master plan amendment.
Ridgewood Chamber members object to “toilet tax”
Monday August 26, 2013, 2:30 PM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
Members of Ridgewood’s Chamber of Commerce claim they are being unfairly treated because their businesses and restaurants are required to fork over additional fees for sewer discharge services, and some are resisting proposed changes to those charges.
The Village Council is mulling over an increase to the significant sewage discharge fee that is assessed to many property owners and other businesses, but a recent appeal by several chamber members has temporarily stalled the proceedings. The governing body recently carried its public hearing on the ordinance creating the new fee schedule to next month, with Mayor Paul Aronsohn suggesting that the move was prompted by the discussion held during a chamber meeting earlier this month.
The hearing will be reopened to the public on Sept. 18.
Ridgewood currently bills properties that release more than 109,000 gallons of sewage into the village’s treatment plant. Municipal officials explained the proposed billing increase, stating that the cost of the equivalent dwelling unit (EDU) measurement would grow over a two-year period for owners who pay property taxes.
Radio Host Mark Levin Addresses Ted Cruz Eligibility Issue posed by Ridgewood Resident at Bookends Book Signing
Partial Transcript of the Mark Levin Show aired live on Monday, August 19, 2013
(prepared using the podcast recording of the show provided free of charge at www.marklevinshow.com)
[start at 0:26 of the podcast recording]
Hello everybody, Mark Levin here, our number 877-381-3811, 877-381-3811.
Mark Levin: Before we jump in, all I can say is, Wow! You guys, open your microphones a second. Thousands of people at both booksignings. Wasn’t that unbelievable?
Staffer: There were a lot of people there, it was great.
Mark Levin: And the people were just spectacular, weren’t they? Except for one guy in New Jersey which I’ll talk about later.
Staffer: [chuckles]
Mark Levin: This… this birther stuff is way, way out of contr…”Now Ted Cruz” … I swear I almost hit this guy… “Ted Cruz is not a citizen!” No, he’s born to an American mother, no he’s born in Canada to an American mother. So all you pregnant ladies travelling overseas: According to certain birther, uh, groups, if you have a child while you are on vacation, they’re not Americans. They’re not natural-born Americans. I just thought you’d wanna know, if you were thinking of your kid as a potential presidential candidate, uh, because they say so. They have no historical background whatsoever… None! But it’s, it’s just amazing! Absolutely stunning! But we had so many wonderful people, and let me add, all races, both genders… I don’t know the sexual preferences, that wasn’t a requirement to say hello…young people, elderly, middle age people. A particularly young crowd, yeah, we had dogs come too, everybody so well behaved, and uh, it was a pleasure. In New York, we were there about four-and-a-half hours, in New Jersey about five, five-and-a-half hours, and I wanted to be respectful to everybody, so… I just want to thank you all, and this Saturday, Tyson’s Corner, Virginia, at Barnes and Noble. I should add, if you want to see the crowd that was at New York, Mr. Producer went down the line, and this was early on, this, this line kept growing and growing throughout the day…you can go look at uh MarkLevinShow.com on our website, as well as the social sites MarkLevinShow Facebook, MarkLevinShow Twitter. Um, Christians, Coptic Christians are being wiped out in Egypt. Their churches are being burned to the ground….
[stop at 3:01 of the podcast recording]
…
[restart at 59:22 of the podcast recording]
Mark Levin: Alright, lets go to uh, Steve in New York, the great WABC, go!
Steve: Great one, it’s great to talk to you, what an honor.
Mark Levin: My honor, thank you, my friend.
Steve: Oh, I got a great story for you, I loved your uh, Hannity special, I enjoyed it very much, I listened to it three times over the weekend…
Mark Levin: Oh, thank you.
Steve: …I got my wife, I got my wife to tape for me, or TIVO it, and she watched it. And she really enjoyed it. She’s not big on politics or anything, and she gets sick of hearing me talk about it, but it was funny ‘cause she said “He is so calm, Steve.” He was, she was trying to do a little wifey/husband training? And…
Mark Levin: Uh huh.
Steve: she said “He is so calm, and he gets his point across. He didn’t raise his voice, or get upset…
Mark Levin: [chuckles]
Steve: …or anything!”
Mark Levin: [breaks out into laughter]
Steve: …and I laughed so hard. I said “How do you, uh, where do you think I learned how to yell?” [laughs] “I just listen to Mark.” And she knows you’re my hero, I go around quotin’ ya, and tellin’ everybody to listen to ya, and…
Mark Levin: Well, that’s great.
Steve: she just … to get me to calm down a little, and I said you just need to listen to Mark. [laughs]
Mark Levin: Well, thank you, uh…well listen, you know what, this is called passion, just remind her it’s passion, you know, and um…what was truly exceptional about the Hannity program, number one, the man has enormous class and decency, and number two, he was asking me questions because he wanted me to inform the public about what I’d written, and to engage the studio audience. And notice we didn’t have a bunch of left-wing bomb throwers just yelling and talking over people. There were conversations actually occurring, did you notice that?
Steve: Yes, there was no crazy, I mean a lot of times he’s got the left wingers on there, and it’s just, kind, it’s almost funny to watch, but that was so interesting and…and it didn’t get me upset, and it just, I just wanted to listen to it over and over and absorb every second of it, and every bit of information, it…it’s just brilliant, Mark, I, you know I hope when um…we’ve got President Cruz, he has the wisdom to make you his chief of staff or vice-president.
Mark Levin: No, no no no no no. And he’s got a great chief of staff, by the way. No, I…I do what I do, and uh, and he will do a great job should he be president. Thank you for your call my friend. And uh, I’m so sick of these birthers. I was going to tell you about this, uh, incident. Just a wonderful group of people, uh, we were in Bookends, Ridgewood, New Jersey, and everyone was respectful until…and it was hot outside, it got hot, hotter than uh originally forecast and it was a very long line, and you know we try to go through it quickly out of respect for everybody in line, but I also try to be respectful to everybody in line. Um…but this fella [breathes out] gets in my face and first of all he points to some obscure note on page I don’t know whatever and he said [cough] excuse me folks, and he says “You were wrong about this, you were wrong about”, and honestly I, I, I didn’t have time to read it, and I’ll go back and check it, if I’m wrong about it I’ll fix it, and that happens sometimes in these books when you’re going into the notes, you might put a word when you mean another word, or a state when you mean another state, so I’m going to check it out, I just haven’t had time. And then he goes, he says uh “And Ted Cruz is not eligible to be president. He’s not a natural-born Citizen.” And I thought to myself, you know I, this is not a subject that I have studied so thoroughly, but he’s born of a mother who is an American citizen. Doesn’t that make him a natural-born Ci… “No, but he was in Canada when he was born!” Okay, but she wasn’t Canadian, she was an American citizen! She was an American citizen. And so, the issue isn’t what the Constitution says in that regard, the issue is how do we interpret that. And the way I interpret it is, his mother’s an American citizen, so he’s an American citizen! That’s not a constitutional issue, that’s an interpretive issue… or, a statutory issue if Congress has passed some law subsequent to that to enforce that provision of the Constitution. So, the face of the Constitution isn’t terribly helpful. If he was born of non-citizens in a foreign country that would be easy, and there’s a lot of easy cases. So the guy gets in my face, and he starts pointing and pointing, and I looked at him and I pointed back, and I cursed, unfortunately, but the, because, uh you know, he was…he was a nutjob. And I thought to myself: Why do you come here and do that? Is this, is this sort of the way you…you excite yourself or something? No. So, I just want you folks to know who like Ted Cruz. I…I assume they’re going to do this to Rubio, or some of these other people too, whether you like ‘em or not for president I’m just making a point, but now this has become an entire industry. And of course [chuckles] Ted Cruz [laughs], he immediately issued today or yesterday his long form birth certificate. Now, some of this is probably coming from the left. So now they’re the birthers. But some of it’s coming from others, too. People just get obsessed, or conspiratorial, and there’s no end to it, on a matter like this, and there’s nothing I can say or point to that’s going to change their mind. But in my view there’s no doubt about it that he’s eligible for president, should he choose to run, just as I believe McCain was eligible for president, when he ran. So…that’s my opinion! You may not like it… But what particularly bothered me about this guy…he was disrespectful in his conduct to everybody else standing there. They were pleasant, talking to each other, you know…listening, watching and so forth. I’m a big boy; I’ve seen this and a thousand times worse. But he was quite obnoxious. He’s the only one…oh no there was another guy, had a prob, wha wha, he what…he had a problem, he was screaming upstairs, I don’t know what he was screamin’ about. It was kind of eventful there in New Jersey. No, there wasn’t anything like that in New York, was there boys? [Staff: No. Peaceful in ji…you know in Long Island] It was peaceful on Long Island! [chuckles] But is was peaceful in New Jersey, too. It really, really was. It was just terrific. If you could have seen that line, well, actually you can. We have the uh video, and this is just the start of the day with the line. It got longer and longer at uh… at Book Review in Long Island if you want to take a look on MarkLevinShow.com or MarkLevi…oh there is now? The…the New Jersey line? Okay. Both lines. On MarkLevinShow.com, are they both on the social sites too? Or…just the Long Island. But we’ll put the other one up later so some of you can see yourselves, too. Alright. GoldLine!
Black lawmakers lament flaring of racial tensions under Obama
By Niall Stanage – 08/26/13 05:45 AM ET
When President Obama follows in Martin Luther King Jr.’s footsteps on Wednesday with an address at the Lincoln Memorial, he will face a nation where race remains the great divide.
Black lawmakers say the election of the nation’s first African-America president has not been a salve for racial tensions, a view that the public has also voiced in recent polling.
While Democratic lawmakers place the lion’s share of the blame on Republicans for the state of affairs, they betray disappointment that more progress has not been made since the civil rights movement won its biggest victories.
Obamanomics :33 Shocking Facts the Media Shamefully Ignores
By Noel Sheppard | August 25, 2013 | 11:14
Potentially the most dishonest aspect of the Obama-loving media’s reporting since January 20, 2009, pertains to how they’ve almost totally ignored how poorly the economy is performing.
On Tuesday, Michael T. Snyder, author of the gloom and doom book “The Beginning of the End,” wrote a fabulous piece titled “33 Shocking Facts Which Show How Badly The Economy Has Tanked Since Obama Became President”:
#1 When Barack Obama entered the White House, 60.6 percent of working age Americans had a job. Today, only 58.7 percent of working age Americans have a job.
#2 Since Obama has been president, seven out of every eight jobs that have been “created” in the U.S. economy have been part-time jobs.
#3 The number of full-time workers in the United States is still nearly 6 million below the old record that was set back in 2007.
#4 It is hard to believe, but an astounding 53 percent of all American workers now make less than $30,000 a year.
#5 40 percent of all workers in the United States actually make less than what a full-time minimum wage worker made back in 1968.
Chief Ward of Ridgewood PD on decoy duty photo by Boyd Loving
Police brass joining rank and file on the beat
Sunday August 25, 2013, 11:08 PM
By MIKE KELLY
RECORD COLUMNIST
Try to imagine the director of the FBI arresting a bank robber. Or New York City’s police commissioner ticketing jaywalkers on Broadway.
That may seem absurd in large police agencies, but for more and more small New Jersey towns, it’s the way of the future. Police brass, including some chiefs, are being pulled from behind their desks and dispatched back to the kind of street patrols they did years before, as young cops.
It’s not as if top cops asked for this — not all of them, anyway. But many small police departments are finding themselves brass-heavy, with high-ranking supervisors outnumbering rank-and-file officers.
