Author: James

file photo Cory Booker

Why voters should care about Booker’s start-up problem
Ari Melber,
3:59 PM on 08/09/2013

Newark Mayor Cory Booker talks to the media next to former Senator Bill Bradley as he announces his plans to run for the U.S. Senate seat during a news conference in Newark, June 8, 2013. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

If Aaron Sorkin were to craft a movie about Newark Mayor Cory Booker, you can bet that Waywire, Booker’s controversial technology start-up, would provide a cautionary tale for the mayor’s voracious ambition.

The company is an allegory for Booker’s style—audacious, well-connected and promising “revolutionary” change; yet prone to a certain vagueness and affinity for what we might call the politics of the donor class.

The New York Times renewed the spotlight on Waywire this week, questioning how a full-time mayor managed to launch an online video company, raise investments from the Oprah’s and Google’s of the world, and amass a potentially multi-million dollar stake. Booker’s opponents, in both parties, are seizing on the story to attack him, and it could persist through the general election.

There are two substantive charges here: Booker should be more transparent about the company, and the arrangement creates unavoidable conflicts of interes

https://tv.msnbc.com/2013/08/09/why-voters-should-care-about-bookers-start-up-problem/

Reid says Obamacare just a step toward eventual single-payer system
By Karoun Demirjian (contact)
Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013 | 2 a.m.

In just about seven weeks, people will be able to start buying Obamacare-approved insurance plans through the new health care exchanges.

But already, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is predicting those plans, and the whole system of distributing them, will eventually be moot.

Reid said he thinks the country has to “work our way past” insurance-based health care during a Friday night appearance on Vegas PBS’ program “Nevada Week in Review.”

“What we’ve done with Obamacare is have a step in the right direction, but we’re far from having something that’s going to work forever,” Reid said.

When then asked by panelist Steve Sebelius whether he meant ultimately the country would have to have a health care system that abandoned insurance as the means of accessing it, Reid said: “Yes, yes. Absolutely, yes.”

https://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/aug/10/reid-says-obamacare-just-step-toward-eventual-sing/

Report: Incentives play part in more than half of industrial space being built in N.J.
By Joshua Burd
August 7, 2013 at 1:58 PM

New Jersey has 5 million square feet of industrial space under construction — and more than half of it is being driven by state incentive programs, according to new research from the brokerage firm Jones Lang LaSalle.

The statistic is proof that such programs are helping spur economic activity, but it’s also a sign that delays in an effort to overhaul those incentives are causing developers to hold back on new projects.

In its second-quarter industrial outlook, JLL said “developers and landholders at the port and nearby submarkets may be in a ‘wait and see’ mode” — while the overhaul is debated in Trenton — as speculative projects remain available “despite considerable interest from prospective tenants.”

https://www.njbiz.com/article/20130807/NJBIZ01/130809862/Report:-Incentives-play-part-in-more-than-half-of-industrial-space-being-built-in-NJ

Eating raw garlic may help cut risk of lung cancer almost in half, study finds
Posted: Aug 09, 2013 12:07 PM EST Updated: Aug 09, 2013 1:08 PM EST
By FOX News

A clove of garlic a day might keep the vampires away, but the vegetable may have other protective properties as well.

According to a new study by researchers from the Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention in China, consuming raw garlic might actually help prevent lung cancer, along with other various chronic health problems.

Researchers believe that raw garlic’s benefits are connected to a chemical called allicin, which is released once raw garlic is smashed or diced. This chemical is believed to not only reduce inflammation, but also reduce damage from free radicals to the body’s cells.

Read more: https://www.myfoxdc.com/story/23093776/eating-raw-garlic-may-help-cut-risk-of-lung-cancer-almost-in-half-study-finds#ixzz2bYS4Ng3n

Menorah display proposed for Ridgewood
Thursday August 8, 2013, 3:34 PM
BY  DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News

The Ridgewood Council will consider adding a menorah to its winter holiday display decorations, a move that many believe, if approved, would promote the village’s cultural and religious diversity.

Leaders of the Ridgewood Menorah Committee formally presented their idea to the governing body Wednesday night, asking council members for their blessings to begin preparations for this year’s holiday season. The menorah is a nine-branched lamp stand, one of the most notable symbols used during the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah.

The presentation was offered with a sense of urgency, as the eight-day Jewish feast arrives earlier than usual this year, officially beginning before Thanksgiving on the evening of Nov. 27. But Mayor Paul Aronsohn said the council would table its discussion until the first meeting of September, saying the village is obligated to review any potential legal issues, among other reasons.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/218883661_Menorah_display_proposed_for_Ridgewood.html#sthash.RsHL5Yyl.dpuf

file photo Boyd Loving

Ridgewood Honors Gold Star Mother’s Day
August 6,2013

On Sunday, September 29, 2013 our Nation honors our Gold Star Mothers and families.The Presidential Proclamation in 2011 commemorating this day pronounces, “As members of a grateful Nation, we owe a debt we can never repay, but hold this sacred obligation forever in our hearts, minds, and actions. We honor their sacrifice, and stand with our service members, military families, and Gold Star families as they have stood for us.” The American Legion Post 53 and Ridgewood NJ’s Blue Star Families are committed to bringing awareness to our community and to commemorate the sacrifices these mothers and their families have made for our Country.

In the aftermath of World War I, Washington D.C. resident Grace Darling Seibold formed an organization called Gold Star Mothers to support the moms who had lost sons and daughters to the war. Grace’s son, First Lieutenant George Vaughn Seibold, was an aviator killed in combat over France in 1918. In 1928, the small D.C.-based group decided to nationalize its efforts. In 1936, a joint congressional resolution established the last Sunday in September as Gold Star Mother’s Day. The Gold Star Mothers grew from a support group of 60 women to today’s extensive nationwide network with tens of thousands of members and hundreds of local chapters.

In Ridgewood, NJ we again will commemorate Gold Star Mother’s Day with an event on Sunday, September 29 and the luminaries will be lit from 7 – 9 p.m. to honor Gold Star Mothers and their families, but that Van Neste Park. There will be a ceremony at 7:00 p.m. until 7:15 p.m. in addition, our goal is to see thousands of other luminaries lit throughout Ridgewood and other towns on September 29th to honor the Gold Star Mothers and families!

Everyone can stand with us in honoring the Gold Star Mothers and families by helping to raise awareness through:

 talking to your family, friends, and neighbors about the event;

 joining us at Van Neste Park; and,

 supporting this event with a donation (please make checks payable to the American Legion Post #53, write “Gold Star event” on the memo line, and send it to the American Legion Post #53, P.O. Box 1525, Ridgewood, NJ 07450).

Critics question IRS initiative targeting small businesses
Published August 10, 2013
FoxNews.com

Small business owners across the country are receiving letters from the IRS questioning if they are reporting all of their cash income, in a new push by the agency some are saying could unnecessarily create fear in the small business community.

The Wall Street Journal reports the initiative is an attempt to respond to what the agency feels is a widespread failure by small businesses to report all their cash sales.

The agency says the letters are not the same as an audit, and it is simply seeking more tax information from the businesses. However, some lawmakers and business owners who received the letters say the initiative is alarming.

Read more: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/10/critics-question-irs-initiative-targeting-small-businesses/#ixzz2bc3Olxnc

Obamacare installs new scrutiny, fines for charitable hospitals that treat uninsured people

Charitable hospitals that treat uninsured Americans will be subjected to new levels of scrutiny of their nonprofit status and could face sizable new fines under Obamacare.

A new provision in Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code, which takes effect under Obamacare, sets new standards of review and installs new financial penalties for tax-exempt charitable hospitals, which devote a minimum amount of their expenses to treat uninsured poor people. Approximately 60 percent of American hospitals are currently nonprofit.

Charity for the uninsured is one of the factors that could discourage enrollment in Obamacare, which requires all Americans to purchase health insurance or else face new taxes themselves from the IRS.

Read more: https://dailycaller.com/2013/08/08/obamacare-installs-new-scrutiny-fines-for-charitable-hospitals-that-treat-uninsured-people/#ixzz2bYOh1l00

file photo By Boyd Loving

Cory’s tech wreck – ‘Exodus’ from Booker’s Internet start-up Waywire as sources tell The Post staffers expect it to fold
By BETH DEFALCO and BRUCE GOLDING
Last Updated: 7:10 AM, August 9, 2013
Posted: 1:24 AM, August 9, 2013

Employees at Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s Internet start-up are looking for new jobs in anticipation that it’s about to fold, The Post has learned.

Well-placed sources said several staffers, including founding members, have been interviewing for positions at other tech firms since Booker’s company, Waywire, shuttered its lower Manhattan offices and laid off eight people earlier this year.

Some of the job-seekers have been telling people that it’s “just a matter of time” before the video-sharing Web site shuts down, sources said.

Waywire will likely remain in business only until after Booker’s widely anticipated election to the US Senate so that he doesn’t look bad before the voters, sources said.

https://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/cory_tech_wreck_BptDE44inVHU75BHIB5NAP