Letter:to the Editor Ridgewood’s changeable master plan
Friday, July 19, 2013
The Ridgewood News
Ridgewood’s changeable master plan
To the editor:
At the July 2 meeting our town planner, Blaise Brancheau, outlined four reasons for going ahead with multi-family housing in areas not currently zoned that way. Reason number one was that more people would necessarily support the downtown district. Can we see the study that says any of the folks from the Oak Street Apartments, or the other apartments on E. Ridgewood Avenue, truly support the downtown district? If it’s not happening yet with renters in such close proximity, why will it magically happen with new apartments? Please elaborate.
Reason two: We can address the state mandated affordable housing issue. Okay. But what about Mayor Aronsohn saying this should be luxury housing? Is that really compatible? And to this point, doesn’t anyone question “luxury housing” backing up to the noisy commuter train tracks, adjacent to the YMCA with its constant traffic and with the non-luxury Oak Street Apartments as neighbors? Who will buy such luxury accommodations when we all know Location location location is the real estate mantra?
United Water to manage Allendale utility system
Sunday, July 21, 2013
BY ALLISON PRIES
STAFF WRITER
The Record
ALLENDALE — The borough’s contract for United Water to operate its water system has cleared its final hurdle, Mayor Vince Barra said.
The state Board of Public Utilities has voted unanimously to approve an agreement that will take effect Aug. 1.
United Water will take over billing on Aug. 11, he said, adding that questions about prior bills should still be directed to the borough.
The borough will continue to set water rates during the five-year contract.
“United Water has no input or impact on the rates we charge,” Barra said.
In April, the borough voted to accept a $590,000 bid from United Water to manage its water system for five years. The move is expected to save the borough about $193,000 per year, Barra has said.
Allendale has spent more than a year exploring changes to the management of its water system. It received three bids: United Water’s $590,000 offer, a Ridgewood Water bid for $970,000 and one from Newark Water for $1,018,190.
Ridgewood Police: Remember to lock your vehicles at night.
Over the past week residents reported 10 vehicles entered in the overnight hours with various items stolen. 5 vehicles Saturday night July 20th in the Salem Ridge area off Van Emburgh Ave. and 5 vehicles Thursday July 18th in the Hawes School area.
The vehicles were reported to be unlocked at the time and parked in residential driveways. Anyone with information please contact the Ridgewood Police Department at 201-652-3900
Congress Finally Decides NSA Surveillance Violates the Law
Congress has finally decided that massive, unprecedented and unwarranted surveillance of the American people conducted by the National Security Agency is against the law.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has broad jurisdiction over matters related to federal criminal law, arrived at the conclusion months after the American people reached a similar conclusion.
“We never, at any point in this debate, have approved the type of unchecked, sweeping surveillance of United States citizens employed by our government,” said House fixture John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, during a hearing on the NSA. “If the government cannot provide a clear, public explanation for how its program is consistent with the statute, it must stop collecting this information immediately.”
Other committee members have promised to amend the unconstitutional PATRIOT Act and force the NSA to stop its surveillance. Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican and author of the original PATRIOT Act, said it is not likely Congress will reauthorize the business-records collection provision of the act when the law expires in 2015.
Never-before-seen GIANT virus found that’s so unusual it may have come from Mars
The Pandoravirus is one micrometre big – ten times the size of other viruses It is found underwater but is not considered a threat to humans The virus has been spotted off the coast of Chile and in an Australian pond Only six per cent of its genes resemble those seen before on Earth
By Emma Innes
PUBLISHED: 04:53 EST, 19 July 2013 | UPDATED: 10:41 EST, 19 July 2013
Scientists have found a new virus thought to be the biggest ever seen on Earth.
The virus, dubbed Pandoravirus, is one micrometre big – up to ten times the size of other viruses – and only six per cent of its genes resemble anything seen on Earth before.
This has led French researchers to believe the virus may have come from an ancient time or even another planet, such as Mars.
NY food stamp recipients are shipping welfare-funded groceries to relatives in Jamaica, Dominican Republic and Haiti
By KATE BRIQUELET and ISABEL VINCENT
Last Updated: 6:13 AM, July 21, 2013
Posted: 12:34 AM, July 21, 2013
Food stamps are paying for trans-Atlantic takeout — with New Yorkers using taxpayer-funded benefits to ship food to relatives in Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Welfare recipients are buying groceries with their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards and packing them in giant barrels for the trip overseas, The Post found.
The practice is so common that hundreds of 45- to 55-gallon cardboard and plastic barrels line the walls of supermarkets in almost every Caribbean corner of the city.
The feds say the moveable feasts go against the intent of the $86 billion welfare program for impoverished Americans.
Mood shifting, Congress may move to limit NSA spying
By David Lightman, Kate Irby and Ben Kamisar | McClatchy Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Congress is growing increasingly wary of controversial National Security Agency domestic surveillance programs, a concern likely to erupt during legislative debate _ and perhaps prod legislative action _ as early as next week.
Skepticism has been slowly building since last month’s disclosures that the super-secret NSA conducted programs that collected Americans’ telephone data. Dozens of lawmakers are introducing measures to make those programs less secret, and there’s talk of denying funding and refusing to continue authority for the snooping.
The anxiety is a sharp contrast to June’s wait-and-see attitude after Edward Snowden, a government contract worker, leaked highly classified data to the media. The Guardian newspaper of Britain reported one program involved cellphone records. The Guardian, along with The Washington Post, also said another program allowed the government access to the online activity of users at nine Internet companies.
Senate Candidate Steve Lonegan Takes the Fight to Newark, Calls Booker Out on Vouchers
“Cory Booker has failed the children, the parents, and the taxpayers of Newark in never providing school choice and never solving the deep problems confronting Newark.”
Irvington Resident Asks Booker to Tell the Truth on Vouchers :“My children don’t have the luxury of waiting another 10 years for our politicians to get their act together.”
NEWARK, NJ – In a press conference in Newark today, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Lonegan kicked off his “Exposing Cory Booker” tour by calling on Cory Booker to explain why he never implemented school vouchers for children trapped in Newark’s failing public schools.
In the past, Cory Booker has claimed to support school vouchers, but during his seven years as mayor of Newark, Booker never implemented vouchers. And last week, when called out by Mayor Lonegan, Booker’s campaign said, Booker’s “first priority is strengthening public education,” but “in areas where schools are currently failing our children, however, he believes that parents should have options.” (Philadelphia Inquirer, 07/13/13)
“Seven years ago, I was excited when Cory Booker ran for mayor and pledged to make a real difference in Newark’s failing education system,” Mayor Lonegan said. “I was excited because there was finally a Democrat promising to institute real school vouchers in one of America’s poorest cities. But now it’s seven years later, and absolutely nothing has happened.
“Cory Booker has failed the children, the parents, and the taxpayers of Newark in never providing school choice and never solving the deep problems confronting Newark. When a child drops out of school, their chances of turning toward crime goes up; their chances of being trapped in a life of poverty goes up; their chances of being dependent on the government welfare system goes up. All because Cory Booker refused to live up to his promises.
“Last year, Newark passed a milestone when its school budget flew past the $1 BILLION mark, funded by suburban taxpayers across the state. And despite one of the highest per-pupil costs in the nation – at nearly $24,000 – we continue to see massive drop out rates. The graduation rate in Newark is an astonishingly low 29 percent.
“But this isn’t just about statistics – this is about people. This is about children who have been failed by Cory Booker’s education system. Cory Booker can put out all the tweets in the world – it doesn’t change the fact that he has failed a generation of students.
“I call on Cory Booker to say once and for all whether he will support school vouchers in the U.S. Senate or whether he will allow President Obama to deny children the hope of a better future. New Jersey children and parents deserve an answer. Minnie Cuebas, who spoke about how she can’t afford to send her three daughters to private school, deserves an answer. New Jersey voters deserve an answer now.”
Ridgewood /Ho Ho Kus VFW Post 192 is pleased to announce a Change of Command
July 21,2013
Effective July 10, 2013, a new Post Commander was installed at the Washington Elm VFW Post 192 for Ridgewood—Ho-Ho-Kus. Stanley Kober, the now Past Post Commander was in that position for eight years. The new Washington Elm VFW Post 192 Commander is Matt Bombace, a Ridgewood resident/firefighter, Marine, and Iraq veteran.
Kober said, that since July 2005 when he was made aware of the imminent loss of the Post’s Charter (and subsequent closing of the Post) and “asked” to become Post Commander, he has enjoyed much of that time while expending tremendous efforts and personal resources in doing his best to lead the Post in its presently successful recovery and revitalization.
He further said that the Post has had numerous technological advances such as the extensive computer website and social media, like blogs and FaceBook®, etc.; pioneering with the Blue Star Mothers of North Jersey for getting the Honor and Remember Flag as an official flag for NJ; and numerous other recognitions, successes, awards, citations, etc. with the most recent being at the 2013 NJ VFW State Annual Convention for the receipt of a plaque (making it four out of five years running) for the First Place Award for the NJ VFW State Public Relations contest.
Under Kober’s leadership, the Post has helped many Post members, young people, widows, active military, veterans, and their families, etc., most actions of which are listed in the annual highlights distributed each year, and very importantly, the Post has been a very positive impact on our communities of at least Ridgewood and Ho-Ho-Kus—just like a true VFW Post should be.
Kober said “I wish the absolute Best to Post Commander Matt Bombace and am certain that he will provide the leadership, dedication, and vitality needed to bring the Post to new and greater heights as the Post moves into its 75th year starting on September 23, 2014 and into its efforts for constructing a new Post Home that is long overdue our veterans.
“Thanks to the many, many people from Ridgewood and Ho-Ho-Kus for their support over the years and their continued and anticipated support of Post Commander Bombace and the veterans of Post 192, our military and their families.
“May God Continue to Bless the United States of America, our veterans and the military and their families and watch over our military who are in ‘harm’s way’.”
/s/ Stanley A. Kober
Stanley A. Kober
Past Post Commander,
Washington Elm VFW Post 192
Ho-Ho-Kus—Ridgewood
620 Cliff Street
Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ 07423
Move over NSA, here comes the Obamacare Big Brother database
by James S. Robbins | Posted by: jamesrobbins1 on July 20, 2013 2:37 pm
Would you trust thousands of low-level Federal bureaucrats and contractors with one-touch access to your private financial and medical information? Under Obamacare you won’t have any choice.
As the Obamacare train-wreck begins to gather steam, there is increasing concern in Congress over something called the Federal Data Services Hub. The Data Hub is a comprehensive database of personal information being established by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement the federally facilitated health insurance exchanges. The purpose of the Data Hub, according to a June 2013 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, is to provide “electronic, near real-time access to federal data” and “access to state and third party data sources needed to verify consumer-eligibility information.” In these days of secret domestic surveillance by the intelligence community, rogue IRS officials and state tax agencies using private information for political purposes, and police electronically logging every license plate that passes by, the idea of the centralized Data Hub is making lawmakers and citizens nervous.
They certainly should be; the potential for abuse is enormous. The massive, centralized database will include comprehensive personal information such as income and financial data, family size, citizenship and immigration status, incarceration status, social security numbers, and private health information. It will compile dossiers based on information obtained from the IRS, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration, state Medicaid databases, and for some reason the Peace Corps. The Data Hub will provide web-based, one-stop shopping for prying into people’s personal affairs.
Democrat NJ Senate hopefuls lean to the left of Obama
Sunday July 21, 2013, 12:20 AM
By HERB JACKSON
“NJ/DC” COLUMNIST
No one should expect Democratic candidates in New Jersey’s special U.S. Senate primary to be criticizing President Obama this summer, especially since a recent poll showed Obama with a 56 percent job-approval rating statewide, and 88 percent approval among Democrats.
But on a variety of issues, the four candidates in the Aug. 13 Democratic primary — Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Rep. Rush Holt of Mercer County, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver of Essex County and Rep. Frank Pallone of Monmouth County — are staking out positions to the left of Obama.
It might surprise those who listen to Republican candidates and commentators, who often paint Obama as an ultra-liberal and the New Jersey Democrats as carbon copies, that there even could be political room to the left of the president.
But talk with environmentalists, labor union leaders or people still furious that the architects of the economic collapse never went to jail, and disappointment or frustration with Obama comes out.
Burglaries in Washington township on the Ridgewood border.
Same burglar may be responsible for string of residential break-ins in Washington Township
Friday, July 19, 2013 Last updated: Friday July 19, 2013, 11:32 PM
BY ABBOTT KOLOFF AND JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITERS
The Record
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP — A string of residential break-ins over the past eight months in the same neighborhood, all which took place while the residents slept in their homes, may be the work of the same burglar, police said Friday.
Chief Randy Ciocco of the Washington Township police said there have been five burglaries and one attempted burglary in the western part of the township since Nov. 7. In the most recent burglary, at a house on Andrea Lane on July 12, the burglar took cash from a wallet left on the dresser of the master bedroom where the residents were sleeping several feet away. An attempted burglary was reported two days later on Hemlock Drive after a home alarm went off in the early morning hours, Ciocco said.
“Because it’s the same general neighborhood, at this point we believe it’s the same person or persons involved,” Ciocco said.
Readers says The public needs to know that the mayor interfered with a letter to the editor.
The way I understand the story, the mayor asked Ms. MacNamara to either correct her letter or have it stopped. He did so before the start of a council meeting. She declined. Then he supposedly contacted someone at the Ridgewood News about factual inaccuracies in the letter. The letter was pulled from that week’s paper, but then the editor (who had been out of town) offered to Ms. MacNamara to print it exactly as it was written the following week. She declined that offer because by then the context of the letter would have been outdated.
The letter was quite benign. We all read it here on the blog. What was the big deal? The big deal was that our mayor evidently felt it cast him in a negative light regarding the Extel mess, and Aronsohn had already taken a great deal of heat for attacking Tom Riche so publicly.
It is 100% wrong for him to have interfered in this way. It may not have been illegal for Aronsohn to make that call (or visit), and the paper is always within its rights to publish whatever it wants to publish…..but COME ON. The public needs to know that the mayor interfered with a letter to the editor. This was not a news story. It was a letter to the editor. It is despicable and unprofessional and is yet another miserable slip in his downward slide.
I hope and trust that The Ridgewood News will come clean on this once and for all and will expose our mayor’s actions.
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Readers Respond to the President race-baiting or Eloquent Compassion
The President doubled-down on his ‘My (fictional) son could have been Trayvon’ to ‘I WAS Trayvon 35 years ago’. His parties in the “choom wagon” from his mis-spent youth must have given him this idea. He further degraded the office with race-baiting and wagging his bony finger.
While we have come to expect charlatans like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, I’d never expect the President to comment on the verdict of a trial as well as playing the race card. This man further embarrasses our country and the office he holds. We got exactly who the majority we voted for: a man clearly not ready for the huge responsibility and decorum for the office.
You are so wrong …
President Obama was not playing a race card. He was explaining honestly, to those who would listen with an open mind, the facts about racism as it exists in the country. He also offered some positive suggestions to help our country eventually move away from this. Black mothers and fathers spend their lives worrying that their sons will be shot. This is an ongoing nightmare for them, and sadly it is a reality in many cases.
Thank God we have an eloquent, compassionate man in office who is clearly up to the huge responsibility of the Office of President, and who has more decorum than several previous presidents. He is truly a class act.
