North Jersey towns acquiring high-tech surveillance gear
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2012 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2012, 12:03 AM
BY ZACH PATBERG
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
A federal anti-terrorism program has drawn North Jersey deeper into the practice of hidden surveillance, equipping police departments with high-tech cameras, infrared technology and automatic license plate readers to keep tabs on people as they travel to local reservoirs, financial hubs and malls.
The stepped-up security around potential terrorist targets links the region into a network of clandestine monitoring. Some of the departments are already putting to use the equipment provided by Homeland Security; others are gearing up.
Oradell, Emerson, Closter and Harrington Park police have car-mounted night-vision technology and video and recording equipment that can watch over the Oradell Reservoir and dam — and the hikers and anglers entering it. West Milford can do the same around the Newark watershed. Wayne police are scanning scan the license plates of vehicles outside the Willowbrook Mall, while East Rutherford officers patrol hotel parking lots near the Meadowlands and the Federal Reserve building off Route 17.
Local police signed onto the Homeland Security network have broad discretion in deciding what to monitor and when to share surveillance feeds with federal agents. And when national security isn’t calling, they can use the equipment for day-to-day police work, such as enhanced tracking systems to catch suspects and better radio communication among officers.
Ridgewood News editorial: The shopping season
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2012
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The turkey leftovers are in the fridge, and maybe a bit of stuffing. If you’re lucky, there’s still a piece of pumpkin pie. But if you want to work off some holiday calories, check out the tradition of post-Thanksgiving shopping.
Today is Black Friday, when retailers begin the big commercial push to the Christmas holidays, and brave shoppers looking for bargains battle crowded malls and highways leading to the stores. If you’re up to the physical challenge, head out and face the crowds.
Bergen County forms task Force Protect Public against Home repair Contractor Scams
November 22.2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ , Under the direction of Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan a new County wide task force has been formed to inspect contractors making home repairs in areas damaged by superstorm Sandy. The Task force is charged with looking for contractors committing fraud .
Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan said in a statement. “My administration will have zero tolerance for fraudulent home improvement companies,” .
The task force will include members of the county’s Consumer Affairs Division and the Bergen County Police Office of Consumer Protection. Capt. Victor F. Cuttitta Jr. of the Bergen County police,will lead the task force and will focus on areas hit the hardest by the storm, like Moonachie and Little Ferry. but not limit itself to those areas.
Donovan asked residents to “watch out for their elderly neighbors” because they “are often targeted by con artists posing as legitimate contractors.”.She asked residents to call the county’s Consumer Affairs Division to find out whether a contractor is registered or has been the subject of complaints. The Consumer Affairs Division can be reached at 201-336-6413 or the county police Office of Consumer Protection at 201-336-6400, extension 6424.
Obamacare : Same type of rules that created the banking crisis , Insurers have no way to asses risk
Federal government releases long-awaited health reform rules
By Maggie Fox, NBC News
Long-awaited federal rules for health insurance plans came out Tuesday, and they make clear that insurance plans that people can buy on the open market next year will look a lot like some of the most popular plans on offer now – with a few big differences.
As the 2010 health reform law requires, insurers will no longer be able to dump patients who are starting to cost too much, they won’t be able to charge women more than men, they have to cover anyone who can pay and they’ll have to pay for maternity care, eye exams for kids and for mental health services.
“Insurers will not be able to charge someone more just because she is sick or because she used to be sick,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters on a conference call.
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The new rules from the Health and Human Services Department cover the new state exchanges, where people will be able to buy health insurance starting in 2014.
The rules lay out how much extra insurers can charge to cover certain groups of people, like smokers and people who are older. They also say when states outline so-called essential health benefits – the minimums of what health insurers should cover – they should use the best existing plans as a guideline. HHS also issued some guidelines for employers and insurers who want to offer wellness programs, which encourage people to keep themselves healthy.
Sandy-Ravaged New Jersey Families Face $6,933 Tax Hike in Fiscal Cliff Stalemate
By Christopher Goins
November 21, 2012
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(CNSNews.com) – Families in Hurricane Sandy-ravaged New Jersey will face the highest tax increase as a percentage of their income – 6.82% or about $6,933 more in taxes — if Congress does not reach an agreement on the fiscal cliff tax issues during the lame-duck session, according to an analysis by the Tax Foundation.
In its study of how the fiscal cliff would affect typical families in each state, the Tax Foundation reports that if the numerous tax provisions that are due to expire on Dec. 31 are not changed, a four-person family in New Jersey with a median income of $101,682 will see its taxes go up at a rate 6.82 percent of its income, which translates into about $6,933.
Peace, turkey pardoned by President Obama last Thanksgiving, euthanized
White House Officials insist timing of death not suspicious
Posted: 5:52 AM
Last Updated: 1 hour and 11 minutes ago
By: Mike M. Ahlers, CNN Senior Producer
Washington — Peace, one of two turkeys pardoned by President Obama last year, was euthanized Monday, according to an official who insisted the timing of the death – days before the Thanksgiving holiday – was not suspicious.
Rebecca Aloisi, vice president for marketing at the Mount Vernon Estate, confirmed that Peace had been dead after a weekend “illness.” But Aloise knew neither the nature of the illness, the manner of death, nor what had been done with the remains of the large, edible bird.
Proclamation of Thanksgiving Washington, D.C. – October 3, 1863
This is the proclamation which set the precedent for America’s national day of Thanksgiving. During his administration, President Lincoln issued many orders similar to this. For example, on November 28, 1861, he ordered government departments closed for a local day of thanksgiving.
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
President Obama Grant Presidential Pardon to the 2012 National Turkey
Courtesy of Dom NIzza
The day before Thanksgiving, President Obama granted Cobbler, one of the two toms selected for national turkey honors, a presidential pardon at the White House. Cobbler, along with Gobbler, the second turkey, will then head to their future home at George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate. watch the Presidential Pardon on Yourtube https://youtu.be/z7OXg9CZQt0
Each year at this time school children all over America are taught the official Thanksgiving story, and newspapers, radio, TV, and magazines devote vast amounts of time and space to it. It is all very colorful and fascinating.
It is also very deceiving. This official story is nothing like what really happened. It is a fairy tale, a whitewashed and sanitized collection of half-truths which divert attention away from Thanksgiving’s real meaning.
The official story has the pilgrims boarding the Mayflower, coming to America and establishing the Plymouth colony in the winter of 1620-21. This first winter is hard, and half the colonists die. But the survivors are hard working and tenacious, and they learn new farming techniques from the Indians. The harvest of 1621 is bountiful. The Pilgrims hold a celebration, and give thanks to God. They are grateful for the wonderful new abundant land He has given them.
The official story then has the Pilgrims living more or less happily ever after, each year repeating the first Thanksgiving. Other early colonies also have hard times at first, but they soon prosper and adopt the annual tradition of giving thanks for this prosperous new land called America.
The problem with this official story is that the harvest of 1621 was not bountiful, nor were the colonists hardworking or tenacious. 1621 was a famine year and many of the colonists were lazy thieves.
In his ‘History of Plymouth Plantation,’ the governor of the colony, William Bradford, reported that the colonists went hungry for years, because they refused to work in the fields. They preferred instead to steal food. He says the colony was riddled with “corruption,” and with “confusion and discontent.” The crops were small because “much was stolen both by night and day, before it became scarce eatable.”
In the harvest feasts of 1621 and 1622, “all had their hungry bellies filled,” but only briefly. The prevailing condition during those years was not the abundance the official story claims, it was famine and death. The first “Thanksgiving” was not so much a celebration as it was the last meal of condemned men.
But in subsequent years something changes. The harvest of 1623 was different. Suddenly, “instead of famine now God gave them plenty,” Bradford wrote, “and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many, for which they blessed God.” Thereafter, he wrote, “any general want or famine hath not been amongst them since to this day.” In fact, in 1624, so much food was produced that the colonists were able to begin exporting corn.
What happened?
After the poor harvest of 1622, writes Bradford, “they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop.” They began to question their form of economic organization.
This had required that “all profits & benefits that are got by trade, working, fishing, or any other means” were to be placed in the common stock of the colony, and that, “all such persons as are of this colony, are to have their meat, drink, apparel, and all provisions out of the common stock.” A person was to put into the common stock all he could, and take out only what he needed.
This “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” was an early form of socialism, and it is why the Pilgrims were starving. Bradford writes that “young men that are most able and fit for labor and service” complained about being forced to “spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children.” Also, “the strong, or man of parts, had no more in division of victuals and clothes, than he that was weak.” So the young and strong refused to work and the total amount of food produced was never adequate.
To rectify this situation, in 1623 Bradford abolished socialism. He gave each household a parcel of land and told them they could keep what they produced, or trade it away as they saw fit. In other words, he replaced socialism with a free market, and that was the end of famines.
Many early groups of colonists set up socialist states, all with the same terrible results. At Jamestown, established in 1607, out of every shipload of settlers that arrived, less than half would survive their first twelve months in America. Most of the work was being done by only one-fifth of the men, the other four-fifths choosing to be parasites. In the winter of 1609-10, called “The Starving Time,” the population fell from five-hundred to sixty.
Then the Jamestown colony was converted to a free market, and the results were every bit as dramatic as those at Plymouth. In 1614, Colony Secretary Ralph Hamor wrote that after the switch there was “plenty of food, which every man by his own industry may easily and doth procure.” He said that when the socialist system had prevailed, “we reaped not so much corn from the labors of thirty men as three men have done for themselves now.”
Before these free markets were established, the colonists had nothing for which to be thankful. They were in the same situation as Ethiopians are today, and for the same reasons. But after free markets were established, the resulting abundance was so dramatic that the annual Thanksgiving celebrations became common throughout the colonies, and in 1863, Thanksgiving became a national holiday.
Thus the real reason for Thanksgiving, deleted from the official story, is: Socialism does not work; the one and only source of abundance is free markets, and we thank God we live in a country where we can have them.
* * * * * Mr. Maybury writes on investments. This article originally appeared in The Free Market, November 1985.
Food Stamp Nation Thanksgiving
November 22,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, This Thanksgiving more Americans than ever will use food stamps to buy their Thanksgiving dinner , according to a new report from the nonprofit government watchdog group The Sunlight Foundation.
42.2 million Americans are on food stamps, according to the Economic Policy Institute. This is roughly the size of the populations of California and Connecticut combined.
Usage of food stamps among low and no-income families has spiked since the collapse of the U.S. financial system four years ago. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, average participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamp program, has grown 70% since 2007. And economists warn that usage of food stamps won’t go down until unemployment picture improves.
The Ridgewod blog Wishes you and your Family a Very Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving
May we lift up our thoughts to all that is good in our country and in our families.
May we especially remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice to our country, as well as all those who have served and continue to serve this nation.
May we keep in our prayers all those that are less fortunate and those who have suffered during Hurricane Sandy
And a sincere “thank you” to all for all you who chose to turn to this blog for up to the minute information during Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath and the linemen who worked tirelessly getting the power restored.
Television personality Barbara Walters was in the statehouse today interviewing Gov. Chris Christie as part of the release of her “10 Most Fascinating People of 2012.”
Christie’s was one of seven names revealed Monday. The remaining names as well as the top name on the list will be revealed on December 12. (Isherwood/PolitickerNJ)
