Village Council – Request to Place Plaque on Ridge Wall From Campanello Family
September 2,2012
Boyd A. Loving
8:41 PM
Ridgewood NJ, Family members of the late Nicholas M. (Nick) Campanello, a 16 year old incoming Ridgewood High School senior who died from an asthma attack on August 8th, have formally requested the Ridgewood Village Council permit installation of a memorial plaque at the “overlook” stone wall on Crest Road near Valley View Avenue.
A spray painted memorial to Nick recently appeared on the “overlook” wall facing Crest Road. Long time residents of the Ridgewood Heights area claim this is the first time they recall the stone wall being defaced with spray paint. It is unclear at this time what significance the wall played, if any, in Nick’s life, nor is it known what action Village officials plan to take with regard to the spray painted memorial.
Home owners in the area of Crest Road and Valley View Avenue have reportedly been calling police almost regularly over the past week or more regarding illegally parked vehicles associated with large groups of individuals who are now congregating nightly at “overlook.”
Village Council members are scheduled to discuss the Campanello family’s request during their Public Work Session on Wednesday, September 5th. The meeting will begin at 7:30 PM in the Sydney V. Stoldt, Jr. Court Room at Village Hall, 131 North Maple Avenue.
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
Founder of Labor Day
More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.
Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.”
But Peter McGuire’s place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.
The First Labor Day
The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.
In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a “workingmen’s holiday” on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.
Labor Day Legislation
Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From them developed the movement to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.
A Nationwide Holiday
The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public “the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations” of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.
The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have proved a problem. This change, however, is more a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio, and television.
The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation’s strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.
Please be advised that all Village of Ridgewood Offices will be closed on Monday, September 3, 2012, in observance of Labor Day. There will be no pickup of garbage or recyclables on that day.
Use of license plate readers by N.J. police increasing
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 1, 2012, 1:03 PM
BY LEE PROCIDA
AP/THE PRESS OF ATLANTIC CITY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEA ISLE CITY — A camera mounted to a lamppost on the Sea Isle Boulevard Bridge has taken a picture of every license plate leaving the island for the past two years.
The information is transmitted to a computer at the nearby Police Department, where officers use it to monitor for stolen vehicles and suspected criminals, or keep it to be used in a potential future case.
The automated license plate reader, or ALPR, is a technology that is growing in use locally and throughout the world as a way to dramatically expand the reach of police investigations. Cameras essentially take photographs of passing vehicles and use software to extract the license plate numbers — data that can then be used to automatically search police databases for any issues with that vehicle or its registered owner.
“It’s a very, very good tool when you deploy it right,” said Sea Isle City police Lt. Kirk Rohrer, who has used the system for several successful investigations.
KICK OFF SUNDAY AT CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IS SEPTEMBER 9TH Opportunities abound! There is worship at 8 and 10 am with 9:30 a.m. JOY Worship – 30 minutes of interactive child and family friendly worship. September 9th is our first day of Sunday school, which begins at 9:50 a.m. with a back-pack blessing during 10 o’clock worship.
You may contact the church office or register your child that very day. We have programs for pre-K through high school and are planning a mission trip for middle school and high school students. Nursery care is available on Sunday mornings. Music: You will find a lively and exciting choir program for both adults and children with all ages and talents welcome to be part of making a joyful noise. And don’t forget to sign up to be part of our kids GODSPELL Musical.
KICK OFF BBQ will round out the day right on the church lawn beginning about 11:30 a.m. with lots of fellowship and food to share as well a bounce house for children. We invite you to come and join the fun. Learn about ways you can be a part of this faith-filled community of disciples making disciples, having fun, sharing in ministry of music, education for adults and children, outreach beyond our doors and more…come and worship, come and learn, come and explore the community that is Christ Episcopal Church.
Call 201.652.2350 for more information or visit us at www.christchurchridgewood.org, or better yet just come, on September 9th – the invitation is open. We are located at 105 Cottage Place, Ridgewood, NJ.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2012
BY DARREN COOPER
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
Cooper Holmes is tasked with contrasting responsibilities at Ridgewood.
On the lacrosse team, he is an attackman, meaning it’s his job to score goals. For the Maroons boys soccer team, No. 5 in The Record preseason Top 25, he is an outside defender on the back row, meaning it’s his job to prevent goals from being scored.
“I never really thought about it that way,” said Holmes, a senior. “I’m so goal-minded in lacrosse, I think it almost helps me out in soccer. Even though I am primarily a defender, I get up the field a lot because I want to be part of the attack, but they are totally different positions.”
Ridgewood was in a new position last season, taking a huge step toward being one of North Jersey’s top programs. The Maroons won their first league title since 2001 and had a Bergen County tournament victory for the first time since 2005.
Addicted to the internet? It could be all in your genes Women who are obsessed with Facebook, Twitter and online shopping can now blame it on their genes, after scientists claimed internet addiction was hereditary.
By Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent12:30PM BST 31 Aug 2012
Although the world wide web has been around for less than a generation, Dr Christian Montag from the University of Bonn, said they had found a gene in people who could not drag themselves away. Most were women.
Dr Montag said that, biologically speaking, internet addiction had the same genetic cause as smoking addiction.
He said: “Internet addiction is not a figment of our imagination. Researchers and therapists are increasingly closing in on it.”
Describing the impact of the genetic variant on those who had it, he said: “Within the group of subjects exhibiting problematic internet behaviour this variant occurs more frequently, in particular, in women.
“The sex-specific genetic finding may result from a specific subgroup of internet dependency, such as the use of social networks or such.”
Keller Williams Realty Ranked “Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Home Buyer and Seller Segments”
by J.D. Power and Associates
AUSTIN, TEXAS (August 16, 2012) — According to the J.D. Power and Associates 2012 Home Buyer/Seller Satisfaction StudySM released yesterday, Keller Williams Realty, Inc. ranks highest in customer satisfaction in both the homebuyer and home seller segments. Keller Williams Realty, Inc. achieved the highest scores in all measured factors across both segments, receiving the highest JDPower.com Power Circle RatingSM among its competitors overall.
“We are so proud to have our associates be recognized once again for leading the industry with the influence and reputations they have in their local communities. They continually demonstrate not only their level of talent, but their commitment to serving our communities with the utmost integrity and highest level of service,” Mark Willis, CEO of Keller Williams Realty, Inc., stated. “Congratulations to all Keller Williams Realty associates. They have certainly earned this prestigious distinction.”
The fifth annual J.D. Power and Associates study measures customer satisfaction with the largest national real estate companies within the home buyer and seller segments. Scores are determined by examining three factors of the home-buying experience: agent/salesperson; office; and variety of additional services. For the home-selling segment, agent/salesperson; marketing; office; and variety of additional services are examined.
J.D. Power and Associates stated, “[The uncertain economic times] present a challenge for the real estate companies to really work closely with the customers and really hold their hand through the entire process to make them feel more comfortable in the decisions. Keller Williams has set itself apart by performing high in all the areas that are most important to customers specifically with the agent, the offices, and the services that they provide.”
“Our agents go above and beyond to help their clients at one of the most personal times in their lives – when they are buying or selling a home. We are incredibly honored and humbled that our associates have been recognized yet again for their incredible levels of service,” says Mary Tennant, President of Keller Williams Realty, Inc.
The weak housing market has long handcuffed the economic recovery, but new data released today suggest a housing recovery may be gaining steam.
The latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices Indices show home prices nationally were up 1.2 percent in the second quarter versus 2012, and up 6.9 percent from the first quarter of the year. In the New York metropolitan area, June home prices rose 2.1 percent over May of this year, though that represented a 2.1 percent downshift from a year ago.
Jeffrey Otteau, president of Otteau Valuation Group Inc., in East Brunswick, said New Jersey’s housing market is in a similar, relatively good spot. (Kaltwasser, NJBIZ)
Ridgewood Police: Tips to Prevent Residential Burglaries
While we enjoy a very safe community, in the United States, a residential burglary occurs every 13 seconds. In addition to the property loses, victims often develop personal feelings of vulnerability resulting from these crimes. To help prevent becoming a victim, the Ridgewood Police Department offers some helpful hints:
Have sturdy dead-bolt locks on all exterior doors – and use them.
Trim shrubbery back to avoid giving burglars cover, and trim tree branches so there is no access to upper windows.
Leave shades and blinds in normal positions.
Keep porches, entrances, and driveways well lit – consider installing automatic lights that turn on at specific times or when there is movement in the area.
Keep garages and sheds closed and locked when not in use – they offer excellent cover for a burglar attempting to break into a house.
Store tools and ladders securely out of the way when not in use.
Never carry identification tags on your keys.
Do not hide “spare house keys” outside.
Keep daily routines confidential and vary them when possible.
Do not put valuables where they are visible from a door or window of your home.
Do not let strangers into your home to use the phone – offer to make the call for them.
Put lights and television and/or stereo on timers (not just when you are away on vacation).
Make sure your exterior lights are not on during day light hours. (remember to adjust timers with seasonal day light changes).
Do not let newspapers build up on your driveway and/or property – have a trusted neighbor retrieve your newspapers and mail.
SUNDAY AUGUST 26, 2012, 10:14 AM
BY JENNIFER V. HUGHES
SPECIAL TO THE RECORD
THE RECORD
As Irene Bressler lists her Ridgewood home for sale, she’s touting the updated kitchen, the luxurious great room and the large wall of windows that overlook the half-acre property.
What she won’t be bragging about is the basement — there isn’t one. And that’s just fine with her.
“I think it’s a blessing that we don’t have a basement,” said Bressler, whose home is in the town’s Salem Ridge neighborhood, which has many basement-less homes. The five-bedroom colonial is listed for $658,000.
* New automated system will remove fraudulent Likes
* Less than 1 pct of Likes on any page likely to be removed
By Alexei Oreskovic
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 31 (Reuters) – Facebook Inc is weeding out fake “Likes” on its social network that are being caused by spammers, malware and black marketeers as it strives to maintain credibility as an advertising platform.
Facebook said the number of Likes, or endorsements by users, on corporate pages is likely to drop by less than 1 percent, on average, after the crackdown.
“Newly improved automated efforts will remove those Likes gained by malware, compromised accounts, deceived users, or purchased bulk Likes,” Facebook said in a post on its official blog on Friday.
“While we have always had dedicated protections against each of these threats on Facebook, these improved systems have been specifically configured to identify and take action against suspicious Likes,” the post continued.
Taxmageddon Would Cause Another Recession
Salim Furth, Ph.D July 7, 2012
Speaking this week at the Western Economic Association International, economic forecaster Allen Sinai talked about the damage the “fiscal cliff” of 2013 will cause the economy. Sinai concludes that a recession is unavoidable if Congress does not act to fix the fiscal cliff.
The fiscal cliff has two components: (1) Taxmageddon, a $494 billion per year increase in tax increases set to take effect on January 1, 2013, and (2) federal spending cuts of about $135 billion.
In the large-scale economic model that Sinai’s Decision Economics Inc. uses to predict economic growth and fluctuations, the fiscal cliff has catastrophic consequences, but those consequences are not symmetric.
In Sinai’s model, a $350 billion tax increase—Sinai’s analysis shows that even a modest estimate of the 2013 tax increases has a huge, negative economic impact—would lower growth in 2013 by two percentage points and by more than two percentage points in 2014. The negative effects would persist until the long-run trend aspects of the model outweigh the effects of current policy. Given that growth in the U.S. has hovered around 2 percent throughout the recovery-less recovery, a $350 billion tax increase alone would reduce growth to zero for years.
In addition to the tax increases, Sinai modeled the effects of $135 billion in spending cuts. These resulted in about one percentage point lower GDP growth in 2013. Since GDP can be broken down into separate categories (government spending, consumption, investment, and net exports) and 1 percent of GDP is about $150 billion, the fall in government spending would have no measurable impact on the private economy in 2013.
In the years after 2013, the spending cuts actually yield a small increase in GDP in Sinai’s model—to the tune of two-tenths of a percentage point per year. That implies that decreasing government spending will increase future private economic activity on a better than one-to-one basis.
Lastly, Sinai emphasized that all those tax increases would have such a negative effect on spending that the deficit would shrink for only one year (2013) and would grow thereafter relative to a baseline with no fiscal cliff.
Other members of the panel had valuable insights as well. John B. Taylor of Stanford emphasized the importance of making economic policy based on consistent rules. As a frequent advisor to the U.S. government and a former Under Secretary of the Treasury, he recalled the pressure for government to “do something,” which made policy less predictable and sound. John C. Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, expounded on Sinai’s and Taylor’s points. In discussions with business leaders from the nine states of Williams’ district, the topic of policy uncertainty came up again and again. Businesses do not want to hire or invest while tax rates and other future government policies are unknown.
Washington should stop Taxmageddon as soon as possible.
Are we better off under Obamanomics?
Legislative Lowdown: Obama Drivins US off Fiscal Cliff
By Brian Darling
August 24, 2012
Are we better off under Obamanomics? Hardly, a new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reveals. According to the CBO, the federal government will spend $1 trillion more than it takes in this year — the fourth consecutive year that has happened. Furthermore, CBO projects negative growth and dismal unemployment numbers.
Remember President Obama’s promise that his stimulus plan would create jobs and set the economy on the right track? The CBO projects that if the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire and scheduled defense cuts take effect, the unemployment rate will rise to 9.1% and the economy will contract by 0.5% by the end of next year.
The president’s record on the size and scope of the federal government is also terrible, according to this report. Obama inherited $10.6 trillion in debt and has seen it balloon to $16 trillion in his short tenure. His big-spending policies have saddled future generations with trillions in new debt.
This report contains further proof that the president’s proposed tax hikes are terrible for the economy. The CBO reports that “sharp increases in federal taxes and reductions in federal spending that are scheduled under current law to begin in calendar year 2013 are likely to interrupt the recent economic progress.” These policies will lead to “a recession” and “an unemployment rate that remains above 8 percent through 2014.”
The federal government is in dire need of specific cuts, but this report is further evidence that across-the-board cuts to defense spending may hit the wrong priorities at the Department of Defense. A better approach is to adopt some of the good ideas to cut government contained in Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget that passed the House of Representatives earlier this year.
These findings are echoed in the book “The Fiscal Cliff.” Brian Baker, president of Ending Spending, writes in the forward that “while the vast majority of Americans do pay taxes, including payroll, state, and sales taxes (to name a few), a recent report from the Joint Committee on Taxation shows that 51% of households in America paid no federal income tax in 2009, even though they used programs funded by federal income tax revenues.”
Baker is correct in his call for “lowering rates, broadening the tax base, and adopting pro-growth policies” in a way that will be revenue neutral in the first year, but will lead to increased revenues in future years as a result of a growing economy.
Obama’s policies are leading the U.S. economy to negative growth rates and high unemployment. Obamanomics is an abysmal failure. Washington needs to change direction.
Federal pay freeze
The Washington Post reported earlier this week that “President Obama told congressional leaders Tuesday that he is extending a two-year pay freeze for federal employees until at least next spring because Congress has not agreed on a budget for the next fiscal year.” The freeze is expected to last until early next year, when an expected continuing resolution to fund the government expires.
As expected, public-sector union leaders were quick to pounce. J. David Cox, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, called the freeze “unconscionable” and argued that “federal employees cannot afford another four months or even another day of frozen wages.” In fact, federal employees are compensated at a much higher rate than their private sector counterparts.
A recent paper by The Heritage Foundation noted that “a January 2012 report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) shows that federal government employees receive substantially higher compensation than similarly skilled workers in the private sector.” The CBO concluded that “the average federal worker receives wages that are 2 percent higher than a similarly skilled private-sector worker, and benefits that are 48 percent higher. The average federal worker receives total compensation (wages plus benefits) 16 percent higher than market levels.
A pay freeze would bring federal employees’ pay more in line with the pay of their private sector counterparts.
Istook Live!
The Heritage Foundation has a new product called “Istook Live!” Former Rep.Ernest Istookis the host of his own talk radio show. He is on from 9 a.m. to noon every weekday.
“Ernest Istook brings unequaled insights and clarity to radio thanks to his unique career pursuing the American Dream,” according to Istook’s website. “Listeners will gain new perspective, cutting through the hype and propaganda spun out by politicians and the media.”
I am lucky enough to be a guest host on the show and will be hosting next Friday. Tune in online at www.istook.com.
First appeared in The Daily Caller.
