Ridgewood Library foundation plans to hire fundraising pro
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2012
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The Ridgewood Public Library Foundation is seeking to hire an independent contractor in an effort to raise an additional $600,000 for the library.
The Ridgewood Public Library Foundation hopes an independent contractor can help reach its fundraising goals.
A part-time professional fundraiser, according to the foundation’s volunteers, would help the group achieve its goal of a $1.5 million endowment in two years. Currently, the foundation has a $900,000 endowment, including both tax-deductible donations and investment income, and has received more than $400,000 in gifts earmarked for specific projects.
According to its president, Melanie Stern, the foundation plans to post the position on the library’s website and in local newspapers in mid to late September. The salary will be based on the “candidate’s experience and professional standards, plus some incentives,” she said.
Practical reasons motivated the search for a new hire.
“Our board is made up of approximately 19 directors, most of whom have full-time careers,” Stern said. “A professional fundraiser can structure the entire effort … The board is looking at the big picture and the fundraiser has to be the implementer and manage the process.”
Annual Open House and Coffee with the Council – 10AM to Noon
Coffee with the Council – 10AM to Noon September 8th 2012
Annual Open House for new residents to informally meet with the Village Council to ask questions, register to vote and meet with other new residents. Please R.S.V.P. no later than 9/5/2012 to 201-670-5500 x205.
Half of Americans die with almost no money
By Andrea Coombes
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)—Almost half of U.S. retirees die with savings of $10,000 or less, but that grim finding doesn’t fully describe the variability and uncertainty that characterize retirement in America, according to a recent study.
While some retirees struggle profoundly, living at or below the poverty line, others enjoy wealth and health—in fact, the two are strongly linked—while still others have little in savings but enjoy a decent income, according to the report, based on a survey that tracked retirees from 1993 through 2008.
While 46% of retirees have just $10,000 in savings when they die, “That doesn’t mean their standard of living is very low—they might have a relatively generous pension plan, most of them will have Social Security,” said James Poterba, professor of economics at M.I.T., president of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a co-author of the study.
Top 3 Small Business Struggles
Amy PayneAugust 29, 2012
Small businesses are getting a lot of focus from politicians, because they are a key engine of job creation—which has stalled in the U.S. economy. A Republican National Convention theme of “We Built It” continued the political debate over the economy yesterday.
A survey by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) in July revealed that small businesses’ top three concerns were taxes, regulations, and poor sales. A quick look at these top three small business struggles shows they have every reason to be demoralized.
1. Taxes
Small businesses are under enormous threats from looming tax hikes. President Obama is advocating a tax hike on the country’s job creators—the at least 1.2 million small businesses that employ workers and make more than $200,000. Known as flow-through businesses, these entrepreneurs pay their taxes through the individual income tax. A study by Ernst & Young estimates that this tax hike would kill about 710,000 jobs and cause real wages to drop.
This tax hike, however, is just a portion of the Taxmageddon crisis scheduled to hit the country on January 1. The Congressional Budget Office has left little doubt that unless Congress and the President prevent Taxmageddon, the country is headed toward a fresh recession next year.
And Taxmageddon includes only some of Obamacare’s 18 new tax hikes, several of which don’t kick in until 2014 or later. The tax landscape is truly bleak.
2. Regulations
Heritage’s James Gattuso and Diane Katz have documented the sea of new regulations that continue to drown America’s businesses. In their detailed report, “Red Tape Rising,” they note: “During the first three years of the Obama Administration, 106 new major federal regulations added more than $46 billion per year in new costs for Americans. Hundreds more regulations are winding through the rulemaking pipeline as a consequence of the Dodd–Frank financial-regulation law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s global warming crusade, threatening to further weaken an anemic economy and job creation.”
The cost of these regulations strangles economic growth and job creation.
3. Poor Sales
In an economy with 8.3 percent unemployment, consumers have to cut back. Struggling sales are no mystery. Higher fuel prices are also hurting small businesses, which must make the no-win decision of passing these costs on to consumers or absorbing the costs themselves.
Heritage’s Nick Loris explains the impact of fuel costs on the economy : “In a recent poll by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, 40 percent of small businesses responding said they have had to increase their prices. But that approach has a distinct downside. When consumer demand is already down, passing higher costs on to consumers suppresses demand even further, causing lower output, lower income and higher unemployment.”
To all of this, President Obama has said, “We tried our plan—and it worked.”
It’s not working for small business owners or for nearly 13 million jobless Americans.
Congress and the President need to stop Taxmageddon, open access to our energy resources, and reduce regulations that cost more than the benefits they deliver. America needs jobs, and small businesses need relief.
‘Jersey Shore’ canceled amid ratings slump on MTV
August 30, 2012
By: Bruce Baker
“Jersey Shore” canceled? The latest MTV news about the reality show says Snooki, The Situation, JWoww and other cast are in their last season amid falling ratings. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who spoke openly about his disdain for the show, is undoubtedly giving himself high-fives over the show’s departure from television.
According to a Los Angeles Times report Thursday, the uber-tanned bunch of dames and blokes on the MTV series are fading to black after six seasons of raising hell in Seaside Heights.
The reality television series was an instant hit in 2009 when it debuted. At its peak, over 8 million viewers watched a return of the wise-guy vernacular.
While “Jersey Shore,” canceled after its sixth season, closes a chapter in the MTV playbook, cast members like Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi and Jennifer “JWoww” Farley won’t be leaving reality TV. .
It’s only been 60 years since New Jersey’s first significant beach replenishment project and 23 years since the first one to be federally funded. Yet in that short time, the diverse efforts to prevent erosion and protect beachfront property from damaging storms have sparked numerous lawsuits and an ocean’s worth of controversy.
The latest argument that’s engulfed stakeholders as varied as vacation-homeowners, surfers, and constitutional scholars has nervous shoreline mayors worrying that future beach replenishment efforts will be too expensive to pursue. (Nurin, NJ Spotlight)
Commuter Alert : NO PARKING AT TRAIN STATION LOT – September 10, 11, 12
The Ridgewood Train Station Parking Lot will NOT be available for parking on Monday, September 10, 11, 12, due to paving. The street parking area at Wilsey Square will also be paved at this time.
During these 3 days UP3 Permit holders may park for unlimited time at street meters or nearby parking lots without ‘feeding the meter’. UP3 Hangtag must be displayed.
Other commuters can park in nearby lots and pay at the meter as they do in the Station Lot. the nearest lots to the Station are Hudson & Broad; Chestnut; Franklin & Walnut .
Thank you for your patience and understanding during this project.
Traffic Alert – PSE&G Roadwork West Side of Ridgewood – Sept 4, 5
This is to inform you that our company is scheduling to work in Ridgewood on Tuesday September 4 and Wednesday August 5, 2012.
We will be milling and paving where PSE&G installed the gas mains on S. Hill between E. Glen and Wastena, on Wastena from S. Hill to Valley View, on Heights Rd from Valley View to Montevista, on Sunset from Valley View and Montevista, Sheridan from N. Monroe and Heights Rd, on Unadilla from Wastena and Valley View, Monte Vista from Sunset to N. Monroe
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2012
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Randi Morein, owner of the Oak Street boutique Savvy Chic, spent around $200 for a sidewalk sandwich sign with an arrow that she could use to direct passersby to her store’s entrance. However, that sign has ended up costing her about $1,200 more.
Morein has received about 10 tickets from Ridgewood’s Department of Public Works in the past year in amounts ranging from $50 to $400. Each ticket related to Morein’s lack of compliance with the village’s sign ordinance.
The first ticket came after she placed the sign on the sidewalk. She was fined for obstructing the right of way. She moved the sign closer to the curb, and later placed it directly onto the tree well that she maintains outside her store, and received more tickets.
The most recent ticket, which had Morein report to court last month, stated that she did not have a permit for the sign. However, when she said she would pay for one, she was told that no such permit exists. Because of a postponement, she will return to court on Sept. 13. Although resolution prospects seem dim to her, she would like her now-confiscated sign to be returned.
AT&T on ambitious buying spree to catch Verizon in airwaves race
Published: Thursday, August 30, 2012, 1:52 PM
AT&T is cobbling together about $2.6 billion in deals for airwaves to catch up with Verizon Wireless, which has vaulted ahead in the race to stockpile the industry’s most precious asset.
AT&T has proposed at least 24 deals in the past four months for the rights to spectrum, the radio waves used to transmit mobile-phone calls and data connections. Verizon won U.S. approval on Aug. 23 to buy airwave rights from Comcast Corp. and three other cable companies for $3.9 billion.
In addition to keeping up with Verizon, AT&T’s buying spree is an effort to relieve pressure on its network as data traffic from smartphones and tablets taxes its wireless coverage, said Chris King, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus & Co. in Baltimore. Acquiring more government licenses to use spectrum gives companies greater capacity on their networks to handle demand.
The Gold Standard Goes Mainstream In the ferment within today’s Republican Party, there’s a growing realization that America’s system of fiat money is part of the economic problem.
BY SETH LIPSKY
An under-reported development of this campaign season is the Republican Party’s decision this week to send Gov. Mitt Romney into the presidential race on a platform effectively calling for a new gold commission. The realization that America’s system of fiat money is part of its economic problem is moving from the fringes of political discussion to the center.
This is a sharp contrast from the last time a gold commission was convened, in 1981, a decade after President Nixon abandoned the Bretton Woods system and opened the era of a fiat dollar. The 1981 commission recommended against restoring a gold .
SEAL tells 60 Minutes book is for honor, not politics
(CBS News) A retired Navy SEAL who was present at the killing of Osama bin Laden tells Scott Pelley in a 60 Minutes interview that his book about the raid is not a political statement, rather it is timed to commemorate the 9/11 attack and give credit to the hundreds of people whose work made the mission a success. The former SEAL Team 6 member, who uses the pseudonym Mark Owen, will appear in his first interview on 60 Minutes, Sunday Sept. 9 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT.
As a security measure, CBS News will not identify “Owen” in any reports about his account of the raid; his face and voice were disguised for his 60 Minutes interview. His book about the raid, “No Easy Day,” will be available next week. The following is an excerpt that appeared on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley:
He calls himself Mark Owen. That’s not his real name. We’ve disguised him and will keep his name confidential for his own safety. Owen was on the helicopter that crashed in bin Laden’s compound. He was the second man in the room when bin Laden was shot, he took the photographs of the body that were never released. But Owen told us the story is not about him — it’s the story of hundreds of Americans who spent years gathering intelligence, planning and training of the SEALs, Owen says, “We just took care of the last 40 minutes.”
We built what we believe is the most accurate model of bin Laden’s compound ever constructed. Owen told us, before the mission, a full size replica of the compound was built in the United States for training and there was a dress rehearsal for the top brass including the chairman of the joint chiefs, Admiral Mike Mullen, and Admiral Eric Olsen, head of Special Operations Command.
Annual Street Fair Sponsored by Ridgewood Parks and Recreation
ANNUAL STREET FAIR, SEPTEMBER 23RD Ridgewood Parks and Recreation will again sponsor this seasonal outdoor market on Sunday, September 23rd, 12 noon to 5 pm, on East Ridgewood Avenue (rain or shine).
There is no fee to attend. Vendor wares will include arts and crafts, jewelry, holiday ornaments, novelties of many sorts, home goods, and clothing and accessories. Children’s events will include pony rides, sand art, a petting zoo, inflatables and more. The food court offers a wide variety of refreshments.
