Author: James

Ridgewood officials to discuss upgrades to communications systems

TUESDAY JULY 31, 2012, 1:28 PM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

Hoping to meet a federal mandate, the Village Council is scheduled to discuss at Wednesday’s work session the potential upgrades to communication systems used by Ridgewood’s emergency services.

A current radio used by the Ridgewood Office of Emergency Management.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is requiring that all public safety radio systems operate using at least 12.5 kHz efficiency technology, otherwise known as narrowbanding. The FCC established a Jan. 1, 2013 compliance deadline, although at least one U.S. congressman, including Rep. Steve Rothman, is pushing for an extension to 2015.

Earlier this month, council members opened the discussion about the costs and feasibility of transitioning to a narrowband system from the current analog system. The governing body, however, was hesitant to act following a presentation by the village’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM).

According to Kevin Scarpa, technology officer at the Ridgewood OEM, the total cost to replace the existing analog system with a digital and analog mixed mode system, as well as perform a “major system coverage overhaul” and other tasks, would run in excess of $1.5 million. That sum, which Scarpa provided to the council during July’s work session meeting, did not include federal grant money that will help pay for “80 to 90 percent” of the total bill.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/164452546_Ridgewood_officials_to_discuss_upgrades_to_communications_systems.html

The Christie administration is moving ahead with new regulations for charter schools

Cerf goes his own way on proposed charter regulations

The Christie administration is moving ahead with new regulations for charter schools, jumping ahead of the Legislature and its plans to take up the issue — and maybe a whole new law — in the fall.

The state Board of Education will hear on Wednesday the latest version of the administration’s proposed regulations that have come under criticism for expanding the size and scope of charters in the state.

The proposal had been going before the board last month and was delayed for further review. In that time, the new version released yesterday does make changes that appeared to address some of the criticism.   (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/12/0730/2223/

Changes announced for N.J.’s government-documents agency

The Christie administration announced changes Monday to the operations of an agency that handles requests for government documents, six weeks after The Inquirer detailed the agency’s lack of transparency.

The Government Records Council (GRC) adjudicates appeals when local and state government officials deny requests for public information. Although it is supposed to be the state’s final arbiter on what is public information – from political information to police reports – it has acted in a manner far less public than other governmental bodies.

In 2010, Gov. Christie’s office rejected a request from The Inquirer about the governor’s e-mails and travel records. The newspaper appealed to the GRC, and the case was heard in spring 2012. As documented in a first-person article last month, an Inquirer reporter wasn’t given advance notice about the hearing.  (Katz, The Philadelphia Inquirer)

https://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20120731_Changes_announced_for_N_J__s_government-documents_agency.html

 

commuter waiting for the bus at the Port Authority bus station

No Surprise Port Authority delays release of second audit report

The anticipated second audit report of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s $25.1 billion, 10-year-capital program won’t be released at the bi-state agency’s board meeting on Wednesday.

The second phase of a report, ordered by Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a condition of approving the Port Authority’s toll and PATH fare increases last summer, had been promised in the June-July time frame by Patrick Foye, executive director, in earlier interviews.

The release of the report is likely to be sometime in the next month, said Steve Coleman, authority spokesman.  (Higgs, Asbury Park Press)

https://www.app.com/article/20120730/NJNEWS/307300054/Port-Authority-delays-release-second-audit-report?nclick_check=1

Move over, NJEA. The New Jersey Supreme Court is now Public Enemy No. 1

Legislature hands down speedy verdict: Judges should pay

Move over, NJEA. The New Jersey Supreme Court is now Public Enemy No. 1 and could remain so for the next few months.

Infuriated by a Supreme Court ruling that the New Jersey Constitution barred the governor and legislature from requiring judges to pay more for their pension and health care, the state Senate and Assembly took less than an hour yesterday to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would overturn that decision.

“Rarely has the public seen such unanimity between the legislative and executive branches that the judicial branch was dead wrong,” said Republican Christie, who has increasingly focused his wrath on the Supreme Court for its “liberal” bias and “judicial activism” in recent months.  (Magyar, NJ Spotlight)

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/12/0730/2204/

 

Bergen GOP Chairman Bob Yudin looking to get even

TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2012
By CHARLES STILE
COLUMNIST

Bergen County Republican Organization Chairman Bob Yudin hasn’t taken a victory lap following June’s bruising chairman’s fight.

He’s on what could best be described as a “Settling of Scores Tour 2012.”

Yudin says he may not give the coveted “line” — preferred ballot position, and the BCRO official endorsement — to the District 40 Republican incumbents, Sen. Kevin O’Toole of Cedar Grove and Assemblymen David Russo of Ridgewood and Scott Rumana of Wayne, in the 2013 legislative races. If Yudin makes good on his threat, that could open the door to a potentially costly primary in seven northwest Bergen towns during a possible Chris Christie reelection campaign.

Yudin is still seething that the trio endorsed Anthony Rottino, his chief opponent in the chairman’s fight which Yudin won in a runoff vote. Why, Yudin argues, should he throw his unabashed devotion — and BCRO clout — to the trio when they tried to put an end to his own career?

And it’s more than their siding with the enemy that has him so steamed.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/164363416_Stile__Bergen_GOP_Chairman_Bob_Yudin_looking_to_get_even_GOP_chief_is_thinking__payback.html

Twitter caves shuts down critic of NBC Olympic Coverage

Guy Adams (Mashable)Guy Adams works as a writer for The Independent, a national newspaper in Great Britain. He lives in Los Angeles. Throughout the Olympics, he’s taken to Twitter and ripped NBC repeatedly for its coverage of the Games in America.

Namely, he’s criticized the network’s reliance on using tape delays, a frustration shared by millions of viewers.

Only in a marriage of old media and social media, Guy Adams no longer has a Twitter account. It was suspended Tuesday and both NBC and Twitter ought to be humiliated by its thin-skinned, heavy-handed and essentially pointless behavior.

Adams was no doubt relentless in his tweets.

https://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics–critic-of-nbc-has-twitter-account-suspended-after-network-complains.html

Scalia opens door for gun-control legislation, extends slow burning debate
Published July 30, 2012
FoxNews.com

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Sunday the Second Amendment leaves open the possibility of gun-control legislation, adding to what has become a slow-boiling debate on the issue since the Colorado movie theater massacre earlier this month.

Scalia, one of the high court’s most conservative justices, said on “Fox News Sunday” that the majority opinion in the landmark 2008 case of District of Columbia v. Heller stated the extent of gun ownership “will have to be decided in future cases.”
“We’ll see,” he said.

Scalia’s comments follow the July 20 massacre at the Aurora, Colo., movie theater in which the alleged gunman, with the help of a semi-automatic weapon and an ammunition clip that could hold as many as 100 rounds, killed 12 and wounded 59 others.

Read more: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/29/scalia-opens-door-for-gun-control-legislation/#ixzz226jmIIlH

Police State : DHS gears up for civil unrest prior to presidential elections
Published: 28 July, 2012, 12:49

The Department of Homeland Security has ordered masses of riot gear equipment to prepare for potential significant domestic riots at the Republican National Convention, Democratic National Convention and next year’s presidential inauguration.

The DHS submitted a rushed solicitation to the Federal Business Opportunities site on Wednesday, which is a portal for Federal government procurement requisitions over $25,000. The request gave the potential suppliers only one day to submit their proposals and a 15-day delivery requirement to Alexandria, Virginia.

https://rt.com/usa/news/dhs-unrest-gear-283/

Pushing on a String: Fed Weighs Cutting Interest On Banks’ Reserves After ECB Move
By Caroline Salas Gage and Liz Capo McCormick – Jul 30, 2012 12:00 AM ET

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may be taking another look at cutting the interest rate the Fed pays on bank reserves to bring down short-term borrowing costs and spur the slowing U.S. expansion.

Bernanke testified to Congress on July 17 that reducing the rate from its current 0.25 percent is one of several easing steps the Fed might take to reduce unemployment stuck above 8 percent for more than three years. In February, by contrast, the Fed chairman told Congress that lowering the rate might drive away investors from short-term money markets.

“They’re reconsidering it,” said Ward McCarthy, a former Richmond Fed economist. A July 5 decision by the European Central Bank to cut its deposit rate to zero is prompting renewed interest in the strategy, said McCarthy, chief financial economist at Jefferies & Co. McCarthy said it’s unlikely the Fed will reduce the rate at a two-day meeting that starts tomorrow.

Policy makers meeting this week are looking for new monetary tools after the Fed lowered its benchmark interest rate to near zero in December 2008 and purchased $2.3 trillion of securities to spur the economy. A government report on July 27 showed economic growth slowed to a 1.5 percent annual rate in the second quarter as consumers curbed spending.

“They are at the end of their rope and are probably searching for every last option for what they can do,” said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York and a former economist for the Fed Board in Washington. “You can’t rule anything out because they’re going to flail around and try every last thing they can.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-30/fed-weighs-cutting-interest-on-banks-reserves-after-ecb-move.html

N.J. public employees retiring at slower pace, records show

After two years in which teachers, cops, firefighters and other public workers headed for the exits in record numbers as Trenton took aim at their pensions and benefits, the pace of retirements has slowed drastically, the latest records show.

A total of 13,865 local and state public workers are expected to call it quits this year, significantly fewer than the 19,585 who retired last year, when Gov. Chris Christie and lawmakers forced them to pick up a greater share of their health and pension costs, according to figures released by the Treasury Department.  (Renshaw, The Star-Ledger)

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/07/nj_public_employees_retiring_a.html