Fed officials warn of looming crisis for economy
By Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press
WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve is open to taking further action to support the struggling U.S. economy. But minutes of the Fed’s June meeting show policymakers at odds over whether the economy needs more help now.
A few members said the economy may already require additional support. But several others noted that further action “could be warranted” if the recovery lost momentum, if risks became more pronounced or inflation seemed likely to run below the committee’s target.
Investors appeared disappointed by the division within the Fed.
Stock prices sank after the Fed expressed concerns about the economy. The Dow Jones industrial average had been down nearly 40 points before the minutes were released at 2 p.m. Eastern time. At around 2:30 p.m., the Dow was down 112 points, on track for its fifth straight day of losses.
Proposed changes of leaf collection on Ridgewood Village Council agenda tonight
June 11,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, tonight’s Village Council work session will look to address some nagging issues in the Village like leaf collection and some new ideas put forward by New Jersey Transit (NJT) for advertising and cleaning up the pedestrian underpass at the train station.
New Jersey Transit (NJT) will make a presentation at the Village Council work session tonight on proposed advertising program for the pedestrian underpass at Ridgewood’s train station.
The Village Council will also discuss the proposed changes to Ridgewood’s leaf and debris collection policy. After years of public criticism and much debate Village Public works officials last month began a push to end the old way of collecting loose leaves at curb side and require residents to bag leaves for pickup.
In a blow to the development of North Walnut Street and Franklin Avenue property ,known as the “Town Garage ” the Ridgewood News is reporting that environmental officials have said that several large fuel tanks located beneath the parking lot at North Walnut Street and Franklin Avenue must be removed. The site remediation is expected to be a long and costly process with sources estimating anywhere from $600,000 to $800,000.
The property already has a rather checker past and has been stuck in a zoning no mans land since 2009 .
The Village Council work session begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Sydney V. Stoldt Courtroom.
“Dr. Doom” Nouriel Roubini: My ‘Perfect Storm’ Scenario Is Unfolding Now
Published: Monday, 9 Jul 2012
By: Ansuya Harjani
Assistant Producer, CNBC Asia
“Dr. Doom” Nouriel Roubini says the “perfect storm” scenario he forecast for the global economy earlier this year is unfolding right now as growth slows in the U.S., Europe as well as China.
In May, Roubini predicted four elements – stalling growth in the U.S., debt troubles in Europe, a slowdown in emerging markets, particularly China, and military conflict in Iran – would come together to create a storm for the global economy in 2013.
“(The) 2013 perfect storm scenario I wrote on months ago is unfolding,” Roubini said on Twitter on Monday.
Chinese inflation data released on Monday, suggested that the economy is cooling faster than expected, while employment data out of the U.S. on Friday indicated that jobs growth was tepid for a fourth straight month in June.
Roubini said that unlike in 2008 when central banks had “policy bullets” to stimulate the global economy, this time around policymakers are “running out of rabbits to pull out of the hat.”
DNS Changer Malware a real treat or more Y2K madness
July 8,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Internet users world over should take extra precautions and check their computer for malware this evening .
While for most it may be no more than another Y2K hype. Reports are that thousands of internet users around the country whose computers were infected with malicious software a DNS Changer Malware over a year ago face the possibility of not being able to get online after midnight EDT – Eastern Daylight Time.
The issue arose when hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of more than 570,000 infected computers around the world. When the FBI took down the hackers late last year, agents realized that if they turned off the malicious servers being used to control the computers, all the victims would lose their Internet service.
Like most malware victims often do not even know their computers were infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more even vulnerable to other problems.
The FBI has arranged for a private company to run a website ( https://www.dcwg.org ) as a place for computer who suspect issues to go and see if their computer was infected and then download fixes to solve the problem.
Further problems arise because so many people simply don’t trust the government, and believe that federal authorities (the FEDS) are only trying to spy on them or take over the Internet.The FBI and other “cybersecurity experts” familiar with the malware have quickly denounced this charge as being ridiculous.I suggest you run and updated malware remover program first.
Though we don’t dispute suspicions of the FEDS malware can permanently damage your machine ,cause significant disruptions, keep you off the internet , corrupt your data ,even your backed up data .
The deal was announced in the governor’s office in early March, a bipartisan agreement to save New Jersey’s anti-bullying law with an infusion of cash and a promise to take a harder look at ways the state can support school districts.
Four months later, the cash for last year has been spent, none is appropriated for the next, and the task force created to examine the law and its impact is still to meet.
Such has been the checkered history of the new law, considered one of the toughest in the country for its strict rules to investigate and closely track accusations of bullying. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
Anxiety Mounts as US Economy Limps Into 2nd Half
Published: Thursday, 5 Jul 2012 | 5:41 PM ET Text Size
By: Reuters
A slew of weak U.S. economic data is casting doubts over expectations of a pick-up in growth in the second half of the year.
From manufacturing to job growth to consumer spending, the numbers have been grim, and economists are wondering whether they need to dial down forecasts for the remainder of the year.
“Our sense was that of a gradual improvement. Now the sense is of muddling along at a low level of activity,” said Adolfo Laurenti, deputy chief economist at Mesirow Financial in Chicago. “We went from seeing progress, though gradual and very uneven, to not seeing progress at all.”
The economy grew at a 1.9 percent annual pace in the first quarter and estimates for the April-June period are increasingly coming in around 1.5 percent.
American Red Cross Concentrated Lifeguard Training Course
Wed, July 11, 2012 – Fri, July 20, 2012
Time: 12:00 AM
YWCA Bergen County, 112 Oak Street
Cost: $370 per person
The YWCA Bergen County is offering an American Red Cross Concentrated Lifeguard Training course beginning July 11th, 2012. Participants must be age 15 or older and take and pass a swim test on Saturday, July 7th at 1:30pm. A $10 test fee is due at registration.
This five-day concentrated course prepares students with the CPR, First Aid and lifeguard techniques necessary for employment as a professional lifeguard. Classes will be held July 11th, 13th, 14th, 18th and 20th from 9am to 5pm at 112 Oak Street, Ridgewood. The course fee is $370. Call the YWCA Aquatics Department at (201) 444-5600, x3270 or visit www.ywcabergencounty.org for details.
The YWCA Bergen County is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. We are the area’s largest provider of child care services, a recognized leader in health and fitness programs, and operator of the county’s only Rape Crisis Center. Celebrating nearly a century of commitment to our community, today we improve the lives of thousands of women, girls and their families.
8,733,461: Workers on Federal ‘Disability’ Exceed Population of New York City
By Terence P. Jeffrey
July 2, 2012
(CNSNews.com) – A record of 8,733,461 workers took federal disability insurance payments in June 2012, according to the Social Security Administration. That was up from 8,707,185 in May.
It also exceeds the entire population of New York City, which according to the Census Bureau’s latest estimate hit 8,244,910 in July 2011.
There has been a dramatic shrinkage in the United States over the past 20 years in the number of workers actually employed and earning paychecks per worker who is not employed and is taking federal disability insurance payments.
Amazon Cloud Hit by Real Clouds, Downing Netflix, Instagram, Other Sites
By Christina DesMarais, PCWorld Jun 30, 2012 7:02 AM
Digital cloud services aren’t immune to the impact of real clouds, and that meant some bad news this weekend for the folks at Amazon and sites that rely in its web services.
Severe storms that wiped out power to more than 2 million people across the eastern United States Friday night also took down Netflix, Pinterest, Instagram and other sites due to an outage of Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud in northern Virginia.
According to Amazon Web Services, at 8:21 p.m. PDT it was “investigating connectivity issues for a number of instances” in the East region. By early Saturday morning, Amazon said it was “continuing to work to recover.”
Netflix, Pinterest were back up, but as of early Saturday Instagram was still down.
…AIR QUALITY ALERT IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 10 PM EDT
THIS EVENING…
THE NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION HAS ISSUED AN
AIR QUALITY ACTION DAY FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES…
BERGEN…ESSEX…PASSAIC…UNION…HUDSON.
IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 10 PM EDT THIS EVENING.
AN AIR QUALITY ACTION DAY MEANS THAT GROUND LEVEL OZONE WITHIN THE
REGION MAY APPROACH OR EXCEED UNHEALTHY STANDARDS.
Hazardous Weather Outlook
…HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 7 PM EDT THIS
EVENING…
THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY.
.DAY ONE…TODAY AND TONIGHT.
THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK PROVIDES A SUMMARY OF POTENTIAL
WIDESPREAD HAZARDOUS WEATHER EVENTS THAT MAY REACH NWS WARNING
CRITERIA. MOST LONG F– USED NWS WATCHES…WARNINGS AND ADVISORIES IN
EFFECT ARE HIGHLIGHTED.
Heat Advisory
…SUMMER HEAT FOR TODAY INTO THE WEEKEND…
.HOT TEMPERATURES RANGING FROM 95 TO 100 IN MOST OF NEW YORK CITY
WITH LOWER 100S IN PARTS OF NEW JERSEY ARE FORECAST TODAY.
HUMIDITY LEVELS WILL FORTUNATELY ONLY BE MODERATELY HIGH. THUS…
HEAT INDEX VALUES WILL REMAIN CLOSE TO THE AIR TEMPERATURE.
TEMPERATURES ON SATURDAY AND SUNDAY WILL REMAIN HOT…BUT AT THIS
TIME ARE FORECAST TO BE A FEW DEGREES LOWER THAN TODAY.
…HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 7 PM EDT THIS EVENING…
* LOCATIONS…MOST OF NORTHEASTERN NEW JERSEY.
* HAZARDS…POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS HEAT.
* HEAT INDEX VALUES…AROUND 100.
* TIMING…THIS AFTERNOON INTO EARLY EVENING.
* IMPACTS…POTENTIAL HEALTH HAZARDS TO THOSE PRONE TO HEAT STRESS.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A HEAT ADVISORY IS ISSUED WHEN THE COMBINATION OF HEAT AND
HUMIDITY IS EXPECTED TO MAKE IT FEEL LIKE IT IS 100 TO
104 DEGREES FOR TWO CONSECUTIVE HOURS. TAKE EXTRA PRECAUTIONS IF
YOU WORK OR SPEND TIME OUTSIDE. WHEN POSSIBLE…RESCHEDULE
STRENUOUS ACTIVITIES TO EARLY MORNING OR EVENING. KNOW THE SIGNS
AND SYMPTOMS OF HEAT EXHAUSTION AND HEAT STROKE. WEAR LIGHT
WEIGHT AND LOOSE FITTING CLOTHING WHEN POSSIBLE AND DRINK PLENTY
OF WATER.
TO REDUCE RISK DURING OUTDOOR WORK THE OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND
HEALTH ADMINISTRATION RECOMMENDS SCHEDULING FREQUENT REST BREAKS
IN SHADED OR AIR CONDITIONED ENVIRONMENTS. ANYONE OVERCOME BY
HEAT SHOULD BE MOVED TO A COOL AND SHADED LOCATION. HEAT STROKE
IS AN EMERGENCY…CALL 9 1 1.
Ridgewood : Declining home vales and tax appeals could stress Village finances
June 27,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Readers suggest Council Women Bernie Walsh may be onto something as previously reported Councilwoman Bernadette a corporate relocation consultant in the real estate industry cited suspicions of projected tax appeal losses and in her mind the potential loss of $1 million in the next year on property tax appeals.
According to S&P : New York, June 26, 2012 – Data through April 2012, released today by S&P Indices for its S&P/Case-Shiller1 Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, showed that on average home prices increased 1.3% in the month of April for both the 10- and 20-City Composites. This comes after seven consecutive months of falling home prices as measured by both indices….(https://tinyurl.com/bs7dtsa )
The just released S&P/Case-Shiller1 Home Price Indices show the metropolitan New York showed “Detroit and New York stand out this month as the only two MSAs ( metropolitan statistical area ) that saw their annual rates of return deteriorate compared to March. While Detroit posted a positive annual rate of 1.2%, it was still well below March’s +3.9%; New York was -3.8% in April down from -3.0% in March. Detroit was also the only city to show a monthly decline, down 3.6%. All other MSAs improved versus March. ( https://tinyurl.com/bs7dtsa )
S&P is suggesting a continued decline home values in our area which in turn could lead to more and more tax appeals.
10 Ways to Lower Gas Prices
Rory CooperJune 4, 2012 at 8:43 am
The average price of a gallon of regular gas is now $3.66, and has been decreasing for eight straight weeks. This is causing some of the President Obama’s advisors to declare energy prices an irrelevant issue. Political advisor David Axelrod recently tweeted: “Gas prices have been going down for the past six weeks. You think the GOP will blame the President?”
In those six weeks, the only significant energy policy change at the White House was to make new coal production nearly impossible and thus vastly increase the cost of electricity. So, it is hard to assign this slight dip to the president after a record 75 straight weeks of prices exceeding $3.00. However, it is true that the president is not entirely responsible for gas prices.
Market and economic conditions play a large role. With unemployment creeping back up, new global turmoil and summer travel on the wane due to a sagging economy, demand is surely dropping. But that does not mean, and has never meant, that the president’s policies or Congressional action does not play any role in gas prices.
After three years of adding regulatory hurdles and blocking exploratory access and development, President Obama’s policies are helping keep prices higher than necessary. Having only three percent of federal land available for oil exploration is not a “market condition.”
But we are in luck. There are several steps Congress can immediately take, and President Obama can immediately support, that will help alleviate the pain felt at the pump by American families and would create economic growth, and importantly, jobs.
In a new paper, Heritage’s Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow, Nick Loris lists ten actions Congress could immediately take that would help improve gas prices in the short term and the long term:
1. Lift offshore and onshore exploration and drilling bans: We remain the only nation in the world that has placed the majority of its territorial waters off limits to exploration. Congress should lift the ban on exploration in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and conduct more lease sales off Alaska’s coasts.
2. Approve Keystone XL: The Keystone pipeline has bipartisan support and continues to be consistently popular, polling at 60 percent in November 2011 and 57 percent in late March. 69 Democrats joined House Republicans on a vote of support in April with Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA) saying: “I think the president has made a very serious mistake here.”
Yet, President Obama continues to block it and the jobs that come with it. Had Obama not delayed approval, up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day would have come from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries by as early as 2013. That’s more than we bring in from Venezuela, our fourth largest importer.
3. Require timely environmental review: Environmental review requirements for oil and gas projects to commence on federal lands under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) take too long. Congress should place a reasonable 270-day time limit on NEPA reviews.
4. Permitting process: The processing time for an Application for Permit to Drill (APD) extends well past the 30-day time limit. Loris recommends: “Congress should require the Department of the Interior to honor the law’s deadline unless the Interior finds fault with the application…[and] should ultimately transition the permitting process to state regulators, who are best able to balance economic growth and environmental well-being.”
5. Issue leases on time: Rather than implementing an efficient leasing process, the Department of the Interior keeps adding administrative regulations to make the process more burdensome and bureaucratic. Congress should remove unnecessary red tape and if Interior fails to issue a lease within 60 days, it should be considered issued by default.
6. Allow development of oil shale: Oil shale production in the U.S. could be a global game changer since we hold the largest known reserves in the world. However, 70 percent of those reserves lie beneath federal lands. The Obama Administration has introduced new regulations, time frames, and significantly reduced the land available for leases. Congress should make permanent the 2008 guidelines for oil shale development in order to provide regulatory certainty.
7. Stop the land grab: Through Secretarial Order No. 3310, the Department of Interior is unilaterally and arbitrarily classifying federal land areas as “Wilderness” or “Wild Lands” restricting access to new drilling areas, preventing production on existing leases and halting economic growth. Congress should permanently block Secretarial Order No. 3310 and any similar designation should require congressional approval.
8. Implement 50/50 revenue sharing: States receive 50 percent of the revenues generated by onshore oil and natural gas production on federal lands and Congress should apply this allocation offshore as well. This would encourage more state involvement in drilling decisions and help state economies, whether by closing a deficit or aiding coastal restoration and conservation.
9. Prohibit greenhouse gas and Tier 3 gas regulations: In 2010, Interior suspended 61 leases in Montana alone because environmental groups charged that the energy production would contribute to climate change, demonstrating the need to permanently prohibit any federal agency from unilaterally regulating greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, the proposed Tier 3 gas regulations to lower the amount of sulfur in gasoline are costly with no measurable benefits. Congress should prohibit the implementation of these regulations. Unelected bureaucrats should not hold such power over the economy.
10. Repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS): Soon, refiners will be fined when the amount of ethanol mandated exceeds the amount that can be refined for use but the mandate requires production of cellulosic ethanol, which no companies have been able to viably produce commercially. As a result, refiners paid more than $6 million in waiver credits or surcharges in 2011. It is an economic and environmental disaster and must be repealed.
President Obama is keen to accept credit for the windfall of oil production in North Dakota and in other private areas outside federal control, where jobs are plentiful and unemployment has plummeted. Meanwhile, production on federal land is decreasing and regulatory conditions are worsening. It would be to the president’s benefit to embrace some or all of these reforms that could immediately help American families filling up the minivan. Another 75 weeks with gas prices over $3.00, and household goods and food costing more as a result, will not help an already anemic recovery.
Coming to a school near you soon: Students will be tracked via chips in IDs
By Francisco Vara-Orta
Updated 11:44 p.m., Thursday, May 24, 2012
Northside Independent School District plans to track students next year on two of its campuses using technology implanted in their student identification cards in a trial that could eventually include all 112 of its schools and all of its nearly 100,000 students.
District officials said the Radio Frequency Identification System (RFID) tags would improve safety by allowing them to locate students — and count them more accurately at the beginning of the school day to help offset cuts in state funding, which is partly based on attendance.
Northside, the largest school district in Bexar County, plans to modify the ID cards next year for all students attending John Jay High School, Anson Jones Middle School and all special education students who ride district buses. That will add up to about 6,290 students.
The school board unanimously approved the program late Tuesday but, in a rarity for Northside trustees, they hotly debated it first, with some questioning it on privacy grounds.
State Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan Jr. (D-Middlesex), seeks to slow down NJ’s virtual charters
As students continue to sign up for New Jersey’s first experiments with online charter schools, one leading legislator is asking the state to slow down.
State Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan Jr. (D-Middlesex), chairman of the Assembly’s education committee, said yesterday that he is preparing legislation that would seek at least a six-month moratorium on new online charters.
If approved, how much impact the bill would have is uncertain. Five charters that are either full-time or so-called hybrid online schools have already been approved, although not yet granted final charters. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
Camden opens new chapter in Christie’s education reform agenda
What with its size and Facebook fortune, Newark gets all the press. But Camden is quickly becoming ground zero south for the Christie administration’s push for education reform.
This week, the district will be the first to seek proposals from nonprofit organizations — with potential for-profit partners — to build and run new schools in the city under the recently enacted Urban Hope Act. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
