THIS SUNDAY!!! Tea Party Documentary Film March 21, 2010 (Sunday) – 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM 124 Essex Street, Rochelle Park, NJ – Back Door
Nothing tells the true story of the Tea Party movement better than the Tea Party Movie! Cheered by audiences at CPAC, at the Tea Party Convention and screening parties nationwide, this inspirational and powerful story explains core principals, and gets to heart of why “We The People” are taking our country back!
THIS COMING THURSDAY!!! God And Country – The Vision of Our Founding Fathers – A Historical Remembrance March 25, 2010 (Thursday) – 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS – 70 Pascack Road, Township of Washington 07676, NJ
Join us in celebrating our rich history with a theatrical recitation of quotes from some of our Founding Fathers and musical songs with Anthony Tabish.
PLEASE NOTE: This Event is being presented in a different location than originally posted. Special Guest: Peter Ferrara, ESQ. – Constitutional lawyer from the ACRU (American Civil Rights Union) The event is free and light refreshments will be served afterwards
>Okay, let me see if I can explain the leaf thing to you.
Back in the 1800’s, leaves remained where they fell and became part of the soil (or they were burned). Nowadays, we put them out at the street and collect them. The reason that you want to keep them out of the storm drains and the connected rivers and streams is primarily twofold.
1. Degradation of leaves in a aquatic system requires oxygen. If an ecosystem is using all of its oxygen to break down organics (such as leaves), there’s none left for organisms that live there and they die which then reduces oxygen further.
2. Chemicals must be bound to organic particles to enter into the food chain. Once they are bond, they are now “bioavailable” meaning that they are available to certain little critters that live there. These are mostly bottom feeders, filter feeders, deposit feeders. The little worm ingests retains the organic portion including the chemical (bioaccumulation and, perhaps, biomagnification). A bigger worm the little worm, a fish east the big worm and you eat the fish.
Water bodies with high organic contents and high levels of fine grained materials have high contamination levels. You don’t see any contamination associated with sand because organics (and therefore chemicals) cannot bond to it.
The progress that’s been made since the Clean Water Act was enacted in 1972 is astounding. The reason that you might not hear about it is that the state of the science is so much more precise. We used to know that dioxin in the parts per million range was bad because that was the level we could test to. Now we can measure to parts per trillion and find that dioxin at 1 part per trillion causing a significant cancer risk. This is one example but it’s really the same with most other chemicals. You hear things are bad not because they haven’t gotten better but because we simply know more than we used to.
So you see that there really is a reason for attempting to schedule leaf pick-up.
And, by the way, I’ve heard contractor excuses for 25 years. When they wanted to retrofit diesels and wante them to use Ultra Low Sulfer Diesel all we heard was how everyone was going to go out to business. Guess what, after a few months, the cost of ultra low sulfer diesel dropped to within a few pennies of regular diesel. And those new engines, they’re more efficient so the contractors are SAVING money.
>Bergen LEADS is a year-long learning and leadership experience for adults who live or work in Bergen County.
We’re looking for 30 talented leaders for the Bergen LEADS Class of 2011.
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
REGISTER TODAY FOR A FREE INFORMATIONAL OPEN HO– USE
Find out how you can become a part of Bergen LEADS Meet alumni and members of the Class of 2010
Bergen LEADS February Open House Schedule Open houses are free of charge. Directions will be sent upon receipt of your registration.
Tuesday, February 16 9:00 – 10:30 am Cole, Schotz, Meisel, Forman & Leonard Hackensack
Thursday, February 18 NEW! 8:15 – 10:00 am Meadowlands Regional Chamber of Commerce Membership Meeting* Rutherford *$500 scholarship available to four MRC members!
Thursday, February 18 11:30 am – 1:00 pm TD Bank Ramsey
Tuesday, February 23 8:30 – 10:00 am Bergen Regional Medical Center Paramus
Thursday, February 25 8:30 – 10:00 am Holy Name Hospital Teaneck
>Steven Lonegan, State Director, Americans for Prosperity NJ
Exposing the HOAX of Senate Bill One
Reference: The truth about Senate Bill One (1), hereafter referred to as S1. This bill falsely represents itself to abolish the radical Council on Affordable Housing a.k.a COAH.
The following excerpts from S1 debunk the claim that this legislation “abolishes” COAH. S1 actually creates a super bureaucracy that concentrates even more power and money with the State Planning Commission, hereafter referred to as the “Commission”.
S1 empowers the Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs with sweeping authority to “prioritize” LOW INCOME HOUSING projects and establish “rules” on the management of these projects, in essence establishing a “LOW INCOME HOUSING CZAR”.
I have cited specific passages from the bill and copied these passages directly to this memorandum, including short explanations. The passages speak for themselves. However, it is necessary to provide explanations for those legislators who will be voting on this bill, but appear to have some difficulty comprehending its actual meaning.
Please contact me if you require additional clarification.
The hoax that S1 “abolishes” COAH is exposed on page 1. The bill’s synopsis contains the following sentence in the first paragraph:
”1. (New section) The Council on Affordable Housing established by the Fair Housing Act is abolished, and all of its powers, functions and duties are continued in the State Planning Commission…”
Furthermore, the bill transfers every single prior act, rule and regulation ever promulgated by COAH to the State Planning Commission:
”Whenever, in any law rule, regulation, order, contract, document, judicial or administrative proceeding or otherwise; Reference is made to the Council on Affordable Housing the same shall mean and refer to the State Planning Commission.”
Money, your tax dollars, is the fuel the COAH fanatics need to advance their failed agenda. The following passage, also on page 1, clearly defines that all funding is intact:
”All appropriations and other money available and to become available to the Council on Affordable Housing are hereby continued in the commission, and shall be available for the objects and purposes for which such moneys are appropriated…”
These three simple passages from the first page of S1 expose the truth — COAH is simply being renamed. But that is not all. The newly constituted “State Planning Commission” becomes a hybrid super bureaucracy, even more dangerous than COAH as we know it.
I have stated S1 transforms the DCA Commissioner into a LOW INCOME HOUSING CZAR. This is proven in the following passages describing the Commissioner’s power. Start with the maintaining of the “Register” of LOW INCOME projects, this passage defines the term:
“Register” means The Register of Housing Projects directed by section 2 of this act to be established and maintained by the commissioner.”
The “Commissioner’s” power is expanded with the additional ability to “prioritize” these projects and force their implementation:
“The commissioner shall cause to be developed a system for assigning and designating priority ratings to each project included in the register. Priority ratings shall be based upon the following factors, giving to each factor such weight as the commissioner shall judge to be appropriate:”
The list of factors is long and complex and listed in detail in the bill. They include feasibility, distribution of units, desirability, size, etc. Ultimately, the commissioner has control over every aspect of the project. Under the term “desirability” the “Commissioner” could assume the authority to choose paint colors in the units. This is clearly a Low-Income Housing Czar.
> You all seem to be confusing “travel” sports with inappropriate coaching or a “win at all cost” attitude. I can’t help but think that some of the posts above were written by people, who have never coached a sport in their lives. While I agree that sports from 3rd grade and younger are best structured with a “clinic” approach to teaching fundamentals of a sport, some sports groups in many towns are forced to travel because their numbers are insufficient to allow “in town” games at a given grade level. While Ridgewood is fortunate not to have that problem in many cases, it is not always the case.
The real issue is a “healthy approach” to organized sports, not whether a team competes against other towns. There are countless examples of coaches in Ridgewood, who teach valuable lessons about sportsmanship, leadership and effort, while playing competitively. A little bit of heathy competition is not a bad thing, as long as winning is not valued as the only measure of success and that coaches don’t play their best players at the expense of less experienced or less gifted players.
It should also be kept in mind that recreational programs exist to serve one purpose, while travel programs exist to serve a different purpose. Parents and players need to understand which is appropriate for them. If all your son or daughter wants to do is socialize with his or her friends in an athletic environment, then travel programs are the wrong choice. However, there are many middle school children, who seek active competition with other boys and girls their own age. These children may be well suited for a more competitively geared program. This is not always driven by a parent’s desire for their children. In either case, the quality of the coaching matters. “Dad” may or may not be the right coach.
> Just in : Smoke from faulty motor causes evacuation at Ridgewood High School
Faulty motor causes evacuation at Ridgewood High School.
Students at Ridgewood High School (RHS) were evacuated for about 12 to 14 minutes this morning after heavy smoke in the center basement of the school set off alarms.
>N.J. Gov. Christie, lawmakers propose sweeping pension, health care changes for public employees
Gov. Chris Christie and lawmakers of both parties will unveil a series of sweeping pension and benefit reforms Monday that could affect every public employee in New Jersey while saving the state billions of dollars, according to four officials with direct knowledge of the plan.
The proposals would require workers and retirees at all levels of government and local school districts to contribute to their own health care costs, ban part-time workers at the state and local levels from participating in the underfunded state pension system, cap sick leave payouts for all public employees and constitutionally require the state to fully fund its pension obligations each year.
Details of the four-bill package to be introduced Monday were provided to The Star-Ledger on the condition of anonymity because the four officials were not authorized to speak in advance. The proposals go further than several past efforts at reining in taxpayer-funded pension and benefit costs, and if enacted would represent a major early victory for the new Republican governor and Democrats who control the state Legislature. But supporters anticipate an angry response from public employee and teachers unions that wield considerable power throughout the state — though lawmakers argue rank-and-file workers would have safer pensions than before.
Christie’s office declined to comment, as did top Democrats and Republicans involved in crafting the bills. All sides had made their feelings clear last month, when Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) announced the upper house’s intentions to fix a system that would otherwise “go bankrupt.” Lawmakers of both parties pledged their support, with Christie saying “bipartisan action is critical to reforming a broken pension and benefits system.” Hetty Rosenstein, a state director of the Communications Workers of America, which represents 60,000 state and local workers, said she was still studying the bills but believes the reforms are misguided. For most rank-and-file employees, benefits are “not extremely lucrative…They are not out-of-whack,” Rosenstein said Saturday. “This interferes with the collective bargaining relationship and it’s not going to save any kind of significant money.” Steve Baker, spokesman for the 200,000-member New Jersey Education Association, said Saturday the teachers union is still reviewing the bills and had no immediate comment. (Heininger, Star Ledger)
In 2007, the most comprehensive report to date on global warming, issued by the respected United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made a shocking claim: The Himalayan glaciers could melt away as soon as 2035.
These glaciers provide the headwaters for Asia’s nine largest rivers and lifelines for the more than one billion people who live downstream. Melting ice and snow would create mass flooding, followed by mass drought. The glacier story was reported around the world. Last December, a spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund, an environmental pressure group, warned, “The deal reached at Copenhagen will have huge ramifications for the lives of hundreds of millions of people who are already highly vulnerable due to widespread poverty.” To dramatize their country’s plight, Nepal’s top politicians strapped on oxygen tanks and held a cabinet meeting on Mount Everest.
But the claim was rubbish, and the world’s top glaciologists knew it. It was based not on rigorously peer-reviewed science but on an anecdotal report by the WWF itself. When its background came to light on the eve of Copenhagen, Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the IPCC, shrugged it off. But now, even leading scientists and environmental groups admit the IPCC is facing a crisis of credibility that makes the Climategate affair look like small change.
“The global warming movement as we have known it is dead,” the brilliant analyst Walter Russell Mead says in his blog on The American Interest. It was done in by a combination of bad science and bad politics.
The Village of Ridgewood wasn’t organized as a separate municipality until 1876. By then, the settlement we call Ridgewood was almost two centuries old. The land that Ridgewood occupies was originally a hunting and fishing ground of the Lenni Lenape Indians that became a part of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam founded in 1624. Forty years later, the British captured New Amsterdam and renamed it New York.
After New Amsterdam became British, King Charles 2nd gave New Jersey to Sir Carteret and Lord Berkeley, two of his most loyal supporters. In 1674, Lord Berkeley needed money to finish his mansion in London, and sold his half of the colony to two Quakers. New Jersey was then divided into the Province of East Jersey owned by Sir Carteret and the Quaker Province of West Jersey. In 1687, the East Jersey Proprietors granted several hundred acres in Bergen County to Isaac Kingsland. Johannes Van Emburgh bought some of this land in 1698. The area was then known as Hoachas (now Ho Ho Kus) and as Paramus by 1725.
After the Revolution, the settlement had grown to about 20 families and was known as Godwinville, after a war hero. However, Godwinville was never a separate municipality. The entire northwest corner of Bergen County was a large municipality known as Franklin Township formed in 1771 from a section of Saddle River Township. Within Franklin Township, there were numerous unincorporated settlements such as Godwinville.
In 1848, the Patterson and Ramapo Railroad was completed providing Godwinville with easy access to New York City. In 1853, Samuel Dayton bought the Van Emburgh estate and with the idea of establishing a suburb. Cornelia Dayton renamed Godwinville “Ridgewood” to attract buyers from the city. The population exploded from several hundred in 1850 to over 1,200 by the time of the centennial. Ridgewood built its own school but was still a part of Franklin Township. The population doubled again by the turn of the century.
On March 30, 1876, Ridgewood finally became a separate Township. Actually, Ridgewood was fifteen years ahead of the rest of the state. It wasn’t until the early 1890s that New Jersey adopted legislation requiring each municipality to establish a Board of Education and fund all public schools with a municipal-wide property tax. In just a few months in 1894, numerous settlements with schools incorporated as separate municipalities. Twenty-eight municipalities were incorporated in Bergen County alone. Part of Ridgewood Township went to the new Borough of Midland Park and another part went to the new Borough of Glen Rock. At the same time, Ridgewood changed its municipal form of government from a Township to a Village. However, to this day the school system is still officially known as the “Ridgewood Township Board of Education”.
Almost all of the 1894 municipalities were incorporated as Boroughs, the most common plan of municipal government in New Jersey. In a Borough, the governing body consists of six Council Members and a directly elected Mayor who acts as the chief executive.
Ridgewood was one of the few municipalities that incorporated as a “Village.” In this rare form of local government, the public elected five trustees who selected one of their members as Village President to preside over the meetings. There was no Mayor. The Village plan proved unsuccessful because it lacked clearly defined management responsibilities.
During this period, the Trustees organized the village departments and planned a civic center just west of the train station. However, the civic center was defeated in 1909 and the Village built a municipal building and firehouse at Hudson and Broad streets. This remained as the municipal complex until 1955 when the Village purchased the Elk lodge built in 1928 on North Maple Avenue and converted it into the current Village Hall.
In 1911, Ridgewood reorganized for a second time adopting the Commissioner plan of municipal government, but retaining the name “Village”. The municipality was divided into three departments – Public Safety, Finance and Public Works. The voters elected three Commissioners who each had full executive authority over one of the departments. The Commissioners also selected one of their members as Mayor to preside over the meetings, but the Mayor had no executive power other than as a Commissioner of one of the departments. At the time, the Commissioner form was considered as a reform, but today few municipalities retain this plan. Each department tends to become a fiefdom and is too dependent on the management skills of its Commissioner.
In 1970, Ridgewood recognized the need to professionalize municipal management and adopted the more modern Faulkner Act Council-Manager plan. Under this form, the public elects five Council Members who act as a Board of Directors. Their principle responsibility is to hire and oversee a professional Village Manager who has full executive power for all departments. The Council also selects one of its members as Mayor who presides over the meetings but has no executive authority.
Many of you heard about a story that ran on Reuters yesterday about the coming Middle-Class tax increases. Of course in Washington they don’t call it a tax increase – they are not renewing the Bush Tax Cuts and tax rates will therefore increase when the cuts come to an end – but in Washington, that is not considered raising taxes. The White House, unhappy with the story, asked (or told) Reuters to remove the story. By yesterday evening the story was no longer available. It was replaced with a message saying the story was withdrawn and would be replaced with a new story later in the week.
There are two attachments to this email. 1) a screen shot of the actual story, and 2) a screen shot of what appeared after the story was obediently removed by Reuters
At a time when sports tutors seem as plentiful as piano teachers and high school games are routinely nationally televised, Peter Barston has learned something important about youth sports.
Mike Barston, left, with his son Peter, who has toured youth leagues in Darien, Conn., asking youngsters their reasons for playing sports. Adults may lean toward turning children’s games into an approximation of professional sports. But ask young players what they want, and the answer can be disarmingly simple. More than training to be a Super Bowl star, more than even winning, youngsters play sports for fun — at least they do in Darien, Conn., Barston said.
He has not proved that scientifically. But a research project spearheaded by Barston, a sophomore at Fairfield Prep, makes an intriguing case that while parents dream big, their children focus on the small stuff.
Since August, Barston has toured youth leagues in Darien, asking this question: Why do you play sports?
His preliminary findings are not far from what the Michigan State researchers Martha Ewing and Vern Seefeldt concluded in 1989. Their study of 28,000 boys and girls around the country asked, Why do you play sports? The top answer then was “fun,” followed by “to do something I’m good at” and “to improve my skills.” “Winning” did not crack the top 10.
“It shows kids are out there to get away from their lives and have a good time with their friends,” Barston, a recreation league second baseman, said. “They’re not out there just to win.”
Barston said his initial reason for undertaking the survey was simply to compare the views of young athletes today with those from 20 years ago. He estimated that he had spent more than 100 hours on the project, and now he is thinking bigger.
Barston has been toying with the idea of starting a Web site where he would post data and encourage other young people to start “Why Do You Play?” projects.
“The Web site idea is very preliminary,” he said. “I am trying to think of ways to spread the word and get other people to do this in their hometowns.”
Parents and league officials in Darien have praised Barston’s efforts. Guy Wisinski, a member of the junior football league’s board, said the survey was a “touch of reality” for adults.
“It reminds us why kids play sports in the first place,” he said. “It’s not about winning a championship in the fourth grade and having that be a life achievement.”
An earlier version misstated the board on which Mike Barston serves.
More than $70 billion in wealth left New Jersey between 2004 and 2008 as affluent residents moved elsewhere, according to a report released Wednesday that marks a swift reversal of fortune for a state once considered the nation’s wealthiest.
Conducted by the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College, the report found wealthy households in New Jersey were leaving for other states — mainly Florida, Pennsylvania and New York — at a faster rate than they were being replaced.
——————————————————————————– • Rutgers University economists say it could take seven years to recover from recession
——————————————————————————–
“The wealth is not being replaced,” said John Havens, who directed the study. “It’s above and beyond the general trend that is affecting the rest of the northeast.”
This was not always the case. The study – the first on interstate wealth migration in the country — noted the state actually saw an influx of $98 billion in the five years preceding 2004. The exodus of wealth, then, local experts and economists concluded, was a reaction to a series of changes in the state’s tax structure — including increases in the income, sales, property and “millionaire” taxes.
“This study makes it crystal clear that New Jersey’s tax policies are resulting in a significant decline in the state’s wealth,” said Dennis Bone, chairman of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce and president of Verizon New Jersey.
>Rewards Card Wednesday Deals of the week 2/03/2010
Ok, I know I’m a day late but it was worth the wait. This week came up with an offer on a very popular cheese, famous even, Cypress Grove Midnight Moon. This firm goat cheese, imported by Cypress Grove from a cheese making partner in Holland, is sold for as much as $27.99 in the big organic food stores, and on “sale” as low as $19.99 at discount grocery chains. Our “reward card blowout price” this week is an unbelievable $15.99 per pound! Supplies are limited at this great price, so grab it quick!
Also, we have a great deal on Jarlsberg, and a terrific Champignon Mushroom Brie that is ready to go and if you know brie, you know how important that is, both offered 30 to 40% below regular pricing. Our special pricing on Lucini Parm (up to buy 4 get 6) and Le Roule, (buy one get one free) as well as the Carr’s crackers, (two for five bucks) deals all continue. Plus a couple of more below.
Reg Sale Midnight Moon………………………$27.99………………..$15.99 Aged six months or more, this pale, ivory cheese is firm, dense and smooth with the slight graininess of a long-aged cheese. The flavor is nutty and brown-buttery, with prominent caramel notes. The wheel is finished in a beautiful black wax. Made in Europe exclusively for Cypress Grove Chevre. Reg Sale Baked Brie……………………………..$27.99………………..$19.99 w/ blackberry guava jam in phyllo dough Perfect for the game, just pop it in the oven for 15 min and you’ll be a star at halftime! Reg Sale Champignon Mushroom Brie………….$16.99……………….$9.99 Special game, special cheese, special pricing, special guests. (enough) This cheese has reached the apex of readiness, and is in “super” form. Soft, creamy, lush, w/that mushroom scent and taste ….does it get any better?…..perfect! Reg Sale Jarlsberg………………………………….$9.99……………….$5.99 Cube it, dip it, slice it, melt it, pop it…feed the crowd….our new everyday low price!
Le Roule………BUY ONE GET ONE FREE w/50 points…….$5.99 Save 50% on this 5oz wheel of fresh gourmet spread able cheese rolled in garlic and herb. Looks good…..tastes good…easy!
Reg Sale Lucini Parmigianino Reggiano………$29.99/22.99……………$14.99 Buy two only…….………….…………….$20.00 Buy three…… get four w/100 points…..$30.00 Buy four………get six w/200 points……$40.00 As we said before the best parm money can buy! Aged, organic, ask for a taste!
Carr’s Crackers………….Buy one box …$3.75…Two for ….$5.00 Famous and at a price equal to the “traders” of the world!
DELI We slice the top quality meats we use for our sandwiches. Have a taste when you order! Reg Sale Specials …per lb..Turkey Breast………….$7.99………..$3.99 Black Forest Ham………$9.99……….$4.99 Roast Beef………………$9.99………..$5.99 Pastrami…………………$10.99.……..$5.99 Imported Ham w/herbs….$11.99………$9.99 Capocollo………………..$11.99………$9.99 Prosciutto di Parma…………………$25.99………$14.99 (not a mis-print) Speck (smoked Prosciutto)…………$25.99………$14.99
Shooters…..Hot cherry peppers w/provolone and prosciutto…..$8.99 lb Last minute addition for the platters you build. Maybe we’ll taste ‘em on Saturday!
CHEESE SHOP TORTE……………………………….$13.99 Don’t forget this famous appetizer when you shop for the big game. They’ll always remember the unique taste, the game? “Hey, where you’d get that cheese thing with the hot pepper jelly at that great Super bowl party you had”?
Watch for our Saturday Food Demo and Wine Tasting e-mail on Fridays
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