Category: Village of Ridgewood

>Washington, Apr 10 – U.S. Representative Scott Garrett (NJ-5) was recently named a “Taxpayer Friend” by the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), for his 2007 voting record to reduce and control the burden on American taxpayers. Garrett was the only Representative from New Jersey to receive this award.

“It is an honor and a privilege to represent our nation’s hardworking taxpayers here in Congress,” said Garrett. “And, I will continue to do all I can to return the focus in Washington to the family budget over the Federal budget. New Jerseyans are subject to extremely high federal and state taxes. I will work to give back more of their hard earned money rather than allowing the government to keep it to promote their special interest agenda.”

NTU, a nonpartisan citizen group, presents these awards to Members of Congress who achieve an “A” grade in NTU’s annual Rating of Congress. The Rating, which is based on every roll call vote affecting fiscal policy, assigns a “Taxpayer Score” to each Member of Congress that indicates his or her support for reducing or controlling federal spending, taxes, debt, and regulation. For 2007, a total of 427 House and 182 Senate votes were selected.

“Congressman Garrett’s pro-taxpayer score of 88 percent is among the highest in the entire House of Representatives,” NTU President Duane Parde said. “If every Member of Congress had voted as responsibly as Congressman Garrett did in 2007, Americans could have enjoyed much lower taxes and less waste in government. Overburdened taxpayers nationwide — including NTU’s more than 10,000 members in New Jersey — owe Congressman Garrett a debt of gratitude for his hard work on their behalf. He has truly earned the title ‘Taxpayers’ Friend.'”

From 2006 to 2007, the average “Taxpayer Score” in the House fell four points to 35 percent. In the Senate, the average pro-taxpayer score fell 11 points to 37 percent. However, true “high performers” in Congress are always rare. In 2007, 52 lawmakers earned scores sufficient to win the Taxpayers’ Friend Award (at least 85 percent in the House and 80 percent in the Senate). Meanwhile, more than 260 Members captured the title of “Big Spender” for scoring 16 percent or less in the House and 14 percent or less in the Senate.

>THE RECORD, Monday, April 21, 2008

BY KIBRET MARKOS

Internet subscriber information is as private as bank records or telephone bills and cannot be accessed by law enforcement without a proper subpoena, the state Supreme Court ruled today.

“We now hold that citizens have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the subscriber information they provide to Internet service providers,” the state’s highest court wrote in the 7-0 decision, which will bind law enforcement agencies throughout the state.

The ruling was issued in the case of a South Jersey woman who was indicted on computer theft charges shortly after police obtained her personal information from Comcast, her Internet provider.

The woman, Shirley Reid, argued that police used a faulty subpoena to get hold of her information, thereby violating her privacy rights.

Lower courts agreed with Reid and the state’s highest court sided with her, rejecting arguments by prosecutors that there is no “reasonable expectation of privacy” with respect to Internet subscriber information.

The American Civil Liberties Union, representing several privacy-rights advocates, had joined the case, asking the court to recognize that Internet users expect their providers to keep their personal information private. The ACLU, along with Reid, also argued that when law enforcement agencies seek subscriber information, the subscriber should be notified.

The justices, however, ruled that law enforcement agencies can obtain such information through a grand jury subpoena without notifying the subscriber.

>From www.inthelobby.net:

Daily Muse: Feb. 28, 2008

Let’s see. New Jersey lost 9,500 jobs in January.

We only gained 4,700 jobs in all of 2007 – well below the 29,400 jobs that were originally estimated.

Anybody want to do some quick math on what those numbers will look like if you throw an 800 percent toll hike in 14 years into the mix?

Right. But never fear, New Jersey. The state’s Chamber of Commerce is still foursquare behind the governor’s toll hike plan.

“The New Jersey Chamber of Commerce applauds the Corzine administration for putting forth a bold and aggressive plan designed to reduce out-of-control state debt and create stable long-term funding for much needed transportation projects,” the chamber said today, according to the Ledger.

Has it occurred to the Chamber that at the rate New Jersey is losing jobs – and residents – that if this toll hike goes through, that those much needed transportation projects will be much less needed, unless they apply to roads leading out of here?

“What the job data show is that corporate America is not doing its expansion in New Jersey,” said James W. Hughes, an economist and dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. “The disparity between the nation’s job growth and New Jersey is so high.”

Question to the Chamber: Why exactly is corporate America going to choose New Jersey to relocate to when they are facing an 800 percent hike on the toll roads?

Here’s an even scarier statistic: New Jersey’s January job loss of 9,500 was 56 percent of the nation’s 17,000 job loss — even though New Jersey accounts for only 3 percent of the nation’s population, according to the Ledger.

And the toll hike plan is going to turn that around how?

“The job numbers are just awful, and they reflect New Jersey’s standing in the economic world, which is not very high,” said Philip Kirschner, president of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, a statewide business advocacy group. “Jobs are not being created here, and I think part of it is the perception that this is a state that has not adopted business-friendly policies, and can’t get its own fiscal house in order.”

Question for Gov. Corzine: Before you ax the Commerce Commission, can you get someone to explain how an 800 percent toll hike is a business-friendly policy?

Corzine’s point man on the toll hike plan, Bob Franks, was out at Eagleton last night, urging critics to “lower the rhetoric.”

“For the first time in my adult life, I truly fear for the state of New Jersey,” Franks said. “If we don’t make some serious changes in the way we govern ourselves, we run the risk of passing on fewer opportunities.”

Question for Bob Franks: How is an 800 percent toll hike going to create more opportunities for New Jersey’s middle class?

Meanwhile, before he jetted off to campaign for Hillary Clinton in Ohio, Corzine was still touting his toll-hike plan at the Tick-Tock Diner yesterday. He said that he plans to continue his Town Hall meetings, but he expects a “broader discussion” now that he has unveiled his budget cuts. But he bristled at questions at whether the cuts were a way to get people to support his toll hike plan.

“It is a false and cynical assertion that we’re trying to use this to somehow back-door people into” supporting his toll plan, Corzine said, according to Gannett.

By the way, New Jersey was the third highest-ranking “outbound state” last year, with 61 percent of all moves originating in New Jersey leaving for other states, according to a recent migration study. Sixty thousand people left the state.

Question for the governor: And that 800 percent toll hike is going to reverse that trend how?

Just asking.

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LAST DAY to REGISTER for MUNICIPAL ELECTION is APRIL 22nd

The Village of Ridgewood will be holding its Municipal Election, to elect three Councilmembers to the Ridgewood Village Council, on May 13, 2008. The terms are for four years. The polls will be open from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Sample ballots for the election will be mailed out one week prior to the election, and the polling places are the same as the ones used in all other elections.

The last day to register to vote for the Municipal Election is Tuesday, April 22, 2008. Voter registration will take place in the Village Clerk’s Office from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on that day, and the Deputy Village Clerk will also be in the Library lobby on April 22nd from 4:30 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. to register voters.

An absentee ballot application must be received by the Bergen County Clerk’s Office no later than Tuesday, May 6, 2008 in order to allow ample time for the absentee ballot to be sent to the voter. After May 6th, voters may vote by absentee ballot by going in person to the Bergen County Clerk’s Office, One Bergen County Plaza, Room 130, Hackensack, NJ up until May 12, 2008 at 3:00 p.m.

If you have any further questions about the Municipal Election, please contact the Village Clerk’s Office at 201-670-5500 ext. 201 or ext. 205.

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Jamie and Jolene from Ridgewood ,Jersey cook up some delicious scallops and veggies.

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Ridgewood Super Cellars
www.supercellars.com

32 S Broad St
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
(201) 444-0012

What to know about New Jersey’s laws governing bring-your-own restaurants:

* Only beer or wine is allowed — not hard liquor.

* BYOs cannot advertise that they are, in fact, a BYO.

* BYOs cannot charge customers any service or corkage fees.

* Restaurants have the right to prohibit diners from bringing in alcohol.

* Whether BYOs can legally pour wine for diners is ambiguous, says an attorney for the New Jersey Restaurant Association.

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The five candidates running for the three seats are;

Jacques Harlow – RIDGEWOOD 2025

Paul Aronsohn – A NEW VOICE FOR RIDGEWOOD

Keith Killion – COMMON SENSE APPROACH TO MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT

Betty G. Wiest – RIDGEWOOD – PRIDE AND PROGRESS

Anne Zusy – REFRESH RIDGEWOOD A-Z. ELECT ANNE ZUSY.

Killion & Aronsohn are NOT running on the same ticket. The “Common Sense to Municipal Government” slogan is Killion’s, not Paul’s. Not sure where/who you got this information from, but it was also posted in errata on the “anti Blog.” Someone is trying to link them for some unknown reason.

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Should this Blog publicize the where abouts of sex offenders living in our community?

>Notwithstanding the optimistic title of the following article, its author recommends that parents dissatisified with their district’s math program vote with their feet.

From https://www.gobiged.com/wfdata/frame164-1000/pressrel103.asp

How to Promote a Good Math Curriculum

Q. How can you tell if your school’s math curriculum is any good, and what can you do if it isn’t?

If you spend time on the website, www.mathematicallycorrect.com, you will see that there have been tremendous efforts in recent years to battle back “fuzzy math,” but not much progress has been made. “Fuzzy math” curricula are listed there. You can pass along that link to your child’s math teacher, but don’t expect anything to change.

One of the problems is that there are a lot of educators who have risen through the ranks who really don’t “do math” very well, yet they’re making decisions about curriculum and influencing policymakers, when they shouldn’t be. Even a well-regarded math teacher has little, or no, chance of changing those big decisions as long as the big money and big power is behind “fuzzy math.”

You can tell this is a problem, because the REAL math professionals – mathematicians and scientists who DON’T work for schools – hate the “fuzzy math” curriculum so many schools are using. If your district is using Everyday Mathematics, Connected Math, TERC, or one of the other math curricula blasted on that website, then you’re in the midst of a national controversy that doesn’t appear to be ending any time soon.

If you really want your child to be good at math, you’d better run, not walk, to a private, after-school math tutor and keep your child there for years, or pull your child out of public school and into the best private school you can afford. Of course, that’s after you’ve made sure that the tutor or the private school aren’t blindly following the lead of the public schools in using ineffective math programs just because they’re “popular.”

Chances are, if your child attends a public school, your district’s selected curriculum has been recommended by the federal government because the National Science Foundation has funded its development. The problem is, the National Science Foundation, otherwise an excellent organization, has gone off the deep end toward “whole math,” and in so doing has ruined the course of math education in this country in recent years.

The basic problem is that it’s “in style” among educrats and policymakers to NOT teach the math basics. They honestly believe this is best, even though in the case of math curricula there has been a tidal wave of protest from parents, taxpayers, mathematicians and scientists against NOT teaching the basics. Because the “fuzzy math” curriculum marketing has been smart about targeting certain large, influential districts, and placing their curriculum in them, there’s a widespread “monkey see, monkey do” effect in which other districts copy what the Big Boys are doing – to the detriment of all the students.

Making matters worse is that large, nongovernmental entities that are highly influential in K-12 education because they sprinkle around millions of dollars in grants – for example, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – make those grants conditional on retaining the educrats who will favor the “progressive” curricula that the foundations prefer because they’re in “style.”

Why is this such a problem?

“Whole math” deemphasizes routine arithmetic and algebra as being “drill and kill” or “mindless symbol manipulation.” Instead of memorizing math facts and working increasingly difficult computation problems, the kids are given calculators. So they don’t get any practice or skill in the actual mathematics which they are supposedly being taught. Obviously, this dumbs them down.

Instead, they develop their own strategies for solving story problems, work in groups, write math journals, and do other nonsense work, without a competent adult teacher guiding their work, but their age peers. Obviously, this ingrains misinformation and bad habits.

They don’t do long addition problems, they don’t learn how to make change, they don’t learn how to subtract with borrowing, they don’t work with fractions, and certain other college-prep skills that are necessary for physics and calculus and other higher-level math and science courses go by the wayside. Obviously, then, they aren’t equipped to major in the “hard” sciences or math-related fields, and instead of going in to productive and highly-sought-after fields like technology, medicine and engineering, they major in “soft” fields like psychology and education. Actually, they aren’t even capable enough to work at a cashier in a retail store, because they can’t even make change for a simple cash transaction.

So how can a lowly parent influence curriculum selections? Well, you can sure write letters and make phone calls to your school board. But the best thing may well be to “vote with your feet.” Get your child out of a system that’s using a poor math curriculum, tell the district why, and go on with your life. If they lose enough money, they’ll eventually do the math – and make the correct change.

By Susan Darst Williams • www.GoBigEd.com • Show ‘n’ Tell For Parents 110 • © 2006

>From numerous sources the fly has learned that the BOE hides administrator’s salaries by having an administrator teach one class there by shifting that salary to the teacher’s line item. This artificially lowers and misrepresents administration expenses.

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GO OUT AND VOTE !

POLLS ARE OPEN TILL 9PM