FEBRUARY 2, 2016 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2016, 5:25 PM
BY RICHARD NEWMAN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Following the lead of angry Uber drivers in New York City, the ride-hailing service’s contract drivers in New Jersey are planning a work stoppage and demonstration next week to protest recent fare cuts, the head of a new statewide trade association said Tuesday.
Patrick J. McManus, president of the fledgling New Jersey App-Based Drivers Association, said Tuesday the trade group will meet Wednesday in Woodbridge to discuss plans to protest “probably on Monday,” at Uber’s New Jersey office in Hoboken. There are 13,000 Uber drivers in New Jersey.
If they do it would be the second such action in the New York metropolitan area this month. Hundreds of Uber drivers demonstrated this Monday in front of Uber’s New York City headquarters in Queens to protest the recent 15-percent rate cuts.
Rates paid to drivers who provide UberX service were cut 15 percent to 85 cents a mile throughout most of New Jersey Jan. 9 and drivers are very unhappy about it, said McManus. The Edison resident drives as an independent contractor for both Uber Technologies and its largest rival, Lyft.
“This is the third or fourth rate cut that [Uber’s] done,” McManus said Tuesday in a phone interview. “It’s a chase to the bottom. They are cheapening the job.”
Mahwah firefighters battled a multiple alarm fire rescue child
February 2,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Mahwah NJ, Mahwah firefighters battled a multiple alarm fire in a condominium complex located on Juniper Way late Tuesday afternoon, 02/02. The fire was reported shortly before 4 PM by a neighborhood resident who saw smoke emanating from the roof of a residential building.
Mahwah units were assisted at the scene by Suffern and Ramsey FD personnel. The fire reportedly started on the 3rd floor of 917-928 Juniper Way and spread to the attic. A female child was rescued from a 3rd floor balcony by police officers who convinced her to jump into their open arms. No injuries were reported. Mahwah mayor Bill Laforet was observed at the scene comforting residents who were affected by the blaze.
By Susan K. Livio | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 30, 2016 at 3:45 PM, updated January 31, 2016 at 2:22 AM
TRENTON — Angry Cuban exiles in New Jersey are demanding state Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto condemn a trip 10 state lawmakers quietly made to Cuba this week, an action they say legitimizes that government’s oppressive regime.
Woodcliff Lake Mayor Carlos Rendo said Friday that American tourism “props up a murderous regime with every penny they spend in Cuba.”
“I would like to see every Cuban American legislator come out strongly and condemn this trip,” said Rendo, who was born in the communist country.
Menendez, Sires at odds with Obama on Cuba
Normally two of Obama’s most loyal supporters, Sen. Robert Menendez and Albio Sires are among his most strident critics on this issue
Prieto (D-Hudson), who fled the island with his mother when he was 10 years old, told NJ Advance Media he was reluctant to criticize his colleagues for making the trip on their own time. But he wanted to be clear they did not go representing the state.
“I did not sanction the trip,” Prieto said. “They never went as a delegation representing the Assembly of New Jersey.”
Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer), said he and the nine other legislators had good reason to make the four-day trip that ended Friday.
“After Obama said he wanted to ease the (diplomatic) restrictions, we wanted to see for ourselves what Cuba is all about,” Gusciora told NJ Advance Media Saturday. “We wanted to see how we can make things better in both of our countries.”
Gusciora said it isn’t fair for anyone to implicate Prieto. Everyone paid their own way and made arrangements directly with the tour company run by the Cuban government, he stressed. The trip cost $2,000, he said.
“It’s disappointing some people in the Cuban-American community want to stifle our rights of free speech and free association,” he said.
Besides Gusciora, the lawmakers on the trip included Assemblymen Gordon Johnson (D-Bergen), Tim Eustace (D-Bergen), Paul Moriarity (D-Gloucester), John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester), Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi (R-Bergen), Cleopatra Tucker (D-Essex), and Sheila Oliver (D-Essex), and state Sens. Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) and Nia Gill (D-Essex).
The Senate Majority Office “did not pay for the trip, nor did it make arrangements,” spokesman Luke Margolis said.
Prieto said that in December, Johnson asked whether the Assembly Majority Office would pay for the trip. The speaker said he refused. He said on Friday that he learned that the lawmakers had actually made the trip from Rendo and other Cuban leaders who saw a story about it in a government-owned news website, Diario de Cuba on Thursday.
Like other Cuban-American leaders who have been critical of the Obama administration’s decision to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, Prieto said he explained to Johnson he did not want to do anything that could be perceived as supportive of the Castro government, which unilaterally seized property and jobs and jailed dissidents in 1959.
“For me it’s an emotional thing because I lived it,” Prieto said.
“In a a three-day trip, you will not be able to understand the struggles of the people,” he added.
Cuba’s decision to continue harboring fugitive Joanne Chesimard is another reason he could not sanction the visit, Prieto said. Chesimard broke out of prison in 1979 after she was convicted in the shooting death of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973.
While he isn’t pleased by the trip, Prieto said he was stopping short of condemning it.
“As I said I would not authorize them going as a delegation but I cannot say anything about them going as U.S. citizens. That is one of the freedoms we have here that is not available to the Cubans in Cuba.”
During the trip, the New Jersey lawmakers repeatedly pushed Cuban officials to turn over Chesimard and other American fugitives, Gusciora said. “They seemed to ignore it,” he said.
JANUARY 31, 2016 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016, 1:21 AM
BY ROBERT FELDBERG
RECORD COLUMNIST |
THE RECORD
Tony-winning actor Robert Sean Leonard is experiencing not one, but two homecomings.
The more literal is his return from California – where he played Dr. James Wilson in eight seasons of “House” — to Ridgewood, where he was raised.
“My brother, who’s a cop in Ho-Ho-Kus, called about two years ago to tell me that he heard that this lovely old Victorian house near where we grew up was for sale. So I just called the owners, cold, and asked if they were thinking of moving,” Leonard said, with a brief look of mortification on his face as he recalled his audacity. “They said they weren’t, but I told them that if they ever did want to sell, to give me a call.”
A year ago they did, and last month Leonard, his wife Gabriella and their two daughters, Eleanor, 7, and Claudia, 3, moved in.
In the midst of unpacking boxes, though, Leonard was often absent, because of his other homecoming – his first role on the New York stage since returning from Los Angeles.
He’s appearing in “Prodigal Son,” which was written and is being directed by John Patrick Shanley, the author of “Doubt.” Now in previews, the drama opens Feb. 9 at the Manhattan Theatre Club’s off-Broadway space at the New York City Center.
With a kind of full-circle neatness, Leonard, whose breakout role was a prep-school student in the 1989 film “Dead Poets Society,” portrays a prep-school teacher in the play, which is based on Shanley’s own experience as a working-class Bronx boy attending a New England private school.
“I was told that Shanley was interested in me,” Leonard said. “I read the script and I liked it; it’s a very unique play, very surprising. Kind of like a ‘Twilight Zone’ episode.”
Leonard, who started out as a child actor, is known for his enthusiasm for stage acting, and he’s built an impressive list of Broadway successes.
He made his debut replacing Matthew Broderick in Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” and his subsequent plays have included “Arcadia,” “The Iceman Cometh,” “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” and “The Invention of Love,” for which he won his Tony. During a break from “House,” he came to New York to do “Born Yesterday.”
Many of the plays he’s done, on Broadway and elsewhere, are revivals of classics, which, he said, made “Prodigal Son” a different kind of challenge.
“Working with an author who’s breathing is an unusual experience for me,” he said,
At 46, Leonard still has an enormously engaging boy-next-door quality. He’s unstintingly praising of other actors, enthusiastic, good-humored and unassuming — he kept apologizing for being late for our interview at the theater (he hadn’t seen the message moving the start time up a half-hour), and he good-naturedly posed for a photographer right after walking in, without even a glance at a mirror.
Ruptured Gas Main Closes Route 4 in both Directions
January 30,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Paramus NJ, A construction company performing work on Route 4 westbound under Forest Avenue in Paramus accidentally struck and ruptured a 6 inch high pressure natural gas main shortly before 1 AM on Saturday, 01/30 causing the complete closure of Route 4 in both directions near the incident site.
As of 2 AM on Saturday, PSE&G supervisors on the scene anticipated the leak would not be stopped and repaired until at least 5 AM or 6 AM on Saturday. Paramus PD, FD, and Rescue Squad personnel are all on the scene. Traffic control assistance is being provided by numerous Bergen County law enforcement agencies along with NJDOT personnel. No incident related injuries have thus far been reported.
JANUARY 29, 2016, 5:19 PM LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2016, 5:27 PM
BY KIM LUEDDEKE
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
An Indian national was sentenced to probation Friday and will likely be deported for her role in an IRS scam that authorities said netted thousands of dollars from unwitting victims.
Nikita Patel, a slight, girlish-looking 25-year-old who wore her hair pulled back in a long ponytail, did not address the court Friday. Her attorney, Rajinderpal Singh Sandher, said she had no prior criminal history and was willing to cooperate with any further investigation.
Frauds like the one perpetrated by Patel seem to be an “endemic problem,” said Superior Court Judge Susan J. Steele. She ordered Patel, who is in the United States on an expired visa, to serve three years’ probation for a charge of money laundering.
JANUARY 29, 2016, 12:18 PM LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2016, 12:33 PM
BY PETER J. SAMPSON
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Joseph A. Ferriero, the former leader of the Bergen County Democratic Organization, has been given another two weeks of freedom as a judge considers whether to grant him bail pending appeal of his racketeering conviction.
The 58-year-old Hackensack lawyer had been scheduled to report to prison authorities next Tuesday to begin serving a nearly three-year sentence imposed last month by U.S. District Judge Esther Salas.
But Salas on Thursday pushed back Ferriero’s surrender date to Feb. 16 as she continues to review his motion to remain free on bail while he challenges his conviction for racketeering and fraud.
Shock waves traveling faster than the speed of sound were likely caused by nearby aircraft
By
ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS
Tremors felt in parts of the northeastern U.S. on Thursday, including New York’s Long Island area and southern New Jersey, were the result of a series of sonic booms, a regional seismologist said.
The Council Majority ie 3 amigos have decided that although the proposed bond was not approved by the super majority that they would do an end run and get the money from the BCIA.
Worse than the extra fees involved in getting money from these outside place (and no way is this extra cost netting out to $2,200) is the fact that Ridgewood will lose control and be forced to open up the garage to outside commuters.
Faulty and incomplete analysis on BCIA bond. Even if the Council assumptions are correct on the bond fees being offset by lower rate (BIG if), you complete disregard the lost revenue by going through the BCIA. Ridgewood would lose out on the additional $750/pass per year ($750 residents – $1500 non-residents). Even if you only assume that 10 out of town cars use the garage for commuting we lose out on $187,500 over the life of the bond. We take the risk, the BCIA gets the reward – foolish.
While I’m all for helping our neighboring towns, Ridgewood commuters must come first. If we have unused commuter spaces fine let others park here. Bergen County as well and NJ transit has it’s own agenda and that agenda isn’t in the best interest of Ridgewood. It is a major mistake to take any money from these outside agencies
JANUARY 26, 2016, 11:51 AM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2016, 4:08 PM
BY PETER J. SAMPSON
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
A Glen Rock man who is awaiting sentencing for bilking upwards of $3 million from more than a dozen investors is at it again, federal authorities allege, using a phony alias to scam new victims.
The new allegations against Paul Mancuso, 49, were leveled in a letter that a federal prosecutor sent last week to U.S. District Judge William J. Martini in Newark requesting that his $250,000 bail be revoked and that he be detained pending sentencing.
“Despite having pled guilty [in September] to defrauding numerous victims over a three-year period of more than $3 million, Mancuso is continuing to hold himself out as a real estate entrepreneur — using a phony alias — in a brazen attempt to lure additional victims into fraudulent real estate transactions,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony J. Mahajan wrote in his letter to the judge.
The message from the public has been clear this presidential cycle. Anti-establishment rhetoric has brought avowed socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) to an equal plane with Hillary Clinton, while Donald Trump has held onto a commanding twenty-point lead against his closest rival, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX). Dissatisfaction with the Washington status quo has been the only common thread, and some of New Jersey’s most prominent party chairmen think that trend could continue when the primaries begin next month. JT Aregood, PolitickerNJ Read more
JANUARY 24, 2016 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, JANUARY 24, 2016, 1:21 AM
BY VIRGINIA ROHAN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Dying may be easy — from a theatrical standpoint — but playing dead can be oh-so-hard.
Just ask Glen Rock’s Charlie Sara, who portrayed murder victim Paul Duncsak in an Investigation Discovery show’s re-creation of one of Bergen County’s most notorious homicide cases. In 2006, Duncsak was ambushed inside his Ramsey home, a crime for which his former father-in-law was convicted.
“He murdered [him] in very close quarters in the entry foyer of his home, and it was close-range gunshots, six of them, one to the groin,” Sara recalls of one gruesome scene he shot, for a 2015 episode of the ID series “I’d Kill for You,” at a mansion in Sparta. “And then the hardest part was laying on a cold marble floor for about four hours as they shot camera angles of the dead body.”
Sara, a professionally trained actor who owns and operates an ambulatory-care facility in Paramus, has since played a prosecutor and a murderer in two different ID shows. He is a part of two intertwining television trends — the huge popularity of the true-crime genre and the rise of Sparta Township, a Sussex County community with one of New Jersey’s lowest crime rates, as a filming locale.
“It’s one of the safest communities, but it’s the set for the re-creations of some very heinous crimes from all over the
country,” says Sparta police Lt. John-Paul Beebe, who, along with local Realtor Duffy Brennan, is credited with igniting the filming boom a few years ago, as a way to pump up the local economy.
Ridgewood NJ, As weather conditions and cleanup efforts permit, NJ TRANSIT will begin restoring transit services at 11 a.m. For the latest travel information, customers should visit njtransit.com, access NJ TRANSIT’s Twitter feed at @NJTRANSIT or listen to broadcast traffic reports. Additionally, NJ TRANSIT will provide the most current service information via the My Transit alert system (www.njtransit.com/mytransit), which delivers travel advisories for your specific trip to your smartphone. Service information is also available by calling (973) 275-5555.
NJ TRANSIT will begin restoring service as follows with a gradual buildup of service during the day.
· Bus
o Customers can expect service delays and detours due to local road conditions. As such, customers should afford themselves ample time to reach their final destinations.
Click Here for North Jersey bus service information by route. (Click Here will link to pdf with route numbers and service)
Light Rail
Newark Light Rail – will resume service at 11:00 AM and operate on a modified Sunday schedule with trains running on a normal Sunday frequency. Trains will run between Grove Street and Newark Penn Station and between Broad Street and Newark Penn Station.
River LINE – will resume service at 11:00 AM and operate a regular Sunday schedule from Trenton ending at 36th Street in Camden. No service to Walter Rand Transportation Center and points south
Hudson-Bergen Light Rail – will resume service at 11:00 AM and operate a normal weekend schedule.
Commuter Rail
Morris & Essex Line – will begin operating a regular weekend schedule starting with the 12:05 p.m. out of Dover and the 12:12 p.m. out of Hoboken. NOTE: Midtown Direct trains will run into Manhattan following the regular weekend schedule.
Main/Bergen Line – will begin operating a regular weekend schedule starting with the 12:19 p.m. out of Hoboken bound for Waldwick and the 12:25 p.m. out of Hoboken bound for Suffern. Trains will depart Suffern at 1:06 p.m. and Waldwick at 1:27 p.m. heading for Hoboken.
Montclair Boonton Line – will begin operating a regular weekend schedule starting with the 12:10 p.m. out of Hoboken to Bay Street and the 1;00 p.m. departure from Bay Street to Hoboken.
Pascack Valley Line – will begin operating a regular weekend schedule starting with the 1:58 p.m. departure from Spring Valley to Hoboken.
Northeast Corridor – Poised to resume service from Trenton pending Amtrak approval to operate from Morrisville
North Jersey Coast Line – Poised to resume service upon Amtrak’s clearing of the switches at Union interlocking
Raritan Valley Line – Poised to resume service upon the clearing of switches at Aldene (Conrail) and Hunter (Amtrak) interlockings
Atlantic City Rail Line – Poised to resume service upon Amtrak’s repair of Shore interlocking
Southern Tier Service – Poised to resume Southern Tier service pending completion of Metro North’s inspections
· Access Link:
o Service remains suspended today. Reservations for trips on Access Link can be made later today (stay tuned for specific time).
System-wide Cross-Honoring Remains in Effect:
To give customers additional travel options, NJ TRANSIT will continue to offer full system wide cross-honoring through Sunday, January 24, enabling customers to use their ticket or pass on an alternate travel mode–rail, light rail or bus. Additionally, NJ TRANSIT bus, rail, light rail and bus passes will be cross-honored on private carrier buses.
