Category: Bergen County

Music lovers from many area congregations filled Ridgewood Christian Reformed Church Sunday evening November 3rd

RIDGEWOOD – Music lovers from many area congregations filled Ridgewood Christian Reformed Church Sunday evening [November 3] to celebrate and try out a brand-new hymnal jointly published by two denominations prominent in northern New Jersey, the Christian Reformed Church and Reformed Church in America.

The service moved through major themes in the life of Jesus Christ, sampling a variety of traditional hymns, contemporary music, spirituals, and songs from foreign lands from the new “Lift Up Your Hearts” hymnal.

Featured singers, instrumentalists and speakers came from the Ridgewood congregation and Cedar Hill Christian Reformed Church in Wyckoff, Covenant Christian Reformed Church in North Haledon, Faith Community Christian Reformed Church in Wyckoff, and Midland Park Christian Reformed Church, joined by participants from area Reformed Church in America congregations.

The Ridgewood church, led by the Rev. Mary Stegink since last year, is one of the first in the Northeast to adopt the new hymnal for regular Sunday use.

“Lift Up Your Hearts” has over 800 songs selected by a joint team of Christian Reformed and Reformed Church editors, including Claudia Godoy-Cortes, former Spanish teacher at Eastern Christian High School and co-leader of the worship team at Bridgeway Church in Haledon.

The hymnal is issued by Faith Alive Christian Resources, the publisher that has jointly served both denominations since 2004 in line with an ecumenical agreement “to find ways in which to work collaboratively.”

The “Rejoice in the Lord” hymnal, widely used in the Reformed Church, was published in 1989 and the current edition of the Christian Reformed “Psalter Hymnal” in 1987. Faith Alive explains that though the “gospel message doesn’t change,” the “desire for a new hymnal for a new generation fits with the reality that a hymnal has a lifespan of about 20 years.” In line with worship styles in increasing use, the hymnal is available in digital form for screen projection of the words and music notes.

For further information: The Rev. Mary Stegink, or administrator Joyce Monsma, Ridgewood Christian Reformed Church (201) 445-1832 or [email protected].
Also see:  https://liftupyourheartshymnal.org

23,116,928 to 20,618,000: Households on Food Stamps Now Outnumber All Households in Northeast U.S.

September 17, 2013 – 12:31 PM
By Terence P. Jeffrey

(CNSNews.com) – A record 23,116,928 American households were enrolled in the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—AKA food stamps—during the month of June, according to data released this month by the Department of Agriculture.

That outnumbers the 20,618,000 households that the Census Bureau estimated were in the entire Northeastern United States as of the second quarter of 2013.

According to the Census Bureau, the Northeast region includes Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania. Thus, in June, the households receiving food stamps exceeded the total combined households in all of these states.

The 23,116,928 million households on food stamps in June also outnumbered the 15,030,000 home-owning households in the entire Western United States in the second quarter of the year and the 18,018,000 home-owning households in the entire Midwest.

– See more at: https://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/23116928-20618000-households-food-stamps-now-outnumber-all-households#sthash.BASThcy0.dpuf

abcnews.go.com

Mass Shootings Fuel Fear, Account for Fraction of Murders
By Annie Linskey – Sep 17, 2013 12:02 AM ET

Mass U.S. shootings such as the bloody rampage at the Washington Navy Yard spur safety concerns and garner intense media attention while statistically accounting for few of the total murders reported nationwide.

In the 30 years through March, 78 public mass shootings occurred in the U.S. — incidents in which four or more people were killed at random by a gunman murdering indiscriminately, according to a report issued that month by the Congressional Research Service. These crimes don’t include gang-related killings or domestic disputes where a person slays relatives or other people linked to the murderer.

People hold candles in remembrance of those affected by gun violence during a vigil at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 16, 2013. Photographer: Greg Kahn/Getty Images

The mass slaughters listed in the report caused the deaths of 547 people. Over the same three decades through 2012, that’s less than a tenth of 1 percent of the 559,347 people the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates were murdered in America.

“It is a very, very small percentage,” said James Alan Fox, who teaches criminology at Boston’s Northeastern University and co-authored a book about mass shootings called “Extreme Killing,” published in 2011.

In the wake of shootings such as the one in Washington that claimed at least 13 lives, including the alleged shooter, “our tendancy is to go overboard and overreach in terms of trying to increase levels of security,” Fox said. “The fear is greater than the risk.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-17/mass-shootings-fuel-fear-account-for-fraction-of-murders.html

file photo by ArtChick

‘Artificial egg’ made from PLANTS backed by Bill Gates set to revolutionize cooking goes on sale at Whole Foods
By Mark Prigg In San Francisco
PUBLISHED: 11:06 EST, 10 September 2013 | UPDATED: 11:09 EST, 10 September 2013

A radical ‘artificial egg’ backed by Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel and Bill Gates goes on sale in US supermarkets for the first time today.

Made from plants, it can replace eggs in everything from cakes to mayonnaise – without a chicken ever coming close to the production process.

The team today started selling their ‘plant egg’, called Beyond Eggs, in Whole Foods in California – and say it could soon be available in supermarkets worldwide.

‘We want to take animals out of the equation,’ said Josh Tetrick, the firm’s founder. ‘The food industry is begging for innovation, especially where animals are involved – it is a broken industry.’

Tetrick’s idea was to find a mix of easy-to-grow plants that, when mixed together in the right way, replicate the taste, nutritional values and cooking properties of an egg.

This, he believes will allow the firm to produce its substitute for mass market foods – and to allow developing worlds to grow their own versions with added nutrients.

‘Eggs are functionally incredible, they do everything from hold oil and water in mayo to making the muffin rise and holding scrambled eggs together,’ he said ‘I started to think what if we can find plants that can do this. We have about 12 plants pre-selected, including a pea already widely grown in Canada. There’s also a bean in South Asia that is incredible in scrambled eggs.’

Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2416808/Artificial-egg-PLANTS-backed-Bill-Gates-set-revolutionize-cooking-goes-sale-Whole-Foods.html#ixzz2eZW3p1qd

Harvard Study: No Correlation Between Gun Control and Less Violent Crime
by AWR Hawkins 28 Aug 2013

A Harvard Study titled “Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?” looks at figures for “intentional deaths” throughout continental Europe and juxtaposes them with the U.S. to show that more gun control does not necessarily lead to lower death rates or violent crime.

Because the findings so clearly demonstrate that more gun laws may in fact increase death rates, the study says that “the mantra that more guns mean more deaths and that fewer guns, therefore, mean fewer deaths” is wrong.

For example, when the study shows numbers for Eastern European gun ownership and corresponding murder rates, it is readily apparent that less guns to do not mean less death. In Russia, where the rate of gun ownership is 4,000 per 100,000 inhabitants, the murder rate was 20.52 per 100,000 in 2002. That same year in Finland, where the rater of gun ownership is exceedingly higher–39,000 per 100,000–the murder rate was almost nill, at 1.98 per 100,000.

Looking at Western Europe, the study shows that Norway “has far and away Western Europe’s highest household gun ownership rate (32%), but also its lowest murder rate.”

And when the study focuses on intentional deaths by looking at the U.S. vs Continental Europe, the findings are no less revealing. The U.S., which is so often labeled as the most violent nation in the world by gun control proponents, comes in 7th–behind Russia, Estonia, Lativa, Lithuania, Belarus, and the Ukraine–in murders. America also only ranks 22nd in suicides.

The murder rate in Russia, where handguns are banned, is 30.6; the rate in the U.S. is 7.8.

https://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/08/27/Harvard-Study-Shows-No-Correlation-Between-Strict-Gun-Control-And-Less-Crime-Violence

file photo Boyd Loving

FLASH FLOOD WATCH
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
836 AM EDT FRI AUG 9 2013

…FLASH FLOODING POSSIBLE INTO THIS EVENING…

…FLASH FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS EVENING…

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NEW YORK HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT…
NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY AND SOUTHEAST NEW YORK…INCLUDING THE
FOLLOWING AREAS…IN SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT…NORTHERN
FAIRFIELD. IN NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY…EASTERN BERGEN…EASTERN
PASSAIC…WESTERN BERGEN AND WESTERN PASSAIC. IN SOUTHEAST NEW
YORK…NORTHERN WESTCHESTER…ORANGE…PUTNAM AND ROCKLAND.

* THROUGH THIS EVENING

* SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS HAVE RESULTED IN LOCALIZED AMOUNTS OF
1 TO 3 INCHES OF RAINFALL ACROSS PORTIONS OF THE LOWER HUDSON
VALLEY…NORTHERN FAIRFIELD…AND NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY. MORE
HEAVY RAINFALL FROM ADDITIONAL SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS IS
POSSIBLE THROUGH THIS EVENING. DUE TO THE PREVIOUS
RAINFALL…LOCALIZED FLASH FLOODING COULD RESULT FROM ANY
ADDITIONAL HEAVY RAIN.

* SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS COULD PRODUCE 1 TO 2 INCH PER HOUR
RAINFALL RATES THROUGH THIS EVENING.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

A FLASH FLOOD WATCH MEANS THAT CONDITIONS MAY DEVELOP THAT LEAD TO FLASH FLOODING. FLASH FLOODING IS A VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION. YOU SHOULD MONITOR LATER FORECASTS AND BE PREPARED TO TAKE ACTION
SHOULD FLASH FLOOD WARNINGS BE ISSUED.

Exclusive: Dozens of CIA operatives on the ground during Benghazi attack

CNN has uncovered exclusive new information about what is allegedly happening at the CIA, in the wake of the deadly Benghazi terror attack.

Four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed in the assault by armed militants last September 11 in eastern Libya.

Sources now tell CNN dozens of people working for the CIA were on the ground that night, and that the agency is going to great lengths to make sure whatever it was doing, remains a secret.

CNN has learned the CIA is involved in what one source calls an unprecedented attempt to keep the spy agency’s Benghazi secrets from ever leaking out.

Read: Analysis: CIA role in Benghazi underreported

Since January, some CIA operatives involved in the agency’s missions in Libya, have been subjected to frequent, even monthly polygraph examinations, according to a source with deep inside knowledge of the agency’s workings.

The goal of the questioning, according to sources, is to find out if anyone is talking to the media or Congress.

It is being described as pure intimidation, with the threat that any unauthorized CIA employee who leaks information could face the end of his or her career.

In exclusive communications obtained by CNN, one insider writes, “You don’t jeopardize yourself, you jeopardize your family as well.”

https://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/08/01/exclusive-dozens-of-cia-operatives-on-the-ground-during-benghazi-attack/

Tunnel contract secures future of New York rail expansion
22 Jul, 2013

Tutor Perini has won a tunnelling contract worth $133 million which will ensure future plans to construct a rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River can go ahead.

A 250-metre long, 50-metre wide box tunnel will be built under the Eastern Rail Yard  – the future site of the Hudson Yards development.

The tunnel will ‘preserve an underground right-of-way’ safeguarding the future route of planned twin-bored tunnels beneath the Hudson River toward Penn Station.

Money to fund the project will come from the federal Hurricane Sandy relief fund.

The aim of the new tunnels, known as the Gateway Project, is to allow NJ Transit to increase rail capacity by adding an extra 13 trains an hour and Amtrak an extra eight services an hour between New Jersey and New York City.

Work was originally due to be completed by late 2014.

The Gateway Project was developed following the cancellation of ARC Tunnel, and is expected to cost around $14.7 billion.

“New Jersey is facing a transportation crisis,” said Amtrak chief executive Joe Boardman, in a statement which first confirmed Amtrak’s plans to support the project.

https://www.globalrailnews.com/2013/07/22/tunnel-contract-secures-future-of-new-york-rail-expansion/

file photo by Boyd Loving

North Jersey towns applying lessons learned from Superstorm Sandy
Sunday July 21, 2013, 11:40 PM
BY  DENISA R. SUPERVILLE
STAFF WRITER
The Record

Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich remembers how difficult it was providing timely information to a frustrated and anxious public plunged into darkness, with no gas and limited or no Internet access, after Superstorm Sandy barreled into the state.

After daily conference calls with utilities and the governor’s office, Sokolich’s staff distributed hundreds of fliers with updates on power restoration, tree removal and street reopenings.

“It was incredibly time-consuming, but it was the only way to reach the public,” said Sokolich, whose borough sustained about $1 million in public damage from the storm.

Sokolich has learned his lesson and is determined not to be caught off-guard again. For example, Fort Lee is launching an emergency radio broadcast system to deliver local alerts.

With two major tropical storms slamming North Jersey in the last two years, municipalities are rethinking how they plan for and respond to natural disasters. In addition to Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and Sandy last year, the region has been subjected to a March 2010 nor’easter and an October 2011 snowstorm, both of which felled thousands of tree limbs and disrupted electrical power to hundreds of thousands. Municipalities now know they have to prepare for more frequent and disruptive weather events, not just occasional tropical storms and annual winter snowstorms.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/bogota/North_Jersey_towns_applying_lessons_learned_from_Superstorm_Sandy.html#sthash.r9QyZefe.dp

Pick Up your Updated Village of Ridgewood Emergency Planning Guide Here
https://www2.ridgewoodnj.net/main_recent.cfm?ArticleID=1199

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