Category: Village of Ridgewood

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>A Message from Fairway Master Butcher Ray Venezia Re: “Pink Slime”
By Mel Fabrikant Saturday, March 31, 2012, 06:11 PM EDT
https://www.paramuspost.com/article.php/20120331181121821

Dear Fairway Market customers:
Some USDA scientists recently revealed that they strongly believe Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB) — or “pink slime” as it’s been called by the press — should not be labeled as meat. According to an ABC News source, 70 percent of all ground beef sold at supermarkets contains LFTB. While that may be the case elsewhere, Fairway Market DOES NOT sell LFTB or “pink slime” – WE’VE NEVER SOLD IT AND NEVER WILL! Since this news broke, we’ve received a lot of inquires about it. But you can shop with ease at all Fairway Market stores, knowing that LFTB or “PINK SLIME” ISN’T IN ANY MEAT WE SELL – and you’ve never ever purchased a product like that at Fairway. 


ALL of our meat is the highest quality, is USDA certified, is delivered fresh daily, is custom cut by a professional butcher, AND is ground fresh every day and all day. Fairway Market Butcher Shops never cut corners, and the meat that comes into our stores is approved by me, a third-generation butcher. You expect the best, and we have never and would never give you anything less. This is why Fairway is truly LIKE NO OTHER MARKET®. 


Sincerely,
Fairway Master Butcher Ray Venezia

https://www.paramuspost.com/article.php/20120331181121821

>‘Hybrid’ charters will meld online lessons with conventional instruction

A great deal was made of the Christie administration’s last round of charter school approvals, and the lack of any suburban charters on the list.

But the urban ones that were approved are interesting in themselves, including two in Trenton and Newark that are trying a new model of education, mixing online learning with face-to-face instruction in a setting unlike any other in the state.

The person making the pitch is Ben Rayer, a self-described education “entrepreneur” out of Philadelphia who won approval to bring the new model to two of New Jersey’s toughest cities.  (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)

>67% of Readers say No to New Years Resolutions

Ridgewood Blog Polls: Will you be making New Years Resolutions ?


33% yes 
67% say No

>36 Obama aides owe $833,000 in back taxes
Andrew Malcolm 
Political News & Commentary

How embarrassing this must be for President Obama, whose major speech theme so far this campaign season has been that every single American, no matter how rich, should pay their “fair share” of taxes.

Because how unfair — indeed, un-American — it is for an office worker like, say, Warren Buffet’s secretary to dutifully pay her taxes, while some well-to-do people with better educations and higher incomes end up paying a much smaller tax rate.

Or, worse, skipping their taxes altogether.

A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama’s executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for Mr. Fair Share apparently haven’t paid any share, let alone their fair share.

Previous reports have shown how well-paid Obama’s White House staff is, with 457 aides pulling down more than $37 million last year. That’s up seven workers and nearly $4 million from the Bush administration’s last year.

Nearly one-third of Obama’s aides make more than $100,000 with 21 being paid the top White House salary of $172,200, each.

https://news.investors.com/Article/599002/201201260818/obama-white-house-staff-back-taxes.htm

>5 RHS students were inducted last month into the high school’s new Donahue Fellowship program.

RHS music students Catherine Janson (’15), Johnny DeCesare (’15), Matthew Casale (’14), Miranda Canilang (’13), and Trey Shore (’12) were inducted last month into the high school’s new Donahue Fellowship program, honoring the life and memory of 2003 RHS grad Connor Donohue. The Fellows were selected based on their love of music, motivation to study music seriously, and willingness to serve as a mentor and role model to other musicians. Acceptance into the Fellowship includes weekly private music lessons, monthly music seminars with a professional musician, master classes with faculty at local universities, and opportunities to attend concerts in the area.

The Fellowship was established by RHS alumni Colin Mead (’03), Val Allevi (’02), MichaelAaron Flicker (’01), Director of Bands Jeffrey Haas, and is currently led by Alison Crossley (’01). The Fellowship is a recognized non-profit organization and operates solely on fundraising and donations. Donations can be sent to: Donohue Fellowship c/o Valerie Allevi, 411A Gregory Avenue, Weehawken, NJ 07086. Checks should be made payable to RHS Band Council Alumni. Any questions about the Fellowship can be sent to DonohueFellowship@rhsbands.org

>“MANDATE” IS A DIRTY WORD
By Ian Linker

I’m about to use a dirty word. It’s the “M” word. Not everyone dislikes the word. In fact, the “M” word is a word the President and others on the Left are quite fond of. So what is the word? Mandate – the antithesis of freedom. Compulsion, force, coercion, and requirement, are all common synonyms of the “M” word. Obama and his allies quite simply love to mandate.

To name a few Obama mandates: Obamacare mandates that all Americans carry health insurance by 2014 or face a stiff penalty. The Dodd-Frank financial industry overhaul, through the controversial Volcker Rule,mandates that by July of this year certain banks cannot buy and sell securities for their own benefit. In the name of energy efficiency, through a special office of the Department of Energy, the Administration mandates what kind of appliances the American people can buy for their homes. Obama has mandated that the cars Americansbuy must achieve 56 mpg, i.e., fully electric powered engines, by 2025. Also in the name of energy efficiency,Obama has mandated that we can only buy a certain type of mercury-filled light bulb.

The reason why the “M” word comes so easy to the President and others on the Left, is that they are starting from a very different point. The Left claim that American principles include fairness, equal opportunity, and equal responsibility for all. Now I have read the Declaration of Independence, and I have read the Constitution,and I have read the Federalist Papers, and I simply cannot find these so-called “principles” in any of these documents. What I found are words like freedom, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and natural-born rights. These are America’s founding principles.

Besides trampling our natural-born freedoms, disregarding the Constitution, and treating the American people like we are too stupid to make decisions for ourselves, mandates like these also have significant negative economic consequences.

Many of these mandates increase the cost of doing business. For instance, the rules and regulations imposed by President Obama alone have increased the cost of doing business in this country by tens of billions of dollars.If business can afford to, they will pass along the increases to their customers as higher prices – like a hiddentax increase. They may also sell fewer goods or services, or they will lay off, or simply not hire more workers. What ever the consequence, mandates like those favored by the Left have significantly negative effects on the U.S. economy.

Now, the Obama Administration is imposing a new mandate: as part of Obamacare regulations the President is mandating most health plans to fully cover contraception without co-payments or deductibles.

The new rule will not affect government-administered, i.e., publicly funded, health care. Those on public assistance already have their birth control fully subsidized. Instead, private health plans will now be required to provide birth control to all their participants, including those who would have already been on birth control with or without the mandate. So, guess what? Those of us who have health insurance will soon be paying higher monthly premiums to subsidize the cost of birth control and a laundry list of other family planning items. After all, the manufacturers of these products are not going to provide them for free. (They cost millionsto manufacture, not to mention the significant research and development costs that go into developing many of these products, and let’s face it, there is nothing wrong with maximizing profits.) And the health insurers who pay for them are not going to just eat the cost. They are going to pass them along to their customers, i.e.,premium-paying Americans – folks like you and me who have health insurance and pay premiums out of our own pockets.

The government’s basis for the new mandate is to reduce the downstream healthcare costs associated with unwanted pregnancies. Putting the moral issues against the mandate, which are significant, aside, the government’s cost-benefit analysis appears to be seriously flawed.

The government, not surprisingly, is overstating the benefit associated with the new mandate. For instance, the number of unintended pregnancies in the U.S. per year covered by the mandate is not as high as the government would have us believe. In fact, although the government claims millions will annually benefit from the mandate, no more than 500,000 unwanted pregnancies would be covered by it. Furthermore, no one is claiming, I’m sure,that the new mandate will motivate the use of birth control in all of these cases or that birth control will preventunintended pregnancies 100% of the time.

And the costs associated with the mandate will likely be higher than the government anticipates. Indeed, those who currently have at least a portion of their birth control covered by their insurance will now have 100% of the cost covered. And some of those not currently on birth control – and not counted as an unwanted pregnancy because they didn’t get pregnant – when offered a free lunch may start using a contraceptive. It will cost insurance companies more to fully cover birth control. These increased costs will simply be passed along ashigher premiums. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Assuming the mandate is even authorized by the Constitution, which I submit it is not, the benefit to society should significantly outweigh the increased costs in order to justify the invasion of our freedom. Once again, it does not.

Mandates are a dirty word not only because they destroy our freedom and keep us under the heavy hand of the nanny state, but they also are invidious because they often impose tax increases on the American people without anyone noticing or batting an eye.

Ian Linker is an attorney living in Ridgewood, New Jersey and is a former Republican candidate for the U.S.Senate from New Jersey.

>3 Reasons School Choice is Growing

>“Commit to Be Fit” in 2012 at the YMCA/YWCA

January Promotion offers FREE ONE WEEK Trial Membership.

Prospective members are invited to sign up for a free one-week trial memebership to sample virtually all that the two organizations have to offer.

This unique promotion offers facility-wide access to YMCA/YWCA programming, including fitness, sports, enrichment classes for children, youth, adults, and seniors; lap swimming in two heated indoor pools; and access to the Bolger Fitness Center’s cardio and strength equipment and group exercise classes. (Participants must be 13 and older to use the YMCA Strenght Training Facility and 16 and older to access the BFC.)

Complimentary Trial Membership Passes are available to first-time members only from January 1 throught 31.
For details or to sign up for a free week, call 201-444-5600 x313 or x 341.
Visit the YM/YW at 112 Oak Street Ridgewood, NJ 0745

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30th Annual Ridgewood and Glen Rock Martin Luther King Jr Observance and Service

The 30th annual Ridgewood/Glen Rock observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day will be held on Monday, January 16, 2012, at the Ridgewood United Methodist Church, 100 Dayton St., Ridgewood, NJ. This year’s celebration will focus on the theme, “The Power of One, The Strength of Many.” Sponsored by the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee of Ridgewood/Glen Rock Communities, the celebration begins at 10:00 a.m. with an interfaith service featuring speaker Rabbi Neil Tow of the Glen Rock Jewish Center, as well as readings by Ridgewood and Glen Rock students and musical performances by the Indian Hills Chamber Choir and Men of Umoja Chorus. The service will be followed by a rally in Van Neste Square and conclude with a community luncheon at the church. The event is free and open to the public.

Rabbi Tow has been serving the Glen Rock Jewish Center since 2006. He serves on the board of the Jewish Federation Apartments in Paterson, New Jersey and on the Jewish Community Relations Council. Interfaith work has become an important part of Rabbi Tow’s service to the community, and he is a member of the Religious Communities of Glen Rock, the Community Relations Advisory Board of Glen Rock and Ridgewood, as well as the 2011 “Bergen Leads” class, a 10-month learning and leadership experience for community leaders in Bergen County. He co-teaches an interfaith Bible Study class, is a leader of the Glen Rock Interfaith American Cancer’s Relay for Life team, and recently introduced a series of free 30-minute lunchtime webinars on social justice.

The annual Ridgewood/Glen Rock Martin Luther King Jr. celebration began in 1983 in an effort to unite area residents, regardless of faith or ethnic background, in worship and action as they work towards peace and justice for all. More than 20 religious groups, the Ridgewood and Glen Rock Boards of Education, local government, and civic organizations participate in and support the event each year. Financial support is generously provided by many organizations, individuals, agencies, and businesses throughout the area.