High-Ranking Democrat Sen. Robert Menendez Blasts Obama’s ‘Secret Diplomacy’ With Cuba
Philip Wegmann / @PhilipWegmann / January 05, 2015
President Obama will have trouble appointing an ambassador to Cuba following his decision to normalize relations with the Communist government, predicts the outgoing Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
On Sunday, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., told CNN that past actions on the part of the Obama administration would make it “very difficult to get an ambassador confirmed.”
The senior Democratic lawmaker blasted the White House for independently restarting diplomatic ties with Communist Cuba while keeping Senate leaders in the dark.
Asked if he was ever consulted about negotiations with Cuba, Menendez replied, “Absolutely not. I knew nothing about them.”
A Cuban-American himself, Menendez argues the Obama administration played into the hands of the Castro government without achieving any lasting reforms for the Cuban people.
“We exchanged one innocent American for three convicted Cuban spies, including one that was convicted for conspiracy to commit murder against U.S. citizens.”
“If you’re going to make a deal with the regime,” Menendez complained, “then get something for it.”
The senator argues that “10 million people in Cuba got a bad deal” while the United States exchanged “one innocent American for three convicted Cuban spies” and received “nothing in terms of democracy and human rights.”
Indicative of a greater problem, Menendez said the Obama administration’s “secret diplomacy” has kept Senate leaders from getting “straight answers” not only about Cuban but also Iranian negotiations.
He explained that these methods will make things “problematic for the administration when it appears before the committee again.”
Where are the lowest property taxes in Bergen County?
BY MICHAEL SHETLER
Real Estate Agent with Keller Williams Village Square Realty 0569304
January 07, 2015 04:59 AM
Bergen County property tax info released for 2014-15.
The state of New Jersey has just released tax rates for every municipality in the state. Before you look at the chart below, can you guess which Bergen County towns have the highest and lowest property taxes?
Ok, now you can look. If you guessed “Paramus” has the lowest, you would be partially right. While it’s eighth on the list, it qualifies as the lowest taxed borough with affordable home prices. Alpine, Saddle River, Englewood Cliffs, Rockleigh, Edgewater and Franklin Lakes all have an average list price above $1 million. (Teterboro essentially has no single family homes.) In Paramus, the average list is in the $600k range.
On the other end of the spectrum with an effective tax rate more than five times higher than Alpine’s isBogota. The general tax rate in Bogota is 3.630 and and its effective tax rate is 3.222.
What’s the difference between the two rates?
The general tax rate doesn’t take into account that your home’s assessed value is not equal to its market value. If your tax rate is high but your assessed value ratio is low, your taxes aren’t as high as you think they are – you’re not being taxed on the full value of your home!
So if you’re comparing tax rates between towns, use the effective tax rate.
The equalization ratio in the chart is simply an average of the area’s assessed value divided by the market value. The general tax rate is multiplied by the equalization ratio to get the effective tax rate. (Also see this video on comparing tax rates.)
For tax rate info on other counties in New Jersey, click here.
If you’re thinking of buying in Bergen County, call me for a consultation. I’ll give you an overview on how taxes and other factors such as quality of schools, commuting options and population density should figure into your buying decision.
Michael Shetler
Keller Williams Realty
201-421-0506 cell
201-445-4300 office
Lobster eggs Benedict at Restaurant Memoire in Ridgewood
JANUARY 11, 2015 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015, 1:21 AM
THE RECORD
* Lobster eggs Benedict offered at Memoire
Looking for a decadent breakfast that will be worth the guilt? Try the lobster eggs Benedict ($17) at Ridgewood’s Restaurant Memoire. Tom Finnelli, Memoire’s owner and executive chef, uses a Parmesan jalapeño herb biscuit instead of the traditional English muffin — the biscuit, he said, gives a spiciness and texture absent in regular eggs Benedict. He then takes meat from poached lobster knuckles and claws and places it over a poached egg that’s cooked sous-vide at a temperature of 143 degrees Fahrenheit. A chive hollandaise sauce is the finishing touch, and an arugula and blood orange salad completes the plate.
Top Ridgewood Agent Michael Shetler Closes $7 Million in 2014
Ridgewood, NJ, January 10, 2015 –(PR.com)– Michael Shetler, a top Ridgewood agent with Keller Williams Village Square Realty, completed over $7 million in real estate sales in 2014. He recorded 20 transaction sides including sales and rentals in Glen Rock, Ridgewood, Mahwah, Allendale, Upper Saddle River, Waldwick, Fair Lawn, Englewood, Teaneck and Lodi.
Michael’s real estate business focuses primarily on Bergen County, NJ. His website is BuyingInBergen.com.
Michael is an agent with Keller Williams Village Square Realty in Ridgewood, NJ. The office is the top-producing real estate office in the entire New Jersey MLS (NJMLS), with over $419 million in sales volume and 744 transactions in 2014. It’s the second consecutive year the office has been ranked number one in the NJMLS. (Based on NJMLS data.)
He has earned the NJAR® Circle of Excellence Sales Award in 2009, 2011 and 2013. In 2014 he finished in the top 7% of agents in his office, ranked by sales volume.
Michael is off to a fast start again in 2015. By the end of the first full week of January he had recorded over $2 million in sales and has more than $1,150,000 in sales under contract.
His latest deal was the sale of his listing at 137 Cortland Dr. in Saddle River Grand, Saddle River, NJ. The closing price of $2,236,250 is the highest price yet recorded by the New Jersey MLS in Saddle River Grand. This new construction ultra-luxury gated community was built by Woodmont Properties with between 4,400 to 5,800 square feet of livable space in each unit. Amenities include concierge service, pool, grand Clubroom, outdoor barbecue and exercise rooms.
A Glen Rock resident, Michael has been working as a full-time real estate agent in neighboring Ridgewood since 2005. He’s a member of the Glen Rock Business Council and The Religious Communities of Glen Rock. He’s also a volunteer with Boy Scout Troop 27.
Tax time brings sobering surprise as health care act’s penalties kick in
JANUARY 10, 2015, 11:58 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015, 12:03 AM
BY LINDY WASHBURN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
First the carrot, now the stick.
Insurance information needed for taxes
For every member of the household included on a tax return, ask:
Did you have health coverage for all of 2014? If not, was there a gap of more than three months? Did you get insurance through the federal marketplace for New Jersey, HealthCare.gov? If yes, watch for an IRS Form 1095-A, which should arrive in the mail by the end of January. It provides information about your estimated income and subsidies, which you will need to reconcile with your actual income to determine whether your subsidies were too low or too high. Those who received subsidies will need to file a Premium Tax Credit form (8962), new this year. If you did not have insurance, or had a gap in coverage longer than three months, consider whether to apply for a hardship exemption. More information, along with detailed instructions for applying for such an exemption, is available at HealthCare.gov.
Important dates
Feb. 15 is the last day to apply on the federal marketplace for New Jersey, HealthCare.gov, for coverage that starts on March 1. April 15 is the deadline for filing federal income taxes.
The Affordable Care Act rolled out last year with the promise of health coverage for those who hadn’t been able to get it before. That was the good part. Now comes the penalty phase: Those who didn’t have health coverage in 2014 will probably owe the Internal Revenue Service money this year.
As tax-filing season opens, Americans are beginning to realize that President Obama’s signature health-reform law was as much about taxes as health insurance. Experts estimate that as many as 30 million Americans — 10 percent of the population – will be affected by the changes it made in the tax code this year.
How that shakes out – how many will pay penalties or be exempted from them, how many will see their tax refunds increased or decreased by the filing day of April 15 — remains to be seen. But as ignorance and confusion give way to surprise at the law’s impact on consumers’ pocketbooks, the political repercussions could be significant.
“I’m afraid this is going to be the third strike,” said Linda Schwimmer, vice president of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute. First was the discovery, in the fall of 2013, that those who liked their current insurance coverage wouldn’t necessarily be able to keep it – despite President Obama’s promise to the contrary. Next was the debacle, during the first open-enrollment period, of HealthCare.gov’s computer problems. Now comes the collision of the health law and income taxes.
$7,500 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1445893
221 Bedford Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
4 Bedroom, 4 Full Bath, House
Pam Christian, Sales Associate
Keller Williams Village Square Realty
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 1/11
15
$425,000 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1443545
1103 E Ridgewood Ave, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
3 Bedroom, 3 Full Bath, C/C
Jane L. McGuire, Sales Associate
Coldwell Banker, Wyckoff/Franklin Lakes
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 1/11
4
$599,900 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1418339
301 Meadowbrook Ave, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
4 Bedroom, 3 Full Bath,
2 Half Bath, Col
Cathy Denis, Broker Owner
Century 21 Mainstream
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 3:00 P.M. Sun. 1/11
25
$620,000 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1430875
495 E Saddle River Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
4 Bedroom, 2 Full Bath,
1 Half Bath, Col
Michael Shetler, Sales Associate
Keller Williams Village Square Realty
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 1/11
25
$689,000 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1500888
517 Fairway Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
3 Bedroom, 1 Full Bath,
1 Half Bath, Col
Joseph M. Hurley, Sales Associate
Weichert Realtors Ridgewood
Open House: 12:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 1/11
20
$689,999 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1500062
251 Steilen Ave, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
6 Bedroom, 2 Full Bath,
1 Half Bath, S/L
Diane LoDrago, Sales Associate
Weichert Realtors, Wayne
Open House: 12:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 1/11
14
$719,000 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1445876
530 E Saddle River Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
3 Bedroom, 2 Full Bath,
1 Half Bath, S/L
Julia Pilosio, Sales Associate
Marron Gildea Realty, Inc.
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 1/11
15
$775,000 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1500505
512 Jackson Ter, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
4 Bedroom, 2 Full Bath,
1 Half Bath, S/L
Irene Palatucci, Sales Associate
Prominent Properties Sotheby’s International Realty-Ridgewood
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 1/11
23
$799,988 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1500477
631 Albert Pl, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
4 Bedroom, 2 Full Bath,
1 Half Bath, Col
Cynthia A. Meeks, Sales Associate
Keller Williams Village Square Realty
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 1/11
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 1/18
– See more at: https://www.njmls.com/NJ/BERGEN/RIDGEWOOD-open-houses#sthash.SyywpI7B.KPzOGugo.dpuf
$849,900 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1500684
560 Van Buren St, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
4 Bedroom, 2 Full Bath,
1 Half Bath, S/L
Edward Ditroia, Broker Owner
RE/MAX Elite Associates
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 1/11
25
$879,000 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1442807
442 Wastena Ter, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
3 Bedroom, 2 Full Bath,
1 Half Bath, Col
Till Horkenbach, Sales Associate
Keller Williams Village Square Realty
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 1/11
24
$1,200,000 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1442898
269 Lotte Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
6 Bedroom, 4 Full Bath,
1 Half Bath, Col
Barbara Nudelman, Broker Associate
Coldwell Banker, Ridgewood
Open House: 2:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 1/11
25
$1,295,000 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1443901
820 Morningside Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
4 Bedroom, 4 Full Bath,
1 Half Bath, Col
Mary Tarvin Passaro, Broker Associate
Tarvin Realtors
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:30 P.M. Sun. 1/11
20
$1,360,000 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1445312
221 Bedford Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
4 Bedroom, 4 Full Bath, Col
Pam Christian, Sales Associate
Keller Williams Village Square Realty
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 1/11
15
$1,595,000 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1500415
215 Beechwood Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
6 Bedroom, 3 Full Bath,
1 Half Bath, Col
Barbara Masarky, Broker Associate
Tarvin Realtors
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:30 P.M. Sun. 1/11
25
Open Houses for Sun 1/18
$799,988 in Ridgewood
MLS # 1500477
631 Albert Pl, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
4 Bedroom, 2 Full Bath,
1 Half Bath, Col
Cynthia A. Meeks, Sales Associate
Keller Williams Village Square Realty
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 1/11
Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 1/18
– See more at: https://www.njmls.com/NJ/BERGEN/RIDGEWOOD-open-houses#sthash.SyywpI7B.KPzOGugo.dpuf
Violence fuels debate among Muslims over interpreting faith
Jan 10, 2:17 PM (ET)
By LEE KEATH
CAIRO (AP) — After gunmen in Paris killed 12 people, Saudi Arabia’s top body of Muslim clerics quickly condemned the attack and said it could have no acceptable justification. It was a signal from some of the Islamic world’s strictest voices that cartoons lampooning the Prophet Muhammad in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were not a reason to kill the artists.
Only days later, Saudi Arabia sent an opposing message: On Friday, a young Saudi was whipped 50 times in a public square in the city of Jiddah, the first of what will be 20 such weekly rounds of lashes. That, along with 10 years in prison, is his sentence from the kingdom’s religious-based courts for insulting Islam, based on posts on his blog criticizing prominent clerics close to the monarchy.
The contradiction points to the difficulties at a time of a growing debate within Islam about whether and how to reject a radical minority that some fear is dragging them into conflict and wrecking the faith.
Western critics are increasingly brazen about suggesting there is something inherent in Islam that is sparking violence by some of its adherents. Most Muslims reject this, arguing that the tumult of the post-colonial Middle East has created fertile ground for radicalism among people whose faith is fundamentally one of peace.
Nonetheless, the past year has seen increasing voices among Muslims saying their community must re-examine their faith to modernize its interpretations and sideline extremists. As much as recent attacks in the West, the rise of startlingly vicious violence by Sunni Muslim militants in the name of Islam against fellow Muslims, including Sunnis, brought it home for many Muslims that something must change in religious discourse.
In Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State group has butchered entire families of Sunnis and beheaded Sunni soldiers, as well as Western hostages. In Pakistan, a Dec. 16 militant attack on a school that killed 150 people, mostly children, stunned the country. It made many Pakistanis question any empathy they felt in the past toward militant groups — the attitude of “even if they’re wrong, they’re still fellow Muslims.”
“Now I hear more people talking openly against extremism and militancy,” said Hasan-Askari Rizvi, an independent political analyst in Pakistan.
‘Every single French Jew I know has left Paris’: Editor of Britain’s Jewish Chronicle claims people are fleeing terror-hit French capital
Stephen Pollard says terror attack on Kosher store in Paris is no ‘fluke’ ‘Every single French Jew I know has either left or is actively working out how to leave’, he said Experts believe that more than 100,000 French Jews have left since 2013 France’s Chief Rabbi has said after a number of attacks on Jews in the past year: ‘Jews murdered were targeted specifically because they were Jewish’ Policing stepped up across British Jewish areas, community body says Mayor’s office has announced closure of shops in famous Jewish area
By Martin Robinson for MailOnline and James White for MailOnline
Published: 11:22 EST, 9 January 2015 | Updated: 15:02 EST, 9 January 2015
Jews are fleeing terror-hit Paris because of growing anti-Semitism in France, one of Britain’s most influential Jewish journalists said today.
Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle, spoke out after an Islamic terrorist took six people hostage and held them captive in a Kosher supermarket in the French capital.
This afternoon police ordered all shops in a famous Jewish neighborhood in central Paris to close.
The mayor’s office in Paris announced the closure of shops along the Rosiers street in Paris’ Marais neighborhood, in the heart of the tourist district and less than a mile away from the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo where 12 people were killed on Wednesday.
Hours before the Jewish Sabbath, the street is usually crowded with French Jews and tourists alike.
Mr Pollard said today’s terror attack in Paris, linked to the massacre at the office of Charlie Hebdo, will force more French Jews to flee the country.
How France Legitimizes Violent Responses to Offensive Speech
Jacob Sullum|Jan. 8, 2015 12:08 pm
Nine years before three gunmen executed 10 people at the offices of Charlie Hebdo for the crime of insulting Islam, two Muslim organizations tried to imprison the editor of the satirical French weekly for the crime of insulting Islam. Although Charlie Hebdo won that case, the fact that it was possible illustrates how French law legitimizes the grievances underlying yesterday’s barbaric attack by endorsing the illiberal idea that people have a right not to be offended.
The Paris Grand Mosque and the Union of French Islamic Organizations sued Charlie Hebdo and its editor at the time, Philippe Val, over its 2006 publication of three cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, including two that had appeared in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten the previous year. One of the Jyllands-Posten cartoons showed Muhammad in heaven, telling a line of arriving suicide bombers, “Stop, stop, we ran out of virgins!” The other depicted Muhammad with a turban in the shape of a bomb. The third cartoon was a cover illustration labeled “Muhammad Overwhelmed by Fundamentalists” that showed an anguished prophet with his hands to his face, saying, “It’s hard being loved by assholes.”
The complaining organizations argued that all three cartoons violated French law, which makes insulting people based on their religion a crime punishable by a fine of €22,500 and six months in jail. In March 2007 a Paris judge, Jean-Claude Magendie, concluded that two of the cartoons targeted radical Islamists, as opposed to Muslims in general. He said the third cartoon, the one with Muhammad wearing a turban-bomb, did qualify as an attack on Muslims in general. But because Val had published it in response to an earlier controversy over its appearance in Jyllands-Posten, Magendie ruled, he lacked the requisite intent to insult. An appeals court upheld the decision, although it concluded that none of the cartoons amounted to an attack based on religion.
The economy added 252,000 jobs in December, down from 353,000 in November. With GDP growth slowing, prospects for jobless Americans are worsening.
The unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent, but only because so many working age Americans quit looking for work and are no longer counted in the official jobless tally. If the same percentage of adults were in the labor force today as when Presidents Obama took office, the jobless rate would be about 9.9 percent
The Administration alibis Baby Boom retirements are driving down adult participation. However, nearly one in six men between ages 25 and 54 — too old for college and too young to retire — are jobless. Many are simply sitting at home watching ESPN, playing video games and relying on relatives, friends and government benefits for support.
The Obama recovery has managed only 2.3 percent GDP annual growth, and the economy has added only 6.4 million new jobs on his watch. Whereas during the Reagan recovery, the pace of economic growth was 4.8 percent, and 9.5 million jobs were added through the end of his sixth year.
America has not lost its capacity to innovate and create new products and industries but in a globalized economy, poor government policies block Americans from playing their strengths.
The nation still enjoys strong comparative advantages in manufacturing, but President Obama refuses to confront China, Japan and Germany about exchange rate and monetary policies that purposefully undervalue their currencies and artificially underprice their exports. And now it seems the president is intent on jamming through congress new free trade agreements that would further open U.S. markets to foreign competition, while countenancing continued currency manipulation and mercantilism abroad.
Restrictions on offshore drilling and onshore pipeline construction continue unnecessary U.S. dependence on foreign oil, divert billions of consumer dollars abroad and rob Americans of millions of jobs.
The cost of hiring workers is greatly increased by Obamacare health insurance mandates, minimum wages above the federal standard in 29 states and needlessly cumbersome business regulations. Along with threats of government-inspired litigation, those accelerate automation.
Amazon recently purchased Kiva Systems, which makes robots that will permit it to eliminate thousands of jobs at its fulfillment warehouses. Those systems are already at retailers including Crate and Barrel and Gap.
Administration polices have encouraged monopolization in key industries that are major contributors to the Democratic machine — greatly slowing growth and jobs creation.
Dodd-Frank lending regulations have proven too costly for smaller banks, and many have sold out to larger banks. Deposits are even more concentrated among “too big to fail” Wall Street banks, who often are not much interested in lending to Main Street businesses and homebuyers.
Cable companies enjoy considerable freedom to raise Internet and TV rates, and have taken the profits to acquire media companies and other businesses instead of enhancing service. For example, Comcast, whose CEO often hosts Obama fundraisers, has used monopoly profits from high cable rates to purchase NBC, where it underwrites political activists like Al Sharpton, instead of investing in systems that could raise Internet speeds and support more web-based businesses.
Major airlines, which are well represented in Washington, have consolidated to individually lock up many inter-city routes. Instead of passing along lower fuel prices by trimming ticket prices and adding flights, airline shareholders and employees are feasting on windfall gains. American Airlines is urging its pilots to accept a union contract that raises pay more than 20 percent — more than arbitrators awarded.
Obama’s lax immigration enforcement and amnesty are increasing competition for jobs. A study by the Center for Immigration Studies, released last June, found foreign born workers are taking the lion share of new jobs, especially those going to prime working age adults between the ages of 16 and 65.
Those forces combine to push down wages. Average family income, adjusted for inflation, has fallen from about $57,000 in 2000 to $52,000.
Peter Morici is an economist and business professor at the University of Maryland, and a national columnist. He tweets @pmorici1
RHS New Players Company Puts on New Players in Concert January 15-18
Show Times: Thursday at 7 p.m.; Friday – Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 7 p.m.
Tickets and more information on the show are available at www.rhsnewplayers.com.
Click here for the flyer with information on times and tickets.
Click here to view the 2014-2015 season program. Click here to go to the New Players website donation section.
Angelo DeSimone former Ridgewood superintendent of business to become Elmwood Park schools new fiscal monitor
January 10, 2015 Last updated: Saturday, January 10, 2015, 1:21 AM
By CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER |
The Record
ELMWOOD PARK — The state has appointed a new monitor to oversee the school district’s finances, the superintendent of schools said Friday.
Angelo DeSimone, who has been the state monitor in Garfield since 2013, has taken over in Elmwood Park from Thomas Egan.
The superintendent of schools, Richard Tomko, said Friday that DeSimone will be working about 30 hours a week in the district; Egan put in close to 40 hours.
Egan, the former business administrator in Bergenfield, was installed in early 2013 to manage the school district’s finances after two consecutive yearly budget deficits.
Egan served in his role in Elmwood Park for two years.
Courtesy of Dom
DeSimone’s appointment runs for one year. Elmwood Park’s school board voted to accept his appointment at its meeting Tuesday night.
DeSimone will have final say in all purchasing decisions, can overrule the school board and is allowed to attend executive session meetings when financial matters are to be discussed.
DeSimone retired in 2012 after working for eight years as the Ridgewood school district’s superintendent of business.
While DeSimone will answer to Education Commissioner David Hespe, the district is required to pay his $96-an-hour wage and cover his business-related expenses.
In the spring of 2013, the district received $2.2 million in advance aid from the state to eradicate its budget deficit. As a result, Elmwood Park will receive reduced state aid funding over the next eight years.
Total district expenditures during the fiscal years 2011 and 2012 were $32.5 million and $34.6 million, respectively, according to the state’s audit.
According to state law, school districts can only receive advance state aid if a state monitor is in place.
Sean Lowe Tuesday, January 27th @ 6:00pm
Star of The Bachelor, Sean Lowe, will sign his new book:
For The Right Reasons
Marky Ramone Wednesday, January 28th @ 7:00pm
Drummer from the group The Ramone’s, Marky Ramone, will sign his new book:Punk Rock Blitzkrieg
Appearing authors will only autograph books purchased at Bookends and must have valid Bookends Receipt.
Availability & pricing for all autographed books subject to change.
First In Line Certificate use is the the discretion of Bookends. Blackout dates may apply.
Bookends cannot guarantee that the books that are Autographed will always be First Printings.
Autographed books purchased at Bookends are non-returnable.
While we try to ensure that all customers coming to Bookends’ signings will meet authors and get their books signed, we cannot guarantee that all attendees will meet the author or that all books will be signed. We cannot control inclement weather, author travel schedules or authors who leave prematurely.
Bookends, 211 E. Ridgewood Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 201-445-0726
You mean the plan to “tax the rich” to fund the NJ economy and redistribute the wealth didn’t work?
How can that be?
It was such a good, well thought out, logical plan
Oh well, let’s try the same plan again – it will surely work next time.
Some time around the very birth of this blog , I sat in a local kitchen and across from me sat among other people Tom Keen Jr who at the time was considering a run for Governor.
I carefully laid out my concerns about what would happen to the North Jersey economy ,specifically Bergen County if the “Wall Street ” job engine would slow down or stop . I explained all those Wall Street salaries went to went to pay the very high taxes, rents and utilities as well as the effect of the enormous disposable income that was spent in shopping malls etc..
Tom looked across the table at me and said , “We are working on banning smoking in bars and restaurants” and I knew then that our representatives in Trenton have absolutely no clue what so ever as to what they are doing or even the most rudimentary understanding of economics .
Years later a certain leader of the “turf field”proponents,lets just call him Captain Jack used to say OFTEN that ,” if you can’t afford the high taxes you do not belong here ” and he would go on to claim that the high taxes actually caused the increase in property values. Funny how he left town be for the bill came do for the turf field he supported .
And that my friends is how the golden goose was killed with little fan fare and thus the mess we now find our selves in .
Reader says , “What will really hit the New York metro area is the rapid advancements in technology and communications, which will make it gradually unnecessary to have have “Wall St” and all it’s associated industries in law, accounting, etc., physically located in NY/NJ. This is a massive driver in terms of real estate, employment, and tax revenues for the tri-state area. The basic laws of supply and demand will eventually see this industry scatter. You might think your lifestyle and job is totally unconnected to Wall St, but you would be wrong.”
Ridgewood’s parking changes neglect certain employees
JANUARY 9, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 2015, 9:55 AM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Parking changes neglect workers
To The Editor:
Once again, Ridgewood has missed the mark with the new parking changes.
An important element of downtown shopping has been neglected. Many of the employees of downtown businesses are part-time. The monthly, unlimited fee does not work for someone who may work only a couple of short shifts a week. This is not uncommon for many of the retail businesses in town.
How does an hourly worker park for six hours legally? They run out every three hours to move their car? The very same people that made use of the 12-hour lots on the periphery of downtown will be parking in premium spots since there is no incentive for them to park farther away. They still have to move their car and there is no savings afforded them by using the lots.
I see all sides of this having been a resident of Ridgewood for 30-plus years and a merchant for 26 years. Unless the intention of the village is to penalize and ticket the workers that staff our businesses, I’m going to call the changes another failure to meet the needs of downtown Ridgewood.
