Posted on Leave a comment

So Much for the War on Women : Women’s Political Caucus of NJ backs Donovan in Bergen

1969385_10153496936045942_6433618819169583068_n

So Much for the War on Women : Women’s Political Caucus of NJ backs Donovan in Bergen
By Max Pizarro | 10/23/14 8:39am

The Women’s Political Caucus of New Jersey (WPCNJ) this morning announced its endorsement of Kathe Donovan for Bergen County Executive.

Jennie Lamon-Mullen, Chair of the WPCNJ Republican Task Force, said, “Kathe Donovan, BergenCounty’s and New Jersey’s first and only elected woman County Executive, is an outstanding leader for the people of New Jersey. She has dedicated her career to public service and advancing issues important to women, children and families.  In 2011, WPCNJ honored Donovan with the Barbara Boggs Sigmund award for the inspiring example she has set as a public leader.”

Running for re-election to a second term as county executive, Donovan served as a part-time public defender in her hometown of Lyndhurst from 1982 to 1998. From 1986 to 1988, she represented the 36th Legislative District in the General Assembly. In 1988, Donovan was the first woman elected Bergen County Clerk.  In 1994, Donovan was appointed by then Governor Christine Todd Whitman as a member of the Board of Commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where she also served as Chairwoman until 2002. And in 2010, she was elected as Bergen County Executive: the first woman in the history of New Jersey to be elected to this position.

“Women’s issues range from fair pay, to access to contraception and health care, and continue to be crucial issues not just for women, but for the families of New Jersey. Despite making up 51% of the population, women are continually underrepresented in New Jersey politics. In fact, Governor Christine Todd Whitman is the only woman to have served as the state’s chief executive in the state’s history. Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno’s election in 2009 marked another important turning point towards increased representation. However, progress remains slow, currently women make up just 30% of the New Jersey Legislature and hold none of the state’s 12 Congressional or 2 Senate seats. That is why it is more important than ever to endorse and support women like Kathe Donovan,” said Michel M. Bitritto, WPCNJ President.

https://politickernj.com/2014/10/womens-political-caucus-of-nj-backs-donovan-in-bergen/

Posted on Leave a comment

Branson’s ambitious space-travel project plagued by problems and delays

imgres-3

Branson’s ambitious space-travel project plagued by problems and delays

Founder of Virgin Galactic believed in 2004 that commercial space travel was just three years away but string of failures has plunged future into doubt

It launched amid much fanfare, but Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic commercial space-travel programme has been plagued with problems and delays. After a string of failures, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield last year said that the difficulties of aerospace engineering meant it was inevitable that at some point a Virgin Galactic craft would crash.

The first test ship, SpaceShipOne, had been filled with “single-point failures”. “There were things you probably would’ve done differently if you’re going to carry Angelina Jolie,” Virgin Galactic engineer Matt Stinemetze said in aninterview with Wired magazine in March 2013. “If one bolt falls off and you die, that’s a single point of failure.”

By 2004, Branson thought Virgin Galactic was three years away from launching people into space and opened a reservations website, which crashed because of the amount of interest. But three years later the programme was delayed after the detonation of a tank of nitrous oxide destroyed a test stand, killing three people and seriously injuring three others. In 2011, the newly designed test ship, SpaceShipTwo, malfunctioned during re-entry, though its pilots managed to correct the problem.

Virgin Galactic’s future was again in doubt last year, when it threatened to pull support from a publicly financed $209m (£130m) spaceport in southern New Mexico because of a dispute over liability. Critics accused the former governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, of jumping onto the deal without safeguards for the public investment. “Virgin has all the power in this arrangement. We don’t see it as a wise investment,” said Paul Gessing of the conservative-leaning Rio Grande Foundation.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/31/branson-virgin-galactic-space-travel-failures

Posted on 1 Comment

Ridgewood Native involved with website aiming to ax Jets GM

imgres-19

Ridgewood Native involved with website aiming to ax Jets GM

FireJohnIdzik.com sprouts up, aiming to ax Jets GM

John Idzik’s lack of spending has inspired some Jets fans to push for his dismissal.

It’s never more obvious a fanbase is officially angery at you than the creation of a website whose sole purpose is to see someone collecting unemployment.

The webite FireJohnIdzik.com, whose domain name leaves little to the imagination is calling for owner Woody Johnson to fire Jets general manager John Idzik. Founded by lifelong Jets fans Matt Wolferman of Ridgewood, New Jersey, Jason Koeppel of Hackensack, New Jersey, Jared Koeppel of Fair Lawn, New Jersey and Greg Kohler from Seattle, Washington, the site blames the woes of the 1-7 Jets squarely on Idzik.

“The press conference [Monday] obviously was the straw that broke the camel’s back but to be honest, the manner in which he was hired in the first place was ridiculous,” Jason Koeppel told Metro. “Nobody wanted to take this GM job because it came with the previous GM’s head coach attached to it. And Woody had to hire a consulting firm just to find us a ‘qualified candidate.'”

https://www.metro.us/new-york/firejohnidzik-com-sprouts-up-aiming-to-ax-jets-gm/zsJnjD—0PYP78cUdCog/

Posted on Leave a comment

November 4th Election – Weekend Information on Voting

imgres-18

November 4th Election – Weekend Information on Voting

The General Election will be held on November 4, 2014 and the polls will be open from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. in your usual polling locations.

Those who cannot make it to the polling place on November 4, 2014 may use the Vote by Mail option by going to One Bergen County Plaza, 1st Floor, Room 130, Hackensack, NJ during the following dates and times: Saturday, November 1st – 9:00a.m. to 2:00p.m.; Sunday, November 2nd – 10:00a.m. to 2:00p.m.; and Monday, November 3rd – 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Posted on Leave a comment

UPDATE : C-SPAN Forced to Remove Booker vs Bell Debate

1489244_1514743952098061_3045672047809927118_n

UPDATE : C-SPAN Forced to Remove Booker vs Bell Debate

Bell Calls for Action

Shameful. Let’s fight back!
Share this message.
Call the Call for Action line – 1-866-978-4232.
Post your outrage on ABC’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/abc
Post your outrage on ABC’s web site – https://abc.go.com/feedback – Abc News… See More
Shameful. Let’s fight back!

Share this message.

Call the Call for Action line – 1-866-978-4232.

Post your outrage on ABC’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/abc

Post your outrage on ABC’s web site – https://abc.go.com/feedback – Abc News Specials

Post your outrage to ABC NEWS web site –

https://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3271346&cat=ABC+News+Other

Contact the Media Research center and get them involved – https://www.mrc.org/contact

Reach out to Ann Sweeney

Anne Sweeney, President
Disney-ABC Television Group
47 W. 66th St.
New York, NY 10023-6290

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Ellie Stockwell (Anne Sweeney’s assistant) – [email protected]

Call ABC News – 212-456-7777 A live person answers somewhere in the news division
Ask for news desk or assignment desk. Tell them you’re concerned that ABC pulled the Bell-Booker debate off the internet and is trying to keep information away from the public.

Contact Natalia Labenskyj, Publicity Manager-ABC News Now
(212) 456-4396 – [email protected]

On Wednesday, WPVI (Philadelphia’s ABC affiliate Channel 6) ordered C-Span to remove New Jersey’s only 2014 U. S. Senate debate from the C-Span website. Since Channel 6 is not offering the debate for viewing on its own website, this means that the only debate between Senator Cory Booker and Jeff Bell is no longer available online to the voters who will decide this election next Tuesday.

SHAMEFUL! Please investigate and report on this!

https://bell2014.com/2014/10/31/wpvi-preventing-voters-from-watching-bell-vs-booker-debate/

Posted on Leave a comment

WPVI Preventing Voters from Watching Bell vs. Booker Debate

628x471-1-300x171

WPVI covering for Cory Booker?

WPVI Preventing Voters from Watching Bell vs. Booker Debate

October 31, 2014

New Jersey Republican U.S. Senate nominee Jeff Bell on Friday issued a response to WPVI’s decision to remove the 2014 U.S. Senate debate from further viewing.

Bell said:

“On Wednesday, WPVI (Philadelphia’s ABC affiliate Channel 6) ordered C-Span to remove New Jersey’s only 2014 U. S. Senate debate from the C-Span website. Since Channel 6 is not offering the debate for viewing on its own website, this means that the only debate between Senator Cory Booker and me is no longer available online to the voters who will decide this election next Tuesday. This is a decision by a major news organization to suppress a program that the very same news organization, itself the main media sponsor of the debate, has described as an essential service to the public.

“I commend C-Span for televising the debate five times in the last four days, and regret the decision of the debate’s producer, Channel 6, to deny a similar opportunity to its own viewers and to the voters of our state.”

Posted on Leave a comment

Auto crashes that damage cemeteries create a special set of problems

DSCF8179

file photo Boyd Loving

Auto crashes that damage cemeteries create a special set of problems

OCTOBER 30, 2014, 5:49 PM    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2014, 8:11 PM
BY JAY LEVIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

Auto accidents causing property damage can certainly be irritating or worse. But when the property is a gravestone, special complications arise.

Twice this month, cars crashed into Bergen County cemeteries, striking monuments dating back many decades. Some of the stones are so old that it will be impossible to locate family. It is the responsibility of the family, not the cemetery, to maintain gravestones.

TARIQ ZEHAWI/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A BMW sitting in St. Joseph Cemetery in Hackensack after crashing through the fence on Oct. 9. The crash damaged several tombstones.
AMY NEWMAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Guy Kostka, superintendent at Valleau Cemetery in Ridgewood, shows the damage a number of gravestones sustained during a recent car accident.

The more recent accident, in Ridgewood on Oct. 23, caused the greater damage.

A Subaru wagon driven by a 17-year-old boy fishtailed on wet pavement on East Glen Avenue and careened into the unfenced Valleau Cemetery, owned by the Old Paramus Reformed Church. The boy, who was not injured and not cited, may have hit the accelerator instead of the brake, according to the police crash investigation report.

Ten graves along a path more than 100 feet long were damaged, cemetery superintendent Guy Kostka said.

The tiny stone of Anna Pratt, who lived just 30 days in 1907, was broken. The marker of a woman who died in 1970 was flung 30 feet. Parts were sheared off the monument of Catharina Vermeulen, who was born in 1849 and died in 1915.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/auto-crashes-that-damage-cemeteries-create-a-special-set-of-problems-1.1123191

Posted on 3 Comments

Support for Bernadette Walsh for Bergen County Freeholder

unnamed-71

Freeholder Candidate Bernie Walsh with Rep Scott Garrett

Support for Bernadette Walsh for Bergen County Freeholder

October 31, 2014    Last updated: Friday, October 31, 2014, 12:31 AM
The Ridgewood News
Print

Support for Bernadette Walsh

William M. Corcoran

To the Editor:

Like many of you, I have watched the political career of Ridgewood’s own Bernadette Walsh blossom. She served the Ridgewood Council with distinction. Her no nonsense style and friendly demeanor has made her firm yet approachable. Her decisions on the council were always backed with fact and thoughtfulness. We now have the opportunity to have her advocate for Ridgewood once again by helping elect her to the Bergen County Freeholder Board.

https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-letters-to-the-editor/letter-support-for-bernadette-walsh-for-bergen-county-freeholder-1.1123441

Posted on 18 Comments

Director of Ridgewood’s dispatch center resigns

Utility_Pole3_Crash_the-ridgewood-blog.net_-300x225

file photo Boyd Loving

Director of Ridgewood’s dispatch center resigns

OCTOBER 31, 2014, 5:29 PM    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2014, 10:41 PM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

Jack Tancos, the director of Ridgewood’s Northwest Bergen Central Dispatch since 2008, has tendered his resignation.

Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn confirmed receiving Tancos’ letter Thursday.

Tancos will remain in his current role through Dec. 5, when he will reassume his role as a public safety dispatcher.

“We are grateful for his years of service in the Center which spans over twenty years,” said Roberta Sonenfeld, Ridgewood’s Village Manager, in a statement.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/director-of-ridgewood-s-dispatch-center-resigns-1.1124250

Posted on Leave a comment

This Cant Be ? NBC Nightly News Broadcasts Critical Story About Common Core

600

Hell froze over

This Cant Be ? NBC Nightly News Broadcasts Critical Story About Common Core

By P.J. Gladnick | October 29, 2014 | 11:27 PM EDT

Until recently the mainstream media has portrayed the opponents of Common Core to be just a bunch of conservative yahoos incapable of understanding what a wonderful education program it is. However that might now be changing. Last night, NBC Nightly News surprisingly broadcast a segment highly critical of Common Core.

The segment showed just how confusing and lacking in common sense common core is. Although it portrayed teachers as mostly satisfied with the program while parents were distressed, it is hard to imagine any how any sane person can see the utility of Common Core which as you will see reaches simple solutions via a series of confusing steps. The video showing a simple subtraction problem is below but be warned: just watching the absolutely unnecessary Common Core multi-step complexity added to it can give the viewer a throbbing headache:

– See more at: https://newsbusters.org/blogs/pj-gladnick/2014/10/29/nbc-nightly-news-broadcasts-critical-story-about-common-core#sthash.88A8r19O.dpuf

Posted on Leave a comment

Some doctors wary of taking insurance exchange patients

1379441947-obamacare3-300x2772

Some doctors wary of taking insurance exchange patients

Now that many people finally have health insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchanges, some are running into a new problem: They can’t find a doctor who will take them as patients.

Because these exchange plans often have lower reimbursement rates, some doctors are limiting how many new patients they take with these policies, physician groups and other experts say.

“The exchanges have become very much like Medicaid,” says Andrew Kleinman, a plastic surgeon and president of the Medical Society of the State of New York. “Physicians who are in solo practices have to be careful to not take too many patients reimbursed at lower rates or they’re not going to be in business very long.”

Kleinman says his members complain rates can be 50% lower than commercial plans. Cigna and Aetna, however, say they pay doctors the same whether the plan is sold on an ACA network or not. United Healthcare spokeswoman Tracey Lempner says it’s up to their physicians whether they want to be in the exchange plan networks, which have “rates that are above Medicaid.” Medicaid rates are typically below those for Medicare, which in turn are generally lower than commercial insurance plans.To prevent discrimination against ACA policyholders, some insurance contracts require doctors to accept their exchange-plan patients along with those on commercial plans unless the doctors’ practices are so full they simply can’t treat any more people. But lower reimbursement rates make some physicians reluctant to sign on to some of these plans or accept too many of the patients once they are in the plans.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/27/insurers-aca-exchange-plans-lower-reimbursements-doctors/17747839/

Posted on Leave a comment

Keynesians Are In Hysterics Because Their Funny-Money Experiment Is Coming To An End

money-printing-press

Keynesians Are In Hysterics Because Their Funny-Money Experiment Is Coming To An End\

At the Washington Post’s “Wonkblog,” Matt O’Brien wrote a typical sort of hysterical screed about the gold standard system – the system that the United States used for nearly two centuries, until 1971. During that time, the country went from a handful of rebellious subsistence farmers, worn down by over a decade of war, hyperinflation and unstable government, to the most successful and wealthiest country in the world.

Think about that.

Now, let’s see what O’Brien wrote:

“When it comes to crackpot economic ideas, the gold standard is, well, the gold standard.

It’s a barbarous relic that has nothing to recommend it today. Pegging the dollar to the price of gold, you see, is just a doomsday device for turning recessions into depressions.”

To me, even without getting into any details, this smacks of a certain lack of connection with any fact of reality or history. You just don’t become the most successful country of the last two centuries with a “crackpot” monetary system that is a “doomsday device.”

The last twenty years of the U.S.’s gold standard era – the Bretton Woods years when the dollar was worth 1/35th of an ounce of gold – were times of prosperity and abundance, especially for the U.S. middle class. The gold standard era didn’t end in 1971 because it was producing bad results, and people decided it was time to find something better. It ended because those responsible for maintaining it were idiots.

I would even say that those years, the 1950s and 1960s, were the best of the last century, 1914-2014.

If the gold standard system is so horrible, then how did that happen?

Since 1971, even by the U.S. government’s falsely sunny statistics, the U.S. “real” median full-time male income has gone nowhere.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanlewis/2014/10/30/the-keynesians-are-in-hysterics-because-their-funny-money-experiment-is-coming-to-an-end/

Posted on Leave a comment

Obama’s Midterm Loss Record Could Make History

120503_Exp_Scream-EX.jpg.CROP.rectangle3-large

Obama’s Midterm Loss Record Could Make History

By Stuart Rothenberg Posted at 4:12 p.m. on Oct. 30

President Barack Obama is about to do what no president has done in the past 50 years: Have two horrible, terrible, awful midterm elections in a row.

In fact, Obama is likely to have the worst midterm numbers of any two-term president going back to Democrat Harry S. Truman.

Truman lost a total of 83 House seats during his two midterms (55 seats in 1946 and 28 seats in 1950), while Republican Dwight Eisenhower lost a combined 66 House seats in the 1954 and 1958 midterms.

Obama had one midterm where his party lost 63 House seats, and Democrats are expected to lose another 5 to possibly 12 House seats (or more), taking the sitting president’s total midterm House loses to the 68 seat to 75 seat range.

https://www3.blogs.rollcall.com/rothenblog/obama-poised-to-set-new-midterm-loss-record/

Posted on 1 Comment

Reader says School shootings are far less likely than being Struck by Lightning

steven-b2

Barry Stevens [email protected]

Reader says School shootings are far less likely than being Struck by Lightning  

“The National School Safety Center, a good source of statistics, started collecting data on K-12 violence in the 1992-93 school year. During the first five years, from 1992-93 to 1996-97, there were 26.8 gun murders per year on K-12 and university school property. In contrast, during the last five school years, 2009-10 to 2013-14, the average was 12 – a 55 percent drop.

There have obviously been ups and downs from year to year since large school shootings are rare, but the five-year averages have shown a consistent drop in gun deaths. Even including the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, that is the trend.

With 77 million Americans between the ages of 5 and 22, that implies a school murder rate of 0.008 per 100,000 people in the 2013-14 school year, well less than 1 percent of the overall murder rate.”

Shootings are rare and statistically insignificant. Focus on real problems and stop wasting resources on an event FAR LESS LIKELY THAN BEING STRUCK BY LIGHTNING

School shootings are still non-existent in a statistical sense. They are extremely rare. We are investing resources to stop a non-existent problem instead of focusing on real issues that threaten the health of our children. Things that are much more likely to harm a child:
–Car accidents
–Suicide
–Gun accidents at home
–Obesity
–Sexual assault from classmates

Lets focus resources on real problems instead of worrying about things that statistically do not even exist.

Posted on 3 Comments

MAYOR’S OFFICE HOURS FOR RESIDENTS

10491068_732757250120644_2230879092741411271_n

MAYOR’S OFFICE HOURS FOR RESIDENTS

This Saturday, November 1 from 9 AM to Noon


Mayor Paul Aronsohn holds office hours for Ridgewood residents the first Saturday of every month. Mayor Aronsohn will meet with residents on Saturday, November 1 from 9AM to Noon in the Council Chambers (Sydney V. Stoldt, Jr. Court Room) on the fourth floor of Ridgewood Village Hall. 

For an appointment to meet with the Mayor, please call the Village Clerk’s Office at 201-670-5500 ext. 206. You may come to the Mayor’s office hours without an appointment, but those with appointments will be given priority.