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Chef/owner John Halligan of Park Steakhouse and Park West Tavern on how parents don’t feed their kids healthy food

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Chef/owner John Halligan of Park Steakhouse and Park West Tavern on how parents don’t feed their kids healthy food

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014    LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2014, 1:21 AM
THE RECORD

John Halligan

Park Steakhouse, Park Ridge

Park West Tavern, Ridgewood

After working at a slew of high-end hotels in New York City and Los Angeles, John Halligan, who grew up in Hillsdale, moved back to New Jersey – River Vale – and, 11 years ago, opened Park Steakhouse in Park Ridge.

“It is something I thought the neighborhood needed,” Halligan says. “I’m a big meat eater.”

Three years ago, the Culinary Institute of America grad opened Park West Tavern in Ridgewood. The “corporate” chef for both restaurants (he has chefs de cuisine at each) is now poised to open Park West Loft, a special-events venue and banquet above the Tavern.

Most challenging dish: Roasted suckling pig with crispy skin at Park Steakhouse. It is a very difficult dish to prepare. Very complex. We confit it, press it, braise it. It takes two to three days [$29].

Dish I’m most proud of: Our steaks. We age them all here for 21 days.

Most essential kitchen tool: Vitamix blender. I use it for everything — stocks, purées, sauces.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/chef-owner-john-halligan-of-park-steakhouse-and-park-west-tavern-on-how-parents-don-t-feed-their-kids-healthy-food-1.1089515#sthash.kPaptK6K.dpuf

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RHS Latin Students Excel at National Junior Classical League Convention

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time for a toga party

RHS Latin Students Excel at National Junior Classical League Convention
September 15th ,2014

RHS Latin Teacher Catherine Venturini has reported Ridgewood’s outstanding results at the National Junior Classical League (NJCL) Convention this summer. Fourteen Ridgewood High School (RHS) Latin students attended the convention at Emory University in Atlanta, where they participated in individual academic, artistic and athletic competitions against the best and brightest Latin students in the United States.

The RHS Advanced Latin Quiz Bowl team, current state champions, advanced to the national semi-finals for the first time in Ridgewood’s competition history, narrowly edging Wisconsin out of a position they had held for several years and earning the distinction of representing New Jersey in the national tournament. Ridgewood team Captain Britta Potter and her teammates, Charlotte Kahan, Peter Psathas and Anthony Tokarz, finished in eighth place, raising the advanced team’s national ranking from thirteenth place last year. Of special note, RHS dominated the essay category, which was written in English on a classical theme.

Click here for the press release and full results.

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Bergen County Executive Donovan demands that utility board members repay stipends

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County Executive Donovan and BCC President Dr. B. Kaye Walter Meet and Greet Students at Bergen Community College’s first day of the new semester.

Bergen County Executive Donovan demands that utility board members repay stipends

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014, 9:23 PM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014, 9:23 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan demanded on Tuesday that five members of a utility board repay stipends and benefits they collected despite her repeated attempts to veto the compensation.

She formally asked for the repayment in hand-delivered letters sent to five commissioners of the Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority, which oversees a sewer system for 11 Bergen County towns.

Her staff calculated that the $5,000-a-year stipend amounts to $13,500 per commissioner over the nearly three-year period in which the payments were in dispute.

Donovan also asked the entire nine-member board — including the commissioners she appointed who did not accept compensation — to pass a resolution demanding that the money be returned to the authority.

“I strongly urge the NBCUA commissioners, after several years of receiving illegal benefits to do the right thing now: pass the appropriate resolution; and return the stipends and benefits they wrongfully paid themselves,” she wrote.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen-county-executive-donovan-demands-that-utility-board-members-repay-stipends-1.1089318

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Reader asks Why would someone leave a Manhattan 1 bedroom for a Ridgewood 1 bedroom?

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Reader asks Why would someone leave a Manhattan 1 bedroom for a Ridgewood 1 bedroom?

Why would someone leave a Manhattan 1 bedroom for a Ridgewood 1 bedroom? It would add an hour commute, Manhattan is just as safe, and the public schools in Manhattan are, in many cases, better. The reality is different from your view.

https://downtownridgewood.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/RidgewodRumorVsReality.pdf
The enclave:
2 Bedrooms / 2 Baths
1000 sq. ft.
Monthly rent: Monthly rent: $3000

It costs me less than that to own a 4br home in the Ridge school area with a 15 yr 5% mortage.
You’d have to be a moron to pay 3k for rent.

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Ten Reasons to Welcome The Master Plan Amendment (With questions and rebuttals)

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Ten Reasons to Welcome The Master Plan Amendment (With questions and rebuttals)

•Additional housing choices will retain residents who outgrow their homes (But your study says that owning a $550,000 house costs about the same. Is this place for families that are downsizing or upsizing?)

•The proposed developments create lesser traffic than any other development option (Please cite specific references and back your claim up with actual data)

•Minimal additional school children (Really? I believe that this comes from yet another less-than-believable “study” funded by the applicant. Please we all just sat through 7 years of Valley “studies” and we’ve kind of had it)

•Height and mass would be the same if commercial use (But commercial buildings don’t house as many people with cars and school children as your proposed building does.)

•Parking self-sufficient (Based upon how many cars per unit and how many cars per resident? If there are no kids in your building there will be more grownups with cars. Pick one.)

•No requirement of town services (Great – then you’ll agree put down a sizable deposit against which the town can draw if you’re wrong?)

•Contributions to traffic improvement (Isn’t this from that other less-than-believable study that said that traffic will improve if we allow this building to be built?)

•$1.5 million annual net fiscal benefits to school budget and general budget (Seems light. I’d like to see the math here)

•Planned parking structure will ease clog (How does parking ease whatever “clog” is?)

•Resolves affordable housing threat (Sorry, you don’t get this one both ways either. Affordable housing will draw families with school age kids.)

•Solidifies land use in the town with minimal yield (Really? How?)

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Ridgewood Schools State Testing Results

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Ridgewood Schools State Testing Results

Individual Student Reports from the Spring 2014 administration of NJASK for grades 3 through 8 have arrived in the district and are currently being processed for distribution. These reports will be mailed home to parents by the end of the week.

BOARD MEETS ON SEPTEMBER 22

The next Regular Public Meeting of the Ridgewood Board of Education will be held on Monday, September 22, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. 
 
The public is invited to attend the meeting at the Ed Center, 49 Cottage Place, Floor 3. The meeting will be aired live on FiOS channel 33 and Optimum channel 77. Or it may be viewed live via the district website at www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us using the “Link in Live” tab.

Click here to view the agenda for the September 8, 2014 Regular Public Meeting.

Click here to view a partial webcast of the September 8, 2014 Regular Public Meeting. Due to technical problems in which the file was corrupted, this is not a webcast of the entire meeting. The only portion that was able to be salvaged was from part of the second session of Comments from the Public until the meeting adjourned.

8.26.14: The Board of Education took up the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge on August 25. Click here to view the video.

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How Will the U.S. Decide Which Syrian Rebels to Arm?

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How Will the U.S. Decide Which Syrian Rebels to Arm?

Identifying “moderate” groups to train and equip will be exceedingly difficult.
BY RACHEL ROUBEIN

September 15, 2014 Congress is expected to vote this week on giving the Obama administration the authority to combat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria by providing arms and training—to someone. But whom?

Even assuming President Obama gets the authority he wants, experts say deciding who exactly should get American aid is an exceedingly difficult task. There are vast differences among Syrian rebel fighters—a conglomerate of varying ideologies, social backgrounds, and loyalties. And the questions of who exactly is a Syrian moderate, and whether these weapons will fall into the wrong hands, loom large on Capitol Hill.

“As you know, in the Middle East, it’s very difficult to predict what’s going to happen,” Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia said after emerging from a closed-door House GOP conference meeting Thursday. “And that’s why everybody wants to be very careful about this because we do have concerns about that.”

https://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/how-will-the-u-s-decide-which-syrian-rebels-to-arm-20140915

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Obama Orders Boots on the Ground!

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Obama Orders Boots on the Ground!

We’re at war. We’re putting boots on the ground. We’re not waiting around for the host nation’s government to get its affairs in order, or for a regional coalition to commit first. The president has apparently overcome his reluctance to use the military, his worries about a commitment to intervene without an exit strategy, and his usual reluctance to acknowledge (even implicitly) that his administration was wrong when it assured us that there was nothing much for us to worry about.

Of course, the enemy the president has boldly and unhesitatingly sent our troops to fight is the Ebola virus.

https://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-orders-boots-ground_805212.html

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Congressman Scott Garrett will hold a meet and greet at the Larkin House in Wyckoff on September 23rd 7pm

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Congressman Scott Garrett will hold a meet and greet at the Larkin House in Wyckoff  on September 23rd 7pm  

West Bergen Tea Party Invite you to meet & greet Congressman Scott Garrett at West Bergen Tea Party Meeting 7 pm, Tuesday, September 23 at the Larkin House
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Join us 7 pm, Tuesday September 23
At the Larkin House
380 Godwin Avenue, Wyckoff
(1/4 mile North of Stop & Shop on the right)
More information: 201 891-5918..
[email protected]
Twitter: westbergentp
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Robots mow your lawn, clean your floor

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Robots mow your lawn, clean your floor

Deborah Porterfield, Special for USA Today12:08 p.m. EDT September 16, 2014

The hammock looks inviting but your lawn needs to be mowed. A Robomow robotic mower provides a tempting solution. Powered by a rechargeable battery, the mower trims your lawn while you nap in the sun. Before you can put the mower to work, you’ll have to set up the mowing perimeters with the included perimeter wire and plastic pegs. This lets the mower know where to mow and — more important — where not to mow. When the mower senses an obstacle, the blades will stop moving and the mower will change course. Forgetful? You can set the mower to do its job at preset times and days. The RC306, a mower that can handle a 6,500-square-foot lawn, costs about $1,100. The RM200, a basic model that can handle a 2,200-square foot lawn, costs about $800. Other models are available.www.robomow.com

Vacuum and mop at the same time

Should you sweep or mop? You can set up Moneual’s Hybrid Robot Vacuum Cleaner to do both. Using the remote control, you can direct the RYDIS H68 Pro to vacuum a room’s floor and then have it scrub the floor with water and cleanser placed in its tank. The sparkling results will make your home ready for drop-in guests. The robotic cleaner also can vacuum without mopping and vice versa. Either way, its smart vision mapping sensors can track down — and clean — dirty areas that are often overlooked. It costs about $500.

www.moneualusa.com

https://www.app.com/story/money/industries/technology/2014/09/15/robots-mow-lawn-clean-floor/15675897/

 

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U.S. General to Seek Combat Troops if Airstrikes Can’t Stop ISIS

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U.S. General to Seek Combat Troops if Airstrikes Can’t Stop ISIS

By JEREMY W. PETERSSEPT. 16, 2014

WASHINGTON — Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress on Tuesday that he would recommend deploying United States combat forces against Islamic extremists in specific operations if the current strategy of airstrikes was not successful, raising the possibility of the kind of escalation that President Obama has flatly ruled out.

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, he said that while he was confident in the ability of the coalition of American, European and Middle Eastern governments to stop the Islamic State, he could not completely close the door to eventually asking Mr. Obama to commit ground troops to fight the group, known as ISIS or ISIL.

“My view at this point is that this coalition is the appropriate way forward. I believe that will prove true,” he said. “But if it fails to be true, and if there are threats to the United States, then I of course would go back to the president and make a recommendation that may include the use of U.S. military ground forces.”


https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/world/middleeast/isis-airstrikes-united-states-coalition.html

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The Ten Dumbest Common Core Problems

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The Ten Dumbest Common Core Problems
Sample questions guaranteed to make your brain hurt in all the wrong places.
By Alec Torres

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is widely denounced for imposing confusing, unhelpful experimental teaching methods. Following these methods, some have created problems that lack essential information or make no sense whatsoever.

Some 45 states and the District of Columbia have so far adopted Common Core standards, leaving students all around the United States to puzzle over mysterious logic and language devised in accordance with Common Core’s new methods.

Here are eleven Common Core–compliant problems that have caused parents, students, and even teachers to scratch their heads or respond in outrage:

1. Starting with an easily solvable problem, New York takes the simple “7+7″ and complicates it with something called “number bonds.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/article/373840/ten-dumbest-common-core-problems-alec-torres

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For most kids, Enterovirus D68 won’t be tougher than common cold

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For most kids, Enterovirus D68 won’t be tougher than common cold

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014, 6:29 PM    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2014, 6:36 PM
BY STEVE JANOSKI
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

Despite the vast amount of attention that’s been focused on the danger Enterovirus D68 poses to children, the reality is that for most kids, the respiratory virus wouldn’t be much tougher than a bout with the common cold.

About a dozen cases of the virus, which is characterized by fever, runny nose, coughing, and general achiness, were confirmed in New York State last week; none have been reported yet in New Jersey. Although it’s described by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention as a “mild-to-severe” illness, it doesn’t attack adults, who have developed the antibodies necessary to ward it off through prolonged exposure to similar diseases.

There is a risk for some kids, especially if they have a history of asthma or wheezing, said Julia A. Piwoz, M.D., chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital at the Hackensack University Medical Center.

“Certain kids are getting sicker than we would ordinarily expect from summer colds, and kids with asthma tend to have more respiratory distress with this than they would with a cold. That could trigger an asthma attack,” she said.

Still, she said, there is no specific treatment or antiviral for EV-D68, and hospitals will likely handle it the same way they handle other cases of the flu.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/for-most-kids-enterovirus-d68-won-t-be-tougher-than-common-cold-1.1088639#sthash.ULcnJIm3.dpuf

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Reader says No one is against development, just gross and stupid over-development.

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Reader says No one is against development, just gross and stupid over-development.

Number 1 Sure — very simple. One option, the developer who purchased the property follows the existing code — which will include some apartments and some single family homes as well as some business. Another option, the Village condemns the property using eminent domain and turns it into a park.

No one is against development, just gross and stupid over-development. You have exactly made the point as to why the developers are all wrong. Your argument is in effect, we need to approve the hundreds of units the developers want to build or we will have urban blight. Just the opposite is true — say no to over-development and the master plan as written will allow more sensible building with no need for amendments to the master plan or zoning adjustments.

Why do you suppose the speculator who bought that property is happy to have junky trucks sitting there now? Its exactly to bait people into voting for change without realizing the problems change will bring.

Now that you have heard these alternative solutions, I suppose you will agree with one of them?

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Can this town handle 50 units an acre?

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Copied from CBR Facebook page:Can this town handle 50 units an acre? 

We need more members of the public to attend this meeting tomorrow night at RHS.(Sept 16, 7:30pm) There are only a few meetings left before the planning board comes to a decision on higher density housing in Ridgewood. Can this town handle 50 units an acre? What happens next? Will more developers seek the same zoning benefits? Will our town have to grant those requests or else fall victim to “spot zoning” claims and expensive litigation brought on by other land owners seeking the same density increases? Once this new zone is created, there is no turning back. 50 units an acre that cover 10 acres of our town. Our planning board needs to proceed cautiously and settle on a number that makes sense. This is what planning boards do. Planning Boards plan for communities and amend master plans to ensure a better quality of life for the residents. At what number should the density increase, in order to stimulate development, yet still compliment existing structures and not fundamentally change the character of this town? This whole process is like a walk on a tight rope. The answer lies in a delicate balance. We are hopeful that our planning board finds that balance and does not fall. Please come tomorrow night.