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College Tuition Costs Soar: Chart of the Day

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College Tuition Costs Soar: Chart of the Day

By Michelle Jamrisko and Ilan Kolet Aug 18, 2014 6:01 AM ET

The cost of higher education has jumped more than 13-fold in records dating to 1978, illustrating bloated tuition costs even as enrollment slows and graduates struggle to land jobs.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows that tuition expenses have ballooned 1,225 percent in the 36-year period, compared with a 634 percent rise in medical costs and a 279 percent increase in the consumer price index.

Some for-profit schools such as Corinthian Colleges Inc. have collapsed amid enhanced federal scrutiny, and three of the nine worst performers in the Russell 3000 index (RAY) are education companies. Yet university degrees are hardly on sale. The student loan debt burden threatens to overwhelm younger Americans, who already are finding a tougher labor market compared with their older counterparts.

“Some schools are effectively limiting cost increases by bigger tuition discounting, but on the whole college presidents have not adjusted to a fundamental shift in attitudes toward the value of a high-cost education,” said Richard Vedder, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity in Washington. “Colleges are too slow to reinvent themselves,” particularly as enrollments are waning, said Vedder, who is a Bloomberg View contributor.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-18/college-tuition-costs-soar-chart-of-the-day.html

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Vegans Beware How Plants Secretly Talk to Each Other

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Vegans Beware How Plants Secretly Talk to Each Other
By Kat McGowan
12.20.13  |  9:30 am

Up in the northern Sierra Nevada, the ecologist Richard Karban is trying to learn an alien language. The sagebrush plants that dot these slopes speak to one another, using words no human knows. Karban, who teaches at the University of California, Davis, is listening in, and he’s beginning to understand what they say.

Original story reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent division of SimonsFoundation.org whose mission is to enhance public understanding of science by covering research developments and trends in mathematics and the physical and life sciences.

The evidence for plant communication is only a few decades old, but in that short time it has leapfrogged from electrifying discovery to decisive debunking to resurrection. Two studies published in 1983 demonstrated that willow trees, poplars and sugar maples can warn each other about insect attacks: Intact, undamaged trees near ones that are infested with hungry bugs begin pumping out bug-repelling chemicals to ward off attack. They somehow know what their neighbors are experiencing, and react to it. The mind-bending implication was that brainless trees could send, receive and interpret messages.

https://www.wired.com/2013/12/secret-language-of-plant

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Multifamily projects gain steam in Bergen County

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Multifamily projects gain steam in Bergen County

AUGUST 17, 2014    LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 2014, 11:31 AM
BY KATHLEEN LYNN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

In a sign of the housing industry’s rebound, two large North Jersey redevelopment projects — in Wood-Ridge and Cliffside Park — are picking up momentum after being stalled during the real estate downturn.

The steel framework is going up at the Towne Center project in Cliffside Park, and developers Fred Daibes and James Demetrakis of Edgewater now expect the project to open around September 2015.

And at the Wesmont Station redevelopment, on part of the old Curtiss-Wright factory site in Wood-Ridge, Pulte Homes has begun work on a section of 217 town houses, while nearby, land is being cleared for 104 affordable apartments.

The Wood-Ridge and Cliffside Park redevelopments are moving forward at a time when home building — especially multifamily building — is on the rise again in New Jersey, after falling to post-World War II lows in the wake of the recession and housing bust. This year, New Jersey home construction approvals are running at their strongest pace since 2006, about 29 percent ahead of last year’s level.

“You’re seeing a convergence of long-term trends toward more multifamily, transit-oriented residential development and the housing market emerging from the deep recession that the industry was in,” said Christopher Jones, vice president for research at the Regional Plan Association.

“There’s a pent-up demand for housing, and builders are getting into position to meet this demand,” said Ralph Zucker, head of Somerset Development, the master developer at Wesmont Station.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/multifamily-projects-gain-steam-in-bergen-county-1.1068547#sthash.nS4GZBC9.dpuf

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Ridge­wood Country Club in Paramus next for streaking McIlroy

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Rory McIlroy hits out of the bunker on the 12th hole during the second round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Valhalla Golf Club on Friday. 

Ridge­wood Country Club in Paramus next for streaking McIlroy

AUGUST 17, 2014, 11:38 PM    LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 2014, 11:52 PM
BY TARA SULLIVAN
RECORD COLUMNIST
THE RECORD

The scenes from the final round of golf’s final major won’t soon be forgotten. Against a perilously setting sun, some of the world’s best players ­dueled atop a rapidly changing leader board, waging a battle rife with drama and thick with tension, fueled by fantastic shots and heart-stopping mistakes.

It was a PGA Championship that brought us so much, culminating in a second straight major win for Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland.

And yet, the tournament was as remarkable for what it didn’t have as what it did.

No Tiger Woods in the final round? No problem.

Woods has not been a factor this golf season, his advancing age and balky back keeping him out of action for months and putting him on the wrong side of the cut line when he rushed into action at the PGA. The doubts grow ever stronger that Woods will conquer his stated career goal of surpassing Jack Nicklaus’ 18 major titles (Woods has 14), and the most famous player of his generation won’t even participate this week in The Barclays, the first step in the season-ending FedEx Cup.

But Rory will. The world’s No. 1 player is bringing his surging game and meteoric profile to Ridge­wood Country Club in Paramus. For a sport in need of new faces, McIlroy is making his case as the first Woods replacement in years. He won’t ever match Woods’ mass appeal and cross­over popularity, but for the golf purist and traditional fan, he’s a very welcome sight.

The way McIlroy won at Valhalla in Louisville, Ky., the way he carried his lead into Sunday morning, lost it across a middling front nine and roared back to win, was, well, Tiger-esque.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/sullivan-paramus-next-for-streaking-mcilroy-1.1068866#sthash.xRMeNxPI.dpuf



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Reader says the chickens are coming home to roost on NJ Pensions and Healthcare !

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Reader says the chickens are coming home to roost  on NJ Pensions and Healthcare !

Our state’s employee health benefit program is $47 billion in the red because GOVERNORS and the legislatures have stolen funds from the health care and pension funds each and every year since Gov. Whitman. We are talking Billions of dollars in lost contributions and Billions of dollars in lost earnings on investments.

Doesn’t mention that FACT since he benefited by the theft from the health benefits program and pension system since the Governors didn’t need to increase their income taxes to raise the money to fund their pet programs. It was a win/win for the Governors, just take the money from the government employees health care fund and pension fund and say your not raising income taxes during your terms in office.

Well now those chickens are coming home to roost !

we pay as bills are incurred. We haven’t reserved anything against the future cost of all of the public sector healthcare bills because it’s a PAYGO system where we pay-as-you-go. That’s like a family running a $47 billion credit card bill with nothing saved in the bank to pay for it. So it will come out of our future wages, i.e. state & local taxes every year, which is why politicians are bending over backwards trying to get the current system to pay for current & retired public employees at the expense of everyone else. Nice sleight of hand, too: you act like you just deserve Rolls-Royce healthcare, like its your right, without even questioning how much it’s cost hardworking New Jerseyans. Classic “Me first!” greed.

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Injured deer slows traffic . . .

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Photo credit:Boyd A. Loving
Injured deer slows traffic . . .
Boyd A. Loving
9:24 AM

Ridgewood NJ, An injured deer slowed rush hour traffic on Grove Street in Ridgewood just before 8 AM on Monday, 08/18.  Ridgewood Police Department Patrol Officer Paul Dinice responded to the scene and attempted to restrain the deer until animal control personnel arrived, but the deer broke free and dashed back into a nearby wooded area.  Glen Rock Police Department Patrol Officer Murray Yang lent a hand.

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Photo credit:Boyd A. Loving

TaylorMade RBZ Stage 2show?id=mjvuF8ceKoQ&bids=205477

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Reader says she moved to Ridgewood 35 years ago, because I wanted a quiet pretty village with a sand bottom pool

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Reader says she moved to Ridgewood 35 years ago, because I wanted a quiet pretty village with a sand bottom pool

Sorry, buddy, I moved to Ridgewood 35 years ago, because I wanted a quiet pretty village with a sand bottom pool.

It had become too congested with traffic NOW, with all the restaurants and businesses.

I don’t want a city , I want a small village atmosphere.

You don’t care. I do. I love Ridgewood and it is no longer Ridgewood; it is Crowdedwood.

You want to destroy what is wonderful about this village. What an insensitive expletive deleted you are.

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Reader says What we don’t like is only having two choices – overbuilt versus falling down

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Reader says What we don’t like is only having two choices – overbuilt versus falling down

You seem to suffer from the same affliction as the 2 Council people in question. No, we don’t prefer dilapidated properties – nobody does and nobody has advanced that opinion. What we don’t like is only having two choices – overbuilt versus falling down.

As for “my proposals”, that’s not my job. I’m not a developer nor am I a land use attorney. I am a tax payer and a voter. When it appears as though certain of our elected officials have focused on a single, over sized solution and then bristle when their constituents disagree with them, I have a right and an obligation to call them on it.

We deserve better. Support the CBR and attend as many meetings as you can. Put a sign on your lawn if you want. Speak up now because Mr. Pucciarelli and Mrs. Hauck are rubbing elbows with these developers as you read this.

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Don’t blame the business people

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parasites and political clowns in Washington, Trenton

Don’t blame the business people

AUGUST 17, 2014    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 2014, 12:16 AM
SUBURBAN TRENDS
Print

Don’t blame the business people

Dear Editor:

A recent letter to the Suburban Trends expressed outrage that some business groups take their holdings offshore to avoid U.S. taxes.

The writer shows a complete ignorance of economics and a hostility to private business.

Business and industry flee America because of the anti-free market environment they have to deal with thanks to the politicians and unelected bureaucrats. No business leader in their right mind would want to set up shop where they will be penalized for being productive.

How many Americans know that the income tax, which we’ve been saddled with since 1913, has its origins in Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto” of 1848? “Comrade Karl” thought the income tax so important that it’s the number-two item (next to the abolition of private property) in his plan for a socialized all powerful centralized state!

Add in all the other unconstitutional agencies and bureaus like the EPA, FDA, BATF, and many, many more, and it isn’t hard to see why business leaves the United States.

It’s not just the bloated federal government that is to blame. We have tons of state, county, and local laws, taxes, and regulations across the land that stifle business. These petty local tyrants make life miserable for anyone trying to succeed in business development.

My father, retired construction official Gene Richards of West Milford, is a case in point, In 1998 he came out of retirement to serve on West Milford’s Zoning Board of Adjustment. It didn’t last long as he was thrown off for stating that zoning was a form of property rights violation by government. I don’t want to sound paranoid but I honestly think my pro-freedom libertarian activism over the years may have had something to do with it too. Nobody likes independent thinkers who see beyond the phony “Liberal” versus “Conservative” debates on various issues.

If you wish to bemoan America’s slow economic growth and decline, don’t blame business people. Rather focus on the parasites and political clowns in Washington, Trenton, and your local community who always want more “controls” on virtually everything. They are truly a menace! Vote them out ASAP!

Mark Richards,

West Milford

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/politics/don-t-blame-the-business-people-1.1068870 

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Ferguson Unrest Shows Poverty Grows Fastest in Suburbs

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Ferguson Unrest Shows Poverty Grows Fastest in Suburbs

By Toluse Olorunnipa and Elizabeth Campbell  Aug 16, 2014 12:01 AM ET

A week of violence and protests in a town outside St. Louis is highlighting how poverty is growing most quickly on the outskirts of America’s cities, as suburbs have become home to a majority of the nation’s poor.

In Ferguson, Missouri, a community of 21,000 where the poverty rate doubled since 2000, the dynamic has bred animosity over racial segregation and economic inequality. Protests over the police killing of an unarmed black teenager on Aug. 9 have drawn international attention to the St. Louis suburb’s growing underclass.

Such challenges aren’t unique to Ferguson, according to a Brookings Institution report July 31 that found the poor population growing twice as fast in U.S. suburbs as in city centers. From Miami to Denver, resurgent downtowns have blossomed even as their recession-weary outskirts struggle with soaring poverty in what amounts to a paradigm shift.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-16/ferguson-unrest-shows-poverty-grows-fastest-in-suburbs.html

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Police Militarization in Ferguson — and Your Town

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Police Militarization in Ferguson — and Your Town
By WALTER OLSON

Why armored vehicles in a Midwestern inner suburb? Why would cops wear camouflage gear against a terrain patterned by convenience stores and beauty parlors? Why are the authorities in Ferguson, Mo. so given to quasi-martial crowd control methods (such asbans on walking on the street) and, per the reporting of Riverfront Times, the firing of tear gas at people in their own yards? (“ ‘This my property!’ he shouted, prompting police to fire a tear gas canister directly at his face.”) Why would someone identifying himself as an 82nd Airborne Army veteran, observing the Ferguson police scene, comment that “We rolled lighter than that in an actual warzone”?

As most readers have reason to know by now, the town of Ferguson, Mo. outside St. Louis, numbering around 21,000 residents, is the scene of an unfolding drama that will be cited for years to come as a what-not-to-do manual for police forces. After police shot and killed an unarmed black teenager on the street, then left his body on the pavement for four hours, rioters destroyed many local stores. Since then, police have refused to disclose either the name of the cop involved or the autopsy results on young Michael Brown; have not managed to interview a key eyewitness even as he has told his storyrepeatedly on camera to the national press; have revealed that dashcams for police cars were in the city’s possession but never installed; have obtained restrictions on journalists, including on news-gathering overflights of the area; and more.

The dominant visual aspect of the story, however, has been the sight of overpowering police forces confronting unarmed protesters who are seen waving signs or just their hands.

If you’re new to the issue of police militarization, which Overlawyered has covered occasionally over the past few years, the key book is Radley Balko’s, discussed at this Cato forum:

Federal grants drive police militarization. In 2012, as I was able to establish in moments through an online search, St. Louis County (of which Ferguson is a part) got a Bearcat armored vehicle and other goodies this way. The practice can serve to dispose of military surplus (though I’m told the Bearcat is not military surplus, but typically purchased new) and it sometimes wins the gratitude of local governments, even if they are too strapped for cash to afford more ordinary civic supplies (and even if they are soon destined to be surprised by the high cost of maintaining gear intended for armed combat).

As to the costs, some of those are visible in Ferguson, Mo. this week.

https://www.cato.org/blog/police-militarization-ferguson-nationwide

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Motorcyclist escapes serious injury in Ridgewood crash

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photos by Boyd Loving

Motorcyclist escapes serious injury in Ridgewood crash
August 17,2014
Boyd A. Loving
6:45 PM 

Ridgewood NJ, A motorcyclist sustained only minor injuries after his bike collided with an Acura RDX and fell to the pavement in the 200 block of Union Street, Ridgewood, shortly before 6 PM on Sunday, 08/17.  Ridgewood PD and EMS personnel responded to the scene of the crash after receiving several 911 telephone calls.  The biker was alert, conscious, and walking when the first police units arrived at the scene.  Although an ambulance was called to provide transportation to a local hospital, the biker refused such service.  A tow truck was called to change a flat tire on the Acura; the bike was able to be driven from the scene.  A paramedic unit from The Valley Hospital also responded to assist.

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Photo credit: Boyd A. Loving

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Why golfers can’t wait to play at Ridgewood Country Club

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Why golfers can’t wait to play at Ridgewood Country Club

By Brett Cyrgalis

August 16, 2014 | 10:06pm

Even if it weren’t the playoffs, and there wasn’t $10 million on the line, a PGA Tour event at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J., still would be one most pros circle on the calendar.

That is because the 1929 A.W. Tillinghast design is a treat, a throwback to the Golden Age of golf-course architecture.

When The Barclays tournament kicks off the first of the four-tournament FedEx Cup playoffs on Thursday, the pros will get to revisit the big and sprawling bunkers and the greens that carry a subtle amount of undulation.

Large oaks and maples frame the fairways, and it all leads back to the beautiful Tudor-style clubhouse, designed by Clifford Wendehack.

Yet the course they are playing is not the same one laid out for the members, as there are 27 holes on the property, and for the tournament, the toughest 18 are chosen from all three nines.

“Such courses are often overlooked in ranking of the great ones,” wrote famed architect Tom Doak in his infamous course-criticism book, “The Confidential Guide.” “Fortunately, the rankings have finally caught up with this, one of Tillinghast’s finest efforts.”

Ridgewood was ranked the seventh-best course in New Jersey by Golf Digest last year, and got its first taste of the FedEx Cup playoffs in 2010.

https://nypost.com/2014/08/16/why-golfers-cant-wait-to-play-at-ridgewood-country-club/

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Mark Stankewicz,of Ridgewood makes the cut for the Bergen Amateur

 

 

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Mark Stankewicz of Ridgewood makes the cut for the Bergen Amateur

AUGUST 8, 2014    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 8, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY GREG MATTURA
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

RIVER VALE – Rus Whitney started strong and, somewhat to his surprise, finished even stronger.

Whitney earned medalist at Thursday’s Bergen County Amateur qualifier after shooting a 1-under 69 at Valley Brook Golf Course that featured a 2-under 33 on the back nine.

“I’ve never put together two good nines here,” said Whitney, 32, an Oradell resident and commodities trader, “and I feel like I did it here today.”

Whitney, whose father, Cyrus, is among New Jersey’s top senior amateurs, earned the first of 15 qualifying spots to the Bergen Amateur on Sept. 14 at Rockleigh GC.

A 77 or better made Thursday’s cut on this short, tight course, and the top four finishers are Bergen residents: Paramus’ Jin Jeon was runner-up with 71, and Harrington Park’s John Trainor and Ridgewood’s Mark Stankewicz each shot 72.

During a strong back nine under almost perfect conditions, Whitney birdied both par-3s and almost aced the 136-yard 17th. He hit a “knockdown” pitching wedge that rolled to within 6 inches.

Jeon labeled his 71 an “up-and-down day,” and it featured an eagle on the par-5 fifth hole — at 580 yards the longest on the course. Jeon, 24, a Northeastern graduate with a degree in industrial engineering, holed out from 95 yards with a pitching wedge.

Trainor was in the first threesome that teed off at 7:30 a.m. and drove to his 72 in just 3 hours, 30 minutes. Trainor, who last year made the cut at the Bergen Amateur, secured a return trip with two birdies and only four bogeys.

“It was a great day, a good day to play golf; not much wind,” said Trainor, 54, a police captain in Tenafly and the club champ at Knickerbocker CC. “The wind was not a real factor and I thought the golf course was the best I’ve seen it.”

This marked the first time Stankewicz, 47, attempted to qualify for the Bergen Amateur. Stankewicz, who made the cut at this year’s New Jersey Amateur, had three birdies, three bogeys and a double-bogey

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/sports/golf/whitney-leads-pack-at-qualifier-1.1064529#sthash.Q0SvOsD2.dpuf