Here we go again. Massive flood water coming in the north end.
Category: Uncategorized
Planning Board – Executive Session at 7pm – August 5, 2014 Meeting
Planning Board – Executive Session at 7pm – August 5, 2014 Meeting
PLANNING BOARD AMENDMENT TO MEETING SCHEDULE
SPECIAL PUBLIC MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT
Executive Session – 7 PM
to Precede August 5, 2014 Meeting
In accordance with the provisions of the “Open Public Meetings Act,” please be advised that prior to the start of the August 5, 2014 Planning Board Special Public Meeting which is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Ridgewood High School Student Center, 627 East Ridgewood Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey, the Planning Board will hold an executive session at 7:00 p.m.
With the exception of Executive Sessions, all meetings of the Ridgewood Planning Board (i.e., official public meetings, work session meetings, pre-meeting assemblies and special meetings) are public meetings which are always open to members of the general public.
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FLASH FLOOD WARNING
file photo Boyd Loving
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FLASH FLOOD WARNING
FLASH FLOOD STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
311 PM EDT FRI AUG 1 2014
ROCKLAND NY-BERGEN NJ-WESTCHESTER NY-
311 PM EDT FRI AUG 1 2014
A FLASH FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 445 PM EDT FOR WESTCHESTER…NORTHEASTERN BERGEN AND ROCKLAND COUNTIES…
AT 307 PM EDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR CONTINUED TO INDICATE A THUNDERSTORM PRODUCING FLASH FLOODING OVER THE WARNED AREA. THESE STORMS REMAIN NEARLY STATIONARY.
CIA admits to spying on Senate
CIA admits to spying on Senate
By Julian Hattem – 07/31/14 12:32 PM EDT
Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/213933-cia-admits-to-wrongly-hacking-into-senate-computers#ixzz399aEwd7A
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook
CIA officials improperly hacked the Senate Intelligence Committee’s computers as staffers compiled a report on “enhanced interrogation” techniques, the spy agency’s inspector general has concluded.
In a statement shared with The Hill, CIA spokesman Dean Boyd said the internal watchdog determined “that some CIA employees acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding” between the agency and the committee about access to the network they used to share documents.
CALLING ALL OBJECTIVISTS (and other lovers of individual freedom):
CALLING ALL OBJECTIVISTS (and other lovers of individual freedom):
Are you a fan of Ayn Rand? The Undercurrent–a partnering organization dedicated to spreading Ayn Rand’s ideas on campus–is hosting the first-ever Objectivist student conference. This Fall, hundreds of students will gather to learn the fundamentals of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism from Objectivism’s greatest experts. This year’s theme: “Individualism and the Case for Liberty.”
Are you the leader of an Objectivist student club? Are you interested in starting a club? If you answered YES to either of these questions, you qualify to join the exclusive leadership training on Day 1 of the conference. Learn development tips from some of the liberty movement’s most successful activists and get to know your fellow club leaders.
Not an Objectivist club leader, but still a fan of Ayn Rand? You’ll be invited to join the general conference and get to know other right-of-center students who share your same passion for developing a freer society.
Lodging is FREE and travel scholarships are available.
Apply today and share this link with your friends and club members on Facebook and Twitter!
@tundercurrent
North Jersey hospitals vigilant after Ebola advisory
North Jersey hospitals vigilant after Ebola advisory
AUGUST 1, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY COLLEEN DISKIN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
The U.S. government warned Americans on Thursday not to travel to West African nations in the grip of an Ebola outbreak, while local hospitals and airports were also advised to be on the alert for travelers showing signs of the deadly virus.
But health officials, while stressing the need for providers to exercise vigilance as always, said there’s little reason to believe an Ebola case would walk through the doors of any New Jersey hospitals.
“It’s very low risk right now for the United States,” said Dr. Gary Munk, director of clinical virology at Hackensack University Medical Center, who said medical institutions are nonetheless engaging in a campaign of “information and awareness.”
The state Department of Health this week issued an advisory reminding hospitals and health care providers of the symptoms to watch for and steps to take with a patient who reports having traveled within the last three weeks to Guinea, Sierra Leone or Liberia.
“We have carefully reviewed the health advisory from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and have alerted our entire emergency service team regarding the signs and symptoms,” said Stacie Newton, spokeswoman for University Hospital in Newark. “They are fully prepared to respond to any patients who come to University Hospital and may have symptoms of the disease.”
The CDC, which routinely has officers stationed at international terminals, like the ones at Newark Liberty and John F. Kennedy airports, have been posting updated travel alerts since the disease, which has now killed more than 700 people in the worst recorded outbreak in history, first appeared in March. When outbreaks like this occur in other countries, the CDC works with international organizations to identify sick travelers and, if necessary, restrict them from continuing on their journeys.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/nj-state-news/local-hospitals-vigilant-after-ebola-advisory-1.1060872#sthash.bnw5V1Z0.dpuf
Ridgewood Mayor’s Corner: August Agenda
Ridgewood Mayor’s Corner: August Agenda
AUGUST 1, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 2014, 12:31 AM
Welcome to the August edition of the Mayor’s Corner – my monthly Ridgewood News column that seeks to make village government more accessible, more transparent, more responsive.
Council agenda: The council will meet two times this month – Aug. 6 and 13. On the agenda will be parking proposals, planning board-related issues, employee residency requirements, the establishment of a Green Team and a host of other important issues.
All of our meetings are open to the public, and residents are encouraged to attend and participate. Please visit our website for more information – ridgewoodnj.net – or to watch the meetings online.
The new council: Following our reorganization meeting on July 1, the new Village Council hit the ground running. Our July meetings were full of good discussions, important votes and even a few laughs. We’ve even played softball (see below).
In addition to our standard council work, each of us serves as a liaison to different committees/boards. Here is a quick snapshot of our respective areas of responsibility:
Mayor Paul Aronsohn: Planning Board; Chamber of Commerce; Bergen County League of Municipalities; and Ridgewood Community Access Network.
Deputy Mayor Albert Pucciarelli: Library Board of Trustees; Board of Education; Ridgewood Arts Council.
Councilwoman Gwenn Hauck: Financial Advisory Committee; Ridgewood Community Center Advisory Board; Parks, Recreation and Conservation Board; and the Fields Committee.
Councilwoman Susan Knudsen: Planning Board; Ridgewood Fourth of July Committee; Project Pride Committee; and the Historic Preservation Committee.
Councilman Michael Sedon: Ridgewood Environmental Advisory Committee; Ridgewood Green Team Advisory Committee; Citizens Safety Advisory Committee; and the Shade Tree Commission.
If you need to contact any or all of us, please visit the “Mayor/ Council” section of the village website.
Downtown discussion: The deputy mayor convened a meeting last week to discuss the Central Business District (CBD).
It was the start of what will be an ongoing community-wide conversation about the future of our downtown – one that addresses everything from parking needs to traffic flows to public transportation to possible development. The meeting participants represented a good cross section of the village and gave voice to a good mix of ideas and suggestions.
Going forward, the key is to recognize that we all have a role to play in this process. Government officials should facilitate the conversation. Business and other community leaders should inform it. Residents should drive it. And throughout the process, we should all embrace the fact that this conversation is an opportunity to take our CBD to the next level – a unique opportunity to make it an even better place to shop, dine and just have a good time.
The next meeting is tentatively planned for Wednesday, Aug. 20 at the Ridgecrest apartment building (7 Ridge Road). All Ridgewood residents are welcome. To confirm the time and location, please check out the village website or contact the deputy mayor at [email protected].
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-guest-writers/august-agenda-1.1060691#sthash.YXXJJKCi.dpuf
Village Chasing Away Another Ridgewood business
Village Chasing Away Another Ridgewood business
AUGUST 1, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 2014, 12:31 AM
BY JODI WEINBERGER
STAFF WRITER
A Ridgewood business that performs permanent cosmetic procedures and scar camouflage is fighting the Zoning Board of Adjustment to stay in the village, where it’s been for three years.
Elizabeth Veloz, owner and one of two employees at Endurance Permanent Cosmetics, is appealing the decision of the zoning official “that a business which performs micropigmentation of the skin is not a permissible use in the P-2, professional office district.”
The business is currently located in a Transition District at 75 Oak St., where the zoning board has also determined that it is not permitted, so Veloz is seeking to move to 42-44 S. Maple Ave., the Professional Office District. She said the landlord on South Maple Avenue has been holding the office for her since April.
The issue arose after her Oak Street landlord, Alpe Realty LLC, failed to apply for a certificate of occupancy for Endurance Permanent Cosmetics. The landlord issued what Veloz called a “very nice eviction letter” after the zoning board denied their request to allow the use.
Veloz’s business has been housed in the basement of the converted Oak Street Victorian home for three years with two other tenants on floors above: a therapist and Village Plastic Surgery.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/village-business-tries-to-find-a-zone-1.1060810#sthash.CnjgoYaV.dpuf
Urbanization: Ridgewood ordinance on master plan amendments at center of debate
Urbanization: Ridgewood ordinance on master plan amendments at center of debate
AUGUST 1, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 2014, 12:31 AM
BY JODI WEINBERGER
STAFF WRITER
On July 18, 2007, a law was passed that defines the process of how the master plan in Ridgewood is amended.
More specifically, the law – Ordinance No. 3066 – makes formal the process and fees charged to any interested party should they petition the Planning Board or Village Council for a change.
The ordinance has been the topic of much debate over recent months as the Planning Board has heard back-to-back applications for amendments to the master plan, first from The Valley Hospital and currently from three housing developers seeking to put high-density housing in the Central Business District (CBD).
One thing is for sure: The ordinance was written in response to The Valley Hospital’s first proposal to expand in 2006. But what’s happened since then is less clear. The ordinance became a talking point during this year’s municipal election and has pitted developers against residents as they battle over who has the right to plan the vision of the village.
To get a better understanding of how the law works, The Ridgewood News spoke with attorneys representing the village (Matt Rogers), the Planning Board (Gail Price), The Dayton and Chestnut housing developers (Thomas Wells), and the citizen opposition group (Ira Weiner) about the history of the ordinance and how it’s played out with the public.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/ordinance-is-at-center-of-debate-1.1060846#sthash.qFl3w9C3.dpuf
Socialist Utopia Argentina Declared in Default by S&P as Talks Fail
Socialist Utopia Argentina Declared in Default by S&P as Talks Fail
By Camila Russo and Katia Porzecanski Jul 30, 2014 10:10 PM ET
Standard & Poor’s declared Argentina in default after the government missed a deadline for paying interest on $13 billion of restructured bonds.
The South American country failed to get the $539 million payment to bondholders after a U.S. judge ruled that the money couldn’t be distributed unless a group of hedge funds holding defaulted debt also got paid. Argentina, in default for the second time in 13 years, has about $200 billion in foreign-currency debt, including $30 billion of restructured bonds, according to S&P.
Argentina and the hedge funds, led by billionaire Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp., failed to reach agreement in talks today in New York, according to the court-appointed mediator in the case, Daniel Pollack. In a press conference after the talks ended, Argentine Economy Minister Axel Kicillof described the group of creditors as “vulture funds” and said the country wouldn’t sign an accord under “extortion.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-30/argentina-defaults-according-to-s-p-as-debt-meetings-continue.html
Dow Plunges 317 Points, Wipes Out 2014 Gains
Dow Plunges 317 Points, Wipes Out 2014 Gains
U.S. stocks sustained heavy losses on Thursday as traders ditched a wide swath of assets, leading the blue-chip average to hit the flat-line for 2014.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 317 points, or 1.9%, to 16563, the S&P 500 tumbled 39.7 points, or 2%, to 1931 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 93.1 points, or 2.1%, to 4370.
In a sign of the breadth of the selloff, every major sector was down by at least 1%. The biggest losers could be found in telecommunications, technology, energy and health care. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange was running about 40% higher than the one-month average. The VIX, a measure of implied volatility in U.S. stocks, surged 26%.
ExxonMobil (XOM), the world’s biggest publicly-traded energy company, revealed stronger-than-expected profits on the day, but revenues missed expectations. The Dow heavyweight’s shares fell more than 1%, suggesting they would weigh on the blue-chip average.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/07/31/dow-plunges-300-points-wipes-out-2014-gains/
This Chart Proves the War on Poverty Has Been a Catastrophic Failure
This Chart Proves the War on Poverty Has Been a Catastrophic Failure
Robert Rector / July 28, 2014
For the past 50 years, the government’s annual poverty rate has hardly changed at all. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 15 percent of Americans still live in poverty, roughly the same rate as the mid-1960s when the War on Poverty was just starting. After adjusting for inflation, federal and state welfare spending today is 16 times greater than it was when President Johnson launched the War on Poverty. If converted into cash, current means-tested spending is five times the amount needed to eliminate all official poverty in the U.S. How can the government spend so much while poverty remains unchanged?
The answer is simple: The U.S. Bureau of the Census official “poverty” figures are woefully incomplete. The Census defines a family as poor if its annual “income” falls below specific poverty income thresholds. In counting “income,” the Census includes wages and salaries but excludes nearly all welfare benefits. The federal government runs over 80 means-tested welfare programs that provide cash, food, housing, medical care, and targeted social services to poor and low-income Americans. Government spent $916 billion on these programs in 2012; roughly 100 million Americans received aid from at least one of them, at an average cost of $9,000 per recipient. (These figures do not include Social Security or Medicare.)
Of the $916 billion in means-tested welfare spending in 2012, the Census counted only about 3 percent as “income” for purposes of measuring poverty. In other words, the government’s official “poverty” measure is not helpful for measuring actual living conditions.
On the other hand, the Census poverty numbers do provide a very useful measure of “self-sufficiency”: the ability of a family to sustain an income above the poverty threshold without welfare assistance. The Census is accurate in reporting there has been no improvement in self-sufficiency for the past 45 years..
https://dailysignal.com/2014/07/28/index-culture-opportunity/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
Obama’s Self-Made Border Crisis
Obama’s Self-Made Border Crisis
Mike Needham / @MikeNeedham / July 30, 2014
“You didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” In the case of the ongoing crisis along America’s southwest border, that someone is President Obama. When the president used his pen to sign the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, memorandum on June 15, 2012, he effectively rolled out the welcome mat to those abroad seeking to immigrate illegally.
The numbers are undeniable. From 2011 to 2013, the number of minors crossing the border illegally increased threefold, from roughly 8,000 to 24,668. Officials initially estimated that number would soar to 60,000 this year, though it is now expected to be close to 90,000.
Some have attempted to attribute the sudden wave of migration to factors other than the actions taken by the Obama administration. Most frequently cited is the stunning violence plaguing Central America, but according to United Nations data the region’s dramatic increase in violence began in 2007.
The other frequently cited cause is a little-known anti-trafficking law that gave additional protections to certain immigrant minors, but that law passed in 2008. While those two factors may intensify the crisis, there was no greater pull factor than the president’s executive decreeforbidding immigration officials from enforcing the law.
Accounts from those who have been encouraged to undertake the perilous journey from Central America to the United States confirm that the Obama Administration’s actions were their driving force. According to an internal Border Patrol memo leaked last month, the main reason minors and women from Central America had entered the U.S. was “to take advantage of the ‘new’ U.S. law that grants a free pass or permit” to stay in the country.
Some officials have defended lax enforcement, suggesting these so-called “permisos” are simply the notices to appear at a future immigration hearing issued to minors who enter the country illegally. It is important to understand, however, how the president’s DACA program works. It is not merely “deferred action,” as the name suggests, but rather a program that issues papers, identification and work permits for two years to those illegal immigrants under 30 who qualify.
What’s more, many minors believed June 2014 — two years after Obama’s DACA memo — was the cutoff for the program. In this light, one would be hard pressed to deny that the DACA initiative has been seen by minors and young adults as a “free pass” incentive program.
Earlier this month, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández seemed to confirm the notion, telling Time what we “shouldn’t forget” about “is the lack of clarity of U.S. immigration policy.” Hernández said “my call to the United States is that it defines these rules with clarity” to prevent smugglers from taking advantage of the ambiguity.
https://dailysignal.com/2014/07/30/obamas-self-made-border-crisis/
Christie urges lawmakers to change bail system
Christie urges lawmakers to change bail system
Gov. Christie on Wednesday urged lawmakers to vote for changes he says are needed to reverse the “utter failure” of New Jersey’s bail system, declaring that “we are nearly out of time to act.” (Seidman/The Philadelphia Inquirer)
House votes to sue Obama
House votes to sue Obama
By Cristina Marcos – 07/30/14 08:36 PM EDT
The 225-201 vote fell along party lines, with five Republicans voting against the measure. No Democrats supported it.
The lawsuit is a direct response to GOP frustration with Obama’s wide-ranging use of executive power.
Republicans have been particularly angry over Obama’s decision to ignore several deadlines in the Affordable Care Act and his decision to defer the deportation of certain young people who illegally immigrated to the United States as children.
In the last week, lawmakers have been riled up by reports that immigration advocates and Democrats are pushing the administration to take additional executive actions to give more immigrants legal status.
Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/213859-house-votes-to-sue-obama#ixzz392T734ZF
