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Net Neutrality: Don’t Let the FCC Control the Internet!

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Net Neutrality: Don’t Let the FCC Control the Internet!

Nick Gillespie | May 26, 2014

By the time you read this, the Internet—that glorious system of tubes that brings us everything from cat videos to free amateur porn to (trigger warning! NSFW!)free amateur cat porn—might already be dead.

That’s the consensus from proponents of so-called net neutrality, who are alarmed and dismayed by a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposal that might eventually allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to charge users different rates to transmit data across their networks.

The result could be that big companies with a lot of cash could use “fast lanes” to deliver content, while smaller, poorer outfits might be stuck in “slow lanes” that would turn off potential users and customers (who wants to wait for a site to load or a video to buffer?). Such “paid prioritization” would, we’re warned, violate cyberspace’s bedrock principle of digital non-discrimination, lead to the “death of the democratic Internet”, and even kill “the dreams of young entrepreneurs.”

Yeah, not so much. Reports of the imminent death of the Internet’s freewheeling ways and utopian possibilities are more wildly exaggerated and full of spam than those emails from Mrs. Mobotu Sese-Seko.

In fact, the real problem isn’t that the FCC hasn’t shown the cyber-cojones to regulate ISPs like an old-school telephone company or “common carrier,” but that it’s trying to increase its regulatory control of the Internet in the first place.

Under the proposal currently in play, the FCC assumes an increased ability to review ISP offerings on a “case-by-case basis” and kill any plan it doesn’t believe is “commercially reasonable.” Goodbye fast-moving innovation and adjustment to changing technology on the part of companies, hello regulatory morass and long, drawn-out bureaucratic hassles.

https://reason.com/archives/2014/05/26/net-neutrality-dont-let-the-fcc-control

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Reader says How do they undertake a project of this magnitude in the dark?

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Reader says How do they undertake a project of this magnitude in the dark?

How do they undertake a project of this magnitude in the dark? The Village Manager has so far been unimpressive as Paul’s unqualified appointee and the Village Engineer proves once again he should be replaced.

The Honeymoon must be over. Dam the torpedoes full speed ahead. The Three Amigos and their hand pick spokes person don’t have a clue. Just remember the majority of the West side resident voted for them.

“Ill-concieved” is a kind way to describe a totally idiotic idea. And to think this was approved by the Village Council in the dark and with no hearing. We should all do what we can to stop this.

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Chilling truth behind Common Core

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Chilling truth behind Common Core
May 20, 2014
Authored by Nancy Thorner at Illinois Review
https://eagnews.org/thorner-chilling-truth-behind-common-core-state-standards/

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. – On Tuesday, May 13, the Northern Illinois Patriots , President Greg Clements, sponsored Dr.  Duke Pesta, Freedom Project Education Academy Director — an online school offering a complete classical education for students from Kindergarten through High School, free from public school spin and Common Core indoctrination — as its featured speaker at Austin’s Saloon and Eatery, 481 Peterson Road in Libertyville. Dr. Pesta’s topic:  “Common Core:  Dangers and Threats.”

As a teacher himself, Dr. Pesta is not anti-teacher despite his negative opinion of Common Core.  If truth be told, many teachers oppose Common Core but are told to keep quiet or lose their jobs.  Pesta received his MA in Renaissance literature from John Carroll University and his Ph.D. in Shakespeare and Renaissance literature from Purdue University.

He has taught at major research institutions and small liberal arts colleges, and has been active in education reform, developing and implementing an elective Bible course that is currently available for public high school students in Texas. Currently he is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh in addition to his role as Academic Director of Freedom Project Education.

The chilling truth behind the new national standards are sure to terrify you, as they did to those who attended the Northern Illinois Patriots event.  A question Dr Pesta asks at the beginning of each of his events is how many are familiar with Common Core?  As is the case most often, 90 to 95% are still foggy about the nature of Common Core.

Dr. Duke Pesta, using research done by others, presented Common Core as the drive it is toward complete government control of our children’s education through a series a slides and commentary titled,  “Common Core:  Dangers and Threats.”   Dr. Pesta considers Common Core a hugely bi-partisan problem. In Wisconsin Republicans refused to allow a vote to be held on Common Core legislation.  Nationally, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie are in total support of Common Core, as is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Dr. Duke Pesta divided his presentation into three parts

Part 1:  How did Common Core come about?   a Research Fellow in Education at the Heartland Institute

Common Core State Standards (CCSS) implies that that all states were consulted before they signed on to Common Core, as though it were a democratic thing instead of Banana Republic tactics. Not so!  Joy Pullman, a Research Fellow in Education at the Heartland Institute, traces the writing of Common Core back to five individuals.  One of its writers, David Coleman is considered the chief architect of Common Core. According to Dr. Pesta, Coleman is not qualified to write on any subject. Worrisome is that Coleman has since moved on to become president of the College Board where he will integrate the AP assessments with Common Core standards.

Hence, the curriculum was written by a small group of individuals and then copyrighted by two Washington lobbyist groups, making it devoid of any government ownership. This is important because the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Acts was the first federal attempt to regulate and finance schools. In 1979 the law that created the Department of Education forbids it to exercise “any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum” or “program of instruction” of any school system.  The mechanism of control were the tests all students had to take to be written by the people who created Common Core. To pass the tests, the Common Core curriculum had to be taught. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated $170 million to support the creation and implementation of Common Core State Standards. To date they have contributed $2.5 billion.

But there is no way Common Core could have been brought into the nation’s schools given that it was the product of a small group of activists supported by billionaire Bill Gates.  As background, in 2001, President G.W. Bush came up with “No Child Left Behind” which he gave over to Senator Ted Kennedy to write.  “No Child Left Behind” was a disaster from the beginning as it was based on “outcome” education, which is akin to socialism.  Every single child was expected to meet the same arbitrary standard through high stakes testing.

Fast forward to 2009. President Obama is now in office. It was in 2009 that President Obama took $5.1 billion of taxpayer money and offered it to states to sign on to his “Race to the Top” program.  The catch:  If states accepted “Race to the Top” money they had to accept Common Core State Standards (CSSS) sight unseen.   Additionally, a waiver was granted to states so they could opt out of Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” program if they signed on to Obama’s” Race to the Top” program.

Forty-four states agreed to trade their K-12 math and English targets and tests for those of the Common Core’s State Standards yet to be written. Now that CC is in place, in some states longer than others, Dr. Pesta looks upon Common Core as “No Child Left Behind of steroids.” He also refers to Common Core as a social justice curriculum that comes before the ABC’s.  Remaining at its core is a one-size fits all definition of education.  But what if the high standards can’t be met?  It becomes obvious that the only way to get more children to the same place is in time to lower standards.

Part 2:  Nature of Common Core Curriculum

Although it is often said that Common Core is not a curriculum but a set of standards, Common Core standards are being put into textbooks which then become curriculum.  Pierson, as the largest education product sales company on earth, has a monopoly on education products, including textbooks.  This month Bill Gates — the second richest man on earth who almost single-handedly funded and marketed the entire Common Core movement going back to UNESCO and its goal to bring a master curriculum worldwide – has joined forces with Pearson to create a one size fits all curriculum.  Although it is claimed that states can deviate 15% from what is being taught in other states, if this were true there would have to be a different test for each state.

Dr. James Milgram, professor of mathematics at Stanford University, and Dr. Sandra Stotsky, professor emerita at the University of Arkansas and former Senior Associate Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Education, as members of the Common Core Validation Review Panel were the only experts on the panel in their subject area.  Both Milgram a math expert and Stotsky an English expert refused to give Common Core Math and English standards, respectively, a good recommendation as did the rest of the panel.  Both have gone on to testify with a warning voice to state legislatures and school boards about the inadequacy of the standards.

Hear Dr. Milgram talk about “What happened to Math education and why Common Core won’t help.”

James Milgram points out these flaws of the new Core Curriculum math standards:

By the end of fifth grade the material being covered in arithmetic and algebra in Core Standards is more than a year behind the early grade expectations in most high achieving countries.  By the end of seventh grade Core Standards are roughly two years behind.
Core Mathematics Standards are written to reflect very low expectations and do not reflect the mathematics education that underlie the results in the high achieving countries.  The explicitly stated objective is to prepare students not to have to take remedial mathematics courses at a typical community college.

Common Core applies a never before seen methodology in the way common math problems are solved.  Parents can no longer help their children with simple addition and subtraction not understanding the system. Staking of numbers is no longer permitted, instead children must draw dots, circles, squares, etc., to come up with the answer.

Dr. Pesta used as a demonstration a Champion News video of a Grayslake D46 Curriculum Coordinator relating how under the new Common Core math system if a child determines that 3 + 4 is 11, that’s perfectly fine if the child is able to explain how he arrived at the answer. Even if a child can do math beyond his grade level, he must stay put and not try to move to a higher level.

Dr. Sandra Stotsky has come to refer to Common Core standards as propaganda.  Hear Dr. Sandra Stotsky describe “What are the major problems with Common Core English Standards?”

Dr. Stotsky’s concerns about Common Core can be read here.

Common Core is a step backwards for English Standards.  The architects of Common Core’s English Language Arts standards never claimed that their standards would do so; rather, they claimed the standards would make all students “college-ready,”
Common Core English standards require English teachers to emphasize skills, not literary or cultural knowledge, such as how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text at all grade levels, which may lead to a decreased capacity for analytical thinking.
Common Core standards require English teachers to teach “informational” texts over 50% of their reading instructional time rather than literary texts.  There are, however, 30 books sexually unfit for high school kids to read on the Common Core approved reading list, one such book for the 11th grade: The Bluest Eye.
Writing is emphasized more than reading, but kids only learn to write well after they can read well.  When writing they will most likely write what they read in their textbooks such as the global warming, threat, ways to save the planet, or a denial of American exceptionalism.

Here is Dr. Pesta’s anti-Common Core Speech similar to the one he presented at Austin’s on Tuesday, May 13.

Article 2:  “Shocking Far Reaching Tentacles of Common Core” as referenced in 3rd part of Dr. Peta’s presentation on Common Core sponsored by Northern Illinois Patriots Tuesday, May 13.

Authored by Nancy Thorner at Illinois Review
https://eagnews.org/thorner-chilling-truth-behind-common-core-state-standards/

ILLINOIS REVIEW

Founded in 2005, Illinois Review is a digital media site, providing an alternative perspective and source of Illinois news and information. 

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Readers say Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld really overstepped her bounds .

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Readers say Village Manager  Roberta Sonenfeld really overstepped her bounds . 

The capital budget had called for $1.5 million for paving, but Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld pulled it from the annual spending plan, opting instead to introduce it for separate consideration by the council.

Readers says she is not an elected official.Who does Sonenfeld think she is? She can’t unilaterally decide what items have to be individually voted on.

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Reader says I am all for the current construction change the current two-lane layout gets too crowded

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photo by Ridgewood PD

Reader says I am all for the current construction change the current two-lane layout gets too crowded

I am all for the current construction change. The current two-lane layout gets too crowded . People currently switch lanes right now in a moments of indecision or to try and overtake. The new layout will lead to a more orderly flow of traffic, with one good lane in each direction, instead of the two narrow lanes that currently exist.

Through-town traffic can only flow as fast as its narrowest or most congested point. This short stretch, either as it was, or as it will be, is not that point. My conclusion is that this work will have a positive effect. Now, whether the work itself is being done cost-effectively, that’s an entirely separate debate. I suspect, being that public funds at being spent, there will be the usual waste and borderline corruption that always takes place.

Asking people to take alternative routes while the construction is going on, I put that down to Government in action. It’s the standard advice they give out in every road maintenance project. I do, however, think that once all the work is finished, the workers and the equipment is gone, the lanes are nice and smooth, etc., that flow will not really be the same as it is right now.

My only real concern here is the usual banditry that takes place with public works projects. Take for instance the recent paint job at the pedestrian underpass. I forget the sum, but I think it ran into the $200,000 level. It was nothing more than rolling paint over the surface. It is already peeling.

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White House staff tried to ‘un-ring the bell’ after revealing CIA chief’s identity

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White House staff tried to ‘un-ring the bell’ after revealing CIA chief’s identity

• White House press office unaware it had circulated name
• Washington Post journalist sounded alert after filing report

The White House blew the cover of the top CIA agent in Afghanistan on Sunday, when the person’s name was included on a list given to reporters during a visit to the country by President Barack Obama.

The name was then emailed by the White House press office to a distribution list of more than 6,000 recipients, mostly members of the US media.

The agent in question, listed as chief of station, would be a top manager of CIA activity in Afghanistan, including intelligence collection and a drone-warfare programme under which unmanned aerial vehicles mount cross-border attacks into Pakistan.

The name appeared on a list of attendees requested by White House officials for the president’s visit to Bagram air base to mark Memorial Day, the national day of tribute to fallen service members. The list of 15 people was drawn up by the military, written into a routine press report and sent to Washington. The Obama press office then sent the list, unredacted, to the larger group.

The mistake did not come to light until the reporter who had filed from Afghanistan, the veteran Washington Post correspondent Scott Wilson, looked more closely at what he had sent and noticed the name and title.

“I drew it to their attention before they had noticed what had happened,” Wilson said on Monday, hours after returning from the 33-hour trip overseas.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/26/identification-cia-station-chief-afghanistan-reporter

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Hospitals Look to Health Law, Cutting Charity

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Hospitals Look to Health Law, Cutting Charity
By ABBY GOODNOUGHMAY 25, 2014

Hospital systems around the country have started scaling back financial assistance for lower- and middle-income people without health insurance, hoping to push them into signing up for coverage through the new online marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act.

The trend is troubling to advocates for the uninsured, who say raising fees will inevitably cause some to skip care rather than buy insurance that they consider unaffordable. Though the number of hospitals tightening access to free or discounted care appears limited so far, many say they are considering doing so, and experts predict that stricter policies will become increasingly common.

Driving the new policies is the cost of charity care, which is partly covered by government but remains a burden for many hospitals. The new law also reduces federal aid to hospitals that treat large numbers of poor and uninsured people, creating an additional pressure on some to restrict charity care.

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Today Ridgewood became the first Bergen town to fly the Honor and Remember flag.

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Today Ridgewood became the first Bergen town to fly the Honor and Remember flag.
May 26th 2014
Freeholder Maura DeNicola

Ridgewood NJ, American Legion Post 53 in Ridgewood’s Memorial Day Ceremony. Today Ridgewood became the first Bergen town to fly the Honor and Remember flag. photo by Freeholder Maura DeNicola

The Honor & Remember flag was developed by the Honor and Remember organization. The goal of this organization is to promote broad national awareness of the flag, so that military, government and educational facilities as well as households throughout the country world begin flying the Honor and Remember flag to promote recognition of our nation’s fallen warriors. A flag that is a visible reminder to all Americans of the lives lost in defense of our national freedoms. Annin & Co. gives back a portion of the proceeds from the sale of these flags to the Honor and Remember organization. They, in turn, use these funds to support the effort of donating an Honor and Remember flag to those families who have lost a loved one in military service to America.

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A Heated Debate: Are Climate Scientists Being Forced to Toe the Line?

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A Heated Debate: Are Climate Scientists Being Forced to Toe the Line?

By Axel Bojanowski

News that Lennart Bengtsson, the respected former director of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, had joined the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), sent shockwaves through the climate research community. GWPF is most notable for its skepticism about climate change and its efforts to undermine the position of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The tremors his decision sent through the scientific community shocked Bengtsson.

The scientist said colleagues placed so much pressure on him after joining GWPF that he withdrew from the group out of fear for his own health. Bengtsson added that his treatment had been reminiscent of the persecution of suspected Communists in the United States during the era of McCarthyism in the 1950s.

Not all of his fellow climatologists agree. Gavin Schmidt a climatologist and climate modeler at NASA described the “alleged connection to McCarthy” as “ridiculous.” “As someone who has actually been threatened with criminal sanctions by a United States Senator only because of published science, I don’t quite see why Bengtsson’s total freedom to associate with anyone he wants — and let me be clear, he has this freedom — has in any way been compromised,” he said.

But Bengtsson insists that even close colleagues shunned him. He says that one research partner, apparently fearing damage to his reputation, withdrew from a study they had been conducting together. Bengtsson added no further details other than to state that the incident had been hurtful.

https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/climate-scientists-mixed-over-controversy-surrounding-respected-researcher-a-971033.html

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Civil service reforms snarled by obscure section of constitution

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Civil service reforms snarled by obscure section of constitution

MAY 25, 2014, 10:52 PM    LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, MAY 25, 2014, 10:53 PM
BY MICHAEL LINHORST
STATE HO– USE BUREAU
THE RECORD

A fight between Democrats and Governor Christie over the way New Jersey promotes its public employees has prompted a power struggle centered on a never-before-used amendment to the state constitution.

It’s a dispute with roots in a part of the constitution so obscure that even prominent New Jersey constitutional experts know little about it. But the results of the fight could be far-reaching, possibly affecting the jobs of all 80,000 state workers.

If Christie wins, his administration argues the proposal will create a more efficient and effective state government. But Democrats and public sector unions see it differently: They say the change could lead to nepotism, cronyism and corruption.

The proposal would create a system known as “job banding.” State employees could advance from one job within their band to another without taking a civil service test or competing with other prospective applicants, which they have to do now. They would still have to take a civil service exam before initially being hired, but after that, managers would have much more freedom to move workers to other jobs as long as they are not moving outside their band.

Democrats have called it “an affront to the people of New Jersey.” The head of the state’s AFL-CIO union said it “opens the door to the type of cronyism that civil service was created to eliminate in the first place.” The chairman of the Civil Service Commission, meanwhile, has called those accusations “disparaging.” A Christie spokes­man said the objections are “baseless” and said the union leaders are “embarrassingly uninformed.”

The Civil Service Commission, which is run by Christie appointees, gave final approval to the proposal on May 7.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/civil-service-reforms-snarled-by-obscure-section-of-constitution-1.1023306#sthash.nDd743wF.dpuf

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Memorial Day and the Meaning of Freedom

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file photo Boyd Loving

Memorial Day and the Meaning of Freedom
By Jeff Deist
Saturday, May 24th, 2014

Memorial Day provides the political class countless opportunities to ruin an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable holiday weekend.  Like clockwork, local congressmen, mayors, city council members, et al. materialize at parades, picnics, and churches to give speeches about “freedom.”

But what does freedom really mean?

Just as we should repudiate Junk English in economics, we should demand precision when it comes to the language of political posturing! In other words, we should insist that politicians use defined terms (I’m not holding my breath).

In essence, freedom is the absence of state coercion. Nothing more, but certainly nothing less.

Dr. Ron Paul explains this coercive reality behind those invoking freedom while advocating state action:

Few Americans understand that all government action is inherently coercive. If nothing else, government action requires taxes. If taxes were freely paid, they wouldn’t be called taxes, they’d be called donations. If we intend to use the word freedom in an honest way, we should have the simple integrity to give it real meaning: Freedom is living without government coercion. So when a politician talks about freedom for this group or that, ask yourself whether he is advocating more government action or less.

Taking this definition a step further, Hans-Hermann Hoppe describes a free society as the absence of aggression against one’s body and property:

A society is free, if every person is recognized as the exclusive owner of his own (scarce) physical body, if everyone is free to appropriate or “homestead” previously un-owned things as private property, if everyone is free to use his body and his homesteaded goods to produce whatever he wants to produce (without thereby damaging the physical integrity of other peoples’ property), and if everyone is free to contract with others regarding their respective properties in any way deemed mutually beneficial. Any interference with this constitutes an act of aggression, and a society is un-free to the extent of such aggressions.

In The Ethics of Liberty, Murray Rothbard similarly defined freedom as the “absence of invasion by another man of any man’s person or property” (italics in original).

This encapsulates the critical libertarian concept of negative liberty, as opposed to the view of positive liberty in the form of mastery over one’s person and surroundings generally favored by “progressives.”

This definition of freedom is fundamental.  It means free people should be able to use their minds, bodies, and talents to advance their well-being (whether material, intellectual, or spiritual) as they see fit.  It does not mean they can demand freedom from material want, or scarcity, or illness, or unhappiness, or unpleasantness generally.  It does not mean anyone owes them housing, medical care, food, or a “living wage.” It means, in sum, the freedom to be left alone.  And this is precisely what the political class of all stripes cannot abide.

https://bastiat.mises.org/2014/05/memorial-day-and-the-meaning-of-freedom/

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Political battle may delay pothole fixes in Ridgewood

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Political battle may delay pothole fixes in Ridgewood

MAY 26, 2014    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, MAY 26, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

RIDGEWOOD — A battle over the capital budget could stall an effort by the new manager to pave more than 30 roads in the village.

The council last week voted 3-2 to introduce a $1.5 million bond ordinance at Wednesday’s meeting that will need at least four votes to pass.

Similarly, the village’s capital budget needs four votes for approval. It remains in flux following last month’s 3-2 split.

The capital budget had called for $1.5 million for paving, but Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld pulled it from the annual spending plan, opting instead to introduce it for separate consideration by the council.

Last week’s meeting served as a prelude to the council’s upcoming work session on Wednesday, with Councilman Thomas Riche and Councilwoman Bernadette Walsh casting the opposing votes.

Both Riche and Walsh recently voted against the introduction of the municipal budget, which proposes to keep taxes flat for a second straight year.

After last week’s vote, Mayor Paul Aronsohn halted the meeting to ask Riche and Walsh — both outgoing council members — if the governing body “will move forward with” the paving plan when it votes on the measure in less than two weeks.

Riche said he would “go over the facts” first, then share his decision on Wednesday, while Walsh opposed Sonenfeld’s tactic, saying “you can’t take a group of things and then, to try to make it pass, start pulling things out so they are approved.”

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/political-battle-may-delay-pothole-fixes-in-ridgewood-1.1023500#sthash.MtaZ35eS.dpuf

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Ridgewood Memorial Day Run Events begin at 8:15AM

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Ridgewood Memorial Day Run Events begin at 8:15AM

the 39th Annual Fred D’Elia Ridgewood Run will be held in Ridgewood on Memorial Day, Monday May 26. Events will start at Veterans Memorial field on maple Avenue.  Hotline – 973/333-4837 or www.NJMasters.com/RidgewoodRun

Ridgewood Police Note : The race course for the Memorial Day run has been posted with no parking signs. Vehicles parked along the course after 7:30am on Monday 5/26/14 will be ticketed and towed.

IMPORTANT SAFETY PROTOCOLS FOR THE RIDGEWOOD RUN

The Ridgewood Police Department asks all participants to cooperate with the following:

Volunteers arriving at Veteran’s Field for the Ridgewood Run on Monday, May 26th are asked to park in the lot on the corner of Linwood Ave and Northern Parkway ACROSS from Graydon Pool.
All participants are encouraged to leave any purses, bags, backpacks, etc. at home. If you must bring personal items, please check them at the Baggage Tent next to the baseball backstop. No bags will be permitted along the race course or near the finish line.
Any vehicle on the course or on the field must display an “OFFICIAL RACE VEHICLE” placard. If you anticipate needing vehicular access to these areas, please contact Cheryl Moses, Race Director, for an ACCESS APPLICATION. [email protected] or 551-427-2505.

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Booker preparing for fight to keep his Senate seat

 

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file photo by Boyd Loving

Booker preparing for fight to keep his Senate seat

MAY 25, 2014, 10:45 PM    LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, MAY 25, 2014, 10:46 PM
BY HERB JACKSON
RECORD COLUMNIST
THE RECORD

Maybe it’s the positive thoughts he pushes out at least daily on Facebook and Twitter, but Sen. Cory Booker says he’s more optimistic about finding bipartisan solutions in Washington than he was when he arrived seven months ago.

“I came down here with low expectations and my experience is better and better and better,” Booker said in an interview last week, ticking off bipartisan bills to expand apprenticeships and study year-round schools, and touting his solo plan that could lead to other states’ contributing toward future New Jersey highway projects.

But while Booker’s enthusiasm grew for his new job, the rock-star image he built in his previous job as the mayor who turned Newark around is taking a hit.

This month’s intensely competitive campaign to choose his replacement as Newark mayor highlighted a $30 million shortfall in the city budget Booker left. The winner of that campaign, Ras Baraka, was a city councilman and public school principal who frequently criticized the Booker school reform plan that attracted a $100 million donation from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, but produced questionable results.

Booker also touted his ability to bring down crime in the city, and in 2008, the city murder rate had dropped to 67. But budget cuts after that then reduced the size of the police force to 1,038 from 1,317 last year. And there were 111 murders last year, the most in 23 years.

The state comptroller also issued a damning report in March saying that the city government was inattentive to corruption and patronage at the independent Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corp., which had managed the city’s water delivery and reservoirs in Morris, Passaic and Sussex counties.

Among the findings referred to state prosecutors were that a Booker ally serving as the agency’s director wrote herself unauthorized payroll checks, handed out no-bid contracts to close personal associates, and made surreptitious risky investments that lost $500,000.

“I don’t think my legacy needs defending,” Booker said when asked about the bashing he has been taking. He said that he got Baraka’s endorsement for senator in the October election to fill the remainder of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s term, and won 90 percent of the votes cast in Newark against Republican Steve Lonegan.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/jackson-booker-preparing-for-fight-to-keep-his-senate-seat-1.1023305#sthash.Jcg0Iits.dpuf

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Poland’s Walesa says the US no longer world leader

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Poland’s Walesa says the US no longer world leader

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s former president and Nobel Peace laureate, Lech Walesa, said Friday he plans to urge President Barack Obama to take a more active world leadership role when he visits Poland in June.

Speaking to The Associated Press, Walesa said “the world is disorganized and the superpower is not taking the lead. I am displeased..

The former Solidarity leader said that when he meets Obama in Warsaw, he wants to tell him that the U.S. should inspire and encourage the world into positive action.

“The point is not in having the States fix problems for us or fight somewhere, no,” Walesa said. “The States should organize us, encourage us and offer programs, while we, the world, should do the rest. This kind of leadership is needed.”

https://news.yahoo.com/polands-walesa-says-us-no-longer-world-leader-191843026.html;_ylt=AwrBEiQBoX9T7hIAzCvQtDMD