Reader says spending more on schools means NOTHING if the kid doesn’t want to learn.
Paying more does not mean services are better.
A teacher making less doesn’t say screw it I’m not going to do my job. Just because I have rich neighbors doesn’t mean I should pay our municipal employees more than other towns in NJ, I think you will find proof that extra spending does nothing as far as the ‘end result’.
Just look at Paterson, which thanks to the ‘Abbot ruling’ spends the same or more than any Bergen county town on their students (using NJ state funds) The students do not do well on state tests despite having money pissed away on their behalf.
I’m told by a former teacher there that the only requirement for advancement to the next grade is attendance.
So spending more means NOTHING if the kid doesn’t want to learn.
Reader says: Let’s take a lesson from NJ Transit and install GPS tracking devices on all Village of Ridgewood owned vehicles.
NJ Transit disciplines 10 workers after using GPS to root out fraud, waste and abuse
MAY 5, 2014, 10:07 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, MAY 5, 2014, 10:49 PM BY KAREN RO– USE STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
Ten NJ Transit employees have been disciplined — including three who were fired and one who was suspended for 30 days — after the agency installed GPS tracking devices in its vehicles as part of a $500,000 program to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse.
NJ Transit is among a growing number of public and private entities turning to GPS — the Global Positioning System, a technology that relies on satellite and radio signals – to track vehicles and employee productivity and behavior. The agency outfitted 480 vehicles with the technology. The New Jersey Department of Transportation more than two years ago installed GPS on its maintenance fleet to keep tabs on where vehicles are located, as well as when drivers are speeding or parked for too long. And Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop announced last year that the city would install GPS in public works vehicles to increase accountability and save fuel.
“This was a proactive, cost-savings initiative taken by NJ Transit,” said NJ Transit spokesman John Durso Jr., who confirmed the disciplinary actions after an inquiry from The Record.
Durso said that in the roughly six months since GPS was installed, the agency has already seen a dramatic drop in usage of its fleet, which includes such vehicles as the Toyota Prius, Ford Focus, Jeep Liberty and Dodge Stratus.
“This includes a 40 percent drop in hours used, and a 31 percent drop in gallons of fuel used,” Durso said.
He said the fleet logged 108,655 hours from January to March of 2013, compared with 68,069 hours for the same three-month period in 2014. Fuel usage, meanwhile, dropped from 9,314 gallons to 7,099 for the period.
Too Big To Audit? Large Partnerships Escape IRS Scrutiny, GAO Reports
May 2, 2014 – 1:14 PM
By Barbara Hollingsworth
(CNSNews.com) – In 2011, while the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was busy scrutinizing the tax-exempt status of 100 percent of Tea Party groups and other conservative non-profits, the tax agency did not audit a single high-value electing large partnership (ELP) with more than $100 million in assets.
That’s according to a preliminary report released to Congress by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) April 17th. (See GAO.pdf)
An ELP is a business entity with more than 100 partners and more than $100 million in assets that is required to file a 1065-B tax return every year. They include large private equity firms, hedge funds and oil and gas partnerships.
“No partnerships that filed a Form 1065-B from tax years 2002 to 2011 had their tax return audited and closed by IRS from fiscal years 2007 to 2013,” a footnote on page 14 of the GAO report stated.
Jim White, a spokesman for GAO, confirmed that no ELPs were audited by the IRS between 2007 and 2013, the last year statistics are available. However, he pointed out that there were only 15 ELPs out of 105 filing 1065-B returns nationwide in 2011 that met the $100 million asset threshold.
Another 2,211 partnerships filed under IRS Form 1065 in 2011, “but only 20 audits (or less than one percent) were closed that year,” White told CNSNews.com, acknowledging that “this is a very low audit rate.”
White noted that GAO is doing a follow-up and “will be asking the IRS a number of questions to try to better understand” the tax agency’s audit decisions.
Own a small business? Brace for Obamacare pain
By JENNIFER ROBISON
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Local business owners might be hoping the Affordable Care Act’s insurance mandates cover sticker shock.
The law’s employer coverage mandate doesn’t take effect until 2015, but early plan renewals are starting to roll in. And for some businesses, the premium jumps are positively painful.
Local insurance brokers are reporting spikes ranging from 35 percent to 120 percent on policies that renew from July to December. The increases are especially acute among employers with workforces made up of younger, healthier men. That’s because Obamacare prohibits offering lower rates to healthier groups. It also narrows the allowed premium gap between older and younger enrollees.
“It’s like if there were no more safe-driver discounts with State Farm,” said local insurance broker Frank Nolimal of Assurance Ltd. “Everybody has the same rate, whether you have three DUIs, or you’re a (nondrinking) churchgoing Mormon.”
The changes put as many as 90,000 policies across Nevada at risk of cancellation or nonrenewal this fall, said Las Vegas insurance broker William Wright, president of Chamber Insurance and Benefits. That’s more than three times the 25,000 enrollees affected in October, when Obamacare-compliant plans first hit the market.
Some workers are at higher risk than others of losing company-sponsored coverage. Professional, white-collar companies such as law or engineering firms will bite the bullet and renew at higher prices because they need to compete for scarce skilled labor, Nolimal said.
But moderately skilled or low-skilled people making $8 to $14 an hour working for landscaping businesses, fire-prevention firms or fencing companies could lose work-based coverage because the plans cost so much relative to salaries.
Employees who keep their coverage might see leaner take-home pay, which could hurt the economy.
Nolimal said one business client whose monthly premiums will rise from $160 to $340 in June plans to shift most of the increase onto his employees.
“Just like when you see gasoline prices going up an extra dime a gallon, it takes money out of the economy for things like buying a new stereo or having dinner out on the town,” Nolimal said.
The premium hikes could have political implications, as well. Nolimal estimated that as many as 85 percent of small-group plans will renew in November and December. Because new premiums go out 60 days before coverage takes effect, those price hikes will hit mailboxes in September and October — just before November’s elections.
That may be why Wright said Nevada lawmakers seemed keenly interested in hearing what he and other brokers had to say during a recent visit to Washington.
He said lawmakers were “very receptive” to the idea that Nevada officials should embrace a federally established transition period that would let businesses keep their existing plans for at least one more year to blunt the effect of today’s higher costs.
Nevada Insurance Commissioner Scott Kipper said March 25 that he doesn’t have the discretion to allow noncompliant plans to stay in place, based on advice from Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto. That decision mirrored a fall conclusion that it would be illegal to reinstate the first wave of canceled plans.
But Wright said he has an opinion from a national law firm that says the small-group situation is different, because it involves policies not yet canceled. He said he and other brokers will work over the next few weeks to sway the commissioner.
Donald Trump unleashes anti-media tirade
By JONATHAN TOPAZ | 5/5/14 7:45 AM EDT
Donald Trump slammed the media on Monday, calling the press “really dishonest” in its coverage of everything from Benghazi to his recent comments about Donald Sterling.
“I have found the press to be among the most dishonest institutions. I’ve never seen anything like it,” the real estate magnate said on “Fox & Friends.”
The developer said that the media have avoided coverage of the September 2012 attacks in Benghazi because they are trying to insulate many on the left from negative coverage.
“Most of the press, the liberal press in particular, does not want to talk about Benghazi,” Trump said. “And they want to protect anybody involved with respect to Benghazi.” Among those the media are trying to protect, he said, is former Secretary of State and potential 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Trump also railed against the press for its coverage of his remarks last week about Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, who has been suspended for life by the NBA for his comments on race. Last week, while criticizing Sterling’s comments, Trump described V. Stiviano, the woman who taped her conversation with the Clippers owner, as “the girlfriend from hell.”
(Also on POLITICO: Trump: ‘The girlfriend from hell’)
“She’s called the girlfriend from hell, but what he said was terrible and despicable and very strong action is going to be taken. There’s no question about it,” Trump said last week of Stiviano and Sterling. “She’s a terrible human being, and he gave horrible answers and disgusting answers.” POLITICO reported the story last week with the headline: “Donald Trump on Donald Sterling comments: ‘The girlfriend from hell.’”
Trump said that the press only covered his comments on Stiviano and neglected his statements criticizing Sterling.
“Nobody was tougher on Donald Sterling than I was,” he said on Monday, while adding that he still thinks Stiviano was “bad news.”
“Reporters are really dishonest, especially political reporters,” he continued.
And though Trump knocked the press in general, he did single out one outlet in particular: “Huffington Post is, like, pathetic,” he said.
Odessa Jewish community mulls emergency evacuation
By SAM SOKOL
Odessa’s Jews are prepared to evacuate should the violence in the western Ukrainian city get significantly worse, several community leaders told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
Odessa’s Jewish community numbers some 30,000, down from nearly 40 percent of the city’s population before the Holocaust.
Running street battles between pro-Russian and nationalist forces claimed dozens of lives in the Black Sea port this weekend, culminating in the burning of dozens of pro-Russian protesters in the city’s trade union building on Friday evening.
The Odessa bloodshed came on the same day that Kiev launched its biggest push yet to reassert its control over separatist areas in the east, hundreds of kilometers away, where armed pro-Russian rebels have proclaimed a “People’s Republic of Donetsk.”
While Jewish community leaders are unanimous in asserting that the violence is unconnected to the Jewish community and that they do not feel specially targeted, they agreed that, should the situation deteriorate, it would be easy for the spillover to affect their constituents.
According to Rabbi Refael Kruskal – the head of the Tikva organization, which runs a network of orphanages and schools and provides social services to the city’s elderly – several of the wounded from Friday’s clashes were Jews, and the community is taking all necessary precautions.
Boehner taps Gowdy to lead Benghazi select committee
By Russell Berman – 05/05/14 01:38 PM EDT
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has named Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), a second-term Republican and former federal prosecutor, to head a new House select committee investigating the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.
Gowdy was the preferred choice of Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to take on what will be a high-profile assignment for the GOP over the next several months. The deep-voiced South Carolinian is known for his prosecutorial style in questioning witnesses at hearings as well as his impassioned floor speeches.
“Trey Gowdy is as dogged, focused, and serious-minded as they come,” Boehner said in a statement announcing the appointment on Monday. “His background as a federal prosecutor and his zeal for the truth make him the ideal person to lead this panel.
“I know he shares my commitment to get to the bottom of this tragedy and will not tolerate any stonewalling from the Obama administration,” Boehner continued.
“I plan to ensure he and his committee have the strongest authority possible to root out all the facts,” he added. “This is a big job, but Rep. Gowdy has the confidence of this conference, and I know his professionalism and grit will earn him the respect of the American people.”
Ridgewood Concert Band Season Finale: “Celebrate New Jersey”
Friday, May 9th
8:00pm
7:30 Prelude Performance
the Midland Park High School Concert Band
West Side Presbyterian Church
Ridgewood, New Jersey
Featured Guest Soloists:
Alan Baer, Principal Tuba New York Philharmonic
Emmett Rapaport, Saxophone
Ridgewood High School Senior and Winner of the 2013 – 2014 Youth Soloist Competition
Also presenting the Sixth Annual Side-by-Side Concert with the finest High School musicians from the area
Alan Baer joined the New York Philharmonic on June 21, 2004, as Principal Tuba. He was formerly principal tuba with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, and Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. His other performing credits include recordings with The Cleveland Orchestra led by Vladimir Ashkenazy, performances with the Peninsula Music Festival of Wisconsin, New Orleans Symphony, Los Angeles Concert Orchestra, Ojai Festival Orchestra (California), Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed as a featured soloist, touring several countries in Europe, including Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and France.
Mr. Baer began his undergraduate work at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he studied with Dr. Gary Bird. He completed his bachelor of music degree with Ronald Bishop at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and has done graduate work at the University of Southern California, Cleveland Institute of Music, and California State University, Long Beach, where he studied with Tommy Johnson. While in Long Beach, Mr. Baer taught at California State University, where he also directed the university tuba ensemble and the brass choir. In Milwaukee, Mr. Baer was adjunct professor of tuba and euphonium at the University of Wisconsin and director of the Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble
Bookends of Ridgewood Hosts Rick Springfield and Guy Fieri on May 6th
Rick Springfield Tuesday, May 6th @ 5:00pm Singer of “Jessie’s Girl, Rick Springfield, will sign his new book: Magnificent Vibrations Books available May 6th
Guy Fieri Tuesday, May 6th @ 8:00pm Star of Diners, Drive-ins & Dives, Guy Fieri, will sign his new book: Guy on Fire Books available May 6th
Bookends is a legendary New Jersey Landmark! We are known for our incredible author events and have hosted well over 1,000 authors in the past 15 years!
All books MUST be purchased from BOOKENDS for any of our events and a valid Bookends receipt must be presented for entry.
Appearing authors will only autograph books purchased at Bookends and must have valid Bookends Receipt. Availability & pricing for all autographed books subject to change. Bookends cannot guarantee that the books that are Autographed will always be First Printings.Autographed books purchased at Bookends are non-returnable.
While we try to ensure that all customers coming to Bookends’ signings will meet authors and get their books signed, we cannot guarantee that all attendees will meet the author or that all books will be signed. We cannot control inclement weather, author travel schedules or authors who leave prematurely.
Bookends, 211 E. Ridgewood Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 201-445-0726
Missed one of our events? We have Signed Books from some of our recent signings. Call the store to order 201-445-0726.
Ridgewood Police : Another successful operation take back
May 5,2014Ridgewood NJ, On Saturday APRIL 26, The Ridgewood Police participated in the DEA National Take Back Initiative .
This program allows residents a safe and convenient way to dispose of unwanted, expired or unused prescription medication. Often, some of these medicines languish in the home and are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse.
Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high. More Americans currently abuse prescription drugs than the number of those using cocaine, hallucinogens, heroin, and inhalants combined, according to the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
The Ridgewood Police would like to thank all those who participated .
Ridgewood pays 29.10% more for education than the national average,
Our residents do not make 29.10% more than national average wage to live here! This is what happens when teachers unions have the state in a stranglehold. Residents are leaving NJ because of high education costs Who will be left here to pay the taxes?
In accordance with the provisions of the “Open Public Meetings Act,” please be advised that the Planning Board has scheduled a special public meeting for Tuesday, May 6, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium at the Benjamin Franklin Middle School, 335 North Van Dien Ave., Ridgewood, NJ.
The Board may take official action during this Work and Public Meeting at which time the Board will:
• Continue the public hearing on the proposed H-Hospital Zone amendment to the Master Plan.
• Continue the public hearing concerning a proposed amendment to the Land Use Plan Element of the Master Plan which would recommend changes in zone district classifications and boundaries within the Central Business District and surrounding area including AH-2, B-3-R, C-R and C Zone Districts.
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.
Get Ready for Regulators to Peer Into Your Portfolio
Bad brokers, meet RoboRegulator.
In December, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which oversees how investments are sold, proposed what it calls Cards, an electronic system that would regularly collect data on balances and transactions in brokerage accounts.
If adopted, Cards would revolutionize how regulators do their jobs and could make it harder for unscrupulous brokers to bilk customers.
But some critics think it could endanger the privacy and security of investors’ confidential data. And the proposal ups the ante for Finra, which often has been criticized for letting wrongdoers slip through the cracks.
Under Cards (which stands for Comprehensive Automated Risk Data System), Finra would collect—probably weekly—a record of activity at all of the more than 4,100 brokerage firms nationwide.
Finra would scour the data continuously, looking for any hints that a firm or a broker might be taking advantage of a client: excessive trading or commissions, switching from one mutual fund to another, overcharging for bond E*TradeETFC +0.04%s, overconcentrating in risky or illiquid securities, and so on.
It took 18 months for Judicial Watch to unearth the emails on Benghazi that led Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Friday to say he’s forming a special committee to look into the issue.
“This material was not voluntarily disclosed,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told The Hill during a phone interview.
The emails have given new life to Republican attacks on Benghazi. They include a key email from White House official Ben Rhodes outlining “goals” for the talk-show appearances of Susan Rice, who was serving as ambassador to the United Nations at the time.
After the emails, Rice appeared on television and linked the attack in Benghazi to protests of an anti-Islamic video that were occurring in the Middle East.
Rhodes said Rice should “underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy.”
Judicial Watch made its request for documents under the Freedom of Information Act. It requested talking points and any related communications about the attack that were given to Rice.
The group made that request on Oct. 18, 2012, a little more than a month after the terrorist attacked killed four Americans at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
The State Department acknowledged receipt of the request about a week later, but eight months after that Judicial Watch had not heard whether State would comply with the request, according to court documents.
That led Judicial Watch to sue State on June 21, 2013, for unlawfully withholding information. A district court then ordered the State Department to turn over 41 documents, which were released to the group on April 18, 2014.
Under FOIA, the government is required to release existing documents unless they are exempt under any of nine major categories that protects things like confidential commercial information or personal identification information, said Ginger McCall, director of the Open Government Program at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
McCall said that if an agency is forced to release information via court order, “it basically means that agency shouldn’t have been withholding the information from the beginning.”
McCall said that most FOIA requesters don’t sue, due to lack of resources, and that “often times the agency, knowing that, will take advantage of that.”
Fitton, the Judicial Watch leaders, charges that State’s refusal to hand over the documents to Congress earlier could be an obstruction of congressional investigations.
Such arguments led Boehner to say Friday he would form a special committee.
He argued that the emails suggested the White House hadn’t been forthcoming with a House subpoena.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, announced on Friday that he would subpoena Secretary of State John Kerry to testify on the emails.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said this week that the emails were not turned over to Congress because they were not specifically about Benghazi. Fitton said those claims were “ludicrous” and possibly a crime.
“Carney needs to be talking to an attorney and not the press,” he said.
REMINDER: Newark Airport Station: Port Authority’s AirTrain Service Suspended – Newark Liberty International Airport Station Closed – Thursday, May 1 through Mid-July 2014
April 11, 2014
Shuttle Bus Service to Airport Terminals
Beginning Thursday, May 1 and continuing through mid-July 2014, AirTrain service will be suspended to allow for Port Authority of NYNJ to perform repair work to the airport rail system. As a result, Newark Liberty International Airport Station also will be closed.
During this time, substitute shuttle bus service will be provided by Port Authority between Newark Penn Station (NPS) and all three airport terminals (A, B, C).
Airport Drop-off/Boarding:
Drop-off area in the terminals are located on Level 3.
Boarding area is located at the courtyard of each terminal.
For terminal information, click HERE.
NPS Drop-off/Boarding:
Drop-off and boarding locations are located outside on Raymond Plaza West (outside of the Main Waiting Room).
View Newark Penn Station’s bus stop location map HERE.
Customers using shuttle bus service between NPS and Newark Liberty International Airport are strongly advised to allow for extra travel time and to expect possible delays. Customers may want to consider alternate means of travel to and from the airport if possible.
Please Note:
Customers should purchase roundtrip tickets from their originating station to the airport.
Customers will need an airport ticket/pass to board a shuttle bus.
CustomersWITHOUT an airport ticket/pass must purchase an “access fee” ticket at a Ticket Vending Machine near the exit to Raymond Plaza West before boarding.
Ticket Office and Ticket Vending Machines also are available in NPS main waiting room.
Tickets will be inspected/collected when boarding the shuttle bus.
The shuttle service will operate on a “load-and-go” basis.
