Interest-Rate Spike Puts Mortgages at 14-Year Low
By
Nick Timiraos
Updated April 24, 2014 7:34 p.m. ET
Mortgage lending declined to the lowest level in 14 years in the first quarter as homeowners pulled back sharply from refinancing and house hunters showed little appetite for new loans, the latest sign of how rising interest rates have dented the housing recovery.
Lenders originated $235 billion in mortgage loans during the January-March quarter, down 58% from the same period a year ago and down 23% from the fourth quarter of 2013,…
Ridgewood Police : Here are some tips to help you identify online scams
Protect yourself by reading up on some of the latest and most prevalent scams. If something sounds “off” to you, chances are it’s a scam. By educating yourself, you can learn how to spot a scam, whether it is a soliciting email, a false transaction alert from an auction site, or a work-from-home offer. Empower yourself to know the difference between legitimate online opportunities and cybercrime scams. Below are some very common cybercrime scams:
It’s most likely a scam if…
1. You receive an email stating you won or are inheriting money.
2. It looks or sounds too good to be true.
3. You are asked to wire money instead of sending a check or using an online payment method.
4. The person you are dealing with is out of the country.
5. You are purchasing a vehicle or any other item, and the seller claims to be in a different location than the vehicle.
6. An individual wants to send you a check for more than what you’re asking for an item and requests that you cash the check and wire the extra money back.7.You can work from home and only have to cash checks or “reship” items.
8. You receive an email from your bank asking for any login info, bank account info, or personal info.
9. An offer is unsolicited.
If you ever have any suspicions or questions regarding online transactions, please call your local law enforcement agency to discuss the possibility of the situation being an Internet scam.
Bergen County executive’s suit against police merger dealt blow in court
APRIL 25, 2014, 2:28 PM LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014, 9:36 PM BY PETER J. SAMPSON STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
A state judge Friday dealt Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan a setback in her bid to bolster a lawsuit challenging the merger of the County Police into the Sheriff’s Office with claims that two Democratic freeholders violated ethics laws.
In a bench ruling in Hackensack, Superior Court Judge Menelaos W. Toskos denied Donovan permission to amend her suit to add a fifth count contending that the merger votes cast by the two freeholders were tainted by a conflict of interest because their children are Sheriff’s Office employees.
To press such a claim, the judge said, the county executive would have to provide more specifics in her pleadings about the alleged conflict, such as how the freeholders or their children might benefit from the proposed merger.
James J. DiGiulio, an attorney for Donovan, told the judge after his ruling that such information would be included in a further bid to amend the complaint.
In a suit filed last year, Donovan is seeking to overturn the freeholder board’s approval of the merger.
Earth Day Graydon Pool Memberships – Available to All Are Now on Sale
The Village Council and the Ridgewood Department of Parks and Recreation are excited to announce memberships are now on sale for the upcoming summer season and all are invited to join the Graydon Pool facility as season members for the 2014 summer season. Come enjoy fun in the sun so close to home! Opening day is Saturday, May 31st.
Pool features include a shaded playground, water play fountains, shade kites, Adirondack chairs, picnic area, sheltered pavilion, charcoal grills, and The Water’s Edge Café. Additional amenities include a lending library of reading books, volleyball, basketball, ping-pong tables, shuffleboard, four-squares and hop-scotch. Special programs include “Storytime Under a Tree” for the little ones and swim instruction for children and adults, as well as an adaptive swim class. The Graydon Swim Team welcomes youth members, ages 8 to 14.
Resident fees are $120 per adult, $110 per child (ages 2 through 15) and $30 for seniors. Non-resident adults will be charged $200 and children, ages 2 through 15, will be charged $175 for the13 week season.
Badges are now on sale and can be purchased from the comfort of home on Community Pass at www.ridgewoodnj.net/communitypass (Visa and MasterCard are accepted). In person registration assistance will be available Saturdays, May 10 and May 17, 10:00 am to 12 noon, at the Graydon Pool Badge Office (onsite at the pool), 259 North Maple Avenue. Badges may be purchased daily throughout the operating season, May 31st through Septemer 1st.
Details are available at www.ridgewoodnj.net/graydon or you may call the Recreation Office at 201-670-5560 with any questions or if special accommodations are needed.
SayleStock music and art festival returns to Ridgewood on Sunday
APRIL 25, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014, 12:31 AM BY JODI WEINBERGER CORRESPONDENT
Three years after Matt Sayles gathered his friends and family for a music festival on the lawn of his parents’ vacation home in Lake George, N.Y., the tradition will continue in Ridgewood to celebrate his life and raise awareness of salivary gland cancer.
SayleStock will be held from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday, April 27, in Van Neste Square. The concert will honor its creator and namesake, 26-year-old Matt, who died from salivary gland cancer on Nov. 10, 2011.
Attendees are encouraged to spread out in the park with blankets and chairs and enjoy an afternoon of music, art and food to benefit the Matthew Sayles Foundation for Salivary Gland Cancer, which raises money for research and awareness of the rare cancer.
Matt Sayles was teaching in Thailand when a persistent pain in the side of his neck sent him to the hospital for tests. Results came back inconclusive and so Matt returned to Ridgewood where he underwent more testing at hospitals in New Jersey and New York.
Doctors concluded that he had salivary gland cancer, and a failed attempt to remove the tumor revealed that it had metastasized to his lungs. Matt was teaching at Midland Park middle and high schools at the time and insisted he be treated normally despite the grim diagnoses.
“There really was no course of action,” said Matt’s father, Dave Sayles. “Once it had spread to his lungs there wasn’t much they could do. We tried chemotherapy and radiation.”
After his death, his parents formed the foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and called on Matt’s high school friends and the community to help bring SayleStock to Ridgewood. The first iteration of the event in Ridgewood last year drew about 700 people throughout the afternoon, Dave Sayles said.
NJ’s Clean-Energy Goals Finance ‘Green’ Jobs in Other States, Lobbyist Claims
Are New Jersey’s utility customers paying too much to meet the state’s renewable energy requirements, mostly by funding similar programs and creating green jobs in other states?
The question is being raised as some argue that the state’s ambitious targets to increase the use of renewable energy can’t be achieved, primarily because many of the key technologies, such as offshore wind, are unlikely to be deployed.
The result? Of the $105 million collected from the state’s ratepayers this year to pay for credits to support some types of renewable energy, about $90 million will flow to out-of-state renewable energy projects and green jobs, according to an analysis put together by an energy lobbyist and a colleague.
The reason the money is on the move to neighboring states is that renewable resources like wind are more plentiful and more affordable in other locales, the analysis said.
This trend will significantly worsen in the next few years unless something is done, according to the analysis, potentially ballooning to $180 million heading out of the state by 2021.
The Ridgewood Police Department conducting Pedestrian Safety enforcement
MOTORISTS in New Jersey MUST stop for pedestrians in a marked crosswalk. Failure to observe the law may subject you to one or more of the following:
2 POINTS
$200 FINE (plus court costs)
15 DAYS COMMUNITY SERVICE
INSURANCE SURCHARGES
NEW JERSEY STATUTE 39:4-36 Driver to stop for pedestrian: exceptions, violations. penalties.
A. The driver of a vehicle must stop and stay stopped for a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk, but shall yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, except at crosswalks when the movement of traffic is being regulated by police officers or traffic control signals, or where otherwise prohibited by municipal, county, or State regulation, and except where a pedestrian tunnel or overhead pedestrian crossing has been provided, but no pedestrian shall suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle which is so close that it is impossible for the driver to yield.Whenever any vehicle is stopped to permit a pedestrian to cross the roadway, the driver of any other vehicle approaching from the rear shall not overtake and pass such stopped vehicle.
Every pedestrian upon a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.
B. A person violating this section shall, upon conviction thereof, pay a fine to be imposed by the court in the amount of $200. The court may also impose a term of community service not to exceed 15 days.
C. Of each fine imposed and collected pursuant to subsection B. of the section, $100 shall be forwarded to the State Treasurer who shall annually deposit the moneys into the “Pedestrian Safety Enforcement and Education Fund” created by section 1 of PL 2005, c 84 (C.39:4-36.2)
PEDESTRIANS MUST obey pedestrian signals and use crosswalks at signalized intersections. Both carry a $54.00 fine for failure to observe the law. (C.39:4-32 and 33)
Transportation Crisis puts Christie, Democrats on Collision Course
New Jerseyans pay more for unnecessary repairs caused by driving on poor or mediocre roads than residents of any other state. One out of every three bridges is decrepit or obsolete. Trains into Manhattan are jammed to capacity, with construction of a new rail tunnel at least a decade away.
Meanwhile, the Christie administration has borrowed so heavily that the Transportation Trust Fund that pays for highways, bridges, and mass-transit projects is going to run out of money a year early. And Gov. Chris Christie has called for the breakup of the Port Authority, the bistate agency set up to fund large-scale projects in the busiest transportation hub in the world.
“We certainly cannot renew the Transportation Trust Fund without a revenue source,” said Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex). “But I’m not sure that the public is prepared for the sticker shock of what it’s going to cost to fix our transportation system.”
While Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) has introduced legislation raising New Jersey’s gas tax, which is the second-lowest in the nation, by nine cents a gallon over three years, New Jersey Policy Perspective yesterday slapped a realistic sticker price on New Jersey’s transportation crisis: The liberal think tank suggested a plan to raise $1.25 billion a year by hiking the tax on a gallon of gas from 14.5 cents to 39 cents a gallon — which would still be lower than New York, Pennsylvania, and six other large urban states. (Magyar/NJSpotlight)
What’s Actually Good for the Environment May Surprise You Amy Payne April 22, 2014 at 6:30 am
Good news for Earth Day: We can boost energy production and economic growth without harming the environment!
Thanks to years of empty promises from the Left, politicians in Congress and the White House have installed all sorts of harmful policies that block energy production, jobs, and economic growth. But those policies have shown themselves to be counterproductive—they don’t deliver the benefits liberals promised, and they hurt Americans.
Here are two examples that may surprise you.
1. An oil pipeline is environmentally safe.
The Keystone XL pipeline, which President Obama just delayed again, has received anenvironmental green light multiple times—from this administration.
State Department impact reports have concluded “that the pipeline, a Canada-based project to deliver up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day to Gulf Coast refineries, would pose no significant environmental risk and would not contribute substantially to carbon dioxide emissions,” saysNicolas Loris, Heritage’s Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow.
Loris also notes that the project “has bipartisan support, the backing of several unions, andapproval from former energy and interior secretaries.”
The pipeline would bring jobs and would help provide additional oil supply. “With high economic benefits and minimal environmental impact, this project should be a no-brainer,” Loris says. But elections seem to be a problem for Keystone. After a promise to decide the pipeline’s fate by 2011, President Obama postponed the project through the 2012 election—and this latest delay pushes a decision past the midterms.
2. Biofuels are not better for the environment.
Here’s another case where central planners promised they knew what was best for us—and it’s not working out. In fact, it’s costing us.
A new study out this week concluded that biofuels aren’t the “clean” alternative to gasoline that advocates promised. In fact, producing biofuels can release more greenhouse gases than using gasoline.
It’s been known for years that biofuels aren’t as environmentally friendly as we were first told. Heritage’s Loris wrote last year that “After accounting for land-use conversion, the use of fertilizers, insecticides, and pesticides, as well as the fossil fuels used for production and distribution, biofuel production is quite carbon-intensive.”
Even if unintended, the consequences of mandating ethanol production and use in gasoline have been disastrous. Loris reports:
The mandate promised less dependence on foreign oil, lower fuel prices, and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Instead of delivering on these promises, the mandate delivered concentrated benefits to politically connected producers and higher costs to America’s energy consumers.
Whether it’s blocking helpful developments or mandating harmful ones, the government isn’t getting environmental policy right. That’s why The Heritage Foundation’s American Conservation Ethic includes the principle that the most successful environmental policies come from liberty.
Ridgewood Police : Have you been the victim of a cybercrime?
Ridgewood nJ, Have you been the victim of a cybercrime? Chances are your not alone. Every day more than one million people fall victim to cybercrime. The National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) is pleased to collaborate with Symantec to provide resources for cybercrime victims.
VictimVoice.org provides a wealth of resources related to cybercrime, including prevention tips and steps to take if victimized. This site also allows users to file a complaint about an online crime directly with the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
Please check out the VOICE website today and share with others to help prevent and combat cybercrime.
Tea Party Express, which calls itself the nation’s largest Tea Party political action committee, today announced its endorsement of Steve Lonegan for the 3rd Congressional district.
Tea Party Express Executive Director Taylor Budowich said, “Steve Lonegan is exactly the kind of Constitutional conservative that will go to Washington D.C. and fight for what’s right. He is a proven conservative champion who will not back down in the face of President Obama’s liberal agenda.
“Throughout his career, Lonegan has proven his willingness to stand up to the establishment of both parties, and we are confident that he will do the same as a member of Congress,” Budowich added. “Above all else, Steve Lonegan is a fighter who will do everything he can to put an end to the Obama-Pelosi big government agenda of tax increases, crippling regulations and reckless spending. He has already demonstrated his strong appeal to voters in the 3rd Congressional District, which he carried in the recent Special U.S. Senate election, where the Tea Party Express was proud to endorse Lonegan. We were victorious yesterday in the Special Congressional Election with outsider, Curt Clawson, and Lonegan will bring the same kind of energy and fresh approach that is needed in Washington.”
In a closely watched GOP Primary, Lonegan is vying against businessman Tom MacArthur to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Jon Runyan (R-3).
Cardiologist allegedly fondled two New Jersey women during exams
Dr. John Stroback was indicted this week on two counts of criminal sexual contact. He faces up to three years in prison if convicted.
Two women say they visited a New Jersey doctor for cardiology exams, but were groped instead of evaluated.
Dr. John Stroback, 67, was indicted Tuesday on two counts of criminal sexual contact after two women claim he fondled them during separate exams. Stroback, of Hawthorne, is a nationally renowned doctor and the director of the Heart Failure Program at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ.com reported.
Bergen County Freeholder Maura DeNicola :Prayer Vigil for PO Dan Breslin’s Recovery
Friends ~ Tonight there will be a Prayer Vigil for the Intention of PO Dan Breslin’s Recovery at Holy Trinity Church, 34 Maple Avenue, Hackensack at 8 p.m. Pray there, pray anywhere.
Family has a long history of saving soles in Ridgewood
APRIL 25, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014, 12:31 AM BY BETSY MURPHY CORRESPONDENT
Business celebrates 60 years in village
It’s a family business.
Vincent Barbuto, a shoemaker, came from Italy and opened a shoe repair shop in Paterson, Parker Shoe Repair, 92 years ago. Today, his grandson, Vinnie, owns Quality Shoe Repair in Ridgewood.
“My grandfather owned that Paterson store and the family worked there,” says Vinnie. “My father, two uncles and an aunt. My aunt used to deliver shoes on her bicycle.”
His Uncle Tony, 72, opened stores in Montclair, Cliffside Park, then Paterson on Ellison Street about 30 years ago and is still there.
Vinnie’s father, Frank Barbuto, was 4 years old when he came here from Italy. While growing up, he worked and honed his skills with his father. Drafted into the Korean War, he lost a leg when he was 18 and spent 16 months at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C. Soon after he came home, he opened his first shop in Ridgewood at the corner of Franklin and Maple avenues.
“It’s where Corday Cleaners used to be,” says Vinnie. It was two years later that he moved with his brother, Tony, to 18 Oak St., the shop’s location ever since. That was in 1954.
In 1957, he married his wife, Margaret. They had two children, Theresa and Vinnie. A homemaker, Margaret sometimes took Frank his dinner when he worked late.
Margaret took over the bookkeeping and, as the children grew, she worked when needed. She worked first with her husband, Frank, then with her son, dealing with customers at the counter, until she died at 86.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/family-has-a-long-history-of-saving-soles-1.1002999#sthash.eVL0k04m.dpuf
