Report: IRS Deliberately Chose Not to Fess Up to Scandal Before Election
“[I]f this fact came out in September 2012, in the middle of a presidential election? The terrain would have looked very different.”
8:36 AM, May 17, 2013 • By DANIEL HALPER
NBC’s Lisa Myers reported this morning that the IRS deliberately chose not to reveal that it had wrongly targeted conservative groups until after the 2012 presidential election:
The IRS commissioner “has known for at least a year that this was going on,” said Myers, “and that this had happened. And did he share any of that information with the White House? But even more importantly, Congress is going to ask him, why did you mislead us for an entire year?
Superintendent salary caps can keep costs down but so would mergers
May 16, 2013
By Laura Waters, of New Jersey Left Behind
New Jersey Left Behind
This is part of a series from education blogger Laura Waters of NJ Left Behind.
Today at its annual Delegate Assembly, New Jersey School Boards Association will most likely adopt a resolution that attacks Gov. Christie’s mandated state superintendent salary caps as intrusive and untenable.
According to the draft resolution, proposed by the Ridgewood Board of Education (Bergen), local boards of education should have “the flexibility to adjust the CSA’s [Chief School Administrator or Superintendent’s] compensation commensurate with his or her experience knowing the current employment market conditions and other factors that may influence the ability to recruit, hire, and retain a competent and highly qualified CSA.”
Local control, right? Very Jersey. School board members resent state intrusion into the local business of setting superintendent salaries, especially in North Jersey, a stone’s throw away from New York State’s greener, uncapped pastures. And NJSBA data shows that superintendent turnover has spiked sharply since the salary cap was enacted: in 2011-2012, 31.4% of N.J. school districts lost their superintendents (a boon for the burgeoning interim superintendent industry).
Some board members see benefits in a superintendent salary cap, a fact duly noted in the Ridgewood Resolution. All eyes are trained on school budgets, especially with the legislatively-mandated 2% limit on school tax increases. But the impact of the superintendent salary cap goes way beyond the payout to chief school administrators. There’s a ripple effect, which will explicitly or implicitly inform the deliberations at the NJSBA Delegate Assembly.
In Ridgewood, Superintendent Daniel Fishbein will earn $232,872 this year. But when his contract expires on June 30, his salary will be ignobly bumped down to $167,500.
That’s because, according to new Accountability Regulations, salary caps are based on student enrollment:
Benghazi Emails Directly Contradict White House Claims
12:09 AM, May 16, 2013 • By STEPHEN F. HAYES
The White House on Wednesday released 94 pages of emails between top administration and intelligence officials who helped shape the talking points about the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that the CIA would provide to policymakers in both the legislative and executive branches.
The documents, first reported by THE WEEKLY STANDARD in articles here and here, directly contradict claims by White House press secretary Jay Carney and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the revisions of those talking points were driven by the intelligence community and show heavy input from top Obama administration officials, particularly those at the State Department.
The emails provide further detail about the rewriting of the talking points during a 24-hour period from midday September 14 to midday September 15. As THE WEEKLY STANDARD previously reported, a briefing from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence shows that the big changes came in three waves – internally at the CIA, after email feedback from top administration officials, and during or after a meeting of high-ranking intelligence and national security officials the following morning.
Join Ridgewood Veterinary Hospital and Rock & Rawhide at our 6th Adopt-A-Pet Day on Sunday, May 19th from 11am-4pm.
There are many ways to help a homeless pet.
Rock & Rawhide aims to increase adoptions and quality of life for dogs and cats in shelters, by providing distraction therapy and noise/stress reduction through the donations of unopened packages of food, treats, bleach, sponges, rubber gloves, cotton balls, etc., and clean new/used clothes, blankets, towels, toys, tough chew items, Kongs, Nylabones, bones, rawhides, leashes, crates, and more. In turn, dogs and cats can pass their evaluations at shelters, and show more of their personality, making them more adoptable.
Rock & Rawhide will be collecting donations at the event. If you have anything you would like to donate, please stop by. You can put any of these items into the washing machine first in order to clean them.
Thank you for helping the animals and we hope to see you there.
Rep .Garrett Sends Letter to IRS Demanding Answers About NJ-based Discrimination
May 14, 2013
Washington, D.C. – Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), issued the following statement after sending a letter to the Acting Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requesting immediate disclosure of whether any New Jersey-based organizations were improperly targeted by the IRS since 2010:
“The news about the IRS engaging in discriminatory practices is appalling. The entire nation, Democrats and Republicans alike, should be outraged that the IRS is playing politics. These actions are a wholesale violation of the organization’s mission to ‘enforce the law with integrity and fairness to all.’ Accordingly, I’ve sent a letter to Acting Commissioner Miller demanding that the IRS immediately disclose whether any New Jersey-based organizations were improperly targeted by this practice.”
Click here to read the letter Rep. Garrett sent to Acting Commissioner Miller.
https://garrett.house.gov/sites/garrett.house.gov/files/documents/20130513-FIS-Garrett%20Letter%20to%20IRS%20Conservative%20Groups.pdf
Senior tax officials knew of extra Tea Party scrutiny in 2011
(Reuters) – Higher-level Internal Revenue Service officials took part in discussions as far back as August 2011 about targeting by lower-level tax agents of “Tea Party” and other conservative groups, according to documents reviewed by Reuters on Monday.
The documents show the offices of the IRS’s chief counsel and deputy commissioner for services and enforcement communicated about the targeting with lower-level officials on August 4, 2011, and March 8, 2012, respectively.
The two communications occurred weeks and months before Doug Shulman, then the commissioner of the IRS, told congressional panels in late March 2012 that no groups were being targeted for extra scrutiny by the tax agency.
The IRS has maintained that its senior leadership did not know for some time that lower-level agents were applying extra scrutiny to applications for tax-exempt status from groups with key words in their names, such as “Tea Party” and “Patriot.
Monday watering banned all summer in Ridgewood
May 14.2013
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The Village Council approved an ordinance last week that seeks to simplify the existing watering regulations, permitting usage based on home address numbers.
Basically the new change in the village’s summer water restriction rules means residents will not be able to water their lawns on Mondays this summer at all.
The current regulation dictates that during declared emergency Stages I to III, homes and businesses with even-numbered addresses can water on even-numbered days and odd-numbered addresses can water lawns on odd-numbered days.
Stage II or higher is declared, call for a ban on Monday watering .
The new ordinance that takes affect June 1, and will ban watering on Mondays. Stage I restrictions will remain active from June 1st through the end of August .
During Stages II and III restrictions, odd-numbered addresses will be able to water on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Even-numbered properties can water Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
Stage IV restrictions remain the same: with a total ban on all watering .
What remains unclear is weather schools , municipal buildings and large institutions like Valley Hospital will have to follow the same guidelines or will further reductions be needed to curtail their massive water use.
Critics of the change speculate and wonder what the impact on residential property values might be ? And continue to push for the sale of Ridgewood water which has become a significant liability on the town.
The village plans to conduct an educational campaign throughout the summer to alert residents to the change.
CHILLING: IRS targeted groups that criticized the government, IG report says
By Juliet Eilperin, Published: May 12, 2013 at 2:30 pm
At various points over the past two years, Internal Revenue Service officials targeted nonprofit groups that criticized the government and sought to educate Americans about the U.S. Constitution, according to documents in an audit conducted by the agency’s inspector general.
The documents, obtained by The Washington Post from a congressional aide with knowledge of the findings, show that on June 29, 2011, IRS staffers held a briefing with senior agency official Lois G. Lerner in which they described giving special attention to instances where “statements in the case file criticize how the country is being run.” Lerner, who oversees tax-exempt groups for the agency, raised objections and the agency revised its criteria a week later.
But six months later, the IRS applied a new political test to groups that applied for tax-exempt status as “social welfare” groups, the document says. On Jan. 15, 2012 the agency decided to target “political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform movement.,” according to the appendix in the IG report, which was requested by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and has yet to be released.
CBS anchor Scott Pelley: ‘We Are Getting Big Stories Wrong, Over and Over Again’
“Our house is on fire.”
12:09 PM, May 11, 2013 • By DANIEL HALPER
Our house is on fire,” said Pelley. The video of Pelley’s speech is courtesy of nowthisnews.com.
“These have been a bad few months for journalism,” he added. “We’re getting the big stories wrong, over and over again.”
The CBS newsreader was quick to take at least partial blame. “Let me take the first arrow: During our coverage of Newtown, I sat on my set and I reported that Nancy Lanza was a teacher at the school. And that her son had attacked her classroom. It’s a hell of a story, but it was dead wrong. Now, I was the managing editor, I made the decision to go ahead with that and I did, and that’s what I said, and I was absolutely wrong. So let me just take the first arrow here.”
Ridgewood Police Department Pedestrian Decoy Program
May 10,2013
Ridgewood NJ, Since August 24th 2010 the Ridgewood Police Department initiated it’s Engineering, Education and Enforcement program to address traffic and pedestrian related safety issues.
As part of this program the department has been conducting pedestrian decoy details. These details started with a high focus on education and progressively developed to a high enforcement focus.
the new facism ? Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Douglas Shulman testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington
IRS apologizes for targeting tea party groups
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
— May. 10 6:14 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was “inappropriate” targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.
IRS agents singled out dozens of organizations for additional reviews because they included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their exemption applications, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups. In some cases, groups were asked for lists of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.
The agency — led at the time by a Bush administration appointee — blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware. But that wasn’t good enough for Republicans in Congress, who are conducting several investigations and asked for more.
Ridgewood High School History Bowl teams spent weekend in DC
May 10,2013
Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood High School History Bowl teams spent the last weekend in April competing in Washington, D.C.
The varsity team was able to advance to the playoffs, while the junior varsity team succeeded to the quarterfinals.
Sophomore Ben Bechtold placed tenth and sophomore Thomas Cleary placed thirty-second in the individual JV tournament out of over 150 students nationally. Another sophomore* participated in the individual Geography Bee and came in fifty-ninth out of 100 students.
* Permission not granted to release student’s name.
Patient Reports credit card account information was compromised while he was a patient at Valley Hospital
May 9,2013
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Police report that on May 1, 2013, a Pompton Plains resident reported that his credit card account information was compromised while he was a patient at Valley Hospital.
The fraudulent charges totaling $12,193 were subsequently made on his account. The matter is currently under investigation by the detective bureau.
Incorporating a few practices into your daily routine can help keep your cards and account numbers safe. For example, keep a record of your account numbers, their expiration dates and the phone number to report fraud for each company in a secure place. Don’t lend your card to anyone — even your kids or roommates — and don’t leave your cards, receipts, or statements around your home or office. When you no longer need them, shred them before throwing them away.
Other fraud protection practices include:
Don’t give your account number to anyone on the phone unless you’ve made the call to a company you know to be reputable. If you’ve never done business with them before, do an online search first for reviews or complaints.
Carry your cards separately from your wallet. It can minimize your losses if someone steals your wallet or purse. And carry only the card you need for that outing.
During a transaction, keep your eye on your card. Make sure you get it back before you walk away.
Never sign a blank receipt. Draw a line through any blank spaces above the total.
Save your receipts to compare with your statement.
Open your bills promptly — or check them online often — and reconcile them with the purchases you’ve made.
Report any questionable charges to the card issuer.
Notify your card issuer if your address changes or if you will be traveling.
Don’t write your account number on the outside of an envelope.
Benghazi “whistleblowers” head to House committee
By Lindsey Boerma /
CBS News/ May 8, 2013, 5:52 AM
Hoping to funnel into one chronological timeline the rampantly varying accounts of how President Obama’s administration responded last Sept. 11 in the wake of an attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday will hear from three “whistleblowers” expected to offer testimony enormously at odds with the administration’s characterization of a strike that killed four Americans.
Testifying are Mark Thompson, acting deputy assistant Secretary of State for counterterrorism; Greg Hicks, former deputy chief of mission in Libya; and Eric Nordstrom, former regional security officer in Libya. Excerpts of an interview Hicks did with investigators that were released to CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday boomeranged the Benghazi politics back into the spotlight four months after hearings on the issue in the House and Senate.
According to Hicks, “everybody in the mission” believed it was an act of terror “from the get-go.” But on Sept. 16 – five days after the attack – U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice hit the Sunday show circuit, peddling the theory that the strike began “spontaneously” out of protests in Egypt and was not a premeditated terrorist act. Rice’s spot on “Face the Nation” that day was preceded by the new president of Libya, Mohammed al-Magariaf, who said his government had “no doubt that this was pre-planned, predetermined.”
Official: We knew Benghazi was a terrorist attack “from the get-go”
Issa: “No question” Clinton’s circle involved in Benghazi “cover-up”
Diplomat: U.S. Special Forces told “you can’t go” to Benghazi during attacks
“I’ve never been as embarrassed in my life, in my career, as on that day,” Hicks told investigators of Rice’s appearances.
Hertz flees Bergen , 550 from Park Ridge to Florida
TUESDAY MAY 7, 2013, 11:51 AM
BY HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
Hertz will move 550 jobs to Florida from its corporate headquarters in Park Ridge where it has been for 25 years and sell the building, leaving about 150 jobs in the area as it cuts costs following its buyout of one-time rival Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group.
AP FILE PHOTO
Hertz is leaving New Jersey and moving to Florida.
The company said it will shift the jobs to a new headquarters in Estero, Fla., on the Gulf Coast, over the next two years, with the help of $85 million in incentives from state and county government.
“Florida is the center of the U.S. travel and tourism industry,” Hertz chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark P. Frissora said. “This move enables us to be closer to leisure and business customers, as well as many travel and association partners.”
