Category: Uncategorized

Rebecca Jean Leer named Ridgewood Art Institute Artist of the Month for October 2012

Ridgewood NJ, Rebecca Jean Leer teaches drawing for adults and children. In her classes, drawing is explored as an art unto itself and as augmentation to painting. A strong foundation in the principles of drawing, like a standard in the artist’s toolbox, propels the student forward in all artistic endeavors. Ms. Leer stresses the importance of capturing the light effect in line and tone in every picture.

Classically trained, Ms. Leer received a BFA degree from Rochester Institute of Technology for medical illustration and studied illustration on a scholarship at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, CA. After moving to Ridgewood, she studied painting with John Phillip Osborne. She has been a professional artist for over 25 years, gleaning awards from the Societies of Illustrators of New York, Los Angeles and Washington, DC., the Hudson Valley Artists Association, the American Professional League and others, including the prestigious Land of Enchantment Award for her children’s book illustrations. Her work has been seen in books, magazines, advertisements, museum exhibits and corporate and private collections.

Ms. Leer was recently profiled by American Artist Magazine as one of 12 up and coming artists handpicked by the artist community.

Ms. Leer currently serves on the Board of Trustees at the Ridgewood Art Institute and curates their Permanent Collection.

https://www.ridgewoodartinstitute.org/instructors/leer.html

https://www.rebeccaleer.com/index.html

The Valley Hospital Supports Access Ridgewood

RIDGEWOOD, NJ – October 2, 2012 – During the recent Ridgewood Community Access Network’s Access Ridgewood weekend, Mayor Paul Aronsohn and his wife Maria DeNoia Aronsohn hosted a fashion show at the Ridgewood Library with models, music and more.

Shown here celebrating the fashion show, and the gift of a portable ramp by The Valley Hospital to the Village of Ridgewood to ensure accessibility to Village-sponsored events, are, from left to right: Assistant Village Manager Janet Fricke, Valley’s Vice President for Communications Megan Fraser, Valley’s Manager of The Kireker Center for Child Development Elizabeth Lanza, Mayor Aronsohn, and model Kaitlin Sheehy.

https://www.valleyhealth.com/valley_newsdesc.aspx?newsid=1272

Obama’s Spending Plan Raises Middle Class Taxes

A new study by Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum finds that President Barack Obama’s spending plan would raise taxes on the middle class. “[T]axpayers making as little as $30,000 will carry $1,500 more in taxes annually over the next 10 years,” the study finds.

The significance of this study is that it contradict Obama’s pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class. “If you are a family making less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes go up,” Obama said in 2008.

But if the American Action Forum study is correct, and if Obama is reelected, he will either break his pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class or his commitment to balance the budget.

The study hinges on Obama’s commitment to balance the budget by 2022. “[The] paper outlines the tax implications of the Administration’s current spending plans. I compute the tax increases necessary to achieve primary budget balance by at least 2022 under a variety of assumptions on the mix of fiscal adjustment and breadth of tax increases across taxpayers,” Holtz-Eakin writes in the study’s executive summary.

There are not enough millionaires to make up the gap, Holtz-Eakin finds. “The paper finds that, in order to achieve primary budget balance by at least 2022, taxing only millionaires would require raising their taxes to 123.9 percent. Taxing only those individuals making over $500,000 would require an increase from 30.6 percent to 95.5 percent.”

https://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/study-obamas-spending-plan-raises-middle-class-taxes_653379.html

Under Obama, Poor, Middle Class Incomes Fall Sharply
By JOHN MERLINE, INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 08:05 AM ET

Despite repeated promises that he would build prosperity from the bottom up, President Obama has presided over three years of income losses for the middle class, according to the latest household income data from the Census Bureau.

Since 2009, the middle 20% of American households saw their average incomes drop 4%. In 2011 alone, they fell 1.7%. The poorest 20% have fared even worse under Obama, Census data show. Their incomes have dropped more than 7% since 2009, and are now lower than they’ve been at any time since 1985, after adjusting for inflation.

Meanwhile, the wealthiest have managed to eke out gains in two of the past three years. In 2011, the top 20% saw their average income climb almost 2%, the Census data show.

Read More At IBD: https://news.investors.com/100212-627662-under-obama-poor-middle-class-incomes-fall-sharply.aspx#ixzz28A5IGAcp

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Americans’ Incomes Have Fallen $3,040 During the Obama ‘Recovery’
BY JEFFREY H. ANDERSON

Americans must be wondering how much more of this “recovery” they can afford. New figures from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, compiled by Sentier Research, show that the typical American household’s real (inflation-adjusted) income has actually dropped 5.7 percent during the Obama “recovery.” Using constant 2012 dollars (to adjust for inflation), the median annual income of American households was $53,718 as of June 2009, the last month of the recession. Now, after 38 months of this “recovery,” it has fallen to $50,678 — a drop of $3,040 per household.

Yet it gets worse. Amazingly, incomes have dropped even more during the “recovery” than they did during the recession. In fact, they’ve dropped more than twice as much as they did during the recession. From the start to the end of the recession, the real median income of American households fell $1,413, or 2.6 percent. From the end of the recession to the present day, it has dropped $3,040, or 5.7 percent. This begs the question: What kind of “recovery” compares unfavorably with the recession from which it’s ostensibly recovering?

https://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/americans-incomes-have-fallen-3040-during-obama-recovery_653116.html

Operation Take Back New Jersey – Collection of Prescription Drugs – Saturday, Sept. 29

The Ridgewood Police Department will collect prescription drugs on Saturday, September 29th from 10AM to 2PM at Village Hall, 131 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood.

The Ridgewood Police Department, will be hosting an Operation Take Back New Jersey local collection site as part of the Operation Take Back NJ medicine disposal day. The event will take place at the front lobby of the Ridgewood Police Department located on the second floor of Village Hall, 131 N. Maple Ave. Ridgewood NJ 07450 between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday, September 29, 2012. This initiative, open to all residents, was organized to encourage local community residents to properly dispose of their unused, unwanted and expired medicine.

The Ridgewood Police Department would like to encourage the residents of Ridgewood to take this opportunity to safely discard their expired and/or unused prescription medications. This program helps to reduce the opportunity for prescription drug abuse and provides an environmentally safe method for the disposal of these drugs.

This statewide effort, with the majority of New Jersey police departments participating, is being spearheaded by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) New Jersey Division, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police, the NY/NJ HIDTA, and the New Jersey National Guard. Ridgewood residents looking for information on the program and local collection sites should visit www.operationtakebacknj.com.

Household Incomes Fall In Aug., Off 8.2% Under Obama
By JOHN MERLINE , INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 09/25/2012 03:55 PM ET

In another sign that the economic recovery under President Obama is not producing gains for average Americans, median household incomes fell 1.1% in August to $50,678, according to a report released Tuesday by Sentier Research.

Since the economic recovery started in June 2009, household incomes are down 5.7%, the Sentier data show, and they are down more than 8% since Obama took office.

“Even though we are technically in an economic recovery, real median annual household income is having a difficult time maintaining its present level, much less recovering,” said Sentier co-founder and former Census Bureau official Gordon Green.

Earlier this month, the Census Bureau released its annual report showing that the number of people in poverty was nearly 3 million higher in 2011 than in 2009, an increase of 6%.

https://news.investors.com/092512-626958-household-income-down-82-under-president-obama.aspx

Young College Grads: Real Earnings Fell in 2011
09/20/2012
By Diana G Carew

The latest Census figures show real earnings for young college grads fell again in 2011. This makes the sixth straight year of declining real earnings for young college grads, defined as full-time workers aged 25-34 with a bachelor’s only. All told, real average earnings for young grads have fallen by over 15% since 2000, or by about $10,000 in constant 2011 dollars.

This statistic is fundamental to our understanding of the current economy. College graduates have jumped through the hoops that were supposed to give them a better life. They are supposed to have the skills that enable them to compete on the global economy. But something is going wrong. The fastest growing jobs now for young college grads include dental assistants, hairstylists, and bus drivers.

https://www.progressivepolicy.org/2012/09/young-college-grads-real-earnings-fell-in-2011/

NJ celebrates manufacturers
September 14th, 2012

The ManufactureNJ launch will be at NJIT on Monday Oct 22 from 10 am – 12 pm.  The event will have two parallel tracks, one for students and career seekers, and the other an event to commemorate the importance of manufacturing in our state.

Additionally you can participate in the regional open houses to be held the 4 days following that launch, Oct 23-26.

Please spread the word.

Visit https://www.manufacturenj.org/events for info and to register for specific events.

Cost of Regulations Under Obama: $488 Billion
10:03 AM, SEP 19, 2012 • BY DANIEL HALPER

The American Action Forum has released new analysis of the burden of new regulations under President Obama. It’s most striking finding? The cost of added regulations under President Obama is now estimated to be $488 billion.

“Based on data from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and regulations published in the Federal Register, the Administration has published more than $488 billion in regulatory costs since January 20, 2009 – $70 billion in 2012 alone,” reads the analysis from AAF.

“Ignoring all non-“major” rules with costs in 2009, the regulatory tally still surpassed $61 billion. In 2010, counting only “major” rules, the regulatory bill rose to $160 billion in lifetime costs. AAF began tracking every proposed and final rule in 2011. That year alone the Administration published more than $231 billion in regulatory costs. AAF reviewed 6,705 regulations in 2011 and has tracked more than 4,700 regulations to date in 2012.”

The most costly government agencies in 2012 alone are Health and Human Services (which has an estimated regulation burden of $16.7 billion), the Environmental Protection Agency ($12.1 billion), the Department of Energy ($10.6 billion), the Department of Justice ($6.9 billion), and the Securities and Exchange Commission ($6.2 billion).

The other cost associated with these regulations is the man-hours that it would take to implement and enforce these new regulations. Under President Obama, this cost is at least 1.58 billion hours.

https://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/cost-regulations-under-obama-488-billion_652691.html

photo by www.artchick.biz

Hey PJ,

Jeez…I go on a business trip for a few days and when I come back, I find that the VC floated a brilliant idea to give jail time for leaf policy scofflaws? While  I believe the council has since backed off ,

The first thing that came to mind was this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b0a6iWHSWbA (specifically 2:20-2:42)

It just goes to show you that no matter what (non) party is in power, this bunch or any of the prior bunches are tone-deaf.

Have a great weekend,

M

America’s Vanishing Economic Freedom
September 19,2012
We’re on a slippery slope.
By Michael Tanner

The 2012 Economic Freedom of the World report was released this week by the Cato Institute and Canada’s Fraser Institute, and it showed that the United States has plummeted to 18th place in the ranked list, trailing such countries as Estonia, Taiwan, and Qatar. Even such notorious welfare states as Finland and Denmark, not to mention Canada, have freer economies than we do.

Actually, the decline began under President George W. Bush. For 20 years the U.S. had consistently ranked as one of the world’s three freest economies, along with Hong Kong and Singapore. By the end of the Bush presidency, we were barely in the top ten.

And, as with so many disastrous legacies of the Bush era, Barack Obama took a bad thing and made it worse.

During the past four years, the U.S. saw significant declines in nearly all categories of the economic-liberty index. Most significant — and this should come as no surprise to anyone paying attention — is that the size of government grew substantially, particularly when measured by size of government subsidies and transfers and by government consumption as a share of national consumption.

As recently as 2005, the U.S. ranked 45th in size of government among the 144 nations surveyed. That was bad enough, but it still had us in the top third of the 144 countries surveyed. Today, government has grown dramatically, and our ranking has fallen to 61st place. By the metrics used, the U.S. now has a bigger government than Ukraine or Syria.

https://www.nationalreview.com/articles/327788/america-s-vanishing-economic-freedom-michael-tanner#

More Americans Added to Food Stamps Than Find Jobs
10:30 AM, SEP 21, 2012 • BY DANIEL HALPER

An alarming data point from the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee: More Americans are being added to food stamps than are finding jobs. The data is detailed in this chart, provided by the committee:

As the chart shows, between April-June 2012 (the most recent three month block for which government data is available), only 200,000 jobs have been created while 265,000 individuals have been added to the food stamp rolls. Additionally, in that time period, 246,000 workers were awarded disability.

Another chart shows that the last three month block is part of a larger trend. The chart, also from the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee, shows that “Workforce Shrinks Since January 2009 While Millions Sign Up For Disability And Food Stamps.”

https://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/more-americans-added-food-stamps-find-jobs_652837.html