>RRV just another extension of Valley Hospital
So the Valley Support group advertises right on the Valley Renewal Website https://www.thevalleyrenewal.com/support.htm ?
Show Your Support
Valley Hospital appreciates that a group of concerned Ridgewood community residents has taken on a role to support our Renewal efforts. Please visit their website and register your support today by going to: www.rrvonline.org
>Seems some Valley Doctors have Diagnosed Ridgewood residents as stupid.
Well said! Of course, those waving the “renewal” posters almost all have some affiliation with Valley. Last night yet another doctor pointed out that he is not “employed” by Valley. He made it sound like he works at Valley for free failing to mention his “business” bills Valley patient insurance companies resulting in his compensation. It is astounding to me that these doctors use this “technicality” to void their Valley relationship thinking it gives credibility to their position. Nothing can be further from the truth! Each of these doctors secure patients and patient referrals from Valley. They are listed on Valley’s website and have a financial interest in this expansion. It seems some “Valley” doctors have diagnosed Ridgewood residents as stupid.
I am still chuckling about the “Valley” volunteer, who supports the expansion because, while “Valley could afford to pay employees to work in Kurth Cottage they choose not to do that so volunteers can work there for free” . OH MY, I guess the doctor’s diagnosis is right.
>FACT CHECK: Are rich taxed less than secretaries?
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER – Associated Press | AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he wants to make sure millionaires are taxed at higher rates than their secretaries. The data say they already are.
“Warren Buffett’s secretary shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett. There is no justification for it,” Obama said as he announced his deficit-reduction plan this week. “It is wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker who earns $50,000 should pay higher tax rates than somebody pulling in $50 million.”
On average, the wealthiest people in America pay a lot more taxes than the middle class or the poor, according to private and government data. They pay at a higher rate, and as a group, they contribute a much larger share of the overall taxes collected by the federal government.
https://news.yahoo.com/fact-check-rich-taxed-less-secretaries-070642868.html
> It’s not just millionaires who’d pay more under President Barack Obama’s latest plan to combat the deficit.
New government fees pepper Obama deficit plan
More than $130B in new government fees pepper Obama deficit plan
Andrew Taylor, Associated Press, On Monday September 19, 2011, 3:37 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s not just millionaires who’d pay more under President Barack Obama’s latest plan to combat the deficit.
Air travelers, federal workers, military retirees, wealthier Medicare beneficiaries and people taking out new mortgages are among those who would pay more than $130 billion in new government revenues raised through new or increased fees. These fees are advertised as “savings” in administration budget documents.
Airline passengers, for instance, would see their federal security fees double from $5 to $10 for a nonstop round-trip and triple to $15 by 2017, raising $25 billion over the coming decade. Federal employees would contribute $21 billion more to their pensions over the same period. Military retirees would pay a $200 fee upon turning 65 to have the government pay their out-of-pocket Medicare expenses. They’d also pay more for non-generic prescription drugs.
And it’ll cost corporate jet owners a new $100 fee for each flight.
The fees aren’t taxes. They’re charged to people who use government services or receive benefits like taxpayer-subsidized health care, and the fees typically defray the government’s cost of providing a service. The fee on corporate jets and other private passenger planes, for example, would raise about $1 billion a year to help finance the cost of air traffic control. Recreational flyers won’t have to pay.
Many of Obama’s proposals are retreads from earlier budget proposals, including those submitted by his predecessors. They’re rejected year after year. Some ideas, like requiring wealthier veterans to pay more for their health care, whip up opposition from powerful interest groups. Others, like the bigger security fee for flyers, seems too close to a ticket tax increase.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/New-government-fees-pepper-apf-4120540659.html?x=0&.v=2
>Ridgewood Wildscape Association
COME ENJOY OUR WILDSCAPES!
CLEANUP OF GYPSY POND
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2011
1PM-3PM
ALL ARE WELCOME!
Sunday, October 2; 1 – 3pm Carpool from Temple Israel 12:45 or meet at Gypsy Pond. Wear old clothes, all equipment provided by the Village of Ridgewood
keep tuned for more information, but please mark your calendars for this great event in cooperation with the interreligious community, Ridgewood Environmental Advisory Committee, AM Rotary, and others
Information: [email protected]
>Getting your money’s worth from Trenton
the Staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood $69,543,382.44 net tax liability and Ridgewood gets ZERO back from the state . Other towns in Bergen also share that dubious distinction.Saddle River $ 44958246.94, Tenafly $$44265641.38, Wyckoff $ 58698693.59 , Allendale $ 19785989.88 and many more all bring home nothing from Trenton. 21 towns in Bergen county all get nothing back while 29 get .10 cents or less on a dollar.
Maybe it time to start saying NO to Trenton ?
>
Intro by Steve Lonegan AFP
(BERGEN COUNTY- NJ) In an investigative report released yesterday, Mark Lagerkvist of NJ Watchdog ( https://newjersey.watchdog.org/2011/09/14/xxx/) reports that “Forty of New Jersey’s top county cops are double-dipping from public coffers,” scamming the pension system and New Jersey taxpayers to the tune of $2.88M a year!
According to the NJ Watchdog exposé, sheriffs across 19 New Jersey counties are raking in anywhere from $134-$252 THOUSAND DOLLARS in combined pension and salary! Some 24 undersheriffs have also struck gold by scamming the system.
Earlier this year, Governor Christie and the Legislature passed a package of pension and health benefit reforms requiring public workers, including teachers, firefighters and police, to pay more towards their retirement and health plans.
These measures were a marked step in the right direction toward addressing New Jersey’s ticking pension time bomb. However, those reforms did nothing about preventing this kind of brazen and rampant abuse of a broken and massively underfunded pension system; nor were any steps taken to phase out the pension system in favor of defined contribution, 401k-style plans that would also put an end to such taxpayer rip-offs.
Instead, once again, New Jersey taxpayers find themselves on the losing end while the politically-connected enrich themselves at our expense.
Read more : https://newjersey.watchdog.org/2011/09/14/xxx/
>People turn to church a decade after 9/11 attacks
By The Record
HACKENSACK, N.J. – In ornate sanctuaries and simple chapels, with soaring anthems and moments of silence, worshipers across New Jersey and the country last weekend remembered the dead, consoled the living and sought to find meaning in the unfathomable losses of a decade ago.
Many Christians were in church at 8:46, 9:03, 9:37 and 10:03 a.m. Sunday – the times when planes hit the towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the ground in Shanksville, Pa., 10 years ago.
“I just felt it was the right thing to do, to go to church and bring my daughter today. I felt it was the right place to be,” said Christine Mainwald of Wyckoff’s Grace United Methodist Church, who wore a T-shirt “in lasting memory” of a lost firefighter…
“Each year we have a Mass of Remembrance for all the victims, but most especially for the 10 members of our parish community who died that day,” said Monsignor Ronald J. Rozniak, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church in Ridgewood, where the death toll ranks among the highest of any American church…
https://www.leadertelegram.com/features/religion/article_1d5f846e-f14d-5547-9090-a0bf3dc52189.html
>WSJ OpEd: Obama Jobs Package Really a Blue State Bailout
Friday, 16 Sep 2011 08:20 AM
By Forrest Jones
Portions of President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs package are really designed to bail out weak finances in Democratic states, a new study finds.
The plan seeks funds for infrastructure, education and other projects that states should fund but cannot.
Many blue states have run up state debts, as nationwide, state debt is running around $3 trillion — tack on another trillion or even more if unfunded pension liabilities are factored in.
“These vast contributions to the coffers of state and local governments, though pitched as a jobs bill, are in reality the latest in a series of bailouts for debt-ridden state and local governments,” Paul E. Peterson and Daniel Nadler, both Harvard academics, write in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.
“They are of special benefit to states in the blue regions of the country where the president’s most fervent supporters reside.”
A Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance study finds states with legislatures that are heavily Democratic and have a highly unionized public-sector work force must pay interest rates that are often an extra half a percentage point higher than those in red states.
https://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/Obama-Jobs-Bailout/2011/09/16/id/411233?s=al&promo_code=D123-1
>Mortgage default warnings surged in August
Report: Mortgage default warnings spiked in August, signaling potential new foreclosure wave
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Banks have stepped up their actions against homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments, setting the stage for a fresh wave of foreclosures.
The number of U.S. homes that received an initial default notice — the first step in the foreclosure process — jumped 33 percent in August from July, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.
The increase represents a nine-month high and the biggest monthly gain in four years. The spike signals banks are starting to take swifter action against homeowners, nearly a year after processing issues led to a sharp slowdown in foreclosures.
“This is really the first time we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of new foreclosure actions,” said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac. “It’s still possible this is a blip, but I think it’s much more likely we’re seeing the beginning of a trend here.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/Mortgage-default-warnings-apf-157937671.html
>I’d much rather have teachers than astroturf and lights in a flood zone.
If the people charged with spending this money had used their heads, we would not have a result that will require endless, expensive repairs.
If the firm installing it won’t even guarantee it… then why was such a decision ever made? This is what we pay higher than other towns for?
When I went to school here (K-12) it was the baby boom and nearly all classes had 30 or more kids. The field use was very high too, and we didn’t need astroturf nor lights despite many more in schools than today.
>
Valley Renewal : building a new facility, not renewal
I didn’t realize that the current building is about 540,000 square feet and that the proposed “renewal” is somewhere between 1.1 and 1.44 million square feet. I think this doesn’t qualify as a renewal, renovation or even an expansion.
When you increase something from it’s current size to twice or maybe 2.67 times it’s size i’d say you are building a new facility. Imagine if you went down to the building department in Ridgewood and wanted to put in a giant underground parking garage, expand your house to the boundaries, raise the height of your home substantially, and tell them construction will at best last 10 years. After they finished laughing, they would politely throw you out.
This project is way beyond the scope of a renewal. Imagine Paramus Park Mall on that property. I’m sure Valley can come up with revised plans with lower room counts, a smaller footprint, less digging, less height, better setbacks so it keeps more within our community. p.s. i don’t live anywhere near Valley.
>Big Brother is Watching
Obama unveils “AttackWatch.com”
https://my.barackobama.com/page/signup/o2012-attackwatch-report-an-attack
>Village Council Special Public Meetings Concerning Proposed Valley Expansion : This is how you hold a Public Meeting
the Staff of the Ridgewood Blog
(RIDGEWOOD -NJ) It seems like we have been here so many times before , once again Valley made a decent case for the need to modernize ,but I am not sure the same can be said for the enormous increase in size ,that case simply was not made .
The fact is that the new Valley would be the same size as Paramus Park leads us once again to the old argument that a 30 archer project is being shoehorned into 15 archers.
Another interesting detail was that the Planning Board has for some time considered Valley to be a “Regional Hospital ” and not a “Community Hospital” as we have been so often told.
Although I am still left with the feeling that Valley is being far from forward with their real motivations for the the proposed “Renewal” ,all and all the meeting was respectful with out much of the acrimony of the last couple of years ,well run by the Council and very informative leaving me with one question why weren’t some of these questions asked before ?
>Watching Village meetings online at last
After years of waiting, the Village website is undergoing an overhaul. One benefit is that it is finally possible to watch certain Village proceedings, such as tonight’s Valley Hospital hearings (right now!), from home or wherever internet access is available, without Cablevision.
Go to the Village website, www.ridgewoodnj.net. Click on PUBLIC ACCESS CHANNEL, the fifth gray tab from the left across the top of the screen under the band containing the name of the Village. You will reach USTREAM.
Considering the large number of advertisements and extraneous material that this must be a free service. Even in the middle of the live program, advertisements, with sound, suddenly fill the screen. The program being watched then disappears until the commercial is over.
Currently, only a limited number of people can watch at the time time. As word gets out, more and more people may wish to watch at once. If paying something, or paying more, would enable more people to watch, that would be good, although the site itself is so unacceptably distracting and “commercial” that it would be better to replace the current service with a less commercial one.
With any luck, the town will be able to pay soon for a less disruptive, less commercial service that is available to more people at once.
However, this is an important first step.
