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Posted on August 4, 2015August 4, 2015 by James — 1 Comment

Hillary Clinton Loses Ground With White Women — WSJ/NBC Poll

hillary-clinton-what-difference-does-it-make

By PETER NICHOLAS

Many Democrats have long hoped that Hillary Clinton might expand Barack Obama‘s electoral coalition by drawing in more white women voters.

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll suggests she may have a tough time pulling it off. Mrs. Clinton is losing ground with white women and many other important slices of the electorate, the poll shows, amid a spate of reports about her email practices, speaking fees and foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation.

Click to see more charts and articles from the July poll.

In June, 44% of white women had a favorable view of Mrs. Clinton, compared to 43% who didn’t. In July, those numbers moved in the wrong direction for Mrs. Clinton: Only 34% of white women saw her in a positive light, compared to 53% who had a negative impression of her, the poll found.

Mr. Obama fared poorly with white women voters in the 2012 election, losing them to Republican challenger Mitt Romney by 14 points.

For Team Clinton, the latest poll numbers are a worrisome development. Mrs. Clinton is unlikely to match the African-American turnout that propelled Mr. Obama to two presidential victories, so she has to make up the difference somewhere else. Women eager to see a woman in the White House is a logical group to target.

Mrs. Clinton, of course, is a white woman. She was raised in the suburbs and earned both college and law degrees. She’s fared well among voters with a similar background in past polls, but this month’s survey shows that’s no longer the case.

https://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/08/04/hillary-clinton-loses-ground-with-white-women-wsjnbc-poll/

Posted on August 4, 2015August 4, 2015 by James — 8 Comments

Reader says Taking a population count in the garden apartments would prove that the builder’s have no idea how many children would live in the new apartments

We live in the Hawes district but on the other side of Rt 17N. The school is so crowded that our new neighbors have been told that their Kindergarten daughter cannot go to Hawes but will be bussed to yet another school. If Ridgewood is so overcrowded WITHOUT those apartments, what will happen when they come in? And the school children inventory was not done in any of the garden apartments in town, just the one high rise on Maple. We all know the reason for that!

Taking a population count in the garden apartments would prove that the builder’s have no idea how many children would live in the new apartments, as a good number live in the garden apartments. I really don’t understand why our Planning Board, and now our Council, have not bothered to make our town Planner do something other than” the devil is in the details.”

Posted on August 1, 2015July 31, 2015 by James — 2 Comments

Village of Ridgewood: Tax Bills , Sprinkler Compliance , Building Department Amnesty , and dog owners that license renewal

Village of Ridgewood E – Notice – Wednesday, July 29th

Dear Residents,

Hope that you are staying cool during this heat wave as well as enjoying the cooler days!

I have a couple of things on my mind that I would like to share with you.

Tax Bills –

First, I wanted to make you aware that Bergen County has set their 2015 tax levy. As you know, your total annual tax amount is made up of several components: notably School, Municipality, County, Library and Open Space taxes. This year’s County tax levy is 6.35% higher than 2014. Our 3rd quarter tax bill used a slightly lower rate for the County; therefore our 4th quarter tax bills will be slightly higher than the 3rd quarter, due August 1st .

Sprinkler Compliance –

On another topic, based on input we received from many of you, we are taking stricter measures to monitor and insure adherence to water restrictions; we will be issuing warnings starting this week to homeowners who are not in compliance. Please check our website https://water.ridgewoodnj.net for the current watering restrictions. Water conservation is very important to our community so all of us should play our part in supporting this program.

Building Department Amnesty Program Expires on August 21st –

The Building Department is offering an amnesty program for residential work that has been previously completed without the required permits. The main purpose is to ensure that any work that was completed without permits does not cause a safety hazard. The homeowners will still have to pay for permits as well as possible new tax assessments; only the fines will be waived through the amnesty period.

Lastly, a reminder to dog owners that license renewals with valid rabies certificate were due in June. In an effort to control the spread of rabies, the State of New Jersey requires local health departments to conduct a canvass for dogs. The program is underway and will continue through the end of the summer. Approximately 1072 dogs, have been renewed and licensed this year; with about 400 in need of renewal. Summons will be issued starting August 15th.

Wishing you and your family an enjoyable rest of the summer!

Best,

Roberta Sonenfeld

Village Manager

Posted on August 1, 2015June 27, 2021 by James — Leave a comment

Baltimore killings soar to a level unseen in 43 years

By JULIET LINDERMAN

Jul. 31, 2015 4:47 PM EDT

BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore reached a grim milestone on Friday, three months after riots erupted in response to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody: With 45 homicides in July, the city has seen more bloodshed in a single month than it has in 43 years.

Police reported three deaths — two men shot Thursday and one on Friday. The men died at local hospitals.

With their deaths, this year’s homicides reached 189, far outpacing the 119 killings by July’s end in 2014. Nonfatal shootings have soared to 366, compared to 200 by the same date last year. July’s total was the worst since the city recorded 45 killings in August 1972, according to The Baltimore Sun.

The seemingly Sisyphean task of containing the city’s violence prompted Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to fire her police commissioner, Anthony Batts, on July 8.

“Too many continue to die on our streets,” Rawlings-Blake said then. “Families are tired of dealing with this pain, and so am I. Recent events have placed an intense focus on our police leadership, distracting many from what needs to be our main focus: the fight against crime.”

But the killings have not abated under Interim Commissioner Kevin Davis since then.

Baltimore is not unique in its suffering; crimes are spiking in big cities around the country.

But while the city’s police are closing cases— Davis announced arrests in three recent murders several days ago — the violence is outpacing their efforts. Davis said Tuesday the “clearance rate” is at 36.6 percent, far lower than the department’s mid-40s average.

Crime experts and residents of Baltimore’s most dangerous neighborhoods cite a confluence of factors: mistrust of the police; generalized anger and hopelessness over a lack of opportunities for young black men; and competition among dealers of illegal drugs, bolstered by the looting of prescription pills from pharmacies during the riot.

https://bigstory.ap.org/article/60352506f481415c8edf3fc35b6f8103/baltimore-killings-soar-level-unseen-43-years

Posted on August 1, 2015August 1, 2015 by James — 1 Comment

Top Clinton aide accused of receiving overpayments at State Department

By Tom Hamburger, Rosalind S. Helderman and Carol D. Leonnig July 31 at 8:59 PM

State Department investigators concluded this year that Huma Abedin, one of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s closest aides, was overpaid by nearly $10,000 because of violations of rules governing vacation and sick leave during her tenure as an official in the department.

The finding — which Abedin has formally contested — emerged publicly Friday after Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) sent letters to Secretary of State John F. Kerry and others seeking more information about an investigation into possible “criminal” conduct by Abedin concerning her pay.

The letters also sought the status of an inquiry into whether Abedin had violated conflict-of-interest laws related to her special employment situation, which allowed her to work simultaneously for the State Department, the Clinton Foundation and a private firm with close ties to the Clintons.

The finding that Abedin, a longtime Clinton confidante who now serves as vice chairwoman of her presidential campaign, had improperly collected taxpayer money could prove damaging to Clinton’s candidacy, as Republicans charge that government rules were routinely bent to benefit Clinton and her aides.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-clinton-aide-accused-of-receiving-overpayments-at-state-department/2015/07/31/978d622a-3794-11e5-9739-170df8af8eb9_story.html

Posted on July 31, 2015July 31, 2015 by James — 1 Comment

Data in Clinton’s ‘secret’ emails came from 5 intelligence agencies

BY MARISA TAYLOR, GREG GORDON AND ANITA KUMAR

McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON

The classified emails stored on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server contained information from five U.S. intelligence agencies and included material related to the fatal 2012 Benghazi attacks, McClatchy has learned.

Of the five classified emails, the one known to be connected to Benghazi was among 296 emails made public in May by the State Department. Intelligence community officials have determined it was improperly released.

Revelations about the emails have put Clinton in the crosshairs of a broadening inquiry into whether she or her aides mishandled classified information when she used a private server set up at her New York home to conduct official State Department business.

While campaigning for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, Clinton has repeatedly denied she ever sent or received classified information. Two inspectors general have indicated that five emails they have reviewed were not marked classified at the time they were stored on her private server but that the contents were in fact “secret.”

The email issue, however, has distracted from Clinton’s campaign for days and already has hurt her in public opinion polls. Besieged with questions, she has found herself caught in a murky dispute between State Department and intelligence officials over whether emails on her server were classified.

Posted on July 31, 2015July 31, 2015 by James — Leave a comment

The Curious Case of Lois Lerner’s Physically Damaged Hard Drive

Posted by Alexander Hendrie on Thursday, July 30th, 2015, 7:15 AM

New documentation released by the House Oversight Committee this week again raises questions on how Lois Lerner’s hard drive was physically damaged and whether there was some kind of deliberate act to destroy data on it.

The House Oversight Committee report cites an officially transcribed interview with John Minsek, senior investigative analyst with the IRS Criminal Investigations (CI) unit. Minsek examined the Lerner hard drive in 2011. In the transcribed interview, he notes Lerner’s hard drive contained “well-defined scoring creating a concentric circle in the proximity of the center of the disk.” The Oversight Committee report states:

“Using the CI unit’s digital forensic facilities, Minsek opened the hard drive and conducted additional tests. Once he opened the hard drive, Minsek noticed “well-defined scoring creating a concentric circle in the proximity of the center of the disk.”

So how did the scoring get there?

Last month, testimony from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) revealed that Lois Lerner’s hard drive had “scoring on the top platter of the drive.” The testimony also noted that the IRS technician that inspected the hard drive believed that additional steps could have been taken to recover data, although this did not occur and the hard drive was later destroyed by an industrial strength AMERI-SHRED AMS-750 HD shredder.

Given these facts, it is logical to question how the “scoring” occurred and whether there was foul play involved. Here it what is known thus far:

According to TIGTA testimony submitted to the Oversight Committee on June 25, 2014, Lerner’s laptop stopped communicating with the IRS server on Saturday June 11, 2011, between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
According to the same testimony,the laptop was likely physically located in Lerner’s office the moment it stopped communicating with the server:

“Based on consistent network reporting for more than a week, the laptop computer was likely located in Ms. Lerner’s office.”

On Monday June 13, 2011, Lerner reported the laptop inoperable.
Lerner’s laptop was initially serviced by an IRS IT staff technician and a Hewlett-Packard contractor. Of note, the HP contractor thought the hard drive crashed due to a physical impact. According to the TIGTA testimony:

“When asked about the possible cause of the hard drive failure, the HP technician opined that heat-related failures are not seen often, and based on the information provided to him, the hard drive more than likely crashed due to an impact of some sort. However, because the HP technician did not examine the hard drive as part of his work on the laptop, it could not be determined why it crashed.”

Posted on July 30, 2015June 27, 2021 by James — 5 Comments

Trump Schools the Republican Establishment

GOP elites are only making The Donald stronger.

By MATT LATIMER

July 28, 2015

“Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably,” the great Homer Simpson once observed. “The lesson is: never try.”

That’s probably how the so-called “smart set” within the Republican Party feels these days. Ever since Mitt Romney’s 2012 defeat—a loss that caught everyone off guard except for people who followed public opinion polls or read a newspaper—we Republicans were promised a tough, new approach to the presidential primary process.

No longer would the “non-serious candidates”—a term the bigwigs applied to people like Michele Bachmann or Herman Cain—be permitted to dominate the news cycles. This time the GOP would be a well-oiled machine, with a handful of candidates who quickly and quietly made way for the coronation of King Bush the Third.

And yet here we are.

The first GOP debate, televised on August 6 on Fox News, is already a total backfire for the establishment. Based on the latest polls, it will likely include every single one of the candidates the Republican elite despises: Donald Trump, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson and Ted Cruz—and banish to the losers’ consolation round exactly the types of candidates the establishment presumably wants to showcase: a female business leader, an Indian-American son of immigrants and the consensus-building governor of the crucial electoral state of Ohio.

The controlled, somber and oh-so-civilized process that the GOP promised its donors is now the biggest free-for-all in American political history. The blame for this, of course, is all being thrown in one direction.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/trump-republican-establishment-120713.html#ixzz3hHen5BOt

Posted on July 30, 2015July 29, 2015 by James — 3 Comments

Judicial Watch: Hillary Clinton is not above the law

July 28,2015

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Judicial Watch continues to press Clinton on Various actions taken at the State Department as well as her involvement with the Clinton Foundation .But Hillary Clinton has a demonstrated record of showing contempt for the rule of law.

She refused to tell the truth about the deadly Benghazi terrorist attack that took place on her watch as Secretary of State
She violated the law and avoided accountability by using secret email accounts as Secretary of State
She abused her public office to funnel money to personal accounts – much of which is now sloshing around her vanity “charity” that could be renamed “The Clinton Corruption Foundation.”This is all unacceptable.

In this country our leaders are bound by the rule of law. She must be held accountable for her actions.

Sign the petition now to demand that Hillary Clinton answer for her corruption!

https://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/poll/demand-answers/?source=59

Posted on July 29, 2015July 29, 2015 by James — Leave a comment

Women Betrayed Rally braves heat to challenge Trenton

Posted by Alyssa Lafage On July 29, 2015 0 Comment

By Alyssa Lafage | The Save Jersey Blog

Ever since the release of two three disturbing undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the procurement and sale of body parts from aborted babies, Save Jerseyans, prolife activists and average Americans alike have been expressing outrage.

On Tuesday, this outrage manifested itself in Trenton (and in 65 cities across the country) when residents from all across the state joined together on the steps of the capitol to call on officials to investigate and defund the billion dollar abortion giant.

Trenton’s rally featured the following speakers: Marie Tasy of NJ Right to Life, Darlene Dunn, Dr. Kyle Beiter of the National Gianna Center for Womens Health and Fertility, Rev. Clenard Childress of New Calvary Baptist Church and BlackGenocide.org, Dr. Ana Gomes of Family Practice Phillipsburg, Holly Wright of Lifenet, Joan Fasanello of Life Choices, Patti Staley, and Monica Quaste.

Rev. Childress received the biggest response from the crowd when he suggested the prolife cause is nonpartisan and went on to praise Governor Christie for his history of vetoing legislation that would go to Planned Parenthood:

https://savejersey.com/2015/07/women-betrayed-rally-trenton-abortion-planned-parenthood/

Posted on July 29, 2015July 29, 2015 by James — 2 Comments

Clinton campaign’s lack of energy, passion has state’s Dem faithful concerned

The whole point of meeting a source at a bar is to get him (or her) in as relaxed a mood as possible in order to talk.

Midway into the conversation the source began slurring his words, eyes fixed on the empty beer bottle in front of him on the bar top. The dead, almost cross-eyed look in his eyes with a hint of curiosity for the unknown, suggested that the empty bottle might as well have been a lacquered Buddha statue on sale in Chinatown for $5.99.

(Editor, Politickernj.com)

https://politickernj.com/2015/07/sources-concern-among-dem-insiders-about-lack-of-clinton-passion/

Posted on July 29, 2015July 29, 2015 by James — 5 Comments

Jon Stewart’s secret Obama meetings reveal he’s a partisan hack

By Kyle Smith

July 29, 2015 | 2:00am

Jon Stewart — the man who loves to be called a nonpartisan, a scourge of cant, an honest soul who follows the truth wherever it leads — has been secretly taking trips to the White House to receive intense one-on-one lobbying from President Obama.

Moreover, Politico reported Tuesday, “Daily Show” staffers routinely call up the White House to get the administration’s input.

Austan Goolsbee, a former top economic adviser to the president, frequently emailed with his college classmate Scott Bodow, a “Daily Show” executive producer, to offer spin. Obama flunky David Axelrod often reached out directly to Stewart.

Obama himself would summon Stewart to Washington for meetings.

It turns out Jon Stewart isn’t our Edward R. Murrow or our Mark Twain. He’s more like our . . . Jay Carney. Don’t count on future generations knowing Stewart’s name any more than they will know Carney’s

https://nypost.com/2015/07/29/jon-stewarts-secret-obama-meetings-reveal-hes-a-partisan-hack/

Posted on July 29, 2015July 28, 2015 by James — 1 Comment

‘Our Country’s Going to Hell’: Trump Says People Are Tired of Incompetent Politicians

On “Hannity” tonight, Donald Trump said he’s disappointed with our country’s leaders, particularly President Obama, who he called the worst president in the history of the U.S.

Trump said that Obama has been a disaster for the country, pointing to the nuclear agreement with Iran as a recent example of the president’s failures.

Trump added that Obama is just like most politicians: All talk and no action.

Trump said that his anti-politician message is resonating with Americans, and that’s why he’s currently leading in the polls.

“People are tired of incompetent politicians running our country,” Trump said. “When they see a deal like the Iran nuclear deal, when they see how badly our veterans are taken care of, they’re just sick and tired of it.”

Trump added that many people are asking him to run as an independent, but he doesn’t see why he would do that when he’s the leading Republican in the polls.

https://insider.foxnews.com/2015/07/27/donald-trump-slams-president-obama-incompetent-politicians-hannity

Posted on July 29, 2015July 28, 2015 by James — 1 Comment

N.J. structural deficit nearly same as when Christie took office

New Jersey is more than $10 billion short on what it would cost to fully fund schools, pensions, transportation projects, Medicaid and other programs, according to an estimate prepared by the state’s nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services and obtained by NJ Advance Media. (Samantha Marcus, NJ.com)

https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/07/nj_structural_deficit_at_102b_nearly_same_as_when.html#incart_2box_nj-homepage-featured

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