U.S. Congress questions plan to admit Syrian refugees
BY MARK HOSENBALL
WASHINGTON Thu Jan 29, 2015 6:03pm EST
(Reuters) – The Republican-led House Committee on Homeland Security is challenging an Obama administration plan to admit Syrian refugees to the United States, saying it could allow potential terrorists to sneak into the country.
In a letter sent to the White House, Michael McCaul, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee and Peter King and Candice Miller, who chair subcommittees, said the administration’s plan “raises serious national security concerns.”
The letter, dated Wednesday, said the United States lacks the resources to fully investigate the backgrounds of refugees fromSyria, a base for Islamic State militants, before they are admitted to the country.
Anne Richard, an Assistant Secretary of State, said on Dec. 9 that the United States resettled nearly 70,000 refugees from nearly 70 countries in 2013 and that the administration’s refugee plans would lead to “resettling Syrians as well.”
New Jersey’s new test for third-graders tough even for reporter
FEBRUARY 17, 2015, 9:44 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2015, 9:46 PM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
With two weeks to go before New Jersey schoolchildren face new tests that have sparked outrage and panic in some parents and teachers, it fell to me as The Record’s education reporter to determine if these exams are as tough as they have been made out to be.
As a parent of a third-grader, I had an added incentive for getting an early look at the source of all the angst – both the English and math tests that are going to be given to third-graders.
I talked to experts, educators and parents to get their opinions, and I took the test myself to see how I would do — first with about 50 educators and parents at a forum on taking the test, then at the office, answering multiple-choice questions, typing short answers on a computer and writing an essay.
It wasn’t a cakewalk. The 13 third-grade practice questions in English language arts and the 17 questions in math were challenging, and the answers were almost never obvious. Still, I’m happy to report that all my hair is still intact on my head, I did not dissolve into tears, and I got all but a few answers right. Although to be fair, I’m not in third grade.
The new tests will be given to students in Grades 3-11 beginning in March. They are the result of New Jersey adopting new standards of what students should know at each grade level. The exams are designed to be more rigorous than previous tests, but they will not count against students until 2019, when they become a graduation requirement for 11th-graders.
Hoboken blogger to seek legal fees, may pursue libel charges after defamation lawsuit dismissal
HOBOKEN – One of the Hoboken-based bloggers who saw a defamation case filed against her dismissed last week will seek legal fees from the plaintiffs, and could pursue libel charges against a Hudson County weekly newspaper’s coverage of the case. (Bonamo/PolitickerNJ)
Benefit set for repairs to historic Ridgewood church hit by gunfire
FEBRUARY 17, 2015 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2015, 7:43 AM
THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD — A benefit concert has been organized to fund much-needed repairs to the Old Paramus Reformed Church after more than 40 bullets were fired into the building in December.
The church’s choir will perform at the concert 3 p.m. Sunday, along with a brass ensemble and four soloists.
Parishioners were stunned in late December upon discovering some 40 bullet holes puncturing the historic house of worship, which was constructed on Ridgewood’s East Glen Avenue in the 1800s.
“People are still sort of scratching their heads about it, wondering why,” said the Rev. Robert Miller, the church’s pastor. “The community’s not used to this sort of thing.”
Police arrested cousins Joseph Galli, 21, of Somerville and Alex Norrell, 22, of Ridgewood last month for shooting up the church on Nov. 16 and Dec. 26.
Authorities said they believe the men used the church as a target only because it is convenient and isolated from other buildings.
Judge blocks Obama order on immigration
February 17, 2015, 06:15 am
By Ben Kamisar and Kyle Balluck
A federal judge late Monday temporarily blocked President Obama’s executive action designed to shield millions of immigrants from deportation.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen wrote that 26 states that filed a lawsuit against the action would “suffer irreparable harm” without a preliminary injunction and that the constitutional question must be decided before the administration can move forward with its plans.
“Once these services are provided, there will be no effective way of putting the toothpaste back in the tube should Plaintiffs ultimately prevail on the merits,” Hanen wrote
The president’s executive actions on immigration, announced last November, would delay deportations for millions of undocumented immigrants and provide them with the opportunity to apply for work permits. The first part of those policies, the deportation delay, had been set to go into effect Wednesday. The rest are expected to begin later this year.
In Hospitals, Board Rooms Are as Important as Operating Rooms
If you or a loved one is having a heart attack, your most pressing concerns probably include how quickly you can get to the hospital and the quality of care you’ll receive. You’re probably not thinking about the hospital’s board room, even though quality of care for heart attacks and many other conditions may be determined in large part by decisions made there.
Several studies show that hospital boards can improve quality and can make decisions associated with reduced mortality rates. But not all boards do so.
”Most board members are community leaders, serving on the board to support fund-raising goals,” said Ashish Jha, a Harvard physician. “They don’t think it’s their job to hold management accountable for performance. Board members often feel like clinical quality is physicians’ jobs, and they don’t want to step on doctors’ toes.”
The trouble with this perspective is that boards, and other hospital management, can influence care in ways that individual physicians cannot. They can promote protocols that ensure that crucial information is conveyed to the right people at the right time. They can establish systems so that equipment and supplies are available when needed. They can set expectations for a culture of high performance, not just from individuals but from teams of them that must work together. And they can require quality to be monitored against goals with incentives to push it toward those targets.
”I’m a much better doctor in a well-managed hospital where the systems are in place to help me do my best work,” Dr. Jha said. “Even a great chef can’t produce a good omelet with eggs that are stored in the freezer or the stove doesn’t work reliably.”
According to Howard Dean, if you don’t have a college degree you’re also likely to be a hard-right religious fanatic, anti-evolution know-nothing.
Is Steve Sweeney an unknowledgeable, ignorant, hard-right religious fanatic and anti-evolution know-nothing? Howard Dean thinks so
By Scott St. Clair | The Save Jersey Blog
If I was Steve Sweeney, I’d find Howard Dean and smack him – then smack him again.
At a minimum, the New Jersey Senate president from West Deptford Township should be seriously steamed at the way he was implicitly and condescendingly bum rushed and bad mouthed by the former Vermont governor and Democratic National Committee chair all for the lack of a four-year sheepskin.
This past week, Dean, who is a medical doctor, was discussing the non-issue of evolution and its impact on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s presidential prospects on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist. Out of left field, Dean said that Walker’s lack of an undergraduate degree – he quit Marquette University in good standing half-way through his fourth year to take a job with the American Red Cross – made him “unknowledgeable” to the point where he was ignorant about “what goes on in the rest of the world,” which is “pretty important if you’re going to be president of the United States.”
North Dakota has ranked No. 1 for six years in a row. Gallup noted that Michigan experienced one of the “sharpest turnarounds of any state” in the seven years its has conducted the survey.
Nick Loris, an economist who focuses on energy, environmental and regulatory issues at The Heritage Foundation, said North Dakota’s No. 1 ranking came as no surprise.
“Energy development on private and state-owned lands in North Dakota and Texas is a critical reason why they rank at the top,” said Loris. “The regulatory environment has allowed companies in these states to create jobs, grow the economy, and increased energy supplies to save families money—all while effectively protecting the environment.”
Chart: Gallup
In his recent State of the State address, Gov. Jack Dalrymple, R-N.D., said energy jobs were a large factor in his state’s success.
“We should all be proud of the vital role our state is playing to help America strengthen its energy independence,” said Dalrymple.
“Over the past 10 years, North Dakota’s economy has averaged an annual growth rate of 10.3 percent, nearly three times that of the nation’s economy,” he added. “We also continue to have the nation’s lowest unemployment rate at just 2.4 percent, and our growing commercial activity has created more than 106,000 new jobs in the past 10 years.”
Dalrymple said North Dakota’s “economic progress has not been confined to oil country,” and pointed out that the state’s population and personal income rates are growing as well.
Chart: Gallup
James Sherk, senior policy analyst in labor economics at The Heritage Foundation, closely follows job growth. He noted that the labor market has slowly recovered since the recession ended. Last year represented a move in a positive direction.
“This recovery stands in marked contrast to the forecasts of Keynesian analysts who predicted that the sequester—a measure of spending restraint—and end of extended unemployment insurance benefits would harm the economy,” Sherk told The Daily Signal. “Instead, the economy has improved.”
Looking ahead, Sherk said government should remove barriers to job creation.
“The states with the fastest job growth have been those that have allowed hydraulic natural gas and oil extraction, with Texas and North Dakota enjoying some of the strongest labor markets in the country,” Sherk said. “New York decided to ban this new energy extraction technique—harming its workers and labor market.”
To combat fraud, Visa wants to track your smartphone
FEBRUARY 16, 2015 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY KEN SWEET
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS |
WIRE SERVICE
* Tracking could cut fraud, experts say
NEW YORK — Those days of calling your bank to let it know that, yes, you really are in Thailand and, yes, you really did use your credit card to buy $200 in sarongs may be coming to an end.
The payment processing company Visa is rolling out a feature this spring that will allow its cardholders to inform their banks where they are automatically — using the location function found in nearly every smartphone.
Having your bank and Visa know where you are at all times may sound a little like “Big Brother.” But privacy experts are actually applauding the feature, saying that, if used correctly, it could protect cardholders and cut down on credit card fraud.
Credit and debit card fraud costs consumers and banks billions of dollars each year, and that figure has been growing as data breaches have become more common. The banking industry had $1.57 billion in debit card fraud in 2013 and $4 billion in credit card fraud in 2012, the latest years for which data are available, according to the Federal Reserve.
Facing these high costs, banks and the payment processors have been stepping up their efforts to cut down on fraud, and Visa’s announcement is just one small piece of this drive. JPMorgan Chase’s CEO Jamie Dimon has said repeatedly that his bank spends $250 million overall on cybersecurity every year, and plans to double that spending.
Here’s how it works: Starting in April, banks will update their smartphone apps to include Visa’s new location-tracking software. If the consumer opts in, the Visa software will, over a period of time, establish a customer’s home territory of roughly a 50-mile radius. If the person uses his or her Visa card at stores in that area, those transactions will be considered low risk for fraud.
Ridgewood NJ, Readers report scratches on their stoops and pavers this winter .An investigation has determined the postal workers are wearing spikes on their shoes for better grip against the elements . The spikes have been authorized by the Ridgewood Post Office to ensure worker safety . Several residents have reached out to the blog and reported this issue . While we are glad the Postal Service is taking steps to ensure worker safety , the spikes seem to be having and adverse effect on stone pavers and other stone walk ways which may case additional hazards in the future .Perhaps a softer rubber spike required on many golf courses may be the answer . We do not want anything done that will jeopardize safety .
ETCHED IN STONE : THE STORY BEHIND POSTAL SERVICE’S UNOFFICIAL MOTTO
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers
from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
The Postal Service has no official motto. The popular belief that it does is a tribute to America’s postal workers. The words above, thought by many to be the motto, are chiseled in gray granite over the entrance to the New York City Post Office on 8th Avenue. In 1982, the building was renamed the James A. Farley Post Office Building in honor of the 53rd Postmaster General.
The motto comes from Book 8, Paragraph 98, of The Persian Wars by Herodotus. During the wars between the Greeks and Persians (500-449 B.C.), the Persians used a system of mounted couriers.
The firm of McKim, Mead and White designed the New York General Post Office, which opened to the public on Labor Day, 1914. One of the firm’s architects, William Mitchell Kendall, was the son of a classics scholar and read Greek literature for pleasure. He selected the “Neither snow nor rain …” inscription, which he modified from a translation by Professor George Herbert Palmer of Harvard University, and the Post Office Department approved it.
Reader says Ridgewood is actually the perfect place to screw the taxpayers. Why? Because Ridgewood types are completely oblivious to matters of local government
The impression I get out of all of this, is that Rica was the only person who was flat-out stealing in the pure sense of the word. Although still stealing by definition, the other shrinkage was probably all down to a sense of entitlement by certain other employees who felt it was perfectly acceptable for the Village to pay for their coffees, lunches, etc. I believe that this was an ingrained practice, going back years, probably unofficially sanctioned by certain senior officials. I believe it was this aspect that made the prosecution of Rica very tricky.
You know, I came to Ridgewood almost 20 years ago, and I naively thought that it was probably above all this kind of crap that so often affects municipalities of a lower class standing. I admit that this was naive. I thought the Village was somehow a reflection of the general high levels of sophistication of its residents. Please stop laughing. I really did. Coin Boy and its wider story is just the latest chapter in my utter disgust at municipal government. Who remembers the on-duty cop who was busted for having sex with an under-age girl at the back of Starbucks? Not only did he not go to jail, but he kept his job! That was real am-I-living-in-an-alternate-universe result.
The more I study New Jersey’s enormous history of municipal government issues of corruption, nepotism, laziness, cronyism, etc., it makes for extremely depressing reading. I now think that I had Ridgewood completely the wrong way around, and that it’s actually the perfect place to screw the taxpayers. Why? Because Ridgewood types are completely oblivious to matters of local government, being caught up in their stressful Wall St jobs, their busy social lives, and best of all, the transient nature in which they live here just for the school years.
For those who don’t easily sport sarcasm, the last bit is just that.
You know folks, let’s just laugh it off at our next cocktail party. Just one bad apple, right? This is a great town. You know, they actually come round the back and pick up my garbage. What a town!
How Jon Stewart turned lies into comedy and brainwashed a generation
By Kyle Smith
February 15, 2015 | 6:00am
So Brian Williams goes out (for six months) humiliated and derided. Jon Stewart goes out (permanently, one hopes) the same day, but on a giant Comedy Homecoming King float, with a 21-gun salute from the media, his path strewn with roses and teardrops.
Why?
Brian Williams lied about his personal exploits a few times. Jon Stewart was unabashedly and habitually dishonest.
Though Stewart has often claimed he does a “fake news show,” “The Daily Show” isn’t that. It’s a real news show punctuated with puns, jokes, asides and the occasional moment of staged sanctimony.
It contains real, unstaged sound bites about the days’ events and interviews about important policy matters.
Stewart is a journalist: an irresponsible and unprofessional one.
He is especially beloved by others in the journo game. (For every 100 viewers, he generated about 10 fawning profiles in the slicks, all of them saying the same thing: The jester tells the truth!).
Any standard liberal publication was as likely to contain an unflattering thought about Stewart as L’Osservatore Romano is to run a hit piece on the pope.
The hacks have a special love for Stewart because he’s their id. They don’t just think he’s funny, they thrill to his every sarcastic quip. They wish they could get away with being so one-sided, snarky and dismissive.
Prescription Opioid Abuse: A First Step to Heroin Use?
Prescription opioid pain medications such as Oxycontin and Vicodin can have effects similar to heroin when taken in doses or in ways other than prescribed, and they are currently among the most commonly abused drugs in the United States. Research now suggests that abuse of these drugs may open the door to heroin abuse.
Nearly half of young people who inject heroin surveyed in three recent studies reported abusing prescription opioids before starting to use heroin. Some individuals reported taking up heroin because it is cheaper and easier to obtain than prescription opioids.
Many of these young people also report that crushing prescription opioid pills to snort or inject the powder provided their initiation into these methods of drug administration.
Heroin is an opioid drug that is synthesized from morphine, a naturally occurring substance extracted from the seed pod of the Asian opium poppy plant. Heroin usually appears as a white or brown powder or as a black sticky substance, known as “black tar heroin.”
In 2011, 4.2 million Americans aged 12 or older (or 1.6 percent) had used heroin at least once in their lives. It is estimated that about 23 percent of individuals who use heroin become dependent on it.
How Is Heroin Used?
Heroin can be injected, inhaled by snorting or sniffing, or smoked. All three routes of administration deliver the drug to the brain very rapidly, which contributes to its health risks and to its high risk for addiction, which is a chronic relapsing disease caused by changes in the brain and characterized by uncontrollable drug-seeking no matter the consequences.
How Does Heroin Affect the Brain?
When it enters the brain, heroin is converted back into morphine, which binds to molecules on cells known as opioid receptors. These receptors are located in many areas of the brain (and in the body), especially those involved in the perception of pain and in reward. Opioid receptors are also located in the brain stem, which controls automatic processes critical for life, such as blood pressure, arousal, and respiration.
Heroin overdoses frequently involve a suppression of breathing. This can affect the amount of oxygen that reaches the brain, a condition called hypoxia. Hypoxia can have short- and long-term psychological and neurological effects, including coma and permanent brain damage.
After an intravenous injection of heroin, users report feeling a surge of euphoria (“rush”) accompanied by dry mouth, a warm flushing of the skin, heaviness of the extremities, and clouded mental functioning. Following this initial euphoria, the user goes “on the nod,” an alternately wakeful and drowsy state. Users who do not inject the drug may not experience the initial rush, but other effects are the same.
Researchers are also investigating the long-term effects of opioid addiction on the brain. One result is tolerance, in which more of the drug is needed to achieve the same intensity of effect. Another result is dependence, characterized by the need to continue use of the drug to avoid withdrawal symptoms. Studies have shown some deterioration of the brain’s white matter due to heroin use, which may affect decision-making abilities, the ability to regulate behavior, and responses to stressful situations.
People who inject drugs are at high risk of contracting HIV and hepatitis C (HCV). This is because these diseases are transmitted through contact with blood or other bodily fluids, which can occur when sharing needles or other injection drug use equipment. (HCV is the most common blood-borne infection in the Unites States.) HIV (and less often HCV) can also be contracted during unprotected sex, which drug use makes more likely.
Because of the strong link between drug abuse and the spread of infectious disease, drug abuse treatment can be an effective way to prevent the latter. People in drug abuse treatment, which often includes risk reduction counseling, stop or reduce their drug use and related risk behaviors, including risky injection practices and unsafe sex. (See box, “Treating Heroin Addiction.”)
What Are the Other Health Effects of Heroin?
Heroin abuse is associated with a number of serious health conditions, including fatal overdose, spontaneous abortion, and infectious diseases like hepatitis and HIV (see box, “Injection Drug Use and HIV and HCV Infection”). Chronic users may develop collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, constipation and gastrointestinal cramping, and liver or kidney disease. Pulmonary complications, including various types of pneumonia, may result from the poor health of the user as well as from heroin’s effects on breathing.
In addition to the effects of the drug itself, street heroin often contains toxic contaminants or additives that can clog blood vessels leading to the lungs, liver, kidneys, or brain, causing permanent damage to vital organs.
Treating Heroin Addiction
A range of treatments including behavioral therapies and medications are effective at helping patients stop using heroin and return to stable and productive lives.
Medications include buprenorphine and methadone, both of which work by binding to the same cell receptors as heroin but more weakly, helping a person wean off the drug and reduce craving; and naltrexone, which blocks opioid receptors and prevents the drug from having an effect (patients sometimes have trouble complying with naltrexone treatment, but a new long-acting version given by injection in a doctor’s office may increase this treatment’s efficacy). Another drug called naloxone is sometimes used as an emergency treatment to counteract the effects of heroin overdose.
For more information, see NIDA’s handbook,Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment.
Chronic use of heroin leads to physical dependence, a state in which the body has adapted to the presence of the drug. If a dependent user reduces or stops use of the drug abruptly, he or she may experience severe symptoms of withdrawal. These symptoms—which can begin as early as a few hours after the last drug administration—can include restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps (“cold turkey”), and kicking movements (“kicking the habit”). Users also experience severe craving for the drug during withdrawal, which can precipitate continued abuse and/or relapse.
Besides the risk of spontaneous abortion, heroin abuse during pregnancy (together with related factors like poor nutrition and inadequate prenatal care) is also associated with low birth weight, an important risk factor for later delays in development. Additionally, if the mother is regularly abusing the drug, the infant may be born physically dependent on heroin and could suffer from neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), a drug withdrawal syndrome in infants that requires hospitalization. According to a recent study, treating opioid-addicted pregnant mothers with buprenorphine (a medication for opioid dependence) can reduce NAS symptoms in babies and shorten their hospital stays.
Reader asks , Bergen County Clerk performed a lot of weddings on Valentine day.Was our Village Mayor asked to the same ? If so and is there any wedding cake left over.Love you all — Dom the Marriage broker of Robert St.
According to Deputy Mayor Albert Pucciarelli , “Gretchen and I were married on Valentine’s Day 1981…..it was sunny and 70 degrees in Ridgewood that day!”
Valentine’s Day brings wedded bliss at Bergen County Clerk’s Office
FEBRUARY 14, 2015, 8:42 PM LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2015, 10:04 PM
BY STEPHANIE AKIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
When Diana Acosta and Cristian Sanchez decided to get married two weeks ago, they considered planning a wedding a year in advance. Then they realized all their close family members would be in town for the Presidents Day weekend and that the Bergen County Clerk’s office would be performing ceremonies.
The last detail seemed like a happy coincidence: It was Valentine’s Day.
So Acosta and Sanchez — she in a shimmery white dress, he in a gray blazer — became one of eight couples to exchange wedding vows in the county clerk’s office Saturday.
“Usually we go to dinner for Valentine’s Day,” Acosta said. “Now it will be our anniversary.”
Beyond Bergen County, other couples who exchanged Valentine’s Day vows included 100 who were wed atop the Empire State building; British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who married his fiancée Sophie Hunter on the Isle of Wight; and as many as 1,500 people who were expected to be issued marriage licenses in Las Vegas over the Presidents Day weekend, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.
