Pension reform talk may heat up as Christie readies State of the State address
TRENTON — When Gov. Chris Christie delivers his 2015 State of the State address Tuesday, lawmakers and public workers will no doubt be listening for remarks on pension reform.
On the eve of that speech, and months after a commission’s report on recommendations for the ailing pension system was expected to be released, legislators, union leaders and lobbyists say they are expecting to hear from the governor on one of the biggest issues facing Trenton. Christie’s office has not yet provided any details about his annual address to the state Legislature.
The governor made mention of the ailing public employee pension system nine times in his 2014 address, proposing to crack down on pension fraud and engage on pension reform.
Ron Paul: “Reality Is Now Setting In For America… It Was All Based On Lies & Ignorance”
Submitted by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity,
If Americans were honest with themselves they would acknowledge that the Republic is no more. We now live in a police state. If we do not recognize and resist this development, freedom and prosperity for all Americans will continue to deteriorate. All liberties in America today are under siege.
It didn’t happen overnight. It took many years of neglect for our liberties to be given away so casually for a promise of security from the politicians. The tragic part is that the more security was promised — physical and economic — the less liberty was protected.
With cradle-to-grave welfare protecting all citizens from any mistakes and a perpetual global war on terrorism, which a majority of Americans were convinced was absolutely necessary for our survival, our security and prosperity has been sacrificed.
It was all based on lies and ignorance. Many came to believe that their best interests were served by giving up a little freedom now and then to gain a better life.
The trap was set. At the beginning of a cycle that systematically undermines liberty with delusions of easy prosperity, the change may actually seem to be beneficial to a few. But to me that’s like excusing embezzlement as a road to leisure and wealth — eventually payment and punishment always come due. One cannot escape the fact that a society’s wealth cannot be sustained or increased without work and productive effort. Yes, some criminal elements can benefit for a while, but reality always sets in.
Reality is now setting in for America and for that matter for most of the world.The piper will get his due even if “the children” have to suffer. The deception of promising “success” has lasted for quite a while. It was accomplished by ever-increasing taxes, deficits, borrowing, and printing press money. In the meantime the policing powers of the federal government were systematically and significantly expanded. No one cared much, as there seemed to be enough “gravy” for the rich, the poor, the politicians, and the bureaucrats.
Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce presents RIDGEWOOD YOUNG PROFESSIONALS EXCHANGE *RYPE*
let’s get to business!
with great success, we invite you to attend our upcoming event!
Young Professionals
Networking meeting
Thursday,
Thursday, January 29, 2015
6:00pm-7:30pm
27 Chestnut Street
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
walk through LaPiazza restaurant patio, go through glass doors, take elevator to first floor.
Bring your business cards and enjoy our casual networking atmosphere while promoting for
your business.
***************************
R.Y.P.E. is a group for those 40 years of age and younger, and affiliated with the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce. We give young professionals an opportunity to get involved with like minded individuals to help create new business relationships!
Do you feel the large networking events seem overbearing because it might be your first time or you are relatively young and/or inexperienced compared to your peers?
R.Y.P.E. is your solution!
This is your opportunity to really get to know others with a similar age who may be potential referral sources.
Not a young professional?
Feel free to send a colleague on behalf of your business!
THE GROUP’S GOALS will be to:
– provide a forum in which
to discuss your business.
– share your business mission and highlight what distinguishes it from other businesses.
-Grow your business and develop networking skills.
RYPE will give you the opportunity to get to know other business owners in a non-formal setting so that you will feel comfortable providing referrals to and receiving referrals from, other young Chamber Members.
We hope you join us!
RSVP
Allison Beer
201-345-1893 [email protected]
We look foward to seeing you there!
Your Hosts:
Allison Beer
YWCA of Bergen County
Stewart G. Einwohner, Esq.
Stewart G. Einwohner, P.C.
White House: ‘It’s fair to say’ we were wrong on Paris unity rally
By Justin Sink – 01/12/15 01:54 PM EST
The White House erred in not sending a higher profile representative to this weekend’s solidarity march in France following a terrorist attack on a satirical newspaper, press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday.
“It’s fair to say we should have sent someone with a higher profile to be there,” Earnest told reporters at the White House.
“Had the circumstances been a little bit different, I think the president himself would have liked to be there,” Earnest added.
The White House said planning for the march had begun only 36 hours before the event, and that the security required for the president to visit would have been “onerous and significant.”
Still, Earnest said, there should be no doubt that the administration and the American people stood in solidarity with France, nor that the United States was “committed to a strong relationship. The United States is with France and committed to the same kind of values they are.”
The White House would not discuss whether it considered sending the president at any point.
Earnest said he did not know why Attorney General Eric Holder, who was in Paris earlier Sunday for a series of high-level counterterrorism meetings, was unable to stay to attend the march. He also said he did not know what the president, who remained at the White House throughout the day, did with his time.
How to Live a Good, Happy Life (and Not Be Tranquilized by Drugs, Sex and Mass Media)
Lee Edwards / January 11, 2015
These are troubling times for many Americans. The economic recovery since the Great Recession of 2008 has been the slowest in U.S. history, with millions of out-of-work Americans so discouraged they are no longer even trying to find a job. Forbes puts the real unemployment rate at 12.5 percent.
Consumer confidence about the future, according to the University of Michigan, stands at a limp 73.7, similar to past recession lows. The national exit poll taken after the November elections found that 78 percent of the people feel that you can only “sometimes” (60 percent) or “never” (18 percent) trust Washington “to do what is right.”
You can hardly blame people for being so negative about their government, given the actions of the anti–Tea Party IRS, the grievously ineffective Department of Veterans Affairs, and the overly inquisitive National Security Agency.
Most important of all, there is our culture. George Orwell was wrong, and Aldous Huxley was right: The true danger is not a totalitarian government ruled by Big Brother, but a hedonistic society tranquilized by drugs, sex, and mass media.
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We are bombarded on all sides by pernicious messages. The Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule are fusty and old-fashioned and should be cast aside. Smoking a cigarette is banned, but smoking a joint is celebrated. “Pot entrepreneurs” are pushing to make Washington the Pot Capital of the World. Same-sex marriage is protected by our legal system, while traditional brides and grooms are patronized.
Cohabitation is the new norm for young couples. In the past decade, the percentage of children born outside of marriage grew by almost 7 percent; the unwed birth rate for African Americans is over 70 percent. The proportion of twelfth-graders admitting to drug use — ranging from marijuana to cocaine to heroin — is more than 25 percent.
The number of movies that offer death and destruction tops those concerned with life and love. TV programs such as House of Cards and Scandal, whose protagonists are corrupt, violent public officials, win awards. George Clooney is more famous than George Washington among our schoolchildren.
Jon Stewart has replaced Walter Cronkite as the most trusted newsman in America. As the head of the Parents Television Council said, “In order to watch cable news, ESPN, Disney, or the History Channel, every family in America must now also pay for pornography on FX.” The smartphone is turning us into dummies, able to communicate only with our thumbs.
If that were all there was to our society, many citizens, intent only on self-gratification, might not even bother to answer the question, “Is life worth living?” They would simply keep on surrendering to the impulse of the moment. But we are not yet at such a state of mindless, endless pleasure-seeking. A solid majority of Americans believe in God and go to church. Americans remain the most charitable and connected people on earth. They belong to countless voluntary associations — social, religious, educational, racial — that solve problems without government prodding or regulation.
So the bothersome question, “Is life worth living?” is bothersome because it forces us to consider not only our own life but the lives of others.
Aristotle, described by St. Thomas Aquinas as simply “The Philosopher,” said that happiness is the purpose of human existence. But happiness is not simply pleasure or self-gratification — it is the daily exercise of the classical virtues, led by prudence. Happiness, Aristotle said, is the sum of our whole life, “for as it is not one swallow or one fine day that makes a spring, so it is not one day or a short time that makes a man blessed and happy.” And since man is a rational animal, Aristotle said, human happiness depends on exercising reason, not being ruled by fleeting passions.
But Aristotle was a Greek philosopher who lived some 2,300 years ago. What do modern American thinkers say about what constitutes a good life, a worthwhile life?
Mary Rice Hasson of the Ethics & Public Policy Center counsels against despair. We have not yet lost the culture wars, she insists. For example, only 7 percent of Americans say that abortion is morally acceptable, only 4 percent say extramarital affairs are morally acceptable, and 50 percent think that homosexual activity is a sin. Overall, 72 percent of adults are still married to their first spouse. The sinews of a good society are there, if atrophied.
According to the conservatives’ favorite president, Ronald Reagan, “Every individual is unique, but we all want freedom and liberty, peace, love and security, a good home, and a chance to worship God in our own way; we all want the chance to get ahead and make our children’s lives better than our own.” Above all other places, Reagan wrote, America “gives us the freedom to reach out and make our dreams come true.” Note there is no mention of the government guaranteeing a job or a minimum wage or first place at the finishing line.
Best known for his political writing, William F. Buckley Jr. suggested in his book “Nearer, My God,” that work and prayer were the real stuff of a good life. “However routine,” he wrote, “work is a fortifying experience, your intimate sense of your own productivity.” Of his visit to the French town of Lourdes, the site of a thousand miracles, the Roman Catholic Buckley said that the pilgrims who visited Lourdes did so out of a conviction that “the Lord God loves his creatures, healthy or infirm; that they — we — must understand the nature of love, which is salvific in its powers.”
The Jewish psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, a survivor of the Holocaust, reflected on how his experience in the concentration camps shaped his understanding of a meaningful life. “The more [someone] forgets himself,” he wrote, “giving himself to a cause or another person — the more human he is . . . the more he really becomes himself.”
An enduring memory from the camps, he said, was the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. While few in number, they offered “sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms . . . to choose one’s own way.”
In his 1985 message to the youth of the world, Pope John Paul II addressed directly the many temptations surrounding young people, such as “the fantasy worlds of alcohol and drugs . . . short-lived sexual relationships without commitment to marriage and family,” cynicism, and even violence. The secular consumer-dominated world suggested that man would find fulfillment in such fantasies, a suggestion firmly rejected by John Paul, who quoted Christ: “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
And what does it mean to be free? the pope asked. It does not mean “doing everything that pleases me, or doing what I want to do. . . . To be truly free means to use one’s own freedom for what is a true good . . . to be a person of upright conscience, to be responsible, to be a person ‘for others.’”
On a less elevated plane, the social scientist Charles Murray offered five rules for a happy life, ranging from marrying young to not worrying about fame and fortune, and he included this arresting advice: Watch the movie “Groundhog Day” repeatedly. Without preaching, Murray wrote, “the movie shows the bumpy, unplanned evolution of [the] protagonist from a jerk to a fully realized human being — a person who has learned to experience deep, lasting and justified satisfaction with life even though he has only one day to work with.”
In the final pages of his autobiography, “The Sword of Imagination,” the historian and man of letters Russell Kirk reflected that he had sought during his lifetime three ends: (1) to conserve a patrimony of order, justice, and freedom, a tolerable moral order, and an inheritance of culture; (2) to lead a life of decent independence; and (3) to marry for love and rear children (he and his wife, Annette, raised four daughters) who would come to know that the service of God is perfect freedom. Through the grace of God and his own talents, Kirk achieved all three goals and provided a raison d’être for those who reject the modern existential argument that life is without meaning.
Rather than surrender to despair, we should strive to enlighten those around us, to live as best we can a life of ora et labora, to further conservatism as the philosophy most consistent with the American founding and the idea of ordered liberty. And we must love not only those who love us but also those who do not, and be prepared to go gentle into the night, believing in the permanent things of faith, hope, and charity.
Rotisserie chicken has become something of a food-world darling over the last few years, with renowned chefs like Marcus Samuelsson taking an interest in the once-humble weeknight dinner staple. Some trendy restaurants are even stuffing their birds with foie gras.
The restaurant Le Bon Choix, which means the “the right choice” in French, opts for keeping things simple, and affordable. Regretfully, the service is not as streamlined.
The 1,100-square-foot restaurant, which opened last April, is situated among a string of other businesses along the car-heavy Godwin Avenue in downtown Ridgewood. The décor is charming, featuring dark wood floors and furniture. The rotisserie oven, containing five skewers, is viewable from the dining room and can hold up to 30 birds as they rotate to a golden finish. The tables, 16 in all (19 on the weekends), are set with rolls of paper towels in lieu of napkins. Two overhead fans evoke a French bistro ambience.
The diverse background music, ranging from the Beatles to heavy metal, ensures that the room always feels lively even when it’s not full of the families with children who tend to be the most frequent diners. Children even get a complimentary gluten-free sugar cookie to decorate with colorful sprinkles as soon as they sit down (the cookies are then whisked away to the oven during the meal and are presented afterward as desserts). And while there is an especially friendly staff, there are some lapses in the dining.
POLITICO’s list of Top 100 donors of disclosed money tilts leftward.
By Kenneth P. Vogel
1/11/15 8:04 AM EST
Democrats spent much of the 2014 campaign castigating Republican big money, but, it turns out, their side actually finished ahead among the biggest donors of 2014 – at least among those whose contributions were disclosed.
The 100 biggest donors of 2014 gave nearly $174 million to Democrats, compared to more than $140 million to Republicans, according to a POLITICO analysis of reports filed with the Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service.
Donors who gave mostly or exclusively to Democrats held down 52 of the top 100 spots, including that of the biggest by far – retired San Francisco hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer, who spent $74 million helping Democratic candidates and groups.
Of course, that edge doesn’t take into account contributions to deep-pocketed non-profit groups that don’t disclose their donors. They heavily favored Republicans, with reports showing conservative secret money non-profits outspending liberal ones $127 million to $33 million. While that’s just a fraction of the overall undisclosed money spent in 2014, it’s indicative of a dramatic imbalance in a type of big money spending that likely would close the gap between Democratic and Republican top donors, if not put Republicans ahead.
For instance, the network of mostly secret-money non-profit groups helmed by the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers was on pace to spend $290 million in 2014. Yet David and Charles Koch, who Democrats worked to vilify as the very personifications of the corrupting effect of big money in politics, ranked as only the 10th and 29th biggest givers of disclosed cash in POLITICO’s analysis.
Nonetheless, the analysis suggests that rich liberals have gotten over any lingering qualms about writing huge checks to unlimited-money groups like those made legal under a pair of 2010 federal court decisions – including Citizens United vs. FEC – that liberals including President Barack Obama had blasted asundermining American democracy.
POLITICO’s analysis is the most comprehensive assessment to date of elite donor spending in the first full midterm election cycle following Citizens United. The analysis relies on FEC data processed by the Center for Responsive Politics (a non-partisan non-profit group), supplemented by IRS data aggregated and made available for downloading by Political Moneyline, covering donations made during the 2014 cycle, including reports filed last month that detail contributions through the final days of the race. The analysis incorporates checks written by donors, their spouses and closely controlled corporations to federal candidates’ campaigns and national party committees, as well as to political action committees and super PACs registered with the FEC. The analysis also covers donations to national non-profit groups established under a section of the tax code – 527 – that allows organizations like the Democratic and Republican governors associations and EMILY’s List to accept unlimited contributions for political spending, provided they disclose their donors to the IRS.
The list contains some familiar names in the world of big political spending from across the political spectrum, including the hawkish Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson (who ranked No. 3; with $13.2 million in disclosed donations, but who also donated another $10 million or more in undisclosed money), as well as the liberal financier George Soros and his son Jonathan Soros (Nos. 16 and 38, respectively, giving a combined $5.6 million).
The Union-Driven Crisis That Could Be Coming to a City Near You
Stephen Moore / @StephenMoore / January 11, 2015
For “Outrageous Government Scam of 2014,” it’s hard to compete with the news of the supersized public employee pensions in California. If you haven’t already heard: In 2013, an assistant fire chief in Southern California collected a $983,319 pension. A police captain in Los Angeles received nearly $753,861.
Talk about a golden parachute. And the report on Golden State government pensions contains a list of hundreds of “public servants” who have hit the jackpot with annual pensions of a half million dollars a year. It’s like they’re playing the game “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” with taxpayer money.
By some estimates, the unfunded public-sector pension liabilities in California have eclipsed $750 billion, which means in a few years residents will be paying their already-highest-in-the-nation income and sales taxes not for roads, bridges, schools and public safety, but for retired employees living like Daddy Warbucks.
This same scandal – only on a slightly smaller scale – is happening in most states. The crisis dates back 20 to 30 years ago, when public employee unions negotiated fat pension deals with state and local politicians that were like ticking time bombs in municipal budgets. The politicians who bought union votes didn’t care much. They’d be long gone when these grenades detonated, and the fiscal carnage began.
Americans know instinctively that this is no way to run a city or state, and that the enormous pensions border on larceny from public treasuries. This will eventually cause rip roaring problems for state and local budgets. But now we have a story from middle America of what happens when the crisis hits a financial boiling point. Look no further than Scranton, Pa.
Scranton is a middle-class, blue-collar town of 76,000 with severe financial problems. The city recently raised its property taxes for 2014 by more than 50 percent, and those taxes are expected to rise by another 20 percent in 2015. The city had to also raise various fees, such as the charge for garbage collection, by two-thirds. It’s becoming a tax hell.
These taxpayer costs are skyrocketing because the city’s auditors calculate that the police and fire pension funds will be completely depleted in three to five years. The local Times-Tribune newspaper reported last week that “pensions increased by as much as 80 percent” after a court order in 2011 awarded millions of dollars of added pensions to firefighters and police officers.
This is a town that has already been struggling for years to pay its bills. The Times-Tribune reports: “The increased pensions come at a time when Scranton, in distressed status since 1992, is struggling to survive [and faces] a $20 million deficit.” City officials admit that to pay these lucrative pensions will mean less money for school children, public safety and infrastructure needs.
Finances are so tight in this town that, late last year, the city auditor put out an advisory memo to city agencies: “Only in the event of an extreme emergency can a purchase be made. … This is a serious matter and your cooperation is expected.”
So, now, homeowners are getting squeezed on basic city services as they pay ever escalating property taxes. What a deal. Don’t be surprised as more leave Scranton, further depleting the tax base. And who would want to move there now?
When the mayor requested that the unions help keep the city afloat by renegotiating these soaring pension costs, the answer from these militant “public service” union leaders was, Hell no.
One option is for Scranton to take the Detroit route and declare bankruptcy. This is also what several California cities – such San Bernardino and Stockton – have had to do.
The California Policy Center notes that this option has the virtue of “forcing the unions to renegotiate and take a haircut.” If that doesn’t happen, cities like Scranton, and many more working-class towns, will continue to raise taxes at a time when families are already walking a financial tight rope.
The Left loves to talk about “fairness” and “inequality,” but where the inequities really exist are in towns like Scranton. Middle-class private-sector workers pay higher and higher taxes to fund public-sector pensions that, as the Manhattan Institute has shown, are often twice as generous as what most workers will receive themselves. The money for supersized pensions isn’t going to come from millionaires and billionaires like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett. It is coming right out of the paychecks of working-class America.
The crisis isn’t going away. Nationwide, public employee pensions are running $1 trillion to $5 trillion in the red, depending on the rate of return expected on stocks and bonds. This could be the next housing bubble to burst. Some states like Utah have smartly moved to head off this crisis by closing down open-ended pensions and putting public sector union members in 401(k) plans that won’t bankrupt the state or municipalities. The unions are fighting this reform everywhere.
If something isn’t done quickly, the crisis in Scranton will soon be coming to a town near you.
Originally appeared in the Orange County Register.
The cold weather is here, cracking the pavement and creating pot holes.
During the work day our staff observes the conditions of the street but they may miss some locations.
We encourage residents to report the location of any pot holes they see. An easy way to report locations is to use the “App” is located on our website – right side of the home page – www.ridgewoodnj.net. By using this you will be able to track the progress of your submission.
The “App”, will get the information to us easily and we will respond as quickly as possible.
40 World Leaders in France Stand Up for Freedom Against the Terrorists. One Major Figure Was Missing.
Dear French Citizens,
This is a personal note from me but I suspect it represents the sentiments of many Americans.
I am sorry that our President didn’t go to France today and stand with your President and other world leaders against terrorism. It was an important statement to send to France, to the world and to terrorists and frankly he blew it. It was a big missed opportunity for my President and thus for all Americans. He should have gone. It was a mistake that he did not. Sometimes mistakes like that are made.
I stand with you and I think all Americans do stand with you. I had wanted the President to go to Paris today to represent how I feel and how most Americans feel after Paris was terrorized but that did not happen. President Obama didn’t just disappoint you — he disappointed many Americans today. Maybe there is a reason for his absence that I just don’t know but right now the White House has released no explanation.
Despite today’s absence, I know our President wants to stop world terrorism but his bad manners today – or maybe just dropping the ball – is not something we should harbor but rather drop and move on. It may be easier for you to drop than many Americans. As already noted, I am not happy with him tonight, but I will get over it. But, in the mean time, I do want the citizens of France to know we Americans stand with you and that we need each other to fight terrorism.
I also want everyone in France to know – and this is very important 0 that we have not forgotten that it was the French President who was the first national leader to show up at the White House after 9/11. You don’t forget things like that. (Nor have we forgotten LaFayette who fought for us in the Revolutionary War but that’s a bit farther back!)
I love your nation and have spent a lot of time there over the years – from college onward. Your citizens have been friendly to Americans and to me (although many have looked askance at me when I speak my very fractured French. You could be a tad bit nicer about my French.) Our nations have had their difference over the years but always I know fundamentally we are friends even when we might have some disagreements. We have the same goals and the same dreams.
So….I apologize for my President’s absence. Tonight I am mad at him but I will get over it and I hope you do, too. We have a bigger fight to fight than bad manners. We need to fight terrorism.
NEW JERSEY TRANSIT OFFERS SYSTEMWIDE CROSS HONORING IN ADVANCE OF WINTER STORM
Customers advised to check njtransit.com before traveling
January 11, 2015
NEWARK, NJ — NJ TRANSIT operations, customer service and police personnel are taking steps to minimize delays, and ensure service reliability and safety due to the approaching winter storm. All customers are strongly advised to check njtransit.com before traveling for up-to-the-minute service information before starting their trip.
Customers are strongly urged to exercise extreme caution traveling in and around all transit facilities and when boarding or exiting buses and trains due to the expected icy conditions.
Systemwide Cross-Honoring in Effect on January 12: To give customers additional travel options during the expected winter weather conditions, NJ TRANSIT will offer full systemwide cross-honoring on Monday, January 12, enabling customers to use their ticket or pass on an alternate travel mode—rail, light rail or bus—including private bus carriers.
For example, customers who normally take the bus from Rutherford to the Port Authority Bus Terminal may use their bus pass or ticket on the train from Rutherford to New York Penn Station. Similarly, customers who normally take the bus between Atlantic City and Lindenwold may use the Atlantic City Rail Line instead at no additional charge. Customers using their tickets or passes to travel to a destination other than the destination printed on their original ticket will be subject to the appropriate additional fare if applicable.
NJ TRANSIT will also continue to closely monitor the crowds at New York Penn Station, Hoboken Terminal and the Port Authority Bus Terminal and make adjustments to service as necessary.
The corporation is preparing to minimize disruptions and delays to the extent possible. Rail and light rail crews and equipment are on standby to quickly respond to downed trees, power outages or other issues that may arise. In addition, NJ TRANSIT will be positioning locomotives at strategic locations across the rail system to rapidly respond in the event of a disabled train.
Customers are advised of the following:
Systemwide: NJ TRANSIT plans to operate a regular weekday schedule on Monday, January 12. Depending on the impact of the storm, it may be necessary for NJ TRANSIT to modify service as conditions change.
Bus Service: While every effort will be made to continue operating bus service throughout the state, customers may experience delays or detours on their routes in the event of extreme winter weather conditions. Customers are advised to plan accordingly and anticipate disruptions to bus service.
Travel Advice:
For the latest travel information, visit njtransit.com or access our Twitter feed at @NJTRANSIT prior to starting your trip. In the event of delays or service adjustments, NJ TRANSIT will provide the most current service information via the My Transit alert system, which delivers travel advisories for your specific trip to your cell phone, PDA or pager. (If you are not yet a My Transit subscriber, we encourage you to sign up at www.njtransit.com/mytransit) Service information is also available by calling (973) 275-5555 or from broadcast traffic reports.
Listen closely to public address announcements at stations for late-breaking service information.
Build additional travel time into your trip to a station, terminal or bus stop.
Stairs, flooring and platforms can be slippery, so please use caution when walking along wet surfaces or any outdoor surface exposed to the weather. Use extra care when boarding or exiting buses and trains.
Report slippery or unsafe conditions to bus operators, train crews or
NJ TRANSIT staff.
If you park, ensure your car is stocked with a snow brush and ice scraper so you can clear your car upon returning to the lot.
NJ TRANSIT is prepared to handle the impending winter weather:
Snow plows and salt spreaders are ready for service and snow-removal contracts are in place with outside vendors.
NJ TRANSIT is well-stocked with 16,000 bags of snow-melting supplies, and hundreds of shovels and snow blowers.
NJ TRANSIT has performed maintenance and testing on its two rail-mounted jet snow blowers in the event they are needed to help clear train tracks of snow and ice, particularly in rail yards.
More than 750 rail switches, switch heaters and overhead wires have already been inspected as part of NJ TRANSIT’s preventative maintenance program.
Onboard heating systems, thermostats, weather stripping and electronic components have been inspected on NJ TRANSIT railcars, light rail cars and locomotives.
Bus maintenance personnel have inspected and performed necessary maintenance on a fleet of nearly 2,200 buses – from the heating and airbrake systems, to the engine fluids, tires, windshield wipers and doors.
WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY WINTRY PRECIPITATION FORECAST AFTER MIDNIGHT THROUGH EARLY MONDAY AFTERNOON...
…WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 3 AM TO 4 PM
EST MONDAY…
* LOCATIONS…INTERIOR PORTIONS OF NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY…THE
LOWER HUDSON VALLEY…AND SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT.
* HAZARD TYPES…A MIX OF SNOW…SLEET…AND FREEZING RAIN.
* ACCUMULATIONS…ICE ACCUMULATIONS FROM ONE TENTH TO ONE QUARTER
OF AN INCH WITH SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF UP TO 1 INCH.
* WINDS…SOUTHWEST 5 TO 10 MPH.
* TEMPERATURES…IN THE LOWER TO MID 20S TONIGHT RISING INTO THE
MID 30S MONDAY AFTERNOON.
* TIMING…WINTRY MIX DEVELOPS AFTER MIDNIGHT AND WILL CONTINUE
THROUGH MONDAY AFTERNOON.
* IMPACTS…HAZARDOUS TRAVEL DUE TO ICY ROADWAYS AND WALK WAYS.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW…SLEET…OR
FREEZING RAIN WILL CA– USE TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR
SLIPPERY ROADS AND LIMITED VISIBILITIES…AND — USE CAUTION WHILE
DRIVING.
Join Yaron Brook in the Battle for Free Speech
January 08, 2015 Carl Svanberg
For too long the right to free speech has been undermined by the weak and apologetic intellectual and political leaders of the West — leaders who are more concerned about not offending the assailants than they are about standing up for the victims and their right to speak their minds. And for too long we have seen the results of that appeasement in an endless series of shocking headlines. The senseless slaughter at Charlie Hebdo is just the latest in a long list of death threats and attacks going all the way back to 1989 with the fatwa on Salman Rushdie.
In an effort to provide the American public with some moral clarity and leadership on this important issue, ARI’s executive director, Yaron Brook, will be traveling across the country to give a talk titled “Free Speech and the Battle for Western Culture.” Here’s a description of Yaron’s talk:
Above all else, the West’s fight for liberty was historically a fight for the free mind against religious and political tyranny. If knowledge and happiness are the goal, the individual must be free to think and speak without threat of violence, imprisonment or death. This idea is at the root of the West’s unprecedented prosperity. And without this right, ARI could not advocate the new ideas and the new philosophy that can revive the West’s greatness. But today the right to free speech is precarious. This right is under vehement attack by our enemies, the latest being the massacre at Charlie Hebdo, and is being increasingly dismissed by the West itself. Come hear Yaron Brook explore the reasons why the right to free speech is being attacked and why it is imperative that we properly defend freedom of speech.
When will Yaron talk in a city near you?
January 13. Refreshments begin at 6:30 PM. Talk begins at 7:00 PM at The Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers in Chicago.
January 14. Refreshments begin at 7:00 PM. Talk begins at 7:30 PM at CUNY Graduate Center in New York City.
January 20. Refreshments begin at 7:00 PM. Talk begins at 7:30 PM at the Sheraton Palo Alto in Palo Alto.
January 21. Refreshments begin at 7:00 PM. Talk begins at 7:30 PM in Irvine, California.
January 08, 2015 Carl Svanberg
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker will speak at the Iowa Freedom Summit at the end of January hosted by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and Citizens United, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.
“Governor Walker looks forward to sharing the story of Wisconsin’s successful reforms and common sense message with grassroots conservatives,” Walker’s spokesman Tom Evenson told Breitbart News.
Citizens United president David Bossie added that he’s thrilled Walker will join the already impressive lineup of speakers.
“Congressman Steve King and I are thrilled Governor Scott Walker, a leading conservative voice, plans to attend the Iowa Freedom Summit,” Bossie said. “The Iowa Caucus is the first step for any conservative running for the Republican nomination and we are pleased Governor Walker appreciates and respects its importance.”
Walker, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, has held off the left for years amid numerous attempts by Democrats to take him down. During his tenure as governor, he’s cut unemployment in Wisconsin substantially—it was 7.8 percent when he took office and it’s currently down to 5.2 percent. He cut taxes by $2 billion, including lowering property taxes in the state compared to their rise of 27 percent in Wisconsin in the decade before he took office. Taxpayers have saved an estimated $3 billion at the state and local level, too, thanks to Walker’s collective bargaining reforms—the catalyst which caused the institutional left, organized labor, and democrats to target him. He also froze tuition for all University of Wisconsin system students for two years and is aiming to do so again for another two years because of the system’s surplus.
The Iowa Freedom Summit event takes place on Saturday Jan. 24, 2015 at Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines. “The Freedom Summit will focus on how we can get America back on track by focusing on our core conservative principles of pro-growth economics, social conservatism, and a strong national defense,” the event’s website states.
