Tag: COVID19

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How To Make Your Business Stay Afloat During Downturn

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Most businesses experience financial troubles every once in a while. During this time, you might find it challenging to navigate your company through the harsh reality of the pandemic. A downturn is always associated with events such as the complete shutting down of a corporation, disruption of the supply chain, or loss of profit. 

Some managers are forced to offload their employees. As a wise employer, you will need to take steps to build your customer base and protect the cash flow during these trying moments. By implementing a few strategies, you will manage to remain afloat during any economic downturn.

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Bergen Attorney Charged with Fraudulently Obtaining $9 Million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Cliffside Park NJ,  A Bergen County, attorney was arrested today and charged with fraudulently obtaining approximately $9 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito and Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, announced.

Jae H. Choi, 48, of Cliffside Park, New Jersey, is charged by complaint with three counts of bank fraud and one count of money laundering. He is expected to make his initial appearance by videoconference today before U.S. Magistrate Judge James B. Clark III.

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Governor Murphy Signs Legislation Expanding Access to Professional and Occupational Licenses for Illegal Immigrants , What Could Go Wrong With That ?

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Trenton NJ, Governor Phil Murphy today signed legislation (S2455), which prohibits lawful presence in the United States as a qualification to obtain a professional or occupational license, provided that the applicant meets all other requirements for licensure. The bill impacts the roughly 500,000 undocumented residents in New Jersey, who will now be eligible for professional licenses such as nursing, counseling and cosmetology.

“New Jersey is stronger when everyone is given the opportunity to contribute and everyone is given a chance to live their American Dream,” said Governor Murphy. “This law sends a simple, powerful message that immigration status can no longer be used as an excuse to discriminate among equally educated, trained, and qualified individuals. As we look toward our shared economic future, we must ensure that no one is left behind and everyone who puts forward the effort can succeed.”

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GOP Congressional Candidate Pallotta says its time to end one man rule in New Jersey

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the staff of the Ridgewod blog

RAMSEY NJ, Paul Mulshine of the Star-Ledger published a great column about Phil Murphy’s one-man rule. 

Since March, Governor Murphy has been taking drastic, unilateral actions that have negatively affected millions of New Jersey residents, without consulting anyone with relevant experience. We saw him shut down nearly every small business in the state without considering long term ramifications. We then saw him force nursing homes to readmit patients that were infected with COVID-19, resulting in thousands of avoidable deaths. And most recently, we saw him unilaterally take away the people’s right to vote in person when he himself declared the November Election “primarily vote by mail.”

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Support the Ridgewood Art Institute

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the staff of the Ridgewod blog
Ridgewood NJ, the uncertainties of the Pandemic continue to drag on, and the Ridgewood Art Institute and organizations like it struggle with new safety protocols. We will announce our new schedules and safety measures as we come closer to re-opening.

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Governor Murphy Authorizes Municipalities and Counties to Issue Coronavirus Relief Bonds

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Governor Murphy today signed legislation (A3791) which authorizes municipalities and counties to borrow funds to cover revenue shortfalls and expenditures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, by issuing bonds and notes. The final legislation included improvements recommended by Governor Murphy in his prior conditional veto issued on July 30, 2020.

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AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine Expands into US Phase III clinical trial across all adult age groups

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, AstraZeneca COVID19 vaccine expanded into a Phase III clinical trial in the US to assess its safety, efficacy and immunogenicity.1

The  US trial, called D8110C00001, is funded by the Biomedical Advanced Development Authority (BARDA), part of the office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and led by AstraZeneca. The NIAID-supported COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN) will participate in the trial.

Mene Pangalos, Executive Vice President, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, said: “We are pleased that AZD1222 demonstrated safety and immunogenicity across all adult age groups and are proud to be collaborating with BARDA and NIAID to accelerate the development of this vaccine. Should clinical trials demonstrate the vaccine protects against COVID-19 disease and is approved for use, we will work hard to make it globally available in a fair and equitable manner as rapidly as possible.”

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Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi , “Decisions have been made not for health and safety but rather to pick winners and losers among industries”

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog
River Vale NJ, Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi comments on the COVID pandemic and the governments response :
“I have struggled on how to properly phrase my thoughts on what has been transpiring over the past six months. There is no eloquent way to phrase what I am about to say so here it goes. The political element underscoring this virus is beyond absurd and the manipulation of people by both political parties is frankly disgusting.
In March a virus hit New Jersey and New York that overwhelmed our hospital systems. No one knew how to treat it and it was obvious that even our medical professionals had no idea initially of what to do. We didn’t know if it was going to impact the healthy, the young, the elderly or all of the above. We didn’t know if masks worked or didn’t. We didn’t know if our loved ones would die if they contracted it. We didn’t know how it spread or once it did what the impact on everyone in society would be. We didn’t know the fatality rates, the infection rates or anything else for that matter.”

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Ridgewood Board of Education Discuses Return to School Plan

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood Nj, at the Friday August 28th Special Public Meeting of the Ridgewood Board Education meeting the board focused on the reopening of Ridgewood public schools.  Mr. Lembo shared that the Special Public Meeting was scheduled to get more information and to discuss questions pertaining to the reopening plan. Dr. Fishbein and Ms. Poelstra gave a reopening plan update presentation. Dr. Fishbein began by thanking the administrators and teachers for their hard work and creativity in making this reopening possible. A revised 2020-2021 school calendar will be approved at the August 31 Regular Public Meeting. To give teachers an extra day to prepare for the start of school, a Professional Development Day was added on August 31 and removed from October 12. Schools will be closed on October 12 for teachers and students. The district has worked very hard on logistics and operations, and the buildings are ready for the return of students. The Pandemic Response Teams have taken walkthroughs of the buildings, and the response from those teams was very positive. Our reopening plan was submitted to the state, and the three areas for revision (recess, cleaning manual, and technology services) were addressed. The cleaning manual is posted on the district website.

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1 in 3 Americans Worry About Job Security This Labor Day

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, With Labor Day approaching and the unemployment rate at 10.2%, WalletHub today released a nationally representative Coronavirus & Labor Day Survey, which found that 1 in 3 Americans worry about job security. Below are highlights of the survey, along with a WalletHub Q&A (audio available).

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Pandemic “Educational Pods” All the Rage for Ridgewood Parents

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, according to the NYTimes , “Economists, business leaders and labor experts have warned for years that a coming wave of automation and digital technology would upend the work force, destroying some jobs while altering how and where work is done for nearly everyone.

In the past four months, the coronavirus pandemic has transformed some of those predictions into reality. By May, half of Americans were working from home, tethered to their employers via laptops and Wi-Fi, up from 15 percent before the pandemic, according to a recent study.”

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CDC: 94% of All Covid-19 deaths had underlying medical conditions

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, the Centers for Disease Control released information showing how many people who died from COVID-19 had underlying medical conditions that attributed to their death.

According to the report, only 6 percent of deaths have COVID-19 as the only cause mentioned, revealing that 94 percent of patients who died from coronavirus also had underlying health conditions.

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Ridgewood Education Association Questions School Ventilation System and MERV filters

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the sttaff of the Ridgewood blog
Statement from the Ridgewood Education Association August 29, 2020:
The Board of Education is responsible for the health and safety of the staff and students of the Ridgewood Public School System. Teachers and secretaries have told the Board they do not believe their buildings are safe and yesterday many staff members submitted specific questions – not comments – to the Ridgewood Board of Education. These were specific health and safety questions that we have already asked our principals. Our principals don’t know the answers. We had hoped that the Board would have asked those questions on our behalf yesterday. Instead they chose to ignore them and not have them even read aloud. This public disregard for our concerns regarding the health and safety of staff and students gives us less confidence in our District’s reopen plan and has left us now with new questions for the Board. It is our hope that these questions will be addressed at their next meeting on Monday.

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Ridgewood Education Association Wants Postponement of In Person Learning for Ridgewood Schools

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, on August 20, 2020 the REA  posted a letter on Facebook asking for the postponement of in  person learning for Ridgewood Schools due to various health related concerns:
Dear Members of the Ridgewood Board of Education,
On behalf of the 569 members of the Ridgewood Education Association (REA) I am writing to ask you to postpone in-person reopening of the Ridgewood Public Schools. The REA believes that it is unsafe at this time to open our school buildings and we ask that the school year begin in an all virtual format. In doing so we add our voice to that of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association, the New Jersey State School Nurses Association, the New Jersey Education Association, and the Bergen County Education Association who have all called for a remote start to the school year. We wish this was not the case as no one wants to be back teaching in person more than the District’s teachers. We are also well aware of the hardship this may pose to parents, we are parents too. But the health and safety of staff, students, and the community at large must take precedence and right now the risk is simply too great.
Covid-19 is an airborne virus placing a greater importance on our aging buildings’ HVAC systems. We do not believe all of our buildings have adequate ventilation and the District’s 49 page plan submitted to the State contains only two paragraphs on the subject (RPS, Reopening & Operations Plan 2020-21, p.31). According to Executive Order 175 districts that cannot provide a plan for adequate ventilation may opt to begin the year remotely.

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Europe debates whether to reopen schools and how to best protect students and teachers

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, according to Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, like most of the rest of the world, European countries have been debating whether to reopen schools and how to best protect students and teachers. Public Health England conducted enhanced surveillance among schools that reopened between June 1-July 31 in order to provide better information regarding SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk in school settings. While approximately 80% of schools remained open in some capacity during the UK lockdown to support certain priority groups (eg, children of healthcare workers), the vast majority of children did not attend in-person classes. In June, the number of students attending schools increased from 475,000 to more than 1.6 million.

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