What’s the definition of power? It’s the question we get most often at NJBIZ, when it comes time for the Power 100. Unfortunately, there’s not an easy explanation. The one we often give is this: “If you called the governor, how quickly would he call you back? If at all.” NJBIZ Staff, Read more
A Senate committee Thursday voted 5-0 to dissolve local and county ethics boards and turn the responsibility of investigating the questionable behavior of any government official to the State Ethic Commission. Susan K. Livio, NJ.com Read more
Shock waves traveling faster than the speed of sound were likely caused by nearby aircraft
Tremors felt in parts of the northeastern U.S. on Thursday, including New York’s Long Island area and southern New Jersey, were the result of a series of sonic booms, a regional seismologist said.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/sonic-booms-reported-in-northeastern-u-s-1454018777?mod=e2tw
file photo by Boyd Loving
2016’s Best and Worst States to Retire
by Richie Bernardo
Retirement might be the end of the line, but it doesn’t have to be the end of financial security or life satisfaction. For many of us, our primary concern with retirement is timing, which often coincides with the age at which we become eligible to receive Social Security or pension benefits. Hopefully the choice will be ours and not dictated by our circumstances — the unfortunate case for nearly a third of nonretirees who haven’t put away a single penny for retirement, though not necessarily through any fault of their own.
But in addition to when you want to retire, you might want to ask yourself where. That can be an awfully difficult question to answer if you haven’t adequately planned — or been able to plan — for the rest of your life. Even in the most affordable areas of the U.S., retirees often cannot rely on their Social Security or pension checks alone to cover all of their living expenses. Social Security benefitsincrease progressively with local inflation, but they replace only about 40 percent of the amount you earned if you were an average worker, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-and-worst-states-to-retire/18592/
By Eric Boehm / January 20, 2016 / News / 25 Comments
Just days ahead of an expected blizzard on the East Coast, New Jersey has officially repealed a nonsensical rule banning the shoveling of snow without a license.
SNOW JOB: Police in Bound Brook, N.J., told two boys, Matt Molinari and Eric Schnepf, they were not allowed to shovel their neighbors’ driveways without a permit. A new state law puts the boys on the right side of the law, and common sense.
Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday signed a bill making it legal for New Jersey residents to offer snow shoveling services without first registering with their town. Last year, two entrepreneurial teens going door-to-door and offering to shovel snow for a small fee were stopped by local police in Bound Brook.
The cops told the two boys, Matt Molinari and Eric Schnepf, they were not allowed to solicit businesses without a permit.
In Bound Brook, that license costs $450 and is only good for a period of 180 days.
After the story made national headlines — including here at Watchdog, where it was featured as our “Nanny State of the Week” story — state lawmakers began working on a solution.
State Sen. Mike Doherty, R-Washington, who sponsored the so-called “right-to-shovel” bill, said it was incredible that some towns wanted teens to pay expensive licensing fees just to clear snow off driveways.
DOHERTY: State Sen. Mike Doherty says government red tape shouldn’t stop kids from making a few bucks by shoveling snow.
“This new law sends the message that kids looking to make a few bucks on a snow day shouldn’t be subjected to government red tape or fined for shoveling snow,” Doherty said.
The bill removes only licensing requirements for snow shoveling services, and only applies to solicitations made within 24 hours before a predicted snow storm. Towns with laws prohibiting door-to-door solicitation will be able to enforce those laws in all other circumstances.
The bill was one of 93 signed by Christie this week, according to the governor’s office. He also vetoed 65 bills.
The governor’s signature comes just in time. Parts of New Jersey could see more than a foot of snow this week as a powerful storm takes aim at the East Coast.
In Bound Brook, there’s no word on whether Molinari and Schnepf are planning to offer their shoveling services again.
If they do, though, they will be on the right side of the law — and common sense.
As a country, our most important day comes on the first Tuesday after the firstMonday in November every four years – It’s a Presidential Election Day. On Tuesday, November 8, 2016, voters across the country will line up at polling places to voice their opinion about who should serve as our next commander-in-chief. However, by that time, about 40% of the vote already will be in. Christopher Durkin, PolitickerNjRead more
Text of the governor’s State of the State Speech
Lt. Governor, Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Legislators, friends – and my fellow New Jerseyans: Politicker Staff, PolitickerNJ Read more
file photo by Boyd Loving
Where’s America Moving? Oregon Named Top Moving Destination of 2015United Van Lines’ Annual National Movers Study Shows Americans Continue to Move West and South
January 7,2015
the staff of the Rmidgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ , For the third consecutive year, Oregon holds on to the No. 1 spot as “Top Moving Destination,” as Americans continue to pack up and head West and South. Those are the results of United Van Lines’ 39th Annual National Movers Study, which tracks customers’ state-to-state migration patterns over the past year.
Oregon is the most popular moving destination of 2015 with 69 percent of moves to and from the state being inbound. The state has continued to climb the ranks, increasing inbound migration by 10 percent over the past six years. New to the 2015 top inbound list is another Pacific West state, Washington, which came in at No. 10 with 56 percent inbound moves.
The Southern states also saw a high number of people moving in with 53 percent of total moves being inbound. In a separate survey of its customers, United Van Lines found the top reasons for moving South included company transfer/new job, retirement and proximity to family.
The Northeast continues to experience a moving deficit with New Jersey (67 percent outbound) and New York (65 percent) making the list of top outbound states for the fourth consecutive year. Two other states in the region — Connecticut (63 percent) andMassachusetts (57 percent) — also joined the top outbound list this year. The exception to this trend is Vermont (62 percent inbound), which moved up two spots on the list of top inbound states to No. 3.
“For nearly 40 years, we’ve been tracking which states people are moving to and from, and we’ve also recently started surveying our customers to understand why they are making these moves across state lines,” said Melissa Sullivan, director of marketing communications at United Van Lines. “Because of United Van Lines’ position as the nation’s largest household goods mover, our data is reflective of national migration trends.”
“This year’s data reflects longer-term trends of people moving to the Pacific West, where cities such as Portland and Seattle are seeing the combination of a boom in the technology and creative marketing industry, as well as a growing ‘want’ for outdoor activity and green space,” said Michael Stoll, economist, professor and chair of the Department of Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles. “The aging Boomer population is driving relocation from the Northeast and Midwest to the West and South, as more and more people retire to warmer regions.”
United has tracked migration patterns annually on a state-by-state basis since 1977. For 2015, the study is based on household moves handled by United within the 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C. United classifies states as “high inbound” if 55 percent or more of the moves are going into a state, “high outbound” if 55 percent or more moves were coming out of a state or “balanced” if the difference between inbound and outbound is negligible.
Moving In
The top inbound states of 2015 were:
Oregon
South Carolina
Vermont
Idaho
North Carolina
Florida
Nevada
District of Columbia
Texas
Washington
The Western U.S. is represented on the high-inbound list by Oregon (69 percent), Nevada (57 percent) and Washington (56 percent). Of moves to Oregon, a new job or company transfer (53 percent) and wanting to be closer to family (20 percent) led the reasons for most inbound moves. Nevada remained on the high inbound list for the fifth consecutive year.
Moving Out
The top outbound states for 2015 were:
New Jersey
New York
Illinois
Connecticut
Ohio
Kansas
Massachusetts
West Virginia
Mississippi
Maryland
In addition to the Northeast, Illinois (63 percent) held steady at the No. 3 spot, ranking in the top five for the last seven years.
New additions to the 2014 top outbound list include Connecticut (63 percent), Massachusetts (57 percent) and Mississippi (56 percent).
Balanced
Several states gained approximately the same number of residents as those that left. This list of “balanced” states includes Alabama,North Dakota, Delaware and Louisiana.
JANUARY 4, 2016, 3:55 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 2016, 7:04 AM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TRENTON — New Jersey was given a nine-month extension to have its drivers’ licenses meet national proof-of-identity requirements.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security last month extended the state’s exemption for Real ID requirements from Jan. 10 to Oct. 10, Motor Vehicle Commission spokeswoman Mairin Bellack said Monday.
Without the exemption, state-issued drivers’ licenses and non-driver IDs would not be accepted to get into most federal facilities, including military bases.
Bellack said the state had its exemption extended because it is taking steps to meet requirements of the Real ID act, including allowing more than nine characters of a name to be included and requiring people have their photos taken immediately upon reaching the counter to get a new license.
The 2005 Real ID act imposes tougher requirements for proof of legal U.S. residency in order for state driver’s licenses to be valid for federal purposes. The law was passed in response to national security concerns after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
States originally were supposed to comply with the Real ID requirements by the end of 2009. Federal authorities have repeatedly delayed implementation to give time for states to change their driver’s license procedures and make the necessary technological improvements.
At least five states were informed by Homeland Security last year that their extensions would not continue beyond Jan. 10.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/new-jersey-gets-9-month-extension-to-meet-new-id-rules-1.1484939
Christie administration ends waiver for food stamp work requirement
About 11,000 New Jerseyans may have their food assistance discontinued after Gov. Chris Christie’s administration said Thursday that the state is no longer offering a certain waiver in the program. Brent Johnson and Samantha Marcus, NJ.com Read more
DECEMBER 27, 2015, 10:29 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2015, 7:23 AM
BY SALVADOR RIZZO
STATE HOUSE BUREAU |
THE RECORD
As Governor Christie heads into a crucial stretch in his campaign for the White House, back home, another pension dispute with multibillion-dollar consequences has reached a critical stage at the state Supreme Court.
A loss could spark another major budget crisis for Christie, potentially in the middle of a presidential campaign in which he often promotes his experience as a tested leader who can reform the United States’ fiscal problems and rein in $19 trillion in debt.
A group of retired prosecutors and public-worker unions is challenging a law Christie signed in 2011 that suspended yearly cost-of-living adjustments for retirees. When Christie tells voters in the rest of the country about having “fixed” New Jersey’s notoriously underfunded pension system and saved more than $100 billion over 30 years, he is referring largely to this cost-saving measure.
And the Supreme Court is being asked to strike it down as an unfair violation of workers’ rights.
Attorneys for all sides have now filed hundreds of pages of legal briefs. The court is expected to hear oral arguments next year and could issue its ruling just as Christie is competing in key primary states, or during the general-election season.
If they win, thousands of retirees — but perhaps not all of them — could begin to see bigger pension checks every year there is an increase in inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/pension-challenge-may-cost-new-jersey-billions-1.1481189
file photo by Boyd Loving
New Jersey is the only state which Americans tend to have an unfavorable opinion of
As America prepares to celebrate its 239th birthday this Saturday, YouGov compiled a ‘State of the States’, asking Americans how they feel about each and every state that forms our country.
This research shows that New Jersey is the only state in the country which people tend to have a negative opinion of. 40% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of New Jersey while 30% have a favorable opinion of the state, giving the state a net favorability rating of -10%. In contrast, Alabama, the second least popular state in the country, has a net favorability rating of +8%, as 39% of Americans have a favorable view of Alabama and 31% have an unfavorable opinion. After Alabama the least popular states are Illinois (+9%), Mississippi (+9%) and Indiana (+12%).
Hawaii is the most popular state in the union with a net favorability rating of +56%, with 67% of Americans having a favorable view of the state and only 11% having an unfavorable opinion. Hawaii is followed by Montana (+43%), Wyoming (+42%), Alaska (+42%) and Maine (+42%).
https://today.yougov.com/news/2015/07/01/new-jersey-least-liked-state-america/
DECEMBER 9, 2015, 11:43 AM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2015, 11:18 PM
FROM STAFF AND NEWS SERVICE REPORTS |
WIRE SERVICE
In New Jersey, the federal education reform bill that seems certain to get the president’s signature Thursday means local and state educators, not the federal government, get to determine what to do to save a failing school, and the threat of costly sanctions for slumping schools would go away.
What’s unlikely to end in New Jersey, education experts said on Wednesday, is the reliance on students’ test scores to evaluate how well teachers are performing, a point of fierce dispute between New Jersey administrators and unions that the reform legislation relegates to the states.
The Senate on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly, 85-12, to approve legislation rewriting the landmark No Child Left Behind education law of 2002.
It was hailed as a “Christmas present” for 50 million children across the country by Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican who leads the Senate Education Committee.
One key feature of No Child remains: Public school students will still take the federally required statewide reading and math exams. But the new law encourages states to limit the time students spend on testing, and it will diminish the high stakes for underperforming schools.
Under No Child Left Behind, schools that failed to meet annual progress targets could be shut down or converted into charter schools, a policy that critics said led schools to focus too heavily on tests.
Schools that don’t meet annual progress targets, under the new legislation, no longer will be considered to be failing and won’t be subjected to federal sanctions.
States will be required to intervene in the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools, in high schools with high dropout rates and in schools with stubborn achievement gaps.
David Hespe, the state education commissioner, said the biggest change under the reform legislation would be the new flexibility permitted to states to help struggling schools. “We can develop our own interventions,” Hespe said.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/education-law-rewrite-passes-congress-1.1470503
nj senate president steven sweeney
Americans for Prosperity: Benevolence, The Latest Victim of NJ’s High Taxes
New Jersey Ranks 46th in the Nation for Charitable Giving
Ridgewood NJ, New Jersey’s confiscatory tax climate is responsible for the highest property taxes and worst business climate in the country, but it is also having another deleterious effect. Today, New Jersey ranks among the least philanthropic states in the country according to a new report from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
“The season of giving is upon us, yet how sad is it that New Jersey has reached the point where people can no longer afford to be as generous as they would like to be because of high taxes,” remarked AFP state director Erica Jedynak. “We might as well refer to our income tax as the anti-benevolence tax.”
The ALEC report, State Factor: The Effect of State Taxes on Charitable Giving, examined data from 1997-2012 and revealed an inverse correlation between taxes and charitable giving. As stated in the report’s conclusion, “[I]ndividuals in states with high taxes donate less and individuals in states with lower taxes donate more.” New Jersey placed 43rd on ALEC’s list for the period 1997-2012 and 46th for the period of 2008-2012.
“As Ronald Reagan said, ‘the spirit of voluntary giving [is] ingrained in the American character.’ So it is with New Jerseyans of good will who would no doubt love to give more to causes they care about and to help those who are impoverished or sick,” said Jedynak.
“Yet, instead of being able to donate more to causes that dispense charity with a warm heart and lift people up, their hard-earned money is filtering through the cold hands of bureaucracy and ensnaring people in dependency.”
“There is little compassion in that, and it’s just one more reason we need ease the tax burden on New Jersey families.”
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop owes an apology to all 9/11 victims and should resign immediately!
November 23,2015
PJ Blogger and
Ridgewood NJ, for many 9/11 is a day they will always remember with a sadness but for some it was a day of celebrations . The buildings had not yet fallen , the NY Water Way Ferries will still evacuating people , crowds were gathering along the Hudson and yes some were dancing in the street waving Palestinian flags and celebrating . It happen in Jersey City and in Patterson ,in fact the police kept angry mobs from attacking them . It was witnessed by thousand of people in Hoboken and Jersey City .
The recent attempt to deny Donald Trumps comments is more COWARD historical revisionism . Many of my friends who were still alive saw it with our own eyes. Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop should learn to shut his mouth and not speak about things he is clueless . Over 200 people that I knew died on that day and as they say it is what it is and they did what they did and no amount of lying will change that period. It is vile and unconscionable to lie about the events on 9/11 and Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop owes an apology to all 9/11 victims and should resign immediately! History will not be rewritten for your convenience.
COWARD Mayor blasts Trump’s claims about 9/11 response in Jersey City
NOVEMBER 22, 2015, 4:14 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2015, 6:56 AM
BY LINDA MOSS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop accused Donald Trump on Sunday of “shamefully politicizing” by repeatedly claiming that he saw “thousands” of people cheering on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River when the World Trade Center was destroyed by the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
