Tag: Ridgewood Moms and dads

>This morning, Village officials declared RHS’ bleachers adjacent to the
Ho-Ho-Kus Brook as being “unsafe.” It is believed that damage caused by
Sunday’s flooding was the principal reason for this declaration. The
bleachers are now completely cordoned off with caution tape and fencing.
Appropriate signage was crafted and installed as well. No details
concerning a timeline for repairs are available at this time.

>ABC Interview with the President: Jail Time for Those without Health Care Insurance?

https://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/11/interview-with-the-president-jail-time-for-those-without-health-care-insurance.html

During an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Jake Tapper today, President Obama said that penalties are appropriate for people who try to “free ride” the health care system but stopped short of endorsing the threat of jail time for those who refuse to pay a fine for not having insurance.

“What I think is appropriate is that in the same way that everybody has to get auto insurance and if you don’t, you’re subject to some penalty, that in this situation, if you have the ability to buy insurance, it’s affordable and you choose not to do so, forcing you and me and everybody else to subsidize you, you know, there’s a thousand dollar hidden tax that families all across America are — are burdened by because of the fact that people don’t have health insurance, you know, there’s nothing wrong with a penalty.”

Under the House bill those who can afford to buy insurance and don’t’ pay a fine. If the refuse to pay that fine there’s a threat – as with a lot of tax fines – of jail time. The Senate removed that provision in the Senate Finance Committee.

Mr. Obama said penalties have to be high enough for people to not game the system, but it’s also important to not be “so punitive” that people who are having a hard time find themselves suddenly worse off, thus why hardship exemptions have been built in the legislation.

“I think the general broad principle is simply that people who are paying for their health insurance aren’t subsidizing folks who simply choose not to until they get sick and then suddenly they expect free health insurance. That’s — that’s basic concept of responsibility that I think most Americans abide by,” Mr. Obama said, “penalties are appropriate for people who try to free ride the system and force others to pay for their health insurance.”

The President said that he didn’t think the question over the appropriateness of possible jail time is the “biggest question” the House and Senate are facing right now.

-Sunlen Miller

https://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/11/interview-with-the-president-jail-time-for-those-without-health-care-insurance.html

>Alleged Shooter Had “Unexplained Connections” to Others Besides Jihadist Cleric Awlaki
By MARTHA RADDATZ, BRIAN ROSS, MARY-ROSE ABRAHAM, and REHAB EL-BURI
Nov. 10, 2009 —

A senior government official tells ABC News that investigators have found that alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan had “more unexplained connections to people being tracked by the FBI” than just radical cleric Anwar al Awlaki. The official declined to name the individuals but Congressional sources said their names and countries of origin were likely to emerge soon.

Questions already surround Major Hasan’s contact with Awlaki, a radical cleric based in Yemen whom authorities consider a recruiter for al Qaeda. U.S. officials now confirm Hasan sent as many as 20 e-mails to Awlaki. Authorities intercepted the e-mails but later deemed them innocent or protected by the first amendment.

The FBI said it turned over the information to the Army, but Defense Department officials today denied that. One military investigator on a joint terror task force with the FBI was shown the e-mails, but they were never forwarded in a formal way to more senior officials at the Pentagon, and the Army did not learn of the contacts until after the shootings.

In Texas, an hour before a memorial service for the Fort Hood victims, four FBI agents showed up at the Killeen mosque where Hasan prayed and searched a trash bin outside. The mosque president was clearly upset when he had to return from traveling to the service to sign a document handed to him by agents, apparently authorizing the search.

The FBI would not comment on what the agents were looking for at the mosque a full five days after the shooting, but motivation remains the focus.

“Obviously, the key is did he act alone,” former senior FBI official Brad Garrett told ABC News. “And secondarily is, what evidence might potentially be in the dumpsters or at the mosque.”

“We’re concerned any time a house of worship is searched in this fashion,” said Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights group. “And we would follow up to see if there was probable cause for the search and if it was carried out in the appropriate and legal manner.”

Agents had already seized Hasan’s computer in a search of this apartment last Thursday night, and all of his internet contacts and writings are under examination.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Hasan gave a PowerPoint presentation to fellow Army doctors in 2007 in which he said, “It’s getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims.” He recommended that Muslim soldiers be given the option of being released from the military as conscientious objectors to decrease what he called “adverse events.” Under “comments,” he wrote, “We love death more than you love life.”

>My family and I are mid-timers, here for 15 years and 2 kids in school. Every year, we were asked to pass the budget, so we did. In the past 10 years, they floated tens of millions of bonds for expansion and renovations; some schools in the past 2-3 years, and we voted yes. Now, they’re back again for money, saying our schools are exploding with over 500 students in the past 10 years (they are shocked, SHOCKED!) and we need to expand again. They forgot to mention that 70% of the surge came in the first 5 years. Then the economy tanks, 3 dozen storefronts are vacant and they say, “by the way, we need 50 million more – do it for the kids”. Like with any spoiled kid, it’s time to say, you’ve burned through hundreds of millions of dollars so you have to make choices. The spoiled boe says “waaaahhh”. So, I ask you – continue to feed the id and just let the bond ref pass or stand your ground? You and your family are the future and will be stuck with the bills. My family is voting no because they have cried wolf too many times.

>PJ , I thought this was a lot of fun ,we visited the USS Ling in Hackensack in the past and I believe they have a lot going on for Veterans day

USS LING (SS-297)

USS Ling is the last of the fleet boats that patrolled American shores during World War II in response to U-Boat attacks off the coast of the United States. Ling made one Atlantic patrol before the war ended. Decommissioned in 1946, Ling became part of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet until reactivation as a submarine training vessel in 1960.

Ling was donated to the Submarine Memorial Association in 1971, arriving at her present home in New Jersey in January 1973. The boat is now displayed in the narrow headwaters of the Hackensack River, and is the official state naval museum for New Jersey. Ling continues in service as a training aid for high school ROTC students. The memorial also includes displays of Polaris, Terrier, and Talos missiles; and three small craft: a Japanese Kaiten, a German Seehund, and a PBR Mark II. Ling conducts youth group overnight encampments.

Submarine Memorial Association
78 River Street
Hackensack, NJ 07601-7110
(201) 342-3268
Email: [email protected]
https://www.njnm.com/

2009 Sleep Over Program Drawing Winners

Congratulations:

Cub Pack #12 Ridgewood, NJ

>To protect the health of patients, staff, and the community during this flu season, The Valley Hospital has enacted temporary restrictions on visitors to the hospital.

Effective Wednesday, November 18, no one under the age of 18 who is not a patient will be allowed to visit any Valley Hospital location where patient care is provided. This includes the Luckow Pavilion and Kraft Center in Paramus, as well as the hospital’s main campus in Ridgewood. These restrictions will remain in place through the duration of the flu season.

In addition, anyone who is ill with symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, runny nose, fever, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea should refrain from visiting.

“As we continue to see an increase in patients with the flu being seen in the Emergency Department, we thought it prudent to reduce the spread of infection to our patients, staff and the public by restricting visitor access to both inpatient and outpatient areas of the hospital,” said Mitchell Rubinstein, M.D., Vice President of Medical Affairs. “We understand that these temporary changes to our visitation policy may be difficult for some families, and ask your understanding that it is truly in the best interest of everyone’s health to limit exposure.”

To reduce the spread of flu, Valley reminds the public to follow the same measures that are effective in reducing the risk of spreading any infectious disease:
• Wash your hands thoroughly and frequently.
• Cover coughs and sneezes. Dispose of used tissues properly.
• Stay home if you are sick.

To help answer your questions about H1N1 flu, the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (NJDHSS) has established a toll-free, 24-hour H1N1 influenza line. The number is 1-866-321-9571.

For inquiries about the vaccine for the H1N1 virus, please call the Bergen County Health Department’s Health Topics Information Line at 201-225-7000. A listing of flu clinics can also be found on the Department of Health’s web site at www.bergenhealth.org.

>President Ronald Reagan – Tear Down This Wall

>

>N.J. unions worry Christie will keep promises when he takes office
By Lisa Fleisher/Statehouse Bureau
November 08, 2009, 9:55PM

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/nj_unions_worry_christie_will.html

Gov.-elect Chris Christie ran as no pushover to organized labor — pledging to be an “adversary” to unions and publicly fending off chances for endorsements.

And labor did everything it could to keep the Republican out of the governor’s office, deploying thousands of volunteers to knock on doors and work phone banks in hopes of re-electing outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine, widely viewed as a champion of labor.

Christie’s win, unions are hoping the heated rhetoric of the campaign will be left on the trail. There is a lot at stake for unions — particularly for state workers vulnerable in a tough budget year — and they’re scrambling to play nice with a new governor who might not need their support at all.

“They hit him with everything but the kitchen sink — or everything and the kitchen sink — and he won,” said state Sen. Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), an ironworker who has said the state needs concessions from workers. “They can’t threaten him (by saying) ‘We’re going to beat you next time.’”

Christie inherits a state with a budget already $8 billion in the hole and looking worse by the week. On the campaign trail, he pledged to be a tough negotiator, pushing for workers to pay a part of their health care and saying only full-time employees should be eligible for health benefits and pensions. He also railed against the size of state government.

Union leaders want Christie to realize workers’ value to the state.

“We hope he’s going to give up his anti-state-worker rhetoric that he used throughout the campaign and realize that slashing jobs and services would be bad for the state’s economy,” said Hetty Rosenstein, director of the Communications Workers of America of New Jersey, which represents about 55,000 government workers.

Unions worry Christie might try to reverse some of what Corzine crowed about, such as paid family leave, which allows paid time off for workers caring for a new baby or sick relative. Although Corzine over the summer reached a no-layoff agreement with state workers that the CWA says is irreversible, Christie said he is not bound to honor it.

Other issues, such as raising the minimum wage, might not see the light of day, Sweeney said.

The depth of antagonism remains to be seen, but Christie turned his first post-election public appearance into a rallying cry for urban students he said had been failed by a spendthrift school system.

“I’m not going to continue to allow urban children to be failed and cheated by failing public schools,” he said Wednesday at Newark’s Robert Treat Academy charter school. “If you think I’m kidding about this issue, then you haven’t learned a thing about me over the last eight years.”

Christie said the New Jersey Education Association, which spent millions on ads against him, proved to be less effective than union leaders hoped, though he said the foes of his brand of education reform — which includes school vouchers — are “significant and powerful.”

“Change will come,” he said. “What form that change will take is going to be a product of how well we make our case.”

NJEA spokesman Steven Baker said it was too soon to judge Christie.

“I’m hesitant to begin ranking him,” he said. “Certainly we’re going to be watching, we’re going to be monitoring.”

The agenda of construction unions might be closer in line with a pro-business Christie administration, said Bill Mullen, president of the New Jersey State Building & Construction Trades Council.

“We need the state to grow and expand to put our people to work,” he said.

Mullen said he was wary of some of Christie’s positions, including a pledge to do away with so-called “project labor agreements” that extend existing contracts during a fight with management for the length of the job.

But he said unions have a powerful ally in the Democratic Legislature.

“Without the control of the Legislature, he probably can’t do anything,” Mullen said.

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/nj_unions_worry_christie_will.html

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Speak Your Mind ……………………..

>When doctors learn how to treat patients in medical school, one thing they are taught is the phrase: “first, do no harm.” This centuries old maxim is an expression of humility. It acknowledges that, despite the best intentions, our actions can carry unwanted consequences.

I was reminded of this last week when Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressman John Dingell introduced H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. This 1,990page bill, proposes to accomplish, in one fell swoop, a drastic restructuring of our health care system. It is anything but a humble acknowledgement of the nation’s problems, with a modest set of solutions aimed at inspiring the ingenuity of the American people. Instead, it attempts to micromanage the nation’s health care sector from Washington, D.C., raises the cost of health insurance; ensures that third party insurers will continue to make health care decisions best made by a patient and their doctor; and further entrenches the nation’s finances down a course of fiscal ruin. It fails the test of “first, do no harm,” and should therefore be defeated.

Like all of my colleagues in the House of Representatives, I firmly believe that our health care system is in need of reform. The majority of the population obtains their health insurance through their employer (meaning they are at risk of losing it if they lose their job); it is too expensive, and costs are projected to go up; and a significant number of people have difficulty obtaining it because of chronic health problems. Health care spending also consumes a larger and larger percentage of the federal government’s budget each year, leaving less money for defense, infrastructure, or research. This too is projected to increase.

But the health care bill proposed by Congressional Democrats fails to address many of these problems. According to the preliminary report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), if H.R. 3962 were enacted, health insurance costs would actually become more expensive, and spending on health care by the federal government would increase. To pay for this increased federal spending, the bill proposes $743 Billion in new taxes, including a 5.4% surtax that would fall heavily on small businesses. The bill also proposes to drastically reduce the price controlled payment rates to Medicare providers without reforming the Medicare payment system; jeopardizing millions of seniors’ access to health care providers.
If history is any guide, because of the artificial assumptions made in the bill, the long term cost of the bill will be much higher than advertised. In 1967, government actuaries estimated that Medicare would cost $12 Billion in 1990. The actual cost in 1990 was $110 Billion. When the Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) program was added to Medicaid in 1987, it was expected to cost $1 Billion in 1992. The actual cost in 1992 was $17 Billion.

But more important than the program’s cost is the effect that this bill would have on the practice of medicine. The bill mandates that everyone in America purchase health insurance, but would empower a “health choices commissioner” to decide which benefits are “essential benefits” in the mandated coverage. This would lead to an unfortunate politicization of the practice of medicine, wherein certain specialties are deemed “essential” while others are not. Additionally, it would cement in place the current third party payment system; where insurers, rather than patients working in consultation with their doctors, would set payment rates and make coverage decisions.

Proponents who would like to see an increased government role in health care would be wise to evaluate the government’s recent action with respect to flu vaccines. Reports that the military has already inoculated terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay with the seasonal flu vaccine when many Americans are having difficulty obtaining this vaccine for themselves is just one example of the type of politicized health care decision which could become commonplace under the new health care bureaucracy envisioned in this legislation.

I sincerely hope that in the coming days, the American public will come to understand that, while this legislation may have the best intentions, it would inflict much harm on the country. I have advocated a number of reforms, such as allowing interstate purchasing of insurance, real medical liability reform, and ending the tax discrimination against individuals who purchase health insurance independent of their employer, that could be implemented incrementally that would immediately begin to bring down the cost of health care and preserve the patient-doctor relationship. If we all agree on the principles that health care should be portable, affordable, sustainable, effective, and innovative, then I am confident that Congress can enact the targeted reforms that are necessary for the future of America.

Sincerely,

Scott Garrett
Member of Congress

>The House of Representatives passed “Obamacare” by a vote of 220 – 215.

How did New Jersey vote?

Voting FOR the Bill:
Rep. Robert Andrews (D) NJ-01
Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D) NJ-06
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D) NJ-8
Rep. Steven Rothman (D) NJ-9
Rep. Donald Payne (D) NJ-10
Rep. Rush Holt (D) NJ-12
Rep. Albio Sires (D) NJ-13

PINK SLIP TIME – ELECTION DAY – NOVEMBER 2, 2010

Voting AGAINST the Bill:
Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R) NJ-02
Rep. John Alder (D) NJ-03
Rep. Christopher Smith (R) NJ-04
Rep. Scott Garrett (R) NJ-05
Rep. Leonard Lance (R) NJ-07
Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R) NJ-11

PLEASE THANK THEM FOR THEIR EFFORTS

Hands Off My Health Care Rally In Washington DC. Nov 5, 2009

>I hear what you’re saying, but NJEA/REA salaries ARE part of the irresponsibility.

I negotiated 4 Teamsters union contracts for management. If the numbers are too high, the responsible thing to do is negotiate and make it fair for both sides. To have a BOE and elected board poop their pants and capitulate to the union hurts us all. Why? Because it drains funds that would otherwise go to running the district and then we have to bond for things we would have otherwise had reserves for.

The Ridgewood News said salaries alone next year are at $68 million. Divide that by a student population of 5600 and that’s over 12 grand per student alone.

Friends, it’s time to make some tough decisions. The well is running dry and 2010-11 is going to be a drought. If we don’t stop the madness now, they will come again next year and it will NOT be pretty.

Vote NO and tell them that the status quo no longer works. Dr. Fishbein, I respectfully suggest you work on a ‘Plan B’.

>I have been involved over the last month in collecting signatures for a Petition to rescind the parking meter increase and provide more commuter parking. This Wednesday I participated in a presentation before the Council. As those who were there, and as been reported in today’s RIDGEWOOD NEWS, the presentation became highly confrontational.

Later in the meeting, after most of the audience had left, I was allowed to again address the Council. The following is in essence what I said:

The part of the presentation that went before did not reflect what was my intent. There was obviously a misunderstanding between myself and the Chamber of Commerce, since my intent was for the entire presentation to solely relate to the parking issue. My goal was to present to the Council what we considered to be a problem and what we considered to be its solution. I had intended for the individual business owners to come up before the Council and state that they were supportive of the suggested change.

Instead, what occurred after my presentation, certainly did not reflect my intent or the tone that I wanted. I feel personally embarrassed by what happened and want you, the members of the Council, to know it. I have known each of you personally and have the highest regard for you. Certainly in this forum things should never get personal. Unfortunately they did. For that I want to apologize.

These are our elected officials, who put in countless hours for very little money. Whether we personally like them or not, whether we agree with them or not, they are entitled to our respect. What happened at the Council meeting was inexcusable and as I said to them at the meeting, I am personally embarrassed and want to apologize again.
Eugene Rose