Adviser whose comments on Affordable Care Act touched off a furor worked more closely than previously known with White House
By
STEPHANIE ARMOUR
Updated June 21, 2015 5:56 p.m. ET
Jonathan Gruber, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist whose comments about the health-care law touched off a political furor, worked more closely than previously known with the White House and top federal officials to shape the law, previously unreleased emails show.
Inter-faith community prayer gathering
June 22,2015
Boyd A. Loving
9:15 PM (6 hours ago)
Ridgewood NJ, An inter-faith community prayer gathering was held at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 21 at the Metropolitan AME Church, 259 South Broad Street, in Ridgewood to remember those killed last week in Charleston, SC.
JUNE 18, 2015, 11:48 AM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 2015, 12:15 PM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD — Eco Ed’s final sojourn to paradise has ended.
In this file photo, Ed Schwartz poses before setting off to spend his final days in Hawaii.
Longtime Ridgewood resident Ed Schwartz, who earned his apropos nickname through his work as a sustainability expert, died early Thursday morning on the Hawaiian island of Maui. He was 47.
Eco Ed’s passing was confirmed on Thursday by Sharon Scalies, a close friend of Schwartz and his wife, Julie Tung.
Related: Ridgewood man battling cancer receives $36,000 in donations to spend final days in Maui
Scalies said that as Schwartz faded away, family and friends were here on the East Coast, “keeping vigil” for him.
Schwartz was diagnosed in late 2013 with acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive form of cancer that ravages the blood-forming tissue of the bone marrow. In early May, he learned from his doctors he had just weeks to live.
On July 19, 1910, the governor of the U.S. state of Washington proclaimed the nation’s first “Father’s Day.” However, it was not until 1972, 58 years after President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day official, that the day became a nationwide holiday in the United States…..
ORIGINS OF FATHER’S DAY
The campaign to celebrate the nation’s fathers did not meet with the same enthusiasm–perhaps because, as one florist explained, “fathers haven’t the same sentimental appeal that mothers have.” On July 5, 1908, a West Virginia church sponsored the nation’s first event explicitly in honor of fathers, a Sunday sermon in memory of the 362 men who had died in the previous December’s explosions at the Fairmont Coal Company mines in Monongah, but it was a one-time commemoration and not an annual holiday. The next year, a Spokane,Washington woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widower, tried to establish an official equivalent to Mother’s Day for male parents. She went to local churches, the YMCA, shopkeepers and government officials to drum up support for her idea, and she was successful: Washington State celebrated the nation’s first statewide Father’s Day on July 19, 1910. Slowly, the holiday spread. In 1916, President Wilson honored the day by using telegraph signals to unfurl a flag in Spokane when he pressed a button in Washington, D.C.In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge urged state governments to observe Father’s Day. However, many men continued to disdain the day. As one historian writes, they “scoffed at the holiday’s sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving, or they derided the proliferation of such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products–often paid for by the father himself.”
file photo by Boyd Loving
…FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM THIS EVENING THROUGH SUNDAY
EVENING…
THE FLOOD WATCH CONTINUES FOR
* PORTIONS OF NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY AND SOUTHEAST NEW YORK…
INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING AREAS…IN NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY…
EASTERN BERGEN…EASTERN ESSEX…EASTERN PASSAIC…EASTERN
UNION…HUDSON…WESTERN BERGEN…WESTERN ESSEX…WESTERN
PASSAIC AND WESTERN UNION. IN SOUTHEAST NEW YORK…BRONX…
KINGS (BROOKLYN)…NEW YORK (MANHATTAN)…NORTHERN NASSAU…
NORTHERN QUEENS…NORTHERN WESTCHESTER…RICHMOND (STATEN
ISLAND)…ROCKLAND…SOUTHERN NASSAU…SOUTHERN QUEENS AND
SOUTHERN WESTCHESTER.
* FROM THIS EVENING THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING
* HEAVY RAINFALL FROM THE REMNANTS OF BILL IS EXPECTED TO IMPACT
THE AREA TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING. THE HEAVIEST RAIN IS
EXPECTED TO OCCUR DURING THE OVERNIGHT HOURS TONIGHT INTO SUNDAY
MORNING…AND COULD LEAD TO WIDESPREAD URBAN AND SMALL STREAM
FLOODING. STORM TOTAL RAINFALL AMOUNTS ARE EXPECTED TO RANGE
BETWEEN 1 TO 2 INCHES…ALTHOUGH AMOUNTS OF UP TO 3 INCHES WILL
BE POSSIBLE WITH AREAS OF HEAVIER RAIN…AND IN THUNDERSTORMS.
THE HEAVY RAINFALL SATURDAY NIGHT COULD FALL WITHIN A SHORT
PERIOD OF TIME…LEADING TO SHARP RISES ON SMALL STREAMS AND
CREEKS IN NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY AND SIGNIFICANT POOR DRAINAGE
FLOODING IN URBAN AREAS.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A FLOOD WATCH MEANS THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR FLOODING BASED ON
CURRENT FORECASTS. YOU SHOULD MONITOR LATER FORECASTS AND BE
ALERT FOR POSSIBLE FLOOD WARNINGS. THOSE LIVING IN AREAS PRONE TO
FLOODING SHOULD BE PREPARED TO TAKE ACTION SHOULD FLOODING
DEVELOP.
Ridgewood NJ, YWCA Offers Concentrated One-Week Swim Classes in June The YWCA Bergen County is offering several concentrated swim classes in June that provide short-term swim instruction for children, teens and adults. These one-week classes run June 22 – 26 and are held Monday through Friday at the YWCA’s 112 Oak Street, Ridgewood location. Classes include Concentrated Stroke Clinic Competitive Swim Program for ages 5 to 14 years, Child Swim Lessons for ages 3 to 6 years and Youth, Pre-Teen, and Teen Swim Lessons for ages 6 to 14 years. Reduced class fees are available for 360 Movement Members. The YWCA Bergen County offers a variety of American Red Cross certified programs throughout the year, including swimming lessons for ages six months to adult and lifeguard training. For concentrated swim class schedules or information about any YWCA Aquatics program, call 201-444-5600, x327, or visit www.ywcabergencounty.org
RACEFASTER (in Bookends) 211 E. Ridgewood Ave. ribbon cutting 1pm June 20, 2015 a great fit!
GiGi’s Boutique 48 E. Ridgewood Ave. ribbon cutting 11am June 27, 2015 fashion perfect!
Interim Healthcare Tuesday, July 7, 2015 NEW ADDRESS join us 27 Chestnut Street take elevator to first floor ribbon cutting 5:30pm join the celebration!
MAYOR’S OFFICE HOURS FOR RESIDENTS -Saturday, July 11
Mayor Paul Aronsohn holds office hours for Ridgewood residents on Saturday’s every month. Mayor Aronsohn will meet with residents on Saturday, July 11th from 9AM to Noon in the Council Chambers (Sydney V. Stoldt, Jr. Court Room) on the fourth floor of Ridgewood Village Hall.
For an appointment to meet with the Mayor, please call the Village Clerk’s Office at 201-670-5500 ext. 206. You may come to the Mayor’s office hours without an appointment, but those with appointments will be given priority.
Please visit the Graydon Pool homepage at www.ridgewoodnj.net/graydon to learn about membership rates, program offerings and pool amenities. Be sure to bookmark our Graydon homepage on your computer for future special events and program offerings. Opening day for Graydon Pool was Saturday, June 6th.
2015 season memberships may now be purchased online via Community Pass at www.ridgewoodnj.net/communitypass. Be sure to refer to your online confirmation when purchase is complete for detailed information on how to obtain your photo identification badge.
Aquatic programs, including the Graydon Swim Team and instructional and recreational swim, are also available online at Community Pass, or you may review levels and print program registration forms from our Graydon homepage referenced above. Meet the Aquatic Staff and learn more on the following dates at the pool: Saturday, June 6th, 10 am to 1 pm, and Saturday, June 20th, 10 am to 1 pm.
American Red Cross Waterfront Lifeguard Training (recertification/bridging and new) is available through Ridgewood Parks and Recreation. Details/registration are also available on the Graydon Pool homepage.
Letter to the Editor: Discussion misses on key points about concussions
JUNE 19, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2015, 9:20 AM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Print
Discussion misses on key points about concussions
To the Editor:
With four grandchildren in the Ridgewood school system and an epidemiologist’s interest in athletic health, I attended the June 1 session on “What You Should Know About Concussions in Youth Sports” at Benjamin Franklin Middle School.
The session was for the most part limited to concussion recognition and management, rather than the increasingly clear long-term risks, including premature dementia. There was no effective critique of the current “Return to Play after Concussion” protocols, which, for a variety of well-documented reasons, simply will not work. Essentially, these protocols allow us to feel good that something is being done while they enable denial of any serious short or long term risks.
There was no serious discussion of the inception of chronic traumatic encephalopathy and the accumulation of tau protein in the brain following some concussions, or multiple concussions. This cannot now be evaluated by scanning, but we know from autopsy studies the process can begin at a young age, especially in pee-wee leagues and high school football. In the settlement with the players union, the NFL has conceded the relationship of concussion to a variety of neurogentive conditions, including premature dementia.
The magnitude of the association is as yet unclear, although a study commissioned by the NFL suggests that premature dementia is five times more common by age 50 in NFL players who can remember their past concussions. The connection was easier when boxing was a much more prevalent amateur sport. “Dementia Pugilistica” is the main reason why boxing disappeared as an undergraduate sport by about 1950. The long “incubation” period between concussions in youth sports and dementia has given rise to much denial. If we drew an analogy to the devastating smoking and cancer story, long resisted as a “mere statistical association” by the tobacco interests, it seems we are at 1955, with about 10 years to go before the Surgeon General’s report, “Smoking and Cancer,” appeared in 1964.
There was talk of child athletes taking “big hits” to head and body, but no one asked why that was necessary to impart the values of team play, discipline, character, etc. The 15-year athletic injury surveillance project of the NCAA, 1988 to 2003, and published in 2007, establishes the rates and patterns of serious injury by gender in several commonly played sports. With young men, football causes about half the serious injuries, including concussion, for all the sports covered in the study. The public health impact of these relationships is even greater than they seem, since football teams are much larger than the others and thus more children are exposed to higher risk.
Finally, schools exist to nurture minds, not put them at risk – short and/or long term. It seems time for a prudent review of the objectives of sports activities sponsored by publically funded schools and the sports we choose to sponsor to achieve these goals.
JUNE 19, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2015, 9:52 AM
BY BY EILEEN LA FORGIA
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The gallery at West Side Presbyterian Church in Ridgewood is featuring an exhibit by Johnny J. Keane, a painter and illustrator.
The show is primarily about Keane’s illustrations for the book “Zoe Bowie Sings, Despite All Sad Things” written by Jamie Tripp Utitus.
There are 21 large illustrations from the book as well as the rough draft showing the sketching process. Also on display are small portraits in both ink and pencil.
Johnny Keane met Jamie Tripp 10 years ago, and the fellow teachers became friends.
JUNE 19, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2015, 12:30 AM
BY DANIEL FISHBEIN
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
It’s official. The end of the school year is here. We’ve packed up the classrooms, put away the backpacks and officially said goodbye and good luck to the 426 members of the RHS Class of 2015.
In my remarks to the Class of 2015 at graduation, I mentioned the importance of the entire Ridgewood community in helping our students meet with success. I would like to thank all of you for your support and generosity of time, talent and resources. Our mission of excellence could not be accomplished without you.
For this last column of the 2014-2015 school year, I would like to share with you my remarks to the Class of 2015 at graduation on June 18.
“Congratulations to the members of the Class of 2015, and to your parents, families, friends and mentors, as well as the entire Ridgewood Public Schools community. All of these people and many village organizations have been important in your development and success.
“We are here tonight to celebrate the present, but for a moment I would like to turn your thoughts to your future. Whether you are continuing on to attend college or university, entering the work force or enlisting in the military, there is no doubt your journey will be met with a new set of challenges which will be both exciting and daunting. However, I assure you that whatever your plans may be, you are well prepared and ready to embrace the future with enthusiasm and courage.
JUNE 19, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY MARK KRULISH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Ordinances were introduced last week by the Village Council reflecting changes in the organizational structure of Village Hall, a cleanup of salary ranges for village employees and elimination of unused titles.
The new ordinance institutes a Human Resources department and creates a free-standing Department of Health, moving it out from under the umbrella of the Department of Community Services, which was eliminated. The Division of Assessments was moved to the Finance Department and a director title was created in the Building Department to accurately reflect recent hires.
“This is both a cleanup and reflects some strategic moves we’ve made with both the Building Department and with the Department of Human Resources,” said Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld.
Discussion of the ordinances took place at a June 3 meeting, where Sonenfeld explained the Human Resources department would also assume supervisory roles in the Employee Benefits and Payroll Administration functions of the government.
Councilman Michael Sedon, who voted against the introduction of the ordinances, said the first time he heard there would be a full-time Human Resources department was at the first budget hearing in February. Sedon said he did not have an opportunity to give input on such a service, which he believed was already being provided.
JUNE 16, 2015 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2015, 8:56 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Verizon Wireless has withdrawn its application seeking variances and waivers to construct a cellular telecommunications facility on Valleau Cemetery property, according to Board of Adjustment Chairman Joel Torielli.
Torielli announced Verizon’s withdrawal during the June 9 zoning board meeting.
During the same meeting, at which Verizon representatives were not present, the board chairman also announced the continuation of the company’s application to install a cellular antenna on top of the cross at West Side Presbyterian Church. The public hearing for that application has been rescheduled to resume July 14.
Earlier this year, Verizon filed an application to build a cellular facility at the cemetery, but company officials did not have the opportunity to present the plans to the Board of Adjustment. The board, meanwhile, had approved AT&T’s request to maintain a temporary cell tower along Route 17 as the firm prepared to upgrade its nearby permanent monopole.
Judy Fairweather, attorney for AT&T, revealed last month that Verizon officials approached her and her company and sought permission to build on the permanent Route 17 tower. As a result of the collocation along the highway, use of the Valleau site by Verizon is no longer needed.
