N.J. bill making evaluations key to teacher tenure may soon be introduced
More than a year after state Sen. Teresa Ruiz began gathering evidence on how to overhaul the state’s century-old teacher tenure law, a bill that would link the job protection to regular evaluations may soon be fast-tracked in Trenton.
Ruiz (D-Essex) said during an editorial board meeting late last week that she has meetings scheduled Monday to hammer out the bill’s contents and expects to introduce an updated draft of the legislation as early as this week.
“I’ve wanted to focus on tenure reform since I came into office,” she said. “This month, I intend to post a bill that will be passed and a bill that will be signed.” (Calefati, The Star-Ledger)
The Village of Ridgewood Ho-Ho-Kus Brook and Saddle River repair project expected to go well into 2013
June 7,2013
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ , According to Village Manager Ken Gabbert, the work to repair and mend the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook and Saddle River will likely begin during the late summer or early fall. The two waterways have experienced massive flooding and sustained significant amounts of erosion during last year’s record rainstorms.The Ho-Ho-Kus Brook in particular was heavily damaged by Hurricane Irene last summer. Gabbert told the Ridgewood News “Since Hurricane Floyd in 1999, there has been only spot work done in the brook,”
After a significant increase the village is looking to reduce localized flooding. The work will include the removal of sand bars, trees and other debris that have collected in the waterways after years of neglect and server storms.The scope of the work will span the entire length of the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook in Ridgewood, with only minor work performed along the Saddle River.
The Village council introduced an ordinance last month to appropriate $155,000 for the second phase of watershed protective measures. This includes $128,000 in grant money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and approximately $27,000 from Ridgewood’s capital fund account.In April, the Village Council moved more than $343,000 in grants and another $78,000 from the capital fund balance to support the first phase of the project.
Village Manager Ken Gabber told the Ridgewood News that the project completion date will depend on the state Department of Environmental Protection’s requirements, the contractor’s schedules and any “surprises” that arise after work begins.
10 Failed Attempts by the Government to Control the Internet
POSTED ON JUNE 7, 2012 BY ISP
The topic that was dangling at the forefront of most American’s minds at the end of 2011, and even seeping into the beginning of 2012, was the fate of the internet. The Stop Online Piracy Act, discussed further below, whipped citizens into a frenzy and led to the largest internet-based protest to date. In light of a slightly-reworked, renamed SOPA’s emergence, here are ten failed attempts by the American government to control the internet.
Communications Decency Act (1996) –The portions of the Communications Decency Act that were the most controversial were the ones that attempted to regulate internet pornography; a judiciary panel stated that the bill would infringe on First Amendment rights and the bill was squashed.
Child Online Protection Act (1998) – Though the Child Online Protection Act was passed in 1998, a federal injunction claiming that the language was too broad caused the law to never take effect.
Internet School Filtering Act (1998) – While many of the Internet School Filtering Act’s points were eventually enacted through other legislation that did pass, the original bill was struck down.
Deleting Online Predators Act (2006) – The Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006 would have prohibited the use of social networking sites on school or library computers; critics argued, however, that the bill would also limit access to educationally useful information, and as such the bill languished.
Intellectual Property Enforcement Act (2007) – Proposed during the 110th session of Congress in an attempt to shore up American intellectual property laws, the Intellectual Property Enforcement Act would have allowed the Department of Justice to press civil charges against those suspected of infringement.
Cybersecurity Act (2009) – Though reworded versions of the Cybersecurity Act have been reintroduced each year since the original bill was drafted, public outcry over the unprecedented level of control it would grant the government with has kept any of them from passing.
Protecting Cyberspace As a National Asset Act (2010) – Senator Joe Lieberman introduced the Protecting Cyberspace As a National Asset Act in 2010. He then promptly incurred the wrath of critics for citing China’s similar policies in an attempt to portray the bill as standard government procedure.
Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (2010) – Activist organizations launched a full-scale attack on COICA, and Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden publicly announced his intention to block the bill. Though it did pass the Senate Judiciary Committee, it was killed off before it ever reached fruition.
PROTECT IP Act (2011) – The Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act, a re-write of the failed COICA introduced by Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, was one of the 2011 targets of internet activists. The protests launched by major internet players led to the postponement of the bill until the issues were resolved, granting Americans a temporary victory.
Stop Online Piracy Act (2011) – Arguably the biggest rallying point for activists in 2011 and early 2012, SOPA led to full and partial protests that shutdown major websites in January of 2012. The bill was postponed until “there is wider agreement on a solution.”
Entertainment industry heavyweights have not given up on their crusade to end piracy; rather than changing their business model to adapt to the needs of a changing world, they’ve chosen to attack the civil liberties of law-abiding Americans.
The State Board of Education move forward on online charters
The State Board of Education yesterday got an earful on the Christie administration’s push for charter schools and other so-called innovations, both pro and con, some quite public and some a bit quieter.
The public part was further deliberation and a crowded public hearing on the administration’s controversial regulations proposed for charter schools, including some new powers for the commissioner and new language that will codify online charter schools.
Forty people signed up to speak, a far bigger crowd than usual and voicing a host of concerns about the new rules, from the philosophical to the logistic. Nevertheless, while the state board members listened intently, few of them seemed all that intent to slow down the changes. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
After primary win, Kyrillos makes overture to business
Fresh off Tuesday’s primary victory, state Sen. Joseph M. Kyrillos Jr. (R-Middletown) said he would be visiting businesses across the state as he plans to make job creation a focus of his challenge to U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez(D-Hoboken).
Kyrillos, who received 77 percent of the vote in the Republican primary, said he would use comments from business people in formulating a “jobs plan,” to be released after the tour. He said he plans to visit businesses of all sizes, as well as publicly and privately held firms.
“I want to really listen — not read the press releases and absorb the rhetoric that come from my opponent and others in Washington, D.C.,” Kyrillos said. (Kitchenman, NJBIZ)
The Village of Ridgewood is pleased to present the introduced 2012 Municipal Budget. A Public Hearing has been scheduled to solicit comment on the 2012 budget on Tuesday, June 26, 2012 at 7PM in the Village Hall Court Room, 131 N. Maple Avenue, Ridgewood.
Click Here for the state-submitted budget document. https://mods.ridgewoodnj.net/pdf/finance/2012MDSVOR.pdf
This document is also available at the Ridgewood Public Library. A summary of the budget will be printed in the June 8, 2012 Ridgewood News.
Gov. Chris Christie has flexed his muscle in his appointments to the State Board of Education
What they are doing: It’s a busy agenda for the State Board this month, from broad policy discussions around the achievement gap and early literacy to key personnel decisions and public hearings on new regulations for charter schools and inter-district school choice. The board will also consider two resolutions to accept money from outside private foundations.
The board’s power: The state board has seen its power and influence wane over the past two decades, its meeting becoming anti-climactic as it largely went along with the administration at the time. Of late, it has been finding its voice, as evidenced by it taking up big policy issues on its own, as well as handling the usual code and regulations. But at the same time, Gov. Chris Christie has flexed his muscle in his appointments to the board, with now six of the 13 members appointed by the governor. On the agenda today will be nominations to the next board officers, potentially a test for current president, Arcelio Aponte. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
What it is: The Christie administration has proposed new regulations for New Jersey’s charter schools, from who can apply, how the application process would work, and what would be required for charter schools once approved, including considerably more powers for the state education commissioner. The proposal is before the State Board of Education, which will hold a public hearing on Wednesday.
What it means: The proposed regulations include a number of controversial measures, some of which critics contend go against what is allowed under the state’s 15-year-old charter school law. Among them are provisions for online charter schools and expanded roles for national charter management companies. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
10 Ways to Lower Gas Prices
Rory CooperJune 4, 2012 at 8:43 am
The average price of a gallon of regular gas is now $3.66, and has been decreasing for eight straight weeks. This is causing some of the President Obama’s advisors to declare energy prices an irrelevant issue. Political advisor David Axelrod recently tweeted: “Gas prices have been going down for the past six weeks. You think the GOP will blame the President?”
In those six weeks, the only significant energy policy change at the White House was to make new coal production nearly impossible and thus vastly increase the cost of electricity. So, it is hard to assign this slight dip to the president after a record 75 straight weeks of prices exceeding $3.00. However, it is true that the president is not entirely responsible for gas prices.
Market and economic conditions play a large role. With unemployment creeping back up, new global turmoil and summer travel on the wane due to a sagging economy, demand is surely dropping. But that does not mean, and has never meant, that the president’s policies or Congressional action does not play any role in gas prices.
After three years of adding regulatory hurdles and blocking exploratory access and development, President Obama’s policies are helping keep prices higher than necessary. Having only three percent of federal land available for oil exploration is not a “market condition.”
But we are in luck. There are several steps Congress can immediately take, and President Obama can immediately support, that will help alleviate the pain felt at the pump by American families and would create economic growth, and importantly, jobs.
In a new paper, Heritage’s Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow, Nick Loris lists ten actions Congress could immediately take that would help improve gas prices in the short term and the long term:
1. Lift offshore and onshore exploration and drilling bans: We remain the only nation in the world that has placed the majority of its territorial waters off limits to exploration. Congress should lift the ban on exploration in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and conduct more lease sales off Alaska’s coasts.
2. Approve Keystone XL: The Keystone pipeline has bipartisan support and continues to be consistently popular, polling at 60 percent in November 2011 and 57 percent in late March. 69 Democrats joined House Republicans on a vote of support in April with Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA) saying: “I think the president has made a very serious mistake here.”
Yet, President Obama continues to block it and the jobs that come with it. Had Obama not delayed approval, up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day would have come from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries by as early as 2013. That’s more than we bring in from Venezuela, our fourth largest importer.
3. Require timely environmental review: Environmental review requirements for oil and gas projects to commence on federal lands under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) take too long. Congress should place a reasonable 270-day time limit on NEPA reviews.
4. Permitting process: The processing time for an Application for Permit to Drill (APD) extends well past the 30-day time limit. Loris recommends: “Congress should require the Department of the Interior to honor the law’s deadline unless the Interior finds fault with the application…[and] should ultimately transition the permitting process to state regulators, who are best able to balance economic growth and environmental well-being.”
5. Issue leases on time: Rather than implementing an efficient leasing process, the Department of the Interior keeps adding administrative regulations to make the process more burdensome and bureaucratic. Congress should remove unnecessary red tape and if Interior fails to issue a lease within 60 days, it should be considered issued by default.
6. Allow development of oil shale: Oil shale production in the U.S. could be a global game changer since we hold the largest known reserves in the world. However, 70 percent of those reserves lie beneath federal lands. The Obama Administration has introduced new regulations, time frames, and significantly reduced the land available for leases. Congress should make permanent the 2008 guidelines for oil shale development in order to provide regulatory certainty.
7. Stop the land grab: Through Secretarial Order No. 3310, the Department of Interior is unilaterally and arbitrarily classifying federal land areas as “Wilderness” or “Wild Lands” restricting access to new drilling areas, preventing production on existing leases and halting economic growth. Congress should permanently block Secretarial Order No. 3310 and any similar designation should require congressional approval.
8. Implement 50/50 revenue sharing: States receive 50 percent of the revenues generated by onshore oil and natural gas production on federal lands and Congress should apply this allocation offshore as well. This would encourage more state involvement in drilling decisions and help state economies, whether by closing a deficit or aiding coastal restoration and conservation.
9. Prohibit greenhouse gas and Tier 3 gas regulations: In 2010, Interior suspended 61 leases in Montana alone because environmental groups charged that the energy production would contribute to climate change, demonstrating the need to permanently prohibit any federal agency from unilaterally regulating greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, the proposed Tier 3 gas regulations to lower the amount of sulfur in gasoline are costly with no measurable benefits. Congress should prohibit the implementation of these regulations. Unelected bureaucrats should not hold such power over the economy.
10. Repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS): Soon, refiners will be fined when the amount of ethanol mandated exceeds the amount that can be refined for use but the mandate requires production of cellulosic ethanol, which no companies have been able to viably produce commercially. As a result, refiners paid more than $6 million in waiver credits or surcharges in 2011. It is an economic and environmental disaster and must be repealed.
President Obama is keen to accept credit for the windfall of oil production in North Dakota and in other private areas outside federal control, where jobs are plentiful and unemployment has plummeted. Meanwhile, production on federal land is decreasing and regulatory conditions are worsening. It would be to the president’s benefit to embrace some or all of these reforms that could immediately help American families filling up the minivan. Another 75 weeks with gas prices over $3.00, and household goods and food costing more as a result, will not help an already anemic recovery.
AIG Chief Sees Retirement Age As High As 80 After Crisis
By Boris Cerni and Zachary Tracer – Jun 3, 2012 6:00 PM ET
American International Group Inc. (AIG) Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche said Europe’s debt crisis shows governments worldwide must accept that people will have to work more years as life expectancies increase.
“Retirement ages will have to move to 70, 80 years old,” Benmosche, who turned 68 last week, said during a weekend interview at his seaside villa in Dubrovnik, Croatia. “That would make pensions, medical services more affordable. They will keep people working longer and will take that burden off of the youth.”
“Human barcode’ could make society more organized, but invades privacy, civil liberties
As tech companies work to develop ID chips, how long until we’re no longer anonymous?
BY MEGHAN NEAL / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Would you barcode your baby?
Microchip implants have become standard practice for our pets, but have been a tougher sell when it comes to the idea of putting them in people.
Science fiction author Elizabeth Moon last week rekindled the debate on whether it’s a good idea to “barcode” infants at birth in an interview on a BBC radio program.
“I would insist on every individual having a unique ID permanently attached — a barcode if you will — an implanted chip to provide an easy, fast inexpensive way to identify individuals,” she said on The Forum, a weekly show that features “a global thinking” discussing a “radical, inspiring or controversial idea” for 60 seconds .
Moon believes the tools most commonly used for surveillance and identification — like video cameras and DNA testing — are slow, costly and often ineffective.
In her opinion, human barcoding would save a lot of time and money.
Deadline Fast Approaching for PSEG Environmental Education Grants
Ridgewood teachers encouraged to apply
(June 1, 2012 – Newark, NJ) – Teachers in New Jersey and Delaware have two weeks to apply for a 2012 Environmental Education Grant from PSEG. The energy company provides grants every year to educators who can link their students’ understanding of science, mathematics, computer science and/or technology with an enthusiasm and appreciation for the environment. The PSEG Foundation will award a total of $35,000 for the purchase of equipment, materials and field trips that would not normally be provided by the school or school district. Applications are due June 15.
“Education is critical in helping young people develop an appreciation for the environment,” said Sheila Rostiac, PSEG director of corporate responsibility, and President of the PSEG Foundation. “I’m proud of our investments in programs and partnerships that provide opportunities for students to experience real-life application of skills, as well as those that expose them to career possibilities in science, technology, engineering and math.”
Teachers of grades K-9 are encouraged to apply. Grants of up to $3,500 per project are available. Specific budget criteria are provided on the grant application. Applications that focus on ideas for the development of one or more classroom units, expansion or refinement of an existing course or curriculum, and extension of classroom work to community or after-school activities will be considered. Projects must be conducted over at least two years. Grant winners will be announced in the fall.
Teachers from schools in PSE&G’s utility service area and PSEG’s Estuary Enhancement Program area may apply, as well as all schools in New Jersey’s Salem and Cumberland counties and the State of Delaware. Public, private, parochial, and charter schools may apply for funding. For more information on the eligible towns, and to download an application, visit www.pseg.com/eegrants. Applications must be postmarked by Friday, June 15th.
The PSEG Environmental Education Grant Program began in 1991 as a partnership with the New Jersey Business/Industry/Science Education Consortium (NJ BISEC) and it is designed in cooperation with the Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education (ANJEE). The goal is to provide financial resources to help inspire teachers to implement an interdisciplinary approach to teaching about the environment and to foster new ideas. Since its inception, PSEG has awarded more than $388,000 to fund 160 projects in over 105 school districts.
Ridgewood NJ, A conceptual plan to improve the pedestrian underpass at the Ridgewood train station has piqued interest among several council members, who last Wednesday expressed desire to meet with New Jersey Transit (NJT) officials and discuss the potential ideas.
NJT recently completed a $40 million renovation project at the station to make Ridgewood’s transit hub accessible to disabled passengers and more convenient for all riders. That project, however, did not include improvement work to the underpass.
In its current condition, the underground walkway shows deteriorated walls, exposed rebar and general disrepair. Though it is out of sight to many village residents, the passageway is an eyesore to those who use it.
New Jersey stands to see as much as $40 million a year in sales-tax revenue from Amazon (AMZN).com Inc., the biggest online retailer, Governor Chris Christie said.
A deal the Republican governor disclosed today will bring to New Jersey $130 million in investments and 1,500 full-time jobs. Amazon will start collecting the 7 percent tax July 1, 2013, Christie said at a Trenton news briefing. Work on two new warehouses in the state may begin next year, he said.
“Today’s announcement marks a first step toward a long- term relationship with Amazon,” Christie, 49, told reporters. “With this agreement, Amazon is stepping up and making a real commitment to our state and to our people.” (Dopp, Bloomberg)
