>11 states seek relief from ‘No Child’ provisions, in return for raising standards
Eleven states applied for waivers exempting them from key provisions of the No Child Left Behind law by the federal government’s first deadline, promising in return to adopt higher standards and carry out other elements of the Obama administration’s school improvement agenda, the Department of Education said on Tuesday.
Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Tennessee asked the department for relief from some No Child provisions, including the requirement that all students be proficient in English and math by 2014. In their applications, the states outlined plans to develop their own locally designed school accountability systems, create new educator-evaluation systems and overhaul their lowest-performing schools, the department said. (Dillon, The New York Times)
>Courts Gone Wild: New Jersey has almost forgotten what it was like to live in a state governed by laws, rather than men.
Senator Doherty has really been taking his Fair School Funding show on the road in a big way. Last night, I learned that Ridgewood is about the fiftieth municipality he’s visited so far in an effort explain his fair school funding plan.
Most residents, voters, and taxpayers not steeped in the fine points of municipal law in New Jersey are probably not aware of the extent to which the Supreme Court has been blatantly legislating from the bench. In fact, the Supreme Court has been usurping the power of the New Jersey legislature for so long, and with so little effective criticism, that almost the whole body of lawyers in this state can be considered complicit.
New Jersey’s two law schools, Rutgers School of Law|Newark and Seton Hall Law School are not immune from criticism either. The professors in these schools know that the Supreme Court has overstepped its authority. Nevertheless, because they agree politically with the policies, they refuse to say what they know.
Really–politically (if not economically) speaking, it’s as if we live in North Korea. The populace of New Jersey has almost forgotten over the course of two generations what it was like to live in a state governed by laws, rather than men. The New Jersey Supreme Court has no right to mangle or reinvent our state constitution for its political purposes!
Don’t forget that the Supreme Court’s “Mount Laurel Doctrine” is based on its having found in the New Jersey state constitution a right to affordable housing. The fact that no such right exists in the Constitution was no impediment to the Supreme Court inventing and enforcing it.
The current school funding problem is the child of similar misbehavior on the part of the New Jersey Supreme Court, dating back at least to 1985, when the NJ Supreme Court issued its first ‘Abbott’ decision. In that decision, the court ruled that to satisfy the New Jersey Constitution, the State must assure urban children an education enabling them to compete with their suburban peers. The weak-kneed response by the New Jersey legislature to this Abbott decision, and to the some twenty further Abbott decisions that the Supreme Court has issued since, has been to simply raise state-backed per-pupil spending on urban children through the roof while allowing state-backed per-pupil spending on suburban children to dwindle almost to nothing in school districts like Ridgewood.
Not that the New Jersey Supreme Court would ever agree, because it is so full of itself it can’t bear to be criticized, but the school funding formula that is used now is clearly unconstitutional. It mandates hugely unequal spending.
By contrast, Doherty’s plan to equalize state-backed per-pupil spending is clearly constitutional. It is also easy to explain. Best of all, it is eminently fair. Ridgewood’s VC and Board of Ed should both pass resolutions in support of it
>2010 Uniform Crime Report finds N.J. murders spiked 16 percent, increased in all corners of the state
Murders in New Jersey were up 16 percent last year, and they increased in all corners of the state, from rural towns to the largest the cities, according to statistics released today by the State Police.
The number of killings increased 10 percent in cities with more than 50,000 people. But they also increased 8 percent in the suburbs and 21 percent in rural areas, the State Police’s Uniform Crime report shows. (Baxter, The Star-Ledger)
>Internet keeps government honest: Google chief Nov 13 12:57 PM US/Eastern
Broader adoption of the Internet will keep governments on their toes as wired-up citizens exercise their newfound power to check rights abuses, Google chief Eric Schmidt said on Saturday. “In nations and communities around the world, citizens are turning to online tools to keep their governments honest,” he told business leaders on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Honolulu.
“Whistleblowing has never been so easy,” he said.
Schmidt cited demonstrations that toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt in which activists used Facebook to schedule protests, Twitter to coordinate them and YouTube to broadcast the events to the world.
“Online citizens can find like-minded allies, they can find like-minded diasporas from a country,” he said.
>A Gold Rush of Subsidies in Clean Energy Search By ERIC LIPTON and CLIFFORD KRAUSS Published: November 11, 2011
WASHINGTON — Halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, on a former cattle ranch and gypsum mine, NRG Energy is building an engineering marvel: a compound of nearly a million solar panels that will produce enough electricity to power about 100,000 homes.
The project is also a marvel in another, less obvious way: Taxpayers and ratepayers are providing subsidies worth almost as much as the entire $1.6 billion cost of the project. Similar subsidy packages have been given to 15 other solar- and wind-power electric plants since 2009.
The government support — which includes loan guarantees, cash grants and contracts that require electric customers to pay higher rates — largely eliminated the risk to the private investors and almost guaranteed them large profits for years to come. The beneficiaries include financial firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, conglomerates like General Electric, utilities like Exelon and NRG — even Google.
>Veterans Day ceremonies planned throughout Bergen County
BERGENFIELD Ceremonies will begin Friday at 11 a.m. at borough hall, followed by rededication of the monument at Veterans Memorial Park on New Bridge Road. bergenfieldboro.com or (201) 387-4055. CARLSTADT Services will be conducted at Memorial Park Friday at 11 a.m. (201) 939-2850. CLIFFSIDE PARK A service with Father Willie Smith and Rabbi Engelmayer of Temple Israel will take place Friday at 11 a.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 555 Palisade Ave., followed by refreshments. (201) 941-0643. DEMAREST An outdoor ceremony at the Northern Valley Regional High School flag pole will begin Friday at 11:15 a.m., followed by a 1 p.m. assembly at Tenakill Middle School. The American Legion will hold a ceremony Friday at 11 a.m. at Veterans Memorial Park. (201) 768-5386. EDGEWATER The traditional ceremony will take place Friday at 11 a.m. at Memorial Park, Route 5 and River Road. 943-1700, ext. 3131. FAIR LAWN Ceremonies at the municipal building, 8-01 Fair Lawn Ave., will be hosted by the Fair Lawn Veterans Council Friday at 11 a.m. fairlawn.org or (201) 794-5340. GARFIELD The fourth annual Veterans Day Gala will be held Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Royal Manor, 454 Midland Ave., with a four-course luncheon, happy hour, dancing to live band, show, boutique shopping and door prizes, Registration required. $50-$55. aceshows.com or (800) 831-9801. HACKENSACK A brief ceremony honoring veterans will be followed by refreshments Friday at 11 a.m. at the Courthouse Green, Main and Court streets. hackensack.org or (201) 646-3980. LEONIA American Legion Post No. 1, 399 Broad Ave., will host ceremonies Friday beginning at 11 a.m. (201) 592-1332. LITTLE FERRY Ceremonies will be conducted in front of Memorial and Washington schools on Liberty Street Friday at 11 a.m.. Afterward, food and refreshments will be served at the VFW at 100 Main St. (201) 641-6186. MAHWAH Mahwah’s ceremonies will take place Friday at 11 a.m. at Veterans Memorial Park on Franklin Turnpike. mahwahtwp.org or (201) 529-5757. NEW MILFORD The annual ceremony will taker place Friday at 11 a.m. at the Veteran’s monument in front of borough hall, 930 River Road. newmilfordboro.com or (201) 967-5044. NORTHVALE Northvale VFW Memorial Post 162 will conduct a ceremony Friday at 11 a.m. in front of the municipal building, 116 Paris Ave., with refreshments following at the American Legion Hall on Paris Avenue. boroughofnorthvale.com or (201) 767-3330. OAKLAND Annual ceremonies will be held Friday at 11 a.m. at Veterans Park, 1 Veterans Drive. oakland-nj.org or (201) 337-8111. PARK RIDGE The Wyckoff Midland Park VFW Post 7086 will hold ceremonies Friday at 11 a.m. at Midland Park Veterans Park. co.bergen.nj.us/parks or (201) 336-7267. RIDGEFIELD PARK A traditional service will be held Friday at 11 a.m. at the Ridgefield Park Flagpole, Euclid Avenue and Mt. Vernon Street. ridgefieldpark.org or (201) 641-2612. RIDGEWOOD Ceremonies will take place Friday at 11 a.m. at Graydon Park and include a rededication ceremony for a plaque being installed to honor the memory of the 14 Ridgewood casualties from World War I. (201) 670-5510. RUTHERFORD A ceremony hosted by Rutherford Veterans Alliance will start Friday at 11 a.m. at the WWI monument on Park Avenue near the Rutherford Post Office and travel from monument to monument with different participants giving speeches about each war. rutherford-nj.com or (201) 939-9895. TEANECK The Patriotic Observance Advisory Board will conduct ceremonies Friday at 11 a.m. on the Municipal Green. teanecknj.gov or (201) 488-6800.
>3 Charged With Dealing Crack; Occupy Boston ‘Deteriorating’ November 4, 2011 11:42 PM
BOSTON (CBS) – Three people arrested Thursday night inside the Occupy Boston camp have been charged with dealing crack cocaine.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030’s Carl Stevens, who spent the night at the camp a few weeks ago, talked to a man who spends most nights at Occupy Boston. He said things have gone downhill.
“Things have changed drastically. It seems to be deteriorating,” the man told Carl. “A lot of drug use, alcohol use, people getting into fights… It’s deteriorating pretty quick.”
>Ridgewood school board interviews six candidates for open seat
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2011
BY JOSEPH CRAMER
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The Board of Education (BOE) interviewed six candidates this week for the seat left vacant by trustee Charles Reilly’s departure last month.
Six candidates applied and were each questioned by board members on Monday night regarding their professional backgrounds, reasons for applying for the position, and goals as a potential BOE trustee. The decision on Reilly’s replacement will be announced at a public meeting on Nov. 7.
Among the candidates – James Morgan, Gwen Sullivan, B. Vincent Loncto, Janice Willet, Rei Shinozuka and Eric Gross – several themes were consistent across the six interviews. All expressed a desire to contribute to the reputation of the Ridgewood school district, which was a primary reason behind moving to the village for many of the candidates.
Issues of communication, whether relating to complex technical matters such as yearly budgets or simple instances of parent feedback, were also paramount in candidates’ responses.
>“Occupy” protests degenerate into chaos in California Nov 3, 7:21 AM (ET)
By TERENCE CHEA, LISA LEFF and TERRY COLLINS
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) – A day of demonstrations in Oakland that began as a significant step toward expanding the political and economic influence of the Occupy Wall Street movement, ended with police in riot gear arresting dozens of protesters who had marched through downtown to break into a vacant building, shattering windows, spraying graffiti and setting fires along the way.
“We go from having a peaceful movement to now just chaos,” said protester Monique Agnew, 40.
>11.02.11 STORM NEWS: WILLARD WILL OPEN ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3
WILLARD SCHOOL WILL BE OPEN TOMORROW, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3: Please help to spread the word that power has been restored and Willard School will be open on Thursday, November 3. Please continue to exercise caution when walking or driving to and from all schools
>October Snow Days Force NJ Spring Breaks to Shorten Some districts will have to shorten spring break after calling snow days in October
Some New Jersey school districts are still reeling from the Halloween-weekend snowstorm that cut off power to well over 2 million residents, and they now face an uncertain schedule heading into winter.
In West Orange, students will have to miss a third day of school Wednesday, already going over the maximum number of two allowable snow days. As a result, their weeklong spring vacation will be shortened by at least one day, said spokeswoman Jeannine Genauer.
And if more snowstorms force school districts to close once winter comes roaring through, more questions of how to squeeze in the state-required 180 days of instruction will arise.
As a parent with a child in school, I got the ‘nanny state’ call from Dr. Fishbein saying not to let my children out to trick-or-treat yesterday because of down power lines and branches. So, if there is a windstorm that takes down a line or branch and Dr. Fishbein fails to send out an email or warning call, is he and/or the school district liable should my child get injured on the way to school (or any other destination)? After 20 years in Ridgewood, I know when and when not to venture out following a storm. I wonder if the BOE is happy with his new job description?
>139th Annual Harvest Fair :Old Paramus Reformed Church
10am to 4pm – Free Admission – Come early for holiday shopping, have lunch and bring friends. 660 East Glen Avenue at Rt. 17. Garage Sale – Gift Basket Raffle – Attic Treasures & Collectibles – Furniture – Jewelry – linens – books – toys – Homemade Baked Goods – & soup – Farm Stand Country Kitchen Refreshments & Lunch!
