Tag: Ridgewood Real estate

>By Peggy Ackermann/Statehouse Bureau
March 16, 2010, 10:13AM

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/court_says_nj_tea_party_cannot.html

A state appellate panel today ruled New Jersey’s secretary of state must accept a petition a citizens group filed to recall U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez.
The court stayed its decision to allow Menendez (D-N.J.) to appeal its ruling.
NJ Tea Parties United and the Sussex County Tea Party have said they want Menendez, (D-N.J.) recalled from office because he votes for too much government spending.

• Tea Party group seeking to recall Sen. Robert Menendez appears before N.J. appeals court

The case — which puts the state in the unusual position of arguing against its own law and calling part of its constitution unconstitutional — began last fall after then-Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells rejected the committee’s notice that it intended to begin a recall effort against Menendez. The removal process requires the secretary of state to approve such a notice before a recall committee can begin generating petitions.

After the notice is approved, the committee then must secure the signatures of 25 percent of registered voters of the affected district before a recall election can be held. There were 5.2 million registered voters in November, meaning the committee would have to secure 1.3 million signatures.

Menendez lawyer Marc Elias argued that the petition drive should be halted because voters do not have the right to recall a federal lawmaker under the U.S. Constitution.

Menendez will be up for re-election in 2012.New Jersey Real-Time News
Breaking Local News from New Jersey

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/court_says_nj_tea_party_cannot.html

>
Ridgewood shop tries to build a better bagel
By Joseph R. Perone/The Star-Ledger
March 15, 2010, 7:00AM

https://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2010/03/ridgewood_shop_tries_to_build.html

Some look like green shamrocks.

At least they do at Wide World of Bagels, which hand rolls them for every occasion. The Ridgewood store’s shamrock-shaped bagels, which they make throughout the month of March, are its best sellers.

Owners Elliot Cohen, a former manager for Bankers Trust on Wall Street, and Scott Handler, a former car wash owner, say they plan to form a chain of franchised specialty bagel shops to compete with established players.

“My goal is to expand the name throughout northern Bergen County, then throughout New Jersey and then the United States,” Cohen said. “Bagels are profitable because it’s dough and water, and you are making sandwiches, and selling a lot of coffee, which is very profitable, as we all know with Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts.”

Shamrock-shaped bagels, sold throughout the month of March, are best sellers at Wide World of Bagels. Not all bagels are puffy and covered with poppy seeds.He plans to spend up to $200,000 to expand, with franchisees paying as much as $40,000 plus royalty fees to open a store. It won’t be easy because the bagel shape-shifters will have to fight big chains such as Manhattan Bagel, Einstein Bros. and New York Bagel.

see rest of story…

https://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2010/03/ridgewood_shop_tries_to_build.html

>March 15, 2010

PSE&G storm update – March 15, 2010 at 10:30 p.m.

— The latest outage number is now at 76,000 statewide, with about 61,000 customers without power in Bergen County. Additional outages have been reported throughout the day and evening due to the continuing stormy weather.

— Since the storm began this weekend, PSE&G has restored service to more than 380,000 customers – making this the worst storm in PSE&G history.

— There are also about 3,700 gas customers in Passaic and Somerset counties without service due to flooding. Gas customers will be restored in coordination with municipal inspections as the flood waters recede.

— Crews will continue to work throughout the day and night to restore service. The utility is also getting assistance from utilities in Ohio and Pennsylvania through an arrangement called mutual aid. About 200 workers from AEP and Duquesne Light are helping restore power in hard-hit Bergen towns.

— Based on the extensive damage – especially in Bergen County, PSE&G is estimating that the majority of customers will be restored by Wednesday with the remainder on Thursday.

— Customers can find information on outages, flooding and restoration at https://www.pseg.com/customer/home/safety/outage.jsp.

— Many of the outages are caused by falling trees and limbs, which bring down power lines. Downed wires should always be considered “live.” STAY AWAY FROM ALL DOWNED LINES. Do not approach or drive over a downed line and do not touch anything that it might be in contact with. To report a downed wire, call 1-800-436-PSEG and tell PSE&G the nearest cross street.

— To report a power outage, call PSE&G’s Customer Service line: 1-800-436-PSEG. Customers who are registered with My Account can also report power outages. To do so, Log In now or register.

— The utility provides electric service to 2.1 million customers and gas service to 1.7 million customers.

>Trenton braces for impact

Almost everyone here at the Statehouse has a look on his face as though he’s bracing for impact. Lawmakers, particularly Republicans, worry about the way Gov. Chris Christie’s $29.3 billion budget will hit their suburban towns tomorrow as Christie tries to close an $11 billion deficit. That one figure of $1.3 billion in school funding cuts triggers political panic. Temporary suspension of rebate checks for seniors triggers panic. (Pizarro, PolitickerNJ)

https://www.politickernj.com/max/37685/trenton-braces-impact

>*This article appeared in Detroit News on August 27, 2009.

Michael F. Cannon is director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute and co-author of Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It.

https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10488

some points…

If you are curious about how President Barack Obama’s health plan would affect your health care, look no farther than Massachusetts. In 2006, the Bay State enacted a slate of reforms that almost perfectly mirror the plan of Obama and congressional Democrats.

Those reforms reveal that the Obama plan would mean higher health insurance premiums for millions, would reduce choice by eliminating both low-cost and comprehensive health plans, would encourage insurers to avoid the sick and would reduce the quality of care.

Massachusetts reduced its uninsured population by two-thirds — yet the cost would be considered staggering, had state officials not done such a good job of hiding it. Finally, Massachusetts shows where “ObamaCare” would ultimately lead: Officials are already laying the groundwork for government rationing…

The most sweeping provision in the Massachusetts reforms — and the legislation before Congress — is an “individual mandate” that makes health insurance compulsory. Massachusetts shows that such a mandate would oust millions from their low-cost health plans and force them to pay higher premiums.

“The effect,” writes the Boston Globe, “has been to provide more comprehensive insurance than in most other states but also to raise costs.” Premiums are growing 21to 46 percent faster than the national average, in part because Massachusetts’ individual mandate has effectively outlawed affordable health plans.

Over time, as mandates eliminate low-cost options and price controls eliminate comprehensive options, both the Massachusetts and Obama reforms will march consumers into a narrow range of health plans.

As goes choice, so goes quality. Statistics on waiting times for specialist care in Massachusetts read like a dispatch from Canada. In 2004, Boston already had the longest waits among metropolitan areas. By 2009, waits had generally shortened in other metro areas (average wait: less than three weeks) but lengthened in Boston (average wait: seven weeks), according to the Merritt Hawkins survey.

Voters who believe the Massachusetts law reduced the quality of care outnumber those who believe it helped by nearly 3-to-1 (29 percent to 10 percent).

Massachusetts has reduced the share of its population that lacks coverage from an estimated 8.3 percent in 2006 to an estimated 2.6 percent by June 2008. Former Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican who signed the Massachusetts reforms into law, boasts that “no other state has made as much progress in covering their uninsured.”

Yet that achievement carries an exorbitant price tag: at least $2.1 billion this year, according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a figure that doesn’t even include the cost of the additional coverage discussed above. Since Massachusetts has covered just 432,000 previously uninsured residents, the cost of covering a previously uninsured family of four — at least $20,000 — is well above the average cost of an employer-sponsored family policy (about $13,000).

https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10488

>They Spend WHAT? The Real Cost of Public Schools

by Adam B. Schaeffer is a policy analyst with Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom and author of “The Poverty of Preschool Promises: Saving Children and Money with the Early Education Tax Credit,” Cato Institute Policy Analysis no. 641, August 3, 2009.

https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11432

Although public schools are usually the biggest item in state and local budgets, spending figures provided by public school officials and reported in the media often leave out major costs of education and thus understate what is actually spent.

To document the phenomenon, this paper reviews district budgets and state records for the nation’s five largest metro areas and the District of Columbia. It reveals that, on average, per-pupil spending in these areas is 44 percent higher than officially reported.

Real spending per pupil ranges from a low of nearly $12,000 in the Phoenix area schools to a high of nearly $27,000 in the New York metro area. The gap between real and reported per-pupil spending ranges from a low of 23 percent in the Chicago area to a high of 90 percent in the Los Angeles metro region.

To put public school spending in perspective, we compare it to estimated total expenditures in local private schools. We find that, in the areas studied, public schools are spending 93 percent more than the estimated median private school.

Citizens drastically underestimate current per-student spending and are misled by official figures. Taxpayers cannot make informed decisions about public school funding unless they know how much districts currently spend. And with state budgets stretched thin, it is more crucial than ever to carefully allocate every tax dollar.

This paper therefore presents model legislation that would bring transparency to school district budgets and enable citizens and legislators to hold the K–12 public education system accountable.

https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11432

>PSE&G storm update – March 14, 2010 at 2:00p.m

— PSE&G is reporting an estimated 148,000 customers without power due to the storm’s damaging winds and driving rain. The majority of outages – more than 92,000 — are in Bergen County. The utility provides electric service to 2.1 million customers.

— Crews will continue to work throughout the day and night to restore service. The utility has also reached out to other utilities for assistance.

— Based on the extensive damage – especially in hard-hit Bergen County, PSE&G is estimating that the majority of customers will be restored by Wednesday with the remainder on Thursday.

— Many of the outages are caused by falling trees and limbs, which bring down power lines. Downed wires should always be considered “live.” STAY AWAY FROM ALL DOWNED LINES. Do not approach or drive over a downed line and do not touch anything that it might be in contact with. To report a downed wire, call 1-800-436-PSEG and tell PSE&G the nearest cross street.

— To report a power outage, call PSE&G’s Customer Service line: 1-800-436-PSEG. Customers who have registered with My Account can also report power outages. To do so, Log In now or register.

**The next update will be at approximately 5 p.m.

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READER: No power at my house; now at my daughter’s in Hoboken. PSE&G says power to most of Ridgewood was turned off for safety reasons. Power should be back on Monday or Tuesday at the latest.