>Anna Little campaign poll shows GOP challenger within striking distance
The Anna Little Campaign this evening released the results of a poll that show the Republican mayor of Highlands trailing U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) by six points in the 6th Congressional District. (Editor, PolitickerNJ)
>Senate approves bill eliminating 40 inactive, outdated N.J. agencies
TRENTON — The Senate unanimously approved legislation today that makes good on Gov. Chris Christie’s promise to shrink the state government bureaucracy by eliminating more than 40 inactive and outdated boards and commissions. (Livio, Newark Star-Ledger)
https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/08/senate_unanimously_approves_bi.html
>Truth in pensions: Just how big a hole are we in?
Published: Monday, August 23, 2010, 5:41 AM
Star-Ledger Editorial Board
Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger
https://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2010/08/truth_in_pensions_just_how_big.html
The first bills Gov. Chris Christie signed after taking office in January enacted state pension reforms, but the system remains underfunded by tens of billions of dollars.
The settlement with the Security and Exchange Commission makes it official: For years, New Jersey had been cooking its books and neglecting to tell investors it was grossly underfunding pension plans.
The SEC calls that securities fraud, because $26 billion worth of bonds, issued between 2001 and 2007, probably were worth less than investors were led to believe.
With a cease-and-desist order, the state is admitting no guilt, of course, and the SEC (thankfully) won’t make matters worse by assessing hefty penalties that would be paid by unsuspecting taxpayers and not the irresponsible public officials who allegedly bamboozled investors.
The action was historic: New Jersey is the first state targeted by the SEC for securities fraud. But with pension funds crumbling everywhere, other states probably will join us in shame. But from this day forward, cross our hearts and hope to die, New Jersey has agreed to tell the truth about its grossly and dangerously undernourished pension funds
https://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2010/08/truth_in_pensions_just_how_big.html
>Susan Sherrill former editor of the Ridgewood News to become the Records food and entertainment editor
New food editor is from (201) magazine
A North Jersey Media Group veteran says she has been hired as The Record’s new food editor, replacing Bill Pitcher.
https://eyeontherecord.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-food-editor-is-from-201-magazine.html
Her work and her photo appear online in an NJMG blog called Table Talk:
https://blogs.northjersey.com/blogs/tabletalk/
https://eyeontherecord.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-food-editor-is-from-201-magazine.html
>The 2010 Barclays Daily Tournament Schedule
Tuesday, August 24
Gates open at 9 a.m.
Practice Round for Professionals
The Barclays “Shirts for Savings” Clothing Drive
Wednesday, August 25
Gates open at 7 a.m.
7:30 a.m., The Barclays Pro-Am competition (shotgun start)
1:30 p.m., The Barclays Pro-Am presented by BJ’s Wholesale Club (shotgun start)
Military Appreciation Day
The Barclays “Shirts for Savings Clothing Drive
Thursday, August 26
Gates open at 7 a.m.
First Round of Competition- 7:15 a.m. approximate starting time
3:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m., ESPN Radio/The Michael Kay Show broadcast at Ridgewood Country Club
The Barclays “Shirts for Savings” Clothing Drive
Friday, August 27
Gates open at 7 a.m.
Second round of competition- 7:15 a.m. approximate starting time
1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m., ESPN Radio/Jody MacDonald and Ian O’Connor broadcast at Ridgewood Country Club
The Barclays “Shirts for Savings” Clothing Drive
Saturday, August 28
Gates open at 7 a.m.
Third round of competition- 8:00 a.m. approximate starting time
The Barclays “Shirts for Savings” Clothing Drive
Sunday, August 29
Gates open at 7 a.m.
Final round of competition- 8:00 a.m. approximate starting time
10 a.m.-12 a.m., ESPN Radio/Ian O’Connor broadcast at Ridgewood Country Club
The Barclays “Shirts for Savings” Clothing Drive
>Calls mount for a N.J. tenure system based on teacher skills
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Last updated: Sunday August 22, 2010, 12:03 PM
BY LESLIE BRODY
The Record
STAFF WRITER
https://www.northjersey.com/news/101245949_Only_two_teachers_removed_for_inability_to_teach.html
The New Jersey education commissioner dismissed only two teachers for poor performance in the last two years.
That’s out of roughly 116,000 public school teachers.
Revoking tenure is such an arduous undertaking that school officials are usually reluctant to pursue it unless a teacher is clearly insubordinate or dangerous. The process can drag on for years and cost a district hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Leaders in New Jersey and across the nation, all the way up to President Obama, say they want to make it easier to weed out teachers who don’t help students learn, while rewarding superb educators and helping teachers with potential to improve.
The National Council on Teacher Quality says the skill levels of the teacher workforce follow a bell curve: About 15 percent are ineffective, 15 percent are highly effective, and most are somewhere in the middle. Still, few teachers are pushed out. Nationally, districts dismiss only about 2.1 percent of teachers each year for poor performance, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
“Our children have a right to have a great teacher in the classroom,” said New Jersey Education Commissioner Bret Schundler. “No one has a right to a job where their performance doesn’t matter.”
Yet even when a teacher is accused of beating students, it can be expensive and time-consuming to dismiss him.
more:
https://www.northjersey.com/news/101245949_Only_two_teachers_removed_for_inability_to_teach.html
>Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean: the “ground zero mosque,” “a real affront to people who lost their lives.”
Former Democratic Presidential Candidate and Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean is defending his comments on the so-called “ground zero mosque,” which he has called “a real affront to people who lost their lives.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20014240-503544.html
Writing on Salon.com, Dean states he is “not going to back off” his earlier comments – but then stops short of explicitly calling for the project to be moved, as he had earlier suggested.
He calls for compromise in the column, writing that “I personally believe that there are other possible solutions that could result from [a dialogue] and that a genuine exploration of those possibilities is something we ought to try.”
more:
https://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20014240-503544.html
>How is it that the village government listened to some residents and not others?
The tank size was scaled back because of neighbor complaints. So we have the same problems. The tank would hanh helped with water distribution in Ridgewood. We are left with something that is inadequate.
Valley, on the other hand, has not been scaled back in spite of significant opposition from neighbors and the greater Ridgewood community.
Valley is a business that serves the tri state area. They use village resources without paying taxes.
How is it that the village government listened to some residents and not others? Is it because valley has $$$$ and contracts to offer?
>MUSIC FOR FARMS TO PLAY FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 10 BENEFIT CONCERT
FOR ROCKLAND FARM ALLIANCE IN CHESTNUT RIDGE, NY
Rockland County, NY-based composer, pianist and percussionist John McDowell (www.johnmcdowell.net) teams up with Canadian violinist Emmanuel Vukovich, cellist Julia MacLaine (www.juliamaclaine.com), and string bass player Evan Premo (www.evanpremo.com) to create the musical ensemble Music For Farms which will perform a concert entitled “A Musical Harvest” at the lovely, wood-paneled Threefold Auditorium at 260 Hungry Hollow Road, Chestnut Ridge, NY on Friday, September 10, 2010 at 8pm. Tickets may be purchased at the door and are $20 ($15 for students, $10 for children). For more information, call 845-362-0207 or email [email protected].
John McDowell and Emmanuel Vukovich, who practice music and farming side by side (McDowell at Camp Hill Farm in Pomona, NY; and Vukovich in Quebec, Canada), have formed an international initiative, Music for Farms (www.johnmcdowell.net/musicforfarms), which works to revive and sustain local organic agriculture and farming communities through the arts. Julia MacLaine and Evan Premo join them for this special concert. The program, described below, includes the music of Bach, several original works in contemporary and classical idioms, and the quartet’s own creative arrangements that incorporate African drum rhythms and reflect a weaving of Eastern and Western traditions. This concert will be a benefit for the Rockland Farm Alliance (RFA). The mission of the RFA (www.rocklandfarm.org) is to facilitate local sustainable agriculture in Rockland County, New York.
Juilliard and McGill trained Emmanuel Vukovich is the recipient of Canada’s first Golden Violin Award, as well as the Canada Council for the Arts Orford String Quartet scholarship. His twin passions of farming and music are brought to expression in this artistic Musical Harvest. John McDowell is best known as composer of the score to Oscar winning Born into Brothels. He has toured with rock/world band Rusted Root as a pianist and percussionist and founded/led the internationally acclaimed band Mamma Tongue. Cellist Julia MacLaine has been consistently singled out by The New York Times for her rich tone, sweet vibrato and superb musicianship, and performs throughout North and South America and in Europe as a recitalist and chamber musician. Like Julia, an alumnus of Carnegie Hall’s resident Ensemble ACJW, Evan Premo performs chamber music regularly at Carnegie Hall and does outreach in public schools in NYC. An active chamber musician and soloist, Evan also practices farming, woodworking, and ‘homesteading’.
The program will be drawn from the following selections:
Bach, works for solo violin and solo cello
F Major, by John McDowell
Swara Kakali (transcription of a work by Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar)
Barn Dances, by Evan Premo
La Paloma, by Julia MacLaine
Tango, arr. Music For Farms
Kalo Kalo, by John McDowell
#
>Hillmann Electric & Lighting Celebrates 100 Years in Ridgewood
Hillmann Electric & Lighting, Ridgewood’s oldest family-owned retailer, is now entering its 100th year in business.
https://www.ridgewoodchamber.com/chamber/press-details.php?id=137
In the early 20th century, current owner Tom Hillmann’s great-grandfather retired as a PSE&G lineman to start an electrical contracting firm to wire all the new construction going on in Ridgewood in 1910 and convert the older homes from gas to the so-called “new” electric.
“We actually may be older than 100 years, but my great grandfather’s electrical contracting company was listed as a contributor in the 1910 July 4th parade, and we have been contributing ever since,” Hillmann said.
As for his own contribution, he maintains that his family’s legacy had little to do with his joining the business.
“Most summers during my school years, I did not work for my family, seeking employment in a variety of businesses instead. After graduating from college with a marketing degree, it just made sense. Because the business was actually two businesses (retail and electrical contracting) my father and I had separate daily activities and it worked,” Hillmann explains.
As for the time he has spent at the company, he says there is no one memory that stands out in his mind. However, this is due not to lack but to abundance.
“Of course there is the satisfaction of having control over your own destiny that many working for a large corporation don’t receive. But all the best memories are working with the people, whether they were customers, other business owners or town officials. I have also been blessed to have some great employees during my tenure and all my current crew have been with me between 15 and 35 years.”
See the attached below for a comprehensive history of Hillmann Electric & Lighting’s 100-year stint in Ridgewood. The picture located to the left shows the front of Hillman Electric & Lighting circa 1948.
Congratulations to Hillmann Electric & Lighting for an outstanding century in the business, and here’s to wishing them a bright future for many years to come.
https://www.ridgewoodchamber.com/chamber/press-details.php?id=137
>Muslim-born Miss USA says she opposes Ground Zero Islamic center
POST WIRE SERVICES
Last Updated: 4:30 PM, August 20, 2010
Posted: 10:06 AM, August 20, 2010
https://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ground_zero_mosque_imam_says_radical_7rGRZmCD1Lh7sf2QSiYSRJ
The reigning Miss USA has come out against the Ground Zero mosque, saying “it shouldn’t be so close” to Ground Zero.
The 24-year-old Rima Fakih, is the first Muslim winner of the Miss USA contest and is preparing for the Miss Universe Pageant, scheduled for Monday in Las Vegas.
“I totally agree with President Obama with the statement on Constitutional rights of freedom of religion,” Fakih told “Inside Edition” in an interview that will air tonight.
“I also agree that it shouldn’t be so close to the World Trade Center. We should be more concerned with the tragedy than religion.”
This comes as the imam spearheading controversial plans for the mosque and Islamic center near the site of the 9/11 attacks said today that extremism poses a security threat in both the West and the Muslim world — and is even working on a plan to “Americanize” Islam.
The comments by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf come during the first leg of a 15-day Middle East tour — funded by the US State Department — to discuss Muslim life in America and religious tolerance.
Speaking after leading prayers at a neighborhood mosque in Bahrain’s capital Manama, Rauf said he hopes to draw attention during his trip to the region to the common challenges to battle radical religious beliefs.
“This issue of extremism is something that has been a national security issue — not only for the United States but also for many countries and nations in the Muslim world,” Rauf told Associated Press Television News.
“This is why this particular trip has a great importance because all countries in the Muslim world — as well as the Western world — are facing this … major security challenge.”
Rauf also said he has been working on a way to “Americanize Islam,” although he did not elaborate on what an American version of Islam might look like.
“The same principles and rituals were everywhere, but what happened in different regions was there were different interpretations,” he said. “So we recognize that our heritage allows for re-expressing the internal principles of our religion in different cultural times and places.”
The comments differ greatly from what Rauf said in December 2001. Just two months after the 9/11 attacks, the imam wasn’t so quick to condemn radical religious beliefs in his own faith.
“The United States’ policies were an accessory to the crime that happened, because we have been an accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world,” he said during an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes. “In fact, in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.”
Rauf, meanwhile, refused to discuss the political firestorm over plans for an Islamic cultural center near the site of the World Trade Center towers. The center would include a mosque, a swimming pool, gym auditorium and other facilities on a plot of land some two blocks from the World Trade Center site.
Foes of the project say it is insensitive and disrespectful to the victims of 9/11 and their families. The debate has become politicized ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections.
more:
https://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ground_zero_mosque_imam_says_radical_7rGRZmCD1Lh7sf2QSiYSRJ
>Water Restrictions : Why Every Year?
How come my parents, in neighboring Pennsylvania, have almost never had water rationing in the 45 years that they have owned their home, and yet I have had it about every other year that I have owned my home in Ridgewood.
Why is our water utility so inadequate? Insufficient groundwater supply? Insufficient tank capacity? Insufficient pumping capacity? Leaky water mains and pipes? I have never heard a good explanation regarding the weaknesses in our system.
I realize that some years we have droughts and that reservoirs get low, but we seem to have this happen more years than not. Do other municipalities in NJ have as many mandatory water rationing periods as we do?
>
Sunset over Graydon Pool, Ridgewood, NJ, August 18, 2010
phot by Alan
>With 77 days left in a major election, the County Executive Dennis McNerney has been, quiet
Is McNerney in seclusion?
With 77 days left in a major election, the County Executive in Bergen has been, let’s say, quiet recently. So much so that one state Dem said today it looks like they have Dennis McNerney in “seclusion.” (Carroll, PolitickerNJ)
https://www.politickernj.com/back_room/mcnerney-seclusion
>60% of Voters Say Most in Congress Don’t Care What They Think
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Sixty percent (60%) of U.S. voters say most members of Congress don’t care what their constituents think, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Just 22% believe most congressmen do care what’s on the minds of their constituents. Eighteen percent (18%) more aren’t sure.
Only 37% of voters think their local congressional representative deserves reelection, and 62% say it would be better for the country if most incumbents in Congress were defeated this November.
Congress is now on its August recess, and many senators and House members are back home selling themselves for reelection. Many also are holding town hall meetings.
Seventy-one percent (71%) say it is more important at those town hall meetings for congressmen to hear the views of their constituents than it is for them to explain legislation and issues to people. Fifty-six percent (56%) felt that way a year ago when many congressional town hall meetings erupted in anger over then-proposed national health care legislation.
Nineteen percent (19%) say it’s more important for the congressmen to explain legislation and issues at those meetings.
more:
