— At this time, PSE&G is reporting an estimated 133,000 customers without power due to yesterday’s damaging winds and driving rain. About 81,000 of the outages are in Bergen County. The utility provides electric service to 2.1 million customers.
— The state’s largest electric and gas utility is continuing to monitor weather conditions, and has extra personnel and supplies on hand to assure that storm-related emergencies are handled safely and promptly.
— 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.
— Crews will continue to work throughout the day to restore service. The company is estimating that all customers may not be restored until Tuesday evening.
— To report a power outage, call PSE&G’s Customer Service line: 1-800-436-PSEG.
**The next update will be at approximately 11:30 a.m.
Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) is New Jersey’s oldest and largest regulated gas and electric delivery utility, serving nearly three-quarters of the state’s population. PSE&G is the winner of the ReliabilityOne Award for superior electric system reliability. PSE&G is a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (PSEG) (NYSE:PEG), a diversified energy company (www.pseg.com).
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.
>Daylight Saving Time always begins on the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday of November.
This means that, on March 14, 2010, at 2:00 a.m. – you set the clocks ahead one hour.
History of Daylight Savings Time
Although not punctual in the modern sense, ancient civilizations adjusted daily schedules to the sun more flexibly than modern DST does, often dividing daylight into twelve equal hours regardless of day length, so that each daylight hour was longer during summer.[12] For example, Roman water clocks had different scales for different months of the year: at Rome’s latitude the third hour from sunrise, hora tertia, started by modern standards at 09:02 solar time and lasted 44 minutes at the winter solstice, but at the summer solstice it started at 06:58 and lasted 75 minutes.[13] After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season. Unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some Mount Athos monasteries[14] and some Jewish ceremonies.[15]
Benjamin Franklin suggested firing cannons at sunrise to waken Parisians.During his time as an American envoy to France, Benjamin Franklin, author of the proverb, “Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”, anonymously published a letter suggesting that Parisians economize on candles by rising earlier to use morning sunlight.[16] This 1784 satire proposed taxing shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells and firing cannons at sunrise.[17] Franklin did not propose DST; like ancient Rome, 18th-century Europe did not keep precise schedules. However, this soon changed as rail and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklin’s day.[18]
>Real estate developer Bob McNerney’s plan to build 240 units of new housing on the former Brogan Cadillac property is just plain insane!
The suggestion by McNerney, made to members of the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce earlier this week, that residents of the proposed housing complex would generate a significant revenue stream for Central Business District merchants, was just simple propaganda without any factual basis.
What is crystal clear: 240 new housing units on South Broad would mean an building addition for Orchard School, or a full school redistricting plan. Upgrades to Ridgewood’s waste water treatment plan might also be required, or at least improvements to sewer piping in the area. Traffic in the South Broad Street area, bad enough now to warrant a speed table, would get even worse as would parking (let’s not forget, 240 units of housing would generate a large number of visitors who require parking for their vehicles).
Stop the insanity before it starts – write you favorite Ridgewood Village Council member today and ask them to vote no on any plans to expand housing density on South Broad Street.
Actress from the television show Ghost Whisperer, Jennifer Love Hewitt, will sign her new book: The Day I Shot Cupid.
Books available March 23rd
Raquel Welch
New Date***Friday, April 2nd @ 7:00pm
World famous Actress, Raquel Welch, will sign her new book: Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage.
Books available March 15th.
Kathie Lee Gifford
Wednesday, April 14th @ 7:00pm Television personality on the TODAY SHOW, Kathie Lee Gifford, will sign her new book: Party Animals (Ages 4 to 8). Books available April 13th
Molly Ringwald
Wednesday, April 28th @ 7:00 pm Actress from the movies: Sixteen Candles & The Breakfast Club, Molly Ringwald, will sign her new book: Getting the Pretty Back. Books available April 27th
Bookends, 232 E. Ridgewood Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 201-445-0726
Breakfast with the Easter Bunny at Winberie’s Restaurant 10AM – Reservations required: 201/444-3700. – Festivities will be in Memorial Park, Van Neste Square. At llAM the Easter Bunny will lead an Easter Bonnet Parade in the Park – all children are invited to participate. After the parade, parents can take pictures of their children with the Easter Bunny. The Ridgewood News will provide a TROLLEY which will travel throughout the business district, taking families to member business where there will be fun projects and in-store events going on. All activities are free. Further information 201/445-2600 or www.experienceridgewood.com
In “The March of Folly,” Barbara Tuchman asked, “Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests?” Her assessment of self-deception — “acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts” — captures the conditions that are gripping President Obama and the Democratic Party leadership as they renew their efforts to enact health-care reform.
Their blind persistence in the face of reality threatens to turn this political march of folly into an electoral rout in November. In the wake of the stinging loss in Massachusetts, there was a moment when the president and the Democratic leadership seemed to realize the reality of the health-care situation. Yet like some seductive siren of Greek mythology, the lure of health-care reform has arisen again.
As pollsters to the past two Democratic presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, respectively, we feel compelled to challenge the myths that seem to be prevailing in the political discourse and to once again urge a change in course before it is too late. At stake is the kind of mainstream, common-sense Democratic Party that we believe is crucial to the success of the American enterprise.
Bluntly put, this is the political reality:
First, the battle for public opinion has been lost. Comprehensive health care has been lost. If it fails, as appears possible, Democrats will face the brunt of the electorate’s reaction. If it passes, however, Democrats will face a far greater calamitous reaction at the polls. Wishing, praying or pretending will not change these outcomes.
Nothing has been more disconcerting than to watch Democratic politicians and their media supporters deceive themselves into believing that the public favors the Democrats’ current health-care plan. Yes, most Americans believe, as we do, that real health-care reform is needed. And yes, certain proposals in the plan are supported by the public.
However, a solid majority of Americans opposes the massive health-reform plan. Four-fifths of those who oppose the plan strongly oppose it, according to Rasmussen polling this week, while only half of those who support the plan do so strongly. Many more Americans believe the legislation will worsen their health care, cost them more personally and add significantly to the national deficit. Never in our experience as pollsters can we recall such self-deluding misconstruction of survey data.
Perfect Pita began as just as a kosher food take-out restaurant and expanded into a counter style sit in food eatery after their reputation for serving very good kosher food at reasonable prices. Perfect Pita is very popular kosher food restaurant for people who enjoy Middle Eastern dishes such as Moroccan pot roast and falafel as well as the Cholent which the traditional Sabbath stew of meat, beans, vegetables and potatoes.About little over a year ago, the store front next door became available and Perfect Pita expanded into a sit down restaurant featuring a party room which can seat more people.
Perfect Pita’s kosher counter staff is extremely friendly and our service dependable as well as fast to please our customers “on-the-go” lifestyles.Today people of all backgrounds are enjoying the middle eastern taste that Perfect Pita has to offer. From Hummus with falafel, to Beef shish kebab, Perfect Pita Restaurant will satisfy your middle eastern taste bud as well as your wallet!
>March 12 (Bloomberg) — Republicans said they won a parliamentary victory as they try to fight Democrats’ efforts to pass legislation to overhaul the U.S. health-care system.
Republicans said President Barack Obama has to sign a Senate health-care bill into law before the House and Senate can approve changes to it under a process called reconciliation. The Senate parliamentarian told Republicans that a reconciliation bill has to “make changes in law,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“This would be another headwind for Democrats in the House” who oppose provisions in the Senate bill, said John Sullivan, a health-care analyst at Boston-based Leerink Swann & Co. “Their biggest fear has been that they vote for the Senate version and they never get the relief they’re looking for.”
Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, declined to comment.
The prospect of longer odds for passage sent U.S. stocks up yesterday…
> …using an email list from the Village of Ridgewood(rpp) to further one’s personal gain (getting petition signatures for public office) should be more than likely to be considered as an unethical matter.
If ethics play any part in submitting the required number of petitions in order to run for a seat on the council, those that were acquired by unethical means and submitted, justly should be thrown out (considered as null and void).
Who can forget how the rpp conducted a so called ‘survey’ on the Village of Ridgewoods website, and eventually its unethetical ways were called out by the council to redo a proper and unbiased survey. Remember, ethics go a long way.
>A controversial resolution supporting Bergen County’s plan to extend the Saddle River Area Bike Path north to Linwood Avenue was unanimously approved by Ridgewood Village Council members on Wednesday evening. Concurrent with construction of the new bike path segment, County officials have agreed to relocate a “Bark Park” away from nearby Ridgewood homes to another area within the Ridgewood Wild Duck Pond area. It is believed that the “Bark Park” would not have been relocated if Village Council members had refused to allow construction of the bike path over 100 feet of Village of Ridgewood owned property.
However, the Council’s planned introduction of two (2) ordinances associated with establishment of permit parking fees in the Graydon Pool parking lots was scrubbed. Council members had proposed charging Ridgewood High School students $425 per school year to park in either Graydon lot. Parking there is now free. Several residents spoke out against the proposed ordinances during Wednesday evening’s Village Council Public meeting, even though Mayor David T. Pfund announced in advance that Council members would not be introducing either ordinance.
> Broad business coalition opposing health care bill
Mar 9, 2:01 PM (ET)
WASHINGTON (AP) – Major business groups say President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul is a job killer, and they’re launching a multimillion-dollar ad campaign to take that message to voters.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and groups ranging from contractors to retailers said Tuesday the Democratic health care bills would raise their expenses, while failing to control health care costs.
Advertisements will start airing nationwide Wednesday on cable television and shift in a few days to 17 states, targeting moderate and conservative Democrats whose votes are critical to passing the bill in the House. The campaign is estimated to cost between $4 million and $10 million, with the insurance industry paying part of the cost.
The Ridgewood Board of Education (BOE) announced that layoffs in the village’s schools will be necessary to manage the 2010/2011 budget. At its meeting last night, the BOE outlined the reduction in school administration and salaries. A district-wide meeting was called Monday afternoon to inform teachers and administrators of cuts that seem all but inevitable.
According to the current budget outline, approximately $2.1 million, listed under “proposed initial payroll cuts,” in personnel reductions are anticipated, as well as a $1.4 million cut in purchasing costs, which includes textbooks and school supplies.
School administration may see $221,736 in cuts. For grades one through five, an $81,738 reduction in salaries is listed; for grades six through eight, a $282,813 reduction in salaries may be necessary; and for grades nine through twelve, a salary reduction of $224,944 could be on the horizon.
“I just want to say,” said board member Sheila Brogan, “none of these cuts are good cuts.” School faculty spoke during the public comment portion of the BOE meeting, and expressed outrage that they weren’t informed sooner. Michael Yannone, a teacher at Ridgewood High School, wanted to know why actual numbers were not presented to teachers at the meeting earlier in the day.
“This seems really odd that this information wasn’t made available,” he said. “Here’s the information that we wanted at the meeting and couldn’t get.” Superintendent Daniel Fishbein said the board needed to be informed first of the proposed cuts.
“People should know that there’s a glaring zero for cuts here at the Education Center,” Yannone said, referring to the fact that there are currently no proposed reductions in staff at BOE headquarters.
> Garrett: How to deal with our fiscal mess Sunday, March 7, 2010 BY SCOTT GARRETT The Record
Scott Garrett represents New Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District.
NEW JERSEY is in a fiscal crisis,” said Governor Christie in his address to the New Jersey Legislature regarding the budget for fiscal year 2010. Christie is staring down the barrel at the brutal consequences of excessive taxing and spending, and he is not cowering under its shadow. And make no mistake, the shadow is intimidating.
New Jersey has the highest state and local taxes in the country in addition to having toll roads and a 7 percent sales tax. Total unfunded pension and medical benefit liabilities are $90 billion because of underpaid pension contributions and astronomical retirement payouts and benefits.
All of this, and New Jersey has a $2 billion 2010 budget gap and a projected $11 billion dollar budget gap for 2011.
The most sobering numbers come from the manner in which New Jersey residents have responded to Trenton’s reckless behavior. A recent study found that more than 300,000 households have departed from New Jersey between 2004 and 2008, taking $70 billion in wealth and more than $1 billion in charitable donations with them.
People are now forced to flee our great state because of grotesque tax hikes levied to support a bloated and unmanageable debt. Although Trenton thinks it has the ability to print money, it has forgotten that taxpayers of New Jersey do not have bottomless pockets.
While Christie is not the first governor to inherit fiscal problems, he is the first in recent memory to deal with them in a direct, honest and collaborative manner. Instead of wishing away the problems of excessive spending and taxation, he is asking lawmakers to stop “protecting their piece of turf” and “join the sacrifice, come to the center of the room and be part of the solution.”
I applaud his efforts and I fully support the governor in his crusade.
As New Jersey prepares to take the difficult steps to find real solutions, those of us serving in Washington, D.C., need to begin confronting the federal government’s similar fiscal problems. Like New Jersey, the federal government’s spending problems are also very real.
According to Moody’s Investors Services, unless there are significant changes in the coming decade, the United States could lose its AAA credit rating. The consequences of this downgrade range from terrible to catastrophic.
Despite a dedicated 12.4 percent payroll tax used to fund it, the federal pension system (Social Security) has promised approximately $17 trillion more in benefits than it can pay for.
Despite projections that the government health care programs (Medicare and Medicaid) are underfunded by $121,000 per person, the Democrats in Congress announced as their biggest domestic priority the creation of a new health care measure.
Despite warnings, such as the one issued by Moody’s, that current levels of borrowing by the federal government are unsustainable, President Obama proposed a budget that would double the national debt in five years.
And despite the president’s calls for bipartisanship, most of the major legislation passed this past year has featured bipartisan opposition and only partisan support.
As unpleasant as they may be, these are the facts and no one disputes them. What were once problems of the future have become problems of the present; the day when Congress and the president will have to come to grips with excessive government spending is quickly approaching. I hope that when that day comes, we can look to Christie’s bold approach to fixing New Jersey as an example of dealing with the problems in a responsible, collaborative way.
Scott Garrett represents New Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District.
Residents in Ridgewood’s South Broad Street area have formed a group to challenge the Village Council’s recent decision to pass a zoning change that will allow a large building which neighbors argue will be out of character with the area.
Rita Blacker, who lives on nearby Woodside Avenue, told The Ridgewood News that neighbors have formed the Ridgewood Ad Hoc Committee to Fight Spot Zoning in response to the council’s decision to allow West Bergen Mental Health to demolish and rebuild a home it owns at 234 S. Broad St. The home houses four adults with Asperger’s syndrome.
The new design may be about 42 feet high, and it will include 10 apartment units for adults with Asperger’s and one unit for a live-in counselor.
“There was a lot of unhappiness throughout the community with the decision of the town council,” Blacker said.
The committee has already met and reached out to state politicians, including N.J. Sen. Kevin O’Toole.
“Senator O’Toole wanted everyone to know that they could contact his office as well to show their disappointment with the spot zoning,” Blacker said.
Blacker said she was concerned that the council’s decision has set a precedent which could be applied to any property in the village. The issue is not about affordable housing of individuals with Asperger’s syndrome, she said, but rather how the situation was handled and how people were notified about the decision.
Dozens of residents rallied at a Feb. 24 council meeting to no avail, when the governing body voted 3-2 to allow for the zoning change on West Bergen’s single piece of property.
Blacker also mentioned how the proposed expansion at The Valley Hospital will increase the village’s Council on Affordable Housing obligation, and those housing units will have to be built somewhere in Ridgewood.
“The expansion of Valley Hospital affects more than the people who live around that area,” Blacker said. “I don’t think people really understand or know that. And there’s going to be a point when South Broad Street is not going to be able to absorb all of these housing units. It’s going to be physically impossible, and other areas are going to have to start absorbing these units.”
