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Posted on April 7, 2014 June 27, 2021

NY Times: Mozilla CEO’s ‘Anti-Gay’ Stance ‘By Definition Disqualifying,’ He Needed ‘Rehabilitation’

The Soviet Gulag was a massive system of forced labor camps

NY Times: Mozilla CEO’s ‘Anti-Gay’ Stance ‘By Definition Disqualifying,’ He Needed ‘Rehabilitation’
By Tim Graham | April 5, 2014 | 18:59

Our web guru Steve Edwards passed along a tweet from Moe Lane that said “New York Times confirms: Open Source advocacy is for liberals/progressives only. ”

Lane linked to an obnoxious blog post by Farhad Manjoo in The New York Times titled “Why Mozilla’s Chief Had to Resign.” You see, “Mozilla is not a normal company. It is an activist organization.” And activists apparently find it very distasteful to be less than “militantly tolerant,” as Manjoo put it:

Is this an instance of political correctness run amok? Is it a sign that Silicon Valley has become militantly tolerant, unwilling to let executives express their personal viewpoints on issues unrelated to their jobs? I’ve seen many such worries expressed online; even supporters of same-sex marriage have been characterizing Mr. Eich’s ouster as an awful precedent for giving in to moralistic mob rule.

But it’s a mistake to draw any such conclusions in this case, for one simple reason: Mozilla is not a normal company. It is an activist organization. Mozilla’s primary mission isn’t to make money but to spread open-source code across the globe in the eventual hope of promoting “the development of the Internet as a public resource.”

As such, Mozilla operates according to a different calculus from most of the rest of corporate America.

Read more: https://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2014/04/05/ny-times-mozilla-ceos-anti-gay-stance-definition-disqualifying-he-needed#ixzz2yBkFR1gD

Posted on April 7, 2014 June 27, 2021

Village Council Public 2014 Budget Hearings – April 7, 10

Village Council Public 2014 Budget Hearings – April 7, 10

The Village Council has scheduled several Public Budget Hearings to take place in Village Hall, 131 N. Maple Avenue, Ridgewood.

Financial Advisory Committee Meeting – April 7

Notice: The Financial Advisory Committee (FAC) will meet on Monday, April 7 instead of their standard of the 2nd Monday of the month. The meeting will take place at 7:30PM in the Garden Room, Village Hall.

Wednesday, March 19 from 5 – 7PM in the Court Room;

Friday, March 21 from 5 – 7PM in the Court Room;

Thursday, March 27 from 5 – 9:30PM in the Senior Center;

Monday, April 7 from 5 – 7PM in the Court Room;

Thursday, April 10 from 5 to 10PM in the Senior Center

Departments Hearings:

March 19 – Overview of Budget, Community Services – Building Dept; Zoining, Health Dept, Tax Assessor.

March 21 – 5PM Police Department; 5:45PM Fire Department; 6:30PM MIS

March 27 – 5PM Village Council, 5:15 PM Insurance & Debt Service, 5:45PM Engineering, 7:30PM Traffic & Signal, W.P.C.F., Property Maintenance, Parking, Utilities, 7:30PM Municipal Clerk & Elections, 8PM NWBCD

April 7 – 5PM Municipal Court & Public Defender, 5:30PM Emergency Services, 5:45PM Emergency Management, 6PM Library, 6:45PM Village Manager

April 10 – 5PM Parks & Recreation, Project Pride, Graydon Pool, 6PM Streets, Fleet Services, Recycling, Yard Waste Recycling, Solid Waste, 7PM Water Dept., 7:45PM Finance, Tax Collection, Village Attorney

Schedule to TBD for other departments

Posted on April 7, 2014 June 27, 2021

Lexus plows through fence onto railroad right-of-way

Lexus plows through fence onto railroad right-of-way
April 7th 2014
Boyd A. Loving
3:06 PM

Ridgewood NJ, The driver of a Lexus sedan wound up on the wrong side of a chain link fence on Monday afternoon while attempting to pull into a parking space in the rear of a medical office building located at 505 Goffle Road, Ridgewood. Ridgewood Police Department officers removed both uninjured occupants of the vehicle and safely escorted them away from an active railroad line. Ridgewood Fire Department personnel assisted in the removal of a portion of the fence to facilitate recovery of the Lexus. It is believed the driver may have mistaken the accelerator pedal for the brake pedal. A flatbed tow truck removed the car from the scene.

Photo credit: Boyd A. Loving

Posted on April 7, 2014 January 20, 2019

North Jersey homeowners joining trend of raising chickens in the back yard

North Jersey homeowners joining trend of raising chickens in the back yard

April 6, 2014, 10:56 PM Last updated: Monday, April 7, 2014, 6:47 AM
By LINDA MOSS
Staff Writer
The Record

Victor Alfieri doesn’t mind ruffling a few feathers when it comes to chickens. For years he passionately battled with officials in Wayne to win the right to keep egg-laying hens in his back yard.

Alfieri, a 43-year-old Dumont native, said that he and his wife, Michele, 39, were early advocates of the sustainability and urban homesteading movement in North Jersey. They decided to start growing their own food in 2006 at their Wayne home, and later began to keep hens to produce eggs.

“We were kind of in on the beginning of it in this particular area,” Alfieri said. “We kind of opened a lot of eyes.”

Health-conscious American consumers are increasingly crying foul about the antibiotics, growth hormones, pesticides, herbicides, genetic engineering and the age of the fare they are eating. For people like Alfieri, who is known as The Chicken Man, the solution is to seize control and produce your own fruits and vegetables, and raise your own hens for all-natural, organic eggs.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/north-jersey-homeowners-joining-trend-of-raising-chickens-in-the-back-yard-1.842748#sthash.1yn5kwJJ.dpuf

Posted on April 7, 2014 April 7, 2014

Legal showdown looms on cellphone privacy

Legal showdown looms on cellphone privacy

APRIL 6, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, APRIL 6, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY KIBRET MARKOS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

As new technology continues to collide with privacy rights, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments this month in two cases involving police searches of cellphones that could have a major impact on the privacy of everyone who carries a mobile device.

The cases are being watched closely by the country’s top civil liberties groups, privacy advocates and constitutional scholars, many who’ve joined in with filings in defense of privacy. The high court’s stand will guide how courts across the country will apply constitutional privacy rights and the safeguards against unreasonable searches in the age of smartphones, tablets, phablets, Google Glass and “wearable” computers.

“Technology changes the nature of the game,” said Christopher Slobogin, a law professor at Vanderbilt University and author of “Privacy at Risk: The New Government Surveillance and the Fourth Amendment.”

“The justices would need to rethink what the Fourth Amendment is all about,” he said. The amendment protects against unreasonable searches.

It was discord between courts at opposite ends of the country that landed the issue before the justices. In one case, police arrested Brima Wurie of Boston in 2007 on suspicion of selling drugs, and, after taking him to a police station, they seized two cellphones and searched his call log.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/legal-showdown-looms-on-cellphone-privacy-1.842607#sthash.keVxwnli.dpuf

Posted on April 7, 2014 April 7, 2014

GOP Backs Minor Change in Obamacare to help small business

GOP Backs Minor Change in Obamacare to help small business
Apr 6, 12:10 PM (ET)
By DAVID ESPO

WASHINGTON (AP) – At the prodding of business organizations, House Republicans quietly secured a recent change in President Barack Obama’s health law to expand coverage choices, a striking, one-of-a-kind departure from dozens of high-decibel attempts to repeal or dismember it.

Democrats describe the change involving small-business coverage options as a straightforward improvement of the type they are eager to make, and Obama signed it into law. Republicans are loath to agree, given the strong sentiment among the rank and file that the only fix the law deserves is a burial.

“Maybe you say it helps (Obamacare), but it really helps the small businessman,” said Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., one of several physician-lawmakers among Republicans and an advocate of repeal.

No member of the House GOP leadership has publicly hailed the fix, which was tucked, at Republicans’ request, into legislation preventing a cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients.

It is unclear how many members of the House rank and file knew of it because the legislation was passed by a highly unusual voice vote without debate.

https://apnews.myway.com/article/20140406/DAD0NOP00.html

Posted on April 7, 2014 September 13, 2021

Our current crop of public officials have stooped to classic middle school bullying tactics to squash any opposition

Mike Sedon’s job threatened anonymous email

Our current crop of public officials have stooped to classic middle school bullying tactics to squash any opposition

Mr. Sedon decided to run for Council and look what that got him. The original post represents how more and more people feel. Look at how Mrs. Price and Valley’s attorney have treated taxpayers attempting to speak their mind. Look at how the Council majority treated Mrs. Walsh, Mr Richie and Mr Gabbert. Our current crop of public officials have stooped to classic middle school bullying tactics to squash anyone with a point of view that opposes their own.

Why would anyone with a point of view that threatens either Valley or our Council majority ever want to volunteer for anything in this town?

Posted on April 7, 2014 April 9, 2020

Reader says I don’t understand the poisonous anti-development sentiment

Reader says I don’t understand the poisonous anti-development sentiment

Is anyone thinking that, as detailed in this post, the inventory of apartments in Ridgewood is old with limited ability to modernize because of the types of buildings that were the style in 1915 and again in the 1950′s are not want people want today? Is anyone thinking that newer and more modern style apartment will attract young professionals who want to start a life in Ridgewood and empty nesters who want to stay in Ridgewood? That combination will bring a vibrancy to Ridgewood so this will not just be a village with parents of school age children who leave when the kids graduate.

As a parent, I find the box of kleenex on the back to school supply list offensive beyond words but I do it and for our children, we write cheeks all year long for teams, field trips, concerts, book fairs, etc., etc. It is called the cost of living in a Village with high expectations for the schools. It is the cost of living so close to NYC.

I don’t understand the poisonous anti-development sentiment and the yard signs that imply the end of the world as we know it if things change.

Posted on April 7, 2014 April 6, 2014

Reader says Never before have the Ridgewood BOE and municipal budgets ever been stretched so thin

Reader says Never before have the Ridgewood BOE and municipal budgets ever been stretched so thin

Never before have the Ridgewood BOE and municipal budgets ever been stretched so thin. During each of those waves in Ridgewood’s growth you mention above the BOE was still able to maintain their buildings and absorb the growth that resulted from these apartments. That is no longer the case. Our budget cannot afford to repair our current buildings, hire more teachers or build more classrooms. Unless you are looking for another $48 million dollar bond referendum in less than 5 years.

As a parent, I am tired of paying taxes and then being told that I need to raise money to pay for an outdated and unsafe playground, or new risers to replace the unsafe 30 year old ones for my child’s vocal concert or buy non-fiction books to fill the classroom libraries. All of that was covered by our BOE budget before years and years of this gradual growth.
All this growth also occurred before our streets were so filled with cars that even the traffic experts say we can’t handle one more car on our streets. I’m not sure how many pedestrians were hit by cars back then, but I’m guessing it was less than half the number we have today.

The point is, what is being proposed is a change to the Master Plan which would allow for enormous and sudden growth. Nothing like what you outlined above.

Posted on April 7, 2014 June 27, 2021

Reader says It’s simple math. The financial condition of the Village is such that new hires are completely out of the question

Reader says It’s simple math. The financial condition of the Village is such that new hires are completely out of the question

It’s simple math. The financial condition of the Village is such that new hires are completely out of the question. Unlike the Federal Government that can print money, the Village of Ridgewood can’t. We can all play the blame game of how we got here. Incompetence. Stolen quarters. Nepotism. Unsustainable pension schemes. We can also talk about raising extra revenue. The problem with raising taxes is that Ridgewood competes with other similar jurisdictions, and if you raise taxes here, that raises the incentive to move elsewhere.

Bottom line, guys. Just like the rest of us who work in the real world. You do more with less. I think I speak for many of us when I say that we all are doing jobs that were not very long ago, being done by more people. It sucks, and we go into work each day with an element of worry wondering if it’s our day to get called into HR

Posted on April 7, 2014 January 20, 2019

Pressure is mounting for Trenton to reform public employee payouts

Pressure is mounting for Trenton to reform public employee payouts

APRIL 6, 2014, 10:35 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, APRIL 6, 2014, 11:33 PM
BY LINH TAT
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

It’s a practice that’s unheard of these days in the private sector — carrying over days, weeks, even months of unused leave time and collecting a hefty check at retirement. Yet it’s common for public employees, who continue to cash in at taxpayers’ expense.By the numbers

Municipalities with the highest |
payout liabilities of unused sick |
and vacation time:

Bergen County

Hackensack $18,875,368

Fort Lee $7,922,232

Ridgewood $6,492,123

Englewood $5,656,052

Teaneck $4,077,603

Passaic County

Clifton $14,788,633

Paterson $12,756,523

Passaic $5,387,942

Wayne $1,564,929

Bloomingdale $748,587

Source: New Jersey Department of Community
Affairs 2011 data

A series of six-figure payouts that have forced towns to borrow millions of dollars have placed a renewed focus on the perk afforded to public workers for decades.

As the cases have mounted, the Legislature has yet to strike a deal for statewide reform. It’s a tug of war between those who want to scrap the benefit entirely and others who want to preserve it for existing longtime workers. Somewhere in the middle are town officials who are left to make up their own rules and negotiate with unions, while struggling to keep property taxes in line.

A 2 percent cap on property tax levy increases has put the pressure on towns to stop the payouts. At the same time, a loophole allows them to borrow the money — a quick fix that will pile on years of debt for taxpayers.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/pressure-is-mounting-for-trenton-to-reform-public-employee-payouts-1.842745#sthash.RqmhR4q9.dpuf

Posted on April 7, 2014 April 7, 2014

Mozilla CEO’s exit tests Silicon Valley’s tolerance

Mozilla CEO’s exit tests Silicon Valley’s tolerance

By Gerry Shih April 4, 2014 9:25 PM

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Tech workers in Silicon Valley debated on Friday whether Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich got the comeuppance he deserved or was himself a victim of intolerance when he resigned under pressure this week amid outrage over his opposition to same-sex marriage.

Some, especially a dating website that had urged its users to boycott Mozilla’s popular Firefox web browser, cheered Eich’s resignation after less than two weeks as CEO of the nonprofit software company. Others viewed him as a victim and called his critics intolerant of people with different views.

Mozilla co-founder Eich, who invented the programming language Javascript, donated $1,000 in 2008 to support Proposition 8, which sought to ban same-sex marriage in California. Voters approved the measure, but it was struck down last June by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Eich did not respond to requests for comment on Friday, but he had posted an apology on his blog before he resigned for the pain his stance had caused. His views about gay marriage had been known within Mozilla for nearly two years, but controversy erupted after he was appointed CEO in late March.

https://news.yahoo.com/mozilla-ceos-exit-tests-silicon-valleys-tolerance-012554106–sector.html

Posted on April 6, 2014 June 27, 2021

Megyn Kelly Declares CAIR Is ‘Not Getting’ a Retraction for Covering Film on Islamic Women

Megyn Kelly Declares CAIR Is ‘Not Getting’ a Retraction for Covering Film on Islamic Women

By Randy Hall | April 4, 2014 | 22:33

On Tuesday, the host of The Kelly File on the Fox News Channel discussed Honor Diaries, a documentary intended to depict the “systematic, institutionalized misogyny against Muslim women around the world.”

The first segment aired on Monday and drew a demand for an apology from the Council of American-Islamic Relations. Twenty-four hours later, Megyn Kelly told CAIR: “Well, guess what — you’re not getting it.”

She made that remark during another segment discussing the film on Tuesday with two guests: Agnieszka Karoluk, senior communications coordinator for CAIR-Chicago; and human rights attorney Brooke Goldstein, whom Kelly stated “first brought this issue to our attention.”

Kelly began the discussion by stating there’s “a growing backlash tonight over a film that is trying to bring attention to the so-called ‘honor violence’ inflicted on Muslim women around the world.”

“The film is called Honor Diaries,” she noted, “and while it has been shown dozens of times on U.S. college campuses — not to mention at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva — several U.S. universities have postponed or flat out-and-out canceled screenings of the film” after groups like CAIR complained that the documentary is “Islamophobic.”

The Fox News host then showed a clip of the film in which the female narrator stated that in Muslim-majority societies, the system “is really the basis of a lot of harm that is perpetuated against women.”

Kelly then asked Karoluk: “Why would CAIR want to silence this film?”

https://newsbusters.org/blogs/randy-hall/2014/04/04/megyn-kelly-declares-cair-not-getting-retraction-covering-film-islamic-w

Posted on April 6, 2014 April 6, 2014

For Democrats, a problem with seniors

For Democrats, a problem with seniors
By Alexandra Jaffe

Democrats are facing a senior problem that could get even worse this year.

The party has traditionally had trouble with older voters, losing them by 16 points in 2010 — when Republicans picked up 63 seats — and 12 points in the 2012 presidential race.

Seniors are the GOP’s most reliable voting bloc in midterm years, turning out in higher numbers than Democratic base voters. And a recent Gallup poll showed seniors have become even more Republican over the last two decades, and in 2013 48 percent considered themselves Republican.

“Democrats have to perform better with seniors than they did in 2010. They got shellacked with seniors in 2010. I don’t think the goal here is to win, but I definitely think the goal is to narrow the gap,” he said.

After a rough few months with the rocky rollout of ObamaCare, Democrats are more optimistic because of better-than-expected health care enrollment numbers out this week, but Republicans are pledging to continue to hammer Democrats on the law.

Posted on April 6, 2014 June 27, 2021

Ridgewood bank teller assaulted by man attempting to cash bad check

Photo credit: Boyd A. Loving
Ridgewood bank teller assaulted by man attempting to cash bad check
April 6 2014
Boyd A. Loving
4:37 PM (15 minutes ago)

Ridgewood NJ, A teller at the TD Bank branch located at 133 Franklin Avenue, Ridgewood was assaulted on Sunday afternoon at approximately 3:15 by a man attempting to cash a fraudulent check. Witnesses to the incident described the alleged perpetrator as being an obese African American male who fled the scene driving a grey sedan with out of state license plates. An investigation is currently underway by Ridgewood PD detectives. The bank branch was closed for the day shortly following the incident. The female bank teller, who sustained minor injuries after being struck in the face, was treated at the scene by members of Ridgewood EMS.

Photo credit: Boyd A. Loving

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