“I can assure you that this Council takes safety very seriously . . . “*
November 10,2014
Ridgewood NJ, Well why then Mr. Mayor would you and your fellow Council members vote to approve a plan to resurface Clinton Avenue that would require children to continue walking to and from the Ridge Elementary School in the middle of a street blocked only by two (2) portable “Do Not Enter” signs?
*Above quote by Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn on Wednesday, November 5, 2014 in response to a resident expressing disappointment with the Village Council’s decision to resurface Clinton Avenue without constructing sidewalks.
Obama calls on FCC to keep Internet ‘free and open’
The president says that all Internet service providers should “protect Net neutrality” and agree to not block or throttle Internet traffic.
by Don Reisinger
@donreisinger
November 10, 2014 6:56 AM PST
President Barack Obama has issued his strongest message yet that the Internet should be kept “free and open.”
In a statement released Monday, Obama called on the Federal Communications Commission to maintain Net neutrality and ensure that Internet service providers (ISPs) are not allowed “to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas.”
“That is why today, I am asking the Federal Communications Commission to answer the call of almost 4 million public comments, and implement the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality,” President Obama said in the statement.
The FCC is working on a new set of rules for Internet oversight in the US. Those rules were expected to be made available later this year, though reports now claim they may be delayed until early 2015.
The agency earlier this year saw a vigorous response from the public to its call for comments on its Open Internet proposals, with the FCC’s servers sometimes stumbling and crashing under the overwhelming input. The comment window closed in September.
Net neutrality, which is the principle that ISPs and governments treat all Web traffic the same, has long been a debate around the US with no clear victory for either side. Consumers and many Internet companies argue that the Internet should remain open and that all traffic should be treated equally. Opponents have argued for a toll road of sorts that would provide better service to companies that pay to support their high traffic volumes. That has created widespread concern that ISPs could throttle service in some instance, intentionally slowing down some content streams and speeding up others.
Construction workers ignite small brush fire on Corella Court
November 10,2014
Boyd A. Loving
1:45 PM
Ridgewood NJ, A piece of power equipment being used by a construction crew working on a pedestrian bridge replacement project ignited a small but smokey brush fire at the end of Corella Court on Monday afternoon, 11/10. Ridgewood FD responded with Engine 35 and Car 38; the blaze was extinguished expeditiously following their arrival. No injuries, nor property damage, were reported.
A virus that infects human brains and makes us more stupid has been discovered, according to scientists in the US.
The algae virus, never before observed in healthy people, was found to affect cognitive functions including visual processing and spatial awareness.
Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medical School and the University of Nebraska stumbled upon the discovery when they were undertaking an unrelated study into throat microbes.
Surprisingly, the researchers found DNA in the throats of healthy individuals that matched the DNA of a virus known to infect green algae.
Dr Robert Yolken, a virologist who led the original study, said: “This is a striking example showing that the ‘innocuous’ microorganisms we carry can affect behaviour and cognition.
Berlin’s digital exiles: where tech activists go to escape the NSA
With its strict privacy laws, Germany is the refuge of choice for those hounded by the security services. Carole Cadwalladr visits Berlin to meet Laura Poitras, the director of Edward Snowden film Citizenfour, and a growing community of surveillance refuseniks
It’s the not knowing that’s the hardest thing, Laura Poitras tells me. “Not knowing whether I’m in a private place or not.” Not knowing if someone’s watching or not. Though she’s under surveillance, she knows that. It makes working as a journalist “hard but not impossible”. It’s on a personal level that it’s harder to process. “I try not to let it get inside my head, but… I still am not sure that my home is private. And if I really want to make sure I’m having a private conversation or something, I’ll go outside.”
Poitras’s documentary about Edward Snowden, Citizenfour, has just been released in cinemas. She was, for a time, the only person in the world who was in contact with Snowden, the only one who knew of his existence. Before she gotGlenn Greenwald and the Guardian on board, it was just her – talking, electronically, to the man she knew only as “Citizenfour”. Even months on, when I ask her if the memory of that time lives with her still, she hesitates and takes a deep breath: “It was really very scary for a number of months. I was very aware that the risks were really high and that something bad could happen. I had this kind of responsibility to not fuck up, in terms of source protection, communication, security and all those things, I really had to be super careful in all sorts of ways.”
11/11/147:30PMBoard of Adjustment Regular Public Meeting 11/12/148:00PMVillage Council Public Meeting 11/17/147:30PMPlanning Board Public Meeting – RHS Student Center 11/18/147:30PMPlanning Board Public Meeting – Rescheduled to 11/17 11/25/147:30PMBoard of Adjustment Regular Public Meeting 12/02/147:30PMPlanning Board Public Meeting 12/03/147:30PMVillage Council Public Work Session
The Northwest Bergen Central Dispatch, located in Ridgewood, NJ, is searching for a Dispatch Center Director. This individual will manage the operations and administration of the communications center serving the Village of Ridgewood and the Borough of Glen Rock, as well as other public safety jurisdictions.
Responsible for employee hiring, training, evaluation and disciplinary issues. Also oversees all operational features of the Dispatch Center, including maintenance of equipment and records, and develops and oversees the center’s annual budget.
The successful candidate will have a minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice, Business Administration, Electronic Engineering, or other related field. Also required to have at least 2 years prior experience in public safety dispatching, valid CPR certification, Emergency Medical Dispatcher Certification and Basic Telecommunicator Certification. Previous supervisory experience required.
Send cover letter and resume, including salary requirements to:
Sharyn Matthews, Senior Human Resources Professional
Village Building Dept Reorganized – Shorter Response Time for Inspections
NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS AND RESIDENTS – November 4
THE BUILDING DEARTMENT HAS BEEN REORGANIZED AND IN AN EFFORT TO PROVIDE TIMELY INSPECTIONS WE ARE MOVING TOWARD A QUICKER TURN AROUND TIME.
WE ANTICIPATE THAT WE WILL BE ABLE TO PROVIDE ALL INSPECTIONS WITHIN A 24 HOUR WINDOW IN THE NEAR FUTURE. IN THE MEANTIME, PLEASE CONTINUE WITH YOUR PROJECTS AND REQUEST INSPECTIONS AS SOON AS YOU ARE READY.
OUR COMBINED EFFORTS WILL HELP REDUCE THE INSPECTION REQUEST TIMEFRAME AND PROVIDE BETTER SERVICE TO OUR STAKEHOLDERS.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE DURING THIS TRANSITION. SHOULD YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS, PLEASE CALL ME AT 201-670-5500 EXT 281 OR EMAIL ME AT TYOTKA@RIDGEWOODNJ.NET.
The 70’s Generation the Generation that never made it….
The 70’s Generation ,Generation Failure the how and why ...
PJ Blogger (a blast from the past) PRLog – Sep. 29, 2009 – RIDGEWOOD, N.J. — like most generations coming to age in a particular time period that era has a way of effecting ones out look throughout that rest of there life. In the 1920’s it was the devil make care attitude ,in the 1930’s the great depression ,in the 1940’s it was world war two and the greatest generation ,in the 50’s it was moving to suburbia ,in the 1960’s it was the anti war counter culture ad wanting to change the world . These generational experiences have a way of effecting the majority of that generation shaping there experience and the way we think about the world . In the 1970 ‘s oil shocks ,stagflation, international terrorism ,military failure ,stagflation ,the misery index, high divorce rate ,high drug and alcohol use ,the hang over from the sixties all lead to one over riding principle for the 70’s generation FAILURE and the 70’s generation became the generation that never really made it .
With this failure came the litany of kook conspiracy theories ,and inability to see a benevolence in the universe ,a feeling that things larger then onself were working against us . That malevolent forces beyond our control were conspiring against us. That we were helpless in the face of doom .Not trusting the markets nor the government but looking to punish and spread the misery equally far and wide, the 70’s generation embrace totalitarian socialism or communism to a greater degree than anyone since the 1930’s.
As the 70’s generation grew up it brought incompetence and disaster and mostly failure in its wake , from ENRON, the mutual fund debacle ,to the current banking and finance disaster to the destruction of wall street ,the 70’s folks have unleashed a cataclysm of disaster and failure on to the rest of us. Remember these people still think good old stagflation Jimmy Carter was a good president?
So why do I keep harping on this day in and day out ,well any economist worth his salt would admit that one of the strongest cyclical driving forces in an economy are demographics and given the most economic activity is driven by business creation and house hold formation it can be noted that from time to time an economy is blessed with demographics that favor these to factors ,but what we find in the 70’s generation is a proclivity for neither. My last reunion told the whole story ,as i am told nearly half the graduating class of 1980 had never been married . I found this simply astonishing given we came from a very upper middle class place with a “first rate education”.
No don’t get me wrong every generation has its successes and failures but some generations seem to produce more of the latter .
After New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton chose a black man to replace another black man as his deputy, a re- porter asked Mayor de Blasio if the replacement “had to be a person of color.”
“No,” the mayor claimed.
That’s not a little white lie. This is a case where whites need not apply.
Across the land, racially charged disputes are grabbing headlines. Broad swaths of life, including school admissions, crime statistics, income and poverty levels, hiring and firing, are seen increasingly through the prism of skin color and ethnicity.
Race riots, that urban staple of the ’60s and ’70s, are making a comeback. They rattled the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Mo., after a white police officer shot a black teenager. More violence is expected if, as seems likely, the officer is not indicted.
Desperate to hold onto power, some Democratic candidates spent election season trying to scare black voters to polls. They claimed shootings like the one in Ferguson and the 2012 Trayvon Martin case in Florida would become common if Republicans prevailed. At the bottom of the barrel was the scurrilous comment by Harlem’s Rep. Charlie Rangel that some in the GOP “believe that slavery isn’t over.”
It’s the Culture, Stupid: Welfare Programs Can’t Solve Economic Gap Created by Marriage Decline
Stephen Moore / @StephenMoore / November 09, 2014
Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images
COMMENTARY BY
Stephen Moore@StephenMoore
Stephen Moore, who formerly wrote on the economy and public policy for The Wall Street Journal, is chief economist at The Heritage Foundation.Read his research.
This may be a surprising statement from a bleary-eyed, number-crunching economist, but the best anti-poverty program in America may not be tax cuts, debt reduction or regulatory relief, but rather that old-fashioned institution called marriage. It turns out that poverty rates are very low among intact families and prevalent among homes without a father. Children who grow up in single-parent households are much more likely to face economic trouble as adults.
Those who cheer divorce as a form of women’s liberation, or who say that stigmatizing out-of-wedlock births is just right-wing sermonizing, just don’t get this intertwined connection between two-parent households and economic success. Sociocultural factors like the decline of marriage are leading causes of the wealth gap and the stubborn poverty trap in many low-income neighborhoods. This isn’t to say that children who grow up in broken homes can’t succeed—millions heroically do. It doesn’t mean that every marriage was meant to be; many times, divorce is the only option.
Still, what is irrefutable is that marriage with a devoted husband and wife in the home is a far better social program than food stamps, Medicaid, public housing or even all of them combined. This conclusion is made clear by a new eye-opening and sometimes depressing report called the Index of Culture and Opportunity by my colleagues at the Heritage Foundation. It’s conclusion: We must reshape our culture before we can ever hope to make a big dent in the number of poor households.
Some of the cultural indicators are going in a positive direction. Violent crime is down. So is the number of abortions.
In some cities such as Detroit and Newark, N.J., two of every three children are born out of wedlock.
However, in other ways, we are ripping our families and our society apart. Consider these statistics on family breakup.
“From 2001 to 2011, the marriage rate dropped by 10.3 marriages per 1,000 unmarried women, or 22.8 percent. Since the 1960s, it has fallen by about 50 percent.”
According to one of the report’s scholars, W. Bradford Wilcox, “only about half of the nation’s adults are currently married, and about half of the nation’s children will spend some time outside an intact, married home.” Those numbers are much higher in low-income communities. In some cities such as Detroit and Newark, N.J., two of every three children are born out of wedlock. Name a government program that can take the place of a father.
This troubling trend appears to be a roadblock to the American Dream. One study by Harvard economist Raj Chetty and his colleagues finds that when it comes to what is preventing the economic upward mobility of poor children, “the strongest and most robust predictor is the fraction of children with single parents.”
It’s also true and often overlooked that family breakup creates a statistical illusion that we are making less economic progress than we actually are. For example, if a married couple earns $80,000, but then ends up in divorce, there are now two households earning $40,000 so it appears the economy is slipping and average household income is falling. In fact, what has slipped is the culture.
Meanwhile, birthrates are also falling. In only two of the past 40 years have birthrates exceeded replacement-level fertility of 2.1 children per couple. Who will take care of and finance the retirement of the 76 million baby boomers? Thank goodness for immigration. The population bomb that was once famously worried about by scholars such as Paul Ehrlich has become a population fizzle.
Many millennials have come to think that to pull them away from the TV, computer or Gameboy screen is an offense that is reportable to child-protective services.
Most economists agree that the sharp decline in the share of Americans between ages 18 and 64 who are working is a major economic hindrance. This isn’t just happening by chance—but rather as a result of policy and cultural shifts. The value of work is denigrated in our modern society—and welfare has been elevated. Millions of jobs are there for the taking if the unemployed and underemployed go out and obtain useful skills. But our culture too often frowns upon Americans doing what are regarded as grimy, blue-collar jobs—even though they can pay $60,000 to $100,000 a year. This may explain why it is so hard to get a NJ plumber or carpenter or any kind of handyman these days.
We also seem to disparage the idea of young people, especially teens, working. We parents spoil our children—and I’m no less guilty than others—with leisure and money, and many millennials have come to think that to pull them away from the TV, computer or Gameboy screen is an offense that is reportable to child-protective services. This new report reminds us of the obvious: There is dignity, character-building and self-sufficiency in all forms of labor.
The Obama administration now runs TV and radio ads assuring welfare recipients they should feel no shame whatsoever in taking a handout and even tells them that the more they live off the expense of someone else (taxpayers), the better it is for the economy. Liberals are trying to bend the culture in a subversive direction. Given that last year we had 47 million on food stamps, the left is succeeding.
We economists bury ourselves in the data and formulas to try to devise policy solutions to raise the living standards of workers and families. It’s humbling to realize how much of our nation’s economic success is based on a culture of virtue. Do the right thing, as Spike Lee would put it. To save our economy from a path of decline, we need to start with a personal and national commitment to sturdy families, strong parents and a re-emergence of the Protestant work ethic. That shouldn’t be so hard.
The Ridgewood Concert Band “A Salute to Our Veterans ”
November 9th 2014
Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood Concert Band “A Salute to Our Veterans ” Friday November 14th at West Side Presbyterian Church and is FREE for Veterans and Active Duty Military Members .
The Ridgewood Concert Band (RCB) will continue their 32nd Season with their annual “Salute to Our Nation’s Veterans” concert. As a sign of our appreciation for their service, this concert is free of charge for veterans and active duty military members.
The RCB is pleased to welcome back Col. Arnald Gabriel, conductor emeritus of the U.S. Air Force Band, as a guest conductor. It is fitting that Col. Gabriel joins the RCB for their annual salute to veterans as he was a combat machine gunner with the United States Army’s famed 29th Infantry Division during World War II and received two awards of the Bronze Star Medal, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, and the French Croix de Guerre.
The program will include a wide variety of music ranging from patriotic classics to a new clarinet concerto by Michael Gandolfi performed by the RCB’s Concertmaster Richard Summers. The RCB will also perform Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Hail! California”, which has not been performed in 100 years. (See “Program Note” below.)
The Mahwah High School Band under the direction of Jeffrey Bittner will open with a prelude performance at 7:30pm and the RCB program will begin at 8:00pm.
HackensackUMC at Pascack Valley plans new emergency room
NOVEMBER 9, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2014, 12:16 AM BY LINDY WASHBURN STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD
Nearly 18 months after a bankrupt Pascack Valley Hospital reopened as a modernized, all-single-room facility, its for-profit owners are embarking on a project to relocate and expand the emergency department.
The planned $14 million renovation at HackensackUMC at Pascack Valley, as it is now known, would move the emergency room from the back of the hospital to the front, more than doubling its size and adding a new ambulance drop-off and an entrance for walk-ins, said the new acting CEO, Mark Sparta, who took over last week.
It’s a big investment in a 128-bed hospital whose liftoff has been slower than expected, with operating losses of nearly $20 million last year and an average census of just 37 patients a night.
But Robert C. Garrett, president of Hackensack University Medical Center and its parent hospital network, said those numbers do not reflect the potential for growth.
