Defending searches, security director says ‘every school has drugs in it’
November 3, 2014
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Charlie Brown, security director for West Michigan’s Rockford school district, believes “every school had drugs in it.”
That’s why Rockford schools and numerous others in the area employ the services of Interquest Detection Canines of Michigan, Inc. – to search out illegal substances in school, such as drugs, weapons and other prohibited items, Mlive.com reports.
And the dogs are quite effective.
Records obtained by the news site through public information requests shows Interquest has discovered more than 86 prohibited substances or items in area schools since 2011. The finds are mostly alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and drug paraphernalia, but the dogs have also discovered other prohibited items like cap guns and fireworks, Mlive.com reports.
The Interquest dogs, Golden Retrievers, have even found marijuana pipes made of fruit, and alcohol sealed in plastic food containers.
“It’s not about busting them, it’s about them not having it,” Byron Center High School Principal Scott Joseph told the news site.
And students in some schools have more things they’re not supposed to than others.
Searches at Forest Hills high and middle schools revealed 28 student code violations, while searches at nearby Grandville schools netted 26 violations. Searches at Kentwood schools turned up 22 violations, and those at Byron Center produced 10 violations. The dogs only found two violations at Rockford schools, and came up empty pawed at East Grand Rapids, Mlive.com reports.
No Warrant, No Problem: Students’ Lockers Searched at Random By Drug Dogs
Robby Soave|Nov. 3, 2014 9:10 am
Students at various public schools in West Michigan are subjected to random searches performed by a specialty canine unit that uncovers dangerous contraband in kids’ lockers. Really scary stuff, like hunting gear, pocketknives, fire crackers, prescription medication. Maybe a gun-shaped Pop-Tart or two.
According to mlive.com:
The dogs, which are trained to find drugs, alcohol, gun powder-based products, tobacco and medications, also are used locally in Grandville, Forest Hills, East Kentwood and Byron Center schools among 46 districts across the state. East Grand Rapids uses the city’s public safety department to conduct regular searches on its high school campus.
Records obtained by MLive and the Grand Rapids Press under the Freedom of Information Act show the findings by dogs at area schools are relatively low compared to overall student population, but educators believe the more vigilant they are, the better for students.
The public records request showed the discovery of more than 86 prohibited substances or items at the area schools that have used Interquest since 2011. Alcohol, tobacco and marijuana or drug paraphernalia were the most common finds, but dogs also alerted to fireworks and a toy cap gun among other items banned from school property.
The searches are performed at random, meaning that no single student is ever the target. Administrators hold this up as good and fair—we are trampling your rights, but it’s not personal!—but the ACLU is skeptical.
10 Exciting Races to Watch in Bergen County
Nov. 03 Bergen County, Election 2014, North Jersey no comments
By Matthew Gilson | The Save Jersey Blog
Matt Rooney already gave you ten New Jersey races to watch statewide on Tuesday night, Save Jerseyans.
Without further ado, here are ten worth closely tracking in Bergen County alone, starting with the Garden State’s single most consequential 2014 contest:
1.) County Executive/Freeholder
Nothing else comes close with control of the most powerful office the most county at stake. Incumbent Kathe Donovan has seen the gap between herself and Freeholder Jim Tedesco close in recent weeks and the race may be too close to call. The under card is the battle to take out incumbent freeholder Democrats David Ganz and Joan Voss waged by Republicans Bernadette Walsh and Bob Avery.
2.) Can Scott Garrett win Bergen?
Despite a mini-scare, it appears that Roy has definitely Cho-ked this race away. However, it still remains to be seen whether Garrett will carry the Bergen portion of the district. If he does, it may put this race out of play for 2016 and return Roy Cho to trying on new empty suits.
3.) North Arlington
A swing town and southernmost in the county, Save Jersey previewed this race with an interview with Councilman Dan Pronti who is seeking re-election. The town will prove critical to running up numbers for Kathe Donovan in her south Bergen base, and a win by Council Bianchi over Mayor Massa along with his running mates would put to end eight years of Democratic rule.
4.) Paramus
As important as North Arlington and the south is to Donovan, Tedesco will need to run up numbers in the town he formerly served as mayor to have a shot at what would still be considered an upset. A popular incumbent Democratic mayor headlines the ticket but the race is a battle right to the end.
Scott Garrett for Congress ,People over Government
November 3,2014
PJ Blogger and the Staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, This election is about the whole sale rejection of President Obama’s policies and no one could be more of a polar opposite to the presidents polices than Scott Garrett. Garrett has consistently been a voice for reason in a time were many have seemingly lost their mind and lost their way. The Current administration has put government over people ,while Scott Garrett puts people first.
Garrett has rightly opposed the president’s tax and spend big government policies at every turn . Garrett has opposed and warned about Obamacare , the current incoherent foreign policy and recently the handling of the Ebola outbreak .
Garrett has pushed for more openness at the Federal Reserve , opposed the “too big to fail policy ” , opposed the massive regulatory over reach and over and over has been a voice against government waste and cronyism, putting people over government .
Garrett has opposed “Common Core ” and like most Bergen County residents thinks educational decisions belong in the hands of parents, teachers and local administrators who know best what their children need.
Its a consistent message one that never goes out of style , to live within your means ,and understand the consequences of your actions and to have government the servant of the people ,and not the master.
For County Executive the Ridgewood blog supports Kathy Donovan for County Executive , Bernie Walsh and Bob Avery for Freeholders .
While our state and county suffer from many challenges Donovan inherited a mess both politically and fiscally. Donovan with the addition of Walsh and Avery gives the county its best chance of getting control of run away government at the county level . The opposition has offered nothing but the same old cronyism and wasteful special interest spending that has gotten us into this mess. Like it or not Dovovan has shown a willingness to take the heat and take on the many special interest .
For New Jersey Senator , we endorse Jeff Bell , who has proved himself a man of ideas and substance unlike his light weight Obamabot opponent , sorry but appearing on Oprah is no substitute for representation of the people of New Jersey . It would be nice for a change to have someone in the Senate looking out for New Jersey’s interests instead of cowtowing to a national political party and being a yes man to a president who policies leave much to be desired .
Jeff Bell has continued to surprise many people with his unorthodox iconoclastic style and has focused on the economic issues and jobs. Jeff recognizes like most people the key to New Jersey’s future is a strong economy and current administration and its followers are moving in the opposite direction .
Just 33% of primary residences sold this year were purchased by first-time buyers, down from 38% last year to the lowest level since 1987, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday.
The NAR says that the first-time-buyer share of home sales has typically hovered around 40% since 1981.
The headwinds facing young buyers are well known: higher student debt, rising rents and a weaker job market have made it harder for would-be buyers to save for a down payment and qualify for a mortgage, particularly in a lending environment where banks are much less willing to overlook credit blemishes or spotty incomes.
Separate surveys, including one by the New York Fed earlier this year, showed that insufficient savings or incomes were the biggest headwinds keeping renters from buying homes. Many households may also be less able to get help from their parents than in the past, because their parents’ homes have fallen sharply in value.
Advocates of looser lending standards may point to the NAR’s latest survey to highlight problems on the mortgage market. But it’s worth noting that the share of first-time buyers didn’t increase during the housing bubble, when it was too easy to get a mortgage. That’s because home prices were rising. The share of first-time buyers fell to 36% in 2006, at the peak of the bubble, from 40% in the prior three years.
And even though credit was much tighter in 2009 and 2010, the share of first time buyers jumped to 47% and 50%, respectively. Lower home prices helped. So, too, did an $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time buyers, which expired in June 2010.
Home prices have been rising for the last two years—and first-time buyers have accounted for a falling share of sales in that time.
volunteers come to door-knock this weekend! #NJGOP i
For Congress: Garrett
Posted: Nov 01, 2014 8:51 PM EDT Updated: Nov 01, 2014 8:51 PM EDT
Scott Garrett is routinely characterized as the most conservative member of New Jersey’s House delegation, and maybe of the entire House of Representatives. Voters in New Jersey’s 5th District, which includes most of Sussex County, have elected him to Congress six times. Clearly they feel comfortable with his positions.
Sussex County voters in particular respond to this Wantage resident’s calls to cut spending, reduce taxes, lessen regulation and scale back the federal government’s role in a variety of areas from education to health care, and his full protection of the Constitution.
And Garrett has been consistent in this stance since the beginning, long before much of the Republican Party came around to his way of thinking. He stands by his principles, a too rare trait among politicians.
Garrett’s opponent in Tuesday’s election, Roy Cho, is quite a different animal. His campaign pitch, with its emphasis on infrastructure spending and public-private partnerships, has the tone of a moderate Republican of perhaps a generation or two ago. He’s young, educated and enthusiastic, if inexperienced, and certainly does not have deep roots in our district, having recently moved into it. Cho’s message might have a stronger appeal for the more urban parts of the district, but it doesn’t play as well here in Sussex County.
But while the voters of Garrett’s district invariably come through for him, he could stand to do more for them. His seniority and top committee roles, increasing with each election, should be beneficial to his district.
He admits a preference to working behind the scenes where, without worry of who gets credit, he can accomplish goals over political grandstanding. Consequently, his successes are not clearly communicated to his constituency. In a meeting with the Herald’s editorial board he indicated openness to, if not enthusiasm for, a forum such as a town hall meeting.
Garrett is unlikely to modify his essential conservative approach to governing, and voters thank him for that at the ballot box.
Garrett represents the thinking of a lot of Sussex County residents. The Herald endorses him for a seventh term in Congress.
Republicans get what they want: A midterm election about Obama
By Justin Sink – 11/03/14 06:00 AM EST
Less than 24 hours before Election Day, Republicans have what they want: a referendum on President Obama.
GOP candidates are training their closing arguments on Obama, full of confidence that voter dissatisfaction with the White House will punch their ticket to a Senate majority.
“This is not brain surgery,” said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean, who argued “it’s obvious Obama has become an anchor” for Democrats.
Aaska Republican Dan Sullivan, who hopes to unseat Sen. Mark Begich (D), in his final campaign ad is pledging to “stand up to Barack Obama and federal overreach.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee is flooding Georgia with ads highlighting Obama’s claim that a victory by Democrat Michelle Nunn would insure Democrats keep the Senate.
In Louisiana, Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) is hammering Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) over a comment that suggested race was a reason for Obama’s low approval ratings in the state.
In New Hampshire, where a victory by Republican Scott Brown likely would reflect a huge night for Republicans, Brown is mocking Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) for voting with President Obama “99 percent of the time.”
Staffers at the Republican National Committee dressed as Democrats running from the president for Halloween.
As I’ve been telling you all along, I ran for U.S. Senate in New Jersey because I felt that we were headed for trouble unless we made a major change in the economy. Let me tell you exactly why.
Right now this country is in the slowest economy recovery of our modern history. Growth is tepid, good job openings are scarce, and most working people struggle to get a loan. The most frequent question I’ve gotten in nine months of campaigning around the state of New Jersey is, Why? Why is the economy stuck in place? Why can’t my child who is a recent college graduate find a decent job? Why are my own wages failing to keep up with rising prices?
My answer is that the Federal Reserve for six years has been stepping on the throat of the economy. Its zero interest rate policy, begun in December 2008, is the culprit. Banks are lending to the government rather than small business — the main source of new job creation — because of the incentive created by it. Individuals can’t earn a return on their savings. We have an economy that wants to recover but is treading water instead.
If we stay in this present course, three outcomes are possible. We could tip into a recession, we could have a market collapse like we had in 2008, or prices could rise dramatically and we would have high inflation. I don’t know which is most likely to happen, but unfortunately I believe the Federal Reserve has done things that will cause at least one of the three to happen.
Simply ending the Federal Reserve’s zero interest rate policy is not enough by itself, because that has big consequences of its own. If interest rates are allowed to return to normal, that will add about $400 billion to the annual federal deficit. It also could set the stage for a dramatic sell-off of stocks, bonds, and other sources of household wealth that have been artificially juiced by the zero interest rate policy. So ending the Fed’s disastrous zero interest rate policy risks the same bad results as keeping it in place.
How do we get out of this straightjacket? I believe we must go back to the gold standard for the first time in 40 years because it contains all of the self-correcting mechanisms for our current situation. A gold-backed dollar would let the marketplace, rather than the Federal Reserve Board, set interest rates and determine the size of the money supply. Instead of watching and worrying what the Fed is going to do, our markets could function knowing that the value of t dollar won’t change and interest rates would adjust according to supply and demand for credit.
Just as importantly, going back on the gold standard would embed limited government in Washington. Congress would need to balance its budgets in the long-run when it could no longer rely on the Federal Reserve to continually print money to finance them. Our existing debt could be refinanced at better terms since the dollar we would be using to pay it back would no longer be depreciating due to inflation. And finally, members of Congress would be at the mercy of anti-deficit voters in a way they aren’t right now.
Do I think we can go back to the gold standard overnight? Of course not. I’ve proposed it as a three-and-a-half year process that gradually brings the market in and cuts the Federal Reserve out of determining the dollar’s value. I still believe the Fed should continue to exist to serve the roles it was created for: administering the money supply to avoid panics and being a lender of last resort if it fails at the first function.
I would not have run for U.S. Senate if I had found someone else to champion this. Here’s why I think I couldn’t: members of Congress — in both parties — are afraid of losing the Federal Reserve’s money printing support for their spending programs. They don’t want to take power away from an institution that lets them off the hook for being accountable for their fiscal policies. If that happened, legislators like Cory Booker would have to justify the return on investment of every new spending measure they introduce. This has the potential to sink whole chunks of the Democratic Party’s agenda. For their part, even anti-deficit Republicans have chosen to be the Party of No rather than problem solvers. That’s why no one is too optimistic things will change if they take over the Senate tomorrow.
I don’t know if Election Day will be the inflection point I’m describing above, but I am sure that the present course we are on isn’t sustainable. And it’s very likely to catch up with Republican candidates in 2016 if our party doesn’t not come up with a way out of the straightjacket. Hillary Clinton knows how to win elections by promising voters government support, and I believe her argument will be politically viable if there’s no compelling alternative offered.
I’ve staked everything on this campaign not because I desire to hold elective office, but because I saw no other way to fix what’s wrong with the economy. I’m hoping that tomorrow will be a big step in the right direction. Whatever happens, it’s been a great privilege to campaign to represent the voters of New Jersey.
Something stinks in New Jersey: Cory Booker and ‘Watershed-gate’
By Roger Stone
Published October 29, 2014
FoxNews.com
Not long ago, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker was, according to some Democrats and media talking heads, Obama 2.0. The tall, photogenic Booker was going to be our next African-American president, we were told.
Booker bounded to the U.S. Senate in a special election after Gov. Chris Christie declined to appoint a Republican who would run for the seat, a stunning act of bad faith that conservatives should not forget in 2016.
Booker is Senator for the Facebook age. The Rhodes Scholar and Yale law grad spends more time in Washington, New York and Hollywood than in gritty Newark.
Obama Slams Stay-At-Home Moms
By Robert Gehl, November 2, 2014.
President Obama is determined that women should not stay at home to raise their children.
Speaking at a Rhode Island campaign rally, Obama was talking about daycare and preschool when he said women should not make the choice to “stay home with the kids.”
“Sometimes, someone, usually mom, leaves the workplace to stay home with the kids, which then leaves her earning a lower wage for the rest of her life as a result. And that’s not a choice we want Americans to make,” he said.
Scott Rasmussen: Why Obamacare Is the Defining Issue of 2014 Elections
Genevieve Wood / @genevievewood / November 03, 2014
Veteran public opinion guru Scott Rasmussen says the biggest issue driving the 2014 election cycle is not just President Obama’s low approval rating but his signature policy achievement, Obamacare.
And, Rasmussen says, this is an issue that isn’t going away. Obama won’t be on the ballot in 2016, but he believes Obamacare will be.
Steve Weyrich, manager of news video for The Daily Signal, produced the video.
Memories >>>During a televised hearing, Feynman demonstrated that the material used in the shuttle’s O-ringsbecame less resilient in cold weather by compressing a sample of the material in a clamp and immersing it in ice-cold water.
Virgin ‘ignored’ space safety warnings before crash: expert
Los Angeles (AFP) – A rocket science safety expert on Sunday said Virgin Galactic “ignored” safety warnings in the years leading up to the deadly crash of its spacecraft in California, as investigators hunted for clues to accident’s cause.
Carolynne Campbell, a rocket propulsion expert with the Netherlands-based International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety, said she could not speculate on the cause of Friday’s crash without “all the data.”
However, she said multiple warnings had been issued to Virgin since 2007, when three engineers died testing a rocket on the ground.
“Based on the work we’ve done, including me writing a paper on the handling of nitrous oxide, we were concerned about what was going on at Virgin Galactic,” she told AFP.
“I sent copies of the paper to various people at Virgin Galactic in 2009, and they were ignored,” she said.
Ed Feulner / @EdFeulner / November 01, 2014 / 0 comments
Edwin J. Feulner’s 36 years of leadership as president of The Heritage Foundation transformed the think tank from a small policy shop into America’s powerhouse of conservative ideas.Read his research.
“Is the Affordable Care Act Working?” reads a recent headline in The New York Times. The editors then consider a series of questions, the first of which is pretty basic: “Has the percentage of uninsured people been reduced?”
Their answer: yes. So, problem solved, right? Not quite.
The devil, as they say, is in the details. And the details show that it’s not as simple as getting more people insured. A new report from health care expert Ed Haislmaier — one based on actual enrollment data, not surveys — illustrates two facts that should give us pause.
One is that the decline in the number of people who are uninsured isn’t as high as it may seem at first glance. The other is that more than two-thirds of the gain in coverage is a result of an increase in the number of people in Medicaid, the federal government’s health care program for the vulnerable poor.
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This isn’t exactly what Americans were led to believe would happen when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare, became law.
Let’s look a little closer at the first point. Why isn’t the number of newly insured people as high as it might seem?
Proponents of Obamacare, after all, can point to the 6.2 million Americans who have been enrolled in individual-market coverage since Obamacare took effect. You have to take into account, though, the 3.8 million who lost their employer-based coverage during the same period. As a result, the number of Americans who gained private health insurance increased by a bit less than 2.5 million in the first half of 2014.
In short, Mr. Haislmaier shows, decline in employment-based coverage offset 61 percent of the increase in individual-market coverage.
Why would so many people be losing employer-based coverage? Because of the negative incentives built into Obamacare. It’s cheaper for many employers (who might otherwise face steep rises in coverage costs or fines from Washington) to stop offering coverage altogether and let their employees fall into government-run programs.
Now let’s consider the second point. During this same period, enrollment in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program increased by almost 6.1 million individuals. Of the 8.5 million total individuals who gained health insurance coverage, 71 percent of that net coverage gain was due to Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid to able-bodied, working-age adults.
“The inescapable conclusion,” writes Mr. Haislmaier, “is that, when it comes to covering the uninsured, Obamacare so far is mainly an expansion of Medicaid.”
This is hardly what Americans were promised. Or what they expected when President Obama last year said that Obamacare is “doing what it’s designed to do — deliver more choices, better benefits, a check on rising costs.”
Today, the president touts the millions of Americans who have gained coverage. However, we don’t hear much in the way of context. Left unsaid is that a large number of the 6.2 million cited above already had individual or employer-based coverage but were forced by Obamacare to get new coverage.
Also unmentioned is the fact that the 6.1 million new Medicaid enrollees include able-bodied, working-age adults who are being given substandard government coverage in lieu of what they really need: a job.
We certainly don’t hear much to contradict the much-hyped “check on rising costs.”
“In eleven states, premiums for twenty-seven-year-olds have more than doubled since 2013; in thirteen states, premiums for fifty-year-olds have increased more than 50 percent,” writes health care expert Robert Moffit in a new report.
It doesn’t take a medical degree to see that Obamacare is ailing. The sooner it’s repealed, the better.
Scientific studies show that airport Ebola screenings are largely ineffective
The debate over whether the Obama administration should ban flights from Ebola-stricken nations has been raging for weeks, fueled by fears of an outbreak in the United States and a lot of election-inspired finger pointing.
The Department of Homeland Security last week imposed new travel restrictions for anyone arriving from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, requiring those passengers to come through one of five major U.S. airports in Atlanta, Chicago, New Jersey, New York and Virginia.
Those travelers now have to submit to temperature checks and questioning. But scientific studies published by the National Institutes of Health have shown that similar protocols were largely ineffective during an outbreak of Swine Flu in 2009, as Government Executive pointed out in an article last week.
A study of screenings at Australia’s Sydney Airport during the Swine Flu pandemic found that fever was detected in 5,845 passengers during the roughly two-month period covered by the analysis. Only three of those individuals ended up having the virus, which is known in the scientific community as H1N1.
Mitzvah Day volunteers spread good works across North Jersey and beyond
NOVEMBER 2, 2014, 4:25 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2014, 9:11 PM BY LINDA MOSS STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD
In Washington Township, volunteers wrote messages on baseballs to send to members of the U.S. military. In Paterson, a group braved the windy, bitter cold to pick up trash on the grounds of the Great Falls. And in Teaneck, in fellowship Jewish and Korean-American teenagers teamed up to paint a residence for developmentally disabled men.
More than 1,000 people across North Jersey on Sunday collectively contributed their small good deeds, so-called “mitzvahs,” to make the world a better place. These volunteers participated in the 17th Annual Mitzvah Day, the signature event of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, which is based in Paramus. This year there were activities at some 40 sites in Bergen and Passaic counties.
Volunteers had a wide array of choices, like cleaning up various park sites; assembling and packing gift packages for U.S. soldiers and clothing for children in Israel; and even a “Stitch and Schmooze” fest where knitters whipped up such items as scarves and hats for needy families.
Temple Beth Or in Washington Township hosted a “Put-It-in-Your-Pocket Mitzvah Fair,” where roughly 300 volunteers gathered to make small gifts to send to members of the U.S. military and in some instances, to Israeli soldiers. Participants have several choices at that site, with many doing all three.
Billy Cook, 13, of Washington Township was overseeing the signing of 400 baseballs as part of his Billy’s Baseballs non-profit. As his Bar Mitzvah project last year, self-described “die-hard Yankees fan” Billy came up with the idea of asking people to write notes and sign baseballs to send to U.S. troops, thanking them for their service and sacrifice.
Frank Kirk of Ridgewood accompanied his daughter Alison, 12, as she decorated baseballs with small flowers and wrote her messages, including, “Thank you for protecting us.”
Kirk said that earlier Rabbi Noah Fabricant had told the synagogue one never knows how important their mitzvah can be.
