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Parking should be first priority

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Parking should be first priority

SEPTEMBER 19, 2014    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2014, 9:55 AM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

Parking should be first priority
Felicia Angus

To the Editor:

The Planning Board meeting on Tuesday night was a firm confirmation as to why the board has to take back control of the future of this town. Sitting there, you might have thought we had all stepped into a Perry Mason special instead of a village meeting. The former Sealfons building developer’s lawyer came out like a bulldog in his “cross examination” of CBR’s [Citizens for a Better Ridgewood] hired planning advisor and was at times condescending, mean-spirited and outright bad-mannered. If he is the representation of the developers that hired him then we can only infer how they would be once they were to get any sort of go ahead to develop in this town. Kudos to Ms. Brigette Bogart, CBR’s planning advisor, for keeping her calm and not being coerced into answering the deliberately leading questions.

What this town needs to thrive is a good parking option to let those who already live here, as well as those from other towns, make use of all that the village has to offer. Walk into any shop and ask the owners. This should be priority number one in helping boost the Central Business District. After that, the Planning Board should decide how it wants to change the town plan and proceed with housing for the empty nesters. Let the village put out the requests for proposals and not be pushed into anything that is not appropriate for the nature of this town.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-letters-to-the-editor/letter-parking-should-be-first-priority-1.1091964#sthash.HyNeepem.dpuf

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SIERRA LEONE BEGINS 3-DAY EBOLA LOCKDOWN

APTOPIX Sierra Leone Ebola

An empty local market area is seen, as Sierra Leone government enforces a three day lock-down on movement of all people in a attempt to fight the Ebola virus, in Freetown, Sierra Leone

SIERRA LEONE BEGINS 3-DAY EBOLA LOCKDOWN

BY CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY
ASSOCIATED PRESS

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Sierra Leone confined its 6 million people to their homes Friday for the next three days as the Ebola-ravaged West African country began what was believed to be the most sweeping lockdown against disease since the Middle Ages.

In a desperate effort to bring the outbreak under control, thousands of health care workers began going house to house in crowded urban neighborhoods and remote villages, hoping to find and isolate infected people.

President Ernest Bai Koroma urged his countrymen to cooperate.

“The survival and dignity of each and every Sierra Leonean is at stake,” he said Thursday night in an address to the nation.

Health officials said they planned to urge the sick to leave their homes and seek treatment. There was no immediate word on whether people would be forcibly removed, though authorities warned that anyone on the streets during the lockdown without an emergency pass would be subject to arrest.

https://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EBOLA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-09-18-18-18-14

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Alibaba’s IPO to end US dominance in technology sector: expert

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Alibaba’s IPO to end US dominance in technology sector: expert

English.news.cn   2014-09-19 04:35:34

LONDON, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) — Alibaba’s IPO could well be the end of U.S. dominance in the world technology sector, a professor from a Britain’s business school told Xinhua on Thursday.

“Alibaba’s annual growth rate of more than 30 percent shows that the gap between the Chinese companies, Alibaba and Tencent, and U.S. companies is getting ever closer,” said Qing Wang, professor from Warwick Business School, one of the most prestigious and highly selective business schools in the world.

“The ability to understand customers intimately and continuously innovate should enable them to expand overseas with US dominance in the world technology sector gradually being broken,” said professor Wang.

The strong performance and fast rise of the Chinese technology companies in the world was helped by an enormous and fast growing domestic market, she said. The competition in that domestic market among the Chinese companies, as well as with multinational corporations that have entered it, was extremely fierce and successful private companies like Alibaba had to be highly entrepreneurial and market-oriented, she added.

Professor Wang didn’t see major risks for Alibaba after IPO, as this was not the first Chinese company who has done this and the earlier ones such as Tencent are doing well after their IPO.

But she warned that what Alibaba might need to watch out for is the short term orientation of the stock market, the expectation and pressure to deliver quick results, which may clash with his business philosophy.

https://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2014-09/19/c_133653948.htm

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Ridgewood H.S. Athletic Hall of Fame: 1913 football “Invincibles” to be honored

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Ridgewood H.S. Athletic Hall of Fame: 1913 football “Invincibles” to be honored

September 19, 2014    Last updated: Friday, September 19, 2014, 12:31 AM
The Ridgewood News

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of stories profiling the 2014 inductees into the Ridgewood High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

RIDGEWOOD — In the era of the “leatherhead” and the infancy of the forward pass, there were few football teams in New Jersey that could match the ability of the Ridgewood High School gridiron standouts of 1913.

Their story would become a legend amongst sports fans who followed the Maroons in those days and beyond. The newspapers called them “Ridgewood’s Invincibles,” and over the last century, their story had been lost but was brought to light again through coincidence. It surfaced after the 2013 Maroon football squad suffered the same fate — 100 years later, almost to the day — as the stalwarts who, in 1913, put on their pads and battled courageously for the honor of RHS.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/sports/high-school-sports/football/induction-for-invincibles-of-1913-1.1091621#sthash.UjLc37v3.dpuf

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Ridgewood Planning Board resolution reaffirms hospital vote

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Ridgewood Planning Board resolution reaffirms hospital vote

September 19, 2014    Last updated: Friday, September 19, 2014, 12:01 AM
By Laura Herzog
Staff Writer
The Ridgewood News

A long process has been memorialized with a long document.

The Planning Board on Tuesday approved a 47-page resolution explaining its vote on The Valley Hospital’s master plan amendment in June.

Though the resolution was passed without further discussion on Tuesday night, The Ridgewood News obtained the document via OPRA request Wednesday morning.

The document, which details the roughly eight-year history of the hospital’s two proposals, lists 113 points that were considered by the board in coming to its 5-2 decision to reject the amendment and the hospital’s proposal to expand, almost doubling in size to accommodate a switch from double to single-bed rooms and other modifications.

In its final point, the board notes: “The 2014 Final Board Master Plan Amendment, when analyzed with the concerns elicited by the 2011 Council in its Resolution, does not represent a substantial enough compromise and departure from the 2010 Amendment.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/resolution-reaffirms-vote-on-valley-hospital-application-1.1092086#sthash.qdB3LyJv.dpuf

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TV Ratings: ‘Thursday Night Football’ Drops With Snoozer Game

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TV Ratings: ‘Thursday Night Football’ Drops With Snoozer Game
8:44 AM PDT 9/19/2014 by Michael O’Connell

Preliminary numbers fall 40 percent as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are scoreless until the fourth quarter

The second outing of CBS’ Thursday Night Football was bound to be smaller than last week — especially when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers entered the fourth quarter without having put any points on the board. Though the team did manage two scoring drives to avoid a shutout against the Atlanta Falcons, 14-56, many viewers had clearly turned the dial.

Preliminary ratings are down 40 percent from last week, with CBS and the NFL Net averaging a 3.3 rating among adults 18-49 in fast national returns. Last week’s game, which averaged an early 5.5 rating, went up to a 7.5 in the key demo once time zone adjustments were made.

Interest in the matchup was clearly already low, as pre-game coverage was also down 34 percent from comparable preliminary numbers last week. That coverage did take on the ongoing public debate over domestic abuse among NFL players and the league’s handling of it.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-thursday-night-football-734304

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Angry with Washington, 1 in 4 Americans open to secession

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Angry with Washington, 1 in 4 Americans open to secession
By Scott Malone

BOSTON Fri Sep 19, 2014 7:41am EDT

(Reuters) – The failed Scottish vote to pull out from the United Kingdom stirred secessionist hopes for some in the United States, where almost a quarter of people are open to their states leaving the union, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found.

Some 23.9 percent of Americans polled from Aug. 23 through Sept. 16 said they strongly supported or tended to support the idea of their state breaking away, while 53.3 percent of the 8,952 respondents strongly opposed or tended to oppose the notion.

The urge to sever ties with Washington cuts across party lines and regions, though Republicans and residents of rural Western states are generally warmer to the idea than Democrats and Northeasterners, according to the poll.

Anger with President Barack Obama’s handling of issues ranging from healthcare reform to the rise of Islamic State militants drives some of the feeling, with Republican respondents citing dissatisfaction with his administration as coloring their thinking.

https://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/19/us-usa-secession-exclusive-idUSKBN0HE19U20140919

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Ho-Ho-Kus woman steps up traffic fight

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Ho-Ho-Kus woman steps up traffic fight


SEPTEMBER 19, 2014    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

HO-HO-KUS — For the better part of a decade, Donna Cioffi has been on a mission to curtail traffic on Powderhorn Road, an oft-used commuter cut-through on the street where she lives.

She has taken her complaints to both local and county officials, and, most recently, to the governor. And now, she has taken matters into her own hands.

Cioffi has paid an engineering firm, whose name she will not disclose, $600 to install traffic strips outside her home. She wants to collect data on traffic speeds and volume on Powderhorn — used as a shortcut between East Saddle River and Wearimus roads — for vehicles looking to bypass a U-shaped stretch of County Road 502.

The strips were taped to the pavement this week in the dark, Cioffi said. The aim is to dispute municipal estimates that 4,000 vehicles traverse Powderhorn Road on any given day; she believes it’s more.

“Well,” Cioffi said, “the town has done nothing to curtail the volume. They just give us lip service. But they’ve done nothing. Nothing.”

Local officials disagree with her claims.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/ho-ho-kus-woman-steps-up-traffic-fight-1.1091760#sthash.9Mg1D0Xf.dpuf

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Home Depot says malware affected 56M payment cards

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Home Depot says malware affected 56M payment cards

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014, 4:50 PM    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2014, 6:09 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK  — Home Depot said that 56 million payment cards were estimated to have been breached in a data theft between April and September at its stores in the U.S. and Canada. That makes it the second-largest breach for a retailer on record.

The nation’s largest home improvement retailer, based in Atlanta, also confirmed Thursday that the malware used in the data breach has been eliminated. The retailer said there was no evidence that debit PIN numbers were compromised or that the breach affected stores in Mexico or customers who shopped online at Homedepot.com. It said it has also completed a “major” payment security project that provides enhanced encryption of customers’ payment data in the company’s U.S. stores.

The disclosure puts the data breach behind TJX Cos.’s theft of 90 million records, disclosed in 2007 and ahead of Target’s pre-Christmas 2013 breach which compromised 40 million credit and debit cards.

Home Depot confirmed its sales-growth estimates for the fiscal year and said it expects to earn $4.54 per share in fiscal 2014, up 2 cents from its prior guidance. The company’s fiscal 2014 outlook includes estimates for the cost to investigate the data breach, providing credit monitoring services to its customers, increasing call center staffing and paying legal and professional services.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/home-depot-says-malware-affected-56m-payment-cards-1.1091344#sthash.hhDBCSU5.dpuf

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Reader says Ridgewood meter money theft issue is a pandora’s box of speculation

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Reader says Ridgewood meter money theft issue is a pandora’s box of speculation

I’m usually against conspiracy theorists, be it Kennedy, 9/11, Elvis, the Moon landing, bin Laden’s killing, etc., but I have to say that the Ridgewood meter money theft issue is a pandora’s box of speculation, and in a world where everyone has an online voice, it’s hardly surprising that speculation is rampant. Why? Here’s why:

1. Despite advances made in parking meters in just about most of the world, including other towns and even NYC, Ridgewood, considered to be a highly sophisticated town, decided to keep it’s museum-pieces as a way of collecting parking fees.

2. The man who was caught was able to negotiate an absurd guilty-plea deal whereby he avoided jail time and agreed to pay just some of it back. One has to wonder why the prosecutor agreed to such a sweet deal on a charge of what is effectively massive theft by a public official in a position of trust. The perception is that the deal was made as a way of avoiding a trial, a trial which would have given the defense attorney room to ask a lot of embarrassing questions.

3. There have been unconfirmed accounts that meter money has always been used as a petty-cash box for the Village, a way of paying for incidentals, like lunches, entertainment, etc. There’s no electronic methodology of recording what gets taken in by the meters, and therefore, it’s easy to record this number at whatever you want it to be.

4. This is local government in the state of New Jersey. If you need me to expand on this, then you must be new here.

If we had a truly democratic and open local Government, the meter theft matter would have been publicly addressed, instead of being allowed to fester.

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State statistics show crime in Ridgewood is declining

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file photo Boyd Loving

State statistics show crime in Ridgewood is declining

SEPTEMBER 19, 2014    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2014, 12:31 AM
BY JODI WEINBERGER
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

Crime in Ridgewood plummeted nearly 30 percent in the first half of this year, mirroring a positive trend throughout the state.

According to data released last month by the state Department of Law and Public Safety reflecting the time period of January to June, non-violent crimes in Ridgewood fell from 97 incidents to 68 when compared with the same time last year, a 29.9 percent decrease.

Meanwhile, the whole state saw a 12.6 percent drop in total crime, which includes homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft.

Ridgewood saw the most improvement in curbing simple assaults, with a 56.9 percent decrease, translating to 58 incidents in the first half of last year to 25 incidents in the first half of 2014.

The police department also saw significant improvements in burglaries, with a decrease from 22 to 12 incidents; and in larceny, where there was a decrease from 75 to 56 incidents.

“We’ve been working hard in a number of different areas of traffic safety and crime prevention,” said Police Chief John Ward.

Ward said because Ridgewood is a “relatively safe community” the drop in its crime numbers does not reflect any one effort, but speaks more to the department’s ongoing commitment to protecting the entire community.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/crime-and-courts/state-statistics-show-dip-in-crime-numbers-1.1091667#sthash.B1kC2PrV.dpuf

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Ridgewood zoning, building departments fill administrative post

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Ridgewood zoning, building departments fill administrative post

SEPTEMBER 19, 2014    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2014, 12:31 AM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Print

A new position in the Building Department has been filled.

Former Planning Board Secretary Jane Wondergem is now the zoning board’s administrative coordinator.

“We have made a move and she will be working for the Zoning Board of Adjustment,” Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld announced at the Sept. 3 Village Council meeting. “I look at this as a big investment in the Building Department.”

The village manager’s announcement came a day after Wondergem was the center of a going away/thank you party, with cake and coffee, at the Planning Board meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 2.

According to Wondergem, she was forced to leave her job at the Planning Board because of a “civil service issue.” Neither she nor Sonenfeld elaborated on the issue when asked about it by The Ridgewood News.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/zoning-building-departmentsfind-administrative-coordinator-1.1091492#sthash.pEWe0mdA.dpuf

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Ridgewood to encourage downtown employees to park in Ken Smith lot

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Ridgewood to encourage downtown employees to park in Ken Smith lot

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2014, 4:22 PM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

Space is being made in Ridgewood’s village code for more parking spaces.

The village has created a new ordinance as a first step to encourage Central Business District (CBD) employee parking in the Franklin Avenue Ken Smith lot, to temporarily free up public parking spaces.

As the village enters a public-private partnership with the new lot owners, KS Broad Street LLC, to allow CBD employees to use the lot, which the village would police and manage, the council on Wednesday introduced an ordinance that establishes requirements for the permitting of CBD employee vehicles in that lot.

“The negotiations still continue. We’re very close,” Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld said.

“I want to emphasize that this is a short-term solution,” she added. “The contract that’s been drafted now by [the village attorney] will be a six-month contract. We think it will go longer because I think the current owner still has to go in front of the Planning Board with his plans for the property, but obviously once he decides what to do with the property, it becomes unavailable to us.”

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/village-finds-space-at-ken-smith-lot-1.1091314#sthash.LjgChrvO.dpuf

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Rupert Murdoch: Scottish Vote Is a Symptom of Global ‘Anti-establishment Groundswell’

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Rupert Murdoch: Scottish Vote Is a Symptom of Global ‘Anti-establishment Groundswell’

By Brendan Bordelon
September 18, 2014 5:22 PM

On the eve of the vote for Scottish independence, Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch explained that the election is merely a symptom of an “anti-establishment groundswell” sweeping through the Western world.

On Friday Murdoch spoke about the impending vote with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto. “I think there’s meaning in this, and I think it goes beyond Scotland,” he said via phone. “There’s a great anti-establishment groundswell which is seen in this vote in Scotland. You’re seeing it here in Britain in the anti-European party, whose one single issue is to get out of Europe. And I think you’re seeing it in France with the polling for Le Pen — I don’t think she’d win, but you know.”

“And really, you can take the United States and go across to middle America,” he continued. “What do they think of Washington, and Wall Street for that matter? People are really looking for change.”

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/388361/rupert-murdoch-scottish-vote-symptom-global-anti-establishment-groundswell-brendan

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Senses Fail to mark 10-year anniversary of debut album at Starland show

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COURTESY PHOTO
James “Buddy” Nielsen of Ridgewood, second from left, is Senses Fail’s frontman

Senses Fail to mark 10-year anniversary of debut album at Starland show

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014    LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2014, 10:58 AM
BY BRIAN ABERBACK
SPECIAL TO THE RECORD
THE RECORD

WHO: Senses Fail, with opening acts No Bragging Rights, Knuckle Puck and To the Wind.

WHAT: Rock, punk and hard-core.

WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

WHERE: Starland Ballroom, 570 Jernee Mill Road, Sayreville; 732-238-5500 or starlandballroom.com.

HOW MUCH: $17 advance, $20 day of show.

MORE INFO: sensesfail.com.

Senses Fail singer Buddy Nielsen wasn’t convinced at first about embarking on a 10-year anniversary tour to celebrate his band’s 2004 debut full-length album, “Let It Enfold You.” But the Ridgewood native’s fans won him over.

“It’s not something I necessarily wanted to do,” Nielsen said by phone ahead of Senses Fail’s show in Sayreville on Saturday. “I’m not big on re-creating the past because I tend not to live there.

“But our fans have been asking for this and I realized how it would make people happy, which made the reasons that I didn’t want to do it seem selfish,” Nielsen said. “Then once I got into it I realized that it would be fun and that I do really like this record and it does make sense.”

“Let It Enfold You’s” amalgam of furious yet infectious punk and hardcore riffs topped by Nielsen’s alternating melodic and shouted vocals made an immediate impact. The album entered the Billboard Top 200 albums chart at No. 34 and the band landed a spot on the Warped Tour, the prestigious traveling punk rock festival.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/arts-and-entertainment/music/senses-fail-on-tour-marking-10th-anniversary-of-debut-album-1.1089549#sthash.SYxAIcGy.dpuf