Bid Notice-RFP for N. Walnut St. Redevelopment Area
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
Proposals will be received by the Village of Ridgewood, in the Level 4 Courtroom, at the Village Hall, 131 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey, and will be opened on Monday, December 1, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. prevailing time for:
“Request for Proposals and Qualifications
for the
Development of the North Walnut Street Redevelopment Area
Village of Ridgewood Bergen County, New Jersey”
The Village of Ridgewood is seeking proposals from qualified firms to redevelop certain parcels in the North Walnut Street Redevelopment Area in conformance with the Village’s adopted Redevelopment Plan.
The RFP package may be obtained from the Office of the Village Manager, Level 5, Village Hall, 131 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450, (201) 670-5500, extension No. 203. Proposal packages may be examined or picked up in person between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., at 131 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450, Monday through Friday. Prospective respondents requesting that proposal documents be mailed to them shall be responsible for providing their own postage/delivery service remuneration. No proposal forms shall be given out after 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 26, 2014.
Proposals may be submitted in person or by mail prior to the proposal opening, addressed to the Office of the Village Clerk. The Village assumes no responsibility for loss or non-delivery of any proposal sent to it prior to the date and time stated for receipt of proposals.
Each proposal must be enclosed in a sealed envelope with the name of the respondent thereon and endorsed, “Request for Proposals and Qualifications for the Development of the North Walnut Street Redevelopment Area, Village of Ridgewood, Bergen County, New Jersey”.
All respondents shall present satisfactory evidence of being authorized to do business in the State of New Jersey. All respondents shall also provide a copy of their New Jersey Business Registration Certificate with their proposal. Additional requirements for submittal are presented in the RFP. All respondents shall adhere to the requirements presented in the “Request for Proposals”. The Village of Ridgewood reserves the right to reject any or all proposals, to waive any informality or to accept a proposal, which in its judgment best serves the interest of the Village.
Reader , Thank heavens for the eminently qualified and blessedly plain-spoken Stanford professor James Milgram, who places the blame for this recurring nightmare right where it belongs: the ossified, math-allergic minds of this country’s education school faculties. If the husband-wife reform math zealots had safely touched down in the Ridgewood district’s superintendent’s office, as had been the plan before local parents merely suggested a conflict of interest with similarly off-kilter textbook publishers like Pearson, Ridgewood would now be a Botsford-powered Mecca for Common Core adherents looking for leadership in how to deprive high-potential students of decent foundations in math achievement.
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COMMON CORE BLOCKBUSTER: MATHEMATICIAN DR. JIM MILGRAM WARNS COMMON CORE WILL DESTROY AMERICA’S STANDING IN TECHNOLOGY
During a Friday conference call sponsored by Texas-based Women on the Wall, Stanford mathematician and former member of the Common Core Validation Committee Dr. James Milgram, told listeners that if the controversial standards are not repealed, America’s place as a competitor in the technology industry will ultimately be severely undermined.
“In the future, if we want to work with the top level people, we’re going to have to go to China or Japan or Korea… and that’s the future we’re looking at,” Milgram said during the call that was part of a day-long Twitter campaign to target Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s (R) decision merely to “rebrand” the Common Core standards in his state, even though he has a Republican supermajority in the legislature and an appointed state board of education.
Pence was in Dallas Friday for Americans for Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream summit, considered to be an essential stop for presidential hopefuls.
In less than 40 minutes, Milgram floored listeners with information about the Common Core standards, how they will affect the nation’s students and, ultimately, the country itself, and what parents and citizens can do to try to stop them. Listen to the podcast in full below:
Milgram began by addressing the reason why he was on the call: to let Pence know that his “rebrand” of the Common Core was a betrayal of Indiana’s citizens.
Born and raised in Indiana himself, Milgram that it was important to him as a fellow Hoosier that the state do a decent job with replacement standards after repealing the Common Core.
“The state actually paid me to evaluate new standards,” he said about his involvement in the review process.
The Stanford professor then explained to listeners a key reason why the Common Core standards will prevent students from moving into STEM careers.
Milgram said he was “incredibly disappointed that the drafts I was reading [of Indiana’s new standards] looked so much like the Common Core,” but was nevertheless happy to see that advanced math classes like pre-calculus, calculus, and trigonometry were left into the replacement standards.
“These were very well-done and absolutely impossible to teach if all these kids had were Core standards,” Milgram explained. “It was a complete disaster because even the things that they added—that were of high quality—were added to standards that couldn’t support them.”
Milgram described his experience in the 1990s when he was asked to assist with a project that would replace California’s “disastrous” education standards. The mathematician said he strongly recommended that students in the 8th grade take Algebra and that his recommendation was heeded.
From the time the new standards were put in place and until the time of the adoption of Common Core standards in California in 2010, Milgram said two-thirds of the students in the state were taking Algebra in the 8th grade and doing well, with over half of them at least proficient or above.
Milgram said this piece of information is critical because it showed that it was possible for almost every student to handle Algebra in the 8th grade.
“The group that made by far the most progress were the minorities – blacks and Hispanics – who had essentially been written off by the system,” Milgram explained, and then went on to reveal how the fact that challenging minority students – resulting in their increased performance – was a threat to faculty in universities.
“So, their numbers were increasing dramatically and I frankly think that the… faculty in the education schools throughout the country actually got extremely scared by this,” he continued, “because it contradicted everything that they’ve been telling us for the past hundred years about how education works and what one can expect and how one should train teachers.”
Milgram asserted that a strong education in mathematics is essential for success.
“If you don’t have a strong background in mathematics then your most likely career path is into places like McDonald’s,” he said. “In today’s world… the most critical component of opening doors for students is without any question some expertise in mathematics.”
Milgram explained that in the high-achieving countries, where about a third of the population of the world outside the United States is located, about 90 percent of citizens have a high school degree for which the requirements include at least one course in calculus.
“That’s what they [sic] know,” he said. “If we’re lucky, we [sic] know Algebra II. With Algebra II as background, only one in 50 people will ever get a college degree in STEM.”
Milgram warned that with the Common Core standards, unless U.S. students are able to afford exclusive private high school educations that are more challenging, they will be disadvantaged.
“This shows that, from my perspective, Common Core does not come close to the rhetoric that surrounds it,” he continued. “It doesn’t even begin to approach the issues that it was supposedly designed to attack. The things it does are completely distinct from what needs to be done.”
Milgram said, in California, they were able to deal with the problem of their poor academic standards in the 1990s because the curriculum was controlled by the state and the high-tech industry in Silicon Valley threatened to move all its research and manufacturing elsewhere if the problem was not addressed.
“The curricula we were fighting then… they’re back!” he announced. “We are hearing exactly the same kind of things now with Common Core as we heard back in the ’90s!”
“How can you have mathematics problems that don’t have a single answer or correct answer – any answer is correct?” Milgram asked. “Well, of course the answer is mathematically you can’t, and all of this is just a repeat of what went on 20 years ago in California – but this time, it’s national.”
“This time I don’t see any uniform or systematic way of getting rid of it,” Milgram said. “The only way you’re going to get rid of it is state by state and parent group by parent group. And if you’re lucky, industry will join you because high tech is ever a more important part of our economy.”
The bad news, according to Milgram, is that, returning to his experience in California in the ’90s, if students had been in that system with the older, poor standards for three or four years, “the damage couldn’t be undone,” he said.
“All of this should really make you angry at the people who are responsible,” Milgram said, directing himself squarely to the parents listening to him. “And the people who are responsible – I’m going to be blunt about it – are the people in the education schools – they’re the ones who had the ultimate say about all of this and they’re the ones whose beliefs are driving it.”
Milgram explained that a uniform perspective exists on issues in education and what is important to achieve among a vast majority of the faculty in schools of education. Because of this, he said, the same types of standards always come back.
“You must go after the schools of education and the faculty of these schools,” Milgram urged.
Asked about the fact that many industrial giants and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce actually support the Common Core standards, Milgram responded that in the ’90s, research centers in this country were still very much needed. Now, however, he noted that most of the research in top-level firms has moved out of the U.S. IBM’s main research center, he observed, is in India, and other companies have moved their research centers to Russia, Korea, and China.
“Even Microsoft has moved its software development to Beijing,” Milgram noted. The founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, is the primary source of private funding of the Common Core standards.
“Production and manufacturing has also moved out of this country,” Milgram added. “The longer this continues, the more we’ll see our major industry move over to other countries and the jobs they generate will go with them.” Send
AUGUST 31, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, AUGUST 31, 2014, 1:21 AM BY KARA YORIO STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
The child’s eyes well up and lip starts to quiver. The worried “what ifs” start almost immediately.
What if my teacher is mean?
What if Joey teases me?
What if the work is too hard?
What if nobody sits with me at lunch?
As a parent, instinct kicks in.
“Don’t be nervous, there’s nothing to worry about,” you tell her. “Everything’s going to be OK.”
For an anxious kid that’s exactly the wrong thing to say, according to licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist Lynn Lyons, who co-wrote the book, “Anxious Parents, Anxious Kids: 7 Ways to Stop the Worry Cycle and Raise Courageous and Independent Children.”
“The external reassurance is a quick fix but it doesn’t last,” said Lyons, who practices in New Hampshire. “The error that parents make is trying to tell kids that everything will be OK rather than equipping them with the skill to handle things when they’re not OK.”
This time of year, a lot of kids are getting nervous. The approach of Labor Day in North Jersey brings worried faces and frequent complaints of stomachaches.
“It is completely normal and expected for children to have a little bit of anxiety when starting the school year,” Pompton Plains licensed clinical psychologist Peter Berzins wrote in an email.
For some children, however, anxiety can be overwhelming. If a child consistently doesn’t want to go to school, can’t concentrate while there, avoids normal activities like birthday parties or the school bus, won’t sleep in his own bed, if there is a lot of distress, crying, stomachaches and headaches, it is time to seek professional help, according to Lyons and Berzins.
“Too much anxiety can lead to a slew of problems including trouble focusing at school and downright refusal to go to school,” wrote Berzins, founder of Birch Tree Psychology, who is an expert in treating anxiety disorder.
He agrees that downplaying a child’s concerns and telling them everything will be fine is the wrong way to deal with an anxious child — as is ignoring a kid’s issues with anxiety.
“Basically parents unknowingly lie to their kids because they wish everything would be all right,” he wrote. “But being honest with your kids and seeing them for who they are … anxious … worried … is the best strategy.”
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/professional-advice-on-kids-and-back-to-school-anxiety-1.1078626#sthash.57g0YSqv.dpuf
US schools fight `boundary hoppers’
By Jane Han
korea times
DALLAS — As back-to-school season arrives in the United States, school districts popular among Koreans are on high alert as authorities start to clamp down on “boundary hopping,” an illegal trick where parents fake home addresses to send their children to better schools.
Public school officials of competitive districts in California, New York, New Jersey, Virginia and Maryland are aggressively trying to weed out students who don’t belong in their school systems by requiring parents to prove residency in a variety of ways and, in some cases, making surprise home visits to confirm that students actually live at the addresses they say.
In the U.S., boundary hoppers could end up behind bars for theft of educational services or face fines of up to $5,000, as well as paying extra tuition and local taxes. The crime is taken seriously here as taxpaying residents argue that they are educating boundary hoppers, who don’t pay the same taxes, at their own expense.
“Boundary hopping is a huge headache for some schools and we know that many Koreans are at the center of the problem,” says Lee, a Korean education official in Ridgewood, N.J., who didn’t want to be fully named.
“I heard that several Korean students in the Ridgewood district wouldn’t go directly home after school. They would go to the library, spend a few hours there until a van picks them up, stop by a few other places and then finally take them home, which is not located in Ridgewood,” she said. “Someone from the Board of Education got a hold of this information and followed the van. I don’t know what happened next, but people should learn from this. Authorities are watching.”
Despite being a criminal activity, discussing boundary hopping isn’t uncommon in the Korean community. Many say Korean parents who are fresh from South Korea are often unafraid to ask acquaintances to do them the “favor” of lending their address.
“I was asked at least three times last year alone if they could use my home address. These parents all had children in middle and high school. They didn’t seem to know what kind of consequences boundary hopping would bring to me, them and their kids,” says Kim Yoo-eun, who lives in Plano, Texas, a district with one of the best public schools in the state.
Education experts say boundary hopping can not only lead to monetary penalties and criminal charges, but could ruin a student’s chances of entering college.
If there’s a day of the year to notice the paradox of organized labor, Labor Day is it.
Ira Stoll | September 1, 2014
here’s a day of the year to notice the paradox of organized labor, Labor Day is it.
The paradox is this: even as private sector unionism has declined, public sector unionism is in some ways more influential than ever.
The numbers tell the story. Among private sector employees — the ones who work for for-profit companies or non-profit organizations that are not part of the government — the percentage who belong to labor unions plummeted to a mere 7.5 percent last year, from 23.3 percent in 1977, according to UnionStats.com. By the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics’ more restrictive accounting, a mere 6.7 percent of private sector workers were in unions in 2013.
Among government workers, it’s a whole different story: 40.8 percent of local government workers — teachers, police, firefighters, librarians — belong to unions, according to the BLS numbers. The public sector rate drops to 35.3 percent (38.7 percent by the UnionStats.com numbers) if you include state and federal employees — postal workers, corrections officers. That’s so much higher than the private sector that it’s almost a tale of two labor movements — one, in the private sector, that is diminishing to irrelevance, and another, in the public sector, that retains substantial clout.
‘US manufacturing has been lost. Now it’s happening to TV’
From Game of Thrones to Modern Family, more US TV series are being filmed outside America than ever before, says John Hiscock
Hollywood’s big-budget blockbuster movies have often been filmed overseas, particularly in England because of the tax incentives offered. Now television is following suit and more US series than ever before are filming outside North America. Why?
US TV networks are increasingly drawn by accommodating tax breaks, the easy availability of professional crews and the novelty of fresh scenery and different landscapes. This combination has greatly increased the attraction of shooting their shows overseas.
Smaller nations such as Sri Lanka have begun offering tax incentives, and others such as New Zealand have improved their own production infrastructures to make them state-of-the-art. Iceland recently lured the HBO series Game of Thrones as well as the feature films Noah and Prometheus.
In Japan, government and film industry officials are considering an incentive programme that would bring them in line with the more than 30 foreign countries trying to lure US TV series.
Even shows which are specifically set in California, such as the Fox TV series Alcatraz, have gone abroad. Alcatraz, whose story begins in the infamous prison in the San Franciso Bay, is in fact filmed in Vancouver, where now-cancelled series such as The X-Files were filmed in the past.
Democrats are running out of time for an economic savior.
They have long predicted that an economic turnaround would be the elixir that helps them retain control of the Senate in November.
But with just a handful of big economic reports left before Election Day, the economic picture is largely in place. And while the outlook is bright, voters continue to hold a dim view of their own financial prospects.
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“There are still a lot of families playing catch-up,” said Jared Bernstein at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. “It’s got to be awfully hard for the typical voter to figure out what Congress had done to help the economy move forward. It’s a lot easier to figure out what they’ve done to screw things up.”
Broadly speaking, the economy has made gains in the last several months. The unemployment rate has held steady or dropped every month for over a year, and new data shows the economy grew this spring at its fastest rate in more than 12 months.
But the good news isn’t resonating with the public.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released earlier this month found 71 percent of people blamed Washington for the economy’s woes, and dissatisfaction mainly fell on incumbents overall, rather than on a particular party.
That poll found roughly half of voters believe the economy is still in a recession, even though the economic decline ended in June 2009.
Similarly, Gallup’s index of economic confidence has remained unchanged for all of 2014. People are actually less confident about the economy now than they were in January, when the unemployment rate was nearly half a percentage point higher.
With just two months to go before the midterm elections, there are just a handful of major economic indicators due before ballots are cast, including a pair of jobs reports.
With so little time left, it appears increasingly unlikely that views will change enough to boost the chances of Democrats, who are trying to escape the gravity of President Obama’s flagging poll numbers.
Some researchers argue the economic recovery has not been felt widely, with the majority of the gains going to people on the top of the income scale.
MAYOR’S OFFICE HOURS FOR RESIDENTS – Saturday, September 6 – 8AM – 10AM
Mayor Paul Aronsohn holds office hours for Ridgewood residents the first Saturday of every month. On September 6th the time will be adjusted due to Coffee with the Council at 10AM. Mayor Aronsohn will meet with residents on Saturday, September 6th from 8AM to 10AM in the Council Chambers (Sydney V. Stoldt, Jr. Court Room) on the fourth floor of Ridgewood Village Hall.
For an appointment to meet with the Mayor, please call the Village Clerk’s Office at 201-670-5500 ext. 206. You may come to the Mayor’s office hours without an appointment, but those with appointments will be given priority.
Woman found dead in Ho-Ho-Kus; son in custody
September 1, 2014 10:06 AM
Ridgewood NJ, A woman was found dead in the early morning hours in her Ho-Ho-Kus home, and her son is expected to be charged with her murder, according to police.
Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli says Karen Piotti, 63, suffered multiple stab wounds and beating trauma.
Her son, 24-year-old Nicholas Piotti, is currently in custody at the Bergen County Medical Center, Molinelli said. Murder charges will be filed later Monday.
Bolger Heritage Center, Ridgewood Public Library. Do you have an Arrow Yearbook looking for a new home? Is it from 1912, 1915, 1944, 1966, 1972, 1975, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1993, 1997, or 2011?
Ridgewood resident brings family’s history to life
AUGUST 25, 2014 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2014, 3:22 PM BY BY JODI WEINBERGER STAFF WRITER
In 2012, John Dabney was newly retired and looking for a project to fill his time.
He began researching his family’s history with the goal of learning more about his past, but the personal exploration quickly grew to an “extended family investigation” that took him all over the country interviewing relatives.
Not long after his research began, he connected with a third cousin and award-winning author Joseph Dabney, who had also been collecting family history, and the two decided over a lunch in Georgia to combine their efforts into a book.
Called, “The Dabneys of South Carolina, A Family History in Stories and Pictures,” the book traces the family to 1795 with the birth of Alexander Dabney, who emigrated from Ireland to South Carolina.
From that start, John and Joseph Dabney were able to track down 2,500 Dabneys in 1,700 families and conducted more than 250 interviews with relatives in almost every state.
“I figured I would travel with my wife and do as much research as needed and ended up doing seven to 10 hours of work a day,” John Dabney said.
However, a lot of the research, as he discovered, could be done right in Ridgewood.
FALL PROGRAMS AT RIDGEWOOD RECREATION – Something for Everyone!
FALL PROGRAMS WITH RIDGEWOOD RECREATION
Register now for fall offerings with Ridgewood Parks and Recreation. There is something for everyone!
Pre-school – Abrakadoodle’s My First Art and Mini Doodler, Happy Feet Dance Introduction, and US Sports Institute’s Sport Squirts and T-Ball.
Elementary – Education Explorer’s Dramatic Arts and Tech Titans, Explore Science’s Robots & Simple Machines, Acrylics, Drawing, Abrakadoodle “Scape” Artist and sports include Skateboarding, Golf, KidSafe Self Defense and Tennis.
Adults – Acrylics, Watercolors, Chinese Brush Painting, Tennis, Zumba, Toning, Silver Strength and Motion, Mindful Meditation, Men’s Fitness, Jazzercise, Chair Yoga, Yoga Fit, No Aches/No Pain – Arthritis Class, Bridge & Canasta and Learn to Crochet.
Dates, times, location, and cost details can all be found at www.ridgewoodnj.net/recreation. Registration forms may be printed and mailed or you will find a link for online registration if applicable.
Please call the Recreation Office at 201-670-5560 with questions or if special accommodations are needed
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
LABOR DAY LEGISLATION
Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From these, a movement developed to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.
FOUNDER OF LABOR DAY
More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.
Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.”
But Peter McGuire’s place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.
“The Real Maguire – Who Actually Invented Labor Day?”
THE FIRST LABOR DAY
The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.
In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a “workingmen’s holiday” on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.
The Real Maguire – Who Actually Invented Labor Day?
While most sources, even the Department of Labor, credit Peter McGuire with the origination of Labor Day, recent evidence suggests that the true father of Labor Day may in fact be another famous union leader of the 19th Century, Matthew Maguire.
According to legend, Peter McGuire stood before the New York Central Labor Union on May 12, 1882, to suggest the idea of setting aside one day a year to honor labor. McGuire believed that Labor Day should “be celebrated by a street parade which would publicly show the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations.”
Peter McGuire was a young, though well-respected, union leader. A child of immigrants, he quit school at an early age to go to work. In 1881, he founded the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, which would become the largest trade union of the time. Later, McGuire would join with his friend, Samuel Gompers, to found the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Through the AFL and the Carpenters, McGuire led the great strikes of 1886 and 1890, which would eventually result in the adoption of the eight-hour workday on the nation’s agenda.
Recently, however, evidence uncovered at the New Jersey Historical Society in Newark reveals that another respected union figure of the day, Matthew Maguire, may quite possibly be the man behind the creation of Labor Day.
In the 1870s, Matthew Maguire led several strikes, most of which were intended to force the plight of manufacturing workers and their long hours into the public consciousness. By 1882, Maguire had become the secretary of and a leading figure in the Central Labor Union of New York.
According to the New Jersey Historical Society, after President Cleveland signed into law the creation of a national Labor Day, The Paterson (N.J.) Morning Call published an opinion piece entitled, “Honor to Whom Honor is Due,” which stated that “the souvenir pen should go to Alderman Matthew Maguire of this city, who is the undisputed author of Labor Day as a holiday.” This editorial also referred to Maguire as the “Father of the Labor Day holiday.”
So why has Matthew Maguire been overlooked as the “Father of Labor Day”?
According to The First Labor Day Parade, by Ted Watts, Maguire held some political beliefs that were considered fairly radical for the day and also for Samuel Gompers and his American Federation of Labor. Allegedly, Gompers did not want Labor Day to become associated with the sort of “radical” politics of Matthew Maguire, so in a 1897 interview, Gompers’ close friend Peter J. McGuire was assigned the credit for the origination of Labor Day.
Labor Day stems from deadly labor strike, but few Americans know the history
A labor movement in Chicago in 1894 left 30 Pullman workers dead, and later spurred Congress and President Grover Cleveland to pass a bill creating Labor Day. But the history of this holiday is rarely taught in schools, and there are few full-time labor journalists to write about working class communities.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Sunday, August 31, 2014, 7:31 PM
WASHINGTON — Monday is the day to celebrate the American worker and his sacrifices and economic and social achievements.
You do know that, right?
If you don’t, you’re not alone.
Few recall the bloodstained origins of this holiday as we fire up the grill, throw on the burgers and dogs and turn on the U.S. Open tennis or maybe the Yanks, Mets or another ballgame.
And, in a sign of the times, the Sunday morning network news shows didn’t even offer their usual, token pre-Labor Day weekend spot for the head of the nation’s labor movement.
“No,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka when I asked him. “No invitations this year.”
I told the former mine worker-turned-lawyer that there seems to be a precious lack of understanding of the holiday’s origins.
In fact, it stems from an awful confrontation in Chicago in 1894 that saw federal marshals and the Army kill 30 striking Pullman railroad strikers.
