Editors note: the NJ Supreme Court has cost New Jersey Tax payers billions of dollars over the last 20 years and countless jobs with all its failed social engineering schemes. These schemes have had little to no success and many would argue have made things far worse” 

PJ Blogger 

Playing politics—politicizing the High Court

When I started covering New Jersey politics and government, in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, we didn’t ask what political party a state Supreme Court Justice belonged to. The person was a Justice; that’s what counted.

Today, anyone who follows the state scene can probably tell you that Stuart Rabner and Barry Albin are Democrats, Helen Hoens and Anne Patterson are Republicans, and Jaynee LaVecchia is an independent. Over the past decade or so, the Court has become politicized.

What does that mean exactly? To me it means two things: 1) we think of the justices more in terms of their party affiliation, at least as it existed in their backgrounds, and 2) we think that justices who have not yet achieved “lifetime” tenure are more likely to shy away from a particular position for fear of offending the governor or legislators and thus jeopardizing that tenure.  (Aron for NJ Spotlight)
https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/12/0802/2030/

Photo by Boyd Loving

N.J. allows utilities to impose special rate hikes that target leaky pipes

The state has made it easier for water utilities to raise their rates so they can repair thousands of miles of leaky, aging pipes across New Jersey that lose billions of gallons of treated drinking water each year.

“People get upset about rates going up, but we have some very old infrastructure and you’ve got to maintain it,” said Stefanie Brand, head of the state’s Division of Rate Counsel, which advocates for utility ratepayers. “It’s a very difficult issue.”

New Jersey’s water utilities have some of the oldest pipes in the country – some date back more than 100 years — and many are riddled with leaks. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that in New Jersey alone, $4.7 billion needs to be spent on the water transmission and distribution infrastructure over the next two decades.  (O’Neill, The Record)

https://www.northjersey.com/ho-ho-kus/NJ_allows_utilities_to_charge_special_rate_hikes_that_target_leaky_pipes.html

Speaker Boehner: Obama has ‘never even had a real job, for God’s sake’
By Justin Sink – 08/02/12 03:21 PM ET

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) lashed out at President Obama during an interview Tuesday, saying the president has “never even had a real job, for God’s sake.”

Boehner was discussing the presidential election, and accusing President Obama’s campaign team of using “over-the-top” rhetoric to distract from his economic record.

“Sometimes I have to catch my breath and slow down because the rhetoric in this campaign is just so over-the-top,” Bohener said during an appearance on “Kilmeade and Friends.” “And that’s because the president’s policies have failed. Listen — 93 percent of Americans believe they’re a part of the middle class. That’s why you hear the president talk about the middle class every day, because he’s talking to 93 percent of the American people.”

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/241937-boehner-obama-has-never-even-had-a-real-job-for-christs-sake

photo by Boyd Loving

Rating system gives Ridgewood high marks in public protection
Thursday August 2, 2012, 1:28 PM
BY  DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News

The village will be bumped up to the second highest level of public protection ratings, according to municipal and Ridgewood fire officials who cited findings by the Insurance Services Office (ISO).

The Ridgewood Fire Department has earned a Class 2 grade based on the surveys conducted through the ISO’s Public Protection Classification system. A rating of 1 is considered the best, while a 10 indicates no recognized protection, according to the ISO website.

Ridgewood is one of only 11 fire agencies in New Jersey to have earned a Class 2 grade or better. Less than 600 of the 47,648 communities in the country that were evaluated by ISO received either a Class 1 or 2 rating, putting the village in the top 1.3 percent nationally.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/164767726_Rating_system_gives_Ridgewood_high_marks_in_public_protection.html

Warning from Ridgewood Police: No more warnings
Thursday August 2, 2012, 1:31 PM
BY  LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News

When it comes to pedestrian safety, the Ridgewood Police Department is past issuing warnings, for the most part.

The department’s pedestrian decoy program has led to the issuing of many more summonses than warnings to drivers this summer who failed to yield to plainclothes officers about to cross the street, said Ridgewood Police Chief John Ward.

In the month of June, 35 tickets were given to drivers who failed to stop; police also issued 34 cell phone violations.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/164768216_Warning_from_Ridgewood_Police__No_more_warnings.html

Yellow-light times found to be too short at 3 red-light camera intersections

A survey by engineers and experts for a motorist advocacy group of four intersections with red-light cameras found that three have shorter yellow-light times than a formula in the law says they should.

The surveys, done this week by experts working with the National Motorists Association New Jersey chapter, found short yellow-light times at intersections in Cherry Hill, New Brunswick and Gloucester. An intersection surveyed in East Brunswick had the proper yellow-light time for the speeds that 85 percent of the traffic was traveling at.

“The NMA’s position is fix it, or end it (the Red light Camera program),” said Steve Carrellas, NMA New Jersey chapter coordinator. “A short yellow light is unsafe and a scam.”  (Higgs, Asbury Park Press)
https://www.app.com/article/20120801/NJNEWS/308010125/Yellow-light-times-found-too-short-3-red-light-camera-intersections?nclick_check=1

Kyrillos: “Judicial Independence Is Not Judicial Supremacy”
July 24, 2012

Senator Joe Kyrillos (R- Monmouth), co-sponsor of New Jersey’s landmark public health and pension benefits reform legislation, issued the following statement on the New Jersey Supreme Court’s ruling striking down provisions of the law that pertain to the judicial branch of state government:

Judicial independence does not mean judicial supremacy and exceptionalism. The judicial pension system is in arguably the worst financial shape of all the state’s retirement accounts, and judges pay the least of all state employees for the best benefits.

Judges should be treated no differently than any other state employee or private sector worker. The cost of bailing out their troubled benefits plans should not fall exclusively to the taxpayers of New Jersey. If righting this wrong requires changing the state constitution, let’s do it.

Zabriskie Schedler Property , Ridgewood

Builders can see waivers to DEP regulations as new rule takes effect

A rule allowing the Department of Environmental Protection to consider regulatory waivers went into effect today, as the state Senate has not yet advanced a resolution to block it.

“Too many times we’ve heard of conflicting regulations — not just in the DEP, but in other agencies — which stifles economic development and creating jobs and getting the economy moving,” said Michael Egenton, senior vice president of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce. “This rule gives flexibility to the DEP as it’s looking at various projects, and it will help them get through the regulatory maze in bureaucracy.”  (Eder, NJBIZ)

https://www.njbiz.com/article/20120801/NJBIZ01/120809983/Builders-can-see-waivers-to-DEP-regulations-as-new-rule-takes-effect

Could state-run ‘achievement school district’ be last resort for failing schools?

The Christie administration is weighing the idea of creating a separate state-run “achievement school district” that would be comprised of New Jersey’s very lowest-performing schools, complete with vast new powers in controlling personnel and programs.

The proposal was part of a $7.6 million grant application to the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation made last February, a proposal that never moved to full fruition after the foundation approved a smaller amount, officials now say.

But it will nonetheless be at least part of a broader study of last-resort options for schools that is being conducted by an outside national organization, officials said.   (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/12/0801/2120/

Five lessons from the pilot program changing the way teachers, principals are graded

A year into the New Jersey’s pilot program for developing a new teacher and principal evaluation system, Christie administration officials yesterday gave an update of the program and the prospects for the year ahead.

The aim is to have a new evaluation system in place for every district across the state in 2013-14. But state officials conceded there were many lessons learned from the first year of the pilot, involving 11 districts, and some big issues ahead for the next year in which as many as 20 more districts will test out the system.

In a presentation to the state Board of Education yesterday, Peter Shulman, assistant education commissioner, spoke of those lessons of the past and the changes for the future, each in sets of five. In addition, Shulman presented the first version of new administrative regulations that would ultimately codify the new system.  (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/12/0801/2148/

N.J. court puts lid on value of pets

A loving pet may be worth more than the cost of replacing it, but seeing a dog suffer a violent death is not the same as witnessing a close human relative being killed, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The ruling set a legal limit on the value of pets in a society where they are often considered part of the family.

The decision came in a lawsuit over damages when a bigger mixed-breed dog mauled Joyce McDougall’s 9-year-old Maltese-poodle mix during a walk through their Morris Plains, Morris County, neighborhood in 2007.  (Mulvihill, Associated Press)

https://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20120801_N_J__court_puts_lid_on_value_of_pets.html