Maybe an idea who’s time has come: D.C. students being paid for summer school
July 29, 2012
The District is paying 305 students with poor academic and behavioral records to attend summer school, The Washington Examiner has learned.
The rising ninth-graders are earning $5.25 an hour to participate in the “Summer Bridge” program, which targets students identified by D.C. Public Schools as less likely than their peers to graduate high school within four years.
The 95 students who voluntarily signed up for the summer school program will receive half of an elective credit. But to fill the 400-student session with at-risk students, DCPS reached out to the Department of Employment Services. More than 300 students flagged by DCPS and who had signed up for the Summer Youth Employment Program were told that school would be their jobs this summer.
Changes announced for N.J.’s government-documents agency
The Christie administration announced changes Monday to the operations of an agency that handles requests for government documents, six weeks after The Inquirer detailed the agency’s lack of transparency.
The Government Records Council (GRC) adjudicates appeals when local and state government officials deny requests for public information. Although it is supposed to be the state’s final arbiter on what is public information – from political information to police reports – it has acted in a manner far less public than other governmental bodies.
In 2010, Gov. Christie’s office rejected a request from The Inquirer about the governor’s e-mails and travel records. The newspaper appealed to the GRC, and the case was heard in spring 2012. As documented in a first-person article last month, an Inquirer reporter wasn’t given advance notice about the hearing. (Katz, The Philadelphia Inquirer)
commuter waiting for the bus at the Port Authority bus station
No Surprise Port Authority delays release of second audit report
The anticipated second audit report of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s $25.1 billion, 10-year-capital program won’t be released at the bi-state agency’s board meeting on Wednesday.
The second phase of a report, ordered by Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a condition of approving the Port Authority’s toll and PATH fare increases last summer, had been promised in the June-July time frame by Patrick Foye, executive director, in earlier interviews.
The release of the report is likely to be sometime in the next month, said Steve Coleman, authority spokesman. (Higgs, Asbury Park Press)
Move over, NJEA. The New Jersey Supreme Court is now Public Enemy No. 1
Legislature hands down speedy verdict: Judges should pay
Move over, NJEA. The New Jersey Supreme Court is now Public Enemy No. 1 and could remain so for the next few months.
Infuriated by a Supreme Court ruling that the New Jersey Constitution barred the governor and legislature from requiring judges to pay more for their pension and health care, the state Senate and Assembly took less than an hour yesterday to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would overturn that decision.
“Rarely has the public seen such unanimity between the legislative and executive branches that the judicial branch was dead wrong,” said Republican Christie, who has increasingly focused his wrath on the Supreme Court for its “liberal” bias and “judicial activism” in recent months. (Magyar, NJ Spotlight)
Bergen County Republican Organization Chairman Bob Yudin hasn’t taken a victory lap following June’s bruising chairman’s fight.
He’s on what could best be described as a “Settling of Scores Tour 2012.”
Yudin says he may not give the coveted “line” — preferred ballot position, and the BCRO official endorsement — to the District 40 Republican incumbents, Sen. Kevin O’Toole of Cedar Grove and Assemblymen David Russo of Ridgewood and Scott Rumana of Wayne, in the 2013 legislative races. If Yudin makes good on his threat, that could open the door to a potentially costly primary in seven northwest Bergen towns during a possible Chris Christie reelection campaign.
Yudin is still seething that the trio endorsed Anthony Rottino, his chief opponent in the chairman’s fight which Yudin won in a runoff vote. Why, Yudin argues, should he throw his unabashed devotion — and BCRO clout — to the trio when they tried to put an end to his own career?
And it’s more than their siding with the enemy that has him so steamed.
Post office nears historic default on $5B payment
Jul 30, 3:25 PM (ET)
By HOPE YEN
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. Postal Service is bracing for a first-ever default on billions in payments due to the Treasury, adding to widening uncertainty about the mail agency’s solvency as first-class letters plummet and Congress deadlocks on ways to stem the red ink.
With cash running perilously low, two legally required payments for future postal retirees’ health benefits – $5.5 billion due Wednesday, and another $5.6 billion due in September – will be left unpaid, the mail agency said Monday. Postal officials said they also are studying whether they may need to delay other obligations. In the coming months, a $1.5 billion payment is due to the Labor Department for workers compensation, which for now it expects to make, as well as millions in interest payments to the Treasury.
The defaults won’t stir any kind of catastrophe in day-to-day mail service. Post offices will stay open, mail trucks will run, employees will get paid, current retirees will get health benefits.
But a growing chorus of analysts, labor unions and business customers are troubled by continuing losses that point to deeper, longer-term financial damage, as the mail agency finds it increasingly preoccupied with staving off immediate bankruptcy while Congress delays on a postal overhaul bill.
Twitter caves shuts down critic of NBC Olympic Coverage
Guy Adams (Mashable)Guy Adams works as a writer for The Independent, a national newspaper in Great Britain. He lives in Los Angeles. Throughout the Olympics, he’s taken to Twitter and ripped NBC repeatedly for its coverage of the Games in America.
Namely, he’s criticized the network’s reliance on using tape delays, a frustration shared by millions of viewers.
Only in a marriage of old media and social media, Guy Adams no longer has a Twitter account. It was suspended Tuesday and both NBC and Twitter ought to be humiliated by its thin-skinned, heavy-handed and essentially pointless behavior.
Scalia opens door for gun-control legislation, extends slow burning debate
Published July 30, 2012
FoxNews.com
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Sunday the Second Amendment leaves open the possibility of gun-control legislation, adding to what has become a slow-boiling debate on the issue since the Colorado movie theater massacre earlier this month.
Scalia, one of the high court’s most conservative justices, said on “Fox News Sunday” that the majority opinion in the landmark 2008 case of District of Columbia v. Heller stated the extent of gun ownership “will have to be decided in future cases.”
“We’ll see,” he said.
Scalia’s comments follow the July 20 massacre at the Aurora, Colo., movie theater in which the alleged gunman, with the help of a semi-automatic weapon and an ammunition clip that could hold as many as 100 rounds, killed 12 and wounded 59 others.
Police State : DHS gears up for civil unrest prior to presidential elections
Published: 28 July, 2012, 12:49
The Department of Homeland Security has ordered masses of riot gear equipment to prepare for potential significant domestic riots at the Republican National Convention, Democratic National Convention and next year’s presidential inauguration.
The DHS submitted a rushed solicitation to the Federal Business Opportunities site on Wednesday, which is a portal for Federal government procurement requisitions over $25,000. The request gave the potential suppliers only one day to submit their proposals and a 15-day delivery requirement to Alexandria, Virginia.
Pushing on a String: Fed Weighs Cutting Interest On Banks’ Reserves After ECB Move
By Caroline Salas Gage and Liz Capo McCormick – Jul 30, 2012 12:00 AM ET
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may be taking another look at cutting the interest rate the Fed pays on bank reserves to bring down short-term borrowing costs and spur the slowing U.S. expansion.
Bernanke testified to Congress on July 17 that reducing the rate from its current 0.25 percent is one of several easing steps the Fed might take to reduce unemployment stuck above 8 percent for more than three years. In February, by contrast, the Fed chairman told Congress that lowering the rate might drive away investors from short-term money markets.
“They’re reconsidering it,” said Ward McCarthy, a former Richmond Fed economist. A July 5 decision by the European Central Bank to cut its deposit rate to zero is prompting renewed interest in the strategy, said McCarthy, chief financial economist at Jefferies & Co. McCarthy said it’s unlikely the Fed will reduce the rate at a two-day meeting that starts tomorrow.
Policy makers meeting this week are looking for new monetary tools after the Fed lowered its benchmark interest rate to near zero in December 2008 and purchased $2.3 trillion of securities to spur the economy. A government report on July 27 showed economic growth slowed to a 1.5 percent annual rate in the second quarter as consumers curbed spending.
“They are at the end of their rope and are probably searching for every last option for what they can do,” said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York and a former economist for the Fed Board in Washington. “You can’t rule anything out because they’re going to flail around and try every last thing they can.”
Valley Hospital named in Becker’s Hospital Review Names 100 Hospitals with Great Orthopedic Programs
Chicago, Illinois (PRWEB) July 29, 2012
Valley Hospital of Ridgewood named in Becker’s Hospital Review 100 hospitals with great orthopedic programs across the country.
The editorial staff of Becker’s Hospital Review recognizes these hospitals as leaders in orthopedic treatment and research. To develop this list, the editorial team analyzed data from U.S. News & World Report, HealthGrades and Thomson Reuters, as well as the American Nurses Credentialing Center for Magnet status and Blue Cross Blue Shield Association for Blue Distinction status.
After examining rankings and accolades, the team performed additional research into each hospital and analyzed the list with industry experts. The final result is a list of 100 hospitals from across the country that have demonstrated continual innovation in orthopedic treatments and services. Additionally, the hospitals included emphasize patient-centered care and forward-thinking research.
About Becker’s Hospital Review Becker’s Hospital Review is a bimonthly publication offering up-to-date business and legal news and analysis relating to hospitals and health systems. Our content is geared toward high level hospital leaders, and we work to provide valuable content, including hospital and health system news, best practices and legal guidance specifically for these decision makers. Each issue of Becker’s Hospital Review reaches more than 18,000 people, primarily acute-care hospital CEOs and CFOs.
N.J. public employees retiring at slower pace, records show
After two years in which teachers, cops, firefighters and other public workers headed for the exits in record numbers as Trenton took aim at their pensions and benefits, the pace of retirements has slowed drastically, the latest records show.
A total of 13,865 local and state public workers are expected to call it quits this year, significantly fewer than the 19,585 who retired last year, when Gov. Chris Christie and lawmakers forced them to pick up a greater share of their health and pension costs, according to figures released by the Treasury Department. (Renshaw, The Star-Ledger)
A consortium headed by South Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross has submitted a proposal for the state’s first renaissance school.
The school, called the KIPP Cooper Norcross Academy, will be built in Camden, one of three cities statewide approved for the schools under the Urban Hope Act signed by the governor in January.
If approved, the school will eventually serve 2,840 Camden students in grades pre-K through 12 and provide guaranteed enrollment for children in the Lanning Square neighborhood. The first class of kindergarten students would begin in 2014. It will offer a college preparatory curriculum , with the goal of at least doubling the number of Camden students who attain a four-year college degree by 2030, according to an announcement from the group. (Isherwood, PolitickerNJ)
Rep. Black’s healthcare prescription doesn’t include the government
By Sterling C. Beard – 07/30/12 05:00 AM ET
Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) is a woman of firsts.
She was the first member of her family to receive a degree in higher education, an A.D. in nursing from Anne Arundel Community College in 1971.
She was the first freshman member of the 112th Congress to have a bill become law, and she was one of only two freshmen appointed to the House Ways and Means Committee.
There’s one thing she’s already experienced ahead of many others, though, that she has no desire to see again: universal healthcare.
Black got into politics because of her opposition to TennCare, a statewide pilot program for universal coverage that was launched in 1994 as the Clinton White House was pushing for healthcare reform.
Four Ridgewood graduates will play football in college
FRIDAY JULY 27, 2012, 1:08 PM
BY JIM MCCONVILLE
CORRESPONDENT
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD — Four Ridgewood High School football players who graduated this year will be looking forward to the beginning of practice in a few short weeks as they take their skills to the college level.
Anthony Balboa (Susquehanna), Michael Johnson (Amherst), Mike Camporini (Springfield) and Blake Feagles (Avon Old Farm, CT) will carry the Maroon football torch into the fall, with all four hoping to make an instant impact on their respective teams.
“It is a good fit for all four of them,” Ridgewood head football coach Chuck Johnson said. “They all did a great job for us last season, and I know they’ll be contributors on their new teams as well.”
The number might have been higher if not for a few of the Maroons accepting lacrosse scholarships. Most notably in this group are Tripp Telesco (Lehigh) and Peter Reuter (Bowdoin).
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