Wall Street goes bearish on US stocks
By Vivianne Rodrigues and Arash Massoudi in New York
Wall Street strategists are expressing their most bearish views on US equities in nearly three years as investor worries mount over the threat of a eurozone break-up and the outlook for the global economy.
The bearish outlook comes even as stocks enjoyed their best first quarter since 1997. However, since stocks peaked in March, the S&P 500 has shed more than half its prior gains for the year.
Big Wall Street companies have cut their asset allocation to equities to its lowest level since May 2009, according to a Bloomberg index that measures average allocation for stocks. Asset allocation to equities has declined to 52 per cent from 62 per cent in January.
Others stated that such a degree of bearishness at big Wall Street groups actually provided a contrarian sign.
Now that’s Stimulus :Stimulus Dollars Fund Studies into Sexual History and Erectile Dysfunction
By Tony Kovaleski, Liza Meak, and Felipe Escamilla
| Wednesday, May 16, 2012
The NBC Investigative Unit has raised questions about two grants totaling nearly $1.5 million dollars distributed to the University of California San Francisco. The money was part of the federal stimulus program and went to studies into the erectile dysfunction of overweight middle aged men and the accurate reporting of someone’s sexual history.
This is part of our ongoing series of investigations by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit into who got federal stimulus dollars, and why some projects did not break ground more than two years after receiving the grant.
PUBLIC FORUMS ON SCHEDLER PROPERTY – May 16 Ridge School & May 29 Village Hall Court Room
The Village of Ridgewood Open Space Committee will conduct a series of three public forums to discuss future development of the Schedler Property located at Route 17 North and West Saddle River Road in Ridgewood. The date and location of the meetings are Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at Ridge School and Tuesday, May 29 in the Court Room, 4th Floor at Ridgewood Village Hall. All of the meetings will begin at 7:30PM and end at 9:00PM.
The purpose of the meetings are to gather community input regarding a development plan for the Schedler property and to gauge the level of interest in funding the development through private contributions. At each meeting, following a brief presentation by the Open Space Committee, the floor will be open to interested residents to express their comments, ideas and concerns.
For further information, visit the Open Space Committee’s page on the Village of Ridgewood website under “Boards and Committees” www.ridgewoodnj.net/department.detail.cfm?dept id=84
For further information, contact the Village’s Director of Parks and Recreation, Tim Cronin at tcronin@ridgewoodnj.net or by calling 201/670-5560.
Sen. McCain huddles once again with Democrats in an effort to limit free speech and intrench incumbents
Sen. McCain huddles with Dems on campaign finance reform
By Alexander Bolton – 05/16/12 05:00 AM ET
Sen. John McCain is talking with Democrats about a joint effort to require outside groups that have spent millions of dollars on this year’s elections to disclose their donors.
McCain (R-Ariz.), once Congress’s leading champion of campaign finance reform, has kept a low profile on the issue in recent years.
He raised the ire of many Republicans a decade ago for pushing comprehensive reform, and many Republicans still held it against him during his 2008 presidential campaign.
NJ education committee postpones Hearings on teacher tenure reform
The drama over a teacher tenure reform in New Jersey continues to twist and turn, as legislators jockey for position and Gov. Chris Christie makes clear his opinion, if not his precise intentions.
Much of the latest guessing arose this week with the sudden postponement of education committee meetings on Monday in both the Senate and Assembly. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
Senate Committee to consider 17 Superior Court judges for nomination
Senate Democrats and Gov. Chris Christie have headed off a fight that could have made the shortage of Superior Court judges in Essex County even worse.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday will consider 17 Superior Court judges for renomination, including three from Essex County. The full Senate will then take the nominations up next Thursday. (Friedman, The Star-Ledger)
New Jersey April Tax revenue collections 5.3% below budget goals
New Jersey’s April revenue was 5.3 percent below Governor Chris Christie’s targets as income and business taxes fell short, leaving collections $230 million behind forecasts for the first 10 months of this fiscal year.
The state collected $3.26 billion last month, less than its projection of $3.44 billion. Income taxes were 2.8 percent less than forecast and corporate levies were 22.1 percent under budget, Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff said in a statement. (Servetah and Dopp, Bloomberg)
Jersey youth coach is charged with assault at Yankees game
Published: Wednesday, May 16, 2012, 12:24 AM
Friday night at Yankee Stadium, a New Jersey youth pitching instructor and his brother were charged with assaulting a retired FDNY lieutenant.
Keith Stamler, 32, who grew up in Vernon and was drafted by the Texas Rangers, and his brother, Brad, 34, allegedly threw to the ground former firefighter Richard Kelly, 46, hitting his head against the concrete and then continuing to hit and kick him.
Kelly was with his two sons, ages 13 and 16, his friend Bill Spade and Spade’s two sons, ages 10 and 17.
Keith Stamler is the general manager of ProPlayer, a year-round baseball school in Hawthorne. He recently threw out the first pitch at Ridgewood’s Baseball & Softball Association’s opening day
23rd Annual Community Hymn Festival at West Side Presbyterian Church
Many Local Choirs Will Participate
Multiple Choirs Set for Annual Community Hymn Festival On Sunday, May 20, at 7:30 p.m., choirs from multiple Bergen County churches of all denominations will participate in the 23rd Annual Community Hymn Festival at Ridgewood’s West Side Presbyterian Church. The ecumenical event is open to the public.
Co-sponsored by the John R. Rodland Memorial Scholarship Fund and the Northern NJ Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, over $150,000 has been awarded in scholarships to future Church musicians. Rodland Scholarships are the largest such awards to Church Music majors in the nation, funded by a fall campaign and free-will offerings at the festival. This year’s winner of a $9,000 first prize is Christopher Gaza, a Masters of Music candidate at University of Oklahoma. Ganza will perform at the festival. “Songs, Hymns and Spiritual Songs through the Ages” is the theme of this year’s festival. Organists and choir directors from the various participating churches will direct or play for the over-80-voice choir, hand-bell choir, and brass ensemble. Great hymns of the Church, as well as anthems such as H. Parry’s I Was Glad When They Said Unto Me (sung at the Royal Wedding last fall), and V. Thompson’s My Shepherd Will Supply My Need will be featured. Singers are invited to join the chorus at the only rehearsal on Tuesday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m. Music will be provided. The church is at 6 S. Monroe St., corner of W. Ridgewood Ave.
A Censored Race War :The media ignore racially motivated black-on-white crime.
By Thomas Sowell
When two white newspaper reporters for the Virginian-Pilot were driving through Norfolk, and were set upon and beaten by a mob of young blacks — beaten so badly that they had to take a week off from work — that might sound like news that should have been reported, at least by their own newspaper. But it wasn’t.
The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel was the first major television program to report this incident. Yet this story is not just a Norfolk story, either in what happened or in how the media and the authorities have tried to sweep it under the rug.
Similar episodes of unprovoked violence by young black gangs against white people chosen at random on beaches, in shopping malls, or in other public places have occurred in Philadelphia, New York, Denver, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, Los Angeles, and other places across the country. Both the authorities and the media tend to try to sweep these episodes under the rug.
Court strikes down NLRB rule to speed up union elections
By Kevin Bogardus – 05/14/12 06:39 PM ET
A federal judge ruled Monday that a contentious union election rule proposed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is “invalid.”
In an 18-page memorandum opinion, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg struck the regulation down, saying the labor board only had two members when it voted on the final rule in December 2011. Boasberg said the agency needed at least three members to have a quorum for action on the rule.
“According to Woody Allen, 80 percent of life is just showing up. When it comes to satisfying a quorum requirement, though, showing up is even more important than that. Indeed, it is the only thing that matters — even when the quorum is constituted electronically. In this case, because no quorum ever existed for the pivotal vote in question, the Court must hold that the challenged rule is invalid,” Boasberg wrote.
The Freedom Of The U.S. Capital Markets Is Under Attack
By REP. SCOTT GARRETT Posted 05/14/2012 06:14 PM ET
Are you fed up with our lackluster recovery and stubbornly high unemployment? Do you wonder why, three years after we officially pulled out of the Great Recession, we still haven’t hit our economic stride? Look no further than the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The reason economic growth is stuck in neutral is because the Obama administration is determined to regulate risk out of our capital markets. Put another way, President Obama believes that state-controlled capitalism is the best path to economic prosperity.
As a free-market capitalist, I couldn’t disagree more with President Obama’s vision for America’s economy. I believe that market-driven capitalism fueled by free ideas, free people and the freedom to take risk is what creates economic prosperity.
Robust economic growth requires healthy and dynamic capital markets, the ability to access credit and some good old-fashioned competition. In the past, policies mindful of basic economics allowed our capital markets to become the deepest and most liquid in the world.
In fact, our capital markets became the envy of the world specifically because government got out of the way so that they could flourish and grow.
Unfortunately, the story has changed dramatically over the last few years. Because of laws like Dodd-Frank and the tidal wave of regulations that are drowning our capital markets, pools of private capital have dried up, jobs creation has been placed on life support, and the global supremacy of our capital markets is now in jeopardy.
Ridgewood its Reorg time
May 15,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
The election is over and its time for the reorg, Reorganization as it is called will be held at the council meeting on July 1, the two new council members Albert Pucciarelli, Gwenn Hauck will join Paul Aronsohn , Bernadette Walsh and Tom Riche to select a new mayor for a two year term.
Contrary to popular belief the popular vote during elections makes no difference in picking a mayor. .In 2010 Councilwoman Walsh, took home the most votes and was passed over for a more experience Kieth Killion. It all comes down to a simple process ,after the new members are sworn in, nominations for mayor are submitted. The individual with most total votes among the five is then appointed and sworn in as the new mayor.
The Patch has reported the sources have said Aronsohn has support of running mates Gwenn Hauck and Albert Pucciarelli, and would have enough votes to take over the their words “largely figurehead role”. We have also heard that both Bernadette Walsh and Tom Riche, elected in 2010, have expressed also interest in the position. Riche is currently the deputy mayor and comes to the council with a lot of experience .While many witnessed Paul Aronsohn standup up in front of the whole town and say he couldn’t work with Keith ,Tom,Steve or Bernie, this in our and many peoples eyes rules him out as mayor .
Ridgewood still uses a mayor-council system based on the Faulkner Act. The mayor presides over the council meetings.,but has no veto power over decisions. His or her vote counts just like any other councilperson. However the mayor is the public face of the village, attending Village functions meeting with respective counterparts and of coarse other politicians. The mayor also presides over the council meetings.
This is again where many people have a serious problem with the two new council members for their strings attached affiliation to Valley Hospital and of councilmen Aronsohn for his deep connection to the state Democratic party and partisan out look in a non partisan town.
900 American Flags to be Placed at Valleau Cemetary – May 19th
American Legion Post 53 will be placing 900 American Flags on veteran grave-sites in Valleau Cemetery on Saturday, May 19th at 9AM. The public is invited to assist in this project. Further information – 201/445-5742
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