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>Rutgers-Eagleton: largest percentage of voters cite jobs and unemployment as state’s toughest problem

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Rutgers-Eagleton: largest percentage of voters cite jobs and unemployment as state’s toughest problem

In today’s Rutgers-Eagleton 40th anniversary poll, voters assess the state’s most important problems. Twenty-seven percent name unemployment and jobs first, followed by 25 percent who cite taxes first, and 10 percent who express concern about the economy in general.

Crime, cited first by 16 percent in 1971, beat taxes by only 2 percent. Today just 3 percent put crime at the top of the list. The environment, named by 10 percent in 1971, receives first mention from only 1 percent of Garden Staters today.

In the very first Rutgers-Eagleton Poll in September 1971, crime and drug addiction topped taxes as the single most important problem in New Jersey. Forty years later, crime is barely mentioned as jobs and the economy are now New Jersey’s top problem. Taxes, which consistently have been listed first or second over 40 years, continue to vex New Jerseyans, ranking just behind jobs as the state’s biggest problem.  (Pizarro, PolitickerNJ)

https://www.politickernj.com/51940/rutgers-eagleton-largest-percentage-voters-cite-jobs-and-unemployment-states-toughest-problem
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>Super Cellars : starting or maintaining a wine cellar

>Super Cellars : starting or maintaining a wine cellar

This week ending October 22, John and company continue to load up for the holiday’s just ahead. Here’s the highlights……

 “When 6pack turn into Wine”

We have a program for those starting or maintaining a wine cellar. Monday we feature wines of a certain standard; collectable, high end, with a history of good numbers, when available, from producers world wide. A fresh selection offered each week. As six-packs, one can build an enviable collection or grow an existing cellar, afford the luxury of tasting as acquired, sample another to monitor development, leaving four bottles for the cellar. The wines are available, as six packs, at a sale price. Great wine, great pricing, great additions to your cellar….a way to collect at a comfortable pace.

Theses Wines will be featured Monday thru Sunday of the current week with a special 6-pack price and will be changed the following Monday. The Special 6 pack price will expire once new wines are put into the group.

Click on the Link or go to the Home Page, www.Supercellars.com

https://www.supercellars.com/r/ItemGroup/Build%20a%20Cellar…6%20pack%20Special?id=qzJCJUIw

CABERNET…..collectables from the 2007 where available, look for Forman, Whitehall Lane, Cade, Howell Mtn, they join Avalon, Mondavi, Joseph Phelps, Oberon, BV’s Napa & Rutherford, Jordan, Liberty School and Mondavi..remember them still good!
Zinfandel…….Getting ready for turkey, start adding a few for the days ahead..or maybe this weekend.. Four vines, Klinker Brick, Predator, a new one from Orin Swift Saldo…very nice, Earthquake, Porque No …now owned by Caymus, and Hartford Court Russian River, rounding it out with Pierano Immortal Zinfandel Old Vines..
PINOT NOIR….Taz…a house favorite, David Bruce, Torii Mor, Elk Cove, and new releases from Ken Wright, Carter & Meridith Mitchel…been following Ken since the 80’s….always good!
REDS TO NOTE…. Peju Cab Franc and David Bruce Petite Sirah Shell Creek….different and good
CHARDONNAY……A few go to types here..Chappellet, Martin Ray, Jordan, Ferrara Carano, Buehler, Clos Du Val and Moro Bay..think the Moro Bay a best value..sur lie aging inexpensive…check it out
VALUE ALERT….This will annoy the net guys but John has done it again…CONUNDRUM…$ 15.99…grab it while we got it!
RHONE…..Perrin family makers of Beaucastel..cote du Rhone, Vacqueras WS90, Gigondas La Gilles WA92, Rasteau WA 90, and a great value Cheauneauf!!!
White Burgundy… Joseph Matrot Bourgogne Blanc, Domain Jacques Prieur Meursalt Clos De Mazeray, Oliver Leflaive Puligny Montrachet AOC, Oliver Leflaive Chassagne Montrachet AOC, Oliver Leflaive Rully 1er cru
Port…..New Additons Taylor Fladgate Quinta De Vargellas, Bogle Petite Sirah Port, Dow Crushed Port, Dow LBV, Dow Trademark Finest Reserve Port
Italy… Renato Ratti….Barbera D’Asti, Barbera, Nebbiolo, Dolcetto, Fonterutoli ,Bertani Secco Valpolicello, Bertani Villa Arvedi Amarone ,Fontanafredda Barbera, Castello del Rampola Chianti…New LOW PRICE..SPECIAL DEAL, Colpetrone Rosso Di Montefalco… NEW LOW PRICE..SPECIAL DEAL, Cantine Povero Roero, Fratelli Povero Roero
375ml… Lageder Pinot Grigio, Alexander Valley Sin Zin, S. Margherita Pinot Grigio, Fonteruta Chianti, Louis Jadot Macon Villages Blanc, Moet Imperial, Taittinger La Francs, Saintsberry Pinot Noir, Saintsberry Chardonnay
Organic: Benziger wines back in stock.., Purato Catarratto/ Pinot Grigio, Purato Nero D’Avola
Kosher: Cantina Gabriele..Chardonnay/ Chianti/ Montepulicano, Gedeon…Cabernet/ Petite Sirah, Manishwitz White Concord/ Blackberry/ Concord..750ml/ 1.5L

John P Gray
“Son”
Patrick & Sons Super Cellars
32 South Broad St
Ridgewood,NJ 07450
(p) 201-444-0012
(f) 201-444-3070
(e) john@supercellars.com

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>Don’t tell anyone, but there’s an election in two weeks

>Don’t tell anyone, but there’s an election in two weeks
Published: Monday, October 24, 2011, 11:29 PM  

The other night, I had a nightmare. I dreamed that there was an election coming up soon in which every seat in the state Legislature was up for grabs. Yet no one was paying attention.

Then I woke up, got my coffee and looked at the calendar. The election’s two weeks from today. That was no dream.
But it may be a nightmare, at least for the New Jersey Republican Party. About this time last year, they were riding high. They had a new Republican governor and they were looking forward to a redistricting process that could give them a fair shot at erasing the dismal memory of the prior decade.
In 2001, the Republicans controlled the state government. Still, they managed to mangle the redistricting process so badly that the Democrats got a map that let them take over both houses of the Legislature.

The GOP didn’t do any better this time around. Perhaps no observer is following the races for 120 seats in 40 legislative districts quite as closely as Patrick Murray of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. I asked Murray if he expects to see the GOP make any major inroads this year.
“Frankly, no,” Murray replied. “It’s as if in April everybody said, ‘Let’s call off the election and everybody can keep their seats.’ ”

April was when the redistricting commission met, setting new legislative districts based on the 2010 U.S. Census. The commission was made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans. The deciding vote went to an arbiter chosen by the chief justice after he received nominations from both parties. The Democrats submitted the name of Rutgers professor Alan Rosenthal — and so did the Republicans.

https://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/2011/10/dont_tell_anyone_but_theres_an.html

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>Senate President Stephen Sweeney defends failed Abbott Districts funding

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Senate President Stephen Sweeney defends failed Abbott Districts funding

Senate President Stephen Sweeney is questioning the Christie administration’s efforts to change the way public schools are funded before it fully funds them using a formula approved by the state Supreme Court.
Sweeney sent a letter Monday to Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf, seeking details on a group of independent consultants who Sweeney says have been asked to recommend changes to the School Funding Reform Act of 2008.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter.

The law eliminated low-income districts known as “Abbotts” and created a formula where aid to schools follows the child.  (The Associated Press)

https://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/new_jersey/20111025_ap_lawmakerschoolaidformulaworksifitsfunded.html?c=r
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>Over 3K desks available for 2012-13 N.J public school choice program

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Over 3K desks available for 2012-13 N.J public school choice program

71 New Jersey school districts expect to have 3,126 open desks available when the 2012-13 school year begins in September under the so-called Interdistrict Choice program that enables parents to send their children to schools outside their district without cost, the state Department of Education announced Monday.
There are 1,878 students in the program for the current 2011-2012 school year.

The program was developed by Gov. Chris Christie to enable the parents of children stuck in bad schools, especially in the inner cities, to transfer to a better learning environment.  (Hester, New Jersey Newsroom)

https://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/state/over-3k-desks-available-for-2012-13-nj-public-school-choice-program
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>Valley Hospital expansion requires major excavation, geological expert says at Ridgewood hearing

>Valley Hospital expansion requires major excavation, geological expert says at Ridgewood hearing

MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2011  
BY BARBARA WILLIAMS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

RIDGEWOOD — Dump trucks will make thousands of trips to cart off excavated bedrock and soil if The Valley Hospital doubles in size, a geological expert told the Village Council on Monday night.

A half-million gallons of water a day would also have to be removed from the site, Laurence Keller, from Whitestone Associates Inc., told about 75 people who attended the council hearing at Ridgewood High School.

But projects similar in size to Valley’s expansion plan “have been done before and can be done here,” Keller added. “It’s just challenging.”

Keller, who was hired by the village, estimated that it will take more than a dozen trucks an hour, eight hours a day over more than nine months to remove the excavated bedrock and soil. Home foundations in the area may crack, he said, and there may be a change in the area’s aquifer. Nearby residents may be exposed to loud noise over an extended period of time, he added.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/Valley_Hospital_expansion_would_require_extensive_excavation_geologist_says_at_hearing.html

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>N.J. election campaign picking up

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N.J. election campaign picking up

So goes one of the themes of attack ads filling mailboxes and airwaves in South Jersey a little more than two weeks before the Nov. 8 elections. Republicans are hoping to grab a few seats in the Democrat-controlled Legislature, and Democrats are fighting back with ads of their own.It’s the Republican reformers vs. the entrenched Democratic politicians.


You can even hear the noise from Southeastern Pennsylvania, where many fall races are sleepy by comparison. Some of the South Jersey ad wars are on Philadelphia TV and radio.  (Rao, The Philadelphia Inquirer)


https://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20111023_N_J__campaign_picking_up.html

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>Watch Trenton Screw this up: NJ lawmakers seeking to control insurance costs

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Watch Trenton Screw this up: NJ lawmakers seeking to control insurance costs

Health insurance carriers who serve individuals and small businesses in New Jersey may soon have to gain state approval before implementing rate increases.

These firms currently can set and increase rates just by filing the information with the state. But a measure planned by three state lawmakers would require that the firms gain approval for such actions from the state Department of Banking and Insurance.

It also would expand the jurisdiction of the state’s Division of Rate Counsel, which now has no say over health insurance rates, to create a watchdog for residents and small businesses.  (The Associated Press)

https://www.northjersey.com/news/politics/NJ_lawmakers_seeking_to_control_insurance_costs.html
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>Election Day Battleground Bergen

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Election Day Battleground Bergen

With less than three weeks left before Election Day, candidates in the state’s 40 legislative districts have spent varying sums — in some cases just thousands of dollars, in other districts more than a million — to convince voters that they should be sitting in the Legislature at a job that pays $49,000 annually.

Topping the list of New Jersey’s most expensive races is the redesigned 38th District, which includes parts of Bergen and Passaic counties, where Democrat Sen. Bob Gordon of Fair Lawn faces a formidable challenge from Republican Bergen County Freeholder John Driscoll of Paramus. This race, which will wind up costing perhaps millions of dollars, has become the symbolic race in the state this year.  (Harrison for The Record)

https://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/132396513_Bergen_becomes_battleground.html
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>N.J. wants to keep taking increased pension contributions from judges during ‘unconstitutional’ ruling’s appeal

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N.J. wants to keep taking increased pension contributions from judges during ‘unconstitutional’ ruling’s appeal

The state wants to keep taking increased pension and health benefits contributions from Superior Court judges and Supreme Court justices while it appeals a judge’s ruling that the hikes are unconstitutional.
The state Attorney General’s Office filed a motion on Thursday to postpone implementation of Superior Court Assignment Judge Linda Feinberg’s ruling blocking the higher pension and health benefits payments for the judges and justices, spokesman Paul Loriquet said Friday.  (Spoto, The Star-Ledger)

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/10/nj_wants_to_keep_taking_increa.html
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>OWS: News from the home front

>OWS: News from the home front 

Police Investigating Possible Sexual Assault Of Teen At Occupy Dallas

DALLAS (CBS 11 NEWS) – Dallas Police continue to investigate whether a teenage runaway was sexually assaulted by an adult male at the Occupy Dallas encampment behind City Hall.

https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/10/24/accusations-of-teen-runaway-sexual-activity-at-occupy-dallas/

Occupy Maine camp attacked with chemical bomb

PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — Occupy Maine protesters camped out in Portland’s Lincoln Park were attacked early Sunday morning when someone lobbed a chemical bomb at them.  No one was seriously injured when the small, homemade bomb exploded near the camp’s main meeting area around 4am.

https://www.wcsh6.com/news/article/177145/314/Occupy-Maine-attacked-with-chemical-bomb

Shootings way up in two weeks
By BRAD HAMILTON

Bullets are flying over Broadway — and everywhere else in the city.
The number of people shot surged 154 percent two weeks ago — to 56 from 22 over the same week last year — and spiked 28 percent in the last month.
Last week tallied another increase in victims — 22 people had been hit through Friday, including the three victims gunned down outside a Brooklyn school Friday.

Last year, only 17 shooting victims were logged for the entire week.
The recent gunplay has now pushed the number of shooting victims this year slightly above last year’s tragic tally — to 1,484 from 1,451 — through Oct. 16.

Four high-ranking cops point the finger at Occupy Wall Street protesters, saying their rallies pull special crime-fighting units away from the hot zones where they’re needed.

Read more: https://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/shootings_way_up_in_two_weeks_rajGrOA0bMpTBslidEUgOI#ixzz1bmoJFtr2

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>Watching the ‘Days’ fly by

>Watching the ‘Days’ fly by
By By Sean Reichard

Quick: are you chill? Relaxed? Affably lackadaisical? Then the band Real Estate may be for you.

An indie band from Ridgewood, New Jersey, Real Estate plays a brand of rock n’ roll that lolls and gently hums like the sound of waves on the Jersey shore. Drawing together surf rock and jangly guitar à la the Byrds and R.E.M., Real Estate manages to be soothing without being sleep inducing.

Real Estate returns with Days, an album that is both an extension and improvement of their sound. 2009’s Real Estate was by all measure a fine album, but sometimes so mellow that highlights and changes between songs were hard to distinguish. It was a low key affair.

Days flows along the same vibes, but is fuller and brighter than Real Estate. Keeping the laid-back atmosphere, Real Estate coasts through ten songs with just an added measure of punch. Opener “Easy” bursts like a flash of light, and “Municipality” features airy vocals wrapping around each other through a haze of guitar strums.

Suburbia is a recurring theme as well, with “Green Aisles” melding two oft-remarked suburban motifs: sterile grocery stores and cookie-cutter houses, as well as the aforementioned “Municipality.”

https://www.dailycardinal.com/arts/watching-the-days-fly-by-1.2661535#.TqXwhZsg9kY

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>Economist:cutting government jobs will hurt at first, but help in long run

>Economist:cutting government jobs will hurt at first, but help in long run


Call it the castor oil economy. New Jersey will have to continue to take its strong medicine by cutting government jobs while hoping the private sector recovers, an economist for a major forecasting firm said Friday.


Jim Diffley, chief U.S. Regional Economist for IHS Global Insight, said government worker layoffs will hurt the economy in the short term, but he believes they are necessary for the long-term fiscal health of the state.

“Governments, such as New Jersey, were overextended,” Diffley said. “In the short term, those cuts are painful. In the long term, they are helpful in the sense that they create a better business environment.”  (Method, Gannett)

https://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20111023/NJNEWS/310230038/Economic-forecast-More-bitter-pills
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>Internet shifting sex trade to suburbs; Rise in prostitution arrests noted

>Internet shifting sex trade to suburbs; Rise in prostitution arrests noted

MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2011
BY EVONNE COUTROS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

Internet advertising of the world’s oldest profession has spawned an in­crease in prostitution arrests along North Jersey highways, which provide easy access to hotels and connections to some of Bergen County’s wealthiest towns, police say.

“The face of prostitution is dramati­cally changing in this area, and this is largely a result of the use of the Internet as a means of advertising the service,” Mahwah Police Chief James Batelli said. “I think this is the reason why we have seen such a dramatic increase in the number of prostitution arrests.”

https://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen/Internet_shifting_sex_trade_to_suburbs_.html

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>New Jersey schools’ open door policy

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New Jersey schools’ open door policy

With 70 New Jersey school districts now opening their doors to outside students, nearly 2,000 students chose to leave their hometowns for their education this fall, according to preliminary figures from the state.

For the schools, it’s an opportunity to fill seats and pick up extra money from the state — as much as $11,500 per student. For the students, it’s a chance to participate in programs not offered by their own schools.
The biggest takers continue to be the dozen districts that have pioneered New Jersey’s Interdistrict Public School Choice program for the past decade, with 275 students from across Bergen County attending Englewood’s high school academies and close to 200 attending Folsom’s lone elementary school.  (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/11/1023/2216/