WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2011
BY MICHAEL GARTLAND
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
Pay-to-play reform in Bergen County was impractical because of likely legal challenges, Democrats contended last year. But such reform was essential to dispel the perception that county government was for sale, Republicans countered.
The county’s political landscape has shifted significantly since then and so have the dynamics of a pay-to-play debate that has dominated local and state politics for more than a decade.
Republicans took control of the county freeholder board in January for the first time in eight years, and all but one of them voted in June to delay the latest pay-to-play reform proposal. The reason? Legal considerations.
Groups call for scientists to engage in the body politic
When asked to name a scientist, Americans are stumped. In one recent survey, the top choice, at 47 percent, was Einstein, who has been dead since 1955, and the next, at 23 percent, was “I don’t know.” In another survey, only 4 percent of respondents could name a living scientist.
While these may not have been statistically rigorous exercises, they do point to something real: In American public life, researchers are largely absent. Trained to stick to the purity of the laboratory, they tend to avoid the sometimes irrational hurly-burly of politics.
For example, according to the Congressional Research Service, the technically trained among the 435 members of the House include one physicist, 22 people with medical training (including 2 psychologists and a veterinarian), a chemist, a microbiologist and 6 engineers. (Dean, The New York Times)
NJEA refuses to endorse Sweeney and Oliver for re-election
The politically powerful New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest ’s teachers union has decided not to endorse state Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver (D-Essex) for re-election, the second time the legislative leaders have been stung by public employee unions in the past four days.
The NJEA, the Communications Workers of America and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal workers, which represent the majority of state and local government employees are enraged at 22 Democratic senators and Assembly members who joined with Gov. Chris Christie and Republicans to approve an overhaul of pension and health benefits. (Hester, New Jersey Newsroom)
>Severe Solar Storms Could Disrupt Earth This Decade: NOAA
By IB Times Staff Reporter | August 8, 2011 7:08 AM EDT
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a federal agency that focuses on the condition of the oceans and atmosphere, said a severe solar storm could cause global disruptions in GPS systems, power grids, satellite communications, and airline communications.
With solar activity expected to peak around 2013, the Sun is entering a particularly active time and big flares like the recent one will likely be common during the next few years.
Most solar flares will only cause minor problems with satellites and power grids, but a major flare in the mid-19th century blocked the nascent telegraph system, and some scientists believe that another such event is now overdue.
In a huge solar storm back in 1859, telegraph offices worldwide were hit, some telegraph operators reported electric shocks, the telegraph systems malfunctioned and even paper caught fire. It is the strongest solar storm on record and is called the “Carrington Event,” which is named after Richard Carrington, who viewed and reported on the solar flare of Sept. 1, 1859. In 1989, six million people in Quebec, Canada were left without power for several hours when a solar storm took down a power grid.
>Cooperative Nursery School of Ridgewood Offers Kindergarten Enrichment Program
The Cooperative Nursery School of Ridgewood is now accepting registration for its Kindergarten Enrichment program for the 2011-2012 school year. The school has both morning and afternoon sessions.
The program supports all the major district initiatives including: Handwriting Without Tears, Envision Math and Words Their Way. Classes will meet twice per week. There is no co-op requirement for parents who enroll in the kindergarten enrichment class. Students are also invited to participate in extended day programs.
A nonsectarian school, The Co-op offers morning and afternoon classes for 2, 3 and 4-year-olds, as well as Mommy & Me classes and a new Kindergarten Enrichment class. The school’s seasoned professional teaching staff members guide students toward social, emotional and physical well-being. Children learn and play in an environment ideally suited to their needs as developing individuals. The program encourages independence, self-discipline and a love for school.
The Co-op is organized and run by the parents, which enables the parents to actively participate in their child’s early learning experience. Music, physical education, field trips, indoor and outdoor play time and an in-house library are just a few of the experiences to which the children are exposed as supplements to the daily education plans.
Please call the school at (201) 447-6232 or [email protected] for more information or to schedule a visit to the school. The school is located at 100 Dayton Street in the center of Ridgewood.
On Friday evening, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+. As we and other conservatives warned, the spending reductions in the deal negotiated by President Obama to raise the debt ceiling were inadequate, and S&P reacted as we predicted but sooner. Neither Moody’s nor Fitch, two other rating agencies, have downgraded federal debt yet, but they are not providing much rosier outlooks.
Decades of over-spending and over-borrowing by the federal government have damaged America’s creditworthiness. Congress after Congress, President after President, the federal government spent every penny it took in—and borrowed over $14 trillion on top of that—to try to keep happy the voters to whom the government made promises it could not afford. The government kept shifting the burden of paying the bills forward onto future generations.
Well, the future has arrived, and it is bleak. Our economy is weak, millions of Americans are out of work, and America is so deep in debt that we have lost our good credit rating. Our nation needs to drive federal spending, including our ever-growing entitlement programs, down toward a balanced budget while maintaining our ability to protect America and without raising taxes. That is the sound path forward to a stronger economy with smaller government and more real jobs.
The White House’s first reaction to this news was to blame S&P itself, claiming that their math was wrong as spokesmen pointed out S&P’s past rating failures. Correcting the math didn’t correct the problem, however, and so S&P went ahead with its downgrade. Debating S&P’s credibility misses the more important point, which is there for all to see: Projected deficit spending properly raises questions about U.S. credit quality.
We cannot waste time shooting the messenger when the message itself is impossible to ignore: It’s the spending.
Unsustainable entitlement programs have been built up over many Congresses and Presidents. Elected officials from both parties over many decades helped push us closer to this point. But the last chance to start correcting the problem before damage to America’s credit occurred was during the recent debate over the debt limit.
Regrettably, President Obama and the Senate liberals refused to allow reforms to any entitlement programs and refused to make significant cuts in other federal spending unless they could raise taxes on America. Conservatives rightly resisted increasing taxes, which is a recipe for economic disaster during an economic slowdown. The resulting deal on the Budget Control Act brought little in the way of spending cuts and lots in the way of increased borrowing, and it was the last straw that cost America its top credit rating. President Obama and his liberal allies on Capitol Hill brought America’s credit down
The White House claims that its tax-hike centered “grand bargain” would have prevented a downgrade, yet they still have not told us what was in that “bargain.” Even as Senate Democrats are nearing three years without a budget, President Obama has offered to the American people rhetoric and class warfare, rather than solutions and responsible leadership.
New Jersey has been proud of its commitment to renewable energy, and legislative policies have encouraged the installation of photovoltaic solar arrays to the point that the state is second only to California in solar power production, according to the Board of Public Utilities.
But in June, Gov. Chris Christie’s administration announced that it was withdrawing New Jersey from a 10-state regional energy plan, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
This was followed a few days later with the introduction of the proposed new Energy Management Plan, a blueprint for energy planning for the next decade. (MacKenzie, Gannett)
Christie: Deal not near with NJ state worker union
Gov. Chris Christie says contract talks with New Jersey’s largest public worker union are continuing at a slow pace.
Christie says the administration has offered proposals on wages and noneconomic issues to the Communications Workers of America. But he doesn’t expect an agreement within the next two weeks.
The contract for 40,000 state CWA employees expired June 30.
Hetty Rosenstein, the union’s state director, says the two sides haven’t met in several weeks and no meetings are scheduled. But she says the two sides haven’t reached an impasse and bargaining will continue. (Delli Santi, The Associated Press)
>Rasmussen Poll : New Low: 17% Say U.S. Government Has Consent of the Governed Sunday, August 07, 2011
Fewer voters than ever feel the federal government has the consent of the governed.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 17% of Likely U.S. Voters think the federal government today has the consent of the governed. Sixty-nine percent (69%) believe the government does not have that consent. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here .)
The number of voters who feel the government has the consent of the governed – a foundational principle, contained in the Declaration of Independence – is down from 23% in early May and has fallen to its lowest level measured yet.
Perhaps it’s no surprise voters feel this way since only eight percent (8%) believe the average member of Congress listens to his or her constituents more than to their party leaders. That, too, is the lowest level measured to date. Eighty-four percent (84%) think the average congressman listens to party leaders more than the voters they represent.
Concern over racial profiling against Hispanic passengers at Newark airport continues in wake of report
An internal TSA report finding that Hispanic passengers were racially profiled at Newark Liberty International Airport has revived concerns that security screeners may have engaged in racial profiling at airports nationwide.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, has written to Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole, demanding that a program designed to detect suspicious behavior at airports be suspended because it may be biased. (Strunsky, The Star-Ledger)
Shocker: Pilot Licenses Issued to 27 on Terror List
Michael Cutler — August 3, 2011
(Excerpts A recent New York Times article was extremely disturbing. The report was entitled: “27 Deemed to Be Threats Held Aviation Licenses”. This news article was based on a report (pdf document) issued by the Inspector General (Internal Affairs) that has oversight responsibility for the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration).
The article stated that that the FAA has no meaningful handle on those to whom that agency has issued pilots’ licenses.
Yet the magnitude of the incompetence of the FAA is nothing short of insane – just consider this excerpt from the New York Times news report: The new report, by the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, found that the F.A.A. had Social Security numbers of only about 750,000 people out of the 1.3 million names in its Airmen Registry, and that among those for whom it had numbers, more than 15,000 of them did not match the Social Security database for name, sex or date of birth. By law, the F.A.A. cannot require a Social Security number, the report noted, and as a result, “T.S.A. may not identify U.S. citizens who have provided false biographic information to receive an airman certificate.” Not all of the discrepancies represent a potential security threat; the report said that more extensive study over the past few years found that 8,000 of the license holders were dead.
The report offers no details about the 27 individuals whose certificates were canceled, but does indicate the poor state of federal records, almost a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks. An initial computer scan found about 29,000 certificates that matched names on the government’s Terrorist Screening Database, but further study found that 28,500 of the matches were invalid; 506 were turned over for closer scrutiny, yielding the 27 names.
The above quote addresses the issue of US citizens but in reality not only citizens may have pilots’ licenses that enable them to fly over our nation. There have been many aliens who have succeeded in acquiring United States citizenship via fraud, including a woman, several years ago, who was a citizen of Lebanon and came to the United States on a student visa. She entered into a sham marriage that enabled her to become a naturalized citizen; she then went on to become an FBI Special Agent and then joined the CIA. Her deception was discovered when she accessed databases without authorization.
Simply stated, you cannot have it both ways. Undocumented aliens are illegally present in our country and the fact they are “undocumented” means that they have no reliable, verifiable way of proving who they are. False identities serve as a camouflage for criminals and terrorists the same way that changes in color enable certain creatures to hide in plain sight, often among their intended victims. This is why I have come to refer to Comprehensive Immigration Reform as the “Terrorist Assistance and Facilitation Act.”
Read the complete article here………… https://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.10080/pub_detail.asp
Senate committee to hold hearing on N.J. Motor Vehicle Commission customer service problems
New Jerseyans who want to complain about the state Motor Vehicle Commission can vent before the state Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee which will hold a public hearing on the operation of the agency on Thursday morning in Lodi.
The hearing is set for 10 a.m. in the Lodi Municipal Complex, 1 Memorial Dr.
The panel wants to hear about what Democratic legislators describe as MVC service reductions, and intends to raise questions about the causes of several system-wide computer failures that left motorists waiting. (Hester, New Jersey Newsroom)
>Ridgewood’s Sidewalk Sale Days are coming up soon!
Sidewalk Sale Days are August 4, 5, and 6, or next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Come enjoy huge deals from expansive selections of merchandise, including clothing, shoes and more! Participants include:
Allergy Free and More, Anais, Antik Butik, Art of Motion, Arthur Groom, Biltmore Tuxedo, B. Witching Bath & Company, Bookends, Children’s Aid and Family Services, CupCakes by Carousel, DoubleTake Consignment Boutique, Duxiana, Eat Your Spinach, Family Chiropractor, Fox’s, Framed, From The Top Music Studio, Gardner & Co., Hot Jewelry Box, Huntington School of Learning, Interior Design, Jekyll & Hide, Joaillier Inc., Just Our Shoes/Mephisto, Leapin’ Lizards, Learning Express, Little Ivy Learning Center, Namaste Organic Spa, New York Sports Club, Northeast Laser Vein Institute, Panico Salon, Pink Bungalow, Pizza Fusion, Pompanoosuc Mills, Precision Orthodontics, Red Velvet Luxe, Ridgewood Bootery, Ridgewood Coffee Co., Savvy Chic Consignment Boutique, Sherwin Williams, Shoe Inn, Secret Studio, Suburban Momma, Town & Country, Upper Ridgewood Tennis Club, Village Eyewear, Village Tannery, Venture Photography, Virgo, Warehouse Cheap & Chic, Wostbrock Floor/Furniture/Rug Co., Yansi Fugel, and YWCA of Bergen County
*Art of Motion will not have a table displayed, but they are offering the following discounts: a free class with the purchase of a ten class card (a 10% discount), two free classes with the purchase of a frequent class card, as well as 20% discounts on AOM t-shirts, children’s leotards, jazz pants, and dance bags. The studio will also waive the $25.00 registration fee for all new students registering for the Fall Semester.
This is some shopping that you won’t want to miss!
P.S. Be sure to bring your rewards card. If you don’t have one come scoop one up at the Chamber!
After years of steady declines, New Jersey’s notoriously high auto insurance rates are on the rise again.
And, to stem the tide, the Christie administration is proposing new rules that would limit the kinds of medical care injured drivers can receive under their auto policies.
The proposed rules could rekindle debate over auto insurance, an issue that dominated New Jersey for decades, when angry motorists regularly revolted against paying rates that were nearly always the most expensive in the nation. (Rizzo, The Star-Ledger)
It took a little courage and some said a leap of faith, but 31 New Jersey school districts have signed up to be part of the Christie administration’s pilot program for testing a statewide teacher evaluation system.
All of the models being assessed by the pilot must rely on student test scores and other achievement measures for up to half a teacher’s grade, from “ineffective” to “highly effective.” But with a few options to pick from, the state wants to evaluate them first in a mix of locales. (Mooney, NJ Spotlight)
