Can state-subsidized power generation succeed in New Jersey
Within the next couple of weeks, New Jersey should know how its efforts to subsidize new power plant construction in the state have fared.
By May 18, the state will know if any of the three power plants awarded ratepayer subsidies to spur their construction have cleared — energy industry jargon for being granted significant payments to provide capacity to keep the lights on — in the most recent auction held by the operator of the regional power grid. (Johnson, NJ Spotlight)
Maybe no housing rebound for a generation: Shiller
April 24, 2012|Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Housing market is likely to remain weak and may take a generation or more to rebound, Yale economics professor Robert Shiller told Reuters Insider on Tuesday.
Shiller, the co-creator of the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index, said a weak labor market, high gas prices and a general sense of unease among consumers was outweighing low mortgage rates and would likely keep a lid on prices for the foreseeable future.
>Obama administration diverts $500M to IRS to implement healthcare reform law By Sam Baker – 04/09/12 05:15 AM ET
The Obama administration is quietly diverting roughly $500 million to the IRS to help implement the president’s healthcare law.
The money is only part of the IRS’s total implementation spending, and it is being provided outside the normal appropriations process. The tax agency is responsible for several key provisions of the new law, including the unpopular individual mandate.
The Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration Committee is proud to announce their theme for the 2012 celebration. The theme will be “Born in New Jersey ”. The Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration Committee will sponsor its annual celebration on Wednesday,July 4, 2012.
This year’s theme is “Born in New Jersey,” which includes: 1. Famous people who were born here (including but not limited to Bruce Springsteen and Frank Sinatra) 2. Things invented here (for example, Edison’s light bulb) 3. Events that occurred here that gave new direction to our country (Washington Crossing the Delaware, Morristown encampment) Groups are encouraged to use this theme in the design of floats and other entries.
The purpose of the Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration is to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the USA and its history and to honor American Patriots of all times. For 2012, we would like to focus on the history of New Jersey. We will celebrate the wonderful people, inventions and events that all came from our state.
The Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration began in 1910 when the local papers, the civic section of the Woman’s Club and the Ridgewood Fire Department joined forces to create a “safe and sane” holiday with an emphasis on Patriotism. It has grown into one of the largest celebrations in the New York City area.
For many years the Readers of 201 Magazine have named our parade and fireworks as best in their Best of Bergen poll. Additional information and answers to many of your questions can be found on the Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration Committee’s website at www.ridgewoodjuly4th.org.
The Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration is organized by the Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration, Inc., an all-volunteer community group. All aspects of this annual Celebration including fireworks, bands, evening performers, insurance, and police and fire personnel are funded by voluntary contributions from businesses and individuals.
Be a part of the Tradition – Participate in the parade, be a financial supporter or join the committee.
Arthur Murray Open House 100 Year Celebration Dance Party Wed, April 04, 2012 Time: 7:45 PM – 8:45 PM
Arthur Murray Dance Studio, 257 East Ridgewood Ave., Ridgewood, NJ 07450 Event Description
The Arthur Murray Dance Studio will be holding an Open House 100 Year Celebration Dance Party on April 4th from 7:45-8:45 PM.
Anyone can come and dance to help them celebrate. Newcomers will receive a free lesson., The party might simulcast to 100yearsofdance.com along with the other 270 studios world wide, to attempt the world’s biggest dance party.
>Obamacare in the Supreme Court 101: Deliberations, Rulings and Impacts Marguerite Higgins and Rachael Slobodien March 25, 2012
On Monday—two years after President Obama signed Obamacare into law—the Supreme Court will hear arguments challenging the health law’s constitutionality. Heralded as the case of the century, the oral arguments heard and, ultimately, the Court’s decisions will set the precedent for hundreds of future legal rulings. They also will determine if there are any limits left to what the federal government can require regarding personal and private decisions.
From its inception, Obamacare has faced challenges on legal and moral grounds. In fact, Heritage analysts were among the first to explain why the individual mandate that all Americans buy government-approved health insurance is unprecedented and unconstitutional.
It’s no wonder that legal challenges from the majority of the states and other organizations began pouring in shortly after the law’s passage. As these lawsuits worked their way through the district and federal appellate courts, conflicting decisions resulted, leading to the Supreme Court taking up the case.
Beginning Monday, the Court will hear six hours of arguments—six times the length allotted for most cases. In recent decades, the Court has generally set a maximum of 60 minutes for oral argument in each case (usually divided 30 minutes per side). In fact since World War II, very few cases have been allowed more than four hours; the biggest exception in the last sixty years was Brown v. Board of Education. The Court’s decision to allow six hours of oral arguments for Obamacare is another indicator of the case’s severity.
The Supreme Court will consider four main questions when the Obamacare cases come before the bench. And the answers to those questions will determine whether all, some, or none of Obamacare will remain in force after the Court’s decision.
>Experts: Avoid status quo in hospital operations to improve care, finances
Hospital executives gathered Wednesday at the New Jersey Hospital Association offices in Princeton for a day of leadership lectures, focusing on the relationship between quality outcomes and operating an efficient facility.
The event brought together five speakers covering a spectrum of topics, from scientific analysis of organization management to the patient experience. (Caliendo, NJBIZ)
>Ridgewood Soccer Association registration for fall soccer takes place April 1 – May 15
Ridgewood Soccer Association registration for fall soccer takes place April 1 – May 15 ($50 late fee afterwards). In-town for Grades 1-6; travel for Grades 5-12, and a special needs program for 6-14 year-olds. For details, visit www.ridgewoodsoccer.org.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012 By JAMES AHEARN RECORD COLUMNIST
Hackensack UMC at Pascack Valley will be the first for-profit, all-private-room hospital in Bergen County.
NEWS THAT the shuttered Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood would reopen was greeted locally with jubilation. The mayors and governing bodies of towns served by the hospital had supported the move unanimously.
Residents had planted signs in their front yards demanding “Reopen Our Hospital.” It was hard to find anyone who disagreed. If someone did, chances were that he or she worked at rival Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, six miles away, or had a spouse who did.
The contrast between the two communities was marked.
Valley had recently suffered defeat of a planned reconstruction. It called for doubling the hospital’s floor space, making all patient rooms private. More parking would have been necessary, much of it underground. The walls of the new structures would be 94 feet high, compared to 65 feet at present.
The project encountered determined community opposition. After years of controversy, the Ridgewood Village Council voted three months ago against the hospital’s $750-million proposal, terming it “aggressive overexpansion.”
Christie administration announces plan to share $675M in charity care payments among N.J. hospitals
The Christie administration announced today how New Jersey’s hospitals will share $675 million in charity care payments to cover some of the costs of treating the working poor and the uninsured in the next fiscal year.
About 90 percent of the money will go toward maintaining the same compensation levels as in the current fiscal year, according to Mary O’Dowd, the commissioner of Health and Senior Services, with the remainder shifted from hospitals that treated fewer uninsured patients to those who treated more from to 2009 to 2010, the most recent figures available. (Livio, The Star-Ledger)
>Senator Frank R. Lautenberg responds on “Operation Fast and Furious”
Thank you for contacting me with your concerns about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) initiative known as Operation Fast and Furious. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.
As you may know, Operation Fast and Furious is an ATF initiative in Phoenix, Arizona seeking to reduce violent crime associated with Mexican criminal organizations in the U.S. and to prevent these organizations from illegally obtaining firearms and explosives from the U.S. The operation is part of a larger ATF strategy known as Project Gunrunner. Through this project, ATF has recommended more than 2,500 criminals for prosecution and seized more than 10,000 firearms illegally destined for Mexico.
Operation Fast and Furious has received increased scrutiny after the December 2010 shooting death of Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry in Arizona. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) has asked for an investigation into Project Gunrunner because of concerns that ATF knew the weapon used to kill Agent Terry was bought illegally, but allowed the sale to proceed. Senator Grassley has requested that an independent Inspector General conduct a review of Project Gunrunner. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has also requested that a special counsel be appointed to investigate the matter.
During Senate consideration of a bill (H.R. 2112) funding ATF and a number of other federal agencies, an amendment was introduced that would prohibit funding for Operation Fast and Furious or other operations during which federal agents are not continuously monitoring or controlling firearms at all times. This amendment passed the Senate with my support. The bill to which it is attached must now be approved by the Senate and the House before this provision can be signed into law.
Please be assured that I am closely monitoring this issue and will keep your views in mind should the Senate consider further relevant legislation. Thank you again for contacting me
>Obama Administration using the Espionage Act to take whistle-blowers to court By DAVID CARR Published: February 26, 2012
Last Wednesday in the White House briefing room, the administration’s press secretary, Jay Carney, opened on a somber note, citing the deaths of Marie Colvin and Anthony Shadid, two reporters who had died “in order to bring truth” while reporting in Syria.
Jake Tapper, the White House correspondent for ABC News, pointed out that the administration had lauded brave reporting in distant lands more than once and then asked, “How does that square with the fact that this administration has been so aggressively trying to stop aggressive journalism in the United States by using the Espionage Act to take whistle-blowers to court?”
He then suggested that the administration seemed to believe that “the truth should come out abroad; it shouldn’t come out here.”
Fair point. The Obama administration, which promised during its transition to power that it would enhance “whistle-blower laws to protect federal workers,” has been more prone than any administration in history in trying to silence and prosecute federal workers.
NJ drivers would face lower fines for forgetting license, registration under Senate bill
A bill released by a state Senate committee Monday would take some of the financial sting out of being stopped by the police if you forget your driver’s license or vehicle registration.
A bill proposed by state Senate Christopher “Kip” Bateman, R-Somerset, would drop the maximum fine for forgetting those documents from $150 to $100, if all the documents are valid at the time of the police stop and if the officer can verify they are current by using a computer database at the scene. The Senate Transportation Committee voted unanimously Monday to release the bill for a vote by the Legislature. (Higgs, Ganett)
The Archdiocese of Washington echoes the concerns raised by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in a statement released Friday in response to the Obama Administration’s decision to enact regulations that will force most Catholic employers to provide health care plans covering sterilization procedures and all FDA approved contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs.
Until now, no federal law has required anyone to purchase, sell, sponsor, or be covered by a private health plan that violates his or her conscience. Under the HHS edict, however, virtually all Catholic charitable organizations, hospitals, schools, colleges and universities that want to provide for the needs of their employees and students in a manner consistent with Catholic moral teachings will be placed in the untenable position of having to choose between violating the law and violating their conscience.
Religious liberty is the most cherished and fundamental of American freedoms. As Thomas Jefferson observed in 1809, “No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority.”
In a meeting with Cardinal Donald Wuerl and other American bishops on Thursday, Pope Benedict XVI addressed recent attacks on religious freedom, calling upon the American Catholic community to realize they are “grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres.” In response to these threats, Pope Benedict said the Church urges the Catholic laity to have the courage to proclaim “respect for God’s gift of life, the protection of human dignity and the promotion of authentic human rights.”
As Cardinal Wuerl has previously stated, “No freedom is more precious and deserving of vigilance than our freedom of conscience.”
This is a direct attack on Catholics and all Christians If we don’t protest this latest attack on religious freedom then SHAME ON US!! Get ready to pay. This morning President Obama called New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan to break the news. Secretary of Health and Human Services and pro-abortion Catholic Kathleen Sebelius just announced that the proposed mandate requiring all insurance plans to pay for contraception, sterilization and some abortion drugs is official — and Catholics cannot escape.
…and the fig-leaf exemption for religious groups will not be modified, apart from allowing some groups an additional year to comply.
Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan responded minutes ago, saying: “In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences.”
Beginning August 1, 2012 (less than eight months from today), the insurance premiums we pay, including the insurance premiums paid by Catholics for employees of churches and schools — will be used to cover drugs and procedures that are in direct conflict with the teachings of our Church.
That’s right. Our government will now force us to pay for insurance coverage for birth control, sterilization and even some abortion drugs.
President Obama ignored the organized efforts of Catholics across the country, including bold statements from the Bishops, university presidents (including Notre Dame’s Rev. Jenkins), and even his Catholic allies like Sr. Carol Keehan. Instead, President Obama stood with his real friends — Planned Parenthood.
Make no mistake, this decision is a direct attack on you, our Church, and the religious liberty of all Americans. Just yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the bishops from the United States who were completing their “Ad Limina” visit in Rome. The Holy Father specifically cited the “grave threats” to the freedom of the Church in America, and urged the Catholic community to respond, especially with “an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity.”
He’s talking to you and me. The Holy Father’s brief address is a must read (link below). Finally, today marks exactly one year from Inauguration Day. In exactly 12 months, America will welcome a new president, or usher in four more years of Barack Obama and his assault on our liberties. This irony is not lost on us.
We built CatholicVote into a movement to advance the cause of life, family, and freedom. Today’s decision is an assault on all three. And it MUST be defeated. You have our pledge that we will do everything possible to educate and mobilize the Catholic vote in 2012. For on a day such as this, we realize that elections indeed have consequences.
