Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood Knights of Columbus are once again proud to be sponsoring their annual St. Patrick’s Dinner Dance on Saturday, March 19th, beginning at7:00 p.m. in the Mount Carmel gymnasium at 52 Passaic Street in Ridgewood.
Guests will first be greeted by bagpipers. The Best of Everything will cater a full-course of traditional Irish fare including corned beef and cabbage. The Celtic Cross Band will be playing Irish classics and great dance music, along with a special appearance by the Irish Step Dancers from the McLoughlin Dance School. There will also be a grand prize raffle drawing for a trip to Ireland.
Tickets are $55 per person. Payment can be mailed to:
Come enjoy this annual celebration as the Knights of Columbus continue the tradition that the People of Ireland started over a thousand years ago. And what better way to celebrate the life of Saint Patrick then to gather with friends and family, enjoy a fine meal, and dance to great music!
Come out and celebrate St. Patrick’s with the Ridgewood Knights !
FEBRUARY 10, 2016, 6:08 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2016, 6:10 PM
BY JOE MALINCONICO
PATERSON PRESS
PATERSON – City officials sent municipal employees a notice on Wednesday warning them that they would not be getting their biweekly pay through direct deposits to their bank accounts on Friday.
Instead, all Paterson employees would get old-fashioned paychecks this week – but only if the City Council approves a $7.9 million payroll appropriation at hastily scheduled special meeting on Thursday night.
“There won’t be any release of payroll without the council’s approval,” said Business Administrator Nellie Pou.
Pou said that in order to make the direct deposit payment on Friday she needed to wire the money to the bank on Wednesday. “I can’t do that,” she said.
The city’s payroll process was knocked off schedule when the council in a 4-4 vote on Tuesday rejected the administration’s proposed $22.5 million budget appropriation for February. Opponents said the administration had not implemented enough budget cuts.
Hillary Clinton’s high-powered press operation “blackmailed” reporters by promising perks in exchange for flattering coverage, according to a report Tuesday.
Using the Freedom of Information Act, Gawker obtained an exchange of emails between Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines and Marc Ambinder, a writer for The Atlantic magazine, that demonstrated how the process worked.
Ambinder asked Reines on July 15, 2009, for an advance copy of a speech Clinton was to deliver at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Christie heading home to evaluate campaign’s future
By Ben Kamisar
Chris Christie said he is taking a pause from the campaign trail to “take a deep breath” and evaluate his presidential campaign’s future after a poor showing in New Hampshire.
“We are going to go home to New Jersey tomorrow, and we are going to take a deep breath, see what the final results are tonight, because that matters,” Christie said at a speech Tuesday night as the New Hampshire primary results poured in.
“We will make our next step forward based on the complete results in New Hampshire.”
Christie had banked his presidential hopes on New Hampshire. With about half of the votes counted, he is in sixth place.
If he fails to finish in the top five, he’ll likely miss the cut for Saturday’s GOP debate.
Chris Christie Expected to Formally End Presidential Bid as Early as Today
By JOSH MARGOLIN
JORDYN PHELPS
Feb 10, 2016, 10:53 AM
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expected to formally suspend his presidential campaign as early as today after he huddles with his closest advisers, ABC News has learned.
A statement announcing the suspension could come as soon as early this afternoon, according to a source briefed on Christie’s plans.
“We bet the ranch on New Hampshire, and no one ever anticipated the Trump phenomenon,” the source told ABC News. “He’s a realist.”
Christie’s New Hampshire campaign Chairman Wayne MacDonald, who is not involved in today’s deliberations but is familiar with the campaign’s strategy, said that qualifying for the next debate is likely a major factor in the deliberations.
And with the governor’s 6th place finish in New Hampshire, he does not qualify to make the stage.
FEBRUARY 9, 2016, 6:37 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2016, 6:38 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN AND LINDY WASHBURN
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD
Talks are under way to avert a potentially protracted tax battle between non-profit hospitals and the communities that host them, said the prime sponsor of a bill that tried unsuccessfully last month to work out a solution.
Assemblyman John Burzichelli said Tuesday that talks are underway between the New Jersey Hospital Association and the New Jersey League of Municipalities with the aim of helping redraft legislation in the wake of a landmark Tax Court ruling that called into question the property tax exemption of non-profit hospitals.
He said there have been no talks thus far with the administration on the issue, nor does he expect any while Christie is pursuing his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Christie vetoed the earlier bill in January at the end of the last legislative session.
Burzichelli, D-Gloucester, the chair of the Assembly’s appropriations committee, said he and three other co-sponsors recently resubmitted the bill, but added that the document likely will serve as a “place holder” until a revised bill can be worked out.
“Everybody’s regrouped coming out of the hectic last session,” Burzicelli said of the informal talks.
But he warned if no agreement can be reached, “it’ll be a field day for the tax attorneys.”
The bill stemmed from a state Tax Court decision last summer in which a judge invalidated the non-profit Morristown Medical Center’s property tax exemption. The hospital’s parent company agreed to pay $15.5 million to satisfy back taxes and interest plus make annual payment of about $1 million as tax on the for-profit component of its operations.
Wyckoff NJ, Former White House speechwriter officially will seek to oust U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-5th Dist.) with an announcement Monday afternoon in Northvale. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is scheduled to be there as well.
The Wyckoff Democrat Gottheimer is a former speech writer for President Bill Clinton and worked in corporate strategy for Microsoft. He grew up in North Caldwell and has lived for the past four years in Wyckoff with his wife and two children.
“Scott Garrett isn’t pro-family,” Gottheimer said. “He’s not pro-business. He’s Dr. No. Dr. No to everything, and that hurts families here in New Jersey.”
So what is Josh Gottheimer for ? In one word BAILOUTS!
At a September possible Democratic candidate Gottheimer fundraiser that came less than a week after James Cicconi, the RINO Republican head of external affairs at AT&T Inc., and JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Peter Scher hosted another one for the Democrat.Attendees included executives from Blackstone, Comcast, Verizon, McGraw Hill, U.S. Telecom Association, Tribune Media, United Health, Ogilvy & Mather, Raben Group and Akin Group. The invitation for the event had said it was “an excellent opportunity to oust one of the most conservative members of the House of Representatives.”
Bloomberg News, which was the first to report plans for the Cicconi fundraiser, said some business executives had already been growing tired of Garrett. They were apparently bothered by his vote against big spending former Speaker John Boehner,and were troubled that he has opposed the crony driven , taxpayer funded corporate welfare, Export-Import Bank.
Garret also strongly opposes bailouts and in 2010 said , “The American people are tired of the safety net that has been provided to Wall Street. They want to put an end to the continued bailouts, and the bill currently under consideration in the Senate fails to accomplish this task. Wall Street is not afraid of this bill – as a matter of fact, Goldman Sachs, the same bank that has been charged by the SEC with fraud — and which also happens to have been President Obama’s single largest corporate donor in 2008 — has endorsed much of it. Goldman supports the bill because they know that it gives them and others an advantage in the marketplace by allowing their shareholders and creditors to be bailed out if they get into trouble because of the risks they take. …. We must end the era of bailouts and stop rewarding banks like Goldman Sachs with regulation that fails to protect American taxpayers.”
This stand against corporate bailouts and industry sponsored Dodd Frank has made Garrett unpopular in certian parts of the business community . In 2011 Garrett issued a strongly worded statement on Dodd Frank and the institutionalized “too big to fail policy” , “In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, Democrats insisted that more regulation was the answer to our problems and that they had the right prescription to address the ailments of our financial system. As it turns out, the 2,000 page bill they produced was not the right solution. One year after it was signed into law, Dodd-Frank has done little to prevent another financial collapse, it has failed to streamline and simplify regulation, and it has actually codified ‘too big to fail’ and taxpayer bailouts into statute. When the American people asked for limited government, less burdensome regulation, debt reduction and, most importantly, job creation, this was hardly the solution they had in mind.”
Ridgewood Nj, We continue to hear this argument time and time again from the Mayors friends , “Those who are opposed to the garage should make a fact filled and compelling financial study of the project on their own to support the notion that it should not be built. No one has done this so far and hence a level of confusion exists that the people who are against it have not presented any concrete data to support their position that it will be bad for the village and will not sustain itself. Show me that data so all can make a rational and informed decision, My hunch is the data does not exist. In all likelihood the garage will loose some money during the first and possibly the second year of operation and then it will get up to full capacity and from there on will earn far above its projected break-even point. The demand clearly exists, there is not a lot you can do to screw it up so it should make a lot of money for the Village. Clearly if we adopted some of the earlier proposals the garages proposed would now be all paid off and we would be swimming in profits of a huge magnitude. Remember when the cost / space was calculated to be $1500/space. for a 580 car garage over Ken Smith. if only that were build we would be swimming in money today…..and all of our taxes would be far lower due to the huge cash flow thrown off from that project. Do not defame the garage project. It could turn out to be a real winner.!!.”
Nice dream….
In reality , “love an optimist! But, we have gone through the numbers and questioned the council numerous times. Read the Walker Report, which can be found on the Village Website. It says, perhaps on page 2, that the garage will not be self-funding. It will, as has always been the plan, be funded by increased meter rates all throughout downtown. That exact scheme has been asked for by Mr. Sedon and others, but nothing concrete has been said. Walker mentions eventually raising rates to !.00, increased hours until 9pm, increasing enforcement, not allowing meters to carry over, etc The council will be taking away some of their tools by saying they won’t raise rates saturday night (so as not to punish 5:30 Mass at Mt. Carmel) and now with BCIA you can’t charge commuters more than Ridgewood residents.”
“Furthermore, the actual bonding through BCIA is more expensive than Ridgewood bonding ourselves, and many in municipal finance question the assumptions used. Also, the building will go over budget as Albert promised himself. Lastly, there is demand for parking but currently you can always – always- find parking on street in that area of town. (in front of NY SPorts, up prospect etc.). The garage is not that much closer and it is a shame businesses were never able to convince their employees to park over there as that is what really takes street parking.”
Of coarse there is also the county politics and perhaps the real story;
“The answer is simple if we step back and look from a higher level. The garage will be built near the old Cadillac dealership to provide parking for the apartments that will be built there. The village mayor needs the support of those developers to fund his political aspirations and to do so needs to get the garage built as big as possible in that location to show his compliance and ensure donations for his next office run.
The apartments will be built as soon as the lawsuits begin, COHA judgements line up, and the remaining council fall in place. Makes some sense”
FEBRUARY 7, 2016 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2016, 12:18 PM
BY JEAN RIMBACH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
It’s been a year since federal prosecutors quietly dropped a bombshell in the corruption trial of Joseph Ferriero, one that raised troubling questions about the justice system in Bergen County.
Without offering details, they alleged that a decade ago the onetime Democratic Party leader, since convicted on racketeering and fraud charges, had secretly received nearly $500,000 to influence the case of a Teaneck dermatologist accused of sexually assaulting two women patients. In a prosecution that still is surrounded by many questions, the doctor, Gangaram Ragi, was allowed to enter a program that spared him a trial on charges that could have yielded a prison sentence and lifetime registration as a sex offender. And while fining him and barring him from treating women, state licensing officials allowed him to continue his practice.
Since news broke of the government’s assertion — contained in court filings and court transcripts — and in the wake of a series of articles by The Record, the state has toughened its disciplinary process for doctors accused of sexual misconduct with patients.
Single Class Membership:
$99 Per Month
includes one class per week and
unlimited playspace access
Double Class Membership:
SAVINGS OF $50/month
$149 Per Month
includes two classes per week and
UNLIMITED playspace access
Unlimited Class Membership:
THE BEST OFFER
$199 Per Month
includes UNLIMITED classes per week and
UNLIMITED playspace access
Add a Sibling:
Only $50 more per month to add an additional child to your membership!
FEBRUARY CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Join us at these upcoming events & activities for Kidville families and new friends!
FREE Trial Class Week
week of February 8th
Enjoy a complimentary trial class (new members) and a surprise after class to show how much we love our Kidville family!
RSVP via Eventbrite – CLICK HERE.
Valentine’s Day Party
Save the Date: Friday February 12th
Join us for our annual Valentine’s Day celebration. Your family will enjoy Mini Photo Sessions, Take-Home Art Project, Open Gym and Yummy Snacks.
RSVP via Eventbrite – CLICK HERE.
President’s Day: Kidville is OPEN for Classes
+
Special Open Play from 9:00 am – 3:30 pm
Monday, February 15th
Children are invited to join us for a special all-day open play*!
Please call 201-493-1234 to be put on the open play list.
Playspace is limited to 30 children at a time for safety. Admission is on a first-come/first serve basis.
Kidville Ridgewood | 38 Oak Street | Ridgewood | NJ | 07450
Loretta Lynch is on the edge of the spotlight, about to be dragged to the center.
If the FBI finds sufficient evidence to launch a criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton or one of her top aides for mishandling classified information, Lynch’s Justice Department will have to decide whether or not to press ahead.
Even if no evidence of wrongdoing is found, Clinton’s many critics are unlikely to take the word of an appointee of President Obama’s, and will doubt that justice has been served.
Already, top Republicans are calling for a special prosecutor to be brought in and evaluate the situation.
No. 2 Senate Republican John Cornyn (Texas) took to the floor of the Senate last week to call for a special counsel to be appointed “because of the conflict of interest by asking Attorney General Lynch to investigate and perhaps even prosecute somebody in the Obama administration.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) agrees that Lynch ought to consider a special counsel, a spokesperson said, to reassure the country that decisions are made “without regard to any political considerations.”
The Justice Department, however, has so far declined the request.
Facebook, Google, and the other Internet titans have ever more sophisticated and intrusive methods of mining your data, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The success of the consumer Internet can be attributed to a simple grand bargain. We’ve been encouraged to search the web, share our lives with friends, and take advantage of all sorts of other free services. In exchange, the Internet titans that provide these services, as well as hundreds of other lesser-known firms, have meticulously tracked our every move in order to bombard us with targeted advertising. Now, this grand bargain is being tested by new attitudes and technologies.
Consumers who were not long ago blithely dismissive of privacy issues are increasingly feeling that they’ve lost control over their personal information. Meanwhile, Internet companies, adtech firms, and data brokers continue to roll out new technologies to build ever more granular profiles of hundreds of millions, if not billions, of consumers. And with next generation of artificial intelligence poised to exploit our data in ways we can’t even imagine, the simple terms of the old agreement seem woefully inadequate.
In the early days of the Internet, we were led to believe that all this data would deliver us to a state of information nirvana. We were going to get new tools and better communications, access to all the information we could possibly need, and ads we actually wanted to receive. Who could possibly argue with that?
DRESDEN, Germany (AP) — Protesters rallied against Islam and immigration in several European cities Saturday, sometimes clashing with police or counter-demonstrators amid growing tensions over the massive influx of asylum-seekers to the continent.
Riot police clashed with demonstrators in Amsterdam as supporters of the anti-Islam group PEGIDA tried to hold their first protest meeting in the Dutch capital. Only about 200 PEGIDA supporters were present, outnumbered by police and left-wing demonstrators who shouted, “Refugees are welcome, fascists are not!”
Dutch riot police detained several people as officers on horseback intervened to separate the two groups of demonstrators. It was not immediately clear how many people were detained.
In Germany, up to 8,000 people took part in a PEGIDA rally in Dresden, according to the independent group Durchgezaehlt, which monitors attendance figures. Up to 3,500 people took part in a counter-demonstration on the other side of the Elbe River that divides the city, it said.
No incidents were reported at the event.
In the northern French city of Calais, police dispersed a rowdy anti-migrant protest with tear gas after clashes with protesters and detained several far-right demonstrators.
Around 150 militants from the anti-Islam, anti-immigration group PEDIGA gathered Saturday chanting slogans like: “We must not let Calais die!”
Calais has been a focal point for migrants who want to slip into Britain via the Channel Tunnel. Several thousand have been living there in slums for months.
WAITING LIST OPEN – RIDGECREST APARTMENT APPLICATIONS – 2/29/16
Please note only 300 applications will be accepted and they are on a first come basis MONDAY February 29th
Jan Philips
201 280-2328 cell
IMPORTANT NOTICE
THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF BERGEN COUNTY
The Ridgewood Senior Citizen Housing Corporation, Inc.
is pleased to announce that applications will be accepted for the waiting list
for Ridgecrest Apartments located at 7-11 Ridge Road Ridgewood, New Jersey.
Beginning Monday, February 29, 2016applications will be available.
Applications may be requested by mail or in person at Ridgecrest Apartments located at:
Ridgecrest Apartments
7 – 11 Ridge Road
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
APPLICATIONS MAY ALSO BE DOWNLOADED AT WWW.HABCNJ.ORG/RIDGEWOOD.
PLEASE NOTE: ONCE 300 APPLICATIONS ARE RECEIVED THE WAITING LIST WILL CLOSE!
IN ORDER TO BE ELIGIBLE TO APPLY, APPLICANTS MUST BE 62 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER, AND/OR DEEMED DISABLED. THE TOTAL HOUSEHOLD ANNUAL GROSS INCOME CANNOT EXCEED THE FOLLOWING INCOME LIMITS:
MAXIMUM INCOME ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
Household Size Maximum Annual Income
1 $32,450
2 $37,100
YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO RETURN YOUR APPLICATION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, AS IT WILL BE PLACED ON THE WAITING LIST BY THE DATE AND TIME THAT IT WAS RECEIVED AT THE RIDGECREST OFFICE.ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS WILL BE SELECTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FOLLOWING PRIORITIES IN THE ORDER THAT THEY ARE LISTED;
RESIDENCY, OR PREVIOS DOCUMENTED RESIDNECY, IN RIDGEWOOD, OR IN CENSUS TRACT 221 IN GLEN ROCK. APPLICANTS WHO WORK OR HAVE AN OFFER OF EMPLOYMENT IN RIDGEWOOD OR CENSUS TRACT 221 IN GLEN ROCK WILL BE CONSIDERED RESIDENTS;
RESIDENCY IN BERGEN COUNTY MEMBER COMMUNITY. APPLICANTS WHO WORK OR HAVE AN OFFER OF EMPLOYMENT IN RIDGEWOOD OR CENSUS TRACT 221 IN GLEN ROCK WILL BE CONSIDERED RESIDENTS;
ALL OTHER APPLICANTS
Advertisement for Ridgecrest Apartmentsis about to begin. It now states we will only be accepting the first 300 applications. Once 300 applications are received the waiting list will close.
Over the last 5 years the average number of Move-Ins per year is 10.4 and the average number of move-outs is 10. The breakdown is as follows
Ridgewood NJ, the purpose of the garage from the very beginning seems to have been to build a commuter garage for NJT and Bergen County in Ridgewood ,moving to make the Village a transit hub
The Village of Ridgewood (the “Village”) is undertaking the construction of an $11.7M parking deck on Hudson Street (the “Project”). There are two ways the Village can finance this Project over a 25 year period. First, the Village can issue its own General Obligation Bonds (the “Village Bonds”). Second, the Village can finance the project through the Bergen County Improvement Authority (the “BCIA”), which would issue County of Bergen Guaranteed Lease Revenue Bonds (the “BCIA Bonds”). In either event, the Village will be responsible to pay 100% of the debt service on whichever bonds are issued. (https://mods.ridgewoodnj.net/pdf/manager/hudson/20160129BCIAFin.pdf )
the choice :
Transaction Costs: The model includes up-front fixed costs of issuance of $162,500 for the BCIA Bonds vs. $92,500 for the Village Bonds. These costs include typical municipal bond transaction fees such as bond counsel, financial advisor, auditor, credit rating agency, printing, etc. In addition, the analysis assumes the underwriter’s discount would be essentially the same under either scenario. The BCIA Bonds also include the upfront authority financing fee of 12.5 basis points (“bps”) of total par amount of BCIA Bonds, the annual authority administration fee of 5 bps based on the annual outstanding par amount of the BCIA Bonds and an annual trustee fee of $1,000. (https://mods.ridgewoodnj.net/pdf/manager/hudson/20160129BCIAFin.pdf )
as per usually the most expensive for Village Taxpayers is the best choice .
Going to the BCIA , once the money is approved, it tends to appear almost instantaneously, accruing interest long before the project can even get started. That is a significant reason to reconsider this plan or ploy and an excellent reason, if it does happen, not to ask for a cent more than is needed. But losing control over the way commuter spaces are priced is a huge problem and there are undoubtedly more.
There will be approximately 320 car garage. 4 levels. The mayor said in the last meeting that 2 levels may be dedicated to commuters. That’s about 160 cars for commuters. We currently already have one level, which is mostly used by Ridgewood commuters. Lets say the second level is used by Bergen County commuters at no extra money compared to Ridgewood commuters. So, 2 levels are either used by out of Ridgewood commuters or commuters who are already using this lot today without the garage.
With remaining 2 levels, we will get 160 new spot, presumably for non commuters. Cost – 12.3 million in new bond, 500K bond has been already spent + 450k already spent on environmental studies in 2014 & 2015 on this lot. = 13.25M.
That’s 82,800 for every new parking spot created for CBD. This assumes that the project will not go over the budget. With the way this council and village manager are spending the money, this is highly unlikely to stay in the budget.
Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY9:26 a.m. EST February 5, 2016
Consumers will likely pay the price for President Obama’s proposed $10 tax per-barrel of oil, an administration official and a prominent analyst said Thursday.
Energy companies will simply pass along the cost to consumers, Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, which tracks gas prices nationwide, said in an interview with USA TODAY.
Obama is set to propose the tax when he reveals his budget next week, as part of an effort to reduce carbon emissions and generate billions of dollars for mass-transit investments and self-driving vehicles. The new tax would be phased in over five years, and would apply to both domestic and imported oil.
