The 2nd Annual Michael Feeney’s Best Day Ever will be held on Saturday, June 6th on BF Field at 337 North Van Dien Avenue from 10-3. We are kicking off the day with a Color Fun Run, then a balloon and butterfly release, followed by a huge carnival. Attractions include carnival games, a rock wall, bouncy castles, face painting, crafts, and Photo Booth. Food and drinks will be available for sale. The event will run from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Proceeds donated to Michael Feeney’s Best Day Ever, Inc will benefit the following organizations: Go for the Goal Foundation, The Chief Michael Feeney Junior Police Academy and JDRF. Funds will also be used to create some best days for sick children and their families. Registration is now open on Community Pass. https://register.communitypass.net/ridgewood. Pre-registration is $20 per person, $50 per family. Entrance at the door is $25 per person, $70 per family. If you cannot attend, donations are happily accepted on Community Pass as well. This event was created to honor the memory of Michael Feeney who succumbed to Ewing’s Sarcoma on November 29, 2013 after a 4-year battle. He was 10 years old. This event is truly created with Michael in the details. From the food, to the games, to the music, to the charitable donations, there is nothing here that would not make Michael happy. It will be a fun and rewarding time for all involved. Michael Feeney’s Best Day Ever, Inc is a registered non-profit 501(c) 3 charity. Please contact Jill Feeney at [email protected] with any questions. We hope you can attend.
Face it, Jersey pols, the people ain’t buyin’ what you’re sellin’.
Posted by Scott St Clair On June 05, 2015 1 Comment
By Scott St. Clair | The Save Jersey Blog
The 2015 New Jersey primary election came and went without me. That’s right: I didn’t vote, so sue me.
I live in the 29th Legislative District, which hasn’t supported anyone to the right of Henry Wallace or George McGovern since the Johnson administration – the ANDREW Johnson administration – so why bother? Additionally, there were no contested races – both the Republican and Democratic legislative nomination ballots featured candidates put up by the official party organizations and nobody else.
Since the last thing in the world I want to do is to further political party stranglehold control over the nominating process in New Jersey, I elected to pass. As P.J. O’Rourke entitled one of his books, “Don’t Vote It Only Encourages the Bastards.”
So then I get the lecture, this time from Max Pizarro at Thursday’s PolitickerNJ.com:
All right, don’t complain. You don’t like it? Fine. You think this state is a disaster area? Okay. But don’t complain. Just do not dare complain. Road rage? Suck it up. Violent crime? Suck it up. High property taxes? Suck it up.
Too much blood bled with the expectation – or at least the post-game public explanation – of that American-protected right to vote.
Last night, we didn’t earn the right to complain, as rain-bullied and civics-bothered “voters” allowed machine and independent expenditure PAC politics to blanket New Jersey in the absence of people power.
With all due respect, which means just the opposite whenever you hear it, put a sock in it, Max, because not voting is sometimes as much an expression of political will as voting. When you hold an election and nobody comes, what does that tell you about those who hold it?
I’m pretty sure my son did not do six deployments in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait, or my great-grandfather crouch behind a low, stone wall on Little Round Top some 152 years ago shy one month to protect entrenched political parties and bosses and fertilize a political system that ignores the people, prevents over half of them from participating and is a joke.
And all those problems you mentioned, Max? When the people who created them are the same people who control access to and are pretty much exclusively on the ballot, what exactly is the point of it all?
In looking around at various counties throughout the state, most of the turnout figures I saw were single-digit in nature, which tells me more about the product than it does the consumer. Face it, Jersey pols, the people ain’t buyin’ what you’re sellin’.
I feel the need for further clarification about a matter that I brought upWednesday evening.
When an elected official asks a question of the Village Manager regarding Village business, I think that a civil reply is appropriate. Councilman Sedon’s question about a possible reduction in the salary of the Village Manager, in order to compensate for the reduction in her job responsibilities, was on the mind of others. It seemed a logical question. Ms. Sonenfeld’s reprimand of Mr. Sedon, along with her comment that her salary is already as bottom as it can go, seemed completely inappropriate. I think with the current push for increased civility in public venues, Ms. Sonenfeld should be reminded that she works for The Village, and when one of her “bosses” (ie, an elected Councilmember) asks a question, a straightforward reply is in order.
Besides the tone of her reply, I also have a problem with the content of her comments. Let’s be reasonable here. A new position has been created to the tune of “six figures.” The responsibilities of this new hire used to be handled by The Village Manager. I think the suggestion that the increased expense might be offset by taking at least some money from The Village Manager’s salary was worth considering. Moreover, her public declaration that her salary is already rock bottom is very offensive. Ms. Sonenfeld has been on the job for just over a year. The salary that she is paid is what she agreed to; no one forced her to take the job or the salary. For her to now publicly complain that it is so low, so soon after she came on board, and especially when some of her responsibilities have been delegated to the new Human Resources person, seems quite inappropriate. You, Paul, were very outspoken about the salary, and salary increase, of the former manager. Well, now you have a manager who is publicly stating that her salary is low even while she is hiring more help.
I would sincerely appreciate your response on this – both the civility matter, as well as the payroll matter.
JUNE 5, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW BIRCHENOUGH
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD — In the biggest game of the season last Friday, Ridgewood High School pitcher Lisa Higgins needed a few pitches to get her bearings straight.
The Maroons’ star right-hander fell behind Morris Knolls leadoff hitter Marina Castalluzzo, 3-0, before coming back to strike her out to start the North 1, Group 4 final. Higgins struck out the next two batters, and another pitching masterpiece was underway.
Rachel Pizzuti’s fourth-inning RBI double with two outs broke up a scoreless tie, and Higgins pitched her fourth shutout in as many state playoff starts, allowing just three hits and a walk in a complete-game 2-0 victory to clinch the school’s first sectional title since 2009 at Veterans Field.
“We’ve been a team that goes about our business all year round, so for them to really enjoy this moment was so fun to watch,” head coach Patti Auger said.
The celebration had to be quick for five Maroons who would be heading to that evening’s prom, but senior first baseman Kali Wolfer decided to take her time relishing the moment anyway.
“Winning this, my senior year, I don’t even care if I’m late for prom,” said Wolfer, one of the squad’s co-captains. “I’m not going to remember prom in 20 years; I’m going to remember this game. This is the biggest feeling right now.”
Ridgewood’s chase for a State Group 4 title ended Wednesday in a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Bridgewater-Raritan at Mike Sheppard Sr. Field at Ivy Hill Park in Newark. Higgins was outstanding again, allowing just two runs on five hits in taking the hard-luck loss.
HUDSON STREET LOT CLOSED FOR TESTING – SUNDAY, JUNE 7TH
To learn more about the ground conditions at the Hudson Street Lot the Village will be doing some testing. This is in preparation for the potential construction of a new parking facility. The testing will take place this Sunday, June 7th.
A consultant working for the Village will be performing ground penetrating radar (gpr) survey of the Hudson Street parking lot. To do this survey the lot needs to be free of cars to be effective.
The Hudson Street Lot will be closed at midnight Saturday, June 6 with several barricades to deny access. The lot will be reopened at 2:00 pm on Sunday, June 7. No cars will be permitted to park in the lot during that time period. Vehicle access to the rear of the properties on East Ridgewood Avenue through the lot will be maintained. Emergency access through the lot will be maintained.
The gpr equipment is small, makes no noise and does not take up much room.
Please share this information on the short term closing of this lot with friends and neighbors.
Roughly 4 million current and former federal employees have had their data exposed by a hack, the Obama administration said Thursday.
The notification from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was short on details, but it appears troves of sensitive information had been pilfered.
Separate media reports cited China as being behind the massive hack.
The digital assailants first infiltrated the system in December, four months before they were discovered, The Washington Post reported.
“Protecting our Federal employee data from malicious cyber incidents is of the highest priority at OPM,” said OPM Director Katherine Archuleta. “We take very seriously our responsibility to secure the information stored in our systems.”
The FBI said it had opened up an investigation into the breach, which The Wall Street Journalreported is believed to have come from hackers in China.
An unnamed U.S. official told NBCNews that the data breach might touch every federal agency.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesman said it noticed “malicious activity affecting its information technology (IT) systems and data in April.”
JUNE 3, 2015, 11:16 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015, 11:28 PM
BY SCOTT FALLON
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
A small bridge over the Oradell Reservoir used by trains hauling millions of gallons of crude oil has deteriorated to the point that the rail company will soon replace the 86-year-old span’s entire deck, according to a federal government inspection report.
While federal officials have said the bridge is structurally sound, the report by the Federal Railroad Administration indicates the bridge is in worse condition than its owner, CSX Corp., acknowledged shortly after it was inspected in March.
The 25-foot bridge crosses the northeast corner of the reservoir, which supplies drinking water to 800,000 people. As many as 30 trains — each carrying up to 3 million gallons of volatile Bakken crude — cross the bridge each week along the CSX River Line on the way to refineries on the East Coast, prompting concerns from local officials, firefighters and water company executives.
The bridge was inspected by the Federal Railroad Administration on March 31, just a few days after The Record reported that government officials had no current reports on the bridge’s condition.
At that time, government officials said the bridge passed inspection and CSX executives said some railroad ties would be replaced “as a matter of routine maintenance.”
But the one-page inspection report — released to the newspaper this week, almost two months after it was requested under the federal Freedom of Information Act – reveals the bridge required serious attention. It states that the bridge deck showed enough deterioration that CSX had already determined to replace it. CSX also ordered trains to reduce speed from 40 mph to 25 mph on the span to “protect the railroad as well as the public for safe passage of trains,” according to the inspection report.
The Federal Railroad Administration employee who inspected the bridge declined to comment.
I will not sign the petition only because I have no idea what kind of backlash I might face by doing so. But I wholeheartedly object to their 35 unit/acre proposal. The developers knew the rules when they bought the properties. The rules allow 12 but let’s be generous and go with the 18-24 existing standard – they asked for double that and by their own admission were surprised by the resistance they’ve faced. So they are either stupid or were told by those involved in the process (council, planning board?) that it would be approved. They say the economics don’t work under the current rules – so who in their right mind would take that kind of risk? These developers do not have the best interest of the village in mind, they want more traffic (foot or otherwise) downtown. Who does this help? In some ways the businesses generally but much more so and longer term it helps the landlords. For years they have been jacking up the rents on businesses (driving many away) in a time where retail spending as a whole has moved online making brick and mortar stores less valuable. The landlords see this and are happy to support this over-expansion because there is no other way to fill that revenue hole than to extract it from current residents of Ridgewood.
There were 3 primary considerations for moving to Ridgewood (many years before our first child was even born btw so the “empty nester” argument is invalid here – we are 2nd generation Ridgewood).
1) Great schools
2) Safety – outstanding police and fire response
3) Charming, Beautiful place to raise a family and hopefully retire
Allowing this over-expansion enhances exactly none of those considerations. Ridgewood’s restaurants thrive, retailers do not and likely will not when even the high-traffic areas of 17 have been forced to close. Stop arguing that we need to draw bigger retailers into this town – I can drive to 17 if I can’t find what i’m looking for online. Enough with the nonsense arguments, and enough with Blaise trying to figure out how to stuff the maximum density into our limited space (all this based on his “expert” opinion even though he has zero ability to think about a broader common sense plan for development).
in short – just say No to the developers. It is not our responsibility to tell them what’s allowed – they knew that when they bought the property. Cutting your request from 4X what is allowed to only 3X is not a compromise, it’s still a snow job.
As thorough as the Transportation Security Administration screeners may be as they rifle through your belongings, the agency isn’t performing where it counts.
In a series of trials, the Department of Homeland Security was able to smuggle fake explosives, weapons and other contraband past airport screeners in major cities across the country, according to ABC News. Officials briefed on the Homeland Security Inspector General’s investigation told the station that the TSA failed 67 out of 70 tests conducted by the department’s Red Teams — undercover passengers tasked with identifying weaknesses in the screening process, NJ.com reports.
During the tests, DHS agents each tried to bring a banned item past TSA screeners. They succeeded 95 percent of the time.
The internal investigation was designed to find the TSA’s most egregious vulnerabilities. The TSA has said Red Team agents are “super terrorists” who “push the boundaries of our people, processes, and technology,” but DHS officials told ABC the test results were frustrating at the very least.
Ridgewood NJ , As part of our Community Policing /Homeland Security Public – Private Partnership initiative, the Ridgewood Police Department in conjunction with NJ Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness hosted a Security Awareness program on Wednesday 5/27/15.
The program, Security Awareness and Vigilance for Everyone (S.A.V.E.) brought together approximately 55 law enforcement, public safety and security personnel from the region. The training is designed to enhance the capabilities of security and public safety personnel responsible for protecting specific areas of infrastructure by providing behavior assessment screening training.
It is a goal of our department to develop and enhance community security & safety through the integration of these public/private partnerships and joint trainings into our overall community policing and homeland security activities.
We are very sad to see the loss of a Jersey Shore icon , Surf Cub .
I saw this picture on Jersey Joel’s post last night & it struck me for a reason. I spent every summer working & playing there from the time I was 9 years old. I vividly remember walking on that beach for the 1st time after my Dad bought the place. I have all kinds of memories there, great, good, & bad. That’s Life. I personally would love to see the place rebuilt, but that decision is not up to me. My family has been moved by the all the pictures shared by people we know & don’t know. We miss summers there terribly and I personally made my livelihood there, working with some very creative people to do some really cool entertainment events like SurfStock, The Flying Mueller Bros, Saturday Night Disco & Sunday Jam Parties. My fondest memories are from the Teen Nights when my sons were old enough to run them and work on the themes with me. We were all so proud of the place and my Father for creating such a loving & wonderful work place to be in. I use to laugh to myself when people would say you should remodel and make the place more like this place or that place. They didn’t get it. It wasn’t about what the place looked like, it was about the 3 generations of families and beach/club goers who came there. So I guess we’ll see what happens from here. God Bless.Joey Jr.
Writing the Declaration of Independence, 1776 by jean Leon Gerome Ferris, 1863-1930. (Photo: World History Archive/Newscom)
COMMENTARY BY
Thomas West
Thomas G. West is Paul Ermine Potter and Dawn Tibbetts Potter professor of politics at Hillsdale College.
Which approach to welfare policy is better for the poor: that of the Founders or that of today’s welfare state?
The more we spend on the poor, the harder it seems for them to attain decent, productive lives in loving families. The federal government has spent $22 trillion on anti-poverty programs since the beginning of the War on Poverty in 1965, but the poverty rate is nearly the same today as in 1969, fluctuating between roughly 11 and 15 percent over that time period.
As I argue in a new essay on “Poverty and Welfare in the American Founding,” these results are bound to continue unless we rethink welfare policy from the perspective of our Founders. Neither the contemporary left nor right in America properly understands their approach.
The left often claims the Founders were indifferent to the poor—suggesting that New Deal America ended callousness and indifference. Indeed, high school and college textbooks frequently espouse this narrative. Many on the right think the Founders advocated only for charitable donations as the means of poverty relief.
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Neither is correct. America always has had laws providing for the poor. The real difference between the Founders’ welfare policies and today’s is over how, not whether, government should help those in need.
The Founders
Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin believed government has an obligation to help the poor. Both thought welfare policies should support children, the disabled, widows and others who could not work. But any aid policy, they insisted, would include work-requirements for the able-bodied.
Rather than making welfare a generational inheritance, Franklin thought it should assist the poor in overcoming poverty as expediently as possible: “I am for doing good to the poor.…I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.”
Moreover, local, rather than federal, officials administered this welfare, since they were more likely to know the particular needs of recipients and could distinguish between the deserving poor (the disabled and involuntarily unemployed) and the undeserving poor (those capable of work but preferring not to).
The Founders sought to provide aid in a way that would help the deserving poor but minimize incentives for recipients to act irresponsibly. They wanted to protect the rights of taxpayers by preventing corruption and abuses in welfare aid.
Above all, the Founders saw the family and life-long marriage as the primary means of support for everyone, rich and poor alike.
Modern Welfare
By the mid-20th century, intellectual opinion began to peel away the stigma attached to the behavioral aspects of poverty, and progressive politicians increased the benefits and number of welfare recipients.
During the New Deal, despite major expansions of welfare programs, the Founders’ approach remained intact at least to this extent: These programs still distinguished between the deserving and undeserving poor—a distinction based on moral conduct.
Until the mid-1960s, free markets, secure property rights, strong family policy and minimal taxation and regulation supported a culture of work and entrepreneurship. But through the rise of modern liberalism’s redefinition of rights and justice, welfare was officially reconceived as a right that could be demanded by anyone in need, regardless of conduct or circumstances.
Among the most destructive features of the post-1965 welfare regime has been its unintentional dismantling of the family. By making welfare wages higher than working wages, the government essentially replaced fathers with a government check. The state became many families’ primary provider.
Even more perverse, for many single mothers, marrying a working man may actually be a financial burden rather than a support because the marriage can diminish government benefits.
Though modern welfare programs grant more benefits to a greater number of individuals than the Founders ever fathomed, the Founders’ approach to welfare policy was effective in providing for the minimal needs of the poor and dramatically reducing poverty over time. Based on today’s living standards, the poverty rate fell from something like 90 percent in the Founding era to 12 percent by 1969.
If the goal of welfare is to provide for those in need while respecting the rights of all, Americans would do well to ponder the Founders’ outlook on welfare as a limited system, concerned with helping the poor who truly are in need and encouraging those who are able to work to leave their poverty behind as soon as possible.
At May 20 audience, he stressed that educating and raising children in the human values that form the “backbone” of a healthy society is a responsibility that each family has.
BY CNA/EWTN NEWS 05/20/2015
VATICAN CITY — In his general audience, Pope Francis spoke of the essential role parents play in educating their children, a role he said has been usurped by so-called experts who have taken the place of parents and rendered them fearful of disciplining their children.
“If family education regains its prominence, many things will change for the better. It’s time for fathers and mothers to return from their exile — they have exiled themselves from educating their children — and slowly reassume their educative role,” the Pope said May 20.
He gave harsh criticism to the “intellectual critics” that he said have “silenced” parents in order to defend younger generations from real or imagined harm, and he lamented how schools now are often more influential than families in shaping the thinking and values of children.
“In our days, the educational partnership is in crisis. It’s broken,” he said, and he named various reasons for this.
“On the one part, there are tensions and distrust between parents and educators; on the other part, there are more and more ‘experts’ who pretend to occupy the role of parents, who are relegated to second place,” he said.
They should do that in Ridgewood instead of the assisted living facility the Kensington which is like a hospital and would involve over-the-top amount of traffic. Several shifts during the day. and night, Kensington will house over 90 residents and each resident including food preparation and basic need care will need about five staff members per resident.
Also additional medical staff on premises. Remember were talkin people who cannot take care of themselves PLUS Alzheimer residents, dementia residents.There is a new assisted living being built in Wyckoff at The Christian Health Care facility. Plus there are lots of other places.
Thu, June 11, 2015
Time: 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Location: Ridgewood Country Club, Midland Ave., Paramus, NJ 07652
We invite you to join the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce for a spectacular event to raise money for the Chamber’s Scholarship Fund. This event provides an opportunity for you to enjoy a day of golf with friends and colleagues at a world class club, knowing that your financial support will help fund college expenses for deserving Ridgewood High School seniors.
2015 Golf Schedule
Registration 11:30 AM
Start Luncheon 11:45 AM
Putting Clinic & Putting Contest 12:30 PM
Shot Gun Golf Start 1:30 PM
Hors d’Oeuvres & Open Bar 6:00 PM
Dinner/Awards 7-9:30 PM
