the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, the New Jersey State Police is seeking the public’s assistance with identifying two suspects who allegedly stole two catalytic converters from the Victor Robbins Group located on State Highway 38 in Hainsport Township, Burlington County.
photo Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.8 percent in November on a seasonally adjusted basis after rising 0.9 percent in October, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 6.8 percent before seasonal adjustment.
Continue reading Inflation Soars 6.8% , Fastest Rate Since 1982
the starff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, more than 40 years after facing near-extinction, New Jersey’s bald eagle population is soaring and reaching new milestones, including confirmation for the first time of nesting pairs found in each of the state’s 21 counties, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Catherine R. McCabe announced today.
Continue reading New Jersey’s Bald Eagle Population is Soaring
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, West Bergen’s Social Discovery Program is pleased to announce that it is again sponsoring the SOAR Experience, a program for children and teens, ages 6-16, with solid verbal skills who experience the social communication and social skills challenges seen in Level 1 Autism Spectrum Disorder (formerly known as Asperger’s Syndrome, HFA and Nonverbal Learning Disabilities) and related disorders such as Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder. The SOAR Experience, a therapeutic social skills program in a day camp-like environment,
will be held at the Center for Children and Youth, One Cherry Lane in Ramsey. The SOAR Counselor in Training (CIT) Program offers teens and young adults (14-24 years old) with the same diagnostic criteria listed above, vocational training and an opportunity to develop various work and
social skills.
February 18,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, West Bergen’s Social Discovery Program is pleased to announce that it is again sponsoring the SOAR Experience, a program for children and teens, ages 6-17, with solid verbal skills who experience the social communication and social skills challenges seen in Level 1 Autism Spectrum Disorder (formerly known as Asperger’s Syndrome, HFA and Nonverbal Learning Disabilities) and related disorders such as Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder. The SOAR Experience, a therapeutic social skills program in a day camp-like environment, will be held at the Center for Children and Youth, One Cherry Lane in Ramsey. The SOAR Counselor In Training (CIT) Program offers teens and young adults (14-24 years old) with the same diagnostic criteria listed above, vocational training and an opportunity to develop various work and social skills.
This is the tenth summer that West Bergen is able to provide these unique services. The SOAR Experience is a small, nurturing program, specifically designed to help children with social challenges thrive and succeed in a supportive environment.
The Program is held Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The six-week program is from July 9 to August 17, 2018. The three-week programs are from July 9 to July 27 and from July 30 to August 17. Other highlights include: social skills training; weekly themes; field trips and fun filled activities.
Under the direction of West Bergen’s professional staff, participants will expand their skills in a number of important areas including: building relationships; increasing flexibility; resolving conflicts; successful transitions; improving social scanning; decreasing anxiety; experiencing newness and change and coping with sensory issues.
Contact Richard Miller, LPC, NCC, Director of The Social Discovery Program, for additional information at 201.934.1160 x7234 or [email protected].
Free information sessions on the SOAR Experience and the Counselor In Training Program will be held on Wednesday, March 14, 2018, 7:00 to 7:40 PM; Thursday, April 19, 6:30 to 7:10 PM and Monday, May 14, 7:00 to 7:40 PM at the Center for Children and Youth, One Cherry Lane, Ramsey, NJ. SOAR Counselor In Training (CIT) Program Information Sessions will be the same dates immediately following the general information sessions for 45 minutes. Reserve a spot by calling (201) 934-1160, Ext. 7200.
By Matt Gray | For NJ.com
on April 27, 2017 at 7:41 AM, updated April 27, 2017 at 5:26 PM
MONROE TWP. — Amanda Potopchuk’s face may look familiar.
She’s someone’s daughter. Someone’s aunt. Someone’s girlfriend. Someone’s friend.
And she’s a recovering heroin addict.
The Williamstown resident, now 29, has been sober for nine years after battling an addiction that began when she was prescribed painkillers at age 15.
You may recognize her face as one that stood next to Gov. Chris Christie during a press conference last year to discuss the addiction crisis.
“I want this to go national. I want my face to be out there,” she said. “This is the face of someone who is in sustained remission from a substance abuse disorder.”
N.J. pension crisis explained with popsicle sticks
Samantha Marcus | NJ Advance Media for NJ.comBy Samantha Marcus | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on February 28, 2017 at 7:30 AM, updated February 28, 2017 at 8:37 AM
TRENTON — New Jersey’s government worker pension funds lost a lot of ground last year, as the state’s pension debt rose from $43.8 billion to 49.1 billion, newly released actuarial reports reviewed by NJ Advance Media show.
Even as Gov. Chris Christie made a record-high contribution to the pension system, the state’s unfunded liabilities climbed ever higher, making the outlook for the weakest public pension system in the country appear worse still.
The pension fund lost nearly 1 percent on its investments last year, and the state still contributed far less than what’s recommended. And notably, the state winds up owing more because the treasurer reduced the funds’ long-term assumed rate of return on its investments.
The state’s unfunded liability is a portion of the overall debt. The local side of the system is in much better shape but still $17.1 billion short of what it would cost to pay for future retirement benefits. The combined unfunded liability rose from $59 billion in the 2015 fiscal year to $66.2 billion in the fiscal year that ended in June.
By Quentin Fottrell|11:21 am, February 21, 2017
Ivanka Trump’s signature perfume is a best seller on retail giant Amazon.
Ivanka Trump Eau de Parfum Spray For Women ($34 for a 3.4-ounce bottle) was No. 1 on Amazon’s list of bestselling fragrances and perfume for at least the sixth consecutive day. One reviewer wrote: “I normally buy this at Nordstrom. But now that I heard they will not carry it anymore, I was happy to find it on Amazon.” (Radha Beauty Aromatherapy was at No. 2 on Amazon’s list.) The recent success of Ivanka Trump’s perfume on Amazon, particularly after her products were dropped from other stores, suggests the “resistance economy” to boycott products associated with the family of President Trump can help a brand as well as hurt it.
The success of Ivanka Trump’s perfume on Amazon suggests the ‘resistance economy’ to boycott products associated with the family of President Trump can help a brand as well as hurt it.
https://heatst.com/biz/ivanka-trumps-perfume-soars-to-no-1-bestseller-on-amazon-despite-boycotts/
file photo by Boyd Loving
By Susan K. Livio | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 04, 2017 at 9:58 AM, updated January 04, 2017 at 11:58 AM
TRENTON — More than 600 people died in traffic accidents on New Jersey’s roadways last year, 8 percent more than in 2015 and the most deaths seen since 2011, according to preliminary State Police statistics.
After dropping to a 20-year low in 2013 when 542 people died in crashes and collisions, the fatalities have been steadily climbing, according to state police data released Tuesday.
In 2015, 562 died in vehicular accidents – six more than the previous year. But in 2016, 607 people, or 45 more, died in 2016.
By Stephen Stirling | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on December 13, 2016 at 8:36 AM, updated December 13, 2016 at 3:06 PM
The struggles of Atlantic City are well documented.
Casino closures. The threat of bankruptcy. The recent state takeover.
But while much has been made about the pain being felt by the city and its most famous commercial tenants, new data show its residents likely feel the sting more than most.
BY DIANA OLIVEIRA
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD – When he first began Boy Scouts, Christian Seremetis already had an ultimate goal in mind: to become an Eagle Scout.
“My dad was really the spark that started the fire,” explained the 16-year-old. “My dad was an Eagle Scout, so I need to be an Eagle Scout.”
He was awarded that rank last month — along with his two fellow scouts from Ridgewood’s Boy Scout Troop 5, Brendan Cherrey and Dylan Hansen — at an Eagle Court of Honor ceremony in front of a crowd of family members, younger scouts and local dignitaries at First Presbyterian Church, the troop’s sponsor. Seremetis explained why he decided to pursue the hardest and highest advancement in Boy Scouts — a rank accomplished by only 7 percent of scouts nationwide.
“It wasn’t pressure as much as it was my own interest in doing it,” said Seremetis. “I’m the youngest of three kids. When you’re the youngest kid, when anyone older than you does something, you want to [match that]. In this case, it’s my dad.”
file photo by Boyd Loving
Price tag for Bergen County DPW facility grows by a Staggering $5 million
This has “Ridgewood parking garage” written all over it
AUGUST 5, 2015, 9:39 PM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2015, 7:36 AM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
The new Bergen County public works maintenance facility in Paramus will cost at least $5 million more to build than originally estimated, County Executive James Tedesco told the freeholders Wednesday.
The project, which had been estimated to cost $16 million, has cost $21 million thus far, Tedesco said.
He also said the project, scheduled to open on Oct. 1, is about seven months behind schedule from it’s originated projected completion date in March.
Related: Cost of Bergen County Justice Center expected to grow by $1.3M
Tedesco has been saying for months that the facility was “underfunded.” But Wednesday marked the first time he specified how much more money it would cost.
The DPW facility is part of a larger multi-project $147-million bond issue that also includes a new Justice Center and parking deck and another DPW garage in Hackensack. Taken together, the work is the largest public works project in the county’s history.
Tedesco said the Justice Center and parking garage are close to coming in on budget. The five-story parking garage is set to open later this summer and the adjacent six-story Justice Center is about six weeks behind schedule, he said. The Hackensack DPW garage is completed.
The Paramus DPW facility, though, has undergone several changes in the last seven months that have added to the cost of that project, he said. For example, one building at the site was designed as a cold-storage garage, to store vehicles without providing any heat. But to allow for diesel-powered vehicles to be stored there, the county has added electric heating blocks to thaw them out in winter, Tedesco said.
He said the original design also did not call for the concrete in the maintenance garage to be sealed with epoxy. That change has added to the expense and the time required to install it, he said.
DPW Director Raymond Dressler said another change was related to how the current administration, which took over in January, plans to use the building. Dressler said one garage bay is getting a lift capable of raising large trucks, so that the county can offer heavy-equipment maintenance as a shared service to municipalities and fire departments. He said plans call for at least two shifts daily to work out of the building, rather than just one, which required reconfiguring the space.
By Phil Kerpen
Published March 29, 2012
FoxNews.com
With the country focused on this week’s high drama at the Supreme Court, President Obama’s EPA quietly released long-delayed regulations to apply global warming rules never authorized by Congress to new coal-fired power plants.
That Obama’s EPA would release a rule to destroy coal-fired electricity while the president gives stump speeches about an “all of the above” energy policy is an insult to the American people.
This rule will effectively block any new coal-fired power plants from being built in America, and a second round of related rules – expected after the election, of course – will shut down existing coal-fired power plants.
The result will be steeply higher electricity prices, lost jobs, and lower standards of living. Remarkably, this is all done in the name of global warming, but even EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson admits it will have no discernible impact on global temperatures. Obama’s EPA is crippling the U.S. economy not to accomplish anything, but just to enjoy a nice, warm, green feeling of self-satisfaction.
Four years ago, then-candidate Barack Obama explained his anti-coal energy policy in an editorial board meeting with the San Francisco Chronicle. Obama said: “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad.” He went on to explain: “So, if somebody wants to build a coal plant, they can — it’s just that it will bankrupt them.”
Indeed Obama attempted to make good on his campaign promise to bankrupt the coal industry and make electricity prices skyrocket the legitimate way – by proposing cap-and-trade legislation in Congress. It was jammed through the House but crashed and burned in the Senate, where many Democrats understood such an energy rationing plan to be political suicide.
By JULIET LINDERMAN
Jul. 31, 2015 4:47 PM EDT
BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore reached a grim milestone on Friday, three months after riots erupted in response to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody: With 45 homicides in July, the city has seen more bloodshed in a single month than it has in 43 years.
Police reported three deaths — two men shot Thursday and one on Friday. The men died at local hospitals.
With their deaths, this year’s homicides reached 189, far outpacing the 119 killings by July’s end in 2014. Nonfatal shootings have soared to 366, compared to 200 by the same date last year. July’s total was the worst since the city recorded 45 killings in August 1972, according to The Baltimore Sun.
The seemingly Sisyphean task of containing the city’s violence prompted Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to fire her police commissioner, Anthony Batts, on July 8.
“Too many continue to die on our streets,” Rawlings-Blake said then. “Families are tired of dealing with this pain, and so am I. Recent events have placed an intense focus on our police leadership, distracting many from what needs to be our main focus: the fight against crime.”
But the killings have not abated under Interim Commissioner Kevin Davis since then.
Baltimore is not unique in its suffering; crimes are spiking in big cities around the country.
But while the city’s police are closing cases— Davis announced arrests in three recent murders several days ago — the violence is outpacing their efforts. Davis said Tuesday the “clearance rate” is at 36.6 percent, far lower than the department’s mid-40s average.
Crime experts and residents of Baltimore’s most dangerous neighborhoods cite a confluence of factors: mistrust of the police; generalized anger and hopelessness over a lack of opportunities for young black men; and competition among dealers of illegal drugs, bolstered by the looting of prescription pills from pharmacies during the riot.
https://bigstory.ap.org/article/60352506f481415c8edf3fc35b6f8103/baltimore-killings-soar-level-unseen-43-years
by Elise Young
With New Jersey Transit commuters facing higher fares amid a $120 million budget deficit, the agency is paying more to workers as it deals with equipment repairs and service disruptions.
Overtime at the nation’s third-biggest rail and bus operator climbed to $135.3 million last year, a 12 percent increase from 2011. During the same period, the ranks of New Jersey Transit workers paid at least $100,000 a year grew 20 percent, according to data on the state’s website. The costs were driven by service needs and emergencies, plus wages in union contracts, the agency says.
“I don’t know how you justify” higher fares, said Stephanie Dunstan, a 30-year-old Hamilton resident, as she waited on June 17 for the 6:55 a.m. train to Manhattan, where she works in insurance. “I know people who are getting raises of 2 percent, 3 percent.”
