|
|
Posts Tagged ‘Daily Record’
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
Each day I browse around the websites of various newspapers that I would read if I had subscriptions and had the time to sit down in the morning and look over them. These include local newspaper websites like the Asbury Park Press and the Daily Record. This morning I was flipping around the Daily Record’s website and came across an article entitled, “Roxbury student code of conduct now in effect 24/7/365.” I’d link you to the article, but these Gannett-owned newspapers don’t keep their articles online for more than a few days and then you have to pay for them (ha!). However, the point of the article was as follows:
The school board has revised its code of conduct policy to require students be on their best behavior the entire calendar year — even when school is out — or face suspension from extracurricular activities, board member Chris Rogers said Tuesday.
Now as a former student at Roxbury High School and as a former college student who fought this type of nanny-state activity at my university, I hate this decision by the Roxbury school board. And there are any number of reasons to hate it. First of all, the policy seems to single out those students that are involved in extracurricular activity. So little Susie is on the softball team and is found in violation of this vague policy in July (what IS “best behavior?”). Is she to be suspended from the first four or five softball games the following spring? Isn’t that a bit ridiculous?
What about little Bobby who doesn’t have any extracurricular activities. Does he get suspended from school if he does something that doesn’t qualify as “best behavior” in August? And if so, then is he suspended the first two weeks of school in September for an “offense” committed on August 1st? Is this insane or what?
How about Jen – the President of the Student Council. She gets cited for not being on her “best behavior” a few days after school is out in June. Is she then suspended from participating in the Student Council for the month of September?
And is it fair that Billy is suspended from school while Susie and Jen just get to miss out on their extracurricular activities?
And does this policy apply to the school’s faculty? Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that every single teacher or employee of the school district exhibits their “best behavior” all day, every day. And who is to define “best behavior?” What if my family’s best behavior is different than your family’s definition? Do you see how crazy this can get?
These types of theoretical situations can go on and on, which is typical of policies that shouldn’t be enacted in the first place. The school board is overstepping their bounds in this case in an inappropriate manner. This policy should be rescinded immediately.
Posted in Local People & Politics | 4 Comments »
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009
Thankfully, New Jerseyans seems to be coming to their senses and it would appear that they are preparing to kick Governor Money Bags (aka Governor Corzine) out of office come November. An article in today’s Daily Record cited how an overwhelming majority of New Jersey voters agreed that our state’s budget is in critical condition. This follows a recent poll showing that Corzine is trailing his likely Republican opponent Chris Christie. The Daily Record article states:
(more…)
Posted in The State of New Jersey | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009
Governor Jon Corzine (aka Governor Money Bags) just doesn’t get it when it comes to New Jersey and the struggling families in our state. Yesterday he gave his budget address and it was a disaster for all working families. The total budget that he proposed was $29.8 billion which includes cutting property tax rebates to almost the entire middle class population of New Jersey: any family making more than $75,000 will have their property tax rebate eliminated.
I know that my friends living across the nation are thinking, “Wait – you guys are getting upset over people making more than $75,000 having their property tax rebates cut? Shut up!” Look, I understand that mindset and if this was going on in any other part of the nation, I might agree with you. But New Jersey is the most expensive state in the union! Property taxes in most of the state are between $7,000 and $10,000 each year. Each year! Most New Jerseyans wouldn’t mind paying so much in property taxes if the level of services that were received for the expense matched. However, in New Jersey most property tax revenues are shoveled into Newark and Camden and any other number of these so-called “underserved” Abbott school districts. Let me tell you something. I’ve toured many of the schools in these Abbott districts as well as many of the schools in the regular school districts. Trust me, the kids in the Abbott districts have a much better learning environment than their suburban counterparts. It’s bull.
Some thoughts from a posting on the Daily Record website:
Corzine struck a sober tone in his fourth budget address, saying tough choices are necessary now to ensure New Jersey emerges strong when the global recession lifts. He also reminded the Legislature of reckless spending in the past, saying years of irresponsible spending contributed to the state’s dire fiscal circumstances this year.
“You can’t correct 15 or 20 years of bad decisions in 38 months,” Corzine said. “The steps we’ve taken have put our state’s finances on more solid ground.”
What a sorry SOB this guy is. How out of touch with reality must one man be to say, “Hey, the last 15 years were a disaster,” when he operated the state for 3 of those 15 years!? Come on! When does reality sink in? When do the masses in Essex and Camden county finally stop and say “WAIT! Enough! We’re NOT voting for the New Jersey Democrats any more!”
I’m not advocating for everyone to vote for the Republicans (except for Chris Christie – see below), but damn it – STOP voting for these ridiculous Democrats who have no idea what it’s like to try to survive in this state. Vote for the Libertarians or the Constitution Party – vote for someone other than the Democrats already! They’ve ruined this state and they’re not going to stop.
And Governor Money Bags’ budget gets better… If you make more than $500,000, you could have your taxes raised this year only as a way to raise more funds for the state treasury. So if you were making all of this money, why wouldn’t you find a way to be listed as a Pennsylvania resident for this tax year? What stupid, stupid idea from this idiot governor.
Governor Money Bags also wants to money to hospitals and small towns (which are proven to be operated more efficiently and in a more cost-effective manner than their larger counterparts). Good grief! The next thing you know he’s going to start taxing the shore towns for how much sand is in their jurisdiction! Maybe he can go to an old folks home and tax them for each gray hair they have on their heads, too!
This man needs to be stopped as soon as possible. Chris Christie MUST win the upcoming gubernatorial election or this state is going to continue its out of control spiral towards being an unhealthy place for middle Americans to live, work, and retire.
Posted in Money, Jobs, & Finances, The State of New Jersey | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
A few days ago I was polled by Quinnipiac University regarding the upcoming gubernatorial election in New Jersey. For those of you who are not familiar with the popular candidates in the lovely Garden State we are choosing between the incumbent Democratic Governor Jon Corzine and the prospective Republican candidate Christopher Christie. The poll lasted some twelve minutes and covered a variety of issues including who I voted for in the recent Presidential election and how I identified myself in terms of my politics.
Anyway, I bring this up because I saw the results of the poll on the Daily Record website a few days ago. Here are the results in their entirety as printed in the Daily Record:
TRENTON — U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie hasn’t said whether he’ll run for governor, but he’d start such a race slightly trailing Gov. Jon S. Corzine, according to results of a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.
Corzine is favored 42 percent to 36 percent among 2,020 registered voters in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup against Christie. Much of the advantage results from the state’s overwhelming Democratic edge in voter registration, as Christie holds a 38 percent to 32 percent edge among independents.
The two had been tied in polls conducted in August and September. The new poll was done from Nov. 12 to Nov. 17, culminating on the day Christie announced he will resign his post on Dec. 1 — news that sparked talk of a long-anticipated gubernatorial run.
The poll also showed New Jersey disapproves of Corzine’s job performance by a 46 percent to 43 margin and say he doesn’t deserve to be re-elected by a 51 percent to 37 percent margin.
Those numbers are poor but improving, Quinnipiac pollster Clay F. Richards said.
“The long coattails of Barack Obama have reached down into New Jersey and helped Gov. Jon Corzine’s re-election prospects, at least for now,” Richards said.
The poll showed few voters are aware of Christie, despite his nearly seven years as the state’s top federal prosecutor. Seventy percent of respondents said they have not heard enough about Christie to have an opinion about him, compared with 11 percent who aren’t aware enough of the state’s governor.
“That will change as we move along and we get a race,” Richards said.
The poll’s margin of error was 2.2 percent.
I find it interesting that there is no mention of how these votes breakout demographically or geographically. For example, I was asked about my ethnic background as well as what type of area I live in – suburban, rural, or urban. Having studied polling and the ways that pollsters can manipulate the results of such questions, I’m surprised that there is no breakdown of percentage of voters located in urban areas who are pro-Corzine or pro-Christie vs. percentage of voters in suburban or rural areas.
Hmmm…trying to hide the gigantic gap in the number of urban Republicans and suburban and rural Democrats maybe? Everyone in the state knows that Democrats win in New Jersey because the heavily urban areas are so highly populated and are so firmly in the Democratic column that it’s not worth the money to campaign in those areas. I just wish that a respected polling group like Quinnipiac University would sort of put that information out there in the public domain as part of the results of their survey. Why not add a line stating, “As has usually been the case in New Jersey, of the 2,020 registered voters who were polled, 85% of them were located in urban areas. Of these voters, 95% identified as Democratic voters.”
We all know it’s true – just looking for some more truth and full disclosure in the media.
Posted in The State of New Jersey | 2 Comments »
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
Once again, the Daily Record printed an excellent article today regarding the student loan crisis and how mounting debts are saddling today’s students. One of the greatest economic catastrophes of our time is brewing in this student loan mess and no one is addressing it directly. Oh sure, there are plans to offer existing and future college students a break either by an Obama tax credit or an increased Pell Grant, but that does nothing for the students who are graduating college, year after year, with high five and six figure debts.
People need to realize that the current economic issues are all linked together. One of the reasons why there are so many houses for sale on the market is because graduating college students simply can’t afford to pay the crazy prices that are being asked. This is a two-headed problem – first, the prices are way out of sync with the value of the homes and second, college students aren’t graduating with a few thousand dollars of student loan debt any more. In today’s world, college students are averaging $20,000 in student loan debt. Some of us have broken six figures in these debts! From the article:
When Melissa Norelli graduates from Fairleigh Dickinson University three years from now, she’ll owe about $129,000 in student loans.
Her private loan officer told her to consider it like a car payment — for a BMW. Norelli, who is studying to be a teacher, said she’ll probably have to walk to work because she’ll have a $900 monthly student loan bill.
“I was naïve to the fact it would be so much money,” said Norelli, 20, of Langhorne, Pa. ” I love my school and my major. But, I didn’t think it was going to be so scary, so overwhelming.”
An annual study on student debt shows that the average debt of college graduates with loans grew by 6 percent in just one year from 2006 to 2007. The average debt rose from $18,976 to $20,098, according to the Project on Student Debt. The report also points out that the debt is rising faster than starting salaries for graduates, which only grew 3 percent in the same time period.
It’s all related. Ms. Norelli graduates with a six-figure debt in a really tough job market which cannot offer her enough compensation for her to buy a home so she spends more time living at her family’s home after graduation, which returns a small financial burden on the family. You have a home that cannot be sold, a college graduate that may not be able to find a high enough paying job, and a family that now has to spend money instead of putting it away for retirement. It’s a vicious cycle and the scary thing is – it’s only one, small cycle in this incredibly crazy market.
I wish all of my best to Ms. Norelli in her future endeavors. As I said in the previous entry, no one should be projecting their personal situations on the brave young people who are profiled in these articles. A few years ago I had the honor of being on the front page of USA Today as a profile in student loan debt. The most annoying thing to come out of that experience was the amazing amount of people who thought that because 50 years ago they could join the military and get a free education, that I should have done the same thing. Or the arrogant jerks who said that I should have worked through college to pay down my debts (I did). These people just LOVED to talk about their success in the wake of another person’s concerns – truly the lowest of the low.
There is only so much of a person’s story that can be told in a USA Today (or in Ms. Norelli’s case – Daily Record) article. And I, for one, wish Ms. Norelli the best and hope that she can find a great job which allows her to pay down her student loan debt quicker than the analysts think is possible. Good luck! 
Posted in Money, Jobs, & Finances, Student Loans, United States Politics | 2 Comments »
|
|
|
| |
|
