Bill pascrell’s victory

Go Out And Vote!

Bill Pascrell has served the needs of Passaic County for many years a friend of all communities.

Our Congressman Bill Pascrell with young Yeshiva Students

In Memory of Ronald E. Freeman, III

In Memory of Ronald E. Freeman, III.

Officer Ronald E. Freeman, III In Loving Memory

BIOGRAPHY

Ronald E. Freeman, III, 36, of Clifton, entered into rest on May 28, 2012. Born in Westwood, he lived most of his life in Clifton.

Ronald was a Police Officer with the Passaic Police Department for the past 16 years and was a member of PBA Local #14. A parishioner of St. Andrew the Apostle RC Church, Clifton, Ronald was a member of the Clifton Moose Lodge # 657.

Devoted father of Ryan. Loving son of Ronald E., Jr. and Connie (Bonfiglio) Freeman of Clifton. Dear brother of Christopher and his wife Charise of Lanoka Harbor. Cherished grandson of Ron and Virginia Freeman, Pal and the late Fred Bonfiglio. Loving uncle of Kaitlyn and Brianna. Cherished love of Valerie Sanchez.

Funeral Friday 10 AM at the Shook Funeral Home, 639 Van Houten Ave., Clifton. Interment, Ascension Cemetery, Airmont, NY. Visiting Thursday 2-4 and 7-9 PM at the funeral home.

In lieu of flowers, donations made to Christopher Freeman to be held in trust for Ryan Freeman’s Education Fund, would be greatly appreciated. http://www.ShookFH.com

VISITATION

Thursday May 31, 2012, 2-4 PM – 7-9 PM at Shook Funeral Home
Click for Map and Directions

FUNERAL SERVICE

Friday June 1, 2012, 10 AM at Shook Funeral Home
Click for Map and Directions

For more information or to donate, please click this link.

http://www.shookfh.com/sitemaker/sites/ShookF1/obit.cgi?user=644008FreemanIII&ref=nf

Former Detective, Current Patrolmen Officer Ronald Freeman 312 R.I.P, Passaic is in shock!

Police: Three Cars And One House In Englewood Target Of Arson « CBS New York

Police: Three Cars And One House In Englewood Target Of Arson « CBS New York.

No change for the City of Passaic

Vote Count Percent for the City of Passaic

– Kasim RJ WASHINGTON 1,202 7.91%
– Luis SANTIAGO 816 5.37%
– Zaida E. POLANCO 2,343 15.41% 
– Chaim M. MUNK 2,305 15.16% 
– Maritza COLON-MONTANEZ 1,309 8.61%
– Jeffrey DYE 859 5.65%
– Diomedes MINAYA 375 2.47%
– Hector C. LORA 2,216 14.58% 
– Aharon V. COHN 689 4.53%
– Maheshchandra PATEL 800 5.26%
– Gary S. SCHAER 2,267 14.91% 

Write-In 19 0.13%

Total 15,200 100.00%

Suspicious package forces evacuation in Passaic

Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Last updated: Tuesday January 11, 2011, 10:05 PM

BY JUSTO BAUTISTA

The Record

STAFF WRITER

PASSAIC — Residents and students were evacuated Tuesday night while a bomb squad from the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department disarmed a “suspicious” package left near the corner of Temple Place and Harding Court, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

There were no injuries.

The package — a cooler with wires protruding — turned out to be “non-explosive,” said Bill Maer, a sheriff’s department spokesman. The cooler also contained batteries.

“There was a power source in the device,” Maer said.

City police and firefighters, the bomb squad, and the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Joint Terrorism Task Force were dispatched to the corner around 6 p.m., after someone spotted the package on the sidewalk in front of two homes, he said.

City police blocked off streets and evacuated residents from both homes and a dozen students from the Tiferes Rav Zvi Aryeh Zemel School on Temple Place, Maer said.

The bomb squad X-rayed the cooler and then disarmed it, Maer said.

The incident was still under investigation Tuesday.

Passaic County Sheriff Richard Berdnik, who was at the scene, called the incident “textbook example of inter-agency cooperation.”

“The quick action of the Passaic Police Department assured that the device was secured, individuals were evacuated and the Sheriff’s Department bomb squad was notified and immediately deployed,” Berdnik said.

E-mail: bautista@northjersey.com

PASSAIC — Residents and students were evacuated Tuesday night while a bomb squad from the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department disarmed a “suspicious” package left near the corner of Temple Place and Harding Court, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

There were no injuries.

The package — a cooler with wires protruding — turned out to be “non-explosive,” said Bill Maer, a sheriff’s department spokesman. The cooler also contained batteries.

“There was a power source in the device,” Maer said.

City police and firefighters, the bomb squad, and the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Joint Terrorism Task Force were dispatched to the corner around 6 p.m., after someone spotted the package on the sidewalk in front of two homes, he said.

City police blocked off streets and evacuated residents from both homes and a dozen students from the Tiferes Rav Zvi Aryeh Zemel School on Temple Place, Maer said.

The bomb squad X-rayed the cooler and then disarmed it, Maer said.

The incident was still under investigation Tuesday.

Passaic County Sheriff Richard Berdnik, who was at the scene, called the incident “textbook example of inter-agency cooperation.”

“The quick action of the Passaic Police Department assured that the device was secured, individuals were evacuated and the Sheriff’s Department bomb squad was notified and immediately deployed,” Berdnik said.

E-mail: bautista@northjersey.com

If your street in Passaic is still a mess?

If your street in the City Of Passaic is still a mess feel free to call the department of public works at (973) 365-5654

The following school closings

With 2 feet of snow on the ground Yeshiva Ktana (all divisions), YBH (all divisions) and The Cheder will all be closed on Monday.

Blizzard is dumping more then 2 feet of snow

Passaic N.J- While crews have been fighting this blizzard all night. At times even getting stuck themselves or swiping other vehicles, much still needs to be done. The storm is expected to tapper off at about noon today. More then 2 feet of snow will have been dumped on Passaic County with estimates as high as 30 inches. The State Of Emergency stays in effect through out the morning rush hour. If you don’t need to go outside in this blizzard please stay off the roads.

State Of New Jersey Acting Governor Issues State Of Emergency

TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey’s acting governor has declared a state of emergency in the wake of the powerful winter storm that roared into the state on Sunday.

State Senate President Steve Sweeney, who is filling in while Gov. Chris Christie and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno are out of state, issued the order Sunday night.

But a decision on whether state offices would be open Monday has not been made.

Forecasters are expecting 12 to 20 inches in most areas by the time the snow stops early Monday. Blizzard warnings remain in effect for the eastern half of the state, while winter storm warnings were in place for western New Jersey. If you are caught on the roads you are subject to fines and being towed.

New Jersey Transit Bus Service Suspended

New Jersey transit bus service is being suspended system wide until further notice. For more info feel free to contact New Jersey Transit. * Customers should travel only if absolutely necessary.

* Before starting your trip, visit njtransit.com for up-to-the-minute service information. This information is also available by calling (973) 275-5555 or from broadcast traffic reports.

* Sign up for free My Transit Alerts to receive travel advisories for your specific trip via email or mobile device. Visit njtransit.com/mytransit to enroll.

* Allow plenty of extra travel time. Delays and service changes are possible.

* Use extreme caution when walking on exposed sidewalks, parking lots or station platforms and when boarding trains and buses.

* Listen closely to public address announcements at stations for late-breaking service information.

* If you park, ensure your car is stocked with a snow brush and ice scraper so you can clear your car upon returning to the lot.

* Report slippery or unsafe conditions to bus operators, train crews or NJ TRANSIT staff.

* Local jurisdictions are responsible for clearing bus stops. Local residents can help their neighbors by shoveling the bus stops along the sidewalks near their homes so that people are not standing in the icy streets while traffic is passing.

Passaic Fire Department Fighting A Fire During The Blizzard

At 6:00 P.M. this evening during the blizzard their was a fire on 4th street in Passaic. As per the Passaic fire department their were no reports of injuries during the blaze. The blaze was reported as possibly suspicious and the Passaic arson’s investigation squad has been requested to the scene. More then 20 people have been displaced from their house and are staying with friends and relatives.

New Jersey Transit Bus Gets Stuck In Severe Blizzard.

During the severe winter blizzard, a New Jersey Transit bus gets stuck in front of 195 Main Avenue in Passaic N.J

Bus driver robbed at gun point

Passaic police have reported that two Hispanic males have robbed a bus at gun point. This all happened at 11:10 at the corner of Main Avenue and Gregory Avenue, with several passengers on the bus. No injuries were reported at this time.

Director Of County Garage In Passaic County Charged With Theft Of Hidden Cash

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

TRENTON – Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor announced that the director of the Passaic County Garage was charged today with stealing a large amount of cash found hidden in a car that was seized by law enforcement during a drug investigation. He was also charged with stealing an engine from a second vehicle.

According Director Taylor, Paolo “Paul” Mariano, 52, of Wayne, was charged by complaint with two counts of second-degree official misconduct, one for the theft of cash and a second for the theft of the engine. The charges are the result of an investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in state prison.

The investigation revealed that Mariano allegedly stole a large quantity of cash found inside a 2000 Ford Taurus that had been seized during an investigation by the Passaic County Drug Task Force in 2004. The car was being repaired for use as an undercover car in 2005 when county mechanics found the cash in a hidden compartment. They found three or four stacks of $100 bills, each more than an inch thick, estimated at about $100,000. The mechanics told Mariano. He allegedly took possession of the car and the cash, and directed them not to report anything. It is alleged that Mariano subsequently had a mechanic disassemble the car.

Mariano is also charged with directing county mechanics in November 2006 to remove an engine from a 1995 Toyota 4-Runner that had been seized by the county. Mariano allegedly had the mechanics place the engine into a 1993 Toyota 4-Runner that he had given to his girlfriend but titled in his own name. The stolen engine was in better condition than the one that was replaced. Mariano allegedly sold that car, with the engine from the county vehicle, to an undercover detective on May 14, 2010 for $2,000.

Mariano is expected to surrender to detectives from the Division of Criminal Justice. The complaint is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Because the charges are indictable offenses, they will be presented to a state grand jury for potential indictment.

The investigation was led by Deputy Attorney General Vincent J. Militello, Deputy Chief Paul Castellvi, Detective Scott Donlan, and Detective Harry Maronpot Jr. They were assisted by Sgt. David Salzmann and Detectives Laura Clarke, Ruben Contreras and Nick Olenick.

Passaic Woman Is Sentenced To 30 Months In Prison For Bank Robberies

Passaic-A 35-year-old woman has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for committing three bank robberies in northern New Jersey.

Norma Balderas-Dehernandez of Passaic pleaded guilty in January to robbing two banks in Clifton and one in Passaic last year.

She was arrested on Aug. 26 while attempting to rob another bank in Clifton.

At each bank she handed the teller a note written in Spanish saying she had a gun and demanding money.

Investigators say proceeds from the three robberies totaled more than $8,000.

(News Source: NJ .com)

Bergen County Imposes Mandatory Water-Use Restrictions

Hackensack-Bergen County has imposed mandatory restrictions on lawn watering at the request of the area’s major water supplier.

Under an executive order issued today by Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney, county residents served by United Water New Jersey may water their lawns only every other day and only during certain hours.

Last week, citing “serious drops” in reservoir levels, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection issued a drought watch for five northern New Jersey counties, including Bergen. The other counties included in the drought watch are Essex, Hudson, Morris and Passaic.

Residents and businesses in those four counties are asked to voluntarily conserve water as the hot and dry conditions continue.

The DEP said unusually hot and dry conditions this summer have greatly increased demand for water, raising concerns about reservoir levels. McNerney urged Bergen residents to conserve and said municipal water utilities could impose more stringent restrictions if needed.

(News Source NJ .com)

60 School Administrators Earn More Pay Then Christie

TRENTON (AP) — It’s not clear whether salary caps that Gov. Chris Christie wants for New Jersey’s school superintendents would apply to private schools funded with tax dollars.

An analysis by The Record newspaper found more than 60 administrators for the state’s 171 private special education schools earn more than the $175,000 cap.

None of the state’s special education private schools had more than 460 students last year.

Education Department spokesman Alan Guenther said the rules still are being drafted and will be presented in September, but the governor’s spokesman indicated that the cap should be consistent for all state-paid school administrator salaries.

Pay levels at special private schools are controlled by the state because most of the money the schools make is from tuition paid by the public schools that send students.

For the 2009-10 school year, the state Education Department capped compensation for administrators at private special education schools at $215,000 no matter how many students there were.

“I don’t know how we could justify salaries of $215,000 or more for superintendents or CEOs of schools with 500 or less students, even considering those are special needs students. Not when we’re applying a salary cap significantly lower for superintendents supervising public school districts with multiples of that number of students,” said Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak.

According to The Record, the state could save nearly $2 million in tuition if the cap is applied to the private schools.

Gerard Thiers, executive director of the Association of Schools and Agencies for the Handicapped, said the schools are adhering to the cap that is in place. He said most special education school chiefs earn $150,000 on average, according to a recent survey.

“Special education by its nature is very expensive,” Thiers said, adding that private schools directors also have additional tasks that traditional superintendents might not, such as fundraising and negotiating with vendors.

At the Institute for Educational Achievement in New Milford, a nonprofit school for children with autism, executive director Dawn B. Townsend was paid nearly $199,000 last year — a year when IEA accepted 28 students.

A message left for Townsend by the Associated Press on Thursday was not immediately returned.

ECLC of New Jersey, which has special education schools in Chatham and Ho-Ho-Kus, taught 333 students last year; its adult programs served dozens more.

Executive director Bruce Litinger made $222,959 and was allowed to exceed the cap because he oversaw the non-school programs.

“If they changed that state salary requirement, we would comply with it,” said ECLC business manager Jean Earle.

Litinger was on vacation on Thursday and other ECLC school officials did not immediately return calls for comment from The AP.

The governor makes $175,000 a year. In July, he proposed limiting pay for school superintendents and other administrators to a maximum of $175,000 based on district size. There must be at least 10,000 students in the district for a superintendent to be paid that much.

The top salary for a district with fewer than 250 students would be $120,000 for the superintendent.

According to the governor’s office, the proposal would mean pay cuts for 366 public superintendents at the end of their contracts, saving school districts $9.8 million.

(News Source: NJ Herald .com)

Amid Corruption Allegations, Passaic County Sheriff Speziale Resigns, Accepts Top Port Authority Position

Passaic-Jerry Speziale knows how to make a dramatic entrance, whether chasing thieves, clubbing with Paris Hilton or playing a good cop in a movie. And his newest stage is the Port Authority Police Department.

Speziale abruptly resigned Tuesday after nine turbulent years as Passaic County sheriff to take a job with the Port Authority. Citing family reasons — his wife, Maggie, has been treated for cancer — Speziale abandoned a reelection bid and said he’d donate his $1 million campaign war chest to charity.

“It was an honor to serve as sheriff, and I will always be thankful to the citizens of Passaic County for the opportunity of protecting their homes and neighborhoods and creating a better quality of life,” Speziale said

Although it had been quietly in the works for months, his jump to the job of “deputy superintendent and assistant director or public safety” for the Port Authority Police Department took almost everyone by surprise.

“I spoke with him two days ago, and there was no indication that he was going to resign,” said Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia Valdes. “He will be missed. He was more than just a figurehead as sheriff. He was a good street cop, and you could always count on him to help you with a case.”

Speziale’s right-hand man, Undersheriff Charles Meyers, was sworn in as acting sheriff Tuesday and will oversee the department until Governor Christie appoints an interim sheriff.

News Source: North Jersey .com

Explosion At Clifton Business Injures Three Workers

Clifton— Fire officials said an explosion at a conveyor business in Clifton seriously injured three workers this morning, according to a report by northjersey.com

Deputy Chief Norman Tahan of the Clifton Fire Department said gasoline fumes were ignited by a furnace inside the Huron Avenue business, the report said. Gasoline streamed into the building from a leaky tank on a truck in the loading dock just after 10 a.m.

The injured workers included two men inside the truck, who had gone to Clifton from a Paterson business, and one inside the building, according to the report.

(News Source NJ .com)

Northern Jersey Tax Filing Delay Hampers State Budget Forecast

TRENTON (AP) — An income tax filing extension granted to millions of residents who live in flood-prone areas of New Jersey could leave state budget officials scrambling to close the books on this fiscal year.

Treasury officials completing their records on the budget year that ends June 30 typically revise their end-of-year revenue forecasts in mid-May, after April’s income tax receipts are tallied.

But residents who live in heavily populated Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, Passaic and seven other counties this week were granted a four-week extension to file their federal and New Jersey tax returns.

That means state analysts won’t be able to forecast year-end revenues until the end of May at the earliest, legislative budget officer David Rosen told a Senate budget panel.

State Treasurer Andrew Eristoff is facing the same situation.

“We won’t know by the end of April how we did on final payments,” Rosen told the panel Thursday. “That obviously is unfortunate for the budget process because the uncertainty is going to linger longer than we are accustomed to having it linger.”

If less revenue than anticipated is collected, Gov. Chris Christie could be forced to make additional late-year budget cuts to keep the budget in balance. Earlier this year, Christie carved out $1.6 billion from 375 programs in the budget he inherited from former Gov. Jon Corzine, including cuts to schools, mass transit and higher
education.

But even the governor’s revised budget estimates may prove too optimistic.

The Office of Legislative Services has revised its revenue outlook downward for the final three months of the current fiscal year and for fiscal year 2011, which starts July 1. The analysis presented to lawmakers this week shows tax revenues could be $82 million shy of projections this year and $168 million less than the governor projected for his first full budget year.

The projections show much of the revenue shortfall from continuing weak sales tax collections, coming off a historic multiyear decline. Between June 2008 and December 2009, sales tax collections declined for 19 straight months, Rosen said. The worst 10 months — between November ’08 and last August — the average monthly decline was nearly 12 percent.

Eristoff told the Senate panel that it’s unlikely the state will meets its sales tax target for the year. That target assumed a 5.1 percent sales tax growth for the rest of the year.

“We’ve seen results from the sales tax that have been disappointing since then,” Eristoff said. “My assumption is that we will have to revise the numbers downward at the close of the fiscal year.”

In a terse exchange with Eristoff, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo accused the Christie administration of criticizing Corzine’s sales tax estimates then adopting the same numbers.

“There’s a lot of hypocrisy here,” said Sarlo. “I think we all want to move beyond the fairy tales and get to the real numbers.”

“Please don’t call me a hypocrite,” Eristoff shot back.

New Jersey’s budget relies on taxes — corporate business taxes, personal income taxes, sales and cigarette taxes, among others — to fund programs and services. When revenue declines, as it has during the recession, there is less money for the state to spend. The state Constitution requires the governor to maintain a balanced budget.

Even without the tax filing extension, April is such a volatile month for tax collections that budget officials refer to the revenue numbers as the “April surprise.”

(News Source: NJ Herald.com)

Gov. Christie Backs Tuition Cap For Public Colleges

TRENTON — New Jersey’s public colleges and universities might be forced to keep tuition increases in check.

Gov. Chris Christie has proposed a 4 percent cap. Schools that exceed it would lose more state aid.

Tuition and fees at the state’s four-year schools average about $11,000, one of the highest public rates in the nation.

Spokesman Michael Drewniak says tells The Record of Bergen County the governor also is considering reopening union contracts to try to get salary concessions at the institutes of higher learning.

Unionized employees at the schools deferred a 3.5 percent increase last year when former Gov. Jon Corzine reopened their contracts.

College and university officials are considering cuts to staff and programs to offset a $173 million cut to higher education in Christie’s proposed budget.

(News Source: My CentralJersey.com)

Disgraced Former Newark Mayor Out Of Jail

Disgraced Former Mayor Sharpe James

Editors Note: Maybe its because I don’t know Sharpe James on a personal level, but I found it down right disgraceful, that the people of Newark have turned this man into a hero. Sharpe James stole from the very throngs people who were out there welcoming him “back home”. I would think that the people would let him know that he was not welcome in the city he ran to the ground for 2 decades. After all isn’t the Mayor’s job to be “By the people, for the people”?

NEWARK — The disgraced Sharpe James is back. The bombastic, fiery former mayor, 18 months of prison behind him, stepped off a Greyhound bus tonight and into a throng of cheering supporters, four television crews and signs reading “Sharpe’s City USA” and “Welcome home.”

Dressed in a pinstripe suit and blue tie, and looking fit and happy, the man who ran the state’s largest city for two decades greeted several hundred people at Newark Penn Station, blowing kisses to the crowd before being whisked away in a white SUV.

“He looks great,” said Porscha Fleming, 22, of Newark. “He looks so happy. It was worth waiting three hours to see him.”

James, 74, who will serve the rest of his sentence at a halfway house in the South Ward, returned to a city run by the man who defeated him in the mayoral elections, Cory Booker, and a state governed by the man who sent him to prison, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie.

His journey home had begun more than 12 hours earlier. At 8:45 a.m., under a sweltering Virginia sky.

James walked out of the Petersburg Correctional Complex — where he did clerical work and made beds, coached high school dropouts and wrote a 17-chapter memoir — and was driven to the Richmond bus station in a white Chevy prison van.

As he waited for his bus to depart, the former mayor walked around the Greyhound terminal carrying three cardboard boxes. They contained binders with the early chapters of “A Sharpe View,” the tentative title for his prison-written memoirs — recollections of some of the state’s biggest political names, including former Sen. Bill Bradley, and governors Richard Codey and James E. McGreevey.

At a diner inside the bus station, where he ate eggs, hash browns, beef bacon and a biscuit, he reminisced about the “good old days” of Newark politics with Jose Godinez, a 46-year-old fellow prisoner headed to another correctional facility.

“It wasn’t about money then, it was about issues,” said James, who was not accompanied by prison officials. “What are you going to do for me, Sharpe?”

Passenger Paul Kearse, on his way home to New York, recognized the former mayor while boarding and asked to shake his hand.

“He was one of my political idols, going back many years,” Kearse said.

THE JOURNEY HOME

Throughout the day, James was upbeat as he discussed politics and his future with friends and strangers. The Federal Bureau of Prisons barred him from speaking directly with reporters until he had been transferred to Logan Hall, a halfway house in Newark’s South Ward.

“Sharpe James wants to see Newark grow and prosper,” he said to another passenger. “Beyond that, I want to help young people grow and prosper.”

James’ foes are still smarting from his 27-month sentence, which barely scratched the 20 years Christie wanted. “I think he should still be in jail,” Christie said today. “The judge made an awful mistake.”

James remains fiercely popular in Newark. His supporters remember the booming economy during his tenure and brush off his crime — selling city property for $46,000 to his former girlfriend, who flipped it for about $660,000.

“I feel as though he did nothing wrong, so God gave him a chance to return home again,” said Clarence Hodge, 49, of Newark, who compared the mayor’s return to the resurrection of Christ. “He showed me when he was mayor what he was capable of.”

During a short stop in Baltimore, James ordered lunch — a leg and thigh combo at KFC — and fretted he wouldn’t make it back to the bus before it pulled out of the station.

But the driver assured him, “We’re not going to leave behind no mayor.”

James said he has no designs for elected office. Instead, he said, he wants to advocate for non-violent prisoners incarcerated on drug charges and speak out against harsh sentences he says ensnare young black men.

“I know what everybody thinks: Marion Barry,” James said, referring to the former mayor of Washington, D.C., elected to city council after convictions. “It comes time you pass the baton. I want to work with Cory Booker.”

Carolyn Newell, a passenger heading back to Huntington, N.Y., asked James why he felt so strongly about helping young, non-violent offenders.

“People say I was incarcerated for a reason,” James said. “It changed my way of looking at life. It put me in a population that needed help and needed guidance. I’ve been on both sides now and you can’t testify unless you’ve suffered the consequences.”

(News Source: NJ.com)

Gatorade Officially Goes Kosher

Kosher Gaterade

Please Note: Only Gatorade bottles containing the OU Kosher Seal are Kosher. Please check your bottles before drinking.

New York – The Gatorade Company, a division of PepsiCo (PEP), is strengthening its category-leading portfolio of sports performance beverages in 2010 by announcing the kosher-certification of Gatorade Thirst Quencher and G2. In partnership with the Orthodox Union (OU), Gatorade completed the kosher-certification process and certified kosher Gatorade Thirst Quencher and G2. Kosher product, which will bear the OU symbol, will begin appearing in stores this spring with a full rollout expected by summer 2010.

“Gatorade understands that different athletes have different needs, and providing sports performance beverages that adhere to kosher standards is important for us,” said Andrea Fairchild, vice president of brand marketing for Gatorade. “We’re proud to make these offerings available to help meet the needs of athletes who maintain kosher diets, so they can perform at their best.”

Rabbi Menachem Genack, OU Kosher’s CEO expressed his “great satisfaction that the iconic Gatorade products will now bear the OU symbol allowing the kosher community to benefit from these important products.”

Gatorade Thirst Quencher is the most thoroughly researched sports beverage in the world and is scientifically formulated and athletically proven to quench thirst, replace fluids and electrolytes, and provide carbohydrate energy to enhance athletic performance. By offering a scientifically proven blend of carbohydrates and key electrolytes, Gatorade Thirst Quencher is designed for use in the moment of activity to help athletes and active people hydrate, refuel and push through. G2 is a low-calorie option that delivers functional hydration to active people, but with less than half the calories of Gatorade Thirst Quencher.

To maintain kosher-certification, Gatorade will continue to undergo regular inspections by OU rabbinic representatives to ensure ingredients, formulas, processes and manufacturing plants comply with the guidelines for manufacturing kosher products. Throughout this process Gatorade has ensured the ingredients, efficacy and taste would not be altered. Gatorade Thirst Quencher and G2 will feature new packaging that includes the Orthodox Union certified kosher symbol, ,which identifies products that may be consumed by those who maintain a kosher diet.

“It was gratifying for us to partner with Gatorade through the certification process and bring these much sought after sports drinks to the ever-growing kosher market place,” said Rabbi Eliyahu Safran, OU Kosher’s Vice President of Communications and Marketing. “It is most rewarding for OU Kosher’s team, headed by Rabbis David Jenkins, Yaakov Mendelson and Abraham Juravel, as well as Phyllis Koegel, OU Marketing Associate, to cooperate with Gatorade’s team and bring the Gatorade products to eagerly-awaiting kosher consumers.”

Consumers who maintain a kosher diet will be able to purchase kosher-certified Gatorade at retail locations where Gatorade Thirst Quenches and G2 ready-to-drink beverages are currently available. Kosher-certified Gatorade will be available in all Gatorade Thirst Quenches and G2 flavors by summer 2010.

(News Source: OU Press Release)

Near Record Temperatures Across New York & New Jersey

N.Y. N.J. – Unseasonably warm temperatures have spread across the eastern seaboard and extended into areas all the way to the Mississippi River. The temperatures are typical of early July rather than early April.

Records were broken Tuesday in the New York City region and those same areas might see broken records on Wednesday with temperatures nearing 90 degrees.

The April 7th record temperature of 89 degrees in New York City was set in 1929.

Because of the rapidly rising temperatures and low humidity, fire watches and red flag warnings were up across Pennsylvania, New Jersey and areas of New York state.

Gusty winds hitting 15-25 miles per hour could spread spark driven fires across fields and into wooded areas.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection had already issued air quality alerts in the cities of Newark and Elizabeth on Wednesday morning.

Many of New York’s apartment buildings have not had their air conditioning systems turned on for the season yet. City cooling centers were not expected to be open.

The record temperatures were not expected to be around very long. The New York Weather Authority was forecasting a cold front by the end of the week that would drop high temperatures into the 50s and 60s.

(News Source: My FoxNY.com)

Obama Approves Federal Aid For Passaic County Flooding

Washinton D.C.-President Barack Obama has approved federal aid for 12 New Jersey counties hardest hit by last month’s flooding.

The disaster declaration issued Friday makes funding available through the Federal Emergency Management Agency for people and business owners in Atlantic, Bergen, Cape May, Essex, Gloucester, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Somerset and Union counties.

That aid can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the March 12 nor’easter.

In a statement Saturday, the state’s two senators, Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, applauded the president’s quick response to the devastating flooding throughout the state, calling it “an important step” toward recovery from the recent storms that destroyed roadways, closed businesses and damaged homes.

Residents an business owners who sustained damage during the storm can begin applying for assistance immediately.

Federal funding also will be available to state and eligible local governments and also some private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the severe storm and flooding.

(News Source: NJ. com)