As of this writing, Santa Claus is in Albany, Austrailia. Next stop: Bunbury Austrailia, according to NORAD’s Official Santa Tracker and Google Earth.
NORAD has been tracking Santa since 1955 according to their website:
For more than 50 years, NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa’s flight.
The tradition began in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement for children to call Santa misprinted the telephone number. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief’s operations “hotline.” The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Children who called were given updates on his location, and a tradition was born.
In 1958, the governments of Canada and the United States created a bi-national air defense command for North America called the North American Aerospace Defense Command, also known as NORAD, which then took on the tradition of tracking Santa.
Since that time, NORAD men, women, family and friends have selflessly volunteered their time to personally respond to phone calls and emails from children all around the world. In addition, we now track Santa using the internet. Millions of people who want to know Santa’s whereabouts now visit the NORAD Tracks Santa website.
Finally, media from all over the world rely on NORAD as a trusted source to provide updates on Santa’s journey.
To My Democratic Friends: Please accept with no obligation, implied or explicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2011 but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee. To My Republican Friends: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Now that we know for sure that NJ will lose a congressional seat, speculation will run rampant over which two incumbents will be pushed into running against each other when the new district lines are drawn.
Redistricting has historically been an incumbent protection plan. With one incumbent sure to go, barring a retirement or a primary upset, there will be two incumbents facing off against each other in the 2012 general election.
Some incumbents have more clout than others. Seniority matters, as does money. Newly elected Jon Runyan is the logical odd man out based upon seniority. However, if New Jersey’s population has grown in the southern part of the state as many believe (those census numbers will be released in February) Runyon might be sparred. Runyan could find himself up against Rob Andrews or Chris Smith. Or maybe, if Runyan’s district in combined with Smith’s or Andrews’, the former NFL star will run for U.S. Senate against Robert Menendez.
The next most junior member of the NJ delegation is Leonard Lance of the 7th district who was first elected in 2008. In the 2000 redistricting parts of the 6th (Frank Pallone) and 7th were swapped to protect Pallone and then incumbent Mike Ferguson. That’s how Plainfield in Union County ended up in Pallone’s 6th. There has been some speculation that 6 and 7 will be combined, pitting Lance and Pallone against each other.
Such a scenario could make for an interesting GOP primary, as Anna Little has already announced that she is running against Pallone. Would Little run a primary against Lance? As good as a Lance-Little contest would be for blog traffic, Pallone’s seniority and his war chest will probably keep him safe from an incumbent.
A Rush Holt (12) vs Leonard Lance contest is possible as their districts border each other and parts of Holt’s 12th were moved into Ferguson’s 7th in the 2000 incumbent protection plan.
If northern districts are combined, like Pascrell and Garrett or Pascrell and Frelinghuysen, well that would just be boring for a Central Jersey blog.
Posted: December 17th, 2010 | Author:Art Gallagher | Filed under:Uncategorized | Comments Off on What New Jersey Politicians Can Learn From Cliff Lee Signing
Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce raised an important issue this week—the insolvency of the Unemployment Trust Fund which is in debt to the federal government for almost $2 billion–and then promptly torpedoed his message with a poor choice of words when he called those collecting “those people.”
Now the story in the media has become DeCroce’s insensitivity, his apology, the six figures he and his wife are collecting from their state jobs and their pensions. My friend Bob Ingle points out that DeCroce is taking the heat from his Democratic colleagues by attempting to change the subject to dual office holding.
My experience as beneficiary of unemployment insurance is very limited. In the late 80’s, the last time the economy was this bad, I lost a high paying job “through no fault of my own.” I went to the unemployment office, was interviewed and filled out forms. This was my first, and only to date, experience seeking any government assistance. I didn’t like it. Fortunately I was young and single with responsibilities for no one but myself.
Rather than take the handout, even though I had paid into it, I downsized my lifestyle by moving into a smaller apartment and took a low paying job that I was over qualified for.
I didn’t consider that a major decision at the time, but in retrospect it was a pivotal decision in my life. I never went back to “the corporate world.” I was happy and thriving in the “small business world.” It took a long time to get my income back to the level I enjoyed in “the corporate world.” When I realized I was tapped out and wasn’t so happy any longer working at the small business I was employed by I found that I couldn’t go back to the corporate world. I was a “stray cat.” Even if I could have gotten such a job, I would have hated it. So I started my own small business.
As an employer I became acquainted with the unemployment fund again. I was paying into it. For the first 8-10 years of I didn’t even notice it. Business was great and growing. I was hiring, rarely firing. Contributions to the unemployment fund were an insignificant portion of my quarterly payments to the State.
Toward the end of the boom, my most valuable employee informed me she was pregnant. The news was not as life changing to me as it was to her, yet it was a significant and unexpected development. She had not had a child in 20 years and was not planning another. I relied heavily on her. She knew the administrative aspects of my business better than I did. I didn’t know them at all! This major personal development in my trusted employee’s life exposed a major weakness in my business that would require an expensive adjustment.
Assuming the economy would continue to boom and that business would continue to thrive, my plan was for my most valuable employee to spend her pregnancy training her replacement while herself training for the new job that I invented for her to come back to after her pregnancy leave. It was an expensive plan, but it worked. The administrative aspects of my business became documented with a manual that my new hire referred to often as she mastered her job. My long term employee spent months answering questions, documenting answers and taking business courses from Brookdale online, preparing for her return.
Given that I was expecting her back, and given that business remained strong, I carried the cost of my long term employee’s health care during her pregnancy leave. It was a good thing I did, as there were major complications, the baby (who is now a brilliant and delightful 4 year old who is terribly disruptive when she comes to visit the business) needed surgery and a long quarantine period. The maternity costs and the baby’s early care cost almost $400,000. The care they received probably wouldn’t have been as good and the taxpayers would have picked up the tab had I not carried the heath care premiums.
But the downside for me was that a 3 month maternity leave turned into an 8 month maternity leave. When my employee came back to work, she said she could only handle part time. The truth was she probably wasn’t ready to work, but the pregnancy disability benefits had run out.
After a couple of months on part time, I told my employee I needed her full time. She quit. This gets me back to the Unemployment Trust Fund and its management.
Unbelievably to me, and over my objections, she was granted unemployment benefits. Why did I object? Because I had offered her a full time job, the offer was still on the table, but the folks managing the Unemployment Trust Fund gave her benefits instead.
A quarter, two or three later I noticed that my payment to the State had increased substantially. Figuring it was a mistake, I asked my bookkeeper for an explanation. No mistake, my unemployment insurance premiums had skyrocketed due to claims history. A large portion of the cost was the premium on my own salary. As the owner of a corporation I couldn’t collect on “insurance” I was paying for. This would be illegal in the private market.
Now, a few years later with an even higher claims history, my contribution to the Unemployment Trust Fund is 3-4 X higher than the quarterly payroll taxes I pay to the State, though the actual number is a great deal lower. This cost is a major impediment to me hiring new employees, as it is for hundreds, if not thousands of other small business owners.
There are legal and illegal ways around having to pay high unemployment premiums. The legal way, starting a new company with no history to pay employees is probably the option I’ll follow, if I decide to grow the business again. Employee leasing is also an option. Both options are unproductive and costly, but probably not as costly as paying 5+% of payroll into the insolvent Unemployment Trust Fund. Closing the existing corporation is not an easy option for me, and many other businesses, as the existing corporation owns assets that could not be transferred without costly legal, accounting and tax consequences. Small businesses owners are confronted with a choice of having to create complicated and costly corporate structures in order to grow, not to grow, or to cheat. Many will choose to cheat, which is an impediment to growth in the long run, and costly to the State treasury in the short and long run.
Cheating is a major issue on the beneficiary side of the unemployment equation that no one wants to talk about. There is no accountability for those receiving unemployment benefits. There may be no way of knowing how many people are gaming the system, working “off the books” while collecting. We all know it is happening.
As indelicate as DeCroce’s words were, he point was accurate. We need to give the unemployed more incentives to make the difficult but inevitable lifestyle choice decisions and find ways to survive economically either by accepting jobs they once never would have considered or starting businesses. We also need to remove the disincentives from businesses who want to employ people but won’t because the risks are too high for the potential returns.
Most importantly and not yet addressed in a major way, we need to bring management and accountability to the administration of the Unemployment Trust Fund.
Voters in Manasquan will go back to the polls in January to choose a member of their Borough Council, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press.
On election night Democratic candidate Owen McCarthy lead Republican Robert Ferrante by three votes. After a recount the tally was tied with 1162 votes for each candidate. The Democrats went to court seeking another recount. Republicans argued for a special election to decide the winner. Judge Lawrence M. Lawson held off a decision, encouraging the sides to settle. Both parties told the APP that they would inform Lawson that they’ve agreed to a new election.
Ties followed by special elections are becoming a tradition in Monmouth County. In 2008 Republican Paul Buccellato and Democrat Mary Aufseeser were tied for the office of Matawan Mayor in the November polling. Buccellato prevailed in a January 2009 runoff. Last year in Keyport, Democratic Councilwoman Christian Bolte lead Republican Ed Burlew by one vote after the provisional ballots were counted. A recount resulted in a tie. Bolte prevailed in the January 2010 special election after challenging Burlew’s Keyport residency.
I sit at my computer with tears in my eyes, saddened by the loss of a woman that I never met and had no real connection to. Yet truthfully she was everyone. Elizabeth Edwards lived her last years with a dignity and strength, not necessarily quietly, that many women admire. When she believed her partner, and husband was wronged she championed his causes, stood by his side and supported him. Qualities we all admire. But more admirable is the lesson that she taught women everywhere was that, when he is not respecting you, when things are not going as planned, when the future looks uncertain without a man, it doesn’t mean you have to lay down and take it. With fortitude she took stock of her future with a man who had publically humiliated her and determined that no matter what, she loved herself enough to move on. This should be a mantra for women everywhere. We respect our partners, love care and champion them, but we must always learn to love and respect ourselves first. And if, we choose to move on we do so with a dignity that leaves our children in a place where they have parents that put them first.
As the child of a woman who fought cancer and did not survive, I first thought my emotional connection to Elizabeth Edwards was born of my own familial experience. But I believe in fact it is born out of sheer admiration for the lessons that she has conveyed. I know from personal experience that time does not heal, but only makes the pain more bearable. I wish to Elizabeth’s friends and family healing that includes pride in the legacy that Elizabeth Edwards has left us all.
The Star Ledgeris reporting that the Rumson-Fair Haven Bulldogs have defeated the defending champion Matawan Huskies for the 2010 Central Jersey Group 2 High School football championship, the first championship for the Bulldogs in the history of the Regional High School.
Matawan Mayor Paul Buccellato and his colleagues on the borough’s council will be donating $200 to the Food Bank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties to payoff a friendly wager with Fair Haven Mayor Mike Halfacre and the Fair Haven Council. Halfacre told MMM that he and his colleagues will donate $200 to to the St. Mark’s Food Kitchen at Trinity Episcopal Church in Matawan, as a goodwill gesture, despite winning the wager.
Anyone wishing to make a donation of food to the Foodbank of Monmouth and Ocean can call 732-918-2600 or email [email protected]. Donations to St. Mark’s Food Kitchen can be arranged by calling 732-591-9210 or emailing [email protected].
A former Monmouth SPCA worker was sentenced to two years prison plus 360 hours of community service for animal cruelty charges that he plead guilty to in August, according to a report in the Star Ledger.
