"This magistrate is not the king. The people are the king."
Billboard's Top Ten
Click on title for link to the video
1. LOW by Flo Rida Feat. T-Pain
3. DON'T STOP THE MUSIC by Rihanna
4. APPOLOGIZE by Timbaland Feat. OneRepublic
6. LOVE SONG by Sara Bareilles
8. SENSUAL SEDUCTION by Snoop Dogg
9. TAKE YOU THERE by Sean Kingston
And the Bonus Track
Whenever, Wherever
For the most hysterical Shakira parody you have ever seen, click here!
Pink
Walter M. Luers
Law Offices of Walter M. Luers, LLC
165 First Avenue
Atlantic Highlands, NJ 07716
732-872-8088
732-872-8044 (facsimile)
201-892-4316 (cell)
wluers@hotmail.com
The Long Hill Observer
"Sunshine is the best disinfectant" Justice Louis D. Brandeis
"The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government."
Agenda For February 25 School Board Meeting
Good Reflection, Good Word, Good Deed
Interesting Documents
The Whitehall Associates Study
This is the study used to justify our $25 million school construction program. Now that student enrollment is declining, it is worth reading. The study draws the wrong conclusion and no one on the board or in the administration even read it! What is even more interesting is that Whitehall assumed that all enrollment growth would be the result of new residential construction yet they note that the planned residential construction as taken from the documents provided by the planning board does not yield enough students to include in their statistics. Did anyone read this? Apparently not!
This is the actual Excel spreadsheet. note that the increase in school superintendent DeBenedetto's salary (highlighted in yellow) was not the 1.5% reported in the press. I wonder where the press got that information? The Star Ledger's reporter Leslie Kwoh says she got it from the board president Suzanne Becker.
This is the actual invoice from the school board's attorney's for the ongoing legal situation that was reported in the Star Ledger. Note that the bills total more than $60,000!
Legal Fees for Requests For Information
School Board Secretary and Business Administrator John Esposito told us that requests for information cost the taxpayers over $2,000 for these months. Note that much of the cost was making copies by the board's legal firm. What the heck are they paying for copies of and why?
Student Enrollment Growth 1996 - 2007
The nonsense that "empty nesters" would sell their homes to families with children whose ages range from 5 to 14, thus putting them in our K - 8 school system, was a myth. This is what the Whitehall Associates study uses as its justification for a $25 million school expansion program. See how the growth rate in enrollment was declining rapidly while we were being told that we needed more classrooms and note that it has declined each year for the past three years. The 2008 - 2009 school year will be no different. Dr. Hughs of Rutger's Blaustein School tells me that there is no empirical evidence of any such phenomenon.
Board of Education Policy Manual
Worthwhile reading, especially since the board amended the policy regarding class size (increasing it from 25 to 27) without following its own by-laws!
"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories."
Walter M. Luers
Law Offices
of Walter M. Luers, LLC
165 First Avenue
Atlantic Highlands, NJ
07716
732-872-8088
732-872-8044 (facsimile)
201-892-4316 (cell)
wluers@hotmail.com
Click here for the actual numbers from the DOE website.
Click her for a "simplified" explanation of the funding formula.
Click here for the LHT Mayor's "State of the Township Address", January 2, 2008
Click Here for LHT Community Calendar
Want you child to develop some interest in music? What better way than to buy her that special birthday present.
Business Links
Research Links
Open Gov't Legislation
Government Agencies
Open Gov't Groups
The Trial of
John Peter Zenger
|
One of the most important events in American journalism history occurred in New York in 1735. This, of course, was the libel trail of John Peter Zenger, printer of the New York Weekly Journal. John Peter Zenger arrived in New York from Germany in 1710 and served an apprenticeship to William Bradford, printer of the New York Gazette. In 1733 New York Colonial Governor William Cosby stirred up a great controversy by prosecuting the interim Governor, Rip Van Dam, and removing Chief Justice Lewis Morris from the courts. After Governor Cosby adopted arbitrary measures against these men, and opposition group arose to fight him politically. These wealthy and powerful men established an opposition newspaper, the New York Weekly Journal, and hired John Peter Zenger as the printer and editor. The Weekly Journal printed numerous articles critical of Governor Cosby until Cosby could take it no longer. In November, 1734, Cosby had Zenger arrested and put in jail incommunicado for ten months. On August 4, 1735, Zenger was brought to trial and charged with seditious libel. He was defended by Philadelphia lawyer, Andrew Hamilton. The prosecution argued that the sole fact of publication was sufficient to convict and excluded the truth from the evidence. Hamilton admitted that Zenger published the offending stories, but denied that it was libel unless it was false. Hamilton made an eloquent appeal to the jury to judge both the law and the facts; as a result was acquitted. This finding of not guilty established truth as a defense against libel and was a landmark victory for freedom of the press. It also set a precedent against judicial tyranny in libel suits. It has long been held that the first report of Zenger's victory in court came in his own newspaper, the New York Weekly Journal of August 18, 1735. The front page of that date contains the abbreviated story of his trial and in column two states "The jury returned in Ten Minutes, and found me Not Guilty" However, a review of the Journal file from 1735 reveals that the issue of August 18 was not the earliest report of Zenger's being freed. Although the New York Weekly Journal of August 11, 1735 had nothing on the trial itself, there is a printer's note at the end of the last column on page 4. It read, "The Printer, now having got his liberty again, designs God willing to Finish and Publish the Charter of the City of New York next week." So read your newspapers carefully as they sometimes whisper things to you if you take the time to read and listen. |
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NYU/Polytechnic Students
Executive MBA Program
55 Broad St, NYC
MG 7193 Ethical Dimensions of Modern Management
Professor H. Abraham Kupferman
All managers frequently face ethical challenges. Success often depends on how well managers handle decisions that challenge their own set of values. Ethical dimensions of modern management also increase as competition becomes increasingly global and technology-intensive. This course identifies major ethical issues facing managers today particularly with regard to technology, innovation and global decision making. The course also provides an opportunity for students to develop effective approaches for dealing with major ethical challenges. Finally, the course gives students a chance to reflect on the efficacy and strength of their own personal set of values.
Click here for the syllabus and course readings.
You might also read
1. "Aristotle's Ethics"
2. "The Prince" by Nicolo Machiavelli
Governor of New Jersey 1776–1790
Buried at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY
"The Enemy have lately tempted me to consider myself in a point of light in which I should never have had the vanity to consider myself but for their most gracious opinion of me, that is as a Man of Consequence. I hope they will never succeed in killing me, as I should by that means most certainly lose the honor of being hanged in Company with some of you more illustrious Rebels."
Reverend James Caldwell at the Battle of Springfield
"Give'em Watts Boys"
On June 23, 1780, the climactic battle of the final invasion of New Jersey was fought. Approximately 6,000 Crown forces under the command of General Knyphausen attacked from Staten Island, New York, via Elizabethtown, attempting to seize the Hobart Gap in the nearby Watchung Mountains. His goal was to get to Morristown, where General Washington had supplies and artillery.
Approximately 2,000 American Continental and local Militia forces defended the area in the Rahway River vicinity. For more than 40 minutes, Colonel Angell and his men fought the advancing British infantry, cavalry and several field pieces, which were five times their number, to a standstill. Slowly, the British pushed the Militia back.
During the heat of the battle, as the Colonial and Militia forces were nearly out of ammunition and outnumbered, Reverend James Caldwell of the First Presbyterian Church, passed out Watts Hymnals for use as artillery wadding. His cry, “Give ‘em Watts, Boys!” has lived on and became the famous motto of that battle.
As the British retreated, they resorted to burning and looting the town. Only four houses remained standing after the Battle of Springfield. The British goal of reaching Morristown was once again thwarted and the Battle of Springfield, also known as “The Forgotten Victory,” marked the last invasion of the British into New Jersey.
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