Change Clocks, Check and Update Plans

On Sunday March 8, when we turn our clocks forward, Colonel Rick Fuentes, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police and Director of the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management is encouraging all New Jersey residents to create an emergency kit and plan for the home and workplace.

“During the bi-annual clock change, we are reminded by various officials to check our safety devices, especially smoke and carbon monoxide detector batteries. This year in addition to the traditional time change we encourage all New Jersey residents to devise a disaster plan and develop a disaster kit. For those who have already created a disaster plan and kit this will serve a reminder to check and update plans and kits,” said Fuentes.

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County Enters Into Agreement To Purchase Land Within Environmentally Sensitive Dismal Swamp

MIDDLESEX COUNTY – The Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders entered into an agreement to purchase for preservation 9.74 acres of environmentally sensitive land in South Plainfield at its meeting last night.

The freeholders authorized an agreement to purchase the land, known as the Adams Farm, from A. Ferraro Construction LLC, which was under contract to purchase land from its original owner and had preliminary approvals for 16 residential lots. The agreed upon price is $2,450,000, based on three appraisals.

The land is located within the environmentally sensitive Dismal Swamp, a significant natural area that is home to wildlife and many species of plants. Preserving it would provide flood protection and public access to the area.

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County Announces Permanent Closure Of Oak Ridge Golf Course

CLARK—The Union County Freeholders officially announced the closure of Oak Ridge Golf Course in Clark last week. The move had been proposed in January to help close a $24 million budget gap, but it was opposed by a number of county golfers.

The closure of the Oak Ridge Golf Course in Clark is expected to save $740,000 a year. The 67-acre golf course could be converted into a multi-use county park, with its historic clubhouse restored and preserved, officials said.

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NJ Residents More Confident In Obama Than Corzine

For the first time since April 2003, a majority of Garden Staters (51 percent) say the country is headed in the right direction, up from a low of 13 percent before November’s elections, according to the latest results from Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind.

Two in three Garden State voters (66 percent) say they approve of the job President Barack Obama is doing as President, including 89 percent of Democrats, 57 percent of independent voters and 36 percent of Republicans. Obama’s approval ratings are down slightly from measures taken before his inauguration, but are still more than triple the figures former President Bush received in his last months in office. Both liberals and moderates hold very positive views of Obama, with 86 percent and 74 percent approving of his job performance along with 41 percent of self-described conservatives.

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Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Multiple Sclerosis

MS Awareness Week, held March 2-8, is an outreach effort to increase public awareness of the daily challenges of living with Multiple Sclerosis. Here are ten facts about the disease.

1. Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous system with no known cause or cure. It means a lifetime of unpredictable and disabling symptoms and can affect people’s ability to walk, see or think.

2. In MS, immune cells attack myelin, which insulates nerve fibers and helps them conduct electrical impulses. When myelin or the nerve fiber is destroyed or damaged, the ability of the nerves to conduct messages to and from the brain is disrupted

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Mayor Takes Part In “Read Across America” Event

Mayor Takes Part In “Read Across America” Event—On Wednesday, March 4, Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac visited the Woodbridge Child Care Center, located on Avenel Street, in Avenel. The visit was in honor of the birthday of Dr. Seuss and served as a kick off to the Book It and Read Across America program at the YMCA. The mayor read “Green Eggs and Ham” to the children who really enjoyed his presentation. The Woodbridge Child Care Center is a branch of the Metuchen Edison Woodbridge YMCA. (Photo courtesy of Woodbridge Child Care Center)

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Troops Take Part In Read Across America Event

Troops Take Part In Read Across America Event—Now in its 12th year, Read Across America Day is the nation’s largest reading event. It focuses on motivating children to read, in addition to helping them master basic skills. The reading celebration takes place each year on or near March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss. Across the country, thousands of schools, libraries, and community centers participate by bringing together kids and books, and you can too! Franklin Elementary School in Rahway recently celebrated by having special visitors read to the students. One special guest reader was Sergeant Garcia, recruiter for the National Guard. In this picture, he is accepting donations of supplies and letters of thanks from the Principal Arina Robinson and the children of Franklin School. (Photo courtesy of Margaret Cilia)

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“Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li” – The Movie, Lost in Translation – 2 popcorns

By Michael S. Goldberger, film critic

Several years back, a N.Y. Times columnist eloquently worried that emerging writers concerned with those lucrative motion picture rights would be making sure, consciously or not, that their novels were cinematic. Would literature lose its purity of purpose? Now, films like “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li” raise the ante of media anxiety.

For you see, this mediocre martial arts film has its roots in neither traditional belles lettres nor their begrudged stepchild, the originally written screenplay. Nope, dear ever-shrinking population of readers, it springs from a video game. To the great unwashed that’s just one rung up from basing a movie on a pre-recorded phone message.

Granted, there are great works that began life on a cocktail napkin, preferably at “21” in the speakeasy years, if you’re a romantic. Which apparently the pageant of time isn’t. Not if it’s willing to supersede quill, fountain pen, Underwood and P.C. with Xbox and a room strewn with McDonald’s wrappers. Oh sacrilege, where is thy gigabyte?

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Why Joe DiMaggio Will Remain Immortal

By Michael P. Riccards

The change of seasons, especially in the East, brings bucolic dreams of springtime and its sister, baseball. For many the game recaptures a pastoral past, the remembrance of childhood aimlessly spent, rather than the problems of free agency and steroids, the greed of players and owners alike, and the spiraling problems of today.

Fifty-eight years ago the man who had been voted the greatest living baseball player of his generation retired at the age of 37. Ten years ago this month, he died quietly. Few of us remember him playing baseball. Joe DiMaggio was celebrated then as the complete ballplayer, the one whose name is linked to the most difficult of all records—the 56-game hitting streak. Baseball historians wax eloquent saying that this achievement shows how the game can overcome the very limitations of mortality itself. Such odds-defying consistency proves that we can triumph over failure and even over death itself.

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Tax Tip Of The Day: IRS Has $43.8 Million In Unclaimed Refunds For New Jerseyans

By Gregg Semanick-New Jersey‘s IRS Spokesperson

Unclaimed refunds totaling approximately $43.8 million are awaiting over 41,000 New Jerseyans who did not file a federal income tax return for 2005. To collect the money, a return for 2005 must be filed with the IRS no later than April 15, 2009. If a return is not filed to claim the refund within three years of the return due date, the money becomes property of the U.S. Treasury. Current and prior year tax forms are available on the IRS.gov Web site or by calling 1-800-TAX-FORM (1-800-829-3676).

For more information on IRS tax tips, go to the IRS.gov web site at www.irs.gov.

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