LABOR DAY

Today is Labor Day, the holiday that marks the end of the traditional but not the seasonal summer.

How does Labor Day differ from May Day, Labor’s customary celebration day?

The idea for a "workers holiday" began in Australia in 1856 May Day’ began with the United States Labor Movement on May 1, 1886. Labor organizations within the U.S. called a strike on that date for better working conditions to include shorter, 8-hour work shifts

May Day has become an international celebration of the social and economic achievements of the Labor Movement. Although the commemoration of May Day as International Workers' Day received its inspiration from the United States, the U.S. Congress designated May 1st as Loyalty Day in 1958 due to the day's perceived appropriation by the Soviet Union

The first Labor Day in the United States was celebrated on September 5, 1882 in New York City. It became a federal holiday in 1894, when, following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of during the the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland put reconciliation with the labor movement as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike.[2] The September date was chosen as Cleveland was concerned that aligning an American labor holiday with existing international May Day celebrations would stir up negative emotions linked to the Haymarket Affair. All 50 U.S. states have made Labor Day a state holiday.

The Haymarket affair (also known as the Haymarket massacre or Haymarket riot) was a demonstration and unrest that took place on Tuesday May 4, 1886, at the Haymarket Square in Chicago. It began as a rally in support of striking workers. An unknown person threw a bomb at police as they dispersed the public meeting. The bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of eight police officers, mostly from friendly fire, and an unknown number of civilians. In the internationally publicized legal proceedings that followed, eight anarchists were tried for murder. Four men were convicted and executed, and one committed suicide in prison, although the prosecution conceded none of the defendants had thrown the bomb.

The Union movement was essential in the late 19^th and 20^th Century. It was needed to counter the abuses inflicted on the working forces (poor) but an oligarchy of wealth owners.

With the growth of the unions came power In some case that led to criminal seizures of the union. In other cases the union killed the golden goose and led to an exodus .of plants to third world countries. Less traumatic nationally but equally devastating in local areas was the relocation of plants to “virgin” labor markets. An example was the closing of the Plainfield Mack plant in favor of Hagerstown MD.

Schools out enjoy your cookouts.

Thanks to Wikipedia for much of the info.

ART INTERLUDE 9/5/2010

Labor day weekend, no brain tweeking blog, just 2 covers from a JAMA with a photo of the explanation page. To read the text click on it to enlarge.

I trust both the cover and the documentation will be of more interest than the Council agenda.

THE ? VETO

If the rumor of the Mayor's veto of the two Ordinances is true the time the Council was notified is important. If the Ordinances were promptlt sent to the Mayor and her veto was sent more than 10 days after her office received them, then the veto can not be valid. Since her letter ov veto is supposedly dated Sept. 2,2010 that seems likely. Not on Monday's agenda but will be.

Below is the section from the city charter.
Ordinances adopted by the council shall be submitted to the mayor, and shall within 10 days after receiving any ordinance, either approve the ordinance by affixing his signature thereto or return it to the council by delivering to the city clerk together with a statement setting forth his objections thereto or to any item or part thereof. No ordinance or any item or part thereof shall take effect without the mayor’s approval, unless the mayor fails to return the ordinance to the council within 10 days after it has been presented to him, or unless council upon reconsideration thereof on or after the third day but not later then its next regular meeting following its return by the mayor shall by a vote of 2/3 of the members resolve to override the mayor’s veto.

NO POTPOURRI NOW

No Earl,No blog. Not entirely true since the Agenda for Tuesday's Council Meeting is up on the site. I have had time only to glance at it and after I read it through may have some comments.

However three Resolutions (C,D,E) start out ;"Authorize approval ( one D is"Approve Authorization") for the Director of Finance of the City to apply to the Local Finance Board*****".

What Council meeting did I miss when there was consent for the appointment of a "Director of Finance"? I don't even remember a candidate being proposed. Has a CFO also been appointed?

Have a great Labor Day weekend.

HURRICANES AND BIRDS

Much better than $400 million. This is from eNature is is topical and not controversial.


Hurricanes and Birds

Posted on Thursday, September 02, 2010 by eNature

Hurricane Erin, Gulf Coast of Florida, 1995
© Terry Livingstone

cockaded Woodpecker, male" border="0">
Red-cockaded Woodpecker, male
© Stephen G. Maka

With Hurricane Earl racing up the East Coast and two or more storms looking to follow in Earl’s wake in coming weeks, many people are wondering about the effects of hurricanes and tropical storms on birds.

While numbers are hard to come by, it is clear that a lot of birds are killed outright by hurricanes. This is especially true of seabirds, which have nowhere in which to seek shelter from these storms. Beaches may be littered with seabird carcasses following major storm events. Most Atlantic hurricanes occur in late summer and early fall. Fall storms coincide with bird migration and may disrupt migration patterns severely. Many birds get caught up in storm systems and blown far off course, often landing in inhospitable places or simply arriving too battered and weakened to survive. Others, while not killed or displaced by storms, may starve to death because they are unable to forage while the weather is poor. The number of birds that die as a result of a major hurricane event may run into the hundreds of thousands.

Healthy bird populations are able to withstand such losses and have done so for eons. However, hurricanes can have severe impacts on endangered species, many of which occur on tropical islands, often among the places hardest hit by hurricanes. For example, Hurricane Hugo in 1989 killed half of the wild Puerto Rican Parrots existing at that time. The Cozumel Thrasher, found only on Mexico’s Isla Cozumel, was pushed to the edge of extinction by Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. Hurricane Iniki may have wiped out the last survivors of as many as three bird species when it hit Hawaii in 1992.

Apart from the direct, physical effects hurricanes may have on birds, they also can have detrimental effects on bird habitats. Cavity-nesting species can be especially hard hit because the trees in which they nest often are blown down or snapped off at the cavity. Hurricane Hugo, which hit the Carolinas in 1989, destroyed most of the area’s nest trees of the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker; one forest lost 87 percent of its nest trees and 67 percent of its woodpeckers. Only through the installation of artificial nest boxes have these populations been restored to pre-storm levels.

Although birds blown out of their normal haunts by storms often don’t survive, bird-watchers by the hundreds may flock to see them. Usually, such sightings involve seabirds blown inland and appearing on lakes and reservoirs. First state records of many species have been obtained in this way. Some birders even head into hurricanes to see lost birds.* Others raptly study weather maps to try to predict where hurricane-swept birds will wind up. A few years back, during Isabel, birders were staked out in an organized fashion around New York’s Cayuga Lake to see what showed up. Land birds blown out to sea typically perish unnoticed.

It’s important to remember that the long-term effects of hurricanes on birds aren’t necessarily negative. Every disturbance event is bad for some species but good for others. For instance, hurricanes create gaps in forests, creating habitat for species that require a brushy understory. Birds blown off course occasionally establish entirely new populations; such events may be responsible for much, if not most, colonization of remote islands by birds. Furthermore, hurricanes have been around for a long time and are part of the system in which birds evolved. It is only when they have impacts on species already pushed to the brink by humans, or if hurricane activity is increased by global climate change, that there is cause for concern.

*Epitaph for a hurricane-chasing birder (not original):
Here he lies
A little wet
But he got
His lifelist met.

FINAL 400 MIL POTPOURRI

Wednesday this Star Ledger's Editorial summed up what is known about the Governors role and Commissoner Schundlers role in the loss of Federal money for our schools. I am reprinting it for the benefit of those who would blame Christie as the only villain. Yes he bears responsibility for his error as the Governor. However the culprit has to be Schundler and the Consultants.

Bear in mind that these near 5 points lost are glaring and visible, but there were 44 other points lost some through other parties negative actions. These points also contributed to the State's loss.


The Star Ledger Editorial.
(bold type -mine)

Gov. Chris Christie said yesterday he wants to close down the embarrassing discussion about his administration’s mistakes that caused New Jersey to lose $400 million in federal education grants.

“There’s really no enduring mysteries left in this,” he said.

Sorry, but the forensic autopsy on this episode is not finished. In fact, Christie himself raised the temperature yesterday by calling former education commissioner Bret Schundler a liar. That’s no way to end a conversation.

Begin with the most startling news: This was no clerical error, as the administration has been saying from the start.

Schundler now says he changed the answer to the infamous question about funding of schools, a move that cost the state 5 points and $400 million. The question was intended to ensure that new money would be used to push reform, not to fill holes created by state budget cuts. It asked about funding in 2008 and 2009, the most recent years for which budgets were audited. Instead, he substituted data for the current year.
“The governor had a very high profile relative to cutting spending,” he says. “I feared that reviewers might take points away from New Jersey if they thought we were pulling back from our financial commitment.”

New Jersey schools lost more than $800 million this year, but that was because federal stimulus funding ran out. Schundler wanted the feds to know that the state contribution actually grew. His purpose was political.

But mysteries remain. Why was the 2008 and 2009 data removed when it would have strengthed the state’s case? And why didn’t the state’s highly paid consultants catch the mistake? The Legislature will have to sort that out in hearings.

Meanwhile, Christie is taking cheap shots at Schundler to divert blame from his own rash attack on the Obama administration.

The governor believes federal rules banning changes to the application after the deadline were too strict. Fine. But then he claimed that Schundler supplied the needed budget data to federal reviewers and was rebuffed. That bit of detail, it turns out, was not true.

Schundler says he made that clear to the governor personally. And he has e-mails sent to the governor’s senior staff that make the same point.

The governor claims that Schundler fed him false information verbally, a charge backed up by Maria Comella, his communications director.

Maybe we’ll never know. But this, too, is something the Legislature should examine.

7:15 am; This mornings Courier has a long story about a letter sent to the Media from Schundler.

I have not read it yet nor anything in the Ledger. I am reserving an author's right to add to or amend any remarks I have written. This will be an ongoing story until November's election in the least.

The "forum" from yesterday's post has become too long. Anybody who wishes to make significant constructive pro or con remarks please send to today's post. And despite one "anon's" opinion if in good taste I will post.

MORE JUST POTPOURRI

September, the beginning of the fall season has arrived. Earl is only supposed to pay us a courtesy call, I hope.

It is not only the local and state political leaders that can be stupid. Politics is more important than common sense. Last night the President in declaring an end to the combat mission in Iraq also announced a date when the troops will be leaving Afghanistan.

Let us not forget that as a Senator Obama voted against the Surge. If we had left then, that unneeded war would have been a complete disaster for America.

To tell the Taliban when you are going to leave, will just encourage them to back off into the hills and wait. They will increase their capabilities and "surge themselves against the local government. Such remarks undo all the positive gains and sacrifices our troops made.

Afghanistan is a war that could not be won. Other nations ewspecially the USSR have found that out. But the mission to destroy the Taliban and al-Quaida should have been initially pursued stronger than it was by the pompous egocentric Cheney/Rumsford crowd with the aim of destroying the leaderships. Cut off the head and the body dies.. Then some degree of sanity might have been established in that tribal divided country.

Locally; Next Tuesday is the Council agenda session. Will the budget makes its appearance? That is one of the questions that may make that meeting its usual midnight oil burner.

Yesterday, Councilor Mapp posted in his blog correspondence from Dept of Public Works Director Brown about purchasing 4 sets of temporary speed bumps that can be placed on secondary roads. Of hand the concept seems a worthwhile one. If they prove effective then permanent ones would be indicated on those streets. 4 way stops might also work on selected intersections.Of all proposed projects the last few years this is one that makes sense.

The Courier carried two articles about new Historic Districts in Plainfield. The key is what is permitted in alterations to buildings in a Historic District. Are interiors part of the restrictions or just the exterior structure? Would parts of the 4th Ward that were built pre WWI for the blue collar workers at Macks, Woods and Hoes plants and in the twenties boom qualify for historic designation. That they too represent a specific architectural era.

One can not escape from the $400 million error. Shundler has admitted that he had removed the required data and substituted the 2010 data. It turns out that there was also a consultant firm on board and several people had proof read the documents. It is true that Shundler failed to produce the correct report when the committee asked him , nor did he on the tapes request time to get it from Trenton. On the tape segment released there is also no evidence that the committee offered Shundler the opportunity to obtain the data if it was not in their files in the room.

New Jersey's schools once again are not only victims of leadership ineptness and incompetency but also of political opportunism as well as NJEA's vendetta against Christie.
.
If our politicians in Washington have the childrens' interests at heart someway will be found to mitigate the damage. But don't hold your breath. Remember this in November.