Free H1N1 vacination

When: Monday, January 11, 2010

Location: Assumption Hall (3rd Street Entrance)
Hoboken University Medical Center
308 Willow Ave.
Hoboken, NJ 07030

Time: 2:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

* THE VACCINE IS AVAILABLE TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL PUBLIC

* THE CLINIC WILL PROVIDE THE SECOND DOSE FOR CHILDREN 9 YEARS OF AGE AND BELOW WHO REQUIRE A SECOND IMMUNIZATION PURSUANT TO THE CDC GUIDELINES OF 21—28 DAYS AFTER THEIR INITIAL VACCINATION

*Children under 18 years of age will not be vaccinated without the presence of a parent/ guardian

* Supply is limited vaccine will be distributed on a first come first serve basis

*Please Do Not come if you are sick

The type of vaccine provided will be the Injectable H1N1, prepared from pieces of dead H1N1 viruses that, once injected, will trigger the immune system to create antibodies to attack the H1N1 virus. It is approved for use among persons 6 months of age and older, including those who have chronic medical conditions and pregnant females at any stage of pregnancy. Please note that children 9 years of age and under will require a second dose of vaccine 21 to 28 days later. Attached please find a copy of the consent form as well as the Vaccine Information Statement. Should you have any questions or concerns please contact the Hoboken Health Department at (201) 420- 2375 between the hours of 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. or logon to the City of Hoboken website at http://www.hobokennj.org/ . Our number one priority is to protect the safety and wellbeing of each and every individual in our community. I know we can make this a happy and healthy year.

Lynette Medeiros
Registered Environmental Health Specialist, CPO
Hoboken Health Department
124 Grand Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030
LMedeiros@HobokenNJ.org
Phone: (201) 420-2358 or 2375
Fax: (201) 420-7862

Footnote: Please note that I did not attach the consent form. Please go to the city's website for this.

A note from a HWA member

Of the 180 11th hour appointments, 4 are for the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC). These people set the tone for the collective bargaining process as they hear appeals to arbitrated contracts. For example, if a municipality appeals an arbitrated union con...tract to them saying that the arbitrator did not consider today's dire economic state, it's up to this body to opine if it has merit. If it sides with the municipality it changes the threshold for change for all arbitrated and by implication all contracts that don't go to arbitration as that's always an option. This body has been and would be if these appointments go through extremely labor friendly.

Our contracts constitute 55% of our budgets. We are giving away golden packages with healthcare plans that cost >$20K per person, $150 - $250K checks at retirement for unused vacation and deferred comp while they have gotten "extra" days for bar mitzvah's, weddings and even shopping.

Please write a letter to Corzine, and the senators who can block these nominations. I have penned a sample letter and below are all the addresses you need. PLEASE HELP MAKE SURE WE GET THE ADMINISTRATION WE VOTED FOR. (some of the terms of these appointments are for 3 or more years!!! The PERC ones are for 3 years and it's a 7 panel board for 4 appointments = a labor friendly majority)

Here is what I penned and for your convenience the list of addresses to copy.

For Corzine, all we have is his home address so you have to send it though the USPS.

govelect@govelect.state.nj.us, Senstack@njleg.org, senbsmith@njleg.org, senbuono@njleg.org, sensarlo@njleg.org, (these folks can block the nominations)

donnaantonucci@gmail.com (please copy me so I know how many people participated)

Copy the nominees: aeeaton@rci.rutgers.edu (Adrienne Eaton) 216 Lawrence Ave, Highland Park, NJ 08904 skrengel@edlawcenter.org (Sharon Krengel) Local108yttw@msn.com (Ira Stern - Nominated for the Chair position) pbvoos@rci.rutgers.edu (Paula Voos)

Governor Jon Corzine
1025 Maxwell Lane
P109/1200
Hoboken, NJ 07030

RE: 4 PERC Nominations Governor Corzine, I am writing to ask you to withdraw the 4 nominations for the PERC Board. As you know, these 4 positions have been in hold over status for quite some time. I believe one post expired at the end of 2007. As such, you are creating a majority that will serve for the next 3 years rather one that would have been staggered out over one year of the new administration.

I believe NJ needs a new direction. As I am sure you have read the NJ Commission of Investigations report dated December 2009, our public employee contracts under the collective bargaining process are fleecing the state. Most embarrassing for Hoboken, Hoboken was cited as an example of how the current collective bargaining process has condoned tremendous excesses and abuse.

The PERC board sets the tone and determines the burden of proof in any appeal. We sent former Police Chief LaBruno off into retirement with a $525,000 payout on top of his 7 figure NPV retirement + health care for life. We cannot get our public employees to contribute to healthcare premiums or take a plan limited to a network or has a deductible above $200 per family. In 2008/2009 we spent $23,000 per employee because we have not been able to get them away from a very expensive plan. Our contract has extra days for weddings, bar mitzvahs, blood donation. As such, they accrue a tremendous amount of vacation that they take at the retirement in addition to terminal pay.

We are paying out $150 to $250,000 per public safety employee who retires with 25 years or more on top of their lucrative pension. I have reviewed the PERC website and have looked at various appeals. Many municipalities have tried to make the argument that these are dire economic times. Our population is out of work, underemployed and leaving the state. Hoboken's median age is 30 v the state average of 36. We have a disproportionate number of young people who are experiencing much higher unemployment - as much as 50%. Personnel costs represent 55% of our budget. We cannot afford to pay into the pensions system to make good on these contracts.

NJ comes in dead last in terms of property taxes in the country based on the The Tax Foundation - a non profit that looks at taxation across the nation. We have the highest income tax rate in our upper income bands and many of our wealthy are leaving the state and on a microcosm, Hoboken as well. If we don't impact these contracts, we cannot bring relief to the citizens of Hoboken. The PERC Commissioners burden of proof that economic conditions are severe enough to curtail increases much less wage and benefits cuts never seem to be enough. We need a PERC board that thinks differently and I think Governor-elect Christie will marshall in that group if you let him.

We are in the middle of negotiating our public safety contracts. The unions are well aware that the terms of 6 out of 7 PERC Commissioners have expired. By putting forth these nominations at this time is allowing them to continue to resist necessary and prudent benefits cuts and wage freezes. I urge you to rescind these 4 nominations and allow the new administration to do so. Sincerely,

--
Donna Antonucci
201-240-6832

Free H1N1 Swine Flu Virus Immunizations

A new influenza virus, called the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, was identified in the United States last spring. The virus has caused illness ranging from mild to severe, including hospitalizations and deaths in adults and children. Many children have been infected by the 2009 H1N1 virus and some Daycares Centers in the United States have had large outbreaks.

In order to limit the spread of the virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that children and adults aged 6 months through 24 years be vaccinated against 2009 H1N1 virus. Other groups recommended to get the first available doses of the vaccine include:

v       Pregnant women

v       People who live with or care for children younger than 6 months of age

v       Health care and emergency medical service workers

v       People ages 25 through 64 years who have certain health conditions such as HIV, diabetes, hepatic, neuromuscular, metabolic disorders, or heart or lung disease (asthma or COPD)

Vaccination is the best way to protect your child from this potentially serious virus. A clinic will be conducted with the Hoboken Health Department in conjunction with qualified healthcare providers at the Hoboken University Medical Center. Vaccinations will be provided free of Charge.    The clinic will take place:

When:

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Location:

Assumption Hall (3rd Street Entrance)

Hoboken University Medical Center

308 Willow Ave.

Hoboken, NJ 07030

Time:

9:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m.

¯ Children under 18 years of age will not be vaccinated without the presence of a parent/ guardian

¯Supply is limited- vaccine will be distributed on a first come first serve basis.

¯Please Do Not come if you are sick

The type of vaccine provided will be the Injectable H1N1, prepared from pieces of dead H1N1 viruses that, once injected, will trigger the immune system to create antibodies to attack the H1N1 virus. It is approved for use among persons 6 months of age and older, including those who have chronic medical conditions and pregnant females at any stage of pregnancy. Please note that children 9 years of age and under will require a second dose of vaccine 21 to 28 days later. Consent Forms and Vaccine Information Statements will be available at the City of Hoboken Website beginning next week. Should you have any questions or concerns please contact Lynette Medeiros at the Hoboken Health Department at (201) 420- 2375 between the hours of 9:00 a.m to 4:00 p.m.  or log on to the City of Hoboken website at http://hobokennj.org/docs/health/H1N1clinic1.pdf .Our number one priority is to protect the safety and wellbeing of the citizens of Hoboken.

Lynette Medeiros

Registered Environmental Health Specialist, CPO

Hoboken Health Department

124 Grand Street

Hoboken, NJ 07030

LMedeiros@HobokenNJ.org

Phone: (201) 420-2358 or 2375

Fax: (201) 420-7862

November 3, 2009 - Hoboken Mayoral Election Result

Hoboken Mayor

• Patricia A. Waiters - 74 (.60%)
• Elizabeth Mason - 2,780 (22.61%)
  
• Frank Raia - 2,270 (18.46%)
• Nathan Brinkman - 554 (4.50%)
• Everton A. Wilson - 36 (.29%)
• Dawn Zimmer - 5,278 (42.92%)
• Kimberly Glatt - 1,284 (10.44%)
• Personal Choice - 22 (.18%)
  

Total 12,298 (100.00%)

Estimated total amount that each candidate spent on their campaign:
Elizabeth Mason - $395,000.00
Frank Raia - $200,000.00
Dawn Zimmer - $97,151.00
Kimberly Glatt - $40,880.00
Nathan Brinkman - $25,576.00
Everton A. Wilson - $1,455.00
Patricia A. Waiters - $275.00

Election Day - Tuesday, November 3, 2009 (Polls are open from 6am to 8pm

  

 Exercise your right, please go out and vote.

Hoboken Mayoral Candidates
1. Nathan Brinkman
2. Everton A. Wilson
3. Patricia Waiters
4. Kimberly Glatt
5. Beth Mason
6. Frank Raia
7. Dawn Zimmer

New Jersey State Governor Candidates
1. Jon Corzine
2. Chris Daggett
3. Chris Christie

The mayoral election is approaching fast. There are 7 candidates running. Regardless of who becomes the next mayor, what are some things you would like our next mayor to accomplish? What are the top three issues that are important to you, and you would like the city to focus on?

Free Seasonal Flu Mask - By HWA

While many people are concerned about the Swine Flu/Seasonal Flu around the world and are wearing flu masks, it sounds like the wrong people are wearing the mask.

“If you’re wearing a mask to prevent yourself from catching it, they’re not so effective,” said Dr. M. Lindsay Grayson, professor of medicine at the University of Melbourne and one of the study’s co-authors. “But if you’re sick with the flu and coughing and sputtering, those masks do prevent you from spraying those bugs everywhere.”

Having said that, HWA - Hoboken Women's Association is giving away 10 Flu Masks free. If you are interested in getting the mask, please state "I do" below this message this all the members can see that first 10 has been claimed. Then the first 10 people should email me with their address (HobokenWomensAssociation@gmail.com). You should get it within four days.
As one of the members stated before "Wishing you all a Healthy Winter...".

HWA

In case you missed the Mayoral Debate, POG - People for Open Government, has the video posted on their website.

http://videos01.hobokenpog.org/4.aspx

Interracial couple denied marriage license in La.

HWA - Editor's Note: 42 Years after the Supreme Court made race based marriage restrictions unconstitutional, racism is still alive in Louisiana.

A Louisiana judge says he will not issue marriage certificates for inter-racial marriages because he supposedly wants to protect the kids.  The one line I found funny in it was the judge says he is not a racist because he lets black people use his bathroom.  It is people like this that give the south a bad reputation.

NEW ORLEANS – A white Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.

Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.

Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.

"There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage," Bardwell said. "I think those children suffer and I won't help put them through it."

If he did an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said.

"I try to treat everyone equally," he said.

Bardwell estimates that he has refused to marry about four couples during his career, all in the past 2 1/2 years.

Beth Humphrey, 30, and 32-year-old Terence McKay, both of Hammond, say they will consult the U.S. Justice Department about filing a discrimination complaint.
Humphrey, an account manager for a marketing firm, said she and McKay, a welder, just returned to Louisiana. She is white and he is black. She plans to enroll in the University of New Orleans to pursue a masters degree in minority politics.

"That was one thing that made this so unbelievable," she said. "It's not something you expect in this day and age."

Humphrey said she called Bardwell on Oct. 6 to inquire about getting a marriage license signed. She says Bardwell's wife told her that Bardwell will not sign marriage licenses for interracial couples. Bardwell suggested the couple go to another justice of the peace in the parish who agreed to marry them.

"We are looking forward to having children," Humphrey said. "And all our friends and co-workers have been very supportive. Except for this, we're typical happy newlyweds."
"It is really astonishing and disappointing to see this come up in 2009," said American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana attorney Katie Schwartzmann. She said the Supreme Court ruled in 1967 "that the government cannot tell people who they can and cannot marry."

The ACLU sent a letter to the Louisiana Judiciary Committee, which oversees the state justices of the peace, asking them to investigate Bardwell and recommending "the most severe sanctions available, because such blatant bigotry poses a substantial threat of serious harm to the administration of justice."
"He knew he was breaking the law, but continued to do it," Schwartzmann said.
According to the clerk of court's office, application for a marriage license must be made three days before the ceremony because there is a 72-hour waiting period. The applicants are asked if they have previously been married. If so, they must show how the marriage ended, such as divorce.
Other than that, all they need is a birth certificate and Social Security card.

The license fee is $35, and the license must be signed by a Louisiana minister, justice of the peace or judge. The original is returned to the clerk's office.

"I've been a justice of the peace for 34 years and I don't think I've mistreated anybody," Bardwell said.

"I've made some mistakes, but you have too. I didn't tell this couple they couldn't get married. I just told them I wouldn't do it."
By: AP

Obama's Nobel Surprise - What are your thoughts?

If President Obama really had to get a gift postmarked Scandinavia this month, he would probably, on the whole, have preferred the Olympics. At least at the Olympics the judges wait till after the race to give you the gold medal. They don’t force it on you while you’re still waiting for the bus to take you to the stadium. They don’t give it to you in anticipation of possible future feats of glory, like a signing bonus or an athletic scholarship. They don’t award it as a form of gentle encouragement, like a parent calling “Good job!” to a toddler who’s made it to the top rung of the monkey bars. It’s not a plastic, made-in-China “participation” trophy handed out to everyone in the class as part of a program to boost self-esteem. It’s not a door prize or a goody bag or a bowl of V.I.P. fruit courtesy of the hotel management. It’s not a gold star. It’s a gold medal.

We can take it as a sign of what a lucky fellow our President is that winning the Nobel Peace Prize has been widely counted a bad break for him. Barack Obama has come very far very fast. Five years ago, not long after finishing a distant second for a Chicago congressional nomination, he was still one of the hundred and seventy-seven members of the Illinois state legislature. Four years ago, he took his seat in the United States Senate, ushered there not only by his own undoubted talents but also by the serial self-destruction of his opponents. One year ago, he won the Presidency with a margin of victory—nine and a half million votes—that was the largest since 1984; absent the tailwind provided by his predecessor’s abysmal record, however, that margin would have been far smaller, possibly even nonexistent. He is certainly one of fortune’s favorites. He came into office on a tide of euphoria. Lately, though, his supporters have been experiencing a vague sense of disappointment. He may have saved the world from a second Great Depression and all that, but the jobless rate keeps on climbing, the planet keeps on heating up, Guantánamo keeps on not getting closed, and roadside bombs keep on exploding. He’s had eight whole months, and he still hasn’t signed a comprehensive health-care bill. Given that his perceived political problem is exaggerated expectations, does he really need a Nobel Peace Prize before he has actually made any peace?

The award to Obama illustrates, among other things, the difference between the “hard” and the “soft” Nobels. The prizes for physics, chemistry, and medicine are never given for trying, only for succeeding. Also, there is no apparent attempt to achieve regional, national, or ethnic balance. The same cannot be said of the literature prize, which frequently goes to authors who write in languages that few if any of the judges—eighteen grandees of the Swedish Academy—can read. Anyhow, literature is a matter of taste, which is why, among American writers, Pearl S. Buck was deemed worthy of the honor while Henry James was not. (The roster of literary losers, A to Z, also includes Auden, Borges, Conrad, Joyce, Kafka, Nabokov, Proust, Tolstoy, Twain, and Zola.) As for the relatively new economics prize (full name: the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel), it is neither hard nor soft, just kind of mushy—a Golden Globe, not an Oscar.

The peace prize, first given in 1901, has always been the trickiest of the lot. For the first fifty years or so the judges, a five-member committee appointed by the Norwegian parliament, almost always honored a person or an organization devoted to working, in the words of Alfred Nobel’s will, “for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”—a formula that excluded, for example, Mohandas Gandhi. After the Second World War, the judges’ definition of peace grew more capacious, producing laureates like Martin Luther King, Jr., Aung San Suu Kyi, and the Dalai Lama. But the choice has always been, as a former chairman of the judging committee wrote in 2001, “to put it bluntly, a political act.”
The chairman of the Republican National Committee would agree. He quickly fired off a fund-raising e-mail headed “Nobel Peace Prize for Awesomeness,” calling the choice proof that “the Democrats and their international leftist allies want America made subservient to the agenda of global redistribution and control.” A trifle overwrought? Perhaps. Still, to be fair to the chairman, there’s little doubt that for eight years the most prominent figure hovering over the Nobel committee’s deliberations was not any of the nominees under consideration; it was George W. Bush. Jimmy Carter richly deserved his belated prize—he is as responsible as were Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin for the thirty years’ peace between Israel and Egypt—and Al Gore, who sounded the tocsin on climate change, deserved his. But in neither case did the judges try very hard to hide their satisfaction in delivering a rebuke to Bush. This time their message was one of relief—and of hope and confidence, not just in Obama himself but in a United States that has reëmbraced, as the prize announcement put it, “that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world’s leading spokesman.”
A few hours after the news from Oslo, Obama, looking a little abashed, even a little uncomfortable, stepped up to a portable podium in the Rose Garden and spoke of the honor that had come to him so soon—too soon, even many of his admirers admit—and so unexpectedly. “Let me be clear,” he said, and went on, first acknowledging the obvious:

To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize—men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace. But I also know that this prize reflects the kind of world that those men and women and all Americans want to build, a world that gives life to the promise of our founding documents. And I know that throughout history the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it’s also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes. And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the twenty-first century.

After a few more sombre words, he turned and walked back into the West Wing, there to attend another in a series of meetings on the strategy that he soon must set for the war in Afghanistan. The prize is won, but the peace, as always, is elusive.
By: The New Yorker