Are kids better off with teachers of their own gender?

A new study that found boys learn more from male teachers and girls learn more from female teachers is certain to create a firestorm of controversy. The implications are staggering, particularly in light of the fact that the proportion of male teachers in the U.S. is at its lowest level in 40 years - about 20 percent.
The author, Thomas Dee, an associate professor of economics at Swarthmore and visiting scholar at Stanford, also found that gender influences attitudes. With female teachers, boys were more likely to be seen as disruptive and girls were less likely to to be considered inattentive or disorderly. In classes taught by men, girls were more likely to say the subject was not useful for their future. They were less likely to look forward to the class or to ask questions.
Looking back at my own school days, the three teachers and professors I liked best were male - a journalism teacher and professor and a political science professor. The two I liked least were women. They also were tough graders.

Time to go on a diet

I had been thinking about dropping a few pounds for some time now. My 3-year-old was giving me regular reminders, patting me on the stomach and saying "Big tummy." After reading the news story today indicating that even being moderately overweight in middle age can shorten your life, I've decided it's time to act.
I decided to check my Body Mass Index to see whether I was Healthy, Overweight or Obese. (Check yours at http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/). As I suspected, I fell into the Overweight category - one shared by about one third of the middle-aged population. (Another third are obese.) To move from Overweight to borderline Healthy, I need to shed 13 pounds. To move into the middle of the Healthy pack, I need to drop down to a weight I haven't seen since high school.
I've never had trouble dropping 20 pounds or so in a year, employing my half-portions and no-late-snacks diet. I don't think I will this time either. But it will take a week or two to get used to the idea of going to bed without a late dessert. Once my stomach gets accustomed to the idea, I should be well on my way - I hope - to shedding the Overweight and "Big tummy" label.

Not everyone invited to party

Three local candidates are among 12 statewide being supported by former Gov. Whitman's "It's My Party Too" PAC (IMP-PAC).
"IMP-PAC's vision," its Web site says, "is a Republican Party that is unified by the basic tenets of fiscal responsibility and personal freedom, but that allows for diverse opinions on social issues by its members."
The PAC's board includes former U.S. Sens. Bob Dole, Alan Simpson and John Danforth, and David and Julie Nixon Eisenhower.
In addition to backing U.S. Senate candidate Tom Kean Jr., Whitman is supporting the candidacies of three congressional candidates - incumbents Rodney Frelinghuysen and Mike Ferguson and newcomer Leigh Ann Bellew, who is challenging Democrat Frank Pallone Jr. in the 6th District.
The PAC also is backing eight local candidates - seven of them women and two of them seeking seats in Monmouth County - freeholder candidate Anna Little and surrogate candidate Rosemarie Peters.
Asked why the Whitman PAC didn't support four of the six GOP congressional incumbents in New Jersey, including the Shore area's Jim Saxton and Chris Smith, spokeswoman Heather Grizzle said the candidates didn't seek the PAC's support.
She said the PAC will be announcing its backing for an additional set of New Jersey candidates in the next week.

Sales tax not keeping pace

Which of the major taxes in New Jersey has had the most revenue growth over the past 10 years? The corporate tax, up 118 percent - or 11.8 percent a year for the past decade, according to the latest New Jersey Policy Perspective newsletter.

The state income tax is a close second, with revenue increasing 110 percent over that same period. The sales tax, recently increased from 6 percent to 7 percent, has been a laggard, only siphoning an additional 59 percent into state coffers.

The newsletter noted the need, as did NJPP's recent report on the sale tax, to make it "more productive" by eliminating the exemptions of many goods and services, and to consistently tax similar items.

It noted, for instance, that baseball tickets are taxed but a round of golf is not. Snickers bars are taxed but Kit Kats are not. And laundry detergent is taxed but dry cleaning is not.

Gov. Corzine apparently took the NJPP sales tax report, which came out the week before the budget was passed, to heart. He not only increased the sales tax, but extended it to many new goods and services. Give Corzine and the Legislature another year or two, and sales tax revenue growth may no longer be the poor sister. And don't be surprised if Kit Kats are finally taxed.

Costly UMDNJ probe

We wrote an editorial Tuesday, "Start monitoring UMDNJ monitor," criticizing UMDNJ - again - for spending $5.8 million in six months to investigate a $5 million Medicaid fraud.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060815/OPINION/608150355/1029

The federal monitor hired to do the investigation, Herbert J. Stern, a former federal prosecutor and judge, says it will take another 18 months to complete his work.

Fears that the investigation would result in another financial boondoggle were raised by former Assemblyman Robert Morgan, D-Monmouth, at a June 2, 2005, hearing of the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee. The discussion went like this:

MORGAN (to then UMDNJ President John Petillo): And the contract with him, what are the parameters in terms of the billing that are in place - maximum number of hours, how are we going to oversee that?

PETILLO: Can I call on General Counsel?

MORGAN: Please.

COUNSEL VIVIAN SANKS-KING: In response to your question, Assemblyman, we have not defined the hours in terms of the length of the service that Justice Stein and his firm will perform, because we anticipate, based on his recommendation to us thus far after initial review, that the scope of the review may take four to six months. So we have not nailed that down. He is being paid on an hourly rate, which is how we normally pay our counsel. He is being paid at the highest rate based on his retired service as a Supreme Court Justice.

MORGAN: Well, that's part of my concern - $425 an hour?

SANKS-KING: Yes.

MORGAN: How much is that a week?

SANKS-KING: I can't tell --

MORGAN: Seventeen thousand, six hundred dollars.

SANKS-KING: Okay.

MORGAN: That's over $850,000 a year... are we going to end up in our typical New Jersey fashion of just throwing more money at a problem and not, perhaps, getting the real result we need...?

Yup. Except that four- to six-month estimate of how long it would take to complete the investigation has now been increased to two years. The hourly rate, which Stern says is discounted, is $500, not $425. And the $850,000 annual cost calculated by Morgan - $425,000 for a six-month investigation - underestimated the true cost to date by a mere $5 million.

Again, to quote MORGAN: I think we need some prudence. ... Just because one can get something doesn't mean one ethically should accept that amount of money. I think we should get someone who has the same concerns as all of us in New Jersey and go forward to help us with this.

Advice not taken. New Jersey taxpayers ripped off again. U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie should get on the case.

Did John Mark Kerr kill JonBenet?

I was stunned yesterday when I heard the news that a man confessed to killing JonBenet Ramsey. I had always felt that one of JonBenet's family members was responsible. Now, it looks like the confessed killer, John Mark Kerr, was lying.
Who do you think did it?

Farber was shoved out the door

In yesterday's blog, I raised doubts about whether Gov. Corzine was being truthful when he said Farber's decision to resign was her own, and that he didn't ask for her resignation.

A story in today's N.Y. Times recounting the events leading up to the press conference announcing Farber's resignation indicates Corzine was telling the truth only in a technical sense. Clearly, she was forced out against her will.

Citing unnamed Corzine aides, the Times reported that at a meeting between Corzine and Farber Tuesday morning, Corzine told her it would be best if she stepped down, but he stopped short of asking for her resignation. Farber would not relent. As the pressure from lawmakers to get her to resign mounted during the day, Corzine's staff informed Farber around 3 p.m. that if she didn't agree to step down, Corzine would hold a press conference at 4 to publicly ask her to do so. At that point, she asked that the press conference be moved back to 6 p.m. so they could appear jointly to announce her resignation.

In the end, Farber did what was best for the state by resigning. But she really didn't have any other choice.
The Times story: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/nyregion/17attorney.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin

Did Farber really leave of her own volition?

Gov. Corzine insists he did not ask Attorney General Zulima V. Farber to resign. Somehow, I have trouble believing that.

Judging from Farber's remarks at the press conference last night, she didn't seem to think she did anything wrong - at least nothing serious enough to warrant stepping down. She doesn't strike me as someone who would have given up the job without kicking and screaming. And given the damning report from the special prosecutor about Farber's ethical lapses and poor judgment, and the flurry of calls for her resignation that followed - even from once-staunch supporters - it's hard to imagine Corzine would have allowed her to keep the job without putting enormous pressure on her to quit. I must add, however, it's hard to imagine what Corzine was thinking when he hired her in the first place.

"While Zulima Farber has been a strong and effective Attorney General, the report from Judge Williams would inevitably impair that effectiveness and risk undermining an Office that we both care about deeply. She recognizes that. I recognize that," Corzine said.

I think Corzine did recognize that. I have my doubts about whether Farber did.

Time to get serious about term limits

A study released today shows New Jersey was the only state in the union to raise taxes by more than 5 percent this year - and one of just three states to raise taxes by more than 1 percent. That study overshadowed another one on term limits released simultaneously by the same group, the National Conference of State Legislatures.
If the Legislature doesn't do something to bring taxes under control this fall, term limits may be the only way to effect change. Thanks to gerrymandering, incumbent legislators rarely lose elections, even if they are totally ineffective or crooks.
According to the term limits study, which analyzed the impact of term limits on six states with them and three without, they are certainly effective at bringing in new blood. Term limits will prevent a total of 268 legislators in 13 states from running for re-election in the 2006 elections. The Nebraska Senate will lose 41 percent of its incumbents and the California House will lose one third of its incumbents.
The report concludes, however, that the loss of term limits in state legislatures "have not accomplished many of the changes proponents promised -- greater social, gender and racial diversity in legislatures and a decrease in political careerism. Instead they have given rise to inexperienced lawmakers and polarized legislatures. And they have tipped the balance of power away from legislatures and toward governors' offices and the executive branch."
That's unfortunate, but nothing is more important than getting new faces in the New Jersey Legislature, particularly in the leadership positions.

Memo to drivers: hang up the cell phone

It never ceases to amaze me how many people still blab away on their cell phones while they are behind the wheel. And it never ceases to annoy me. The annoyance turns to anger when I read about accidents resulting from cell phone use. The latest occurred last week, when a 50-year-old grandmother transporting two of her grandchildren in the rear seat of her SUV was killed when she went through a red light in Jackson while talking on a hand-held cell phone and was sideswiped by a truck. The two children were critically injured.
Back in 2003, inattentive driving replaced drunken driving as the leading cause of fatal accidents in New Jersey. It's not known what role cell-phone use has played in that trend because there is no breakdown for the "inattentive driving" category. There should be.
People who talk on hand-held cell phones while they drive offer all sorts of excuses for doing so. All the excuses are lame. It is totally self-indulgent, irresponsible behavior. There is no good reason for not either using a hands-free headset or for not pulling over to the side of the road if there is a need to talk to someone right away.

Which is more dangerous? Turnpike or Parkway

Here's a trivia question for you:

Which road is safer? The New Jersey Turnpike or the Garden State Parkway?

I discovered the answer while researching an editorial on the way the Turnpike manages accidents.

The answer, much to my surprise, is the Parkway. I have always considered the Turnpike more dangerous - all those trucks, the tedium of its straight-line engineering, what seems like narrower lanes and narrower shoulders, etc.
But over the past five years, the Parkway has averaged about 35 fatalities a year, compared to about 25 a year for the Turnpike. The Parkway is longer than the Turnpike - about 173 miles compared to 148 - but the Turnpike has far more volume. And even adjusted for the greater length of the Parkway, the Parkway is more dangerous.

Does that surprise you, too? Do you feel safer on the Turnpike than the Parkway?

Mostly good news on crime front

In 2004, crime in New Jersey reached its lowest level in 35 years. Last year, according to the latest crime statistics, crime fell another 3 percent. Crime dropped 5 percent in Ocean County, which experienced its first uptick in crime in 11 years in 2004, and 2 percent in Monmouth County. In 2004, the crime rate rose in Monmouth for only the second time in 13 years.

Last year, the lowest overall crime rates in Monmouth County were in Roosevelt Boro (4.3 crimes per 1,000 population) and Shrewsbury Township (5.5 per 1,000). The highest were in Asbury Park (78.1, down from 85.6 in 2004) and Belmar (71.8,). Asbury Park also had the most violent crime (20.6, down slightly from 2004). Belmar was a distant second at 4.8.

In Ocean County, Plumsted (8.0) and Manchester (8.6) had the lowest crime rates. The highest were in Seaside Heights (105.5) and Beach Haven (100.4). Seaside Heights, which had the highest violent crime rate in the state 2004, solidified its position with a nearly 10 percent increase in 2005 (27.2). Among other things, it had 67 aggravated assaults, 15 robberies, 63 burglaries and 242 incidents of domestic violence.

Although murders statewide increased 7 percent, from 392 to 418, there were only two murders in Ocean County, down from 11 in 2004. Monmouth County had eight murders, one less than in 2004.

Accident turns Turnpike into parking lot

I had the misfortune of sitting in traffic for more than an hour on the New Jersey Turnpike Sunday after a tractor-trailer jackknifed just south of Exit 9 in the southbound cars-only lanes. It gave me plenty of time to reflect on what a lousy job the Turnpike did of adequately warning traffic approaching the accident site of the problem and of getting traffic moving in the accident's aftermath.
The electronic message boards gave no information other than the fact there was an accident ahead. Not whether one could expect major or minor delays, or where the accident occurred. Those two pieces of information would allow motorists to make a reasoned decision about whether to get off the Turnpike at the next opportunity or to ride it out.
It also took the Turnpike more than a half hour after the accident occurred to close the cars-only lane off to traffic and divert motorists to the trucks/cars lanes, which were moving relatively smoothly throughout. That slow response needlessly inconvenienced thousands of additional people.
There also should be a protocol that allows State Police to reroute those who are backed up in traffic from the lanes that are blocked to those that are not. If the cars-only lanes are closed, why not allow them to cross into the trucks/cars lanes at openings in the median. It could be done safely with proper supervision.
The Turnpike needs to do a much better job of keeping traffic flowing when an accident occurs.

If you're going to consolidate, go all the way

I thought I had heard all the ideas for ways to reduce taxes in this state by now. I was mistaken.

Yesterday, an anonymous caller left me the following voice-mail:

''In regard to the New Jersey budget: They've advanced a proposition where they want to consolidate towns to incorporate some savings. The savings would be miniscule. I think they would produce a real savings by merging New Jersey with Pennsylvania and Delaware. Those states have learned how to handle their money and they have a surplus. Things just keep getting worse here. They could eliminate the financial nincompoops running this state now. And one of those states might like to have a coastline of their own. This may be the only hope.''

Hey, if you're going to discuss consolidation, why not think big?

Looking ahead at Fort Monmouth

At Thursday's editorial board meeting at the Press, Gov. Corzine said he intended to closely monitor the work of the the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority. Asked what his preference was for reuse of the site, he said he would like it to become an important research and technology hub. That may help explain his choice for authority chairman, Robert Lucky, a Fair Haven electrical engineer who formerly served as executive director of Bell Labs' Communications Sciences Research Division in Holmdel.

For some insights into Lucky's thinking, read his newly released report for the Hall Institute on Public Policy, "Is New Jersey Falling Behind on Research." http://www.hallnj.org/opEd/opEd_view.jsp?scId=1000164&mode=1. It provides some clues on where he might want to take Fort Monmouth.

For background on Lucky and the other members of the revitalization authority click here: http://www.hillwallack.com/weblogs/monmouth/2006/07/members_of_the_fort_monmouth_e.html

Public draws short straw in private-public partnerships

Supporters of a plan to allow a private developer to lease and rehabilitate 36 buildings at Fort Hancock on Sandy Hook often point to the Presidio in San Francisco as an example of how well public-private partnerships in the national park system have worked.

Fort Hancock and the Presidio have little in common, other than the fact that they previously served as military installations. But anyone looking for insight into what is likely to happen to the buildings at Fort Hancock, should the public-private partnership there proceed, should take a few moments to read a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle, "Presidio's future - less cash, more culture: Market-driven development needs a dose of soul-searching." http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/18/MNGAOJENV01.DTL

Among other things, it points out that two thirds of the commercial and residential buildings at the Presidio have been set aside for private use. Typically, the decisions about what kinds of commercial development to allow have been driven by which tenants can pay the most rent.
Tenants in some of the Presidio's 469 historic buildings include financial services firms, insurance companies, computer software companies and an Asian-themed health spa. More than 1,100 former military residences have been renovated and leased - for rents up to $4,200 a month.

This is what many opponents of the plan at Fort Hancock fear - broad-scale commercialization of prime taxpayer-owned land. The Presidio proves the legitimacy of those fears. The Press' concerns are raised in today's editorial. http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060802/OPINION/608020455/1029

Any questions for Gov. Corzine?

Gov. Corzine will be meeting with the Asbury Park Press editorial board on Thursday. Do you have any questions you would like us to ask him? Respond via the blog, by e-mail at rbergmann@app.com or by calling me at 732 643-4034.

On the front lines in the battle with NRC

The Asbury Park Press editorial board met Monday with some of the key players in the fight to block a 20-year license renewal for the Oyster Creek nuclear plant in Lacey. Much of the discussion focused on concerns they had about corrosion of the drywell - the liner that surrounds the reactor vessel to reduce the likelihood of radiation entering the atmosphere in the event of an accident. It was truly frightening stuff. They said their concerns are shared by some of the technical staff at the NRC, but they aren't sure whether that will translate into the agency requiring a testing program sufficient to determine whether safety is being compromised.

Richard Webster, a Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic attorney who has been handling the legal work for the coalition of plant opponents, described the experience of dealing with the NRC's tangle of rules - rules that constantly change to ensure the outcome desired by the nuclear industry - as "Kafka meets Joseph Heller." Webster, industry watchdog Paul Gunter and the local activists deserve an enormous amount of credit for gamely taking on the NRC bureaucracy.