Volume LXXII, Number 51
Littlebrook School Helps HomeFront Families . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Liverman, Howard Depart Princeton Council . . . . 10 Annual Patriots Week Events . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 The “Living Folklore” of Bing Crosby . . . . . . 15 NJSO Presents Innovative Messiah . . . . . . . . . . 20 Dyevich’s Heroics Help PHS Girls’ Hoops Stun HoVal in Season Opener . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Sophomore Tennant Emerging as Star for PHS Boys’ Swimming . . . . 32
Susan Hoskins Retires from PSRC . . . . 8 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach Realtor . . .22, 23 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 27 Classified Ads . . . . . . 39 Dining & Entertainment . . . 25 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Music/Theater . . . . . . 21 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 28 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 36 Police Blotter . . . . . . . . 6 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.towntopics.com
Referendum Vote: “Yes”; Clerk Certifies Results; Next Steps Uncertain
With the last absentee and provisional ballots counted, the Mercer County Clerk’s Office yesterday declared the December 11 Princeton Public Schools (PPS) $26.9 million facilities bond referendum vote official, with a final updated tally of 2,262 (57.1 percent) in favor and 1,671 (42.49 percent) opposed. In a message sent out to the community last week, PPS Superintendent Steve Cochrane stated that the referendum would be supporting “a variety of critical upgrades” in the schools. “Consistent with the goals of our strategic plan, the projects funded by the referendum will help to ensure safe, secure, and healthy learning environments for all of our students and staff,” he said. From an original proposal of almost $130 million scaled down in response to significant community concern over the bond’s tax impact, the approved project will include safety, security, and HVAC upgrades in all the schools and the creation of four additional classrooms at Princeton High School (PHS), along with a new dining center on the main floor, increased space for athletics, and improved space for counseling. It will not include a new 5/6 school and further expansion of the PHS building, which were originally cited as important needs to reduce overcrowding and to accommodate growing enrollment, but were eliminated from the original proposal. (The date of the referendum vote was delayed from Election Day, November 6, to December 11 as the Board of Education (BOE) continued to revise its original plan.) The approved referendum projects will get underway early in the new year, but as for further construction plans — the possibility has been raised of another facilities referendum next fall — the next steps for the district are not clear. The 2,262-1,671 vote margin was certainly a clear affirmation for the proposal, but only 18.67 percent of registered voters turned out, and the opposition to further debt and larger tax increases remains strong. Continued on Page 12
75¢ at newsstands
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Google To Open Lab on Palmer Square
Princeton is the latest location for a research facility to be opened by media giant Google. On Tuesday afternoon, Princeton University and Google announced the creation of a new artificial intelligence lab, to be led by two computer science professors and be based in offices at 1 Palmer Square. According to information from the University, the lab will start with a small number of faculty members, graduate and undergraduate researchers, recent graduates, and software engineers. Professors Elad Hazan and Yoram Singer, who will split their time working for Google and the University, have been collaborating with Google for several years. The work in the lab will focus on a discipline within artificial intelligence known as machine learning, in which computers learn from existing information and develop the ability to draw conclusions and make decisions in new situations that were not in the original data, according to the University’s website. Examples include speech recognition systems and self-driving cars that process complex visual cues. The work will build on recent advances by Hazan, Singer, and colleagues in optimization methods for machine learning to improve their speed and
accuracy while reducing the required computing power. “We feel it’s a great opportunity, both for machine learning theorists at Princeton to benefit from exposure to real-world computing problems, and for Google to benefit from long-term, unconstrained academic research that Google may incorporate into future products,” said Singer. Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert said the lab will add to the energy already generated by the private co-working space Tigerlabs, and the University’s eHub. “It’s exciting to see this building upon the existing innovation ecosystem that has been growing in Princ-
eton,” she said, adding, “Central Princeton is a great place for companies to come who want the proximity to the researchers at the University, and a location that has a real sense of place.” The new lab is expected to begin operating next month. The announcement on the University’s website says that the type of work to be done at the lab has deep roots in Princeton, starting from the work of John von Neumann, a visiting faculty member before moving to the Institute for Advanced Study. Von Neumann is also the founder of game theory, which is relevant to the current work. The Continued on Page 4
Princeton University Environment Experts Weigh in On Climate Change, Earth’s Future
At the end of last month, the Trump administration released the federal government’s 1,656-page climate report, the Fourth National Climate Assessment, warning of dire consequences that could occur from climate change. Princeton University climate experts Michael Oppenheimer, professor of geosciences and international affairs and the Princeton Environmental Institute, and Denise Mauzerall, professor of civil and environmental engineering and pub-
lic and international affairs, agreed with most of the report’s findings. President Trump did not. “The Obama administration took climate change seriously and implemented a variety of policies that put the United States on a path to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by over 2628 percent below 2005 levels by 2025,” said Mauzerall. “President Trump is in the process of rolling back all of these Continued on Page 12
BEAUTY IN FLIGHT: This Great Blue Heron was spotted at Lake Carnegie, one of Princeton’s most open and natural spaces and home to a variety of wildlife . Nature enthusiasts share their favorite area open spaces in this week’s Town Talk on page 6 . (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)
Location
OVATION-WORTHY
Call for information: 609-331-9117 1 Riverwalk | Plainsboro, NJ 08536
www.ovationatriverwalk.com | Active Adult Living