It could be payback time at the Supreme Court

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The Turnpike Authority wants to privatize toll collections, but not cut tolls.

New Jersey's beleaguered middle class is seeing a glimmer of hope the state's high court will shove a millionaires tax down Governor Christie's big, fat mouth.

The Record reported on Page 1 today that Christie sent a former attorney general to cop a plea before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, hoping to squirm out of having to restore more than $1 billion cut from the public schools.

Christie's mouthpiece told the justices: We're broke. Give us a break from having to meet the constitutional mandate of a "thorough-and-efficient" education.

But Associate Justice Barry Albin was skeptical, Staff Writer Leslie Brody reported, noting that last year, Christie did not reinstate a tax surcharge on the wealthiest residents that raised about $1 billion -- money that could have been used to aid schools.

As residents await the ruling, they can only hope it's payback time at the high court, which lost its only African-American justice last year after the conservative Republican bully refused to grant him tenure.

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Is the New Jersey Turnpike Authority's attempt to get rid of the toll collectors union (A-1) getting better coverage than Christie's assault on the far larger public employees union? 

Wrong headline

The headline on the lead Page 1 story -- "Roommate faces 10 years" -- is far more appropriate for a story reporting he was convicted and faces 10 years at sentencing than for an indictment story.

Isn't it likely Dharun Ravi will plea-bargain the bias charge in the suicide of a Ridgewood teen and get a short jail term and community service, if that?

In head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section, the only Hackensack news is a school health fair to combat childhood obesity, and the arrest of a suspect in a store holdup,

A health fair to combat adult obesity is long overdue in the Woodland Park newsroom.