Dems buck under Christie's weight

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

All the focus is on Rep. Weiner's weiner, but will you look at that schnoz.

Is this Wisconsin all over again? Will New Jersey's Democratic lawmakers try to derail a deal between their traitorous leaders and Governor Christie to slash public employee benefits?

Wisconsin isn't even mentioned in the lead story on Page 1 of The Record today.

And the major A-1 photo doesn't show a demonstration by New Jersey's public employees. It shows Greek factions battling in front of the Greek Parliament.

What an odd choice for the front page. Does Greece remind Editor Francis Scandale of New Jersey because millionaires in both places pay little or no taxes?

Let's be frank

Readers can only hope Scandale's A-1 blurb and A-9 story today are close to being the last about Rep. Anthony Weiner, who is telling friends he is going to step down, The New York Times has reported. 

Boy, look at the embarrassing correction of an L-1 headline on Wednesday that said a jury would decide a 39-year-old murder case that is being heard only by a judge (A-2). Was that in the story?

Doesn't it seem like the news copy desk has been making a record number of errors since Liz Houlton took over as its main supervisor, eagle-eyed Nancy Cherry left the paper and veteran copy editors were given the heave-ho in the 2008 downsizing?

Hackensack renewal 

After filing two stories for Tuesday's paper, Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado has two more today (L-1 and L-3).

She seems to have been reinvigorated, filing a whopping 12 municipal stories about Hackensack since May 18. 

I doubt head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, Alvarado's mentor, realizes the reporter's knowledge of Hackensack is flawed, despite all the years she has spent covering the city.

For example, in today's story on "controversial" plans for a new Syrian Orthodox church, she reports neighbors who oppose a bigger building cite the "increased traffic and on-street parking it will bring."

But Alvarado doesn't mention that for years, the existing Fairmount Avenue church has generated lots of traffic and a scramble for parking spaces in the residential neighborhood every Sunday.

Such omissions damage the paper's credibility.

New town reporters

The Englewood and Teaneck reporters, who left the paper, appear to have been replaced by two productive local staffers. 

Still, the Teaneck school district's plans for solar panels is nowhere near worthy of L-1 play, as it got today, unless your assignment desk is as clueless as the one working under Sykes.

Something rotten

On the first Business page, the highly promotional story on the opening of Fresh Market in far-off Montvale, quotes a supermarket expert as saying its prices are "equivalent to a ShopRite" (L-7).

But for Fresh Market, which emphasizes fresh products, that could be the kiss of death unless it can deliver produce of much higher quality than ShopRite's sub-par offerings.