Democrats answer Christie's racism

The New Jersey Constitution requires the state Supreme Court to provide parking.

When Governor Christie dumped the only African-American on the state Supreme Court in 2010, he claimed the respected judge didn't fit his "ideology," Columnist Charles Stile reports today.


The Record and other media not only didn't question Christie's motives, they also didn't explore whether racism played a part in the unprecedented move against Associate Justice John Wallace. Most of the stories that followed even omitted any mention of Wallace's color.


Kimchi chronicles


Now, Democrats have denied Christie's nominee, Phillip Kwon, the chance to become the first Asian-American on the high court, and let's hope they do the same for his second nominee, Bruce A. Harris, a gay black lawyer who is an abomination to most of the state's church-going African-American community.


Today, Editor Marty Gottlieb delivers two news stories and Stile's column to explore a major political defeat for the GOP bully, who usually gets his way through bluster and a veto pen (A-1 and A-8).


Winding up Ravi


Also on Page 1 today, Gottlieb runs two more stories about Dharun Ravi, the homophobe who was convicted of invasion of privacy and bias intimidation against his gay Rutgers University roommate, Tyler Clementi of Ridgewood.


These are the third and fourth A-1 stories about Ravi in the past three days, but the first to tell readers the former student is on a "media tour." How easily he has manipulated Gottlieb, despite all the years the editor spent at The New York Times.


I guess even a veteran newsman like Gottlieb can't resist the urge to sell newspapers for Publisher Stephen A. Borg.


Prison mentality


Road Warrior John Cichowksi continues to be the laughing stock of the Woodland Park newsroom, ringing his hands today over license plates instead of writing about commuting problems (L-1).


Hackensack reporter Stephanie Akin reports yet another development in the lawsuits police officers have filed against Police Chief Ken Zisa, who has been suspended pending a criminal trial (L-1).


Small-town news


Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes has been responsible for better coverage of her hometown, Harrington Park, and other small communities than for Hackensack, the county seat and onetime home of The Record for more than 110 years.


When Sykes sends out Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi to chase ambulances and come back with images of fender benders and non-fatal rollover accidents, she runs the blown-up photos on L-1, L-2 or L-3 to fill the space of local news she doesn't have. 


Today, his artistic shot of the GWB shrouded in fog gets buried on L-8.


Raw deal for readers


Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung and her two guests were crammed into a table for two; charged $65 for 25 pieces of sushi with "chewy, stringy toro," the expensive belly meat of the endangered giant blue-fin tuna; and treated brusquely by the manager -- yet she gives Yamagata in Fort Lee two and a half stars (Good to Excellent).


Maybe it's because her grandmother was Japanese. But her abysmal lack of knowledge about raw fish continues to grate.


Women of child-bearing age like her are warned about consuming regular cuts of raw tuna, as well as toro, because of the fish's high mercury content. And nowhere does she mention whether Yamagata freezes or uses frozen fish for sushi and sashimi, as the law requires, to kill parasites in the raw flesh.


The cramped, noisy Yamagata isn't the only high-end Japanese sushi restaurant in Fort Lee, and Ung doesn't convince readers it is the best (Better Living centerfold).