No healing for Hackensack

The Record's reporting about Englewood continues to ignore the city's struggling schools and its struggling downtown. Above, Dwight Morrow High School.

Is today's Page 1 story about a deranged man who "threw his intestines at police" supposed to start the healing process in Hackensack, where the city's convicted police chief was ordered to forfeit his job?

What a bizarre choice, even for the two incompetent editors who head The Record's local-news assignment desk, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza.

The story, which describes events of nearly a week ago, only serves to remind readers why Sykes and Sforza are The Biggest Losers -- desperate editors who can't inspire their staff.

Sykes, for one, could use a little less intestine herself.

Legal snore fest

The only other Hackensack story in the paper today leads Sykes' Local section -- another in the endless series of detailed pieces about the civil suits filed against former Police Chief Charles "Ken I Am The Law" Zisa, whose family has ruled the city for decades (L-1).

Reporting that Zisa "is scheduled to give a deposition" shows Sykes' and Sforza's true desperation in trying to make news out of lawyers questioning the defendant, who will be under oath, behind closed doors.

Arson news

Today's Local section revives another police story from Sunday -- the torching of several cars in Englewood (L-1).

In some of the first municipal news from Englewood in weeks, a story reports a debate between two  Democratic candidates for Englewood City Council (L-3).

Today's editorial (A-11) and Friday's A-1 story about the rejection of Supreme Court nominee Bruce Harris ignores how the bond lawyer lacked the legal stature to fill the shoes of John Wallace, an African-American who Governor Christie refused to reappoint in 2010.

Half rations

In Friday's Better Living tab, Staff Writer Elisa Ung pans Bushido Bar and Restaurant in Cliffside Park -- no surprise given the howls she let out in 2007, when reviewing its predecessor, Wild Ginger in Englewood.

In the first few paragraphs of that review, she blasted owner Charles Hamade and Chef Yoshiharu Suzuki for serving imitation crab in a $12 Crab Leg Roll.

On Friday, Ung doesn't mention the 2007 misrepresentation, but complains about "inferior sushi" served to her on two occasions, including "putrid yellowtail," small portions and high prices.

Liquor profits

The conventional wisdom is that a restaurant reaping big profits from serving liquor can afford to buy and serve high-quality food.

Ung avoids the issue of liquor profits and food quality. Instead, she reports Bushido is run by "a veteran restaurant team who had always wanted a liquor license."

Is that like always wanting a marriage license or a fishing license? No. It means Hamade and Suzuki are chasing bigger profits than they could get during their 16-year run at the Englewood BYO.

Ung also doesn't mention Bushido renovated the space occupied by Izakaya Don, a traditonal Japanese pub that operated in Cliffside Park for many years.