Don't worry, you can skip today's paper

The Record reports Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., won't be smiling after the National Rifle Association gets through with him and a Democratic bill to ban high-capacity ammunition magazines like those used to kill 12 people in Colorado last week.

It took only five days for the horrific movie-theater shooting in Colorado to fall off the front page of The Record.

In its place, Editor Marty Gottlieb gives readers four major Page 1 stories today -- all yawners.

Don't look for North Jersey relevance in all but the "process story" on Governor Christie's grab for unspent affordable housing funds (bottom of A-1).

Here comes the judge

Next to it, the story on the state Supreme Court only reminds readers of how high legal fees prevent most of them from having any effective access to the courts -- an issue The Record won't touch.

It's an elaborate and intricate system enforced by judges, all of whom were themselves lawyers who got rich by representing people in criminal and civil matters as they slowly wound their way through the courts. 

The high court ruling cited constitutional protection of judicial salaries, stopping Christie from requiring hundreds of judges to pay more for pension and medical benefits.

But how independent is a judiciary whose members are appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Legislature? 

Bored with shooting

With the Colorado killings fresh in readers' minds, why doesn't Gottlieb's front page carry the story on Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and other senators taking on the NRA (A-3)?

Out-of-touch journalist

On head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski writes about "the great universe of parking tickets" and "our ... stellar driving careers" (L-1).

In other words, it's another totally irrelevant column from La La Land, ignoring the realities of commuting in North Jersey.

Blaming the victim

The major element on L-1 reports that a pedestrian apparently committed suicide on Tuesday by standing on the tracks in front of an NJ Transit train approaching the Broadway station in Fair Lawn.

The victim, Yelena Gorovits, 47, is called a "trespasser" in the story, but there is no mention of safety measures at the station to prevent such incidents or whether an NJ Transit cop patrols the tracks. 

Just chopped liver

Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi got a terrific photo -- investigators lifting a sheet to look at the body, which presumably resembled bloody hamburger after being hit by the enormous locomotive.

Was Gorovits a mother, daughter or aunt? Was she married, employed? Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza don't care one bit about those questions.

The insensitive, lazy editors treat her as so much chopped liver.

As if often the case, Local is filled with lots of police and court news, and hardly any municipal news.

Hackensack readers, you can go back to sleep.