Another front page overflowing with news we can't use

The exterior of the 222-unit Meridia Metro rental building on State Street in Hackensack appears to be complete, but tenants won't be moving in until the fall. Completion of the project, the first in the city's ambitious downtown redevelopment plan, was delayed.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's Sports section does such a pathetically poor job of covering Formula 1 and other auto racing readers are bewildered by a Page 1 story today on a Wayne college student's quixotic quest to drive in the world's most exclusive club.

That's only one of the stories and columns Editor Martin Gottlieb chose for a front page that basically wastes North Jersey readers' valuable time (A-1).

A-1 is dominated by the same images of a refugee crisis in Europe readers have seen on the nightly TV news for many days now.

Christie, Iran deal

Gottlieb also robs readers with yet another A-1 story by Staff Writer Melissa Hayes on Governor Christie's floundering campaign, especially in New Hampshire, which he visited 22 times.

Are you looking for an opinion on whether families of victims killed "in Iran-sponsored attacks" should finally collect on court judgments from billions of dollars that will be unfrozen as part of the nuclear deal?

You won't find one from opinion Columnist Mike Kelley, who pushes thousands of words around in another overly long piece to frame the "debate over the deal" (A-1).

The thumbnail photo of Kelly's shit-eating grin -- dating to the early 2000s -- is an insult to readers.

Local news?

Did local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza give up their best local story to Gottlieb -- the one on Page 1 of a 19-year-old's Formula 1 dreams?

That would seem to be the case from all of the Law & Order news in today's local-news section (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

On L-3, readers stare dumbly at filler photos of a trash spill on Route 17 and a non-fatal fire in Clifton, where the tenants have so little rent money they have to live over a bar.

The number of Paterson stories in the section delivered to Bergen County readers suggests North Jersey Media Group is trying to save money on newsprint by eliminating a separate section for Passaic County.