Christie blasts Dems who want to tax his millionaire pals

Public defender Robert Kalisch in an elevator at the courthouse in Hackensack on Tuesday after delivering a long summation in the love-triangle murder trial of his client, Tony Tung, who is charged with killing Robert Cantor of Teaneck. Members of the audience saw Superior Court Judge Edward A. Jerejian yawn visibly several times and not bother to cover his wide-open mouth.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front page is dominated today by Governor Christie blasting "crazy and liberal" Democrats, and Donald Trump saying the governor "totally knew" about lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.

Readers could dismiss the news story and column as just "more politics" during the long buildup to the presidential and New Jersey gubernatorial elections (A-1). 

But Staff Writer Dustin Racioppi, who covered Christie's speech to business leaders, seems to be sanitizing the governor's dismal record in New Jersey, and doesn't even mention his war on the middle class (A-8).

And Columnist Charles Stile, as usual, defends Christie from Trump's bombast, repeating the fiction that "three separate probes failed to find a shred of evidence linking [the governor] directly to the political payback scheme" at the George Washington Bridge.

Racioppi doesn't mention that among 430 vetoes in six years, Christie has repeatedly quashed a tax surcharge on millionaires -- his supporters -- and also killed a hike in the minimum wage.

Stile ignores that one of the GWB "probes" he refers to was conducted by Christie's own $650-an-hour defense lawyer at a cost to taxpayers of $7.8 million, or that a federal indictment of the governor's aides still has not identified "unindicted co-conspirators."

On Tuesday, The Record's front-page story on Trump calling on the U.S. to bar all Muslims also was sanitized, because there was no mention of Christie trying to bar all Syrian refugees from New Jersey.

Love-triangle trial

The jury in the Teaneck love-triangle murder trial is expected to begin deliberations today (L-1).

On Tuesday, jurors kept their eyes fixed on public defender Robert Kalisch during a nearly two-hour-long summation claiming Tony Tung had absolutely nothing to do with the murder of Robert Cantor, a Teaneck man who was having an affair with Tung's wife.

They didn't seem to notice several wide-mouth yawns from Superior Court Judge Edward A. Jerejian or the loud camera shutter as Staff Photographer Carmine J. Galasso stood behind the jury box and made numerous images of Tung and Kalisch.

According to The Record, Bergen County Senior Assistant Prosecutor Wayne Mello told the jury:

"Consumed by hate, Sui Kam 'Tony' Tung fired a single shot into the back of the [head] of his estranged wife's lover in an 'execution' that was carried out in the bedroom where his wife first cheated on him.

"In a case that 'virtually screams motive, motive, motive,' Tung is the only person 'on this planet' who had reason to kill Robert Cantor, then torch his body ...."

Check out the awkward, nay stupid, headline on the Local front:

Execution or puzzle?

Road Worrier

After more than a dozen years of avoiding the most contentious commuting issues, Staff Writer John Cichowski today claims his Road Warrior column "usually likes to focus on news" (L-1).

But instead of writing about a lack of rush-hour bus and train seats, Cichowski today is fielding complaints about an unlighted menorah or the lack of a Christmas tree at the Secaucus Junction rail station.

Hackensack schools?

Today's stories on schools in Englewood, Englewood Cliffs, Bogota and even Paterson (L-1, L-2 and L-3) has Hackensack readers wondering why they never read anything about their school board or schools.

Ignore your health

The Better Living editors today publish a warning to people who obsess about "eating only healthy foods" (BL-1).

The story is designed to justify restaurant critic Elisa Ung's year-round obsession with desserts and other sugary treats, and all of the recipes the paper publishes that include butter, cream and other artery clogging ingredients.