With N.J. going to hell, A-1 pro hockey news is shocking

Today's Hackensack Chronicle reports the Atlantic Street Park is officially open, but on Thursday, workmen were still putting the finishing touches on the space, above and below.

New parking meters on Atlantic Street, right, were covered with plastic bags on Thursday, and an officer in a marked police car ordered me to move after I parked there to take pictures.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

New Jersey continues to struggle under an absentee governor, but Editor Martin Gottlieb couldn't care less.

Page 1 of The Record today is dominated by a silly sports column and the 12-year-old photo of Lou Who?

Gottlieb, who once worked at The New York Times and lives in Manhattan, continues to show contempt for the concerns of the vast majority of New Jersey residents as Governor Christie focuses most of his energies on his failing presidential bid.

Also on A-1

Another Page 1 story today -- on the growing number of female funeral directors -- is puzzling given how obituaries of locally prominent people rarely appear on the front page.

I guess Gottlieb knows how many geezers like himself still read the paper, so he's aimed a third A-1 story on hip and knee replacement surgery squarely at them (A-1).

A story on A-3 says that in early September, all NJ Transit bus service "would be consolidated" on the midtown Manhattan bus terminal's third floor.

Why wasn't that done 10 years ago?

End the column

Readers of the Road Warrior column know Staff Writer John Cichowski is so desperate for material he'll print any and every email from readers, whose exaggerations and inaccuracies rival the columnist's own (L-1).

Today, he quotes Dave Mackay of Ringwood as claiming he was "chased from a cellphone lot" at Newark Liberty International Airport while waiting for his wife's plane to land.

"Non-commercial drivers must pay to use these lots that are intended for people who are picking up arriving passengers, he was told," the columnist claims.

Not sure what the veteran reporter means by "these lots," because there is only one at Newark airport, and it's relatively new.

Another cellphone lot is at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Both lots are free, but the signage at Newark makes that lot much harder to find.

Cichowski's column is filled with so many errors readers don't known what is true and what isn't. 

Ending the column would be absolutely no loss to commuters.

If Christie drops out of race, no need for friendly columnist

Hudson Street in Hackensack is one of many streets showing the signs of utility work, but the patching is much smoother than on River Street, especially near the old headquarters of The Record.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A day after The Record declared that many view Governor Christie's White House bid as a "long shot," the paper's political columnist doesn't miss a beat.

Since the GOP bully took office in early 2010, Staff Writer Charles Stile has stuck by Christie in his Political Stile column, never bothering to report on whether the conservative's policies have been good for New Jersey.

Today, he's back on Page 1, analyzing whether Donald Trump's foot-in-mouth disease can help boost Christie's anemic showing in the race for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016.

His column is never labeled "Opinion" or "Analysis," as many papers would with similar partisan reporting.

With Stile in his corner, Christie doesn't even need spin doctors.

The veteran Trenton reporter does a good imitation of a journalist who is angling for a job in what he hopes will be a Christie administration in Washington.

Stile's chief weakness is that he continues to completely ignore all of the New Jersey baggage and failed policies Christie brought to the race -- from Superstorm Sandy recovery to mass transit to "pension reform" to the Bridgegate scandal.

It's a weakness shared with Editor Martin Gottlieb, who puts Stile's boring column on the front page once or twice a week.

Stile's next and last column should be on the sentiment for Christie to drop out of the race, return to New Jersey and finish out his term, fixing the mess he's made as the state's worst governor ever.

Christie's signature achievement is ruled unconstitutional

The Pathmark in the Home Depot Shopping Center in Hackensack closed in April 2011 and hasn't been replaced. That means tenants of an apartment complex next door have to get into their cars to go food shopping.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The pension "reform" Governor Christie signed into law in 2011 was declared unconstitutional today by the New Jersey Supreme Court.

The Record, especially political Columnist Charles Stile, has invoked that law repeatedly in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election as showing Christie's so-called bipartisanship.

But the high court ruled that progressively higher payments into the strapped pension system for seven years violated the constitution by creating new long-term debt, North Jersey.com reports.

"In New Jersey, voters must approve new debts by referendum," Associate Justice Jaynee LaVecchia wrote for the majority.

The GOP bully has balanced his last two budgets by cutting $2.4 billion from pension funding he had promised, and vows to reduce a $3.1 billion payment to $1.3 billion in the coming budget, which must be signed July 1, The Record's Web site reports.

But voters are certain to stop Christie from doing so next year, if the Democratic-controlled state Legislature succeeds in getting a proposal for guaranteed pension funding on the ballot.

The New Jersey pension system represents 770,000 public workers and retirees, including teachers.

Voodoo economics

To balance his budgets, Christie has repeatedly used cuts in pension payments, health services for women and other middle- and working-class programs.

At the same time, he has repeatedly vetoed a tax surcharge on millionaires, refused to raise the low gasoline tax and grabbed mass transit funds to fix roads and bridges.

In short, Christie is the worst New Jersey governor in history, and experts say he doesn't have a ghost of a chance at getting the GOP presidential nomination, if he decides to seek it.

In any White House bid, Christie is sure to be out at plate

Englewood Hospital and Medical Center held its annual Employee Appreciation Picnic for workers, volunteers and medical staff on Wednesday.

 

Englewood firefighters also were invited to the picnic, judging from the three fire engines parked across the street, and fire personnel on the field.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Most experts, pollsters and pundits are dismissing Governor Christie's bid for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.

But Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record and Columnist Charles Stile aren't convinced, and continue to bombard readers with endless copy on the GOP bully's political image in the early primary states (A-1).

Today, a front page photo showing Christie throwng a ball at a Yankee Stadium softball game doesn't say whether he was booed.

Or, why he wasn't at a fundraiser for the families of slain police officers and state troopers in New Jersey.

Corrections

Two corrections appear on A-2 today, but The Record didn't bother fixing Road Warrior John Cichowski's latest screw-up.

On Wednesday, the clueless columnist gave the wrong intersection for where a woman's SUV knocked down a Leonia crossing guard on May 27.

That major error is the latest of literally hundreds of mistakes the veteran reporter has made since he began writing the Road Warrior column in September 2003.

Today, his column reports on efforts to stop accidents that cause traumatic brain injuries, suggesting it is too late to prevent his (L-1).

Cichowski's numerous errors -- and only an occasional correction -- also suggests fact-checking, and editing checks and balances have completely broken down.

For that, readers can blame local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, and six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, absentee supervisor of the news and copy desks.