Christie's mean GOP spirit is looming over the front page

Governor Christie at the Republican National Convention, where he said he has been wacko racist Donald J. Trump's friend for 14 years.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On Page 1 today, The Record's chief medical writer again lets Governor Christie off the hook for trying to sabotage President Obama's health-care law in New Jersey.

And today's centerpiece on a young woman -- the first in her family to attend college -- is another in an occasional series, Muslims are Just Like You and Me, the paper has been running since Christie sought to bar all Syrian refugees from New Jersey (A-1).

I can't recall the last time Staff Writer Lindy Washburn included background information on how Christie refused to set up a health-care exchange in New Jersey when the federal Affordable Care Act took effect a few years ago (A-1).

That meant tens of thousands of residents, along with consumers in more than 30 other states with Republican governors, were thrown onto the overburdened federal exchange.

Next year, the number of New Jersey insurers will dwindle to two from five in 2016, Washburn reports, further limiting choice and raising premiums.

Local news?

A radical proposal to move the start time to "as late as 8:30" at Tenafly High School merits a front-page brief and a full story on the Local front today (L-1).

A story about Tenafly's school board appears on L-5.

Hackensack readers are racking their brains for the last time they saw a story about their schools or school board.

Apparently, Staff Writer John Seasly, who covers the city, is stretched thin just attending City Council meetings.

Today, Seasly reports the council hired Ted Ehrenburg as city manager to replace David Troast at the end of the month (L-5).

Ehrenburg, 59, of Hackettstown, a former police chief and business administrator, will be paid $170,000 a year.

Obits, crash photos

Eight days of coverage marking the 15th anniversary of 9/11 -- ending on Monday -- sucked the energy out of the Woodland Park newsroom, judging from all the filler in the local-news section today.

A pair of rollover crash photos on L-3 from ambulance-chasing Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi have readers saying gee whiz.

A third crash photo from the talented photographer plugs a hole on L-6.

Half of L-5 is taken up by obituaries of Sam Iacobellis, an obscure aerospace engineer, and Stanley Sheinbaum, the "liberal lion of Los Angeles." 

Obama saves me $150 a month on health insurance

Health-care savings are floating down on Euclid Avenue in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Thank you, Mr. President, for saving me money on health insurance for my wife and son, and F.U., Governor Christie, for making the enrollment process as difficult as possible.

This morning, I signed up for two Affordable Care Act health insurance policies that will save me about $150 a month, compared to what I paid this year to North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, where I worked for 29 years.

NJMG cancelled the Aetna policies, effective Dec. 31, telling me and other retirees to seek coverage under Barack Obama's federal initiative.

GOP sabotage

But Christie and conservatives governors in 35 other states refused to set up their own state Web sites -- hoping to derail health-care reform.

That forced me and millions of other shoppers to apply and buy coverage on healthcare.gov, the federal site that broke down from unusually high demand in October and November.

Two no-deductible AmeriHealth Insurance Company of New Jersey "platinum" policies will cost me $850.63 a month, compared to $1,004.27 I paid monthly to NJMG -- more than my pension.

That means I will save $1,800 in  2014 under the Affordable Care Act. Go Obama.

This month, I made several calls and got cut off a few times before I spoke on separate occasions to Chris, Sharon, Karen and Elizabeth at a federal health-care call center in Boise, Idaho.

I filled out an application three times, once online and twice over the phone. It was a hassle, but in a few months, all I'll remember is the $150-a-month savings.

Today's paper

The story about the federal health-care Web site on the front page of The Record today is relentlessly negative, with not a single success story, just like all of the previous stories (A-1).

Christie's role in gumming up the works hasn't been mentioned in The Record for many, many months, as the Woodland Park daily continues to groom the GOP bully for a presidential run in 2016.

Look at the idiotic headline on the Page 1 story about Teterboro Airport:

Jetting in for Super Bowl?

Make reservations now

How many owners of private jets who plan to fly to New Jersey read the print edition?

Of course, it would be asking too much of the editors to report that story from the viewpoint of thousands of residents of Hackensack, Teaneck and other towns near the Port Authority owned airport who are being driven crazy by jet noise -- sure to increase for the six days of Super Bowl festivities (A-1).

Here's the correct headline for the Teterboro story:

Think jets are noisy now?

Order your earplugs soon

Allegedly crooked court officials, a clueless woman in an SUV who almost got squashed by a train, arrests, an indictment and court news -- all are grist for the local-news mill run by desperate Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza (L-1 to L-6).

Second looks

On Wednesday's Local front, Hackensack City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono (pronounced LOW-yack-a-no) defended the job he has done for the past eight years.

Lo Iacono spoke to reporter Hannan Adely a day after the City Council asked him to step down.

On Wednesday's front page, Staff Writer Melissa Hayes continued to fawn over Christie with her breathless, flag-waving story on his choice of Ellis Island for his second inaugural on Jan. 21.

Hayes reports Ellis Island is the "place where more than 12 million immigrants entered the country in search of the American dream."

That's rich, considering Christie presides over a New Jersey nightmare of high unemployment, low job creation, packed roads, high tolls, overburdened mass transit and crumbling infrastructure.

Hayes gives a bad name to women journalists, and has earned the reputation of acting like the Bride of Frankenstein-Christie.

With Christie the Bull, traffic and transit are political

Times Square in Manhattan on Sunday night, when shoppers and tourists packed city streets.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

After more than three months of prodding and probing by Democrats and the media,  sworn testimony by Port Authority officials suggests closing Fort Lee toll lanes on the George Washington Bridge was political payback by the Christie administration.

The story on Page 1 of The Record today reports Christie appointee David Wildstein ordered the lane closures in September, presumably to punish Fort Lee's mayor, a Democrat who didn't endorse the GOP bully's bid for a second term (A-1).

No surprise here, given the Portly Authority's lack of support for traditional Democratic initiatives, such as expanding mass transit, curbing air pollution and providing affordable health care (A-1 and L-3).

Railroading Democrats

Now, Governor Christie's 2010 decision to kill the Hudson River rail tunnels can be seen in political terms:

The project to expand the number of train seats into Manhattan would have benefited commuters from Bergen and Hudson counties, where Democrats have a big edge in voter registration.

Another A-1 story today, decrying the metropolitan area's uncoordinated transportation system ahead of the Super Bowl in February, is likely the first time The Record has even mentioned that in more than a decade of reporting. 

Transportation reporter Karen Rouse, who wrote today's story, and Road Warrior John Cichowski have done their best to ignore the lack of coordination, as well as packed buses and trains, and mounting traffic congestion, in the past 10 years.


Failed editors, too 

Indeed, an editorial today condemns NJ Transit -- "which remains firmly under the thumb of the Christie administration" -- for not changing "despite its massive failure of leadership during Superstorm Sandy" (A-10).

But NJ Transit failed commuters long before that by not being able to provide enough rush-hour seats into Manhattan.

The same lack of leadership is evident in the performance of Editors Marty Gottlieb, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, whose assignments also ignore major commuting issues.

Another issue the editors have ignored is Christie's role in sabotaging the enrollment of New Jersey residents for coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

Today, the editors buried a story reporting the anger of Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, who said Christie "stinks on this issue."

Pascrell said Christie's refusal to set up a state marketplace left unspent $7.6 million in federal funds that could have been used to educate and enroll New Jersey residents (L-3).

Stuck in line

Staff Writer John Cichowski appears to be stuck in line at the Motor Vehicle Commission, just one of the many driving -- not commuting -- issues he has obsessed over in the last decade.

Cichowski, hand-picked by Sykes to take over the column in  September 2003, mostly has demonstrated RWI -- reporting while incompetent -- as his three-times-a-week farce demonstrates.

Here is a brief description from the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers of errors in his Sunday column on DWI:

"In his Sunday column, the Road Warrior stumbles through mistakes about penalties and statistics for driving under the influence and new devices to prevent a car from starting for drunk drivers.

"Road Warrior indicates penalties are greater for driving under the influence, if blood-alcohol concentration — the ratio of blood to alcohol in the body — reaches beyond 0.08 percent.

"Actually, the penalties are greater, if the ratio of alcohol to blood reaches 0.10 percent and beyond.

"Anyone with a blood to alcohol ratio of 0.08 percent would have 99.92 percent alcohol in their blood stream. How absurd is that scenario!"

See:

Reporting While Under the Influence of Error 

Hackensack news

On the Local front, Staff Writer Hannan Adely reports Hackensack City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono (pronounced LOW-yack-a-no) has agreed to step down this Friday after holding the job since 2005 (L-1).

Critics charge Lo Iacono didn't do enough to stem problems in the Police Department under the corrupt rule of Ken Zisa, who served as police chief and as a state assemblyman.

They noted that he kept Zisa in the job, despite numerous lawsuits alleging the chief ruled by intimidation and retaliation, including forcing officers to support his candidacy for political office.

Zisa remains under house arrest during his appeal of his 2012 conviction for official corruption and insurance fraud, and a 5-year prison sentence.