Chrisitie scams us once again

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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will impose higher taxes on the wealthiest residents and cut taxes on the middle class.

On Page 1 today, Staff Writer Juliet Fletcher has finally exposed how little money is being saved by Governor Christie's so-called reform of state workers' health benefits. 


The GOP bully has done wonders distracting The Record and other media from his refusal to tax millionaires, while he demonizes unions and penalizes other members of the middle class.


Now, it seems, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is revising his own stance on not taxing the wealthy, saying he wants to reform his state's tax code "in a way that creates jobs and grows our economy."


Christie, on the other hand, has been a job killer, principally by pulling the plug on the Hudson River rail tunnels. Now, he supports millions of dollars in tax breaks to get businesses to hire more people.


Bloody Tuesday


Factory farms kill millions of animals every year -- and millions of unwanted pets are destroyed, as well -- so why is the black-bear hunt front-page news today? 


One hunter is actually quoted as saying part of the allure of hunting is "not hearing any horns honking," but apparently frequent gunshots are music to hos ears (A-6).


More ageism


An editorial on A-18 says a proposal requiring more driver training for teens with learner's permits "goes too far." But I haven't seen an editorial calling for retesting older drivers behind the wheel to cut down the number of people they kill.


A local obituary makes a rare appearance on the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section today -- about a Fort Lee teen who died of diabetes -- while the obituaries of older, far more prominent residents are buried on the obit page. 


Isn't that more ageism by The Record's editors, already famous for helping Publisher Stephen A. Borg treat older newsroom workers like shit?


Free advertising


There is no Hackensack news in the section today, but a developer must have slipped Sykes or her assignment minions a few thousand dollars to publish the lavishly promotional story about "luxury manor homes" in Saddle River (L-3).


Call it a free advertisement with headlines, and a royal F.U. to all those readers who face foreclosure.


In fact, Sykes managed to come up with so little local news, layout editors were forced to run two wire-service obituaries of obscure people on L-6.

'Ageism' determines news coverage

The Record today is a prime example of how "ageism" may determine what news is covered by the former Hackensack daily.

The front page is filled with a truck-car safety crackdown under the scary headline, "Drivers beware." But a far more troubling phenomenon is on Page L-1, where a story reports that a 77-year-old man woke up from a coma four days after ramming his car into a building.

In recent years, the paper has carried numerous individual stories, like this one, about elderly drivers hitting stores, other cars, even pedestrians, sometimes with fatal results. But The Record has never written a series of articles on the challenges facing older drivers and whether driver re-training or other state or private programs are available to help them.

Another example of apparent ageism is the newspaper's devotion in recent years to covering autism, giving hundreds of hours of staff time to articles that often run on Page 1. But has The Record made a similar effort in covering Alzheimer's disease?

The second big story on Page 1 today reports how conservatives are pinning their hopes to radically remake government on Governor-elect Chris Christie. "He has ... to be prepared to close government," one former mayor says. Close government? Is there some reason The Record didn't report this story before the election.

The Local section continues its boycott of municipal news from highly diverse Teaneck, Englewood and Hackensack. An annual story about white suburban high school students spending the night in boxes to get a firsthand look at homelessness doesn't explain why the newspaper has missed the apparent completion of a new homeless shelter in Hackensack, next to the county jail.

Better Living today has the usual single recipe for vegetarians to represent food coverage in a Monday paper, but there's also an item about a free pie-tasting in charming Chester. I wonder if restaurant reviewer Elisa Ung -- who has made no secret of her affection for dessert -- will claim her share?