Editors come down hard on Christie, but six years too late

Solar panels form the roof of the Bergen County Administration Building's employee parking garage in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In 2010, Governor Christie delayed the first expansion of metropolitan area rail service in ages by at least a decade.

In torpedoing new Hudson River rail tunnels, he ensured that hundreds of thousands of commuters would face increasing traffic congestion, loss of productivity, worsening air pollution, and fewer seats on NJ Transit trains and buses.

But The Record of Woodland Park didn't see the monumental consequences of his actions, and pretty much swallowed whole his claim he killed the project to save taxpayers millions more in cost overruns.

Now, today's editorial is blaming "the Christie administration" for turning NJ Transit "from the jewel of regional commuter-rail systems to the joke of them; it has been a race to the bottom" (O-2).

But Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin has only himself to blame.

He ignored the ramifications of the tunnel decision, then refused to out the governor when Christie grabbed hundreds of millions of dollars in leftover funds to pave roads and fix bridges.

That allowed the GOP thug to impose his conservative fiscal policies on the state, and continue vetoing a hike in the gasoline tax to fund Transportation Trust Fund road and rail improvements.

Doblin didn't even protest Christie slashing state subsidies to NJ Transit by more than 90 percent, triggering fare hikes and service cuts, and delaying an automatic braking system that could have prevented last month's fatal train crash in Hoboken.

Trump, Garrett on A-1

Today's front page is dominated by a large photo of GOP presidential nominee and sexual predator Donald J. Trump bringing his campaign of lies, racism and hatred to Edison (A-1 and A-3).

Leading the paper is an investigative piece on accidental shootings of minors -- one every other day during the first six months of the year (A-1).

So you'd think a Page 1 story on Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, would mention one of the most conservative members of Congress gets an "A" from the National Rifle Association for opposing gun control.

But it doesn't. 

Garrett lies

In Opinion, Columnist Brigid Harrison asks, "Why would Garrett knowingly mislead voters" in ads about his opponent, Democrat Josh Gottheimer (O-4).

"Why would he blame his opponent for ridiculous positions, and mislead voters about his own record?"

She answers her own questions by revealing that in 13 years in office, the 5th District congressman "has successfully had [only] four pieces of legislation become law."

Unbearable

For the second day in a row, The Record is publicizing a protest over the death of a bear named "Pedals," which walked upright and had a Facebook page before he was killed by a bow hunter (L-1).

It isn't known whether the protesters have demonstrated against the mistreatment and death of humans, including the slaughter of innocent children and teens during gang shootouts in Paterson.

A story on a food fest in Clifton notes the city of 86,000 is "among the most diverse in the state and has large Latino, Middle Eastern and Polish communities (L-1).

But Staff Writer Pat Alex neglects to mention African-Americans made up less than 5% of the city's population in the 2010 census, even though Clifton surrounds Passaic city and shares a border with Paterson.

Second coming

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung devotes her entire Sunday column to cauliflower dishes at restaurants, "noting the white flowered vegetable has become one of the hottest trends in the food world" (BL-1).

Ung's column, The Corner Table, appears on the Better Living cover, which two years ago, nearly to the day, carried another story on cauliflower's resurgence under this headline:

"CAULIFLOWER'S COMEBACK"

Christie takes yet another vacation from being our governor

In Monday night's North 1, Group 4 boys basketball final in Hackensack, the Morristown High School Colonials took an early lead, above, but ultimately lost to the Hackensack High School Comets, 67-64.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With NJ Transit rail workers threatening to strike in less than a week, Governor Christie going on vacation reminds me of the old Mose Allison song:

"Your mind is on vacation, but your mouth is working overtime." 

It's bad enough Christie was more interested in running for president than in running New Jersey, where problems of his own making seem only to get worse, not better.

Or that he could care less that rail workers have been without a contract for five years, and doesn't seem interested in granting them modest raises in order to avert a strike set for 12:01 a.m. Monday.

But in covering the labor dispute, The Record of Woodland Park hasn't been able to hide the deep-seated, anti-union bias of the Borg family, owners of North Jersey Media Group's flagship paper.

Christie's last public appearance on Monday before leaving for a vacation isn't on Page 1, as it should be.

After endorsing fellow racist Donald Trump, the GOP bully recently claimed he went "back to work." 

Christie's latest break from governing isn't even mentioned in the headline on A-4.

Union 'demands'

The rail workers unions are asking for an average 2.57% raise over seven years of a new contract, and for their health insurance payments to be capped at 2.5% of their base salaries (A-4).

That doesn't seem to warrant The Record reporting, "Unions have demanded ...." or quoting NJ Transit officials calling the union proposal "excessive."

Nowhere in the strike-threat coverage have you seen The Record report NJ Transit is in financial trouble and had to raise fares because Christie cut millions of dollars in state subsidies to the agency to balance his budget. 

Of course, the Borgs' can hardly be called objective, and the staff seems to have gotten the message, from transportation reporter Christopher Maag to Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin.

The Borgs defeated any attempt to unionize pressmen or other workers, and in the last few years, they have denied raises to even the hardest-working newsroom staffers.


Mind on vacation

Road Warrior John Cichowski, The Record's lazy commuting columnist, would be writing about more training for teen drivers on the same day as coverage of a funeral for a 7-year-old girl killed by a hit-run driver in a crosswalk (L-1).

This week also saw the deaths of two 17-year-old boys, who were mowed down by a speeder's out-of-control car.

Cichowski's last column was about a railroad crossing.

In the more than a dozen years Cichowski has been pretending to be the paper's commuting columnist, he has ignored increased crowding on NJ Transit buses and trains; Christie's and the Port Authority's refusal to expand mass transit; and mounting traffic congestion at the Hudson River crossings.

He's also missed a dramatic decline in speeding enforcement on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway.

Editors shrug as Christie continues screwing New Jersey

Traffic on Route 4 east in Paramus moving sluggishly toward the George Washington Bridge this morning just before 9, above and below. Most of the vehicles carried only a driver.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie hasn't lost his ability to control what reporters and editors say about him -- at least in The Record of Woodland Park.

Christie is refusing to discuss "his disappointing bid for the White House [and] his controversial endorsement of Donald Trump," The Record's State House Bureau reports on Page 1 today.

"After his brief and tightly controlled appearance in Trenton [on Monday], Christie sets off to campaign with Trump in Ohio and Kentucky," reporter Dustin Racioppi says.

Still, the best Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin can manage in an editorial today falls far short of outrage:

"Not good enough. Not good enough at all" (A-8).

What preceded that is a long paragraph on Christie's "unwillingness to explain, to the people of the state that elected him as a Republican who supported diversity, how he can now support a presidential candidate who would mass-deport 11 million immigrants and bar Muslims from entering the United States, and who was unable to unequivocally denounce the Ku Klux Klan when repeatedly asked to do just that on CNN on Sunday."

Really? What about Christie's bid to bar Syrian refugees from New Jersey and the nation? 

What about his mean-spirited dismissal of the only black New Jersey Supreme Court justice, John E. Wallace Jr.?

That was as racially charged as Christie's recent attacks on President Obama.  

Fatal hit-run

The hit-run death of a 7-year-old West New York girl on Monday as she was walking in a crosswalk with her mother is tragic enough (A-1).

But readers can't help recall how Road Warrior John Cichowski wrote a number of columns demonizing red-light cameras, which reduced crashes, injuries and deaths, and penalized speeders.

On columns about yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks, the clueless Cichowski also quoted drivers saying they wanted to run down jaywalkers.

Local news?

Monday was the deadline for candidates to file nominating petitions for the April 19 school election in Hackensack and other towns.

In Hackensack, three vacancies on the nine-member board will be contested, and voters have a chance to vote "yes" or "no" on the district's proposed budget.

The Record covers schools in Englewood, Paterson and many other communities, but largely ignores Hackensack.

Last Wednesday, a story on the Local front called the Englewood district "the worst in Bergen County -- 76th out of 76."

Yet, Superintendent Robert Kravitz didn't address the city's elementary and middle schools, where 99% of the students are black and Hispanic.

And Staff Writer Matthew McGrath apparently didn't know enough about the district to ask what Kravitz is doing to integrate those schools.

Editors should demand Christie departure or impeachment

The Record of Woodland Park probably doesn't get much ad revenue from merchants on Cedar Lane in Teaneck, above, or from downtown Hackensack and many other communities. That's why the paper's editors and reporters ignore our fading downtowns, and knock themselves out covering malls, restaurants and other big advertisers.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's editors claim they don't have a "clue" whether Governor Christie feels as committed to New Jersey as he does to Donald Trump.

At least that was the last paragraph of Saturday's editorial on how Christie's endorsement of Trump, and his return to the campaign trail, affects the Garden State. 

Bewildering, isn't it? 

With the GOP bully's popularity in the state at an all-time low, readers and voters long ago made up their minds, as you can see from letters to the editor today (O-3):

"I am feeling so disgusted with myself for voting for Governor Christie in New Jersey's last gubernatorial election," writes Charles Inhulsen of Guttenberg.

"If Christie puts one foot out of state to campaign for Trump, he should resign as governor or be impeached," says Frank Gunsberg of Englewood.

"Chris Christie's endorsement of Donald Trump is a calculated, blatantly ambitious move on the part of our governor, who has completed abdicated his responsibilities to the people of New Jersey," writes former supporter Richard Muti, onetime mayor of Ramsey.

Swelled heads

Readers are telling Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin and the other editors they finally should remove their swelled heads from their enormous assholes, and call for Christie's resignation or impeachment.

And readers certainly don't want to see another opinion piece on Christie from the shameless Carl Golden, a former Record reporter who was press aide to two of the governor's Republican predecessors (O-1).

Golden says Christie has nothing to lose by endorsing Trump, but the so-called public policy analyst ignores the impact on a state beset by problems -- from credit downgrades to crumbling roads and bridges.

For the only hard-hitting commentary on Christie, see the Margulies cartoon on O-2.

Page 1

Editor Deirdre Sykes really came up with a stinker in today's front page, which is completely devoid of anything interesting or engaging for local readers.

Nor is there much news in Local, unless readers want to take Road Warrior John Cichowski's quiz on road safety (L-1).

A monthly news quiz appears on L-3.

Get me rewrite

In Better Living, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung and reporter Sophia F. Gottfried rewrote press or public-relations releases for the First Course feature on BL-2 today.

The pitches for a restaurant, bakery, cookbook and more sound as promotional as advertising.

LOL: Republicans say tax hike to hurt low-income drivers

Low pump prices make this the ideal time to raise the gas tax -- which hasn't changed since 1989 -- and stabilize funding of the state's Transportation Trust Fund. The fund pays for repairs to roads and bridges, as well as projects to improve mass transit.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The biggest laugh line in today's paper comes from state Sen. Jennifer Beck, one of the many Republicans opposing a higher gas tax.

"This particular tax hurts low-income, working-class people the most," Beck says, according to Salvador Rizzo of The Record (A-3).

What a joke. When has Beck, Governor Christie and other Republicans ever expressed any concern for the working or middle classes in New Jersey?

More politics

Rizzo and other reporters at The Record think their job is to present important state issues only in terms of Democrats v. Republicans, as today's story on "competing economic plans" shows.

Let's hope Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin sees through the GOP's nonsense, and backs the logic of drivers paying for the wear and tear they cause on roads and bridges.

If New Jersey residents are "overtaxed," as Beck and her colleagues claim, that has to be a reference to local property taxes, which are continuing to climb in Hackensack and other communities.

Working-class drivers who can't afford a hike in the second-lowest gas tax in the nation after Alaska should sell their cars and take mass transit.

Shoot 'em up

You don't see much municipal news in The Record, because the editors waste so much space today on a new 'Star Wars' movie and local Law & Order stories (A-1, BL-1, L-1, L-2 and L-3).

Readers get the full gamut -- from the "mystery" of why a Maywood man crashed a car in Rochelle Park (A-1) to the molesting of 14 teens at a church event (L-1) to tons of court and crime news -- nine stories and a photo in Local alone.

Incorrect letter

The Record's news editors and opinion writers still are solidly in Christie's corner on the GOP presidential campaign trail, despite the wreckage he has left behind in the Garden State.

That's why readers like Joseph A. Del Buono of Allendale try to set the record straight (A-10).

But Del Buono errs on  the number of vetoes Christie has executed since he took office in early 2010.

He says it's 59, but The Record quoted Christie himself taking credit for more than 430.

So why was Del Buono's letter published without correcting the number of vetoes?

More clueless reporting and editing on local bias, buses

Paramus police have asked drivers on Route 4 east to try and avoid having a medical emergency until CITYMD opens a walk-in urgent care center next to a Popeyes fried-chicken restaurant, above and below. The sign went up weeks ago, before the building with Dos Cubanos, a shuttered Cuban restaurant, was renovated and repainted.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record finally is giving Calvin Spann, an African-American veteran who lived in Rutherford and Englewood, the recognition he deserves with a front-page story on his memorial service today.

You might remember the editors literally buried Spann's obituary deep in the Local section last Tuesday.

That's the same day Page 1 was dominated by the photo and story of a hospitalized white pilot who crashed his crippled small plane in a Cresskill field, and had been the subject of two previous stories.

Spann, 90, was one of "the famed Tuskegee Airmen, the black World War II pilots who broke through racism to fight combat missions and escort American bombers across Europe," Staff Writer Todd South reports in a stirring salute to a fellow veteran.

Bias against blacks

Spann and other Turkegee Airmen "helped inspire the effort to racially integrate the U.S. military and, early on, set in motion the pent-up forces that would lead to the civil rights movement," South continues.

But the reporter and his editors are silent on the discrimination Spann may have faced after the war when he began "a career in pharmaceutical sales" and settled in Englewood, where he lived until 2006 (A-1).

That's no surprise 

Assignment Editors Deirdre Dykes and Dan Sforza, familiar with Englewood from the years they worked as reporters there, have taken a vow of silence on discrimination in the small city -- in the heart of The Record's circulation area -- where Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg has lived for decades.

At one time, the only jobs blacks could aspire to were as chauffeurs and maids to the wealthy mansion dwellers on Englewood's East Hill.

In recent years, county and local officials have been working to integrate Dwight Morrow High School, but the lower grades remain 99% black and Hispanic.

The Record spends far more time reporting about the premier private school in Englewood, Dwight-Englewood, attended by three generations of the Borg family, which owns North Jersey Media Group and The Record.

Bias in layout?

Is it merely a coincidence that a large photo of Spann at a Tuskegee Airmen convention appears on the continuation page next to the photo of a black Rutgers football player who was suspended "after a Saturday night incident" (A-6)?

That reminds readers that for decades the only way blacks could get on the front page of The Record was to break the law or be mentioned in a column on Black History Week.

Forced busing

In an editorial called "Buses over PATH," Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin tries mightily to stop the $1.5 billion commuter rail extension to Newark Liberty International Airport (A-9).

But Doblin seems unaware that until the antiquated midtown Manhattan bus terminal is replaced, officials could easily solve massive rush-hour delays by adding another dedicated bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel.

Now, a single, reverse lane operates in the morning, funneling buses against traffic on Route 495, but no such lane is set up in the afternoon, when hundreds of buses parked in New Jersey during the day have to return to pick up riders at the midtown terminal.

No to drivers

Operating two dedicated lanes into the tunnel both morning and afternoon would ease bus delays, but the Port Authority fears angering motorists, many of whom drive alone into the city on commutes subsidized by their employers.

What other choice would these morons have but to sit in even worse congestion than now, finally giving long-suffering bus riders some relief?

Are the drivers going to try using the Holland Tunnel or the George Washington Bridge to reach their free midtown parking garages?

Who cares? Let them take the ferry or swim.

Local news?

You know there isn't much local news today when Sykes and Sforza lead their section with yet another story on a proposed public parking garage in downtown Ridgewood (L-1).

Staff Writer Chris Harris has probably written more stories about this single project than The Record has about a new bus terminal in midtown Manhattan.

Christie screws N.J. middle class in bid for White House

Some tenants of the so-called luxury Avalon Hackensack at Riverside apartments near Route 4 have been worried about their safety since a fast-moving fire in January destroyed a similar Avalon complex in Edgewater, where the same cheap, lightweight wood construction was used. One-bedroom apartments start at $2,180.

Hackensack tenants have an excellent view of The Shops at Riverside parking garage on one side and the parking lot of the Home Depot Shopping Center on the other. A long, zigzag ramp gives tenants access to Home Depot, Lotus Cafe and other businesses.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front page today reports Governor Christie's shameless cuts to the state pension system and its mass-transit agency -- two pillars of the middle class.

How did reporters like Charles Stile and Melissa Hayes, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin and Editor Martin Gottlieb ever lend credence to the GOP bully's White House aspirations with a dismal record that stretches back to 2010, his first year in office?

Now, NJ Transit commuters are screaming about higher fares and reduced service, and public-workers unions are suing Christie for cutting more than $1 billion from a payment and violating his own pension-reform law (A-1).  

Self-serve gas

How did The Record's upbeat story on the likely end of self-serve gas get it so wrong?

For Monday's A-1 story, Staff Writer Richard Newman talked to everyone except Senate President Stephen Sweeney, who is quoted today as saying full service is here to stay (A-1 and A-3).

"As the leader of the Senate, Sweeney can block the bill," Newman reports today -- belatedly. "We just don't post it for a vote," the former union leader said.

Animal v. human news

Record Editor Martin Gottlieb continues to devote good parts of Page 1 and the Local front to animal news, but remarkable humans often get the cold shoulder.

See L-6 today for the obituary of Mark Samitt, a Woodcliff Lake resident who died of melanoma at 52. 

I guess there wasn't room on the Local front today to report that as he battled the disease, Samitt enlisted hair stylists in a potentially life-saving awareness campaign.

Bored teens

I've never seen a photo showing teen apathy better than the one on the Local front today (L-1).

If these kids are our future, look out.

An FBI analyst is shown speaking to students in Hackensack, warning them of Islamic State recruitment techniques, but most are so bored and uninterested they aren't even looking at him.

Today and every day, editors play elaborate catch-up game

Maywood Avenue at Passaic Street, above, and State Street near Hackensack City Hall, below, were closed this week, making local driving even more difficult than normal. In Maywood and Hackensack, officers sat in air-conditioned cruisers during the work. Is that the best use of our property tax dollars?

A long trench was cut into the State Street pavement at Central Avenue.

State Street traffic backed up for more than a block as two lanes of drivers had to turn right onto a narrow, two-way street.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Three days after an apparently disturbed man in a speeding pickup truck killed a woman at a farmers' market, readers of The Record find out he has a terrible driving history (A-1 and L-1).

Two days after Robin Williams' suicide, the paper's editorial director writes movingly about his father's struggle with depression and mental illness, but the column is buried in favor of a feel-good story about the comedian "rallying the troops" (A-1).

Courts rely on retirees

This bold Page 1 headline today sounds like news concerning a shortage of judges in Bergen County.

But the reporter comes clean in the second paragraph, noting the courts have used retired judges for 40 years (A-1).

Revel's luck runs out

The $2.4 billion Revel casino hotel was doomed to fail when it opened in April 2012 backed by Governor Christie's $200 million state tax-break package (A-1).

Contrary to today's Page 1 headline, Revel never was lucky, especially in view of $400-a-night rooms and the smallest casino in Atlantic City -- two features that turned off vacationers.

Yet, The Record's John Brennan has ignored them in story after story about its failed history.

More screw-ups

And a moronic news or copy editor actually wrote an awkwardly worded photo caption saying "Revel employees won't be celebrating" when the casino closes and they lose their jobs (A-8).

Who would "celebrate" losing their jobs in New Jersey or anywhere else? What insensitive idiocy.

Production Editor Liz Houlton gets paid six figures to catch such embarrassing work, and to limit embarrassing corrections, such as the one on A-2 today.

Publisher Stephen A. Borg might as well throw the money out of the window.

Razor burn

The lead anecdote in last Sunday's Page 1 takeout on Richard Nixon's life in Bergen County after he resigned the presidency is about a barber who cut his hair every two weeks, Domenic Parisi.

But Staff Writer Christopher Maag wrote in his first paragraph the shop was on "Maple Avenue in Park Ridge."

Below that, a small A-1 photo of the barber and a quote also identified Parisi as "Nixon's former Park Ridge barber."

Today's correction notes the A-1 article "misidentified the town" of the barbershop, but the street also was wrong.

Parisi's shop is on "North Maple Avenue in Ho-H0-Kus," the correction states, not Maple Avenue in Park Ridge (A-2).

Playing catch-up

I'm not sure what is going on at the morning and afternoon news meetings in the Woodland Park newsroom -- led by the august Martin Gottlieb, a big-time former editor at The New York Times.

But day after day, the print edition plays catch-up on so many stories that are full of unanswered questions thanks to the laziness or incompetence of local Assignment Editors Deirde Sykes and Dan Sforza.

The first question reporters should have asked about James T. Woetzel, 48, the man who killed Donna Marie Wine at the Hawthorne farmers' market on Sunday, is does he have a good driving record.

But the initial report on Monday didn't even identify the driver or the dead woman. (!!!!) 

Today's L-1 story says Woetzel "has a long record" of violations, including DWI, speeding and careless driving.

Come to think of it, the single story about the death of pedestrian Leyla Kan, 60, last Thursday in Leona didn't say anything about the driving history of Esperanza Jaramillo, 54, the school-bus driver, nor did reporters seek comment from her employer, Rainbow Transportation of Bergenfield.

Promoting Ervolino

The editors of Tuesday's Better Living cover couldn't wait to exploit the death of comic Robin Williams by promoting Staff Writer Bill Ervolino's 1989 interview with the comic genius.

But today, concern about mental illness and the depression that drove Williams to suicide is all over the paper -- in a letter to the editor, in a column by Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin and in a story on the same Better Living front (BL-1).

A letter on A-10 today from Robert L. Parker, chief executive officer of NewBridge Services Inc., seemed to speak for many of Williams' most ardent fans:

"We mourn the loss of such a brilliant performer and scratch our heads at how someone who seemed to have it all would end his life.

"Let's try to make something good come of Williams' death. Let's make it a rallying point to value mental health care at the same level of importance as physical health care."

The Record could help by writing about community organizations like NewBridge, instead of seizing every chance it get to promote itself and its staff.

Eye on The Record 

will return next week

Reading all about fraud in high and low places

On Tuesday afternoon, there was much less snow than when this photo was taken on Feb. 18, but the bus stop on Anderson Street in Hackensack, across the street from Sears, is still covered by white stuff from the Feb. 13 nor'easter, and NJ Transit drivers must drop off passengers in front of a cleared auto repair shop driveway.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Readers are being cheated in two ways by The Record's front page today:

Editor Marty Gottlieb wastes their time with the low drama of a fraud plea involving nearly $5 million from Teresa and Joe Guidice, who flaunted their lavish lifestyle on a reality TV show (A-1).

And for nearly two months, Governor Christie "has managed to avoid questions" about the growing Bridgegate scandal, showing readers how little power the media really have in the face of his repeated "no comment" (A-1).

Missing the point

The Record's Melissa Hayes, other reporters and the Editorial Page editor have spent so much time polishing Christie's image and promoting the GOP bully for a presidential run, they completely miss the lesson a reader finds in the George Washington Bridge lane closures:

"He [Christie] is at the top of the chain of command and is ultimately responsible for what happens on his watch," Phyllis Binaghi says in a letter to the editor today (A-10).

And that should prompt Christie to resign, ending his reign as New Jersey's worst governor, and not fight the inevitable.

Have those views ever been expressed by Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin?

He spends so much time going to Broadway shows and seeing films -- which he cites liberally in his opinion columns -- I doubt The Record's editorials have ever been as clear or as forceful as Binaghi, referring both to Bridgegate and the toll-hike fakery at the Port Authority that directly involved Christie.

Real white trash

On the continuation page for the report on the Guidices' guilty plea, readers get yet another "Real Housewives of New Jersey" column from Staff Writer Virginia Rohan.

For years, Rohan's stories and columns about the stupid show -- the ultimate Jersey joke -- were a stock feature of the Local news section when it was being run by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, who is on medical leave.

And I'm wondering if today's news story is the first time readers learn that Joe Guidice is basically an illegal immigrant (A-6).

Hackensack news

The front of Local today is filled with Law & Order news, a convenient tool for plugging news columns in the absence of municipal news.

In Hackensack news, the City Council on Tuesday approved a three-year contract for Police Director Mike Mordaga, who cited a crackdown on quality-of-life and drug crimes since he took over in February 2013 (L-3).

Mordaga took over the department after the criminal conviction of then-Police Chief Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa, whose family ran Hackensack or "Zisaville" for decades.

In a second story that proved too late for the paper's Tuesday night deadlines, Hackensack is banning smokers in parks and recreation areas (L-3).

Bottom is up

Why is a brief about Per Se -- one of New York City's most expensive restaurants -- and its low grade from health inspectors on the Business page (L-7), and not with the restaurant news that appears in Better Living (BL-2)?

The item on a $26 Prime Angus beef shoulder special at Bibi'z in Westwood doesn't mention the beef likely was raised on grain, harmful animal antibiotics and growth hormones (BL-2), and is inferior to grass-fed meat.

Ida Martin, the restaurant owner, is quoted as saying the "tenderloin cut is less expensive" than filet mignon, meaning more profit for her at customers' expense.

In the Coffee With The Chef feature (BL-2), Peter Larsen of Haven in Edgewater says his "food crutch" is sea urchin, declaring, "I'll eat it raw."

But raw is how sea urchin is served at sushi bars.

The Record turns its back on the middle class

A reader of "Eye on The Record" calls jitneys the "McDonald's of mass transportation in North Jersey," referring to the low-wage workers who drive them. We'd all be better off if we patronized businesses that paid their employees a living wage and benefits, and boycotted those that don't, including McDonald's and Walmart.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

In letters to the editor today, one reader called The Record's endorsement of Governor Christie "insane," and another said the GOP bully's agenda "is not in the interests of working- and middle-class families" (A-12).

The editorial, which ran on Sunday, is full of the same distortions, omissions and half-truths voters are finding in Christie's campaign ads.

Under the headings of "Christie's a leader" and "Governor deserves four more years," the editorial sanitizes the conservative's first term by failing to mention all the vetoes he executed to get his way on issues ranging from a hike in the minimum wage to a tax surcharge on millionaires.

Spiking the tea

More troubling is The Record -- presumably with the support of the wealthy Borg family -- adopting the no-tax mantra of the crackpot Tea Party (Sunday's O-2).

And many readers are puzzled by The Record's dismissing the governing skills of state Sen. Barbara Buono, the Democratic challenger, when Christie's highest elected position before he won the Governor's Office was as a Morris County freeholder.

Of course, the endorsement by Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin is no surprise after months of favorable news coverage and adoring columns that ignore the crippled state economy and disappointing shore tourism this past summer.

Typically, the Woodland Park daily ran another analysis of Christie's politics on A-1, and coverage of Buono's campaign on A-3.

Sandy lingers

After two solid days of upbeat coverage on the recovery from Sandy, The Record's front page reluctantly reports on all those who have nothing to celebrate today, the anniversary of the devastating storm (A-1).

A second story on shore ads continues to polish Christie's image as he positions himself for a presidential run in 2016.

Filler photos

In Local, Deputy Assignment Flunky Dan Sforza couldn't fill his section with news.

So, he took a page from his absent boss, Deirdre Sykes, and ran two filler photos of minor accidents, and didn't even bother to get the identity of the drivers or possible causes (L-2 and L-3).

One caption informed readers "the car [was] towed away."

How's that for breaking news?

Second look

Friday's front page carried a follow-up to the murder of Mary Greff, 23, of Waldwick, focusing on her boyfriend's inability to adjust to fatherhood after their child was born.

Who thought this story was the appropriate place to attempt a clever play on words?

The first paragraph noted Greff and suspect Mark Spatucci argued over "child support and custody of the infant," followed immediately by "now Spatucci, 22, is in custody [jail]."

Editor Marty Gottlieb also thought Friday's Page 1 was an appropriate place for another sports column by Tara Sullivan, the paper's Vagina Monologue.

Solid blue line

Friday's Local front informed readers the Alpine police officer involved in an accident in Paterson, where he allegedly ran a stop sign, had just accepted a traffic-safety award on behalf of his department.

But Paterson and Alpine police continued to stonewall reporters seeking information about Matthew Kent, the traffic officer, and the cause of the accident.

Was liquor served at the banquet where Kent accepted the award, and did he consume any? Readers are left guessing.

On Friday's L-7, a photo shows five Paterson police officers standing around the motorcycle that collided with the Alpine police cruiser, raising a natural question:

Why aren't they fighting crime and gun violence in the Silk City?

Living appetizers

In Friday's review of Rose Persian Restaurant in Teaneck, Staff Writer Elisa Ung reports the owners plan "to add outdoor tables on Teaneck Road where customers can smoke hookah," presumably while wearing fall clothing (Better Living).

She also said the menu offers "spunky" appetizers, but doesn't explain how food can be both "courageous and determined."