Something is rotten in Hackensack

New Jersey drivers, who spent 45 minutes crawling into the Holland Tunnel during the Friday afternoon rush hour in Manhattan, see the light at the end of the tunnel.

In the nearly seven months since a Superior Court jury convicted former Hackensack Police Chief Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa of official misconduct, The Record has virtually ignored everything else that is rotten in city government.

Now, the new Hackensack reporter, Hannan Adely, has teamed up with investigative bulldog Jeff Pillets to expose city zoning board attorney Richard Malagiere and land-use lawyer Carmine Alampi, owners of a house cited for crowding and other illegal conditions (A-1 Friday, L-1 Thursday). 

Hackensack residents still are waiting for the Woodland Park daily to question the continued contract with City Attorney Joseph Zisa, the chief's cousin, who has recused himself from defending any of the many suits filed against Ken Zisa.

The city had to hire an outside attorney, costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra legal fees.

More corrections

Friday's Page A-2 listed three corrections -- only a partial acknowledgement of all the errors that are getting past head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza and Production Editor Liz Houlton, supervisor of the inept copy desk.

Readers likely won't see a correction published for the inaccurate headline on Friday's error-filled Road Warrior column.

The column reports road deaths in New Jersey increased in 2011, "more than any state except California," but the headline says the Garden State is "near top of list for road fatalities." 

Road Warrior boo-boos

A concerned reader points out numerous errors in the headline and the text, including the following:

CORRECT FACTS -- Correct headline should have read "N.J. at Top of List for Increased Number of Road Fatalities."  N.J. was NOT near the top, but was at the top (tied with California) of the list of states for the increased number (71) of road fatalities from 2010 to 2011, which was the basis for the Road Warrior headline.

The headline is even more misleading since NJ is nowhere near the top for rate of fatalities or for overall number of road fatalities, where 21 states, including 8 with 1,000 - 3,100 fatalities, had more than NJ's 627 deaths for 2011.

2. Misleading false statement -  "If you suspected your Jersey commute became more hazardous in 2011 -- even more life threatening than in all the other states ... your suspicions were confirmed ... by Washington, D.C., bean counters [NHTSA]."

CORRECT FACTS --  While the increase in road fatalities from 2010 to 2011 was tied for the most in any state, NHTSA continually reports every year that NJ is one of the safest states based on fatality rates per vehicle miles traveled and per 100,000 citizens. 

3. False fact - "California [road death] losses climbed to 2,720 [in 2011]"

CORRECT FACTS -- Number of road deaths in California climbed to 2,791 in 2011 from 2,720 in 2010.

4. Misleading false statement and fact -- "Deaths of 'under the influence' driving victims rose almost 38% to 142 in 2011."

CORRECT FACTS --  As per NJ State Police report, it was intoxicated drivers that were involved in fatal crashes that rose almost 38% to 142 in 2011.  All of these intoxicated drivers did NOT die.  Only 104 intoxicated drivers, who had a blood-alcohol level higher than the legal limit of 0.08%, died.  Deaths of all 'under the influence' driving victims, including  drivers, passengers, bicyclists and pedestrians, rose to 187.

Of course, the copy desk wrote the incorrect headline, but the Road Warrior -- Staff Writer John Cichowski -- is responsible for all of the other errors in the column, which appears three times a week.

Cichowski can't accomplish the basic reportorial task of using statistics accurately.

He also cops out of his role as a journalist to question "aggressive enforcement" of traffic laws, citing readers' e-mails that raise doubts about the effectiveness of state, county and local police.

Less news, more photos

Sykes and Sforza couldn't come up with enough news to fill the Local section on Friday, so they relied on those trusty photos of non-fatal accidents (L-1 and L-2).

You have to give points to Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi for getting to the accident scene on Route 95 in Leonia in time to capture first responders removing one of the injured on a board (L-1).

Record loves Christie

Friday's editorial on Governor Christie's weight contains not a single negative concerning his effectiveness as governor -- this despite the lagging state economy, the worse unemployment rate in 30 years, mounting debt and a host of other problems (A-22).

"There are people who say you couldn't be president because you're so heavy," Barbara Walters said during an interview with the state's fattest and worst governor.

"I mean, that's ridiculous. I don't know what the basis for that is," Christie replied.

What is truly ridiculous is the question, without reference to the obesity epidemic and what Christie as chief executive has done to fight it.

And why didn't Walters ask the GOP bully how much he weighs? 

Ung weighs in 

Legal Sea Foods, Rosa Mexicano and other upscale restaurants have been operating at North Jersey shopping centers for years, but looking for an angle, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung conveniently ignores that in Friday's appraisal of BRIO Tuscan Grille at Willowbrook Mall.

"Entrees start at $11.95 and go all the way up to $28.45 for a filet mignon -- that is a far cry from the food court," she wrote.

What nonsense. Most food courts serve fast food or other greasy fare. Is that really a valid comparison?

Feeding the obesity epidemic, Ung also sampled four artery clogging desserts, even though most diners don't have the room for them.

Reluctant prosecutor

At the bottom of Page 1 today, Prosecutor John Molinelli says Leonia and Palisades Park police were justified in firing 16 bullets and killing robbery suspect Rickey McFadden, 47, a mentally ill Leonia man, on Nov. 25.

Molinelli said, "The officers didn't shoot until McFadden ran toward them wielding a 12-inch serrated knife and yelling, 'I'm going to kill you!'"

The story doesn't explain why the prosecutor needed nearly three weeks to stage a press conference and display the knife to the media.

The family's lawyer says 17 shots were fired, and one of the witnesses called police and described the weapon as a "butter knife."

Serving confusion

Houlton's clueless copy desk misfires again with a photo caption that accompanies the local obituary for Warren Britcher, formerly of Paramus (L-6).

Britcher is shown serving President Dwight Eisenhower and first lady Mamie Eisenhower in the 1950s, but what is that in the huge metal bowl in the photo? 

The caption leaves readers guessing.

 

Christie gives us another bowel movement

Newark wasn't mentioned among cities where the rate of childhood obesity has fallen. This is the city's official seal. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bring together an obese governor who is in denial about his unhealthy eating habits and a veteran newswoman and celebrity watcher who appears to have lost it, and what do you get?

You get the silly exchange between interviewer Barbara Walters and Governor Christie published on A-1 and A-3 of The Record today:

"The governor said the idea that his weight would make him an ineffective president was 'ridiculous.'"

From the in-your-face Christie, this is just another bowel movement.

Walters apparently was just out for a sound bite, judging from her poorly researched question.

Health, weight problems

She didn't mention the apparent asthma attack that put him in the hospital a couple of summers ago nor that he is driven short distances just about everybody else would walk.

Nor did she point out how Newark was conspicuously absent in a news report three days ago on lower rates of childhood obesity in some cities.

Nearly 3 years after Christie took office, I have yet to see a story in The Record or any other New Jersey newspaper on whether Christie is a good role model during the obesity epidemic or even what the state is doing to fight overeating in children. 

Bathroom humor

Did you see Christie last week on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"?

He was hunched forward on his chair, as if he was trying to hide his tremendous stomach or straining to eliminate his last gargantuan meal.

At the Sandy relief concert on Wednesday night, Christie was shown standing, fearing the audience would see how he takes up two seats.  

Of course, New Jersey residents familiar with his politics know he'd make a terrible president because he would fight to the death to hold onto tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, just as he has done in the Garden State.

Take that, Sandy

Most of Page 1 today was taken up by a report on "12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief."

Get a load of that lame headline from Production Editor Liz Houlton's comatose copy editors, who settle for a play on words that defies reality:

Notes of optimism   

What 'optimism'?

And did readers really need to learn in the 3rd paragraph that the New York apartment of Rolling Stone Mick Jagger was flooded?

Unlike most people displaced by Sandy, Jagger likely has a dozen homes scattered around the world he can live in.

Story can't deliver

Five reporters and an unknown number of editors weighed in on the United Parcel Service data center in Paramus, and still were unable to pin down whether it is moving to Woodland Park (A-1).

This is the second day in a row Editor Marty Gottlieb ran this story on Page 1, and the only thing he accomplished is rasing questions in readers minds on why The Record hasn't said as much about its own move to the former West Paterson.

Out of her element

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes has Staff Writer Evonne Coutros covering Teaneck and Bogota, even though Coutros normally is assigned to Ridgewood and Glen Rock.

On Wednesday, Coutros reported on a Bogota couple who are paying fines for violating property maintenance regulations, but the couple's address didn't appear in the story.

Today, on the Local front, Coutros says Louie's Charcoal Pit is the latest business to close on Teaneck's Cedar Lane.

In recent years, Sykes has almost completely ignored the health of downtown business districts in Teaneck, Englewood and Hackensack, which hasn't  recovered from the loss of hundreds of Record employees eating and shopping on Main Street. 

Missing in action

I've read the Louie's Charcoal Pit story and can't find the year it opened, except for this phrase -- "a fixture since the early 1960s" -- even though the owner is quoted elsewhere in the piece.

Nor does the story discuss the growing Orthodox Jewish population and all the kosher restaurants competing with the diner.  

Finally, is the food any good? Maybe, Louie's isn't what it used to be, and that sealed its fate.

I can't find anything about that in the story.

Did Sykes handle this full-of-holes story or did she entrust it to her deputy, Dan Sforza?

More great work from Deirdre and Dan.