Hackensack schools chief is out; wacko Trump taps Plump

Karen Lewis, superintendent of Hackensack schools, has been suspended with pay, according to BergenDispatch.com (Photo credit: Schoolword.com)

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record missed another big Hackensack story today -- the suspension with pay of Schools Superintendent Karen Lewis.

On Monday, Paul Nichols of BergenDispatch.com cited "multiple sources" in reporting that Lewis is out despite a 5-year contract that paid her $167,500 a year starting on Dec. 1, 2013.

With bonuses, Lewis was paid more than Governor Christie, who receives $175,000 a year.

Board of Education President Jason Nunnermacker had no comment, but told Nichols "the matter will be appropriately addressed" at tonight's scheduled board meeting in the high school media room.

The suspension comes about three weeks after the April 19 Hackensack school election.

Two incumbents and a former board member were elected to three-year terms, and a tiny minority of registered voters approved a $79 million tax levy to support a total school budget of $104 million.

Trump and Christie

Since Christie took office in early 2010, the GOP bully has transformed New Jersey into a state of emergency.

So, you have to wonder why the editors are making such a big deal over wacko racist Donald Trump picking Christie to head a transition team in the unlikely event the billionaire and presumptive Republican nominee is elected president (A-1).

Satirist Bill Maher referred to the pair as "Trump and Plump."

Trump's election is as much of a long shot as was Christie's bid for the nomination.

Women to bury him

The billionaire racist likely will be buried under the votes of millions of women for Democrat Hillary Clinton.

One thing Trump and Christie have in common is their hatred of Muslims, and both have tapped into the deep-seated racial animosity toward our first black president.

In New Jersey, not only has the governor been waging war against New Jersey's middle and working classes, but his cancellation of the Hudson River rail tunnels has really screwed up mass transit -- as another Page 1 story reports today.

The story on the Gateway Tunnel project carries a dual byline -- Christopher Maag, who covers NJ Transit, and Paul Berger, the Port Authority reporter.

But the first paragraph is overly long, and contains the phrases "environmental permits" and "environmental regulations."

Federal agencies are said to want to "rush through environmental regulations" -- whatever that means.

Local news?

From the looks of the local-news section, there was plenty of room for a story on the Hackensack schools superintendent.

The only other Hackensack news is a huge photo of two vehicles burning on Byrne Street after a power line fell (L-6).

Below that is another filler photo, this one about a stove fire in Paramus.

'Army of hacks'

A brief on Uber drivers forming a new labor organization in New York City to win better treatment and pay refers to them an "army of homemade hacks" (L-9).

Surely, that's an insult, considering that many Uber drivers in the city have years of experience as livery drivers or work for Uber to supplement their income from other driving jobs.

The true hacks are the reporter and editors who handled the story, which is from an unnamed news service.

Better Living

What are readers to make of today's Better Living cover story on grown men racing miniature radio-controlled racing cars in Hackensack (BL-1)?

And why does the piece carry the byline of Maag, a transportation reporter?

On BL-2, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung promotes another spot for Callahan's mystery meat hot dogs.

With more Christie in N.H. on front page, readers' eyes roll

Waiting for an NJ Transit train to pass in Hackensack. Since Governor Christie took office in early 2010, traffic congestion has worsened, but mass transit has stood still. Yet The Record continues to cover the governor's star-crossed bid for the White House.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie is being counted out as the GOP presidential nominee in 2016 by everyone but The Record of Woodland Park.

Running one Page 1 column after another on how he is doing in Iowa, New Hampshire or some other state with an early primary has alienated North Jersey readers.

Their eyes roll just at the sight of Staff Writer Charles Stile's outdated thumbnail photo (A-1).

Political satirist Bill Maher not only has stopped telling fat jokes about Christie he didn't even mention the GOP bully on Friday night's "Real Time with Bill Maher" when discussing the recent GOP debate.

Local news?

The local-news section is so weak some desperate editor had to run the arrest of two New York State men with 400 bags of heroin on the front today (L-1).

Franklin Lakes seeking an interim trustee also is deemed big news (L-1).

Meanwhile, I can't recall a single story about school board members in Hackensack whose budget has grown to exceed the city's own.

Gee-whiz news

What's the point of a new column by Travel Editor Jill Schensul on the Better Living front (BL-1)?

Today, she lists the most expensive travel destinations in the world. Gee-whiz.

Why not discuss two great cities, Montreal and Toronto, where a strong U.S. dollar means Americans get 20% to 25% off of everything they purchase -- from hotel rooms to concerts to lunches in fine-dining restaurants?

If Schensul's column is supposed to help travelers get the most from their money, the joke is on readers.

Christie speaks 'loudly' and acts like 'a big dick'

Cedar Lane and River Road in Teaneck on Thursday afternoon.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Governor Christie's insults, vetoes and mean-spirited budget cuts have earned him the title of "GOP bully" everywhere but at The Record.

In April 2011, Christie urged the media "to take the bat" to state Sen. Loretta Weinberg of Teaneck for collecting a taxpayer-funded pension while making $49,000 a year as a legislator -- even as one of the governor's Democratic allies was guilty of far greater abuse.

Today, the Woodland Park daily compares Christie's attacks on "shadow government" -- unelected authorities, boards and commissions -- to his exploitation of the patronage, lucrative employee perks and a lack of public accountability at the Port Authority (A-1).

For example, David Samson's law firm has seen its legal and lobbying work increase tremendously since Christie appointed the lawyer to the unsalaried position of Port Authority chairman, according to National Public Radio.

Christie regards Samson as "a father figure," WNYC-FM radio reported last week. They met when Christie was U.S. attorney and Samson was state attorney general.

Bridgegate, football

During the lull in the Bridgegate scandal, The Record is desperately trying to keep the story alive until the Legislature's investigation begins (A-1, L-1 and O-1).

At the same time, Editor Marty Gottlieb continues to squander space on the front page and inside the thin Local section to cover the upcoming Super Bowl (A-1, B-1 and L-3 today and Saturday).

The big game will attract drunks, perverts and gambling addicts, inconvenience hundreds of thousands of non-fans and line the pockets of wealthy team owners. 

Restaurants, caterers and hotel companies are among the few that will fight over the remaining scraps (B-1).

It's a real stretch

In Bridgegate coverage, Staff Writer John Cichowski makes a desperate attempt to compare a mobster's bribe to then-Fort Lee Mayor Burt Ross in the 1970s to Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer's allegation that Lt. Gov. Kim Guadano sought favors for a developer or risk losing Sandy aid (A-1).

The developer is represented by Samson's law firm, and investigators want to question Samson about e-mails regarding the politically inspired September closure of George Washington Bridge access lanes in Fort Lee. 

Also on A-1 today is a photo of Bridget Anne Kelly, the deputy chief of staff Christie fired after disclosure of her e-mail to the Port Authority: "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

Kelly, who lives in Ramsey, looks older than in previous photos, and she is accompanied by Michael Critchley Sr., a prominent criminal defense lawyer who probably is charging her $400 to $500 an hour.

The Record still has not reported whether Critchley and all of the other lawyers flocking to the sides of Bridgegate figures will be paid with taxpayer funds. 

Old news made new

Cichowski's Road Warrior column on L-1 today is filled with breaking news about decades of gridlock in Fort Lee caused by drivers who seek short cuts to the bridge through borough streets (L-1).

This is a variation of the story that runs every year or so when Paramus residents who oppose the end of Blue Laws complain they can't get out of their driveways because of mall traffic.

The Record and the greedy Borg publishing family hate these residents for denying the paper new revenue from full-page ads promoting Sunday sales.

Mall gunmen

On A-4, a story on a gunman who killed two at a Maryland mall is an ugly reminder of the lack of security at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus and the Mall at Short Hills (A-2) -- a story The Record won't touch.

The photo of heavily armed officers (A-4) -- like those taken at the Paramus mall on Nov. 4 -- brings home how much taxpayers spend on local police departments that always seem to show up too late to prevent random shooting or killing.

Saturday's paper

The headline over Saturday's Page 1 story on Christie's limited appearances since his State of the State address says:

"Christie takes quiet turn"

I can see  "stays out of sight," but "quiet turn"?

Similarly, a reader noted in a letter to the editor published on Saturday's A-13 that an editorial used "hone in on" instead of the correct "home in on."

More 9/11 news

Saturday's Page 1 is dominated by a Mike Kelly column on the price of admission to the long delayed 9/11 museum that should have run in Travel in view of its limited appeal to North Jersey readers. 

Why spend money to enter the museum when there is no admission charge to go and see the two reflecting pools in the footprints of the Twin Towers?

Travel Editor Jill Schensul piece on saving money during a European vacation would have been better, if she had mentioned credit cards that don't charge a foreign currency transaction fee of about 2% (T-1).

Last word

Comedian Bill Maher had lots to say on Friday night about how conservatives love bullying.

During the New Rules segment of his HBO show, Maher noted:

"Somehow, we've gone from Teddy Roosevelt's 'Speak softly and carry a big stick' to Chris Christie's speak loudly and be a big dick."

It's a new week, but here's old news

Image via Wikipedia

The Record errs on a Korean specialty roll called kimbap.

More fed-up flood victims, more financial fallout from killing the Hudson River rail tunnels a year ago and more -- much more -- on Governor Christie's future as a presidential candidate -- it's deja vu all over again on The Record's front page today.


Readers are looking forward to a new week, but Editor Francis Scandale is giving them a whiff of all the stale news he can muster, so he can maximize his time on the golf course.


On the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section, the insufferable John Cichowski has a column on the last 21 year of the Road Warrior column. 


He draws on the recollections of Jeff Page, who originated the column. Unfortunately for readers, Page's brain is far larger and far more developed than the incumbent's.


Road kill


Although Cichowski has been writing obsessively about cars and drivers at the expense of mass-transit commuters, he shows readers just how little he knows about automobiles.


Today, he says about cars that "air bags, global-positioning systems, anti-lock brakes and a host of other devices have boosted their efficiency and safety." 


But those advances made cars heavier and hurt their "efficiency." Gasoline-electric hybrid systems are what really boosted miles per gallon and cut pollution.


Cichowski, who has been writing the column since late 2003, also completely omits any mention of changes in the commuter bus system in the past 21 years


Ethnic conflict


Also on L-1, Staff Writer Karen Rouse covered a Korean harvest festival at the new Overpeck Park, but got tripped up by a seaweed-rice roll call kimbap, spelling it "kimbab," and erring when she calls it "Korean-style sushi."


Kimbap often contains only rice and vegetables, though other rolls are made with meat or raw fish. Of course, Rouse's assignment editor and Liz Houlton's news copy desk are clueless when it comes to food, and provide no backup.


There is no Hackensack news or news of many other towns in Local today.


Three more pieces about Christie appear in the Opinion pages today, one written by Carl Golden, whose credibility is suspect, given he's a former aide to two past Republican governors. 


Do readers really care about the GOP bully's future? Most of us are bracing for more damage to our way of life in the last half of his first term.


Travel weary


In Travel, the real shock isn't the camera-store advertisement topping all those photos making up The Record on the Road page (T-3). 


It's on Page T-4 in the photo of a haggard Jill Schensul, the travel editor, who looks nothing like the photo of her the editors have been running with her column for a decade or more.


Her elaborate cover story on an Amazon adventure in Colombia takes up  nearly three full pages, but no prices are given, suggesting she took another free travel junket and did her best to promote this trip to death.


Publisher Stephen A. Borg must have had a bad case of indigestion when he folded the Food section several years ago, but allowed the Travel section to continue.


No end to the jokes


Christie, the Great White Hope, dropped out of the White House race last week, but the jokes kept on coming.


On HBO, comedian Bill Maher said on Friday night it had been a week of "right-wing anti-climax." He called Sarah Palin, who also said she is not interested in the presidency, the "Great White Dope."


Maher noted Christie issued a statement: "Look at me. Do I look like I'm ready to race anyone?" He said Christie is, after all, "Tony Soprano" and would have told the Tea Party to sit down and "shut up."


One of Maher's panelists said Christie "projects fun." "Fat people are jolly," he noted. Maher said Christie would have projected an America that is "fat and rude."


Another panelist said, "The Democrats were worried about Christie, because he's too big to fail."


Related articles

• 'Chocolate Face' discovers mass transit (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• Readers want fresh voices for old columns (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• The worst New Jersey governor ever (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)

Guess how much Governor Christie weighs

Image by Marissa Babin via Flickr

Does Governor Christie weigh 400 pounds?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You'll have to guess. 

When asked about Governor Christie's health -- including his weight, his diet and whether he is working out -- his press office said all of that is "personal information."

But that is a direct contradiction of what Christie himself told reporters after he was released from Somerset Medical Center on July 28: "I'm a public figure."

His staff said doctors early on ruled out cardiac problems and attributed his symptoms to asthma. The governor had complained of difficulty breathing and said he felt lightheaded. 

On July 29, Juliet Fletcher of The Record's State House Bureau reported Christie spent his first day back at work after suffering "a very public health scare."

'Medical results'

Then, she reported Christie took 30 minutes of questions from reporters outside hospital doors on July 28:

"He [Christie] also said he had urged staff that day to release 'a complete download of all the medical results.'"

Christie continued: "One of the doctors said to me, 'Why don't you walk out of here and not tell them anything?'

"And I said, 'I gave up that life a few years ago. So I get it. I'm a public figure, and I understand the public interest in me and what I do, and making sure I'm OK is part of that. So no, I don't resent it.'"

If "making sure I'm OK" is part of the "public interest" and part of Christie being a "public figure," how can his weight, diet and related information be "personal" information?

Campaign fitness

Last week, The Record and other media again were abuzz about Christie's White House ambitions. But no one has addressed whether the obese governor is healthy enough for a nationwide campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. 

In a recent late-night TV monologue, comedian David Letterman guessed Christie weighs 400 pounds.

I'm assuming Fletcher's quotes are correct, because she made a big boo-boo in the second paragraph of her July 29 story that none of the highly paid editors caught -- calling the asthma attack "his first health scare since he took office in late 2009."

Of course, Christie wasn't inaugurated until January 2010. Maybe, she's talking about the transition.

No comment

I called the governor's Press Office in Trenton on Friday and asked to speak to someone about the governor's health. I eventually got a "press assistant," who told me I couldn't call her a spokesman or attribute any quotes to her.

When I mentioned the governor said in July he had urged his staff to release "a complete download of all the medical results," she said she doubted that. 

After finding the article on NorthJersey.com, calling her back and quoting from it, she said I would have to e-mail Michael Drewniak, the governor's press secretary. I did so on Friday, and haven't received an acknowledgement or answers to my questions.

Elephant in newsroom

The Record and other media have virtually ignored the issue of Christie's weight nor have they reported whether his administration is doing anything to combat obesity in New Jersey.

In fact, I recall Christie cut school-nutrition programs for low-income children during budget battles with Democrats in the Legislature.

At the Woodland Park daily, a number of obese or near-obese editors seem to have put up a wall in the past decade against any major project on obesity and healthy eating, and the food writers shrug off heart disease and harmful additives in meat, poultry and fish.

The Garden State's First Family is a Fat Family, from the photos I've seen of Christie; his wife, Mary Pat Christie, and one of their sons. All I know about Christie's diet is he favors beer and pizza.

Fighting hunger

The first lady has launched a campaign against hunger in New Jersey, but has ignored obesity. 

She also complained a new rail station in Manhattan would have forced her to walk too far to make her subway connection -- one of the factors Christie cited in killing the Hudson River tunnels in October 2010.

I've seen an occasional article reporting the governor is working out with a trainer or is on a diet, but no details have been forthcoming. 

In the days after he said the "medical results" of his eight-hour hospitalization were available, I never saw anything about them in The Record.

Readers' insight

Readers have taken notice of Christie's weight and his inability to control his appetite. Here's a comment from Mike Burns that appeared Saturday on NorthJersey.com:

Chris-P-Creme Christie and several previous governors of NJ stole money from the Police/Fire/Teachers Pension fund and used it elsewhere to reduce taxes. The result? The pension system was severely underfunded by these thefts. The members of the pension had always paid their share into the fund as it was deducted automatically by their employers from their pay. All these pension members took their jobs (at modest or low paying salaries) with the guarantee that there would be a cost of living (COLA) built into their pensions, and there was, for the last fifty years, until Christie and Democratic Senate President Sweeney voted to eliminate the cost of living from the retiree’s pensions. Those retirees depend on that pension to buy food, pay their tax’s, mortgages, rent, utilities, and now suddenly lost the COLA which means in about 10 years when all of those retirees are on their 70′s and older, those pensions will be worthless……and you would vote for a man who did this to the public servants of New Jersey? What would he do to the rest of the country, end your social security benefits, your private pensions?P.S. What kind of leadership can a man have who is so obese and unable to control his own appetite?

Fat jokes about Christie are common on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," "Real Time with Bill Maher," and "Late Night with David Letterman."

Stewart compared Christie to Bobby Bacala of "The Sopranos." Maher wondered how the media could quote sources "close to Christie," when no one could actually get near the rotund governor.

This past Wednesday, Dave Letterman's Top 10 List discussed how "the country would be different if Chris Christie were president." 

On Friday, The Christian Science Monitor published an online article on whether Christie's girth would be a campaign issue, if he ran for president:

Chris Christie's electability

Today's paper

The Christie coverage today is overkill -- even though the Page 1 story reports a 2012 White House bid is unlikely.

That didn't stop Editor Francis Scandale, who last week ran hot and cold on the Christie story.

Readers eyes are glazing over with nearly a full page of Christie blah, blah, blah on A-10, a Political Stile column on L-3, two columns that start on the front of Opinion and an editorial.

I can see a column by Brigid Callahan Harrison, a political science professor who is a persistent Christie critic and one of the most readable people writing for the Woodland Park daily (O-1).

But putting a Mike Kelly column below hers just shows what a buffoon the veteran journalist is. He compares Christie flirting with a presidential run to "a bad Chippendale striptease act." What a moron. Take a buyout, please.

Despite all that text by eight or nine writers, you won't find a word on whether Christie is healthy enough for a White House campaign.

I need a nap

The rest of the paper is another yawner.

The major element on Page 1 reports how the police team up with Facebook. Whoopee.

This comes several weeks after NorthJersey.com moved to restrict comments on its Web site to only readers who have Facebook accounts, in an apparent bid to weed out vicious personal attacks by readers who hid behind pseudonyms.

At the bottom of A-1 today is another tedious process story on the real Christie, whose so-called reform agenda has failed to strengthen local government ethics laws.

On the front of Local, Road Warrior John Cichowski is now writing about drivers in New York (L-1). Anybody who lives in New Jersey knows to steer clear of cars with New York plates, whether the drivers can see or not.

Stuck in the past

Someone should wake up Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais, and lead him by the hand to one of the Whole Foods Markets in Bergen County. 

Today, his column on changes in the supermarket industry completely ignores organic and naturally raised food, and Whole Foods, a supermarket chain that is more than 30 years old (B-1). 

He also refers to "Fairway," without regard to Cafasso's Fairway Market in Fort Lee, which predates the chain from New York.

The Better Living front is dominated by Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung's column on challenges facing restaurants "when everyone wants a 7:30 table," and a promotional piece on a new book from the insufferable Alton Brown, a Food Network "star."

Is anyone at The Record writing about the challenges facing restaurant goers and food shoppers?

With access to more Italian-American restaurants per square miles than most others, New Jersey residents aren't likely to seek out an Italian restaurant on vacation, unless they go to Italy.

Tell that to Travel Editor Jill Schensul, who manages to visit Boston and ignore all the great seafood (T-1).

Miracle of science, curse of science

Image via Wikipedia

A poorly told shore science story weighs down Page 1 of The Record today.

In a miracle of science, a newborn in Syracuse, N.Y., gained 165 pounds in three short years, according to a photo caption on the front page of The Record today.


Either that or the wrong image was used on Page 1 with a story on New York's  gay-marriage law. The photo clearly shows two middle-age women, but the caption reads:


"Annalise Forbes, 3, and her mother, Rebecca, in Syracuse, N.Y., on Saturday."


Dumping on readers


The main element on A-1 -- an elaborate story on an undersea dump site off Sandy Hook -- reads like a term paper the reporter handed in for his environmental science course in college.


Readers know they're in trouble when the lead paragraph describes a scientist sitting at a laptop computer. The story slows down from there. Gag me with a spoon.


And here I was thinking I'd get to read a story about the shore beyond the usual Memorial Day and Labor Day set pieces or the inane blather about the "Jersey Shore" TV show.


Get out your calculator


As if the patch isn't dull enough, Staff Writers Karen Rouse and John Reitmeyer sound like accountants in describing how much toll money is being earmarked for road and mass-transit projects.


Where is the list of projects that will benefit, especially mass transit, which the paper virtually ignores? Why is this story on A-1?


The Sunday paper is another embarrassment from Editor Francis Scandale.


Senility has set in


In head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section, Road Warrior John Cichowski has a rare, L-1 column on older drivers. As I've said, it's time for him to be driven out.


Hackensack and Teaneck residents will search in vain for news from their towns.


On L-2, a byline is missing.


More indigestion


In Business, Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin Demarrais writes about his experiences with ATMs in England and France, but still doesn't know enough to get a credit card that doesn't charge foreign-currency transaction fees (B-1).


The Corner Table, a supposed restaurant column that didn't appear in Better Living last Sunday, is back today as little more than a photo feature on dessert cocktails (F-3).


"Around this time of the year, it's no fun to get weighed down by heavy sweets ...," says Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung, who apparently can't get enough dessert during the rest of the year.


Maher v. Christie


"Real Time with Bill Maher" on HBO continues to satirize Governor Christie's weight problem.


On Friday night's show, Maher showed unflattering photos of the Republican governor twice. 


First, he said Christie has a "Type A personality" and "Type 2 diabetes." Later, he said the governor's photo will appear on every box of Twinkies.


Since he took office in January 2010, The Record has run only one story about Christie's weight, and nothing on what, if anything, his administration is doing about the obesity epidemic.