Reporter admits error, columnist struggles for relevance

This morning, an FBI spokesman in Newark said agents executed court-authorized search warrants at 248 Fairmount Ave. in Hackensack on Tuesday as part of "an ongoing investigation." He wouldn't say if any arrests were made.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Bridgegate trial reporter Dustin Racioppi finally corrects his story from last Thursday, when he reported the judge instructed jurors on the law at a closed meeting with lawyers the day before.

In The Record today, Racioppi now acknowledges the judge instructed the jury on the law and read the charges "before it broke for deliberation[s]" on Monday.

The reporter also says that on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton in Newark "sided with the prosecution in removing language" that the George Washington Bridge lane closures in 2013 were designed to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for not endorsing Governor Christie's reelection.

Jurors had sent out a note asking whether the defendants can be found guilty of conspiracy "without the act being intentionally punitive toward Mayor Sokolich."

Racioppi's error on jury instructions was compounded when it was picked up by both Paul Berger, the other reporter covering the trial, and Carl Golden, a Sunday columnist.

And in his own column, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin reported incorrectly the trial is taking place at the federal courthouse in Trenton.

Incoherent columnist

Staff Writer John Cichowski, The Record's sorry excuse for a commuting columnist, continues to struggle for relevance.

Today, the so-called Road Warrior links "getting a commuter to divulge his favorite shortcut" to "getting a presidential candidate to talk about the contents of her email server" (L-1).

The cheap shot at Democrat Hillary Clinton isn't lost on readers, who question what the presidential race has to do with anything in his column.

On Sunday's Local front, a desperate Cichowski linked Halloween's "annual parade of witches, ghosts and goblins" to the "ghoulish bit of news" about a nationwide study on "the habits of  of young people as they cross streets in school zones."

Jeurys who?

About a third of today's front page is wasted on a news story and column about a pro baseball player who was arrested at his Fort Lee home "in connection with an alleged domestic assault" (A-1).

The column by Bob Klapisch begins:

"It was about 11 a.m. on Tuesday when I spoke to a high-ranking Mets official with the unfortunate news of Jeurys Familia's arrest in Fort Lee."

Does Klapisch mean "about" the news of the athlete's arrest?

This isn't inside baseball; this is inside the mind of a burned-out sports columnist.

Hackensack Daily Voice site goes after North Jersey.com

Commuters seeking an alternate route to the George Washington Bridge this morning gridlocked Woodland Street and Palisade Avenue in Englewood.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Jerry DeMarco, onetime breaking news editor at The Record, is working as managing editor of Hackensack Daily Voice, part of a website that covers towns in three states.

Daily Voice.com calls itself a "local news organization."

"Our town-based reporters cover the most important local news, sports and information in each community we serve."

This afternoon, Hackensack Daily Voice sent out an email alert that a lockdown at two Ridgewood schools had been lifted.

Police had determined that a student who reported seeing a man with a gun outside the Travell School was mistaken.

North Jersey.com, The Record's online news site, didn't have the story.

Daily Voice.com also covers towns in Passaic County.

On Cliffview Pilot.com, "About Us" reports the Law & Order news site DeMarco started after he left The Record is "now part of Daily Voice."

Today's paper

Stories on floods in South Carolina and Russia's aggressive moves against Syrian rebels appear on Page 1 today under the masthead and banner:

"North Jersey's Trusted Source"

Left unsaid is that The Record's front page has become a "trusted source" for stale national and international news that readers see the night before on TV.

Also on the front page today, a headline over a brief is a brain teaser that puzzles many readers (A-1):

"Inmates to be freed

once deemed threat" 

Actually, the opposite is true.

The story reports they are being released only after officials determine they no longer are a threat to others (A-7).

Local news?

Don't look for much local news in Local today.

As usual, local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza load up the section with lots of Law & Order news and photos, as well as news about the police (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6). 

On L-1, a story reports the opening of a new five-story, 650-space parking deck near the Bergen County Courthouse "ends an arrangement the county had ... with North Jersey Media Group, which publishes The Record."

Bergen County leased 540 spaces at 150 River St., onetime headquarters of NJMG and its flagship paper, for more than $777,000. 

The two-year lease was supposed to have ended this past July.

Second looks

The Record's veteran columnists -- including Charles Stile and Bob Klapisch -- are such poor writers, and they get so little editing, it's puzzling that Editor Martin Gottlieb puts their work on Page 1 week after week.

On Wednesday, Klapisch began his front-page column on the Yankees' miserable season this way:

"This was only 10 minutes after the Yankees' season had ended ...."

If that sounded familiar, it's because Klapisch began another Page 1 column in the exact same way on Sept. 24:

"This was back in the early 2000s when Yogi Berra ...."

What a joke.

Unsafe busing

On Wednesday's Local front, a photo shows a commuter in a suit standing on an Oradell Avenue median in Paramus, waiting for a bus, and others walking toward the stop.

But nowhere in the Road Warrior column reporting a ticket blitz against jaywalking pedestrians like these does clueless reporter John Cichowski explain why NJ Transit doesn't move the bus stop to a safer place. 

'How disastrous'

Letters to the editors often contain more pointed commentary than The Record's editorials:

Ralph Meyer of Ridgewood notes that in his quest for the presidency, Governor Christie "has vetoed hundreds of bills to appease the Tea Party wing of his party" (Wednesday's A-8).

"We can quickly take a major step toward overriding the irrational vetoes by electing a few more Democrats in the upcoming Nov. 3 Assembly election," Meyer says.

The Record has consistently ignored Christie's vetoes starting in early 2010, when he first took office, and only this year reported they totaled more than 350 -- with not a single override because Republicans who supported the measures fear crossing the GOP bully.

There have been many vetoes since then, but no update in the Woodland Park daily.

Pray for local readers, not for a fat slob Yankees pitcher

Hackensack City Council candidate Richard L. Cerbo distributed fliers over the weekend, urging residents to vote in the Nov. 3 special election to fill a seat on the governing body. Cerbo is the son of Fred Cerbo, who was elected mayor of Hackensack in 1981. The elder Cerbo died in August 2012 at 87. The council meets tonight, starting at 6:30.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record has a good run going -- another boring front page with no local news that has most readers eyes rolling.

Today, Gottlieb features two of the paper's burned-out columnists on Page 1, and devotes the centerpiece to the release of a wealthy South Korean college student from Tenafly who had been "detained in North Korea since April" (A-1).

Who cares?

Sports Columnists Bob Klapisch treats Yankee pitcher CC Sabathia as if he is a favorite uncle, reporting the athlete is "deeply troubled and needs more than therapy; he needs our prayers."

The Yankees are paying this schlub $23 million a year.

I saw the 290-pound Sabathia on TV news Monday night, and his enormous belly made me wonder why no one had intervened long before he announced he is entering alcoholism rehab.

More rehab

Staff Writer Charles Stile devotes yet another column to Governor Christie's crippled campaign for the Republican presidential nomination next July, but the GOP bully needs more political rehab than even this pandering reporter can manage (A-1).

On A-2 today, the editors finally correct the LOL misspelling of Grange restaurant as "Grunge" on Sunday's Better Living front.

There's no telling how many readers showed up expecting to dumpster dive behind the Westwood restaurant.

Local news?

Three of the five stories on today's Local front are from Passaic County.

Two others involve the police shooting of a black man in Rutherford last year, and a Republican court case involving the Nov. 3 ballot (L-1).

The rest of the section includes Law & Order stories on L-2 and L-3.

For some reason, a story on the lack of a sewage-alert system for New Jersey waterways is buried on L-6, despite "an estimated 23 billion gallons of raw sewage and other pollutants pouring into ... rivers and bays each year."

I guess the editors worry more about CC Sabathia than public health.

The sewage story could have been illustrated with photos of water pollution, including turds, in contrast to all of the turds editors and columnists are trying to polish on the front page.

Pope's visit won't change poverty, immigration and politics

Construction workers adding hundreds of apartments overlooking traffic on Route 4 east in Englewood. Meanwhile, the city's downtown merchants haven't been helped much by the thousands of people who already live in buildings on both sides of the highway.

This storefront on North Dean Street, near Palisade Avenue, Englewood's main business street, has been vacant for months.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With Governor Christie running New Jersey and other uncharitable Republicans controlling Congress, Pope Francis' message of hope and unity will fall on deaf ears.

You have to wonder why The Record and other media have been publishing hundreds of thousands of words and images for a full week now on Francis' first visit to the United States (A-1, A-6, L-7).

A big break in that coverage is the death of Yogi Berra, but you won't find the best story about the Yankees legend on the front page or in the Sports section today (A-1 and S-1).

On Page 1, sports Columnist Bob Klapisch's first line is an instant turnoff:

"This was way back in the early 2000s...."

On the Sports front, Columnist Tara Sullivan can't wait to tell readers about "my few, if memorable, intersections with Yogi...."

For the most moving story about Yogi, see Jay Levin's piece on his Montclair neighbors, who recall Berra as a regular guy.

The story is on the front of the Local section under a great headline:

"His home field since 1958"

Other news

Also on Page 1 today, Staff Writer Shawn Boburg is telling NJ Transit bus riders a new Manhattan terminal one block west of the current hub will take 13 years to build and cost $9 billion (A-1).

But there's not a single word in his long account about the easiest way to ease delays at the antiquated terminal now -- running two express bus lanes into the Lincoln Tunnel during the morning and afternoon rush hours. 

In the years Boburg has been covering the Port Authority, he has written little about the bi-state agency's rail and bus operations. 

Ken Zisa

On the Local front, Staff Writer Todd South is reporting a judge is giving the lawyer for Ken Zisa and an assistant prosecutor four months to prepare for a motion to dismiss the remaining charge of official misconduct against the former Hackensack police chief and state assemblyman (L-1).

Four months?

Our glacial legal system is a national disgrace that seems designed to line the pockets of defense attorneys, impoverish defendants and deny many others access to the courts.

More space is wasted on the musing of columnists

A man with a cane and a bag of groceries stopping to pray on West 165th Street in Manhattan on Friday afternoon, despite temperatures in the 20s and a biting wind.

On Broadway and West 168th Street in Manhattan is a Columbia University medical building named for patron Russ Berrie, the toy company mogul who lived in Englewood, where his name also appears on a wing of Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Newspaper readers rarely pay attention to bylines, but the lead story on Page 1 of The Record today speaks volumes about one veteran staffer who has struggled with column writing in the past decade.

Mike Kelly banged out a hard-hitting news story on how Christie administration officials courted Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for more than two years, then retaliated when the Democrat wouldn't endorse the GOP bully for a new term last year (A-1).

The payback took the form of George Washington Bridge local access lane closures that caused gridlock in the borough in early September, triggering the Bridgegate investigation that threatens Christie's viability as governor and presidential hopeful.

Kelly's news story is not only a scoop -- the first time Sokolich has directly linked the traffic jams to his refusal to cross party lines and endorse Christie. 

It is well-written and well-organized -- everything Kelly's columns are not, especially the one he did recently based on an interview with Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer, another Democrat who has exposed the Christie administration's dirty tricks.

More wasted space

Readers usually are not well-served by The Record's columnists, as today's and Friday's front-page nonsense from sports writer Bob Klapisch shows.

Klapisch's dated column photo is the least of it. 

On Friday, he spent the first six paragraphs of his tribute to Mets broadcaster Ralph Kiner on an anecdote dating to 1983 that was lost on most readers.

Today, Klapisch appoints himself a legal and public relations expert in commenting on Alex Rodriguez withdrawing his lawsuits (A-1).

More road kill

The Record's accident photos, which have been used as filler by the inept local assignment desk, are the equivalent of drive-by shootings.

The photo of an overturned car on L-1 today is typical: 

Was the driver killed or injured? Were there any passengers in the car? Did the vehicle burst into flames? Did speed cause the accident? Readers don't have a clue.

Attorney's fees

A news story on a tentative $100 million settlement of suits against contraceptive maker Merck & Co. quotes an attorney as saying he doesn't how much money each plaintiff would get (L-1).

But the story fails to say plaintiffs' attorneys are expected to be awarded roughly one-third of the $100 million to cover their inflated fees and expenses.

Early Alzheimer's

The addled Road Warrior, Staff Writer John Cichowski, continues to demonstrate how much space is wasted on his columns, according to a concerned reader:

"In his Tuesday column, the Road Warrior marveled at how light traffic was on Super Bowl day, even though it had been widely predicted by TV and Internet news reports well in advance of the game. 

"[And] the Road Warrior failed to apologize for his atrocious, mistake-filled and irresponsible Super Bowl Sunday column that predicted endless traffic jams."

For the full e-mail to management and the editors, see Road Warrior Bloopers on Facebook:

Wishing for a Meadowlands miracle

Boring columnists are almost everywhere you look

As of Thursday afternoon, this sidewalk hadn't been cleared, even though it is between Hackensack High School and a pizzeria at First Street and Central Avenue that is popular with students who walk there during their lunch period. The New York City media is filled with critiques of snow removal, but similar reports never appear in The Record, once North Jersey's premier local daily paper.

The block of Euclid Avenue between Main Street and the railroad tracks resembled a country lane late Thursday afternoon. The city's policy of approving apartment buildings with insufficient off-street parking comes back to bite officials and residents after snowstorms.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Readers looking for something interesting and informative to read in The Record today are stopped dead by two boring sports columns on the front page (A-1).

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski complains NJ Transit's rail service "disappointed [Super Bowl] fans from around the country" -- this from a columnist who in a decade has never reported on the daily disappointment of North Jersey rail and bus commuters (L-1).

And in Better Living, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung is so reluctant to discuss the tough filet mignon and other poorly prepared food at the pricey Zestt in Tenafly, she squanders the first half of her column on the owner's resume and the decor (BL-14).

No editing

The abysmal lack of editing is evident in Tara Sullivan's Page 1 column, which declares that a text message from an athlete left her former male coach with "his insides quivering, his heart exploding."

The only three words that would cause such a reaction are,  "I love you!"

Cichowski's columns swung from non-fiction to fiction years ago, and he has probably committed more errors than any other single staffer in the history of the paper.

There also appears to be no editing of Ung's unfocused columns, as this meandering sentence from today's appraisal shows:

"A light, modern space accented with dark slatted chairs, the 45-seat dining room is laid back enough that you can show up in jeans by yourself or go out with several bottles and friends [italics added] who don't need trappings like tablecloths or multiple hovering waiters."

What she needs are hovering copy editors.

Maybe, the dessert-obsessed reviewer gets drowsy from all that sugar, heavy cream and butter she stuffs her face with -- such as "an apple tart with a mealy crust" and "French chocolate cake ... a mousse-filled treat."

More fiction

Cichowski's Sunday column set a new standard for newspaper fiction, according to a concerned reader:

"In his Sunday column, the Road Warrior did a super job in one of his most embarrassing columns of all time with his most outrageously false, senselessly made-up, impossibly fictitious, and crazy, tall-tale descriptions about potential traffic jams on Super Bowl day.

"He repeatedly and endlessly prognosticated about so many traffic jams before, during and after the Super Bowl. He completely ignored all known TV and Internet news reports and predictions that completely contradicted his super flubs since most people going to the Meadowlands stadium were going to use mass transit and not passenger vehicles.

"Road Warrior also made false claims that people should have been worried about traffic jams driving to Manhattan or Newark Airport. He did not realize these people would be traveling four to five hours before game time when there would still be reduced traffic."

See the full e-mail to management and editors on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers: 

Avoiding Road Warrior's Super Toilet Bowl

Editor doesn't know Bronx from Baltimore

The photo that should have appeared on Friday's Page 1. 

Editor Marty Gottlieb continues to obsess over sports, with daily coverage of the Yankees on Page 1, but readers are howling over weak columnists and embarrassing copy desk errors.

Even a non-baseball fan like me knows the Yankees faced the Orioles in the Bronx on Thursday night, so why does the sports column on Friday's Page 1 carry a Baltimore dateline? 

What about the purple prose from Staff Writer Bob Klapisch, complete with a typo?

"The teams are so evenly matched the game are more like wars, the at-bats thinly disguised hand-to-hand combat."

And you thought Mike Kelly was the worst writer on the paper?

Next to the Klapisch column on Friday, Gottlieb ran a big photo of Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan after their debate on Thursday night, but the men were shown from the neck up.

They looked like they were arm wrestling or about to bite the other guy's ear off, but the caption said they were "shaking hands."

And why didn't The Record's story tell readers who "won" and "lost" the debate, as the media was so eager to do after the presidential candidates' face-off?

It gets even worse

Friday's paper got worse -- thanks to head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza.

The agoraphobic Road Warrior continues to rely on readers as his eyes and ears -- so Staff Writer John Cichowski's L-1 column delivered the breaking news that big trucks menace drivers on Route 17.

An astounding seven photos in Local on Friday and Saturday show the aftermath of non-fatal automobile accidents.

Saturday's Local section also has more than a dozen court or crime stories. 

Celebrating cheap beef

In the apparent belief readers can't get enough beef raised on harmful antibiotics and growth hormones, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung wrote about a new Korean barbecue restaurant (Better Living on Friday).

Korean barbecue restaurants are notorious for offering cheap cuts of meat that are marinated to tenderize them and make them taste better. 

Ung doesn't even report that some Korean restaurants serve 10 or more free side dishes, compared to the six in a photo with her review (the other dishes shown are served only with barbecue).  

Does Gilmok in Closter offer shrimp or other seafood to grill on the table for non-meat eaters or customers who want to avoid mystery cuts of beef?

Does Gilmok, like virtually all Korean barbecue restaurants, require a minimum of two orders of meat ($22.95 to $28.95 each).

The answers to those and other questions don't appear in the lukewarm appraisal.

Jerry DeMarco breaks a long silence

An undated photo of Jerry DeMarco, who in 2015 became managing editor of Hackensack Daily Voice.com

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Jerry DeMarco, former breaking-news editor of northjersey.com and onetime Law and Order assignment editor at The Record, says he's having a ball beating the Woodland Park daily and its Web site to the news.

DeMarco is editor of Cliffview Pilot.com.

Here he talks about The Record, often addressing staffers he once worked with:

"This one's taken a dog's age. But, as you might have noticed, I've been busy.

"Sitting here on the sweet spot of my porch, scanning my peaceful, tree-lined neighborhood in one of the sweet spots of the PValley, the sweet sounds of kids playing in the nearby park, the sweet hum of distant traffic, the sweet breeze blowing my ever-thinning grays, I cannot possibly produce a singular "best."

"I like the freedom, certainly. The cabbage, the perks, of course. The college gigs -- incl. an adjunct role again this fall -- despite having only a BA and in a bad economy. TWO books in the works.

"I LOVE my sources, literally in the hundreds now, from all walks of life -- Montvale to Lyndhurst, FLawn to UC & all points between. I mean, while your guys are cordoned off down the block -- or sitting w/their heads in their monitors -- I'm on the phone w/the primary or sitting next to someone who is. They even send me photos from the scenes.
And it's 24/7.

"See, after [Record police reporter Justo] Bautista is already home -- and the real shit hits the fan -- I'm ready to rock. I get the story DIRECTLY from the sources, then sack out just as your a.m. folks are punching in. Only trouble is: When they call the local PIO to find out what happened, the shift that handled it is sleeping as soundly as I. When I finally get outta bed, I look to see how the tail-chasing's goin'. Once in a great while, I miss a morning story. Then again, EVERYONE ends up getting it, so what's the point? High time/low value if you didn't read it first on CVP.

"I definitely enjoy the flexibility; Have laptop will travel (and my DROID? Love it). Was in NOrleans for a week this spring and fewer than a half-dozen people knew. Did the same 2x last year. Traffic was great, got scoops, etc. Like I never left.

"A benefit I suspect some will misinterpret: 

"I LIKE being recognized. I like people sending drinks my way when I'm out w/friends. I look up, they point and shout, "You read it here first!" I like pulling into a DWI checkpoint and before I even open my mouth, having a uni say: "Hey, Jerry! Got a minute? I got a good story for you." I like handing people my card ("You're THAT guy?"). I like running into Klap [sports columnist Bob Klapisch, whose middle name is "Salvador," according to Wikipedia], [former Business staffer] Adam Geller, and so many other pros whom I respect and admire, hearing them say they love the site and to keep at it.

"I like when people beep and wave, when the deli guy slices the Genoa thin and the mozzarella thick, w/fresh basil and garlic, some sweet pepper, no oil, w/out my even asking. I like when people call and say, "I want to be on your site. Send me a rate card." Or when I'm out and a kid fresh from the academy introduces himself while trying to call me "Mr. DeMarco." 

"It warms me no end to have an extremely well-known Law Enforcement Officer approach me at a BBQ last month and say: "I haven't met one cop who's had a bad word to say about you." And by journos, she was incl. your people, as well as a former troop member now aboard a sinking ship of his own.

"Yeah, I figured my nat'l awards, my putting people behind bars, changing public policy, getting crooked officials out of office, teaching young reporters who went on to great jobs entitled me to tell people to fuck off. Truth is, I liked reminding the Scandales of the world of that guy who dated the girls in high school who wouldn't even look at him, who was out partying while he was home studying & STILL aced the exam, who gave him the daily wedgie.

"All those joys are juvenile pleasures, of course -- but pleasing nonetheless. But this ... now ... I've been reluctant to say these things, primarily because I've always suspected people who did wouldn't need to say it if it were true.

"But I'm here to testify: Two years of hard work, treating people right, meaning what I say and saying what I mean -- OWNING it -- have brought me riches I could never have imagined when I was coppin' a snooze in the [press] overlook room [off the Hackensack newsroom], lovin' an amazing woman half my age or engaging in a number of pleasurable activities that shall remain undisclosed (all, by the way, while producing undeniably excellent work for my employer. Yes, I saved every perf revue).

"Y'know what? You need a little fuck-you now and then to survive in this world. No better proof than the situation YOU are in as you read this.
The fact that I could tell your bosses to eat me when they came looking for dirt on one of my good friends is a badge of honor. As if I would've breathed a word if I did. Idiots.

"If you still have cause to mock, by all means, do. I'm even game if you want to run down the list of what got me shitcanned -- and exactly what was said in Susan B's office that final day [reference to Susan Beard, vice president of Human Resources].

"Just know that you can't insult any number of independent analytical sources that show CVP's traffic. 

"You also can't touch the meaning that what I do gives me.

"Like when a headstone was donated to the family whose daughter was murdered;

"Or when a state rep made it his business to find lost medals a war hero had been waiting years for, then arranged a special ceremony to present them;
Or when a boy who survived two brain surgeries got the vacation of his dreams.

"Then there was the night a room of 250 officers and their wives gave me a standing O. 

"Or the day that 40 chiefs met privately w/me to offer whatever support they could to CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

"I may not have been able to say it this clearly or with such conviction a year or so ago. But, w/out question, I've found my sweet spot. My "best" is being a member of a large, warm, fiercely loyal community, giving them a product they clearly enjoy while having it make a difference that I was here at all.

"How 'bout you?"

See previous post 
on today's paper

Friendly to business, hostile to the rest of us

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Governor Christie and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno assure seniors they have no plans for a camp to process them for rail transportation to Florida.

Twelve days into the state's new fiscal year, The Record continues to force readers to hunt through the paper and read letters to the editor to learn about the full impact of Governor Christie's mean-spirited budget cuts. 


Is that deliberate, Editor Francis Scandale? Were you concerned that putting all the aid cuts in one place would looked bad for your pal Chris Christie, friend of the rich?


Today, Page 1 carries a glowing report on the concentration of power in the hands of Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno as Christie creates a business-friendly climate in the state.


Suits him well


Unmentioned is the Republican governor's victory in getting his pro-business nominee, Anne M. Patterson, confirmed to fill a vacancy he created on the state Supreme Court by refusing to reappoint its only black justice 


Over her career, Patterson defended such corporations as RJ Reynolds Tobacco and Abbott Laboratories against lawsuits alleging faulty or inferior products, according to The Star-Ledger.


How long after Patterson takes her seat on the high court in September will Christie propose so-called tort reform to cap the damages injured plaintiffs can collect in such suits?


Give us a break


Christie has granted hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to businesses, while cutting programs and "taking from the poor and giving to the rich," Joe Garibaldi of Hackensack says in a letter to the editor today (A-10).

• $537,000 was cut from the Wynona Lipman Child Advocacy Center for Abused Children.
• Supplemental living support payments for people receiving general assistance were cut -- $150 a month less for Garibaldi.
• A cut of $7.5 million in aid to family planning clinics.
• Thirteen other cuts not specified in the A-3 story on Democrats failing to override the governor's budget vetoes. 

What's my line?


Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski has bitched and moaned about long lines at the MVC for many years, and nothing has changed (A-1). 


Readers may recall he takes credit for passage of a law on clearing vehicle roofs of ice and snow, so what happened here?


On A-2, the editors ran a correction to  tell the family of Christopher Stavrou that even in the last story that will ever appear about him (his obituary), the headline didn't get his occupation right.


Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section hits the trifecta today -- no Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood news.


Are The Klappies from sports Columnist Bob Klapisch anything like the clap (S-1)?