On 23-cents gas-tax hike, editors are in the pocket of Big Oil

An FBI agent using the trunk lid of an unmarked car as a desk this morning as other agents and law enforcement officers entered a house at 248 Fairmount Ave. in Hackensack, above and below.

One agent is carrying a folding table into the house. The large, expensive Mercedes-Benz sedan in the driveway has a Pennsylvania plate. A call to an FBI spokesman about the nature of the investigation wasn't returned immediately.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Staff Writer Christopher Maag of The Record normally covers NJ Transit, the state mass-transit agency bus and rail commuters love to hate.

But his reporting today on the 23-cents-a-gallon hike in the state gas tax shows he really is in the pocket of Big Oil and the auto dealers who advertise in the Woodland Park daily.

Instead of leading his Page 1 report with a gas-pump jockey who is saddled with an 11-mpg Mustang, he should have used the River Vale man who says that at $2 or $3 more per fill-up, the first gas-tax hike since 1988 is no big deal (A-1).

At Costco Wholesale in Teterboro today, a gallon of regular gasoline was $2.08.9, compared to the $2.30.9 shown in the photo on A-1 today.

Plus Costco members get 4% cash back on gas purchases worldwide.

Ballot question

If voters approve a constitutional amendment next Tuesday, all of the revenue from the motor fuels tax, which now totals 37.5 cents a gallon, will go to road and rail improvements, instead of being siphoned out of the Transportation Trust Fund to balance the state budget.

When gas prices dipped below $2 a gallon, auto dealers saw the sales of big, high-profit SUVs rise dramatically.

Nissan and other manufacturers are marketing big SUVs and pickups to take advantage of low gasoline prices. Ford is actually shifting small-car production to SUVs and trucks for the same reason.

Those gas-guzzling vehicles only aggravate air pollution and climate change, and contribute to the death of 53,000 people a year from auto emissions.

Today's hike also is a victory for rail commuters, especially if the extra revenue pays for NJ Transit safety improvements, including an automatic braking system that could have prevented the fatal train wreck in Hoboken on Sept. 29.

And which New Jersey motorist doesn't relish the prospect of less traffic when all those New York motorists who came here for cheap gas just stay home?

I won't miss those New Yorkers, many of whom drive like maniacs.

Bridgegate trial

No one knows whether federal-court jurors in Newark will convict two former associates in the politically motivated George Washington Bridge lane closures, which created five mornings of gridlock in Fort Lee in 2013.

But readers can only hope a verdict will finally end all of these Charles Stile columns that begin, "For nearly seven years, Chris Christie" said this or did that or portrayed himself as this or that -- only to be unmasked by testimony in the trial (A-1).

Stile, the paper's biggest apologist for the GOP bully since he took office in early 2010, and the paper's other Trenton reporters have done a poor job of covering the Christie administration.

Follow the vetoes

They should have been following the more than 500 vetoes and the other unilateral actions Governor Christie employed to thwart the majority Democrats in the state Legislature.

They should have been pestering the governor whenever he vetoed a hike in the minimum wage or a tax surcharge on millionaires -- not just chalking it up to politics.

The cancellation of the Hudson River rail tunnels in late 2010 should have set off alarm bells in the Woodland Park newsroom, but it didn't, and that allowed Christie to stave off the gas-tax hike, and use mass-transit money to fix roads and bridges.

Local news

On L-1 today, two stories on animal abuse get better play than a Black Lives Matter protest over a Paterson police officer who shot and wounded a man outside the municipal safety complex.

Columnist who spins Christie's every word can't help now

From New Jersey native Christopher Weyant of The New Yorker magazine.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Even after prosecutors and defense lawyers in the federal Bridgegate trial fingered Governor Christie, The Record tries mightily to put his actions in the best light.

The first paragraph of the Page 1 news story today isn't filled -- as it should be -- with prosecutors' bombshell allegation that Christie knew about the George Washington Bridge lane closings as they were occurring in September 2013, and knew they were retaliation against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee.

Instead, the lead paragraph reports for the umpteenth time in the last three years Christie "has not been charged with a crime or found to have direct knowledge or involvement in the scheme" to to punish Mayor Mark Sokolich for not endorsing the governor's reelection (A-1).

This isn't how a news story on opening statements in court is supposed to be written, though it fits with The Record's history of treating the GOP thug far less harshly than does The Star-Ledger and other dailies in the state.

It also fits with The Record being the only major daily in the state that has refused to call for the governor to resign after endorsing wacko racist Donald J. Trump for president.

Meanwhile, political Columnist Charles Stile, the paper's chief apologist for Christie's mean-spirited policies, is beside himself today over the governor having "no one in the courtroom to defend him" (A-1).

And he goes on and on in that vein for thousands of words.

Also evident is sloppy editing of Stile's second paragraph.

'Ventriloquist doll'

"When David Wildstein spoke, Governor Christie's voice came out and everybody knew it," defense attorney Michael Baldassare told the jury on Monday (A-4).

Evidence will show that Wildstein "looks like a ventriloquist doll sitting on Christopher J. Christie's lap," the lawyer said.

Wildstein, a Christie crony who was deputy executive director of the Port Authority, pleaded guilty and will be the government's star witness against two former Christie associates, Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni, who are being tried on conspiracy and other charges.

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," Kelly told Wildstein in an email before upper level access lanes to the PA-owned and operated bridge were closed for five days in September 2013.

A photo on A-4 today shows Christie, Baroni and Wildstein allegedly discussing the lane closings at the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2013, as they were occurring.

Local crime news

The front of today's local-news section is completely devoted to crime and court news, and reaction to the arrest of a Muslim who is charged in the Elizabeth bombings (L-1).

Still, the local editors needed two long wire service obituaries and a large photo of a burning bus on Route 23 in Butler to plug holes in the section (L-6).

Readers' eyes rolling at the me generation of columnists

Although The Record and North Jersey Media Group left 150 River St. in Hackensack in 2009, the Borg family have made the property pay by charging hundreds of thousands of dollars for parking spaces leased to Bergen County during the construction of a new courthouse and to Hackensack University Medical Center.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Readers of The Record's Sunday edition are puzzling over the restaurant reviewer's rant about customers who wear too much cologne or perfume.

And those in search of local news can only wonder whether Road Warrior John Cichowski's column about drivers in European cities is his clever way of trying to write off his vacation on his income taxes.

I promise. 

I tried to get into the Page 1 feature story about the Paramus woman who spent 25 years searching for her Canadian birth mother, but it is just too long (A-1).

The top of the front page carries yet another story about the kindness of Gander, Newfoundland, to airline passengers diverted on 9/11 (A-1).

Staff Writer Lindy Washburn, who wrote today's story, actually was sent to Gander only days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America to pretty much write the same account that appears today.

So, that makes two stories with Canadian ties on today's front page.

Is anybody reading the other Page 1 stories -- another Charles Stile column on politics and the 2017 election for governor, or the annual end-of-season assessment of the health of the Jersey shore economy (A-1)?

Ung's rant

Few people live as high on the hog as Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung, who has been eating out morning, noon and night on a Record expense account for more than a decade.

So, excuse me if I don't get the point of her Sunday column, The Corner Table, or the problem of servers and customers wearing too much perfume or cologne (Better Living front).

She claims those scents prevent her from tasting the food she is evaluating, but readers can only hope she focuses more on the basics.

On Friday, she awarded 3 stars (Excellent) to From Scratch, a small cafe and market in Ridgewood, despite shockingly high prices, unprofessional service and cramped seating.

For example, she loved a bronzino fillet served with an eggplant-tomato gratin, even though at $30, you'd pay more than at restaurants serving the whole fish.

Mind on vacation

Staff Writer John Cichowski is back from a vacation with the breathless news that drivers in small European cities are more polite and don't lean on their horns, as we do in New Jersey (Road Warrior on L-1).

Of course, he could make the same observation in downtown San Francisco during the rush hour.

But as an opinion columnist, Cichowski fails to provide any leadership in the impasse over funding the Transportation Trust Fund, and for that reason, he is of absolutely no use to North Jersey commuters.

Columnist assumes role of Christie's Bridgegate attorney

An image of veteran Trenton Columnist Charles Stile from C-Span in 2007, when The Record of Woodland Park was headquartered in Hackensack. It's not known whether the dark splotches on his forehead are from falling to his knees and touching his head to the floor every time a New Jersey governor walks into the room.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Deirdre Sykes of The Record has sunk to a new low with today's sustained Page 1 attack on the credibility of an aide to Governor Christie at the time of the Bridgegate scandal.

Just 10 days ago on A-1, Columnist Charles Stile labeled as a "bombshell" a newly revealed text message that Christie "flat out lied" to reporters in late 2013 about his administration's involvement in the George Washington Bridge lane closures.

Now, Stile argues, former Christie aide Christina Renna was only "a mid-level administrative staffer" whose text messages "don't prove anything at all" and "raise questions about [her] credibility" (A-8).

Stile goes on and on, just as a $650-an-hour defense attorney would, to persuade readers Christie is blameless -- even though the vast majority of New Jerseyans have convicted the GOP bully in the court of public opinion.

Of course, the truth will come out next month when the trial of former Christie confidants begins in Newark federal court -- about three years after the lane closures were used to punish a Democratic mayor who refused to support Christie's reelection.

Veto crazy

Stile has been on Christie's side since his first day in office in early 2010, writing column after column about the governor's so-called reform agenda, and promoting him time and again as a bipartisan compromiser.

That was the case even as Christie's vetoes mounted, eventually setting a record for any New Jersey governor.

A veto is the opposite of compromise, but Stile is keeping up the B.S. long after other columnists and editorial boards have denounced Christie.

Talking about his 500-plus vetoes, an editorial today deals a mild rebuke to Christie for killing a bill that would have allowed automatic voter registration as part of applying for or renewing a driver's license.

Noting the state Motor Vehicle Commission uses a six-point identification program to prevent fraud, the editorial calls Christie's mean-spirited veto "illogical" (O-2). 

Any other newspaper would call the veto what it is -- more voter suppression by Republicans like Christie who know low turnout favors them, as it did when he was reelected in 2013.

Have a heart

As with the obesity that dogged Record editors for many years, heart disease is a subject the Woodland Park daily tries to avoid.

Columnist Mike Kelly has never written about his brush with death before open-heart coronary bypass surgery, even though thousands of readers would benefit from his experience. 

Instead, Sykes today runs the third major story this year about Frank Bodino, 70, who got a second heart transplant and a new kidney at a New York hospital (A-1).

Staff Writer Lindy Washburn says 30,000 transplants are performed each year in the United States, but doesn't tell readers that's the total for all transplants.

Bodino is far from the common man -- about 2,300 people have heart transplants each year.

But thousands of heart surgeries are performed every day, and "in a recent year, surgeons performed 500,000 coronary bypass procedures," according to the Texas Heart Institute.

Saving newsprint

Gannett Co., the new owners of The Record, continues to save tons of money on newsprint by printing what appears to a single local-news section for Bergen and Passaic counties (L-1 to L-8).

Today, you won't find any Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood news in Local, but you will find a half-dozen major stories from Paterson and other Passaic County communities, and even a story from Montclair.

Heart-attack food

The Better Living cover discusses North Jersey restaurants that don't dare take customers' favorite dishes off the menu (BL-1).

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung describes Maribar as "filet mignon with bearnaise sauce and chestnut puree" instead of as "a heart attack on a plate" (BL-3).

The chef who took over at the Saddle River Inn in 2013 made the dish even less healthy by adding "roasted shallot butter" to the bearnaise sauce.

An editing error tells readers five of the "lasting dishes" are discussed on BL-3, but readers find only four.

I guess at the last minute the editors couldn't bring themselves to cut anything out of Bill Ervolino's moronic column on the same page, comparing his dog's eating habits to his own.  

What about Spain?

"Rooms with a View of History" -- the feature on the cover of today's Travel section -- is a superficial discussion of hotels in historic buildings that is missing a lot more than room rates.

Surely, world-weary Travel Editor Jill Schensul must have heard about Spain's paradores, a chain of government-run luxury hotels dating to 1928 that are located in refurbished castles, fortresses, palaces, convents and other historic structures.

Each one has a restaurant serving regional cuisine.

For example, the Parador of Granada is in a former convent on the grounds of the magical Alhambra.

Yet, Schensul's long article doesn't contain a word about Spain or the paradores (T-1 and T-3).

Clinton has 76% chance of winning election, Times reports

HARD-LUCK ROW: A small American flag flies on this row of long-vacant storefronts on Main Street in Hackensack. Gold Ray Jewelers, the only operating business, closed in June, below. Across the street is C.J. Lombardo Co., where Jerry Lombardo also serves as chairman of the Main Street Business Alliance, which has been trying to polish the image of the city's forlorn downtown.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Despite all the bluster from Governor Christie -- who served as Donald J. Trump's attack dog on Tuesday night -- Democrat Hillary Clinton has a 76% chance of winning the November election.

"Our elections model suggests Hillary Clinton is favored to win the presidency, based on the latest state and national polls," The New York Times reports today.

On Tuesday night, wacko racist Trump was formally nominated at the Republican National Convention as the party's presidential candidate, The Record reports on Page 1 today.

Christie called Clinton a "deeply flawed candidate whose use of private email has disqualified her for the presidency" (A-1 and A-8).

But the GOP bully didn't mention his own emails and texts were erased, and his cellphone went missing for about two years in the Bridgegate scandal.

Local news?

Editor Deirdre Sykes again devotes an enormous amount of coverage to the Republican Party's suicide mission in the November presidential election (A-1, A-5, A-7 and A-8) -- much of which will never be read.

Most newsroom workers at the Woodland Park daily haven't seen a raise in years, but Sykes wasted scarce resources to send Columnist Charles Stile to Ohio, where the political reporter proves he is as boring to readers on the road as he is at home (A-7).

If you are looking for local news today, you're out of luck.

The gee-whiz collapse of a crane onto the Tappan Zee Bridge is on A-1 today as Sykes and Road Warrior John Cichowski continue to ignore worsening traffic congestion in North Jersey.

Puppy update

See the front of Local today for the latest update on the puppy mill controversy (L-1).

A feature on the healthy, sustainable food grown on Fresh Roots Farm in Mahwah is welcome (L-1), but readers turning to the Better Living section will find a completely different message.

Jersey blueberries

On BL-4 today, freelancer Shelby Vittek mars the New Jersey blueberry by providing recipes that add artery clogging butter, and cream and ricotta cheeses, as well as cups of sugar, to the glorious fruit.

The headline -- "Birth of the Blues" -- sounds clever, but the blues are all about heartbreak and misery, so the play on words doesn't work here (BL-1).

Unless that's a reference to getting heart disease from a steady diet of sugary Ricotta Cheesecake with Blueberry Compote washed down with a Blueberry Smash Cocktail.

And another feature claims a new Park Ridge restaurant, 103 Prime at Valentino's, has added "more healthful fare," but leaves readers in the dark on whether the pricey restaurant serves grass-fed beef and other naturally raised or grown food (BL-1).

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.

If Christie drops out of race, no need for friendly columnist

Hudson Street in Hackensack is one of many streets showing the signs of utility work, but the patching is much smoother than on River Street, especially near the old headquarters of The Record.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A day after The Record declared that many view Governor Christie's White House bid as a "long shot," the paper's political columnist doesn't miss a beat.

Since the GOP bully took office in early 2010, Staff Writer Charles Stile has stuck by Christie in his Political Stile column, never bothering to report on whether the conservative's policies have been good for New Jersey.

Today, he's back on Page 1, analyzing whether Donald Trump's foot-in-mouth disease can help boost Christie's anemic showing in the race for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016.

His column is never labeled "Opinion" or "Analysis," as many papers would with similar partisan reporting.

With Stile in his corner, Christie doesn't even need spin doctors.

The veteran Trenton reporter does a good imitation of a journalist who is angling for a job in what he hopes will be a Christie administration in Washington.

Stile's chief weakness is that he continues to completely ignore all of the New Jersey baggage and failed policies Christie brought to the race -- from Superstorm Sandy recovery to mass transit to "pension reform" to the Bridgegate scandal.

It's a weakness shared with Editor Martin Gottlieb, who puts Stile's boring column on the front page once or twice a week.

Stile's next and last column should be on the sentiment for Christie to drop out of the race, return to New Jersey and finish out his term, fixing the mess he's made as the state's worst governor ever.

After ignoring Christie's many vetoes, editors do flip-flop

This Englewood intersection is near homes, apartments and condos, but snowbanks left over from several storms discourage pedestrians.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With every column or news story on Governor Christie's flip-flops on important issues, The Record is confessing vetoes -- not compromise -- are what really define his first five years in office.

Today's Charles Stile column on the GOP bully's veto of $7.5 million in funds for women's health centers and family planning clinics is a prime example (A-1).

Stile, more than any other reporter, has been burnishing Christie's image as a moderate willing to compromise with the majority Democrats in the state Legislature.

Now, he writes, Christie is running for president and boasting he vetoed women's health funds five times because he is "pro-life," not because he was trying to solve a budget crisis.

The editors still ignore the biggest story of Christie's reign since early 2010 -- what is likely a record number of vetoes for a New Jersey governor of tax surcharges on millionaires and other important bills and budget appropriations.

I've never seen the total number of vetoes published in The Record, and don't think I ever will.

See WNYC-FM's podcast, Christie Pivots

Relevance?

Today, Editor Martin Gottlieb fashions another front page that is long on "controversy" and short on relevance.

I can't recall the last time I drove on lightly traveled Route 19 in Passaic County at night, and can't figure out why reporter John Cichowski is devoting an entire column to "the stealing of the light" by drug addicts (A-1).

Bergen County's antiquated road network -- narrow, congested main thoroughfares without turn lanes, many poorly lit at night -- are of far more concern and relevance to the majority of readers, drivers and pedestrians.

Hackensack news?

Hackensack news seems to have gone missing in Local, a section that also struggles for relevance, as shown by today's long obituary on a former school administrator who worked in Atlanta and Newark (L-6).

I guess head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, had nothing local with which to fill that gaping hole.

Editors absolve themselves in analysis of low voter turnout

A police investigation of an accident closed all but one lane of the George Washington Bridge's lower level a little after 1 on Saturday afternoon. On the West Side Highway, re-striping of the two-lane 79th Street exit funneled drivers into one lane, causing backups that slowed motorists heading downtown. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In The Record's front-page story on low turnout, you won't find the answer to what really turned off voters, even though it's right there on the same page.

The Woodland Park daily today carries not one but two political columns analyzing the race for Bergen County executive last Tuesday (A-1 and O-1).

The front-page Charles Stile column explores the personal ambitions of three Democrats, who may or may not run in an election three years from now.

Stile sounds much like he does in all of those columns he's written touting Governor Christie as the next Republican nominee for president.

How boring.

In addition to endless stories about politics instead of issues, the editors no longer are exposing the lies in the attack ads that sway so many voters (A-10). 

Is it any wonder, as The Record reports five full days after the election, "nearly seven out of 10 New Jerseyans who were registered to vote Tuesday decided not to" (A-1).

Healing Westwood

Another Page 1 story reports that despite its awkward-sounding name HackensackUMC at Pascack Valley is paying Westwood $1.7 million in property taxes annually.

The mayor says that money has allowed the town to "engage in some significant infrastructure improvements" (A-6).

Conversely, Hackensack University Medical Center's non-profit status denies the city tens of millions of dollars in property taxes, leaving streets like Prospect Avenue looking like cow paths.

The Record has never told that story.

Fierce backpedaling

Road Warrior John Cichowski's column today on the decal law for drivers under 21 carries pretty much the same headline as did his Tuesday column on the same study (L-1).

But Tuesday's column was filled with errors, including the length of the study and the direct impact of the decals on the number of crashes.

Today's piece appears to be the veteran reporter's lame attempt to correct his previous column, which was analyzed by the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

Here is an excerpt:

"Road Warrior repeatedly tried to indicate that estimated reductions of 9.5% in crashes over a two-year period after the May 2010 GDL law were solely due to red decal provisions.

"[But] the study repeatedly indicated that while red decals could be an important component, the reductions in crashes could not be solely or primarily attributed to red decal provisions.

"The study repeatedly indicated that some of these reductions also could be attributed to other provisions of the updated GDL law, as well as better education and publicity about its benefits."

See: Road Warrior crashes and burns again

Customers whine

Staff Writer Elisa Ung's Sunday column today reports on the expensive mistakes some customers make when they order wine in restaurants (BL-1).

But Ung never mentions the tremendous markup on bottles and glasses that allows a Bobby Flay restaurant in Atlantic City to charge an outrageous $3,750 for a single bottle of red wine.

She makes the customer seem like a moron, because he thought the waitress' "thirty-seven fifty" meant $37.50. 

Given the ridiculous markup on wine, Ung should urge her readers to seek out BYOs or order the cheapest bottle on the wine list.

After all, as the paper's chief restaurant reviewer, she is supposed to report on issues from the consumer's point of view, and not shamelessly represent owners, as she does here.

Until now, the GOP bully has ignored or hurt N.J. Mexicans

Underground utility lines are being installed along three blocks of Salem Street in Hackensack, between River and State streets, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front page today and Sunday previewed Governor Christie's trip to Mexico, but there is only a passing reference to the tens of thousands of Mexican-Americans who live in the city of Passaic.

What has the GOP bully done for the working- and middle-class Poblano families who live in Passaic besides ignoring them and cutting aid to their schools and poor city?

Passaic, with a population of 70,000, is often called another Puebla, the Mexican city and state Christie is scheduled to visit, according to the Page 1 story today on the governor's purely political trip.

With dozens of restaurants, bakeries and manufacturers, the city has been a center of Mexican culture and food for many years, as noted in a 2003 Food section cover story in The Record, "Mexican Revolution in Passaic."

Voices of Mexico

The Consulate General of Mexico in New York said more than 40% of Mexicans in the tri-state area are from Puebla, and the majority of them settled in Passaic, VoicesofNY.org reported in January.

Yet, Christie didn't even visit Passaic city during his successful reelection campaign last year.

Melissa Hayes' story today appears two days after a Charles Stile column on Christie's South of the Border visit, and there was at least one other preview of the trip.

Broken Record

Doesn't The Record have anything else to say about the worst governor in New Jersey history than to promote his presidential ambitions?

Legal fees to defend Christie and his aides in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal now top $9 million, WNYC-FM reported today, with $7 million billed by the governor's legal team.

Surely, state officials will try to negotiate a smaller amount or even ask a judge if the fees are reasonable.

Why isn't The Record chasing that story?

Local news

Christie's Mexico visit was trumped this morning by the sensational murder of Karen Piotti, 63, of Ho-Ho-Kus, allegedly by her son, Nicholas, 24 (A-1).

On the Local front, a photo and caption makes light of an elderly woman who drove an Audi sedan into a pool in Wyckoff.

The photo over line is really imaginative: 

CAR IN THE POOL IN WYCKOFF

The "grandmother" and her passenger survived, but the photo only reminds readers of how The Record has ignored the challenges facing older drivers, and apparently has never reported on re-training courses that might be available to them.

You'd never know Editor Martin Gottlieb is 66 from the lack of reporting on how many seniors mistake the accelerator for the brake pedal and end up in a pool, crash into a building or hit a pedestrian, often with fatal consequences.

Editors turn every Christie move into a political stunt

Leonia is one of those Bergen County towns that doesn't get much coverage in The Record of Woodland Park. Dressing up the small business district along Broad Avenue is a sculpture garden, above and below.

Most of the businesses along Broad Avenue are owned and operated by Korean-Americans. Leonia borders Palisades Park and Fort Lee, both of which have even stronger Korean presences.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I've learned to ignore the lame political column Charles Stile has been writing since Governor Christie took office way back in January 2010.

But his Page 1 column in The Record today is hard to miss, especially because Editor Marty Gottlieb is using it in place of a news story on the special session of the state Legislature the governor called to fix the bail system (A-1).

This boring Stile column reads like all the rest:

The special session, Stile claims, could "polish up his resume for a likely run for president in 2016" (A-1).

"Some say the timing is good for Christie, who is trying to rebuild his image in the wake of the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal" (A-7).

Voter apathy

But on A-7, readers also find a news story on the special session that repeats much of Stile's column -- a real waste of space.

Stile and The Record avoid discussing how politics divide the nation and New Jersey, and how reporting like this simply turns off voters.

Christie was reelected last November in the lowest turnout of any previous gubernatorial election, but The Record always refers to it as a "landslide" and doesn't even mention the legions of disaffected voters.

Worst governor ever

Below the fold today, Staff Writer Scott Fallon reports that funding of open-space preservation is endangered by the poor state economy under the GOP bully.

But you have to read the entire story to get that message.

Today's editorial on anti-violence efforts by three North Jersey cities also is edited in a way to avoid placing blame on Christie for cutting state aid to poor cities like Paterson, resulting in the layoff of 125 police officers in 2011.

"Indeed," the editorial writer declares, "during the recent tenure of Mayor Jeffrey Jones in Paterson there was the feeling that, for whatever reason, the city's needs were not being heard by the powers that be in Trenton."

"For whatever reason"? What crap.

The quaint Borough Hall in Leonia.

New suicides? 

Another Page 1 story may cause more suicides on the George Washington Bridge among readers who learn a plan to build a 9-foot fence might take eight years -- twice as long as did construction of the span (A-1).

Imagine how many lives could have been saved if this fence was built during the years the Port Authority was diverting toll money to construction of One World Trade Center, with all of its delays and cost overruns.

It's hard to believe the fence won't be finished until 2022.

The story is by Staff Writer Christopher Maag, who has been neglecting his Hackensack beat.

Maag is thorough, but the story goes on and on like something you'd see in The New York Times, Gottlieb's old paper.

Hackensack news

With Maag writing about bridge suicides, the only Hackensack news today is another reporter's story on a lawsuit filed against the city by Patrolman Moise Flanagan (L-1).

Hackensack Scoop, a local blog, reported the lawsuit five days ago.

Lying to readers

If a recipe isn't healthy, The Record's editors don't see anything wrong with lying to their readers.

Clueless freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson's recipe for Chilled Fennel Soup calls for 4 tablespoons of butter filled with artery clogging saturated fat (BL-2).

Yet, Jackson writes of the soup, "with no cream whatsoever, it's as healthy as healthy can be."

OK. With no brains whatsoever, Jackson is as stupid as stupid can be.

On Broad Avenue in Leonia, retail space is being renovated behind a colorful barrier, above and below.