Christie is returning to familiar role of screwing New Jersey

A view of the Navesink River from the Oyster Point Hotel in Red Bank.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Deirdre Sykes' obsession with partisan politics continues to dominate The Record's front page even as Governor Christie is back at his old job of screwing New Jersey.

A major story about the GOP bully led Saturday's paper, reporting he opposes the latest plan to resolve the crisis over funding statewide road, bridge and rail improvements.

Insider deals

On Monday, another front-page story on politics reported Christie's "national prospects" have improved once again with rumors he could become Donald J. Trump's attorney general, if the wacko racist is elected to the White House.

Christie might be hoping to get the same kind of lucrative contract he steered to John Ashcroft in 2007, when the governor was the U.S. attorney for New Jersey and Ashcroft was his former boss in the U.S. Justice Department.

As the Star-Ledger reported, the former attorney general's D.C. law firm was poised to collect $52 million in 18 months to monitor a $311 million settlement Christie won to end a probe into kickbacks by leading manufacturers of hip and knee replacements.

Christie also handed lucrative contracts to other lawyers who served as monitors:

David Samson, his mentor and "father figure," whom Christie later appointed chairman of the Port Authority; and Debra Yang, one of the lawyers who led the "internal investigation" into the George Washington Bridge lane closures.

That whitewash of his role in the September 2013 lane closures in Fort Lee cost New Jersey taxpayers more than $10 million.

More conflict

Today's lead story emphasizes dissension and protests at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia that USA Today compares to last week's meeting of Republicans (A-1).

But Sykes must have gone home early, because readers can't find a word of first lady Michelle Obama's inspiring speech to get out the vote for Hillary Clinton, who will be formally nominated  for president tonight.

Sure, a photo of the first lady appears on Page 1 (where the caption misspells her first name), but the speech must have been given too late for The Record's early deadlines.

The decision over a decade ago to move printing of the paper to Rockaway Township -- more than 30 miles from the heart of the circulation area in Hackensack -- means The Record often misses such late-breaking news while generating clouds of pollution from diesel-powered delivery trucks tearing up Route 80.

Back to Camden

Instead of the first lady's speech, the front page carries two inconsequential columns from Staff Writers John Cichowski and Mike Kelly.

The big news on the first Business page is the expected Aug. 5 opening of a "luxury" movie theater in Fort Lee where tickets will go for $19 to $24 (L-7).

The Better Living section also promoted the theater and its restaurant on Sunday.

I guess the Woodland Park daily is hoping to land big advertising contracts from both.

Trump's hate speech may encourage rash of terror attacks

Today's cover of the New York Post commenting on the Bastille Day attack on a crowd watching fireworks in Nice, on the French Riviera. (The town's name is pronounced "NIECE," not "NICE.") Below, a Post cover from February, when Governor Christie endorsed wacko racist Donald J. Trump for president in the apparent hope -- now dashed -- the billionaire would pick him as the GOP's vice presidential candidate.

Seven major New Jersey dailies -- six of them owned by the Gannett Co. -- cited the endorsement of Trump when they called on Christie to resign. However, The Record didn't, and it's unclear whether that position will change now that Gannett has purchased the Woodland Park daily.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Is there anyone Donald J. Trump doesn't hate?

Eleven million immigrants, all Muslims, women and legions of others are on the hit list of the Republican Party's presumptive presidential candidate.

Now, as we try to absorb yet another attack on innocent people in France, you have to wonder whether Trump's venomous speech is encouraging terrorism here and abroad.

"Has anyone else noticed?" CoCoWats tweeted on Thursday afternoon (@WatsJo). "Terrorist attacks have drastically increased since Donald announced his candidacy."

Meanwhile, Trump's fellow Muslim hater, Governor Christie, now is out of the running for vice president on the GOP ticket.

Instead, Trump has picked just what we all really need -- another heartland conservative, Gov. Mike Spence of Indiana, where only 6.6 million people live, many of them on farms.

Today's paper

In a Page 1 column today, Staff Writer Charles Stile, The Record's chief apologist for Christie, reports Spence is Trump's choice.

But the headline -- "Former mentor delivers hit to Christie's hopes" -- makes it sound like the GOP bully still is in the running for the Republican Party's all-hate, all-the-time ticket.

The headline on the continuation page (A-6) also is outdated, given the apparent selection of Spence:

"STILE: Former mentor's guilty plea delivers hit to VP hopes."

"Former mentor" is a reference to former Port Authority Chairman David Samson, who Christie has called a "father figure."

Samson pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday to bribery charges for pressuring United Airlines to launch what amounted to private jet travel to his vacation home in South Carolina (A-1).

Samson, who Christie named to the powerful job of Port Authority chairman, was charged as part of the FBI investigation into the politically motivated lane closures at the George Washington Bridge in September 2013. 

Editors' big buildup of Hurricane Joaquin, Christie fizzles

Judging from the wait for PSE&G's boiler turn-on service ($25), the suddenly cooler weather took hundreds of North Jersey homeowners by surprise. As of Friday, the earliest appointment I could get is this coming Wednesday morning. My boiler may have been affected by a burst pipe and flood last winter.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record today doesn't mention that almost half of Friday's front page was devoted to hyping Hurricane Joaquin and praising Governor Christie for leaving the presidential campaign trail and riding to the rescue of shore residents.

Now, Joaquin, Christie and his transportation chief have fizzled, but lots of space today is devoted to officials who "saw value in preparing for the worst" (A-1).

Gee. Where were they before Irene and Sandy savaged New Jersey?

Christie and Fox

The governor's pick for state transportation chief was James P. Fox, a former United Airlines lobbyist who may have had a role in arranging a flight to near the vacation home of a close friend, Christie mentor and then-Port Authority Chairman David Samson.

But since Fox took over in September 2014, he has done little to resolve the crisis with the state Transportation Trust Fund, reduce traffic congestion or improve mass transit.

Now, he has resigned amid questions about his agency forgiving a $104,000 potential penalty against United (A-1).

'Outrageous'

The only difference between Republican Anthony Coppola, Christie and Tea Party members of Congress is that the onetime councilman wrote a self-published book expressing his racist, homophobic and anti-senior citizen views.

First, Coppola withdrew as a state Assembly candidate, and now, he has resigned from the River Edge Borough Council (A-1).

The title of his 2003 book is "Outrageous."

On Friday's L-1, The Record reported:

"Cappola, in 223 pages [of his book], offers a near constant stream of racial slurs and offensive sexual slang, detailing stereotypes of minorities, men, women, gays and lesbians."

Among his targets, the story reported, was Pope John Paul II.

Warning signs

The Record and other media still haven't explained why anyone is surprised that a 26-year-old who owned at least 13 guns and "studied mass shooters" finally snapped and killed nine of his fellow college students (A-1 and A-9).

We may see the end of mass shootings when anyone who owns more than one gun raises alarms from neighbors, the police and the media. 

Local news?

Three large photos of non-fatal accidents -- all by Staff Photographer Tariq "Crash" Zehawi -- appear in Local today (L-1, L-2 and L-3).

Zehawi specializes in drive-by photos, and the desperate editors who run them are so lazy the captions tell readers nothing about the possible cause or answer other questions.

What do you expect? The photos are meant only as filler, not news. 

Was the Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrid Zehawi saw in a ditch run off Route 3 in East Rutherford by the resentful driver of one of those enormous, gas-guzzling SUVs (L-1)?

Was the Teaneck police officer on the way to a nearby Dunkin' Donuts when his cruiser was involved in a collision with a big pickup truck at Cedar Lane and Palisade Avenue (L-3).

Did the pickup driver receive a summons? Was the police cruiser responding to an emergency with lights flashing and siren operating?

Why does the marked cruiser appear not to have emergency lights on the roof?

Lazy editing

The over lines used on two L-1 photos show a complete lack of imagination, and amount to little more than labels from a bored editor:

"CAR IN DITCH IN EAST RUTHERFORD"

"NOT THE BEST WALKING WEATHER"

Both are obvious to the reader. 

Is that the best this once great local newspaper and its overpaid editors can do?

Brain food

The feature on North Jersey seafood restaurants is a welcome antidote to the relentless consumption and promotion of unhealthy food by The Record's Elisa Ung, and other reporters and editors (BL-1).

But why does the paper's chief restaurant critic devote most of the space and all but one of the photos to the most expensive places? 

Maybe, it's because those places advertise in The Record or Ung is so spoiled by the paper paying for meals costing hundreds of dollars that she no longer knows the value of money.

Varka, which gets top billing today, charges an outrageous $49 a pound for Dover Sole, $50 a pound for Tiger Shrimp from the Atlantic Ocean and $59 a pound for Langoustines from the Mediterranean.

Editors expose Christie's ties to powerful corporations

On Saturday, I saw an unexpected display of late-afternoon color in the parking lot of a medical building on Essex Street in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Lawyer David Samson, often described as Governor Christie's mentor and father figure, is at the center of two stories on corporate influence that dominate Page 1 of The Record today.

Christie nominated Samson, head of his transition team after the 2009 election,  to the board of the Port Authority, and he was eventually elected chairman of the bi-state transportation agency (A-1).

The Record today describes how United Airlines started special flights to South Carolina, where Samson has a second home, in hopes of getting the Port Authority to lower fees for using Newark Liberty International Airport.

United also hoped the PATH commuter rail line would be extended to the airport, one of the airline's major hubs.

United's lobbyist, James P. Fox, is a close friend of Samson's, and is now Christie's transportation commissioner (A-6).

Lottery fiasco

In the second story, on declining lottery revenue for state programs, GTECH, one of the corporate entities Christie chose to run the New Jersey Lottery, is said to have spent $460,000 in 2012-14 on Wolff & Samson Public Affairs, a subsidiary of the law firm Samson founded (A-10).

"It also hired ... Mercury Public Affairs, led by Michael Du Haime, Christie's former chief strategist who is now a senior adviser for his presidential run," State House reporter Dustin Racioppi says,

Readers wonder if The Record's exposes on this corporate influence in state government could have come much sooner.

Instead, Editor Martin Gottlieb, Columnist Charles Stile and other reporters spent virtually all of their time trying to sell readers on Christie's so-called reform agenda and his phony image as a compromiser able to work with the majority Democrats in the state Legislature.

Dated graphic

On the Business front today, the graphic with the story on subprime auto loans looks like it was taken out of mothballs (B-1).

The car shown is a 2004-09 Toyota Prius, but the keys are to another vehicle altogether.

If the story is about auto loans, why are hundred dollar bills shown?

Rotten apple

Chief restaurant critic Elisa Ung rarely orders a healthy salad at the fine-dining restaurants she appraises, but always find room for artery clogging desserts.

So, why is she using her Sunday column today to critique the salads included with entrees at "moderately priced family restaurants" (BL-1)?

Kelly column

On the Opinion front today, Columnist Mike Kelly pushes around thousands of words on the special flights for Samson and the resignation of United Airline's CEO last week (O-1).

Kelly reviews reporting by The Record and Bloomberg News in what is basically a rewrite of everything that has been said before.

But you won't find any opinions in this so-called opinion column.

Editors acquit, condemn Christie in court of public opinion

No plans have been announced for this vacant land and shuttered business, above and below, across the street from the first residential project in Hackensack's ambitious downtown redevelopment. The 222-unit rental building is scheduled to open in the fall.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Depending on which page of The Record you read today, federal investigations are a minor annoyance to Governor Christie or they could eventually end his "presidential aspirations."

A news story leading the front page puts a positive spin on the resignation of United Airlines' CEO in an investigation of the Port Authority related to the George Washington Bridge lane closures.

The headline -- "Scandal still taking a toll" -- is clear enough, but the caption under Christie's photo says:

"Two years after the George Washington Bridge scandal, Governor Christie has never been accused of wrongdoing" (A-1).

A better, more accurate caption would have been that many questions remain about Christie's role in the scandal.

And those questions may finally be answered by the upcoming testimony of ally David Wildstein, who pleaded guilty to helping plot and cover up the Fort Lee lane closures two years ago (A-10).

Darker editorial

"This is not good news" for Christie, according to an editorial on the shake-up at United Airlines and questions surrounding a special flight for Christie mentor David Samson, when he was chairman of the Port Authority (A-20).

Christie nominated Samson, his former campaign counsel, to the board of the bi-state transportation agency, which runs the bridge and Newark Liberty International Airport.

"If Samson, known as 'The General,' is linked to a deal trading flavors for a non-stop fight to South Carolina [where he has a vacation home], the political damage to Christie will be monumental.

"Just the reemergence of the Port Authority narrative at this point in Christie's struggling presidential campaign inflicts damage."

How many years?

Editor Martin Gottlieb couldn't resist sensationalizing the front page today with a big photo of Monica Mogg, who was sentenced to consecutive life terms for the murder of her ex-lover and his new girlfriend in a bedroom.

The A-1 photo sends readers to the full story on the Local front, plus two more photos, but all of those elements contain so many different descriptions of the sentence readers can't be blamed for being confused.

The A-1 photo overline says, "Two life terms for double homicide."

But the big, black headline on L-1 says, "166 years for 2 murders," forcing readers to wonder how that number was arrived at.

Doesn't "life" in prison mean until you die? Apparently not.

Finally, the lead paragraph of the story contains this awkward, hard-to-read phrase:

"A former preschool teacher was sentenced Wednesday to two back-to-back life terms in prison .... [italics added]."

That's too many to's or two's.

Hackensack news

Also on the Local front, The Record announces that plans for North Jersey Media Group's 19.7 acres on River Street in Hackensack have received preliminary approval from the city Planning Board (L-1).

Publisher Stephen A. Borg is quoted as saying the hotel-residential-retail project includes a "connection" to downtown, but no details are provided.

In all the years The Record operated at 150 River St., employees were forced to take their chances with fast-moving traffic as they tried to cross River Street to reach Main Street restaurant and shops.

If a hotel and 700 apartments are built there, a footbridge over River Street would be the only way to guarantee pedestrian safety.

The Record prospered in Hackensack for more than 110 years and its departure in 2009 sped up the decline of Main Street. 

Ode to crap

On the Better Living front, chief restaurant critic Elisa Ung celebrates "North Jersey's most classic, old-time hot dogs," but doesn't tell readers they are full of harmful antibiotics, growth hormones and preservatives (BL-1).

Three of the photos show fried hot dogs from Rutt's Hut in Clifton, Hot Grill in Clifton and Hiram's in Fort Lee covered in what looks like vomit. 

How appetizing.

Editors crow over PA scoop, ignore mass-transit failures

Rain barrels are an easy way to conserve water during what federal weather officials are calling a "moderate drought" in North Jersey, according to The Record.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's editors waste no time today taking credit on Page 1 for a scoop exposing a United Airlines flight between Newark and Columbia, S.C., "to curry favor" with David Samson when he was chairman of the powerful Port Authority.

A federal and internal probe of the special flight for Samson, often called a mentor and father figure to Governor Christie, led to the departure of the Newark-based airline's CEO (A-1).

But the Woodland Park daily has done a far poorer job exposing how little the bistate agency has done to expand mass-transit operations, including the PATH commuter rail system and the reverse bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel.

The agency's mass-transit failures affect far more readers than another so-called expose of cronyism and favoritism in high places.

Christie P.R.

Editor Martin Gottlieb continues to assign Staff Writer Melissa Hayes to cover Christie's doomed bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016.

Hayes' story, which sounds more like public relations than hard-hitting reporting, appears on Page 1, marveling over the conservative bully holding more town hall meetings in New Hampshire than any other GOP clown (A-1).

Local news?

On the Local front today, Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza give lavish coverage to the opening of a $20 million science, technology, engineering and mathematics center at the hoity toity Dwight-Englewood School (L-1).

The private school, on the mansion-filled East Hill of Englewood, counts among its alumni Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, chairman of North Jersey Media Group; his wife Sandra Agemian Borg; son Stephen A. Borg, publisher of The Record; and daughter Jennifer A. Borg, NJMG vice president and general counsel.

Stephen's sons, Alexander, Austin and Charlie, are in the Dwight-Englewood Classes of 2017, 2019 and 2021, respectively.

In the past, coverage of Englewood's private schools has been far more extensive than that of the troubled public schools, even though both Sykes and Sforza covered the small city as reporters before they were promoted to assignment editors.

'Horse' in Teaneck

Instead of municipal news, another lead story on the Local front catches up to the seizure of $3.5 million in heroin, also called "horse," and the arrest of a California man in a home on Bryant Avenue in Teaneck.

There is no explanation for why Sykes and Sforza didn't report the Friday arrest and seizure until a press release came out on Tuesday or why the identity of the house renter eluded the three reporters who worked on the story (L-1 and L-2).

More filler

The desperate local editors also needed more Law & Order news and two drive-by accident photos to fill their thin section today (L-3).

The caption under a photo of a tobacco truck fire at Routes 17 and 80 in Hackenack doesn't say whether the driver was speeding, his load shifted or whether the bridge abutment he hit was damaged.

And the photo is all the Hackensack news you'll find today.

More filler appears in Business, where an entire half page is wasted on a story about "auto parts suppliers" by the Detroit Free Press (L-9).

Happy New Year

On the Better Living cover today, freelancer Sachi Fujimori shares Rosh Hashana recipes from Israeli chefs in North Jersey (BL-1).

She says these "culinary artisans grew up with the flavors of the Middle East, Mediterranean and North Africa."

But none of the recipes on BL-4 contain Middle Eastern or North African spices and herbs.

Fujimori was a reporter at The Record for more than 5 years, leaving in February 2014. She also worked at the Herald News.

Christie, Ferriero spun webs of influence in high places

Room for two cars? On Euclid Avenue in Hackensack and on many other two-way streets in North Jersey, plows left snow that sets up potential collisions between vehicles. A few blocks away on Anderson Street, bus riders wait in the cleared driveway of a rental car business because a snowbank continues to block the bus stop itself.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Two Page 1 stories in The Record today trace the webs of political influence spun by Governor Christie and Joseph Ferriero, a onetime power broker in Bergen County.

Staff Writer Shawn Boburg leads the paper with details of how United Airlines started a direct flight to South Carolina for then-Port Authority Chairman David Samson, a Christie appointee who is often described as the governor's mentor (A-1).

Samson, a former state attorney general, has a vacation home in Aiken, S.C.

"United Airlines was in regular negotiations with the Port Authority and the Christie administration during Samson's tenure over ... expansion of ... service to Atlantic City and the extension of the PATH train to Newark Liberty [Airport]," Boburg reports (A-1).

The story was picked up this morning by WNYC-FM, the New Jersey and New York Public Radio Station.

Boburg also traces the ties to Christie's new transportation czar, Jamie Fox, a former lobbyist for United Airlines and a close friend of Samson's.

Joseph Ferriero

Below the fold, Staff Writers Herb Jackson and Jeff Pillets report on the expected testimony of James Dausch, formerly a top Mills Corp. executive seeking approvals for a massive shopping and entertainment complex then called Xanadu.

Dausch is expected to testify in the federal racketeering trial of Ferriero, who once headed the Bergen County Democratic Party (A-1).

Jackson and Pillets report on newly public documents that "provide rare snapshots of a host of power players in New Jersey," including state legislators and congressmen, and campaign donations to them.

A key figure was Teaneck attorney M. Robert "Bob" DiCottis, who "helped the company [Mills Corp.] put together a team of consultants and navigate state politics" (A-7).

Ferriero is accused in part of extorting monthly $35,000 payments from Mills Corp., which is now defunct.

Christie junkets

Recent revelations of how Choose New Jersey, a corporate group, paid for Christie's foreign travel finally has knocked Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin off of his stump, admitting, "I was snookered" (A-11).

In his Opinion column, Doblin says:

"The latest revelations about the governor's trade trips -- lavish excursions funded through a non-profit governed by people with close ties to Christie and whose companies do business with or are regulated by the state -- blow the man-of-the people reformer image out of the water."

When readers catch their breath, they undoubtedly will wonder why it took Doblin more than five years to cut through all of the GOP bully's P.R. and B.S.

And why the journalist-cum-lapdog is allowed to write both an opinion column and help determine the paper's editorial policy on Christie's reign in New Jersey.

Jon F. Hanson

The Woodland Park daily still has not revealed the ties between real estate mogul Jon F. Hanson, one of Christie's chief fundraisers, and the Borgs, who own
North Jersey Media Group, which publishes The Record.

Last month, Publisher Stephen A. Borg announced that NJMG had turned to Hanson in a sale-leaseback deal involving the company's printing plant on 16.67 acres of land in Rockaway Township.

Borg said the agreement was with a fund sponsored by the Hampshire Cos. of Morristown, but didn't mention that Hanson is its chairman and founder or that his father, Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, and Hanson had jointly purchased a private jet in 2011.

The printing plant at 100 Commons Way is assessed at $24,991,500, and the land is assessed at $1,979,600, Rockaway Tax Assessor Mark Burek said today.

Those assessments equal about 93 percent of the total value.

On Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, drivers are thankful the street isn't heavily traveled.

Bridge news

Another Page 1 story today reports on emergency repairs to two Route 46 spans (A-1).

But there is no mention of any of the Route 4 bridges cited in recent Road Warrior columns by staffer John Cichowski, the irresponsible reporter who tried to panic readers into believing they are unsafe.

Black history

Today's front page also appears to mark the first in a series of stories that will appear during Black History Month (A-1).

I couldn't find any Black History Month stories in the first five days of February, with the possible exception of a Thursday story on the homeless in Paterson.

When February is over, The Record will return to its usual policy of reporting mostly negative news about African-Americans, and the only way a black person can get on Page 1 until next year is if he or she is a suspect in a crime.

'Overpriced' Italian

The 80-seat dining room of Momento Italian Grill in Tenafly is "graciously decorated" with a crystal chandelier "dripping from the ceiling," Staff Writer Elisa Ung says in her lukewarm review (BL-14).

Ung, the paper's chief restaurant critic, sampled Momento's American rack of lamb -- which isn't likely to have been naturally raised -- but reports that it "arrived overcooked."

The price is an exorbitant $42.95.

In her data box, she explains the restaurant offers "value for the better items, otherwise can be overpriced."

That leaves Simply Vietnamese as one of the few reasons to eat out in Tenafly.

Ethics, overtime abuses hide Port Authority's real failure

The Record's editors haven't bothered reporting on all of the unintended consequences of low gasoline prices and their impact on climate change: Cheap gas depresses the sales of hybrid and electric vehicles, and may prompt drivers to hold onto their gas-guzzling SUVs, aggravating air pollution. Those SUVs also take up more room on the road, worsening traffic congestion.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Critics refer to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey -- the behemoth bi-state transportation agency -- as the "Port Atrocity."

Today and Wednesday, The Record has published two front-page stories on overtime abuses by the agency's police officers and the many ethical questions surrounding its powerful commissioners.

But the agency's real failure is its refusal to expand mass transit (bus and rail), and reduce traffic congestion.

Even after the fourth toll hike in as many years on Sunday, few drivers are expected to leave their cars at home, because of limited mass-transit alternatives, including a gridlocked bus terminal in midtown Manhattan.

The Port Authority police have been tabloid fare for decades for collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime; there was nothing new in Staff Writer Shawn Boburg's A-1 story on Wednesday or today's editorial (A-18).

And ethical questions have hounded the commissioners for years before Governor Christie named a powerful lawyer who was his mentor, David Samson, to the chairmanship of the agency's board, which once met in secret before staging monthly public meetings (A-1).

Samson resigned in March after critics noted he cast votes that appeared to benefit his law firm.

Two more embarrassing corrections appear on A-2 today; Wednesday's A-2 also had a correction -- of a Page 1 story on state pension funds.

Local news?

The assignment editors are so desperate to fill their Local section almost anything goes.

One look at this stupid headline tells you no resident of Bergen and Passaic counties has the least bit of interest in whatever is being reported:

N.J. won't

allow

Barclays

at Izod

Huh?

On L-2 today, Staff Writer Todd South identifies Richard E. Salkin as "a former city attorney," when Salkin is the former municipal prosecutor.

On L-3, Glen Rock police appear to be informing burglars they have nothing to fear.

Capt. Jonathan Miller is quoted as saying that "if something seems out of the ordinary -- like a car parked that isn't normal -- please call the police so we can check it out."

Is Miller telling burglars that police don't routinely patrol neighborhoods?

Editors are exploiting every misery in Paterson

As commuters streamed by on a chilly spring day this week, homeless men and women warmed themselves with coffee inside the main NJ Transit entrance of Penn Station in Manhattan.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I pity readers who rely on The Record of Woodland Park for their knowledge of Paterson, a pioneering industrial center that harnessed the power of the Great Falls and immigrant workers to earn the title of "Silk City."

Under former Editor Francis "Frank" Scandale, Paterson was most often portrayed as a drug bazaar that lured white suburbanites, many of whom overdosed and met untimely deaths.

In a boneheaded decision, Scandale even ran a map showing readers where they could find drug dealers, and never put the city's Police Department on the spot for lax enforcement.

Editor Marty Gottlieb exploited that same Paterson theme in a 2013 series on North Jersey's heroin epidemic, and the stories were among the finalists in this year's Pulitzer Prize competition.

Drive-by shootings and murders, spectacular and often deadly fires in slum dwellings, failing schools, greedy public officials, South Paterson as the neighborhood that harbored 9/11 hijackers -- every negative has been exploited by The Record's editors to sell papers.

Today, Page 1 screams about "shocking ... blood and cruelty" after two people were arrested for running a dog-fighting ring and 21 pit bulls were rescued by Paterson's John DeCando, North Jersey's most-visible animal control officer (A-1).

Race based?

Another front-page story today doesn't discuss the racial makeup of Ramapo, N.Y., where Ford Motor Co. has been ordered to remove "almost all of the toxic paint sludge" the automaker dumped there decades ago, in contrast to a plan to cap much more Ford waste a few miles away in Ringwood. (A-1).

Readers have no way of knowing whether the Rockland County, N.Y., town is being treated differently than the Upper Ringwood neighborhood, because of discrimination against mixed-race Ramapoughs who live in the North Jersey community.

GWB scandal

Readers who have called on The Record and other media "to move on" and stop writing about the George Washington Bridge scandal were greeted by another front-page story today that explores for the first time lawyer David Samson's influence in the Christie administration (A-1).

Samson has been called a mentor and father figure to Governor Christie, who named the lawyer chairman of the Port Authority, where he ran interference for clients of his law firm, Wolff & Samson.

The powerful lawyer is among members of Christie's inner circle who resigned in the wake of allegations of political retribution against Democrats in the months before last November's election.

Christ and potholes

The Local section today manages to wrap up in a single story Easter, the suffering of Christ and how an actor injured himself on a Paterson pothole that hasn't been repaired weeks after the end of a brutal winter (L-1).

Why does it take a Good Friday procession to get the editors to dramatize the danger of all of those still-gaping potholes on streets and highways in North Jersey? 

Second looks

The Record's lazy local-news editors ran a Page 1 story on Thursday, praising Hackensack Police Officer Victor Vazquez for saving the life of an elderly woman, arresting a suspect in a violent robbery and assisting in the arrest of two drug suspects on Route 80.

But the story wasn't based on original reporting. 

Jerry DeMarco's CliffviewPilot.com ran a piece on the cop's exploits two days earlier. 

Meanwhile, a concerned reader e-mailed managers and editors of The Record, reporting that Road Warrior John Cichowski "confused and misled readers in his Sunday and Tuesday columns about the dangers, state regulations and a recent crackdown on driving while talking or texting on handheld cellphones."

See the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers, which chronicles all of the befuddled reporter's many errors in these and past columns:

More errors on a familiar Road Warrior theme

Facts can't curb out-of-control Road Warrior

In the court of public opinion, Christie is still guilty

Borough Hall in Fort Lee, where George Washington Bridge lane closures caused four days of traffic chaos in early September. The lane closures were ordered by Governor Christie's aides, allegedly to punish Mayor Mark Sokolich, one of the Democrats who refused to endorse the GOP bully for a second term.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On the Bridgegate scandal, the court of public opinion has been unwavering:

Governor Christie knew that members of his inner circle were lashing back at Democrats who refused to endorse the GOP bully for a second term in the election last November.

In Democratic Fort Lee, that political retribution took the form of lane closures at the George Washington Bridge, resulting in four days of traffic chaos.

Probe setback

Today's front-page news in The Record -- that a state judge won't force two former Christie aides to turn over documents (A-1) -- won't change the public's opinion about the governor.

A Charles Stile column on the future of the legislative panel investigating the lane closures uses a number of silly plays on words, such as saying the committee is "itself jammed at a crossroads" (A-1).

How awkward.

Subpoena Christie

The head of the panel, Assemblyman John Wisniewski, calls the lane closures a "threat to public safety and abuse of government power."

And nowhere in the column or the news story on Page 1 is there any mention of whether the legislative panel or a separate probe by the U.S. attorney in Newark will subpoena Christie.

Since the scandal exploded in January, the governor has never spoken under oath about what he knew and when he knew it.

Wouldn't it be rich to see the former corruption-busting federal prosecutor hiding behind the Fifth Amendment?

More bad news

The really bad news on today's front page is Standard & Poor's downgrading New Jersey's credit rating, while blasting Christie for lagging behind many states with "sizable budgetary surpluses" (A-1).

Three more corrections appear on A-2 today, testament to six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton's inattention to detail.

Christie's environmental record continues to take a hit with word he denied 5% raises to members of the Pinelands Commission, which split, 7-7, on a plan to build a natural gas pipeline through the protected reserve (A-4).

A lobbying firm hired to push the project was headed by David Samson, former chairman of the Port Authority and a Bridgegate character, who has been called a mentor and father figure to Christie.

Is there a public agency anywhere that hasn't been infected by Christie's politics and cronyism?

(201) magazine

Restaurant reviews are considered so important at (201) magazine they are entrusted to a low-paid editorial assistant, which is a publisher's title for "clerk" or guy/gal who answers the phone.

In a Bergen County Dining Guide in the April 2014 (201) family, Ryan Greene says ramen is "trendy as all heck in New York."

He also wanted to say the pork in Santouka Ramen's noodle soup melted in his mouth, but a word was dropped and it came out "melt-in-your-pork."

In the April 2014 (201) magazine, his review of Cafe Matisse in Rutherford ends this way, "Every dish is art. Every bite is beauty."

No prices appear in the review, and it isn't clear whether (201) magazine pays for Greene's meals, as The Record does for Staff Writer Elisa Ung.