Christie pushing back against ex-aide on trial in GWB case

"Saturday Night Live" lampooned the third and final debate between Democrat Hillary Clinton and wacko racist Donald J. Trump, above and below. When Alex Baldwin's Trump used the phrase "bad hombres," Kate McKinnon's Clinton declared she had won "Trump Bingo" ("rapists," "Miss Piggy," "They're all living in hell" and "If she wasn't my daughter").

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If I didn't know better, I'd think reporters and columnists at The Record are taking sides in the trial of Governor Christie's ex-aides in the Bridgegate scandal. 

Today's lead story by Dustin Racioppi reports the Intergovernmental Affairs department (IGA) "did not become politicized until" right-hand man Bill Stepien left "and turned over duties to Bridget Anne Kelly" (A-1).

Kelly is on trial in Newark federal court, accused of working with Port Authority officials to block access to the George Washington Bridge as political retribution against Fort Lee's Democratic mayor, who refused to back the GOP bully's reelection in 2013.

That clashes with her testimony, including her claim that her email to David Wildstein, Christie's Port Authority crony -- "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" -- wasn't an "order."

Tarring Kelly

Until today, Bridget Kelly enjoyed several days of being portrayed in flattering terms by Columnist Mike Kelly, who profiled her and then wrote a long piece commenting on her Friday testimony, which he called "her side of the story."

But Racioppi quotes a former head of the state Ethics Commission suggesting an investigation into whether the IGA under Bridget Kelly "conducted political activity during state time, using state resources, using state employees to do it" (A-6).

It's also troubling that Racioppi refers several times to an "investigation" commissioned by Christie that eventually cost taxpayers more than $10 million -- the lead lawyer, Randy Mastro, was charging $650 an hour.

That report was widely viewed as a whitewash of the governor's role in the George Washington Bridge scandal -- confirmed by Kelly and other witnesses who said the governor knew of the lane closures in Fort Lee as they occurred.

As an example of how today's piece amounts to major push-back by Christie, Racioppi quotes Mastro's report as claiming IGA "functioned very effectively during the first three years of the governor's first term, both in terms of responsiveness and non-partisanship" (A-6).

"But, then, during the governor's reelection year, under [Bridget] Kelly's stewardship, there was aberrational behavior at Kelly's direction," Mastro claimed.

Bridgegate trial testimony so far: Christie, Christie, Christie

The cover of today's New York Post sums up testimony by Bridgegate trial star witness David Wildstein, a crony Governor Christie appointed to a powerful position at the Port Authority, owner and operator of the George Washington Bridge.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Despite Governor Christie's denial -- repeated on Tuesday -- the weight of the evidence in the Bridgegate trial places him at the center of the plot to punish the mayor of Fort Lee in September 2013.

Christie wasn't indicted in the George Washington Bridge lane closures -- five mornings of gridlock designed to retaliate against a Democrat who refused to endorse the GOP thug's re-election.

Still, only his sworn testimony before a federal jury would effectively answer the accusations from prosecutors and David Wildstein, described by The Record today "as the admitted mastermind of the plot" (A-1).

Wildstein pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against two Christie allies who are on trial in Newark, but the judge will consider a reduced sentence only if the former Port official tells the truth.

On Tuesday, Wildstein said he and his boss, defendant Bill Baroni -- then deputy executive director of the Port Authority -- looked forward "to telling Christie of the traffic jam and unheeded pleas for help from their target," Mayor Mark Sokolich (A-1 and A-4).

They did so at the 9/11 ceremony on Sept. 11, 2013, as attested to by a photo of the trio that shows Christie laughing.

Two of three local access lanes to the bridge were shut down from Sept. 9, 2013, the first day of school; to Sept. 13, 2013.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Cortes asked Wildstein if he and Baroni were bragging to the governor.

"Yes," Wildstein testified, "... I was pleasing our one constituent. I was happy that he was happy" (A-4).

Other news?

Usually, Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi's gee-whiz photos of non-fatal accidents end up on L-3 to fill holes in the local-news report.

But today, his Page 1 photo captured the aftermath of a crash of a large SUV that rolled backward, hit a utility pole and pulled down electric wires -- all of this after a woman parked and got out of the vehicle on Van Schaik Lane in Wyckoff, leaving her 2-year-old son inside.

"The mother did not wish to be identified," the photo caption says of the seemingly irresponsible woman.

Clinton won debate

After not committing to either Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald J. Trump after their first TV debate, an editorial today says Clinton "commanded" the stage (A-8).

"One candidate prepared to talk about the issues, while the other was prepared to talk about himself."

"Hillary Clinton obviously won Monday's debate in a rout," said NYTimes.com Op-Ed Columnist David Leonhardt.

Local news

In a rare story about Hackensack, Staff Writer John Seasly reports that city officials celebrated the start of construction on a new Performing Arts Center (L-1).

Under that is the obituary of J. Herbert Leverette, 87, a Korean War veteran who was elected Hackensack's first black council member in 1965.

Trial explores how Christie's politics turned into criminality

This Jan. 9, 2014, front page from a New York tabloid shows the kind of aggressive reporting that assumed Governor Christie had a central role in the George Washington Bridge lane closures -- a conclusion only now dawning on The Record's editors after a week of testimony in the Bridgegate trial.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

From the looks of The Record's front page today, the editors appear to be the last people on Earth to realize Governor Christie had a central role in the Bridgegate scandal.

Meanwhile, opinion Columnist Brigid Harrison says the state Legislature should consider articles of impeachment against the governor, if the evidence shows he knew all along about retaliating against a Democratic mayor who refused to endorse the GOP thug's reelection (O-3).

Harrison -- a professor at Montclair State University -- wrote the same column for The Star-Ledger three days ago.

What has Record Columnist Mike Kelly been saying about the criminal trial of Bill Baroni, who was at the Port Authority, and Bridget Anne Kelly, who was Christie's deputy chief of staff?

"Consider what we are learning about all of these public servants who took on tasks that were never part of their job descriptions," Kelly says.

"All this extra work. Truly amazing to behold" (O-1).

Harrison's impeachment column should have run on Page 1, and Kelly's sophomoric attempt at satire shouldn't have run at all.

Nail in coffin

One of the final nails in Christie's coffin was driven by David Wildstein, the crony he appointed to a powerful position at the Port Authority, owner and operator of the bridge.

Wildstein, the government's star witness, testified on Friday about what he called "the one constituent rule" at the massive bi-state transportation agency (A-1 on Saturday).

"The one constituent rule meant that the only person who mattered was Governor Christie," Wildstein told the federal jurors.

"He was the one constituent. If it was good for Governor Christie, it was good for us."

Wildstein referred to Kelly, one of the defendants, as one of his main contacts in the Governor's Office and his "boss" (A-8 on Saturday).

In fact, prosecutors allege Kelly's email to Wildstein, using their personal accounts -- "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" -- set into motion closure of GWB access lanes and five mornings of paralyzing gridlock in September 2013.

His testimony suggests that is when Christie's politics turned into criminal acts -- including  conspiracy to deny the civil rights of Fort Lee residents and others, as well as wire fraud.

Wildstein also testified the Port Authority had a "goody bag" to help Christie's reelection effort and presidential aspirations, including surplus vehicles sent to Washington Township's emergency squad.

Wasted space

As The Record has done many times in covering Christie, Saturday's front page carries a long, detailed news story on Wildstein's testimony in Newark federal court and a political column that basically rehashes what he said.

But Staff Writer Charles Stile's Political Stile column is a colossal waste of space, failing to add any insights or express any strong opinions about Christie's mean-spirited policies, reelection campaign or failed White House bid.

And in an editing oversight, Stile refers to the "Constituency of One Rule," and the news story calls it "the one constituent rule."

Local news?

S0-called commuting columnist John Cichowski could be writing about greater fuel efficiency, the transition to hybrid and purely electric vehicles, and the benefit to the environment.

He could advise his peers that even EVs with a range of 100 miles on a full charge suit the limited driving of most senior citizens.

Instead, Cichowski's Road Warrior column today revives the age-old debate over whether car engines really need premium gasoline (L-1).

On L-3, a story discusses added parking spaces at Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood instead of what the district is doing to improve graduation rates.

Mixed message

On Friday, Staff Writer Elisa Ung gave 2.5 stars out of 4 stars (Good to Excellent) to Brookside Bistro in Riverdale, a Morris County town far from the heart of the circulation area in Bergen County.

Yet, she also told readers the restaurant would be good for "a casual dinner, if you live in the neighborhood," but less appropriate for a "destination ... dinner." 

Huh?

Editors: America is under attack! America is under attack!

An image from the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office Facebook page shows the garbage pail torn apart by an explosive device that discharged before thousands of runners were due to participate in a charity race on Saturday in Seaside Park to benefit Marines and sailors.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The potential for many injuries and deaths from weekend bombings in Manhattan and New Jersey can't be denied.

But the overwrought coverage in The Record since Sunday exaggerates the danger of the lone suspect, Ahmad Khan Rahami, and feeds into the demonization of Muslims by wacko racist Donald J. Trump, the GOP presidential nominee.

Today's front page is dominated by a photo of the bearded Elizabeth man, who "fought violently with a family member, had a court battle over child custody and support, and struggled with joblessness," according to the melodramatic lead paragraph.

That could also describe thousands of people living in the metropolitan area.

On Tuesday, Record Staff Writer Mike Kelly wrung his hands and gnashed his teeth over law enforcement being powerless to detect "the enemy disguised as neighbor and friend," as the headline over his column put it.

Kelly was too quick to compare the killing of 49 people in an Orlando, Fla., gay nightclub to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in which nearly 3,000 died. 

I haven't seen any Kelly columns on how, summer after summer, Paterson police have been powerless to stop the gang violence that results in the killing of innocent bystanders.

Fort Lee favors

In Bridgegate trial testimony on Tuesday, Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, described many enticements from Republican Governor Christie, but testified he ultimately refused to endorse him for reelection in November 2013.

And the borough's police chief said that he recommended relatives of anyone who died as the result of the September 2013 traffic jams caused by closing access lanes to the George Washington Bridge sue the bridge owner and operator, the Port Authority.

Two of the governor's former allies, Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, are accused of causing the traffic jams for five days to punish Sokolich.

Local news?

The local editors' fascination with photos of cars that flip or roll over continues (L-3).

A rare story about Hackensack, the biggest community in Bergen County, appears on L-6 today.

Staff Writer John Seasly reports the city has dropped plans to privatize sanitation pickups, citing "minimal savings," according to a press release from Mayor John Labrosse, whose name is misspelled "Lacrosse" throughout the story.

The last name of City Manager David Troast is misspelled "Toast," and the last name of Chief Financial Officer James Mangin is misspelled "Margin."

Seasly, who was assigned to cover Hackensack in February, spells only one of the names correctly, that of Bergen County NAACP President Anthony Cureton, who denounced the plan because most of the sanitation workers are black and Hispanic.

Since Seasly took over the beat, he has covered only the City Council, Police Department and downtown redevelopment.

As far as readers know, he hasn't covered a single Board of Education meeting. Nor did he cover the campaign of nine candidates for three seats in the April school election.

The school budget, which was approved by a tiny minority of registered voters, accounts for 44% of the property tax bill in Hackensack.

Unhealthy recipes

If I didn't know better, I'd accuse Food Editor Esther Davidowitz and freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson of Upper Saddle River of trying to kill older readers with recipes that use sugar, butter or full-fat cheese, none of which is good for your heart (BL-2).

Today, the clueless Jackson promotes a Brown Sugar Poundcake with 2 whole sticks of butter, 1 cup of brown sugar and 4 whole eggs.

Yuck!

After 7 months in obscurity, editor emerges with a rosy tale

A photo of Dan Sforza, managing editor of The Record, from his Twitter page.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Readers get a rare look at how The Record's newsroom works in today's story about the "Miracle on the Hudson" by Managing Editor Dan Sforza.

Sforza has had a long career at the newspaper -- as the Englewood reporter, transportation reporter, assistant head local assignment editor; and, since late January, as "managing" editor.

What he's been doing for seven months isn't known.

Today's story on A-3 is an upbeat tale about how "The Record's team of reporters, photographers, editors, graphic artists and designers jumped into action" in late afternoon on Jan. 15, 2009, after "a plane had hit the water" of the Hudson River.

Noting "our newsroom had dealt with its share of plane crashes" -- including the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center -- Sforza recalled that staffers wondered, "Could anyone survive?"

Reporters and photographers were dispatched to both sides of the Hudson, he says.

But Sforza doesn't explain why the dramatic A-3 photo of the US Airways Airbus -- floating on the water with passengers standing on the wings -- carries an Associated Press credit, and didn't come from one of The Record's staff photographers. 

On Thursday in Hackensack, I took NJ Transit's No. 165 Turnpike Express to Manhattan, and found myself aboard an old bus whose rear brakes screech loudly at every stop.

Demonizing transit 

Nor does he tell you anything about the low quality of the day-to-day coverage when he was reporting and editing transportation stories.

More than 20 years ago, Sforza was the reporter who wrote two front-page stories on "highways of the future" while ignoring screeching brakes and loud engines on NJ Transit commuter buses.

Those buses are still in use, and their rear brakes still screech loudly at every stop.

As an editor, Sforza went on the warpath against the extension of NJ Transit's light-rail service to Englewood and Tenafly. 

Sforza did lead the reporting that kept the Port Authority from allowing 737 jets to land at Teterboro Airport.

But he and every transportation reporter after him has ignored Hackensack and other communities that are plagued by noisy business aircraft that use the airport.

Christie's emails

Today's lead story is about Governor Christie's use of personnel emails to conduct government business and to retaliate against Democrats.

A judge sided with North Jersey Media Group, which is seeking "a range of records," including emails sent around the time of the George Washington Bridge lane closures in 2013 (A-1).

The GOP bully, his idol Donald J. Trump and other Republicans spend most of their time attacking Democrat Hillary Clinton on her use of emails.  

Today's front page

Sadly, high school football gets better Page 1 play than Staff Writer Scott Fallon's profile of oceanographer Alan Blumberg under a terrific headline:

"Come hype or high water, he called it"

Ad nauseam coverage of the 15th anniversary of 9/11 continues unabated, with stories on banking (A-1), local ceremonies (L-3) and pop culture (BL-1).

In Sunday's Travel section, delivered with today's paper, jet-lagged Travel Editor Jill Schensul discusses how "terrorism" has changed flying, as if she is the only one who has boarded a plane in the last 15 years. 

Local news?

The Local news section delivered to Bergen County residents carries four stories from Paterson (L-1 and L-2), a story from Clifton and a photo from Woodland Park (both on L-2). 

For some reason, the profile of environmentalist Tim Eustace, an assemblyman and former Maywood mayor, was pushed back to one of the obit pages (L-5).

Eustace, the new chairman of the Assembly's Environment and Solid Waste Committee, is treated like a freak, because he has solar panels on the roof of his home and an electric car in the driveway.

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.

Justice delayed is justice denied in slow New Jersey courts

The unmarked entrance to the polling place in Hackensack's Fairmount School, where poll workers far outnumbered voters early this afternoon. In the primary election, Democrats and Republicans chose candidates for president, House of Representative, convention delegates and county offices.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If the federal criminal trial in the George Washington Bridge case actually starts on Sept. 12 in Newark, that will be a few days past the three-year anniversary of the politically motivated lane closures in Fort Lee.

And that's a big "if," because U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman told The Record he didn't think an appeals court ruling on a conspirators list "is going to decide it," suggesting the U.S. Supreme Court may get involved (A-1 and A-6).

Meanwhile, two men who were racing Ferraris in the Meadowlands on May 13, 2012, just pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging them in the death of a Kinnelon man whose motorcycle was hit head-on (L-1).

And to fully realize how slow our court system is just take a look at the timeline in the battle to provide affordable housing since landmark New Jersey Supreme Court rulings in 1975 and 1983 (A-1 and A-6).

Our glacial court system, with layers of possible appeals, enriches lawyers, and often denies justice to plaintiffs and victims.

Today's front page

Editor Deirdre Sykes' front page does little to advance the cause of justice, serving up two long stories on the Mount Laurel rulings and the endless appeals since the Bridgegate indictments (A-1).

Most of the page is taken up by a lame feature on flag football.

Hackensack news?

The first Business page today carries the second story on Hackensack's Main Street in a few days, this one about the closing of a mom-and-pop jewelry store (L-7).

On Page 1, a brief on the closing of Gold Ray Jewelers carries this headline:

"Main Street losing more of its sparkle"

That's rich, coming from a publisher who has never acknowledged how the 2009 closing of North Jersey Media Group and Record headquarters on River Street devastated the city where the Borg family prospered for more than 110 years.

Whose health?

In Better Living today, the YOUR HEALTH feature contains little of interest to the vast majority of readers, who are older or retired (BL-3).

The major piece is about millennials and their suicidal eating habits. 

Two briefs involve the health of children with and without autism.

The Better Living front promotes three recipes with goat cheese -- the kind of full-fat, artery clogging dairy most readers try to avoid like the plague (BL-1).

As Bridgegate case drags on, lawyers are having last laugh

Parts of Main Street outside of downtown Hackensack have been repaved, as have other streets, but State Street and a narrow stretch of River Street still give drivers a rough ride.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The latest delay in releasing the list of "unindicted co-conspirators" in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal serves only to line the pockets of the many lawyers involved.

Governor Christie alone has managed to spend more than $10 million in taxpayer funds on his law firm's elaborate stonewalling of public suspicions that he was involved in the September 2013 dirty trick against Fort Lee's Democratic mayor.

Christie's lawyer, Randy Mastro, actually had the balls to announce he was lowering his hourly fee to $650 from $1,000.

Despite the obvious bias of Mastro's final report, The Record has time and again pointed to it as evidence Christie did nothing wrong.

And the Woodland Park daily allowed WNYC-FM and other media to take the lead in keeping track of Mastro's bloated bills to the Governor's Office.

Three-year delay

Now, the trial of Bill Baroni, who was the Port Authority's deputy director, and Bridget Anne Kelly, then deputy chief of staff to Christie, is set for this September -- three years after the event.

David Wildstein, a Christie crony on the Port Authority, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy last May, and is expected to testify against Baroni and Kelly.

We can only guess at the huge legal bills facing this trio, and whether they had to take second and third mortgages on their homes.

Silence on fees

High legal fees deny many people their day in court.

That doesn't trouble The Record or North Jersey Media Group, which has deep pockets and doesn't hesitate to finance such First Amendment cases as trying to make public the list of people who weren't charged in the lane-closure scandal.

At the same time, the editors also have done their best to hide just how much lawyers get from multi-million dollar jury awards and settlements by simply not reporting them.

And when is the last time you saw a story reporting that a plaintiff is paying $200, $300 or $400 an hour for representation or that a criminal defendant might have to come up with a $10,000 retainer to get a lawyer to appear in court with him? 

Law-firm merger

The Record stays silent on legal fees even as it promotes a Hackensack law firm that has been paid handsomely to represent NJMG in everything from age-discrimination lawsuits to copyright infringement cases.

A story on the Saturday Business page reported Pashman Stein is merging with Walder Hayden of Roseland, but didn't identify the Hackensack firm as the one that's favored by NJMG Vice President and General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg.

Local news?

The Record's Local front today includes three sensational court stories, and two more appear on L-3 along with crime news.

Yet, two local obituaries were buried on L-5, including one for the Fort Lee man who ran Zabar's deli counter.

"To the legions who shop at Zabar's, the Upper West Side specialty food emporium, Harold Horowytz was the prince of pastrami, the king of corned beef, the lord of lox," Staff Writer Jay Levin wrote.

Below the Horowytz obituary, Levin reported the death of Allen Wahlberg, a longtime Ho-Ho-Kus councilman.

So, Horowytz and Wahlberg are treated the same as Madeleine LeBeau, an obscure French actress whose obit also is played on L-5.

Bias against Obama

What motivated The Record's editors to take a pot shot at President Obama in the coverage of his speech to Rutgers University graduates on Sunday?

The reporting I saw elsewhere was overwhelmingly positive, but The Record's main Page 1 story on Monday ended on a surprisingly sour note.

What exactly was the point of quoting a parent, Vince Zangli, saying he "couldn't be more disappointed in the last eight years," a clear reference to Obama's two terms in office?

Of course, that is consistent with all of the attacks on Obama by Christie and Record Columnist Mike Kelly.

Still, many readers are asking whether Zangli, Christie, Kelly, the editors and the reporter who quoted the parent are motivated by racial animus against the nation's first black president.

Coach Christie?

And why didn't The Record and other media question Christie's excuse for boycotting Obama's speech.

Who believes that fat slob's claim that he has coached his son in baseball "since he was 7 years old," and wanted to see him pitch his last college game?

On Page 1, editors make big deal out of small transit story

In downtown Englewood, this North Dean Street storefront has been vacant forever, perhaps a testament to the exorbitant rent demanded by the landlord.

Syros Taverna on Palisade Avenue in Englewood was virtually empty on Thursday around 6 p.m., as were many other nearby restaurant.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record has had a long line of reporters too lazy to ride NJ Transit buses and trains, and report on the quality of service, as did top journalists who wrote subway columns for the New York City papers.

That may be why the Woodland Park daily ignored for months, if not years, long delays faced by North Jersey commuters who board buses for home at the antiquated Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan.

And that's why The Record hasn't reported commuters from Bergen and Passaic counties often can't find seats on buses and trains during the morning rush.

Off the rails

Now, Christopher Maag, the latest in a long line of mediocre transportation reporters, goes on and on today about a decidedly minor transit story, the AirTrain at Newark Liberty International Airport.

The big-black headline is so wrong it's criminal:

AirTrain's demise

comes as no surprise

Few readers will plow through this history lesson to find out the AirTrain's "demise" or death isn't coming until at least 2022 (A-6).

The Port Authority may have squandered millions or billions of dollars on the monorail, but this bi-state agency isn't, after all, supported by taxes.

Patronage mill

What can you expect from an agency famous for cost overruns, one that is little more than a patronage mill for the governors of New York and New Jersey?

That's why Governor Christie apparently was able to get his cronies to shut down lanes on the George Washington Bridge, using the span to retaliate against Democrats who refused to endorse him for reelection.

Maag and the editors who give him his marching orders continue to ignore the biggest transportation stories of all:

The fallout from Christie's 2010 decision to pull the plug on Hudson River rail tunnels, and his refusal to back a higher gasoline tax to fund road and bridge repairs, and transit improvements.

Muslims, Syrians

Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin is so eager to breath life into Christie's dying campaign for the White House he completely forgets to mention the GOP bully wanted to bar all Syrians, even orphans, from entering New Jersey (A-9).

And he made that statement long before Donald Trump said he would bar all Muslims from entering the United States.

Local news?

Today's Local section carries two stories about Teaneck (L-1), and one on Englewood (L-3), but nothing from Hackensack, biggest of the three.

Staff Writer Stephanie Noda's piece on cleanup of the old police pistol range doesn't mention how the noise of early morning gunfire awakened hundreds of Englewood residents for years, especially those who worked at night in hospitals or on the copy desk of The Record.  

Editors come clean on Christie's dictatorial rule by veto

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN: Yet another resurfacing of the already cramped parking lot at the Alfred N. Sanzari Medical Arts Building at 360 Essex St. in Hackensack, above and below, has customers of Starbucks Coffee and other businesses wondering why the lot has to be repaired so frequently. Major work on the lot and sidewalks was finished in January 2015.

Late Tuesday afternoon, a security guard helped drivers negotiate the restricted parking, and pointed them to an exit lane that eliminated most of the spaces facing Essex Street. An alternative is a parking garage under the building.

Editor's note: This post has been revised to report that Melissa Hayes left her job covering Governor Christie for The Record.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In a long-awaited update on Governor Christie's rule by veto, The Record today finally reports the GOP bully has killed more than 400 bills since early 2010.

"Christie ... boasts often on the [presidential] campaign trail of vetoing more than 400 bills and keeping his party together when the Democrats who control the Legislature try to override him," Dustin Racioppi reports from Trenton.

Yet, readers have lost count of how many times Record political Columnist Charles Stile and onetime Staff Writer Melissa Hayes have regurgitated the B.S. Christie has used to mask his dictatorial rule. 

How does that go? Christie claims he is bipartisan and a compromiser who can work miracles when government is divided, as it is in Trenton and Washington. 

What nonsense.

Update

Hayes said goodbye to the grind of daily journalism to take a job as "editor and social media specialist" at the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority.

The federally authorized agency says it oversees more than $2 billion in transportation improvement projects each year in the 13-county northern New Jersey region, and provides a "forum for inter-agency cooperation and public input."

On Twitter, she identifies herself as "former @GovChristie reporter for The Record."

One person who follows her noted:

She seems like a nice person, but too often just repeated the Christie line. I guess that was her assignment by her editors and leave the critical analysis to their "star" columnists.

One thing I'll say about the NJPTA's mission statement is it's news to me that under Christie, there have been $2 billion in North Jersey "transportation improvement projects" each year.

First override

What is the occasion of today's long-overdue update on a Record story that appeared months ago, when Christie's vetoes topped 350?

The Record is reporting the first override of a Christie veto, this one of a bill requiring police to "communicate with the courts when someone seeks to get his mental health record expunged in order to obtain a gun permit" (A-1).

Fifty-two other override attempts failed on measures "as ambitious and politically fraught" as Port Authority reform, public employee pension fund payments and a Superstorm Sandy bill of rights.

Disdain for issues

With the phrase "politically fraught," the editors expose their distaste for reporting on what is good for the people of New Jersey as opposed to endless explorations of partisan politics.

This very story demonstrates how the editors have sanitized Christie's record, failing to mention his vetoes of a hike in the state's minimum wage, as well as tax surcharges on millionaires and corporations.

He also has threatened to veto any increase in the low gas tax to fund repairs of roads and bridges, a levy that would make drivers pay for the wear and tear they cause.

'Absentee governor'

An editorial says Christie's "quest" for the GOP presidential nomination "has hurt him big in New Jersey" (A-20).

"Residents have little love for an absentee governor," the editorial says, and Republicans [who helped override the veto] "are beginning to understand that if they hope to keep their seats post-Christie, they had better start standing on their own two feet now."

That goes for Editor Martin Gottlieb, columnists and reporters whose credibility has been severely damaged by swallowing whole Christie's public relations -- from "Reform Agenda" to "Stronger than the Storm" to his claims of innocence in the George Washington Bridge lane-closures scandal.

Simply put, Christie is the worst governor in state history. 

That's about the only big story of interest from Gottlieb, who seems obsessed with baseball, which dominates A-1 today as it did on Wednesday and Thursday.

The editor continues to show disdain for local readers, especially those who ride NJ Transit buses, by burying a story on Port Authority approval of a design competition for a new midtown Manhattan bus terminal (A-4).

Local news?

As usual, a Road Warrior column on teens crashing cars is full of statistics, but with Staff Writer John Cichowski's track record, readers don't know how many errors he made in transposing the numbers from a state report (L-1).

Nor are readers likely to see a correction of Cichowski's numerous past and present errors on A-2 anytime soon.

One issue Cichowski ignores is parents allowing their teens to drive powerful cars even though new drivers get absolutely no training on how to handle all that horsepower.

Law & Order stories dominate the rest of the local-news section, revealing the usual distaste for municipal reporting exhibited by Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza.

La Famiglia

The are only a dozen paragraphs in today's lukewarm review of La Famiglia, an Italian-American restaurant in Bogota with a new owner and chef (BL-16).

Yet, two of them are devoted to critic Elisa Ung's obsession with artery clogging desserts. 

Where does she find the room for them after such big meals, especially when the dishes she ordered were made with loads of full-fat cheese?

Not does she explain why she didn't order fresh, wild-caught fish instead of shellfish and crustaceans. 

Does the restaurant serve salads and vegetables? 

Finally, she reports the restaurant's menu "remains moderately priced," but on my one visit to La Famiglia many years ago, I found it good but expensive and never returned.

Thursday's paper

Thursday's front page had to be one of the biggest turnoffs in recent memory.

The main element, the Mets' playoff victory, had readers eyes rolling, but there wasn't much else in three more enormously boring stories:

Vice President Joe Biden's decision not to run for president, a ruling on the LG building plan in Englewood Cliffs that doesn't resolve anything and a local GOP debate.

The local editors were so desperate they led their section with yet another story about Rep. Scott Garrett's fundraising (Wednesday's L-1). 

Censorship

Today's Hackensack Chronicle reports on the Oct. 15 debate among three of the four candidates for the Hackensack City Council in a special Nov. 3 election.

News Editor Jennifer Vasquez reports "over 20" people were there, including school board and council members.

That sounds like a private party, not a public forum.

No attendance figure appeared in The Record's report of the same event.

You have to wonder when reporters who cover Hackensack are going to look into the causes of such apparent voter apathy or question whether Temple Beth El made any effort to get the word out to city residents.

Record reporter Todd South noted moderator Larry Eisen only allowed written questions to eliminate ones that were "too personal."

Vasquez said Eisen was trying to avoid "accusatory questions."

That's censorship, pure and simple.