Paterson police czar has more young blood on his hands

An art gallery on Palisade Avenue in Englewood.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

At least Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale has learned to talk the talk when another innocent young life is taken on the city's violent streets.

"We are not going to give up," Speziale told The Record, "we are going to do what we have to do to make a safe city."

You'll have to search for the interview, buried as it is on the continuation page of the A-1 story on the shooting death of Armoni Sexton, 15 (A-7).

The editors have been treating the police director gently -- Heaven forbid he is put on the spot -- even though the 6-foot-7 aspiring basketball star is the third young person killed by random gunshots in less than a year (A-1).

What exactly is Speziale waiting for before he asks for help from the state police or the Passaic County Sheriff's Office, which he once headed?

It's pretty obvious Paterson police are unable to control gun violence on city streets. How many more kids have to die?

Forget about appealing directly to Governor Christie, even if he can be found.

He's already screwed Paterson royally with state aid cuts that forced the layoff of 125 officers in 2011. Now, even with new hires, the force is 20% smaller than before the cut.

Rough editing

They've been at it for decades, but Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sfroza still can't handle breaking news.

The reporting and editing of the stories on Sexton's death are poor.

The main front-page headlines stink:

Death Avenue claims another

Paterson teen

is third fatally shot

in past 10 months

Why not use the word "gunman" or "gunmen" to indicate that it is uncontrolled gun ownership that claimed the boy's life, not a street called "Death Avenue"?

The photo caption on Page 1 shows Gloria Sexton, who is identified as "a family member of Armoni Sexton," apparently because the photographer didn't ask her relationship to the dead teen. 

Why didn't the editor who wrote that just say she is the teen's "relative"?

This same caption mentions "the street near Godwin Avenue and Rosa Parks Boulevard, where the 15-year-old was shot Saturday."

But the first paragraph of the lead news story reports Sexton was with a group of teenagers "on Rosa Parks Boulevard" when he was shot, not "near" the intersection of Godwin and Rosa Parks (A-1).

Finally, also in the lead paragraph, Sexton is called inappropriately one of the "children" who "have lost their lives in the violence that strangles every day life in city neighborhoods."

Later, Sexton and the two girls who were killed by gunshots in the past year, Nazerah Bugg, 14; and Genesis Rincon, 12, are referred to as "young people" (A-7).

Wasted space

Why is Editor Martin Gottlieb wasting precious Page 1 space on Matt Mowers and Matthew Moroney, two Christie aides in New Hampshire no one has ever heard of?

Staff Writer Melissa Hayes reports the margin of Christie's second-term victory was "impressive," but doesn't note voter turnout was the lowest for any New Jersey gubernatorial election in history (A-1).

Fewer than four out of 10 voters went to the polls for the November 2013 contest, signalling incredible apathy.

A real turkey

Today's Local section literally is a turkey.

The biggest local news is a wild turkey that is being fed in an A&P parking lot in Closter (L-1).

A caption for the photo on L-1 -- showing the 29th annual Lincoln Tunnel Challenge 5K -- doesn't note the race left hundreds of New Jersey motorists frozen in traffic jams at the tunnel's Manhattan entrances late Sunday afternoon.

The right to bear arms claims another innocent victim

Did anyone go to work today? This is Summit Avenue in Hackensack at about 8:15 this morning, usually the height of the rush hour.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A 29-year-old mother of four died in a Walmart when her 2-year-old son reached into her purse "and her concealed gun fired," The Record reports today.

You'd think this story -- not just a brief -- would appear on Page 1.

But it got pushed aside by dry "process" stories -- one on the Affordable Care Act and the other on Democrats launching a futile attempt to override Governor Christie's Port Authority veto (A-1).

As it is, The Associated Press story on the mother's accidental death raises more questions than it answers, much like the stories edited by the paper's local assignment desk.

The story doesn't identify the woman, but says she "had a concealed weapons permit."

So, this another case of the so-called right of citizens to bear arms ending an innocent life.

What a great country. We have so many freedoms, including the right to die by gunshot.

More gun deaths

Just below that story, another Associated Press report says the number of law enforcement officers killed by firearms jumped by 56% this year (A-3).

That included 15 ambush deaths, including the fatal Dec. 20 attacks on two police officers in Brooklyn.

A-2 carries another embarrassing correction -- a name was misspelled in a story on the retirement of a Clifton deputy fire chief.

Christie veto

On A-8 today, an editorial urges the state Legislature to override Christie's veto of Port Authority reforms, but notes lawmakers have "failed to override a single Christie veto" since 2010.

What The Record has never reported in its overwhelmingly favorable coverage of the GOP bully -- including endless portrayals of him as a compromiser -- is whether he has set a record for vetoes by a New Jersey governor.

In a letter to the editor on A-8, Ted Noble of Wayne says there is enough evidence "to indict Christie for mismanagement of New Jersey."

Nazerah Bugg

Of all the 2014 local deaths recognized on Page 1 and the Local front today, the murder of a 14-year-old Paterson teen was among the most unjust.

Nazerah Bugg, an aspiring basketball player, was shot and killed on a street corner on Sept. 20, the victim of gang gunfire (L-1).

Her death followed the July murder of Genesis Rincon, 12, as she was riding her bike to a grocery store in Paterson.

Paterson police laid off 125 officers after Christie cut state aid to the impoverished city in 2011.

The Record has reported "mismanagement of the city budget" contributed to those personnel cuts.

Bergen's executive-elect can't get any respect from editors

I had an uneventful trip into the city on Veterans Day, boarding NJ Transit's No. 165 Local in Hackensack, above, and arriving at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan in under an hour.

The return trip on the 165 Turnpike Express to Hackensack and Westwood also went smoothly, but about 50 people lined up to board the bus, which left at 3:05 p.m., well before the rush hour started. The Record reported on Wednesday that lines at the antiquated terminal appear to be shorter.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's readers are witnessing a near-total breakdown in the checks and balances that produce an accurate and credible newspaper.

Today, Page A-2 carries the same correction it did on Tuesday -- a photo of Bergen County Democratic Chairman Lou Stellato was incorrectly identified as James Tedesco, the county's executive-elect.

This time, the photo of Stellato was a small thumbnail showing only his head -- apparently taken from the larger photo of the powerful pol that ran on Sunday -- but the double chin and glasses clearly set him apart from Tedesco.

The error likely was made by a lowly layout editor who was completely oblivious of the earlier embarrassing error with the larger Stellato photo in Sunday's Opinion section.

If you add these errors to the hundreds of uncorrected screw-ups in the Road Warrior column in recent years, it's a sad commentary on the editors' seeming inability to produce a reliable newspaper.

Forced busing

For example, on Wednesday, the front page carried a long story from transportation reporter Christopher Maag, heralding small changes that have eased afternoon rush-hour delays at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan.

For years, The Record's lazy transportation editor and reporters ignored those delays, but they were finally roused by angry letters from bus commuters at the end of last year.

Maag chose to observe at 5:30 p.m. Monday -- "the height of the rush hour" -- when, he says, "a few short lines formed and disappeared almost immediately into waiting buses."

Later in the story, he concedes "this week was an anomaly," given that some commuters may have stayed home for a four-day weekend that included Veterans Day on Tuesday.

So, can we rely on the story as an accurate reflection of improving bus terminal conditions?

The line for an express bus I took back to Hackensack on Tuesday at 3:05 p.m. had at least 50 people on it -- more passengers than seats. That's hardly "short."

Protecting Christie

In a front-page story today on the federal health insurance marketplace, there is absolutely no mention of how Governor Christie tried to sabotage the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act (A-1).

Instead of reporting Christie refused to set up a state exchange, as New York and Connecticut did, Staff Writer Lindy Washburn makes a vague reference to the "few state resources" that "are spent to encourage Obamacare signups" in New Jersey.

The GOP bully joined conservative governors in 35 other states in refusing to set up their own exchanges, overwhelming the federal exchange with millions of unanticipated applicants.

Genesis Rincon

A story on Paterson narcotics detectives confiscating 4,500 packets of heroin from two drug dealers reports they "were operating less than 200 feet from where 12-year-old Genesis Rincon was fatally shot riding her scooter last summer" (L-3).

Is there a connection?

Or is Police Director Jerry Speziale saying city police are doing a far better job confiscating heroin packets than they are preventing the murder of innocent young girls?

Why bother?

How many readers are going to try and get a reservation at Sergio's Missione, a shrine to Italian-American food in Lodi?

Today's lukewarm, 2-star review makes you wonder why The Record and Staff Writer Elisa Ung don't just cut their losses, and publish a few cautionary paragraphs?

The data box mentions a three-course early bird special for $15.95 that might be worth the detour, but there is nothing about it on the restaurant's Web site.

Ung, the paper's chief restaurant reviewer, doesn't say she sampled the meal, likely because the restaurant refused to serve her three dessert courses.

Second look

Last Sunday, Road Warrior John Cichowski tried to write a column correcting a previous report on the Graduated Driving License law (GDL), which requires red decals on the license plates of drivers 21 and younger.

But the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers says the befuddled reporter just made more mistakes:

"The Road Warrior continues to misreport that the estimated reductions in crashes were mainly due to red decal provisions.

"The study repeatedly indicated that while red decals could be an important component, the reductions were mainly due to multiple provisions in the 2010 GDL law, which also included the red decals.

"The Road Warrior reported the study indicated that the red decals yielded more safety advantages than disadvantages. This implies that the study mentioned a number of disadvantages.

"However, the study indicated there were no reported disadvantages due to the red decals."

See: Road Warrior's IQ continues to drop 

Paterson homicides keep rising, cops hit snooze button

The Oritani Field Club in Hackesnack has seen better days, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The front-page announcement of seven arrests in the slaying of Nazareh Bugg, a high school freshman and aspiring basketball star, comes from the county Prosecutor's Office, not from Paterson's dysfunctional Police Department.

You'd think Page 1 of The Record would be reserved for police who prevented the deaths of the 14-year-old and another young girl gunned down on Paterson's violent streets over the summer, Genesis Rincon, 12.

But Editor Martin Gottlieb, his predecessors and the paper's editorial writers have stood by for years as the Paterson Police Department, headed by a white chief until recently, allowed gangs and gunmen to roam freely across Silk City.

Now, with the headline-grabbing former sheriff, Jerry Speziale, installed as police director, little has changed except the lip service being paid to safer streets.

Slayings rise

"Nazareh was the 19th homicide victim in the city this year," The Record reports (A-6). "The 20th homicide occurred early Saturday when a 20-year-old man ... was fatally shot.... Last year, the city had a total of 18 homicides."

Why doesn't the almighty Record call on Governor Christie to send in state troopers, as a previous Republican governor did in Camden?

After all, Christie's state aid cuts to poor cities forced the layoffs of 125 officers in Paterson. 

How many layoffs?

The upbeat history of Becton, Dickinson and Co. on Page 1 today doesn't report the messy details of how many workers will be losing their jobs until nearly the end of the story, and then only superficially (A-1 and A-6).

Nor is there any mention of how many of the company's products may have been involved in medical malpractice lawsuits.

I guess the editors had to leave room for yet another story about the Giudices (A-6).

Privileged kids

Look at all that coverage of Gaby Wilday, a Ridgewood mom who is selling healthy organic lunches to rich kids in her village, Wyckoff and Franklin Lakes (BL-1).

Gee. Her 6-year-old didn't like the food served when she was in first grade, and was coming home "weepy, cranky, tired and hungry."

When is the last time you read about unappetizing, low quality school food, especially in Hackensack, where many high school students vote with their feet and eat lunch at Starbucks, Wawa, pizzerias and fast-food places?

I like the idea of parents and schoolchildren being given a chance to order a higher quality, more expensive lunch, but at Hackensack High, only a mediocre lunch costing $2.30 a day is available.

Freelance photos

Boyd A. Loving, a freelancer, could take a photo of a fallen tree branch, and The Record's desperate local assignment editors would buy it from him and plug into a hole in their thin Local section.

Today, his newsworthy photo of a man pinned under an NJ Transit bus in Ridgewood is on L-1, but a second photo -- of a minor flood caused by an SUV that hit a Ridgewood fire hydrant -- is on L-6.

When local editors are accused of ignoring mass transit and the travails of those commuters, they point to the bus-pedestrian accident as proof they are really doing their jobs.

Slain black Paterson teen gets the back of Marty's hand

The Oritani Field Club on East Camden and River streets in Hackensack will close at the end of 2015, and face the wrecking ball to make way for apartments or another type of development. On Thursday morning, four elderly men used the clay tennis courts, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Far be it for me to second-guess you, oh great Martin Gottlieb, whose cub-reporting years at The Record launched a stellar journalism career at The New York Times.

But, Marty, now that you've traded Paris for Paramus as editor of The Record for close to three years, what's going on with your cockamamie news judgment?

Do worthless white trash -- Joe Giudice isn't even a U.S. citizen -- really have more news value than the hundreds of people and 14 police motorcycle officers who turned out for the funeral of an innocent 14-year-old girl who was gunned down on Paterson's violent streets?

Greed party

On Page 1, Marty, you show the cheating and lying Giudices in a large photo after they were sentenced to federal prison, and a column by Virginia Rohan speculates on the future of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" (A-1).

You've allowed Rohan and her assignment editors to make the couple a huge spectacle in numerous stories in recent years, many of which appeared in the Local news section in place of legitimate news.

Rohan even refers to the woman as "Teresa," a newspaper style no-no. First names are reserved for teenagers and children.

Why not just call Teresa Giudice "bimba" and her husband "bimbo"? In the news story and column, I can't even find the name of the town where they live in a $3.9 million McMansion.

Nor is much made of the bimba being allowed to remain free until January.

No respect

Then, Marty, you make us question your highfalutin journalism credentials with photos showing the incredible turnout outside St. Luke Baptist Church in Paterson, and the grief shown by the family of Nazareh Bugg, 14, who was shot dead two weeks ago.

Why are these photos on the Local front and L-6, and not on the front page? 

Who could help but be moved to tears by the stricken look on the face, presumably, of Nazareh's mother as she is being helped out of the church?

For some reason, none of the relatives are identified in the photo captions. 

And you've got to love the Paterson police, the mayor and the white police director for pulling out all the stops for the girl's funeral, but doing little to prevent her death or the shooting death of another girl who had so much promise, Genesis Rincon, 12, on July 5.

Christie and pigs

Governor Christie's travels as head of the Republican Governors Association merit front-page play today, but his mistreatment of pigs is buried in a brief on A-3.

Last year, the GOP bully wallowed in manure as he vetoed the first attempt to regulate the size of crates for housing pregnant pigs on New Jersey farms "after political groups from Iowa ... applied pressure on the governor," the story reports.

Now, an Assembly committee has passed a second bill to address the cruelty of crates that are too small to allow pregnant pigs to turn around (A-3).

Three more embarrassing corrections appear on A-2 today.

Can she write?

Another story on A-3 raises a question about whether Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno can sign or veto bills as acting governor now that she has broken her elbow and wrist in a bicycle accident.

And if her injuries prevent her from signing bills into law, who can? The story doesn't address any of those issues.

Wouldn't it be great if her broken elbow and wrist meant that Senate President Stephen Sweeney or whomever is second in line as acting governor swiftly enacted a hike in the gasoline tax, a tax surcharge on millionaires and other measures to restore the state's economic health?

Ung strikes back

Well, there is plenty of room for Staff Writer Elisa Ung to turn around in her Woodland Park newsroom cubicle and in all of those restaurants she reviews.

But if you keep her waiting for a slice of pie, look out, as the owner and chef of Brigantine Seafood Eatery & Market found out today, when he got a lukewarm 2-star rating (BL-18).

Ung was upset, because on a busy Friday night, the service was slow, and she didn't get her Key lime pie until "almost two hours" after she and her companion sat down.

She sampled two appetizers and three entrees at that meal, but one of the prices is missing, more evidence of sloppy editing and proofing. 

On her first visit, she was upset her peach pie wasn't served warm.

You have to pity the woman, don't you?

The restaurant is "no frills," "bare bones" and "plain," and horrors, doesn't even use tablecloths, Ung reports, so she doesn't think the prices are justified by the fresh, wild-caught seafood served or the generous portions.

She describes "scallops" for $26.95, yet doesn't say how many she was served or whether they were those wonderful, large sea scallops landed in New Jersey.

From her description of the seafood and high level of preparation by Chef Alfred Ianniello, Brigantine Seafood Eatery is a must-visit for people who love fish.

Sadly, her obsession for artery clogging desserts blinds her to that simple truth.

Hackensack news

Hackensack Chronicle reports the City Council and Board of Education have agreed on having two police officers, one to patrol the high school and the other the middle school, until the 2018-19 school year.

The district has agreed to pay about $170,000 a year, and $60,000 to purchase and equip two patrol cars, the weekly newspaper says.

In today's edition, News Editor Jennifer Vazquez reports the agreement was approved at a Sept. 16 meeting, but I don't recall seeing the story in The Record.

Previously, the school district refused to pay $1 million for a school resource officer who was assigned to the high school starting in 2006, because city bureaucrats never sent out the bills.

After shooting, Paterson officials won't talk to Mike Kelly

Traffic was tied into knots today at Main Street and Center Avenue in Fort Lee, where noisy utility work is driving people who live and work in the neighborhood crazy. Police positioned a patrol car to funnel motorists into a single Center Avenue lane. The engine was running, but the only occupant was a large teddy bear in the back seat.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Even the great Mike Kelly couldn't get Paterson Mayor Joey Torres and Police Director Jerry Speziale to comment on the apparent drive-by shooting that killed Nazareh Bugg, 14, a high school freshman, as she walked to a takeout restaurant.

Kelly's musings on breaking news usually appear on Page 1, but today, The Record leads the Local front with his column, including a factual error in the second sentence (L-1).

"On another patch of cracked Paterson sidewalk, where another teenage girl had been murdered in another drive-by shooting, the mothers gathered on Monday," Kelly reports.

Genesis and Nazareh

Putting aside that Kelly has been churning out crap like this for more than 20 years, Genesis Rincon was only 12 when she was killed on July 5; she wasn't, as Kelly says, a "teenage girl."

The follow-up to Nazareh's shooting appears on Page 1 today, and an editorial is on A-10, but neither raises the question of what a 14-old-girl was doing on Paterson's violent streets a few minutes before midnight on Saturday.

Nor does Kelly take any notice. He's too busy documenting "cracked sidewalks" in Paterson.

And The Record just can't bring itself to call Torres and Speziale a pair of official disgraces for allowing the cold-blooded murder of another innocent minority young girl so soon after the first. 

Paper is last again

A short story on Governor Christie losing 85 pounds since having lap-band surgery in February 2013 is from The Philadelphia Inquirer, which, in turn, quotes The New York Times (A-6).

Unfortunately, anyone who lives in New Jersey and isn't a multimillionaire like Publisher Stephen A. Borg are big losers, too, since Christie took office in 2010.

Taxing hospital

Staff Writer Lindy Washburn again fails to report a big reason  for Hackensack University Medical Center's financial health.

HUMC rang up $1.4 billion in annual revenue (L-1), but as "a non-profit," it pays no taxes on more than $180 million in property it owns in Hackensack.

That gives city residents big headaches.

Two other big tax-exempt entities in the city are Bergen County and Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Meanwhile, the Costco Wholesale in Hackensack will remain open after a new warehouse store is completed in Teterboro in November 2015, meaning no loss in property taxes to the hard-pressed city. 

See:

Good and bad news at Hackensack Costco Wholesale

Causes of death?

Local obituaries usually list a cause of death, but that information is missing in two of them today (L-6).

And Arthur "Bub" Tramontin, who died at 94, is called "part of a two-wheel dynasty," but a photo shows him sitting on a motorcycle with three wheels.

Read all about Paterson's deadly present, glorious past

The Bergen County Courthouse, the fifth such building in Hackensack since the city became the county seat in 1710, has a dome modeled on the U.S. Capitol. Unfortunately, this grand building, a new Justice Center going up nearby and all other county property is tax exempt, shifting a crushing burden onto residents and business owners.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Where is Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale, who grabbed headlines as Passaic County sheriff, the No. 2 cop at the Port Authority and police chief of a bankrupt town in Alabama?

In fact, why can't the Paterson police do anything to stop rampant gun violence, which took another innocent "young life" late Saturday night, according to a Page 1 story in The Record today?

Nazareh Bugg, 14, "was walking with friends along Clinton Street, less than a block from the basketball court she dreamed would be her way out of Paterson," the lead paragraph reports (A-1).

The Woodland Park daily says Paterson added police officers after the fatal July shooting of Genesis Rincon, 12, but still had "about 100 fewer than were employed before a 2011 layoff of 125 officers" (A-6).

Lousy reporting

Tomorrow, readers can expect Mike Kelly to write a front-page column, trying to find the "lesson" in the 14-year-old's death, and an editorial writer will wring his or her hands over gun violence in Silk City.

But don't expect the paper to report Governor Christie has the blood of Genesis and Nazareh on his hands, because his state-aid cuts forced the poor, largely minority city to lay off the 125 officers.

Officials in hiding

The paper's reporters couldn't even get Speziale to comment on Saturday night's shooting, and Mayor Joey Torres "could not be reached for comment."

"Paterson police issued a news release with few details," said the story, which was reported and written by three staffers and the editor of the Paterson Press.

This kind of reporting is pathetic, but typical of The Record since Publisher Stephen A. Borg took over and cut costs and veteran newsroom workers.

Purple prose

The story is written to hide its many reporting flaws:

"Soon after gunshots pierced one of the last nights of summer, 14-year-old Nazareh Bugg lay dying in the arms of a friend, as police arrived at the scene of yet another shooting that took the life of a North Jersey youngster" (A-1).

What moron wrote that? "North Jersey youngster"? 

North Jersey largely repudiates Paterson, Passaic and other communities filled with black and Hispanic residents, and racists in Saddle River and other wealthy towns aren't shedding any tears over the teen's death.

City's glorious past

On the Local front today, a story reports Cooper family descendants gathered on Sunday to celebrate Paterson companies that made thousands of diners (L-1).

But there is not a single reference to the city's violent and bloody present or how Christie, other politicians, Speziale and the police have turned their back on residents.

Update

The story was poorly edited, and the day of the shooting wasn't mentioned until the continuation page (A-6), where "late Saturday" appeared in a caption.

Like many readers I assumed it took place on Sunday.

In the text on A-6, the time of the Saturday shooting was given as 11:26 p.m.

Why was Nazareh and her friends allowed to stay out so late? The story is silent on that question.

Climate change

More than 300,000 people demonstrated in Manhattan on Sunday, demanding official action on climate change (A-1).

But North Jersey Media Group's objectivity on the issue is suspect, given all of the advertising revenue the publishing company reaps from automakers and dealers.

Fifteen years after Honda introduced the first hybrid car in America, consumer still have few affordable hybrid or all-electric cars to choose from.

Mass transit

Christie killed a pair of new Hudson River rail tunnels in 2010, "citing potential cost overruns," The Record reports today (A-1).

But Staff Writer Christopher Maag's detailed update on replacement tunnels and other mass-transit improvements continues to emphasize the high cost without giving equal time to the potential benefits.

The paper has done its best to ignore crowded trains, buses and midtown Manhattan's gridlocked terminal, as well as how little the Port Authority has done to expand mass transit.

Still, shouldn't every story on the high cost of new rail tunnels tell readers how many cars will be taken off the road, reducing gasoline consumption, pollution, traffic congestion and lost productivity, and put a dollar amount on the benefits? 

Feeling powerless

Crews have been tearing up streets in Hackensack and many other towns for several weeks now, but a story on the Local front today reports "first steps" in a plan to safeguard the power grid (L-1).

On L-3, a chart says the start date of gas-main replacement in Hackensack is "to be determined."

So why were Salem, State and other streets closed starting in August? Was other work being done?

And this afternoon, police had River Street, in front of The Record's mothballed headquarters, down to one lane in each direction, and a deep trench had been cut into the pavement.

As a service to readers, this story should have been reported earlier, and the local editors could have done a better job coming up with a schedule of the work to warn drivers. 

More jobs, cops for Camden -- still zero for Silk City

Exchange Place in Jersey City, across the river from the World Trade Center in Manhattan.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Readers could be forgiven if they think Staff Writer Melissa Hayes of The Record has been assigned to rehabilitate Governor Christie's image in the wake of the George Washington Bridge scandal.

Hayes, Columnist Charles Stile and other staffers have been beating the drums for the GOP bully, a White House aspirant who is raising money around the country as the head of the Republican Governors Association (see Monday's upbeat A-1 story).

Today, Hayes reports on Christie's Monday trip to Camden, where he heralded a "new era" for the hard-luck city.

More jobs, cops

The state has promised a $260 million tax break to an energy technology company that promises to hire 400 people at its new Camden plant (A-3).

Christie noted the city's police force was replaced with "a regional county force," which "put more boots on the ground and has reduced crime already ... in Camden."

Gee, didn't Hayes think to ask Christie about Paterson's rising gun violence and the July 5 fatal shooting of Genesis Rincon, 12, who was hit by a stray bullet as she rode on her scooter in the impoverished 4th Ward?

What about a regional force to replace Paterson's Police Department, where 125 officers were laid off in 2011 after Christie-inspired cuts in state aid (L-3)?

Hayes apparently is the kind of reporter who sticks to the story she was sent to cover. How disappointing.

Clock is ticking

Today's Page 1 reports a plea deal with the former manager of the Tick Tock Diner  in Clifton (A-1), but was it really necessary to send a reporter to the Route 3 landmark to get reaction from customers (L-1)?

Didn't the Woodland Park daily do the same exact reaction story after Georgios Spryropulos was arrested? Are we going to see a third reaction story after he is sentenced?

Meanwhile, two filler photos run in Local today devoid of any real information (L-1 and L-3), as Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza desperately plug holes in their thin local-news coverage.

Couldn't they spare a reporter to call the police for details of what, for example, caused the tractor-trailer to crash? Was it excessive speed?

Genesis story

Sykes and Sforza report on Paterson officials seeking a "business curfew" (L-3), but apparently the editors are unaware of a movement to organize "a committee that will be composed of city residents of all nationalities and religious backgrounds" in the battle to end gun violence.

For that, see the letter to the editor from Corey L. Teague, a member of the city's Board of Education (A-10).

Native Americans

Today's front page also reports on the objections of the Ramapough Lenape Nation to the possibility Franklin Lakes will revise letterheads, business cards, vehicles and borough Web sites to remove the image of a Native American (A-1).

Also today, an editorial says it would be a mistake to cap a Superfund site filled with 106,000 tons of Ford Motor Co. toxic waste in Upper Ringwood, where many Ramapoughs live, instead of cleaning it up (A-10).

Spending PA toll money on mass transit is a good thing

Commuters inching up the ramp to the George Washington Bridge to reach New Jersey on Friday night are a testament to the metropolitan area's broken mass-transit system. A so-called expose in The Record today seems to question hundreds of millions in Port Authority toll dollars that were spent to improve train service between New Jersey and New York.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I applaud the investigative work by Staff Writer Shawn Boburg on Page 1 of The Record today, but is the misleading three-deck headline supposed to be shocking or ignite calls for reform?

"Millions in

tolls spent

on the arts"

Actually, since 2000, hundreds of millions in Port Authority toll money wasn't spent on the arts at all, according to the story (A-4).

"The largest single expenditure by New York over that time ... ($128 million) went to Pennsylvania Station," where thousands of commuters board NJ Transit trains for home.

"New Jersey's largest single payment came in 2001, when James McGreevey was governor -- $250 million for new rail cars for [the same] NJ Transit, the state's mass transit agency" (A-4).

Boburg doesn't menton it, but the Port Authority's "mission" includes running the PATH commuter train system and operating a reverse commuter-bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel.

The bistate agency should be criticized for expanding neither, but The Record and Boburg haven't bothered to report that story.

Farewell Genesis

Is there any reason the front page today doesn't carry a photo of Genesis Rincon, 12, in her coffin?

The number of suspects in her fatal shooting is now up to three, and their pictures are bigger than the one of her inside the casket cover at her Paterson wake (A-1).

Amateurish reporting

A related puff piece about Harley Breite, lawyer for Genesis shooting suspect Jhymiere Moore, is a real puzzle (A-6).

The freelance writer is Todd South, a reporter who covers the courts and four other beats for the Times Free Press of Chattanooga, Tenn.

Why is he writing a story about a Wayne lawyer, and what's this nonsense in the lead about Breite "vowing not to bow to the public furor" over the fatal shooting of Genesis?

South makes Breite sound like a godsend for murder defendants and others, but all of the clients mentioned in the story were convicted, and the lawyer even lost a state Assembly primary election (A-6).

South calls Breite "flamboyant" and "media savvy," apparently unaware he is one of the reporters the lawyer has played for a sucker.

Fashion report

The lead paragraph is poorly edited and includes the phrases "pony-tailed" and "pony-tail-wearing" just a few words apart. Hey, we get it.

South also mentions another irrelevant detail, that Breite "wore wide lapels on his blue pinstripe suit."

How does Editor Marty Gottlieb, who had a stellar career at The New York Times, allow this kind of low-quality journalism to run in The Record?

Local yokels

There is a lot of gee-whiz news in Local today -- from a Glen Rock man who suffered minor shark bites to a school bus fire in Englewood (L-1) -- but the section again has too much Law & Order content.

Paterson Mayor Joey Torres held an "inaugural ball" on Wednesday night, according to an L-2 story, the same day the official appeared at a press conference to announce the arrest of a suspect in the shooting of Genesis.

Not even rampant gun violence in Silk City can stop Torres from raising money.

The lead story on L-1 reports LG is threatening to pull out of Englewood Cliffs and take with it a plan to scar the Palisades with a $300 million, 143-foot-high headquarters.

Good riddance, I say.

Today's edition is filled with problems from start to finish

First Presbyterian Church on Passaic Street in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You'll find plenty of amateurish writing and editing in papers put out by students at Fairleigh Dickinson University and Bergen Community College.

But on the front page of The Record of Woodland Park?

In today's lead Page 1 story, Staff Writer Christopher Maag should have said:

"Governor Christie's choice for Port Authority chairman told lawmakers who approved his nomination Thursday the agency is troubled and he promised things would change."

Instead, somewhat nonsensically, Maag has "Governor Christie's choice for chairman of the Port Authority" promising "that things would change in testimony to lawmakers who approved his nomination Thursday."

Of course, nothing is changing in his testimony.

Which border?

Just above the fold, a front-page headline declares:

"Possible deal on border crisis"

Given the tensions in Ukraine, you could forgive readers who think the deal is with Russia, especially because the word "immigration" is left out.

Shooting of Genesis

A brief on A-1 today sends readers to an L-6 story reporting the family of Genesis Rincon, the 12-year-old who was fatally shot in Paterson, said two others were involved in the shooting.

And the defense attorney for the lone 19-year-suspect said "his client has nothing to do with the shooting."

The arrest of Jhymiere Moore was announced on Thursday's Page 1, but questions from the family and suspect's lawyer are demoted to Local.

Minds on vacation

Another Page 1 story -- on school buses that failed inspections and drivers who falsified driving records -- should have run during the school year (A-1).

Why did Editor Marty Gottlieb put this on the front page during the summer?

A-2 today carries three corrections, including one about the suspect in the Genesis Rincon shooting.

Resident wimp

Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin, the resident wimp and ass-kisser, wrote an offensive opinion column about the shooting of Genesis and how Paterson should close public buildings and cut services to put more cops on the street (A-19).

Doblin, whose knees knock together at the thought of crossing Governor Christie, doesn't mention how Paterson and other cities laid off cops after the GOP bully slashed their state aid.

Web site has news

NJ Spotlight.com reports today Christie has sent state police to Trenton, where the number of murders this year set a record, and the acting state attorney general has asked prosecutors not to plead down "gun-related charges in exchange for a conviction as a way of increasing jail time for those convicted."

Why hasn't this been reported in The Record?

And why didn't Doblin suggest deployment of state troopers to Paterson or even call the governor for comment on Genesis' death and increasing gun violence in Silk City?

This kind of tortured prose from Doblin is sickening:

"The death of Genesis on a street named for Rosa Parks cries out to the heavens. It should stop us in our tracks, make us wail, rip our garments and steel our resolve to do more than talk. To do something. Something."

Hackensack news

On the front of Local, a story on a new high-rise development on Main Street in Hackensack carries a familiar byline, Hannan Adely, who was replaced by Maag.

But the story doesn't mention a cross street on Main, expecting residents to have memorized the addresses on a street that stretches from the courthouse to Route 4. 

More on Saks woes

Another story about the closing of Saks Fifth Avenue in The Shops at Riverside contradicts the first account, which cited "routine maintenance."

The retail reporter finally called the Hackensack City Manager's Office and found out "the shopping center was doing a routine inspection ... when it discovered a crack in an underground column that supports a portion of the Saks store" ((L-7).

"Hackensack City Manager's Office" is capitalized in a brief on Page 1, but not in the Business page story on L-7.

There are full-page ads in today's paper from Macy's, not Saks, and that probably has the bean counters at North Jersey Media Group shitting in their pants.

'Perfect' shortcake

In Better Living today, Staff Writer Elisa Ung pulls out all the stops to promote Park West Tavern, a Ridgewood restaurant that charges high prices for small portions (BL-16).

Appetizers top out at $16 and entrees cost as much as $44.

Ung, the paper's restaurant reviewer, continues to struggle with her writing, and appears not to get much help from Esther Davidowitz, the food editor whose run-on sentences take the wind out of many readers.