We're damned if Christie does and damned if he doesn't

Governor Christie appears to be stuffing down food to cope with the stress of a failed presidential campaign and not being tapped for the Cabinet or other post in the administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump. On Tuesday, Christie's office provided this photo of him announcing a $300 million renovation of the State House.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

How many times do readers of The Record have to slog through another news story and boring political column on Governor Christie's future?

More than two pages of today's edition are devoted to Christie, President-elect Donald J. Trump's Cabinet picks and whether Jersey's own GOP thug will get a job in the wacko's administration (1A, 8A and 9A).

The huge double-decker headline on Page 1 isn't news:

"Christie says:
'I'm not leaving'"

What would be news is for Trenton reporter Dustin Racioppi to tell readers just how many vetoes Christie has executed, and potentially how many more are in store, if he stays in office until January 2018.

Christie, who is believed to have used the veto more than 500 times since January 2010, has made known his opposition on many issues, including hiking the minimum wage, imposing a tax surcharge on millionaires and even early voting.

So, we're damned if he serves his full second term, and gets a chance to kill bills to do all of that and more.

And if he becomes Trump's attorney general, we could be damned when he support states that try to suppress the minority vote or recommend against filing federal civil rights suits against white police officers who shoot unarmed blacks?

Flights to Cuba

The upbeat story on the first commercial flight from Newark to Cuba notes many of the passengers on Tuesday were New Jersey residents who planned to visit relatives on the island (1A).

Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado doesn't mention it, but tens of billions of dollars in remittances sent to Cuba from New Jersey, Florida and other states have kept the island afloat since the U.S. trade embargo was imposed in 1962.

'Kelly missed mark'

In a letter to the editor today, David Singer of Demarest criticizes veteran Columnist Mike Kelly for claiming "Hamilton" cast members' message to Vice President-elect Mike Spence "flopped" (10A).

Singer wrote:

"The message was respectful: The audience was asked not to boo the vice-president elect. Michael Spence was welcomed, thanked for attending, and then asked to please hear the grave concerns created by the hostile language used in the Trump/Pence campaign."

How did Kelly miss all of that or the cast's fundamental right to free speech, even in the august presence of the vice-president elect?

"It's Kelly who missed the mark with his critique," Singer says.

Amen.

Local news?

Gannett's dumbing down of local news continues today with the majority of stories in The Record's Local section written by less-experienced weekly reporters (1L to 6L).

Most of the Local front is devoted to traffic limitations on a bridge linking Fair Lawn to Paterson (1L).

Despite the huge headline, this is hardly breaking news:

"Bridge's condition
prompts traffic cap"

The story carries the byline of John E. Seasly, The Record staff writer who did only a so-so job when he covered Hackensack.

For example, Seasly refused to cover the campaign by nine candidates for three seats on the Board of Education last April or report on a $100-million-plus school budget that voters were asked to approve or reject.

He also missed a major event in the city's downtown redevelopment:

Construction of a 14-story, 382-unit apartment building at Main and Mercer streets was halted in late July when pile driving damaged a day care building next to the site.

Editors join Republicans who sit on their asses

This winter's crop of potholes has blossomed on Euclid Avenue, near Summit Avenue, in Hackensack, above and below. Other big potholes are on Euclid, near the railroad tracks, and on the Anderson Street Bridge to Teaneck.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Barack Obama delivered one of the best speeches of his presidency on Tuesday night, but hundreds of congressional Republicans greeted his call to action by sitting on their asses.

And today, The Record's editors imitate those do-nothing conservatives by running a lame Associated Press story that calls the State of the Union address "the opening salvo in a midterm election fight for control of Congress" (A-1).

Aren't readers sick and tired of reporters obsessed with the next election, whether it is this year or two or three years away?

Why doesn't the media report on whether Obama's proposals are good for the country or focus on the greedy Republicans' war on the middle class?

Health, wages, women

AP reporter Julie Pace, one of the many hacks working for the wire service, begins the Page 1 story by claiming President Obama was seeking "to energize his sluggish second term."

Pace -- and The Record's Lindy Washburn -- have completely ignored the many success stories during the troubled roll-out of the Affordable Care Act.

Health insurance policies for members of my family and for current North Jersey Media Group employees are providing the same coverage for less -- more than $150 a month less in my case.

Obama called on Congress to "give America a raise" by enacting a federal minimum wage of $10.10 an hour, and also asked lawmakers to finally end pay inequality for women.

I didn't see that on The Record's front page.

Ignoring concussions

Super Bowl coverage appears in every section for yet another day, including a front-page report on depressed ticket and hotel-room prices (A-1, L-1, BL-1 and S-1).

There is an upbeat story on pro football players visiting children in their native Paterson (L-1), but don't miss the nostalgic tabloid on "New Jersey Super Bowl Legends."

Nowhere in today's special section is there any mention of whether Rutherford native Stan Walters, Frank Winters of Union City, Bob Kratch of Mahwah and other linemen suffered brain damage, dementia or early Alzheimer's from playing pro football.

The section appears the day after PBS re-broadcast its two-part Frontline documentary, "League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis." 

Did Marty Gottlieb or any of the other Record editors see the documentary or are they just sitting on their asses day in and day out, twiddling their thumbs?

Jersey politics 

Today's front page also carries the second day of an expose on how Port Authority Chairman David Samson and Governor Christie's brother, Todd, are benefiting from a $256 million renovation of the Harrison PATH station (A-1).

Sampson, a Chris Christie appointee, voted to approve the project.

An editorial on A-12 expresses outrage, but isn't this the way Jersey politics works on the regional, state and local level?

In Hackensack, members of a public-private partnership called the Upper Main Street Alliance are promoting downtown redevelopment, salivating over all of the money they will make from sale of land they own.

The reform City Council, meanwhile, is passing ordinances giving tax breaks for more apartment development, never pausing to ask whether there is room in the overcrowded schools (L-3).

Christie's worst nightmare steps up to the plate

Developer George Capodagli hired The Brownstone in Paterson to cater Thursday's groundbreaking ceremony for his 6-story, 222-unit rental building at State and Warren streets in Hackensack. Completion is set for January 2015, and monthly rents will be $1,600 to $2,000. 

The lead story in The Record today reveals Governor Christie's worst nightmare -- Newark Mayor Cory Booker -- a strong Democratic leader who would have stolen votes away from him in the November election (A-1).

Booker jumped into the special primary and election to pick a successor to U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., who died last Monday.

Christie, once full of his usual bluster, now appears desperate to win a second term.

He jumped through hoops, told lies and was willing to squander $24 million to prevent senatorial candidates from appearing on his November ballot.

He obviously was trying to avoid a comparison to Booker, who is expected to make quick work of defeating his presumed Republican opponent, radical Steve Lonegan of Bogota. 

Christie's mismanagement of state finances also made Page 1 news today: 

A state appeals court has stopped the GOP bully from grabbing $160 million in affordable housing funds to balance his mean-spirited budget (A-1).

Wet race?

Another A-1 story -- on plans for a Formula One race through the streets of Weehawken next June, the weekend after the F1 race in Montreal -- doesn't say whether grandstands will be covered to protect New Jersey fans from heat or rain.

In the past, thousands of Montreal racegoers paid hundreds of dollars for seats in unprotected grandstands, then had to leave during downpours and never saw the end of the race.

Back to the source

The quality of food coverage has declined for years, ever since Publisher Stephen A. Borg folded the paper's Food section.

Today, the Better Living cover story on farmers' markets completely omits mention of Closter, where 28 stands offered fresh produce, artisan bread and other food last Sunday.

In fact, Closter's Sunday market is bigger than most of those mentioned in today's poorly reported story (BL-1).

Friday's paper

Now, four former governors have gotten into the act to save the Palisades from a high-rise corporate headquarters planned by LG, the South Korean electronics giant (not "South Korean-based," as in the story on Friday's A-1).

Where were they when the Palisades south of the George Washington Bridge was defaced with one high rise after another?

A correction on Friday's L-2 is long enough to choke a horse.

Mouse that roars

The sub-headline on an A-18 editorial  ("Christie makes smart interim choice") sounds suspiciously like the headline on an A-19 opinion column by Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin ("Christie made the logical political choice").

Doblin, the mouse that roars, is incapable of writing a column without making references to Hollywood films or Broadway shows. 

Lazy warrior

Friday's Road Warrior column on Sen. Lautenberg's pivotal role in improving transportation only reminds readers of how little Staff Writer John Cichowski has written about mass transit since he took over the commuting column in September 2003 (L-1).

The burned-out, supremely lazy Cichowski prefers to base entire columns on the complaints about driving and other drivers he receives from his cranky readers, who love to see their names in print.

He even ran a question from John Balkun, The Record's assistant managing editor/sports (Wednesday's L-3). 

I guess that's better than making up comments, as he is suspected of doing in the past.

Main Street property owned by Jerome Lombardo, head of the public-private partnership pushing for redevelopment of the depressed shopping district, above and below.

Hackensack boom?

Friday's L-1 story on a groundbreaking in Hackensack quotes George Capodagli, the developer of a 222-unit rental building, with rents of $1,600 to $2,000:

"I'm bringing in the $20 martini people -- the rich and the famous."

The story reports a ribbon-cutting for Avalon Hackensack at Riverside, a 226-unit building near Route 4, and plans for "a full-service luxury residential building of more than 25,000 square feet" on Main Street.

The L-1 headline describes the three projects as a "residential building boom."

Englewood bust?

Englewood has four luxury apartment buildings or complexes, two of them downtown, but they have had no perceptible change in the fortunes of the Palisade Avenue shopping and dining district.

In the Hackensack story, Jerome Lombardo, chairman of the Hackensack Main Street Business Alliance, says:

"Nobody in North Jersey can beat Hackensack's location."

Lombardo hasn't disclosed how much property he owns on or near Main Street or how much he will profit from execution of the city's official Downtown Rehabilitation Plan.