Have con men taken over Page 1?

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Thanks to President Bush's tax breaks for the wealthy, federal rates are the lowest they've been in more than 50 years. The GOP still clings to them.

From the top to the bottom of The Record's front page today, readers are introduced to an alleged confidence man, an elected con man and a convicted con man.


Unseen is a fourth con man, Editor Francis Scandale, who gained the trust of readers, only to bombard them with inconsequential sports news while Governor Christie launched an unprecedented attack on the middle-class way of life in New Jersey.


But Scandale, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin and other editors and columnists have been apologists for the GOP governor's mean-spirited budget policies.


Here comes the judge


Leading the paper today is another story about North Jersey Municipal Judge Harold P. Cook III's growing financial problems, but the reporter doesn't explain why he hasn't been suspended during the state inquiry.


The biggest element on Page 1 really belongs inside. It's about an ad by the state Republican Party claiming the state's "comeback has begun," despite continued high unemployment and the nation's highest property taxes.


The bottom A-1 story is about Saddle River rapper Ja Rule, who is getting more time in prison for not paying back taxes, as well as being fined $1.1 million. (The photo caption incorrectly runs his name together.)


Taxed while black


You have to be surprised the rapper (Jeffrey Atkins) doesn't know the only legal way to get away with not paying your federal or state taxes is be a millionaire who is in the good graces of Christie and Republican congressional leaders.


Blacks need not apply.


Scandale's flawed news judgment is evident every day. 


Why put the promotional ad about Christie on today's front page and banish the opinion column on the wrongful acquittal of Passaic City Police Officer Joseph Rios III, who beat a man who wasn't wearing a shirt (A-9)?


The Record's own columnists get to spout their opinions from Scandale's front page all the time. Why not a Freehold attorney who specializes in police brutality claims? 


Oh, I guess lawyer Thomas J. Mallon isn't part of a conspiracy of failed journalists.


Local river news


Readers have to check out the earth-shaking news all over head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local front -- 40 teachers from across the country came here to study the Hudson River. There's even room for a listing of their itinerary through Friday (L-1).


A Jewish charter school has been delayed for a year, meaning parents in Englewood and Teaneck will be forced to continue paying municipal school taxes, even though they don't dare send their kids into classrooms with blacks and Hispanics (L-1).


Old fogies


Sykes treats as a photo-op the collision of an 85-year-old man's car with a firetruck in Rutherford (L-3).


She has consistently refused to do anything on the challenges facing older drivers, or the help available to them, and Scandale has turned his back on Alzheimer's victims. 


When readers call, they tell them to check the obit pages for news of seniors or read occasional pieces on unusually active people in their 90s or 100s by Jay Levin, the local obituary writer. 

Hey, Guv, heard about the obesity epidemic?

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The front page of The Record of Woodland Park today reports that Gov. Christie's is proposing cuts in aid to breakfast and lunch programs for low-income children, and that may force some schools to drop fresh fruit and vegetables during the obesity epidemic. 

This story is big enough to dominate the page, but the lazy, incompetent editors were out to sell papers with the murder of an elderly Pal Park woman whose house was set on fire afterward. Too bad the headlines are clunky -- "Woman stabbed before blaze" and "Was fire set to hide evidence?" -- and the photographer didn't get there until all the excitement was over. Only the body bag tells you she died. How about: 

Elderly woman

stabbed, burned

Was fire set to hide slaying?

I find it strange that The Record and most of the other media have been ignoring the obesity epidemic. Since Christie took office, no reporter apparently has asked him what the state is doing to ease obesity in children and adults.

The Record's food and news editor have consistently denied they have a responsibility to launch a project on obesity. The food editor is obsessed with meat and the on-leave restaurant reviewer is obsessed with dessert, and they report on those subjects with abandon. What examples do they set for readers?

On A-2, there are three corrections -- the longest one to fix an inaccurate graphic that ran Sunday. The newspaper has been struggling with inaccurate graphics for many, many years -- meetings were held, teeth gnashed -- and still it has failed to improve them. 


You have to wonder why News Production Director Liz Houlton has fallen flat on her face in trying to achieve this important goal (after all, she is probably making well over $100,000). But remember that Houlton once ran the copy desk for Features Director Barbara Jaeger, and failed to catch the numerous errors in food and other stories that appeared regularly in the paper. 


Maybe these two directors -- pals Houlton and Jaeger -- would be more successful directing traffic.

Why is the federal report on the incompetent air traffic controller at Teterboro Airport buried on A-4? Nine people died in the resulting collision of a small plane and sightseeing helicopter over the Hudson River, and the airport is a huge quality-of-life issue in Bergen County (another big story ignored by the paper). Page A-5 is full of stories from The Star-Ledger, but the one on student protests ignores Bergen and Passaic counties.

The only Hackensack news in the paper today is a story on a talk at the high school about online predators.In Englewood news, a man beaten on the street in the middle of the night was hospitalized.


Since Christie took office in January, readers have been witnessing his attempts to cut a wide range of programs that benefit the middle and working classes -- as well as aid to schools and towns -- while trying to preserve the wealth of his rich friends, including the Borg family, owners of North Jersey Media Group.

Maybe as publishers of so many daily and weekly newspapers, Malcolm, Stephen and Jennifer Borg should disclose their political sympathies and contributions.

These columnists should take a hike

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Am I the only one thoroughly bored with columnists John Cichowski, Mike Kelly and Bill Ervolino, whose "work" appears in The Record of Woodland Park today? Isn't it time for some fresh points of view?

Cichowski has been the paper's so-called Road Warrior for about six years, but it seems Kelly and Ervolino have been just taking up valuable newsprint space much longer than that. While they continue to try the patience of us all, keep in mind the lazy, incompetent editors at the former Hackensack daily got rid of their only black and Hispanic columnists, Lawrence Aaron and Miguel Perez.

Today, on the Local front, the Road Warrior continues to focus on narrow issues, taking to task the "selfish" drivers who use a shortcut through a quiet neighborhood in Upper Saddle River. If he's going to write about shortcuts, it would have been far more useful to far more people if he had provided one during the Route 80 east construction that caused delays of up to one hour. In general, though, he has ignored his core mission -- to write about commuting and mass transit. He should be ashamed of how he's ignored the pathetic local bus service in North Jersey. Where is his editor?

The headline over Mike Kelly's column today on the Opinion front is "Good idea gone awry," when it's clear he went awry years ago. His writing is full of cliches and hackneyed phrases, such as "mother of all jokes." Give me a break. Where is the man's editor, who allows this drivel in the paper?

"The developers did not deliver" and "misguided trust of private developers" is all the thunder he can muster for his tale about the incomplete Hudson River walkway, when he should have blasted greedy developers and the wealthy and selfish condo owners who have subverted the state's plan and are denying this magnificent stretch of riverfront to the public. There have been hundreds of instances in North Jersey where developers built roads, expanded intersections and spent huge sums to improve infrastructure around commercial developments. Yet this walkway is a disgrace.

Why is his language always so tame? Doesn't he realize that readers want their columnists to go out on a limb and express strong opinions? Well, you won't get them from sheepish Kelly. Some of the blame has to be laid on Assistant Assignment Editor Richard Whitby, onetime reader of Kelly's column before Whitby sent it over to the news copy desk, where me and the other copy editors avoided it like the plague. Whitby made a great show of pounding on his computer keyboard and loved to leer at the breasts of  the attractive female reporters who sat next to him as he edited their stories, but didn't do anything to improve Kelly's pablum.

The third disappointment is Bill Ervolino's column in Better Living. Bill is a nice guy, but who isn't sick of this man's feeble attempts at comedy and satire? God bless his family and friends and the readers who have tolerated him for so long. And maybe it's time Better Living editor Barbara Jaeger take a critical look at his nonsense.

Today's "local" news coverage is from Bridgewater, Somerville, Morristown, Pequannock and other places far from the heart of Bergen County as the paper is silent for another day on education, development and quality of life in Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood, its core towns. Does anybody have any idea why a block of Anderson Street at Main Street in Hackensack has been closed for two months or more as heavy equipment and huge drills tear up the surface?

Did you get a good laugh out of the lame illustration on the Local front for a story on several towns sharing employees? The people shown look like models -- young models. If they are supposed to faithfully represent the demographic of employees in Westwood, Oradell and other towns, plaintiffs' employment lawyers should take note.

Talking about lawyers, inside the Local section, there is yet another story about a big out-of-court settlement, with no mention of  the attorney's share. Indeed, even the courthouse reporters, Kibret Markos and John Petrick, have stubbornly resisted news copy desk suggestions over the years that legal fees are an essential part of any story reporting multimillion settlements or jury awards. Court rules allow lawyers to take up to a third of  plaintiffs' money.