Cops won't release fatality report without OPRA request

Hue Dang, 64, the woman killed crossing the street in Hackensack on March 9, lived alone in an apartment at 340 Hudson St., above and below, only a few blocks away from where she was fatally injured by an unmarked car. The driver, Detective Sgt. John Straniero of the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, has not been charged in her death.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Hackensack police asked Eye on The Record to file an Open Public Records Act Request Form to obtain the report on the accident that took the life of Hue Dang, 64, who lived alone in a nearby apartment.

The woman was carrying plastic grocery bags and crossing the street at Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street about 4:45 p.m. March 9 when she was struck by an unmarked lawman's car.

Her blood stained the pavement near the Jackson Avenue crosswalk, and the car's right rear tire came to rest in the crosswalk.

Police said Bergen County prosecutor's Detective Sgt. John Straniero, 49, of Wayne was making a right turn onto Kennedy, which leads to the entrance ramp for Route 80 west, when his car struck the woman.

She died less than a hour later at Hackensack University Medical Center. 

Straniero hasn't been charged in her death.

No witnesses?

Hackensack police Capt. Nicole Foley was quoted by The Record last Wedneday as saying "it's unclear where Dang was standing," and that "there were no witnesses," even though Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street are usually full of rush-hour traffic at that time of the day.

The Record's story didn't mention the Jackson Avenue crosswalk, and the reporter apparently never asked Foley if the pedestrian was in it.

The Woodland Park daily hasn't done a follow.

Today's paper

One look at today's Page 1 headlines tells readers Editor Martin Gottlieb didn't bother finding any real news in North Jersey.

"Haggling ahead for a divided Isreal" bores even Jewish readers.

The photo on the re-opening of the Oradell Animal Hospital in Paramus is a non-event for the vast majority of humans in North Jersey.

"Tax breaks being tightened for farms" is another snoozer.

"New furor over tests" is of absolutely no interest to the baby boomers who make up the majority of the readership and whose children are in college or already working

Finally, who the hell is "Borland"?

College cops

The editors let slide hundreds of errors in Road Warrior columns, but take the trouble to correct a story on Monday's L-1 and give credit to Montclair State cops for the arrest of a "driver in the drill" held at the college (A-2).

PABT correction

Back-pedaling furiously, Staff Writer Christopher Maag now reports the Port Authority's chairman believes selling or leasing bi-state agency real estate could help finance a new midtown Manhattan bus terminal (A-3).

And Maag found a board member who said the $7.5 billion to $10.5 billion cost reported on Tuesday's Page 1 was exaggerated, and the actual cost of the building would be $4 billion.

Editors promote Kelly book, gas guzzlers, unhealthy food

An office building on Union Street in Hackensack, opposite John A. Earl Inc., has been torn down, and some residents believe apartments will be built there.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You'll have to read and read and read today's Page 1 column to find out what The Record's Mike Kelly means by "a new reality" in Israel, where four Jews were killed while praying in a synagogue.
In fact, the column is so poorly written and edited you'll have to turn to the continuation page and chose between two new realities he mentions:

The broken "trust" between Jews and Palestinians or "murders [that] seemed all too close and personal" (A-6).

The entire, murkily written column seems designed to promote a book Kelly wrote about a 1996 suicide bus bombing, which he mentions at the end of his overlong piece.

The book has been promoted by both (201) magazine and NorthJersey.com.

More Christie P.R.

Governor Christie's chances of getting the Republican presidential nomination get better play today (A-1) than the resignation of one of his closest advisers from a council that invests the state's $80 billion public employee pension fund (A-3).

An ethics complaint alleges Robert Grady allowed political contributions to Republican groups to influence investments.

Press hysteria

Instead of encouraging readers to take mass transit, The Record continues to scandalize the $1 lease between the Port Authority and NJ Transit, two public transportation agencies, for a commuter parking lot (A-1).

If NJ Transit had to pay $1.2 million a year for the land, the agency might have to raise fares.

Similarly, the business editors run a wire-service report noting "green cars" are the focus at the L.A, Auto Show, but no photos of Toyota's and Honda's emission-free cars are used on L-8.

Instead, an Audi with a 605-horsepower V-8 engine is featured.

Unhealthy recipes

Better Living editors continue to run the recipes of freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson, who specializes in turning healthy food like carrots and butternut squash into unhealthy dishes (BL-1).

All of her Thanksgiving recipes contain artery clogging butter or bacon (BL-3).

Second look

On Sunday, Road Warrior John Cichowski's column on a future form of mass transit was filled with errors, according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

"In his Sunday column, the Road Warrior provides a very dim-witted and mistake-filled report about the first ever, potential use by JPod Inc. of its privately funded, personal rapid-transit system with small overhead passenger pods in Secaucus.

"Road Warrior tried to convince readers that a JPod system designed to handle up to 1,000 passengers, at best, could have easily handled the crowds leaving MetLife stadium from the last Super Bowl.

"It would not have handled the large crowds since he forgot that he previously reported that there were 33,000 passengers that were trying to utilize the train system that day.

"Road Warrior claimed that construction for a JPod system would start no later than early next year since it would be easily approved by the Secaucus City Council.

"Secaucus administrators dispute his wild guess since no formal plans -- which are subject to reviews, delays and rejection by local, Meadowlands and state officials -- have been submitted.

Cichowski also described the system inaccurately as a "monorail." 

See: Road Warrior buries accuracy in Meadowlands

Marty's 'balanced' front page is all wrong for North Jersey

You can't argue with the license plate of a Smart car I saw on East 77th Street in Manhattan on Thursday, but its gas mileage is laughable -- much less than in a hybrid.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You can almost see Editor Martin Gottlieb picking out stories to balance the front page of The Record today -- the shelling of a school in Gaza, a sensational Bergen County trial and an even more sensational lawsuit against Hackensack police, and a local "Loch Ness" teaser.

Most, if not all, of the stories are irrelevant to the lives of the vast majority of North Jersey residents, who live under a broken home-rule system of government that penalizes them with high property taxes.

Waste of space

Putting international news on Page 1 is a true waste of space, given the hours of TV coverage with the same focus the night before.

The Associated Press reports on the fighting in Gaza that Gottlieb has been running on Page 1 are the kind of body count journalism that seems prejudicial.

Is the media making any attempt to document Hamas' use of Palestinians as "human shields" by placing rocket launchers in residential neighborhoods, as Israel charges?

Instead of photos of the launchers, most of the stories are merely Hamas said/Israel said -- another case where the media shirk their responsibility and settle for sound bites.

Sloppy local section

Gottlieb may be putting a lot of care into balancing the front page today and every day, but that contrasts with the local staff's inability to completely report and intelligently edit even basic stories.

The major element on the Local front today doesn't even say whether passenger Miles Reme, 20, was wearing a seat belt before the crash in Ridgefield that killed the former high school athlete and seriously injured two other 20-year-olds, including driver Tamer Ammar (L-1).

The driver's DWI conviction, his being charged with reckless driving, and arrests for allegedly distributing Xanax and marijuana don't appear until deep on the continuation page (L-6).

Second look

In his July 13 column, Staff Writer John Cichowski made at least two big errors in discussing a plan to repave Paterson's pockmarked streets, according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

Cichowski wrote the mayor proposed to borrow $37 million, but on July 10, a story in The Record reported the mayor wants to spend $37 million and borrow $35 million of that.

The befuddled reporter also misspelled the name of Councilman Andre Sayegh, calling him "Andrew."

See:

More errors from Road Warrior Joan Cichowski

Editors pander to Jewish fanatics

The Bahamas coat of arms includes a conch shell, and conch salad is a must when visiting the islands. A reporter from The Record is clueless.

"God gave us this land."


What a joke. 


The speaker is David Wilder, one of those fanatically religious Jews in Israel who are the chief impediment to peace with the Palestinians.


The Record reporter who quotes him is Mike Kelly, whose story, "The Mideast that Christie never saw," dominates Page 1 today.


Same-old Kelly


Kelly basically is rehashing the columns he wrote on an earlier visit to Israel. When was that, six or seven years ago?


Editor Marty Gottlieb and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes really know how to push readers' buttons.


Today, Kelly focuses on Palestinians in refugee camps, but in a totally unnecessary move, appears to be seeking "balance" by quoting ultra-Orthodox Jews, including Wilder.


Decades-old tale


This story dates to the dispersal of the Palestinians during the 1948 war that led to the establishment of Israel. 


Since then, they have been pushed to the margins, forced to live in refugee camps and persecuted by Israel and Arab countries like Jordan, where Governor Christie spent a few days.


Why didn't Kelly write about the Peace Now movement in Israel -- Israelis who favor two states? 


Why give a platform to radicals who have to invoke the Bible to legitimize their existence and their "settlements" in a secular state?


Solar plexus


Another story on A-1 today -- a rare instance when trees were cut down to put up solar panels -- gives a bad name to solar power.


Again, here's another negative story designed to push readers' buttons from a daily that has done a poor job of reporting the benefits of alternative energy, as well as solar loans for homeowners. 


Sykes must be really proud of today's Local, which is devoid of any municipal news, except for the round-up on Web sites that leads the section (L-1).


Reporter leaves office


Can anyone figure out why Staff Writer John Cichowski wrote a Road Warrior column on interstate highway safety patrols?


The only good thing is that he appears to have actually left the office to report a story, rather than slavishly writing a column based on e-mails from readers.


Parade of bimbos


In Better Living, a story on Italian-Americans as reality stars gives a bad name to one of the biggest ethnic groups in the state (F-1).


The four shows should be renamed "Big Tits and Small Brains." OK. I'm open to suggestions.


Staff Writer Elisa Ung's column, The Corner Table, is missing today. 


The restaurant reviewer is probably off indulging her obsession for dessert on a weekend that will see dangerously high sugar consumption.


Beef with industry


On the front of Opinion, an article about "pink slime" drives home the message that we have been sold crap by the nation's beef industry for more than 100 years (O-1).


Some of the practices described by Upton Sinclair in the early 1900s -- notably sending lame and diseased cattle to slaughter -- are still being used today.


All the more reason for Ung and other newspaper food writers to tell readers exactly what they are eating in restaurants and fast-food joints, and spend less time promoting chefs.


Untold stories


An editorial on the $75,000 cut in funds for the Englewood Public Library reminds readers that Sykes' assignment desk has never asked why a city getting tax revenue from scores of million-dollar homes, thousands of apartments and an industrial area is having financial problems (O-2).


Today's cover story in Travel is by Staff Writer James M. O'Neill, who writes about trying to save money while staying at the expensive Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.


Amazingly, O'Neill and his family never tried Bahamian food in one of the local restaurants or sampled the word-famous conch salad.

Ken Zisa's lawyer blows his defense

Ken Zisa is expected to retire to La Zisa, a palace in Palermo, Italy.

The jurors hearing official misconduct charges against suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa were waiting to hear, "He didn't do it."


Instead, Zisa's defense lawyer claimed the criminal charges were part of a "witch hunt" led by the county prosecutor, The Record reports on Page 1 today.


With those words, attorney Patricia Prezioso all but blew her defense case and likely guaranteed Zisa will be convicted and end up in prison.


Zisaville to celebrate


If that happens, the city will fire him and the state will strip him of his pension. And Hackensack will no longer be called "Zisaville."


The cheers from Hackensack residents would be deafening, but in far-off Woodland Park, Editor Marty Gottlieb, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and the Borgs will continue to ignore the city the paper called home for more than 110 years.


Prezioso apparently has been so busy preparing Zisa's defense she is unaware of just of how sick everyone is of "politics."


She literally put her foot in her mouth when she said, "This was a politically convenient prosecution for Mr. [John] Molinelli," the prosecutor.


Lampooning Christie


Governor Christie's visit to Israel and Jordan has finally fallen off the front page (A-3). 


But none of the coverage has explained what the F he is doing visiting the Middle East, with all that he still has to accomplish in the Garden State.


Reporters asked him what he thought of the New York Post headline after he prayed at the Western Wall, "The Whale at the Wall."


Of course, in the two years he's been in office, no reporter has asked him what he is doing to end childhood obesity in New Jersey.


Beating a dead horse


For the third day in a row, Gottlieb and Sykes give prominent display to the return of a Marine who was killed in Afghanistan (A-1 and L-1).


But a protest march calling for the arrest of a Neighborhood Watch member who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, 17, in Florida ends up on the front of Sykes' Local section.


"The march took place in Hackensack," Sykes said at the news meeting on Wednesday afternoon. "Who says we don't cover the place?"


City is bleeding


Sykes continues to run stories on Englewood's financial problems, which have led to cuts in the public schools and library, inspired by wealthy residents of the East Hill, where Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg lives (L-1).


But none of the stories have mentioned Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, a non-profit that pays no property taxes to the city.

Christie is forced to change Israel itinerary

Governor Christie is going to Jordan to find an Arabic singer who can replace Bruce Springsteen at the grand opening of the Revel Resort and Casino in Atlantic City.

Nowhere in The Record's Page 1 account today of Governor Christie's visit to Jerusalem does Staff Writer Mike Kelly mention drastic changes in the itinerary forced by the governor's size and weight.

Israeli officials stepped in when Christie expressed an interest in walking through the ancient water tunnel under the Old City, fearing he would become wedged in the narrow space and starve to death.


Kelly's piece also raises a number of questions the reporter never answers.


Irish latkes


Why did Christie, an Irish Catholic, pick Israel for his first trip abroad as governor? Did Ireland refuse to host him?


And why is this non-Jew praying at the Western Wall (A-8)? Christie took up two spots, denying an Orthodox Jew his rightful place during prayers.


Why is there no mention of whether Christie likes Israeli food or misses his usual diet of pizza and beer? 


Were those overweight suitcases he paid for with taxpayers' money filled with Neapolitan pies and Budweiser?


Legendary singer


Kelly also doesn't report that a major goal of Christie's visit to Jordan on Thursday is to find the great-granddaughter of Om Kalthoum, the legendary Arabic singer who was known as the "Mother of Egypt" before she died in 1975.


Rejected by Bruce Springsteen, Christie hopes to ask the young woman, Um Um Kalthoum, if she will sing at the grand opening of the Revel Resort and Casino in Atlantic City.


Belly laughs


Kelly's columns usually are laughable, but today, he unwittingly provides a laugh line on the front page, if you can follow the tortured syntax:

"For Christie, the trip -- and especially meetings with [Benjamin] Netanyahu -- seem to have an unstated meaning and mission to bolster's the governor's credibility as a political leader who is interested in much more than New Jersey property tax relief and teacher tenure."

Of course, everyone except Kelly and Editor Marty Gottlieb knows Christie could care less about lowering property taxes, and long ago broke his campaign promise to do so.


What a joke.


Trial for readers


Readers get another belly laugh at the expense of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, who eight days ago ran a Page 1 story reporting the start of suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa's trial.


Testimony still is not under way (L-3).


Monday's paper


If we have to renew our licenses only once every four years, why is there a story on Page 1 about "more formal documentation"?


In fact, none of the three elements on Monday's Page 1 could actually be called news.


Sykes wastes space on the Local front with a story on the uninsured couple who were flown from the Bahamas to New Jersey at taxpayers' expense (L-1).


Now, they are receiving charity care for their serious injuries at Hackensack University Medical Center, and you can be sure the cost will nudge up everyone's health insurance premiums.


The cost of their care is put at $250,000, plus $18,000 to $20,000 for the "medical emergency" flight. What a waste.


The story about Diandra Barreto, 24, of Hasbrouck Heights and Michael Gallinella, 37, of Woodbridge ran so long, Sykes could not print any Hackensack news on Monday.

Related articles

• Deirdre disses Hackensack again
• Editors help Christie lie to public
• Democrats answer Christie's racism

Frank's Mideast news roundup

Image via Wikipedia

Some restaurant patrons are boycotting dining rooms in Paterson, above, Clifton and other towns where hookah smoking is allowed.

Never mind that readers rarely see anything on The Record's front page about Libyan troops killing rebels and the Syrian military shooting dead an unknown number of protesters.

But when Israeli soldiers kill Palestinians, Editor Francis "Frank" Scandale sits up and takes notice, ordering an A-1 story and photo for today's thin paper.

Like many journalists, Scandale has a limited attention span, but he knows the hot-button issues that inflame passions in the North Jersey Jewish and Arab-American communities.

Smoke screen

And I guess the main A-1 story today -- about North Jersey teens smoking a water pipe called hookah -- is Scandale's idea of a well-balanced Mideast report. 

But the story focuses on teens going wild in nightclubs and ignores restaurant goers in Paterson, Clifton and elsewhere who have begun to boycott hookah smoke-filled dining rooms. 

The lead story today is a real room-clearer: Readers should get a free subscription if they make it to the end of Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson's process story on the national debt (A-1).

Thrifty millionaire

When you blow $3,000 on a Manhattan hotel suite, why pay more for a prostitute? Just get off by attacking the room maid (A-4). 

Dominique Strauss-Kahn denies the sex-assault charges, but a check of French birth records shows his original name is Strauss-Con.

What balls

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section has no Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood news today, but she found room for a book excerpt from a former sports writer (L-1).

Living large

No food editor in memory has lived so publicly as Susan Leigh Sherrill -- the one-recipe-a-week incumbent -- who frequently sends out tweets on where she goes, who she meets and what she eats.

Here are some recent tweets -- or "brain farts" in the words of political satirist Bill Maher -- from Hawaii, where Sherrill is celebrating her 50th birthday. 

She also provides links to photos of the celebration on her and her husband's Web site, Spoon & Shutter. 

susanlsherrill Susan Sherrill

Birthday Trip to Maui - Part II http://wp.me/pNRsK-XV

13 May

susanlsherrill Susan Sherrill

Birthday trip to Maui - Part I http://wp.me/pNRsK-XA

12 May

susanlsherrill Susan Sherrill

Watching polo in up-country Maui, drinking cava and, oh yeah, celebrating my 50th birthday ...

8 May  

We want more New Jersey news

Image by Katchooo via Flickr

Even if the editors of The Record of Woodland Park try to supply the local news readers want, they can't inspire their staff to report and write it. So they're stuck covering half of the front page today with international news, more of which appears inside. The reliance on international news tells you the editors are just desperate to fill space.


Sure, there are a lot of legitimate questions about Israel's response to a protest flotilla headed for the Gaza Strip, but the former Hackensack daily should devote its energy to improving the coverage of local, North Jersey and state news, especially the state budget crisis, and stop giving a pass to Governor Christie, who has mounted an unprecedented attack on the middle class.


The Page 1 story on DuPont hiding the danger of toxic solvents in groundwater could have been tied to the oil-well disaster in the Gulf, but wasn't. Even though the gushing oil hasn't been stopped, the editors have demoted the BP story to Page A-8. Readers are still waiting for the editorial condemning the company's incompetence and the failure of government regulation -- emotions that have been expressed for a couple of weeks on TV news.


Local has another long, detailed, breathless story about disciplinary hearings for Hackensack police officers, but nothing about the proposed city budget and tax hike. Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado apparently has been ordered by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes to ignore any Hackensack news not involving the Police Department or suspended Chief Ken Zisa.


I applaud Better Living for its profile of North Jersey's Fossil Farms, which has supplied naturally raised meat and poultry to restaurants since 1997, including the ostrich and bison burgers served by Fuddruckers. But food writers should have been telling us all along in their reviews which restaurants serve naturally raised food, and it would be helpful to many readers if the paper wrote about makets big and small that sell antibiotic- and hormone-free meat and poultry.