No healing for Hackensack

The Record's reporting about Englewood continues to ignore the city's struggling schools and its struggling downtown. Above, Dwight Morrow High School.

Is today's Page 1 story about a deranged man who "threw his intestines at police" supposed to start the healing process in Hackensack, where the city's convicted police chief was ordered to forfeit his job?

What a bizarre choice, even for the two incompetent editors who head The Record's local-news assignment desk, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza.

The story, which describes events of nearly a week ago, only serves to remind readers why Sykes and Sforza are The Biggest Losers -- desperate editors who can't inspire their staff.

Sykes, for one, could use a little less intestine herself.

Legal snore fest

The only other Hackensack story in the paper today leads Sykes' Local section -- another in the endless series of detailed pieces about the civil suits filed against former Police Chief Charles "Ken I Am The Law" Zisa, whose family has ruled the city for decades (L-1).

Reporting that Zisa "is scheduled to give a deposition" shows Sykes' and Sforza's true desperation in trying to make news out of lawyers questioning the defendant, who will be under oath, behind closed doors.

Arson news

Today's Local section revives another police story from Sunday -- the torching of several cars in Englewood (L-1).

In some of the first municipal news from Englewood in weeks, a story reports a debate between two  Democratic candidates for Englewood City Council (L-3).

Today's editorial (A-11) and Friday's A-1 story about the rejection of Supreme Court nominee Bruce Harris ignores how the bond lawyer lacked the legal stature to fill the shoes of John Wallace, an African-American who Governor Christie refused to reappoint in 2010.

Half rations

In Friday's Better Living tab, Staff Writer Elisa Ung pans Bushido Bar and Restaurant in Cliffside Park -- no surprise given the howls she let out in 2007, when reviewing its predecessor, Wild Ginger in Englewood.

In the first few paragraphs of that review, she blasted owner Charles Hamade and Chef Yoshiharu Suzuki for serving imitation crab in a $12 Crab Leg Roll.

On Friday, Ung doesn't mention the 2007 misrepresentation, but complains about "inferior sushi" served to her on two occasions, including "putrid yellowtail," small portions and high prices.

Liquor profits

The conventional wisdom is that a restaurant reaping big profits from serving liquor can afford to buy and serve high-quality food.

Ung avoids the issue of liquor profits and food quality. Instead, she reports Bushido is run by "a veteran restaurant team who had always wanted a liquor license."

Is that like always wanting a marriage license or a fishing license? No. It means Hamade and Suzuki are chasing bigger profits than they could get during their 16-year run at the Englewood BYO.

Ung also doesn't mention Bushido renovated the space occupied by Izakaya Don, a traditonal Japanese pub that operated in Cliffside Park for many years.

They're tired of the story already

Image by dsearls via Flickr

Continued coverage of harness racing in The Record's Local section may hide more than two fans.

THOUSANDS FLEE AS CRISIS DEFIES SOLUTION

No end in sight

The Page 1 headline in The Record of Woodland Park today shows Editor Francis Scandale isn't even trying to hide how bored he is already with the disaster in Japan. 

Even if a damaged nuclear plant wasn't dangerously overheated, would there be an "end in sight" just one week after the main island was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami ? (It's now Saturday in Japan).

What doesn't seem to end are the stupid headlines.

Scandale must be temporarily out of insensitivity after printing e-mails from Onomachi, Japan, to sister city Glen Rock- -- including typos and broken English -- on A-1 and A-12 of Thursday's paper.

Today, two more e-mails appear on A-6, but they were translated from Japanese.

Complementary

On A-22, the headline over an editorial on Northvale cutting all funds to its library works well with the Margulies cartoon next to it.

The headline, "Civic butchery," is next to a cartoon showing a cleaver and scissor hanging over a crib labeled, "NJ  low-income kids," who are facing state cuts in pre-school programs.

Now, all we need is an editorial blasting Governor Christie for cutting funds from defenseless kids while preserving the wealth of millionaires. Don't hold your breath.

Feed bag is on

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section leads with a story on the Meadowlands Racetrack and the state's harness racing industry.

I know Local's layout editor, Jim "Corny" Cornelius, and News Copy Desk Chief Vinny Byrne love the horses, but had no idea Sykes was a fan, too.

Also on L-1 today, Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado has her 102nd story on the Police Department, allowing her to continue ignoring city budget deliberations and the tax rate.

Paper for sale

On the Business page, a big photo shows the multimillionaire president of Benzel-Busch Motor Car Corp. overlooking the site of a $20 million expansion -- as the luxury car dealership threatens to swallow Englewood whole.

I'd feel a lot better about this story being news, if Benzel-Busch didn't buy an expensive ad that ran above the fold every day on the front of Local for nearly all of January.

Oh, by the way, the photo caption and story text drop the word "Car" from the name of the company. Can you get any sloppier?

Doesn't translate

In the Better Living centerfold, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung quotes the Korean owners of a Japanese-style pub as saying they are filling "a void" in Fort Lee. 

Both she and they ignore the Japanese-owned Izakaya Don in neighboring Cliffside Park. A Japanese izakaya has operated there for at least a decade.

Ung also seems to just be discovering Fort Lee as a restaurant town on par with Ridgewood, Englewood and others. Where has she been?