Today's focus on local news is welcome, but may not last

Atlantic and Main streets in Hackensack once was the site of the Washington Institute, founded in 1769 and considered to be "one of the finest educational institutions in the state, according to this marker, and "it brought recognition to the Village of Hackensack."

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Three of the four major elements on Page 1 of The Record today focus on local issues, and the local-news section actually has reports from towns on almost every page.

Although local news bores most of the editors and reporters, this is the stuff homeowners and others need to know to judge how well their tax dollars are being spent.

On Page 1 today, Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi turned in a great enterprise shot from Hackensack's Junior Police Academy, showing he has a lot more talent than readers see in his ambulance-chasing accident photos, which are often used as filler in Local.

But Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado did a poor job of researching her story on Palisades Park's Korean residents asking for an interpreter at Borough Council meetings (A-1).

Her first paragraph mentions interpreters in municipal courts and hospitals, but that ignores the interpreting staff attached to every state Superior Court.

Trump, Clinton

The Record and other media largely continue to ignore the issues in the presidential campaign, but at least the stories about GOP nominee Donald J. Trump's racism and Democrat Hillary Clinton's emails are played on A-7 today.

The lead story -- "Chilling posts by Trump staffers" -- is from The Associated Press:

"Donald Trump's paid campaign staffers have declared on their social media accounts that Muslims are unfit to be American citizens, ridiculed Mexican accents, called for Secretary of State John Kerry's death by hanging and stated their readiness for a possible civil war" (A-7).

Catholic sex abuse

In contrast to all of the Page 1 stories about the pope and the Newark archbishop, settlement of a child sex-abuse lawsuit against Bergen Catholic High School was pushed back to the Local front today.

Still, there is no explanation why the $1.9 million settlement from last November is just being reported, nor any mention that lawyers for the victims will likely take about a third of the money (L-1).

Traffic tickets

Monday's Page 1 story on the drop in the number of tickets issued to drivers on Bergen County roads and highways is missing so much information you have to wonder why The Record published it.

Staff Writer Jean Rimbach begins by reporting that "most drivers" will welcome the decline in enforcement by the Bergen County Bureau of Police Services, but that would mean the majority break traffic laws.

That's preposterous.

In fact, a minority of drivers speed and drive recklessly, and endanger others who have enough to worry about on Bergen County's antiquated road network.

There is one reference to "a reduction in moving and non-moving violations," but nowhere does Rimbach discuss such specifics as speeding tickets.

Least productive

Typically, Rimbach spends weeks or months on such projects, under the protection of Editor Deirdre Sykes, the newsroom's mother hen, and Sykes publishes the results no matter how flawed.

The Record already missed a bigger story -- a dramatic drop in the number of speeding summonses issued by state police on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway in the past five years. 

See: 

Speeders are having a field day

In and out of court, noose tightening round Christie's neck

By noon on Friday, the slushy snow that fell overnight and into the morning had melted, leaving behind tree branches coated in winter white. Hackensack residents were relieved in view of all the problems left behind by city crews after the blizzard in late January.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In New Jersey, the tide of public opinion has turned hard against Governor Christie.

But at The Record of Woodland Park, editors, columnists and reporters today are focusing instead on New Hampshire, where the GOP bully is trying to salvage his campaign for the party's presidential nomination (A-1 and O-1).

Christie finished a dismal 10th in the Iowa caucuses, but last week, he suffered setbacks in and out of court in New Jersey, as The Record reported on Saturday.

They are likely to seal his fate.

Two judges

The lead story on Saturday's front page reported a federal judge gave defendants in the Bridgegate scandal the power to seek emails and other documents withheld by the law firm that whitewashed Christie's role in the Fort Lee lane closings.

But it was public statements by another judge that helped galvanize public opinion in the Garden State, though Editor Deirdre Sykes did her best to mute the criticism by keeping the story off of Saturday's front page:

Deborah Poritz, a Republican who served as chief justice from 1996 to 2006, took Christie "to task ... for being a 'bully' who has not built a legacy of serving the public after more than six years in office" (Saturday's A-3).

She noted Christie has been "scapegoating public workers" in New Jersey for years, and slammed his budget cuts.

No 'legacy'

"What is his legacy? Because I don't see any," Poritz said at a Thursday night forum in the Princeton Public Library.

Then, WNYC-FM reporter Matt Katz, who just published a biography of Christie, "American Governor," was put in the uncomfortable position of defending the governor he has exposed in the public radio station's "Christie Tracker" feature. 

At the end of Saturday's story, Staff Writer Salvador Rizzo noted in 2013, Supreme Court Justice Barry Albin condemned Christie for attempting to intimidate the judiciary and unseating the only black justice on the high court.

Other news?

Today's front page is dominated by the last GOP debate before the voting in New Hampshire, and yet another boring Christie column by Staff Writer Charles Stile -- in case readers missed Saturday's A-1 assessment by Staff Writer Dustin Racioppi.

Also on Page 1 today is a long story about Teaneck dermatologist Gangaram Ragi, who had been accused of sexually assaulting two women.

Inadvertently, the headline writer turned off readers immediately by putting the year 2001 in big black type.

This 14-year-old story was written by Jean Rimbach, one of the women in the newsroom who have thrived under Sykes, a plump Mother Hen to her and other female reporters.

Local news?

Today's local-news section has less Law & Order news than Saturday's, but both are silent on Hackensack, which apparently has no reporter assigned to it.

The section leads with a story on a judge releasing an affordable-housing plan "paid for by 270 municipalities" in New Jersey, but the names of towns are missing (L-1).

Road Warrior John Cichowski compares drivers to doctors and plumbers who update "their training when renewing their licenses every few years" (L-1).

He claims people "drive 3,000-pound machines that dodge traffic at 65 mph or more," and notes he took a driving safety class in Fort Lee, "where a certain Hudson River bridge causes bumper-to-bumper bedlam."

This is journalism? What do traffic jams have to do with driver retraining?

Another typo

For the second time recently, a photo caption includes an extra "s" in Palisade Avenue, this time in Englewood (L-6).

The photo shows first responders clearing the scene of a "two-car crash at Grand and Palisades avenues."

In fact, one of the vehicles is shown on the sidewalk on Engle Street, the continuation of Grand.

Failed columnist

If you doubt The Record soft-pedals the damage Christie has caused in New Jersey, take a look at another ridiculously long and boring column from Mike Kelly on the Opinion front.

The burned-out columnist claims Christie's future hinges on the outcome in New Hampshire, when readers know it's the mean-spirited policies he's rammed through in New Jersey that make residents' blood boil (O-1).

Then, Kelly tries to convince readers Christie "should have been a Democrat" (O-4).

What a moron.

A sidelined Christie would be no loss to N.J. or the U.S.

A NY Waterway ferry returning to its Weehawken terminal from Manhattan with only a few passengers during rush hour on April 1.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front-page story today on the mounting cost of protecting Governor Christie when he travels out of state cites no active threats (A-1).

So, why did taxpayers spend $1.2 million to protect the GOP bully last year, and from whom?

Is Christie afraid a resident still living in a tent after losing his home to Superstorm Sandy is plotting to take him out?

Or, is he looking over his shoulder for state employees angry over his refusal to fully fund their pension system?

Given his eating habits, it's more likely the would-be president will be sidelined by salmonella, and it would be no great loss for New Jersey or the nation.

Ferriero jury

The timing of today's lead story on attorney Joseph Ferriero, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli and a doctor who "was allowed to sidestep prosecution" on groping charges is unusual.

This week, a federal jury in Newark will resume deliberations on corruption charges against Ferriero, once the powerful head of the Bergen County Democratic Party.

The story by Jean Rimbach reports Ferriero received almost $500,000 -- far more than previously thought -- to help the case of Teaneck dermatologist Gangaram Ragi (A-1).

Could Ferriero's defense attorney seek a mistrial, citing the Page 1 story?

Local news?

Does Road Warrior John Cichowski really expect shoppers to use the train to get to the Walmart opening soon in Teterboro and then schlep their packages home on mass transit (L-1)?

This from the columnist who spends 99% of his time promoting driving.

In recent years, the huge number of errors in Cichowski's columns testify to the near total absence of editing and fact-checking on The Record's copy desk.

In 2008, copy desk co-supervisor Nancy Cherry left the paper, creating a void in the enforcement of high standards of accuracy and headline writing that was never filled.

Under six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, supervisor of the copy and news desks, the decline has only accelerated.

Raw deal

Restaurant critic Elisa Ung's column on omakase, a chef's selection of raw fish, omits respected Japanese restaurants in Fort Lee and Edgewater (BL-1).

Is it possible that only one hotel meets the high standards of Travel Editor Jill Schensul ("Hotel peeves" on T-1).

Or is her cover story today an elaborate advertisement for Hotel Le Marais in New Orleans, the only one mentioned by name (T-3)?

I also found it strange that Schensul isn't peeved by the high cost of hotel rooms. Not one price appears in the article.

Columnist lies in misguided bid to kill red-light cameras

Saturday was a sunless, bitterly cold day in lower Manhattan, where people sought refuge in art galleries, above. I saw a bride and groom posing for photographers on 10th Avenue, opposite the High Line. They were married in the High Line Hotel, a former seminary, choosing the date -- 12/13/14 -- over the weather.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Staff Writer John Cichowski deliberately twisted comments by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka to boost the columnist's campaign against red-light cameras.

The Record's Road Warrior claimed in the first paragraph of his Dec. 6 column the mayor called for extension of the state's 5-year experiment "in an effort to prevent a crippling financial loss that could cost his cash-strapped city $4 million next year."

But NJ.com had a totally different take, reporting that Baraka, flanked by a dozen lawmakers, argued at a press conference his city should be allowed to keep its 19 cameras "because they reduce car crashes and promote safety."

In fact, NJ.com reported that when asked about the revenue generated by the cameras, Baraka said he'd be pleased if the fines would end all red-light violations:

"Baraka added later that the fines associated with the tickets could be a deterrent to drivers ignoring the traffic signals.

"If people are concerned about the money then we should do what we can to make sure they don't break the law," Baraka said. "As we stated earlier we trying to get to zero, zero is where we want to be and the red-light cameras help us get to zero."

For more details on the distortions in the Dec. 6 Road Warrior column, see the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

"In last Saturday’s column, the Road Warrior falsely made up what the mayor of Newark said at a Dec. 5 press conference about the reason for extending New Jersey's five-year program for red-light cameras.

"The Road Warrior indicated the Mayor stated that the reason for extending this program is due to a potential loss of $4 million in annual revenues to the city from the red-light fines.

"The mayor actually stated the reason for extending this program is due to the safety benefits and the significant reductions in crashes at the red-light camera intersections in Newark.

"In fact, the mayor stated his administration wants to get revenues down to zero, which would mean no running of red lights at these intersections by anyone."

See: Road Warrior sides with speeders who kill


Two Road Warriors columns, which quoted far more critics of red-light cameras than boosters, were followed by an editorial calling for an end to the experiment, which has saved lives.

The controversial red-light cameras have been challenged as inaccurate, in much the same way the Breathalyzer device was in the early years of DWI enforcement.

Today's paper

Staff Writer Jean Rimbach has one of the cushiest jobs of any reporter at the Woodland Park daily, and her byline appears infrequently.

Rimbach is part of the newsroom sisterhood that formed around head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes years ago.

Today, a story Rimbach likely worked on for months dominates Page 1 -- another bewildering choice by Editor Martin Gottlieb.

This story on an Alpine church is of absolutely no interest to the majority of readers, including Jews and Muslims.

Below the fold

A far more compelling story that any parent can relate to is below the fold: 

A mother's book on the Bergen County heroin epidemic that took the life of her 19-year-old son in their own home.

Don't miss the A-12 photo of an upstanding citizen from Upper Saddle River who allegedly mixed the drug cocktail that killed Danny Lajterman of Ramsey.

More claptrap

A front-page column on Hackensack by Mike Kelly also isn't worth much (A-1).

Kelly claims an ordinance designed to return civility to public discourse is really a muzzle on free speech, despite the complete absence of any civil or criminal penalties.

Check out the shit-eating grin in Kelly's outdated column photo, a sure sign he's putting another one over on readers.

Stile column

Could the Political Stile column on Page 1 today be one of the few since January 2010 that doesn't glorify Governor Christie's war against the middle class and the GOP bully's White House aspirations (A-1)?

Staff Writer Charles Stile reports on an early effort in New Jersey to raise money for Hillary Clinton, the Democrat who will give Christie a good spanking, if they both win their party's presidential nominations.

Check out the Margulies cartoon on the sad state of New Jersey's employee pension funds, thanks to another good public screwing from Christie (O-2).

Ung column

Staff Writer Elisa Ung follows last week's column on beef with today's report on "navigating the labels" on fish and seafood (BL-2).

She ignored the health angle in her report on beef, but here she touches on the issue of harmful mercury deposits in fish (BL-8).

Still, her columns could be more consumer friendly.

Instead of telling readers which antibiotic-free farmed salmon she buys, she could have reported Whole Foods Market pledges that all of its farm-raised fish and seafood are free of antibiotics, preservatives and other additives.

And there is nothing wrong with previously frozen wild salmon, which is available as fillets or smoked at Costco Wholesale.

Ung's beef and seafood columns are welcome, but the restaurant reviewer has thrown around the word "quality" for years without ever backing it up.

Chief restaurant reviewer forgets she is a reporter first

Parking in front of Joyce Chinese Cuisine and other tenants at Kress Plaza, a strip mall in River Edge, requires the skills of a constitutional scholar to interpret all of the signs warning customers about time limits, towing and other bad news.

The Record's rave review of Joyce Chinese Cuisine in Friday's edition makes no mention of the parking restrictions or that customers who use the bigger lot in back of the strip mall won't find a rear entrance to the restaurant. This photo was taken today before the restaurant opened at 11 a.m.

The restaurant, at 478 Kinderkamack Road, also has a sign on parking regulations, above, in addition to two others on nearby stores, below.

This sign means that if you park in front of the restaurant, you have to finish your meal in 30 minutes.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Some River Edge residents were incredulous when they learned town fathers had approved a large Chinese restaurant for a Kinderkamack Road strip mall where parking is notoriously difficult.

Then, two friends joined a second couple for dinner at the new restaurant, Joyce Chinese Cuisine, and were incredulous they were charged an introductory price of $6 for a pot of tea that is free just about everywhere else.

Now that the restaurant has had its grand opening that pot of tea is listed on the menu at $8.

Starry eyed

You won't learn any of this by reading Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung's rave, 3-star review of Joyce Chinese Cuisine in The Record on Friday (BL-16).

But there is lots of gee-whiz reporting on the "more than $1 million" the owners spent to turn a vacant space "into an elegant restaurant" -- when every restaurant reviewer knows or should know readers can't eat the wallpaper.

Difficult parking at a suburban restaurant and an $8 charge for a pot of Chinese tea are two turnoffs that will keep me away no matter how good the Sichuan food might be at Joyce Chinese Cuisine. 

Lan Garden on Route 46 west in Ridgefield also serves Sichuan cuisine, and that restaurant, which is now having a soft opening, and Lotus Cafe in Hackensack have plenty of convenient parking out front.

Today's paper

Don't expect The Record to do any serious reporting on some lawyers' outrageous hourly rates or the roughly one-third they collect after huge monetary settlements of civil lawsuits.

In fact, Staff Writer Kibret Markos has filed numerous stories on settlements of many hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars without ever mentioning how much of that goes to the lawyers.

The rare byline of Jean Rimbach apears today over a front-page story on the $615,000 in legal fees Bergen County will be paying for two county police officers who were found not guilty in a police shooting (A-1).

On Aug. 16, The Record also reported in a Page 1 story the law firm that whitewashed Governor Christie's role in the George Washington Bridge scandal has billed "taxpayers" $6.5 million.

Hourly rates

Doesn't the county or state have the right to ask a judge if the fees are reasonable? Is that being done in these cases?

What about an investigative story on lawyers' hourly rates and whether they effectively deny due process to plaintiffs who cannot afford to pay for representation?

And are any lawyers in North Jersey actually doing significant pro bono work? 

Local news?

There is so little local news in today's paper a reporter was asked to write a story even after finding out no North Jersey activists are demonstrating over the shooting of an unarmed black teen in Ferguson, Mo. (L-1).

On L-6 in Local, the local-assignment editors scrambled to fill huge holes with wire-service obituaries of two people no one has ever heard of.

Friday's paper

Page 1 of The Record on Friday read like a regional edition of The New York Times with stories on Ferguson, Mo.; the beheading of an American journalist in Syria, new DEA limits on a painkiller, Ebola and the national 'knockout' game (A-1).

In Local, the only real news was the death of Violet Cherry, former director of Englewood's Health Department (L-1).

Her obituary shared L-1 with a story on "a study" of a DPW access road in Paramus.

And why didn't head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, do more with a Teaneck Police Department tradition of bidding goodbye to retirees with a parade and party (L-2 photo)? 

Was Tony Soprano elected governor of New Jersey?

Welcome to New Jersey: With the Bayonne Bridge closed, people disembarking from a cruise ship at Port Jersey in Bayonne on Saturday faced a 30-minute delay in reaching the New Jersey Turnpike.

After the tollbooths, drivers passed an oasis of beauty next to the turnpike.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Readers with solar panels on their homes searched today's front page in vain for a clue to whether The Record's lead story on the state Clean Energy Program had anything to do with them (A-1).

If they managed to plow through all of the long, densely written paragraphs on A-1 without losing interest -- and that's doubtful -- they turned to the continuation page and saw a big photo of solar panels on a county building (A-6).

But why did Editor Marty Gottlieb think this is the first thing readers wanted to see today?

Staff Writer Jean Rimbach, the least productive reporter in the Woodland Park newsroom, worked on this expose a long time, but it is no easier to get into or understand, and whatever editing it might have received is invisible.

What it means

Has Rimbach's investigation uncovered another one of Governor Christie's failed promises or the well-known revolving door between government and industry?

And I can't see how any of this affects me as a homeowner who has solar panels on his roof or anyone else who took part in the Clean Energy Program.

I'm still getting free electricity more than six months out of the year, and I'm still earning monthly solar credits I can sell to Public Service Electric & Gas for cash.

Despite all of the talent Gottlieb has on his local photo staff, the former New York Times veteran keeps on running wire-service photos on Page 1, such as the silly one today of "pro-Russia protesters."

On A-2, the SHOT OF THE DAY is from Gaza City. Maybe, the real shot of the day is the majestic eagle on the Local front today.

Tony Soprano

A second piece on Page 1 today is clearly about another of the GOP bully's failed promises -- the incredible mismanagement of Superstorm Sandy aid (A-1 and A-7).

On Friday night, HBO satirist Bill Maher suggested Tony Soprano wasn't whacked in the final episode of "The Sopranos" in June 2007, he was elected governor of New Jersey.

After the belly laughs died down, that didn't seem so far-fetched, given how Christie has treated Sandy victims, bridge-and-tunnel Democrats in Fort Lee and other cities, commuters and the middle and working classes on whose backs he is about to balance another state budget.

White and black

Why did the local editors put David Peluso, a heroin addict from Mahwah, on the Local front, and bury a story about Kirk-Andeno Lawrence, 21, a promising college student who worked with an EMT unit?

Lawrence, of Paterson, committed suicide. He was black, as was the reporter who wrote the story, and the heroin addict is white. 

Did that have anything to do with placement of the respective stories?

Inflated salaries

Also on the Local front today is a piece by Staff Writer Hannan Adely on public relations consultants hired by a small number of towns, including Hackensack.

The city, which can't afford to repair potholes, is paying Thom Ammirato $78,000 a year -- a reward for his work as campaign manager to the Citizens for Change slate that swept last May's City Council election.

But Mayor John Labrosse, the top vote-getter, claims he didn't know Ammirato, the city's chief spokesman, already had a full-time public relations job with Bergen County's Republican administrator, plus a few other side jobs.

Ammirato's one-year contract with Hackensack expires in mid-July.

Newsroom changes

Meanwhile, Adely has been pulled off her Hackensack beat, and Kibret Markos has been assigned to the Passaic County Courthouse in Paterson after years of covering state Superior Court in Hackensack.

Staff Writer Peter J. Sampson replaced Markos at the Bergen County Courthouse, where there will a lot less second-hand smoke outside the main entrance the latter favored for his frequent smoking breaks.

What a concept: One reporter writes many stories

On Route 4 west in Paramus, a McDonald's -- the nation's largest purveyor of cheap, low-quality food -- a 24 Hour Fitness and Miller's N.J. Ale House send mixed messages, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Staff Writer Stefanie Dazio turns in a dazzling performance in The Record today.

This reporter is everywhere -- from the sensational shooting of an 85-year-old woman on Page 1 to four bylines in Local (L-2 and L-6) to a Q&A with a plastic surgeon on the Better Living front (BL-1).

She just might have exceeded all the bylines a veteran Record reporter like Jean Rimbach has in an entire year, and I'll bet Rimbach, who has been around forever, gets paid far more.

Rimbach, likely the least productive reporter at The Record, is among The Protected Ones, favorites of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, whose power seems undiminished during a prolonged absence from the newsroom.

A Jersey girl

On Twitter, Dazio identifies herself as a features and weekend news reporter at The Record of Woodland Park. She graduated from American University in May 2013.

She also has her own Web site, sdazio.com, which tells us she is a Jersey girl who "has been working in the newspaper industry since the fifth grade."

Her "accomplishments as an 11-year-old editor-in-chief include a scathing column that decried the school's cafeteria fare," according to sdazio.com.

I love it. 

Dazio had the presence of mind at 11 to critique low-quality school cafeteria food, but the idea of doing such a story about the crappy fare at Hackensack High or other schools escapes the six-figure editors at The Record.

Botched crime story

Dazio was one of three reporters who worked on the shooting of a Lodi grandmother, and here is another poorly edited crime story that leaves readers begging for more information (A-1).

Lodi police refused to say anything, so the story quotes John L. Molinelli from an e-mail, and the Bergen County prosecutor didn't return phone calls.

Molinelli told the paper police have a suspect, but doesn't identify him -- no surprise given how The Record minimized the prosecutor's accomplishments after Governor Christie nominated a successor a few months ago. 

Wrong interviews

A 911 call reporting the shooting was made at 6:21 a.m. Sunday, so what's the point of quoting a neighbor who left the house "shortly before 6 a.m." on whether he had heard shots (A-4)?

Instead of interviewing the owner of the Union Food Mart, the paper quotes a woman, who didn't want to be identified, as saying she "saw" a sheriff's officer ask the food-store owner "if he knew 'a kid named Joe,'" and show the merchant a photo.

The victim, Olga Bariso, is said to live at home with her husband, Joseph, a grandson and another relative, but the story doesn't say whether the grandson or relative is the "kid named Joe."

Readers seem to get a clue in a quote from the parish priest, the Rev. John Galeano, who said he dedicated part of his Sunday sermon "to discussing dysfunctional families."

But Galeano wasn't asked if he was referring to the victim's family

Who wrote this?

Finally, the most ridiculous paragraph is the third on Page 1:

"It was the second widely reported attack on a woman in her own home in Bergen County during the holiday season," comparing the shooting to the fatal stabbing on Thursday of Teia Gallo, 20, the adopted daughter of a Washington Township obstetric gynecologist, allegedly by her younger brother.

That sentence sounds like something you'd see in The New York Times to provide readers with context, but here it seems like a stretch.

Thai news

On A-4 today, a wire-service story on care for Alzheimer's patients in far off Thailand only serves to remind readers of how little coverage they find in The Record about victims of the disease in North Jersey.

Out of focus

In Local, more than a dozen of the long-suffering photo staff's best images in 2013 appear on L-1 and L-3. 

Why isn't the best of the best on Page 1 today?

Ex-Hackensack mayor blasts independent candidate

The entrance to the polls at the Fairmount Elementary School on Grand Avenue in Hackensack, where independent City Council candidate Victor E. Sasson voted for himself this morning, below.

"X" marks a vote for Sasson (Line 11), editor of Eye on The Record.

On a beautiful day for voting, independent City Council candidate Victor E. Sasson drove down to his polling place this morning, and was blasted by ex-Mayor Jack Zisa and Open Government candidate Joseph Barreto, one of "the Zisa slate" puppets.

Zisa -- standing on the street corner with Barreto -- was incensed that Sasson's campaign flier urged voters "to end the corrupt rule of the Zisa family."

Zisa saw one of the fliers on Monday night, when Sasson's wife and teenage son distributed them on Poplar Avenue, where the former mayor lives.

Barreto followed Sasson to his car, and criticized him for telling voters the Zisa-backed candidate doesn't send his children to the public schools, calling that an attack on Baretto's religion.

Lara L. Rodriguez, left, who was elected to the Board of Education in April, leaving the voting booth this morning at the Fairmount School. Her candidacy was backed by Hackensack's political machine, which has controlled the city for decades.

 

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg refused to "get involved" in Hackenack's non-partisan municipal election, opening the way for Newark Mayor Cory Booker to make a robo call backing candidates from the Coalition for Open Government, also known as "the Zisa slate."

Open Government candidates also are backed by Lynne Hurwitz, the city's Democratic boss and the power behind Ken Zisa, the disgraced former state Assemblyman and convicted ex-police chief, and brother of Jack Zisa, who served as mayor for 16 years, until 2005.

Another Democratic party figure, the widow of state Sen. Byron Baer of Englewood, also sent out a letter mounting a scurrilous attack on the Citizens for Change slate of reformers.

The letter from Linda Baer, a former state Administrative Law Judge and Bergen County freeholder, carried a Clinton Street address.

Residents may have wondered why Linda Baer would get involved in a Hackensack election.

It turns out Lara L. Rodriguez, one of the successful machine candidates for Board of Education last month, is Byron Baer's daughter.  

How cozy everyone is in Hackensack.

Dissing Hackensack

The Record hasn't mentioned the election since a front-page story last Thursday.

Today, the Woodland Park daily finally publishes a story about the approval of Hackensack's $91.9 million budget a week ago.

Of course, property taxes are going up, piling on a 65% increase in recent years under the current City Council, which has raped the taxpayer.

The story on L-3 is a reprint from the weekly Hackensack Chronicle, and fails to mention today's crucial election.

The polls are open until 8 p.m. today.

Hackensack voters, throw off your chains.

Multimillionaire banker and developer Fred Daibes has expressed an interest in the 20 acres along River Street in Hackensack owned by the Borg family, publishers of The Record and Herald News, according to rumors circulating today.

Borgs, Daibes et al.

The Record and the Borg family were the subject of Election Day rumors in Hackensack.

Fred Daibes, founder of Mariner's Bank in Edgewater, apparently has expressed an interest in developing 20 acres on River Street, former headquarters of The Record, which moved out in 2009.

That might explain why Daibes -- one of the county's most politically active developers -- came out smelling like a rose in Sunday's Page 1 expose of unsecured Mariner's Bank loans to Democratic Party bigwig Joseph Ferriero and others.

The story was written by Jean Rimbach, whose rare byline exposes her as the least productive member of the newsroom.

Rimbach keeps her job, because of her friendship with head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, a lifer who seems immune to being fired, despite the drastic decline in local news in the past decade.