Editors always ask, 'When will the jury reach a verdict?'

Working for The Record on Sept. 11, 2001, Photographer Thomas E. Franklin captured this iconic image of three firefighters raising an American flag above the rubble of the Twin Towers. But the photo didn't appear on the Sept. 12, 2001, front page of The Record, then headquartered in Hackensack. However, Franklin's photo did show up on the cover of the New York Post on Sept. 13, 2001, missing any credit to him or The Record.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If you're a reporter covering state or federal courts, you soon get used to stupid questions from the editors directing coverage in the newsroom.

"When is the jury coming back?" is an especially annoying question courthouse reporters hear -- in view of the jurors' secret deliberations.

You can bet editors asking stupid questions led to Page 1 stories today and Tuesday trying to predict what will happen at the federal trial of two former allies of Governor Christie in the George Washington Bridge lane closures three years ago.

On Tuesday, Staff Writer Paul Berger, who covers the Port Authority, weighed the chances of Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni, the former aides and confidants, being convicted -- like the 190 other men and women facing "federal charges in New Jersey in the past six years."

Today, Berger and Peter J. Sampson, who covers federal court in Newark for The Record, provide readers with another tutorial -- Jury Selection 101 (A-1).

The headlines are especially ridiculous, because the jurors are the triers of facts, and will decide the guilt or innocence of the defendants:

"Bridgegate
trial could 
hinge on
jury picks

"Judge's first challenge
is finding unbiased panel"

And on the continuation page:

"JURY: May swing GWB trial"

No. They definitely will "swing" the trial.

Bridgegate whitewash

A Bridgegate editorial appears on A-8, noting Christie once joked he moved the traffic cones himself to close access lanes to the bridge, triggering five mornings of gridlock in Fort Lee.

"Little would surprise New Jersey residents ... even if Christie's jest turned out to have been the truth."

And for the first time, The Record is calling the publicly funded $8 million report from a law firm that exonerated Christie "a whitewash."

New York skyline

The star of today's front page is the story on the renewal of the Manhattan skyline, part of The Record's coverage of the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America (A-1).

Don't miss the centerfold by Staff Writer James M. O'Neill -- "REACHING NEW HEIGHTS" -- which amounts to a love letter from North Jersey residents who have watched the transformation of the skyline since the Twin Towers were leveled (A-4 and A-5). 

9/11 flag recovered

The story on recovery of the flag raised over the rubble of the World Trade Center recalls one of the darkest days in The Record's Hackensack newsroom, which was in use until 2009 (L-1).

The events had nothing to do with the terrorist attack itself or the column of black smoke rising from the rubble -- clearly visible through the big windows of the fourth-floor newsroom, where the staff had just put out an extra and were working on the morning edition of Sept. 12, 2001.

When the flag-raising photo captured by Staff Photographer Thomas E. Franklin was transmitted to the newsroom, the front page had already been made up with a photo showing pretty much what every other paper had -- an image of the smoking towers or a plane flying into one of them.

Photo Director Rich Gigli couldn't persuade Editor Frank Scandale and the woman he succeeded, Vivian Waixel, to put Franklin's photo on Page 1, because bean counters decided remaking the front page would be too expensive.

Franklin's photo ended up on a back page in the paper of Sept. 12, 2001, and that likely destroyed his chances of winning a Pulitzer Prize for Photography.

That same business mentality was used when The Record reprinted thousands of copies of the Sept. 11, 2001, extra without correcting a front-page photo caption that misidentified the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center.

Franklin's photo

In the years that followed, Jennifer A. Borg, then vice president and general counsel of The Record, jealously guarded the copyright of Franklin's iconic photo.

But that didn't stop the advertising department from inserting a glossy 8-inch-by-11-inch copy of the 9/11 flag-raising image into the paper one day.

On the flip side was an ad for All American Ford in Hackensack.

As Bridgegate case drags on, lawyers are having last laugh

Parts of Main Street outside of downtown Hackensack have been repaved, as have other streets, but State Street and a narrow stretch of River Street still give drivers a rough ride.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The latest delay in releasing the list of "unindicted co-conspirators" in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal serves only to line the pockets of the many lawyers involved.

Governor Christie alone has managed to spend more than $10 million in taxpayer funds on his law firm's elaborate stonewalling of public suspicions that he was involved in the September 2013 dirty trick against Fort Lee's Democratic mayor.

Christie's lawyer, Randy Mastro, actually had the balls to announce he was lowering his hourly fee to $650 from $1,000.

Despite the obvious bias of Mastro's final report, The Record has time and again pointed to it as evidence Christie did nothing wrong.

And the Woodland Park daily allowed WNYC-FM and other media to take the lead in keeping track of Mastro's bloated bills to the Governor's Office.

Three-year delay

Now, the trial of Bill Baroni, who was the Port Authority's deputy director, and Bridget Anne Kelly, then deputy chief of staff to Christie, is set for this September -- three years after the event.

David Wildstein, a Christie crony on the Port Authority, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy last May, and is expected to testify against Baroni and Kelly.

We can only guess at the huge legal bills facing this trio, and whether they had to take second and third mortgages on their homes.

Silence on fees

High legal fees deny many people their day in court.

That doesn't trouble The Record or North Jersey Media Group, which has deep pockets and doesn't hesitate to finance such First Amendment cases as trying to make public the list of people who weren't charged in the lane-closure scandal.

At the same time, the editors also have done their best to hide just how much lawyers get from multi-million dollar jury awards and settlements by simply not reporting them.

And when is the last time you saw a story reporting that a plaintiff is paying $200, $300 or $400 an hour for representation or that a criminal defendant might have to come up with a $10,000 retainer to get a lawyer to appear in court with him? 

Law-firm merger

The Record stays silent on legal fees even as it promotes a Hackensack law firm that has been paid handsomely to represent NJMG in everything from age-discrimination lawsuits to copyright infringement cases.

A story on the Saturday Business page reported Pashman Stein is merging with Walder Hayden of Roseland, but didn't identify the Hackensack firm as the one that's favored by NJMG Vice President and General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg.

Local news?

The Record's Local front today includes three sensational court stories, and two more appear on L-3 along with crime news.

Yet, two local obituaries were buried on L-5, including one for the Fort Lee man who ran Zabar's deli counter.

"To the legions who shop at Zabar's, the Upper West Side specialty food emporium, Harold Horowytz was the prince of pastrami, the king of corned beef, the lord of lox," Staff Writer Jay Levin wrote.

Below the Horowytz obituary, Levin reported the death of Allen Wahlberg, a longtime Ho-Ho-Kus councilman.

So, Horowytz and Wahlberg are treated the same as Madeleine LeBeau, an obscure French actress whose obit also is played on L-5.

Bias against Obama

What motivated The Record's editors to take a pot shot at President Obama in the coverage of his speech to Rutgers University graduates on Sunday?

The reporting I saw elsewhere was overwhelmingly positive, but The Record's main Page 1 story on Monday ended on a surprisingly sour note.

What exactly was the point of quoting a parent, Vince Zangli, saying he "couldn't be more disappointed in the last eight years," a clear reference to Obama's two terms in office?

Of course, that is consistent with all of the attacks on Obama by Christie and Record Columnist Mike Kelly.

Still, many readers are asking whether Zangli, Christie, Kelly, the editors and the reporter who quoted the parent are motivated by racial animus against the nation's first black president.

Coach Christie?

And why didn't The Record and other media question Christie's excuse for boycotting Obama's speech.

Who believes that fat slob's claim that he has coached his son in baseball "since he was 7 years old," and wanted to see him pitch his last college game?

When incompetence is rewarded, readers are biggest losers

On weekdays, the parking lots at 150 River St., the old headquarters of The Record, are filled with cars from Hackensack University Medical Center, continuing the cozy relationship with North Jersey Media Group first established when Vice President/General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg sat on the hospital board. It's unclear how The Record can be objective about HUMC, a huge non-profit that increases the tax burden on every home and business owner in Hackensack. 

These booths for attendants were built after NJMG landed a two-year $777,660 contract through July 2015 to accommodate the cars of jurors, attorneys and visitors in the River Street lots during construction of a Justice Center and parking garage near the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Less than a week before North Jerseyans have to make hefty quarterly property tax payments, the pages of The Record are filled with anything but local news.

Editor Deirdre Sykes' front page today has readers choking on state and national politics, sports and $2 gas (A-1).

And only a day after Page 1 reported the unexpected death of Teaneck Mayor Lizette Parker at 44, Sykes is so bored with the story she demotes the tributes and outpouring of grief to the Local front (L-1).

There isn't much else in the local-news section today except Law & Order news (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

You have to wonder why after the death of Parker on Sunday and Prince at 57 just last Thursday, the clueless Sykes hasn't assigned a story exploring why so many blacks die young.

In fact, why hasn't the paper's chief medical writer, Lindy Washburn, proposed such a story instead of wasting nearly two full Sunday pages on a man who is awaiting his second heart transplant in 20 years?

The damage of focusing on such medical freaks is that readers never learn tens of thousands of people who have cardiac surgery every year feel better than ever and go on to leave productive lives. 

Promotions

As head assignment editor, Sykes and sidekick Dan Sforza ran Local for years, scrambling to fill holes in the local-news report with accident photos, minor fires, crime and court news, and the Dean's List. 

As if to reward their incompetence, Sykes and Sforza were promoted in January, she to editor of the entire paper and he to managing editor, though all he seems to be "managing" is his free time.

Their promotions followed the elevation of Liz Houlton to six-figure production editor after she left a trail of typos and errors in Food and other sections when she was running the features copy desk.

Gannett bid

On the first Business page today, the editors censor a story on newspaper publisher Gannett offering to buy some of the nation's biggest newspapers (L-7).

Gannett owns six daily newspapers in New Jersey, and is rumored to have made offers to the Borg family for The Record.

Today, the editors don't mention those Gannett papers, just like the Woodland Park daily never reported they and the Star-Ledger called for Governor Christie to resign after he endorsed racist Donald Trump for president.

Cost-cutting

As the business story reports, Gannett long has been associated with cost-cutting and "shedding jobs" after acquiring newspapers (L-8).

But The Record's publisher, Stephen A. Borg, has done that on his own in the past decade.

Those moves include shifting the printing of The Record and Herald News to Rockaway Township, and firing more than 50 printers; a major newsroom downsizing in 2008 and the abandonment of Hackensack in 2009.

The downsizing saw the departure of employees who had worked for The Record for 20, 30 or more years.

Those cuts were made several months after Borg got a $3.65 million mortgage from his family's North Jersey Media Group for the purchase of a Tenafly McMansion, where he lives with his wife and four sons.

Freeze on raises

In the last few years, Borg froze newsroom raises and, more recently, stopped replacing reporters who leave the paper.

All of that has contributed to a drastic decline in the accuracy, quality and quantity of local-news coverage.

A recent example was how Sykes and Sforza ignored the candidates and issues in last Tuesday's school board and budget election in Hackensack, the biggest school system in Bergen County.

Meanwhile, the Borgs anticipate selling nearly 20 acres along River Street to an apartment developer after the Hackensack City Council declared the parcel in need of redevelopment, and awarded a multi-year tax break to the buyer. 

Incompetent local editors are now running the newsroom

Behold a colorful mural by local artists on Main and Bridge streets in Hackensack, above and below, where Choripan Rodizio, an Argentinian grill restaurant, and upper-floor apartments burned down on April 26, 2015. The fire originated in the restaurant.

The mural has upset some residents, who say city codes only allow a chain-link fence around vacant land, like the one across Bridge Street, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

There were two cakes at a farewell party on Thursday for Martin Gottlieb, the veteran head-in-the-clouds editor who ran The Record's Woodland Park newsroom for the last four years.

One was to wish bon voyage to Gottlieb, who is retiring to Paris, and the other was to celebrate the birthday of Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg of Englewood, the North Jersey Media Group chairman who hired him twice -- in 1971 and 2011 -- 40 years apart.

Mac, who didn't give his age, is believed to be in his late 70s, and many noticed how the already overweight senior had added more unwanted pounds.

Cub to editor

Marty, who celebrated his 68th birthday on Jan. 10, began his long journalism career in 1971 as a cub reporter covering Bergen County towns for The Record, and ended it as top editor of a newspaper once known for its comprehensive local coverage.

At the party, Publisher Stephen A. Borg, Mac's son, had his cellphone glued to his ear, as usual.

And on Friday -- in a decision that had everything to do with money and nothing to do with journalism -- the younger Borg put the paper's failed local assignment editors in charge of the entire newsroom (Saturday's A-3).

Neither had strong  journalism credentials when they came to the paper.

Local yokels

Former head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes worked on a weekly before she was hired in 1987 as a night copy editor, one of the most thankless jobs in the current newsroom.

And Dan Sforza, who was her deputy, began as a lowly clerk in the old Hackensack newsroom right out of college in 1994.

Stephen Borg named Sykes as editor and Sforza as managing editor, and there is disagreement over whether either will be getting a raise.

The younger Borg imposed a freeze on raises for editorial assistants, reporters, copy editors and editors more than five years ago, when Francis "Frank" Scandale was the top editor.

Scandale was fired in late 2011, and Gottlieb arrived in January 2012 after taking a buyout at The New York Times, where he had risen to editor of editions in Paris and Hong Kong.

Always had Paris

That international experience proved to be a really poor fit at a local daily newspaper.

Readers in Hackensack and many other towns have seen coverage of their communities and schools decline drastically under Gottlieb, Sykes and Sforza.

The local editors scrambled every day to fill their thin, misnamed section, Local (see today's pathetic effort), as Gottlieb ran sports, politics and international news on A-1.

Searching in vain for municipal news, readers eyes rolled at all of the filler -- long Dean's Lists, sensational crime and court news, and gee-whiz photo after of gee-whiz photo of non-fatal accidents and fires.

Then, they were pelted with mindless blather from that moron, Road Warrior John Cichowski, who refused to cover commuting issues, as demonstrated by his statistics-filled L-1 column today.

Sykes was known to keep a shit list, and to form bonds with Jean Rimbach and other women on the reporting staff whose bylines are few and far between, and that isn't expected to change.

A good front

On today's Opinion front, Gottlieb's farewell column explores the fantasy world of journalism he inhabits.

Gottlieb ignores the major newsroom downsizing imposed by Stephen Borg in 2008, the move out of Hackensack in 2009; and the decline in the quantity, quality and accuracy of local news under Borg's watch (O-1).

The biggest laugh line is Gottlieb comparing The Record's Mike Kelly to streetwise, big-city columnists Jimmy Breslin and Mike Royko, as shown by Kelly's exceedingly boring take on Atlantic City (A-1 today).

He praises many newsroom staffers by name, but offends just as many by not acknowledging their hard work during his reign.

The photo with Gottlieb's column shows him on Thursday with Mac Borg and two of his children, Stephen and NJMG General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg.

Typical A-1

Gottlieb's last front page on Saturday is typical of his reliance on sensational crime news and politics to sell the paper to an apathetic readership.

Gottlieb has been hitting readers over the head with coverage of the GOP candidates, including Governor Christie, even though Iowa voters have failed to choose the party's nominee in the last two tries.

Every story in the past year or two on the so-called presidential campaign has meant one less on the mess Christie has made in New Jersey, where he has ruled by executing more than 500 vetoes.

What did local readers get on Saturday?

Another long story, this time on the Local front, about a 6-year-old boy bitten by a rabid raccoon, and lots of news about crime or the courts.

The standing photo of a minor house fire appears on L-3.

Today's paper

"Deirdre Sykes, Editor" appears for the first time on today's editorial page, and her first Page 1 is a real snoozer. 

The package on Atlantic City's future couldn't be more irrelevant to North Jersey readers, who know all too well what a disaster casino gambling has been (A-1).

They will be sure to vote down any attempt to bring casino gambling to the Meadowlands, a desperate move The Record seems to be behind.

Yet another crappy Christie column from Charles Stile, the governor's chief apologist, also appears on Page 1 today.

The veteran Trenton reporter was sent to Iowa at great expense despite the newsroom-wide wage freeze, and I'll bet that is pissing off a lot of staffers. 

Local news?

The alleged husband-wife murder that led Saturday's front page is the biggest news on the Local front today (L-1).

Just below that is the burial of Messiah, 1; and Saniyah, 4, who died of carbon-monoxide poisoning, as did their 23-year-old mother, Sashalynn Rosa.

In a Thursday story, which reported Saniyah's death, the girl was said to be 3 years old. 

The exhaust pipe of their idling car, with the mother and children trying to keep warm inside, was blocked by snow on Jan. 23 as father Felix Bonilla Jr. tried to clear the vehicle after the blizzard.

Unfortunately, the story appears next to today's Road Warrior column, reminding readers how the inept Cichowski failed to warn about that common danger as readers tried to dig out their parked cars after the storm.

Today, Cichowski, as he has done many times before, begins his column with a bewildering non sequitur:

"It's cheap enough to fill a car's tank with gas these days, but the cost of road crashes remains higher than ever" (L-1).

And the Monthly News Quiz on L-3 today shows just how desperate Sykes and Sforza still are to fill the pages of Local.

Fat face?

The best dishes Elisa Ung ate this month show the reporter doesn't flinch from sampling mystery meat and a "chocolate-covered strawberry milk shake" in the name of food criticism (BL-5).

Her contemporaries also may eat such unhealthy fare, but she is out of step with most of her readers, who are far older and watching their weight, and their cholesterol and sugar intake.

That thumbnail of her chin poised over a wine glass is close to 10 years old, and many readers are speculating that her presumably fatter face wouldn't fit into an update photo.

HUMC, other hospitals finally address what ails taxpayers

A Joseph M. Sanzari Inc. company vehicle in Hackesnack, where the Children's Hospital at Hackesnack University Medical Center bears the name of the construction magnate.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

As Hackensack University Medical Center gobbled up the neighborhood around it, the property tax burden on every resident of the city grew heavier.

As a non-profit, hundreds of millions of dollars in HUMC property is tax-exempt, shifting the burden to home and business owners.

Today's front-page story in The Record on property tax deals with non-profit hospitals only mentions HUMC in passing.

Perfect together?

The newspaper and the hospital have a long relationship, including the years Jennifer A. Borg sat on the hospital board, and HUMC advertising appeared regularly on NorthJersey.com.

Borg is general counsel of North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, which was headquartered in Hackensack for more than 110 years.

She is the older sister of Publisher Stephen A. Borg and daughter of NJMG Chairman Malcolm A. Borg.

The Record's coverage of HUMC expansion in its residential neighborhood was far less extensive than later coverage of The Valley Hospital's building plans. 

That was the case even though the Ridgewood hospital would be building within its existing campus.

In Hackensack, HUMC took a lot of residential property, including a Prospect Avenue home that housed a famous jazz studio where Thelonious Monk recorded "Hackensack" in 1954.

In recent years, the hospital has ignored Hackensack Police Director Mike Mordaga, who asked for the assignment of medical staff to the county shelter on South River Street to eliminate police having to take so many homeless people to the emergency room at city expense.

Neglected story

Since I moved to Hackensack in 2007, today's story may be only the first or second in The Record to discuss the burden on property tax payers of the hospital's non-profit status.

And there hasn't been any mention of two other huge Hackensack non-profits, Bergen County and Fairleigh Dickinson University, that aggravate the problem.

Nor has the Woodland Park daily reported on residents who have called on city officials to negotiate with the non-profits for regular payments or services in lieu of taxes. 

Editors bury legal problems of a prominent Cliffs lawyer

A display of fall colors in Hackensack's Fairmount section.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Prosecutors say an Englewood Cliffs woman defrauded two Manhattan law firms where she was a partner out of $7.8 million, The Record reports today.

But in her defense, her lawyer blames the woman's husband, claiming he was leading a "dual life that included having a secret second family, and being a drug trafficker instead of a legitimate businessman."

Are you looking for the story on Page 1? 

You won't find it there, even though a lurid love-triangle murder trial and other sensational news are routinely splashed across the front page.

No. Something or someone must have told Editor Martin Gottlieb to bury the story about indicted lawyer Keila Ravelo, 50, of Englewood Cliffs.

So, readers might be surprised to find it leading today's Business page, way back in the Local news section (L-7).

Funny business

Calling this business news isn't sound journalism; it's funny business.

Yes. Lawyers seem to be a protected class at North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, where the litigious general counsel is Jennifer A. Borg, daughter of Chairman Malcolm A. Borg and big sister of Publisher Stephen A. Borg.

Stories about lawyers are routinely censored, especially when it come to reporting on fees of hundreds of dollars an hour that restrict access to the courts.

Story after story on multi-million dollar lawsuit settlements or jury awards carefully omit the hefty cut the judges  steer to the lawyers. 

And is there any move to rein in lawyers' hourly fees? How much pro bono work do wealthy lawyers really do? Did Governor Christie close all the legal aid offices in the Garden State?

Readers don't have a clue.

GOP bully

Gottlieb leads the paper today with Christie's presidential campaign -- it's on life support (A-1).

The GOP bully is a lawyer who often reminds us he once was a federal prosecutor, but he worries more about drug addicts than the New Jersey middle class he has savaged since taking office in early 2010.

And Gottlieb can't help politicizing a story on "smart gun technology" with a headline declaring:

Dems
rethink
smart
guns

Back away from
tough N.J. stance

I guess smart guns will save only Democratic lives.

Hackensack news

In Local today, the only news about Hackensack is a collision between two cars that caused minor injuries (L-1). 

Gee whiz. What a great photo. Would you look at the guy on the gurney.

Drive and eat

When readers in Hackensack and other central Bergen County towns see the address of the restaurant being reviewed today, they'll likely turn the page (BL-14).

Given the hassles of driving in North Jersey, where even a routine trip can turn into a nightmare, who wants to bumper-to-bumper during the rush hour to have dinner at the Craft House or any other restaurant in Suffern, N.Y.?

This is yet another appraisal from Staff Writer Elisa Ung, who knocks herself out exploring food on the fringes of the circulation area.

Keep in mind The Record picks up her hefty tabs, including all of those artery clogging dishes she seems to love, and reimburses her for mileage.

Judge dismisses suit against Van Lenten estate, others

After the snow stopped falling Sunday, a man cleared snow near a Korean school on Passaic Street in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit alleging that Peter Van Lenten Jr. helped others cheat The Record's publisher out of more than $3 million.

The decision, filed last Wednesday, is an embarrassing setback for North Jersey Media Group's litigious general counsel, Vice President Jennifer A. Borg, and the Hackensack law firm of Pashman Stein, which often represents the company.  

The suit alleged Van Lenten, who was NJMG vice president of information technology until April 2009, helped about two dozen others defraud the publisher of The Record.

The suit claimed the company paid more than $2 million "on false/and or inflated invoices" from 2001 to 2009, and an additional $1 million for temporary workers hired at "greatly inflated charges."

Van Lenten died in April 2010, and his estate was named a defendant. But Stephen R. Bosin, a River Edge attorney, described the estate as an entity with no cash.

This afternoon, Bosin said Superior Court Judge Robert C. Wilson in Hackensack dismissed the suit against all of the defendants.

The suit was filed in April 2013.

Imagine how much Pashman Stein billed NJMG in legal fees for nearly two years of litigation at several hundreds of dollars an hour.

Today's paper

Except for all of that space wasted on the anti-climactic Oscars, the rest of Page 1 today is soft news that is of little use to readers.

Maybe The Record should save a ton of newsprint and publish Tuesdays to Sundays.

How many thieves like Ridgewood's Rica work for us?

An old home at 509 Engle St. in Englewood, purchased by Kesher Community Synagogue of Tenafly & Englewood in 2003, is now at the center of a construction project to add a 19,000-square foot building with a sanctuary, offices and classrooms, part of which is in Tenafly, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

 As a resident of a small city once known derisively as "Zisaville," I howled with laughter on Tuesday afternoon when I saw a story on North Jersey.com about Ridgewood's infamous parking-revenue thief.

Now, The Record reports, an audit has revealed that nearly $850,000 in parking-meter quarters walked out of Ridgewood's coin room, including the $460,000 former village employee Thomas Rica admitted to stealing (A-1).

Rica is an example of how New Jersey's antiquated home-rule system of government is filled with employees who range from the highly skilled and competent to the inept and dishonest.

Residents and taxpayers of Hackensack still are seething the city lost $1 million-plus, because an employee failed to bill the Board of Education for a high school resource officer.

How many employees like Rica are working in North Jersey towns, trying to figure out ways to screw residents?

In recent years a strong NIMBY movement has arisen in wealthy Ridgewood, where some residents have opposed expansion of The Valley Hospital.

And now, some are saying Not In My Backyard to a plan to build more apartments downtown.

Meanwhile, no one was watching as nearly $850,000 in parking revenue walked out the door. 

The main headline at the top of Page 1 is really lame, because Rica's case has been out of the news since March:

Tally of missing quarters piles up

  

And it's not the "tally" that piles up, but the "missing quarters."

More "me" from Kelly

Columnist Mike Kelly can't even wait until the continuation page to tell readers he interviewed onetime Bergen County Democratic Party chief Joseph Ferriero in a Route 4 diner nearly seven years ago (A-1).

Ferriero, who is facing a federal racketeering trial, "stirred his coffee and smiled," Kelly says in his first paragraph.

The failed columnist could have used the first paragraph to describe Ferriero's "dictatorial political machine," "patronage jobs" and "pay-to-play contracts with campaign donors" (5th paragraph).

Or, that in 2008, when the interview was conducted, Ferriero tried to justify his actions as the head of the 1,100-member organization.

Brian Williams

Also on Page 1 today is the six-month suspension without pay imposed on Brian Williams, who is being punished for "an exaggerated tale of combat" (a lie) on the "NBC Nightly News."

The Record, meanwhile, still has not corrected Staff Writer John Cichowski's bald-faced fabrication in a Jan. 25 Road Warrior column on the safety of Route 4 bridges.

Cichowski's column today is about the dangers of cellphone texting and talking while driving (L-1).

But readers would do well to look at the story on early-onset Alzheimer's disease for a possible explanation of why Cichowski has committed literally hundreds of errors in the so-called commuting column (BL-1).

Unfortunately, readers won't find any explanation for why everyone from Vice President/General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg to Editor Marty Gottlieb to Production Editor Liz Houlton continue to defend Cichowski's wildly exaggerated columns, his dangerous advice to drivers and his flawed reporting on state statutes. 

Many of the errors and distortions have been brought to their attention by a retired engineer who set up the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers, and sends them detailed e-mails.

Road Warrior Bloopers at The Record

Borg family's interests trump civility at public meetings

Richard E. Salkin speaking at Tuesday night's City Council meeting in Hackensack. Salkin doesn't identify himself as the attorney for the city's Board of Education, which is allied with the Zisa family and the local Democratic Party that lost the 2013 municipal election. A frequent critic of the current council, he is usually quoted in The Record without that title, the same "anonymity" the paper accords to members of the losing council slate.

The five-member City Council with City Attorney Thomas P. Scrivo, left, and City Manager David R. Troast, front.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Borg family's progress on selling 19.7 acres near downtown Hackensack to a developer dominates The Record's Local news section today.

Staff Writer Todd South, who covered Tuesday night's City Council meeting, wrote a story that ignores unanimous passage of an ordinance governing public comment.

The "Rules of Order" were introduced on Nov. 25 after critics of the council -- principally those who lost the 2013 municipal election -- launched one abrasive attack after another against officials for just about every hire and proposal they made, including a downtown performance space.

Many of the attacks were reported in The Record without identifying the critics as Zisa family allies and members of the local Democratic Party, which lost the 2013 municipal election to a slate of reformers led by John P. Labrosse Jr., who is now mayor.

The weekly Hackensack Chronicle reported what happened at a Nov. 10 council meeting The Record didn't cover:

"Another incident in which the First Amendment right was brought into question took place at the Nov. 10 council meeting, when resident [and Board of Education Attorney] Richard Salkin, who is a vocal critic of a number of the council members, in particular of councilwoman Rose Greenman, referred to her as a "sociopath."

"This allegation drove Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino -- who was presiding over the meeting in the absence of the mayor -- to say she will not tolerate name calling.

"I'm not going to tolerate that," she said. "Address people with respect, that's all I ask. We are respecting you, respect us back."

Profit motive

The 150 River St.  parcel and adjacent property is the former headquarters of North Jersey Media Group and its flagship daily newspaper, The Record, which prospered in Hackensack for more than 110 years.

Publisher Stephen A. Borg abandoned Hackensack in 2009, moving The Record's newsroom to a nondescript office building overlooking Route 80 in Woodand Park.

A few years earlier, Borg moved the printing of The Record and Herald News to a printing plant in Rockaway Township, and ordered a major downsizing of the staff in 2008. 

Those two decisions seemed to set into motion a precipitous decline in the quality of editing and reporting at a newspaper still referred to as "The Bergen Record."

The 19.7 Hackensack acres are expected to fetch $20 million or more.

City study

On Tuesday night, the City Council approved a study to determine whether the NJMG parcel should be declared as an "area in need of redevelopment," a designation that could entitle any developer to tax breaks for up to 30 years, The Record reports (L-1).

The lead paragraph of the story says the property, two blocks east of Main St. in Hackensack, is 20 acres, but the second paragraph calls it a "19.7-acre site."

Labrosse, the mayor, said any development would have to include a walkway along the Hackensack River and a park where the USS Ling submarine is tied up on NJMG property.

Hackensack's Venice

A Walmart Super Center was rumored for the 19.7 acres a couple of years ago, and then gazillionaire Fred Daibes of Edgewater proposed a mixed-use residential and retail development, but that fell through.

Apartments wouldn't seem suitable for what former employees recall as a property prone to frequent flooding that claimed the cars of more than one staffer.

I can recall one storm that surrounded the 150 River St. building with so much water the managers pressed into service newspaper delivery trucks to pick up employees from higher ground a block away.

See a previous post:

Borgs prepare to screw Hackensack again

CIA torture

It's hard to tell who is more upset by the CIA's "brutal interrogation program" after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on America (A-1).

Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the harsh interrogation techniques a "stain on the nation's history."

But the media are playing up incidents that occurred more than a decade ago before reforms instituted by President Obama.

Could CNN and other media outlets really be upset they've been denied sensational YouTube videos of CIA operatives decapitating suspected terrorists?