No longer Page 1 news, Christie vetoes are going uncounted

Two cars collided at Prospect Avenue and Clinton Place in Hackensack this morning, above and below. The car on the left smashed into the driver's side of a Honda sedan, pushing it onto the sidewalk.  Was one of the drivers speeding? Or did one of them run the stop sign? Tune in tomorrow for the thrilling conclusion.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

More than six months ago, The Record's editors reluctantly disclosed how many vetoes Governor Christie had executed since he took office in early 2010:

Christie's dictatorial rule by veto

That story soon was outdated, and the number of Christie vetoes has soared past 450, surely setting a record for any New Jersey governor.

Today, the GOP bully's vetoes are no longer Page 1 news, even when they involve gender pay equity.

Nor does Staff Writer John C. Ensslin bother to update the tally (A-3).

Student slain

Today, the front page reports that for the second time in a month, a college student living in off-campus Newark housing was fatally shot:

"There is no getting around the fact that [Rutgers and the New Jersey Institute of Technology] are located in a transitional neighborhood in a crime-ridden city," Staff Writer Patricia Alex says.

Fatal shootings in Newark are an almost daily occurrence, so why is this one on Page 1 and the rest of them either buried or unmentioned?

Local news?

You know there is little news in Local today when the section leads with Bergen County freeholders holding budget meetings with 18 department heads (L-1).

Although The Record hasn't covered Hackensack schools for more than a year -- or is it two -- there is a detailed story on a repairs to a  parking lot at Pascack Valley High School on L-3 today.

Mother's Day

Clueless freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson of Upper Saddle River is urging women to eat as much unhealthy food as possible on Mother's Day.

Her brunch recipes include gelato, sugar, heavy cream, bacon, ham and full-fat cheeses (BL-1 and BL-2).

Second look

Travel Editor Jill Schensul must have been desperate when she accepted a proposal by Staff Writer Kara Yorio to write Sunday's cover story on the charms of the Jersey Shore.

Talk about damning the shore with faint praise. 

Few readers will stick with Yorio, who finally comes around to prizing her time at the shore after she lands a job at the Asbury Park Press in her mid-20s, but that isn't mentioned until deep on the continuation page.

Do I blame lack of sunlight or sub-par Sunday edition?

Pupuseria Las Americas, which is open 7 days, tries its luck in a storefront on Salem Street in Hackensack. Pupusas, a traditional Salvadoran dish, are stuffed corn tortillas. Meanwhile, an ice cream and coffee shop called Upsy Daisy has failed to open after starting renovations at 479 Main St. in Hackensack, below.

A Shilla Korean Bakery operated for several years in the building, across the street from Sears' parking lot. Daheen Wang Mandoo, a Korean king dumpling restaurant, started renovations, but never opened, and nearby merchants said the city was slow to issue permits.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Before the sun finally came out around 11:30 this morning, I didn't know whether to blame the weather or The Record's lackluster Sunday edition for my moodiness.

Just when you've had it with the distant nightmare of Superstorm Sandy (late October 2012), nearly half of today's front page is covered with another cliche-filled column on the future of a Jersey shore town (A-1).

Staff Writer Mike Kelly brings his shit-eating-grin perspective to a subject most of us are sick of reading about already.

Word pusher

The headline grabs your attention -- "Mix of dread and defiance" -- but the column fails to deliver on the latter, and Kelly never mentions how the Christie administration bungled all that federal aid.

In the second paragraph, a poor schmuck named Bill Mullen the reporter latched onto "gazes" at broken tile from the bathroom of his Ortley Beach home, which was destroyed by Sandy.

For years now, Kelly has nearly every subject in every column gazing at something or other.

Then in his fifth paragraph, Kelly claims "Bill Mullen's dream is as sturdy as the sand that he hopes will one day hold the foundation of his new home." 

Wait a minute. 

Sand is far from "sturdy," and aren't all new Jersey shore homes built near the ocean supposed to be supported by pilings -- like the one shown in the Page 1 photo with the column -- not a foundation?

And this is the best the Woodland Park newsroom could manage for the Sunday paper. Unbelievable.

Christie in Mexico

Another burned-out columnist, Staff Writer Charles Stile, previews Governor Christie's visit to Mexico next week (A-1).

Leaders of drug cartels had been planning to kidnap Christie and hold him for ransom until they found out the GOP bully's fiscal policies have nearly bankrupted the Garden State.

New Jersey State Police would be offering bushels of Jersey tomatoes, corn and peaches to gain Christie's freedom.

Culinary prodigy

Max Aronson of Woodcliff Lake might want to put his kitchen skills to work improving the poor food service at Hackensack High School, just a couple of miles away from where he studies culinary arts at the Bergen County Academies (Better Living cover).

When school starts on Wednesday, Hackensack High students will be voting on the lousy food in their roach-infested cafeteria with their feet, walking to nearby pizzerias, McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts and even Starbucks for lunch.

A sign on the door of 479 Main St. in Hackensack.

Bankrupt Christie turns to Obama -- again

The license plate and stickers on a Chrysler PT Cruiser, spotted Friday on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, speak for themselves.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Governor Christie has made such a wreck of state finances he's grabbing $15 million in federal Sandy relief funds to help the owners of shore businesses (The Record's front page today).

Wait a minute.

The fire that destroyed 50 businesses in Seaside Park and Seaside Heights last week had nothing to do with Superstorm Sandy, and may even have been set deliberately.

Since he took office in January 2010, Christie has used voodoo economics and cuts to middle- and working class programs to balance his budgets.

He's also grabbed federal money from NJ Transit and the Port Authority to fix state roads after he cancelled the Hudson River rail tunnels, dealing a blow to commuters and labor.

The GOP bully may be a hero to shore residents and business people, and the editors of The Record, but North Jersey voters will do their best on Nov. 5 to drum him out of office.

Bankrupt him

Another Page 1 story today discusses the risks in a second federal indictment of former Bergen County Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Ferriero (A-1 and A-10).

All the legal mumbo jumbo is fine, but the story ignores this:

Even if acquitted, Ferriero will be forced to spend a large part of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in allegedly ill-gotten gains to defend himself, and that's poetic justice.

Kelly is back

Readers can't tell if a related column on the Opinion front is more about Ferriero or Staff Writer Mike Kelly, who goes into great detail about what the so-called journalist said in his 2008 interview with the champion of pay to play (O-1).

The strongest word Kelly had for Ferriero was "boss."

"This is how politics works," is the last line from Kelly, who completely misses the bigger picture (O-4).

This is how democracy -- our corrupt system of government -- works. This is the wonderful system that we export to the rest of the world -- the system Kelly and other members of the media can't stop glorifying. 

And this is the system that has been poisoned by Christie and Tea Party crackpots.

More road lies

On the front of Local, Road Warrior John Cichowski again ignores the daily commuting nightmare for yet another column on MVC lines (L-1).

The Addled Commuter is fresh off two columns greatly hyping the diversion of some drivers who entered the upper-level toll plaza of the George Washington Bridge from Fort Lee streets last week:

Here's what a reader concerned over all the errors and distortions in Cichowski's work had to say in an e-mail to management:

"In his Friday and Saturday columns, the Road Warrior relies on a series of false rumors and exaggerated false statements and assessments to over-hype and distort significantly more traffic congestion to the upper level of the GW Bridge. It was due to temporarily reducing number of tollbooths allotted to a local Fort Lee entrance for only 5 morning rush hours.

"His first column was falsely titled Closed tollbooths a commuting disaster, and the Road Warrior falsely reported in these two columns that two tollbooths were 'closed' and 'shut down.' All of this contradicted the facts and The Record's own photograph with the Friday column, which showed these tollbooths remained open, but were used for other highway traffic instead of cars from the Fort Lee entrance.

"Road Warrior had to sheepishly admit in his follow-up column that this traffic congestion was really a short-term situation based on a PA traffic pattern study in contradiction to denials by him in his Friday column, and was not a permanent change, as he and others repeatedly implied in that column.

"Yet, the Road Warrior could not resist republishing false rumors from his Friday column and making up new false rumors about the fictitious reasons for this temporary change."

To read the entire e-mail on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers, click on the following link:

Inscrutable Road Warrior screws readers


Man with tits

What do you make of the big photo of a bearded, pot-bellied Sussex County man with tits next to the Road Warrior column (L-1)?

It's hard to believe there wasn't someone more photogenic at a tattoo fest in Secaucus.

The drought on Hackensack news in Local continues today, although the byline of Hannan Adely, the reporter assigned to the city, has been appearing on 9/11-related and other stories.

Say it ain't so

Readers can't have much respect for another columnist, Brigid Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State (O-1).

Today, she describes the mean-spirited Christie as the "brash and beguiling soon-to-be-reelected governor."

Why does Harrison prostitute herself only months after she blasted Christie for putting "a great double-digit victory" on Nov. 5 "over the lives of women in New Jersey" who lost $7.5 million in preventive health funds (June 23 column).

Or her June 16 column that labeled Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, a Democrat, as "a sell-out" for endorsing the homely GOP slob.

She also called DiVincenzo "a politically expedient compromiser who doesn't give a rat's fanny about what's best for a political party he allegedly bosses."

Christie is "beguiling"? Give me a break, professor.

Frugality rules

On the Business front, Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais can't stop boasting about what a smart money manager he is (B-1).

It's one thing for the frugal DeMarrais not to buy organic food, but it's irresponsible for him to publish a monthly Market Basket survey of supermarket prices without organic or naturally raised milk, poultry and other items.

In the same way, advising seniors to chase discounts at fast-food restaurants, as he does today, ignores the many dietary restrictions they are under and the crappy beef and other low-quality items served.

Also, where did The Record get the ridiculous  illustration at the bottom of his column on the Business front -- an elderly woman in curlers with a bullhorn?

Another suit

A story on A-3 today reports that North Jersey Media Group has filed another copyright-infringement lawsuit over use of "an iconic 9/11 photograph," this time by Sarah Palin and her political action committee.

The Associated Press story has  a huge hole  in it: 

The Record's management refused to spend the money to re-make Page 1 on Sept. 11, 2001, to highlight the inspirational flag-raising image from Staff Photographer Thomas E. Franklin, and banished it to a back page.

Now, NJMG General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg is spending far more in legal fees to punish anyone who uses the photo, even if full credit is given.

Christie will never measure up to President Obama

Hackensack attorney Frank P. Lucianna, left, marching in the Memorial Day Parade in Englewood. In a letter The Record published on Monday, the Army Air Forces veteran paid tribute to fellow members of the Dwight Morrow High School Class of 1941 who were killed during World War II. He listed more than a dozen friends he "will never forget."

If you swallow Columnist Charles Stile's amateurish promotion of Governor Christie on the front page of The Record today, you might think the GOP bully was "auditioning" for the White House during a joint appearance on Tuesday with President Obama. 

What a joke.

Whether at the Jersey shore or as a leader, Christie will never measure up to Obama, a champion of the same middle class the governor has savaged since he took office in 2010.

Christie's massive public relations campaign to win a second term has hoodwinked Stiles and the rest of state media.

But voters won't forget how he's catered almost exclusively to his wealthy supporters, and broken his campaign promise to lower property taxes.

More corrections

Four embarrassing corrections on A-2 today are further evidence of how little fact-checking is performed by Production Editor Liz Houlton, her sleepy copy editors or the assignment editors who sign off on stories.

On A-3, a story on The Record winning statewide journalism awards doesn't explore whether the stories served readers or were written merely to impress fellow journalists.

A photo on A-3 -- showing Michelle Obama with  Jersey shore students in the backyard garden at the White House -- again demonstrates how little Christie or first lady Mary Pat Christie have done to promote healthy eating during the child obesity epidemic.

Readers brace

On the front of Local, a big photo showing the Franklin Lakes homecoming of disgraced former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik can mean only one thing (L-1).

Soon, burned-out Staff Writer Mike Kelly will land an exclusive interview with his pal "Bernie," and write an overlong column to rehabilitate Kerik's dishonest image. 

Litigiously speaking

What was the point of The Record's Page 1 story on Tuesday "on the propensity" of local police officers "to sue their employers over promotions and other work conditions"?

The takeout by star reporter Stephanie Akin seemed mean-spirited, especially in view of how often North Jersey Media Group sues or is sued by its employees and former employees.

None of those lawsuits are ever reported in The Record, but NJMG has started a blog to document its high-profile Freedom of Information cases:

http://blog.northjersey.com/legallyspeaking/

Despite declining revenue from classified and other advertising, NJMG's legal expenses have soared in recent years from the use of outside counsel who command $400 to $500 an hour.

Take a break from The Record of Woodland Park

A new public garden opposite the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack.

The Record today calls on burned-out Columnist Mike Kelly to report on a Jersey shore that still has a long way to go on the road to recovery (Page 1).

Of course, this piece was sorely needed as a counterpoint to the wildly exaggerated front-page coverage on Saturday that was orchestrated by Governor Christie and the "Today" show.

Now, it amounts to furious backpedaling by Editor Marty Gottlieb, a New Yorker who is so enamored of the GOP bully and so solidly behind his bid for a second term.

Superstorm Sandy damage on Palisade Avenue in Englewood.

This Memorial Day edition is a good time to take a break from all of this amateurish journalism.

As usual, readers' letters today tell you more about North Jersey than news and opinion editors do.

Edith and Gordon Wallace of Glen Rock bemoan the wrong-headed decision by Tenafly officials to reject light-rail service, and by some residents to oppose an education building at the nature center (A-11).

The Record's support for light rail and mass transit in recent years has been lukewarm at best.

Editors continue to swallow Christie P.R. and B.S.

The Church On The Green spire in Hackensack.

Two Page 1 stories, an editorial and an editorial cartoon today continue the editors' romance with Governor Christie.

The Record treats the GOP bully like a mighty chief executive who single-handedly brought back New Jersey from the ravages of Superstorm Sandy, and who will somehow make his foolish no-tax policies work. 

The editors -- from Marty Gottlieb to Alfred P. Doblin -- continue to promote Christie's massive public relations/reelection campaign despite his dismal record since he took office in January 2010.

Missing the story

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to miss the biggest development affecting  road deaths -- the dramatic decline in enforcement by the New Jersey State Police (L-1).

Hundreds of troopers have left in the past 25 years and were never replaced. The force once had 3,000 members.

No longer, as any driver can tell from all of the speeding, tail-gating and weaving maniacs on the parkway and turnpike.

Thanks to Governor Christie's anti-mass transit policies, the one constant in North Jersey is traffic, as seen near the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee.

Mental paralysis

Cichowski reminds readers of all those seemingly able-bodied people they see using handicapped parking spaces -- especially at the gym. They must be mentally disabled.

In another e-mail to the reporter and managers, a  concerned reader points out Cichowski's crippled reasoning in his previous column. 

Click on the following link to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers at The Record:

Exposing the Road Warrior handicap

From hunger

I looked at the Better Living section today to see if there is any interesting food coverage or if Publisher Stephen A. Borg had named a new food editor.

All I found was a piece on grilling artery clogging sausages on BL-5.

However, a bonus today was Staff Writer Lindy Washburn's heart-stopping cover story on the dramatic operation that saved Englewood cardioligist Jeffrey Mitchel (BL-1).

Talk about Gottlieb burying a Page 1 story to make room for more Christie B.S. The circle is complete.

It's raining on Christie's Jersey shore parade

In covering his Port Authority beat, Staff Writer Shawn Boburg has written hundreds of thousands of words about the new World Trade Center, which has reached its full height of 1,776 feet, above. But he hasn't reported how little the bistate agency has done to expand mass transit and ease nightmarish traffic congestion.

Rain pounding down on my roof in Hackensack this morning made the sunny headline on Page 1 of The Record -- "THE SHORE IS OPEN" -- ring hollow.

And what do you make of the sub-headline -- "Jersey summer kicks off before eyes of nation"?

Editor Marty Gottlieb must be kidding. Hey, Marty, you're not at The Times anymore. 

Are the people in Oklahoma or Texas or California really on the edge of their seats, wondering about the shore's recovery from Superstorm Sandy?

Gottlieb isn't the only one bamboozled by Governor Christie's campaign to win a second term on the backs of Sandy survivors.

Christie got the "Today" show to broadcast live from Seaside Heights on Friday, giving national exposure to his uniquely Jersey freak show.

Christie is hoping his massive P.R. campaign makes voters forget how badly he's mismanaged state finances and broken his promise to lower property taxes when they go to the polls in November.

Old home week

Staff Writer Shawn Boburg's photo-and-text package on A-1 and A-7 today appears to complete three days of reporting from his old neighborhood in Moore, Okla., devastated by Monday's tornado.

Boburg's accounts, including takeouts on Thursday's and Friday's front page, are way more than any reader wants to know about the survivors or the reporter's boyhood.

Boburg's beat at The Record is the Port Authority, but he's managed to ignore how the bistate agency's only strategy for keeping commuters' cars off the road is exorbitant toll increases, which were rubber-stamped by Christie.

Wardrobe problems

Before I left The Record in 2008, Boburg dressed like a hayseed, recalling the old joke, "Why don't you throw a party and introduce your pants to your shoes."

That was in contrast to his stylish girlfriend, Staff Writer Stephanie Akin, who treated the newsroom carpet between her desk and the women's bathroom as if it were a Fashion Week runway.

Great reporters know legwork is a must, but a hack like Road Warrior John Cichowski stays glued to his computer, sifting through e-mails from readers. Some copy editors believe Cichowski has occasionally made up the questions he answers in his column.

Road worrier

The Port Authority reporter's failure is compounded by Road Warrior John Cichowski, whose obsession with potholes and MVC lines blinds him to commuting and mass-transit problems.

Cichowski's pothole-and-utility pole column on Wednesday was the 66th with problems since Sept. 12, 2012, according to a concerned reader, who e-mailed management yet again:

"Readers are  finding fault with the Road Warrior's same old mistaken stories and readers' questions about pothole-ridden roads and lost drivers using utility poles, as shown in his May 22 column.

"Road Warrior and his clueless drivers [readers] are NOT being truthful or are fools if they think anyone believes repeated archaic tall tales about finding their bearings when lost by getting out of their cars to check, many times cryptic or missing, municipal acronyms on utility poles. 

"Road Warrior continues his pompous behavior and asks insulting questions not deserving of answers.

"He continues to suffer from clueless syndrome and forgets what he wrote in previous columns that contradicts his May 22 column.

"He reports about a business owner, who repeatedly damages his car and tires, by endlessly driving his car into potholes near his business over a 5-year period. I feel sorry, but wouldn't trust such people."

See the full e-mail at the Facebook page for road Warrior Bloopers:

Road Warrior's 66th column with problems

More tax woes

Friday's front-page story on the failure of Mary J. Blige of Cresskill and other prominent African-American entertainers to pay federal taxes seems incomplete (A-1).

Are they protesting how previous administrations treated minorities? Did they also evade state income taxes?

Hackensack news

After years of neglect, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes is paying more attention to Hackensack news outside of former Police Chief Ken Zisa's lingering legal problems.

Sykes has commissioned unprecedented coverage of municipal affairs since the May 14 victory of a slate of City Council reformers took her and other editors by surprise.

But on L-6 today, the reference to "the new council majority" in a transition-team story is puzzling.

Councilman John Labrosse and his four running-mates won all 5 seats. Isn't that more than a "majority"?

The story says state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, has finally gotten off her duff, and agreed to serve as "honorary chairwoman" of the transition team.

Before the election, Weinberg refused to endorse reform candidates in the crucial Hackensack contest.

More news of poles

Also today, Sykes advances her photo staff's coverage of downed and damaged utility poles with the image of damaged traffic-light pole (L-6).

More evidence Hackensack residents come in last

Mount Olive Baptist Church on Central Avenue in Hackensack on Friday night was the scene of another forum for City Council candidates that was ignored by The Record.

Unlike many towns, Hackensack doesn't have an outdoor pool for city children and their families to enjoy or a community center where seniors and youngsters can mingle.

Yes. The sad truth is that Hackensack has been ruled by a Zisa family dynasty that has chosen to spend tens of millions of tax dollars on insider deals with politically connected lawyers and developers, not to improve residents' quality of life.

On Friday night, that corrupt legacy and other issues were discussed and debated at Mount Olive Baptist Church -- in another forum for the 11 candidates in the May 14 election The Record didn't cover.

Half a story

Today, the Woodland Park daily did have a story that illustrated the increasing desperation of the so-called Open Government slate, which is backed by Lynne Hurwitz, the city's Democratic boss and the power behind disgraced former state Assemblymen and Police Chief Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa, a convicted felon.

The story on the Local front reports the slate mailed a campaign letter to teachers and support staff on a "confidential" list (L-1).

"We have a clear policy, no campaigning and no politics on school premises," interim Superintendent Joseph Abate is quoted as saying in the last paragraph on L-2. "If proven, it's a violation of our policy and we'll handle it on a case-by-case basis."

Sloppy reporting

But -- in another example of the sloppy journalism practiced under head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes -- the story fails to identify Open Government candidate Jason Nunnermacker as a member of the Board of Education. 

What could more relevant and why didn't the editors ask Nunnermacker if he used his influence as a school trustee to obtain the confidential list? 

And why didn't the editors ask Abate if Nunnermacker's entire campaign for City Council violates the schools' "no campaigning, no politics" policy?

Favoritism?

The Record seems to be bending over backwards for the machine-backed Open Government slate, which is headed by retired police Detective Kenneth Martin, who has been charged with stealing his opponents' campaign signs.

(It's believed campaign strategists pulling Martin's strings urged him to "steal the scene," but he thought he heard "steal the sign.") 

Desperate lies 

The paper hasn't told readers about the Open Government slate's Friday mailing, which is filled with lies and distortions concerning the city's $75,000 settlement in favor of Debra Labrosse, wife of opposition Councilman John Labrosse, the only incumbent seeking a second term. 

Debra Labrosse was a defendant in what apparently turned out to be a baseless defamation lawsuit filed against her by Ken Zisa.

The large postcard shows John Labrosse getting into his car, complete with a clear image of his license plate. 

Inependent, honest 

Candidate Victor E. Sasson, a former Record staffer who now writes Eye on The Record, is waging an independent campaign in the municipal election.  

Today, Sasson came across a 2012 story on NorthJersey.com, exploring the relationship among Ken Zisa, Lynne Hurwitz, Richard Salkin and others on the occasion of the former police chief being sentenced to 5 years in prison:


Will the real machine politician please stand up?    


At the Friday night forum, Mount Olive Deacon Robert H. Robinson urged members of the African-American community to go to the polls on May 14, and to tell their relatives and friends to do the same.

"If you don't vote, you lose the right to complain," said the church's flier for Meet the Candidates Night.

To that, Sasson says, "Amen."   

Today's paper

The last time The Record assigned homophobe Mike Kelly to do a shore story he completely ignored the role of gay couples from New York City in the renewal of Asbury Park.

But to his and the editors' eternal embarrassment,  Kelly's stale report on half-way houses and mental patients roaming the streets of Asbury Park was published on the same exact day as a New York Times story about homosexuals buying up homes and businesses in the faded resort.

On Page 1 today, Kelly assumes the role of pop psychologist, reflecting on "the deep and complicated emotional thread that links many who are trying to rebuild homes and businesses along the Jersey shore" (A-1).

Excuse me, I have to throw up.

Living dangerously

A story on the Better Living cover today (BL-1) ignores the dark side of cured meat, whether made here or imported from Italy:

Nitrates and other preservatives used to cure salumi and other pork and beef products have been linked to cancer.

The good news isn't in today's story:

You can buy uncured, unpreserved cold cuts, hot dogs and similar meat products at Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe's and other stores, and most of them also are free of harmful animal antibiotics and growth hormones.