After 7 months in obscurity, editor emerges with a rosy tale

A photo of Dan Sforza, managing editor of The Record, from his Twitter page.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Readers get a rare look at how The Record's newsroom works in today's story about the "Miracle on the Hudson" by Managing Editor Dan Sforza.

Sforza has had a long career at the newspaper -- as the Englewood reporter, transportation reporter, assistant head local assignment editor; and, since late January, as "managing" editor.

What he's been doing for seven months isn't known.

Today's story on A-3 is an upbeat tale about how "The Record's team of reporters, photographers, editors, graphic artists and designers jumped into action" in late afternoon on Jan. 15, 2009, after "a plane had hit the water" of the Hudson River.

Noting "our newsroom had dealt with its share of plane crashes" -- including the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center -- Sforza recalled that staffers wondered, "Could anyone survive?"

Reporters and photographers were dispatched to both sides of the Hudson, he says.

But Sforza doesn't explain why the dramatic A-3 photo of the US Airways Airbus -- floating on the water with passengers standing on the wings -- carries an Associated Press credit, and didn't come from one of The Record's staff photographers. 

On Thursday in Hackensack, I took NJ Transit's No. 165 Turnpike Express to Manhattan, and found myself aboard an old bus whose rear brakes screech loudly at every stop.

Demonizing transit 

Nor does he tell you anything about the low quality of the day-to-day coverage when he was reporting and editing transportation stories.

More than 20 years ago, Sforza was the reporter who wrote two front-page stories on "highways of the future" while ignoring screeching brakes and loud engines on NJ Transit commuter buses.

Those buses are still in use, and their rear brakes still screech loudly at every stop.

As an editor, Sforza went on the warpath against the extension of NJ Transit's light-rail service to Englewood and Tenafly. 

Sforza did lead the reporting that kept the Port Authority from allowing 737 jets to land at Teterboro Airport.

But he and every transportation reporter after him has ignored Hackensack and other communities that are plagued by noisy business aircraft that use the airport.

Christie's emails

Today's lead story is about Governor Christie's use of personnel emails to conduct government business and to retaliate against Democrats.

A judge sided with North Jersey Media Group, which is seeking "a range of records," including emails sent around the time of the George Washington Bridge lane closures in 2013 (A-1).

The GOP bully, his idol Donald J. Trump and other Republicans spend most of their time attacking Democrat Hillary Clinton on her use of emails.  

Today's front page

Sadly, high school football gets better Page 1 play than Staff Writer Scott Fallon's profile of oceanographer Alan Blumberg under a terrific headline:

"Come hype or high water, he called it"

Ad nauseam coverage of the 15th anniversary of 9/11 continues unabated, with stories on banking (A-1), local ceremonies (L-3) and pop culture (BL-1).

In Sunday's Travel section, delivered with today's paper, jet-lagged Travel Editor Jill Schensul discusses how "terrorism" has changed flying, as if she is the only one who has boarded a plane in the last 15 years. 

Local news?

The Local news section delivered to Bergen County residents carries four stories from Paterson (L-1 and L-2), a story from Clifton and a photo from Woodland Park (both on L-2). 

For some reason, the profile of environmentalist Tim Eustace, an assemblyman and former Maywood mayor, was pushed back to one of the obit pages (L-5).

Eustace, the new chairman of the Assembly's Environment and Solid Waste Committee, is treated like a freak, because he has solar panels on the roof of his home and an electric car in the driveway.

Lazy editors still ignore long-suffering property tax payers

As they do four times a year, hundreds of Hackensack homeowners will be dropping off their property tax payments at City Hall early next month. The city tax collector offers a 10-day grace period for payment of taxes, so the deadline is Feb. 10. Quarterly payments above $3,000 and $4,000 are not uncommon.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Tens of thousands of readers are bracing for their 1st quarter property tax payments on Feb. 1.

But if they're scanning Page 1 or the Local front of The Record today, they won't see anything on why their taxes keep going up year after year, and why services, such as street paving, remain stagnant.

Today, thousands of Jewish, Muslim and Hindu readers are staring dumbly at all of the front-page space devoted to a Ridgewood church former members call a cult, wondering what the controversy has to do them (A-1).

And the rest of the page -- devoted to Iran, a North Jersey casino proposal and Rutgers -- surely means Editor Martin Gottlieb still hasn't retired to his Manhattan apartment (A-1).

Local news?

Local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza lead the first page of the Local news section with a story on a proposal for affordable housing in tiny Ho-Ho-Kus (L-1).

Do residents fear an influx of minorities seeking the low- and moderate-cost town houses? Reporter Steve Janoski doesn't say.

Reinforcing the stereotype of minorities committing crime, a rare story from Hackensack focuses not on property tax increases or unchecked school board spending, but on a black church that helps inmates reenter society (L-1).

Police news

A large piece of L-3 is devoted to a fatal Route 4 crash in Englewood that saw the driver ejected and killed by a second vehicle, but he isn't identified and police weren't asked if he was speeding or racing.

Sykes and Sforza desperately need this and other Law & Order stories to plug holes in their section that should be filled with municipal news.

More and more, The Record reads like a police blotter, but the online service Hackensack Daily Voice.com does a far better job, and regularly scoops the supremely lazy local editors.

Fact checking?

A Business front story on New Jersey's antiquated liquor-license laws incorrectly calls Costco Wholesale's house brand "Kirkland" instead of Kirkland Signature (B-1).

And Costco offers its own brand of French champagne, Italian prosecco, cognac, California cabernet sauvignon and other red wines, not just the "chardonnay, tequila and whiskey" described in the article.

$4M-plus houses

The Real Estate cover on sale of a dozen Bergen County houses for more than $4 million in 2015 must have been commissioned by the publisher's office (R-1).

Publisher Stephen A. Borg may be feeling a little cramped in his $3.65 million Tenafly McMansion, purchased with a mortgage from his family's North Jersey Media Group.

Only months after the home was purchased in 2007, Borg put into motion a major newsroom downsizing in Hackensack that saw the departure of many veteran employees.

The following year Borg closed the landmark Hackensack building, and decamped to a nondescript office building in Woodland Park.

Who's depressed?

The Record continues its one-dimensional coverage of seniors with a Better Living cover story on depression (BL-1).

The majority of readers are older, but it never occurs to the editors that many seniors dine out regularly, enjoy Broadway shows or concerts of classical music, and do so well into their 80s.

Mike and Chris

Columnist Mike Kelly is taking more swings at Governor Christie, our absentee governor, but the veteran reporter still can't bring himself to tell it like it is (O-1).

The GOP bully certainly is the worst governor in state history, and holds the record for vetoes -- 450 and counting.

Many residents believe Christie lied about his involvement in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal, and should be impeached. 

But not Kelly, who has been writing a column for more than 25 years.

So, you've got to wonder why the reporter still hasn't grown a pair of balls.

Money talks

Today's nostalgic Travel cover story on the lire and other national currencies replaced by the euro is of little practical use (T-1).

Jet-lagged Travel Editor Jill Schensul should be telling Europe-bound readers about credit cards that don't impose a foreign-currency transaction surcharge, and where to get the best exchange rates.

Saturday's paper

On Saturday, Gottlieb led the paper with yet another column on how Christie is doing in his futile bid for the GOP presidential nomination.

This front-page column was from Herb Jackson, the paper's so-called Washington correspondent, not Charles Stile, who is recovering from injuries he suffered from all the time he has spent in bed with the GOP bully.

Jackson also had a rare story on Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, the conservative who defied the reporter for six months "on his decision not to give money to a Republican campaign fund because of its past support for gay candidates."

Almost all of Saturday's local-news section was devoted to state and county politics; and police and court news, including a lawyer sent to prison for embezzling legal fees.

Editors ignore wreck left by Christie, our homegrown terror

Radio City Music Hall on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. Since the Paris attacks, The Record and other news media haven't explored why New York City and North Jersey have been safe from terrorism since 9/11 or whether Syrian refugees already living here have been anything but law abiding.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The front page of The Record's Sunday edition is filled with news of global terrorism, Syrian refugees and New Jersey's own terror, Governor Christie.

But Editor Martin Gottlieb and Columnist Charles Stile still are trying mightily not to alarm readers with daily reports of the nightmare the GOP bully has left behind as he pursues his White House dreams.

Stile's boring political column today focuses on the distant future, the 2017 gubernatorial election (A-1).

Readers might be confused by another Paris-related story, today's column by Travel Editor Jill Schensul on her indecision over flying there for her annual vacation (T-1).

After all, she arrived there on Wednesday, and has already described the changes in the city she calls a second home in a Page 1 column on Friday and again in today's paper (A-6).

The attack on a hotel in Mali still has not prompted the news media to explore France's colonial rule in West Africa, Algeria, Syria and other countries as the possible root of today's terrorism (A-1).

Local schools

Englewood's new superintendent is telling parents whose children attend minority schools to eat cake (L-1).

That's the only conclusion readers can draw from an interview with schools chief Robert Kravitz, a former cake and dessert executive, who doesn't mention the challenge of elementary and middle schools filled almost completely with minority students.

Staff Writer Kim Lueddeke mentions poor test scores, limited English proficiency and other problems, but says nothing about whether Kravitz is hoping to desegregate those schools, as his predecessors did at Dwight Morrow High School.  

Other stories on schools in Edgewater and Wayne have Hackensack readers wondering when Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza are going to get off their asses, and assign a reporter to look at all of the problems in Bergen County's biggest school district.

They include high salaries for administrators and thefts of computers, two of which were allegedly traced to the home of teacher, who has never been charged.

Seats for homeless

Road Warrior John Cichowski, the so-called commuting columnist, continues to ignore the lack of rush-hour seats on NJ Transit buses and trains.

Today, he goes on and on about the cat-and-mouse game between NJ Transit cops and the homeless using seats at Newark Penn Station and other rail hubs.

At a total loss on how to lure readers who long ago became bored with Cichowski, the veteran reporter compares a homeless man nervous about a cop kicking him out of a train station to "a driver parked overtime at a meter" (L-1).

Crazy Kelly

Columnist Mike Kelly already showed readers what a wimp he is on Saturday, when his Page 1 column was completely devoid of criticism or condemnation of anti-Muslim rhetoric in the wake of the Paris attacks.

Today, the best he can manage is to label Christie a "crazy uncle" for saying he would not even allow Syrian orphans under the age of 5 to enter the United States (O-1).

Who is crazy? I'm betting it's Kelly, a burned-out columnist who has been pushing around words and desperately filling space for more than 20 years.

He has bad company in Cichowski and Stile. 

What can be said for a daily newspaper that gives precious space to so many stale journalists, and doesn't foster younger, more courageous voices?

See the Christie cartoon by Margulies on O-2.

Tipping guide?

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung's Better Living column on tipping today ignores a question on every restaurant customer's mind (BL-1).

Is 15% still considered the standard tip or should we be adding 18% or 20% to the pre-tax total as a matter of routine?

And when will Ung or any other reporter explain how wealthy restaurant owners managed to get regulators to go along with a system of extremely low hourly pay for their staffs and tips from customers to make up the difference?

If something goes wrong in the kitchen or the owner misrepresents the food he serves, the only recourse customers have is to stiff the server.

No man has said so much, only to be ignored by so many

Even on a Sunday, lanes on Anderson and River streets in Hackensack were closed, this time for work by PSE&G. One lane of South River Street near the county jail also was closed for replacement of the sidewalk and curb. Also closed are the Court Street Bridge and West Fort Lee Road in Bogota.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Readers looking for relief from the 24/7 coverage of Pope Francis get hit over the head today by another crappy baseball column on Page 1 of The Record.

That's played next to a Washington Post story on the partisan political paralysis in Congress, now dominated by conservative Republicans (A-1).

The piece at the bottom of the front page on the gender gap in coaching youth sports seems like an afterthought (A-1).

And it raises questions about why Editor Martin Gottlieb doesn't commission a similar story on the gender gap in print journalism.

Pope in Philly

The A-1 story on Francis in Philadelphia is the ninth straight day his Cuba and U.S. visits have been played on the front page of the Woodland Park daily.

It's doubtful anyone in power is going to act on anything he said in New York or Philadelphia.

Three U.S. Supreme Court justices -- Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, all conservative Catholics -- boycotted Francis' speech to a joint session of Congress.

Many conservative Republicans basically said Francis should mind his own business instead of urging the eradication of poverty, reforming immigration and slowing climate change, among other issues the GOP refuses to budge on.

On Saturday, Mike Kelly's A-1 column on Francis in Manhattan appeared under this sub-headline:

A busy day

of spreading

'good vibes' 

Local news?

Today's Road Warrior is like so many written by Staff Writer John Cichowski, who hijacked the commuting column a dozen years ago (L-1).

His piece on traffic deaths is filled with mind-numbing statistics, and sheds no light on the daily nightmare North Jersey commuters face, whether they drive or take a bus or train.

The Local front is dominated by a big photo and story on a motorcycle accident that injured rap star Fetty Wap in his hometown of Paterson (L-1).

On second reference, he is referred to as "Fetty Wap," not just "Wap," in contrast to normal practice.

The small photo and caption on naming of a footbridge to honor Harold Bloom, former principal of Hackensack High School, is the first coverage of anything to do with schools in the city for at least a year, if not longer (L-1).

VW drivers

The Business front today reports on Volkswagen drivers who feel betrayed by the automaker's illegal diesel engines, installed in 11 million cars worldwide (B-1).

The story comes six days after The New York Times did the same reaction piece to heavy air pollution from so-called clean diesels, interviewing former Record photographer John Decker, among others.

Business reporter Richard Newman managed to interview another former Record staffer, Olga Wickerhauser of Fleminton. 

Business is eight pages today, but readers find only only one other staff written story, which makes you wonder what the section editors do all week for their inflated salaries.

Hidden meaning

On the Opinion front, I got a kick out of hidden meaning in the headline over yet another Kelly column on Francis:

THE MAN WITH A MESSAGE

The veteran reporter has been an opinion columnist for more than two decades now, but he rarely has any opinions or message for readers.

South Korea

Is the ban on South Korea travel stories over (T-1)?

On the Travel cover today, the Washington Post piece on Seoul ends an apparent ban imposed by Travel Editor Jill Schensul, a vegetarian and dog lover, that dates to at least to the late 1990s.

It's significant that Schensul didn't travel there herself.

Are Christie, legislators caving into real estate interests?

With Manhattan's Riverside Church in the distance, this is what remained of one of AvalonBay's apartment buildings in Edgewater two days after a five-alarm fire on Jan. 21 that destroyed more than half of the 408 units, above and below. Seven months later, no changes in state building codes have been made to require "sturdier material, firewalls and enhanced sprinkler systems," The Record is reporting today.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

It's hard to believe The Record could publish a long Page 1 story today on calls for a tougher state building code to prevent another devastating AvalonBay apartment fire, and not get reaction from Governor Christie.

Christie's name does appear on the front page today in a column from Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson (A-1), who reports the GOP bully leads all other presidential candidates in how much special-interest money he has raised in the Garden State.

Staff Writer Melissa Hayes and political Columnist Charles Stile have traveled with Christie on his campaign appearances in New Hampshire and Iowa, but I guess they had Sunday off.

Linh Tat and Minjae Park, the local reporters who wrote the story on long-delayed changes in the state building code, give the impression nothing is getting done in Trenton, despite a Democratic majority in the Legislature (A-1).

Big profits

AvalonBay is a real estate investment trust that returns big dividends to investors. 

Any changes in state building codes -- such as banning the use of cheap-wood construction -- to improve the fire resistance of AvanlonBay's proposed residential projects in Wayne, Teaneck and other communities would cut heavily into those profits. 

And today's story doesn't mention any improvements to existing AvalonBay buildings, such as those in Hackensack, where tenants have been losing sleep since seeing media images of the fast-moving fire that destroyed the Edgewater complex. 

Local news?

What a soft Local front today -- deer, dogs and parkland dominate the section.

For the second day in a row, The Record covered a demonstration for Kevin Allen, a black Passaic city resident who was shot by police outside the Lyndhurst Public Library on May 29 (L-1).

The education stories from Paterson (L-2) and Butler (L-3) contrast with the embargo on school and Board of Education news from Hackensack.

'O Canada'

Travel Editor Jill Schensul publishes a belated column on eastern Canada, including Montreal, where a strong U.S. dollar means big discounts for Americans (BL-1).

And in contrast to detailed reports from restaurant critic Elisa Ung on all of the artery clogging desserts she has sampled, today's Better Living cover story explores restaurant owner Lisa Mayisoglu's fitness and healthy food regimen (BL-1).

We can't get a break from Christie 'news' on front page

The landmark Sears building in Hackensack on an overcast afternoon (and through a dirty windshield). The store, built in art-deco style in the early 1930s, was repaired and repainted in 2011.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Readers incensed over all the time Governor Christie is spending out of state find more so-called Page 1 news about his exploratory presidential campaign.

In fact, the GOP bully is a fixture on Editor Martin Gottlieb's front page, landing there on Thursday and Friday, as well, with other stories inside the paper.

No governor who has done so little for New Jersey has gotten such prominent play while in pursuit of a nomination few experts say he will get.

But, really, if Gottlieb is going to run columns from political writer Charles Stile and other staffers on Page 1, they should be labeled for what they are -- opinion or analysis or whatever -- they certainly aren't news.

And I guess readers can't expect Gottlieb to update those ancient thumbnail column photos -- from Mike Kelly's shit-eating grin (O-1) to Travel Editor Jill Schensul's glamorous puss, far from what the aging klutz looks like today (T-1).

Medical bills

Dominating Page 1 today is another chapter in medical writer Lindy Washburn's horror stories about out-of-control medical bills (A-1).

At least today's story discusses how families are negotiating lower payments or making monthly payments on the outrageous charges from out-of-network providers.

But missing from this and previous stories is how Christie stands on calls to reform the system.

Seat belts save lives

After the crash death of Nobel laureate John Nash and his wife, Road Warrior John Cichowski finally comes to his senses and reports on the life-saving value of passengers buckling up in the back (L-1).

In February,the clueless columnist argued rear curtain airbags would have saved CBS newsman Bob Simon, who wasn't wearing his seat belt when his speeding limo crashed in Manhattan.

That's nonsense, of course. 

A couple of weeks after Cichowski's column, The Record reported the unbelted Simon became "a back-seat bullet" when his limo crashed on Feb. 12. Simon died of his injuries.

Lazy cops?

Today, The Record again reports Broad Avenue and Fort Lee Road is Leonia's busiest intersection, because it "receives so much traffic from commuters who cut through the [borough] between Route 95 and the George Washington Bridge" (L-3).

But Staff Writer Nicholas Pugliese, reporting on a woman driver who knocked down a school crossing guard with her luxury SUV, never asks police why an officer isn't assigned to the intersection.

That is where Leyla Kan, 60, of Fort Lee was struck last August in the Broad Avenue crosswalk, and dragged to her death by a small school bus.

No criminal charges were filed against the bus driver.

Today's story calls Leonia a "borough" and a "township" in the same sentence. The story also notes the crossing guard was struck on "Wednesday" and on "May 27."

Let's hope a judge sets fire to the license of Bridgette Pursley, 49, the irresponsible motorist who has been charged with assault by auto and hindering apprehension, and orders confiscation of her Lexus RX 350 for use in undercover police work.

Sam Ciccone

Congratulations to the layout editor who decided to give better play to the obituary of Sam Ciccone, a former Fairview cop and gay activist, than the usual treatment of burying it among the paid death notices (L-1).

Saturday's paper

Kelly, the burned-out columnist, continues to excoriate U.S. officials for not prosecuting "terrorist" Joanne Chesimard, who was granted political asylum in Cuba 35 years ago (Saturday's A-1).

But in this and previous columns, Kelly has never mentioned Luis Posada Carriles, an anti-Castro exile living in Florida, who has been accused of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger flight, killing 73 people (Saturday's A-8).

Paterson coverage

Stories on Paterson continue to portray the city negatively (Saturday's L-1 and L-5).

On the Local front, reporter Joe Malinconico calls Paterson "a city notorious for negativity."

Couldn't the same be said for Malinconico?

On L-2 today, he reports on the city's 30th shooting of the year, but never asks police why they aren't doing more to control Silk City gangs and guns.

Local news?

Even if you don't drink beer, news of a microbrewery moving to Hackensack is welcome.

But why did Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza allow Staff Writer Todd South to go on and on about a business that still hasn't opened (Saturday's Local front)?

That's likely because those supremely lazy editors struggle daily to fill their section with municipal news, and have to rely on accident photos, police and fire news, and features to fill holes in their pages.

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.

Are the reporters or editors the real problem?

NJ Transit's No. 165 Turnpike Express, which I boarded in Hackensack, approaching the ramp to the problem-plagued Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan on a wet Thursday morning. Why is The Record's chief transportation reporter writing about the rebuilding of a church today? 

One of the few improvements in recent months are touch-screen terminals to help commuters find the platform where they can catch the bus back to New Jersey. I have yet to see any mention of them in The Record.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In today's disappointing Sunday edition, don't look for stories and columns that are relevant to your life in North Jersey.

The only local dateline on the front page is Fairview, where Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado explores the problems of a family headed by an illegal immigrant who was arrested and thrown into a cell (A-1).

Columnist Mike Kelly is so burned out he's back on the Sayreville beat, which is way out of the circulation area, rehashing old cases of football hazing (A-1).

Kelly tackles another "local story" -- Ebola -- on the Opinion front (O-1).

Dog chases bus

Like an adoring lap dog, Staff Writer Melissa Hayes again follows Governor Christie around on his travels raising money for the mean-spirited Republican Party -- totally ignoring the mess he's left behind in New Jersey (A-1).

Christie has really screwed up the region's mass-transit network, but Staff Writer Christopher Maag, the chief transportation writer, was sent to the city to write about a church destroyed on 9/11 (A-3).

You will find a column about the problem-plagued Port Authority Bus Terminal in the Opinion section, but that was written by a daily bus commuter from Rockland County, N.Y. (O-2).

An escalator takes commuters from the upper-level bus platforms to a lower floor at the Manhattan bus terminal.

More road kill

On the Local front, addled Road Warrior John Cichowski is writing about yet another delayed road-construction project, this one in Passaic County, that affects only a small fraction of the readership.

This isn't news, and doesn't help commuters one bit.

Hackenack news

The most readable story in the paper today is also on L-1, where Kazmier Wysocki, 95, a three-time Hackensack mayor, is shown with his wife, son and grandson at his city manufacturing company.

It's refreshing to read about Hackensack history that doesn't involve the Zisa family, which ran the city for decades and stuck the county seat with the derogatory name of "Zisaville."

Staff vacation?

None of the stories in today's 8-page Business section appears to have been written by a staffer in the Woodland Park newsroom (B-1).

The cover story on "crowdfunding," which discusses North Jersey business people, carries the byline of Virginia M. Citrano, a freelancer.

The rest of the section was supplied by news services or The Wall Street Journal.

Ignoring local stores

The Better Living cover today is about the cheese department at Zabar's on the Upper West Side of Manhattan -- not about any of the great cheese departments in North Jersey (BL-1).

Ditzy Food Editor Esther Davidowitz profiles the Leonia woman who runs the department, and in the process, ignores tens of thousands of readers who are watching their weight and cholesterol.

How predictable. The head of Zabar's cheese department, Olga Dominguez, is called "a big cheese."

She is quoted as saying there are three basic types of cheeses -- hard, soft and semi-soft -- but to people watching their weight and cholesterol there are only two -- full fat and reduced fat.

Unfortunately, the sloppy six-figure production editor, Liz Houlton, missed a typo in Dominguez' name in the photo caption. 

Doesn't compute

There is an easy way to avoid the table-top computers Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung seems so fascinated with in her silly column today:

Don't go to Chili's and other chain restaurants to eat the crap they serve (BL-1).

More on Germany

For the third week in a row, a major wire-service story is needed to fill the thin Travel section.

This despite Travel Editor Jill Schensul telling a respected media blog, JimRomenesko.com, that the paper negotiates favorable "press rates" for trips to minimize the use of canned wire copy.

As for Schensul's column today, a large part of it is based on one of those trips, her visit to Papenburg, Germany, where she went on a Royal Caribbean tour of a shipyard building two mega cruise ships.

The gushing story about the new ships appeared as her section's cover story on Sept. 14, though its relevance to most North Jersey residents eluded me.

Today, she describes the graveyard she found in Papenburg as "a veritable botanical garden."

The respect for the dead shown by these Germans only serves to remind me of the lack of respect they showed to millions of living and dead during of the Holocaust, and wonder why Schensul even bothered to write about the cemetery.

She also omitted any mention of the Day of the Dead, which is widely observed in the North Jersey's Mexican-American communities. 

The real questions

So, we know Editor Marty Gottlieb controls every word that appears on Page 1 -- including endless speculation about Christie's White House bid -- but why are the clueless local editors assigning the transportation reporter to non-transportation stories?

Why are Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza allowing Cichowski to write the majority of his Road Warrior columns off of complaining e-mails from readers whose only interest is seeing their names in print?

And when will Kelly stop making every new column seem old?

Football brutality, boring Bergen politics, perverted priests

The Modern, the first of two 47-story residential towers approved by Fort Lee officials despite strong community opposition. The first tenants are expected to move in next month. A 2-bedroom apartment with indoor parking for two cars goes for about $5,000 a month.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

What a front page!

The ritualized brutality of two masturbatory Catholic high school football teams dominates Page 1 of The Record today -- for the third day in a row.

Bringing up the rear, below the fold, are perverted priests who make many readers glad they are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist -- anything but the Catholic parents of an abused boy (A-1).

The third major element is a boring Charles Stile column delving into Bergen County's politics and looking ahead to the next race for governor in 2016 (A-1).

Road kill

In Local, Road Warrior John Cichowski issues a rare report on Bergen County's antiquated road system that has absolutely nothing to do with commuting, traffic congestion and crowded mass transit.

His fist paragraph suggests the authorities should respond to complaints about drivers taking short cuts through quiet neighborhoods just like they do when a murder is reported (L-1).

Garrett must go

In Opinion, Columnist Brigid Harrison, who lost a house to Sandy, attacks Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, for sending out a campaign flier claiming he "worked to bring immediate relief to [Superstorm] Sandy victims" (O-2).

Of course, six days after the storm hit New Jersey on Oct. 28, 2012, Garret did no such thing, being the only member of the state's delegation who refused to sign a letter asking for federal disaster relief.

"You can't trust and respect someone who does one thing, and then claims to have done another because it is politically expedient," Harrison says.

Traveling music

Travel Editor Jill Schensul recently said she doesn't take free trips, but does negotiate a preferential "press rate."

"It's the way we have come up with to keep providing Record-generated stories, photos and insights rather than wire copy for our readers," Schensul told JimRomenesko.com, a prominent media blog.

But today and last Sunday, Schensul ran long wire-service travel stories in her 4-page section.

Today, the Los Angeles Times supplied nearly two full pages of text and photos about vacationing in Taos, New Mexico.

And on T-4, The Associated Press supplied a story on the Space Needle in Seattle.

Her sole contribution today is a long column on Paddington bears in London, whatever they are. (O-1).

Second look

On Saturday, a story on Thom Ammirato reported the former Hackensack city spokesman resigned as a communications consultant with the Bergen County Executive's Office (Saturday's Local front).

Hackensack reporter Todd South says Ammirato struck a deal with the Prosecutor's Office, which was investigating him.

Hackensack Scoop, a local blog, revealed the agreement on Friday.

Ammirato's $78,000-a-year contract with Hackensack was terminated on June 24. 

He had been a consultant and spokesman for Citizens for Change, which swept the May 2013 municipal election.

The cash-strapped city will not be hiring another spokesman anytime soon, a City Council member said recently.