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.

Road Warrior has blood of woman, two kids on his hands

Teaneck police and other employees shooting the breeze shortly before noon on Wednesday, when State Street, above, and Cedar Lane were closed, presumably to clean up the mess left by snowplows after the blizzard of 2016.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The death of a 23-year-old woman and her children from carbon-monoxide poisoning in an idling car demonstrates once again how just how obsolete The Record's Road Warrior column has become.

John Cichowski, the confused, burned-out reporter who has been writing the column for more than a dozen years, didn't even bother warning readers of storm hazards before the snow started falling early last Saturday.

And his first column after the storm didn't even mention the potential for carbon-monoxide poisoning, if car owners didn't first clear snow blocking the exhaust of their entombed cars on streets throughout North Jersey.

As Page 1 of The Record reports today, Sashalynn Rosa, 23; and her son, Messiah, 1, died on Saturday, and daughter, Saniyah, 3, died on Wednesday at a Paterson hospital.

They had climbed into the idling family car to keep warm as the children's father began shoveling to free it from snow pushed aside by snowplows on their Passaic city street (A-1). 

But the car's tailpipe was blocked by snow, causing deadly carbon-monoxide fumes to fill the vehicle.

Instead of warning others about potential carbon-monoxide poisoning, Road Warrior John Cichowski wrote an entire column about a new law that calls for poles like this one in Hackensack that will make fire hydrants easier to find in snowstorms.

Early deadlines

The mother and son died on Saturday, but early deadlines, a lack of contacts in Passaic or sheer incompetence prevented the tragedy from appearing in the paper on Sunday.

That was a good thing for the moronic Cichowski, whose light-hearted column on drivers passing snowplows, roof snow and rock salt dominated the Local front that same day.

Their deaths finally hit the front page on Monday.

But instead of washing the blood off of his hands and warning others whose cars were covered by snow all over North Jersey, the Road Warrior's next two columns had absolutely nothing to do with driving, commuting or anything else.

On Tuesday, he blabbed on and on about a law on clearing fire hydrants of snow. 

And a day later, on Wednesday, he had en eye-glazing column filled with statistics on whether men or women are safer drivers.

Readers no longer doubt that Cichowski has completely lost it, and should be replaced with a fresher voice, something that can be said for the paper's other columnists, including Charles Stile, Mike Kelly and Bill Ervolino.

Martin Gottlieb

Editor Martin Gottlieb, who announced he is retiring at the end of January, is still around, and his name appears on the editorial page today.

That explains why there is little else of note on the front page once you've read about the death of Saniyah Bonilla, 3, of Passaic, four days after his mother and brother.

Also on Page 1, Staff Writer Charles Stile continues to churn out Christie campaign crap as if the governor has even the slimmest chance of winning the GOP presidential nomination.

At the end of this post, see a comment from a Hackensack reader on Stile. 

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.

Christie finally admits first six years in office are big failure

State Street in Hackensack is among many major thoroughfares that have been torn up for utility work and then left with rough patches. Apparently, payment of local property taxes does not guarantee smooth streets.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

It's right there on the front page of The Record today, one of those pop-out quotes from Governor Christie's defiant State of the State speech on Tuesday.

"I do believe our best days lie ahead," said the GOP bully, this after six years in office marked by 450 vetoes and pitched battles with Democrats, who hold a majority in the state Legislature (A-1).

What? 

If "our best days lie ahead," as you claim, then our worst days lie behind us, thanks to your mean-spirited rule.

State residents can take comfort in knowing one of your greatest humiliations lies ahead -- you're certain to lose your selfish bid for the GOP presidential nomination.

Around the same time, the list of unindicted co-conspirators in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal will be made public, and I'll bet you're on it.

If that's the case, the Legislature should try to impeach you for all of your lies and deceptions.

Botched front page

Today's front page -- with Christie's State of the State address and President Obama's State of the Union speech played side by side -- is a disaster (A-1).

Six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, who supervises the copy editors and proofreaders, somehow missed one of the cardinal sins of headline writing -- an "echo" from the use of the word "issues" in big, black type in both the Christie and Obama headlines.

Then, Editor Martin Gottlieb ran yet another Charles Stile column on politics that's as boring as every one he's written since Christie took office (A-1).

And Stile continues to avoid exploring whether Christie's attacks on Obama are racially motivated.

High road in D.C.

While Christie continues to speak harshly of Democrats, Obama called for an end to partisan rhetoric, "better politics" and taking money out of the election process (A-1).

Obama also was critical of Christie's GOP debate comment that "we're already in World War III," and that "radical Islamist jihadists" are "trying to kill Americans."

Christie also said he would shoot down Russian planes over Syria, an act that could certainly start a war.

In final days, arrogant editor treats sports, law the same

The Starbucks Coffee on Essex Street, near Hackensack University Medical Center, often is as busy as the chain's shops in Manhattan. Hackensack taxpayers gather there to commiserate with each other over how much more in property taxes they have to pay with the tax-exempt HUMC in their backyard.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The new face of law and order in Bergen County also is the first South Asian prosecutor in the state and the first person of the Sikh religion to occupy the office. 

Big deal, says Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record, who uses pro football to upstage the appointment of Gurbir Grewal of Glen Rock as acting Bergen County prosecutor.

Acting Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir Grewal.

The departure of the moron who coached the Giants gets better play on Page 1 today than a former assistant U.S. attorney in a turban and full beard (A-1).

In fact, Gottlieb treats all of the firsts in Grewal's appointment with a yawn, only mentioning them in the last paragraph of the full story way back on Page L-6, an obit page.

Gottlieb is the former global editions editor at The New York Times, and in January 2012, he was ill-suited to take over the newsroom of The Record, a daily that once treated local news seriously.

Marty, as many call him, turns 68 on Jan. 10, and is retiring at the end of the month.

Readers are already muttering, Good riddance to bad rubbish. 

Christie U-turns

A story on A-3 today traces Governor Christie's flip-flops on guns since he first sought state office in 1993.

And an editorial on A-6 delivers only a mild rebuke for all of the time the GOP bully has spent out of state, chasing his White House dreams and leaving the state in crisis:

"The governor likely will continue to claim his commitment to New Jersey is as strong as ever, but his actions say otherwise, and state residents know it."

That's it? 

The editors should be calling for his resignation or impeachment.

Heavy reliance on crime news exposes print-edition flaws

The provinces of Cuba and the island's flag are painted on the front plate-glass window of La Pola, a West New York luncheonette that specializes in the Cuban Sandwich or Cubano.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If you are the editor of a local newspaper that covers breaking crime news as much as The Record does -- and uses Page 1 to sensationalize murder and mayhem -- you need an editing and reporting staff that hustles, and late deadlines.

Editor Martin Gottlieb has neither.

The ex-New York Times editor often embarrasses himself with stale coverage like today's lead story on an "apparent murder-suicide" in a luxury Edgewater high-rise, where a man shot both his wife and 8-year-old daughter in the head before killing himself (A-1).

The Woodland Park daily managed to get something onto Saturday's front page, but the editors couldn't hold the paper for the prosecutor's press conference on Friday night.

So, all Staff Writer Jeff Green could report was that "three people were found dead on Christmas" before padding the story with four paragraphs at the end that amounted to little more than a shameless plug for the high-rise where the "holiday tragedy" unfolded (Saturday's A-8).

Nothing like the suspicious death of three people to drum up business at a luxury high-rise, but that is so typical of the commercialism that taints too many stories in The Record.

SUV hit-and-run

More dated police news appears today -- the hit-run death of a 59-year-old Teaneck man crossing the street just before 7 p.m. on Christmas Day (A-1 and L-1).

Even two days after the accident, there is not a word on Steven J. Leitbeg, the victim, except to describe him as a "resident of the township."

He's treated as so much roadkill by the lazy, incompetent local assignment editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza.

Today's story doesn't say whether he was in a crosswalk when he was hit by an SUV "at Garrison Avenue and Cedar Lane" (L-1).

Nor does the reporter explore whether limited holiday police staffing was a factor in why the driver was able to get away on what is normally a heavily patrolled downtown street.

Law & Order news

After a major newsroom downsizing and 2009 relocation of the newsroom to Woodland Park, The Record's coverage of municipal news declined dramatically.

Thanks to Sykes and Sforza, Law & Order news became the new local news as they scrambled desperately to plug holes in their section with gee-whiz photos of fires and rollovers, police news and sensational trials.

That trend continues today, even though home-rule governments and rising property taxes deserve far more scrutiny than they are getting.

Can local readers hope for a change when Gottlieb retires at the end of January, bringing to a close four years of failure?

Best photos

Once a year, the editors publish images from Record photographers that "stood out" (L-1 and L-3), but none of those photos appeared in a daily fixture on A-2, "SHOT OF THE DAY."

Typically, those photos are supplied by the wire services from all over the world in what amounts to a slap in the face to all of the talented staff photographers.

'Humble' food

On the Better Living cover today, Staff Writer Elisa Ung recalls the best dishes she ate in 2015, what she calls "humble creations" (BL-1 and BL-3).

Ung swoons over mystery chicken sandwiches and a thin-crust pizza, but also touts a pricey platter of sushi.

This feature and Ung's "Informal Dining" reviews on Friday show the limits of her competency as the paper's chief restaurant critic.

She is in way over her head on most Fridays, when she reviews expensive steakhouse and other fine-dining restaurants and ignores how the dishes she sampled were raised or grown.

Readers can see that on Sundays, especially when her Corner Table column makes excuses for why wealthy restaurant owners aren't serving more organic or naturally raised food.

Ramen and pho

On Friday's BL-12, there were a few omissions in Ung's reviews of Menya Sandaime in Fort Lee and Pho Miu in far-off Washington Township.

She reports the Fort Lee ramen restaurant has only 25 seats, but fails to mention customers also are seated at tables in the employee break room to cut down on waiting times.

Ung also didn't report the kitchen can make vegetarian versions of at least two main dishes, as I discovered during a visit on Saturday night.

And her detailed description of the soup at Miu Pho doesn't mention the anise flavoring that sets the Vietnamese broth apart from all other Asian noodle soups.

On top of all that, the headline was a real clunker:

"Where noodles step up"

'Newsmakers'

In the past two decades, The Record has been derelict in covering the obesity epidemic; heart disease, the nation's No. 1 killer; and the large number of uninsured in New Jersey.

The editors prefer to assign medical writers to describe in excruciating detail children with rare disorders or a public official who survived a brain aneurysm.

On Saturday's front page, they were described as "newsmakers."

How would The Record describe all of those the editors routinely ignores?

As "losers"?

Lazy editors let Bush blast Christie for lousy job in N.J.

A sign at Whole Foods Market in Paramus thanks Hackensack Middle School students for "making beautiful artwork in our cafe." That contrasts with The Record of Woodland Park's boycott of school and school-board news from Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Is it really front-page news that Governor Christie has not done "big things" or that "New Jersey hasn't done well," in the words of the inarticulate Jeb Bush?

Yes. Readers of The Record haven't seen a similar assessment from the editors of their hometown paper in the many months Christie has been chasing his White House dreams (A-1).

In fact, Staff Writer Dustin Racioppi, one of those covering the Christie campaign, still hasn't asked the GOP bully the question on the mind of every New Jerseyan:

"Are you saying you want to run the nation the way you run New Jersey?"

Everyone but Editor Martin Gottlieb and Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin knows Christie is running the Garden State into the ground.

Bigger fish

Still, Gottlieb has bigger things on his mind today --the health of Target and other retailers who are among the paper's best advertisers.

That's why a story on insomniacs shopping at 2 and 3 in the morning leads Page 1 today.

Gottlieb wastes more space on "Real Housewives" bimba Teresa Giudice, who was released from a "prison camp," a non-story despite the best efforts of Staff Writer Virginia Rohan (A-1).

Local news?

There is so little local news in the paper today head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes devoted most of the L-1 front to a pissing match between Woodcliff Lake and Washington Township officials over a turn lane (L-1).

Law & Order news dominates Local, as it has on so many days in the past, and desperate layout editors had to run two wire-service obituaries and a gee-whiz photo of an overturned vehicle on L-8.

Dems do end run round Christie on pensions and gas tax

The reconstruction of the Route 46 bridge in Little Ferry drags on, and drivers still have only one narrow lane in each direction, above. Meanwhile, at the former Little Ferry Circle, below, cars back up in a single left-turn lane onto Route 46 from Bergen Turnpike.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With conservative Republicans refusing to override Governor Christie's mean-spirited barrage of vetoes, Democrats are asking voters to approve dedicated funding of pensions, and road-and-bridge repairs.

And given its anti-union history, The Record of Woodland Park has already come out against a constitutional amendment requiring quarterly payments to the public employees pension fund, as has the state's biggest business group.

Three other amendments to be submitted to voters would require that all gas tax revenue go into the state Transportation Trust Fund, overhaul the redistricting process and add two casinos to North Jersey, which we need like a hole in the head (A-3).

Voters already have approved two other constitutional amendments to trump Christie vetoes and break the Trenton logjam -- an increase in the minimum wage and dedicated funding of open-space preservation.

Gottlieb curse

Editor Martin Gottlieb could care less about New Jerseyans, and he demoted this important news to an A-1 brief and a full story on A-3.

But Marty reserved space on Page 1 for another exceedingly boring political column by Staff Writer Charles Stile on Christie's "greatest vulnerabilities" after Tuesday's GOP debate.

Tax on wealthy

In the A-3 story, readers have to work hard to separate partisan rhetoric from Republicans' real objections to dedicated funding of the state pension system.

Republicans called the plan "fiscally reckless," because it relies on economic growth and "a tax on the state's highest earners" (A-3).

Christie has vetoed a tax surcharge on millionaires several times among a total of 430 vetoes since he took office in early 2010, cementing his reputation as the worst governor in state history.

Hackensack news

With the Hackensack reporter assigned to the "Star Wars" premiere, municipal news from Bergen County's biggest town goes missing for another day today (L-1).

This week, readers have been hurling over every headline with a play on words off of the title of the movie, "The Force Awakens."

Mystery beef

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung thinks nothing of driving 10 miles or more to rate a restaurant, but today, she discusses "east" and "central" Bergen County as if they are separated by a mountain range (BL-19).

That's how she ended up doing a lukewarm 2-star review of Seoul Galbi in Paramus, the successor to Pine Hill, a Korean restaurant near Bergen Community College that never achieved the A-list status of those in Palisades Park.

As usual, Ung ignores the cheap, mystery beef served at many barbecue places, and doesn't sound that knowledgeable about Korean food or restaurants.

She calls the complimentary panchan or side dishes that come with every Korean meal "snacks," and knocks a special of one free order of barbecue when you order two ($24.95 to $32.95).

Minimum of two

But most Korean barbecue restaurants in Pal Park and nearby towns require customers who want to cook their food on the table to buy at least two orders of beef, chicken or seafood.

Otherwise, a single order is prepared in the kitchen.

Ung also doesn't discuss the appeal of a Korean restaurant, where servers willingly replenish free side dishes of kimchi, seaweed and other items at least once.

Nor does she convey the fun of wrapping your barbecue in lettuce leaves along with rice, garlic and other items, and trying to stuff the entire package into your mouth at one time.

And near the end of her appraisal, what's with the highly unusual plug for two Korean soft-tofu restaurants in Ridgewood ?

Editors pause from sugar-coating Christie's record in N.J.

Rush-hour traffic moving slowly on Route 4 east in Paramus this morning, where the delay at the George Washington Bridge ballooned to 90 minutes around 8 a.m., twice the normal wait. Yet The Record has not called on the Port Authority to expand bus service into Manhattan as one way of easing traffic congestion at the Hudson River crossings.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie has seized on the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris to generate fear among Americans and resuscitate his dying campaign for the GOP presidential nomination.

And The Record has turned away from sugar-coating his mean-spirited war against the middle class in New Jersey to help sound the theme that Christie has been tough on terrorists.

Editor Martin Gottlieb again puts a Charles Stile column on Page 1 to report -- for the third day in a row -- how the governor will benefit from the endorsement of the New Hampshire Union Leader.

Three stories on the same endorsement sound suspiciously like Gottlieb and Stile are in the GOP bully's pocket.

Stile calls right-wing publisher Joseph W. McQuaid a "political kingmaker," even though all but one of the GOP candidates who have received the New Hampshire newspaper's blessing since 1988 lost their bid for the nomination or the White House.

Syrian refugees

We know The Record is reluctant to cross Christie, but a non-profit group has called his bluff by quietly moving a family of seven Syrian refugees into a Paterson apartment (A-1).

They join thousands of law-abiding Syrians, both Christian and Muslim, who have settled in Silk City in the past century.

The only other "news" on Gottlieb's front page today is more drivel about Rutgers University's football team, a subject that doesn't deserve equal billing with Christie's shameless fear mongering and racism (A-1).

Local news

A story on the Local front reports the last of several hikes approved in 2011 goes into effect on Sunday at the George Washington Bridge and other crossings, raising the cash toll to $15 and the peak E-ZPass toll to $12.50 (L-1).

But Staff Writers Christopher Maag and Shawn Boburg don't tell readers about the significant discounts available to drivers of all-electric and hybrid cars or those who carpool.

They also don't point out that the Port Authority refuses to expand bus service into Manhattan, because adding another express lane into the Lincoln Tunnel would displace drivers and reduce the toll revenue the agency depends on (L-6).

Sadly, this story puts a positive spin on the toll hike instead of challenging the agency's unwillingness to address mounting traffic congestion.