The right to bear arms claims another innocent victim

Did anyone go to work today? This is Summit Avenue in Hackensack at about 8:15 this morning, usually the height of the rush hour.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A 29-year-old mother of four died in a Walmart when her 2-year-old son reached into her purse "and her concealed gun fired," The Record reports today.

You'd think this story -- not just a brief -- would appear on Page 1.

But it got pushed aside by dry "process" stories -- one on the Affordable Care Act and the other on Democrats launching a futile attempt to override Governor Christie's Port Authority veto (A-1).

As it is, The Associated Press story on the mother's accidental death raises more questions than it answers, much like the stories edited by the paper's local assignment desk.

The story doesn't identify the woman, but says she "had a concealed weapons permit."

So, this another case of the so-called right of citizens to bear arms ending an innocent life.

What a great country. We have so many freedoms, including the right to die by gunshot.

More gun deaths

Just below that story, another Associated Press report says the number of law enforcement officers killed by firearms jumped by 56% this year (A-3).

That included 15 ambush deaths, including the fatal Dec. 20 attacks on two police officers in Brooklyn.

A-2 carries another embarrassing correction -- a name was misspelled in a story on the retirement of a Clifton deputy fire chief.

Christie veto

On A-8 today, an editorial urges the state Legislature to override Christie's veto of Port Authority reforms, but notes lawmakers have "failed to override a single Christie veto" since 2010.

What The Record has never reported in its overwhelmingly favorable coverage of the GOP bully -- including endless portrayals of him as a compromiser -- is whether he has set a record for vetoes by a New Jersey governor.

In a letter to the editor on A-8, Ted Noble of Wayne says there is enough evidence "to indict Christie for mismanagement of New Jersey."

Nazerah Bugg

Of all the 2014 local deaths recognized on Page 1 and the Local front today, the murder of a 14-year-old Paterson teen was among the most unjust.

Nazerah Bugg, an aspiring basketball player, was shot and killed on a street corner on Sept. 20, the victim of gang gunfire (L-1).

Her death followed the July murder of Genesis Rincon, 12, as she was riding her bike to a grocery store in Paterson.

Paterson police laid off 125 officers after Christie cut state aid to the impoverished city in 2011.

The Record has reported "mismanagement of the city budget" contributed to those personnel cuts.

Paterson homicides keep rising, cops hit snooze button

The Oritani Field Club in Hackesnack has seen better days, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The front-page announcement of seven arrests in the slaying of Nazareh Bugg, a high school freshman and aspiring basketball star, comes from the county Prosecutor's Office, not from Paterson's dysfunctional Police Department.

You'd think Page 1 of The Record would be reserved for police who prevented the deaths of the 14-year-old and another young girl gunned down on Paterson's violent streets over the summer, Genesis Rincon, 12.

But Editor Martin Gottlieb, his predecessors and the paper's editorial writers have stood by for years as the Paterson Police Department, headed by a white chief until recently, allowed gangs and gunmen to roam freely across Silk City.

Now, with the headline-grabbing former sheriff, Jerry Speziale, installed as police director, little has changed except the lip service being paid to safer streets.

Slayings rise

"Nazareh was the 19th homicide victim in the city this year," The Record reports (A-6). "The 20th homicide occurred early Saturday when a 20-year-old man ... was fatally shot.... Last year, the city had a total of 18 homicides."

Why doesn't the almighty Record call on Governor Christie to send in state troopers, as a previous Republican governor did in Camden?

After all, Christie's state aid cuts to poor cities forced the layoffs of 125 officers in Paterson. 

How many layoffs?

The upbeat history of Becton, Dickinson and Co. on Page 1 today doesn't report the messy details of how many workers will be losing their jobs until nearly the end of the story, and then only superficially (A-1 and A-6).

Nor is there any mention of how many of the company's products may have been involved in medical malpractice lawsuits.

I guess the editors had to leave room for yet another story about the Giudices (A-6).

Privileged kids

Look at all that coverage of Gaby Wilday, a Ridgewood mom who is selling healthy organic lunches to rich kids in her village, Wyckoff and Franklin Lakes (BL-1).

Gee. Her 6-year-old didn't like the food served when she was in first grade, and was coming home "weepy, cranky, tired and hungry."

When is the last time you read about unappetizing, low quality school food, especially in Hackensack, where many high school students vote with their feet and eat lunch at Starbucks, Wawa, pizzerias and fast-food places?

I like the idea of parents and schoolchildren being given a chance to order a higher quality, more expensive lunch, but at Hackensack High, only a mediocre lunch costing $2.30 a day is available.

Freelance photos

Boyd A. Loving, a freelancer, could take a photo of a fallen tree branch, and The Record's desperate local assignment editors would buy it from him and plug into a hole in their thin Local section.

Today, his newsworthy photo of a man pinned under an NJ Transit bus in Ridgewood is on L-1, but a second photo -- of a minor flood caused by an SUV that hit a Ridgewood fire hydrant -- is on L-6.

When local editors are accused of ignoring mass transit and the travails of those commuters, they point to the bus-pedestrian accident as proof they are really doing their jobs.

Slain black Paterson teen gets the back of Marty's hand

The Oritani Field Club on East Camden and River streets in Hackensack will close at the end of 2015, and face the wrecking ball to make way for apartments or another type of development. On Thursday morning, four elderly men used the clay tennis courts, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Far be it for me to second-guess you, oh great Martin Gottlieb, whose cub-reporting years at The Record launched a stellar journalism career at The New York Times.

But, Marty, now that you've traded Paris for Paramus as editor of The Record for close to three years, what's going on with your cockamamie news judgment?

Do worthless white trash -- Joe Giudice isn't even a U.S. citizen -- really have more news value than the hundreds of people and 14 police motorcycle officers who turned out for the funeral of an innocent 14-year-old girl who was gunned down on Paterson's violent streets?

Greed party

On Page 1, Marty, you show the cheating and lying Giudices in a large photo after they were sentenced to federal prison, and a column by Virginia Rohan speculates on the future of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" (A-1).

You've allowed Rohan and her assignment editors to make the couple a huge spectacle in numerous stories in recent years, many of which appeared in the Local news section in place of legitimate news.

Rohan even refers to the woman as "Teresa," a newspaper style no-no. First names are reserved for teenagers and children.

Why not just call Teresa Giudice "bimba" and her husband "bimbo"? In the news story and column, I can't even find the name of the town where they live in a $3.9 million McMansion.

Nor is much made of the bimba being allowed to remain free until January.

No respect

Then, Marty, you make us question your highfalutin journalism credentials with photos showing the incredible turnout outside St. Luke Baptist Church in Paterson, and the grief shown by the family of Nazareh Bugg, 14, who was shot dead two weeks ago.

Why are these photos on the Local front and L-6, and not on the front page? 

Who could help but be moved to tears by the stricken look on the face, presumably, of Nazareh's mother as she is being helped out of the church?

For some reason, none of the relatives are identified in the photo captions. 

And you've got to love the Paterson police, the mayor and the white police director for pulling out all the stops for the girl's funeral, but doing little to prevent her death or the shooting death of another girl who had so much promise, Genesis Rincon, 12, on July 5.

Christie and pigs

Governor Christie's travels as head of the Republican Governors Association merit front-page play today, but his mistreatment of pigs is buried in a brief on A-3.

Last year, the GOP bully wallowed in manure as he vetoed the first attempt to regulate the size of crates for housing pregnant pigs on New Jersey farms "after political groups from Iowa ... applied pressure on the governor," the story reports.

Now, an Assembly committee has passed a second bill to address the cruelty of crates that are too small to allow pregnant pigs to turn around (A-3).

Three more embarrassing corrections appear on A-2 today.

Can she write?

Another story on A-3 raises a question about whether Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno can sign or veto bills as acting governor now that she has broken her elbow and wrist in a bicycle accident.

And if her injuries prevent her from signing bills into law, who can? The story doesn't address any of those issues.

Wouldn't it be great if her broken elbow and wrist meant that Senate President Stephen Sweeney or whomever is second in line as acting governor swiftly enacted a hike in the gasoline tax, a tax surcharge on millionaires and other measures to restore the state's economic health?

Ung strikes back

Well, there is plenty of room for Staff Writer Elisa Ung to turn around in her Woodland Park newsroom cubicle and in all of those restaurants she reviews.

But if you keep her waiting for a slice of pie, look out, as the owner and chef of Brigantine Seafood Eatery & Market found out today, when he got a lukewarm 2-star rating (BL-18).

Ung was upset, because on a busy Friday night, the service was slow, and she didn't get her Key lime pie until "almost two hours" after she and her companion sat down.

She sampled two appetizers and three entrees at that meal, but one of the prices is missing, more evidence of sloppy editing and proofing. 

On her first visit, she was upset her peach pie wasn't served warm.

You have to pity the woman, don't you?

The restaurant is "no frills," "bare bones" and "plain," and horrors, doesn't even use tablecloths, Ung reports, so she doesn't think the prices are justified by the fresh, wild-caught seafood served or the generous portions.

She describes "scallops" for $26.95, yet doesn't say how many she was served or whether they were those wonderful, large sea scallops landed in New Jersey.

From her description of the seafood and high level of preparation by Chef Alfred Ianniello, Brigantine Seafood Eatery is a must-visit for people who love fish.

Sadly, her obsession for artery clogging desserts blinds her to that simple truth.

Hackensack news

Hackensack Chronicle reports the City Council and Board of Education have agreed on having two police officers, one to patrol the high school and the other the middle school, until the 2018-19 school year.

The district has agreed to pay about $170,000 a year, and $60,000 to purchase and equip two patrol cars, the weekly newspaper says.

In today's edition, News Editor Jennifer Vazquez reports the agreement was approved at a Sept. 16 meeting, but I don't recall seeing the story in The Record.

Previously, the school district refused to pay $1 million for a school resource officer who was assigned to the high school starting in 2006, because city bureaucrats never sent out the bills.

After shooting, Paterson officials won't talk to Mike Kelly

Traffic was tied into knots today at Main Street and Center Avenue in Fort Lee, where noisy utility work is driving people who live and work in the neighborhood crazy. Police positioned a patrol car to funnel motorists into a single Center Avenue lane. The engine was running, but the only occupant was a large teddy bear in the back seat.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Even the great Mike Kelly couldn't get Paterson Mayor Joey Torres and Police Director Jerry Speziale to comment on the apparent drive-by shooting that killed Nazareh Bugg, 14, a high school freshman, as she walked to a takeout restaurant.

Kelly's musings on breaking news usually appear on Page 1, but today, The Record leads the Local front with his column, including a factual error in the second sentence (L-1).

"On another patch of cracked Paterson sidewalk, where another teenage girl had been murdered in another drive-by shooting, the mothers gathered on Monday," Kelly reports.

Genesis and Nazareh

Putting aside that Kelly has been churning out crap like this for more than 20 years, Genesis Rincon was only 12 when she was killed on July 5; she wasn't, as Kelly says, a "teenage girl."

The follow-up to Nazareh's shooting appears on Page 1 today, and an editorial is on A-10, but neither raises the question of what a 14-old-girl was doing on Paterson's violent streets a few minutes before midnight on Saturday.

Nor does Kelly take any notice. He's too busy documenting "cracked sidewalks" in Paterson.

And The Record just can't bring itself to call Torres and Speziale a pair of official disgraces for allowing the cold-blooded murder of another innocent minority young girl so soon after the first. 

Paper is last again

A short story on Governor Christie losing 85 pounds since having lap-band surgery in February 2013 is from The Philadelphia Inquirer, which, in turn, quotes The New York Times (A-6).

Unfortunately, anyone who lives in New Jersey and isn't a multimillionaire like Publisher Stephen A. Borg are big losers, too, since Christie took office in 2010.

Taxing hospital

Staff Writer Lindy Washburn again fails to report a big reason  for Hackensack University Medical Center's financial health.

HUMC rang up $1.4 billion in annual revenue (L-1), but as "a non-profit," it pays no taxes on more than $180 million in property it owns in Hackensack.

That gives city residents big headaches.

Two other big tax-exempt entities in the city are Bergen County and Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Meanwhile, the Costco Wholesale in Hackensack will remain open after a new warehouse store is completed in Teterboro in November 2015, meaning no loss in property taxes to the hard-pressed city. 

See:

Good and bad news at Hackensack Costco Wholesale

Causes of death?

Local obituaries usually list a cause of death, but that information is missing in two of them today (L-6).

And Arthur "Bub" Tramontin, who died at 94, is called "part of a two-wheel dynasty," but a photo shows him sitting on a motorcycle with three wheels.

Read all about Paterson's deadly present, glorious past

The Bergen County Courthouse, the fifth such building in Hackensack since the city became the county seat in 1710, has a dome modeled on the U.S. Capitol. Unfortunately, this grand building, a new Justice Center going up nearby and all other county property is tax exempt, shifting a crushing burden onto residents and business owners.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Where is Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale, who grabbed headlines as Passaic County sheriff, the No. 2 cop at the Port Authority and police chief of a bankrupt town in Alabama?

In fact, why can't the Paterson police do anything to stop rampant gun violence, which took another innocent "young life" late Saturday night, according to a Page 1 story in The Record today?

Nazareh Bugg, 14, "was walking with friends along Clinton Street, less than a block from the basketball court she dreamed would be her way out of Paterson," the lead paragraph reports (A-1).

The Woodland Park daily says Paterson added police officers after the fatal July shooting of Genesis Rincon, 12, but still had "about 100 fewer than were employed before a 2011 layoff of 125 officers" (A-6).

Lousy reporting

Tomorrow, readers can expect Mike Kelly to write a front-page column, trying to find the "lesson" in the 14-year-old's death, and an editorial writer will wring his or her hands over gun violence in Silk City.

But don't expect the paper to report Governor Christie has the blood of Genesis and Nazareh on his hands, because his state-aid cuts forced the poor, largely minority city to lay off the 125 officers.

Officials in hiding

The paper's reporters couldn't even get Speziale to comment on Saturday night's shooting, and Mayor Joey Torres "could not be reached for comment."

"Paterson police issued a news release with few details," said the story, which was reported and written by three staffers and the editor of the Paterson Press.

This kind of reporting is pathetic, but typical of The Record since Publisher Stephen A. Borg took over and cut costs and veteran newsroom workers.

Purple prose

The story is written to hide its many reporting flaws:

"Soon after gunshots pierced one of the last nights of summer, 14-year-old Nazareh Bugg lay dying in the arms of a friend, as police arrived at the scene of yet another shooting that took the life of a North Jersey youngster" (A-1).

What moron wrote that? "North Jersey youngster"? 

North Jersey largely repudiates Paterson, Passaic and other communities filled with black and Hispanic residents, and racists in Saddle River and other wealthy towns aren't shedding any tears over the teen's death.

City's glorious past

On the Local front today, a story reports Cooper family descendants gathered on Sunday to celebrate Paterson companies that made thousands of diners (L-1).

But there is not a single reference to the city's violent and bloody present or how Christie, other politicians, Speziale and the police have turned their back on residents.

Update

The story was poorly edited, and the day of the shooting wasn't mentioned until the continuation page (A-6), where "late Saturday" appeared in a caption.

Like many readers I assumed it took place on Sunday.

In the text on A-6, the time of the Saturday shooting was given as 11:26 p.m.

Why was Nazareh and her friends allowed to stay out so late? The story is silent on that question.

Climate change

More than 300,000 people demonstrated in Manhattan on Sunday, demanding official action on climate change (A-1).

But North Jersey Media Group's objectivity on the issue is suspect, given all of the advertising revenue the publishing company reaps from automakers and dealers.

Fifteen years after Honda introduced the first hybrid car in America, consumer still have few affordable hybrid or all-electric cars to choose from.

Mass transit

Christie killed a pair of new Hudson River rail tunnels in 2010, "citing potential cost overruns," The Record reports today (A-1).

But Staff Writer Christopher Maag's detailed update on replacement tunnels and other mass-transit improvements continues to emphasize the high cost without giving equal time to the potential benefits.

The paper has done its best to ignore crowded trains, buses and midtown Manhattan's gridlocked terminal, as well as how little the Port Authority has done to expand mass transit.

Still, shouldn't every story on the high cost of new rail tunnels tell readers how many cars will be taken off the road, reducing gasoline consumption, pollution, traffic congestion and lost productivity, and put a dollar amount on the benefits? 

Feeling powerless

Crews have been tearing up streets in Hackensack and many other towns for several weeks now, but a story on the Local front today reports "first steps" in a plan to safeguard the power grid (L-1).

On L-3, a chart says the start date of gas-main replacement in Hackensack is "to be determined."

So why were Salem, State and other streets closed starting in August? Was other work being done?

And this afternoon, police had River Street, in front of The Record's mothballed headquarters, down to one lane in each direction, and a deep trench had been cut into the pavement.

As a service to readers, this story should have been reported earlier, and the local editors could have done a better job coming up with a schedule of the work to warn drivers.