Editors expose Christie's ties to powerful corporations

On Saturday, I saw an unexpected display of late-afternoon color in the parking lot of a medical building on Essex Street in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Lawyer David Samson, often described as Governor Christie's mentor and father figure, is at the center of two stories on corporate influence that dominate Page 1 of The Record today.

Christie nominated Samson, head of his transition team after the 2009 election,  to the board of the Port Authority, and he was eventually elected chairman of the bi-state transportation agency (A-1).

The Record today describes how United Airlines started special flights to South Carolina, where Samson has a second home, in hopes of getting the Port Authority to lower fees for using Newark Liberty International Airport.

United also hoped the PATH commuter rail line would be extended to the airport, one of the airline's major hubs.

United's lobbyist, James P. Fox, is a close friend of Samson's, and is now Christie's transportation commissioner (A-6).

Lottery fiasco

In the second story, on declining lottery revenue for state programs, GTECH, one of the corporate entities Christie chose to run the New Jersey Lottery, is said to have spent $460,000 in 2012-14 on Wolff & Samson Public Affairs, a subsidiary of the law firm Samson founded (A-10).

"It also hired ... Mercury Public Affairs, led by Michael Du Haime, Christie's former chief strategist who is now a senior adviser for his presidential run," State House reporter Dustin Racioppi says,

Readers wonder if The Record's exposes on this corporate influence in state government could have come much sooner.

Instead, Editor Martin Gottlieb, Columnist Charles Stile and other reporters spent virtually all of their time trying to sell readers on Christie's so-called reform agenda and his phony image as a compromiser able to work with the majority Democrats in the state Legislature.

Dated graphic

On the Business front today, the graphic with the story on subprime auto loans looks like it was taken out of mothballs (B-1).

The car shown is a 2004-09 Toyota Prius, but the keys are to another vehicle altogether.

If the story is about auto loans, why are hundred dollar bills shown?

Rotten apple

Chief restaurant critic Elisa Ung rarely orders a healthy salad at the fine-dining restaurants she appraises, but always find room for artery clogging desserts.

So, why is she using her Sunday column today to critique the salads included with entrees at "moderately priced family restaurants" (BL-1)?

Kelly column

On the Opinion front today, Columnist Mike Kelly pushes around thousands of words on the special flights for Samson and the resignation of United Airline's CEO last week (O-1).

Kelly reviews reporting by The Record and Bloomberg News in what is basically a rewrite of everything that has been said before.

But you won't find any opinions in this so-called opinion column.

In cop's death, driver cites oldest excuse in the book

Bergen County residents pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation, but they are stuck with an antiquated street system, including Teaneck's Cedar Lane, above, one of many in the township with a limited number of turn lanes, frustrating motorists and wasting precious gasoline. On Hackensack's River Street, drivers routinely cut each other off to avoid waiting behind a turning vehicle.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front-page account today of how Special Police Officer Stephen Petruzzello died contains a fundamental conflict that ultimately may be resolved in court.

Ani Kalayjian, 62, the Cliffside Park driver charged in his death, claims she "didn't see" Petruzzello, 22, and a second officer she knocked down with her Honda CR-V as they were crossing Walker Street in darkness around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday (A-6).

That's the oldest excuse in the book. But there is more.

"They were wearing black uniforms with no reflective stripes," Kalayjian told an unnamed television station, The Record says.

But a major conflict arises because a borough spokesman said the uniforms worn by special police officers "have reflective stripes on the collars, sleeves and coats" (A-6).

Not only that. 

Kalayjian, who describes herself as an "international expert on the psychological effects of trauma in disaster victims," was charged with reckless driving, careless driving and failure to yield to pedestrians or wear a seat belt.

The police chief is quoted as saying drug or alcohol use is not suspected, but he didn't address whether Kalayjian was speeding.

Unanswered questions

According to Kalayjian's Web site, her first name is spelled "Ani," not "Anie," as The Record reports.

The Woodland Park daily today finally told readers there is no crosswalk where the officers were struck, but doesn't say whether the street is well-lighted, and has reflective striping or reflectors that might have prevented what happened. 

Nor are authorities quoted on whether they might charge Kalayjian with vehicular homicide in the officer's death early Monday morning, about 36 hours after he was thrown 25 feet and sustained a severe brain injury.

More A-1 sports

Editor Martin Gottlieb again squanders precious A-1 space on another stupid sports column.

If the piece was about Woody Herman or Woody Allen or even morning wood, it might be of interest to the majority of older readers; as it is, most are saying, "Woody Who?"

Port Atrocity

And Gottlieb continues to scramble to catch up to the Saturday night massacre perpetrated by Governors Christie and Cuomo, who vetoed a landmark Port Authority reform package passed by their state Legislatures.

The governors released word of the vetoes on Saturday night, firm in the knowledge that incompetent weekend staffs, such as the one at The Record, would completely flub the story.

Indeed, the banner headline on The Sunday Record's front page declared lamely:

"Governors unveil their PA plan"

News reports today say the governors are proposing to cut overnight PATH service, but The Record makes no mention of that and doesn't even bother asking commuters what they think.

On Sunday, The Record reported Christie and Cuomo are proposing a property sale to allow the Port Authority to replace its antiquated midtown Manhattan bus terminal.

But that hasn't been mentioned in the paper's coverage today or Monday, and no one has bothered to ask NJ Transit bus riders for comment.

Finally, WNYC-FM today reported the governors deliberately released their veto messages between Christmas and Jan. 1, knowing their Legislatures couldn't possibly attempt an override during the holidays.

Editors miraculously transform vetoes into PA 'reforms'

In Hackensack, North Jersey Media Group turned The Record's old River Street parking lot into a cash cow. Parking costs a flat fee of $5, but the first 50 minutes are free. Parking for the disabled also costs $5 with the first 90 minutes free. Jurors park free.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's Page 1 headline on Sunday tried to hide how Governors Christie and Cuomo killed any hope of real reform at the mammoth Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Today, another front-page headline miraculously transforms the governors' vetoes of bills passed by two state Legislatures into "PA reforms" (A-1).

Staff Writer Shawn Boburg reports "it could take years to enact the [governors'] most complex and politically fraught proposals."

But Boburg devotes a lot of space to a possible takeover of the PATH rail system, and none to the construction of a new midtown Manhattan bus terminal, which is at the top of the list for weary Bergen County commuters. 

Boburg is the reporter assigned to cover the Port Authority, but he has ignored the agency's refusal to expand PATH and add a second bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel.

Today, he continues to voice PA propaganda against mass transit by citing PATH's yearly losses of $300 million as an impediment to a takeover by NJ Transit.

Does The Record know of any mass-transit system that makes money? The benefits are less tangible, ranging from cleaner air to less traffic congestion to reduced reliance on fossil fuels.

Sports garbage

The other major elements on today's front page -- especially the column on the Giants' coach -- are a colossal waste of space.

Why didn't Editor Martin Gottlieb give better play to Bill Bratton, the New York police commissioner, who said nationwide demonstrations are "about the continuing poverty rates, the continuing growing disparity between the wealthy and the poor" (A-1 brief and A-3)?

Contrast Bratton's comments to the racial stereotyping from Bernard Kerik, the crook who served as the city's police commissioner more than a decade ago.

Kerik was quoted last week by Columnist Mike Kelly.

Lame editors

The local assignment editors still can't provide readers with a complete story two days after a woman drove her small SUV into two special police officers in Cliffside Park.

Today, The Record reports one of the officers, Stephen Petruzzello, was in critical condition after surgery (L-1).

But CliffviewPilot.com said the officer died at 5 this morning.

The Record's L-1 story reports the driver, Ani Kalayjian, 62, was "cited" for "various traffic violations," but does not specify them.

There is no description of how the accident happened on Saturday night or whether the officers were in a crosswalk when they were run down.

Today's account finally has the names of the officers, Petruzzello and Thaier Abdallah.

Instead of providing important details, the reporters make sure to fill the story with the trivial, such as where the two officers sat during graduation in November. 

Cliffview Pilot

Jerry DeMarco reports on CliffviewPilot.com that Petruzzello, 22, sustained severe brain injuries and died at 5 a.m. today.

DeMarco showed a photo of the driver, and identified her as an "internationally known trauma expert and author."

He quotes police as saying the woman claimed she "didn't see" the officers. She was in the vehicle with her 93-year-old mother.

See: Stephen Petruzzello dies from injuries

Editors make readers work hard for pension reform 'facts'

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey acquired the PATH commuter rail line, above and below, in a 1962 deal that allowed the bi-state agency to build the original World Trade Center on land occupied by the railroad's terminal in lower Manhattan.

PATH, originally known as the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, hasn't been expanded since 1938, when a new 33rd Street station in Manhattan opened to the public. The Record's coverage of the Port Authority's bus and rail transit operations has been extremely thin, especially when compared to endless pieces on motorists, tolls and patronage.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record today tries to separate fact from fiction in Governor Christie's statements on the state pension system for teachers, police officers, firefighters and government workers (A-1).

But why do it in a political column, and why does Staff Writer Charles Stile front-load the piece on Page 1 with the same Christie misstatements the paper has been publishing forever?

Readers really have to work hard to find "the whole story" promised in the sub-headline, a testament to the sad state of editing and the Christie idolatry at the Woodland Park daily.

Page turner

Don't bother with the set up on the front page; go right to the continuation page (A-6) to learn Christie is blowing smoke on the health of the pension system and the need for benefit cuts, as the GOP bully has done on nearly every issue since he took office in 2010.

The 10th paragraph of Stile's rehash appears on A-6:

"And like most political campaigns from time immemorial, Christie's salesmanship will rely on fair doses of hyperbole and revisionism."

That should have been the burned-out reporter's lead paragraph, followed by specifics and, on the continuation page, the background that now appears on Page 1.

Here are more facts that Stile tries to bury:

• New Jersey has enough to cover the costs of retirees for the next 30 years.
• The Garden State also can't go bankrupt, because it is a sovereign state with the power to levy taxes as necessary.
• Christie is as guilty as his predecessors for shortchanging the pension system to the tune of $3 billion in 2011, $900 million in the last fiscal year and $1.6 billion in the current fiscal year.
• A reduction in benefits isn't the only option, if Christie raised taxes on affluent residents and corporations. He's vetoed the former four times.

Crashes, crime, tripe

Two crashes and one hit-run accident, involving an SUV hitting a bicyclist, help fill the pages of Local today, along with court and police news, a zoning hearing and a November referendum on open-space funding (L-1 to L-6).

The lead story on the front of the local-news section reports Superior Court Assignment Judge Peter E. Doyne is addressing a shortage of judges in Bergen County (L-1).

Of course, the story ignores the tremendous impact of delays and postponements on the legal fees paid by plaintiffs and defendants.

If it takes a civil case two years to drag through the courts, those fees multiply, enriching lawyers, some of whom go on to be judges.

Is that a Toyota?

The story on a woman driver losing control on Route 208 and hitting two police cruisers carries a photo caption that reads:

"The driver of the Toyota had serious injuries" (L-1).

But the two-door vehicle with a rear spoiler that is shown in the photo looks like a Pontiac, not a Toyota.

And in a departure from the ordinary, an Old Tappan man who drove his car through the front of one store and into another wasn't a senior citizen who mistook the accelerator for the brake pedal (L-6).

Kelly is a fool

Two days after Columnist Mike Kelly blamed unions for opposing money saving consolidation, a story reports Paterson's police union is supporting an initiative to team up with other departments to fight crime in the state's three largest cities (L-3). 

In today's thin Sunday paper, more cockeyed columns

If you have an off-road vehicle, race over to Berry Street, a single block between Prospect and Summit avenues in Hackensack, where the potholes stretch along nearly half of its length, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

One definition of "news" is a report about something that has happened.

But Page 1 of The Record today is remarkable for stories that speculate or try to predict the future.

Surely, Staff Writer Scott Fallon could have led the paper with a story about the environment that didn't try to panic readers in a dozen towns over the potential derailment and explosion of trains carrying "millions of gallons of highly combustible crude oil" (A-1).

More stonewalling?

Cristina Renna will probably take the Fifth when she appears before the state legislative panel investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closures, just like other Governor Christie insiders (A-1).

Doesn't Charles Stile have anything better to write about? This isn't a news column; it's a short story.

Forced busing

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski has finally emerged from a fog to report on the long lines of commuters waiting for buses every weekday afternoon at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan (L-1).

The crowding had been evident for about two years, but you can tell from his rambling column he has never taken an NJ Transit bus to or from the city, and has no idea what he is talking about.

This piece on major delays appears months after angry commuters wrote letters to The Record's editor, asking for relief. 

He commits one major error -- Christie killed the construction of two rail tunnels into the city, not one, as he reports on L-3 -- so you have to wonder what else is incorrect in his long, winding column.

More space to park buses in Manhattan would be great, but a reverse bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel during the afternoon rush hour would provide an immediate solution to the delays caused by the need to return empty buses to the city.

The Port Authority, which operates the tunnel and bus terminal, has refused to add a second express bus lane in the morning to boost capacity, and would probably oppose one in the afternoon.

Any expansion of the bus lane would deprive the bi-state agency of toll revenue from drivers.

Break it up

A permanent solution would certainly follow breaking up the behemoth agency into one unit that operates public transit -- including an expanded PATH rail system -- and another that handles toll operations.

In the entire eight-page Business section, there is only one story carrying the byline of a reporter working for the Woodland Park daily.

Reporters ignore long-suffering bus commuters

The Port Authority provides a clean, comfortable enclosure for NJ Transit customers waiting for the No. 165 and No. 166 buses at the agency's midtown bus terminal in Manhattan, above. The four fold-down, spring-loaded seats are thinly disguised torture devices banned by the Geneva Convention.

The terminal has finally gotten what it has needed for years: A listing of all bus departures with route number, time and, most important, the platform number where the bus can be boarded. Platforms change, especially late at night. A ticket clerk said the Bus Terminal Interactive Map, which has a touch screen, was installed about a month ago. I saw two of the three in the terminal, but none for commuters using the main entrance on Eighth Avenue.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The Record's transportation reporters, including Karen Rouse and Road Warrior John Cichowski, believe NJ Transit bus riders are the lowest of the low.

They have routinely avoided reporting about local and Manhattan bus service for years or the long-suffering riders who have had to endure creaking coaches, packed buses and long lines at the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan.

They also have ignored complaining letters to the editor, so it was a surprise to see Editoral Page Editor Alfred P. Dublin devoting part of his opinion column to conditions at the terminal (Friday's A-19).

But Doblin's main focus was contrasting the aging terminal with the new marble concourse of the World Trade Center's PATH station, and he ran a photo of a leaking ceiling for emphasis.

Not that bad

That photo is misleading. I took the No. 165 bus to have lunch in the city on Friday, and the main public spaces are clean and in good condition, with a variety of food and coffee concessions, and a connection to the city subway system.

And you can't beat the senior round-trip fare of only $3.80.

The real problems are the cramped enclosures at platforms where riders board buses, forcing almost everyone to stand in lines that can stretch down escalators and around lower levels.

And for many years, until touch screens listing buses and platforms were installed about a month ago, occasional terminal users often wandered around searching for the departure point of their New Jersey-bound buses.

Shouldn't the Port Authority be encouraging commuters to take the bus, given mounting traffic congestion at the Hudson River crossings, and improve conditions at the terminal?

This photo was taken during rush hour on a Friday night in the summer of 2012 at the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal, where the line from an upper-level platform stretched down an escalator to the second level, above. 

Taking the bus

On Friday, I was lucky to get a No. 165 Turnpike Express in Hackensack, and reached the Manhattan terminal in under 30 minutes. 

My return on the 1:40 p.m. No. 165 local to Oradell (from Platform 212) was torture. Passengers filled 46 of the 49 seats.

I asked the driver about letters to the editor, complaining about long lines at the terminal during rush hour, and he said he didn't know what caused them.

The trip stretched to 1 hour and 40 minutes, thanks to Ridgefield Park police, who closed one lane of Route 46 for a house construction crew, adding at least 20 minutes in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

The scheduled travel time to Main and Anderson streets in Hackensack is under an hour.

Earlier, on Boulevard East, the driver passed stops requested by three passengers, telling two women who were together, "At least it's downhill [to the stop he passed]."

Buses jockeyed with several private jitneys, often referred to as the "Spanish bus," which provides seats to and from the city riders can't find on NJ Transit.  

In bumper-to-bumper traffic on Route 46, the driver of the No. 165 cleaned his nails, and then stopped to pick up two passengers standing about 50 feet apart, even though I saw no bus-stop signs near them.

Later, he allowed a man who said he had no money to board.

Today's paper

The death of Wallington Fire Capt. Gregory Barnas has gotten a tremendous amount of coverage since he died on Feb. 28, including Friday's Local front, where a headline referred to a "hero's funeral"; nearly all of Page 1 and all of A-6 today.

Today's edition carries a front-page column by Mike Kelly, whose first sentence is puzzling:

"Big funerals say a lot about small towns." Really?

Putting aside whether Barnas is or isn't a "hero" for going out to fight a restaurant fire -- then falling off the roof and dying -- none of the coverage addresses long-standing concerns of residents in towns with volunteer firefighters. 

Town officials shortchange residents by not having professional firefighters, such as those in Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood. 

The Record reports today that Barnas, 57, also was a full-time captain with the Jersey City Fire Department, and a member of the fire department in Waymart, Pa., where his family has a vacation home (A-1).

Wasn't he stretched a little too thin?

At the Ninth Avenue end of the bus terminal in Manhattan, a memorial to firefighters and police officers who died responding to the 9/11 attack on America, above and below.

'Human depravity'

Today's Local section relies heavily on Law & Order news (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6), meaning Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza couldn't find legitimate municipal news to fill all of that space.

Another in a series of accident photographs, showing a car door or doors that were removed to reach an injured driver, appears on L-2.

The most riveting story is the sentencing of a troubled 22-year-old Cliffside Park man in the brutal rape of two sisters, 9 and 11 years old, in 2012 (L-1).

Don't miss this line from Staff Writer Kibret Markos, who I would guess is exaggerating:

"Even in a courtroom accustomed to stunning accounts of human depravity, this one left many in the audience with gaping mouths" (L-1).

Markos then proceeds to describe the rapes in detail on L-6 -- detail that likely wouldn't have been allowed by the editors even a decade ago.

Readers might be asking themselves why they haven't previously seen "stunning accounts of human depravity" in Markos' coverage of the busy Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack.

NJ Transit screws NFL fans and commuters alike

Hackensack's DPW did a fair job of clearing streets and intersections after the snow stopped falling on Monday, but left several inches of the white stuff on the block of Euclid Avenue between Main Street and the tracks, and an 18-inch barrier blocking driveways on other blocks of Euclid. Above, a Summit Avenue intersection this morning, when a snow-laden tree was a thing of beauty.

Hackensack schools do not provide those familiar yellow buses, forcing thousands of parents to drive their children to school, in a colossal waste of gasoline that aggravates air pollution and frays nerves. Thousands of other students walk both ways. Above, cars leaving the high school campus this morning.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Transportation reporter Karen Rouse and Dan Sforza, the supremely lazy head of The Record's assignment desk, have been screwing commuters forever.

In recent years, they've ignored such persistent service problems as antiquated local buses, long lines to board NJ Transit buses in Manhattan and the rush-hour stampede for seats on trains leaving Penn Station.

So, you should have heard me howl with laughter this morning when I saw the Page 1 photo of hordes of Super Bowl fans -- 33,000 in all -- waiting to board NJ Transit trains after the disappointing game on Sunday (A-1).

Suckers. Why wasn't this photo in Monday's paper?

Perfect storm

I'll bet Governors Christie and Cuomo, actors Michael Douglas and Kevin Costner, and all of the other VIPs at the game didn't have to take the train.

Then, the snow that began falling early Monday canceled 350 flights from Newark as of 9:40 a.m. -- a perfect Jersey transportation storm (A-6).

Today's big, black A-1 headline screams about fans' anger and their "'nightmare' ride home," but commuting in North Jersey by car or mass transit is a daily nightmare The Record won't touch.

An editorial on A-8 mentions "commuters who suffer every day on NJ Transit buses and trains" and "have no relief from the overcrowding in the Port Authority Bus Terminal," but no such problems have been reported by Rouse, Road Warrior John Cichowski or any other reporter.

Denver lows

Rouse came to the old Hackensack newsroom from the Denver Post, thanks to Francis "Frank" Scandale, one of The Record's worst editors, who also came from that paper.

In Denver, she was known for her education coverage, but some moron gave her the North Jersey transportation beat, and it's been all downhill from there.

A second front-page story today -- on reforming "political patronage, a culture of fear and conflicts of interest" at the Port Authority -- gives the bi-state agency a pass on extortionate tolls and its refusal to expand PATH rail and commuter bus service into Manhattan (A-1).

More Bridgegate

The NJ Transit and Port Authority stories overshadow new developments in the Bridgegate scandal, including the refusal of Governor Christie's former deputy chief of staff to turn over documents to investigators (A-1).

Bridget Anne "Bridge" Kelly, who sent the infamous e-mail, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," is the latest member of Christie's inner circle to take the Fifth.

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors are demanding documents from Christie's office, the former U.S. attorney said during a radio interview Monday (A-1).

Give us a break

Editor Marty Gottlieb couldn't help putting the federal subpoenas in context. But did the first paragraph of the story really need this wordy explanation?

"... a development that puts him [Christie] at the opposite end from the kind of probe he once led as the state's hard-charging U.S. attorney"?

Jeez. "At the opposite end of the kind of probe he once led..."? That's embarrassing, especially for a former New York Times editor who was stationed in Paris.

Hey, Marty, your readers aren't as thick as some of your assignment editors and columnists, notably Cichowski, the so-called Road Warrior.

More drivel

In his drivel on A-6 today, that moron doesn't acknowledge that he blew it big time in his previous column by predicting traffic paralysis for people driving into or out of Manhattan on Sunday.

Nor does he admit today he was completely blindsided by the problems encountered by Super Bowl fans who used mass transit (A-6).   

On A-2, the editors correct star reporter Stephanie Akin's Sunday takeout on development near the Harrison PATH station.

Local yokels

Three of the five elements on the Local front today are Law & Order stories (L-1).

Almost 8 inches of snow fell, according to today's weather story, which runs with an inaccurate photo caption describing a Toyota that hit a utility pole as a "coupe."

Finally, here is Super Bowl news to celebrate

Miller's N.J. Ale House on Route 4 in Paramus didn't call Fish for a seafood delivery. Imagine the possibilities: Bully Beef Building Maintenance, Pork Barrel Electricians and Lamb & Lion Plumbers.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

If you can survive the boring front-page Tara Sullivan column on an assistant pro football coach with the improbable last name of "Studesville," there is really big Super Bowl news in The Record today.

Woody Johnson, the filthy rich owner of the Jets, who play in New Jersey but refuse to drop New York from their name, says it would be at least a decade before we could possibly see another Super Bowl in the Garden State (L-1).

First "Studesville," which sounds like "Studsville," and then "Woody," undoubtedly a phallic reference.

Isn't that grand? A respite of 10 whole years before the vast majority of readers have to wade through all this upbeat crap about pro football in every section of the Woodland Park daily.

In the interim, readers can only hope The Record does a little tougher reporting on wealthy team owners' response to compensating football players for all of the brain injuries they suffer (A-8 editorial). 

Mass hysteria

Let's hope the Page 1 "expose" about Port Authority Chairman David Samson's ties to a luxury apartment development doesn't derail a $256 million reconstruction of a nearby PATH station in Harrison that he approved (A-1).

The PATH project would be one of the few improvements in a commuter-rail system that has languished under the Port Authority's well-known anti-mass transit policies -- a story The Record won't touch.

More Bridgegate

A Page 1 Charles Stile column and an A-3 story on the legislative probe round out today's Bridgegate scandal package.

Everyone involved seems to have received subpoenas except Governor Christie himself (A-3).

In his usual awkward style, Stile says Christie's staffers "have been hit with subpoenas" and the governor "has been served a heavy dose of comeuppance."

We also learn Christie "stormed into Trenton four years ago vowing to follow the advice of his 'tough as nails' Sicilian mother" that it is better to be feared than loved.

Still, Stile won't call Christie a "GOP bully," the name he has earned just about everywhere else.

But his Sicilian mother also must have given young Chris a love for pizza.

He became as soft as lard, if you believe the governor's claim he knew nothing about his staff plotting in early September to close George Washington Bridge local access lanes in Democratic Fort Lee.


Mahwah tax cut?

On the Local front, Mahwah residents who opposed a 600,000-square-foot shopping center at Routes 17, 287 and 87 were decades late in citing "traffic, environmental and quality-of-life issues" (L-1).

And given all the nincompoops elected or appointed to run Mahwah and every other home-rule town in North Jersey, residents probably can't even expect any property tax relief when the project is completed.

Lots of questions

An L-2 story about a bank robbery doesn't explain why Valley National Bank on Dean Street in Englewood had $66,000 in its vault. 

Was it expecting a run on the bank or laundering large amounts of cash from illegal activities?

Another story on L-2 doesn't say Paterson laid off police officers in 2011 after Christie cut aid to poor cities, leading to a rise in crime in an already violent community.

The only photo of Christie in the paper today appears on  L-3, where he is seen trying to overcome his love for pizza in a table tennis game at the Boys & Girls Club of Newark.

Who won?

You won't find the outcome in the story or the 
photo caption.

In other news -- other sections -- there isn't much

Englewood would do better urging visitors to patronize downtown merchants and restaurants, not visit the city's Web site. The Record has consistently ignored whether Main Streets in Bergen County have recovered from the recession, focusing instead on national retailers who buy full-page ads in the Woodland Park daily, as the editors do on the Business front today.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Readers are in danger of overdosing on Bridgegate coverage in The Record today.

Nearly the entire front page and Opinion section -- editorial, columns and a dozen letters to the editor -- are devoted to the Christie administration's politically inspired plot to tie up traffic in Democratic Fort Lee (A-1, O-1 and ad nauseam).

Page 1 carries a story comparing Watergate and the Christie scandal, but the latter is referred to as "the George Washington lane-closure investigation" -- a clumsy stand-in for Bridgegate.

Road is clear

Since Dec. 1, the befuddled, error-prone Road Warrior, Staff Writer John Cichowski, has been limited to two pieces a week, compared to three or more since he took over and destroyed the commuting column more than a decade ago.

Readers breath a sigh of relief Cichowski doesn't have a column on the Local front today (L-1).

Obesity news

What they do find is a rare story on a support group for over-eaters after years of censorship by obese local editors (L-1).

A positive story on gadflies, including Hackensack's Kathleen Canastrino, now the city's deputy mayor, is in contrast to past stories and columns portraying them as crackpots and mentally unbalanced (L-1).

Funny business

As usual, local merchants get short-shrift in the Business section, which is chock full of stories about big retailers, small businesses in other states and a 4-page Wall Street Journal insert (B-1 to B-8).

Better Living is really unappetizing today with two columns by the unfunny Bill Ervolino, but no column from Elisa Ung, the restaurant reviewer who should join that over-eaters support group on the Local front (BL-1).

More Bridgegate

If you're looking for any non-Christie news on Page 1, all Editor Marty Gottlieb has is another sports column on Alex Rodriguez (A-1).

The first of two Mike Kelly columns on the widening Christie scandal appears on the front page, but it's artificial, as the headline clearly shows:

"Unlikely pair emerges as Christie adversaries"

What's "unlikely" about state Assembly members John Wisniewski and Loretta Weinberg, and haven't they been Christie adversaries long before Bridgegate?

Opinion front

Better is Kelly's second column on the Opinion front, where the reporter with the shit-eating grin says:

"This is Chris Christie's moment .... What happens in the coming months ... will likely determine whether his gubernatorial career will take him to the White House or the dog house" (O-1).

Still, Kelly is much too wordy and sorely needs editing -- a skill that appears to be lacking on the local assignment desk run so ineptly by Editor Dan Sforza or the copy desk under six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton.

'Not a bully'

Also on the Opinion front, a Bloomberg News columnist says Christie's "I am not a bully" will come back to haunt him, just as "I am not a crook" did for Richard Nixon (O-1).

Today's "Storm at the Port" editorial reveals The Record's anti-mass transit bias.

The bi-state Port Authority is described as "a vital organization that oversees bridges, tunnels and airports" -- completely omitting the PATH commuter rail system and bistate bus operations, including two terminals in Manhattan (O-2).

Misses the train

Staff Writer Shawn Boburg, who covers the agency, hasn't written a word about the crying need for a PATH expansion and the addition of a second bus-only lane into the Lincoln Tunnel.

I laughed when I saw the Margulies cartoon, but a Democrat like Jon Corzine isn't much of a consolation prize after more than four years of Christie, a Republican who is the worst governor in the state's history.

Corzine and Buono

The Jon Corzine billboard in the cartoon reminds me of The Record's highly critical coverage of every Democratic governor going back to James Florio (1990-94), and the adoring stories about Christie.

And given the outrage expressed in the letters to the editor (O-3), supporters of state Sen. Barbara Buono can only speculate about the outcome, if The Record and other media had uncovered Bridgegate in the nearly two months before the Nov. 5 general election.

Remember how one of the newly revealed e-mails between Christie's close aides and his Port Authority cronies referred contemptuously to schoolchildren delayed by the early September traffic jams as the kids of "Buono voters"?