What you see when you're not driving and stuck in traffic

Glistening in the afternoon sun, VIA is a new residential building at West 57th Street and West Street in Manhattan, as seen from aboard a Hackensack-bound NJ Transit bus on Boulevard East.

After the blizzard, uncleared snow had drivers improvising a new form of angle parking along Boulevard East.

Looking from West 42nd Street, there were plenty of seats available for a sun bath last week in this Times Square pedestrian plaza in Manhattan.

At the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, the first-floor bathrooms are being renovated, and commuters can look forward to the opening of a Jamba Juice, next to Starbucks, below.

These National Guard members were carrying only sidearms on Jan. 21.

Navigating Bergen County's antiquated street system, drivers spend precious minutes stuck behind other vehicles making turns, aggravating air pollution, because turn lanes are as few and far between as competent transportation reporters and columnists at The Record of Woodland Park.

This morning on Route 4 east, thousands of insane commuters ignored mass-transit alternatives and chose the crapshoot of driving into the city, usually alone. From 50 mph, 60 mph and 70 mph, traffic came screeching to a halt near Jones Road in Englewood -- my exit.

Story, photos on bus terminal woes arrive two years late

Only one of the people waiting for NJ Transit's 166 local at the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan last year chose to use the torture devices masquerading as seats, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Today's Page 1 photo of afternoon rush-hour commuters waiting for an NJ Transit bus to Harrington Park from Manhattan is a first.

The Record today finally publishes interviews with long-suffering North Jersey residents bitching about delays as they wait for overdue buses at the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal (A-1).

And it's a "terminal" -- the last stop for New Jersey buses -- not a "station," as the inaccurate front-page headline claims. 

Dull opening

For some reason, Staff Writer Christopher Maag leads with a West Milford man who obsessively notes the departure times of buses "on a small notepad using a scratchy blue pen" (A-1).

Buried deep in his report are these hard-hitting quotes from Amy Losack, a Teaneck resident describing conditions that have been evident to everyone but The Record for two years (A-6):

"We are treated like cattle! This just can't continue. It's a form of torture. I sit for eight hours a day, and I want to go home and go for a walk outside. But I can't.

"This is a pit! This is a horror show!"

And yet after reading thousands of words on A-1 and A-6, commuters don't learn exactly when Manhattan bus gridlock and afternoon delays at the antiquated terminal will ease.

Little local news

With nearly five pages of death notices, ads and school board candidates, Local today has barely any municipal news (L-1 to L-8).

Why is Maag's second story today -- on a horse race in the Meadowlands -- at the top of L-1????

Don't look for any North Jersey business news in Business today (B-1 to B-8).

Staff Writer Richard Newman was assigned to write about international aviation disasters, and a photo shows people at a job fair in North Carolina, not New Jersey (B-1).

Suds and duds

On the Better Living cover, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung uses her Sunday column, The Corner Table, to write about a Bergen County craft beer, not food (BL-1).

Unfortunately, one of the owners, Bob Olson, looks like he has been drinking up all the inventory (photos on BL-1 and BL-4).

On the Opinion front, Columnist Mike Kelly blames public employee unions for the wasteful duplication of municipal services and opposition to what he calls "coordination and streamlining" (O-1).

Still, the veteran reporter doesn't even know how many towns and cities there are in New Jersey (565). He says there are "more than 600" (O-1).

Another dud

That reminds me of another lame Record columnist, Road Warrior John Cichowski, whose work is riddled with errors, exaggerations and idiotic quotes from drivers and residents.

Here is a critique of Cichowski's Friday column from the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

"In his Friday column, the Road Warrior continues to badly confuse his readers and himself based upon his mistaken follow-up about problems with crashes, fatalities and speed enforcement on Route 17 between Saddle River, Waldwick and Ho-Ho-kus.

"Road Warrior reported extensively that the safety of officers like Christopher Goodell, who was killed when his unmarked cruiser was rammed from behind by a tractor-trailer near Bergen Avenue in the early hours of July 17, raises a complex set of circumstances.

"Yet, this really raised a simple set of circumstances since the overwhelming majority of police chiefs interviewed by the Road Warrior stated they would never allow a police officer to be stationed in their car at night on a very narrow shoulder of a major highway without any car lights, no matter what the circumstances are.

"Road Warrior appears to be illiterate or needs eyeglasses since he indicated that a big sign on a resident’s property facing Route 17 advised drivers to 'Slow Down - Drive Safe - Value Life.'"

"Nowhere does this sign say "Drive Safe" in the very clear picture of the sign posted with the column [on Page 1]".

See: 

Is there any way to police the mistaken Road Warrior? 

Goodell family

I wonder if Goodell's survivors will be able to find a lawyer to make a civil case for monetary damages -- not only against the trucking company that employed a driver who might have fallen asleep before he smashed into the cop's cruiser -- but against the Waldwick police chief who put the officer in such a vulnerable position.

Saturday's paper

On Saturday, The Record published a photo on A-6 showing a woman with her hand at Governor Christie's throat, but the caption makes absolutely no attempt to tell the reader what exactly is going on.

Two corrections are published on Saturday's A-2. One fixes the misspelling of a councilman's name.

The Woodland Park daily continues to report on fatalities caused by tractor-trailer drivers (Saturday's A-1), but has made no attempt to determine if those crashes are linked to declining enforcement, a subject the Road Warrior has long ignored.

On Saturday's Local front, another photo caption doesn't identify the morons who thought their cars could float on flood waters blocking Route 17 south in Saddle River.

Second look

On Friday, Ung's rave review of Mezza in Westwood doesn't come clean on the Mediterranean restaurant's high lunch and dinner prices.

$32 for scallops, $7 for a small serving of tabbouleh and $12 for an eggplant appetizer are pricey, "not good for the quality," as she wrote, without ever discussing whether the food is naturally raised or grown.

Reporters miss the bus on delays at Manhattan terminal

Summer 2013: The line to board NJ Transit buses at the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan was so long that some North Jersey commuters had to wait on the level below the platforms, above. Despite the crowded conditions, one woman used an empty seat for her personal belongings, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The incoming Port Authority chairman took a bus to midtown Manhattan, rating the antiquated terminal "unacceptable," but why is the story on Page 1 of The Record today?

Really groundbreaking news would be the paper's transportation reporters routinely riding public transit, and rating the service, which has deteriorated in the past decade.

That way problems wouldn't sneak up and bite them on their lazy asses -- as did several angry letters to the editor from bus riders The Record published late last year.

$90 million in repairs?

In the interview with Port Authority Chairman John Degnan, Staff Writer Shawn Boburg reports:

"Under pressure from commuters and several North Jersey legislators, the Port Authority is expected to consider directing $90 million for stopgap repairs of the aging bus terminal, a move that has Degnan's support" (A-1).

Of course, both Boburg and his clueless assignment editor have until recently completely ignored the bi-state agency's involvement in public transit, including the PATH commuter rail line and the reverse bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel.

Ditto goes for Road Warrior John Cichowski, who appears to be too infirm to board an NJ Transit bus or train, and prefers to field e-mail complaints from drivers about road-construction delays (L-1).

Officer Goodell

Staff Writers Allison Pries and Emily Masters covered the procession that carried the body of Waldwick Police Officer Christopher Goodell to St. Luke's Church in Ho-Ho-Kus on Monday, and reported on Tuesday's church service and burial (A-1 today and Tuesday).

The detail in those overlong stories doesn't make up for all of the unanswered questions on exactly what happened when a J.B. Hunt tractor-trailer loaded with produce slammed into Goodell's unmarked cruiser parked on the shoulder of Route 17 south early last Thursday.

The 32-year-old officer and Iraq war veteran, who was manning a radar checkpoint, was killed.

Press releases

Prosecutors say trucker Ryon Cumberbatch, who pleaded not guilty on Monday to second-degree vehicular homicide, crossed the shoulder and made no attempt to stop, but not whether he was speeding or asleep at 1:30 a.m. (L-1 on Tuesday).

The Record's reporters don't seem to have cultivated any law-enforcement news sources, forcing them to rely on press releases.

Nor has the Woodland Park daily urged police in Waldwick and other towns to start using traffic and speeding cameras to avoid putting officers like Goodell in harm's way.

Inconsistencies

Tuesday's front-page photo caption says Goodell "died Thursday morning," but just below that the text of the story notes the police officer died "early Thursday."

Tuesday's story predicted "roughly 6,000 mourners," but today's report says the ceremony was attended by "an estimated 3,500 people" (A-1).

And why in the lead paragraph today did the editors lump together Goodell with Jersey City Police Officer Melvin Santiago, 23, who died under completely different circumstances (A-1).

Lame food coverage

The Better Living cover today celebrates the avocado as one of nature's "superfoods." 

Then, freelancer Rita Cookson negates its health benefits by recommending a salad made with avocados and bacon, which is filled with harmful animal antibiotics and hormones, as well as preservatives linked to cancer (BL-1 and BL-3).

The FYI column promotes a $40 three-course dinner at Due in Ridgewood when hundreds of Manhattan restaurants are serving $38 price-fixed dinners during Summer Restaurant Week (BL-2).

On Monday's Better Living cover, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz asked restaurant executive Grant Halliday what makes Roots Steakhouse in Ridgewood "different from all other steakhouse restaurants."

Unfortunately, Halliday claimed "our side offerings" are "unique," apparently because he couldn't boast that Roots serves naturally raised beef (a 24-ounce T-bone is $42.95).

Costco Wholesale sells cold-smoked wild Alaskan sockeye salmon year-round for under $19 a pound, but Staff Writer Elisa Ung promoted the cold-smoked artificially colored farmed salmon from Moveable Feast in Moonachie, a major restaurant supplier (BL-1 on Sunday).

Second look

Members of North Jersey motorcycle clubs modify their Harley-Davidsons to make them as noisy as possible -- annoying their neighbors to no end -- then find gullible reporters to write about their charitable giving.

I suppose Staff Writer Christopher Maag believes all the money raised by the Nam Knights Motorcycle Club in Carlstadt excuses the violation of every anti-noise ordinance on the books, as well as the lack of enforcement (Sunday's Local front).

Silver Alert: Road Warrior gets lost in search of a theme

Digital signs have appeared on Cedar Lane in Teaneck, above and below, stating the 25 mph speed limit and warning drivers going faster than that, "You are speeding." Meanwhile, it has been many months since I've seen a Teaneck officer with a radar gun manning a notorious speed trap at Pomander Walk and Cedar Lane that targeted drivers crossing the Anderson Street Bridge from Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Why is Editor Marty Gottlieb of The Record running a front-page column on drowsy truckers -- if the problem is on the decline -- and not targeting all types of speeding and aggressive driving?

And why entrust this column to the addled John Cichowski, the reporter who has peddled so much misinformation in the guise of the Road Warrior (A-1)? 

Today's column is pegged to the chain-reaction crash involving a Walmart tractor-trailer driver who hadn't slept in "more than 24 hours" and a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter limo bus carrying comedians Tracy Morgan and James McNair (A-4). 

The June 6 crash on the New Jersey Turnpike knocked the luxurious limo bus on its side, killing McNair and sending Morgan to a hospital in critical condition with a broken leg and other injuries.

But Cichowski's column ranges far afield, despite the main headline:

"Threat from trucks and

sleepy drivers on decline"

The graphic on Page 1 is for "New Jersey road deaths involving trucks," apparently from all causes, including sleepy drivers, speeding and aggressive driving, but none is specified.

Cichowski also expands the column to include all drivers who are drowsy or fall asleep, including a "dozing minivan driver" who crashed into Maggie McDonnell's sedan, killing her way back in 1997 (A-7).

But still needing to fill space, the burned out reporter discusses a 1998 crash involving a "40-ton tractor-trailer" with faulty brakes that crashed into a big SUV on Route 17 in Paramus, killing a Saddle River surgeon and his mother in law (A-7).

Still, that wasn't enough. He includes a tour bus accident on the Garden State Parkway that killed eight in 1998, admitting "it, too, did not appear to involve drowsy driving."  

So, why is it included in the column? Maybe, Cichowski's editors should issue a Silver Alert for the confused reporter.

Meanwhile, The Record and other media have ignored the low safety rating of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter limo bus that carried Morgan.

Weak story

Another front-page story today appears to sugar coat the Tea Party, which is made up of radical, mean-spirited Republicans who are anti-immigrant and just about everything else, including taxes of any kind (A-1).

Staff Writer John C. Ensslin make Susan and Joel Winton -- founders of the West Bergen Tea Party -- sound like kindly grandparents.

But if you plow through this whitewash, you find out the Wintons have lost it, claiming their experiences doing business in communist Czechoslovakia "is one of the reasons we are passionate about saving our country" (A-6).

Forced busing

On the Local front today, Staff Writer Karen Rouse had to be dragged kicking and screaming to cover a hearing on delays and service problems faced by commuters returning to North Jersey from the antiquated Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan (L-1).

Rouse, who has written almost exclusively about NJ Transit train operations, buried the lead, reporting that a Port Authority executive promised relief from terminal crowding by 2020, if the agency gets a $230 million federal grant it has applied for (L-2).

Rouse also had a Page 1 story today on the unveiling of NJ Transit's new disaster strategy after Superstorm Sandy caused $120 million in flood damage to rail cars and locomotives stored in low-lying yards (A-1).

Ignoring readers

The Better Living cover story on "five winning dishes" from Korean restaurants in North Jersey offers little to readers who don't meat, who are diabetic or who are watching their weight (BL-1).

All but one of the dishes reflect Staff Writer Elisa Ung's twin obsessions with meat or sweet, artery clogging desserts (BL-3).

There is no mention of such non-meat classics as japchae (translucent noodles) or soft-tofu stews served so hot you can cook a fresh egg in them.

Editor blesses Road Warrior, dismisses critics

In late 2007, Publisher Stephen A. Borg paid $3.65 million for this McMansion on the East Hill of Tenafly, using a mortgage from North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, Herald News and (201) magazine. Several months later, Borg implemented the biggest downsizing in NJMG history. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

When I was a news copy editor at The Record, Staff Writer John Cichowski, who began writing the Road Warrior column in late 2003, was among the reporters who couldn't be relied on to be accurate or complete.

More than a decade later, the Road Warrior column continues to peddle misinformation -- whether its about driving regulations and laws or North Jersey's troubled mass transit.

His workload -- three columns a week -- might have been to blame, and recently, he appears to have been cut back to only two, and most of those are based on inane questions and comments from readers who love seeing their names in print.

In the last two years or so, a retired engineer in Hackensack has been fact-checking Cichowski, something the editors of The Record don't do, and e-mailing critiques to Vice President Jennifer A. Borg, Editor Martin Gottlieb, Production Editor Liz Houlton and others, including the reporter himself.

Circles the wagons

Now, Gottlieb has come out swinging in defense of Cichowski and dismissed all criticism of his inaccuracies and faulty reporting over the last decade.

The e-mail is an example of the fortress mentality at The Record and many other newspapers, where editors and reporters regularly express contempt for complaining readers and refuse to appoint an ombudsman to deal with sloppy, inaccurate reporting and editing. 

Still, Gottlieb's e-mail only addresses a recent Road Warrior column about the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, which is across the street from The New York Times, where Gottlieb reported and edited for many years under much higher standards than he enforces at the Woodland Park daily.

Here is Gottlieb's e-mail to the Hackensack critic, who began the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

You have sent, by your count, more than 160 e-mails with complaints about the Road Warrior in less than two years. They have been filled with ad hominem attacks, inaccuracies, and nitpicks magnified to gargantuan proportions, all of which stand in complete contrast to the praise you heaped on the column after you asked for - and received - Mr. Cichowski's help several years ago. Quite frankly, I'm tired of this, and I have no interest in hearing from you or reading these defamations anymore.

Your first "clueless false statement" contends that the bus terminal, which opened in 1950, is not 64 years old because it opened in December and is therefore only 63 years old.... Please, by any fair standard, 1950 plus 64 is 2014, which is the year we're in now. Only someone with an irrational animus would make the point you do, much less at the head of a laundry list of supposedly serious errors.

Your second point is that there is a study going on about what to do with the bus terminal, and that this shows that Cichowski is wrong in saying "there is no relief in sight" for the run-down terminal. There is no relief in sight. The Port's recently passed $27.6-billion capital budget includes no CONSTRUCTION money for bus-station improvements. Port officials have told us there are no plans in place. A Port commissioner has argued against providing more assistance to a proposed office tower at Ground Zero when nothing is being done to meet the challenge at the bus terminal. John is right. You are wrong. You are reading an awful lot into a study months from completion that, at best, won't beget a remedy for years and years - in other words, for any time in sight.

Your points are not fair-minded. They are driven by an irrational hatred of the Road Warrior, despite your earlier solicitation of his help. I've stopped reading.

Sincerely,
Martin Gottlieb

In response to Gottlieb's e-mail, the Hackensack critic noted, referring to himself:

- The only things the critic hates is clearly false, misleading, or unsafe reports, and information that contradicts N.J. statutes. The Road Warrior columns continually contain some portions of these irresponsible items.

- Gottlieb seems to be in total denial about the extensive inaccuracies in around 80% (165) of the total Road Warrior columns over the past two years.

- The Road Warrior has regularly provided information and advice that has proven to be unhelpful, unsafe, or conflicting with New Jersey statutes, published studies that are the focus of his columns, transportation experts, New Jersey transportation and Motor Vehicle Commission websites, scientific evidence and facts from reliable sources.

See the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Ex-Times journalist OKs fuzzy reporting

Road Warrior column should be labeled 'FANTASY'

The Johnson Public Library on Main Street in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

There are plenty of news stories on Page 1 and elsewhere in The Record today, but on the Local front you'll find the musings of a madman who has to make it up as he goes along just to fill space.

The Record has been printing Road Warrior columns by Staff Writer John Cichowski based on false premises and false information for years now.

For more than a year, a retired engineer has been sending e-mails to everyone from Vice President Jennifer A. Borg on down with the results of his fact-checking, and posting those e-mails on a Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

Few of the hundreds of errors, distortions or omissions detailed in the e-mails have ever been corrected, and the columns are as cockamamie as ever.

Nut on the loose

Today, Cichowski puts himself in the head of a reader who heard about the loose wheel and tire that smashed through the windshield of a bus on Route 17, and wondered "what your chances are of being killed this way" (L-1).

Frankly, I didn't, but did wonder why news stories about the bus passenger who was critically injured by the flying wheel didn't say why it came off a fairly new car, a 2009 Lexus.

Still, Cichowski can't answer the question he poses, and can't find many examples of fatalities "in our own backyard."

Fast-food fatal

He goes all the way back to 1994 to find a high school senior killed by "a 200-pound tire that sailed off a tractor-trailer," but the victim wasn't in a vehicle.

He was walking into a McDonald's in Paramus. Thus, Cichowski inadvertently confirms many readers' belief that fast food can kill you.

(In the column, headlines and photo captions, "tire" is used interchangeably with "wheel," but, of course, he must be referring to a tire mounted on a wheel in nearly all instances.)

The next example of a flying wheel in Paramus didn't kill the driver.

And then Cichowski finds himself citing a fatal accident in Syracuse, N.Y.; and a double fatality all the way out in Indiana.

Lost in the woods

Then, having run out of fatal wheel-tire incidents, Cichowski reports on a smashed window at a car dealership, and a pickup's loose wheel and tire that rolled into the woods in Sussex County.

If it's possible, his column last Sunday on the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan was even worse, because Cichowski left out a crucial piece of information that would have exposed the addled columnist.

Cichowski dashed commuters' hopes that there is any relief in sight for them, if they use the obsolete bus terminal.

But he never mentioned a major, Port Authority funded study that began in mid-2013 to recommend plans for expanding or replacing the crowded terminal.

He also got the age of the bus terminal wrong and in one instance, the number of commuters who use it.

See:

Road Warrior John Cichowski is obsolete 

Hey, Editor Marty Gottlieb.

It's time to start labeling Cichowski's columns "FANTASY," if you are not going to force the turkey to retire.

Another loose nut

None other than Food Editor Esther Davidowitz is the author of a long, promotional story about Callahan's unhealthy hot dogs, now sold from a truck by Daniel DeMiglio, the third generation (Better Living cover).

Here is one editor who needs editing to stop her from cramming so many words and facts into one sentence.

She describes DiMiglio as "the dark-haired, super-energetic, currently Old Tappan, soon-to-be Fort Lee resident, who bided his time working in the NBA's entertainment division ...."

Sounds like a woman north of 60 who has the hots for a guy half her age.

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.

Will 'GWB mess' be Governor Christie's Watergate?

Less than 30 minutes after the 10 a.m. opening today, Costco Wholesale in Hackensack was besieged by shoppers panicked by radio and TV news reports of a big snowstorm, as well as what may turn out to be an inaccurate story in The Record's Local section this morning.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

John Wisniewski, the state assemblyman with the hard-to-pronounce name, is starting to sound like a Hebrew National hot dog commercial.

Grilled by Columnist Mike Kelly of The Record on who ordered The Traffic Jam That Ate Fort Lee back in September, the head of the Assembly Transportation Committee answered mysteriously:

"It came from a higher authority" (A-6).

First dog

We all suspect he is referring to Governor Christie, the Portly Authority whose flunkies have resigned in the wake of the Fort Lee-Port Authority brouhaha.

Would Christie's political retribution against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee -- by closing two Fort Lee access lanes to upper-level George Washington Bridge toll booths -- be such a big deal?

Given that the Hudson River flows under the bridge, will this be Christie's Watergate and so scandalous it will derail his bid for the White House in 2016?

Hardly. 

But The Record loves this story, even as it shies away from detailed reporting on a story with far wider implications: the GOP bully's mean-spirited policies and his mismanagement of state finances.

More hype

Kelly's Page 1 column today claims the lane closures led to "paralyzing gridlock" on four days in September, even though drivers using the lower level, as well as another Fort Lee access lane to that truck-free level, experienced no delays.

Since the first Road Warrior column on the Fort Lee mess, much of this reporting, especially when it appears on Page 1, is a waste of space.

That's especially true when The Record continues to ignore a far bigger story: Christie's well-known anti-mass transit stance and the Port Authority's refusal to expand bus service into Manhattan.

The Addled Commuter

Whether as the result of a hangover or advancing Alzheimer's disease, Wednesday's Road Warrior column confused a new parking garage for commuter buses in Manhattan with whether the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal needs to be renovated.

According to a concerned reader, who maintains a Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

"In his first column of the new year, Road Warrior John Cichowski refuses to heed the wishes of so many readers and continues on his merry way of delusional, false, over-exaggerated and clueless statements about past and future wishes for New Jersey and metropolitan area transportation issues and laws.

"The Road Warrior tries to make readers believe there is a New Jersey statute that specifically makes it a violation for drivers to be drunk while stopped in traffic.

"Drunk people in New Jersey are not allowed to operate a car, period. It does not matter whether the car is moving or stopped anywhere, or whether it is in the middle of the road or in a parking lot.

"Road Warrior indicated that $800 million had been proposed to renovate the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal, even though it contradicted The Record’s own report that the plan was for a new parking garage for buses that are now parked on the New Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel."

For the full e-mail to managers and editors, see:

 Readers prepare silver alert for John Cichowski

A modest proposal

If the Port Authority won't add a second express lane dedicated to commuter buses during the morning rush hour, the existing express lane can be revived during the afternoon rush for buses that were parked in New Jersey and must return empty to pick up passengers in Manhattan.

Now, they add to incredible congestion on the eastbound helix to the Lincoln Tunnel.

Reverse bus lanes don't reduce toll revenue from drivers who would otherwise be displaced by a second, eastbound bus-only lane.

Snowbound

Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza apparently has ordered Shawn Boburg, the reporter who covers the Port Authority, to ignore any story about the bistate agency's mass-transit operations.

Boburg's story on tonight's expected snowstorm appears on L-2, predicting near-blizzard conditions for North Jersey.

This morning, radio news reports predict blizzard conditions only on Long Island. 

Hollywood, editors ignore today's racist backlash

Compare this comfortable bench for Coach USA commuters at the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, above, to the spring-loaded implements of torture NJ Transit provides in another part of the terminal, below.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor


Picking up The Record's report today on new movies about racial issues in the 1950s and 1960s, readers must be wondering what the editors and Staff Writer Jim Beckerman are smoking (A-1 and BL-1).

They completely ignore the continuing racist backlash to the 2008 election of President Obama and implementation of his Affordable Care Act, which is still under attack by Tea Party crackpots like Steve Lonegan, former pipsqueak mayor of Bogota (A-1 on Friday).

"It's as if America in 2013 was just beginning to address, rather than finally laying to rest, the racial issues that tore the country apart 60 years ago," Beckerman says, ignoring the present in a desperate search for an angle.

What about all of the voter-suppression proposals in North Carolina and other states with a large number of minorities? Don't they count as "racial issues."

News biz films?

Hollywood directors are famous for period pieces that twist the past even as they expose decades-old injustices.

Many readers are wondering when Hollywood is going to make movies about newspapers:

Their greedy publishers, big and small; and their editors and reporters, who will sensationalize and distort anything for a story, such as today's silly promotion of three new films (BL-1).

More screw-ups

Judging by 3 detailed corrections on A-2 today, Production Editor Liz Houlton and her snoring  copy editors are unable to perform their main job: keeping errors out of the paper.

Of course, all of the errors -- published and unpublished -- were missed by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her crack staff, including Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza.

Errors are bad enough, but what about omissions, such as the lack of information on the cause of a one-car accident that killed Erin Quinn, 18, a Wayne woman who was driving to college on Thursday (L-6), according to a death notice on L-5 today.

Forced busing

I'll let NJ Transit investigate a black customer's complaint "that he was racially profiled," but I have to question Alonza Robertson's judgment in taking a bus from Rockland County to Paramus to shop at a Nike outlet on a Sunday, when just everybody else knows all stores are closed (L-1).

For many years, The Record ignored NJ Transit's systematic discrimination against minorities, forcing them to ride decrepit, decades-old local buses, while the agency regularly replaced rolling stock on Manhattans runs.