Christie wants better health care for addicts than rest of us

Today's New York Post cover on President-elect Donald J. Trump's reaction to rumors the Russians have compromising information about him.

A Daily News front page from October. Just think. In eight days, the man who said this about women will be sworn in as president of the United States.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's short memory for how Governor Christie tried to sabotage the Affordable Care Act in New Jersey is a disservice to readers.

Today's Page 1 story on Christie demanding that health insurers cover treatment of drug addicts for up to six months ignores how he refused to set up a state exchange when the federal health-care law took effect a few years ago (1A).

That reduced New Jersey residents' choice of insurers, compared to New York and other states where governors set up exchanges for the purchase of health policies.

New Jersey residents, along with those in more than 30 other states with Republican governors, were thrown into the overburdened federal marketplace, leading to confusion and delay. 

Trumped-up charges

At a news conference on Wednesday (1A), President-elect Donald J. Trump refused to answer a question on whether anyone connected to him or his campaign "had any contact with Russia leading up to or during the presidential campaign," as The New York Times put it.

"The country needs a clear answer," The Times said in an opinion column today.

Meanwhile, a Record editorial on President Obama's farewell address to the nation from Chicago lists only the Affordable Care Act among his accomplishments in office (8A).

Take a look at a list from Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who noted "all of this was accomplished in the face of unprecedented obstruction from Republicans bent on ensuring his failure."

"Last night, President Obama reminded us just how much we have accomplished working together during his administration:

• Bringing our economy back from the brink of a great recession

• Saving the auto industry

• Guaranteeing marriage equality for all

• Providing health insurance for 20 million more Americans

• Restoring relations with Cuba

• Addressing climate change with the historic Paris Agreement"

Local news?

Staff Writer John Cichowski, whose grip on reality has been the subject of speculation for years, continues to stray far from his commuting beat (1L).

The so-called Road Warrior begins his column with a man whose enormous Cadillac Escalade broke down on the New Jersey Turnpike, but who rolled up a $1,500 storage bill because he waited two weeks before he went to get it.

Then, the column devolves into a quiz, including a question on which New Jersey city runs its own subway. 

None of this helps North Jersey commuters, who fight over rush-hour seats on trains and buses into Manhattan or face increasing traffic congestion at the Hudson River crossings.

Years too late, The Record keeps up the assault on Christie

After the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closures, Governor Christie became the butt of jokes for cartoonists across the country, including Clay Bennett of the Chattanooga Times Free Press in Tennessee.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

An editorial in The Record today urges the state Senate on Monday to override a Governor Christie veto of "a bill that would ensure women receive the same pay as men for the same work."

Apparently, the veto occurred seven months ago, but this is the first time The Record has reported on an override attempt or what the editorial board is calling "legislative action on a bill of great importance to women across the state" (2O).

Can you imagine how many other issues of importance to taxpayers, low-wage workers, environmentalists and others the Woodland Park daily has consistently ignored?

Christie has vetoed more than 500 bills since he took office -- surely a record for any New Jersey governor -- but The Record's Trenton reporters long ago gave up counting them.

Focus on politics

The Record's editors and columnists rarely come to bat for those hurt by Christie's vetoes, because their work has been tightly focused on politics, not issues.

In the past week, only the GOP bully's last-minute proposed book deal; pay raises for legislative aides, judges and other state employees; and pulling public notices from newspapers have whipped them into a frenzy of coverage.

The headline over today's editorial:

"Fighting for a free press"

"Fighting for a profitable press" might be closer to the truth.

Today's editorial says that removing public notices from newspapers "would have a radical impact on our bottom line and the bottom lines of other newspapers across New Jersey.

"Some publications may fold and hundreds of Jersey-based jobs will be lost."

Sadly, Gannett Co. and the Borg family, the previous owner of The Record, have used publication of budgets and other public notices as an excuse to reduce the coverage of local news, even though the type they are printed in is so small hardly anyone reads them.

Christie coverage

For all of Christie's first term and the first half of his second term, The Record treated him uncritically, and portrayed the Republican governor as a compromiser who could reach across the aisle and make deals with Democrats who hold the majority in the state Legislature.

Of course, every veto and every unilateral action, such as killing the Hudson River rail tunnels and grabbing leftover funds to fix roads and bridges, gave a lie to that portrayal, but they were ignored.

Even after the paper broke the story of the politically motivated Bridgegate scandal, the editors kept on insisting there was no proof the governor knew about the plot.

All that came undone in September and October, when witness after witness testified in federal court Christie knew about the conspiracy as it was being executed, causing five mornings of gridlock in Fort Lee.

That unleashed many critical columns and editorials, and no love was lost when President-elect Donald J. Trump passed Christie over for an important post in his administration.

Trump coverage

During the presidential campaign, The Record and other news media reported every one of Trump's racially motivated attacks on President Obama without any reference to his accomplishments on the economy, health care, the environment and so much more.

That's because, as with Christie, the relentless focus was on partisanship, not policy; and insults and lies, not issues. 

In a column for the Daily News on Saturday, Linda Stasi wrote about the coming "neo-nasty era" of a Trump presidency:

"The Obamas represented not just the best of black people, but the BEST of all people -- white, black, brown and everything in between.

"The Obamas are a credit to the race all right -- the human race.

"Yet, President Obama, the most honest, decent President of my lifetime, who leaves with a 56% approval rating, is, if you listen to the right wing's very mainstream media, a man loathed and hated."

After reviewing the president's many accomplishments, Stasi concludes, "Maybe, just maybe, the most decent president of modern times ... is hated simply because he's black, a black President in a white country. Likely.

"Hidden racism in America is as rampant as blatant racism."

Is U.S.A. ready for a first lady who posed for nude photos? That's why Vanessa Williams gave up Miss America crown

The Aug. 1 cover of the trashy New York Post shows a nude photo of Melania Knauss Trump and another woman. She also posed nude for GQ magazine in 2000. Melania, once a model, will become first lady when President-elect Donald J. Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

We're all either sick or elated over the prospect of wacko racist Donald J. Trump taking the oath of office as president of the United States.

But are we ready to see more nude photos of first lady in waiting Melania Trump from her modeling career?

As a general assignment reporter at The Record in 1984, I covered the announcement by Vanessa Williams that she was giving up her crown as the first African-American Miss America.

A few weeks prior to the end of her reign, she learned Penthouse magazine was going to publish unauthorized nude photos of her.

I recall a noisy scene -- a media zoo, in fact -- in a large room at the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan as reporters waiting for her announcement passed around an advance copy of the magazine with nude photos of Williams posing with another woman.

Then, TV cameramen shouted for other reporters to get out of the way, and one TV reporter pulled down to the carpeted floor a still photographer who was standing on a chair.

After her announcement, Williams turned around and escaped through a hotel kitchen.

So, maybe Melania should be denied the title of first lady for the same reason.

Today's paper

Is Trump actually averting the gaze of President Obama in the large photo on Page 1 of The Record today?

The USA Today reporter who wrote the story of the White House meeting calls them "intense rivals who defined the volatile 2016 election" (A-1).

But if you really want a sense of what happened, you need to read The New York Times, which called the Oval Office meeting "once unimaginable."

"It brought together a president who has darkly warned that Mr. Trump could not be trusted with the nuclear codes and a successor who rose to political prominence questioning Mr. Obama's birthplace and legitimacy."

Local news?

What's the story about Loretta Weinberg calling for the impeachment of Governor Christie doing on the Local front today?

Weinberg, the Senate majority leader in the state Legislature, said impeachment proceedings should be started now that Christie was fingered by several witnesses at the Bridgegate trial of two of his former aides, who were convicted of all charges (L-1).

Christie's repeated denials clash with testimony that he knew about the George Washington Bridge lane closings before, during and after they caused five mornings of gridlock in Fort Lee in September 2013.

Putting the story in the local-news section is terrible editorial judgment, but not a surprise to readers who have watched The Record decline in quality and accuracy in the last eight years. 

As protesters take to the streets, Trump's conciliatory acceptance speech hides plans for a right-wing agenda

Political cartoonist Dave Granlund on Democrat Hillary Clinton's loss in the presidential election, above. 

Cartoonist Bob Englehart sees Donald J. Trump's victory as a pact with the devil.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The deep racial and political divisions that tore the country apart during the Obama administration won't be going away any time soon.

President-elect Donald J. Trump exploited all of those angry white people to win his White House campaign, and his claim on Wednesday that "we will all come together as never before" rings hollow.

Ending her historic campaign, Democrat Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote, noted:

"We have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought. But I still believe in America and always will."

Today's banner headline on Page 1 of The Record is merely a pipe dream:

"A bold new chapter"

Protesters in New York City chanted "Not our president," and gathered near the Republican president-elect's home in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, The New York Times reported.

Similar rallies took place in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Oakland; Portland, Ore.; Seattle and Washington, as well on some college campuses.

The Record's story on the protests carries an Oakland, Calif., dateline, and runs on A-6 today.

I can't recall another president-elect who touched off demonstrations over his racially divisive campaign and unsuitability to serve as commander-in-chief -- or in Trump's case, Dictator-In-Chief.

More bad news

Before the election on Tuesday, political satirist Bill Maher warned Trump had put into motion "a slow-moving right-wing coup."

According to The Huffington Post, Maher shouted: "Media, do your fucking job! Report on it!"

Well, I guess that's the purpose of The Record's A-3 story on what a Trump victory means for Governor Christie, who has laid ruin to New Jersey since he took office in early 2010.

Besides Jersey's GOP thug, who heads the president-elect's transition team, Trump reportedly will be offering positions to Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich and other right-wing crackpots.

And today's editorial in The Record calls the white racist backlash against President Obama "a pent-up longing for change" (A-18) without mentioning "change" was the 2008 campaign theme of our first black president.

Letters to editors

Most of the letters to the editor today react negatively to Trump's victory (A-3).

"The leading enabler of this disastrous election outcome was the media, especially cable television news," Elisha Gurfein of Englewood says.

"In the name of audience and profits, free airtime was afforded to an unqualified, unstable, and know-noting candidate.

"Shameful."

But the print media are equally to blame, especially small dailies like The Record, which printed hysterical Associated Press stories day after day legitimizing all of Trump's lies and his distortions of Obama's record.

Another national nightmare begins with the sad realization news media did little to prevent election of a Liar-In-Chief

From Paul Zanetti, an Australian political cartoonist.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The ascendancy of wacko racist Donald J. Trump shows the danger of the news media focusing on politics instead of issues, and doing little to expose the president-elect's hundreds of campaign lies.

From his claim that millions of illegal immigrants are pouring across our borders to his demonization of President Obama as a Muslim, Trump was able to get away with murdering the truth time and again.

In fact, Obama has deported more illegal aliens than any previous president, and he's taken a lot of heat for that.

Anti-free trade

Is free trade responsible for shuttered U.S. factories, as Trump says, or did greedy corporations start exporting millions of job overseas to fatten their bottom lines?

It's highly unlikely Trump will be able to get automakers, drug companies and others to close foreign factories and repatriate those job -- just as Mexico won't ever pay for a wall on the U.S. border.

How about his charge that Democrat Hillary Clinton -- who has fought for children, women and families from the time she was first lady in Arkansas -- accomplished absolutely nothing in her 30 years in government?

Racial animosity

The news media, including The Record of Woodland Park, allowed Trump to tap into deep reservoirs of racial animosity toward Obama, and didn't call him out for that.

So, when will the news media report Trump was largely elected by anti-black, anti-women voters?

Last night, I watched election coverage on both CBS and CNN, and was horrified at what basically was a numbers game.

When CBS commentators discussed the campaign, they did so superficially, noting Trump's call for "change" resonated with voters, especially white men.

Even Gayle King, the African-American co-anchor of CBS This Morning, didn't mention that in 2008, Obama used "Change We Can Believe In" as one of the slogans that propelled him into the White House.

Nor, did I hear any commentator link gridlock in Washington to racist Republicans who vowed to vote against any initiative from our first black president, and tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act more than 60 times.

Today's paper

When my copy of The Record hit the driveway this morning, it carried stale headlines:

"Historic election stretches into wee hours"

"Edge of our seats" 

I guess the election would have been "historic" -- if a woman won.

But what's "historic" about the ascendancy of a billionaire racist who apparently cheated on his taxes, shafted anyone he did business with and paid slave wages to minority workers?

We'll get a reprise of President Reagan, if Trump succeeds in giving the wealthy an enormous tax break and calling it anything but what it is -- more "trickle-down economics."

The Associated Press was quick to label Trump "a political outsider" or "political novice" instead of reporting he presented voters with the vision of a dictator who would throw out due process and other constitutional protections to make American White Again.

Garrett out

In North Jersey, former White House speechwriter Josh Gottheimer was elected in the 5th Congressional District, deafeating Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, an ultra-conservative House member first elected in 2002.

As he has done for years, Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson of The Record focuses on who had the edge in campaign funds, and how the campaign turned nasty (L-1).

Jackson never quoted Gottheimer, a Democrat, who repeatedly identified Garrett as a "Tea Party radical" who voted against Superstorm Sandy aid and a bill to aid first responders after 9/11.

Gas-tax 'lockbox'

Voters also rejected a ballot proposal to allow two casinos in North Jersey -- a doomed measure The Record backed with an unusually large number of stories in anticipation of thousands of dollars in new advertising revenue (L-1).

But voters approved a constitutional amendment dedicating all of the state's motor fuels tax to transportation funding.

In the three years Governor Christie and the Democrats fought over raising the gasoline tax, The Record's reporters and columnists never pointed out the environmental benefits of higher gasoline prices, if they prompted owners to trade in their gas guzzlers for more efficient cars or simply drive less.

A 23-cents-a-gallon hike in the gasoline tax went into effect on Nov. 1, but for many drivers it's no big deal, despite the hysterical headlines in The Record.

For most, the tax hike will translate into another $2 to $3 on each fill-up.

Trump denounced for endless con, but Christie is off hook

NBC fired GOP presidential hopeful Donald J. Trump after he called Mexicans rapists and drug runners.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A hard-hitting Page 1 story and headline in The Record today denounces Donald J. Trump for disavowing his "crackpot con" about President Obama's birthplace.

"Trump
gives up 
old con
for new"

"Peddling false
theories just part
of his reality show"

Reporter Karen Tumulty of The Washington Post said Trump "immediately peddled another false conspiracy and even went so far as to claim credit for rectifying the situation" (A-6).

"'Hilary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it,' Trump said, falsely .... 'President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period.'"

"Trump even claimed in 2011 to have sent a team of investigators to Hawaii, to discover whether Obama had really been born there, as he -- and all the public records -- attested."

Two GOP thugs

The Record of Woodland Park, acquired by Gannett on July 6, remains the only major daily in the state that hasn't called on Governor Christie to resign for endorsing Trump, the wacko racist who is the GOP presidential nominee.

Gannett owned five of the six dailies that issued that call early this year, after Christie dropped out of the presidential race.

The Woodland Park daily also has ignored how Christie's 500-plus vetoes have hurt New Jersey residents in so many areas, as well as caused gridlock in the state Legislature.

Frivolous suit

Even though I'm a loyal Costco Wholesale member, I cannot believe a Leonia couple is wasting the court's time with a suit "alleging they were illegally charged sales tax on toilet paper at the retailer's stores in Wayne and Hackensack," for a loss of only about $6 (L-1).

Let's see, I've been buying toilet paper at Costco for 20 years.

But the savings I've enjoyed on fresh fish, other high-quality food, tires and so much more -- plus thousands of dollars in cash rebates from Costco, gas stations, restaurants and other retailers -- make whatever sales tax I've paid on toilet paper insignificant.

The larger problem is that lawsuits like this one are clogging the courts, denying other plaintiffs speedy resolution of their complaints.

Lawsuits like this one mean plaintiffs, if they can afford the inflated fees most lawyers charge, wait two, three or more years before their cases go to trial or are settled.

Now, that's a real injustice.

Common error

In reporting the suit against the toilet-paper tax, Staff Writer Nicholas Pugliese commits an error I've seen so many times before in The Record.

He parrots the plaintiffs' attorney, who says she filed "a class-action complaint" against Costco.

Only a judge can certify a lawsuit as a class action.

News media gawk at Trump as a new Hitler rises among us

The Aug. 10 front page of the Daily News called on the New York businessman to quit the race for the White House.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record and other news media are giving a wall on our southern border as much legitimacy as any other public-works project, including new Hudson River rail tunnels and a new Manhattan bus terminal.

You won't find any fact checking in today's front page report on wacko racist Donald J. Trump's visit to Mexico or yet another speech on immigration filled with hysteria, half-truths and outright lies (A-1).

Even though the Mexican president "made clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall," the GOP presidential nominee insisted they never discussed payment (A-6).

Hitleresque

Trump's vow to deport 11 million illegal aliens and bar any Muslim from entering the country isn't that far from Hitler's purification of the Aryan race and the extermination of 6 million Jews.

At least in Israel, the government justified spending billions on a "security fence" to keep terrorists from killing citizens, but thousands of Palestinian workers enter the county each day to do work Israelis refuse to do. 

Mexicans are definitely not the criminals and rapists Trump insists they are, and illegal immigration from that country is at historic lows, though you won't see that reported in The Record or other media.

Many generations of Mexican-Americans live in California, Arizona and other states, and thousands of them came to the U.S. long before Trump's grandfather emigrated from Germany.

Deportations

Nor will the media report President Obama is driving civil libertarians crazy by deporting more illegal aliens than any other president.

The Woodland Park daily also refuses to cover the dysfunctional legal immigration system's high fees and endless delays, which prompt many immigrants to enter the country illegally.

Instead, The Record reports Trump's rants with a straight face.

It's likely Trump would shaft U.S. citizens by forcing them to pay for an unnecessary wall while cutting taxes on the wealthy.

Local news?

Crime dominates the Local front today in the form of a large courtroom photo of sucker-punch defendant Kristian Gonzales, 18, and flamboyant defense attorney Harley Briete (L-1).

Gonzales pleaded guilty and faces three years in prison, but readers must decide whether the violent teen or the high-priced lawyer has the more outrageous hair style.

Despicable Trump grabbed the front page today, but immigrant protesters who blocked the entrance of Trump Tower in Manhattan weren't given equal time (L-1).

They said Trump is a hypocrite because undocumented laborers worked to build the Fifth Avenue tower, and are also involved the construction of his hotel in the nation's capital.

The Oradell firehouse is shown in this image from Google Maps and NJ.com.

Road kill

Editor Deirdre Sykes, who has only four more days in the job, treats a woman killed by a car as so much road kill.

A brief on L-3 today reports Judith James, 64, of Paramus was struck and killed by a car around 10:35 Monday night in front of the Oradell firehouse.

The story adds nothing to Wednesday's L-3 caption under a photo that showed pavement marking left by investigators, and gave the woman's name and age.

But Sykes and overworked police reporter Stefanie Dazio say nothing else about the victim, including whether she was married, had children or grandchildren.

Also missing is how well the street is lit or whether she was in the crosswalk.

The driver was identified, but Oradell's Keystone Kops are quoted as saying the investigation is continuing and no charges have been filed.

This brief is like so many others The Record has published, but it never dawns on Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin to call for stiffer penalties when cars kill people, especially if the driver gets off by claiming he or she "never saw" the pedestrian.

Orlando massacre comments show racist Trump's insanity

Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, with his big sister, U.S. District Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, who is on a federal appeals court in Philadelphia. We haven't heard her take on Trump claiming another federal judge can't be impartial in a class-action suit against Trump University, because he is "Mexican" and the racist candidate wants to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

"I was right," wacko racist Donald J. Trump declared after the massacre inside a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla.

According to his bizarre reasoning, if the Afghan-born parents of Omar Mateen were barred from entering the United States -- Trump's plan for all Muslims -- the killings wouldn't have happened.

Never mind that the presumptive GOP presidential candidate also described Mateen as "Afghan-born" and condemned "radical Islam," even though the news media have reported the shooter is from Queens, the same borough where Trump was born.

Now, The Record and other media are reporting Mateen may have been a regular at Pulse nightclub who was "living a secret life as a gay man" (A-1).

"Mateen's father, Seddique Mateen, denied his son was gay, but said if he had been in the nightclub, he may have been 'scouting the place'" (A-8).

So, the focus on the killer committing a hate crime against gays is shifting away from terrorism in the name of ISIS as a motive -- in another instance of how the news media are more interested in getting it first then in getting it right.

One example is the front-page Mike Kelly column on Tuesday, comparing the slaughter inside the dance club on Sunday to the far more horrific 9/11 attacks on America, claiming both were acts of terrorism.

Obama on Trump

Meanwhile, President Obama and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton "conducted an extraordinary joint attack" on Trump, with the president accusing the billionaire of "doing the terrorists' work for them" (A-4).

Clinton noted that one day after the attack, Trump went on TV and "suggested President Obama is on the side of the terrorists."

Clinton also tore into "Trump's history as a leader of the birther movement, which alleged Obama was not born in America, even though he was" (A-4).

Republican Mitt Romney, who lost the 2o12 election to Obama, noted a Trump presidency would mean "trickle-down racism, trickle-down bigotry and trickle-down misogyny."

Last Friday, one panelist on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" labeled Trump a "sociopath" -- a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior, and a lack of conscience.

'Face of Pulse'

Editor Deirdre Sykes deserves credit for publishing the photos of 41 of the 49 victims on Page 1 today, but loses points for not finding room in the paper for "stories about the lives of those killed" in the gay dance club.

Readers are referred to northjersey.com/orlando

Sadly, a very large number of older readers don't use computers or smart phones, so what are they supposed to do? Go to the library, call up a friend who does?

Christie's vetoes

An op-ed column today reveals Governor Christie, Trump's transition chief, has vetoed legislation that would have released funds for Green Acres, and farmland and historic preservation (A-11).

That means the GOP bully found a way to thwart the will of New Jersey voters, who "overwhelmingly approved" a 2014 measure dedicating a portion of the Corporate Business Tax for open-space preservation.

The Record's Trenton Bureau has done a poor job of tracking Christie's vetoes, which are believed to top 500, certainly a record for any New Jersey governor.

When drivers stack up behind a turning vehicle on a street without a turn lane, it aggravates air pollution, traffic congestion and the frustration level of negotiating Bergen County's antiquated road network.

Our terrible roads

North Jersey drivers have been bitching and moaning about the condition of streets, roads and highways for years.

Many have focused on Bergen County's antiquated road network, and the widespread shortage of turn lanes.

Now, Road Warrior John Cichowski devotes his column to our "shoddy roads," but only because a report was released on Tuesday that rated "New Jersey the 10th least favorable state for driving" (L-1).

Unhealthy salmon

Leave it Esther Davidowitz, the clueless food editor, to promote a recipe for fresh wild sockeye salmon that is actually bad for you (BL-2).

Chefs like Terrell Wilson use heavy cream, full-fat cheese and butter with abandon, because they know those artery clogging ingredients will make a dish taste incredible.

That doesn't mean you should order it or try to make it at home, if you're watching your cholesterol and weight, and especially if you want to avoid a dish that could be described as a heart-attack on a plate.

In his recipe for 1.5 pounds of heart-healthy sockeye salmon, Terrell uses a whopping 1.5 cups of heavy cream and a full cup of full-fat cheddar cheese.

Look out.

Columnist ignores Hackensack -- the capital of voter apathy

After the Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor went out of production at the end of 2011, the automaker introduced the Police Interceptor Sedan, above, based on the sixth-generation Taurus. Safety defects in the old model may have killed officers in Teaneck and Paramus: Did Crown Vic kill two police officers?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front-page column today largely avoids focusing on North Jersey's local elections, where voter apathy is at its worst.

In fact, Columnist Mike Kelly seems horrified that "in some ... towns, voters [are] asked to cast ballots in a school board election in April, a council election in May and the primary on June 7" (A-10).

Of course, Kelly doesn't tell readers they can apply for mail-in ballots that allow them to vote in any election -- from school board to president of the United States -- from the comfort of their own homes.

He quotes an expert saying voters are turned off by "the increasingly negative tone of politics" (A-10), but doesn't acknowledge The Record and other media report little else.

Family rule

In Hackensack, Cliffside Park, Englewood Cliffs and other towns, apathetic voters have allowed one family to rule their towns for decades.

In April, a tiny minority of the 20,000 registered voters in Hackensack -- once known derisively as "Zisaville" -- elected two Board of Education candidates backed by former four-term mayor Jack Zisa and his brother, Ken, the disgraced former police chief.

No one from The Record, including Kelly, reported on the issues in the election or bothered to identify the Zisas as the backers of "Team Hackensack."

A total of 1,300 residents voted in the Hackensack school election. Municipal elections usually are decided by about 3,500 voters -- this in a city of 44,000. 

Wacko Donald Trump

Readers still are confused over whether Kelly is a reporter, opinion columnist or just burned out after decades of pounding a keyboard.

Today's column is way too long, and, believe it or not, Editor Deirdre Sykes publishes a second Kelly column on the presidential election on the front of Opinion (O-1).

In the Page 1 column, Kelly refers to Donald Trump as "the developer and reality television star" (A-10).

Carl Golden, a former mouthpiece for two Republican governors in New Jersey, seems dazzled by Trump's apparent success in winning the GOP presidential nomination (O-1).

Neither acknowledge the billionaire candidate is tapping into the deep-seated racism that has been most evident during the presidency of Barack Obama. 

In praise of Muslims

The Local front today carries another story on Syrian Muslim refugees who have succeeded in North Jersey (L-1).

Staff Writer Hannan Adely seems to be saying Muslims aren't the monsters they are made out to be by Trump and Governor Christie.

Adely's story describes "a large Syrian neighborhood known for its ethnic stores and businesses," but she doesn't tell readers she is referring to Paterson's vibrant South Paterson section.

Unhealthy food

Today and Saturday, The Record's food editor and writers continue to promote some of the unhealthiest food on the planet (Better Living section).

Readers see little reporting on whether the food Elisa Ung and others rave about is naturally raised or grown.

And they seem to be saying sugar, butter, full-fat cheese, bacon and other ingredients are really good for you.

On Saturday at least, Ung included veggie and shrimp burgers as she gushed over White Manna and other low-quality hamburgers.

Why was she writing about burgers on Saturday?

It was her Pavlovian response to "National Hamburger Day" -- an event that probably was created by the nation's irresponsible beef industry.

Obama in Japan

On Saturday, over a front-page photo of the president hugging a Japanese survivor of the atomic bomb, The Record declared:

"FROM ENEMIES TO ALLIES FOR PEACE"

Huh? 

That's not news. Japan and the United States became  "allies for peace" decades ago.