It's become The New York Times' suburban edition

Our tax dollars at work. The white vehicle -- marked "FORT LEE AMBULANCE" -- pictured on Wednesday afternoon, moments after it left the parking lot of Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood, the Italian-food purveyor, where the driver shopped. Fort Lee has a volunteer ambulance corps.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Why is it front-page news in The Record that Egyptian riot police are killing members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which many call "one of the largest Islamic terrorist movements" in the Arab world?

Sounds like a good thing to me, and, surely, there are more important events taking place in North Jersey.

Editor Marty Gottlieb doesn't think so. 

The former New York Times bigwig appears to be acting in lockstep with the world media, including the BBC, whose detailed, hand-wringing radio news report from Egypt I heard this morning.

As for The Record's sensational coverage, readers have to turn to the continuation page to learn the Muslim Brotherhood attacked "21 police stations and seven Coptic Christian churches" across Egypt (A-8).

Isn't that great? And the Associated Press article in The Record doesn't say a word about the Muslim Brotherhood's reputation as a terrorist organization.

Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:

"The Society of the Muslim Brothers  (Arabic: جماعة الإخوان المسلمين, الإخوان المسلمون, the Muslim Brotherhood, transliterated: al-ʾIkḫwān al-Muslimūn) is the Arab world's oldest, most influential and one of the largest Islamic terrorist movements, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states."

Master v. slave

Tea Party crackpot Steve Lonegan is so out of touch with the reality of everyday life in New Jersey he is comparing his contest against Democrat Cory Booker for a U.S. Senate seat to George Washington's army against the forces of King George III (A-1). 

It's appropriate Lonegan identifies with the American revolutionaries: They were slave holders.

No more lines

The lead Page 1 story today reports 1.5 million drivers will be given the chance over the next year to renew their licenses through the mail, rather than to wait on line at a MVC office (A-1).

Hopefully, that also will put an end to all of those Road Warrior columns that tried to elevate waiting on line every 4 years to a crime against humanity.

Focus is wrong

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes continues to give better play to minor accidents (L-3) than to local obituaries, such the one on L-5 today that brings Marie Damiani to life as the demanding owner of Steve's Sizzling Steaks in Carlstadt.

Another truck killed another elderly woman (L-1), reminding readers of the garbage truck that killed a 74-year-old woman from the Philippines who was visiting Bergenfield last week (Saturday's L-1).

Fatal accidents such as these cry out for a criminal negligence law to punish drivers.

Hackensack news

On Sunday, a story on L-3 reported that a court hearing will be held on a lawsuit filed by the backer of a 19-story, long-term, acute-care hospital on Prospect Avenue in Hackensack.

Instead of "LTACH," the acronym that has been widely used for years by opponents, the confusing headline refers to the proposal as "Hackenack hospital."

Meanwhile, Hackensack Scoop reports on City Council patronage -- past and present -- including mention of Richard Malagiere, who was the zoning board attorney when LTACH was rejected in January 2012.

Click on the following link:

Out with patronage or maybe not 

More deeply flawed reporting in Local

An ambulance from Hackensack University Medical Center, whose repeated expansions have forever changed life in its Hackensack neighborhood, and not for the better. The non-profit hospital doesn't pay taxes on an estimated $130 million in property.

On the front of today's Local news section in The Record, the first major Hackensack story since March 22 and the Road Warrior column both contain major errors.

If past practice is any guide, readers shouldn't expect to see corrections published on Monday's A-2.

Today's L-1 story on attorney Richard Malagiere and the controversial Bergen Passaic Long-Term Acute Care Hospital almost halves the height of the rejected building.

Given the bitter, 3-year battle between Prospect Avenue residents and the developer, reporting that the hospital would be 10 stories -- and not 19 stories or the originally proposed 24 stories -- is simply irresponsible, and only rubs salt in residents' wounds.

Dissing Hackensack

Hackensack readers are accustomed to being ignored by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza.

But they continue to wonder why The Record pays a six-figure salary to Production Editor Liz Houlton, whose sleep-deprived copy editors and proof readers keep on missing major errors passed onto them by Sykes and Sforza.  

The story on LTACH, as the hospital plan is known, quotes only two of the 11 candidates in the upcoming City Council election in reference to Malagiere, a Zisa family ally who is the former zoning board attorney.

Zisaville pays well

Malagiere has received more than $1.2 million in legal fees from Hackensack and the Bergen County freeholders in the past three years.

The story also quotes City Attorney Joseph C. Zisa Jr. as defending the retention of Malagiere on the LTACH case at $125 an hour to fight the developer's appeal.

Zisa, cousin of disgraced former Police Chief Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa, appears to see his role as facilitating the payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to a small fraternity of lawyers, including Malagiere.

Say it ain't so, Joe

In the nearly 11 months since Ken Zisa was convicted, The Record has never questioned why Joseph Zisa still is the city attorney.

Throw the bum out, says City Council candidate Victor E. Sasson, editor of Eye on The Record. 

Another bum

Staff Writer John Cichowski has made so many major errors in The Road Warrior column, he has totally lost any credibility.

Today, his response to a question from Hackensack reader James Pepe about "anonymous reporting of litterers" is not only flip (L-6), but completely ignores the right to swear out a citizen's complaint, as I did when I saw a woman throw a lit cigarette butt out of her car in Teaneck.

I wrote down her license-plate number and make of car, drove to police headquarters and asked that a summons be issued to the car owner.

I was notified of a court date and showed up, as did the woman who littered.

The judge didn't fine her, because he said I couldn't positively identify her as the driver, but he did lecture her about the fire danger of throwing a lit cigarette butt out of her car window.

Any driver or pedestian can use the same procedure to have a summons sworn out against someone who litters, passes a stop sign or red light, or doesn't yield to them in a crosswalk.  

See previous posts on mass transit 

and Hackensack City Council campaign 

Zisa story: From hysteria to an A-1 brief

If head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes believes in reincarnation, she will come back as a Sykes Yellow Wagtail in Kazakhstan, and weigh only a few ounces.

An anticlimactic court ruling -- ordering the disgraced Hackensack police chief to immediately forfeit his office -- isn't worth more than a brief on the front page of The Record today.

This from the same editors who splashed the city's affairs all over Page 1 on more than a half-dozen occasions before and after suspended Police Chief Charles "Ken I Am The Law" Zisa was convicted on May 16.

"Havoc," "chaos," "limbo" and "upheaval" were among the words used to describe the paper's former home in a frenzy of exaggerated, the sky-is-falling coverage from assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza.

Zisaville intrigue

Despite thousands of words, Sykes and Sforza have ignored the grip another Zisa has on a city the family has ruled for decades.

The Record's editors have obscured the potential conflict posed by City Attorney Joseph Zisa, the ex-chief's cousin, who is defending Ken Zisa against more than 20 lawsuits (L-1). 

Even Joseph Zisa's role in those lawsuits is unclear. At first, The Record and the Hackensack Chronicle quoted him as saying it is cheaper for the city to fight the suits than to settle.

In a more recent story, The Record's Stephanie Akin said Joseph Zisa has recused himself. Who should we believe?

Another dual role

Today's story also identifies Richard Malagiere as "an attorney hired by the city" to defend convicted felon Ken Zisa against suits in federal court, noting Malagiere has received legal fees of $754,000 in the past two years. 

Why doesn't The Record tell readers Malagiere also is the attorney for the Hackensack Zoning Board?

If Zisaville news is all Hackensack readers can expect, the editors should make sure it is as accurate and complete as possible.

Tugging at the heart 

Two more stories about Tenafly appear in the paper today, but all Englewood readers get is the rededication of the public safety complex (L-3).

Readers will find a bright spot buried on L-6, one of the obituary pages, where Staff Writer Jay Levin tells the life story of John Duffy, a tugboat captain who opened a player piano store in Palisades Park.

Levin has readers chuckling moments after they cursed another inane column from Road Worrier John Cichowski, the seat-belt and pothole reporter who should be barking up the commuting-problem tree (L-1).

Jailhouse rock

The tiresome Dharun Ravi is back on the front page today.

Would anyone shed a tear if he becomes a victim of repeated jailhouse rapes at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center (A-1)?