Editors finally acknowledge issues, not politics, matter most

Cartoons from John Cole on Meryl Streep's criticism of President-elect Donald J. Trump , above, and Rick McKee on President Obama's legacy, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Though many months too late, The Record deserves credit for launching a series on "15 issues important to North Jersey residents" that could be affected by the administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump.

No matter that "Trump Tracker" echoes "Christie Tracker." 

That was the Matt Katz series on our very own GOP bully, Governor Christie, that ran for a couple of years on WNYC-FM, the New York and New Jersey public radio station.

And readers also know that if the Woodland Park daily and all of the other news outlets across the country had been focusing on issues during the campaign, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election would have been far different.

Instead, the news media delighted in repeating every sensational, unsubstantiated charge against Democrat Hillary Clinton, and ignoring her decades-long service to families ad children.

Five-part series

Today's "Trump Tracker" installment focuses on immigration, train transportation and health care (1A, 8A and 9A).

Editor Rick Green doesn't explain why the transportation segment leaves hundreds of thousands of New Jersey bus commuters out in the cold (8A).

The other issues -- including homeland security, education, taxes, the environment, social-safety net and infrastructure -- are scheduled to run through Thursday, the day before the inauguration (8A).

Politics as usual

Sadly, it's politics as usual at the bottom of Page 1 today, with yet another Political Stile column on Christie:

"Christie leans left in N.J., 
but keeps door open on right"

Readers also are keeping their bathroom doors open, in case they get the sudden urge to throw up.

Local news?

On the Local front, Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski appears to be telling drivers they have two and a half months to "read, eat, drink, groom themselves and use hand-held devices to ... talk, text or find their way" before an April police crackdown (1L).

In Opinion, an editorial notes Paterson remains "among New Jersey's most violent places" despite an overall drop in crime (2O).

"Homicides held steady at 19, the same as in 2015, while the number of rapes increased" to 57 from 42, according to the editorial.  

The editorial is incorrect in saying rapes "increased from 42 to 57 percent." 

A year ago, another editorial on the overall drop in crime credited Police Director Jerry Speziale while letting him off the hook on curbing gun violence and the drug trade. 

Today's editorial doesn't even mention  Speziale or the undercover state police troopers who have been helping Paterson police.

Korean food crawl

The Better Living cover on a Korean food crawl in Palisades Park should have been labeled, "For carnivores only" (1BL and 3BL).

By using Robert Austin Cho, owner of a Korean barbecue restaurant, as her guide, Staff Writer Sophia Gottfried largely omitted all the great non-meat dishes -- heart-healthy seafood, tofu and vegetables -- served in Korean restaurant in Palisades Park and neighboring Fort Lee, which isn't even mentioned.

And with Cho in tow, Gottfried also managed to keep the secret of the vast majority of Korean restaurants -- they serve low-quality beef and pork raised on harmful antibiotics and growth hormones to boost their bottom lines.

Fewer stories?

Since the November redesign of The Record, many readers have complained there are fewer stories in the paper.

There was a good reason for that on Saturday, when an upbeat Page 1 story explained how teenagers are coping with life in crime-ridden Silk City:

"Paterson students
outsmart crime
through use of 
technology"

The story reported these geniuses developed "a cellphone application that would send an alert to school security staff if students diverted from their normal route home from school."

If readers turned to the continuation page (Saturday's 4A) and read the story to the end, they found the entire story was repeated -- all 23 paragraphs.

How's that?

On Saturday's Local front, this headline puzzled many readers:

"Hospital
manager
gets 6 
months"

But the story had nothing to do with the sentencing of a human to jail or prison.

"Manager" referred to a company that manages Bergen Regional Medical Center in Paramus, and the "6 months" is how long its contract has been extended.

This is high-school level journalism, plain and simple.

For that, you can thank the payroll-slashing Gannett Co. -- owner of seven New Jersey dailies -- and the morons employed in a centralized Neptune design center.

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.

Editors testing readers' patience for unlimited holiday cheer

"Refugees" is from cartoonist John Cole. The Record and many other news outlets continue to ignore the carnage of the Syrian civil war, which began in March 2011; the role of Russia in keeping the regime in power and whether Russian President Vladimir Putin helped Donald J. Trump win the U.S. presidential election.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

We have much to celebrate during Christmas and Hanukkah, but the holidays aren't easing our nationwide anxiety with a Trump presidency just 26 days away.

Meanwhile, the Sunday edition of The Record is laying on the holiday cheer with upbeat columns and stories on nearly every section front, even though many of them are flawed.

For example, on Page 1, the enormous amount of space devoted to Nora Renzulli, a Wayne woman who volunteers to serve meals at Eva's Village in Paterson, ignores thousands of others who are just as dedicated (1A).

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski so-called Wish List for Santa is so heavily focused on drivers that he becomes a Road Scrooge for the tens of thousands who commute by train or bus (1L).

His lone reference to the midtown Manhattan Port Authority Bus Terminal as "a sardine-can relic" is inaccurate.

Nor does he know enough to call for more exclusive bus lanes to the Lincoln Tunnel as a way of providing immediate relief until a new terminal is built.

2016 election

An Associated Press story reports that polling after the November election found that "nearly two-thirds of voters described the [strong] economy as 'not so good' or 'poor' (16A).

But the AP ignores whether racism and misogyny were among the real reasons they voted for Trump.

On the Opinion front, a long piece by Merrill Brown, director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University, argues a Trump administration will test news organizations as never before (1O).

However, Brown doesn't discuss how the news media's intense focus on state and national politics -- as opposed to policies, issues and what's good for the state or country -- is the biggest possible disservice to voters.  

Gannett front pages are cheapening our local daily paper

On Nov. 6, 2013, The Record published this photo of two Paramus police officers who were hired to patrol Westfield Garden State Plaza, but only after a disturbed man with a rifle invaded the state's biggest mall two days earlier, fired shots that panicked hundreds of shoppers and employees, and then committed suicide. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If I didn't know better, I'd think veteran retailing reporter Joan Verdon has been assigned to write promotional Page 1 pieces about one of The Record's biggest advertisers.

On Saturday, below the fold, she reported "a video-gaming theater" with room for 30 people to compete simultaneously had replaced "a Venetian-style double-decker carousel" at Garden State Plaza in Paramus.

On Thursday, her front-page story on how shoppers could reserve $10 parking spaces appeared above the fold.

Neither story could be considered "news." 

But they expose how profit-hungry publishers like the Borg family and Gannett, which bought The Record in July, don't hesitate to cheapen the front page of what once was a respected local daily newspaper. 

Since last month's redesign of the print edition, readers don't know what to expect from day to day. 

Gannett editors seem to have lost sight of their mission as journalists to report on issues that affect state residents.

Instead, they continue to sensationalize the politics that divide the state and nation.  

Sunday edition

Today's front page has only three main elements -- stories about President-elect Donald J. Trump's arrogant son-in-law; Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno's belated bid to come out from behind Governor Christie; and Karen Koehler of Park Ridge, who is in complete remission after trying an experimental cancer treatment (1A).

The last is the kind of gee-whiz medical story The Record seems to specialize in -- instead of tackling the obesity epidemic or heart disease, the No. 1 killer in the United States.

A story on the alarming condition of the state's drinking water system is buried on 11A.

Saturday's paper

Saturday's front page also was narrowly focused: Stories about New Jersey Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen being picked to head the House Appropriations Committee, and a Passaic County imam again facing deportation charges.

Friday's edition, on the other hand, reported on issues that affect almost everyone:

How Christie has diverted hundreds of millions of dollars from environmental settlements to balance the state budget; a state appeals court ruling that stopped the governor from scrapping civil service exam requirements; and the uncertainty since the presidential election about bringing Syrian refugees to New Jersey.

Also, starting on Jan. 1, the right of adopted children to obtain their birth certificates and if not redacted, the names of their birth parents.

Local news?

Today's Local section carries a story on the Hackensack Board of Education's search for a new superintendent, but doesn't explain why Karen Lewis was fired unexpectedly in June (3L).

On the Local front, a column reports on a student movement to improve pedestrian safety on River Road in Teaneck, where a Chinese woman who held a master's degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University was struck in a crosswalk and killed on Nov. 21.

Staff Writer John Cichowski reports "the petition doesn't cover driving laws or conduct." 

But the so-called Road Warrior again treats graduate Weiqi Wang as so much road kill when he fails to advocate stronger laws to punish drivers with long jail sentences after they strike and fatally injure pedestrians in a crosswalk.

After Castro

The Record's coverage of the death of Fidel Castro has been lopsided, and today's Opinion front piece by U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez is no exception (1O).

"We can only hope the death of Fidel Castro will be the first crack in the Cuban regime's stranglehold on power and that the people of Cuba will finally move one step closer to freedom," says Menendez, whose parents were born on the Caribbean's biggest island.

The senator downplays all of Cuba's achievements, and doesn't even mention how the 1959 revolution brought racial equality to an island that had long been strictly segregated.

Travel section

Today, Travel Editor Jill Schensul reports on how terrorism is influencing where we vacation (1T).

But why hasn't she ever discussed crime in Jamaica, Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands?

Next to her column today is a rave from the Detroit Free Press about "the first overwater bungalows in the Caribbean" in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

In one of many editing lapses in today's paper, the first paragraph says the bungalows "open Dec. 2" -- that was Friday.

In Better Living, a photo caption on 3BL starts out this way: 

"Christopher Bates of FLX Table in Geneva ...," so you might wonder why The Record is devoting nearly a whole page to a chef in Switzerland.

When you read the first two paragraphs of the story, you learn the restaurant is in Geneva, N.Y., in the Finger Lakes region.

Still, why is a New Jersey paper devoting almost an entire page to Chef Bates and the food he serves? 

Reporter admits error, columnist struggles for relevance

This morning, an FBI spokesman in Newark said agents executed court-authorized search warrants at 248 Fairmount Ave. in Hackensack on Tuesday as part of "an ongoing investigation." He wouldn't say if any arrests were made.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Bridgegate trial reporter Dustin Racioppi finally corrects his story from last Thursday, when he reported the judge instructed jurors on the law at a closed meeting with lawyers the day before.

In The Record today, Racioppi now acknowledges the judge instructed the jury on the law and read the charges "before it broke for deliberation[s]" on Monday.

The reporter also says that on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton in Newark "sided with the prosecution in removing language" that the George Washington Bridge lane closures in 2013 were designed to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for not endorsing Governor Christie's reelection.

Jurors had sent out a note asking whether the defendants can be found guilty of conspiracy "without the act being intentionally punitive toward Mayor Sokolich."

Racioppi's error on jury instructions was compounded when it was picked up by both Paul Berger, the other reporter covering the trial, and Carl Golden, a Sunday columnist.

And in his own column, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin reported incorrectly the trial is taking place at the federal courthouse in Trenton.

Incoherent columnist

Staff Writer John Cichowski, The Record's sorry excuse for a commuting columnist, continues to struggle for relevance.

Today, the so-called Road Warrior links "getting a commuter to divulge his favorite shortcut" to "getting a presidential candidate to talk about the contents of her email server" (L-1).

The cheap shot at Democrat Hillary Clinton isn't lost on readers, who question what the presidential race has to do with anything in his column.

On Sunday's Local front, a desperate Cichowski linked Halloween's "annual parade of witches, ghosts and goblins" to the "ghoulish bit of news" about a nationwide study on "the habits of  of young people as they cross streets in school zones."

Jeurys who?

About a third of today's front page is wasted on a news story and column about a pro baseball player who was arrested at his Fort Lee home "in connection with an alleged domestic assault" (A-1).

The column by Bob Klapisch begins:

"It was about 11 a.m. on Tuesday when I spoke to a high-ranking Mets official with the unfortunate news of Jeurys Familia's arrest in Fort Lee."

Does Klapisch mean "about" the news of the athlete's arrest?

This isn't inside baseball; this is inside the mind of a burned-out sports columnist.

Trump's anti-women, anti-black rhetoric will never prevail

On Wednesday night in Las Vegas, GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump showed how truly ugly he is during the third and final debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton, who was the clear winner, above and below, though you won't see that reflected in The Record's Page 1 coverage today.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In anti-women and anti-black comments on Wednesday night, GOP White House hopeful Donald J. Trump again showed he is a truly ugly, unapologetic male chauvinist pig.

His attacks during the final presidential debate ranged from calling Democrat Hillary Clinton a "nasty women" to pledging to appoint right-to-life justices to the Supreme Court to denying reports from women that he groped and kissed them against their will.

In a parting shot designed to appeal to his racist supporters, the wacko billionaire claimed electing Clinton would be the same as returning our first black president to office. 

Today's coverage

Clinton said Trump "thinks belitlling women makes him bigger" (A-4).

"He goes after their dignity, their self-worth," she said.

His "trickle-down economics on steroids," as Clinton called it; his getting away with not paying federal taxes; his business losses of nearly a billion dollars in one year -- all show his economic plan is a sham.

"We have undocumented immigrants paying more in taxes than a billionaire," Clinton said (A-1).

Kelly on Kelly

Columnist Mike Kelly appears to have set a record with his Page 1 profile of Bridget Anne Kelly, Governor Christie's former deputy chief of staff and a defendant in the Bridgegate trial.

This is not only more than he has written about any one person, but it certainly eclipses anything the editors have published about Clinton's long public service and her policy positions in the presidential campaign (A-1 and A-6).

Kelly's largely sympathetic portrait of the defendant, who grew up in Ramsey, clashes with her being portrayed as a central figure in the George Washington Bridge lane closures to punish Fort Lee's Democratic mayor for not endorsing the reelection of Christie.

No one knows how Bridget Kelly, who is scheduled to testify before a federal jury, will try to explain away her infamous email to Christie crony David Wildstein at the Port Authority:

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

Zisa editorial

An editorial claims Hackensack taxpayers will have to shoulder a $3 million payment to former Police Chief Ken Zisa because of the "mistakes of their city fathers" (A-10).

One so-called mistake was not having Zisa's back pay "accumulating in an account," but the editorial doesn't list any others.

Although all of the charges in a Bergen County grand injury indictment against Zisa have been dropped, the editorial neglects to mention no court or jury has ever said the former chief didn't commit a crime.

Stale news

The front page on Wednesday carried a stale headline.

"Hackensack plans

 $3M payment to Zisa" 

Eye on The Record already reported the payment on Oct. 5, and the Woodland Park daily's John Seasly followed with his own report two days later.

The news is that the City Council on Tuesday night proposed a $3 million appropriation raised through selling bonds "to fulfill a court-mandated payment" to Zisa (A-1 on Wednesday).

Seasly continues to ignore plans by Zisa and other members of his family's political dynasty, which ruled Hackensack for decades, to run a slate and try to regain power in next May's municipal election.

Zisa allies have long controlled the city's Board of Education.

Christie critic

Staff Writer John Cichowski is the latest staffer to pile on Christie since the fatal Hoboken train crash, revelations in the Bridgegate trial, and the biggest bugs up the veteran reporter's ass -- computer breakdowns and long lines at Motor Vehicle Commission offices.

His Road Warrior column on L-1 today breaks years of silent acquiescing to Christie's anti-mass transit policies, and refusal to raise the gas tax to pay for road and rail improvements.

Cichowski even blames Christie for rising traffic deaths this year "after three decades of decline" (L-2).

Columns such as Cichowski's ring hollow in view of The Record being the only major daily paper in the state that didn't call for the GOP thug to resign after he endorsed Trump.

Whole Foods

On Wednesday, retailing reporter Joan Verdon was incorrect in saying the new Closter Whole Foods "will have features not found in other stores, including a juice bar and coffee stand."

The Whole Foods in Paramus has both.

She also omitted mentioning that Costco Wholesale has expanded its organic and natural-food selection far more than the Whole Foods competitors she lists: Fairway, Trader Joe's, Walmart and Target.

Commuters, tree huggers applauding big gasoline-tax hike

North Dean Street in Englewood on a drizzly Friday afternoon. Drivers of hybrid and all-electric cars pay no attention to the price of gasoline, and won't flinch when the state's motor fuels tax goes up by 23 cents a gallon as early as next week.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie insisted on cutting taxes for the wealthy before he agreed to a 23-cents-per-gallon hike in the gas tax to fund road and rail improvements.

In the past few years, Christie has vetoed or threatened to veto raising the gas tax for the first time since 1988, as well as put the kibosh on a tax surcharge on millionaires.

It's no surprise that "most New Jersey residents oppose an increase in the gas tax," as The Record reports today, given the crushing burden of property taxes and Christie's failure to lower them (A-7).

But while most drivers are cursing the gas-tax hike, they reserve the right to sound off about the lousy roads they are stuck with and to offer no other solution.

Drivers of hybrid and all-electric cars just shrug at higher prices for gasoline, hoping the new tax will slow the sale of gas-guzzling SUVs and cut deaths from auto emissions. 

No compromise

The GOP thug dominates this week's other big stories:

The crash of an NJ Transit train in Hoboken, and continuing testimony by the government's star witness in the Bridgegate trial -- Christie crony and confidant David Wildstein (A-1, A-6, A-7, L-1 and L-6).

Today, The Record's bumbling editors finally publish two stories that should have been in the paper on Friday, the day after a Bergen County train failed to slow, crashed into the platform and nearly broke through the waiting-room wall at the historic Hoboken Terminal.

The first is a profile of Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, 34, a Hoboken wife and mother who was killed on a platform by falling debris (A-1).

The second details how Christie slashed state aid to NJ Transit, forcing fare hikes, service cuts and the cancellation of work on an automatic braking system that could have prevented Thursday morning's tragedy.

Minimum wage

In addition to repeatedly vetoing higher taxes on millionaires, Christie killed a bill that would have raised the minimum wage in New Jersey to $15 an hour by 2021.

Today, The Record reports the state minimum will rise to $8.44 and hour from $8.38, "based on a small uptick in the consumer price index" (A-8).

Local news?

Four reporters were assigned to cover the delays faced by NJ Transit commuters whose trains only went as far as Secaucus on Friday (L-1).

And on L-6, Road Warrior John Cichowski wastes commuters' time by covering a public-relations tour by Dennis Martin, the interim executive director of NJ Transit.  

In the 13 years Cichowski has written the Road Warrior column, he has largely ignored mass transit commuters in favor of drivers.

Editors bury Christie's role in fatal NJ Transit train wreck

In this photo from Pancho Bernasconi, train personnel inspect the lead car of the NJ Transit train that crashed and jumped the platform on Monday morning at the Hoboken Terminal, killing one woman and injuring more than 100 others.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record today buries readers under an avalanche of words from more than a dozen reporters assigned to cover Thursday's fatal train crash in Hoboken.

No one can absorb this many news stories and columns about the same event, especially when little was done to edit out all of the repetition, and replace that with answers to several crucial questions (A-1, A-6, A-7, A-8 and L-1).

And it's unclear just how many readers will search out Mike Kelly's column on A-7, where the banner headline declares:

"The deadly consequences of neglect"

Even if they do find the column, Kelly as usual buries the lead, this time in the fifth and sixth paragraph:

"You could sense the defensiveness in Governor Christie ... during a news conference ... not far from the wreckage.

"After all, it was Christie, boasting to Republicans of his tax-cutting prowess as he ran for president, who blocked a proposed increase in the state gasoline tax. The new revenue would help" pay "for rail-safety upgrades ...."

Then, Kelly notes Christie dodged a question on whether an automatic braking system -- which federal officials have advocated for 46 years -- could have slowed the commuter train from Bergen County before it crashed.

Readers have to plow through numerous paragraphs of background on previous train crashes before getting to the last paragraph:

"We live with an outdated rail system and a government that is too slow to repair it," Kelly writes with the impact of a wet noodle.

Gets off light

Christie gets off easy today, having fought mass transit improvements since he took office in 2010.

He cancelled an earlier project to build two new Hudson River rail tunnels, and grabbed more than $1 billion in leftover funds to fix roads and bridges, allowing him to avoid raising the low gas tax.

He also cut state aid, forcing NJ Transit to raise fares and cut service; and he's looted the agency's maintenance budget.

Holes in stories

From all accounts, the three-car train and locomotive were traveling about 30 mph, instead of 10 mph, when they entered the station, failed to slow and crashed.

That doesn't seem to justify the screaming banner headline on Page 1 today:

"High speed into chaos"

"Chaos" is a good word to use when describing the scene in the Woodland Park newsroom whenever the editors have to cover a big, breaking news story.

They've shown time and again they aren't up to it.

Today, the name of the woman killed on the platform by falling debris appears on A-6, but for some reason the story doesn't say Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, 34, of Hoboken leaves her husband and their 18-month-old daughter, as reported by other news media.

Today's extensive coverage also is missing information on the makeup of the train -- three passenger cars that were being pushed by a locomotive.

A news story and the Road Warrior column on L-1 conflict on whether the engineer was operating the train from the lead passenger car or from the locomotive pushing the passenger cars or were there two engineers on board? 

And Staff Writer John Cichowski, the so-called Road Warrior, should be ashamed of himself for including so many gory details on the injuries suffered by De Kroon, the wife, mother and innocent bystander who died on Thursday morning. 

Local news?

There is more Paterson news in the local-news section delivered to Bergen County readers than from any other community.

If you are a community activist, you have to have a school named after you before The Record will cover you.

That seems to be the lesson from an L-1 story on Paterson school activist Hani Awadallah.

Staff Writer John Seasly, who is assigned to Hackensack, hasn't covered a single Board of Education meeting, and didn't write a word about Tuesday's City Council meeting, which he attended.

Who is confused?

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung bestows 3 stars out of 4 (Excellent to Outstanding) on Aquarius Seafood Restaurant in Fort Lee, but calls the dim sum service "confusing" (BL-14).

"We found a language barrier at dim sum," Ung claims, "which may frustrate the 30 percent of the customers who are not Chinese and makes this restaurant hard to recommend to those with no knowledge of the cuisine."

Dim sum and tea are hardly new to North Jersey and especially not to Fort Lee, where Silver Pond Seafood Restaurant served wonderful dumplings and other delights in the same Main Street space for decades.

And if necessary, Aquarius will give you a menu that lists the nearly 50 dim sum in English and Chinese.

Fish story

Where Ung should have deducted a half-star or more, she just warns readers to ask about the price of whole live fish before ordering it.

After years of watching the owners of Greek fish houses in Bergen County rip off customers by charging for fresh whole fish by the pound, the Chinese owners of Lan Garden in Ridgefield and now Aquarius in Fort Lee are getting in on the action.

Ung was shown the whole live bass she ordered -- "wriggling ... in the net, shaking water everywhere and scaring many people nearby" -- but not told about the $28-per-pound price.

Nor was it listed on the menu.

That kind of dishonesty shouldn't be rewarded by a restaurant reviewer, especially one who is on an expense account. 

Time to lock up Governor Christie and throw away the key

The Evil Twins, Governor Christie and wacko racist Donald J. Trump, are favorite subjects on the front page of the New York Daily News, above and below. This Christie front page is from February.

On Wednesday, the Daily News urged Trump to end his GOP campaign for the White House.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Why wait for the trial?

In the court of public opinion, Governor Christie has been viewed as culpable since he first joked about moving traffic cones to close access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in September 2013, causing massive traffic jams for four days.

Now, former Christie aide Christina Renna says the governor "flat out lied" to reporters [in late 2013] about his administration's involvement," The Record reports on Page 1 today.

Christie's continuing denials -- "I absolutely dispute it" -- sound hollow a little over a month before two of his former loyalists go on trial in federal court in Newark for using the lane closures as political retaliation against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee.

Locking up Christie now would likely also break the legislative logjam in Trenton.

Today's columns

What's the point of the Charles Stile column that runs on A-1 today, and largely duplicates what is in the news story next to it?

Do we need Stile, the Woodland Park daily's chief apologist for Christie, to tell us the obvious -- that the former aide's text message about Christie lying is a "bombshell in the court of public opinion" (A-6)?

Another front page column also is a waste, coming a day late on Donald J. Trump's comments that it may be up to "Second Amendment people" to stop Hillary Clinton from getting elected and appointing liberal judges to the U.S. Supreme Court (A-1).

Trump should quit

On Wednesday, New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman compared Trump's inflammatory words to those that led to the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995,

Also on Wednesday, the New York Daily News called on Trump to end his GOP campaign for the White House and if he doesn't, for the Republican Party to abandon him.

What does Record Columnist Mike Kelly say about Trump on Page 1 today? Does the veteran reporter condemn him?

Of course not. He is an opinion columnist without any opinions or balls.

Journalism 101

Kelly sounds like a reporter fresh out of journalism school, claiming with little basis in fact that Trump's comments "further stir [the] nation's gun debate," as the sub-headline says.

What? 

The only debate is whether megalomaniac Trump is fit to hold the office of president.

At least, The Record's editorial -- after attacking Hillary Clinton as "unprincipled and unworthy" to hold office -- says unequivocally:

"A presidential candidate [Trump] making a quip about gun violence should be as out of bounds as jokes about bombs at airports" (A-8).

Local news?

Readers who have to wait on line at the Motor Vehicle Commission every four years to renew their driver's license are pelted with more hysterical coverage in The Record today.

In a Road Warrior column leading Local, Staff Writer John Cichowski reports two state senators are calling for a legislative hearing "as early as next month" (L-1).

That's the bad news, because when has a legislative hearing every accomplished anything?