Why is any of this on Page 1 today?

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Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., second from right, during a Cuban Day
 Parade. Do readers really care how much campaign cash he has amassed?

Readers surely are bewildered yet again by the choice of Page 1 stories for The Record's Sunday edition -- once the premier edition of the week.


Judging from the turnout of police officers shown in the A-1 photo, you'd think a chief of state died instead of an off-duty Newark detective who probably would still be alive, if a sleazy Paterson strip club had hired another off-duty cop as security.


Victim, not hero


Is an off-duty cop who was walking a dancer to her car at 3 in the morning Monday -- and who was shot by a robber before he could draw his service weapon -- really a "true hero," as the headline says?


Or, was he the victim of a predator who robbed another dancer only 25 minutes earlier outside another club in a city cursed by a Police Department with a miserable record of controlling gun violence?


Campaign trash


I read every word of the front-page story on Sen. Robert Menendez's mountain of campaign cash, but wondered why Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson didn't discuss attempts to reform a corrupt system that gives the upper hand to special interests.


A political story that belongs on Page 1 -- one readers of The Record will never see -- is how partisan rhetoric has paralyzed Congress and literally stopped progress.


Changes to the Roman Catholic Mass on the front page -- in one of the most religiously diverse regions of the world? 


Boring readers


Hey, interim Editor Doug Clancy, didn't you have anything of general interest for A-1? Why isn't this story on the Religion Page?


This is only your second Sunday paper, but you're boring readers to death. And it's not as if Francis "Frank" Scandale is a tough act to follow as editor.


On A-2, the same headline appears twice in the People In The News column -- more great quality control by Liz Houlton's news copy desk.


Out of control


Jeez. Look at the Road Warrior column on the front of Local today -- the section that is the pride and joy of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes.


Why is Staff Writer John Cichowski focusing on a New Milford resident who was stopped for driving more than 90 mph in Georgia??? What does that have to do with the North Jersey commuting problems he is supposed to be writing about?


I continue to look in vain for Hackensack news.


More indigestion


On the Better Living front, here's another moronic Sunday column from Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung, this one on a waitress' pet peeves (F-1).


Someone should tell waitress Karin Frei to direct her anger at her boss, who pays her slave wages and puts the burden on customers to tip her sufficiently so she makes a decent living. 


Stop bitching about customers. You're lucky to have a job.


Isn't it rich to see Travel Editor Jill Schensul promoting inter-generational travel from a newsroom that favors younger employees over veterans, with only a few exceptions (T-1)?

When Christie barks, reporters scatter

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Commuters may take to boats to avoid huge Hudson River toll increases.

Have you noticed how many times Governor Christie, agencies like the Port Authority and other news sources refuse to comment on important public issues beyond their press releases and press conferences?


And have you noticed how many times reporters for The Record of Woodland Park obediently quote those refusals and make no attempt to get the information another way -- how they close their notebooks with a sigh and call it a day?


Jeez, is this the first time the Port Authority has proposed a huge toll increase as a bargaining chip and was willing to settle for less?


In Page 1 stories on Saturday, Sunday and today, The Record's reporters and copy editors seem to be stumbling in the dark.


Saturday's two-deck banger headline said the bi-state agency's plan "could double Hudson River tolls," but a chart just about the headline showed some tolls would nearly triple by 2014.


Poker faces


On Sunday, a Port Authority spokesman refused to comment on the possibility the agency would settle for a smaller toll increase, as it did in 2001, or a smaller PATH fare hike, as it did in 2008 (A-4).


Today, in the off-lead story on A-1, , a Christie spokesman declined to comment on the paper's report the new plan had been discussed with the Christie and Cuomo administrations or that the proposed increases "changed several times during the talks."


U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., was upset by the agency's proposals -- in contrast to Christie's response at a Monday press conference: "You're kidding, right?"


Menendez also said it's not credible that Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo were "blindsided."


Also from Menendez today is a powerful OpEd column on Page A-9, slamming the Tea Party for protecting special interests, who receive nearly $27 billion in "unwarranted" oil and ethanol subsidies.


Horse manure


Editor Francis Scandale may be grappling with unfocused Page 1 stories and emasculated reporters, but head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her minions continue to scramble for filler in the Local section.


An update on the Rotary Club's Gift of Life program to treat children with heart disease and its 770th patient (L-1) will appear again when its 820th patient is registered and a third time to herald its 850th patient, and so on and so forth.


Staff Writer Andrea Alexander reports the Teaneck school district still is interested in an $85,000 donation from Cross River Bank, but not whether the bank's officers send their kids to private schools and would refuse to contribute to public education (L-1).


More filler on the future of the state's horse-racing industry appears on L-3 -- once a premier page for local news.


From the laziest assignment desk in the tri-state area, that's all she wrote.