Editors downplay Russian influence on election of Trump

The Port Authority Bus Terminal on Eighth Avenue in midtown Manhattan is the end of the ride for tens of thousands of commuters who board NJ Transit's No. 165 and other buses in northern New Jersey, below. 

Those commuters were ill-served on Friday by another in a series of Page 1 stories in The Record on the political battle over building a new bus terminal in Manhattan. Staff Writer Paul Berger should stop wasting their time and find out why the bi-state agency isn't adding more exclusive bus lanes at the Lincoln Tunnel to expand service in the decade or so before another terminal could be completed.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Gannett editors in a Neptune design center, where The Record and six other company owned dailies are put out every day, have a pretty weird idea of news.

Today, for example, a feature story on Manhattan carriage horses and a shrill column on carbon-monoxide poisoning dominate the Woodland Park daily's front page (1A).

At the bottom of the page, readers learn President Obama has asked intelligence agencies to review all cyber attacks in the last three presidential campaigns and elections, including the Nov. 8 Electoral College victory of President-elect Donald J. Trump.

U.S. intelligence officials are quoted saying they believe "Russia actively  attempted to interfere with this year's U.S. presidential election, including a hack of the Democratic National Committee's email system" (9A).

If Columnist John Cichowski is so concerned about carbon-monoxide poisoning, he could rail against the 53,000 deaths every year from auto emissions, but that might upset the auto dealers and automakers whose advertising keeps the paper afloat.

As it is, a photo with his Road Warrior column today suggests the carbon-monoxide deaths of a woman and two children last January in Passaic could have been prevented, if municipal crews did a better job of clearing the snow around their car.

Syrian refugees

On Friday's front page, the Newark Archdicocese welcoming 51 Syrian refugees against the wishes of Trump and Governor Christie was the only story of real interest in North Jersey. 

Inside the paper, another "food crawl" article in Better Living focused on Turkish restaurants, kebab houses and bakeries -- all relative newcomers to Paterson's South Paterson neighborhood (Better Living). 

Syrian families, including the Fattals and the Nouris, opened bakeries in the late 1960s that still flourish today, along with Syrian restaurants and markets.

Editors claim main Bridgegate defendant is angel, not devil

A splash of fall color on Passaic Street and Poplar Avenue in Maywood, where this tree was sculpted by passing buses and trucks.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A Record columnist has done more than anyone outside of her defense team to portray Bridget Anne Kelly as a victim instead of as the central Christie administration figure in the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closures.

Veteran reporter Mike Kelly was granted unprecedented access to the defendant's lawyers, close friends and former associates -- as readers saw last Thursday in his flattering Page 1 profile of Governor Christie's former deputy chief of staff.

As a result, much of his coverage of Kelly's role in the Bridgegate scandal sounds like it was written by a publicist, not a veteran reporter:

We've learned Bridget Kelly, 44, grew up in Ramsey and attended Catholic schools and a Catholic university; and that she is a divorced mother of four with joint custody.

On Tuesday's front page, the editors even ran a photo showing Bridget Kelly wearing a blouse that looked like it was part of a maternity outfit.

That photo ran under a banner headline:

"Kelly feared she was being set up"

Under the banner, a sub-headline over Charles Stile's column said:

"At trial, Christie portrayed as

 something worse than a bully" 

Shed tear in court

"She's a Catholic kind of orderly person," one of her friends told Mike Kelly for his Thursday profile. "That's why I've always found it absolutely incredible that she would have cooked up this scheme to cause traffic problems in Fort Lee."

The reporter even noted in his lead paragraph for the profile that as she listened to prosecution witnesses testify in the Newark courtroom, she shed a "solitary tear."

In his column today, the reporter says "the other day," Kelly's lawyer, Michael Critchley, "asked her if she knew what a 'scapegoat' was," and before she could answer prosecutors objected "and the judge agreed" (A-1).

That echoed what the columnist had been told by her friends for his extraordinarily long Thursday piece, which appeared a day before she took the stand in her own defense for the first time:

"Kelly's friends say she is the target for unfair punishment," and that star prosecution witness and former Port Authority official David Wildstein "had set her up as a scapegoat" (Thursday's A-6).

Cross-examination

Today, the editors run a front page news story on cross-examination of Bridget Kelly, and yet another Mike Kelly column boosting her defense and again portraying her as a victim (A-1).

The prosecutor challenged the defendant's portrayal of herself as "a bit player in the administration," and tried to show the jury she ordered two of three access lanes closed for five mornings to punish Mark Sokolich, the Democratic mayor, for not endorsing Christie's reelection (A-1).

Of course, what the columnist or The Record's editors believe won't mean anything when federal prosecutors sum up and the case goes to the jury.

Bridget Kelly still has not been able to explain away her email to Wildstein, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," which she sent about a month before he put the lane closures into motion as part of a so-called traffic study.  

She told the jury the email wasn't "an order."

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?

Trump's trickle-down economics revisit old GOP disaster

The cover of today's New York Post claims it's a "tax revolution," but GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump's plan recalls the trickle-down economics President Ronald Reagan tried more than 30 years ago with disastrous results. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Desperate to save his sinking GOP presidential campaign, wacko racist Donald J. Trump is promising to cut taxes for "workers and businesses."

The Record's headline writers were sold:

"Trump touts tax

reform in Detroit"

That awkwardly worded headline ran over a brief on Page 1, but Trump was speaking in Detroit, not promising to reform taxes in the Motor City.

The full Associated Press story on A-5 quotes Democrat Hillary Clinton predicting Trump would trigger another recession.

"His tax plans would give super big tax breaks to large corporations and the really wealthy," Clinton said, labeling the proposals more "trickle-down economics."

In nod to evil Christie-Trump axis, editor is ignoring issues

A cartoon by Adam Zyglis of The Buffalo News sums up the controversy nicely.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The baby boomers and retirees who are The Record's core readership certainly want to know whether wacko Donald J. Trump would cut their Social Security and Medicare benefits.

But Editor Deirdre Sykes could care less, as she continues to focus on what a Page 1 story refers to as "the partisan whipsawing" following Trump's war of words with the parents of a Muslim-American soldier killed in Iraq (A-1).

And Sykes continues to allow Governor Christie, transition chief for the racist GOP presidential nominee, to call everyone else a crook and to demand release of their emails (A-1).

What about Christie's emails and text messages, especially the ones that were erased in the Bridgegate scandal? Or his cellphone, which went missing for two years after the September 2013 lane closures?

Doesn't The Record have any interest in them?

Meanwhile, Christie's former top aide and image maker told CNN on Tuesday she will vote for Hillary Clinton on Nov. 8.

Maria Comella called Trump "a demagogue ... preying on people's anxieties with loose information and salacious rhetoric," according to WNYC-FM News.

The largely favorable coverage of Christie shows Sykes continues to bow to The Record's editorial board.

The Woodland Park daily declined to join The Star-Ledger and six other major New Jersey dailies in calling for Christie to resign after he dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Trump.

For Trump's stance on Social Security, see:

GOP nominee ducks AARP questions

Local news

In Local, Sykes buried another story on L-3 that could have been played on the front page to give readers a break from all the partisan political coverage, and news from the Vatican.

The headline over Staff Writer Jim Norman's upbeat account of National Night Out events in Hackensack, Paterson and other communities said it well:

A time for cops, residents
to find common ground

Con man Trump is called the 'risky, reckless, radical choice'

"I'm a New Yorker, and I know a con when I see one," former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, now an independent, said of Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump. (Photo credit: The Associated Press)

Editor's note: I have revised and expanded Michael R. Bloomberg's comments on wacko racist Donald J. Trump, and added other comments about food coverage and duplication of coverage from the Democratic National Convention.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Deirdre Sykes of The Record continues to cheat readers by omitting key moments in her coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

On Tuesday, she failed to publish a word of first lady Michelle Obama's stirring call to the voting booth on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

And today's paper contains too few sentences from billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg's scathing attack on his fellow New Yorker, Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump (A-6).

In the most forceful take-down of the wacko racist so far, Bloomberg labeled Trump the "risky, reckless and radical choice" in the November election.

An independent

Bloomberg, who served as New York mayor from 2001-13, told the delegates on Wednesday night he has been a Democrat and a Republican, and is now an independent, "because I don't believe either party has a monopoly on good ideas or strong leadership."

"Today, as an independent, an entrepreneur and a former mayor, I believe we need a president who is a problem solver, not a bomb thrower," Bloomberg said.

"Someone who can bring members of Congress together, to get things done. And I know that Hillary Clinton can do that....

"There are times when I disagree with Hillary [Clinton]. But whatever our disagreements may be, I'm here to say: 

"We must put them aside for the good of the country. And we must unite around the candidate who can defeat a dangerous demagogue," Bloomberg said in a pointed reference to Trump.

Fuzzy reporting

On the Better Living cover today, the Now Open feature reports Hudson Mediterranean Grill in Edgewater serves "Turkish branzino" (BL-1).

Later, Staff Writer Sophia F. Gottfried quotes the Turkish owner as saying he is "passionate about high-quality ingredients ... and he's sourcing all produce and fish from local farms and fishermen."

Branzino or Mediterranean sea bass is a farmed fish that took Manhattan restaurants by storm a decade ago before invading New Jersey years later.

Most branzino is farmed in Italy and Greece. What's "local" about that?

Too much of bad thing

Only a die-hard politician searching for his name in print could possibly wade through the mind-numbing coverage of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

A reader questioned why The Record on Wednesday ran both a political column and a news story on the same delegates breakfast sponsored by Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, who is expected to seek the Democratic nomination for governor in 2017 (A-1 and A-9).

What a waste of valuable space.

Justice delayed is justice denied in slow New Jersey courts

The unmarked entrance to the polling place in Hackensack's Fairmount School, where poll workers far outnumbered voters early this afternoon. In the primary election, Democrats and Republicans chose candidates for president, House of Representative, convention delegates and county offices.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If the federal criminal trial in the George Washington Bridge case actually starts on Sept. 12 in Newark, that will be a few days past the three-year anniversary of the politically motivated lane closures in Fort Lee.

And that's a big "if," because U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman told The Record he didn't think an appeals court ruling on a conspirators list "is going to decide it," suggesting the U.S. Supreme Court may get involved (A-1 and A-6).

Meanwhile, two men who were racing Ferraris in the Meadowlands on May 13, 2012, just pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging them in the death of a Kinnelon man whose motorcycle was hit head-on (L-1).

And to fully realize how slow our court system is just take a look at the timeline in the battle to provide affordable housing since landmark New Jersey Supreme Court rulings in 1975 and 1983 (A-1 and A-6).

Our glacial court system, with layers of possible appeals, enriches lawyers, and often denies justice to plaintiffs and victims.

Today's front page

Editor Deirdre Sykes' front page does little to advance the cause of justice, serving up two long stories on the Mount Laurel rulings and the endless appeals since the Bridgegate indictments (A-1).

Most of the page is taken up by a lame feature on flag football.

Hackensack news?

The first Business page today carries the second story on Hackensack's Main Street in a few days, this one about the closing of a mom-and-pop jewelry store (L-7).

On Page 1, a brief on the closing of Gold Ray Jewelers carries this headline:

"Main Street losing more of its sparkle"

That's rich, coming from a publisher who has never acknowledged how the 2009 closing of North Jersey Media Group and Record headquarters on River Street devastated the city where the Borg family prospered for more than 110 years.

Whose health?

In Better Living today, the YOUR HEALTH feature contains little of interest to the vast majority of readers, who are older or retired (BL-3).

The major piece is about millennials and their suicidal eating habits. 

Two briefs involve the health of children with and without autism.

The Better Living front promotes three recipes with goat cheese -- the kind of full-fat, artery clogging dairy most readers try to avoid like the plague (BL-1).

Wacko Trump labeled a racist by everyone but news media

Hackensack officials have agreed to store artifacts and other items from the New Jersey Naval Museum until the USS Ling is relocated. Now, the museum's artifacts are displayed on North Jersey Media Group property at the old River Street headquarters of The Record, where the World War II sub is tied up.

The gangway to the submarine, and other artifacts. The museum is closed and tours of the sub are suspended. The Ling is stuck in the mud of the Hackensack River.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump's tirades against Mexicans and Muslims made it clear the billionaire was just another white racist.

Yet, the news media likes to say Trump represents millions of "angry white men."

Of course, we know his supporters are racists who blame their problems on hard-working immigrants instead of the greedy corporations who have sent millions of their jobs overseas. 

Why have the news media -- including The Record of Woodland Park -- generally avoided calling him a racist even as Hispanic cooks in Manhattan's best restaurants are spitting in his food? 

'Novice' or racist?

On Wednesday's front page, the first paragraph of an Associated Press story identified Trump as a "political novice," and that was echoed Thursday night on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley. 

A Record editorial on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee ran down in great detail his insults to Mexicans, and his pledges to deport 11 million illegal immigrants and ban all Muslims from entering the country ("GOP at the abyss" on Thursday's A-12).

Editor or hack?

But Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin never calls Trump what everyone else knows he is -- a racist and white supremacist.

Even in his opinion column on A-13 today, Doblin refuses to label Trump a racist for his Cinco de Mayo posts on Twitter and Facebook.

A news story today reports the Latino Victory Fund released a statement that said:

"Donald Trump is doubling down on his racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Latino and anti-Mexican rhetoric."

But hacks at The Associated Press made sure to undercut the validity of that statement by describing the Latino fund as "a left-leaning political group" (A-4).

Donald Trump with big sister Maryanne Trump Barry, a senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. She was nominated as a federal district judge in Newark by President Reagen in 1983, and appointed to the appeals court in 1999 by President Clinton.

Media made Trump

Much of Trump's support is rooted in the slavish media reporting every one of his hateful words in a presidential campaign we grew tired of months ago.

The editors of The Record only seem interested in stirring up controversy, not exploring issues and reporting on what would be good for New Jersey and the nation.

In covering Governor Christie since he took office in early 2010, editors and columnists have focused relentlessly on politics -- instead of issues and policies.

So, it's no surprise The Record remains the only major New Jersey daily that hasn't called on Christie to resign after he dropped out of the race and threw his support to Trump.

Today's paper

On the last workday of one of the dreariest weeks in memory, Editor Deirdre Sykes finally produces a Page 1 weather story (A-1).

And why is "vaping" dominating the front page instead of an environmental story on New York City imposing a 5-cent charge for using a disposable plastic grocery bag -- a fee that New Jersey certainly could use (A-3)?

Senior citizens

On the Local front today, Staff Writer Colleen Diskin has a rare report on senior citizens who aren't institutionalized (L-1).

Sykes and other newsroom staffers have been treating seniors like shit for decades -- stories on autism have been far more numerous than those on Alzheimer's disease.

Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to ignore the challenges facing older drivers like himself -- even as "pedal confusion" leads them to plow into pedestrians and storefronts, often with fatal consequences.

And the food editors promote mystery meat and artery clogging desserts as if they expect their older readers to live forever.

Hackensack news?

Staff Writer John Seasly covered Tuesday night's meeting of the Hackensack City Council, but wrote only one story -- yet another report on who is leading the Police Department.

Seasly didn't mention the council approved a resolution to store artifacts from the New Jersey Naval Museum until the USS Ling is relocated from North Jersey Media Group property at the old headquarters of The Record in Hackensack.

The Record hasn't reported whether the newspaper's owners, the Borg family, will pay for the relocation of the World War II submarine, which is stuck in the mud of the Hackensack River.

The Borgs, NJMG and The Record abandoned Hackensack in 2009 after prospering there for more than 110 years -- dealing a death blow to many Main Street merchants.

Now, with the blessing of the City Council, the Borgs plan to sell their 19.7 acres aong River Street to an apartment developer, and laugh all the way to the bank.

Lead in fountains

Saddle Brook is the latest district to turn off school drinking fountains where "unacceptably high levels of lead" were found (L-6).

Hackensack residents haven't seen a similar story reporting on lead levels in drinking fountains used by their children in what is the biggest school district in Bergen County. 

Mystery BBQ

Staff Writer Elisa Ung raves about a glazed doughnut stuffed with barbecued beef, bacon and cheese, but doesn't tell readers whether the meat is the cheap, low-quality stuff of unknown origin usually found in Korean restaurants.

Her 3-star Informal Dining review of Kimchi Smoke BBQ Shack in Bergenfield is long on mindless promotion and short on the information readers need to stay healthy (BL-16). 

Hater of women, Mexicans, Muslims will never get elected

Just before noon on Wednesday, driving in Englewood seemed pleasant, especially with trees blooming on Engle Street, above. But leaving in the afternoon only showed rush-hour traffic is as bad as ever as city officials refuse to eliminate a few parking meters and install turn lanes at Dean Street and Palisade Avenue, below, and other downtown intersections.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Donald Trump has tapped into a deep reservoir of racism and hatred of women, Mexicans and Muslims, but two things seem assured.

The billionaire and member of the 1 percent will never get elected president as long as Democrats and other liberals protest by going to the polls in November.

And as the Republican nominee, Trump will preside over the destruction of the Grand Old Party, which has been propped up too long by racism, conservative values and crackpot Tea Party members.

Trump's desire to punish women for having abortions in on Page 1 of The Record today, but he plays second fiddle to the so-called controversy over state exams (A-1).

Aircraft noise

Look at all the space Editor Deirdre Sykes has been giving to Ho-Ho-Kus, Mahwah, Paramus, Ramsey, Ridgewood and Rochelle Park over a flight-path change going into effect on Monday (A-1).

Sykes has ignored complaints of Teterboro Airport noise from Hackensack, South Hackensack, Englewood, Teaneck and other towns for more than a decade.

Of course, Ho-Ho-Kus, Ramsey and Ridgewood are richer and whiter than long-suffering Hackensack, Englewood and Teaneck.

Shmuley's house

Shmuley Boteach, the publicity hungry rabbi who gives Jews a bad name, is trying to unload his huge pile of stone on the East Hill of Englewood (L-1).

In 2009, Sykes gave unprecedented coverage to Boteach, who knowingly purchased a mansion next door to a Libyan-owned estate in Englewood -- then complained about the planned visit of Moammar Gaddafi.

County lawman quits as pedestrian-death probe drags on

Hue D. Dang, 64, was walking in or near this Jackson Avenue crosswalk in Hackensack last March 9, when she was struck and fatally injured by an unmarked car driven by John C. Straniero, a detective sergeant in the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office. Hackensack police investigated, but brought no charges against him in her death. 

Dang was struck only blocks from her apartment on Hudson Street in Hackensack. This photo shows markings left by investigators, and the woman's blood staining the pavement, right. At the urging of Eye on The Record, the Union County Prosecutor's Office took up the investigation, which still is open.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office detective sergeant whose car struck and fatally injured a Hackensack woman has retired.

John C. Straniero, then 49, apparently was driving to his home in Wayne last March 9, when he started to turn right on Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street in Hackensack, near Route 80, and struck Hue D. Dang, 64.

The Vietnamese-American woman, who was carrying plastic grocery bags, was pronounced dead at a hospital less than an hour after the 4:45 p.m. accident.

After Hackensack police cleared Straniero of any wrongdoing, Eye on The Record contacted the state police and Attorney General's Office, which asked the Union County Prosecutor's Office to investigate further.

That probe is ongoing, a spokesman for the office said this morning, but he would not discuss why it is taking so long.

See: Union prosecutor to review Hackensack death

Single story

The Record published a single story about the accident on March 11, but Staff Writer Stafanie Dazio didn't mention the crosswalk or whether the woman was in it when she was hit.

When asked this morning, Maureen Parenta of the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office said Straniero had retired.

Parenta, the prosecutor's communication director, wasn't available later in the day to provide any details.

The victim's family has filed a notice that it intends to sue the detective in her death.

The report filed by Hackensack police shows the approximate location of the unmarked car and the woman after she was struck on Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street. But the diagram is at variance with markings on the pavement made after the accident.

Local news?

Readers looking for local or even regional news on Page 1 of The Record strike out again.

Unless they're as consumed as reporters are with how Governor Christie will do at the Iowa Caucuses on Feb. 1, local readers threw away their money today.

The headline over Charles Stile's boring political column contains the phrase "turn silent," leading many readers to wonder when the burned-out reporter will do just that (A-1).

For the second day in a row, Local reads more like a police blotter, with a couple of court stories thrown in, than a section devoted to news of Bergen County towns. 

The lead story is about more gun violence in Paterson, and Bergen readers are cheated even more by six other Passaic County stories, both long and short (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

Editors help Uber keep secret how much drivers make

The Record and other news media haven't challenged Uber to make public exactly how much drivers make after expenses -- gasoline, insurance, oil changes, and wear and tear on their cars. This wildly exaggerated "Drive Uber" sign was on the back of a bus I saw on Madison Avenue in Manhattan on Sunday.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Page 1 of The Record today carries another upbeat story on Uber, but not a word on exactly how much drivers make after such expenses as insurance, gasoline, and wear and tear on their own cars.

Staff Writer Richard Newman reports "car-hailing service Uber Technologies Inc. plans to recruit 3,000 drivers from low-income counties in New Jersey, including Passaic County" by the end of next year (A-1).

But later -- after telling readers Uber promises "self-employment with no investment required" -- the reporter finally comes clean and says applicants need a smart phone, checking account and "a car that is no more than 10 years old and seats at least four" (A-10).

A smart phone and a car are investments, aren't they?

Newman doesn't mention other expenses, such as insurance, gasoline and maintenance.

All in all, working for Uber sounds like a bad deal.

Syrian refugee

Another heart-warming story appears on the front page today, this one about a Syrian refugee who has been taken in by Ponds Reformed Church in Oakland (A-1).

The report on Sandy Khabbazeh, who is Christian, makes no reference to Governor Christie vowing to bar all Syrian refugees from New Jersey and the rest of the United States.

Local news?

Today's Local section again is filled with more police and court news than municipal news (L-1 to L-6).

Municipal stories from Oakland and Wayne appear on L-2 and L-3, but Hackensack apparently remains on the news blacklist.

The Woodland Park daily hasn't reported on the last two City Council meetings, and continues its boycott of school news.

Heart healthy?

Readers hoping to eat more heart-healthy food might be interested in a recipe in the Better Living section.

Unfortunately, clueless freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson of Upper Saddle River includes more artery clogging cheese than healthy smoked salmon (BL-2).

On Page 1: Christie on trail, Mets, local trial -- readers yawn

The sign, visible to drivers on Route 4 east, went up in late July, but this walk-in urgent care center didn't open until Oct. 5. Patients presumably will get coupons for use at the Popeyes fast-food restaurant next door.

A vintage Volkswagen Microbus parked in the lot this morning carries the CityMD logo, but it's not known if patients will be transported in it.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Even the preview of a sensational Teaneck murder trial below the fold today can't save The Record's front page from being one of the dullest in memory. 

What's new about our absentee governor doing a good imitation of a chameleon on the presidential campaign trail or a sports columnist desperately trying to interest readers in the Mets (A-1)?

The real news about Governor Christie is buried -- a new poll turns even more thumbs down on the GOP bully (A-6).

The debate among Democratic presidential contenders won't be a contest (A-1).

But it will affirm to many voters that all is not lost, despite conservative control of Congress, the National Rifle Association and a Republican Party that seems intent on destroying the middle class.

Local news?

The Local front isn't any gift to readers, either.

A county road-salt plan is all the Hackensack news today, but if that doesn't interest you, there is plenty of parking news from Paterson and Passaic city (L-1 and L-2).

Local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza were so desperate they had to run a large, gee-whiz photo of downed utility poles and wires on Routes 1 and 9 on the fringe of the circulation area (L-1).

There are four other items from Paterson on L-2 and L-3 besides the story on the Local front about a parking garage proposal for the Great Falls.

Eye on The Record 

will return later this week