For the hundredth time, could that possibly be right?

An NJ Transit train pulling into the new Anderson Street station in Hackensack on Tuesday morning. The door-less structure, below, opened at the end of March, but still has no sign. And The Record of Woodland Park has ignored it.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Port Authority reporter Shawn Boburg doesn't seem to know much about the sources of the behemoth agency's revenue, judging from his front-page story in The Record today.

The lead paragraph notes "the public will bear an ongoing and significant financial burden for the multiple probes into the George Washington lane closure scandal" (A-1).

That gets all readers interested in the story on mounting legal bills, but not everyone supports the Port Authority, which relies on tolls, fares, rentals, aviation fees and other revenue.

The agency doesn't receive "public" tax money outside of the $1.8 billion left over after Governor Christie cancelled the Hudson River rail tunnels and hijacked those funds for road and bridge repairs.

The error is repeated in the sub-headline, which is reporting old news: "Public to pay tab in GWB inquiry."

Boburg also incorrectly reports the bistate agency is "supported largely by tolls on the Hudson River crossings," but that accounts for only half of the six agency operated bridges and tunnels, and ignores income from PATH fares, rentals, fees from four airports and other revenue.

In other news

Today's paper is unusual for three major obituaries on Page 1 (poet Maya Angelou) and the Local front (historian Katharine Auchincloss, formerly of Ridgewood; and Sister Mary Victor Waters, Tenafly's oldest resident).

Christie continues to make excuses about why he has failed to deliver federal Sandy aid -- five months before the superstorm's second anniversary (A-3).

Law & Order

Don't look for much local news today from the assignment desk of Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, but fans of court and police news will find plenty to read (L-1, L-2, L-3 ad L-6).

A story on L-3 reports Paramus has added six police officers.

There's no word whether Westfield Garden State Plaza -- a major source of North Jersey Media Group's advertising revenue -- will be hiring any of them to beef up security at the mall, where two incidents in a six-month period panicked and endangered shoppers.

Rich get richer

On the first Business page today, Staff Writer Kathleen Lynn reports how "garden-apartment magnate Richard Kurtz" cut energy costs in half at two of his many apartment complexes, and plans to do the same at his other properties, a total of 14,000 apartments in the Northeast (L-8).

Kurtz also is hoping to get $49 million for a 30,000-square-foot, 12-bedroom mansion he had built in Alpine.

Lynn doesn't ask Kurtz whether he plans to pass along the energy savings to his thousands of tenants.

Editors take pains to hide journalists who sell out

Rocklin's on Cedar Lane in Teaneck. The convenience store first opened about 80 years ago, the current owner says. Take that 7-Eleven.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

What happened when members of the press pressed Christie press secretary Michael Drewniak for answers to pressing questions about the George Washington Bridge lane closures in Fort Lee?

The F-words flew, and they were aimed squarely at a newspaper reporter and editor.

Is that anyway for a former reporter for The Star-Ledger to act after spending many years shoving "the right to know" in the faces of reluctant or stonewalling news sources?

Of course not, but "former reporter" tells you little about Drewniak, Governor Christie's chief spin doctor, who appears to be as mean-spirited as his boss, known far and wide as the GOP bully.

Light on details

Today's Page 1 story in The Record is missing any information on how many years Drewniak spent as a reporter at the state's biggest newspaper, what he covered and how he covered it.

So, readers don't know whether he won his job as chief spokesman for Christie the crusading U.S. attorney because he could be trusted to tell former colleagues to go to hell when they got too close to the truth about his boss, as he appears to be doing in the four-month-old GWB scandal.

Or, whether the spokesman job was a "reward" to Drewniak for being the kind of journalist who could be molded by Christie to remain loyal and highly partisan above all else. 

But we can assume Drewniak gave up newspaper journalism for a far higher salary -- that he basically sold out.

Don't expect any details in The Record, which doesn't like to discuss salaries -- whether for its own reporters, Christie's press secretary or special Bridgegate prosecutor Reid Schar (A-1).

Inside journalism

Another former newspaper reporter, Carl Golden, is quoted today as saying it would be wrong to assume that Drewniak's appearance in Bridgegate e-mails "automatically indicates he did something wrong" (A-4).

The Record doesn't tell readers Golden is one of its former Trenton reporters or that in the past it ran his Sunday Opinion pieces on Christie without identifying him as onetime press secretary to two former Republican governors, Thomas H. Kean and Christie Whitman.

Really, how much value does anything written about Christie by a longtime GOP flack have, and why does The Record present Golden's pieces as insightful as opposed to just more conservative B.S.?

In fact, The Record's coverage of Christie -- in news stories, columns and editorials -- has been so kind readers can just imagine that reporters, columnists and editorial writers are competing for a much higher-paying job in a hoped-for Christie White House.

Expletives deleted

Christie's Port Authority cronies, Bill Baroni and David Wildstein, sent Drewniak questions from reporters about the controversy, which now appears to be political retribution against Fort Lee's Democratic mayor.

In one e-mail, Drewniak was asked to respond to a Star-Ledger reporter, but he "used an expletive" and called the reporter a "mutt," The Record reports on A-4 today.

He used the same expletive in response to a request for comment from a Star-Ledger editorial writer:

"[Expletive] him and the S-L [Star-Ledger]," Drewniak wrote.

Can we assume Drewniak called them "fucking mutts," and wrote "Fuck him and the S-L"?

Punitive damages

The Record also quoted Brigid Harrison, a political science professor, as saying she "also was troubled by the disrespect shown to reporters, and its reflection on Christie" (A-4).

"That tone clearly damages his [Drewniak's] reputation. They're his constituents, the people he is charged with having a relationship with on the part of the governor. It's evident that he holds many of them in disdain."

We can only guess at whether Drewniak's own questionable performance as a reporter and his leaving the profession as a sell-out is haunting him now and shaping his opinion of all of those ink-stained wretches who pester him day in, day out.

For some reason, Harrison is not identified as one of The Record's Sunday Opinion columnists.

Why only now?

Why haven't we read more about Drewniak before today, especially in view of his long service to Christie in the U.S. Attorney's and Governor's offices?

On the front-page today, he is described as "rarely mincing words, often insulting or simply dismissing anyone who fails to adopt the administration's message."

I guess The Record's Melissa Hayes, Charles Stile, Alfred P. Doblin and others have nothing to worry about in view of their adoring coverage of Christie until the Bridgegate scandal broke last week.

Hackensack news

Today's A-1 report doesn't say whether the $2 million settlement with two former Hackensack cops and two others will be covered by insurance or come out of the city treasury.

About a third of the $2  million is expected to go to the plaintiffs' lawyers.

Thomas Aiellos and Vincent Riotto are among two dozen cops who sued the city.

They detailed "shocking allegations of corruption and civil rights violations" under former state assemblyman and Police Chief Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa, who is appealing a 5-year prison term for criminal misconduct and insurance fraud (A-1). 

Riotto will be reinstated as a lieutenant under terms of the settlement.

Thumb sucker

In Local today, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza buried a story on a lawsuit alleging a gunman entered Westfield Garden State Plaza on Nov. 4 past "careless" security and opened fire before killing himself (L-6).

Swaddled in his own security blanket, the snoozing Sforza has refused to investigate whether the state's biggest mall has any effective security beyond cameras and unarmed guards directing traffic -- lest he alienate the retailers who are among the paper's biggest advertisers.

The suit by Alexandra DiMarco, 21, of Tappan, N.Y., alleges she "fell to the ground, broke her elbow and suffered cuts and bruises" during a stampede of shoppers (L-6).

Page 1 news: In winter, It's really cold in the Dakotas

In Hackensack this afternoon, there were few signs of what The Record predicted four days ago would be a "double-headed monster of a storm." 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

Editor

If the winter weather in North Jersey doesn't live up to The Record's dire predictions, Editor Marty Gottlieb always has a backup plan -- as Page 1 clearly shows.

How else to explain today's wire-service weather report from the Dakotas, Michigan and Missouri, and photos from St. Louis and Bismarck, S.D. (A-1 and A-6)?

Where are the North Jersey weather photos? Shouldn't the one on L-1 today be on the front page?

And why is the North Jersey weather story and a second local photo buried on L-6?

After all, Marty Gottlieb, you gave up Paris for Woodland Park and became editor of a local North Jersey daily. You're not at The New York Times anymore.

Borg monster?

On Thursday morning, hours before a 7-inch snowstorm hit North Jersey, a story in The Record predicted "near-blizzard conditions" and a "double-headed monster of a storm."

Nothing of the kind materialized, prompting readers to wonder if "double-headed monster" was, in fact, a subliminal reference to the spoiled Silver Spoon sibs running The Record of Woodland Park, Stephen A. and Jennifer A. Borg.

Head up asshole

On the Local front today, Paramus Mayor Richard LaBarbiera praised the borough Police Department for responding "professionally" to a gunman who invaded Westfield Garden State Plaza on Nov. 4 (L-1 and L-3).

What's professional about not responding in time to prevent panic among shoppers and employees, failing to disarm Richard Shoop of Teaneck and failing to prevent his suicide?

And what about the irresponsible lack of security provided by the wealthy Australian owners of the state's biggest mall?

Second look

On Sunday, an L-1 story on Fu King Smoke Shop is likely the first about Hackensack's Fairmount section in decades.

Staff Writer Hannan Adely describes Fairmount as "quiet," but residents there and in most other parts of Hackensack are annoyed around the clock by incredibly loud jet aircraft using Teterboro and Newark airports.

The smoke shop is on a part of Main Street that gets even less attention from The Record than the city's main shopping district between the courthouse and Sears.

North Jersey malls are putting violence on sale

The Christmas tree at Penn Station in Manhattan. Is there anything under the tree for commuters from NJ Transit and Governor Christie?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Every shopper can relate to the horror of a successful 30-year-old attorney from Hoboken who was fatally wounded by a gunshot in the head in front of his wife at an upscale mall in Short Hills.

But why is The Record allowing the shopping center's millionaire owners to get away with refusing to discuss security measures (A-1)?

Gunshots are free

That's no problem for the paper's compliant editors and reporters who are not about to alienate the big mall advertisers who keep the Woodland Park daily afloat.

Editor Marty Gottlieb appears to have deliberately tried to distract readers from the security question by focusing the story on a "surge of carjackings" in Essex County.

Security at North Jersey shopping centers doesn't even come up until deep into the Page 1 story today, on the continuation page, where readers are told mall operators "were reluctant to discuss their security arrangements" (A-6). 

Lazy newsroom

But reporters don't have to take no for an answer, if they just get off their asses, go to the malls and report what they see in terms of guards, off-duty police officers and other measures that go beyond apparently useless security cameras.

Instead, The Record today gives lavish coverage on the first Business page to a new 2,000-square-foot lounge for men at Westfield Garden State Plaza (L-8).

The lack of security at the Paramus shopping center allowed a gunman to invade the state's biggest mall on Nov. 4 and fire random shots that panicked shoppers before he committed suicide.

In the wake of that incident, mall officials claimed they had beefed up security, but wouldn't discuss any new measures.

A photo with that story in November showed two patrolling Paramus cops -- armed with nothing more than their service revolvers -- one of them with his hands in his pockets.

Just a band-aid

On the Local front today, a story about Hackensack failing to bill Hackensack University Medical Center for crossing guards misses the big picture (L-1).

The $176,000 the hospital paid the city under a 2008 agreement is chump change compared to the millions in property taxes it doesn't have to pay because of its tax-exempt status.

Naturally, with a hospital employee, Mayor John Labrosse, in charge, nothing will be done to persuade the hospital to compensate the city in lieu of taxes, such as paving streets and buying police cars.

Lost in translation

Can you imagine a more awkward headline phrase than "Japan business" on L-7 today? 

What was wrong with "Japanese firm"? 

Where are the morons who put garbage in the recycling?

A story on Page 1 of The Record today suggests many people don't have separate containers for recyclables, above and below, or are so stupid they mix garbage with plastic bottles, cans and other reusable items.

A separate container for recyclables in the kitchen.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The Record's stories on recycling are even rarer than accounts of the daily commute, aircraft noise and Governor Christie's many mean-spirited vetoes.

Today, a front-page story claims many people are mixing garbage and recyclables, and that has led to a crackdown by China, one of the biggest customers for paper, cardboard, plastic bottles and other waste from the United States.

The rejection of bales of recyclables contaminated by "regular trash" may cost North Jersey towns, some of which reportedly make $300,000 to $500,000 on recycling (A-1).

But the story is filled with holes:

Which towns are using so-called single-stream recycling that allows residents to combine paper, cardboard, aluminum and plastic in one container?

According to the story, that leads to contamination with garbage, but the editors never explain why.

White trash

Single-stream recycling is not happening in Hackensack, the most populous town in Bergen County, which, according to the story, ranks first on recycled material among the state's 21 counties.

And where are the interviews with people who are mixing garbage and recyclables? Imagine the possibilities:

"Interviewed at a Jamaican bakery in Englewood, where she was purchasing a black rum cake for the holidays, Editor Deirdre Sykes said, 'What is recycling'?

"Six-figure Editor Liz Houlton was shopping for a new wardrobe at Nordstrom in Paramus, but she said she didn't have time to speak to a reporter about recycling and garbage or catch the many errors in the paper every day."

Are the people who throw garbage into the recycling apartment dwellers? Or are they the same people who drive gas-guzzling SUVs and luxury sedans at insane rates of speed, squandering even more fuel?

No security blankets

On A-3 today, a carjacking and fatal shooting of a male shopper at the "upscale" Mall at Short Hills late Sunday comes more than a month after a troubled 20-year-old Teaneck man invaded Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, fired random shots and then killed himself.

The incidents suggest the Millburn and Paramus malls do not have enough security. 

Maybe mall owners and Macy's, Bloomingdale's and other big retailers can divert some of the millions they spend on advertising to a fund for improving security, such as hiring off-duty police officers to protect shoppers.

Why hasn't The Record reported on whether revenue has fallen at Garden State Plaza stores or shoppers have stayed away in the wake of the Nov. 4 suicide?

The Record's A-3 story doesn't report the death of the shopper. That was reported on WBGO-FM radio news this morning.

Hard of hearing

Here are the specifics of how Road Warrior John Cichowski, in his column last Wednesday, screwed up testimony at a hearing on closing of Fort Lee access lanes at the George Washington Bridge, according to concerned reader:

"Based on testimony from the hearing, Road Warrior indicated in his Wednesday column that an 'ambulance transporting a heart-attack patient crashed.'

"The ambulance for the heart attack patient did not crash. There was another separate incident where a car crashed into a building.

"The hearing indicated that emergency responders were delayed in getting to a heart attack patient and in getting to a car that crashed into a building.

"Road Warrior's Sept. 13 column indicated that emergency responders were delayed in getting to a heart attack patient and in getting to a car that crashed into a building.

"Yet, the Road Warrior combined the 2 separate incidents into one in his Wednesday column.

"Road Warrior is unable to concentrate on what he hears or remember what he has written in the past."