In any White House bid, Christie is sure to be out at plate

Englewood Hospital and Medical Center held its annual Employee Appreciation Picnic for workers, volunteers and medical staff on Wednesday.

 

Englewood firefighters also were invited to the picnic, judging from the three fire engines parked across the street, and fire personnel on the field.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Most experts, pollsters and pundits are dismissing Governor Christie's bid for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.

But Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record and Columnist Charles Stile aren't convinced, and continue to bombard readers with endless copy on the GOP bully's political image in the early primary states (A-1).

Today, a front page photo showing Christie throwng a ball at a Yankee Stadium softball game doesn't say whether he was booed.

Or, why he wasn't at a fundraiser for the families of slain police officers and state troopers in New Jersey.

Corrections

Two corrections appear on A-2 today, but The Record didn't bother fixing Road Warrior John Cichowski's latest screw-up.

On Wednesday, the clueless columnist gave the wrong intersection for where a woman's SUV knocked down a Leonia crossing guard on May 27.

That major error is the latest of literally hundreds of mistakes the veteran reporter has made since he began writing the Road Warrior column in September 2003.

Today, his column reports on efforts to stop accidents that cause traumatic brain injuries, suggesting it is too late to prevent his (L-1).

Cichowski's numerous errors -- and only an occasional correction -- also suggests fact-checking, and editing checks and balances have completely broken down.

For that, readers can blame local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, and six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, absentee supervisor of the news and copy desks.

Editors rediscover North Jersey's remarkable diversity

This 222-unit apartment building on State Street, a few blocks from Hackensack City Hall, is scheduled to open this year, becoming the first to test officials' belief that such residential development will revive Main Street businesses.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Martin Gottlieb, Columnist Mike Kelly and others at The Record continue to try readers' patience with their repeated attempts to make something out of nothing. 

On Page 1 today, behold the second part of "AFTER THE FIRE," a series in search of a coherent theme.

Today, The Record celebrates "a remarkable diversity of people at the Avalon at Edgewater apartment complex" (A-1).

And, below that story, you'd think Kelly was writing about the Colosseum in Rome when he declares "an era had passed" with the closing of the Izod Center (A-1).

The wonder isn't that the burned-out word pusher had nothing else to write about, but that Gottlieb continues to give this kind of drivel front-page play.

From dream to nightmare

Staff Writer Nicholas Pugliese studied at the American University in Dubai and played pro soccer in Afghanistan.

So, I guess it's appropriate he was chosen to tell the story of the many educated immigrants displaced by the Jan. 21 fire at the Avalon apartment complex in Edgewater that exposed the danger of cheap, all-wood construction in a so-called luxury building.

But you wouldn't know that from his first half-dozen paragraphs -- yet another retelling of the American dream playing out in North Jersey, a really old story not worthy of all this flag waving (A-1).

The headline calls the Avalon tenants "a complex community," but that is certainly the wrong word. 

The text declares "its tenants hailed from nearly every corner of the globe," but names only four of them, including California.

What escapes Pugliese and whoever edited his overlong story into a parody of immigration to America is that tenants like those at the Avalon aren't invested in their community and few of them vote in local elections.

So, I'm glad none of them died, but really, the story of the Avalon inferno is how it exposed the inadequacy of state fire codes to protect apartment tenants from a fast-spreading, potentially deadly fire.

More road kill

Citing numerous mathematical errors in the March 15 Road Warrior column, the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers has a suggestion for the editors of The Record.

Buy Staff Writer John Cichowski a calculator.

And in his March 10 column, Cichowski more than tripled the number of potholes state officials said they were going to repair, according to the Bloopers editor:

"Road Warrior is once again frequently delusional, incompetent or memory impaired while continuing his misinformed and clueless trek for worst potholes.

"Road Warrior indicated that the New Jersey Department of Transportation will have filled 1 million potholes after completing their repair work from this winter based on what he heard at a DOT press conference.

"Yet, every other news report from that press conference indicated that the DOT commissioner had stated that the DOT will have filled 300,000 potholes after completing their repair work.

"While reporting about the number of potholes on Route 4, he indicated that this highway was also 'newly paved.'

"Route 4 has not been newly paved and readers are constantly complaining to the Road Warrior, who publishes their complaints, asking him when the pothole plagued Route 4 will be repaved."

Editors promote Kelly book, gas guzzlers, unhealthy food

An office building on Union Street in Hackensack, opposite John A. Earl Inc., has been torn down, and some residents believe apartments will be built there.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You'll have to read and read and read today's Page 1 column to find out what The Record's Mike Kelly means by "a new reality" in Israel, where four Jews were killed while praying in a synagogue.
In fact, the column is so poorly written and edited you'll have to turn to the continuation page and chose between two new realities he mentions:

The broken "trust" between Jews and Palestinians or "murders [that] seemed all too close and personal" (A-6).

The entire, murkily written column seems designed to promote a book Kelly wrote about a 1996 suicide bus bombing, which he mentions at the end of his overlong piece.

The book has been promoted by both (201) magazine and NorthJersey.com.

More Christie P.R.

Governor Christie's chances of getting the Republican presidential nomination get better play today (A-1) than the resignation of one of his closest advisers from a council that invests the state's $80 billion public employee pension fund (A-3).

An ethics complaint alleges Robert Grady allowed political contributions to Republican groups to influence investments.

Press hysteria

Instead of encouraging readers to take mass transit, The Record continues to scandalize the $1 lease between the Port Authority and NJ Transit, two public transportation agencies, for a commuter parking lot (A-1).

If NJ Transit had to pay $1.2 million a year for the land, the agency might have to raise fares.

Similarly, the business editors run a wire-service report noting "green cars" are the focus at the L.A, Auto Show, but no photos of Toyota's and Honda's emission-free cars are used on L-8.

Instead, an Audi with a 605-horsepower V-8 engine is featured.

Unhealthy recipes

Better Living editors continue to run the recipes of freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson, who specializes in turning healthy food like carrots and butternut squash into unhealthy dishes (BL-1).

All of her Thanksgiving recipes contain artery clogging butter or bacon (BL-3).

Second look

On Sunday, Road Warrior John Cichowski's column on a future form of mass transit was filled with errors, according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

"In his Sunday column, the Road Warrior provides a very dim-witted and mistake-filled report about the first ever, potential use by JPod Inc. of its privately funded, personal rapid-transit system with small overhead passenger pods in Secaucus.

"Road Warrior tried to convince readers that a JPod system designed to handle up to 1,000 passengers, at best, could have easily handled the crowds leaving MetLife stadium from the last Super Bowl.

"It would not have handled the large crowds since he forgot that he previously reported that there were 33,000 passengers that were trying to utilize the train system that day.

"Road Warrior claimed that construction for a JPod system would start no later than early next year since it would be easily approved by the Secaucus City Council.

"Secaucus administrators dispute his wild guess since no formal plans -- which are subject to reviews, delays and rejection by local, Meadowlands and state officials -- have been submitted.

Cichowski also described the system inaccurately as a "monorail." 

See: Road Warrior buries accuracy in Meadowlands

Editors absolve themselves in analysis of low voter turnout

A police investigation of an accident closed all but one lane of the George Washington Bridge's lower level a little after 1 on Saturday afternoon. On the West Side Highway, re-striping of the two-lane 79th Street exit funneled drivers into one lane, causing backups that slowed motorists heading downtown. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In The Record's front-page story on low turnout, you won't find the answer to what really turned off voters, even though it's right there on the same page.

The Woodland Park daily today carries not one but two political columns analyzing the race for Bergen County executive last Tuesday (A-1 and O-1).

The front-page Charles Stile column explores the personal ambitions of three Democrats, who may or may not run in an election three years from now.

Stile sounds much like he does in all of those columns he's written touting Governor Christie as the next Republican nominee for president.

How boring.

In addition to endless stories about politics instead of issues, the editors no longer are exposing the lies in the attack ads that sway so many voters (A-10). 

Is it any wonder, as The Record reports five full days after the election, "nearly seven out of 10 New Jerseyans who were registered to vote Tuesday decided not to" (A-1).

Healing Westwood

Another Page 1 story reports that despite its awkward-sounding name HackensackUMC at Pascack Valley is paying Westwood $1.7 million in property taxes annually.

The mayor says that money has allowed the town to "engage in some significant infrastructure improvements" (A-6).

Conversely, Hackensack University Medical Center's non-profit status denies the city tens of millions of dollars in property taxes, leaving streets like Prospect Avenue looking like cow paths.

The Record has never told that story.

Fierce backpedaling

Road Warrior John Cichowski's column today on the decal law for drivers under 21 carries pretty much the same headline as did his Tuesday column on the same study (L-1).

But Tuesday's column was filled with errors, including the length of the study and the direct impact of the decals on the number of crashes.

Today's piece appears to be the veteran reporter's lame attempt to correct his previous column, which was analyzed by the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

Here is an excerpt:

"Road Warrior repeatedly tried to indicate that estimated reductions of 9.5% in crashes over a two-year period after the May 2010 GDL law were solely due to red decal provisions.

"[But] the study repeatedly indicated that while red decals could be an important component, the reductions in crashes could not be solely or primarily attributed to red decal provisions.

"The study repeatedly indicated that some of these reductions also could be attributed to other provisions of the updated GDL law, as well as better education and publicity about its benefits."

See: Road Warrior crashes and burns again

Customers whine

Staff Writer Elisa Ung's Sunday column today reports on the expensive mistakes some customers make when they order wine in restaurants (BL-1).

But Ung never mentions the tremendous markup on bottles and glasses that allows a Bobby Flay restaurant in Atlantic City to charge an outrageous $3,750 for a single bottle of red wine.

She makes the customer seem like a moron, because he thought the waitress' "thirty-seven fifty" meant $37.50. 

Given the ridiculous markup on wine, Ung should urge her readers to seek out BYOs or order the cheapest bottle on the wine list.

After all, as the paper's chief restaurant reviewer, she is supposed to report on issues from the consumer's point of view, and not shamelessly represent owners, as she does here.

Speeding trucker paralyzes region and editors shrug

Clues on this directional sign can tell you the town in which the intersection is located. The signs can be found all over New Jersey.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

For at least the past decade, The Record's editors have ignored speeding, tailgating and other aggressive drivers, and a dramatic decline in enforcement, especially on highways.

On Thursday morning, hours after a speeding trucker slammed into another tractor-trailer on the George Washington Bridge -- killing himself and paralyzing the region's traffic-- the clueless editors published a column on drowsy drivers. 

Today, even with more than 20 hours to work on the story of the 2 a.m. crash, the front-page map by Staff Artist R.L. Rebach looks like it was put together by a 4-year-old (A-1).

No New Jersey town is shown, not even Fort Lee, where officials coping with the resulting jams on Thursday could be forgiven for thinking Governor Christie was up to more of his dirty tricks.

But on the other side of the Hudson, the map shows the words "NEW YORK" and "New York City" stacked on top of one another.

Did anyone proof Page 1, the most important page in the paper? Where was six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, in bed?

Fat cats

The story on Christie's latest appearance on the "Tonight Show" is way back on A-9, where it belongs.

Should Alfred P. Doblin, editor of the Editorial Page, recuse himself when an important public policy issue affects his boss, Publisher Stephen A. Borg?

Fuhggetaboutit.

Today -- as the state's fiscal morass deepens, no thanks to Christie -- an editorial dismisses a senator's proposal to tax residents who make $350,000 a year or more (A-18).

Winging it

The clueless Road Warrior continues to make it up as he goes along, coining a strange acronym for NJ Transit ("NJT") and calling NY Waterway just "Waterway" (L-6).

In his Page 1 column on Thursday, Staff Writer John Cichowski, the confused reporter who writes the so-called commuting column, also "reported that a 2005 study showed that 18- to 19-year-olds were more likely to drive drowsy than other age groups," according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers. 

"The study actually reported that 18- to 29-year-olds were more likely to drive drowsy than other age groups."

Hey, that's only 10 years off. Maybe, he should get points and a bonus for trying to get it right.

That wasn't the only problem in the overlong column, which was padded with lots of stuff having nothing to do with drowsy driving. See:


 Road Warrior can't help making readers drowsy


Cold shoulder

In Better Living today, freelancer Julia Sexton pans the bistro fare served at Patisserie Florent in downtown Englewood.

Sexton brought a "shelf -temperature" bottle of white wine to the casual eatery, apparently expecting a bucket of ice to chill it, and in her data box, made a point of complaining none was available (BL-18).

At the end, a note informs readers "Elisa Ung's reviews will return Friday," but not whether she is having her stomach stapled or her coronary arteries cleared.

Editor blesses Road Warrior, dismisses critics

In late 2007, Publisher Stephen A. Borg paid $3.65 million for this McMansion on the East Hill of Tenafly, using a mortgage from North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, Herald News and (201) magazine. Several months later, Borg implemented the biggest downsizing in NJMG history. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

When I was a news copy editor at The Record, Staff Writer John Cichowski, who began writing the Road Warrior column in late 2003, was among the reporters who couldn't be relied on to be accurate or complete.

More than a decade later, the Road Warrior column continues to peddle misinformation -- whether its about driving regulations and laws or North Jersey's troubled mass transit.

His workload -- three columns a week -- might have been to blame, and recently, he appears to have been cut back to only two, and most of those are based on inane questions and comments from readers who love seeing their names in print.

In the last two years or so, a retired engineer in Hackensack has been fact-checking Cichowski, something the editors of The Record don't do, and e-mailing critiques to Vice President Jennifer A. Borg, Editor Martin Gottlieb, Production Editor Liz Houlton and others, including the reporter himself.

Circles the wagons

Now, Gottlieb has come out swinging in defense of Cichowski and dismissed all criticism of his inaccuracies and faulty reporting over the last decade.

The e-mail is an example of the fortress mentality at The Record and many other newspapers, where editors and reporters regularly express contempt for complaining readers and refuse to appoint an ombudsman to deal with sloppy, inaccurate reporting and editing. 

Still, Gottlieb's e-mail only addresses a recent Road Warrior column about the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, which is across the street from The New York Times, where Gottlieb reported and edited for many years under much higher standards than he enforces at the Woodland Park daily.

Here is Gottlieb's e-mail to the Hackensack critic, who began the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

You have sent, by your count, more than 160 e-mails with complaints about the Road Warrior in less than two years. They have been filled with ad hominem attacks, inaccuracies, and nitpicks magnified to gargantuan proportions, all of which stand in complete contrast to the praise you heaped on the column after you asked for - and received - Mr. Cichowski's help several years ago. Quite frankly, I'm tired of this, and I have no interest in hearing from you or reading these defamations anymore.

Your first "clueless false statement" contends that the bus terminal, which opened in 1950, is not 64 years old because it opened in December and is therefore only 63 years old.... Please, by any fair standard, 1950 plus 64 is 2014, which is the year we're in now. Only someone with an irrational animus would make the point you do, much less at the head of a laundry list of supposedly serious errors.

Your second point is that there is a study going on about what to do with the bus terminal, and that this shows that Cichowski is wrong in saying "there is no relief in sight" for the run-down terminal. There is no relief in sight. The Port's recently passed $27.6-billion capital budget includes no CONSTRUCTION money for bus-station improvements. Port officials have told us there are no plans in place. A Port commissioner has argued against providing more assistance to a proposed office tower at Ground Zero when nothing is being done to meet the challenge at the bus terminal. John is right. You are wrong. You are reading an awful lot into a study months from completion that, at best, won't beget a remedy for years and years - in other words, for any time in sight.

Your points are not fair-minded. They are driven by an irrational hatred of the Road Warrior, despite your earlier solicitation of his help. I've stopped reading.

Sincerely,
Martin Gottlieb

In response to Gottlieb's e-mail, the Hackensack critic noted, referring to himself:

- The only things the critic hates is clearly false, misleading, or unsafe reports, and information that contradicts N.J. statutes. The Road Warrior columns continually contain some portions of these irresponsible items.

- Gottlieb seems to be in total denial about the extensive inaccuracies in around 80% (165) of the total Road Warrior columns over the past two years.

- The Road Warrior has regularly provided information and advice that has proven to be unhelpful, unsafe, or conflicting with New Jersey statutes, published studies that are the focus of his columns, transportation experts, New Jersey transportation and Motor Vehicle Commission websites, scientific evidence and facts from reliable sources.

See the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Ex-Times journalist OKs fuzzy reporting

Editors are going far afield to report local news

A city crew finally got around to finishing pothole repairs last week on the block of Euclid Avenue in Hackensack between Prospect and Summit avenues, above.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Milton, Vt. Washington, our nation's capital. California and Maryland. Los Angeles.

Editor Marty Gottlieb of The Record tries mightily today to engage readers on Page 1 about the heroin crisis, fixing roads and expanding mass transit, gun control and a multimillionaire basketball-team owner who is a racist.

But all of it falls flat, and besides, who has the patience for all of these long analytical and speculative stories?

Readers want to know what's going on in their town, county and state.

More mall panic

On the Local front today, a follow-up to shoppers panicking at Westfield Garden State Plaza on Saturday night again emphasizes how little Paramus police can do to prevent such emergencies (L-1).

Who can forget how the borough Police Department was caught flat-footed by Richard Shoop of Teaneck, the gunman who invaded the shopping center last Nov. 4, fired random shots that panicked shoppers and then committed suicide?

Gottlieb and his incompetent local editors continue to ignore the abysmal lack of security provided by the wealthy Australian owner of the state's biggest shopping center.

Money trumps news

The Woodland Park daily and North Jersey Media Group should just admit their conflict of interest -- mall owner Westfield, and Macy's and other mall retailers are the source of millions of dollars in advertising revenue.

The spoiled Borg siblings are not about to bite the hand that feeds them by running news stories questioning why the mall owner puts profits above the safety of shoppers?

Traffic clowns

As if to emphasize the clownish nature of police in Paramus, a column on Sunday's Local front praised a sergeant who spends most of his time finding bogus inspection stickers and other infractions at Garden State Plaza.

Sunday's Road Warrior column about Sgt. Vinnie Pepe actually got better play than the initial news story on the false report of gunshots -- an account that made no reference to private mall security.

Staff Writer John Cichowski seems to think he had found a major crime buster in Pepe, head of the borough's traffic bureau:

"Besides that summons (for the bogus inspection sticker) Pepe issued six other tickets in a four-hour period -- three for speeding and three for parking in a handicapped spot."

Boy, that is really going to make me feel safer the next time I go to the Paramus mall.

Whose idea was it to run the news story on panic at the mall and Cichowski's silly Road Warrior column next to each other on the Local front?

School segregation

The best story in Sunday's paper was a recounting of school segregation in Teaneck and other towns 50 years ago (Sunday's A-1).

The township's Board of Education voted voluntarily in May 1964 to have children of all races attend sixth grade in one school.

On the continuation page, the story recounts the flight of white and black Engewood residents in 1955 after the state education commissioner ordered the city t0 redraw school boundary lines to end discrimination against black students (A-10 0n Sunday).

The black residents left [in the mid-1950s] because the schools were "not meeting their needs," said Sandy Greenberg, a former Englewood mayor.

But the story omits reporting that Englewood's middle and elementary schools remain segregated today, and that city officials are doing nothing about it.

Road Warrior column should be labeled 'FANTASY'

The Johnson Public Library on Main Street in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

There are plenty of news stories on Page 1 and elsewhere in The Record today, but on the Local front you'll find the musings of a madman who has to make it up as he goes along just to fill space.

The Record has been printing Road Warrior columns by Staff Writer John Cichowski based on false premises and false information for years now.

For more than a year, a retired engineer has been sending e-mails to everyone from Vice President Jennifer A. Borg on down with the results of his fact-checking, and posting those e-mails on a Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

Few of the hundreds of errors, distortions or omissions detailed in the e-mails have ever been corrected, and the columns are as cockamamie as ever.

Nut on the loose

Today, Cichowski puts himself in the head of a reader who heard about the loose wheel and tire that smashed through the windshield of a bus on Route 17, and wondered "what your chances are of being killed this way" (L-1).

Frankly, I didn't, but did wonder why news stories about the bus passenger who was critically injured by the flying wheel didn't say why it came off a fairly new car, a 2009 Lexus.

Still, Cichowski can't answer the question he poses, and can't find many examples of fatalities "in our own backyard."

Fast-food fatal

He goes all the way back to 1994 to find a high school senior killed by "a 200-pound tire that sailed off a tractor-trailer," but the victim wasn't in a vehicle.

He was walking into a McDonald's in Paramus. Thus, Cichowski inadvertently confirms many readers' belief that fast food can kill you.

(In the column, headlines and photo captions, "tire" is used interchangeably with "wheel," but, of course, he must be referring to a tire mounted on a wheel in nearly all instances.)

The next example of a flying wheel in Paramus didn't kill the driver.

And then Cichowski finds himself citing a fatal accident in Syracuse, N.Y.; and a double fatality all the way out in Indiana.

Lost in the woods

Then, having run out of fatal wheel-tire incidents, Cichowski reports on a smashed window at a car dealership, and a pickup's loose wheel and tire that rolled into the woods in Sussex County.

If it's possible, his column last Sunday on the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan was even worse, because Cichowski left out a crucial piece of information that would have exposed the addled columnist.

Cichowski dashed commuters' hopes that there is any relief in sight for them, if they use the obsolete bus terminal.

But he never mentioned a major, Port Authority funded study that began in mid-2013 to recommend plans for expanding or replacing the crowded terminal.

He also got the age of the bus terminal wrong and in one instance, the number of commuters who use it.

See:

Road Warrior John Cichowski is obsolete 

Hey, Editor Marty Gottlieb.

It's time to start labeling Cichowski's columns "FANTASY," if you are not going to force the turkey to retire.

Another loose nut

None other than Food Editor Esther Davidowitz is the author of a long, promotional story about Callahan's unhealthy hot dogs, now sold from a truck by Daniel DeMiglio, the third generation (Better Living cover).

Here is one editor who needs editing to stop her from cramming so many words and facts into one sentence.

She describes DiMiglio as "the dark-haired, super-energetic, currently Old Tappan, soon-to-be Fort Lee resident, who bided his time working in the NBA's entertainment division ...."

Sounds like a woman north of 60 who has the hots for a guy half her age.

On another slow-news day, calling all morons

On Friday morning, this bicyclist and a friend made better progress along narrow, antiquated Passaic Street in Hackensack and Maywood than did many drivers, who are slowed by traffic backing up at intersections without turn lanes.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Burned-out reporter John Cichowski long ago ran out of ideas for his commuting column in The Record, and he's too lazy to cover mass transit.

So, in desperation, he sent e-mails to loyal readers, seeking comment on the plan to shift Route 17 exits from the left side of the Garden State Parkway to the right in a bid to end long backups and a high number of crashes.

Inevitably, as today's Page 1 Road Warrior column shows, the morons came out in droves with inane alternatives, including one man who wants a pothole near his home repaired (A-1). 

Most of Cichowski's readers are interested only in seeing their names in print, and they've been playing him like the fool he is for more than a decade.

Well, at least two of his readers are aware of a huge problem Cichowski has ignored: 

Declining state police enforcement of speeding and aggressive driving.

"The problem is ... a lack of police ticketing seeders," said Peter Peirano (A-6).

"The state should set up speed cameras," Steve Gigante of Hackensack said, to which I say, "Amen."

More wasted space

Virginia Rohan, another columnist who ran out of ideas, revives the finale of "The Sopranos" nearly seven years ago, and asks creator David Chase whether Tony Soprano died in the final episode (Better Living front).

Who the f--- cares? What a waste of space.

Playing catch-up

Since the George Washington Bridge scandal exploded in January, The Record has reluctantly reported that Governor Christie's first term was pretty much a disaster and that so far, his second term hasn't been any great shakes (A-1, A-3, A-4 and A-7).

On Page 1, Staff Writer Hugh R. Morley reports "New Jersey ... has lagged behind the nation in job creation."

On A-4, Staff Writer Melissa Hayes, one of Christie's chief boosters, says, "New Jersey is struggling to create jobs, maintain its credit rating and balance its budget."

In the continuation of Morley's story, the reporter says, "While the nation has added on average 215,000 jobs a month this year, New Jersey has yet to gain jobs in 2014" (A-7).

What the Woodland Park daily doesn't attempt to explain -- in view of Christie's dismal record on the economy and other areas -- is how he managed to win a second term last November.

Or why nearly every editor, reporter and columnist at The Record has spent so much time promoting Christie's presidential ambitions.

A Honda CR-V seen on Cedar Lane in Teaneck on Friday carries a license plate I haven't seen since I left The Record in 2008. "BER" stands for Bergen Evening Record.

Big Hackensack news?

On the Local front today, there is big news for Hackensack residents, I guess.

Stephen A. Borg, the Silver Spoon publisher of The Record, says a deal to develop the 19.7 acres that served as the daily's home for decades is off, but another developer is waiting in the wings (L-1).

Apartment developer Fred Daibes is out and a mysterious national firm is in, a city spokesman said.

One of the few new things in the story is the $23.44 million value of the land along River Street in Hackensack, according to state taxation officials.

Of course, the story contains a major error.

Staff Writer Christopher Maag claims the property is "one block east of Main Street," when it is, in fact, two short blocks away from the city's depressed shopping district.

The parking lot of the old Record headquarters -- part of a notorious flood zone -- is being used for the cars of visitors, attorneys and jurors who were displaced by construction of a new building next to the Bergen County Courthouse.

Reporting that doesn't speak to most readers

The NY Waterway Ferry Terminal on the West Side of Manhattan.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Why does The Record run a Page 1 column today on what causes a tiny fraction of every 100 motor vehicle accidents?

Road Warrior John Cichowski notes the number of crashes tied to "automobile mechanical failure" declined slightly through 2012, but nearly five months into 2014, he doesn't provide any numbers for last year (A-1).

And even though he is rested from a vacation, he ignores a higher percentage of crashes tied to mechanical problems in 2012, compared to 2008.

Most accidents are caused by speeding and aggressive driving, and their number likely has risen as state police enforcement has declined.

Isn't that front-page news?

Missing information

The A-6 story on "New Jersey pilgrims" focuses on a Catholic man who lives in Bucks County, Pa.  

The reporter should have found a North Jersey resident for her lead anecdote.

Why didn't Record sports Columnist Tara Sullivan tell us something about the bimbo who is dating racist Donald Sterling, the geezer owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team (A-6)?

The young woman, identified in a photo caption as "V. Stiviano," must throw up every time Sterling touches her.

Taxing chief

Why are the Local editors so upbeat about the retirement at 45 of Fairview Police Chief Frank Del Vecchio, who was paid more than Governor Christie and who -- in an affront to taxpayers -- is cashing out $50,931 in unused sick and vacation days (L-1)? 

The Record's Better Living cover today continues the lopsided coverage of restaurants from inside the kitchen, instead of focusing on issues customers face inside the dining room, such as high prices for wine and low-quality food (BL-1).

What's the point of interviewing chefs about morels, an ingredient that is so expensive few North Jersey restaurants actually serve it?

Even if no crime, it's time for Christie to bow out

Federal and state investigators are trying to determine if a crime was committed when members of Governor Christie's inner circle closed two of three access lanes to the upper level tollbooths of the George Washington Bridge, above, causing four days of gridlock in Democratic Fort Lee, The Record reports today.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Can we really believe a governor who claims he was kept out of the loop when his lieutenant governor, members of his inner circle in Trenton and his Port Authority cronies engaged in a pattern of political retribution against Democrats who didn't support him (The Record's A-1 today)?

Do we really want a governor who has been unable to deliver federal aid to shore residents who were driven from their homes by Superstorm Sandy nearly 17 months ago (A-3)?

Even if no federal or state crime was committed when lane closures caused four days of gridlock at the Fort Lee end of the George Washington Bridge, Governor Christie shouldn't survive the prolonged crisis over the Bridgegate scandal.

Narrow focus

Today's Page 1 story by Staff Writer Stephanie Akin, one of the paper's stars, focuses narrowly on what laws may have been broken by all of the political machinations in the Governor's Office and at the Port Authority, the bi-state transportation agency and patronage mill.

Akin omits any discussion of how the majority of state residents have lost confidence in their governor, and would like to see him resign. 

Drugs and guns

Is there a story today about the full-page ad from the Bergen County prosecutor, warning residents that he won't hesitate to go after anyone who gives even one Oxycodone pill to a friend of a friend with a drug problem (A-7)?

A letter to the editor today states clearly how some gun-rights advocates believe local police cannot protect them from crime (A-10). 

"We are in a war," claims Don White of tiny Prospect Park, which shares a border with Paterson, the city that is often demonized by The Record as a drug bazaar.

More flawed reporting

On the Local front today, Road Warrior John Cichowski wrings his hands over the failure of a non-profit car service that could help "non-driving seniors and ambulatory disabled people navigate inexpensively" (L-1).

Of course, Cichowski makes the problem even more dramatic by omitting any mention of NJ Transit's Access Link service, which takes thousands of people to supermarkets, and to and from doctors and hospitals every month.

In his last paragraph, the confused reporter asks "how many fewer deaths, injuries and crashes" would there be "if seniors and disabled people had convenient, inexpensive travel options"?

But they already have that with NJ Transit's Access Link minibuses. 

This story smells

Another L-1 story says Hackensack residents complained that uncollected trash "attracted vermin and gave off a bad smell in the sweltering heat" of summer.

So, why did city officials start twice-a-week pickup on March 17, when it is still wintry, and ignore how a recycling-education campaign and compost pickups could have accomplished the same goals?

Gondolas on River Street?

A Business page story finally identifies multimillionaire developer Fred Daibes as a partner in a deal to buy The Record's former headquarters on about 20 acres of land along River Street in Hackensack (L-8).

The story doesn't say whether Daibes and partner James Demetrakis plan to provide gondolas to residents of the luxury apartments they intend to build in one of the city's worst flood zones.