Editors ignore Christie role in housing and health-care woes

A Christmas Tree went up in the lobby of Englewood Hospital and Medical Center the day after Thanksgiving.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Staff Writers Lindy Washburn and Salvador Rizzo of The Record continue to give Governor Christie a pass on his bid to sabotage both President Obama's health-care initiative and landmark court rulings on affordable housing.

In fact, the conservative Republican governor's name is completely missing in Washburn's upbeat story on the Affordable Care Act (3A).

Nor does the GOP thug's name appear in Rizzo's piece on skeptical state Supreme Court justices hearing a plea from towns to forgive their affordable housing obligations in the past 17 years (4A).

Gee, it isn't news that Christie takes credit for an expansion of Medicaid in New Jersey -- thanks to an infusion of federal funds -- but refused to set up a state marketplace residents could use to buy health policies under the Affordable Care Act.

That has thrown New Jerseyans onto the overburdened federal marketplace, and reduced their choice to two insurers in 2017, compared with five this year.

Nor is it a secret Christie tried to abolish the Council on Affordable Housing, the state agency that is responsible for ensuring that all 566 municipalities in New Jersey provide their share of low- and moderate-cost housing.

Many of Christie's supporters live in largely white suburban towns that have refused to accommodate affordable housing and an influx of minorities.

Water on brain

The Record's so-called commuting columnist continues to diss long-suffering NJ Transit bus and rail riders to lavish praise on NY Waterway, a trans-Hudson ferry company that celebrated its 30th anniversary this week (1A).

Taking the ferry is the most expensive way to commute to the city with the exception of driving there yourself and paying exorbitant parking rates.

Page 1 today also appeals to high rollers who are willing to pay $10 for a reserved parking space at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus.

Gannett editors put this story on the front page to please one of the paper's biggest advertisers.

More Bridgegate

The story that belonged on Page 1 today is Superior Court Judge Bonnie Mizdol in Hackensack saying she will release a Bridgegate-related decision on Friday (1L)

Bill Brennan, a former Teaneck firefighter with a law degree, is asking her to appoint a special prosecutor in the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal (1L).

Brennan wants Christie prosecuted for doing nothing when he learned about the Fort Lee traffic jams in September 2013.

Christie wasn't named in a federal indictment, but three of his former aides or associates have been convicted of conspiracy and other charges.

All said he knew about the lane closings while they were happening.

Still, the governor has somehow managed to avoid testifying under oath and in public on what he knew and when he knew it.

EPA mileage rule

An Associated Press story on a proposal to boost average fuel economy and emissions targets in the U.S. also appears to be slanted toward other big advertisers -- automakers and auto dealers (16A).

The U.S. Environmental Agency proposal is a victory for the environment, but the story doesn't discuss the impact of auto emissions on climate change or their role in the deaths of 53,000 people every year.

The EPA is standing by an Obama administration proposal for an average fuel economy of 50.8 mpg by 2025, compared to 35.3 now.

Each automaker would be required to hit that average across its entire model line -- including hybrids and EVs -- not for individual vehicles (the acronym CAFE stands for corporate average fuel economy).

Manufacturers are upset that to meet the targets, they would have to reduce the number of highly profitable but gas-guzzling pickups and SUVs they sell.

This year, both Ford and Nissan have ramped up production of big SUVs and pickups to take advantage of low gas prices.

Incompetent reporter embarrasses paper again

When I came out of the gym in Paramus this morning, I saw a woman reading a newspaper in her Honda Pilot with handicap plates, the engine running, above. A couple of minutes later, the lavishly tattooed woman got out of her car and walked into the gym, below. She was at least 50 pounds overweight, but walked normally and I could see nothing else wrong with her. 

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Are any of the drivers who run afoul of the late-night, no-cash-toll rule on the lower level of the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee even from New Jersey?

Indeed, why do any of these morons -- who refuse to get E-ZPass and don't enjoy the toll discounts that come with the electronic payment system -- deserve coverage in The Record, let alone on Page 1 today?

This is not the first time Sedan Swami John Cichowski has written a Road Warrior column about these confused insomniacs since the Port Authority stopped staffing the lower-level booths nearly 10 years ago.

What are they doing on the roads after 11 p.m., casing North Jersey neighborhoods? Bergen County isn't exactly known for its night life.

Broken record

Cichowski desperately needs to write and rewrite the same stale news,  because he has completely undermined the mission of the column to deal with commuting problems and the region's traffic paralysis.

Just look at how he rambles in his first paragraph, which is an embarrassment to the paper and his supervising editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza.

The veteran reporter throws "adrenaline rush you got from Fourth of July fireworks" and "a midnight ride to the bridge named for the father of our country" into the same paragraph with "high-wire act that rarely fails to raise the blood pressure of drivers who don't use E-ZPass."

There is no other way to say: Cichowski has lost it.

The Port Authority could solve the problem easily by putting the words "MAIL-IN TOLL" over the lane for drivers without E-ZPass, and Cichowski could then retire to an assisted-living facility.

More confusion

Can anyone understand from reading the first few, long paragraphs on Page 1 today just what the state Supreme Court ruled in the case of residents with oceanfront properties and the sand dunes the federal government wants to build?

The headline doesn't help: "Court overturns award in dune case"

What "award"? Where are the copy editors and Production Editor Liz Houlton? Asleep?

Contrast the lead paragraph of the news story with the clearly written first paragraph of an editorial on the ruling (A-8).

Word confusion?

Sykes and Sforza continue to rely on more accident-photo filler as they scramble to find legitimate news for the Local section.

Both photo captions (L-1 and L-2) use "rolled over" or "overturned," but in both cases the vehicles are shown on their side.

The big local news today is a tree falling and slicing into a Westwood house (L-1). Gee-whiz.

Hackensack news

Also on the Local front, Staff Writer Hannan Adely reports the new City Council has hired an insurance brokerage firm headed by Gary Taffet, a former McGreevey aide with a troubled past, including insider-trading allegations (L-1).

Reliance Insurance Group replaces a firm that used broker Jack Zisa, a former mayor and member of the ruling family that brought Hackensack to its knees.

Don't worry, you can skip today's paper

The Record reports Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., won't be smiling after the National Rifle Association gets through with him and a Democratic bill to ban high-capacity ammunition magazines like those used to kill 12 people in Colorado last week.

It took only five days for the horrific movie-theater shooting in Colorado to fall off the front page of The Record.

In its place, Editor Marty Gottlieb gives readers four major Page 1 stories today -- all yawners.

Don't look for North Jersey relevance in all but the "process story" on Governor Christie's grab for unspent affordable housing funds (bottom of A-1).

Here comes the judge

Next to it, the story on the state Supreme Court only reminds readers of how high legal fees prevent most of them from having any effective access to the courts -- an issue The Record won't touch.

It's an elaborate and intricate system enforced by judges, all of whom were themselves lawyers who got rich by representing people in criminal and civil matters as they slowly wound their way through the courts. 

The high court ruling cited constitutional protection of judicial salaries, stopping Christie from requiring hundreds of judges to pay more for pension and medical benefits.

But how independent is a judiciary whose members are appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Legislature? 

Bored with shooting

With the Colorado killings fresh in readers' minds, why doesn't Gottlieb's front page carry the story on Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and other senators taking on the NRA (A-3)?

Out-of-touch journalist

On head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski writes about "the great universe of parking tickets" and "our ... stellar driving careers" (L-1).

In other words, it's another totally irrelevant column from La La Land, ignoring the realities of commuting in North Jersey.

Blaming the victim

The major element on L-1 reports that a pedestrian apparently committed suicide on Tuesday by standing on the tracks in front of an NJ Transit train approaching the Broadway station in Fair Lawn.

The victim, Yelena Gorovits, 47, is called a "trespasser" in the story, but there is no mention of safety measures at the station to prevent such incidents or whether an NJ Transit cop patrols the tracks. 

Just chopped liver

Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi got a terrific photo -- investigators lifting a sheet to look at the body, which presumably resembled bloody hamburger after being hit by the enormous locomotive.

Was Gorovits a mother, daughter or aunt? Was she married, employed? Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza don't care one bit about those questions.

The insensitive, lazy editors treat her as so much chopped liver.

As if often the case, Local is filled with lots of police and court news, and hardly any municipal news.

Hackensack readers, you can go back to sleep.

Friendly to business, hostile to the rest of us

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Governor Christie and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno assure seniors they have no plans for a camp to process them for rail transportation to Florida.

Twelve days into the state's new fiscal year, The Record continues to force readers to hunt through the paper and read letters to the editor to learn about the full impact of Governor Christie's mean-spirited budget cuts. 


Is that deliberate, Editor Francis Scandale? Were you concerned that putting all the aid cuts in one place would looked bad for your pal Chris Christie, friend of the rich?


Today, Page 1 carries a glowing report on the concentration of power in the hands of Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno as Christie creates a business-friendly climate in the state.


Suits him well


Unmentioned is the Republican governor's victory in getting his pro-business nominee, Anne M. Patterson, confirmed to fill a vacancy he created on the state Supreme Court by refusing to reappoint its only black justice 


Over her career, Patterson defended such corporations as RJ Reynolds Tobacco and Abbott Laboratories against lawsuits alleging faulty or inferior products, according to The Star-Ledger.


How long after Patterson takes her seat on the high court in September will Christie propose so-called tort reform to cap the damages injured plaintiffs can collect in such suits?


Give us a break


Christie has granted hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to businesses, while cutting programs and "taking from the poor and giving to the rich," Joe Garibaldi of Hackensack says in a letter to the editor today (A-10).

• $537,000 was cut from the Wynona Lipman Child Advocacy Center for Abused Children.
• Supplemental living support payments for people receiving general assistance were cut -- $150 a month less for Garibaldi.
• A cut of $7.5 million in aid to family planning clinics.
• Thirteen other cuts not specified in the A-3 story on Democrats failing to override the governor's budget vetoes. 

What's my line?


Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski has bitched and moaned about long lines at the MVC for many years, and nothing has changed (A-1). 


Readers may recall he takes credit for passage of a law on clearing vehicle roofs of ice and snow, so what happened here?


On A-2, the editors ran a correction to  tell the family of Christopher Stavrou that even in the last story that will ever appear about him (his obituary), the headline didn't get his occupation right.


Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section hits the trifecta today -- no Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood news.


Are The Klappies from sports Columnist Bob Klapisch anything like the clap (S-1)?

Editor doesn't feel your pain

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Readers could tell what a poor job The Record did in examining Governor Christie's budget and benefit cuts, because reporters always used "reform agenda" to describe them. Those were Christie's words. "Reform" is good, even if it hurts seniors, women, and middle- and working-class residents.

Editor Francis Scandale doesn't feel New Jersey taxpayers' pain now that Governor Christie has signed his austere state budget.


In a successful effort to downplay all the cuts affecting middle- and working-class families, and low-income women and children, Scandale actually devotes more space to  photos than to text in The Record's story on A-1 and A-8 today.


Christie apologist


The ho-hum Page 1 headlines, the cryptic graphic -- Scandale designed all of it to blunt the impact of what a leading Democrat calls "a cruel and mean-spirited" budget intended to show that Christie is in charge.


An editorial on A-20 fleshes out some of Chistie's severe cuts, but Scandale's routine coverage is inexcusable.


Readers know Scandale is bored with issues. He'd much prefer a front page with a police chase, standoff or some other mayhem to sell papers.


Newsroom slavery


They know he can't feel their pain, just as he can't feel the pain of all the hapless editors and reporters who work for him and the insufferable Deirdre Sykes.


But it is especially evident today, because the state lost a major media outlet on Thursday, when NJN devoted its entire newscast to a 40-year retrospective-cum-obituary before it signed off for good (A-2 photo). 


The paper doesn't fuss today over Christie silencing the New Jersey Network's potential criticism -- or another one of his coups, appointing a pro-business associate justice to the state Supreme Court, in place of the only black on that august bench (A-20 editorial). 


In fact, more space is devoted to rusting elevators and construction problems at the former Xanadu retail-and-entertainment complex (A-1) -- a space-filler that is a slap in the face to the hundreds of thousands affected by the GOP bully's slash-and-burn tactics.


Hook, line and stinker


The vast majority of drivers go to an MVC office only once every three or four years, if that, so why does Sykes, the head assignment editor, devote so much space to long lines, especially at the end of the month (L-1)?


Road Warrior John Cichowski, who seemingly has written hundreds of columns on MVC lines, today fails to tell readers what they should do when they see this journalism scofflaw (L-1).


Why does the story on an environmentally responsible auto showroom look like a paid advertisement for an import that, despite its small size, lags in fuel economy behind the Toyota Prius and other cars (L-3)?


Hackensack news takes a holiday for another day.


Let them eat cake


In Better Living, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung finally has found a chef who feels a "responsibility" to serve local, natural and organic food (at Maritime Parc in Jersey City), and gives him three and a half out of a possible four stars.


She tells readers the $36 ribeye steak from Montana is grass-fed, one of the few times she specifies how meat is raised. 


Readers want to see more of that, and they could, if she didn't always waste space in both the text and data box on telling them a restaurant "isn't your place" if you expect "a formal, strictly fine-dining experience," as she does today. 


How stuffy. What in God's name does she mean? Dining and dress codes have  become much less formal in the past 10 to 15 years, and parents take even babies everywhere. Where has she been?