Gravely injured comedian rode in limo van prone to rollover

A busy crosswalk near the J.C. Penney entrance to Westfield Garden State Plaza was closed on Saturday afternoon, prompting many visitors to cross where there was no crosswalk or pedestrian signal, below. The Paramus mall, the biggest in the state, apparently couldn't find an employee to help shoppers cross the road, as it does when that crosswalk is open.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Federal auto safety officials have expressed concern about the high rollover risk of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van similar to the one involved in a crash that left comedian Tracy Morgan in critical condition.

On A-3 today, the Record used an Associated Press story about the New Jersey Turnpike chain-reaction crash on Saturday that left a fellow comedian dead and two others seriously hurt.

The driver of the Walmart tractor-trailer that rammed Morgan's Mercedes-Benz "limo bus" has been charged with death by auto, the wire service reported.

But the story makes no mention of National Highway Transportation Safety Administration officials who rated the 2012 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 2500 Van's risk of rollover at 84.3%.

The vehicle -- on which the limo bus is based -- was given a safety rating of one star, the lowest on the 5-star safety scale, according to safecar.gov, the NHTSA Web site. 

I have spoken to drivers of the M-B Sprinter Van who say they have to be careful when turning corners because of the vehicle's high center of gravity.

Morgan's vehicle ended up on its side. The AP story also neglects to mention whether the comedian and other passengers were wearing seat belts or were protected by air bags.

Horse's asses

Today's front page carries a story on Saturday's Belmont Stakes by Staff Writer John Rowe, a lifer.

What a waste of space. Which horse's ass in the newsroom decided to give this turd of a story Page 1 play?

A-1 also brings us yet another column speculating on what Governor Christie's former chief of staff will tell investigators about the George Washington Bridge lane closures in Democratic Fort Lee.

Columnist Charles Stile could have written just one word: "Nothing."

Older drivers

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski wastes our time with another boring column on teen drivers (L-1).

Cichowski knows older drivers like himself are the ones who need safety retraining, but he has resisted reporting on that issue since he took over the column in 2003.

Teaneck reporter Aaron Morrison should get a bonus for being one of the few writers who profile prominent residents while they are still alive (L-1).

Today, he writes about jazz photographer Chuck Stewart.

On the Business front, a photo caption shows Taro Eizumi outside Fort Lee's BNB Hana Bank, which "caters to Korean-Americans" (B-1).

But judging from his last name, Eizumi is Japanese, not Korean.

Selling out

Staff Writer Elisa Ung today has a second column about no-show restaurant customers, as if this is such an overwhelming problem (BL-1).

If she chose to write about issues facing customers in her column, The Corner Table, she could do 52 columns a year on the slave wages restaurant owners pay servers and how they expect the customer to tip well to make up the difference.

Drew Nieporent, John Pilourias and the other wealthy restaurateurs or chefs she quotes have duped her into ignoring this conflict.

When the kitchen burns your food or serves you cheap fish instead of the red snapper listed on the menu, what are you going to do? 

If you stiff the server, you're letting the owner off of the hook, but isn't that the whole point of the corrupt tipping system?

Tipping likely tops restaurant customers' complaints, but it's been a few years since Ung even made any attempt to discuss the issue.

And we know why. Restaurant advertising is a major source of revenue for North Jersey Media Group.

Ung is not about to bite the hand that feeds her. OK. She eats enough for two or three. So, it's the hand that stuffs her face.

Haggard traveler

Travel Editor Jill Schensul likely shocked readers a week ago, when she published "selfies" of her haggard face on a bad-hair day -- a stark contrast to her column's thumbnail photo (T-1).

Today, the column photo, which was taken more than a decade ago, appears on the Travel front above one of her selfies.

Other outdated column photos appear in the paper today: Mike Kelly's shit-eating grin on O-1, and John Rowe's uncharacteristic smile on A-1.

Poor Virginia Rohan. A new, unattractive column photo of The Record's TV writer has been used for the past few months, showing her bloated face.

Saturday's paper

Lodi and Hackensack taxpayers' blood was boiling after reading stories on A-1 and L-3 of Saturday's paper.

Lodi Police Chief Vincent Caruso is one in a long line of department heads who collect hundreds of thousands of dollars for unused time off -- in his case, $342,000, according to the front-page account.

The Record has never questioned why Christie put a ceiling on the salaries of school superintendents, but not on police chiefs, or failed to reform these outrageous payouts.

In Hackensack, allies of the disgraced Zisa family, which ran the city for decades, may cost taxpayers $20,000, according to a report from Staff Writer Christopher Maag.

The $20,000 would cover legal fees in a dispute over copies of bills submitted by City Attorney Thomas Scrivo between October and Jan. 15, Maag reported.

Maag notes the new City Council "fired Richard Salkin, the city attorney with close ties to the Zisa family and to city Democratic Party Chairwoman Lynn Hurwitz, and replaced him with Scrivo."

But that is wrong. Salkin, a double dipper, was municipal prosecutor as well as Board of Education attorney.  He continues in the school board job.

I didn't see a correction in today's paper.

Masterful editing

In Saturday's lead story on Page 1, I didn't see a single reference to the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks Christie has given wealthy business owners and the pitifully few jobs created in return.

The story reported the national economy has replaced all of the jobs lost in the recession, but New Jersey "so far has recovered only half of its vanished jobs."

This kind of irresponsible editing ensured the GOP bully's reelection last November, despite one of the worst records of any New Jersey governor.

Bridgegate scandal darkens Christie's image

In Hackensack, Euclid Avenue residents are still waiting for the crews who are supposedly out filling potholes, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Governor Christie's poor performance on delivering Sandy aid gets a good working over in two stories in The Record today, including a Page 1 story listing "a litany of grant-funding problems" (A-1 and A-3).

Before the Bridgegate scandal broke in January, Staff Writers Melissa Hayes and Herb Jackson, among other reporters, spent most of their time reporting on how Christie's every action or inaction affected his presidential ambitions.

The A-1 story on applicants' complaints by Hayes and Staff Writer Karen Sudol, and the A-3 NJ/DC column on flood insurance misinformation from Christie don't even mention his White House potential.

Thank God.

Lots of Passaic news

Today's Local section shortchanges Bergen County readers, who find four Passaic County stories (L-3, L-5, L-6 and L-7).

Two of the stories are from Woodland Park, where The Record's newsroom found a home in a nondescript office building overlooking Route 80 after fleeing Hackensack in 2009.

Don't miss the riveting account of an increase in Woodland Park water bills (L-5).

Restaurant promoters

The Better Living editors have been knocking themselves out promoting restaurants and trying to get readers to feel sorry for their many wealthy owners, hoping for lots of advertising revenue in return.

Today, the cover story on Cafe Matisse and other fine-dining places ending their bread service to save money and cut down on waste ignores the practice in many Manhattan restaurants that continue to serve bread for free (BL-1).

A staffer circulates with a large basket of rolls or sliced bread and focaccia, and offers customers one or two at a time.

This story, and Sunday's BL-1 column on customers who steal "stuff" from restaurants, is among the anti-consumer propaganda The Record has published for years.

Unrepentant

As the paper's chief restaurant reviewer, Staff Writer Elisa Ung, who reported thefts from The Dog and Cask in Rochelle Park, is supposed to represent customers who want to know where their food comes from and how it is raised.

But in many of her appraisals, Ung seems not to know or care whether the humongous steak she ate was grass fed and raised without harmful additives.

Why should she worry?

She thinks she is going to live forever, and The Record always pays the tab, even if that hunk of meat costs more than $50.

Really low pay

The pieces today and Sunday also serve to keep the focus off the starvation wages restaurants pay their servers, and how customers are expected to tip generously to make up the difference.  

How much did restaurant owners contribute to candidates for office to institutionalize that scam? 

Fishy rating

On Friday, Ung again gave a "Good" rating to a restaurant where she experienced major problems, including shrimp ($20) and sea bass ($25) that "both smelled and tasted past their prime."

When she told chef-owner Todd Villani of Terre a Terre in Carlstadt about the smelly seafood, he said the shrimp and sea bass had come to the restaurant right "from the docks." 

Something is wrong here, though I'm not sure whether it is with Ung or the chef.

Then, she recommends sticking to meat and vegetable dishes, and praises a pork chop, beef tartare and short ribs, but says nothing about how they were raised.

Housekeeping

Eye on The Record's search function is working again, as is the search function on my food blog.

Where have I read all of this before?

The Record continues to serve as the personal public relations journal for Governor Christie. (From Wikipedia)

With 10 months until the election, The Record today continues to promote Governor Christie for a second term and, ultimately, the presidency.

Editor Marty Gottlieb leads the paper with a so-called ANALYSIS, as well as a news story, all under an upbeat headline:

Recovery is Job 1 for Christie

In typical Gottlieb style, only a few of Christie's failures are mentioned, and they're relegated to the continuation page (A-6).

Our obese leader

Even the A-1 photo of the GOP bully is skillfully cropped to hide his grotesquely swollen body -- as if he is literally fattening up for the campaign ahead (see full photo on A-6).

You won't find a word about how Christie has fought to preserve low taxes for millionaires by cutting middle-class programs and benefits.

The problem with leaving any negatives to A-6 is that many readers -- weary of The Record's endless promotion of Christie -- won't ever get that far.

This kind of slanted journalism also leaves Gottlieb and his reporters open to insinuations they are taking their marching orders from the filthy rich Borgs, who are grateful for Christie's rabid anti-tax policies.

To make matters worse, today's Opinion cover carries yet another piece on Christie from Carl Golden, who was the press flunky for two other Republican governors, Tom Kean and Christie Whitman (O-1).

Uncanny journalism

The thin Sunday edition was wrapped in a ShopRite Can Can Sale advertising flier, declaring it as "The Greatest Sale Ever!"

Sadly, the Can Can Sale isn't what it used to be -- nor is The Record.

Praise for 'Final Words'

Also on A-1 today, Gottlieb focuses unprecedented attention on Staff Writer Jay Levin's "Final Words" -- last Sunday's moving takeout on hospice residents nearing the end of their lives -- and refers readers to a half-dozen letters on O-3.  

Today's front page also carries the photo of Staff Writer Elisa Ung and her column logo, The Corner Table, with a heart-warming story on the reopening in Moonachie of Bazzarelli Restaurant, which was devastated by Superstorm Sandy.

Ung did a great job, leaving readers to wonder why she continues to churn out weak restaurant reviews and even weaker Sunday columns, and avoids more reporting on such crucial issues as tipping and the low-quality beef and poultry served in many restaurants. 

Customers' burden

Taking up the slack is the paper's only consumer columnist, Kevin DeMarrais, who writes about tipping on the Business front today (B-1).

DeMarrais reports that servers make $2.13 an hour and if customers' tips don't bring them up to the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, the difference is made up by restaurant owners.

That's hard to believe. 

Still, even if true, DeMarrais doesn't explain why the burden falls on customers -- not restaurant owners -- to give servers a decent wage.

By the way, even though Christie appears to be eating everything in sight, he is on record as opposing an increase in the minimum wage in New Jersey -- another thing not mentioned in today's rah-rah coverage. 

Broken record

Favorable Christie stories aren't the only ones repeating on readers like a bad meal.

Staff Writer John Cichowski, who has carjacked the commuting column, has yet another piece today on lines at the MVC (Local front).

There are so many other issues the broken record could cover, if he just acted like the journalist he is supposed to be instead of the Local section's chief space filler -- under the whip of local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza.

New local buses

Chief among them is NJ Transit finally completing renewal of the local bus fleet, including the decrepit No. 780 between Englewood and the city of Passaic.

Gone are the creaking, decades-old white elephants familiar to the largely minority riders. They've been replaced with modern "talking buses" that even have bicycle racks. 

Cichowski also hasn't noticed:

That new E-ZPasses are half the size of the old; that hybrid owners can get toll discounts with a Green E-ZPass; or that paper license plates have replaced those large pieces of paper in the back windows of new cars. 

Also in Local today, the new Hackensack reporter is sounding a theme residents are all too familiar with: more legal action by police officers who allege their complaints of corruption were met with retaliation (L-3).

Is this really the best Sykes and Sforza can manage?