Christie veto of another minimum-wage hike is a sure thing

In February, Governor Christie's endorsement of wacko racist Donald J. Trump for president prompted seven major New Jersey dailies to call for his resignation. The Record of Woodland Park was the exception. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Deirdre Sykes of The Record continues to sanitize Governor Christie's record, especially when it comes to his 500-plus vetoes -- many aimed at bills helping the middle and working classes.

On Saturday's front page, Staff Writer John C. Ensslin reports Christie has "several more weeks to mull over" three dozen pending bills, including one that would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

Of course, Ensslin and Sykes know the fate of this latest proposal will be the same as the hike he killed in 2013, but nowhere in the story do they report that veto.

On the continuation page, Ensslin notes "Democratic lawmakers fully expect Christie will veto ... the bill raising the minimum wage from $8.38 to $10.10 per hour with additional hikes of at least $1 until it reaches $15 by 2021."

If Christie vetoes the bill, the issue won't go on the ballot until November 2017. 

After the GOP bully vetoed the earlier proposal, voters OK'd a hike in the minimum wage in November 2013.

Wasting newsprint

Even hard-core baseball fans think The Record overdid the coverage of Yankee Alex Rodriguez's last game on Friday.

Sykes ran two columns and two news stories about A-Rod on Saturday (Page 1 and the Sports front).

Sports Columnist Tara Sullivan was so desperate for an angle she seized on a thunderstorm during the pre-game ceremonies to declare:

"The human lightning rod getting interrupted by the real thing."

"A-Rod" is a creation of tabloid headline writers who never had the room to write "Rodriguez."

Local news?

Saturday's local-news section was filled with news from Paterson (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

But the local editors must have the missed the exit to Hackensack.

A photo of a man carrying bottled water up the stairs to his Hackensack apartment is all the news city residents got (L-6).

Today's Local section is completely missing Hackensack news.

Transportation writer John Cichowski had to figure out some way to justify a column on traumatic brain injuries from falls so he compares the number of deaths to "being killed on foot in traffic" (Road Warrior on L-1).

Going to pot

Today's front page carries a moving account of veterans who smoke marijuana to find relief from the haunting images of war and death (A-1).

The story by Staff Writer Todd South, himself a veteran, comes two days after the federal government's decision to withhold the approval of marijuana for medical purposes.

Officials said there is no scientific evidence it works. 

Christie is trying to bury the working class

Governor Christie says minimum-wage workers can go eat dirt.  (Wikipedia)

Governor Christie unleashed a double salvo at New Jersey's working class on Monday.

First, he asked the state's highest court to let him decide how much affordable housing is built, and then he told low-wage workers they don't deserve a $1.25 hike in the $7.25 minimum wage.

Instead, Christie wants them to beg for a dollar more over three years (L-7).

Burying the veto

The Record put the affordable housing story on Monday's Page 1, but tried to soften the GOP bully's selfishness by burying the wage veto on the first Business page today (inside Local).

The intent, of course, is to show wealthy small-business owners -- who read the Business section-- that Christie is repaying them for all their financial support.

More stale Stile

The sub-headline on the Charles Stile column today says Sen. Barbara Buono isn't the "savior" the Democrats are hoping for in a bid to defeat Christie in November (A-1).

But Democrats don't need a "savior." 

All Buono has to do is to point out all of Christie's failures in his first term, as well as the sorry state of the New Jersey economy -- which is what The Record can't bring itself to do. 

And she is a lot better looking than him.

He loves Sandy

You can bet the morbidly obese Christie will be just about humping President Obama during the signing of the $50.5 billion Sandy aid package (A-1).

After four years of mismanagment, Christie is pinning his re-election hopes on what he's done since Oct. 29, when the superstorm hit the state.

Rabbi prays for break

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, gives top billing today to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's on-again, off-again attempt to skip out of his $62,000 property tax bill in Englewood (L-1).

The wealthy city, which has a largely minority school system, could certainly use Boteach's taxes. 

After a long stretch of Dean Street through downtown was torn up to install pipes or gas lines or whatever, the city can't afford to repave the unusually bumpy road.  

A story about Teaneck also appears on the Local front, but Hackensack residents come up short for yet another day.

The weather photo on L-2 today didn't take much work:  

The snow-covered road is not far from the Woodland Park newsroom where Sykes' and Sforza's loud snores reverberated.

Wings and receivers

On the Better Living front, the report on a shortage of chicken wings doesn't explain why supermarkets charge more for them than bigger and meatier thighs and legs (BL-1).

What was the point of Monday's overlong front-page sports story reporting that pro football players who took hit after hit during their careers are now in constant pain? 

Road Warrior errors 

"The Road Warrior does a disservice with his mistaken reporting and misleading negative distortions in his Jan. 27 column about the Passaic Street train station in Garfield," a concerned reader says in another e-mail to The Record.

"Road Warrior's negative distortions about the neighborhood around the immediate vicinity of the Garfield station made it seem like an abandoned, trash strewn area when, in fact, it also has many positive features, including the Alfred J. Thomas Home for Veterans,barber shops, nail salons, a coffee shop, a popular restaurant, Barcelona's, and Platter World, a record shop, both of which had positive write-ups in The Record.

"As always, the more outrageous an unsafe or illegal practice is by a contributor to the story, the better chance it will be reported by the ghoulish Road Warrior as if nothing is wrong. 

"Big planning dreams aside, if The Record and Road Warrior can agree on how to keep his columns mistake free, maybe next year you'll figure out how to have columns focused on more relevant facts to pedestrians, drivers, and commuters."

See the full e-mail to management at:

Lots of heat but no light

 

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