Christie backing could be kiss of death

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At night, American Dream Meadowlands will be visible from the moon.

Let's hope Governor Christie's wholehearted support for the greatly expanded Xanadu project doesn't come back to haunt taxpayers -- who already are paying for failed education, transportation and other initiatives.

Who can forget how the Republican bully blew $400 million in education aid last year or turned his back on billions for a new Hudson River rail tunnel -- leaving taxpayers holding the Fed's $271 million bill?

Who can forget how he's made a deal with Democrats to remove the last minority  justice on the state Supreme Court or how he refuses to tax millionaires to get us out of a huge financial hole?

Big tax breaks

Now, The Record reports on Page 1 today, he is willing to give at least $200 million in tax breaks to get the renamed Xanadu entertainment and  retail project finished -- even though the developer apparently hasn't been asked to make major infrastructure, road and mass-transit improvements.

The upbeat story by public relations man John Brennan, who masquerades as a reporter, makes no mention of the $900 million in state subsidies already spent on American Dream Meadowlands.

I had to listen to WBGO-FM radio news to learn that. Nor is there anything about the use of solar power on a project that is ideally suited for it.

Turd-filled editorials

An editorial on A-10 notes the developer expects 55 million visitors a year -- adding that's "a lot of toilets flushing." 

Probably not as many as have been flushing in a  newsroom run by Editor Francis Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes.

A second editorial today hints at Christie's plan for an all-white Supreme Court, noting in the penultimate paragraph, "We hope ... Christie's judicial choices will reflect ... the diversity of New Jersey. We will see." 

How nice. I guess cowardly Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin is treading lightly to avoid the wrath of the Republican bully.

Winners and losers

The sprawling retail and entertainment complex likely will be a huge hit, but is Christie giving away the store at the expense of middle- and working-class taxpayers, who have already suffered greatly at his hands?

Road Warrior John Cichowski hasn't commented on the possible loss of turnpike discounts for some E-ZPass drivers, but his L-1 column continues to answer such moronic questions as "how do I file a claim for a blown tire from a pothole."

Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais calls the proposal unfair (L-9). 

Local yokels

Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado was busy covering a fire in Ridgefield on Tuesday (L-3) -- not attending the Hackensack City Council meeting for the first reading of the proposed budget.

Big victory for U.S., big defeat for N.J.

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The Record's large staff guarantees one story for each Ho-Ho-Kus resident.

A huge defeat for the people of New Jersey is buried by all the Osama bin Laden reaction news in The Record today.

Governor Christie has put all the pieces in place to remove the last minority member of the state Supreme Court in September after getting rid of the only African-American justice last year.

Incredibly, the story on A-3 and a political column on L-1 today portray a deal on court appointments as a victory for Democrats -- ignoring the resulting loss of both minority members.

Christie dumped the only black on the court; Editor Francis Scandale dumped the paper's only black columnist. 

Christie is poised to replace the only Hispanic on the court; Scandale busted the paper's only Hispanic columnist to reporter before he left in disgust.

Oh, the triteness!

Page 1 of the Woodland Park daily supposedly is for the best the paper has to offer -- not for the hackneyed words and phrases Mike Kelly has been pushing around for years.

Check out some of the columnist's gems:

"Jackhammers rattled. Cement mixers crunched gravel." He has these on a save/get key for any column on Ground Zero reconstruction. 

"Amid the syncopated din...." Is a conductor orchestrating the work?

"A day of passions that seemed to switch back and forth like wiper blades." Am I reading the Road Warrior?

More big flaws

I couldn't read any more, so I looked at the A-1 photos. 

The one with Kelly's column looks posed, and the one at the top of the page -- of President Obama and his national security team -- seems to have an incorrect caption.

TV news reported time and again the president and his team were watching live video of the raid on Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. 

The Record's caption says they are "getting updates on the mission."

The lead front-page story with that photo -- headlined "How we got bin Laden" -- is from The Washington Post, but doesn't mention what day the raid took place.

Second-class Muslims

A much better choice for the front page -- in place of Kelly and his leering image -- would have been the L-1 story on North Jersey Muslims hoping they'll no longer be viewed as terrorists.

Besides Kelly's lame column, the stories by the local staff, the editorial, cartoon and Op-Ed columns -- all under the misguided direction of Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes -- are just overload. 

Who could -- or wants to -- read all of this?

The Woodland Park daily just piles on top of all the coverage readers saw on TV late Sunday night and all day Monday. And it comes hard on the heels of all the nauseating coverage of the royal wedding.

One man, one story

The few non-Bin Laden stories in Local include one rich man's rant about a solar panel on the telephone pole outside his Ho-Ho-Kus bedroom (L-3).

Maybe if he took care of his wife's needs in the bedroom, he wouldn't  be looking out the window so much. Sykes and Staff Writer Evonne Coutros should know better than to pass off this nonsense as municipal news.

Bin Laden slaying has North Jersey ties

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Osama bin Laden, right, during a 1997 newspaper interview. The Record's A-1 photo today should have at least shown a weapon or some menace.

The slaying of Osama bin Laden inadvertently dramatizes North Jersey's wildly inflated home values before the bubble burst a couple of years ago -- a greed party encouraged by The Record's promotional Sunday Real Estate section.

The al-Qaida financier was hiding out in a $1 million mansion in Pakistan -- according to CNN -- a home worth less than a third of Publisher Stephen A. Borg's monstrosity in Tenafly, bought with a $3.65 million company mortgage.

 Lame effort

The news broke late Sunday night, and likely required the Woodland Park newsroom to remake the front page. 

The Associated Press story, headlines and a huge photo of Bin Laden -- not the best choice, because it shows no menace -- appear to have been hastily thrown together.

The photo has no caption, the heads contain an "Obama" echo and the text on second reference should have given the terrorist mastermind's last name as "Bin Laden," which is Record style, not "bin Laden."

But you can be sure Editor Francis Scandale didn't make a special trip to the newsroom from his Glen Rock home or the story would have ended up on a back page -- which is what he did with the iconic, flag-raising photo taken by Staff Photographer Thomas E. Franklin on 9/11.

Cartoon madness

Is Margulies on drugs? 

His cartoon today shows Santa Claus complaining about solar panels on his block's telephone poles (A-9). Huh?

That's only slightly less bizarre than his Sunday cartoon (o-2), in which an apparently underage woman tries to use President Obama's birth certificate to gain entrance to a bar  (O-2).

Heaven on Earth

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section today is filled with lots of feel-good stories, but not a single word of municipal news.

Fund-raisers, a home for teen mothers, a party for flood victims, a squad for girls with special needs -- isn't North Jersey such a great place to live?

On L-6, a photo shows the Rev. Mark Giordani sprinkling holy water on motorcycle owners in an annual Blessing of the Bikes.

Readers who have been awakened by the roar of these bikes -- which are modified to make as much noise as possible -- wish Giordani was wielding a sledge hammer instead. 

The caption on a second L-6 photo doesn't say how many Armenians attended the Turkish Olympiad in Lodi -- held a week after Genocide Remembrance Day.

NJMG pension plan loses value

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Breaking news: The Holland Tunnel was closed for hours two days ago.

The total assets of North Jersey Media Group's pension plan stand at $62.9 million -- a decline of almost $15 million since 2008, the company says.

In its annual funding notice to employees, former employees and retirees, the company said last week it needs $84 million "to pay for promised benefits under the plan."

The number of participants is 1,978: 555 active participants; 682 retired or "separated from service" and receiving benefits; and 741 entitled to future benefits.

The plan has 96% of its money in mutual funds and 4% in cash.

Today's paper

The big Hackensack news actually is an ad wrap for a Main Street hearing-aid center that obscures nearly half of Page 1 in The Record of Woodland Park.

Not that there's much real news to hide.

Editor Francis Scandale must have been really desperate to put a two-day-old Holland Tunnel shooting on A-1.

Brain damage

Road Warrior John Cichowski's follow-up to today's column on speed bumps (L-1) will explore the history of double-yellow lines and list paints that are visible from the moon.

Did anybody read Columnist Mike Kelly's lame attempts at satire on O-1 today? Gee, the so-called journalist must have left his balls at home, failing to label Donald Trump's antics as racism.

For that, you have to read a letter from Carl M. Losito of River Edge on O-3.

Lots of baggage

Travel Editor Jill Schensul is much more effective when she writes about travelers' rights -- as she does today in her cover story (T-1) -- than when she gushes over a free Disney cruise.

But is the male model in that amateurish illustration really representative of readers who travel?

Today's paper carries three pieces on Manhattan building anniversaries (A-2, F-1 and F-4).


Here and there

An Eye on The Record post discussing Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung's evaluation of Grissini in Englewood Cliffs was picked up by a Web site called New York Living: http://www.newyorkliving.info/blogs/The-Fat-Of-The-Land.html

An Eye on The Record reader had this to say about the Turnpike Authority trying to cut E-ZPass discounts to grab another $16 million from drivers (L-2):

"Following up on your Saturday column about Christie giving commuters the shaft, check out today's article, "N.J. seeks opinions on limiting E-ZPass discount," where Christie want to eliminate the off peak E-ZPass discount for all E-Z Pass users that are not signed up with NJ E-ZPass in order to steal another estimated $16 million from unsuspecting E-ZPass drivers, the majority of whom have not been stupid enough to sign up for NJ E-ZPass and their monthly bilking scheme. Let the E- Pass wars begin! All E-ZPass authorities in other jurisdictions and states should start charging NJ E-ZPass users double for tolls on their roads and bridges, including those into N.Y."