Christie chose life over uncontrolled gorging

An example of how a band is used to restrict the intake of food. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Don't you love how The Record virtually ignored an obese Governor Christie's out-of-control eating since he took office in January 2010, and now is asking him to "defend" and "explain" his weight-loss surgery?

What does it take for morons like political columnist Charles Stile to understand Christie chose life over a certain early death, if he kept up his uncontrolled gorging (A-1).

It's telling that the New York Post, not any New Jersey media, broke the story about Christie's "secret" lap-band surgery.

Diet and disease 

Stile and a couple of the editors at the Woodland Park daily, Deirdre Sykes and Tim Nostrand, should spend some time on a hospital cardiac ward and ask doctors about the relationship between diet and disease.

The Record's last food editor, Susan Leigh Sherrill, promoted recipes using butter, cream, bacon and other unhealthy food every chance she got.

Just look at the Mother's Day recipe on the Better Living cover today (BL-1 and BL-2), calling for 2 cups of heavy cream, 1 cup of sweetened whipped cream
and 10 tablespoons plus a half-cup of butter.

Talk about killing your mother with kindness.

Oppose his policies

The GOP bully's conservative policies are still deplorable, but the media, including The Record's Sykes, Nostrand and Editor Marty Gottlieb, should cheer Christie's decision, not ask him to defend it.

And Christie isn't out of danger, if he continues eating a diet heavy in red meat and pizza, even though he'll be consuming smaller quantities.

Hackensack's 'undercover' firefighters

Two unmarked SUVS were parked on Tuesday in a city owned lot next to Hackensack Fire Department headquarters on State Street.

 

Is Hackensack using undercover firefighters in unmarked vehicles to roam neighborhoods in search of homes without smoke alarms or overloaded circuits? 

That might explain two white SUVs parked in the city Fire Department's parking lot on State Street.

But the truth is the unmarked SUVs are among as many as 15 city owned gas guzzlers driven home by employees, only a few of whom are on 24-hour call.

City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono says one of the SUVs is driven home to Maywood by the fire chief, and that the chief's vehicle is "traditionally" unmarked.

Lo Iacono told independent City Council candidate Victor E. Sasson he had no information about the second unmarked SUV.

The second SUV is rumored to be driven home by a deputy fire chief who lives far from Hackensack, and that is why the vehicle is left unmarked.

City passes budget

The Hackensack City Council voted, 4-1, on Tuesday night to approve a $91.9 million budget that calls for a 3.3% hike in property taxes.

Landlords who pay property taxes will undoubtedly pass that increase along to renters, many of whom don't vote in the quadrennial municipal election.

There appeared to be no major changes in the budget, which was introduced on March 19.

The Record didn't cover the meeting, and no story appears in today's Local news section. 

Squelching dissent

Councilman John Labrosse, the only incumbent seeking another term on May 14, voted "no," and his running-mate, Kathy Canestrino, identified budget cuts of about $1 million the city could have made. 

After Canestrino spoke, the city manager said her proposed cuts weren't possible.

When Canestrino wanted to speak again, Mayor Michael R. Melfi said she couldn't, and ended the public hearing on the budget.

Candidates from the Coalition for Open Government -- "the Zisa slate" -- didn't speak during the hearing.

A budget summary listed the "general state of the economy" and "impact of tax appeals" among factors affecting the budget.

But it ignored the tremendous amount of tax-exempt property owned by Hackensack University Medical Center, Fairleigh Dickinson University and Bergen County, and how little they give back to the city.

Hackensack school board is a lesson in politics

Hackensack Board of Education member Jason Nunnermacker, center, is running for City Council in the May 14 election on a slate that has sent out false attack mailings about its opponents. He is flanked by interim Schools Superintendent Joseph Abate, left, and Timothy J. Hoffman, 19, who was elected to the board on April 16 by a ridiculously small minority of registered voters.

The superintendent of Hackensack schools and his staff moved to a building at 191 Second St. about 3 years ago, but the sign out front, above, still does not reflect their occupancy, as if they are deliberately trying to hide from parents, and there are no visitor spots in the parking lot.

The word "SUPERINTENDENT" on the door isn't visible from the street. Parents have to play "find the superintendent," because older phone books still list 355 State St. (the Middle School) as his address and contain obsolete phone numbers. A current phone book doesn't even list the superintendent's office under Hackensack schools.

The Hackensack Board of Education's policy on political activity doesn't bar an active board member from running for City Council, the board's attorney said Monday night.

School trustee Jason Nunnermacker is a member of the Hackensack Coaltion for Open Government, a slate of candidates seeking election on May 14.

There is plenty of evidence the slate is backed and financed in part by Lynne Hurwitz, the city's Democratic boss and the power behind the Zisa family dynasty that is so desperately trying to hold onto power in "Zisaville."

At the board's meeting in Hackensack High School, attorney Richard Salkin objected when independent City Council candidate Victor E. Sasson accused Nunnermacker and his slate of lying about their opponents in attack mailings.

Sasson asked if that was appropriate behavior for a board member, who is supposed to set an example for students.

The Open Government slate already set a poor example for children when its lead candidate -- former high school resource officer and retired police detective Kenneth Martin -- was caught by a store surveillance camera stealing signs put up by the Citizens for Change slate.

Sasson and other members of the public get only 3 minutes to speak before the board, compared with 5 minutes before the council.

Public jobs 

Salkin has a second public job -- municipal prosecutor. And he's a former city attorney, a position he was appointed to by the powers that be.

The attorney also has escorted Nunnermacker and his running-mates to at least one council meeting, where the candidates were overheard discussing where to get the best empanada in Hackensack.

When they encounter Salkin, many taxpayers see red -- the color of his modest Toyota SUV. 

Do they have a minyan?

Sasson also asked if Nunnermacker's colleague on the board, former Councilman Mark Stein, is an official at Temple Beth El on Summit Avenue, but Salkin again objected, saying that was "personal."

The synagogue apparently has been rented by Nunnermacker and other members of his slate to meet congregants on Thursday night, and the other six council candidates are excluded. 

"The board prohibits the use of school premises and school time ... for political purposes," according to board policy.

Nunnermacker appears to have violated the spirit of the regulation when he and other members of his slate mailed campaign material to an unknown number of teachers and support staff on a "confidential" list.

Is there any good reason to vote for Nunnermacker? Hackensack's board spends more per student than Ridgewood, and has little to show for it.
 
'Instant' heroin series

Beginning with Friday's "major heroin bust" on Page 1 and ending with today's report on parents facing "the agony ... of a child's heroin addiction," The Record appears to have come up with an "instant" series.

Were all of the stories coordinated with Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli, who erroneously released a photo of a Fair Lawn woman who was not charged with any wrongdoing (see the embarrassing "Retraction" on A-2 today)?

Two corrections also appear on A-2 today, but the paper can only blame them on the incompetence of Production Editor Liz Houlton and her sleepy copy editors.

Dog news

A photo on L-2 today seems to say Teaneck spent $20,000 on a dog park, but nobody -- and no canine -- is using it.

Were the editors so desperate to fill space in the Local news section that they couldn't send the photographer back for a shot filled with people and dogs? 

The Record misses biggest Christie story

How many of these will Governor Christie be able to down now that he has had surgery to stop him from overeating? They were served on Sunday during a fund-raiser in The Shops at Riverside in Hackensack.

The Record's rotund editors have ignored Governor Christie's weight problems -- lest they be forced to confront the uncomfortable truth about their own food obsessions.

The Woodland Park daily has never even reported what New Jersey and schools in Hackensack and many other communities are doing to fight the child-obesity epidemic.

Now, the New York Post is claiming an exclusive, reporting that Christie "secretly underwent lap-band stomach surgery to aggressively slim down for the sake of his wife and kids."

Here is the link to The Post's story on its Web site:


GOP fat cat has surgery 


Christie has refused to disclose his weight in interviews with both national and New Jersey media, but David Letterman has joked the governor hit a hefty 400 pounds.

Doughnut patrol

If you doubt police in Wyckoff and other wealthy Bergen towns have too much time on their hands and eat too many doughnuts, check out the big photo on the front of today's Local news section (L-1).

On L-2, Staff Writer Hannan Adely reports the school district and teachers union have reached a tentative contract agreement in Hackensack.

There is a lot of local news in today's section, making readers wonder whether the editors held a bunch of stories for publication today.

But head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes still needed a photo of a refrigerated produce truck the driver deliberately overturned to make fruit salad (L-3).
     
Unflattering

The cover photo of the May 2013 issue of (201) magazine shows a clearly overweight Lisa Oz standing in her Cliffside Park home in a most unflattering pose -- with her right hand on her hip and her right leg off to the side, as if it is permanently broken.

Of course, her multimillionaire husband is Mehmet Oz, a doctor who can't stop lecturing Americans on healthy eating, although he probably has never stepped foot in a supermarket or tried to make sense of food labels.