Editors continue to swallow Christie P.R. and B.S.

The Church On The Green spire in Hackensack.

Two Page 1 stories, an editorial and an editorial cartoon today continue the editors' romance with Governor Christie.

The Record treats the GOP bully like a mighty chief executive who single-handedly brought back New Jersey from the ravages of Superstorm Sandy, and who will somehow make his foolish no-tax policies work. 

The editors -- from Marty Gottlieb to Alfred P. Doblin -- continue to promote Christie's massive public relations/reelection campaign despite his dismal record since he took office in January 2010.

Missing the story

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to miss the biggest development affecting  road deaths -- the dramatic decline in enforcement by the New Jersey State Police (L-1).

Hundreds of troopers have left in the past 25 years and were never replaced. The force once had 3,000 members.

No longer, as any driver can tell from all of the speeding, tail-gating and weaving maniacs on the parkway and turnpike.

Thanks to Governor Christie's anti-mass transit policies, the one constant in North Jersey is traffic, as seen near the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee.

Mental paralysis

Cichowski reminds readers of all those seemingly able-bodied people they see using handicapped parking spaces -- especially at the gym. They must be mentally disabled.

In another e-mail to the reporter and managers, a  concerned reader points out Cichowski's crippled reasoning in his previous column. 

Click on the following link to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers at The Record:

Exposing the Road Warrior handicap

From hunger

I looked at the Better Living section today to see if there is any interesting food coverage or if Publisher Stephen A. Borg had named a new food editor.

All I found was a piece on grilling artery clogging sausages on BL-5.

However, a bonus today was Staff Writer Lindy Washburn's heart-stopping cover story on the dramatic operation that saved Englewood cardioligist Jeffrey Mitchel (BL-1).

Talk about Gottlieb burying a Page 1 story to make room for more Christie B.S. The circle is complete.

It's raining on Christie's Jersey shore parade

In covering his Port Authority beat, Staff Writer Shawn Boburg has written hundreds of thousands of words about the new World Trade Center, which has reached its full height of 1,776 feet, above. But he hasn't reported how little the bistate agency has done to expand mass transit and ease nightmarish traffic congestion.

Rain pounding down on my roof in Hackensack this morning made the sunny headline on Page 1 of The Record -- "THE SHORE IS OPEN" -- ring hollow.

And what do you make of the sub-headline -- "Jersey summer kicks off before eyes of nation"?

Editor Marty Gottlieb must be kidding. Hey, Marty, you're not at The Times anymore. 

Are the people in Oklahoma or Texas or California really on the edge of their seats, wondering about the shore's recovery from Superstorm Sandy?

Gottlieb isn't the only one bamboozled by Governor Christie's campaign to win a second term on the backs of Sandy survivors.

Christie got the "Today" show to broadcast live from Seaside Heights on Friday, giving national exposure to his uniquely Jersey freak show.

Christie is hoping his massive P.R. campaign makes voters forget how badly he's mismanaged state finances and broken his promise to lower property taxes when they go to the polls in November.

Old home week

Staff Writer Shawn Boburg's photo-and-text package on A-1 and A-7 today appears to complete three days of reporting from his old neighborhood in Moore, Okla., devastated by Monday's tornado.

Boburg's accounts, including takeouts on Thursday's and Friday's front page, are way more than any reader wants to know about the survivors or the reporter's boyhood.

Boburg's beat at The Record is the Port Authority, but he's managed to ignore how the bistate agency's only strategy for keeping commuters' cars off the road is exorbitant toll increases, which were rubber-stamped by Christie.

Wardrobe problems

Before I left The Record in 2008, Boburg dressed like a hayseed, recalling the old joke, "Why don't you throw a party and introduce your pants to your shoes."

That was in contrast to his stylish girlfriend, Staff Writer Stephanie Akin, who treated the newsroom carpet between her desk and the women's bathroom as if it were a Fashion Week runway.

Great reporters know legwork is a must, but a hack like Road Warrior John Cichowski stays glued to his computer, sifting through e-mails from readers. Some copy editors believe Cichowski has occasionally made up the questions he answers in his column.

Road worrier

The Port Authority reporter's failure is compounded by Road Warrior John Cichowski, whose obsession with potholes and MVC lines blinds him to commuting and mass-transit problems.

Cichowski's pothole-and-utility pole column on Wednesday was the 66th with problems since Sept. 12, 2012, according to a concerned reader, who e-mailed management yet again:

"Readers are  finding fault with the Road Warrior's same old mistaken stories and readers' questions about pothole-ridden roads and lost drivers using utility poles, as shown in his May 22 column.

"Road Warrior and his clueless drivers [readers] are NOT being truthful or are fools if they think anyone believes repeated archaic tall tales about finding their bearings when lost by getting out of their cars to check, many times cryptic or missing, municipal acronyms on utility poles. 

"Road Warrior continues his pompous behavior and asks insulting questions not deserving of answers.

"He continues to suffer from clueless syndrome and forgets what he wrote in previous columns that contradicts his May 22 column.

"He reports about a business owner, who repeatedly damages his car and tires, by endlessly driving his car into potholes near his business over a 5-year period. I feel sorry, but wouldn't trust such people."

See the full e-mail at the Facebook page for road Warrior Bloopers:

Road Warrior's 66th column with problems

More tax woes

Friday's front-page story on the failure of Mary J. Blige of Cresskill and other prominent African-American entertainers to pay federal taxes seems incomplete (A-1).

Are they protesting how previous administrations treated minorities? Did they also evade state income taxes?

Hackensack news

After years of neglect, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes is paying more attention to Hackensack news outside of former Police Chief Ken Zisa's lingering legal problems.

Sykes has commissioned unprecedented coverage of municipal affairs since the May 14 victory of a slate of City Council reformers took her and other editors by surprise.

But on L-6 today, the reference to "the new council majority" in a transition-team story is puzzling.

Councilman John Labrosse and his four running-mates won all 5 seats. Isn't that more than a "majority"?

The story says state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, has finally gotten off her duff, and agreed to serve as "honorary chairwoman" of the transition team.

Before the election, Weinberg refused to endorse reform candidates in the crucial Hackensack contest.

More news of poles

Also today, Sykes advances her photo staff's coverage of downed and damaged utility poles with the image of damaged traffic-light pole (L-6).

Road Warrior readers must fasten truth belt

Traffic backed up on Passaic Street in Rochelle Park.

Editor's note: The errors continue to pile up in the Road Warrior column from Staff Writer John Cichowski, who appears unable to perform simple arithmetic, as the latest e-mail to management from a concerned reader reveals:

 "The Road Warrior takes a vitally important safety issue about seat-belt usage and manages to make it into a senseless, head-scratching, mistaken, fictional account in his May 19 column.

"The Road Warrior was unable to perform third-grade math when he mistakenly guessed that 20% of drivers do NOT wear seat belts after reporting that 88% of driver do wear seat belts. 

"He was unable to explain there is more than 1 seat belt law and the relevant distinctions and details for the 2 seat belt laws that affect front- seat and back-seat passengers differently.

"Many of his reported statements were not supported by his reported facts. These statements made it seem like not using seat belts has relatively little impact on whether a person is more likely to be killed or injured."

Read the full e-mail, with a blow-by-blow comparison of fact and fiction, on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers: 

More Road Warrior errors

Today's paper

The Local news section carries two Hackensack stories today -- one on the excellence of the Fire Department, the other about the popularity of Mike Mordaga, the new police director -- both generated by Tuesday night's City Council meeting.

Hackensack lame-duckers offer weak congratulations

Hackensack Councilman John P. Labrosse, left, is the only incumbent who will return when the City Council is reorganized on July 1. 

Mayor Michael R. Melfi and two other lame-duck City Council members offered weak congratulations on Tuesday night to the slate of reformers who swept to victory on May 14.

Councilman John P. Labrosse, who led the Citizens for Change team, is the only incumbent returning on July 1.

Quack, quack

Melfi, Councilwoman Karen K. Sasso and Councilman Jorge E. Meneses each spoke briefly to congratulate Labrosse and three other members of his slate, Kathy Canestrino, Rose Greenman and David Sims, who were sitting in the audience.

Melfi, Sasso and Meneses are allies of the Zisa family political machine. They were elected to the council in 2005, and chose not to run this year. 

Deputy Mayor Marlin G. Townes is the fourth incumbent whose days are numbered.

Low turnout

Despite a low voter turnout -- only 3,513 out of more than 20,000 registered voters -- the Labrosse slate defeated a new Zisa team, which was composed of 5 mental lightweights who called themselves the Coalition for Open Government.

One of their vocal supporters was Jack Zisa, who served as mayor from 1989 to 2005.

None of those losers attended Tuesday night's council meeting, which lasted all of 35 minutes.

Final numbers

The final tabulation of votes in the 2013 municipal election, including absentee and provisional ballots, as released by City Clerk Debra Heck:

Labrosse, 2,024; Canestrino, 1,924; Sims, 1,929; Greenman, 1,804; and Leonardo Battaglia, 1,820.

Open Government candidates Kenneth Martin, 1,657; Jason S. Nunnermacker, 1,685; Joanne Mania Colon, 1,666; Joseph A. Barreto, 1,664; and Scott Young, 1,639.

Independent candidate Victor E. Sasson received 344 votes.