North Jersey haves and have-nots

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Dogs saved from house of horrors

The main headline on Page 1 of  The Record of Woodland Park today made me wonder, Who will save readers from Editor Frank "Castrato" Scandale's newspaper of horrors?

Sure, it's awful how an apparently deranged homeowner abused 26 dogs that lived amid garbage and feces. But is this front-page news? 

Just below this report on one of North Jersey's have-nots is another dog of a story that doesn't deserve to be on A-1: 

The sale of furnishings at the $14 million home of two haves, an ostentatious music mogul and a chubby ex-model. Staff Writer Evonne Coutros, usually excellent, wrote a lead paragraph that lands with a thud. A $2,000 pillow from a bed Versace slept on? Gee-whiz. Wow-wee. Can you believe that?

The third A-1 story -- on air safety in North Jersey and over the Hudson River -- buries a remarkable detail. It seems truckers use jamming equipment to prevent their employers from tracking their movements with GPS, and that has delayed testing of the nation's first satellite-navigation system at Newark Liberty airport (photo). Given the lack of detail, Staff Writer Tom Davis didn't think much of the problem. 

On the Op-Ed page (A-17), Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin oversteps his role in another partisan column -- this one blaming Democrats for not being able to override Governor Chistie's antiabortion veto of family planning funds.

Except for a police chase, there is no Hackensack news in Local today. Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado apparently missed or ignored a July 29 meeting of First Ward residents who complained  about the behavior of the homeless from the new county shelter a couple of blocks away. Read all about it in the weekly Hackensack Chronicle.

Maybe head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes told Alvarado she needed her beauty sleep and not to cover the neighborhood meeting. 

The L-1 story on sisters putting up for sale one of the last farms in Saddle River makes no mention of the state's farmland preservation program, though that money may have been among the funding cut by Governor Christie to avoid taxing millionaires like the Borgs.

Does anyone edit the restaurant reviews in Better Living? Judging from the first paragraph, Santorini Taverna in Fort Lee leaves its doors open on the hottest days. Who would want to eat there, even though it gets a good rating? Today is Food Editor Bill Pitcher's last day at The Record, but we may see more of his work in weeks ahead. One of his recent reviews noted he visited the restaurant two months earlier, and he hasn't given a firm date for Elisa Ung's return.

Restaurants from only 15 North Jersey towns are listed in the health inspections column today on Page 21 of Better Living. Bergen County alone has 70 towns.