Booker's color -- not sports -- shaped who he is

Creative zoning in Hackensack. You can barely fit a dozen gorditas between a Mexican restaurant and a home on East Broadway, above. Churchgoers can have their oil changed while they're praising the Lord, below.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

A young, smiling Cory Booker appears on the front page of The Record today -- a perfect example of America's growing diversity.

What's all this nonsense about Booker being molded by "North Jersey's gridirons"?

I guess Editor Marty Gottlieb doesn't want to shove Booker's color down the throats of the many racists who read The Record.

The Democratic Newark mayor and U.S. Senate candidate stands for all the liberal values rejected by Governor Christie and Booker's opponent, Tea Party crackpot Steve Lonegan.

Booker's real weakness is personal ambition. He should have taken on Christie in the gubernatorial election and sent the GOP bully packing.

Dated photo

Another smile appears on Page 1 today -- the shit-eating grin of Columnist Mike Kelly, whose dated, unflattering photo also appears a second time on the Opinion front (O-1).

Two Kelly columns in one edition. Thousands of readers are smacking their foreheads in disbelief.

When I saw an updated thumbnail photo of staffer Ginny Rohan last week, I thought that meant the editors would be updating photos of Kelly and others.

No such luck.

GOP vetoes

At the bottom of Page 1 today, a story on the liberal use of vetoes by Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan reminds readers of another Republican who loves to veto, Christie.

When are we going to see that story, giving a lie to Christie's portrayal of himself as a great compromiser?

Two of his mean-spirited vetoes killed a hike in the minimum wage and a tax surcharge on millionaires that could have raised an estimated $1 billion.

Law breakers

On the front of Local, Road Warrior John Cichowski again demonizes red-light cameras, calling them "the modern-day equivalent of highway robbery" (L-1).

How irresponsible can Cichowski get?

Of course, The Addled Commuter hides the fact that most red-light violators are speeders, and that speeding is the leading cause of crash deaths and injuries.

Many sane drivers wish there were red-light cameras at every intersection, and can't wait for the authorities to install cameras to catch speeders, tailgaters and other maniacs on the parkway and turnpike, too.

The Borg family might even want to install cameras in the Woodland Park newsroom to catch staffers whose bylines are as rare as a blue moon.

Crappy food corner

Check out The Corner Table column on the front of Better Living today, glorifying a food truck in Englewood that sells low-quality Sabrett beef hot dogs pumped full of harmful antibiotics, growth hormones and preservatives (BL-1).

Staff Writer Elisa Ung is the fine-dining restaurant reviewer, but she could care less about how the food she promotes is raised or grown, and simply can't resist all the junk out there.

Hot dog "entrepreneur" Rosario D'Rivera calls her truck "Rosie's Weenie Wagon," a weird sexual image from a woman.

Ung turns today's column into a profile of D'Rivera, and we even learn she is the sister of Paquito D'Rivera, the great Cuban jazz saxophonist, but the so-called food journalist tells us nothing about the hot dogs.

You say you don't eat meat? Go to hell, Ung says.

Crossing a line

A freelance reporter for AIM Vernon, one of the many weeklies published by North Jersey Media Group, was fired after she spoke up at a Township Council meeting she was covering.

Mary Ellen Vichiconti, 60, ran for council in 2008, 2009 and 2011, according to Editor & Publisher.

Click on the following link to read the entire E&P story:

A Matter of Principles

When I was a reporter at The Record, I recall reading the newspaper's policy barring staffers from running for public office or engaging in politics.

Is that policy still in effect? Does it apply to freelancers?