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| One of the free Bergen County shuttles that brings attorneys and visitors to the courthouse from The Record's old headquarters on River Street in Hackensack. Some intrepid lawyers don't wait and lug their briefcases across a heavily trafficked street with few crosswalks. I expect to read soon about an attorney who gets mowed down by a lead-footed driver rushing home with a huge slab of ribs from Costco Wholesale. |
By Victor E. Sasson
Editor
Thirty or so members of the wacko Tea Party have brought the nation to its knees.
But The Record still legitimizes their demand that President Obama "negotiate" the Affordable Care Act, the far-reaching law that is the answer to the prayers of tens of millions of Americans.
What's next? Negotiating Brown v. Board of Education and a woman's right to an abortion?
Let's hope Sen. Ted Cruz and fellow radicals end up destroying the Republican Party, and take Governor Christie and other conservatives with them.
More divisive politics
Meanwhile, The Record can't break the habit of reporting everything in terms of politics, as Herb Jackson's Page 1 column shows.
OK. Editor Marty Gottlieb did send Mike Kelly, the columnist with the shit-eating grin, to talk to poor people in Paterson (A-1).
Healthy interest
But Gottlieb and Kelly keep on missing the big story:
Millions of Americans, who have at least three months to sign up for health insurance that goes into effect Jan. 1, are so desperate for protection they are crashing the online health-care exchanges in many states.
The success of Obama's Affordable Care Act has become evident in just two days.
And if the law can deliver lower prices and savings, it will be a godsend to millions of working poor and employees of greedy companies like North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record.
Cost of policies
Since I left The Record in 2008, I have been buying health insurance for my wife and son from North Jersey Media Group.
This year, I am paying $1,004 a month to cover them -- more than my monthly pension payment.
I also buy insurance from Horizon for my mother-in-law, who lives with us, that costs about $521 a month.
I hope to save a lot of money by buying those policies on the health-care exchange in New Jersey -- once the dust settles.
I didn't plow through all the boring copy from Kelly today, so don't know if he actually found anyone who was able to buy an affordable policy and saved money.
Sforza can't keep up
As usual, today's paper is front heavy, with little to interest local-news readers, thanks to a lame job by Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, who is panicking in the absence of his boss, Deirdre Sykes.
Sykes has been out of the Woodland Park newsroom for more than five weeks with a mysterious ailment.
The front of Local today is dominated by a road-rage incident between motorcyclists and the driver of a Range Rover in Manhattan, not North Jersey.
The only story out of the busy Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack is the ongoing saga of the Hudson News inheritance battle (L-1).
Teaneck and Hackensack news have gone missing.
Rice is univeral
On the Better Living cover, a story about rice omits any mention of how the staple is prepared by people from the Middle East, including Syrians, Egyptians and the Sephardic Jews who originated in that part of the world (BL-1).
I thought the same thing when I read Kelly's column, he focused on the negative aspects in the ACA implementation (only 2 days so far) instead of the long term benefits. He could do a story about the plight of millions of uninsured Americans. He did the same thing when Occupy Wall St. was active in Zuccotti Park, writing about negative aspects of a few, not the goals and purpose of the many who were there.
ReplyDeleteHe and Cichowski are two of the biggest hacks there, and their retirements are long overdue.
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