A rare negative story ticks off the GOP bully

NJ Transit has made no safety improvements along Railroad Avenue, in a largely residential Hackensack neighborhood, since a 12-year-old middle school student was killed by a train in September 2010. There are no fences on either side of the tracks between Passaic and Essex streets. The Record has consistently ignored the mass-transit agency's responsibility to police its stations and tracks.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

An angry Governor Christie is trying to shift the focus away from outrageous 23% raises for his staff by blasting The Record's expose as "incomplete and irresponsible" (A-1).

The GOP bully claims total pay for his staff now is $240,000 less than it was at the end of his first term.

But, in comments to reporters in Nashville, Christie didn't explain why the Woodland Park daily had to file a lawsuit to get the updated payroll information or why his aides refused to answer detailed questions about the raises this week (A-10).

A critical editorial notes "for some staffers, pay shot up more than 40 percent" (A-13).

Leaves crisis behind

Of course, Christie probably also is upset that he can no longer rely on The Record for the love fest he enjoyed until January, when the George Washington Bridge scandal broke wide open.

Still, why didn't any reporter ask Christie what the F he was doing at a Southern grill in Tennessee at the height of New Jersey's budget crisis and all the other crises he has caused, including high unemployment and discriminatory Sandy aid (A-1)?
Today's story adds the $140,000 salary of Bridget Anne Kelly, the aide Christie fired after her infamous e-mail came to light:

"Time for some traffic problems in [Democratic] Fort Lee."

More Christie B.S.

Why didn't Staff Writer Melissa Hayes, who covered Christie's fund-raising trip to Tennessee, ask the governor how many vetoes he's cast since he took office in 2010, and find out if it's a record?

Instead, Hayes just regurgitates Christie's endless B.S. about how bipartisan he has been with the Democratically controlled state Legislature (A-3).

In Local today, should we be worried that members of the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police Department's new bicycle unit are violating all of the rules of the road (L-2 photo)?

The local assignment desk continues to pad the thin local-news report with the Dean's List (L-2).