In today's thin Sunday paper, more cockeyed columns

If you have an off-road vehicle, race over to Berry Street, a single block between Prospect and Summit avenues in Hackensack, where the potholes stretch along nearly half of its length, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

One definition of "news" is a report about something that has happened.

But Page 1 of The Record today is remarkable for stories that speculate or try to predict the future.

Surely, Staff Writer Scott Fallon could have led the paper with a story about the environment that didn't try to panic readers in a dozen towns over the potential derailment and explosion of trains carrying "millions of gallons of highly combustible crude oil" (A-1).

More stonewalling?

Cristina Renna will probably take the Fifth when she appears before the state legislative panel investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closures, just like other Governor Christie insiders (A-1).

Doesn't Charles Stile have anything better to write about? This isn't a news column; it's a short story.

Forced busing

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski has finally emerged from a fog to report on the long lines of commuters waiting for buses every weekday afternoon at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan (L-1).

The crowding had been evident for about two years, but you can tell from his rambling column he has never taken an NJ Transit bus to or from the city, and has no idea what he is talking about.

This piece on major delays appears months after angry commuters wrote letters to The Record's editor, asking for relief. 

He commits one major error -- Christie killed the construction of two rail tunnels into the city, not one, as he reports on L-3 -- so you have to wonder what else is incorrect in his long, winding column.

More space to park buses in Manhattan would be great, but a reverse bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel during the afternoon rush hour would provide an immediate solution to the delays caused by the need to return empty buses to the city.

The Port Authority, which operates the tunnel and bus terminal, has refused to add a second express bus lane in the morning to boost capacity, and would probably oppose one in the afternoon.

Any expansion of the bus lane would deprive the bi-state agency of toll revenue from drivers.

Break it up

A permanent solution would certainly follow breaking up the behemoth agency into one unit that operates public transit -- including an expanded PATH rail system -- and another that handles toll operations.

In the entire eight-page Business section, there is only one story carrying the byline of a reporter working for the Woodland Park daily.