Breaking news: Columnist reveals pigs are 'child-bearing'

One of the liveliest streets in downtown Hackensack is Banta Place, above and below, a single block between State and Main streets. On Main Street, opposite Banta Place, a developer plans to turn an old bank building into apartments.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Did Columnist Charles Stile actually write on the front page of The Record today that breeding pigs are confined to metal gestation crates for most of "their child-bearing lives"?

Yes, as unbelievable as that might seem.

The phrase is in the very first paragraph of his column about Governor Christie's expected veto of a bill that would ban the practice in New Jersey.

With his sights set on the White House, the GOP bully already vetoed the bill once before, so what is the point of today's column (A-1)?

Since 2010, Christie has shown as much regard for the middle and working classes in New Jersey as he has for pregnant pigs.

First Family

Maybe, Christie's piggish behavior and his overweight wife remind Stile of breeding pigs, given that their children are overweight, too.

Did nobody at the newspaper notice the words "child-bearing lives" in Stile's lead paragraph? 

Did anyone proof the front page before the paper went to press in far-off Rockaway Township?

Do Editor Martin Gottlieb, Stile's assignment editor, a copy editor and the copy editor's supervisor -- all of whom presumably read and edited the column -- think pigs have children?

Of course, Stile is not about to tell readers anything about the brutal practice of confining pigs to gestation crates.

For that you'll have to look at this video:

Crammed into gestation crates

Road hog

The editors put another pig on the front page today -- a 1962 Chrysler Newport, a shining example of the unsafe behemoths America produced when gas was really cheap.

In view of the climate-change crisis, you'd think The Record would praise a student who walked or biked to his high school or drove a gas-electric hybrid or all-electric car there.

Why haven't any of those students been on Page 1?

Here, Anthony Di Liberto, 17, of New Milford gets a lot of ink for driving a 2-ton car that probably doesn't get 10 mpg on premium and pollutes like crazy (A-1).

Hackensack news

Staff Writer Todd South, the reporter assigned to cover Hackensack, actually attended Tuesday night's City Council meeting, and makes a reference to the Nov. 10 meeting he didn't report (L-2).

But South is still keeping readers in the dark on the identity of "members of the public" whose repeated attacks have prompted officials to propose an ordinance to foster "civility and respect between the governing body and its very vocal critics."

Surely, South knows Richard Salkin, who is quoted extensively in today's story, is the attorney for the city's Board of Education, but he doesn't identify him as such.

Nor does South tell readers Salkin has a very sharp ax to grind: 

The former double dipper is an ally of the losing slate in the May 2013 election, and he was fired as municipal prosecutor by the new City Council.

Officers praised

South did a second story, reporting on the restraint shown by Hackensack Police Officers Edmund Meneses and Allan DeLeon when confronted by John Wolf, a suspect described in the story as "a 6-foot-5-inch, 250-pound black man with a knife" who wanted police to kill him (L-2).

With Ferguson all over the front page and other recent instances of New York City police killing black suspects, why wasn't this story on Page 1 today?

Oh, that's right, there wouldn't have been room for another column boosting the White House aspirations of our piggish governor.

The Zigelmans

A joint obituary for Rabbi Abraham Zigelman, 94, and his son, Dr. David Zigelman, 66, both of Fort Lee, suggests The Record missed or ignored the Nov. 7 death of the younger man (L-1).

According to Staff Writer Jay Levin, the doctor "died unexpectedly Nov. 7, possibly of a heart attack, his wife said."

Why "possibly"? No one knows for sure how a doctor died? Why was it unexpected, because the doctor led a healthy lifestyle and possibly was done in by stress?

Here is another example of how The Record continues to ignore heart disease, the leading cause of death for both men and women.

Loves animal fats

Just in time for Thanksgiving, freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson has just the recipe for turning leftover turkey into an unhealthy dish (BL-2).

Her Turkey Pot Pie needs only 10 tablespoons of artery clogging butter, 1 cup of whole milk and three-quarters of a cup of heavy cream.

Make sure you serve this with the telephone number of the local ambulance corps.