Editors come down hard on Christie, but six years too late

Solar panels form the roof of the Bergen County Administration Building's employee parking garage in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In 2010, Governor Christie delayed the first expansion of metropolitan area rail service in ages by at least a decade.

In torpedoing new Hudson River rail tunnels, he ensured that hundreds of thousands of commuters would face increasing traffic congestion, loss of productivity, worsening air pollution, and fewer seats on NJ Transit trains and buses.

But The Record of Woodland Park didn't see the monumental consequences of his actions, and pretty much swallowed whole his claim he killed the project to save taxpayers millions more in cost overruns.

Now, today's editorial is blaming "the Christie administration" for turning NJ Transit "from the jewel of regional commuter-rail systems to the joke of them; it has been a race to the bottom" (O-2).

But Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin has only himself to blame.

He ignored the ramifications of the tunnel decision, then refused to out the governor when Christie grabbed hundreds of millions of dollars in leftover funds to pave roads and fix bridges.

That allowed the GOP thug to impose his conservative fiscal policies on the state, and continue vetoing a hike in the gasoline tax to fund Transportation Trust Fund road and rail improvements.

Doblin didn't even protest Christie slashing state subsidies to NJ Transit by more than 90 percent, triggering fare hikes and service cuts, and delaying an automatic braking system that could have prevented last month's fatal train crash in Hoboken.

Trump, Garrett on A-1

Today's front page is dominated by a large photo of GOP presidential nominee and sexual predator Donald J. Trump bringing his campaign of lies, racism and hatred to Edison (A-1 and A-3).

Leading the paper is an investigative piece on accidental shootings of minors -- one every other day during the first six months of the year (A-1).

So you'd think a Page 1 story on Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, would mention one of the most conservative members of Congress gets an "A" from the National Rifle Association for opposing gun control.

But it doesn't. 

Garrett lies

In Opinion, Columnist Brigid Harrison asks, "Why would Garrett knowingly mislead voters" in ads about his opponent, Democrat Josh Gottheimer (O-4).

"Why would he blame his opponent for ridiculous positions, and mislead voters about his own record?"

She answers her own questions by revealing that in 13 years in office, the 5th District congressman "has successfully had [only] four pieces of legislation become law."

Unbearable

For the second day in a row, The Record is publicizing a protest over the death of a bear named "Pedals," which walked upright and had a Facebook page before he was killed by a bow hunter (L-1).

It isn't known whether the protesters have demonstrated against the mistreatment and death of humans, including the slaughter of innocent children and teens during gang shootouts in Paterson.

A story on a food fest in Clifton notes the city of 86,000 is "among the most diverse in the state and has large Latino, Middle Eastern and Polish communities (L-1).

But Staff Writer Pat Alex neglects to mention African-Americans made up less than 5% of the city's population in the 2010 census, even though Clifton surrounds Passaic city and shares a border with Paterson.

Second coming

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung devotes her entire Sunday column to cauliflower dishes at restaurants, "noting the white flowered vegetable has become one of the hottest trends in the food world" (BL-1).

Ung's column, The Corner Table, appears on the Better Living cover, which two years ago, nearly to the day, carried another story on cauliflower's resurgence under this headline:

"CAULIFLOWER'S COMEBACK"

Is Christie's chief booster finally having a change of heart?

Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon, above and below, lampooned the first presidential debate when "Saturday Night Live" kicked off its 42nd season this weekend. The New York Times calls the show "the NBC sketch-comedy institution."

Baldwin's Donald J. Trump pronounced "China" as "Gina," "Big Gina," and said "all the blacks live on one street in Chicago." McKinnon's Hillary Clinton looks as if she can see the White House from Rockefeller Center.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The biggest laugh line in the Sunday edition of The Record comes from Columnist Charles Stile, who has been polishing Governor Christie's image for nearly 6 years.

After a tedious Page 1 refresher course on the George Washington Bridge lane closures in September 2013, Stile says with a straight face, referring to the Christie administration:

"In the first two weeks of the [Bridgegate] trial, there was little testimony or evidence presented of decisions driven by a commitment to public service" (A-8).

"The trial so far has produced a counter-narrative to the meticulously managed image of Christie as a bold, bipartisan leader determined to restore New Jersey's reputation and finances."

Stile has got to be kidding. When has anyone ever said "Christie" and "public service" in the same breath?

In fact, he is one of those journalists who turned his back on readers, and used his column, often played on A-1, to do his own meticulous managing of the GOP thug's image.

The veteran Trenton reporter has consistently ignored Christie's more than 500 vetoes, his unilateral cancellation of the first large-scale expansion of rail transit in decades; and his cuts in state aid to NJ Transit that may have led to Thursday morning's fatal crash in Hoboken.

Need I mention Christie's battle against affordable housing, his repeated veto of a hike in the minimum wage or his looting of state public employees' pension system?

Baldwin's Trump referred to moderator Lester Holt, portrayed by Michael Che, as "Jazzman" and "Coltrane."

Bergen light rail

Also on Page 1 today is a report on elected leaders cheering news that the long-delayed extension of NJ Transit's light-rail service to Ridgefield, Palisades Park and Englewood may finally happen (A-1).

Light rail will offer commuters a direct ride to PATH service into Manhattan.

Today's story mentions many more hurdles, including the need to complete an environmental study and the cost, around $1 billion.

But Staff Writer Christopher Maag doesn't even mention the air-quality benefits of an electrified train line that promises to take cars off of the road and reduce the need for more diesel transit buses. 

The big losers will be commuters who live in Tenafly, where residents voted against the plan.

It isn't known whether they were influenced by The Record, which ran two long stories that demonized the extension of light-rail service.

Those articles were edited by Dan Sforza, now the managing editor.

Paterson history

A Page 1 story about Paterson's once-vibrant Jewish community of 30,000 and a dozen synagogues is one of two in today's paper describing happier times.

The Business front waxes nostalgic over the Paterson Men's Shop, which will close Oct. 15 after an 81-year run on Main Street (B-1).

But the Local front carries a report on Silk City's 8th gunshot death in two months (L-1).

The Record's editorial board hasn't bothered asking why Christie has failed to bring to Paterson the same changes in policing he put into effect to fight violent crime in less-populous Camden.

Local news?

Staff Writer Deena Yellin has a glowing report on new businesses and restaurants opening in downtown Tenafly (L-3).

This while The Record's local editors continue to ignore the causes for all of the empty storefronts in neighboring Englewood.

But there is a follow-up to large-scale fraud in Englewood school cafeterias.

"Privacy concerns" are being cited over the district's decision to install finger scanners to prevent students from swiping for others, who then received a free lunch even though their parents haven't paid for the meal (L-1).

This contrasts to The Record's Hackensack reporter completely ignoring the city's Board of Education, its schools and the poor quality of food served at the high school, where hundreds of students rely on a nearby pizzeria and fast-food options for lunch.

Opinion

Page O-2 in Opinion  is worth looking at for Brigid Harrison's column, "All woman were onstage with Clinton," in which she discusses how men treat women in power.

During the debate, Harrison reports, an unnamed Republican member of the House of Representatives tweeted, "She [Hillary Clinton] just comes across as my bitchy/wife mother."

GOP strategist Frank Luntz replied, "I'm sorry, congressman, but tonight Hillary is coming across as presidential."

Says Harrison: "Whether that guy likes it or not."

Food addictions

If I didn't know better, I'd think today's Better Living cover -- "Addicted to food" -- was a report on chief Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung.

That piece of chocolate layer cake in the illustration is just the kind of dessert Ung obsesses over in nearly ever one of the appraisals she has written in the past decade.

And she's an unapologetic carnivore, swooning over the "funk" of aged beef and ignoring how the animal might have been raised on harmful antibiotics to speed it to market.

Stale Cuba reporting distracts from Christie's 'dictatorship'

11:30 a.m. FRIDAY: Getting a new driver's license at the state motor vehicle agency in North Bergen took about an hour from when I got on line behind a dozen other people, above, outside the building in a shopping center at 90th Street and Bergenline Avenue. Last Tuesday, I went to the Lodi agency, but was told the wait was at least 2 hours.

12:10 p.m. FRIDAY: I waited on an even longer line inside the building to have my documents checked, then was in sight of the camera, above. After my photo was taken and I paid with a credit card, I had to wait about 10 minutes more for the making and laminating of the license itself. The clerk said I may be able to renew by mail when my 4-year license expires in 2019. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

When a pope visits Cuba, Editors like Martin Gottlieb of The Record and reporters like Mike Kelly always manage to find a long-suffering island resident who complains about the lack of free elections and yearns for democracy.

Yet, on the third day of Kelly's stale reporting from Cuba, The Record is silent on how special-interest money, a gullible media and voter apathy have made a mockery of free elections in the United States, including New Jersey.

Despite inheriting a Democratic majority in the state Legislature, Governor Christie has managed to get his own way and wage war on the middle class by executing more than 350 vetoes since early 2010.

And despite all his bluster, Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, a Democrat from Camden County, has failed to overturn a single Christie veto.

The GOP dictator won his first term by promising to lower property taxes and save millions through consolidation of inefficient local governments, but accomplished neither.

Page 1 news?

Local readers don't find much to interest them on Page 1 today unless they are Catholic or Rutgers football fans (A-1).

From Havana, Kelly files a rewrite of the stories The Record published when other popes visited Cuba.

The first pope to visit Cuba, in 1998, was John Paul II, so what it meant by the use of "historic visit" in front-page coverage today of Pope Francis' trip to the biggest island in the Caribbean?

Pope Benedict XVI also visited the island in 2012.

Local news?

Why does a fundraiser for the Girl Scouts get such big play on the Local front today?

It's because they staged their "rappelling fundraiser" in the same Woodland Park building where The Record and Herald News rent space for a newsroom and executive offices, though there is no mention of that (L-1).

That meant the lazy local assignment editors didn't have to move a finger to send a reporter and a photographer to cover "the big story."

After The Record moved to 1 Garret Mountain Plaza from Hackensack in 2009, the number of stories and photos on nearby Route 80 accidents and other neighborhood happenings rose dramatically.

Missing pages?

Today, the Business editors publish a "reporter's notebook" on the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce's first business summit (B-1).

Staff Writer Hugh R. Morley managed to cover a dozen speakers, "some saying the state faces an emergency situation, and even a 'crisis'," without once mentioning Christie.

Did Morley lose pages of his notebook or did the Woodland Park editors sanitize his story on B-1 today?

Opinion columns

On the Opinion front, don't bother with a second rambling Kelly column on the pope's visit to Cuba, but do turn to Brigid Harrison's piece under the headline:

"Christie learns where pandering gets you"

"The man who spoke about putting the country's domestic house in order occasionally comes home to New Jersey to a ransacked and ramshackle state, with little vision for how we can get our own house in order," Harrison says of Christie on O-2.

Editors reward Jon Stewart for keeping his hands off press

This sign might give you hope, if you have a medical emergency while driving on Route 4 east in Paramus, but the urgent-care center itself isn't close to opening, below. Why would Paramus officials approve the sign weeks before the building is ready?

On Friday, you could still see the original entrance and exterior paint of the shuttered Dos Cubanos, a Cuban restaurant, which is being renovated for the CITYMD urgent-care center, part of a Manhattan-based chain. When the center finally opens, how many patients will be rushing over after an artery clogging meal at the fried-chicken restaurant next door?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You'll have to read between the lines of Virginia Rohan's front page tribute to Jon Stewart to realize his greatest failure is never lampooning newspapers -- large ones like The New York Times and small ones like The Record.

Martin Gottlieb, editor of The Record, is a veteran of The Times, and both newspapers have revealed deep flaws -- from scandals over fabricated quotes to lazy, irresponsible local editors who wink at official misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance.

Stewart, the stand-up comedian and actor, never even bothered looking across the Hudson at the state of print journalism in his native New Jersey.

No. For "The Daily Show" targets, all you have to do in look at the continuation page, which is peppered with familiar TV news acronyms: CNN, MSNBC and CNBC, as well as the infamously slanted Fox News (A-8).

A-1 photos

Poor Virginia Rohan, The Record's veteran TV writer, who gave us the Stewart appraisal. 

Isn't Production Editor Liz Houlton discriminating against her by running a contemporary thumbnail photo of Rohan (A-1) while using dated photos of Columnists Mike Kelly (O-1) and John Cichowski (L-1)?

Talking about front-page photos, check out the racy image of Emilee Carton, manager of the Lilly Pulitzer store in Hackensack, whose cleavage-baring low neckline is upstaging the racehorse behind her (A-1).

On the Web site of the store in The Shops at Riverside, Lilly Pulitzer is billed as "the unofficial uniform of the affluent at play."

That's appropriate considering the wealthy Borg family own the Woodland Park daily and (201) magazine, considered by some to be the bible of Bergen County's moneyed elite.

Stretching the definition of transportation, the editors assigned NJ Transit reporter Christopher Maag to cover the race at Monmouth Park, and he tries mightily to polish all of those horse turds (A-1, A-8). 

Zisa and Molinelli

Also on Page 1 today, the rare byline of Staff Writer Jean Rimbach appears over an "Analysis" prompted by an appeals court vacating the convictions and prison sentence hanging over the head of former Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa. 

Rimbach claims that and other setbacks constitute "a bad run" for Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli (A-1).

Of course, you won't find any mention of Joseph S. Conte, the Zisa trial judge, who was harshly criticized by the appeals court.

"The judge [Conte] did not forcefully tell the jury that the prosecutor's remarks ... were improper, and he did not unequivocally tell them that the improper information must be disregarded," the ruling stated.

And The Record has never examined Conte's record on the bench -- and how many times he's been reversed by higher courts -- before he retired and joined a Hackensack law firm.

Local news?

There isn't much to read today in the local-news section, ostensibly edited by Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, unless you're a dog owner (L-1).

Nothing is changing with New Jersey's full-service gas stations, so why is the Road Warrior wasting our time with a long column on self-serve pumps (L-1)? 

Finally, an opinion

Mike Kelly finally manages to offer an opinion about something, the cancelled Hudson River tunnels project (O-1).

"This year, we have seen in graphic detail what happens when elected officials do not take care of important pieces of our transportation infrastructure" (O-1).

How's that for hard-hitting local journalism from the columnist with the shit-eating grin thumbnail photo?

Oh, by the way, "Hudson River tunnel," which appears in his first paragraph, is incorrect. Two tunnels were under construction.

On O-2, the Margulies cartoon about Governor Christie is a stretch.

But Opinion columnist Brigid Harrison, a professor, places the blame squarely on Christie for why a poll found our satisfaction with life in the Garden State hit a 35-year low.

Lions or humans?

On Friday's A-1 and A-4, The Record inadvertently published a condemnation of the media for their propensity to ignore human misery.

"It's so cruel," a woman in Harare, Zimbabwe, told The Associated Press, referring to the slaying of Cecil, a protected lion.

"But I don't understand the whole fuss, there are so many pressing issues in Zimbabwe -- we have water shortages, no electricity, no jobs -- yet people are making noise about a lion?"

You'd hear the same complaint from residents of Paterson, who live in fear of a drive-by shooting taking the life of another innocent victim, but who are saddled with a police director who has failed to attack the city's gun problem.

Yet, instead of questioning why Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale shouldn't be replaced, The Record spends more time reporting on his lawsuit against the Port Authority, where he once worked, and his problems clearing security at airports.

New Orleans

It's sad to see that Travel Editor Jill Schensul waited nearly 10 years after the devastation of Katrina to declare that New Orleans "is back" and "better than ever" (T-1 today and last Sunday).

That's the danger when journalists go on press trips arranged by hotel owners, chambers of commerce and mayors.

She could have visited New Orleans in 2010, and written about the renewal up to that point, helping to steer tourists to one of America's most distinctive cities.

I saw much of what she described this month on a visit in the summer of 2009, including jazz clubs along Frenchmen Street, restoration of the St. Charles Streetcar line and a French Quarter that was as vibrant as ever.

What are the editors waiting for? Let's impeach Christie

From Hackensack to Trenton to Washington, D.C., The Record's editors, columnists and reporters are addicted to writing almost everything in terms of partisan politics.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Could Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record actually be as boring as the front pages he assembles for North Jersey readers?

This Sunday edition brings the usual tedious mixing and balancing of local, state, national and international news -- much like what Gottlieb's former paper, The New York Times, does every day.

Today, the big photo on Page 1 is from Srebrenica, which I'm almost sure isn't one of the 86 towns in Bergen and Passaic counties (A-1).

The lead story is about improved on-time performance at Newark Liberty International Airport -- of little interest to readers who might take a flight once or twice a year (A-1).

The "local" story is about a deaf athlete at Hackensack High School who is too old to play football and baseball in his senior year (A-1).

Impeach Christie

To add insult to injury, the obligatory political column on Governor Christie's presidential campaign doesn't even explore the possibility of his being impeached in New Jersey (A-1).

Nor does an Opinion column on Christie by Brigid Harrison, a political science and law professor at Montclair State (O-1).

Harrison may be a good professor, but I'll bet her five books on American politics will put you to sleep faster than The Record's front page today.

Good cop, bad cop

And because she apparently gets no editing, her column today is perplexing:

First, she says a bill by Democratic leaders in the state Legislature -- to require Christie to resign from office because he is running for president -- "sounds like a good idea" (O-2).

Then, she notes the state has "suffered" as Christie panders to conservative Republicans, and has been pushed to "the brink of a fiscal cliff."

"The governor has maintained he is always available by cellphone [!!!] to deal with state issues," Harrison says with a straight face. "Yet 71 percent [of New Jerseyans] think Christie can't effectively govern the state and run for president."

After that buildup, Harrison calls the Democratic bill a "joke," denounces it as a political stunt and declares it is legally flawed.

In Constitution

But she never mentions that according to the New Jersey Constitution, the state Assembly can bring impeachment charges against Christie, who would be tried in the Senate's "court."

Assemblyman John Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, brought up the possibility of impeachment in January 2014, if investigators found a direct link between Christie and the George Washington Bridge lane closures.

That link still may come at the federal trial of Bridget Anne Kelly, the close aide Christie fired after her email to the Port Authority -- "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" -- emerged.

More errors

The ugly head of the Queen of Errors rears up at least twice today:

On Page 1, six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton should have insisted on affiliations under a double byline on the story discussing a new novel by Harper Lee (A-1).

And in the TV Times tab, the cover story is on Page 5, not on the indicated Page 3.

Better Living

Elisa Ung, the paper's chief restaurant critic, isn't about to tackle two major issues that impact the bottom line of wealthy owners -- the broken tipping system, and menus that don't list whether the meat and poultry served are raised naturally (BL-1).

Today, her column, The Corner Table, asks if people who go out to dinner "want TV in the background."

Which raises a natural question: How do we turn her off?

Travelers' photos

The Record continues to run a full page of photos readers take on vacation, as long as they are shown holding up a copy of the Travel section (T-2).

Putting aside how that cuts down on consumer-oriented travel news, how long are we going to be treated to the spectacle of overweight readers going on all-you-can-eat cruises?

Football brutality, boring Bergen politics, perverted priests

The Modern, the first of two 47-story residential towers approved by Fort Lee officials despite strong community opposition. The first tenants are expected to move in next month. A 2-bedroom apartment with indoor parking for two cars goes for about $5,000 a month.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

What a front page!

The ritualized brutality of two masturbatory Catholic high school football teams dominates Page 1 of The Record today -- for the third day in a row.

Bringing up the rear, below the fold, are perverted priests who make many readers glad they are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist -- anything but the Catholic parents of an abused boy (A-1).

The third major element is a boring Charles Stile column delving into Bergen County's politics and looking ahead to the next race for governor in 2016 (A-1).

Road kill

In Local, Road Warrior John Cichowski issues a rare report on Bergen County's antiquated road system that has absolutely nothing to do with commuting, traffic congestion and crowded mass transit.

His fist paragraph suggests the authorities should respond to complaints about drivers taking short cuts through quiet neighborhoods just like they do when a murder is reported (L-1).

Garrett must go

In Opinion, Columnist Brigid Harrison, who lost a house to Sandy, attacks Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, for sending out a campaign flier claiming he "worked to bring immediate relief to [Superstorm] Sandy victims" (O-2).

Of course, six days after the storm hit New Jersey on Oct. 28, 2012, Garret did no such thing, being the only member of the state's delegation who refused to sign a letter asking for federal disaster relief.

"You can't trust and respect someone who does one thing, and then claims to have done another because it is politically expedient," Harrison says.

Traveling music

Travel Editor Jill Schensul recently said she doesn't take free trips, but does negotiate a preferential "press rate."

"It's the way we have come up with to keep providing Record-generated stories, photos and insights rather than wire copy for our readers," Schensul told JimRomenesko.com, a prominent media blog.

But today and last Sunday, Schensul ran long wire-service travel stories in her 4-page section.

Today, the Los Angeles Times supplied nearly two full pages of text and photos about vacationing in Taos, New Mexico.

And on T-4, The Associated Press supplied a story on the Space Needle in Seattle.

Her sole contribution today is a long column on Paddington bears in London, whatever they are. (O-1).

Second look

On Saturday, a story on Thom Ammirato reported the former Hackensack city spokesman resigned as a communications consultant with the Bergen County Executive's Office (Saturday's Local front).

Hackensack reporter Todd South says Ammirato struck a deal with the Prosecutor's Office, which was investigating him.

Hackensack Scoop, a local blog, revealed the agreement on Friday.

Ammirato's $78,000-a-year contract with Hackensack was terminated on June 24. 

He had been a consultant and spokesman for Citizens for Change, which swept the May 2013 municipal election.

The cash-strapped city will not be hiring another spokesman anytime soon, a City Council member said recently. 

More too-little, too-late coverage of GWB scandal, A.C.

A third story of residential units has been added to the State Street redevelopment project in Hackensack, a building that is expected to have 222 units above a parking garage when it is completed in 2015.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The major takeouts on The Record's front page today raise a lot of unanswered questions about the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal and Atlantic City (A-1).

The so-called Analysis by Staff Writer Shawn Boburg doesn't address the chief question on readers' minds -- why is the federal grand jury investigation of the politically inspired traffic jams in Fort Lee (Sept. 9-13, 2013) taking so long?

Professor Brigid Harrison is quoted as saying the GOP bully's administration no longer controls "the narrative" (A-7).

If that's so, why does The Record persist in flattering coverage, such as the gushing stories on Governor Christie's purely political visit to Mexico last week?

Reporters love quoting Harrison, but shouldn't The Record acknowledge when it does so that she is one of its Sunday columnists? 

Maybe, it's time for the lazy newsroom editors to cast a wider net for experts.

I'm not going to bother with the The GWB Files interactive presentation at NorthJersey.com, but wonder why the nefarious motives for the lane closures weren't discovered before the November election, when Christie won a second term.

Is the photo caption on A-7 correct in saying the lane closures lasted "five days," not four?

Behind 8 ball

Is 36 years after Atlantic City's first casino opened really the right time to report on what the shore resort can learn from Las Vegas (A-1)?

Staff Writer John Brennan, a brain-damaged former sports reporter, doesn't even mention Vegas' $3.99 buffets and all the ridiculously cheap hotel rooms that lure millions to the desert.

Revel, the $2.9-billion boondoggle that just bit the dust, opened with $400-a-night rooms and the smallest casino in Atlantic City, dooming it to failure.

Sending Brennan to Las Vegas is a huge waste of money, and a waste of readers' time.

If you think his report is laughable, check out Mike Kelly's silly, shit-eating-grin perspective on Atlantic City (O-1).

Rich districts

Do school districts in wealthy towns like Tenafly and Fort Lee get more coverage in The Record (L-1 and L-3)?

Publisher Stephen A. Borg lives in Tenafly, but when is the last time the Woodland Park daily covered the Hackensack district, which spends more money per pupil than Ridgewood?

Editors get high

The Business editors couldn't find a North Jersey company that was as interesting as a Denver marijuana store (B-1).

The 4-page section supplied by The Wall Street Journal every Sunday is a testament to how hard the local business staff works to bring readers North Jersey news. 

Readers looking for a discussion of restaurant issues, such as tipping or high liquor prices, will be disappointed in The Corner Table column from Elisa Ung today (BL-1).

Traveling music

The Record's already thin Travel section is devoting less and less space to reporting on the high cost of vacations (T-1).

For years, Travel Editor Jill Schensul has reduced her workload by running a full page of readers' vacation photos on T-2.

Today, the Travel cover is filled with reader selfies (three of the five on T-1 are from Venice, Italy). More appear on T-4.

In the biggest selfie on T-1, Adam Nolte of Wyckoff doesn't look too happy. Did he pay the gondolier?

Didn't any of The Record's black and Hispanic readers send in selfies? 

Evonne Coutros

The byline of Evonne Coutros last appeared in The Record on March 3, 2014, over a story about Wyckoff, one of the towns she covered, according to NorthJersey.com.

Her byline also appeared in The Hellenic Times as far back as 1989, when she also was employed at The Record.

Coutros had a knack of landing interviews with the biggest celebrities, but The Record's editors usually assigned her to cover news from Ridgewood, Glen Rock, Ho-Ho-Kus, Franklin Lakes and other small towns.

A reader of Eye on The Record recently asked if Coutros died. I don't know.

She was 57 and lived in Closter, I believe.

Look to readers for the unvarnished truth about Christie

On the Jersey shore, the Sandy Hook national park includes a nude beach, above, and one of the big guns that protected New York Harbor during World War II, with the Manhattan skyline in the distance, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If you want the truth about New Jersey's worst governor ever, ignore the front page of The Record today and flip to letters from readers in the Opinion section.

"More important to him [Governor Christie] than a happy New Jersey is a happy moneyed elite who can fund his national run," Dave Palmer of River Edge says of the GOP bully's adamant stand against taxing the wealthy or reducing business tax cuts (O-3).

"New Jersey is dead last among the 50 states in recovery from the recession," reports Mary Ellen Marino of Princeton.

"He proposes to break his promise to fund the pensions of state employees," Marino continues, "as well as such local workers as teachers, social workers, police and firefighters."

Boosting image

Why isn't the mess Christie has made of the Garden State consistently reflected in the columns, news stories and editorials of the Woodland Park daily?

The Political Stile column on Page 1 today -- reporting Christie's renewed focus on the White House -- sounds just like all of the ones we read before the George Washington Bridge political-retribution scandal. 

Staff Writer Charles Stile notes that "on Jan. 8, The Record published emails directly linking two Christie confidants" to the lane closings (A-1).

But the editors have never explained why it took four months after the gridlock in Fort Lee and more than two months after the election to uncover the smoking gun.

And why doesn't Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin condemn Christie's extensive travel as head of a GOP fund-raising group only days before the June 30 deadline to balance the state budget (A-1 on Saturday)?

Do the arithmetic

Today's Local section leads with the dedication of a new riverfront park in Garfield (L-1), but Columnist Mike Kelly is still writing about a three-decade-old chromium spill in that working class city (O-1).

Staff Writer Kim Lueddeke still expects readers to do the arithmetic on the number of floors a new LG headquarters in Englewood Cliffs would have (L-1).

She continues to describe a "143-foot-high" or "143-foot-tall" building, but notes the borough changed the zoning code to allow "buildings up to 150 feet and eight stories."

Does that mean the controversial LG building on top of the Palisades would be eight stories?

Skeleton news staff

The weekend news staff must have been really thin this weekend, if reporters couldn't find out anything about a fatal cement-truck accident on Saturday in Edgewater (L-1 photo).

Sadly, too many of the paper's photographers think their job ends at capturing an image.

Who were Harold Olivares, 49, of the Bronx and Kevin Bonin, 59, of Teaneck?

Stories about their deaths appear on L-3, but this body count style of journalism ignores whether they were fathers or sons, what they did for a living or anything else.

Eat to the death

Why do the editors think older readers (the majority), who may be diabetic or watching their weight and cholesterol, have any interest in Staff Writer Elisa Ung's obsessions with chocolate and other artery clogging food (BL-1)?

The Corner Table column today is a thinly disguised advertisement for a chocolate bar at Westfield Garden State Plaza.

For the $31 price of the Copper River salmon entree at The Plum and the Pear in Wyckoff, you can buy more than 2 pounds of the Alaskan sockeye fillets at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack ($12.99 a pound) and feed a family of six with plenty of leftovers (BL-2).

Too academic

Kevin DeMarrais, the paper's retired consumer columnist, overlooks the most practical tip of all when you are planning to move (R-1).

Make sure you collect plenty of boxes, leave a few weeks to pack and check to see if the mover you hire has even more boxes, which you will need if your estimates of both are off.

A little balance

On the Opinion front today, Columnist Brigid Harrison's profile of Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto is a welcome break from the usual all-Christie, all-the-time coverage (O-1).

Now, for a good laugh, read the caption on the photo of Prieto and Christie on O-4. Does that look like "chatting" to you?

Readers are always scratching their heads, thanks to the lack of proofreading under six-figure production editor Liz Houlton, who likely was taking a nap when that page went to press.

More screw-ups

Want another good laugh? A Saturday correction (A-2) noted a story on Friday misstated the number of counties in New Jersey.

It wasn't even close, with the story mentioning "13 counties." There are 21.

Another correction, on Friday's A-2, said a Thursday headline misstated a significant problem in New Jersey nursing homes -- bedsores.

The headline noted a "significant bedbug problem."

Recommended 

If you missed it, Saturday's Local section carried a rare feature about a downtown merchant, as the editors continue to whip their reporters into promoting mall retailers almost exclusively.

Staff Writer Christopher Maag reports Kates Brothers Scientific Shoe Co. has been custom-fitting shoes at four different locations on Main Street in Hackensack for 73 years (L-3 on Saturday).

Why didn't this feature get better play?