Hackensack, city attorney in showdown over $3M Zisa deal

Alexander H. Carver III, a former Superior Court judge, was appointed Hackensack city attorney on Sept. 30, 2015 (Credit: Harwood Lloyd law firm).

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

This week, Hackensack's City Council is prepared to vote on a resolution terminating the services of City Attorney Alexander H. Carver III, a former judge who has had the job for only 13 months.

In a letter to the editor of The Record today, Mayor John Labrosse and Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino complained Carver agreed to pay nearly $3 million to former Police Chief Ken Zisa "without informing the mayor and council" (O-3).

"We knew the matter was being discussed -- but not decided," they say in the letter.

"Why did the city settle the case without insisting Zisa drop his $30 million tort claim against taxpayers?

"Why did the city settle before the deadline the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office had set for deciding whether to file administrative charges against Zisa, even though we specifically asked Carver to wait for that decision?

"Why did Carver agree to pay Zisa more than $1.2 million in legal fees without first reviewing the detailed invoices himself or have another attorney review them?

"Why did the city cut a $600,000-plus check to Zisa without a vote of the council or an appropriation?

"We have lost faith in Carver. If he won't resign before [this] Tuesday's [regular council] meeting, we will have to terminate his services."

Carver is not a city employee and doesn't have a signed contract. He is being paid $175,000 a year -- equal to Governor Christie's salary.

Zisa is a member of a family political dynasty that ruled Hackensack for decades. The city once was referred to mockingly as "Zisaville."

Mayor John Labrosse, seated, and other members of the City Council, including Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino, second from left.

Manager OK'd deal

As reported on Oct. 5 by Eye on The Record, Carver and David R. Troast, on his last day as city manager, agreed to a deal that would pay Zisa nearly $1,755,000 in back pay, vacation and sick days, and other job-related compensation.

Zisa, who was suspended in 2010 after 34 years in the Police Department, had been tried and convicted in 2012.

A Superior Court jury found him guilty of official misconduct and insurance fraud, and he was sentenced to 5 years in prison.

But he was placed under house arrest during appeals, and those charges were eventually dismissed.

Carver and Troast, who said he reviewed the "legal bills and invoices" submitted by Zisa's lawyer, also agreed to pay the former chief nearly $1,203,000 to cover fees through Sept. 30.

At a special meeting on Oct. 25, the City Council passed a resolution indicating officials hope to hire a new city attorney by Dec. 1.


Bridgegate trial

If you aren't already sick of The Record's wall-to-wall coverage of the Bridgegate trial, the Sunday edition should do the trick (A-1 and O-1).

The lead Page 1 story is by Paul Berger, the Port Authority reporter who need a navigation system to find the federal courthouse in Newark.

After six week of testimony from 34 witnesses, Berger declares, "several large questions remain unanswered."

Readers have their own questions, including why Berger and Dustin Racioppi, another court novice, was assigned to perhaps the most important federal criminal trial in decades.

On the Opinion front, the editors came up with a provocative headline for Carl Golden's take on the trial:

"AND THE VERDICT IS ..."

Golden is former press aide to Tom Kean and Christie Whitman, who were the worst New Jersey governors before GOP thug Chris Christie came along to claim the crown.

Below Golden's wordy column, Record Columnist Mike Kelly declares:

"Thanks to the Bridgegate trial, we now know that Christie's version of history is, at best, threadbare and highly questionable. At worst, it's a damnable lie" (O-1). 

Other stories

Page 1 has two other stories that could distract readers sick of all the repetitious Bridgegate trial stories and columns.

Retailing reporter Joan Verdon recalls Donald J. Trump's grandiose plans in 1989 for "the finest shopping center in New Jersey and beyond" at Routes 4 and 17 in Paramus (A-1).

Trump gave North Jersey residents "a preview of some of the talking points of his presidential campaign, including blustery claims about his building prowess and his ability to fix long-standing government problems, lawsuits and insults against the competition, and an allegation that the approval process might be stacked against him."

Trump hired Thomas Wells, a Paramus attorney. In July, Wells wrote a piece for The Huffington Post. Here are excerpts the reporter doesn't mention:

"After the initial interview, my client contact with Donald was actually not very much. One low point I do remember (actually will never forget) is a limousine ride to a meeting with the editorial board of a New Jersey newspaper in which my married client sought to regale me with the number and quality of eligible young women who in his words “want me.” I was just plain shocked and embarrassed, but I kept smiling. I wanted and needed this client happy. 

"While I was working for Donald, various press reports had Trump and his then-wife Ivanna living in a personal apartment in the Trump Tower of 8, 16 and even 20 or 30 rooms. Genuinely curious, I once asked him how many rooms the apartment actually had. I will never forget his response to me: “However many they will print.”

No trick-or-treat

Below the tortured Trump tale, local obituary writer Jay Levin reports no trick-or-treaters ever come to the door of the Kostka home, because "the house is inside a cemetery" (A-1).

Guy Kostka, superintendent of Valleau Cemetery in Ridgewood, has lived on the grounds with his family since 1982.

Columnist ignores Hackensack -- the capital of voter apathy

After the Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor went out of production at the end of 2011, the automaker introduced the Police Interceptor Sedan, above, based on the sixth-generation Taurus. Safety defects in the old model may have killed officers in Teaneck and Paramus: Did Crown Vic kill two police officers?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front-page column today largely avoids focusing on North Jersey's local elections, where voter apathy is at its worst.

In fact, Columnist Mike Kelly seems horrified that "in some ... towns, voters [are] asked to cast ballots in a school board election in April, a council election in May and the primary on June 7" (A-10).

Of course, Kelly doesn't tell readers they can apply for mail-in ballots that allow them to vote in any election -- from school board to president of the United States -- from the comfort of their own homes.

He quotes an expert saying voters are turned off by "the increasingly negative tone of politics" (A-10), but doesn't acknowledge The Record and other media report little else.

Family rule

In Hackensack, Cliffside Park, Englewood Cliffs and other towns, apathetic voters have allowed one family to rule their towns for decades.

In April, a tiny minority of the 20,000 registered voters in Hackensack -- once known derisively as "Zisaville" -- elected two Board of Education candidates backed by former four-term mayor Jack Zisa and his brother, Ken, the disgraced former police chief.

No one from The Record, including Kelly, reported on the issues in the election or bothered to identify the Zisas as the backers of "Team Hackensack."

A total of 1,300 residents voted in the Hackensack school election. Municipal elections usually are decided by about 3,500 voters -- this in a city of 44,000. 

Wacko Donald Trump

Readers still are confused over whether Kelly is a reporter, opinion columnist or just burned out after decades of pounding a keyboard.

Today's column is way too long, and, believe it or not, Editor Deirdre Sykes publishes a second Kelly column on the presidential election on the front of Opinion (O-1).

In the Page 1 column, Kelly refers to Donald Trump as "the developer and reality television star" (A-10).

Carl Golden, a former mouthpiece for two Republican governors in New Jersey, seems dazzled by Trump's apparent success in winning the GOP presidential nomination (O-1).

Neither acknowledge the billionaire candidate is tapping into the deep-seated racism that has been most evident during the presidency of Barack Obama. 

In praise of Muslims

The Local front today carries another story on Syrian Muslim refugees who have succeeded in North Jersey (L-1).

Staff Writer Hannan Adely seems to be saying Muslims aren't the monsters they are made out to be by Trump and Governor Christie.

Adely's story describes "a large Syrian neighborhood known for its ethnic stores and businesses," but she doesn't tell readers she is referring to Paterson's vibrant South Paterson section.

Unhealthy food

Today and Saturday, The Record's food editor and writers continue to promote some of the unhealthiest food on the planet (Better Living section).

Readers see little reporting on whether the food Elisa Ung and others rave about is naturally raised or grown.

And they seem to be saying sugar, butter, full-fat cheese, bacon and other ingredients are really good for you.

On Saturday at least, Ung included veggie and shrimp burgers as she gushed over White Manna and other low-quality hamburgers.

Why was she writing about burgers on Saturday?

It was her Pavlovian response to "National Hamburger Day" -- an event that probably was created by the nation's irresponsible beef industry.

Obama in Japan

On Saturday, over a front-page photo of the president hugging a Japanese survivor of the atomic bomb, The Record declared:

"FROM ENEMIES TO ALLIES FOR PEACE"

Huh? 

That's not news. Japan and the United States became  "allies for peace" decades ago.

Christie is New Jersey's very own Republican con artist

An NJ Transit train approaching the Anderson Street station in Hackensack on Saturday. Today, The Record's front page is treating a possible March 13 strike of rail workers -- who have been without a contract for more than five years -- as if the end of the world is coming, but ignoring Governor Christie's abysmal lack of leadership in bringing the two sides together.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's Sunday edition is filled with hand-wringing -- over a potential NJ Transit rail strike, and political battles involving the state Supreme Court, gambling, pensions and a fuel tax.

But you won't find the Woodland Park daily's so-called journalists and opinion writers going out on a limb and blasting Governor Christie for more than six years of chaotic rule (A-1 and O-1).

Surely, Christie is the worst governor in state history or, to echo New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Paul Krugman, New Jersey's own Republican con artist.

Yet, readers have to plow through paragraph after paragraph of background, analysis, and hemming and hawing by three columnists -- Charles Stiles, Carl Golden and Mike Kelly -- before finding a shred of outrage at the mess Christie has put all of us in.

Kelly on Christie

Deep on the continuation page, in his eleventh paragraph, Columnist Mike Kelly recalls all the promises Christie has made, and finally slams him with these words:

"He blew it" (O-4).

Still, Kelly's column is weighed down by comparing Christie's expression during a Donald Trump news conference last week to that of Jack McGreevey in 2004, when his son and then-governor announced he is gay and was resigning.

What a bizarre comparison, and so far afield as to have readers questioning Kelly's sanity and homophobia, and asking again why no one edits any of the paper's columnists.

Christie's big con

Since 2010, Christie has been unyielding on running the state without raising taxes of any kind, especially on his millionaire supporters.

But state revenue lagged, and the fiscal conservative soon ran into trouble balancing the state budget:

So, he began grabbing money from mass transit, public pensions, women's health, the environment and other programs to balance his voodoo spending plans.

To get his way with the Democratic majority in the state Legislature, the GOP bully executed more than 500 vetoes, leading voters to approve constitutional amendments on raising the minimum wage and open-space preservation.

Rail strike?

For some reason, a big" transit options" graphic lists not a single NJ Transit bus between North Jersey and the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan (A-6).

The No. 165 from Westwood links Hackensack and Manhattan, and the No. 166 from Cresskill picks up riders in Englewood, Leonia and Palisades Park on the way to the Lincoln Tunnel.

A rail strike would begin next Sunday at midnight.

Anti-union

The Record is so enamored of Christie and so opposed to unions that transportation reporter Christopher Maag actually quotes a so-called expert saying no one will blame the governor for a rail strike.

Indeed, Maag's first paragraph speculates on the impact of a strike on Christie's "political career" (A-7).

Readers speak

Editor Deirdre Sykes has so much contempt for readers she rarely asks her reporters to go out and interview voters on Christie or the unending series of crises the state has faced under his rule.

But unlike the paper's columnists and editorial writers, readers' letters to the editor don't mince words (O-3):

"The rise of Trump can directly be attributed to two main engines -- bigotry and bigotry," Stanley Sanders of Fair Lawn says.

Sanders also notes, "Republicans have sought the downfall of the president [Barack Obama] because of racial reasons."

'Pathetic' Christie

"Who could imagine that Governor Christie could outdo his pathetic quest for the presidency by endorsing Donald Trump," asks Michael Konsevick of Vernon.

"With more than 100,000 commuters facing an NJ Transit strike and disruption of their lives, it is inconceivable that our governor has not been publicly trying to bring the parties together," David Wynn of Livingston writes, adding:

"He is an embarrassment to New Jersey and should resign."

Referring to Christie receiving his full salary, as well as state police protection, during his doomed presidential campaign, David Brook of Hillsborough notes:

"New Jersey has a budget crisis and if the governor can take money from all sorts of programs to plug budget gaps, let's do what is only fair and take away his salary and all benefits and costs to help plug those gaps." 

Editors should demand Christie departure or impeachment

The Record of Woodland Park probably doesn't get much ad revenue from merchants on Cedar Lane in Teaneck, above, or from downtown Hackensack and many other communities. That's why the paper's editors and reporters ignore our fading downtowns, and knock themselves out covering malls, restaurants and other big advertisers.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's editors claim they don't have a "clue" whether Governor Christie feels as committed to New Jersey as he does to Donald Trump.

At least that was the last paragraph of Saturday's editorial on how Christie's endorsement of Trump, and his return to the campaign trail, affects the Garden State. 

Bewildering, isn't it? 

With the GOP bully's popularity in the state at an all-time low, readers and voters long ago made up their minds, as you can see from letters to the editor today (O-3):

"I am feeling so disgusted with myself for voting for Governor Christie in New Jersey's last gubernatorial election," writes Charles Inhulsen of Guttenberg.

"If Christie puts one foot out of state to campaign for Trump, he should resign as governor or be impeached," says Frank Gunsberg of Englewood.

"Chris Christie's endorsement of Donald Trump is a calculated, blatantly ambitious move on the part of our governor, who has completed abdicated his responsibilities to the people of New Jersey," writes former supporter Richard Muti, onetime mayor of Ramsey.

Swelled heads

Readers are telling Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin and the other editors they finally should remove their swelled heads from their enormous assholes, and call for Christie's resignation or impeachment.

And readers certainly don't want to see another opinion piece on Christie from the shameless Carl Golden, a former Record reporter who was press aide to two of the governor's Republican predecessors (O-1).

Golden says Christie has nothing to lose by endorsing Trump, but the so-called public policy analyst ignores the impact on a state beset by problems -- from credit downgrades to crumbling roads and bridges.

For the only hard-hitting commentary on Christie, see the Margulies cartoon on O-2.

Page 1

Editor Deirdre Sykes really came up with a stinker in today's front page, which is completely devoid of anything interesting or engaging for local readers.

Nor is there much news in Local, unless readers want to take Road Warrior John Cichowski's quiz on road safety (L-1).

A monthly news quiz appears on L-3.

Get me rewrite

In Better Living, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung and reporter Sophia F. Gottfried rewrote press or public-relations releases for the First Course feature on BL-2 today.

The pitches for a restaurant, bakery, cookbook and more sound as promotional as advertising.

Memorable stories no substitute for memorable journalism

A driver leaving a gas station in Teaneck saw nothing wrong with crossing the double-yellow line on Cedar Lane near River Road, blocking a turn lane and trying to find a hole in traffic stopped at the light.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's first Sunday edition of 2016 is chock full of "nuts" to readers:

There's the 2015 local news in review (L-1), more speculation on what the future holds for New Jersey (A-1), and only mild criticism of Governor Christie, who has put his personal ambitions above the welfare of residents (O-1).

Editor Martin Gottlieb, a New York Times veteran who is retiring at the end of the month, has started the year off with a whimper, not a bang.

Cranky Stile?

The danger of leading the Sunday paper with another Charles Stile column is that readers will simply turn the page to avoid more of the same old political drivel from one of Christie's chief apologists (A-1).

Surprise. Stile sounds cranky today, but still tempers his criticism, refusing to call Christie what he is, the worst governor in state history.

Ditto for Columnists Carl Golden and Mike Kelly on today's Opinion front.

Here's Stile:

"Without a fully engaged governor setting the agenda from his State House office, the deep-seated issues affecting the lives of average New Jersey residents ... are largely unresolved" (A-1).

Can you hear readers snoring?

Other columns

On the Opinion front, Golden comments on a near-bankrupt Transportation Trust Fund, a public pension system sinking further into debt; rising property taxes, still highest in the nation; and the disaster of casino gambling.

Say it, Carl: We are mired in deep doo-doo, all of Christie's making.

But what can you expect of Golden, a former Record staffer and onetime flack for two previous Republican governors?

Kelly's long-winded column says the day before Christie formally announced he was running for president, he created a panel to look into ways of making it easier for residents to buy and own guns, but you have to plow through six paragraphs to figure that out (O-1).

Outrage, please

The three columnists show once again why newspapers are becoming obsolete:

Stile, Golden and Kelly don't seem to have strong opinions about anything. Their columns sound like the kind of news analysis papers have been running for years.

From their pulpit, these so-called journalists should channel the outrage of the public over some of Christie's dastardly acts. 

Instead, they merely push words around into reasoned arguments.

Indeed. The strongest criticism of Christie comes from Columnist Brigid Harrison, a political science and law professor (O-2). 

Hey, Marty. Why isn't her column on Page 1 today?

Local news?

On the Local front today, a roundup of the "memorable stories of 2015" runs nearly two-and-half pages (L-1, L-2 and L-3).

But did local staffers, who brought up the rears of Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, produce any memorable journalism?

I was moved more than once by the local obituary writer, Jay Levin, who does a masterful job of summing up the lives of notable North Jersey residents.

Can you recall any other memorable local journalism?

Downsized

News of Hackensack, the biggest Bergen County community and once the paper's home, continues to wither and die.

Three areas of neglect were Hackensack's corrosive party politics, the impact of Hackensack University Medical Center and other non-profits on rising property taxes, and school and school board news.

In Englewood, The Record completely ignored segregated elementary and middle schools, and empty storefronts downtown.

Teaneck officials should get poor marks for Cedar Lane, one of the most congested downtown streets in North Jersey, and their refusal to install more turn lanes or even have cops directing traffic instead of setting speed traps.

Only the recent hit-run death of a homeless man at Cedar Lane and Garrison Avenue moved the editors to pay any attention to the street.

Funny business

Downtown economies were completely ignored by the business editors in 2015, as in previous years, and today's cover story doesn't bode well for them (B-1).

Readers are ill-served by the four staff-written profiles that read like public relations for the New Jersey and Business Industry Association, Valley National Bank, New Jersey Retail Merchants Association and Cushman & Wakefield.

Of course, business, food and some news coverage follows the money -- all of the advertising revenue that flows into North Jersey Media Group from banks, malls, real estate offices, commercial customers, restaurants, automakers and car dealers.

This year won't be any different.

Food warehouse flier is more gripping than front page

The Main Street entrance to the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack. Today's front page of The Record is dominated by the possible closing of another building that has far less architectural or human significance.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record must be pretty desperate for news, judging by a story on the possible closing of the Izod Center that covers three-quarters of Page 1 today. 

You'll find more interesting reading in the flier from the International Food Warehouse on Essex Street in Lodi (one of today's inserts).

A story on A-3 today reports overnight PATH service won't be cut, but The Record has ignored the Port Authority's refusal to expand rail and bus transit to ease increasing traffic congestion at the Hudson River crossings.

Readers speak out

Two letters to the editor reacted negatively to Governor Christie's State of the State address (A-10).

But the only opinion piece on the speech is from Carl Golden, a former Record reporter who went on to work as the mouthpiece for two of Christie's Republican predecessors (A-11).

Clifford Hamblen, a retired Ridgefield Park police officer, objected to Christie calling pensions an entitlement or "something that is given to you, such as a welfare payment or a grant" (A-10).

Hamblen said he "earned" his pension over 30 years, and paid "a larger percentage of my salary into it over time."

An entitlement, he wrote, is Christie spending millions of taxpayer dollars to insulate himself from blame in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal.

Andrew Abraham of Teaneck calls Christie "an ambitious bully who cares only for himself and little for the people he is supposed to serve" (A-10).

Weak editorials

The Record's editorials, on the other hand, have been only mildly critical of Christie and have barely taken notice of what probably is his record number of vetoes since he took office five years ago, including killing a tax surcharge on millionaires.

Could the Woodland Park daily's editorials be influenced by North Jersey Media Group Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg's close friendship with the governor's chief fundraiser, Jon F. Hanson?

A fund sponsored by Hanson's Hampshire Cos. just made a sale-leaseback deal for NJMG's Rockaway printing plant.

Brain teasers

A follow-up to the minor accident involving Bergen County Executive James Tedesco leave at least one question unanswered (L-3).

Tedesco was driving a county owned vehicle and dropping off his chief of staff, Michele DiIorgi, at her car Tuesday evening when the official was involved in a 4-vehicle crash on Route 17 in Rochelle Park.

Why didn't DiIorgi meet Tedesco at the county offices in Hackensack, and car pool to Trenton from there?

On the same page today, readers must fill in the blanks left by a caption for a photo showing a six-car crash on Route 208 in Fair Lawn.

The local assignment editors have devised this method of brain teasing -- incomplete stories and photo captions -- to help readers avoid dementia.

Unfortunately, that hasn't worked with at least one staffer, Road Warrior John Cichowski.

Column on highway 'miracle' is no help for commuters

The commute by car through the Lincoln Tunnel, above, and on NJ Transit trains and buses, below, hasn't gotten any easier in the year or more since these photos were taken. In the past decade, The Record has done little to dramatize highway congestion or crowded mass transit, allowing its lazy transportation reporters and columnist to steer coverage. See today's overlong Road Warrior column on a man who picks up litter near highway off-ramps. 

Standing room only on an old rail car pressed into service after Superstorm Sandy.

As especially hellish Friday night commute at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Let's hear it for Benny Gonzales, a disabled Paterson man who picks up litter near highway ramps and returns wallets and other valuables discarded by thieves, as reported today on The Record's Local front (L-1).

But this feel-good column by Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski won't do anything to improve the hellish weekday commute of tens of thousands of drivers and mass-transit users who live in North Jersey.

This month, Cichowski is celebrating his 11th year as Road Warrior columnist. He is perhaps the laziest transportation reporter The Record has ever had.

A close second would be Dan Sforza, the deputy local assignment editor who, as the transporation reporter, ignored NJ Transit's then-new fleet of defective commuter buses.

Their screeching rear brakes and noisy engines awoke people who lived on residential routes, including Queen Anne Road in Teaneck and Grand Avenue in Englewood.

When the problem was brought to Sforza's attention, he shrugged, and went back to researching stories on "highways of the future."

Fuzzy reporting

Today, Cichowski incorrectly calls the grass near ramps for Routes 19 and 80 "medians." 

He refers to Gonzalez's litter patrol and honesty as "a 21st-century miracle."

Of course, a real miracle would be Cichowski acting as an effective commuting columnist -- without committing hundreds of errors.

Front page

Page 1 today doesn't have a single hard-news story from any town, Bergen and Passaic counties or the state.

'GWB affair'

On the Opinion front, Carl Golden, a former press aide to two Republican governors, writes about the current Republican governor and what the writer refers to as "the GWB affair" and "the GWB episode."

Golden calls them "a reference to all manner of alleged or genuine misbehavior -- abuse of government power, political retribution, conflicts of interest, insider deals, personal financial gain, ethical breaches and involvement of administration staffers in campaign work" (O-1).

But as you would expect with a longtime GOP loyalist, Golden doesn't venture an opinion on Christie's involvement in the Fort Lee lane closures last September.

Golden shares this flaw with other opinion columnists for the Woodland Park daily, including Charles Stile and Mike Kelly. 

Cowardly columnists, sloppy editing and potholes

A pothole on Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, where I haven't seen any crews repairing pockmarked streets that bend car wheels and blow out tires, and have drivers cursing their public officials.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Why is Columnist Charles Stile wasting readers' time today by examining what Governor Christie said as long ago as 2011, but never saying whether he thinks the GOP bully is lying about his role in the Bridgegate scandal?

That's what readers want from a columnist for The Record -- an opinion, a point of view, an accusation based on the seasoned Trenton reporter's experience dealing with public officials.

Instead, the best Stile can do is say "Christie's credibility -- and his career -- are in the shadow of a scandal" (A-1).

This "scandal" thing is a variation of what he wrote in his boring column on Friday: 

"Recast by scandal as a bully whose aides closed off part of the George Washington Bridge as a political revenge plot...." 

He's no Breslin

Of course, it's Stile's credibility that is on the line, along with the credibility of the paper's other columnists, including Road Warrior John Cichowski and Mike Kelly, who can't muster any strong opinions, either.

Instead of condemning municipal crews' half-assed job of snow removal and pothole repair in the region, Cichowski's column on Thursday delved into fantasy, based on a single driver's comment:

“'It seems like every street corner has snow piles up to the heavens, making it impossible to turn onto any street.'

"Yet," a concerned reader noted, "there were no reports of regionwide or local traffic gridlock, if it really was 'impossible to turn onto any street.'

"The Road Warrior’s column predicted that 'current accumulations are likely to keep streets narrow and dangerous for weeks' due to freezing temperatures, even though four straight days of temperatures in the 50s and three days of rain would melt a lot of the snow."

See the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers by clicking on the following link:

Road Warrior puts up factual roadblocks 

Good for transit

What is the big deal about leasing a North Bergen park-and-ride lot to NJ Transit for $1 a year, even if the agency was a client of lawyer David Samson, chairman of the Port Authority (A-1 on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and today)?

NJ Transit is the state's mass-transit agency -- not a profit-making company -- and in giving up $900,000 in revenue from the lot in 2012, the Port Authority was, in effect, making a contribution to the viability of public transit and helping to ease traffic congestion.

The bi-state agency is supported by fees and tolls, not taxes, and operates the PATH commuter rail system, owns hundreds of buses used by NJ Transit and others, and runs the reverse express bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel.

No question

Today's Page 1 story by Staff Writer Shawn Boburg actually reports Samson "has been the focus of questions about whether clients of his law firm benefited from his public position."

"Whether"? 

Weeks ago, National Public Radio (WNYC-FM) reported lobbying and legal work boomed at Samson's law firm after Christie named him chairman of the Port Authority.

Those clients know a good thing when they see it -- their lawyer at the pinnacle of power.  

Wasting our time

The front of Local today carries another Road Warrior column -- this one about drivers who run  stop signs at a traffic circle in the Bergen County backwater of Franklin Lakes (L-1).

Drivers run stop signs everywhere. Why waste an entire column on this spot? 

What about an epidemic of speeding and aggressive driving, and the dramatic decline in the enforcement of traffic laws on highways and in many towns.

Why not report on Hackensack Police Director Mike Mordaga's crackdown on traffic violations? 

Sloppy editing

Also on the Local front today is a beautifully written local obituary for Sidney Kronish, who lived to 101, with an inexplicable flaw in the first paragraph:

"Rozanne Zweig addressed the mourners as she stood aside [italics added] her boyfriend's simple pine coffin."

Shouldn't that be "beside" or "next to" the coffin? Where were the assignment, news and copy editors who went over this obituary? Were they asleep at their computers?

Silence is golden

On the Opinion front, Carl Golden, a former Record reporter who was press secretary to two Republican governors, discusses the stresses of a job now held by Mike Drewniak, Governor Christie's discredited chief spokesman (O-1).

Golden doesn't explain why Drewniak, a former Star-Ledger reporter in Trenton, has such a foul mouth or why he cursed and belittled former colleagues who were looking into the Bridgegate scandal.

Drewniak has laid low in the weeks since his expletive-filled e-mails emerged, and no one has reported whether it is a coincidence his last name rhymes with "maniac."

Jets v. residents

The Business front cover story on increased private-jet activity at Teterboro Airport is a royal F.U. to residents of Teaneck, Hackensack and other towns who are kept awake by all of those noisy planes (B-1).

Nor does it report that Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg is the filthy rich co-owner of one of the unregulated private jets that seem to be screaming overhead day and night. 

Editors take pains to hide journalists who sell out

Rocklin's on Cedar Lane in Teaneck. The convenience store first opened about 80 years ago, the current owner says. Take that 7-Eleven.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

What happened when members of the press pressed Christie press secretary Michael Drewniak for answers to pressing questions about the George Washington Bridge lane closures in Fort Lee?

The F-words flew, and they were aimed squarely at a newspaper reporter and editor.

Is that anyway for a former reporter for The Star-Ledger to act after spending many years shoving "the right to know" in the faces of reluctant or stonewalling news sources?

Of course not, but "former reporter" tells you little about Drewniak, Governor Christie's chief spin doctor, who appears to be as mean-spirited as his boss, known far and wide as the GOP bully.

Light on details

Today's Page 1 story in The Record is missing any information on how many years Drewniak spent as a reporter at the state's biggest newspaper, what he covered and how he covered it.

So, readers don't know whether he won his job as chief spokesman for Christie the crusading U.S. attorney because he could be trusted to tell former colleagues to go to hell when they got too close to the truth about his boss, as he appears to be doing in the four-month-old GWB scandal.

Or, whether the spokesman job was a "reward" to Drewniak for being the kind of journalist who could be molded by Christie to remain loyal and highly partisan above all else. 

But we can assume Drewniak gave up newspaper journalism for a far higher salary -- that he basically sold out.

Don't expect any details in The Record, which doesn't like to discuss salaries -- whether for its own reporters, Christie's press secretary or special Bridgegate prosecutor Reid Schar (A-1).

Inside journalism

Another former newspaper reporter, Carl Golden, is quoted today as saying it would be wrong to assume that Drewniak's appearance in Bridgegate e-mails "automatically indicates he did something wrong" (A-4).

The Record doesn't tell readers Golden is one of its former Trenton reporters or that in the past it ran his Sunday Opinion pieces on Christie without identifying him as onetime press secretary to two former Republican governors, Thomas H. Kean and Christie Whitman.

Really, how much value does anything written about Christie by a longtime GOP flack have, and why does The Record present Golden's pieces as insightful as opposed to just more conservative B.S.?

In fact, The Record's coverage of Christie -- in news stories, columns and editorials -- has been so kind readers can just imagine that reporters, columnists and editorial writers are competing for a much higher-paying job in a hoped-for Christie White House.

Expletives deleted

Christie's Port Authority cronies, Bill Baroni and David Wildstein, sent Drewniak questions from reporters about the controversy, which now appears to be political retribution against Fort Lee's Democratic mayor.

In one e-mail, Drewniak was asked to respond to a Star-Ledger reporter, but he "used an expletive" and called the reporter a "mutt," The Record reports on A-4 today.

He used the same expletive in response to a request for comment from a Star-Ledger editorial writer:

"[Expletive] him and the S-L [Star-Ledger]," Drewniak wrote.

Can we assume Drewniak called them "fucking mutts," and wrote "Fuck him and the S-L"?

Punitive damages

The Record also quoted Brigid Harrison, a political science professor, as saying she "also was troubled by the disrespect shown to reporters, and its reflection on Christie" (A-4).

"That tone clearly damages his [Drewniak's] reputation. They're his constituents, the people he is charged with having a relationship with on the part of the governor. It's evident that he holds many of them in disdain."

We can only guess at whether Drewniak's own questionable performance as a reporter and his leaving the profession as a sell-out is haunting him now and shaping his opinion of all of those ink-stained wretches who pester him day in, day out.

For some reason, Harrison is not identified as one of The Record's Sunday Opinion columnists.

Why only now?

Why haven't we read more about Drewniak before today, especially in view of his long service to Christie in the U.S. Attorney's and Governor's offices?

On the front-page today, he is described as "rarely mincing words, often insulting or simply dismissing anyone who fails to adopt the administration's message."

I guess The Record's Melissa Hayes, Charles Stile, Alfred P. Doblin and others have nothing to worry about in view of their adoring coverage of Christie until the Bridgegate scandal broke last week.

Hackensack news

Today's A-1 report doesn't say whether the $2 million settlement with two former Hackensack cops and two others will be covered by insurance or come out of the city treasury.

About a third of the $2  million is expected to go to the plaintiffs' lawyers.

Thomas Aiellos and Vincent Riotto are among two dozen cops who sued the city.

They detailed "shocking allegations of corruption and civil rights violations" under former state assemblyman and Police Chief Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa, who is appealing a 5-year prison term for criminal misconduct and insurance fraud (A-1). 

Riotto will be reinstated as a lieutenant under terms of the settlement.

Thumb sucker

In Local today, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza buried a story on a lawsuit alleging a gunman entered Westfield Garden State Plaza on Nov. 4 past "careless" security and opened fire before killing himself (L-6).

Swaddled in his own security blanket, the snoozing Sforza has refused to investigate whether the state's biggest mall has any effective security beyond cameras and unarmed guards directing traffic -- lest he alienate the retailers who are among the paper's biggest advertisers.

The suit by Alexandra DiMarco, 21, of Tappan, N.Y., alleges she "fell to the ground, broke her elbow and suffered cuts and bruises" during a stampede of shoppers (L-6).