Gluttony, inebriation, human trafficking and brain injuries

After the train passed and the gates went up, the driver of this minivan continued down Euclid Avenue to Grand Avenue and right through the stop sign without slowing or stopping, a common occurrence in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Today's post-Christmas edition of The Record is pretty ho-hum.

On Page 1, Columnist Mike Kelly rehashes a major episode in New Jersey corruption from the late 1970s and early 1980s that most people have long forgotten. (A-1).

Kelly claims another crappy Hollywood movie -- short on facts and long on fabrication -- "renews old questions about Abscam."

For whom? Surely not readers. 

Here's a second column in a row where Kelly rehashes a major event from the distant past, basically telling readers he can't be bothered doing the legwork and forming opinions on an important issue that affects them today.

Back to school

Also on Page 1, a photo of Barbara Taylor Rosser teaching students about Kwanzaa is likely the first time in many years The Record actually covered anything going on in a Hackensack  classroom (A-1).

On A-15, another pope offered annual Christmas wishes for a better world, but Governor Christie is the kind of Catholic who will answer that prayer by making the world better for him, his family and his wealthy supporters, and to hell with the middle class.

With little else of interest in today's paper, I wondered what I had missed recently.

Sports lessons

On Wednesday's Local front, law enforcement officials in Indianapolis and New Orleans, the two most recent Super Bowl hosts, warned New Jersey officials "to expect a rise in prostitution and the recruitment of teenage boys and girls into the sex trade."

Isn't pro football a great sport? 

Add human trafficking to all the other wonderful features of the sport: 

Tailgate gluttony, a culture of inebriation in the stadium and wealthy team owners who pay athletes millions of dollars a year, then turn their backs on those who suffer traumatic brain injuries.

That's why many call it the Super Toilet Bowl.

Houlton follies

Just about the clunkiest photo over line and headline of the year appeared on the Local front last Sunday:

POSTAL SERVICE POWERS UP  TO HOLIDAY SPEED

Teterboro center gets 'normal'

"Gets normal"? What the hell does that mean, Production Editor Liz Houlton?

Ex-detective cleared

In the Dec. 20 edition of the weekly Hackensack Chronicle, a story by Record Staff Writer Hannan Adely reports retired police Detective Kenneth Martin has been cleared of charges he stole his opponents' campaign signs when he ran for the City Council.

Martin had been convicted of theft on Aug. 1 in Municipal Court and fined $150 on the basis of a surveillance video.

But a Superior Court judge threw out the conviction "because authorities were unable to vouch for the authenticity of the video" from a surveillance camera at Hackensack Market on Passaic Street, Martin's lawyer said.

More disappointment

Image via Wikipedia

I know only a skeleton staff worked on Christmas Day at The Record of Woodland Park, so it shouldn't be a surprise that today's paper is so dreadful.

True, there is breaking national news at the top of Page 1, but most of the rest of the page is devoted to a hotel with a suite for children with autism, one in a long, occasional series of stories in recent years about the disability. Have you seen equivalent, front page coverage in The Record of Alzheimer's disease or whether there are programs to help older drivers, whose fatal accident photos appear regularly in the paper?

There is yet another story about the Monmouth County dad who just brought his 9-year-old son back from Brazil, but nothing but a stale quote  from the judge about the Hasbrouck Heights father whose 9-year-old daughter remains in Spain.

Notice how many stories in the A-section and Local section are written by Star-Ledger reporters, who turn out some of the longest, most boring filler pieces I have ever seen, including the endless tale on A-4 about a worker inside the Lincoln Tunnel. This cooperative news gathering agreement really screws Record readers.

In the 16-page Local section, exactly five stories are written by Record staffers.

Omission of the week: Veteran reporter Scott Fallon, in a Friday story about where to recycle your computer, TV and other electronics, omits mention of  Hackensack's program to accept them, as well as batteries, bulbs and other items once taken only by county agencies. The city's program is more than a year old.

For the second day yesterday, no former or current staffer -- or anyone else -- has come to the defense of the former Hackensack daily's news, sports or feature coverage. Again, you can comment anonymously by simply clicking on "comments" at the end of this post.