No stars for dessert-obsessed restaurant critic Elisa Ung

The Bergen County Human Services Shelter for the homeless was built on South River Street in Hackensack opposite the Bergen County Jail, below. Police Director Mike Mordaga credits his quality of life patrols and cooperation by shelter officials for a reduction in the number of homeless on Main and Anderson streets.

The county shelter serves three free meals a day, attracting a large number of homeless. But police say many of those with criminal records appear to be staying away from Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Despite a growing awareness in the United States of heart-healthy foods and the harm to humans of antibiotics used to raise animals, The Record's chief restaurant critic seems to be stuck in the 1970s.

Today, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung gives only 3 out of 4 stars to the widely respected Esty Street in Park Ridge, and throws a temper tantrum over what she calls "a sad list of options for sweet-toothed customers" (BL-16).

Ung never explains whether the desserts are what led her to deny the 23-year-old "institution" that coveted fourth star (Outstanding), but slams the place for being "in expense account, price-is-no-object territory."

Gee. 

In the eight or nine years Ung has had this job, I'm sure she has reviewed far more expensive restaurants, especially steakhouses where she thinks nothing of dropping $85 of the newspaper's money for a huge hunk of aged mystery beef pumped full of harmful antibiotics and growth hormones.

Naturally raised?

I would think the $39 short ribs and $43 filet mignon she sampled at Esty Street were raised naturally and came from animals that were grass fed, justifying the prices.

But all Ung says about their origin is "the steak quality here cannot be contested."

She does complain the restaurant's menu doesn't "note" the prices of three steaks or such "enhancements" as crispy oysters.

Yet, she is guilty of praising the wine selection and "enticing" cocktails, but forgetting to tell readers how much they cost.

No sugar high

Then, she devotes an entire long paragraph to her disappointment over the "leaden" creme brulee, "too-thick chocolate" in another dessert and the lack of "lush creaminess" in an ice cream.

The first sentence of that paragraph, one of 10 in the review, is missing commas: "Avoid the leaden creme brulee pound cake French toast and a chocolate trio ...."

Anyone concerned about their weight or heart health would avoid all of those artery clogging desserts like the plague.

'Health vice'

And despite all the years she has been stuffing her face on The Record's dime, her writing remains rough, and she doesn't seem to get any editing.

She claims the restaurant's "finesse screeches to a halt at dessert."

A starter of grilled octopus with creamy gigante beans contains a "health vice," Ung reports, referring to a few slices of chorizo.

Yet, the overweight reviewer doesn't warn of a "health vice" in any of the desserts she sampled.

Ung's unhealthy eating habits don't serve the vast majority of readers, who are older and may be diabetic, watching their weight or trying to avoid heavy cream and butter.

Her departure would be no loss. 

Page 1

The 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide certainly deserves front-page coverage, but why didn't the editors assign any reporters to question North Jersey's Turkish residents on their views concerning the standard denials from officials (A-1)?

The Record's coverage of the two hostages killed by a U.S. drone doesn't contain a word on whether we will compensate the families or defend lawsuits filed by them (A-1).

President Obama's statement that the deaths were "not necessarily the result of negligence" suggests the latter (A-1 and A-8).

Clueless reporting

Another fatal accident exposes the deeply flawed editing and local reporting staff in the Woodland Park newsroom (L-1).

The first question any reporter should ask when a passenger is ejected from a vehicle is whether he or she was wearing a seat belt.

Instead, Staff Writers Andrew Wyrich and Stephanie Akin knock themselves out getting quotes on what a wonderful person Stephanie Morgan was before the Emerson High School senior died Thursday.

The first paragraph wasn't even edited. 

Morgan died from head injuries suffered, the reporters say, "when she was ejected from a single-car accident hours before" [italics added].

Of course, she was ejected from a vehicle, not an "accident." 

Update

Cliffview Pilot.com quotes Prosecutor John L. Molinelli as saying Morgan, 18, wasn't wearing a seat belt, and that she was ejected through the vehicle's sunroof.

Jerry DeMarco also reports the driver will be charged with a juvenile offense, and he supplies details on how the vehicle crashed that you don't find in The Record today.

See: Emerson teen wasn't wearing seat belt

Nissan recall

From The Record's description of the one-vehicle crash, the 2008 Nissan Pathfinder involved may have had a mechanical problem, causing it to flip"numerous times," or the driver, Morgan's friend, could have been speeding.

According to cars.com, the 2008 Pathfinder was recalled in 2010 to replace a control arm in the front suspension for improper welds that could lead to separation and a crash. 

This kind of flawed reporting is evident in almost every motor vehicle or pedestrian fatality covered by the inept local assignment editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, and edited by staffers under the supervision of six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton.

Recall the single story on the March 9 pedestrian death of Hue D. Dang, 64, a Vietnamese-American woman who was run down in Hackensack by a detective driving an unmarked car from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.

The story never mentioned a crosswalk at the T-intersection, Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street, or that Dang was struck when she was walking in or near it. 

Hackensack police filed no charges against the driver, Detective Sgt. John C. Straniero, 49, of Wayne, but another prosecutor's office is investigating the accident.

Christie in N.H.: No, really, I haven't decided if I'm running

The West Englewood section of Teaneck.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

For anything approaching news about Governor Christie's decision to run for the White House, look to "The Today Show" on NBC, not The Record.

Page 1 of the Woodland Park daily carries a silly comparison of Christie's town hall meeting in New Hampshire on Wednesday and his 134 New Jersey forums.

Staff Writer Melissa Hayes, who is traveling with Christie, has this breaking news: 

The GOP bully "offered his own microphone" to people his aides couldn't reach in the tightly packed room. Wow. What a mensch.

But in an "exclusive" interview with "Today" host Matt Lauer, aired this morning, Christie said about running for president:

"It is absolutely the truth that Mary Pat and I have not made this decision yet.

"But the outspoken Christie had definite opinions about the three U.S. senators who already have tossed their hats into the Republican ring: Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio.

"I think a governor is going to be the nominee, a governor or a former governor, because I believe that our party and our country need someone who's actually run something.

"And while I have great respect for a number of those folks, I don't believe that we've done well with the experiment of a one-term U.S. senator being president of the United States."

Another correction

The lame assignment, news and copy desks have admitted to another embarrassing error -- misspelling the name of the police chief in Elmwood Park (A-2).

Local news?

Five days before the school board election in Hackensack, I have yet to see anything in The Record's Local section on the candidates for three open seats.

Are they incumbents or newcomers? Where do they stand on important educational issues and improved food service in the high school?

Also on the ballot is the nearly $75,000,000 budget proposed by the board for the 2015-16 school year -- a big component of residents' property tax bill.

Voters can vote "Yes" or "No" on the budget, but The Record hasn't carried a story about that either.

Voter apathy can be blamed directly on The Record's lazy assignment editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, who prefer to fill their columns with crime and court news.

In the April 2014 election, only 1,584 residents went to the polls out of an estimated 20,000 registered voters.

Auto safety

More than 11 years into writing the Road Warrior column, Staff Writer John Cichowski still can't report clearly on the the key to reducing deaths on America's streets and highways (L-1).

His long-winded, poorly written column today -- including "tasked," a word that should be banned from newspapers -- will bore most readers to tears.

Of course, Cichowski's role is to fill as much space as possible to make up for the thin municipal news report.

Today, he could have written just a few paragraphs on driver behavior -- the key to reducing injuries and deaths.

Amid declining enforcement, the rise of speeding, aggressive driving, running red lights and stop signs; and killing or injuring pedestrians is the biggest auto safety story of the last decade.

Stupid headline hides truth about GOP-led Congress

A sign in the unisex bathroom at Pushcart Coffee on Ninth Avenue and 25th Street in Manhattan.

Shivering tourists on a walking tour of Manhattan's Theater District on Saturday, another frigid, sunless day.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A headline declaring "deep divide in D.C." certainly is familiar to anyone who has read a newspaper in the last few years.

But after months of hysteria in The Record and other media about Tea Party radicals and other Republicans taking full control of Congress and dismantling President Obama's health care law and other initiatives, reality has set in.

On Monday's front page, more than two months after the 2014 election, Columnist Herb Jackson reports voter turnout was pushed down "nationally to its lowest point since World War II," and ending gridlock is "overly optimistic, to say the least."

Jackson blames voter apathy on a "bitter election," but the media also are at fault for ignoring issues in favor of conflict and sound bites, and failing to reveal the lies in GOP attack ads.

However, the main headline on his column used the old "deep divide in D.C." and ignored the real truth -- no end to gridlock in the new Congress, despite Republican majorities.

Monday's A-2 carried another long correction of a story in the Local news section, the one on Sunday about Brendan Jordan, 7, the New Milford boy who died in a school accident.

Today's paper

Page 1 today is dominated by Staff Writer John Cichowski's Road Warrior column -- based on press releases, phone interviews and fatal accident reports (A-1).

If the past is any guide, Cichowski likely has committed a number of errors in citing state police data, and he continues to refer to pedestrian deaths as "crashes."

Weak laws

Cichowski should be calling for stronger laws to hold drivers criminally responsible for killing a pedestrian.

Now, drivers can use the excuse that they "didn't see" the pedestrian as a get-out-of jail card.

Older drivers

The challenges facing older drivers is another issue the lazy, demented reporter has neglected in the more than 11 years he has been writing the column.

That can be plainly seen today in the two photos that run in Local, where head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, hold up another older driver to ridicule.

Look at the helpless expression on the white-haired woman's face -- as captured by an ambulance-chasing freelancer -- after she drove her 2009 Honda Civic "over a guardrail and retaining wall and down an embankment at a condominium complex" in Ridgewood (L-3).

Of course, the woman didn't "drive" her car through the guardrail on Monday afternoon.

She likely mistook the accelerator for the brake pedal, a common error for elderly drivers.

Is driver retraining available for older drivers such as this woman? 

Cichowski could care less, and Sykes and Sforza fear any such public service stories would deprive them of the filler accident photos they so desperately need to complete their weak local news report.  

Second look

On Sunday, Columnist Mike Kelly criticized Governor Christie for not attending the funeral of another pedestrian, Cliffside Park Special Police Officer Stephen Petruzzello, who was killed by a driver who claimed she didn't see him (Opinion front).

But Kelly gets absolutely no editing, and thinks readers have nothing better to do than plow through a dozen long introductory paragraphs about Christie the football fan and a gubernatorial vacation.

The criticism appears on the continuation page, and many readers may have been so bored by all the background they never saw it.

It seems silly to tell someone who has been a columnist for more than 20 years: Put your criticism in the first paragraph and leave the background for later.

But it's necessary with Kelly, one of the paper's chief word pushers.

Christie's chances of a White House win are fading fast

In Hackensack on Saturday, construction continued on a new Bergen County Justice Center and parking deck, above, across Court Street from Church on the Green, below. Has pile driving, heavy equipment and other work knocked loose plaster in the historic building, which dates to 1791?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

"With Governor Christie again considering a run for president, his constituents appear to be tiring of the whole routine.

"Polls taken over the last three months reveal a list of home-state complaints:

"Christie's favorability is at its lowest point, with more voters disapproving than approving of his job performance.

"New Jersey residents think he is making decisions with an eye on his national standing rather than on what is good for the state.

"They do not think he should run for president -- they are, as the slogan goes, ready for Hillary -- but most expect he will, and want him to resign if he does."

You'd expect The Record to run this appraisal of Christie, who is expected in the new year to announce his decision on running.

But you'd be wrong. The article appears in The New York Times today under the headline:

"As Christie Roams the Country,
 His Popularity Takes a Hit in New Jersey."

Slanted coverage

What readers of The Record get is more of the same largely favorable Christie coverage that has been rammed down their throats since he took office in January 2010:

In his Page 1 column, Staff Writer Charles Stile doesn't list all the negatives of a Christie candidacy, but focuses awkwardly on the GOP bully as "a candidate-in-progress" -- whatever that is --"sharpening his message and strategy" (A-1).

In reader polls, Stile finishes a close second behind Mike Kelly on fracturing the English language.

Awful headline

Even the headline leading The Record's front page today soft pedals what Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo did in vetoing changes at the behemoth Port Authority that were approved by lawmakers in the two states (A-1). 

Who approved the bland "Governors unveil their PA plan" as a banner headline under The Sunday Record masthead?

No. Christie and Cuomo rejected sweeping reform of politics and patronage as usual at the bi-state transportation agency.

The words "reject lawmakers' reform" appear in The Record's far smaller sub-headline, but The Times and other media focused on the governors squelching real change in how the PA is run. 

Christie and Cuomo mostly call for brick-and-mortar changes, while their state Legislatures sought to end PA board members' ethical lapses and corrupt practices. 

Thumbnail photos

We expect actors and singers to use outdated photos that show their youth and vitality, but should journalists do the same?

The thumbnail column photos of Kelly and Stile on A-1 today; Bill Ervolino on the Better Living front and the partial image of Staff Writer Elisa Ung on the same page have been in use for up to eight years.

Kelly's is especially unflattering, with his shit-eating grin. 

Ung's chipmunk cheeks now probably resemble a cow chewing its cud after she has consumed thousands of high-calorie desserts as the paper's chief restaurant reviewer.

And there's no point of showing Ung with a wine glass; the paper reimburses restaurant reviewers for their food purchases, but never for drinking alcohol, and she rarely writes about wine.

Where is the shrimp?

I was disappointed in Ung's "Best dishes I ate this year" for her emphasis on meat and dessert (BL-1 and BL-3).

And her listing of Miang Kham from Sapphire Thai in Teaneck is a real joke.

The actual dish, which I tried, contained a minuscule amount of shrimp.

Local news?

The Local news section today contains exactly one local story -- on an unidentified woman who drove her small SUV into two special police officers in Cliffside Park, seriously injuring them (L-1).

The story carries two bylines, and includes a description of the accident scene, but the reporters also relied on a statement from the acting mayor.

No one apparently spoke to residents or witnesses who might know the names of the injured officers or the identity of the driver.

The rest of Local is devoted to the year in review and an unusually high number of death notices.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, inadvertently reveal their long-held contempt for the problems of North Jersey bus and rail commuters by using only one mass-transit photo on the Local front:

It shows fans who faced delays leaving the Super Toilet Bowl football farce last February in the Meadowlands.

Funny business

How hard can the Business editors be working when their entire 8-page section today contains only one story from their staff?

Does North Jersey Media Group have to pay two veteran editors a ton of money to run wire copy? 

Gas savings

I heard a news report on WNYC-FM, a National Public Radio station, about the billions of dollars trucking companies are saving on diesel fuel.

One company with 15-trucks actually passed the savings onto employees, raising their salaries 10%.

No one has ever discussed the extra fuel cost of the decision, six or seven years ago, to move printing of The Record and Herald News to Rockaway Township from Hackensack-- a 60-mile-plus round trip for NJMG's thirsty Mercedes-Benz delivery trucks.

The publishing company was able to lay off more than 50 pressmen, but that must have cost a fortune in extra fuel purchases. 

Now that diesel prices have plummeted, does NJMG plan to raise delivery truck drivers' salaries?

If you are one of those drivers, don't hold your breath.

Gun-control foes have dead cops' blood on their hands

In Englewood, a condominium development called The M is sandwiched between Route 4, above, and an industrial section, photos below, more than a half-mile as the crow flies from Palisade Avenue, the main shopping street.

Residents of The M have a view of gas stations, traffic, industrial buildings and parking lots. A real estate advertising section in The Record tried to convince potential condo owners their homes border Englewood's downtown.

Some of the condo owners have this million-dollar view.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Guns designed to maim and kill are so commonplace in freedom-loving America even a supposedly great paper like the Los Angeles Times doesn't bother questioning where a hardened criminal got the revolver he used to kill two New York City cops. 

The L.A. Times story on Page 1 of The Record today mentions the Taurus 9mm in passing, noting Ismaaiyl Brinsley -- whose criminal record dates to 2004 -- used the gun to kill Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos as they sat in their patrol car on Saturday (A-8).

Gun-control foes are stained with the blood of Liu, Ramos and all the other cops killed by criminals whose right to bear lethal weapons is supposedly protected by our constitution.

Irresponsible reporting

Instead of pursuing the gun-control angle, The Record's clueless assignment editors had a reporter call small-town departments in Ramsey, Leonia, Tenafly and Saddle Brook to see if they had plans "to double up on patrols" (A-8).

Also on Page 1 is Staff Writer Minjae Park's story on 25 new police officers in Paterson.

How out of touch can the editors be?

Do Editor Marty Gottlieb, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza really expect a town like Leonia to double its patrols?

That department and others are stretched so thin, they can't even protect pedestrians using crosswalks from getting run down or homeowners from burglaries.

Paterson lies

Park, the reporter on the Paterson story, wastes a lot of space on Mayor Joey Torres and Police Director Jerry Speziale, two political hacks who preside over one of the most violent cities in New Jersey.

"Fighting crime has been a centerpiece of ... Torres' agenda," the reporter claims, failing to mention the mayor and the Police Department were powerless to prevent the murders of two innocent young girls in July and September.

It's bad enough when Paterson officials basically lie through their teeth about what they are doing to fight crime.

But when The Record merely regurgitates those lies in a Page 1 story, there simply is no hope for this once-great newspaper.

Pathetic editing

You have to wonder how this kind of irresponsible reporting gets into the paper, despite all the checks and balances the editing process is designed to provide.

The Record's copy editors -- who are supposed to enforce high standards of accuracy, fairness and balance -- now appear to do little more than spell-check stories and slap headlines on them.

The copy editors' supervisors, who approve editing and headlines, are simply out to lunch most of the time.

Liz Houlton, the paper's six-figure production editor and supervisor of the news, layout and copy desks, also has failed miserably to enforce those standards.

For example, how did this clunky headline get into The Record today?

Pope raises anger
for role in Cuba deal

Christie on Cuba

Governor Christie is demanding the return of convicted cop killer Joanne Chesimard from Cuba, but not taking responsibility for cutting aid to Paterson, forcing the layoff of 125 cops (A-3).

And New Jersey is so broke because of the GOP bully's own incompetence, no state troopers were sent to Silk City.

You never hear about the murder of police in Havana or Cuban school shootings. And crime is low, making it the safest destination in the Caribbean.

Americans have to ask themselves whether a free society also must mean a dangerous society where criminals have easy access to guns and police officers are murdered in broad daylight.

The Big Turkey awards from 'Eye on The Record'

Construction or reconstruction continued on Tuesday in front of Starbucks Coffee in Hackensack, which is on the ground floor of the Alfred N. Sazari Medical Arts Building at 360 Essex St. Let's hope the doctors in the building have a better record than the company that built the sidewalks and parking lot, which seem to need repair every couple of years. The garage in another Sanzari medical building across Summit Avenue was closed for more than a year while repairs were made.

Editor's note: My copy of The Record was delivered about three hours late this morning, and weighed more than 4 pounds. Most of that was advertising, and the news, features and sports sections weighed only about 7 ounces. Today, I present Big Turkey awards to the paper's staff. Happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The first Big Turkey award goes to the biggest tom in the newsroom, Editor Marty Gottlieb, who seems intent on putting out a suburban edition of The New York Times, where he had a long, successful career.

That can be seen almost every day in front pages that mix soft and hard news; and international, national, state and local stories.

Page 1 stories and columns also have gotten longer in the style of The Times -- way too long, in many cases -- but the quality of the editing has declined dramatically

Gottlieb gets a second Big Turkey award for not cleaning house after he took over in January 2012 nor taking away column-writing duties from burned-out Staff Writers Mike Kelly, John Cichowski, Charles Stile, Bill Ervolino and other toms, each of whom get their own award.

Haggard hen

Production Editor Liz Houlton also gets a Big Turkey award for all of the serious errors that routinely appear in Cichowski's Road Warrior column -- and are never corrected -- as well as all of the corrections published on Page A-2.

The news editors, copy editors and page proofers under her supervision miss too many screw-ups to be taken seriously, and the paper's credibility suffers as a result.

Houlton also can be faulted for continuing to use outdated thumbnail photos for some of the columnists, including Kelly, whose unflattering shit-eating grin can be seen on Page 1 today.

Assignment turkeys

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, get Big Turkey awards for using the police blotter, court news and non-fatal accident and fire photos as crutches to fill pages that should have more local news on them.

The Record of Woodland Park is doing a better job of covering Hackensack, but not in identifying many critics of the current City Council as those who were thrown out of power and lost patronage in 2013.

Trenton turkeys

Stile, Staff Writer Melissa Hayes and other members of the Trenton staff each get Big Turkey awards for channeling Governor Christie, including his Reform Agenda, Jersey Comeback and Stronger Than the Storm public relations campaigns.

How many stories and columns on Christie's politics and his chances to win the GOP presidential nomination in 2016 are readers expected to stomach? 

In the process, these reporters and their editors have irresponsibly ignored how Christie rules by vetoes and bullying, not by the compromise he claims, and how he has wrecked the state economy. 

Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin also gets a Big Turkey award for using mass transit, but not blasting Christie for policies that have increased traffic congestion and tolls, and hurt train and bus service. 

Plump food hen

Staff Writer Elisa Ung gets a Big Turkey award -- this one pumped full of the harmful animal antibiotics she routinely ignores -- for her split personality.

As chief restaurant reviewer, her Friday columns are supposed to critically evaluate restaurants, but she devotes too many of her Sunday columns to promote wealthy owners and chefs who advertise in the paper.

(The Record's 2015 Dine Out Guide to local restaurants was produced by the advertising department, and the 72 glossy pages included only advertisers.)

The Corner Table column Ung writes should be renamed, if she isn't going to get serious about fighting for consumers on such issues as tipping, low food quality and high wine markup. 

Food Editor Esther Davidowitz and freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson each get a Big Turkey award for unhealthy weekly recipes that recommend large quantities of artery clogging butter and heavy cream.

Stephen A. Borg

Publisher Stephen A. Borg gets a Big Turkey award for allowing news coverage that promotes the fortunes of his biggest advertisers, including mall and highway retailers.

In the process, North Jersey Media Group and The Record abandoned Hackensack in 2009 and virutally ended coverage of that city's downtown, as well as other struggling Main Streets in Teaneck and Englewood.

The year before, Borg also enriched himself at the expense of employees, who were hit by the biggest downsizing in company history only months after he used an NJMG mortgage to buy a $3.65 million McMansion in Tenafly.

Environmental, quality of life stories go below the fold

A center divider has been added to Bergen Turnpike in Little Ferry, near the entrance to a shopping center. It's not clear whether the new barrier is related to the elimination of the nearby Little Ferry Circle. The badly buckled, flood-prone entrance road to the shopping center and its lone tenant, a Korean supermarket, was repaved. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Saving heroin addicts from overdoses is a worthy cause, but it affects far fewer people than the environmental and quality of life news readers find below the fold of The Record's front page today.

And you've got to wonder why Editor Martin Gottlieb gave into Republican hysteria over Benghazi, and led the paper with the arrest of the suspected leader of the September 2012 attack, unleashing even more political debate (A-1).

Garfield Manager Tom Duch and Englewood Cliffs Mayor Joseph Parisi Jr. appear on the lower half of Page 1 today -- and Parisi is urging "compromise" on the height of the LG Electronics building on top of the Palisades (A-1).

The first paragraph describes "a 143-foot-tall office building." Why not give the number of planned floors or stories?

Lazy local editors

The local assignment editors are squandering an opportunity to examine whether such political dynasties as the Parisis of Englewood Cliffs and the Calabrese family of Cliffside Park are really running their towns in the best interests of residents.

That certainly wasn't the case in the decades Hackensack was run by the Zisa family, but the Woodland Park daily's exposes came too late and delayed reform.

Now, the paper runs stories filled with the sour grapes of Zisa family allies who find themselves out of power, including Lynne Hurwitz, the Democratic municipal chairwoman.

See no Christie

On A-3, a story on New Jersey residents paying the highest premiums for health insurance has been carefully edited to eliminate all mention of Governor Christie.

The GOP bully, as you may recall, refused to set up a state marketplace or even use millions in federal funds to promote the federal Affordable Care Act.

As a result, residents of New Jersey and 35 other states with conservative, anti-Obama leaders were thrown onto the clearly overburdened federal marketplace.

Minor controversy

On the Local front today, the big news is the Ridgewood Planning Board rejecting the expansion plan of The Valley Hospital, a story that is of interest to a small number of residents who live near the campus (L-1).

The first paragraph contains an extra word, testament to the careful editing found throughout the paper.

Readers who wonder why The Valley Hospital controversy got so much more press than the far larger expansions of Hackensack University Medical Center might consider the onetime presence of Jennifer A. Borg on the HUMC board.

Borg is vice president and general counsel of North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record.

She is listed as a board member on LinkedIn, which also says she serves on the hospital's Foundation Board and Advisory Committee, but that listing may be out of date. 

The Hurwitzes

Another L-1 story -- on the reappointment of Howard Hurwitz as the $136,000-a-year executive director of the Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority -- doesn't mention Lynne Hurwitz, his wife, who is receiving a state pension of $2,499.70 a month.

According to The Bergen Dispatch Web site, the pension is based in part on her annual salary of more than $97,000 as deputy chief of staff for Dennis McNerny, a Democrat who was then Bergen County executive.

Lynne Hurwitz, often called the power behind the Zisa family in Hackensack, lost her job when Republican County Executive Kathleen Donovan took over.

Critics said one of Lynne Hurwitz's duties was to water the plants in the county administration building.

More filler stories

Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza rely on police, court and related news to fill their thin local-news section, as they did on Tuesday.

They also run two wire-service obituaries of obscure people.

Not good for you

Someone should tell food blogger Kate Morgan Jackson of Upper Saddle River that it doesn't make sense to run a recipe for "squash sushi" filled with artery clogging goat cheese and then urge readers to "drizzle the teeniest amount of [heart-healthy] olive oil" over the rolls (BL-3).

Cheating local readers: Murder plots! Rutgers scandal!

Colorful train schedules have replaced black-and-white message boards at Penn Station in Manhattan. Commuters keep their eyes on the boards, which post NJ Transit track assignments about 10 minutes before departure, then race to get a seat on the train, giving new meaning to the term "rush hour."

Scenes from New Jersey history adorn the NJ Transit waiting hall at Penn Station.

Washington crossing the Delaware, above, and the manufacture of a submarine in Paterson, below, are among the mobile history lessons behind glass that distract commuters from the ordeal of riding on packed trains and reading about nothing but drivers three days a week in The Record's Road Warrior column.

 

Are you sick yet of reading about Georgios Spyropoulos, the Tick Tock Diner manager whose plate is full of court hearings, an indictment and, possibly, a lurid trial on charges he tried to hire a hit man to kill the boss?

Editor Marty Gottlieb has run this crime of the century on Page 1 three days running, along with continuing coverage of the brouhaha at Rutgers University.

Has anybody read even a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of words reporting the fallout from a video showing the abusive basketball coach, Mike Rice?

Here are two more cases of how irrelevant to most people are the "big stories" Gottlieb and other media leaders chase to electrify their meaningless lives. 

Christie budget plan

Sadly, all of this sensational coverage has distracted readers from hearings on another conservative budget proposal from Governor Christie, who continues to screw the middle and working classes (A-3 today, A-4 on Friday). 

Today's front-page story on the $421,000 payout to John B. Wolf, ousted as Rutgers' top lawyer, suggest that the legal profession -- from attorneys to judges to lawmakers -- is at the root of what is really wrong with our society (A-1).

One bright spot today is the A-3 story reporting the mugging of convicted felon Sharpe James, who held up residents when he was mayor of Newark.

Dissing Hackensack

But local readers again get the shaft.

Today, Hackensack readers finally get a story on the six people vying for seats in the Board of Education election on Tuesday (L-1), but the paper has done a far better job covering the school board contest in Englewood (L-7 on Friday).

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, continue to ignore candidate forums leading up to the City Council election on May 14, the most important in decades.

The election could finally free the city -- widely mocked as "Zisaville" -- from the corrosive rule of the Zisa family, including the disgraced and convicted former police chief, Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa, and his cousin, City Attorney Joseph C. Zisa Jr.

On Friday, Hackensack readers found big news of their city on L-6 -- a seven-paragraph story about a cop who needs leg surgery after a drug arrest.

No relief for commuters

The interesting weather photo on L-3 today shows that Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi hasn't lost his touch despite being ordered by Sykes and Sforza to chase hundreds of ambulances for fender-bender photos they desperately need to fill Local.

The Road Warrior column on the front of Friday's Local section continues to ignore mass transit.

It's the second time Staff Writer John Cichowski has reported on complaints from a few drivers who can't make a right turn at one of North Jersey's thousands of intersections (L-1).