Sandy's tears are flooding Hackensack

River and Kansas streets in Hackensack were under water before noon today. The flood waters from the nearby Hackensack River prompted Costco Wholesale to close its warehouse store early. A Subaru driver who may have shopped at Costco stalled after mistakenly believing his all-wheel-drive car could float.

Water from the Hackensack River blocked the service entrance to Hackensack Toyota.

The rain and wind couldn't suppress the need to pick up a few things at Costco.

Residents of Clinton Place in Hackensack -- between Summit and Prospect avenues -- took down most but not all of their Halloween decorations. The block is known far and wide for the show it puts on for the trick-or-treat holiday at the end of October.

More than 100 utility company trucks and other equipment, including spare utility poles, fill parking lots at Garden State Plaza in Paramus, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I jumped into the car and drove around Hackensack and Paramus before noon today to see what I could see as Hurricane Sandy approached New Jersey.

I visited the staging area for crews from Public Service Electric and Gas Co. at Garden State Plaza in Paramus, where all the stores were closed.

On the other side of the highway, near IKEA, several drivers didn't bother stopping for red lights.

All that PSE&G equipment is a hopeful sign, given how the utility blew the job of repairing damage from the freak snowstorm two days before Halloween in 2011.

A year ago, as the days wore on with tens of thousands of people still without power, the anger of customers grew and there were reports of people threatening PSE&G workers with bodily harm.

What was the response at The Record of Woodland Park?

The paper's own poor job of covering the storm led to the firing of Editor Francis "Frank" Scandale at the hands of Publisher Stephen A. Borg, who finally pulled his head out of his pampered asshole.

However, Interim Editor Doug Clancy was uncomfortable with readers' anger at PSE&G, and consistently buried it deep in stories about storm recovery.

Even when many thousands were without power for a week or more, Clancy made sure stories prominently featured PSEG's excuses for why it couldn't move faster. 

This from the newspaper that once boasted in its motto: "Friend of The People It Serves." 

See previous post on media hype

 

Editors can't stomach big issues

Image by Anthony Quintano via Flickr
What would The Record do without The Star-Ledger sending over stories to fill columns in the Woodland Park daily?

The Record's continued slide into tabloid journalism may sell papers, but readers lose out when editors avoid exploring the big issues of our time.


You won't find any reporting on how Tea Party Republicans have paralyzed Congress, the unprecedented shift of wealth away from the middle class, the corrupt campaign-finance system, the obesity epidemic and many other compelling issues.


Interim Editor Douglas Clancy, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and others at the Woodland Park daily share a short attention span with many other journalists.


Their immediate concern is filling space -- anything will do, whether it's from their staff, The Star-Ledger or the wire services. There are six stories from The Star-Ledger on A-4, A-5 and A-6 today.


Unanswered questions


Today's front page is dominated by the funeral of Malik Williams, a 19-year-old Garfield man who was shot and killed by police after he fled their custody on Dec. 10.


Nearly two weeks after the shooting, the assignment desk still doesn't know what kind of tools Williams "had armed himself with," even though police cited the tools to justify firing five bullets at him.


Another front-page story -- on how tax-exempt houses of worship are hurting the city of Passaic -- fails to examine the broken system of financing local government through property taxes.


Wake up, please


In Local, Road Warrior John Cichowski presents his umpteenth column on the use of cellphones while driving, but he's never explored why manufacturers don't make a hands-free, headset-free Bluetooth system standard equipment in every car (L-1).


One of two Hackensack stories today reports the postponement of suspended Police Chief Ken Zisa's trial (L-2).


In Better Living, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung found the service so bad at the Stony Hill Inn in Hackensack she gave it the same 2-star rating she awarded a couple of years ago to a faux Caribbean chain restaurant on the highway in Wayne.


Maybe the owner, contractor Joseph M. Sanzari, should stick to fast-tracking highway projects.

These editors just love reports

Image via Wikipedia
The state is just now issuing a report on Hurricane Irene, which hit us in August.

Reports. Surveys. Municipal and school board meetings. Court hearings. Press releases. 


The Record's news merry-go-round depends heavily on packaged news -- such as today's Page 1 story on a state report about Hurricane Irene and the pre-Halloween snow storm that knocked out power to 175,000 in North Jersey.


Residents ignored


Of course, the editors had much of this information from residents in the immediate aftermath of the power outages, but chose to bury utility customers anger and frustration deep in stories, sometimes in the last paragraphs on continuation pages.


It's as if residents don't have any legitimacy unless they make their statements in an official forum or write a letter to the editor.


The three environmental or weather stories on the front page today are based on a report, a meeting and a press release. How convenient.


A four-letter word really fits the local-news assignment desk run so ineptly by lifer Editor Deirdre Sykes: L-A-Z-Y.


New top editor


A story on The Record's new editor, Martin Gottlieb, is on A-3 today. 


The story doesn't say when he takes over from interim Editor Doug Clancy, but another report says it's not until the new year. (See earlier post, Timesman named editor of The Record.) 


Readers can only hope Gottlieb will be able to get Sykes and her assignment minions off their asses and inspire staffers to do original reporting based on real legwork.


And as someone who is in his 60s, Gottlieb will be in a unique position to change a newsroom culture that values the work of young staffers over that of older employees.


Sykes' Local section leads with the sentencing of a triple murderer, and even devotes the front to a "controversial application" for a pharmacy in tiny Washington Township (L-1).


But there isn't any news from Hackensack or Englewood, two much larger communities. 


Related posts

• The real story: Failure of government (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• Flooded, lied to and then abandoned (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• The big-butt newsroom sisterhood (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)

GOP tries to screw well-off seniors

Image via Wikipedia
A Medicare card.

To avoid taxing millionaires and other wealthy supporters, House Republicans OK'd a payroll tax cut that would be paid for in part by higher Medicare premiums for seniors who earn more than $80,000 a year.

Of course, there's no mention of Medicare in the news story that runs in The Record today, and interim Editor Doug Clancy made sure you'd have to search for it (A-5).


More crime news


Clancy chose crime news for the fourth day in a row to lead the GOP-friendly daily, bringing readers the breathtaking news that an ex-cop accused of murder failed drug tests during probation (A-1). What a bad guy he must be.


The photo in the middle of the front page is from Parksville, N.Y. Is that near Park Ridge, Palisades Park or Park and Ride? 


It's hard to believe there were no North Jersey images worthy of Clancy's A-1.


Clancy seems more comfortable dramatizing police and fire news than an investigative piece on a Bergen County insider by Staff Writer Jeffs Pillets or former Gov. Jon Corzine's latest shucking and jiving about $1.2 billion in client funds. 


Temper tantrum


What about Governor Christie's style of leadership -- retaliating against state Sen. Richard Codey, D-Essex (A-4). Why isn't that on Page 1?


"When Christie doesn't get his way, he stomps his feet and terminates people just to show he's boss," a Democratic leader noted.


Also on A-4, a photo caption by Editor Liz Houlton's news copy desk incorrectly calls an unusually large airplane designed to carry spaceships a "giant spaceship."


When is someone going to slap former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky as hard as possible across the face to bring him back to the reality of the molesting charges against him (A-9)?


He ducked out of a court hearing, where he would have faced accusers, saying he intends "to fight for four quarters."


You won't find any Hackensack municipal or school news in the Local section today, but you will find another column by Road Warrior John Cichowski on the parents of teen drivers (L-1).

Looking strangely like a tabloid

Image via Wikipedia
Governor Christie is seriously weighing a horse race pitting GOP presidential hopefuls against each other around the Monmouth Park track.

Interim Editor Doug Clancy is big on crime news, leading The Record's front page three days in a row with the fatal police shooting of a Garfield suspect or the murder of a Wood-Ridge man, allegedly by an ex-cop.


Gee whiz. If an ex-cop is committing crime, are any of us safe? 


Clancy doesn't seem to have much else for Page 1.


Horse manure 


He's given Staff Writer John Brennan precious A-1 space to report Governor Christie is threatening to close Monmouth Park and The Meadowlands horse-racing tracks unless they are privatized real soon.


Does anyone care about this so-called crisis besides Brennan, a horse's ass, and a small minority of readers?


A photo at the bottom of A-1 shows two elitist horse's asses -- Christie and Republican hopeful Mitt Romney (A-6 story and A-12 cartoon). 


Why is who the GOP bully supports in the 2012 presidential race front-page news?


Sheriff Sykes


Three of the five stories on the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section are police or crime news.


The questionable police shooting of a 19-year-old black man "armed ... with tools" gets demoted to L-1 today from A-1 on Monday.


The biggest -- and only -- Hackensack news today is a photo and story on injuries to a 67-year-old man whose house was destroyed by fire (L-3).


On L-7, the first Business page, a story reports a car dealer's realty company has purchased Nisi Estiatorio, an upscale Greek fish house that has been praised by critics.


Less than a third of an acre went for $4 million. That's just what many residents lining already noisy Grand Avenue really need: another car dealer. 


Ban this word


The word "tasked" in the third paragraph of sports marketer Jim Bukata's obituary stopped me dead in my tracks (L-6).


The bureaucratic buzzword has been creeping into The Record recently and even appeared in an L-1 headline. 


Fie on "tasked." It offends the ear, and should be forever banned.


And to think the latest usage was by local obituary writer Jay Levin, normally a wordsmith and one of the paper's top reporters.

Related post

• Fat bastard takes on President Obama (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)

Editors ignore partisan gridlock

Image by conner395 via Flickr
The Record describes a sheriff's officer holding a soft-drink can as "working" near the scene of a shooting in Garfield.

Can't you just see interim Editor Doug Clancy in his ivory Garret Mountain tower, desperately looking for stories to jazz up the front page and sell more copies of The Record?


He certainly found one today: the questionable police shooting of a man armed with "tools" from a garage, and it dominates Page 1. Malik Williams' mother says officers shot her 19-year-old son five times.


Drink up


On A-9, the continuation page, an officer is shown with a soft-drink can in his hand, standing in the door of a large emergency vehicle. 


The caption says, "A Bergen County Sheriff's officer working Sunday near the scene where a man who fled police was fatally shot Saturday." A second man in the photo, wearing a Yankees baseball cap, isn't mentioned.


There not much real North Jersey news in the rest of today's paper, especially in the Local section -- pride and joy of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes.


And with their focus on the 2012 presidential election, the Woodland Park daily and other media are doing their best to ignore the partisan gridlock that has paralyzed Congress, frustrated so many Americans and endangered the recovery.


On TV news and in the papers, everything President Barack Obama says is presented as campaigning. Members of the the Washington press corps, including The Record's Herb Jackson, seem to have their heads up their assholes.


More crime news


What's good for the front page is good for the Local front: a homicide in Wood-Ridge leads the section.


In both the account of the Garfield police shooting and the homicide, residents are quoted basically saying nothing like that has ever happened in their neighborhood before. Let's hope so.


There is no news from Hackensack, Englewood, Teaneck or many other towns, but every burp, cough and fart of a proposal for six Pascack Valley towns to share police dispatching is being reported, such as today's story on L-6.

Sunday paper sells out to big advertisers

Image via Wikipedia
Garden State Plaza. Does the parkway "meet" Routes 4 and 17 in the same place?

The Record's crack assignment desk forced Lindy Washburn, one of the medical writers, to prostitute herself by covering the debut of a "high-tech" parking system at Garden State Plaza -- and it put the story on Page 1 today.


The word must have come down from Publisher Stephen A. Borg in the front office -- where he maintains a "front" for serious journalism. It's payback time for Macy's and other major retailers that fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to advertise in the paper.


I can recall leafing through the first copies off the press in Hackensack, looking for typos and other errors, and hearing News Copy Desk Co-Slot Nancy Cherry say about all of the full-page store ads, "Thank, God, for Macy's. Thank, God, for Macy's."


Going out on a limb


The centerpiece on the front page is a story that is about six weeks overdue -- regulators don't really monitor whether utilities prune trees to avoid the disaster that occurred after the pre-Halloween snow storm.


Poor first-day coverage of the storm contributed to the trick-or-treat firing of Francis "Frank" Scandale after more than a decade as editor.


More A-1 space is wasted on those nine thugs from the Wayne Hills High School team charged with aggravated assault.


Interim Editor Doug Clancy, who lives in neighboring Pequannock, thinks Bergen County readers are hanging on every word about the "weeks of controversy."


Fat of the land


On A-3 today, a story reports former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff joins a former federal judge, a former attorney-general and others in landing a lucrative consulting contract.


Staff Writer Shawn Boburg reports the Port Authority has quietly doubled Chertoff's $300,000 fee and given him six months more to complete a study. Chertoff said his dog ate his homework. 



Leave it to head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes to put a positive spin on school-busing cutbacks in a story that leads her Local section today.


Of course, the story doesn't mention the lack of school busing in Hackensack may have contributed to the death of a 12-year-old Middle School student killed by an NJ Transit train as he was walking home along an unfenced stretch of track last year. 


Handicapped writing 


Editor Liz Houlton's news copy desk missed a major error in the first paragraph of the Road Warrior column on L-1 today: Routes 4 and 17 and the Garden State Parkway do not "meet" or intersect in the same place.


The L-3 obituary on a retired bishop says he died from injuries suffered in a motor vehicle accident, but not where it occurred or whether he was driving.


There is no Hackensack news in Sykes' section today nor any municipal news from the vast majority of the 90 or so towns in the circulation area, though editors found room for yet another story on burglaries in Tenafly, where Borg lives (L-2).


Did anybody read sports Columnist Tara Sullivan, who falls flat on her face trying to re-invent language today (S-1)? Writing about two receivers, she says awkwardly:


"They grew up only a few North Jersey borders and a few high school seasons apart...."

Port Authority gets away with murder

Image via Wikipedia
The Port Authority refuses to fund an expansion of PATH.

The Record's relentless focus on Port Authority mismanagement, World Trade Center cost overruns and overtime hides what a lousy job it has done as the region's biggest transportation agency.


Mass-transit commuters -- abandoned long ago by Road Warrior John Cichowski -- find little solace in today's Page 1 story about billions more for the new trade center or the A-6 sidebar on all the extra pay PA workers are collecting.


Interim Editor Doug Clancy and Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes continue to give the powerful bi-state agency a pass on its failure to expand the PATH system or add a second reverse bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel.


Doing double takes


Meanwhile, Sykes' local-news report continues to disappoint. 


The editor is so desperate to fill space in her section -- misnamed "Local" -- she has reporters write long, detailed previews and then cover the event, ensuring the same story appears in the paper twice and fills a maximum amount of space.


Today, for example, Sykes leads her section with another in a long, tedious series of stories on legal maneuvering in a criminal case against suspended Hackesnack Police Chief Ken Zisa. The preview ran Dec. 3.


Giving us a break


Better Living breaks new ground today, publishing recipes that contain no artery clogging butter or heavy cream. 


In fact, the dessert-obsessed restaurant reviewer, Elisa Ung, breaks her own new ground with a story on an Italian feast of seven fishes (F-1 and F-8). 


Cookies play a minor role in the meal and in her report.

Do all N.J. governors lie?

Image via Wikipedia
Jon Corzine, in suit second from left, in far better days. 

Why doesn't the Page 1 story in The Record today report that either former Gov. Jon Corzine is so incredibly wealthy he didn't notice where $1.2 billion in clients' funds went or he lied to Congress on Thursday?


And why doesn't the Woodland Park daily put all of Governor Christie's lies on the front page -- or at least explore for readers which of his statements are true and which aren't? He's uttered some whoppers.


Didn't Tom Kean Sr. hide a huge deficit when he left office, setting up Democrat Jim Florio for the fall after the latter raised taxes? Don't all governors lie?


I guess interim Editor Doug Clancy and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes came up empty when looking for North Jersey news to put on Page 1 today.


Why waste the front page on two crime stories -- a shooting at a college in Virginia, and the murder trial of an Elmwood Park woman who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity?


If The Record and other media exposed the special interests that prevent effective gun control from becoming law, it would certainly go a long way toward cutting down on school and college shootings.


Instead, the media love to practice "body count" journalism.


Readers salute paper


On A-13, a story reports texting while driving is on the rise, but the national survey mistakenly included thousands of Route 80 drivers who were giving the finger to 1 Garret Mountain Plaza, home of The Record, Herald News and North Jersey Media Group.


Hundreds of those fingers were intended for Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski, who today re-hashes the new crosswalk law instead of exploring commuting problems (L-1).


Staff Writer Stephanie Akin reports strong neighborhood opposition at a hearing on a proposed 19-story acute-care hospital in Hackensack (L-1). She previewed the hearing  in Thursday's paper.


Go for the agita


Twenty dollars worth of under-seasoned, rubbery seafood. Eighteen dollars for an overcooked, dry breast on a naturally raised half chicken. A waitress who refers to extra place settings as "crap."


Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung overlooks all of that and more at Osteria La Fiamma in Ridgewood -- calling it good to excellent -- apparently because the desserts more than satisfied her obsession with sweets (Better Living centerfold).


She calls one dessert "lovely." Another is "perfect," and a third is "gigantic," though she doesn't tell readers whether she shoved all of it down her gaping maw.


Except for the roasted vegetables that came with the half chicken, Ung didn't sample any healthy salads or sauteed greens.

Fat bastard takes on President Obama

Image via Wikipedia
A GOP debate sponsored by the Fox News Network.

No. I'm not referring to Newt Gingrich, the overweight, white-haired crackpot who supposedly is leading the boring GOP race to find a candidate for the  2012 presidential election.


I'm talking about Governor Christie, the fat bastard who remains a darling of The Record and other media, even though he has failed to fulfill his main campaign promise and continues to run New Jersey into the ground.


Here is Christie today on Page 1 of the Woodland Park daily, claiming President Barack Obama "does not have the first idea" on how to lead.


Political Columnist Charles Stile calls the GOP bully "Mitt Romney's most prized attack dog (A-1)."


Slanted reporting


Did interim Editor Doug Clancy caution Stile against saying anything negative about their beloved governor?


To Garden State residents, Christie is a huge disappointment who "leads" with his veto pen and who has failed to lower property taxes, which finance a broken home-rule system of local government.


He's set back the expansion of passenger train service, possibly for a decade; rubber stamped exorbitant Hudson River toll and fare hikes; continues to erode environmental protection; and refuses to raise taxes on millionaires or to finance road and transit improvements.


Meanwhile, he's cut programs for seniors, women and low-income children; attacked the unions that represent state workers, teachers and police officers; and slashed aid to public schools.


Among his few successes is gaining weight.


Editor weighs in  


And the same can be said for head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, whose idea of covering public transportation is to run a long, detailed story about new ferry slips in Hoboken two days in a row (A-3 on Wednesday and today).


On A-4, Staff Writer Shawn Boburg reports the Port Authority's 2012 budget proposes to spend more on the new World Trade Center than on transportation projects or anything else.


The lazy assignment desk still has not gotten around to asking the powerful bi-state agency why it refuses to add a second reverse bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel so riders don't have to stand in the aisles.


On the front of Sykes' Local section, one of the first Hackensack municipal stories in weeks reports that the final public hearing on a proposed 19-story acute-care hospital is being held at 7 tonight in City Hall.


Related posts

• Bowing down to the mighty Port Authority (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• Christie helps rich wage open warfare (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)

Getting past all the crap on Page 1

Image by expertinfantry via Flickr
An image from the Pearl Harbor anniversary in 2010.

You can just hear illegal immigrants muttering "Shit!" or "Mierda!" as they read the lead story in The Record today: authorities bust a black-market driver's license ring. 


But few illegals read the Woodland Park daily, so why did interim Editor Doug Clancy think this was the best local story he had for the front page? 


Why should the vast majority of readers care about this? Are the phony licenses the reason MVC lines are so long?


Then, under two one-column headlines on A-1, there's the same old story about the mob running the garbage industry, and shocking love-triangle murders -- the latter from The Star-Ledger, not The Record.


Burying real news


Indeed, why did Clancy bury on A-4 the report that Governor Christie is hurting the environment by approving a plan to rely more on natural gas and nuclear power and less on renewable energy -- playing into the hands of his fat cat supporters?


That's Page 1 news.


The best thing on A-1 today is the remembrance of the Pearl Harbor attack -- newspapers just love anniversaries. 


This 70th anniversary story comes alive on A-8, the continuation page, when Staff Writer Jay Levin extensively quotes two survivors, Andrew Myers, 88, and John Walton, 97. 


And the sidebar on how The Bergen Evening Record and competing Passaic Herald-News reported the big story is priceless.


But leave it to Editor Liz Houlton's news copy desk to screw up the Pearl Harbor package with a puzzling headline on a second A-8 sidebar:

An honored vet recalls

family reunion on deck

Huh? "Family reunion"? What the F does that mean? You have to read the story to find out Thomas Mahoney became separated from older brother Raymond on Dec. 7, 1941, and feared he may have been killed in the attack on their ship.


Many hours later, the soot-covered Mahoney brothers came face to face with each other on the deck, so "family reunion" is absolutely the wrong phrase to use in the headline.


Hibernating reporter


Leave it Staff Writer John Cichowski, one of the laziest reporters in the newsroom, to wait until "Older Driver Safety Awareness Week" to write about the challenges facing senior citizens when they get behind the wheel (L-1).


As important as that neglected issue is, there's no relief in sight for hard-pressed commuters, a group Cichowski is supposed to cover.


And head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes is so desperate to fill the columns of her Local news section, she couldn't possibly kill the column, make Cichowski a transportation reporter and order him to write about mass transit and other commuting problems.


The photo on the front the section reports "another rainy day," but there's no explanation for why today is another day without Hackensack news or news of many other towns.  

Chrisitie scams us once again

Image via Wikipedia
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will impose higher taxes on the wealthiest residents and cut taxes on the middle class.

On Page 1 today, Staff Writer Juliet Fletcher has finally exposed how little money is being saved by Governor Christie's so-called reform of state workers' health benefits. 


The GOP bully has done wonders distracting The Record and other media from his refusal to tax millionaires, while he demonizes unions and penalizes other members of the middle class.


Now, it seems, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is revising his own stance on not taxing the wealthy, saying he wants to reform his state's tax code "in a way that creates jobs and grows our economy."


Christie, on the other hand, has been a job killer, principally by pulling the plug on the Hudson River rail tunnels. Now, he supports millions of dollars in tax breaks to get businesses to hire more people.


Bloody Tuesday


Factory farms kill millions of animals every year -- and millions of unwanted pets are destroyed, as well -- so why is the black-bear hunt front-page news today? 


One hunter is actually quoted as saying part of the allure of hunting is "not hearing any horns honking," but apparently frequent gunshots are music to hos ears (A-6).


More ageism


An editorial on A-18 says a proposal requiring more driver training for teens with learner's permits "goes too far." But I haven't seen an editorial calling for retesting older drivers behind the wheel to cut down the number of people they kill.


A local obituary makes a rare appearance on the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section today -- about a Fort Lee teen who died of diabetes -- while the obituaries of older, far more prominent residents are buried on the obit page. 


Isn't that more ageism by The Record's editors, already famous for helping Publisher Stephen A. Borg treat older newsroom workers like shit?


Free advertising


There is no Hackensack news in the section today, but a developer must have slipped Sykes or her assignment minions a few thousand dollars to publish the lavishly promotional story about "luxury manor homes" in Saddle River (L-3).


Call it a free advertisement with headlines, and a royal F.U. to all those readers who face foreclosure.


In fact, Sykes managed to come up with so little local news, layout editors were forced to run two wire-service obituaries of obscure people on L-6.

Front page is making my eyelids heavy

Image via Wikipedia

T-Rex at a train station. Fossil fuel meets mass transit.

Today's photo of a dinosaur at the Secaucus Junction train station provides just the comic relief readers need when facing a front page full of serious subjects.

Did Interim Editor Doug Clancy intend the lead story on Page 1 of The Record to be an expose of lawmakers steering federal dollars to their home districts? Is there really anything wrong with cranberry and blueberry research or laptops for Leonia police cars?

Aren't lobbyists a lot more corrupt than that? This story seems to celebrate how clever our lawmakers are, but doesn't explain why Congress can't get the big things done.

School daze

The upbeat charter school story at the bottom of A-1 minimizes the many hundreds of thousands of dollars taken away from public schools to fund the charters, and never fully discusses whether those districts are having to cut back as a result. 

In a letter to the editor on A-13, Robert Singer of Teaneck asks a question the paper's editors should have asked lawmakers years ago:

"When will automobile drivers stop getting away with what amounts to murder? This is not just a traffic accident, and 'I just didn't see him' isn't good enough.... Maybe if more of these careless drivers were charged with vehicular assault or manslaughter and faced serious criminal consequences, the message would get out to pay attention to motorcyclists [pedestrians and other drivers] and to share the road."

Hackensack news leads the Local section, pride and joy of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, but it's not municipal news or anything about the city's struggling Main Street. 

In fact, the L-1 story about a family crediting the Virgin Mary for saving them from carbon-monoxide poisoning belongs on the Religion page.

Sinking career

The major element on L-1 is a Mike Kelly column on the decline of the Binghamton ferryboat restaurant that recalls the reporter's own deterioration. 

Does the headline really fit a boat that was launched in 1905 and served as a restaurant in the 1970s:

Grand vessel in fast decline

A story on animated dinosaurs coming to Laurel Hill Park in Secaucus actually includes ticket information, even though the exhibit isn't opening until May 26 (photos on A-1 and L-5, story on L-1).

It's amusing to see an animated Tyrannosaurus rex, which epitomizes fossil fuel, recognizing the importance of taking mass transit.

Burg in crisis

Even though there is no Hackensack or Teaneck news in the section today, Sykes found room for a story from her hometown of Harrington Park (L-7).

It seems one of the nine police officers is injured and can't work, precipitating a crisis or as the reporter puts it: "a new setback in manpower."

Although Sykes has virtually ignored Main Street businesses in Hackensack, Teaneck and many other towns, Better Living today has a feature on local holiday shopping in Englewood (F-1).

However, a wine bar called Grand Cru is the only eating place pictured. Publisher Stephen A. Borg and Vice President/General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg, his big sister, once invested in the place.