Why lead local paper with Christie, six other GOP clowns?

On an overcast day, a seemingly normal suburban scene in Teaneck turns ominous when the black tanker cars of a potentially explosive oil train pass through the township. The Record's coverage of this and other Teaneck issues far surpasses coverage of neighboring Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Readers in search of local news come up short once again today as The Record publishes the blow by blow from the debate among the seven horse's asses seeking the GOP nod to run for president.

Never mind that most of them, including Governor Christie, would start World War III.

Even though New Jersey's own GOP bully can't possibly win the nomination, Editor Martin Gottlieb sent Columnist Charles Stile,  the paper's chief Christie apologist, to cover the debate in South Carolina (A-1).

The thousands of dollars wasted on that trip surely angers hard-working employees in the Woodland Park newsroom who haven't seen a raise in years.

Local news?

There is local news on A-1 today in the form of an obituary for Fair Lawn's Dave Sime, an Olympic silver medalist and eye surgeon who died at 79.

But in the section devoted to local news, Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza offer Hackensack readers a couple of adorable puppies instead of any reporting on their city (L-1).

The only local story on the front is from Secaucus, and readers won't find much municipal news inside the section, either.

Lazy editors

On L-3, can today's story on the Christmas Day hit-run pedestrian death in Teaneck be the first to report the driver had a green light and the victim was jaywalking?

That would be in keeping with the supremely lazy Sykes and Sforza taking a full two days to report the surrender of the driver, a township man.

Their desperation to fill the section can be seen in the long wire-service obituary of English actor Alan Rickman (L-6), whose death should probably be reported in the A-section along with other international news.

Doomsday dining

In Better Living, readers will find high praise for a restaurant chef whose best dishes include beef with an artery clogging blue cheese, butter and egg yolk sauce; ice-cream sandwiches, goat cheese-stuffed artichokes, and a fish with more harmful mercury than many others (BL-12).

In addition to checking with their doctors, anyone wishing to follow restaurant critic Elisa Ung's advice, should check their gas tank and E-ZPass balance, because you'll be driving to Ariane Kitchen & Bar in Verona, Essex County.

Ung's twin obsessions with meat and dessert are well-served here, but she doesn't mention whether you'd be getting grass-fed beef or the low-quality stuff raised on antibiotics and growth hormones.

Desperate Christie taking a big gamble with future of N.J.

In the truck lanes of the New Jersey Turnpike on Sunday afternoon, light traffic, cheap gas and the absence of state troopers encouraged some drivers to pass me doing 85 mph to 90 mph  with not a care in the world.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

More casino gambling in New Jersey? Are they out of their minds? 

Given the sordid history of casinos in Atlantic City, readers are puzzled today by The Record's upbeat, front-page coverage of Governor Christie's desperate gambles (A-1).

As he does on Page 1 today, Staff Writer John Brennan has been wasting readers' time in the last few months with story after story on a ballot proposal to add two casinos in North Jersey (A-1).

That proposal is certain to go down in flames.

Readers get the feeling North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, will get behind the plan to add North Jersey casinos, just as the publishing company has backed repeal of Bergen County's blue laws.

Both would generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising revenue for NJMG, which more and more has been focusing news and feature coverage on advertisers, and reducing the amount of municipal news.

That also must be the explanation for why Editor Martin Gottlieb put the casino gambling stories on Page 1, and buried a long story on ballot questions, bills and other action in Trenton (A-4).

More vetoes

On A-4, you'll find reporting on 20 more vetoes from Christie on top of the 430 he has executed since early 2010, cementing the GOP bully's reputation as the worst governor in state history.

And you can read how voters will get a chance to clean up two of Christie's messes by approving quarterly payments to public-workers pensions, and dedicating all of the revenue generated by the 14.5-cents-a-gallon gas tax to transportation.

Dirty trucks

It's no surprise the Port Authority "has backed off a plan to ban thousands of older, soot-spewing trucks from hauling cargo" at its New Jersey seaports (A-1).

Staff Writer Scott Fallon should know the bi-state agency is no friend of the environment, as shown by the bigger jets using Teterboro Airport and its refusal to add another exclusive bus lane to the Lincoln Tunnel.

Local news?

Today's Local front is dominated by police news or news about the police, including two big stories from Paterson.

You know Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza were desperate to fill the section when you see an obit for the last survivor of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake (L-6).

Auto scams

Also desperate are The Associated Press reporters who covered the North American Auto Show in Detroit (L-9 and L-10).

Despite climate change, neither story discusses whether automakers are improving the efficiency of the antiquated internal-combustion engine or introducing more green cars.

Monday's paper

Three long stories on politics dominated Monday's A-1 as Gottlieb tried to generate interest in the most boring topic under the sun.

Readers were asked to plow through more reporting on how Christie is doing on the campaign trail.

On the Local front, Sykes and Sforza finally caught up to the surrender two days before of a driver in the Christmas Day hit-run death of a man in downtown Teaneck.

Editors slowly return focus to voting, other state issues

On Saturday, the Bergen County Utilities Authority stationed a truck in the parking lot of Sears in Hackensack to shred residents' unwanted documents. The so-called Shred Event is held in each municipality.

It was as easy as driving up and dumping the papers into one of these two containers before they were transferred to the truck for shredding.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A small part of The Record's front page today is devoted to Governor Christie's veto of expanded voting, and a bill he signed to regulate group homes for people with dementia.

But Editor Martin Gottlieb continues to give most of Page 1 and two inside pages to the Friday night terrorist attacks in Paris (A-1, A-10 and A-11).

On voter reform, two Record reporters do their best to cast the issue as a strictly Democratic one, in keeping with the paper's editorial endorsement of Christie's mean-spirited veto (A-1).

The story on group homes for people with dementia conforms to the Woodland Park daily's policy of reporting only on institutionalized seniors (A-1).

Local news

In Local, there are three stories on schools, but nothing about Hackensack (L-1 and L-6).

Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes ad Dan Sfroza appear to have ordered an embargo on any news about the Hackensack Board of Education.

More Gov. Christie myth making has no basis in reality

With no turn lanes at Summit Avenue, above, two-lane Passaic Street in Hackensack is one of the many traffic bottlenecks drivers encounter when traveling over Bergen County's antiquated street and road system.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front page today continues to portray Governor Christie's first term as "bipartisan," when the reality is far more sobering.

Columnist Charles Stile has written a variation of this argument so many times he actually believes it, as does Editor Martin Gottlieb, who leads the Sunday edition with the Christie myth they won't allow to die (A-1).

There is nothing "bipartisan" about the more than 350 vetoes the GOP bully has used to keep the state Legislature's majority Democrats in line -- everything from killing stricter gun control to a millionaires tax surcharge to a hike in the minimum wage.

"Listen," Christie says in his quixotic quest for the White House, "I've dealt with a Democratic Legislature in New Jersey for every minute of my six years as governor, and I've never used it as an excuse not to get things done."

"Get things done" is code for his hundreds of vetoes.

Is there anything else worthy of reader attention today?

Jo Ann Hans

The only story that can be considered local is an update on the condition of Jo Ann Hans, the Bergenfield crossing guard who got mowed down and nearly killed by a driver on Sept. 15, the first day of the Jewish new year (A-1).

Readers who plow through the entire story won't find the name of the driver or whether he was charged for failing "to heed her hand-held stop sign" outside an Orthodox synagogue (A-12).

Nor does Staff Writer Nicholas Pugliese explain why the Bergen County sheriff launched a ticket blitz against pedestrians as part of a "safety program" instead of tackling a far more menacing problem, drivers who speed and blow through stop signs and red lights.

School news

Today's Local section includes two more stories about Englewood schools (L-2 and L-6).

In contrast, the Woodland Park daily has completely ignored education issues in Hackensack, the biggest school district in Bergen County.

That's been the case even though the school budget exceeds the municipal budget there, and board members have spent an inordinate amount of time launching partisan attacks against City Council members and other city officials.

High salaries

Karen Lewis, superintendent of Hackensack schools, is being paid $167,500, but other payments to her means she is getting more than Christie's $175,000 a year. 

Assistant Superintendent Rosemary Martin Marks is being paid $167,280 a year, and Assistant Superintendent Joseph V. Cicchelli gets $161,515.

High school Principal James Montesano receives $172,868 -- a higher annual salary than the superintendent -- and five other high school administrators get paid more than $157,000 each.

Other salaries include Hillers School Principal Joy Dorsey-Whiting, $165,455; Jackson Avenue School Principal Andrea Oates-Parchment, $165,455; Parker School Principal Lillian Whitaker, $162,319; Middle School Principal Corey Jones, $162,398; and Fairmount School Principal Rhonda Ashton-Loeb, $159,370.

High school Director David A. Petrella receives $157,770 a year, as do each of the four high school vice principals -- Anibal Galiana, Mark Johnson, Celso King and Patricia Lozano.

High school Supervisor Talin Young is paid $150,860. 

A dozen lunchroom aides at Fairmount and Hillers schools are paid $22 an hour.

Restaurant help

Readers hoping for help with all of the issues they face when dining out -- from tipping to exorbitant mark-ups on wine to meat and poultry from factory farms -- strike out again today.

Staff Writer Elisa Ung, the paper's chief critic, devotes The Corner Table column to the problems of a local restaurant owner who is struggling to reopen after a car destroyed the place (BL-4).

Saturday's paper

The Record's front page on Saturday was dominated by ISIS, and the end of a U.S. program to train moderate rebels in Syria.

The program spent $500 million before it was abandoned, but the sub-headline on Saturday referred to it incorrectly as a "plan."

Local editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza commissioned stories on schools in Paterson and Englewood, but not Hackensack.

Page 1 goes tabloid on robbery of builder tied to Borgs

Hackensack will lose Costco Wholesale on South River Street after a bigger warehouse store opens next month in the Teterboro Landing Shopping Center. This is how the Teterboro Costco looked last Friday.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Would you look at the hysterical woman in the photo centerpiece on Page 1 of The Record today.

That's not all, as readers find out if they turn to the full story and more photos of the suspects and their lawyers (L-1 and L-6).

The woman and two men, including the father of her son, are being held in the 2013 home invasion and robbery of Fred Daibes in his luxury Edgewater penthouse.

"Tuesday was the plea cutoff date for the four defendants in the case," which is alleged to have been an inside job, Staff Writer Peter J. Sampson reports.

Why is this procedural court hearing on A-1 today?

That may have something to do with Daibes, a developer who once proposed to build apartments on 19.7 acres North Jersey Media Group owns in Hackensack, site of The Record's old headquarters.

Of course, the story is silent on Daibes' relationship to the Borg family, which controls NJMG.

Woman hit by car

Another front-page story today seems to gloss over the actions of the driver who struck Jo-Ann Hans, 60, a Bergenfield crossing guard who was helping worshipers around 8 a.m. on the second day of the Jewish new year (A-1).

"On Tuesday night, she was unconscious and on life support in a hospital bed," The Record reports.

But the identity of driver and the charges against him don't appear until deep on the continuation page (A-8).

That's also where readers find complaints about speeders, the reason a crossing guard was needed in the first place on New Bridge Road and Westminster Avenue.

"Pedestrians mean nothing," Shimmy Stein is quoted as saying.

Stein, chairman of Bergenfield's zoning board, was referring to drivers, but his observation also can be applied to local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza.

Readers wonder what's next for market, their newspaper

Drivers lining up for gas at the Costco Wholesale station in Wayne, where regular was selling for $2.09.9 a gallon last week. Cheap gas has encouraged more speeding and aggressive driving on the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and other highways.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If you're going to devote all of Page 1 above the fold to the Wall Street "correction," does it make any sense to use the rest of the page to report on Governor Christie's "latest television ad" or even a rapper's free concert in Paterson?

Readers encounter more of Editor Martin Gottlieb's news judgement from hell today.

Christie lost ground after the first big debate among the GOP presidential hopefuls, yet his struggling campaign remains front-page news in the Woodland Park daily.

Columnist Charles Stile and Staff Writer Melissa Hayes have been doing masterful public relations for the GOP buffoon, who has spent more than half the year out of state on party business (A-1 and A-3).

Wait till next year

Are readers really paying that much attention nearly a year before the Republican National Convention on July 18-21, 2016, in Tampa, Fla., or are the media cranking up sensational coverage just to make the race seem close?

The Democratic National Convention is scheduled for July 25, 2016, in Philadelphia.

On the Opinion page today, Columnist Catherine Rampell of The Washington Post calls all of the candidates from both parties "deadbeats."

Referring to Christie, Rampell noted "New Jersey has undergone nine credit-rating downgrades and ranked 44th in private sector growth" (A-9).

Yet, Christie is promising "blockbuster economic growth" when he is president.

I guess that is as credible as his campaign promise to cut property taxes after he became governor in 2010.

Motion practice

Gottlieb is so desperate today he is running a long story on motions filed in the corruption case against U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (A-5).

Defense attorneys usually file a blur of motions for two reasons: It boosts their legal fees and hence their outrageous profits, and postpones the inevitable. 

A second story on legal maneuvering appears on the Local front, where the law firm Christie hired at public expense is fighting a subpoena for computer data in connection with the George Washington Bride lane closure sandal (L-1).

WNYC-FM's "The Christie Tracker" puts the total cost of Bridgegate -- billed to "taxpayers and tollpayers" -- at $11.1 million.

Local news?

A long story on a new principal for an elementary school in Woodland Park, not far from the newsroom, has readers wondering whether the local assignment editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, lost the directions to Hackensack after they moved out in 2009 (L-3).

Editors are minding police only when they break the law

The man who parked this minivan in a reserved space steps from the entrance to 24 Hour Fitness in Paramus this morning appeared to be able bodied, but his enormous beer belly may have qualified him for a handicap parking permit.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The tabloid news leading The Record's front page today -- a Glen Rock detective accused of sexting teen girls (A-1) -- exposes the editors' refusal to examine how well the police protect us.

Whether it's a rash of burglaries in tony Tenafly or drive-by shootings in impoverished Paterson, the irresponsible Woodland Park daily has simply ignored the performance of police departments, even when innocent lives are lost.

In 2010, The Record did report on the impact of police salaries on property tax bills and crime. A chart listing salaries stated:

"The average police officer's 2009 base pay was almost $104,000 in Bergen County and nearly $88,000 in Passaic County, with some of the highest pay in lower-crime areas and some of the lower salaries in higher-crime communities.

"Here are averages by municipality, along with crime rates and the percent of officers earning at least $100,000. Data covers patrolmen up through police chiefs."

P.R. for cops 

One reason police performance is ignored by The Record's editors is their continued reliance on routine crime, fire and accident news to fill their columns.

To keep the flow of police, fire and accident news coming, local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza knock themselves out doing public relations for the police and other first responders.

What other explanation is there for why they ran photos showing water-emergency training for local firefighters on the front of Local today (L-1)?

Or, how about a long story on wealthy Wyckoff adding five police officers (L-2)?

And then there is a preview of the Ramsey Rescue Squad putting on "a simulated rescue of a person trapped in a sewer" (L-3).

We pay them handsomely to do those jobs. If they don't, the editors should be pointing that out.

Salary cuts

Another sign the editors want to stay on the good side of the police is their reaction to Governor Christie's order to limit local school superintendents to his salary of $175,000 a year, resulting in many cuts.

The Record never questioned then or in the five years since that move why he didn't order the same cuts for nearly 70 local police chiefs in Bergen County, many of whom are making close to or more than $200,000 a year, a huge burden on property tax payers.

Goes to far

Also on Page 1 today, a photo over line goes way too far:

"CRUSHING BLOW TO WATER SUPPLY"

Before you rush to your faucet, take a look at the caption for the photo under that sensationally exaggerated statement.

Residents in only three of the 70 towns in Bergen County towns were "warned to boil water" (A-1).

Eye on The Record

will return on Sunday

Error-prone, police-loving local news section limps along

The City Council meeting scheduled for tonight was held on Monday night, according to the city's Web site. On Friday, an appeals court overturned former Police Chief Ken Zisa's 2012 official-misconduct conviction, and freed him from house arrest and a pending 5-year prison sentence.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Three more corrections appear on Page A-2 of The Record today, further evidence of the breakdown of editing and fact checking at the Woodland Park daily.

On Monday's Page 1, a local reporter assigned to cover the Haskell Invitational misstated the amount of money won by American Pharoah.

He was off by $600,000.

Another local reporter misstated how Oradell's Fire Department will spend a $160,000 federal grant.

And a sports reporter committed the biggest sin of all, misspelling the last name of Wallington-Carlstadt Little League softball pitcher Abigail Tabaka.

Local news?

Meanwhile, local assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza used seven Law & Order stories as filler in today's section (L-2, L-3 and L-6).

Sykes and Sforza endeavor to stay on good terms with all of the police departments in North Jersey to ensure the flow of the Law & Order copy they rely on every day.

On L-1, Road Warrior John Cichowski focuses on a single railroad crossing the vast majority of readers will never use -- rather than report on the overall health of mass transit or the condition of local roads.

Carbon emissions

Congratulations to environmental reporter James M. O'Neill for his front-page story on President Obama's proposal to dramatically cut carbon emissions, including a strong New Jersey focus (A-1).

The day before, Editor Martin Gottlieb ran an Associated Press story on Page 1 that politicized the issue by pitting Democrats against Republicans.

In his second paragraph, O'Neill reports:

"The plan is the first large-scale attempt by the United States to try and slow the release of greenhouse gases tied to climate change ...." (A-1).

Governor Christie's opposition to the plan appears on the continuation page, as well as quotes from New Jersey environmental official on how well the state is doing on cutting emissions from power plants.

And PSEG, whose subsidiary runs large power plants in New Jersey, backs the Obama administration's goals.

This is the kind of balance reporting that has been missing from The Record, especially when it comes to Christie and the terrible job he has done since he took office in early 2010.

Will prosecutor appeal ruling overturning Zisa convictions?

Waiting on Railroad Avenue in Hackensack for an NJ Transit train to pass on the way to the Anderson Street station.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Former Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa was sentenced to prison in late 2012, but remained under house arrest while he appealed his convictions.

Today, a state appeals court overturned those guilty verdicts on official misconduct and insurance fraud charges surrounding his actions after his girlfriend was involved in a one-vehicle Hackensack accident.

But the Bergen County prosecutor could appeal that ruling, extending the legal saga involving Zisa.

I scanned the 38-page decision, which you can read in full by clicking on following link:

State of New Jersey v. Charles K. Zisa

Today's paper

On the Record's front page today, you'll find only one story worth reading, from Staff Writer Jay Levin.

Agnes Fenton of Englewood will celebrate her 110th birthday today (A-1).

That's unless you want to be bored to tears by another long, tedious 9/11 column from Staff Writer Mike Kelly.

Here is Kelly's scene-setting first paragraph:

"His grave lies just inside the cemetery gates, a few feet from a chain-link fence and the rattle and swoosh of cars, trucks and buses on Totowa's Union Boulevard" (A-1).

The "rattle and swoosh of cars, trucks and buses"? Readers' eyes are rolling. No motorcycles?

Local news?

Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza continue to rely heavily on Law & Order news to fill their thin section today (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

Editors manage to find bright side of high N.J. jobless rate

On North Woodland Street in Englewood, drivers doing an end run on Monday morning around one of the city's new automated garbage trucks. Later, when the truck moved over to pass a jogger on the right side of the street, a car traveling in the opposite direction nearly hit it.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

"U.S.," "New York" and "Cuba" are just three of the headline words on Page 1 of The Record, supposedly a local daily newspaper.

The funeral of a police officer who died in an ATV accident and shore taffy are promoted in front-page briefs, but an editorial on A-8 is the first word readers find on the death of a corruption-fighting former mayor.

Neither today's editorial or the L-1 obituary on Margie Semler, 92, refer to the other piece, as is common newspaper practice.

And in yet another major error, Monday's Page 1 story on the death of Joseph Robinson Jr., oldest son of the founders of Sugar Hill Records in Englewood, misreported the date of his wake and funeral by an entire week (A-2).

That comes just when readers thought a local black resident doesn't have to commit a heinous crime to get on the front page of the Woodland Park daily.

Wrong focus

The lead A-1 headline today focuses on a national increase in traffic deaths, not on the decline in New Jersey that concerns readers most.

And in what could be viewed as more gentle handling of Governor Christie, the story reports the state's high unemployment rate may be reducing both driving and fatal crashes.

In nearly a dozen years of writing the Road Warrior column, Staff Writer John Cichowski has largely ignored the antiquated road and street network in Bergen and Passaic counties.

The lack of turn lanes on such major thoroughfares as Passaic Street, Teaneck Road and Forest Avenue; streets like Cedar Lane that go from two lanes to one lane and back again, and other traffic bottlenecks increase driver frustration, aggravate air pollution and cause accidents.

Margie Semler

If you read between the lines, the editorial on former Passaic Mayor Margie Semler makes clear she had little in common with politicians in such towns as Cliffside Park and Englewood Cliffs, long ruled by family dynasties, and Hackensack, which threw off the yoke of the Zisa family in 2013 (A-8).

"Semler's backbone was evident to anyone who knew her," the editorial states. "She spoke her mind when she saw something wrong. She spoke out against nepotism in city government, and against deal-making that she perceived as harming the overall health of the city she loved so much."

Christopher Birch

The lavish coverage of the funeral of a Midland Park police officer who contributed to his own off-duty death is an insult to readers looking for municipal news (A-1 and L-1).

According to Pennsylvania State Police, Christopher Birch, 31, was driving too fast on July 6, failed to negotiate a turn, left the road and crashed into a large boulder.

He was pronounced dead at the scene of the ATV crash.

Many readers suspect Birch's funeral is getting such big play, because Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza hope that will lead to better relations with police departments in Midland Park and elsewhere.

Sykes and Sforza, who rely so heavily on Law & Order news to fill their thin Local section, need the continuing cooperation of those departments. 

Another error

Typical of the police filler Sykes and Sforza seek so desperately is the photo on L-2 today of a car that crashed into an Englewood laundromat.

The photo caption incorrectly identifies the car as a Toyota Prius, and the street where the crash occurred isn't given.

Seven other Law & Order stories appear in Local today (L-2 and L-3).

Francis Scandale

Former Record Editor Francis "Frank" Scandale is now investigative editor for The Journal News Media Group in White Plains.

Scandale also continues as the founder and editor of The Daily Payoff, "the only U.S.-based site dedicated to coverage of gaming and gambling in the U.S. and abroad," according to his Linked In profile.

In November 2011, Scandale left as editor and executive vice president of The Record after 10 years and 11 months.

He was shown the door by Publisher Stephen A. Borg in response to the paper's pathetically poor coverage of a surprise Halloween snowstorm.

Early in his career as one of The Record's worst editors ever, Scandale caved into the bean counters on 9/11, and didn't remake the front page for Tom Franklin's photo of firefighters raising the American flag over the rubble of the Twin Towers.

Putting a photo no other paper had on a back page to save money certainly put the kabosh on Franklin's bid for a Pulitzer Prize.

And journalism's biggest award continued to elude Scandale, as it has his successor, former New York Times editor and reporter Martin Gottlieb.

Scandale also helped implement a major Borg-inspired downsizing in the old newsroom in 2008, followed by the 2009 closure of North Jersey Media Group headquarters in Hackensack.

Tens of thousands of Jews say: Shame on you, Boteach

Four photographers from The Record managed to cover Memorial Day parades in only five Bergen County towns, according to today's Local section, but none visited Englewood, above and below.

VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Shame on you, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, for your publicity mongering and your support of Governor Christie, the worst leader in New Jersey history.

And shame on you, Editor Martin Gottlieb and Columnist Mike Kelly, for devoting more than 100 inches in The Record today to a rabbi who makes tens of thousands of Jews cringe at the thought that they have anything in common.

How can Kelly -- himself a walking question mark --dare ask on Page 1, "Who is he [Boteach], anyway?" (A-1).

Readers know Boteach purchased a mansion on Englewood's East Hill, even though it was next door to the home of the Libyan ambassador to the U.S.

Then, in 2009, the shamelessly self-promoting rabbi grabbed the front page of The Record several days in a row, protesting the planned visit of Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi.

Folloing those news stories was a glowing profile by Staff Writer Jim Beckerman, who described pop king Michael Jackson's visit to the Boteach mansion for Friday night dinners.

The reporter referred to the mansion as "an ordinary house in Englewood."

Must-read list

Head Assigment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza managed today to find room for Memorial Day photos from only a half-dozen North Jersey towns (L-1, L-2 and L-3).

Any other photos were held to make room for thousands of names in a huge Dean's List (L-5), which Sykes and Sforza rely on frequently when they can't find legitimate municipal news.

Monday's paper

The Record's front-page story on the crash death of Princeton University mathematician John Nash fails to report the Nobel laureate and his wife weren't wearing seat belts in the back seat of a taxi.

NJ.com reported the Nashes were ejected from the cab during the national "Click It or Ticket" campaign on seat-belt use, a stepped up enforcement program that runs through May 31.

In mid-May, Road Warrior John Cichowski warned more than 4,400 tickets were issued in Bergen County alone during last year's two-week crackdown.

Yet, The Record consistently fails to report whether people killed in car crashes were belted in.

Christie and crime

In another front-page story on Monday, Gottlieb and the other editors managed to hold Christie blameless for police layoffs that resulted in a spike in violent crime in Camden, Newark, Paterson and other cities.

The story by Staff Writers Abbott Koloff and Melissa Hayes goes on and on, but never reports the GOP bully cut state aid to poor cities in 2011.

Camden lost 163 officers and Paterson -- which has twice as many residents -- let go 125.

The Record's revisionist theory is that the layoffs were caused by the "recession, coupled with a freeze in state aid and a 2 percent state-imposed cap on local property tax levies" (Saturday's A-11).

Different story

In 2011, The Record and other media attributed the layoffs to Christie's state aid cuts. 

On July 1, 2011, NJ.com reported the governor cut aid for the state's most troubled cities to $10 million from $149 million.

On Monday, The Record described that drastic aid cut as "a freeze in state aid."

Now, the Woodland Park daily -- which struggles to report what happened yesterday completely and without errors -- can't be relied on to accurately report what Christie did in his second year in office.

Evidence mounts of Christie's pivotal role in Bridgegate

Traffic on Center Street in Fort Lee crawling toward Main Street on Monday, when construction on Main made driving in the borough an ordeal, as it has been on so many days in the past two years.

A digital sign on Main Street warned motorists of similar disruptions through Friday.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I'm betting the 1.5 million pages of evidence federal prosecutors won't make public show Governor Christie had a pivotal role in the George Washington Bridge political-retribution scandal.

Indeed, the GOP bully could be one of the unindicted -- and as yet unidentified -- co-conspirators mentioned in today's Page 1 story in The Record.

There is a lot more negative news on Christie in today's paper, but you won't find it on A-1, where it belongs.

Joke's on us

Editor Martin Gottlieb used precious front-page space to recap the stupid jokes that closed out David Letterman's late-night TV career (A-1).

Letterman's 6,028th and last show on Wednesday night upsets only insomniacs and workers stuck in crappy night jobs, like the luckless copy editors in the old Hackensack newsroom.

On A-4 today, readers can find stories on an attempt to stop Christie from developing the Liberty State Park waterfront in Jersey City, and on a favorable legal opinion from his appointee on disclosing gifts from Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones and other friends.

Mass transit

More on Christie can be found on A-20 today, where an editorial finally calls on the worst governor in New Jersey history to "make mass transit a priority," noting in an understatement that he hasn't done so since taking office in 2010.

For years, The Record has reported negatively on the extension of light rail to Bergen County, and ignored the need to expand both bus service to Manhattan and the PATH commuter rail system (A-3).

The editors also allowed Road Warrior John Cichowski to stray far from his role as a commuting columnist, and almost exclusively cover problems associated with driving and drivers.

Now, the editorial declares, "Mass transit needs public subsidies; there isn't anyway around that fact.

"Taking commuters off highways is a boon for  commuters in cars as well as for commercial truckers."

Correction

On A-2 today, Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza acknowledge that after decades of covering similar local stories, they don't have a clue which Ho-Ho-Kus board will hear a large-scale housing plan on June 4.

In Local -- the section edited by Sykes and Sforza --the death of that vicious German shepherd at the hands of a Wyckoff cop three weeks ago gets better play on L-1 than the L-6 obituary of jazz music executive Bruce Lundvall, 79, also of Wyckoff.

Low gas prices

An Associated Press story reports low gas prices in early 2015 didn't boost the economy, as the media predicted they would (L-9).

Of course, the clueless wire-service reporter, Christopher S. Rugaber, doesn't bother exploring whether low gas prices encouraged people to drive more.

That would have worsened air pollution, increased traffic congestion and discouraged owners of gas-guzzlng SUVs from switching to more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Christie: I'd beat Hillary Clinton just like I defeated Buono

Our weird weather hasn't ended. I encountered fog on Woodland Street in Tenafly on Monday morning.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie isn't even the GOP candidate, yet The Record today devotes a long front-page story to the wannabe president's saber rattling and talk of taking on China, Iran, Russia and Syria.

And buried deep in the story by Salvador Rizzo is the biggest laugh line of all:

The GOP bully said "he would be able to beat Hillary Clinton, if he decided to run for president, because it would be similar to the race he ran against another Democratic female senator, Barbara Buono" (A-6).

Who is this State House Bureau reporter, Rizzo? "Another Democratic female senator"?

Clinton was President Obama's first secretary of state, not "another Democratic female senator," and Buono was a state senator, not in the U.S. Senate, which is where the onetime first lady served.

By the way, the byline on the story says "Salvador," but a credit at the end of another Page 1 story says, "Salvatore."

Big defeat ahead

Christie is just setting himself up for the biggest humiliation of his political life, if he thinks beating Clinton would be as easy as his 2013 defeat of Buono, who was put up as a sacrificial lamb by the sheepish state Democratic Party.

For one thing, Christie was so desperate for a second term he exacted political retribution against Democrats who didn't endorse him for reelection.

And all the reporting on politics by Charles Stile of The Record and other media turned off registered voters to the point that fewer than four in 10 cast ballots in the gubernatorial race -- the lowest turnout in history for such an election.

Obama in Camden

The president visited Camden, showing the kind of leadership in addressing police violence against blacks that Christie could never display (A-1).

In fact, Christie, from his second home in New Hampshire, belatedly referred to all of the gun violence in Paterson, where three young blacks were gunned down in drive-by shootings in about 15 months.

Christie said he is ready to work with Paterson to create the same kind of community policing credited with cutting crime in Camden.

But the last of the three blacks slain in Paterson, basketball star Armoni Sexton, 15, died about a month ago, so why is Christie just now making the offer?

Teaneck horse

Multimillionaire Ahmed Zayat was born in Egypt and owns race horses, including American Pharoah.

But Zayat, a Sephardic Jew, has lived among other Orthodox Jews in Teaneck for 30 years.

Now, the editors are making a half-hearted effort to show township residents are behind him and his horse, and are rooting for American Pharoah to win the Triple Crown (L-1).

That's likely because twice on the front page recently, victories by the horse have been called "wins" for Teaneck. That's preposterous.

The story by Mary Diduch reports Zayat Stables are in Hackensack. Boy, does that make me feel good.

And I got a good laugh out of her first line: "Bergen County isn't exactly horse country."

Of course it is. 

The Bergen Equestrian Center at Overpeck Park, Leonia, has a long history, and many Bergen residents actually stable their horses there and ride them frequently.

A second county horseback riding facility is in Franklin Lakes.

Here's a line that is irrefutable: 

Local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza -- who assigned this stupid story to a clueless reporter and then embarrassed themselves no end by missing her ridiculous first sentence -- are horse's asses.

Better Living

Today's story on the popularity and health benefits of olive oil omits one important fact:

Unlike the vast majority of corn, soy and rapeseed (canola) used in cooking oils, olives aren't genetically modified and olive oil doesn't contain GMOs (BL-2).

There is no explanation why this piece runs under the heading of 15 MINUTE CHEF.