In 2019, The Record's slide toward mediocrity didn't slow

CIVIC PUZZLE: On Oct. 26, a business district group and the borough of Fort Lee unveiled this nonsensical sign, which they called an "arts installation," near the massive Hudson Lights development, leaving hundreds of residents to scratch their heads on its meaning and wonder just how they can "be" Fort Lee. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- After lunch at Hiura, our favorite Japanese restaurant in Fort Lee, my friend Arthur drove us to a small park in the massive Hudson Lights development.

He pulled over and I opened the window to make a couple of photos of a sign he told me about a few weeks earlier:

"Be FORT LEE."

"What does that mean?" Arthur had said over and over again.

I couldn't shed any light on its meaning or how one could "be" Fort Lee, but when I got home, I Googled "Be Fort Lee" and found a statement from a business district group and the borough labeling the sign an "arts installation."

Then, I read this:

"The iconic installation signals the Borough's recent renaissance and serves as an aspirational invitation, to residents and visitors alike, to fully experience its enlightened cosmopolitan lifestyle so uniquely situated in a friendly community environment."

What idiocy.

The Record

Did The Record, the once-great local newspaper in Hackensack, report installation of the sign at the controversial high-rise/retail development or ask business and borough officials what the hell it means?

I no longer subscribe to the print edition or NorthJersey.com, which you cannot search unless you do.

But I do see the paper at least once a week, and the local news from Paterson and other towns in Passaic County continues to dominate the Local section, to the chagrin of readers in Bergen County, the heart of the circulation area.

The Sports section usually is twice the size of the Local news section, and both are filled with typos, errors and tortured writing.

The Borg family sold The Record to Gannett on July 6, 2016 -- a date that will live in infamy -- for nearly $40 million in cash, and laughed all the way to the bank.

The Sasson Report 

Here are posts from my omnibus blog, The Sasson Report, on The Record, (201) magazine and the Borg family: 

READ: The Record, North Jersey.com

 lost more readers in 2018

READ: Shit in driveway wasn't from dog walkers

READ: Readers must pay for news, editor says

READ: Tombstones for great local journalism

READ: The best hamburgers in Bergen County?

READ: Repairs on USS Ling

 appear to have been successful

The following post on redevelopment of downtown Hackensack includes details about the Borg family's plans for nearly 20 acres at 150 River St., where The Record's headquarters once stood:

READ: New restaurants and apartments,

 but where do you park?

Christie, convicted ex-aides should be forced to guard GWB

In this photo from Fernanda Calfat/Getty Images, the label R13 showed a cheeky dress during New York Fashion Week in September, when Donald J. Trump was the GOP presidential nominee. What would the label say on a dress for Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration? How about, "We're f----d"?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Today's Page 1 expose in The Record suggests Governor Christie and three convicted former aides should be forced to guard the George Washington Bridge, and relieve themselves in empty water bottles.

The former associates -- David Wildstein, Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni -- were convicted in federal court of conspiring to close access lanes, triggering gridlock in Fort Lee on five mornings in September 2013.

The politically inspired Bridgegate scandal also put the kibosh on Christie's White House bid and a major post in the Trump administration.

The GOP thug, who knew about the lane closures as they were happening, was convicted in court of public opinion.

"One guard was almost hit by a suicide jumper falling from 200 feet above," Staff Writer Paul Berger says in the lead paragraph of a story on the harsh working conditions facing bridge security guards (1A, 8a and 9a).

So, community service as unarmed and unpaid security guards at the GWB would be fit punishment for Christie and the trio of former associates who triggered the lane closures.

In view of the governor's prodigious appetite for beer and pizza, he'd need a bucket or something larger in which to relieve himself.

More Christie

If Saturday's front page didn't give you enough of a political perspective on Christie's future, Columnist Charles Stile is back today with another column that will bore you to tears (1A).

Then, brace yourself for yet another column on Christie, this one by Mike Kelly, who goes on and on about "the rust of his battered political career" (Opinion front).

Local news?

Stories about a small number of the 90 or so towns in the circulation area appear in today's Local section (1L to 8L).

Wayne, Hawthorne (two stories), Montclair, West Milford, Ridgewood and Ringwood are represented, but not the three biggest communities in Bergen County -- Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood.

John Cichowski's Road Warrior column on "misleading road signs" is probably the 20th he's written on the same subject since taking over the beat in late 2003 (1L).

The best read in the section is Jay Levin's obituary of Michael Smith, 53, of Waldwick, a quadriplegic who spent 35 years in a wheelchair working on behalf of the disabled (1L and 7L).

All in all, today's paper is just another thin Sunday edition from the payroll-slashing folks at Gannett.

Legislature stops Christie, gunman avenges Syrian slaughter

Moments after pumping several bullets into the back of Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov on Monday, a Turkish police officer shouted, "Don't forget Aleppo! Don't forget Syria!" This photo and others from Associated Press photographer Burhan Ozbilici, who was covering the event at an arts center, are certain to be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie is down but not out after the state Legislature killed a bill that would have allowed him to cash in on a book-publishing deal while giving hefty raises to his Cabinet officers, judges and legislative aides.

But a separate bill -- to drop the requirement that public notices be published in newspapers -- survived, and will be debated again next year  (1A and 6A).

For the biggest piece of fiction in today's paper, see the third paragraph of the Page 1 news story:

"It was a stunning turn of events for Christie, who was once regarded as a master of cutting deals with New Jersey's Democratic political bosses and muscling the bills through the Legislature" (1A).

Christie hasn't made deals for years; instead, he's unleashed more than 500 vetoes to get his way with the majority Democrats -- vetoes that have hurt the working and middle classes in New Jersey.

And shame on Charles Stile for yet another front-page column on what Christie once was and what he is now -- amounting to a rewrite of every piece under the byline of the burned-out Trenton reporter since the GOP bully abandoned his White House dreams last February (1A).

Defending profits

The Record and other newspapers, as well as the New Jersey Press Association, portrayed the battle over legal notices as a "free press" issue.

The NJPA ran a full-page ad on the back of The Record's Local section claiming Christie is trying to "hide ... vital information" from the public, including "government contract bids, air and water pollution emergencies, and meetings of legislative bodies" (8L on Sunday).

But the substantial revenue generated by publication of the notices amounts to a questionable subsidy to newspapers, which are supposed to be independent.

Finally, the notices are of little use to taxpayers, because they are printed in small type and poorly organized. 

In Hackensack, the City Clerk's Office spends about $1,000 a month on publishing the legal notices, an official said on Monday.

The city's Board of Education also publishes its own meeting schedule and budget, but spends less than the City Clerk's Office.

Christie apparently exaggerated the savings to government and business as $80 million a year, if the notices were put online.

'Don't forget Aleppo'

Every time the news media reported Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Tump's praise for Vladimir Putin, few editors reminded readers of the Russian bombers that were pulverizing Aleppo to keep a dictator in power.

On Monday, a Turkish cop fatally wounded Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey, avenging all of the deaths of innocent civilians during the civil war struggle for Syria's biggest city.

Day after day, Gannett editors keep readers' eyes rolling

"Barbarians" is the title of this cartoon by Arend van Dam, who has Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad bombing residents of Aleppo, Syria, as the civil war drags on.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Recovering addicts helping overdose patients into treatment programs surely is an important story, but does it really belong on Page 1 of The Record today?

There isn't much else on the front page for readers of the redesigned Woodland Park daily, which is struggling after another major downsizing.

Staff Writer Hannan Adely is reprising the eight-year-old case against Imam Mohammad Qatanani, spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of Passaic County (1A).

And so-called Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson is following the difficult last days of Scott Garrett, the Tea Party radical who lost his seat in Congress on Nov. 8 (1A).

Trump and Syria

Where are the stories and commentary about President-elect Donald J. Trump's praise and support for Russian thug Vladimir Putin, whose bombers are pulverizing Aleppo, Syria?

Paterson and other towns in Passaic County are called home by thousands of Syrian Christians and Muslims, including refugees from the civil war who are worried about their future with Trump in office.

On A-2, the editors run two corrections about a Sunday advertising section called Tribute to Nurses, but there is no explanation why staffers at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center were omitted. 

Local news?

Just as drug addiction is the big news on Page 1 today, homelessness is the major element on the Local front (1L).

The focus is on "Grandma's House" in Clifton, one of several Passaic County stories delivered to Bergen County readers today (1L, 2L and 6L).

In fact, there are more stories from towns like Clifton, Paterson and Haledon than from Bergen communities, including Hackensack.

On 23-cents gas-tax hike, editors are in the pocket of Big Oil

An FBI agent using the trunk lid of an unmarked car as a desk this morning as other agents and law enforcement officers entered a house at 248 Fairmount Ave. in Hackensack, above and below.

One agent is carrying a folding table into the house. The large, expensive Mercedes-Benz sedan in the driveway has a Pennsylvania plate. A call to an FBI spokesman about the nature of the investigation wasn't returned immediately.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Staff Writer Christopher Maag of The Record normally covers NJ Transit, the state mass-transit agency bus and rail commuters love to hate.

But his reporting today on the 23-cents-a-gallon hike in the state gas tax shows he really is in the pocket of Big Oil and the auto dealers who advertise in the Woodland Park daily.

Instead of leading his Page 1 report with a gas-pump jockey who is saddled with an 11-mpg Mustang, he should have used the River Vale man who says that at $2 or $3 more per fill-up, the first gas-tax hike since 1988 is no big deal (A-1).

At Costco Wholesale in Teterboro today, a gallon of regular gasoline was $2.08.9, compared to the $2.30.9 shown in the photo on A-1 today.

Plus Costco members get 4% cash back on gas purchases worldwide.

Ballot question

If voters approve a constitutional amendment next Tuesday, all of the revenue from the motor fuels tax, which now totals 37.5 cents a gallon, will go to road and rail improvements, instead of being siphoned out of the Transportation Trust Fund to balance the state budget.

When gas prices dipped below $2 a gallon, auto dealers saw the sales of big, high-profit SUVs rise dramatically.

Nissan and other manufacturers are marketing big SUVs and pickups to take advantage of low gasoline prices. Ford is actually shifting small-car production to SUVs and trucks for the same reason.

Those gas-guzzling vehicles only aggravate air pollution and climate change, and contribute to the death of 53,000 people a year from auto emissions.

Today's hike also is a victory for rail commuters, especially if the extra revenue pays for NJ Transit safety improvements, including an automatic braking system that could have prevented the fatal train wreck in Hoboken on Sept. 29.

And which New Jersey motorist doesn't relish the prospect of less traffic when all those New York motorists who came here for cheap gas just stay home?

I won't miss those New Yorkers, many of whom drive like maniacs.

Bridgegate trial

No one knows whether federal-court jurors in Newark will convict two former associates in the politically motivated George Washington Bridge lane closures, which created five mornings of gridlock in Fort Lee in 2013.

But readers can only hope a verdict will finally end all of these Charles Stile columns that begin, "For nearly seven years, Chris Christie" said this or did that or portrayed himself as this or that -- only to be unmasked by testimony in the trial (A-1).

Stile, the paper's biggest apologist for the GOP bully since he took office in early 2010, and the paper's other Trenton reporters have done a poor job of covering the Christie administration.

Follow the vetoes

They should have been following the more than 500 vetoes and the other unilateral actions Governor Christie employed to thwart the majority Democrats in the state Legislature.

They should have been pestering the governor whenever he vetoed a hike in the minimum wage or a tax surcharge on millionaires -- not just chalking it up to politics.

The cancellation of the Hudson River rail tunnels in late 2010 should have set off alarm bells in the Woodland Park newsroom, but it didn't, and that allowed Christie to stave off the gas-tax hike, and use mass-transit money to fix roads and bridges.

Local news

On L-1 today, two stories on animal abuse get better play than a Black Lives Matter protest over a Paterson police officer who shot and wounded a man outside the municipal safety complex.

With Trump and his supporters, stupid is as stupid does

The world is laughing at us. This image of Donald J. Trump is from cartoonist Marian Kamensky of Vienna, Austria (Marian Kamensky Cartoons).

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

It's no surprise Governor Christie gave reporters the silent treatment when they wanted to question him about wacko Donald J. Trump's vulgar boasts about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women.

"Christie was the first of Trump's former primary rivals to endorse him," and he's assembling "a potential White House staff" for the GOP presidential nominee, The Record reports on Page 1 today.

And even though Christie was passed over as Trump's running mate, he probably hopes he'll be the next attorney general of the United States.

Yet the Woodland Park daily continues to ignore the seven other New Jersey newspapers that called on Christie to resign after his Trump endorsement. 

Meanwhile, businessman Phil Murphy, the leading Democratic candidate for governor in 2017, is calling on Christie to withdraw his endorsement and quit as Trump's transition chairman.

"To remain with Trump now," Murphy said of Christie, "is nothing less than a tacit endorsement of his disgusting misogyny," according to NJ.com.

Vulgar language

Christie himself has repeatedly used vulgar language, according to testimony on Wednesday at the Bridgegate trial in Newark federal court.

"Who the fuck do you think you are calling me 'a fat fuck?' I'm the fucking Governor of this state," Christie told Freeholder John P. Curley.

"If you're not in Keansburg tomorrow, standing behind me on the podium, I will fucking destroy you. I will have a robo call sent out to every Republican before Election Day telling them not to vote for you."

Today, Columnist Mike Kelly coyly calls the F-bombs a "revelation about Christie's self-definition" (O-1), causing thousands of readers to roll their eyes and throw his column into the recycling bin. 

Plus, it's hard to understand why the Kelly column about Trump on A-10 today, as well as the Margulies cartoon in Opinion, aren't condemning the billionaire's vulgar bragging about his sexual conquests.

Ken Zisa

No jury or judge has ever said former Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa was not guilty of official misconduct or insurance fraud -- the two 2012 convictions on which he was to serve a 5-year prison sentence.

Still, an editorial today claims Hackensack is obligated to pay Zisa nearly $3 million in back pay, legal fees and other compensation after the recent dismissal of the last criminal charge against him (O-2).

"The fallout from Zisa's tenure as chef likely contributed to the election" of Mayor John Labrosse and his slate of reformers in 2013 (The Record's editorial calls them "ticket mates").

The Record still hasn't reported that Zisa and other members of the family's political dynasty are attempting a political comeback under the banner of Team Hackensack.

They will likely try to take back the City Council in May's municipal election.

Trump, Zisa

Supporters of Trump and the Zisas have one thing in common: 

They are as stupid as the GOP's choice for president.

That could be seen in last April's Hackensack school election, when a small minority of the city's 20,000 registered voters elected two members of the Zisa-backed slate, and approved a school budget of more than $100 million (bigger than the city's own).

Even though school taxes make up 44% of the property tax bill for homeowners, Record Staff Writer John Seasly didn't write a word about the campaign of nine candidates on three slates who were seeking three board vacancies.

And the Zisas managed to freeze out the fourth-highest vote-getter, educator Lancelot Powell, and get their third candidate appointed to a sudden vacancy on the nine-member board.

Profiles in death

Unlike many newspapers, The Record does few profiles of prominent local residents, unless they are actors, singers or celebrities.

This weekend, Staff Writer Jay Levin profiled two North Jersey residents -- on the occasion of their deaths.

"In 1949, William Watt flew a DC-3 from San Francisco to New York on automatic pilot and landed in the record books," Levin wrote on Saturday's Local front.

"It was the first coast-to-coast hands-free flight."

"Two decades later, the World War II aviator helped change how corporate bigwigs travel by co-founding a business-jet leasing service based at Teterboro Airport."

Today's L-1 carries another profile from Levin, the local obituary writer:

"With his good looks and winning smile, Jim Noorigian was made for the movies.

"Alas, his 1933 Dodge got more screen time than he did."

"In semi-retirement ... Mr. Noorigian started taking his [vintage] cars to movie and television shoots in the metropolitan area."

Is Christie's chief booster finally having a change of heart?

Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon, above and below, lampooned the first presidential debate when "Saturday Night Live" kicked off its 42nd season this weekend. The New York Times calls the show "the NBC sketch-comedy institution."

Baldwin's Donald J. Trump pronounced "China" as "Gina," "Big Gina," and said "all the blacks live on one street in Chicago." McKinnon's Hillary Clinton looks as if she can see the White House from Rockefeller Center.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The biggest laugh line in the Sunday edition of The Record comes from Columnist Charles Stile, who has been polishing Governor Christie's image for nearly 6 years.

After a tedious Page 1 refresher course on the George Washington Bridge lane closures in September 2013, Stile says with a straight face, referring to the Christie administration:

"In the first two weeks of the [Bridgegate] trial, there was little testimony or evidence presented of decisions driven by a commitment to public service" (A-8).

"The trial so far has produced a counter-narrative to the meticulously managed image of Christie as a bold, bipartisan leader determined to restore New Jersey's reputation and finances."

Stile has got to be kidding. When has anyone ever said "Christie" and "public service" in the same breath?

In fact, he is one of those journalists who turned his back on readers, and used his column, often played on A-1, to do his own meticulous managing of the GOP thug's image.

The veteran Trenton reporter has consistently ignored Christie's more than 500 vetoes, his unilateral cancellation of the first large-scale expansion of rail transit in decades; and his cuts in state aid to NJ Transit that may have led to Thursday morning's fatal crash in Hoboken.

Need I mention Christie's battle against affordable housing, his repeated veto of a hike in the minimum wage or his looting of state public employees' pension system?

Baldwin's Trump referred to moderator Lester Holt, portrayed by Michael Che, as "Jazzman" and "Coltrane."

Bergen light rail

Also on Page 1 today is a report on elected leaders cheering news that the long-delayed extension of NJ Transit's light-rail service to Ridgefield, Palisades Park and Englewood may finally happen (A-1).

Light rail will offer commuters a direct ride to PATH service into Manhattan.

Today's story mentions many more hurdles, including the need to complete an environmental study and the cost, around $1 billion.

But Staff Writer Christopher Maag doesn't even mention the air-quality benefits of an electrified train line that promises to take cars off of the road and reduce the need for more diesel transit buses. 

The big losers will be commuters who live in Tenafly, where residents voted against the plan.

It isn't known whether they were influenced by The Record, which ran two long stories that demonized the extension of light-rail service.

Those articles were edited by Dan Sforza, now the managing editor.

Paterson history

A Page 1 story about Paterson's once-vibrant Jewish community of 30,000 and a dozen synagogues is one of two in today's paper describing happier times.

The Business front waxes nostalgic over the Paterson Men's Shop, which will close Oct. 15 after an 81-year run on Main Street (B-1).

But the Local front carries a report on Silk City's 8th gunshot death in two months (L-1).

The Record's editorial board hasn't bothered asking why Christie has failed to bring to Paterson the same changes in policing he put into effect to fight violent crime in less-populous Camden.

Local news?

Staff Writer Deena Yellin has a glowing report on new businesses and restaurants opening in downtown Tenafly (L-3).

This while The Record's local editors continue to ignore the causes for all of the empty storefronts in neighboring Englewood.

But there is a follow-up to large-scale fraud in Englewood school cafeterias.

"Privacy concerns" are being cited over the district's decision to install finger scanners to prevent students from swiping for others, who then received a free lunch even though their parents haven't paid for the meal (L-1).

This contrasts to The Record's Hackensack reporter completely ignoring the city's Board of Education, its schools and the poor quality of food served at the high school, where hundreds of students rely on a nearby pizzeria and fast-food options for lunch.

Opinion

Page O-2 in Opinion  is worth looking at for Brigid Harrison's column, "All woman were onstage with Clinton," in which she discusses how men treat women in power.

During the debate, Harrison reports, an unnamed Republican member of the House of Representatives tweeted, "She [Hillary Clinton] just comes across as my bitchy/wife mother."

GOP strategist Frank Luntz replied, "I'm sorry, congressman, but tonight Hillary is coming across as presidential."

Says Harrison: "Whether that guy likes it or not."

Food addictions

If I didn't know better, I'd think today's Better Living cover -- "Addicted to food" -- was a report on chief Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung.

That piece of chocolate layer cake in the illustration is just the kind of dessert Ung obsesses over in nearly ever one of the appraisals she has written in the past decade.

And she's an unapologetic carnivore, swooning over the "funk" of aged beef and ignoring how the animal might have been raised on harmful antibiotics to speed it to market.

What did we do to deserve Governor Christie and Ken Zisa?

The Hudson Riverfront 9/11 Memorial in Weehawken marks the site where about 60,000 people were evacuated to New Jersey after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in Manhattan. Governor Christie was conspicuously absent when the memorial was unveiled on Sept. 7, 2011.

The land surrounding the memorial is a huge construction zone for apartments with a river view.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

For the second day in a row, Hackensack taxpayers are horrified over the prospect of a long legal battle with their disgraced former police chief, Ken Zisa, whose never-ending saga again lands on Page 1 of The Record. 

And when they turn to A-3, they learn that despite continuing gun violence in Paterson and other cities, Governor Christie wants to make it easier to carry a concealed weapon in New Jersey. 

Christie also vetoed a bill that would bring "smart gun" technology to retailers statewide.

Governor Veto

What did long-suffering taxpayers do to deserve these two? 

The Record hasn't bothered recently to report just how many times Christie has vetoed progressive legislation (more than 500), but he surely has set a record for a New Jersey governor. 

We can thank apathetic voters for his reelection to a second term just a couple of months after the George Washington Bridge lane closures in September 2013. 

The voter turnout was the lowest for any gubernatorial contest in state history.

Ex-Chief Zisa

Ken Zisa joined the Hackensack Police Department in 1976, according to today's Page 1 story. He was arrested and suspended from his post as police chief in 2010.

Yet, here we are about six years later and his legal problems haven't been resolved -- a testament to a glacially slow system that guarantees lawyers hundreds of thousands of dollars in exorbitantly high legal fees, which are only loosely regulated.

On Tuesday, a Superior Court judge dismissed the remaining charge from Zisa's 2012 trial, official misconduct, ruling that to retry the ex-chief would violate his constitutional rights.

Now, Zisa may sue Hackensack and the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office for $35 million, but he's declared his intention to get his old job back, even though the city abolished the position a few years ago.

More hearings

The prosecutor, on the other hand, may restart his investigation of disciplinary charges alleging Zisa intervened in a 2008 accident involving his girlfriend, Kathleen Tiernan, whom he drove away before a sobriety test, and in a 2004 incident involving her teenage sons, who took part in an assault on a classmate.

City Attorney Alexander Carver said a disciplinary hearing --plus any appeal -- could take years to resolve. 

The Record doesn't take a guess at how much the city will have to pay lawyers to hold the disciplinary hearing and handle any appeal or what it will cost to defend against a $35 million lawsuit.

Meanwhile, Zisa; and his brother, former four-term Mayor Jack Zisa, have formed Team Hackensack, which is expected to field a slate of candidates in next May's municipal election in hopes of once again flying the despised "Zisaville" flag from the roof of City Hall.

Sloppy editing

In his lead paragraph, Staff Writer John Seasly wrote the judge "threw out the last criminal conviction" against Zisa.

Four paragraphs later, the reporter refers to it as "the remaining charge of official misconduct" (A-1).

A "charge" and a "conviction" aren't the same.

In the next paragraph, he has Judge Susan Steele "arguing ...." Judges don't argue; they rule.

Christie veto of another minimum-wage hike is a sure thing

In February, Governor Christie's endorsement of wacko racist Donald J. Trump for president prompted seven major New Jersey dailies to call for his resignation. The Record of Woodland Park was the exception. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Deirdre Sykes of The Record continues to sanitize Governor Christie's record, especially when it comes to his 500-plus vetoes -- many aimed at bills helping the middle and working classes.

On Saturday's front page, Staff Writer John C. Ensslin reports Christie has "several more weeks to mull over" three dozen pending bills, including one that would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

Of course, Ensslin and Sykes know the fate of this latest proposal will be the same as the hike he killed in 2013, but nowhere in the story do they report that veto.

On the continuation page, Ensslin notes "Democratic lawmakers fully expect Christie will veto ... the bill raising the minimum wage from $8.38 to $10.10 per hour with additional hikes of at least $1 until it reaches $15 by 2021."

If Christie vetoes the bill, the issue won't go on the ballot until November 2017. 

After the GOP bully vetoed the earlier proposal, voters OK'd a hike in the minimum wage in November 2013.

Wasting newsprint

Even hard-core baseball fans think The Record overdid the coverage of Yankee Alex Rodriguez's last game on Friday.

Sykes ran two columns and two news stories about A-Rod on Saturday (Page 1 and the Sports front).

Sports Columnist Tara Sullivan was so desperate for an angle she seized on a thunderstorm during the pre-game ceremonies to declare:

"The human lightning rod getting interrupted by the real thing."

"A-Rod" is a creation of tabloid headline writers who never had the room to write "Rodriguez."

Local news?

Saturday's local-news section was filled with news from Paterson (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

But the local editors must have the missed the exit to Hackensack.

A photo of a man carrying bottled water up the stairs to his Hackensack apartment is all the news city residents got (L-6).

Today's Local section is completely missing Hackensack news.

Transportation writer John Cichowski had to figure out some way to justify a column on traumatic brain injuries from falls so he compares the number of deaths to "being killed on foot in traffic" (Road Warrior on L-1).

Going to pot

Today's front page carries a moving account of veterans who smoke marijuana to find relief from the haunting images of war and death (A-1).

The story by Staff Writer Todd South, himself a veteran, comes two days after the federal government's decision to withhold the approval of marijuana for medical purposes.

Officials said there is no scientific evidence it works.