I'm racking my brain on what Christie has done for us lately

The Anderson Street Bridge has finally reopened between Teanack and Hackensack after crews worked to strengthen the span, but traffic still is restricted to one lane in each direction. Meanwhile, two major eyesores on Cedar Lane at River Road in Teaneck -- a shuttered diner and a long-abandoned gas station -- have been demolished.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Today's Page 1 story in The Record on how Governor Christie has frozen $2.7 billion in NJ Transit projects sounds horrendous.

That's until you realize it's a bargaining chip in the road-and-rail funding fight between the GOP bully and the Democrats in the state Legislature, and will probably be lifted in a week or two.

Then, commuters will go back to fighting each other for rush-hour seats on buses and trains, and Staff Writer Christopher Maag will continue to completely ignore them.

Veto crazy

Meanwhile, Christie has executed more than 500 vetoes and cut transit subsidies, causing far more damage to New Jersey residents than a temporary halt in road and rail projects.

Yet, Editor Deirdre Sykes continues to cover his every word, burp and fart on the front page, especially when he stumps for wacko racist Donald J. Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee (A-1).

The Record is the only major daily in the state that declined to call for Christie's resignation when he first endorsed Trump.

The A-1 story on housing -- next to the Christie-Trump campaign appearance -- reports the governor also has refused to enforce the state's existing affordable housing laws.

An advocate is quoted as saying the laws don't just benefit low- and moderate-income families -- which opponents take to mean minorities -- but also help disabled and elderly residents.

Local news?

Sykes continues to rely on court and other Law & Order news to fill her Local section (L-1 and L-3).

On L-2, a story on downtown Englewood seems to be saying officials aren't alarmed by a recent survey that found 27 store vacancies, because that is less than "a similar survey three years ago ... that there were 30 vacant storefronts."

So, I guess readers can conclude city economic development officials have done little or nothing about vacant storefronts for three years.

Staff Writer Matthew McGrath is mistaken when he reports Palisade Avenue has "four traffic lanes."

There are only two lanes each way between the monument and Grand Avenue/Engle Street, part of the reason traffic in the small city is horrendous.

Not just typos

Friday's edition of the weekly Hackensack Chronicle -- one of the papers the Gannett Co. bought from North Jersey Media Group -- contained typos in two headlines:

On Page 2, a headline said:

"Dinosaur exhibit set
for more to Teaneck"

The story was from Todd South of The Record, and he made clear the word in the headline should have been "move," not "more."

On Page 8 of the weekly, another headline said:

"Work is delayed on
Hackensack ats center"

The story from Staff Writer John Seasly of The Record was about the city's Performing Arts Center, not "ats center."

Editors giving Hackensack residents very short end of stick

Behind Hackensack High School, an eye-level tree branch has the potential to injure a parent, student or other pedestrian, especially if he has his head down as he walks up the inclined sidewalk and doesn't see it.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Today's edition of The Record has Hackensack residents again turning pages to find news of their city, the most populous in Bergen County.

Way back on L-3, in Local, they'll find a story about a Hackensack police lieutenant who won't be the city's first black captain, as expected, because he failed part of the exam.

That's certainly embarrassing, but some readers question why Staff Writer John Seasly seems to enjoy rubbing in the failure of the officer, James Prise, who will remain a lieutenant.

At the same time, he or one of his editors is responsible for dropping from the story the title, first name and middle initial of City Manager David R. Troast. 

Only "Troast" appears three times in the story. 

This is the same reporter who misspelled the last name of Richard L. Cerbo, who spoke at this week's council meeting and appealed for a tax cut.

New reporter

Seasly took over the Hackensack beat this year, and mostly has covered City Council meetings, writing about downtown development, the city budget, the Police Department and other related news.

He's completely ignored the biggest school system in Bergen County, and didn't cover the issues or candidates in this week's Board of Education and school budget election.

Of course, Seasly may not be the one to blame at a newspaper that has been editor-driven for decades, and now is being led so poorly by Deirdre Sykes.

Like many young reporters at The Record, Seasly takes his marching orders from an assistant assignment editor, who remains anonymous, spends most of his or her time sitting behind a computer and may not know anything about Hackensack.

Korean BBQ

Today's "Good" to "Excellent" review of a Korean barbecue restaurant has Staff Writer Elisa Ung again displaying her ignorance of the harmful antibiotics, growth hormones and low-quality feed used to raise the vast majority of beef in the United States.

That's a disservice to readers who might actually believe that any meat labeled "prime" also is, as Ung says, "high-end" or "better quality" (BL-16).

What would truly make the meat superior is if it came from cattle that were grass fed, and were raised without antibiotics and hormones, but as usual, Ung doesn't say. 

And the restaurant, Kang Ho Dong Baekjeong in Palisades Park, loses points for using gas grills, not the more authentic charcoal.

Ung also omits mention of whether the restaurant requires you to buy two orders of meat, pork or poultry (at $22.99 to $35.99 each) in order to have them cooked at the table, as most Korean BBQ places do.

Nor does she say whether non-meat eaters can order shrimp to cook at the table, wrap in lettuce leaves and enjoy with kimchi and other Korean side dishes. 

All in all, here is another review that smacks far more of promotion than journalism.

Hackensack Chronicle

The Record's poor job of covering Hackensack since a major newsroom downsizing in 2008, followed by North Jersey Media Group completely abandoning the city in 2009, is bad enough.

But the Hackensack Chronicle, the NJMG tabloid delivered with The Record on Fridays, is so stale the weekly is of little use beyond lining a litter box.

The Chronicle didn't cover the issues in Tuesday's school election or report on the attempted political comeback of the Zisa family, who backed two of the three winning candidates.

The lead story today is about City Council action at Monday night's meeting.

School election results won't appear until next Friday, if then.

Reporters sit back and wait for polls, hearings, debates

The front page of New York's Daily News on Wednesday after Donald Trump took the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary. Humiliated by his poor showing, Governor Christie dropped out of the race.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front page today is a real dud.

That's especially the case when compared to Thursday's coverage of Governor Christie, who was shown in a front-page photo looking overweight, haggard and beaten after dropping out of the so-called presidential race. 

Three major elements on A-1 today expose the laziness of editors and reporters who lack even a little bit of enterprise.

Editor Deirdre Sykes leads the paper with a natural question:

Why did New Jersey receive only $15 million from a $1 billion federal competition "intended to protect states from disasters like Superstorm Sandy" (A-1).

But by covering a hearing and putting the question in the mouths of Democratic lawmakers, Sykes only politicizes the issue.

Sadly, that seems to be the only way The Record and other media have covered Trenton and Washington for many years now. 

Commuting

Staff Writer John Cichowski has been covering commuting for more than a dozen years, so you have to wonder why his column today begins:

"Suspicions confirmed. Commuting in New Jersey is getting worse" (A-1).

Is that less-than-startling observation based on the reporter driving around and getting stuck in traffic? 

No. It's based on an AAA poll, just like the last column he did on commuting in 2011. 

The lazy Road Warrior columnist completely ignores drivers who are forced to commute by car because buses and trains operate at capacity during rush hours.

Local news?

Don't look for much municipal news in today's Local section, which is again dominated by crime and court news (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

See the standing photo of a non-fatal accident on L-3 today and wonder whether the driver, who was reported by other media to be 60, confused the accelerator for the brake pedal.

Mystery food

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung calls the meatballs at Cyndia's in far-off Totowa "fried beauties made of veal, pork and beef ...." (BL-14).

Her informal dining review praises the meatball sandwich and other dishes as "comfort food."

But what really would be comforting is if Ung stopped just stuffing her face and started telling readers how the food she recommends was raised or grown.  

NJMG weakly

All of the stories and photos on Pages 1 and 3 of today's weekly Hackensack Chronicle appear to be from staffers at The Record.

And those pages have no municipal news from Hackensack.

The weekly paper is delivered to Hackensack residents with the Woodland Park daily, and both are owned by the Borg family's North Jersey Media Group. 

On Page 6 of the weekly, the only staffers listed are an editor and an advertising sales manager.

First Hackensack story in many weeks is really stale news

Visitors to Hackensack University Medical Center are treated to a panoramic view of the Manhattan skyline from the top of the parking deck -- little consolation to Hackensack residents whose taxes are higher because the medical complex claims a non-profit tax exemption on $257 million in property.

This sculpture, once displayed in the lobby, was modeled after Managing Editor Dan Sforza of The Record.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front page today again tries to pass off legal arguments in the 2012 criminal case against former Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa as legitimate news.

In the last month or two, Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza have virtually ignored municipal news from Hackensack, where the Zisa family political dynasty ruled for decades before the election of reformers in May 2013.

No reporter for The Record has covered the last three City Council meetings, and the Woodland Park daily hasn't reported at all on the city's free-spending school board.

Today, former Hackensack reporter Todd South does his best to get readers interested in Zisa's attempt to have an official misconduct charge thrown out (A-1).

Months after the 2012 guilty verdicts against Zisa, South reports, the trial judge, Joseph S. Conte, "in a rare move, dismissed three of the five convictions against him, a decision that outraged jurors and confounded legal experts" (A-6).

Governor Christie

Sykes, named as top editor in the newsroom a week ago, continues to waste an enormous amount of space and resources on Governor Christie's doomed campaign for the GOP presidential election (A-1).

Two bylines appear on today's story, Herb Jackson and Dustin Racioppi, over a New Hampshire dateline.

But The Record's reporting on financing of the Christie campaign is weak, compared to WNYC-FM, a public radio station (A-8).

Matt Katz reported this morning the founder of Home Depot withdrew his financial support of Christie in the last quarter of 2015.

Still, the Christie campaign received $70,000 from lawyers at Gibson Dunn -- the firm that issued a whitewash of the governor's role in the George Washington Bridge lane closures that cost taxpayers more than $8 million.

Local news?

Sensational crime and court news again dominates the section that is supposed to be devoted to local news (L-1 to L-6).

A filler photo has fans of the environment cheering the destruction of a gas-guzzling Cadillac Escalade in Old Tappan (L-6).

Confused critic

"Istanbul is among the biggest of a wonderful selection of Middle Eastern restaurants ... along Main Avenue in Clifton," says Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung (BL-16).

With that sentence, Ung completely ignores an equally wonderful selection of Middle Eastern restaurants just over the Clifton-Paterson border, on Main Street in South Paterson.

On Jan. 26, three days after the snow stopped falling, a bus stop remained buried under snow, above, and drivers were forced to use only one lane on two-lane Euclid Avenue, below.

Reporter's secret

Before she was hired as a reporter for North Jersey Media Group's weekly papers, Kristen Agnes was a sales associate at Victoria's Secret.

That may explain why her story on Page 1 of this week's Hackensack Chronicle is sending mixed messages about the lousy job city plows did cleaning up from the late January blizzard.

Her lead paragraph reports "ma[n]y residents attended the City Council meeting on Jan. 26 to voice their concerns regarding snow removal."

But her next four paragraphs quote City Manager David Troast, praising employees for an "excellent job handling over 24 inches of snow."

And the headline seals the deal:

"Officials laud snow removal effort"

Except for a photo or two, The Record completely ignored the botched cleanup in Hackensack, Teaneck and many other towns, as Sykes and Editor Dan Sforza have been doing for more than a decade.

Departing editor didn't ease crisis at our local daily paper

Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record in the Woodland Park newsroom. Reporter Lindy Washburn, the paper's chief medical writer, is at left in this photo by Staff  Photographer Carmine Galasso.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Today's news story on the retirement of Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record comes at a time of crisis -- a troubled period at the Woodland Park daily the veteran journalist did little to ease.

The Record's local news content, and the quality of editing and reporting, have declined dramatically since Publisher Stephen A. Borg ordered a major downsizing in 2008, and moved North Jersey Media Group and its flagship paper out of Hackensack in 2009.

Gottlieb, who took over the newsroom in January 2012, inherited several lazy, incompetent editors, but never cleaned house.

They include Deirdre Sykes, head of the local assignment desk; Assistant Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, Projects Editor Tim Nostrand; and Production Editor Liz Houlton, who has missed hundreds of errors, typos and bad headlines.

Gottlieb also did nothing to curb several veteran columnists, including Charles Stile, Mike Kelly, John Cichowski and Bill Ervolino, printing everything they wrote, no matter how pathetic.

Local news?

Today's Local front story on Gottlieb lists as his main accomplishments:

"Leadership of The Record's coverage of the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal," and becoming "a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in local reporting for a series examining the spread of heroin in the suburbs" (L-1 and L-6).

But his hands-on editing resulted in stories, especially those on Page 1, becoming longer and less accessible to readers.

And the front page showed a far greater emphasis on national and international news.

All of that came at the expense of covering municipal news in Bergen County, especially in Hackensack, where the Borg publishing family prospered for more than 110 years. 

Today, for example, Staff Writer Todd South is reporting on a Nov. 24 incident for the first time:

Hackensack Board of Education Attorney Richard Salkin has been charged with harassment for allegedly threatening Health Department Registrar Maria Tartaglione (L-1).

'Drop dead'

Salkin was applying for a license to marry former City Clerk Debra Heck, but was told by the registrar "she could not provide the certificate because errors had been crossed out in the license form he provided and corrected in pen," South says.

"You're a piece of shit, drop dead," Salkin allegedly shouted, Tartaglione complained, according to The Bergen Dispatch, which reported the incident on its Web site on Nov. 30. "Do you want me to bury you?"

South, with the approval of his editors, has managed to avoid reporting on the city's Board of Education; the school budget, which this year exceeds the city's own; or anything else to do with the schools.

The board approved a new contract with the Hackensack teachers union on Nov. 12, but that wasn't reported until Friday, when the Hackensack Chronicle carried the nearly month-old news.

Another screw-up

Today's local-news section again shows Sykes' and Sforza's desperation to fill space, with long wire-service obituaries on an obscure Native American activist and an even more obscure crossword puzzle champ (L-6).

Page A-2 carries Houlton's correction of a Road Warrior column last Sunday, in which Cichowski tried to drum up business for a volunteer ride service for seniors.

Unfortunately, the addled, error-prone reporter published the wrong telephone number, and none of the editors who looked at his story actually dialed the number to see if it was correct.

1971 to 2016

Gottlieb, 67, began his journalism career in 1971 as a municipal reporter covering Bergen County towns for The Record.

Then, he worked as a reporter or editor at the Daily News, The New York Times and the Village Voice before returning to the Daily News and The Times, the latter in 1995, working there until he was named editor of The Record in January 2012.

Today's story says he will leave The Record in January, four years after he arrived, basically his way of cruising into retirement.

His departure from The Times, where he was global editions editor from 2008 to 2011, has never been explained.

Jason W. Some holds onto Hackensack City Council seat

Before noon today, a voter was seen emerging from a polling place in the Fairmount School on Grand Avenue in Hackensack, where four candidates are seeking a single City Council seat.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With the backing of the Hackensack City Council and a powerful group of business leaders, Jason W. Some appeared to hold onto his council seat in today's election.

Some, 25, was appointed to the council in April after Rose Greenman resigned.

Only 2,360 residents cast ballots, according to unofficial results from the Bergen County clerk. Hackensack has about 20,000 registered voters.

Some received 724 votes for the unexpired term, Deborah Keeling-Geddis had 711 votes, school board President Jason S. Nunnermacker got 682 votes and Richard L. Cerbo trailed with 237 votes, county Clerk John S. Hogan said.

Nunnermacker was backed by the city's bare-knuckle Democratic Party, which kept the Zisa family in power for decades.

The attorney lost his first bid for council in May 2013.

Councilman Jason W. Some, right, with former City Attorney Joseph C. Zisa Jr. (Photo credit: Hackensack Scoop)

Today's paper

The Record today made clear to readers and voters in Bergen and Passaic counties that the Woodland Park daily has given up trying to be their local paper.

In the print edition and on NorthJersey.com, the so-called endorsement recap in today's general election doesn't include Hackensack or any other municipal races (A-8).

Residents of Hackensack, where The Record prospered for more than 110 years, don't get any guidance beyond the four City Council candidates' statements, which appear on the Web site.

Cerbo for council

Homeowner Richard L. Cerbo, who had promised to end giveaways to developers and lower taxes, was the clear choice for an unexpired term on the 5-member council.

The polls closed at 8 p.m., and Hogan posted the unofficial results on his Web site a little before 10 p.m.

The candidates' statements appeared first in last Friday's edition of the weekly Hackensack Chronicle, but an editorial urging readers to vote also doesn't endorse anyone.

Both The Record and Hackensack Chronicle are published by the Borg family's North Jersey Media Group, which is expected to make a huge killing by selling 19.7 acres along River Street to an apartment developer.

"As a community newspaper," the Chronicle's unsigned editorial states, "our main concerns are the mayoral and councilman races in Hackensack."

"Councilman races"????

One of the candidates was a woman, and the seat she and the others were seeking was held by a woman. Deputy Mayor Katherine Canestrino also is on the council. 

Larger turnout

Mayor John Labrosse said this morning that if the past is any guide, about 7,000 residents are expected to vote in today's general election.

That turned out to be optimistic.

In May 2013, when Labrosse and a slate of council reformers defeated the Zisa family's handpicked candidates, only about 3,800 residents voted.

Hackensack has about 20,000 registered voters, and if you think the May 2013 turnout of 3,800 is pathetic, fewer than 1,000 turned out for this year's school board election and budget approval.

Other candidates

Nunnermacker was making his second bid for a council seat, but he has tried to hide his involvement in the board's irresponsible $106.88 million budget, bigger than the city's own.

Some had the support of the other council members as well as Joseph C. Zisa Jr., a former city attorney.

Zisa is said to be a big supporter of downtown redevelopment, which is being pushed by the Some and other members of the Main Street Business Alliance.

Christie lies

Governor Christie's list of failures in New Jersey is long: 

He's made a mess of fixing the public employees pension system, mass transit, roads and bridges, and the environment, and he's used the Port Authority as a patronage mill and a way to seek political retribution against Democrats.

On top of all that, he's vetoed more than 400 bills to keep the state Legislature's Democrats in line.

Yet, Editor Martin Gottlieb and Christie's chief apologist, political columnist Charles Stile, continue to parrot Christie's criticism of President Obama.

Even if you believe Christie is only trying to salvage his dying campaign for the White House, the GOP bully's attacks often seem racially motivated (A-1).

More crapisch

Readers who were hoping for a Mets-free front page today were disappointed again.

Columnist Bob Klapisch continues with the endless couldas, wouldas and shouldas (A-1).

In Monday's early edition, sports Columnist Tara Sullivan referred incorrectly to "Game 6" of the World Series, according to a reader on Prospect Avenue in Hackensack.

That was corrected in a later edition to Game 5.

In the past few weeks, Gottlieb has devoted more space to the Mets, those miserable failures, than he has to the issues at stake in local elections.

No local news

Today's Local seemingly has more police, fire and court news -- and stories about the police -- than I've ever seen in a section that is supposed to be largely devoted to municipal news (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

There would have been plenty of room for endorsements of candidates in Hackensack, Maywood and other towns, if only local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza had gotten off of their fat asses.

Well-meaning Waldwick residents made to look like fools

A Hackensack resident waiting for NJ Transit's 165 local to Westwood at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan today stretches out on the palatial seating provided. Full metal benches with seat backs and arm rests are provided only at the 300 gates, which are used after 10 p.m.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On Page 1 of The Record today, thousands of words from the befuddled Road Warrior amount to little more than an elaborate "Never mind."

Why did Staff Writer John Cichowski waste readers' time, even after police told him a suggestion from a resident to safeguard a radar officer was impractical and that any tickets given wouldn't stand up in court (A-1)? 

On the Local front, the obituary for Miriam Burgess, onetime editor of The Record's lifestyle pages, carefully avoids comparing her to some of the turkeys who succeeded her and ran what is now called the Better Living section (L-1).

And in a refreshing change, the dessert- and meat-obsessed Elisa Ung enthuses about a salad in the very first sentence of her rave review of Mezza in Westwood (BL-16).

Meanwhile, today's edition of the weekly Hackensack Chronicle -- delivered with The Record -- carries two stories from the July 21 meeting of the City Council the Woodland Park daily didn't bother covering or reporting.

Speed cameras

The A-1 and A-8 headlines on today's Road Warrior collumn are Cichowski's lame attempt to ignore the safety of speed cameras, which would make radar checkpoints and police chases obsolete.

The headlines are merely intended to fool gullible readers into plowing through the silly column on an impractical suggestion by Lisa Sheriff that police radar cars park in her driveway to catch speeders on Route 17 in Waldwick.

Waldwick Police Officer Christopher Goodell was killed on July 17 when his radar-equipped cruiser, parked on the shoulder of Route 17, was hit by a tractor trailer whose driver didn't try to stop.

Goodell's family is getting a consolation prize, a bill to create the Christopher Goodell Memorial Highway along Route 17 in Waldwick (L-3). 

As noisy as ever

The noise from landscapers' leaf blowers is unabated, despite The Record's claim that "police are teaming up across county lines to solve a rash of landscaping-equipment thefts" (L-1).

This major crime story follows another expose this week about the theft of nine luxury vehicles in Paramus since January.

Hackensack news

For the "latest" Hackensack news, see today's edition of the Hackensack Chronicle.

The City Council on July 21 introduced an $8.6 million bond ordinance to cover tax appeal refunds, some dating to 2005, the last year Jack Zisa served as mayor.

On Page 3, the weekly reports on a July 21 presentation by Brian Nelson, the city's redevelopment attorney, on "long-term tax abatement agreements, also known as Payments in Lieu of Taxes."

Unfortunately, the story is incomprehensible.

The NJ Transit 165 Turnpike Express I boarded in Hackensack at 10:33 this morning encountered no traffic on Route 495 and no wait at the tollbooth, above. I arrived at the midtown Manhattan bus terminal at 11:10 a.m.

Night and day

I took NJ Transit's 165 Turnpike Express into Manhattan today to have lunch, and the trip was far smoother than Wednesday afternoon's nightmare.

See:

I take an NJ Transit bus from hell into Manhattan gridlock

These editors again fail to deliver hometown news

The quality of life in North Jersey -- including aircraft noise over Hackensack and other towns near Teterboro and Newark airports, above, or gaping potholes that damage car tires and wheels -- are of no interest to the editors of The Record's Local news section who appear to spend most of their time reading tabloids in the newsroom toilet.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I'm shocked by the amount of Law & Order news in The Record's Local section today and Friday.

Police, fire, accident and court news and photos dominate almost every page.

But readers also find stories about the police, including Friday's report on raises for the Pal Park chief and today's solemn piece on a vigil for Daniel Breslin, the hospitalized Bergen County police officer who was severely injured by an allegedly drunk driver (A-1 and L-1).

Sforza stumbles

Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza was so desperate to fill his pages today he ran a freelance shot of a Route 80 accident in Hackensack from inside the photographer's car (L-3).

Now that's chintzy hometown news coverage. Still, Sforza stands proud, shouting, Who says we don't cover Hackensack? 

Sforza's stumbling around for the last several months would seem to call for the return of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes after a prolonged convalescence.

On vacation?

When is the last time readers saw Hannan Adely's byline on a Hackensack story? Has she been reassigned, sent to cover the Syrian civil war or what?

On Friday, the weekly Hackensack Chronicle reported the City Council on Monday night approved a $760,000 bond ordinance to repave streets and perform related work.

After the meeting, resident Steven Gelber's Hackensack Scoop blog reported that Mayor John Labrosse announced former campaign manager Thom Ammirato will no longer be writing press releases for the mayor or Deputy Mayor Katherine Canestrino.

But Labrosse said Ammirato's salary of $6,500 a month wouldn't be adjusted at this time, Gelber reported.

Following Gelber's lead, Adely of The Record has reported that Ammirato also has a full-time position with Bergen County, and serves as public relations consultant to at least three Republicans in the state Legislature.

But the Woodland Park daily hasn't reported on this latest wrinkle in the Ammirato story or approval of the street-paving bond ordinance.

The woefully short list of streets listed in the Chronicle story continues to omit Euclid Avenue, between Prospect and Summit avenues, a potholed block that hasn't been repaved for decades. 

Euclid Avenue potholes, above and below.

Friday's Record

Editor Marty Gottlieb led Friday's paper with a long report on the incredible mess Governor Christie has made of road, highway and mass-transit improvements by refusing to hike the low gasoline tax to fund them.

This is basically a four-year-old story The Record has ignored until now, especially increasingly congested traffic, and crowded trains and buses.

Barf bags

In Better Living, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung pans Port of Call American Fusion Buffet and Sushi in Hackensack.

Still, she feels it necessary to tell readers the all-you-can eat format "would be good for people with big appetites."

The data box on Friday's BL-18 lists only four recommended dishes, two of them desserts, but omits other dishes Ung praised in the text. 

Did anyone edit the piece?

Today's paper

Gottlieb's Page 1 today includes another story on the agonizingly slow investigative and legal process in the wake of January's explosive revelations in the George Washington Bridge scandal.

Since members of the GOP bully's inner circle in Trenton and at the Port Authority admitted they orchestrated four days of gridlock in Democratic Fort Lee, all readers have seen are firings and resignations, and targets lawyering up and taking the Fifth.

Christie himself hired a friendly law firm at taxpayers' expense to produce a whitewash declaring the governor had no knowledge or involvement in the lane closures.

Other stories and columns appear designed to help Christie repair his battered image (A-3).

The slow legal process is designed to ensure greedy lawyers who charge exorbitant hourly rates will walk away with literally millions of dollars in fees no matter who is found to be at fault for an apparent pattern of political retribution.

Paramus woes

Today's front page also includes a story on a "big change for Paramus," which has eased rules on retail signs along Routes 4 and 17.

This piece continues The Record's ad-fueled focus on major retail chains over Main Street merchants.

The last story on local merchants reported on a few record stores, as in those selling vinyl recordings, and continued to ignore struggling downtowns in Hackensack, Englewood, Teaneck and other towns.