If reporter was on Bridgegate jury, we'd be in deep doo-doo

This New York Post photo shows Bridgegate trial defendant Bridget Anne Kelly, right, and Governor Christie on Sept. 12, 2013, touring a fire scene in Seaside Heights. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

This email from Bridgegate defendant Bridget Anne Kelly, then Governor Christie's deputy chief of staff in Trenton, has long been considered the smoking gun in the September 2013 lane closures on the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee.

Not so fast, says Columnist Mike Kelly, who devotes his entire column on Page 1 of The Record today to "the other side of the story," based on Bridget Anne Kelly's testimony in her own defense on Friday. 

The day before her testimony, the veteran reporter's glowing profile of the defendant also appeared on A-1, declaring:

"[Bridget] Kelly's expected testimony could be one of the most pivotal moments in the bizarre case ...."

Well, I'm glad Mike Kelly isn't on the federal jury or he'd certainly vote for her acquittal.

Bridget Kelly's testimony didn't change the narrative, as the column reports; she is the fourth or fifth witness who said Christie knew about the lane closures as they were happening, despite his denials.

But both Bridget Kelly and the second defendant, former Port Authority Executive Director Bill Baroni, said they were duped by Christie crony David Wildstein at the Port Authority about the reasons for the lane closures.

Wildstein pleaded guilty and testified that about a month after he received Bridget Kelly's email, he put the plot in motion to punish Fort Lee's Democratic mayor for not endorsing the governor's reelection.

She claimed before the jury the email wasn't an "order."

In a development you haven't seen in The Record, work on a 14-story residential-retail project at Main and Mercer streets in Hackensack was halted three months ago after a pile driver damaged the building next to the site, forcing the evacuation of a preschool and other tenants.

Rest of paper

There isn't much of interest in the rest of the paper, including the silly Page 1 feature comparing the sleepy Dingman's Ferry Bridge over the Delaware River to the GWB (A-1).

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski's "Black Hole" column on Silk City's pockmarked West Railway Avenue is just more of the irrelevant Paterson news the editors are shoving down Bergen readers' throats to save money on newsprint (L-1).

Opinion

Kelly, the columnist not the defendant, wrote another boring column for today's Opinion front (O-1).

Today's editorial on why The Record endorses candidates begins: "This has been a long election cycle" (O-2).

But Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin doesn't acknowledge the news media starts covering state and national contests years before Election Day, and are principally responsible for voter apathy.

As in the Nov. 8 presidential election, the vast majority of coverage is devoted to politics, not issues.

On O-3 today, Entertainment Editor Christina Joseph calls GOP nominee Donald J. Trump's "sweeping generalities about the black community ... an affront to all that my family and others like them embody."

Her column may be the first by a black staffer since The Record showed the door many years ago to the paper's only Hispanic and African-American columnists.

Also on O-3, a letter to the editor from Johnnie Najarian of River Edge says, "Television has given him [Trump] more than $3 billion worth of free advertising by broadcasting his rallies and his right-wing conspiracies."

Aching teeth

Check out the shameless promotion of Lolli and Pops, a candy purveyor at Garden State Plaza in Paramus (Better Living front).

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung reports the store excited her "voracious sweet tooth," sending thousands of diabetics who read the paper searching for their insulin. 

Practicing journalism for the few while ignoring the many

Watching the construction of a new Bergen County Justice Center next to the courthouse in Hackensack is about as exciting as watching paint dry. On Wednesday, attorneys, visitors and jurors who parked in a new garage on Court Street had to walk past the site in puddles or over mud and rocks to reach the courthouse entrance.

Nearly five months after the new Court Street Garage opened, parking still is free. Ticket machines and gates aren't working. What exactly is the financial loss to the county? Bergen paid $777,660 to lease 540 parking spaces for two years at the old Record headquarters on River Street during construction of the garage.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On Page 1 today, The Record updates readers on the decades-old deaths of Americans from Teaneck and West Orange "in Iran-sponsored terrorist attacks."

On the Local front, another column revives the death 20 years ago of driver Michael Eastman from ice that flew off of a truck on Route 17 in Paramus (L-1).

What is all this dated journalism about a relatively few people doing in The Record today, even as the vast majority of readers search in vain for coverage of their lives in North Jersey?

On the front page, Columnist Mike Kelly is so shameless he doesn't mention that he wrote a book about Sara Duker, a Teaneck woman who was killed in a Jerusalem bus bombing "20 years ago today" (A-1).

Iran, Cuba

What Kelly refuses to recognize in his rants on the Iran deal and normalization of relations with Cuba is the likely benefit to tens of millions of people that far outweighs the lingering pain of a few dozen families.

On L-1, Columnist John Cichowski is so confused he calls a driver who was injured, but not killed, by flying ice "a likely poster child" for getting a law passed in New York State to require motorists to sweep ice and snow off of their cars.

Facebook changes

The Page 1 column on new Facebook "emojis" makes you wonder when The Record's editors are going to explore how computers, smart phones, navigation systems and other advances are leaving an increasingly large number of older readers in the dark.

The Woodland Park daily largely confines its coverage of seniors to those who are institutionalized or are attending day care programs for adults suffering from dementia.

Local news?

Today's Black History Month story from Hackensack's Jackson Avenue School reminds city residents they haven't seen any coverage of their school board for more than a year, if not longer (L-1).

Staff Writer John Seasly, newly assigned to Hackensack, also has a second story in the paper today on a federal judge who dismissed a lawsuit against two city police officers (L-3).

Fairway losses

Part of Staff Writer Joan Verdon's story on the financial problems that may drive New York-based Fairway Market into bankruptcy seems to have come from a public relations firm (L-7).

"Fairway's niche is offering a quintessential New York-style shopping experience, with butchers and bakers who banter with shoppers, along with low prices on produce, and staples, and a wide assortment of specialty and gourmet food items and prepared meals," Verdon reports. 

Sadly, those low prices are only a memory. 

And Fairway's store in the Fashion Center, the struggling mall in Paramus, never offered shoppers 5 cents or 10 cents back for bringing a reusable shopping bag.

But the biggest turnoff was the staff's abrasive New York attitude, such as a fish-counter employee's refusal to devein $15-a-pound jumbo shrimp.

With ShopRite, Costco Wholesale and Whole Foods Market, Bergen County never needed Fairway, and many people won't be sorry to see the arrogant New York owners fail miserably in their greedy over-expansion.

After ignoring Christie's many vetoes, editors do flip-flop

This Englewood intersection is near homes, apartments and condos, but snowbanks left over from several storms discourage pedestrians.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With every column or news story on Governor Christie's flip-flops on important issues, The Record is confessing vetoes -- not compromise -- are what really define his first five years in office.

Today's Charles Stile column on the GOP bully's veto of $7.5 million in funds for women's health centers and family planning clinics is a prime example (A-1).

Stile, more than any other reporter, has been burnishing Christie's image as a moderate willing to compromise with the majority Democrats in the state Legislature.

Now, he writes, Christie is running for president and boasting he vetoed women's health funds five times because he is "pro-life," not because he was trying to solve a budget crisis.

The editors still ignore the biggest story of Christie's reign since early 2010 -- what is likely a record number of vetoes for a New Jersey governor of tax surcharges on millionaires and other important bills and budget appropriations.

I've never seen the total number of vetoes published in The Record, and don't think I ever will.

See WNYC-FM's podcast, Christie Pivots

Relevance?

Today, Editor Martin Gottlieb fashions another front page that is long on "controversy" and short on relevance.

I can't recall the last time I drove on lightly traveled Route 19 in Passaic County at night, and can't figure out why reporter John Cichowski is devoting an entire column to "the stealing of the light" by drug addicts (A-1).

Bergen County's antiquated road network -- narrow, congested main thoroughfares without turn lanes, many poorly lit at night -- are of far more concern and relevance to the majority of readers, drivers and pedestrians.

Hackensack news?

Hackensack news seems to have gone missing in Local, a section that also struggles for relevance, as shown by today's long obituary on a former school administrator who worked in Atlanta and Newark (L-6).

I guess head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, had nothing local with which to fill that gaping hole.

Road Warrior errors? Editors try to kill the messenger

Rush hour on Summit Avenue in Hackensack. In more than a decade of writing the Road Warrior column, which is supposed to focus on commuting issues, Staff Writer John Cichowski has largely ignored North Jersey's worsening traffic congestion and the lack of mass-transit alternatives.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You may have missed a comment I published on Saturday from the editor of the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

The retired engineer set up the page after The Record's editors started attacking him for exposing chronic errors in the so-called commuting column.

The column has been written for more than 11 years by reporter John Cichowski, whose thrice-weekly appearances in the Woodland Park daily have been cut back.

The Record has never explained the reason for the cutback, likely because readers are held in contempt by the arrogant editors, including Martin Gottlieb, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza.

Here is the comment in full:

"The Road Warrior Bloopers Facebook page provides corrected facts, along with supporting sources and Internet links, all of which are beneficial to the safety and knowledge of readers, in response to mistake-ridden Road Warrior columns, which continually present unsafe, illegal, contradictory, and totally misreported information and advice.

"Readers should appreciate these needed corrections.

"All of this corrected information is always first presented to the Road Warrior and his editors, who continually ignore making any corrections.

"In fact, the very early communications and occasional follow-up efforts have been made in a very constructive objective manner to try to work with the Road Warrior and his editors to try and prevent his mistakes or correct them subsequent to publications. Unfortunately, not only did the Road Warrior and his editors refuse to accept these conciliatory offers, but they went out of their way to make denigrating comments in regards to these offers.

"Therefore, the gloves have come off and readers are shown how unprofessional and incompetent the Road Warrior really is based on the corrected facts, which are also supported by referenced sources, which are frequently the exact same source cited by the Road Warrior in his columns, and Internet links.

"Readers need to made aware of the very misleading, and many times false presentations in the Road Warrior columns if they want to stay on the right side of the law for themselves and their children who drive, avoid dangerous situations promoted by the Road Warrior to themselves and their young drivers, and not be misled or afraid of grossly exaggerated or false information about road and mass transit transportation.

"Readers need to made aware of just how bad the Road Warrior reporting really is when he frequently contradicts himself in the very same column, or reports mistaken information that contradicts what he correctly reported in previous columns.

"Readers need to be shown that the Road Warrior's responses in many of his columns to readers, who question the accuracy of what he reported in a previous column, are either very denigrating to the person questioning his reporting, or very misleading or false based on the actual facts.

"Readers need to be shocked and angered by the very misleading, and many times false reports and advice in the Road Warrior columns.

"The Road Warrior Bloopers Facebook page never crosses the line in offering information or opinions that are not supported by the facts and referenced sources."

Here is a link: Road Warrior Bloopers at The Record

Christie's future

In the unlikely event Chris Christie is elected president in 2016, he couldn't possibly treat New Jerseyans any worse than he has since he became governor in 2010 (A-1).

Given that he won't be making a decision until next year, why is this speculative story leading the paper today?

And is the so-called ANALYSIS really advancing other stories from reporter-cum-lap dog Melissa Hayes that appeared after last week's election, celebrating how well Christie did in raising money and campaigning for Republican candidates across the country?

The overweight GOP bully continues to be the butt of jokes, but he says he would be fit enough to campaign for the Republican nomination and the White House.

Still, he has done such an awful job for the New Jersey economy, the environment and the state's fiscal health, and there are lingering questions about his involvement in the George Washington Bridge scandal.

In another front-page story today, Christie isn't a member of a new gun control group that plans to take its case to manufacturers -- but you won't know that unless you manage to read deep into the continuation page (A-1 and A-10).

Trains, not planes

The Record's stories on trains carrying "highly explosive Canadian crude oil each week through Bergen County towns," including Teaneck, focuses on a relatively new quality of life issue (L-1).

For decades, the editors have ignored aircraft noise that affects far more North Jersey residents, including those in Hackensack, where private jets seem to skim the rooftops of high-rises and hospital buildings on the way to Teterboro Airport. 

The editors also do P.R. for a continuing menace --overweight white men riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles that are modified to be as noisy as possible when they roar down our quiet streets.

They are only shown in photos when they organize a charity run.

Hackensack news

You'll find big Hackensack news on L-3 today -- a woman having her eyes tested, and a man whose hand was injured by an NJ Transit train.

Medical writer echoes anti-Obama conservatives

Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Medical writer Lindy Washburn is a highly respected reporter at The Record of Woodland Park.

But she continues to portray the roll-out of the federal Affordable Care Act in wholly negative terms, playing into the hands of such anti-Obama conservatives as Governor Christie (A-1). 

Today, as she has done in past stories, readers can find only one positive paragraph deep in the text of the continuation page (A-8).

"To be sure, tens of thousands of New Jersey residents have successfully obtained insurance coverage."

Success stories?

But I can't recall Washburn reporting on applicants like me and a friend who not only bought policies, but who are saving money for coverage that is as good or better than they had before.

I'm saving $150 a month on policies for my wife and son, compared to what I paid North Jersey Media Group, my former employer.

And Washburn continues to omit important background information on how Christie and the governors of 35 other states refused to set up state exchanges, throwing tens of millions of applicants onto the federal exchange, HealthCare.gov, and in some cases, crashing it.

Christie also refused to spend $7.6 million in federal money to help New Jersey residents enroll in marketplace plans. 

In fact, Christie's sabotage of the Affordable Care Act and his administration's bungling of federal Sandy aid (A-1) can be seen as the same kind of political retribution the GOP bully is accused of in such Democratic strongholds as Jersey City, Hoboken and Fort Lee.

That borough was hit by four days of gridlock last September after members of Christie's inner circle shut down two of three local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge for a "traffic study."

But investigators believe the Democratic mayors of Fort Lee and other communities were the targets of retribution for not endorsing Christie for a second term.

Hackensack news

Hackensack residents find two stories on the front of Local today, including a report on the Bergen County prosecutor serving subpoenas on the three employers of Thom Ammirato, the city's chief spokesman (L-1).

Ammirato -- who is paid $78,000 a year for his Hackensack public relations work -- also is a full-time employee of Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan, who pays him $35,000 and benefits; and a part-time spokesman for North Arlington, where he is paid $21,600 a year.

North Arlington also has hired Stephen Lo Iacono, Hackensack's former city manager.

In the second Hackensack story, Kathleen Gehm, 63, of River Vale has been cleared of any wrongdoing in the death of Jerome Some, 87, who was struck and killed by her car as he crossed Prospect Avenue on Oct. 8 around 7:30 p.m.

Some, founder of Some's Uniforms on Main Street, left his building and was crossing the street to attend a meeting at Bel Posto Restaurant, because the meeting room in his high-rise was being renovated.

There is no crosswalk between his building and the restaurant, and Some's daughter said the street is poorly lighted. 

After the accident, firefighters were sent out to wash off Some's blood from the pavement, but no safety improvements were made on Prospect Avenue.

City's potholes

Prospect Avenue is lined with high-rises and is considered one of Hackensack's premier streets, but it is also lined with some of the city's worst potholes.

See previous post: Will Hackensack's DPW ever fill these potholes?

A city official I spoke with today said Hackensack doesn't have the money needed to repair Prospect Avenue, because of the fiscal mismanagement of the previous City Council, which was allied with the Zisa family.

He also noted the previous administration's practice of not paving streets in such higher income neighborhoods as Fairmount.

Important photo

Deputy Assignment Editor managed to squeeze in a gee-whiz photo of a sheered-off utility pole on Route 17 in Paramus, but as usual, the caption is devoid of any information about the cause or whether the driver received a summons (L-3).

What local news was held to get this photo into the paper? 

More Christie spin, more three-day-old news

Hackensack officials are counting on new luxury apartments, such as these under construction at State and Bergen streets, to bring more customers to Main Street stores and restaurants, a strategy that has already failed in nearby Englewood.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Critics call the closing of Fort Lee access lanes to the George Washington Bridge political revenge exacted by Governor Christie's Port Authority appointees.

But Christie chooses to characterize the closures as "mistakes," and he pressured two flunkies, David Wildstein and Bill Baroni, to resign, as reported on Page 1 of The Record today.

Democrats in the state Legislature just spun their wheels when Christie rubber stamped exorbitant toll hikes on the Hudson River crossings, but they've matched his spin with exaggeration and hype of their own on the impact of the Fort Lee incident in early September (A-1 and A-9).

Now, Christie's every action involving the Port Authority or inaction on lowering college tuition for illegal immigrants is being interpreted by The Record in terms of how they will affect his presidential ambitions in 2016 (A-6 and Friday's A-3).

Striptease

Why is a new terminal for business jets at Newark Liberty International Airport news (A-8), and when will The Record address the impact of airplane noise on the quality of life in North Jersey?

An unintentional double entendre in a headline on the first Business page suggests people are stripping at shopping centers owned by Simon Property Group Inc. (A-8).

Minimizing death

On the Local front today, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza catches up to three-day-old news -- a wealthy 73-year-old woman apparently was run down and killed on Wednesday during an errand on a narrow section of Grand Avenue in Englewood (L-1).

However, Sforza gave better play to the no-injury collision of a train and tractor-trailer carrying jars of stuffed olives, probably because of the wreckage photo taken by Tariq "Crash" Zehawi.

Even with two full days to gather information, the story about Myrna Sherman tells readers little about what happened to the matriarch of the Sherman tobacco family, and doesn't even discuss Grand Avenue's reputation for speeding drivers or previous pedestrian deaths.

The story also plays into the stereotype of Korean-Americans as bad drivers, reporting only that Sung Park, 22, of Ramsey was charged with reckless driving.

Did driver see woman?

"Sherman was either getting out of or into her parked car on Grand Avenue when she was hit by a Honda Odyssey [minivan] near Sheffield Avenue," today's story says, adding that the woman was going to the dry cleaners at 5 p.m.

Today, I called the dry cleaners, the Laundress at Grand and Sheffield avenues, and the owner said Sherman had parked on Grand Avenue in front of the store, and the minivan had turned the corner and struck the woman.

He said it was dark, and he doesn't believe the driver saw the woman. The portion of Grand Avenue where the accident occurred is narrow and carries two-way traffic.

Hackensack mess

Also on the Local front today, Staff Writer Hannan Adely continues to report on the new Hackensack City Council trying to come to terms with the mess left behind by officials allied with the Zisas, who ruled the city so ineptly for decades (L-1).

Today, she reports Hackensack University Medical Center has paid the city $176,000 for school crossing guards that were never billed, just as the city failed to bill the Board of Education $1 million for a police officer assigned to the high school for seven years.

Still, Sforza struggled to fill the section with Bergen County news, and had to resort to using four Paterson stories as filler (L-2, L-3 and L-5).

Friday's paper

Editor Marty Gottlieb wasted readers' time with Columnist Mike Kelly's Page 1 account from Newtown, Conn., on the anniversary of the massacre.

In his first paragraph, the tired columnist describes the removal of the same pile of teddy bears, ribbons, cardboard hearts, candles and cards that he described so lamely in his column a year ago.

Readers stopped there and just stared dumbly at Kelly's dated column photo and shit-eating grin. What a phony (Friday's A-1).

A couple of photos of Newtown would have sufficed to cover the anniversary.

Remember, Kelly is the same moron who repeatedly compared the Teaneck gunman who committed suicide at Westfield Garden State Plaza on Nov. 4 to the maniacs who killed so many at Columbine high and in the Newtown elementary school.

Also on Friday (A-21), Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin's silly rhymed couplets on the Port Authority-Fort Lee brouhaha ticked off many readers, including Jeff of Hackensack:

"Doblin's opinion pieces are usually the lowest of the low in terms of how he must continually mix and interconnect irrelevant metaphors, mottos, symbols, etc., in order to justify his somewhat senseless opinions about various matters.

"He believes that he is also a brilliant humorist and editorialist, who is able to seemingly combine the humorous with the serious in forging his supposedly classic opinions, which are unfortunately frequently way off the mark.

"However, his 'opinion' piece today about the Port Authority fiasco with the reduction of three dedicated tolls lanes to one for Fort Lee's entrance to the GWB has to be one his sickest, if not the sickest attempts at his frightful Goblin, I mean Doblin humor, which is mixed with Shitty, I mean Gritty, opinions to his dominions in the form of a frightful, I mean spiteful, attempt at a humorous, poetic, opinion fleece, I mean piece."

Hackensack news

Downtown Hackensack got some good news with a story about the purchase of a three-story building for a Korean cultural center (Friday's L-2).

Young Cho, board chairman of the non-profit Dongwha Cultural Foundation, is quoted as saying the new center will be three times the size of the current one in Englewood.

On Friday's L-3, a story reporting that the family of a pilot killed near Teterboro Airport "will receive $7.5 million" is inaccurate since about a third of the settlement amount will go to the plaintiffs' lawyer or lawyers.

At Bibi'z in Westwood, Resturant Reviewer Elisa Ung and her guest were served overcooked mahi-mahi and chicken kebab, but she still gave it a good-to-excellent rating (Friday's BL-22).

Lack of mall security gives Paramus nightmares

A new CVS on the ground floor of a luxury apartment building in downtown Englewood, above, replaced two failed food markets. The drugstore and a soon-to-open bagel store, below, are among signs of renewal along Palisade Avenue, but many shuttered storefronts remain. On Saturday night, New Orleans rhythm-and-blues singer Aaron Neville performed at bergenPAC on North Van Brunt Street. The hall looked only half full.

The Record of Woodland Park has largely ignored the struggles of main streets in Englewood, Teaneck, Hackensack and other communities in favor of lavishly promotional coverage of new retailers at North Jersey malls.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

When an armed man or men invade a mall, school or movie theater -- setting off panic -- what good are drills and a massive police response after shots are fired?

That's the question The Record should be asking Paramus Police Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg and the Australian owners of Garden State Plaza, the state's biggest shopping center.

Instead, Editor Marty Gottlieb leads today's front page with Ehrenberg's elaborate justification for why police were relegated to performing mall clean-up duties the night of Nov. 4 and early Nov. 5.

That's when Richard Shoop, 20, of Teaneck fired six random shots before fatally shooting himself in the head.

'Shooting' or suicide?

The Record continues to use the words "shooting" and "shooter," even though Shoop fired into the ceiling, an elevator door and a sign or signs, and hurt no one but himself.

A photo caption on Page 1 today uses a weird verb to describe a police assault team outside the mall:

"Police aligning at Westfield Garden State Plaza on Nov. 4" [italics added]. 

What is that copy editor smoking?

The Paramus police chief calls Shoop's invasion a "nightmare scenario come true."

But the potential nightmare remains for shoppers, because Garden State Plaza has numerous entrances and not a single metal detector or any other security measure I am aware of with the exception of cameras.

Biased reporting

Also on Page 1 today, a column on the big campaign war chest that radical Republican Rep. Scott Garrett of Wantage will use in the next election only serves to remind readers of how little coverage The Record gave to his last Democratic challenger (A-1).

Redistricting shoved the Tea Party crackpot down the throats of Bergen County residents, including 80 percent of Teaneck and all of Bergenfield, Fair Lawn, Hackensack and Paramus.

The only Hackensack news in Local today is the arrest of an illegal immigrant on charges of stabbing another man (L-3).

A shuttered restaurant on Englewood's Palisade Avenue. The storefront where Victoria's Secret operated for many years also remains vacant.

Choking response

In Better Living, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz invites readers to choke on the wordy first paragraph of her Ridgewood bartender profile (BL-1).

The story is the latest in an occasional series called BEHIND THE KITCHEN DOOR.

Too bad that door didn't open to reveal someone who could edit her long-winded prose.

Bankrupt Christie turns to Obama -- again

The license plate and stickers on a Chrysler PT Cruiser, spotted Friday on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, speak for themselves.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Governor Christie has made such a wreck of state finances he's grabbing $15 million in federal Sandy relief funds to help the owners of shore businesses (The Record's front page today).

Wait a minute.

The fire that destroyed 50 businesses in Seaside Park and Seaside Heights last week had nothing to do with Superstorm Sandy, and may even have been set deliberately.

Since he took office in January 2010, Christie has used voodoo economics and cuts to middle- and working class programs to balance his budgets.

He's also grabbed federal money from NJ Transit and the Port Authority to fix state roads after he cancelled the Hudson River rail tunnels, dealing a blow to commuters and labor.

The GOP bully may be a hero to shore residents and business people, and the editors of The Record, but North Jersey voters will do their best on Nov. 5 to drum him out of office.

Bankrupt him

Another Page 1 story today discusses the risks in a second federal indictment of former Bergen County Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Ferriero (A-1 and A-10).

All the legal mumbo jumbo is fine, but the story ignores this:

Even if acquitted, Ferriero will be forced to spend a large part of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in allegedly ill-gotten gains to defend himself, and that's poetic justice.

Kelly is back

Readers can't tell if a related column on the Opinion front is more about Ferriero or Staff Writer Mike Kelly, who goes into great detail about what the so-called journalist said in his 2008 interview with the champion of pay to play (O-1).

The strongest word Kelly had for Ferriero was "boss."

"This is how politics works," is the last line from Kelly, who completely misses the bigger picture (O-4).

This is how democracy -- our corrupt system of government -- works. This is the wonderful system that we export to the rest of the world -- the system Kelly and other members of the media can't stop glorifying. 

And this is the system that has been poisoned by Christie and Tea Party crackpots.

More road lies

On the front of Local, Road Warrior John Cichowski again ignores the daily commuting nightmare for yet another column on MVC lines (L-1).

The Addled Commuter is fresh off two columns greatly hyping the diversion of some drivers who entered the upper-level toll plaza of the George Washington Bridge from Fort Lee streets last week:

Here's what a reader concerned over all the errors and distortions in Cichowski's work had to say in an e-mail to management:

"In his Friday and Saturday columns, the Road Warrior relies on a series of false rumors and exaggerated false statements and assessments to over-hype and distort significantly more traffic congestion to the upper level of the GW Bridge. It was due to temporarily reducing number of tollbooths allotted to a local Fort Lee entrance for only 5 morning rush hours.

"His first column was falsely titled Closed tollbooths a commuting disaster, and the Road Warrior falsely reported in these two columns that two tollbooths were 'closed' and 'shut down.' All of this contradicted the facts and The Record's own photograph with the Friday column, which showed these tollbooths remained open, but were used for other highway traffic instead of cars from the Fort Lee entrance.

"Road Warrior had to sheepishly admit in his follow-up column that this traffic congestion was really a short-term situation based on a PA traffic pattern study in contradiction to denials by him in his Friday column, and was not a permanent change, as he and others repeatedly implied in that column.

"Yet, the Road Warrior could not resist republishing false rumors from his Friday column and making up new false rumors about the fictitious reasons for this temporary change."

To read the entire e-mail on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers, click on the following link:

Inscrutable Road Warrior screws readers


Man with tits

What do you make of the big photo of a bearded, pot-bellied Sussex County man with tits next to the Road Warrior column (L-1)?

It's hard to believe there wasn't someone more photogenic at a tattoo fest in Secaucus.

The drought on Hackensack news in Local continues today, although the byline of Hannan Adely, the reporter assigned to the city, has been appearing on 9/11-related and other stories.

Say it ain't so

Readers can't have much respect for another columnist, Brigid Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State (O-1).

Today, she describes the mean-spirited Christie as the "brash and beguiling soon-to-be-reelected governor."

Why does Harrison prostitute herself only months after she blasted Christie for putting "a great double-digit victory" on Nov. 5 "over the lives of women in New Jersey" who lost $7.5 million in preventive health funds (June 23 column).

Or her June 16 column that labeled Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, a Democrat, as "a sell-out" for endorsing the homely GOP slob.

She also called DiVincenzo "a politically expedient compromiser who doesn't give a rat's fanny about what's best for a political party he allegedly bosses."

Christie is "beguiling"? Give me a break, professor.

Frugality rules

On the Business front, Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais can't stop boasting about what a smart money manager he is (B-1).

It's one thing for the frugal DeMarrais not to buy organic food, but it's irresponsible for him to publish a monthly Market Basket survey of supermarket prices without organic or naturally raised milk, poultry and other items.

In the same way, advising seniors to chase discounts at fast-food restaurants, as he does today, ignores the many dietary restrictions they are under and the crappy beef and other low-quality items served.

Also, where did The Record get the ridiculous  illustration at the bottom of his column on the Business front -- an elderly woman in curlers with a bullhorn?

Another suit

A story on A-3 today reports that North Jersey Media Group has filed another copyright-infringement lawsuit over use of "an iconic 9/11 photograph," this time by Sarah Palin and her political action committee.

The Associated Press story has  a huge hole  in it: 

The Record's management refused to spend the money to re-make Page 1 on Sept. 11, 2001, to highlight the inspirational flag-raising image from Staff Photographer Thomas E. Franklin, and banished it to a back page.

Now, NJMG General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg is spending far more in legal fees to punish anyone who uses the photo, even if full credit is given.

As legal woes mount, lawmaker clams up

Has NJ Transit put up fences or taking other safety measures to prevent pedestrians from crossing the tracks at the New Bridge Landing station in River Edge, above?

Robert Schroeder, the state assemblyman from tiny Washington Township, is doing a good imitation of a Littleneck clam.

In the third installment of his growing legal problems on Page 1 of The Record today, Schroeder had nothing to say to reporters.

He also was mum in Tuesday's front-page story, but on Saturday, the Republican lawmaker (or should that be lawbreaker?) blamed his financial and legal problems on the poor economy and President Obama.

Editor Marty Gottlieb and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes seized on those quotes to sensationalize the initial story, then came to their senses: 

Obama's name has been missing in subsequent stories.

Anyway, readers are sick and tired of reading about Schroeder's mismanagement of his company, which sells tents and other items to the U.S. military.

Is he any good as an assemblyman? The stories don't say.

News breakdown

The biggest element on A-1 today is a tedious statistical analysis of delays on NJ Transit trains that completely misses the big picture.

Governor Christie's lack of commitment to mass transit and the Port Authority's refusal to expand the PATH rail system are just two of the reasons there is little room to accommodate drivers who want to escape massive rush-hour traffic jams and exorbitant tolls.

Today's story -- which fills a full inside page, complete with an incomprehensible graph -- is an example of Computer Assisted Reporting.

Office-loving reporters

But what commuters deserve is Legwork Assisted Reporting, where the Road Warrior and other transportation writers get off their well-padded posteriors, ride the buses and trains, and really stick it to the agencies that run them. 

Sadly, transportation reporting appears to be under the guidance of Dan Sforza, the deputy assignment editor who once covered transportation himself, but who spent most of his time writing about "highways of the future."

Trespasser or victim?

In Sykes' Local section, a gee-whiz rollover accident photo dominates L-1.

The lead L-1 story suggests "a lot" of pedestrians cross the tracks in River Edge where a woman was struck and seriously injured on Tuesday afternoon.

The story labels her a trespasser, but doesn't say whether  NJ Transit has put up fences or tried other safety measures just north of the New Bridge Landing station.

Most of today's section resembles a police blotter. 

Hackensack news

Page L-3 carries police news and news about the police in Hackensack, where the department launched a program allowing "anonymous tipsters to send information about crimes via test messages, cellphone apps or the city's Web page."

That makes many readers wonder when The Record will launch a similar program allowing local-news tips to all those editors and reporters too lazy to leave the Woodland Park newsroom.

On L-9, the third Business page, I was surprised to learn consumer columnist Kevin DeMarrais shops at Walmart, despite the giant retailer's well-known reputation for poor working conditions.