Editors finally focus on crisis in Aleppo, Syrian-Americans

In this map of Aleppo, Syria, published in August by the Carnegie Middle East Center, the Old City is in East Aleppo, right, where fighting to retake rebel-held areas and the humanitarian crisis have reached a crescendo in recent weeks.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Today, The Record's editors finally discover a local angle for reporting on the deepening humanitarian crisis in Aleppo, Syria.

Staff Writer Hannan Adely interviewed Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Khairullah and other Syrian-Americans who have lost touch with friends or relatives or know people who have been killed in the Syrian civil war (1A and 4A).  

This Page 1 story reminds readers of the one Adely wrote in November 2015 -- more than a week after Governor Christie announced that he wanted to bar all Syrian refugees from entering New Jersey.

Why the delay? Syrians have been immigrating to Paterson since the early 1900s.

In his column on Nov. 22, 2015, Staff Writer Mike Kelly called Christie "a crazy uncle" for saying he would not even allow Syrian orphans under the age of 5 into the United States.

His Page 1 column the day before was completely devoid of criticism or condemnation of anti-Muslim rhetoric in the wake of the Paris terror attacks.

Putin and Trump

Until today, The Record has avoided reporting on the links between President-elect Donald J. Trump and Russia.

A story on 11A today traces Trump's "soft spot for Russia" to his desire to sell his luxury condos to wealthy Russians.

Trump, a major apologist for Vladimir Putin, also has dismissed reports from U.S. intelligence agencies that the Russian dictator tried to influence the outcome of the Nov. 8 election in favor of the New York billionaire.

You need a magnifying glass to read the legal notices in The Record.

Book deal, legal ads

Since Sunday, The Record's news editors and editorial writers have been consumed by what they see as an assault on the right of the press to profit from the publication of legal ads (1A, 8A and 16A).

One question isn't addressed: 

Does anyone actually read those legal notices, which are printed in small type?

Today's front page is dominated once again by a package of legislation that includes Christie's "book bill;" raises for his Cabinet, legislative staffs, judges, county prosecutors and others; and eliminating the long-standing law requiring local governments to publish legal notices -- such as budgets, ordinance changes and contracts.

"Motivation for pushing the bill, and tying it to action on salaries and book deal, said to be revenge by Christie against newspapers for their coverage of his administration," according to The Record.

Local news?

Still, readers of The Record have to ask whether the publication of budgets and ordinances gives the news staff an excuse to ignore important local news, such as the campaign by nine candidates in the April election for three Board of Education seats in Hackensack.

There was no discussion of the issues in The Record or Hackensack Chronicle.

Nor did the daily or weekly paper report any of the details of the proposed $104 million school budget before voters went to the polls to approve or reject it -- even though education accounts for 44% of every homeowner's property tax bill.

Another 'food crawl'

Have "food crawl" articles in Better Living replaced the weekly restaurant review, and is it a budget-cutting move?

Freelancer Shelby Vittek is back today with a "Polish Food Crawl" on 14BL and 15BL, although the out of focus cover photo of pirogis with sour cream doesn't look appetizing at all.
Elisa Ung, the restaurant reviewer who left the paper in November, likely blew $200 to $300 or more on two meals with a friend at every one of the fine-dining restaurants she reviewed.

When Ung was hired more than 9 years ago, The Record allowed the restaurant critic to treat three other people to two dinners at each restaurant.

When The Record introduced the "Informal Dining" reviews Ung did once a month, that cut the paper's expenses.

Now, if the food crawl has replaced all restaurant reviews, the additional savings would be significant. 

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.

Sloppy, incomplete reporting is continuing to cheat readers

WBGO-FM, the 24-hour jazz station in Newark, celebrated the "Rhythm Review" -- which broadcasts classic soul and rhythm-and-blues every Saturday -- with a 30th anniversary dance party on Wednesday night at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Remember Bethany Koval, the Fair Lawn High School student who described herself as an "Israeli Jew" amid the social media uproar over her saying Palestinians are being mistreated?

Well, she is back on Page 1 of The Record today, and readers finally learn that description may not be accurate, if they manage to plow through thousands of words and get deep into the story on the continuation page (A-8).

More troubling than that is here is yet another Record story about the hate campaign against Koval that doesn't quote any of the thousands of North Jersey Jews and Israelis themselves who believe peace with the Palestinians is long overdue.

Deep on A-8, Staff Writer Hannan Adely finally tells readers Koval's father is Catholic, and her mother "was raised Jewish" and converted to Catholicism.

And Koval is quoted -- possibly for the first time in months -- as saying her connections to Israel "are uncertain and came from genealogical research she had done on her mother's family."

End of editing

The blame for all this fudging is Deirdre Sykes, who was promoted to editor in January after a decade or more of mismanaging the local-news section.

Sykes and her minions have simply given up on challenging reporters and columnists, who are encouraged to write on and on to fill space.

No editor challenged Staff Writer John Cichowski's description of a big ethnic supermarket in Clifton as Irv Gerber's "favorite farmer's market" (Road Warrior column on Wednesday's L-1).

In winter? Sorry. Corrado's Market on Main Avenue is a supermarket, not a "farmer's market," and the addled Cichowski is a laughing stock.

Frank Sinatra Jr.

The placement of the story on singer Frank Sinatra Jr. tells you Sykes doesn't care one way or another that he died of cardiac arrest at 72 and his famous father died of a heart attack at 82 (A-8).

This could be an opportunity for The Record to emphasize that heart disease is the No. 1 killer in the nation -- in contrast to all the artery clogging food the paper's Better Living editors promote day after day.

Local news?

Here's a salute to Staff Photographer Kevin R. Wexler for the gorgeous photo of Agnes Kyei and newborn son Elijah Adu Gyamena at Hackensack University Medical Center (L-1).

They share the page with lots of police and court news, and news about the police.

Today's Local section continues Sykes' boycott of Hackensack news.

Editors: Syrian refugees aren't demons Christie claimed

A homeless man walking across the street was killed on Christmas Day at Garrison Avenue and Cedar Lane in Teaneck, above. Now, police have put up a digital sign asking for help in finding the driver of a large black SUV that fled the scene.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A Page 1 story on Syrian refugees who have settled in Paterson continues The Record's gentle treatment of Governor Christie.

After the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, Christie said he would bar any Syrian refugee, even an orphan, from coming to New Jersey.

The GOP bully later expanded that, saying he wanted to keep them out of the entire country.

Today's upbeat story on the Alteibawi family from Daraa, called a "flash point for the Syrian uprising," mentions Christie in the overlong first paragraph (A-1).

Heavy editing

But to the chagrin of many readers, Editor Martin Gottlieb toned down any criticism of the governor's fear mongering and racial animosity.

Gottlieb is known as a hands-on editor who often heavily edits and rewrites front-page stories to give them the same kind of "context" they have at The New York Times, where he had a long career.

The family, Staff Writer Hannan Adely says, found themselves "in the center of a national debate over Syrian refugees with even Governor Christie weighing in on their arrival."

How does Christie's bid to keep all refugees (read "terrorists") out of New Jersey become "weighing in on their arrival," except in the mind of an arrogant editor who seems intent on polishing the governor's image?

In fact, The Record waited more than a week after Christie's first anti-refugee salvo before publishing a story on the peaceful Syrian community in Paterson, where immigrants from Aleppo and other cities put down roots more than a hundred years ago.

Dictatorial rule

The rest of Page 1 today is devoted to endless second-guessing of President Obama's move to tighten controls on guns.

Columnist Charles Stile, the paper's chief Christie apologist, recalls how the governor called Obama a "dictator" three weeks ago (A-1).

But nowhere in his boring political column does Stile point out that by executing more than 430 vetoes to stop the majority Democrats in the state Legislature, Christie surely is the one who has imposed dictatorial rule right here in the Garden State.

Hackensack news

Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza continue their boycott on Hackensack news in today's Local section.

I can't find any mention of Tuesday night's City Council meeting.

And Hackensack University Medical Center and city officials weren't even mentioned in a Tuesday story on L-1.

That story had local officials reacting to a bill that would require non-profit hospitals to make modest payments in lieu of tens of millions of dollars in property taxes.

Christie would go to war with Russia in skies over Syria

Two images from the Aug. 6 GOP debate are said to show Sen. Paul Rand's eyeroll, right, as Governor Christie delivered "a saccharine line about how 'the hugs I remember are the hugs that I gave to the families who lost their people on September 11th,'" The Nation.com reported.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The first successful terrorist attack in the United States in 14 years was enough for The Record and other news media, along with Governor Christie, to strike fear into the hearts of Americans.

And Christie claimed at Tuesday's GOP debate he would shoot down Russian planes if they violated a no-fly zone he would unilaterally impose over Syria, according to The Record (A-6).

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky countered:

"If you're in favor of World War III, you have your candidate," Paul said, putting the threat in the same category as Christie's poor judgment in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal (A-6).

Still, Record Columnist Charles Stile ignored much of that, eager to report in his very first, slanted paragraph that Christie "stood apart from the rest of his rivals as the lone candidate who had hunted down terrorists" (A-1).

Broken record

In his desperate bid for the White House, Christie reacted to the November terrorist attacks in Paris by talking about his experience as U.S. attorney for New Jersey after 9/11.

After the San Bernardino attack early this month -- the first successful act of terrorism since 9/11 -- he hasn't mentioned anything else, especially not how his mean-spirited budgets have struck terror into the hearts of New Jersey's middle class.

Keep Syrians out

The Record's otherwise upbeat coverage today also is the first time since Christie vowed in November to bar all Syrian refugees, even widows and orphans, from New Jersey that he is reported saying he would bar all Syrians from the rest of the country, too.

That echoes Donald Trump's wanting to bar all Muslims from crossing our borders.

Stile and The Record's editorial page haven't denounced Christie as a hate-monger or a bigot or someone who sounds exactly like all of the maniacs who have persecuted Jews throughout history. 

Instead, the paper's local editors reluctantly assign reporters to interview Syrians and other Muslims in Passaic County to show how peace-loving they are, as a front-page story by Staff Writer Hannan Adely declared on Tuesday.

Cantor murder

The guilty verdicts in the slaying of Robert Cantor of Teaneck matter most, but The Record's coverage of the love-triangle case has been filled with flawed headlines and other sloppy work, as readers can see again today (A-1).

The big, black headline is almost as bad as the one that ran on the day the jury got the case:

"Execution or puzzle?"

Today, the A-1 headline basically says a "killer" was found guilty of "murder."

"Love-triangle killer

guilty of murder"

But there is a bigger problem that was missed by six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, aka "The Queen of Errors."

Photos on both A-1 and A-6 claim to show Cantor's relatives "reacting" or "listening" to the verdicts.

But the one on the continuation page (A-6) shows a son-in-law standing next to the victim's widow and sister instead of seated apart from them, next to Cantor's daughter (A-1).

Did the judge allow the son-in-law to stand up during the reading of the verdicts or was the second photo posed after the verdicts were read?  

Local news

In Teaneck, officials rezoned land next to railroad tracks to allow AvalonBay to seek approval for a 248-unit apartment development (L-1).

In effect, the Township Council is saying that ratables are more important than the safety of tenants.

They would be living near what The Record calls "volatile" oil trains in a building prone to the same kind of quick-spreading fire that destroyed AvalonBay's Edgewater complex in January.

And people who buy shares in AvalonBay, a real-estate investment trust, will be laughing all the way to the bank with a reported 14% return.

The Local front today carries two Passaic County stories that are of little interest to Bergen County readers (L-1).

Meanwhile, the Hackensack news embargo continues.

Editor's note: After publication, this post was edited to eliminate dated material from The Nation.com, and to correct the photo caption. The images are from the GOP debate on Aug. 6, not the one held in Las Vegas on Tuesday night.

Reporters display abysmal ignorance of their N.J. beats

The window of a Syrian wedding store in South Paterson, a bustling district of Christian- and Muslim-owned businesses along Main Street in Paterson that draws shoppers from hundreds of miles around, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Nine long days after Governor Christie blasted President Obama's plan to accept Syrian refugees -- even orphans -- The Record's newsroom finally moved into action.

An assignment editor in Woodland Park shook the sleep out of her eyes on Tuesday, and told a reporter to interview merchants who have been prospering for decades in the next town -- Syrians who condemn ISIS (A-1).

"Syrians are business people. They have nothing to do with bombs," Paterson bakery owner Mohamed Souda, a Syrian immigrant, told Staff Writer Hannan Adely.

"Whoever goes against refugees, those people are absolutely wrong."

Why did it take so long after Christie's hate mongering for an editor to assign Adely to this important story?

South Paterson

Gathering reaction in South Paterson, an economic bedrock of Silk City for many decades, should have been the first story the editors assigned after the Paris attacks and the backlash from Christie and other mean-spirited Republicans.

Of course, local assignment editors like Deirdre Sykes, Dan Sforza and Tim Nostrand have been at their jobs for decades, and their ignorance, laziness and general incompetence define news gathering at The Record.

And what can you say for reporters like Adely who know their beat, yet wait for a moron like Sforza to tell them what story to report and write.

All of them work under the direction of Editor Martin Gottlieb, an arrogant Manhattanite whose international credentials should have disqualified him from the job of running the newsroom of a local daily paper.

Syrian Jews

Even today's story on South Paterson and Syrians in New Jersey is deeply flawed, because their is no mention of the thousands of Syrian Jews who live in the state and who are united with Christians and Muslim by their love of Syrian food.

This Syrian Jew has shopped for decades at Fattal's, Nouri's and other stores in South Paterson, and I have met many of the law-abiding Syrian Christians and Muslims who run bakeries, restaurants and other businesses there.

Another building was under construction on Main Street in Paterson's South Paterson Commercial District in September.

Traffic bottlenecks

Staff Writer John Cichowski has been boring readers to tears with the Road Warrior column he's been writing for more than 12 years, not to mention the hundreds, if not thousands, of errors he has made.

Could today's so-called commuting column be the first to actually acknowledge that North Jersey has some of the worst traffic bottlenecks in America, including the Lincoln Tunnel (L-1)?

Cichowski's head must have been stuck up his enormous asshole for all the years North Jersey drivers have been mired in daily traffic nightmares, whether at the Hudson River crossings or on narrow, antiquated local streets.

A transportation reporter like Cichowski shouldn't need a survey on traffic bottlenecks to tell him there is not enough mass transit in Christie's New Jersey to take drivers off of the road.

And the hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity, waste of gasoline and aggravated air pollution isn't news to his readers.

The only "debate" over raising the gasoline tax to finance road and bridge repairs, and improve mass transit -- the way it has been done for decades -- is the one Cichowski and other burned-out reporters and editors  manufacturer to get people to read their trashy, irresponsible journalism.

In our unusually diverse state, Christie demonizes Syrians

Guajillo Mexican Restaurant at 10 Sussex St. in Hackensack has served its last taco.

Guajillo is another business on or near Main Street that couldn't wait for the renaissance officials are predicting after tenants move into new downtown apartments.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I've met a lot of nice Syrians in Paterson in the past 30 years, but judging from the front page of The Record, today would not be a good day to be one.

Governor Christie -- whom the editors have elevated to world leader from his usual role as incompetent state executive -- is going after Syrians in the wake of the Paris massacre (A-1).

Many readers are getting sick and tired of the expected also-ran in the GOP presidential nominating contest taking pot shots at President Obama that seem racially inspired.

Silk City

And Paterson seems to be on Christie's shit list, if you include all the work he has done to fight crime in Camden instead of Silk City, and his comments on barring Syrian refugees from entering the United States.

Even though reporter Hannan Adely has written extensively about Muslims in North Jersey, she makes no attempt today to explain to readers that most of the Syrians in Paterson are Christian, not Muslim, and many have lived there for generations.

They work in county government and in just about every other job, including lawyers, teachers, police officers and firefighters, and in South Paterson, Syrian immigrants, both Christian and Muslim, run bakeries, restaurants and other food businesses.

Syrians have helped make New Jersey one of the most diverse states in the nation, despite the GOP moron who is running roughshod over more progressive leaders in Trenton.

Local news

The editors of Local ignore Hackensack for yet another day, and the thin section contains two major elements from Passaic County, and stories about bears and oysters (L-1 and L-3). 

A story on the Local front speaks volumes about home-rule governments, which seem to foster no-show jobs and outrageous salaries for police chiefs, high school principals and others.

Palisades Park Mayor James Rotundo has resigned as the $35,000-a-year "supervisor of school custodians," a position he has held for more than two years (L-1).

The story identifies Rotundo as "full-time ... assistant  executive director of the Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority," but his name is not included in the agency's 2015 budget.

Isn't it time to put 9/11 anniversary below the fold on A-1?

A large delivery truck parked in front of Giant Farmers Market prevented this No. 165 NJ Transit bus from stopping at the curb to discharge passengers on Main Street in Hackensack at around 1:45 on Thursday afternoon. But when the truck pulled away, the bus driver didn't move, forcing three people carrying plastic bags to run to the door and board.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Given the mess our absentee governor has made in New Jersey and all of the other problems in the region, the nation and the world, the horrors of 9/11 are a distant memory.

As such, the anniversary of the attacks on America shouldn't  be played so prominently on Page 1 of The Record.

That's especially the case with the hackneyed Mike Kelly column on the 14th anniversary leading the paper today -- a rewrite of every story the veteran reporter has done on the ceremony at the old Twin Towers site. (A-1). 

Victims' photos? 

And readers wonder why Production Editor Liz Houlton continues to insist on running a dated thumbnail column photo of Kelly flashing what looks like a shit-eating grin.

Editor Martin Gottlieb and his minions could have honored 9/11 victims from North Jersey far more effectively by replacing all of the Law & Order filler in the Local news section today with their thumbnail photos (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

Some of the victims' photos could have started at the top of the front page, demoting Kelly's tedious column to below the fold, as well as in place of the story on the legislative probe of the George Washington Bridge lane closures, an investigation that has gone nowhere in two years. 

Migrant crisis

After weeks of covering the refugee crisis in Europe, The Record and other media finally are paying attention to how little the United States has been doing (A-1).

But instead of focusing on the vibrant Syrian community based in Paterson, Gottlieb chose a wire service story for the front page today with inserts by Staff Writers Hannan Adely and Melissa Hayes that appear deep on the continuation page (A-8).

Adely reports "the first wave of Syrians moved to New Jersey a century ago," but doesn't bother telling readers they were overwhelmingly Christian, unlike the refugees now fleeing the civil war in Aleppo and other cities in Syria.

She also doesn't say how many refugees have been welcomed by the Syrian community in Paterson, Prospect Park, Wayne and nearby towns.

Adely may have reported those numbers in previous stories on the Syrian community, but Gottlieb, Houlton and other editors shouldn't expect readers to remember them.

Cuban food

Based on the meals I've enjoyed at Casual Habana Cafe on Main Street in Hackensack, I'm looking forward to trying the second Casual Habana, which was rated 2.5 out of 4 stars today (BL-16).

Sugar-obsessed restaurant critic Elisa Ung sought comfort in the unhealthiest food on the menu -- three artery clogging desserts -- after she ran into unprofessional service at the New Milford restaurant.

Some of her other choices, such as bacon-wrapped dates and pork-belly chicharrones, also are unfortunate given the restrictive diets followed by tens of thousands of her older readers.

But Ung was mistaken in saying Chef-Owner Benito Rivero "wanted to go beyond Cuban sandwiches" for his second and much bigger restaurant.

Rivero did that years ago in Hackensack, where many creative dishes and drinks are served alongside his Cuban classics. 

Here is a big reason you don't want to move to Leonia

In Manhattan today, panhandlers were working the rush-hour traffic on the Harlem River Drive ramp leading to the George Washington Bridge.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Two weeks ago, a vibrant 60-year-old restaurant owner using a downtown Leonia crosswalk was struck by a school bus and dragged 71 feet to her death.

In The Record's story on Leyla Kan of Fort Lee, Leonia Police Chief Thomas Rowe appealed to Governor Christie and the Port Authority to do something about rush-hour traffic from the turnpike that uses the town as a shortcut to the George Washington Bridge.

But what that had to do with the death of Kan was unclear in The Record's poorly reported Aug. 8 story.

No connection

In fact, it had nothing to do with her death, as a column this past Sunday revealed:

"The fatality stretched law enforcement to the breaking point, said Rowe, because only two of his department's 17 officers were on duty at the time and they were handling a domestic call" (Sunday's Road Warrior column, A-1 and A-8).

Yikes! Only two police officers were working in Leonia on a busy Thursday morning? 

Photos of Leyla Kan were part of a memorial at her Palisades Park pita-and-pizza restaurant, Picnic Cafe.

Incompetent leaders

Where are borough officials? Where is property tax money going, if not to keep residents and visitors safe?

Given all of the rush-hour traffic that inundates Leonia, shouldn't Rowe assign at least one officer to direct traffic at its main intersection, Fort Lee Road and Broad Avenue, where Kan was struck by a school bus driver who failed to yield to her?

Wouldn't Kan be alive today, if an officer was guarding the crosswalk she assumed would protect her on a beautiful, great-to-be-alive day?

Shameless apologist

Road Warrior John Cichowski, who likely is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, quotes Leonia Borough Council President Gil Hawkins as saying:

"Austerity measures caused largely by a weak economy and  declining tax base led to the loss of six officers over the years."

And they weren't replaced? Every town in North Jersey has been hit by a "weak economy and declining tax base."

That's no excuse in Leonia or anywhere else.

Cold-blooded reporter

In his Sunday column, Cichowski couldn't have been more insensitive to Kan's death.

First, he refers to her death as "a fatal bus crash near the mayor's hardware store." Later, he calls it a "grisly bus crash." 

There was no "bus crash" in the usual sense of the phrase. How did the editors allow this fuzzy nonsense in the paper?

Cichowski never names the victim, as if she was so much road kill.

A cover-up

Cichowski's column and the Aug. 8 news story reporting Kan's death amount to a cover-up of Leonia officials' incompetence.

The original news story didn't mention the short police staffing, and gave the police chief a platform to distract attention from it by asking for state and regional help dealing with rush-hour traffic.

Reporters just published his remarks; no one at the press conference or in the Woodland Park newsroom asked Rowe what his request for help directing traffic had to do with Kan's death.

Today's paper

Readers bored with A-1 today likely flipped the page and saw an item on A-2 that basically admits the Sports staff can't spell names or correctly identify athletes in photos (A-2).

A Bergen County jury found that a cold-blooded Stephen Scharf murdered his wife by throwing her off of the Palisades in 1992.

Now, his conviction has been thrown out, but the appeals-court judges didn't attack any of the actual evidence against him, and he will be retried, if necessary.

Why is The Record giving him a platform today to discuss his "plans for life as a free man" (A-1)?

If anyone is a "Big Pussy," it's Columnist Bill Ervolino, who today second guesses the Bergen County Historical Society's 10 Legends (A-1).

Hackensack news?

Who is covering Hackensack for The Record?

Christopher Maag, who took over from Hannan Adely, is now covering NJ Transit.

Adely's name appeared under a Wednesday brief reporting action on a downtown park at Monday's City Council meeting, but she also covers education. 

Ticket prices

On the Better Living front, the $150 price (plus tax) given for a ticket to the Sunrise Senior Living Jazz Festival on Sunday conflicts with the Web site, ticketbud.com, where lower-price tickets also are available (BL-1).

Today's edition is filled with problems from start to finish

First Presbyterian Church on Passaic Street in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You'll find plenty of amateurish writing and editing in papers put out by students at Fairleigh Dickinson University and Bergen Community College.

But on the front page of The Record of Woodland Park?

In today's lead Page 1 story, Staff Writer Christopher Maag should have said:

"Governor Christie's choice for Port Authority chairman told lawmakers who approved his nomination Thursday the agency is troubled and he promised things would change."

Instead, somewhat nonsensically, Maag has "Governor Christie's choice for chairman of the Port Authority" promising "that things would change in testimony to lawmakers who approved his nomination Thursday."

Of course, nothing is changing in his testimony.

Which border?

Just above the fold, a front-page headline declares:

"Possible deal on border crisis"

Given the tensions in Ukraine, you could forgive readers who think the deal is with Russia, especially because the word "immigration" is left out.

Shooting of Genesis

A brief on A-1 today sends readers to an L-6 story reporting the family of Genesis Rincon, the 12-year-old who was fatally shot in Paterson, said two others were involved in the shooting.

And the defense attorney for the lone 19-year-suspect said "his client has nothing to do with the shooting."

The arrest of Jhymiere Moore was announced on Thursday's Page 1, but questions from the family and suspect's lawyer are demoted to Local.

Minds on vacation

Another Page 1 story -- on school buses that failed inspections and drivers who falsified driving records -- should have run during the school year (A-1).

Why did Editor Marty Gottlieb put this on the front page during the summer?

A-2 today carries three corrections, including one about the suspect in the Genesis Rincon shooting.

Resident wimp

Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin, the resident wimp and ass-kisser, wrote an offensive opinion column about the shooting of Genesis and how Paterson should close public buildings and cut services to put more cops on the street (A-19).

Doblin, whose knees knock together at the thought of crossing Governor Christie, doesn't mention how Paterson and other cities laid off cops after the GOP bully slashed their state aid.

Web site has news

NJ Spotlight.com reports today Christie has sent state police to Trenton, where the number of murders this year set a record, and the acting state attorney general has asked prosecutors not to plead down "gun-related charges in exchange for a conviction as a way of increasing jail time for those convicted."

Why hasn't this been reported in The Record?

And why didn't Doblin suggest deployment of state troopers to Paterson or even call the governor for comment on Genesis' death and increasing gun violence in Silk City?

This kind of tortured prose from Doblin is sickening:

"The death of Genesis on a street named for Rosa Parks cries out to the heavens. It should stop us in our tracks, make us wail, rip our garments and steel our resolve to do more than talk. To do something. Something."

Hackensack news

On the front of Local, a story on a new high-rise development on Main Street in Hackensack carries a familiar byline, Hannan Adely, who was replaced by Maag.

But the story doesn't mention a cross street on Main, expecting residents to have memorized the addresses on a street that stretches from the courthouse to Route 4. 

More on Saks woes

Another story about the closing of Saks Fifth Avenue in The Shops at Riverside contradicts the first account, which cited "routine maintenance."

The retail reporter finally called the Hackensack City Manager's Office and found out "the shopping center was doing a routine inspection ... when it discovered a crack in an underground column that supports a portion of the Saks store" ((L-7).

"Hackensack City Manager's Office" is capitalized in a brief on Page 1, but not in the Business page story on L-7.

There are full-page ads in today's paper from Macy's, not Saks, and that probably has the bean counters at North Jersey Media Group shitting in their pants.

'Perfect' shortcake

In Better Living today, Staff Writer Elisa Ung pulls out all the stops to promote Park West Tavern, a Ridgewood restaurant that charges high prices for small portions (BL-16).

Appetizers top out at $16 and entrees cost as much as $44.

Ung, the paper's restaurant reviewer, continues to struggle with her writing, and appears not to get much help from Esther Davidowitz, the food editor whose run-on sentences take the wind out of many readers.