Democracy could bring guns and mass shootings to Cuba

News media estimates of Cubans bidding farewell to Fidel Castro range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, including these mourners wending their way to the Plaza of the Revolution in Havana on Monday (AP photo). 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The death of revolutionary Fidel Castro prompted Cuban-American Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and many others to express the hope the island is "a step closer to freedom," as an editorial in The Record put it.

Just which rights would be appropriate in Cuba beyond freedom of speech, of the press and other basic freedoms?

You wouldn't be free to call for the overthrow of the socialist government, which provides universal health care and education to 11 million island residents despite the crushing U.S. trade embargo dating to 1962.

And, god forbid, Cubans would be given the right to bear arms, and imitate Americans' propensity for gun violence, school shootings and other mass killings.

Cubans also don't deserve a two-party system poisoned by money (Menendez himself is facing trial on corruption charges), suppression of minority voters and white police officers shooting a large number of blacks.

First flights

Americans on the first flights from New York, Newark and Miami to Havana in more than 50 years will be vacationing in the safest major tourist destination in the Caribbean.

They'll enjoy Havana's unique paladares, restaurants of no more than 12 seats set up in private homes; great Afro-Cuban music, eco-tourism and much more on the 777-mile-long island.

They'll even be able to rent a car and drive to a cafe on a hill where they can use binoculars to look at the U.S. prison in the Guantanamo Bay naval base. 

Soft news

Readers of The Record today and Monday have plenty of time to speculate about Cuba's future in view of all of the "soft" news and ho-hum local news assembled by Gannett editors.

Today's front page has only one hard news story -- the attack on the campus of Ohio State University.

Monday's Page 1 had no hard news, just a couple of feature stories that would have been more appropriate on the Local front.

Plus, 1A carried another boring political column from so-called Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson, whose updated thumbnail photo still has him propping up his head. 

Local news?

Check out some of the headlines in the local-news section today and Monday:

"Attorneys
to sum up
on Ramsey
Wawa plan"

"Wayne's world
means football"

"Missing Florida dog
is found in Paterson"

"Englewood church rebounding after fire"

"2 towns consider sharing complex"

"Hasbrouck Heights set to license cats"

"North Bergen's Police Dept.
welcomes body armor grants"

Many of the local-news stories in The Record now are being written by reporters from the weekly papers owned by Gannett's North Jersey Media Group.

Generally, they are younger and have less experience than reporters for the Woodland Park daily, and the stories show that.

Commentary, lack of editing are two of paper's biggest flaws

Hundreds, if not thousands, of New Jersey residents have already received mail-in ballots for the Nov. 8 election; and made their choices for president, 5th District congressman and county offices, as well as voted "yes" or "no" on two ballot questions. Meanwhile, an editorial in The Record today endorses Democrat Hillary Clinton for president.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

As usual, readers are having a hard time telling what point Columnist Herb Jackson is trying to make on Page 1 today.

Do ads paid for by "the super PAC of the National Association of Realtors" -- saying that Democratic congressional candidate Josh Gottheimer would "protect the 30-year mortgage" -- mean the businessman is in the pocket of special interests (A-1)?

As Jackson reports, Gottheimer's opponent, Rep. Scott Garrett, a Republican from Wantage in Sussex County, "crossed the Realtors group by pushing a bill in 2013 that would have scaled back the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-backed companies that buy mortgages from lenders."

Readers of the front page still don't know what all of this means until Jackson quotes "an outspoken critic of federal housing policy" saying that Garrett, in effect, was trying to stop "more government subsidies for housing."

It gets worse. If you stick with Jackson (few readers will get beyond A-1), you find out the bill pushed by Garrett would mean "thousands of people in New Jersey would have to pay more or not get a mortgage at all," according to New Jersey Citizens Action (A-6).

Then, the column goes on and on, giving the impression that Jackson and other columnists at The Record are encouraged to write long, convoluted pieces that violate the cardinal rule of daily journalism:

Telling the reader in the first or first few paragraphs exactly what you're trying to say.

And for opinion columnists like Jackson, Mike Kelly and Charles Stile, the lack of opinions in their work is even more alarming.

This trio of columnists rarely express opinions; they usually only quote so-called experts on each side of an issue in a tedious he said/she said account that resembles a news story or analysis.

Lack of editing

In his front-page column on Monday, Stile reports that as hundreds of Republicans across the country are abandoning GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump, "Governor Christie strode right into the vortex" (A-1).

"There's a simple reason why: He has no other place to go [italics added]."

Another Christie column appeared on Monday's Editorial Page (A-11), written by Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin:

"Republicans are lining up in disgust [over Trump boasting about kissing and groping women]. Not Christie.

"He's all in with Trump, probably because he has nowhere else to go" [italics added].

Kelly column

Kelly's Sunday column on the Opinion front cried out for editing, because only readers who slogged through the veteran reporter's awkward phrases, such as "Christie's self-definition," got to see him throw the strongest punches ever at the GOP thug and Trump sidekick (O-1).

His column begins with a tedious recap of testimony in the Bridgegate trial that Christie unleashed a series of F-bombs against a Monmouth County freeholder who criticized him and called him fat.

Christie reminded him he is "the fucking Governor of this state."

Kelly also spends a few paragraphs recounting the governor's tough-guy act during his nearly seven years in office.

It's only on the continuation page -- in his last four or five paragraphs -- that Kelly gets to the F-ing point:

Kelly uses "[expletive]" for the word Christie used in his tirade against the freeholder, "fucking" or "fuck" (Sunday's O-4):

"Our [expletive] governor actually believed he had the intellectual depth and temperament to be president of the entire nation ....

"... Bridgegate has reminded us that Chris Christie's bully act has grown old -- that this man has the quick-trigger temperament of a teenager.

"Yes, Christie is definitely a governor defined by expletives, In these expletives, he has made himself fragile and forlorn and forsaken.

"Soon, he will be forgotten -- finally."

A second mail-in ballot asks voters to say "yes" or "no" on allowing casinos to operate in North Jersey, and whether they want the state constitution amended so that all gas-tax revenue goes toward road and rail repairs and improvements.

Clinton endorsement

Today's editorial on the presidential race and an "Open letter to Trump" are laid out across A-8 with portraits of Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald J. Trump by Staff Artist R.L. Rebach.

"The choice is clear: Hillary Clinton. She is qualified, prepared and capable," according to the editorial endorsing her for president.

"Donald Trump will fight with Americans; Hillary Clinton will fight for America."

The open letter to Trump concludes:

"America needs a president, Mr. Trump, not a predator.

"Abandon this race."

Now, media must focus on issues -- not polls and popularity

Hillary Clinton making history on Thursday night in Philadelphia, where she accepted the Democratic nomination for president after pledging to work to improve the lives of women and everyone else. (Photo credit: UPI)

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With just over three months until the Nov. 8 presidential election, readers can only hope the hysterical news media will focus on the issues that affect our lives.

When will The Record and other news outlets start a serious discussion of the candidates' positions on gun control, immigration, climate change, the minimum wage, taxing the wealthy and so many other compelling issues -- and then take a stand?

In the case of the Woodland Park daily and Editor Deirdre Sykes, readers shouldn't hold their breath.

Partisan politics in New Jersey and the nation have been shoved down their throats by Columnists Charles Stile and Herb Jackson for far too many years.

And Columnist Mike Kelly has taken so many pot shots at President Obama readers have to wonder whether the veteran reporter has been infected by the racial animus apparent in the Republicans who gridlock Congress.

Seeing history made 

At least one of The Record's editorial writers -- commenting on Hillary Clinton making history -- had the good sense to admit:

"We are missing an extraordinary moment. We are so caught up in the pettiness of politics and personalities that we are not seeing the history made in Philadelphia, the city where our history began" (A-18).

"...Before Wednesday is another forgotten moment, savor it not as a partisan, but as an American."

Endless politics

On the front page of The Record today, the lead USA Today story on Clinton's speech to the Democratic National Convention is filled with partisan politics, and actually includes a rebuttal from wacko racist Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee (A-1 and A-6).

The stark differences between the candidates have been glossed over.

For example, Trump wants to a tax break that would put an extra $1.3 million in his pocket and in the pocket of every other member of the 1%, but backs an increase in the minimum wage to only $10.

Clinton calls on the wealthy to pay higher taxes to help finance social programs for families and to bolster Social Security. 

Holes in coverage

The Record's story is missing most of Clinton's attacks on Trump as a potential leader, but the New York Port reported she "savaged" the businessman:

"He loses his cool at the slightest provocation. A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man you can trust with a nuclear weapon," she said of Trump, "mocking her ... rival's claim that he knows more about ISIS than American's military leaders."

The Post also reported that Clinton:

• "Accused Trump of 'being in the pocket of the gun lobby,' while saying she had no intention of repealing the Second Amendment.
• "Slammed her opponent for having his clothing line and furnishings for his hotels made in other countries while he talks about bringing jobs back to America.
• "Said large corporations should pay their 'fair share' of taxes, and not accept tax breaks with one hand while handing out pink slips with the other.
• "Vowed to support police officers while at the same time reforming the criminal-justice system to rebuild trust between cops and the communities."

A horse race

What will likely happen now that the conventions are over, The Record and other news media will go back to publishing polls that purportedly show the closeness of the White House race.

But you won't see the media reflecting on how their endless coverage of partisan politics and conflict has produced one of the world's most apathetic electorates.

Brace for five months of hysterical Clinton-Trump coverage

Work is underway to convert the former United Jersey Bank Building at 210 Main St. in Hackensack and an adjacent structure into apartments, above, as seen from Moore Street.

The former bank's parking garage on Moore Street was being demolished on Saturday.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record and other media will make sure the five months until the November presidential election won't be pretty.

Today's front page celebrates the milestone of Hillary Clinton becoming the first woman to lead a major American political party as she clinched the Democratic presidential nomination (A-1).

But below the fold, Editor Deirdre Sykes trots out the paper's burned-out political columnists -- Charles Stile from Trenton and Herb Jackson from Washington -- signaling her distaste for issues-based coverage.

She has that in common with The Associated Press and much of the electronic media, which will do their best to portray the contest between Clinton and wacko racist Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, as one of the closest, if not the closest, in history.

Jackson claims "leaders of both parties debated whether Trump's unpredictability could end the state's streak of backing Democratic presidential candidates that goes back to Bill Clinton in 1992" (A-1).

As for Stile, he's quoting Governor Christie as claiming "Trump is not a racist" (A-1 and A-7).

What a joke. 

Of course, Trump is a racist, and he's drawing support from an exclusively white electorate who have always hated the nation's first black president.

Obama v. Romney

The media have a lot invested in keeping voters interested in coverage of a presidential race that seems to begin right after the inauguration.

That's what happened in 2012, when the media quoted pollsters and experts as claiming the contest between President Obama and the GOP's pathetic Mitt Romney was too close to call.

In fact, the incumbent buried Romney in both the popular vote and in the Electoral College.

Mexicans, Muslims

Why haven't the major TV news networks or The Associated Press ever just laughed in Trump's face when he says he is going to build a wall on the U.S.- Mexican border, and get the Mexicans to pay for it?

Why haven't the media denounced the billionaire for his hate speech against Mexicans, Muslims and other minorities? 

Trump can't possibly win on a platform that seeks to "Make American Hate Again" and "Make America White Again."

Local news?

The first paragraph of another front-page story claims the plan for a 14-story hotel and conference center at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center was "once heralded as a cornerstone of revitalization efforts in South Paterson" (A-1).

That's the kind of flawed local reporting The Record is known for.

Since the 1960s, South Paterson's bustling Middle Eastern bazaar of restaurants and other food businesses, and the city's Farmers Market have drawn shoppers from Bergen County and other parts of the metropolitan area.

With new commercial buildings and a strip mall, as well as one of the biggest mosques in North Jersey, renewal of the neighborhood on the Clifton border has never waited for the hotel and conference center that St. Joseph's has now abandoned.

Editors turning your local paper into another political rag

GLOOMY MONDAY: Before the sun came out, rush-hour traffic on Route 4 in Paramus splashed toward the George Washington Bridge this morning.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The word "Democrats" or "Democrat" appears in three of the four paragraphs on Page 1 in today's lead on Governor Christie's latest nominee to the Supreme Court.

As if that isn't enough, Editor Deirdre Sykes of The Record is running another boring Charles Stile column under the banner headline, supposedly telling readers what the nomination of Walter Timpone means politically.

Stile describes Timpone as "a veteran Democratic Party lawyer and insider" (A-1).

WNYC-FM radio called the nominee a "former federal prosecutor."

The Record's intense political focus is a disservice to readers, who have to look elsewhere for reporting on issues.

Nowhere in today's coverage will you find anything on how the state's highest court is regarded as progressive in so many ways, including landmark rulings on product liability and affordable housing.

Gottheimer v. Garrett

On the Local front, Sykes adds fund-raising to the political focus in the story on Democrat Josh Gottheimer of Wyckoff challenging Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, who is seeking an eighth term in a district now dominated by Bergen County voters (L-1).

On Monday, Gottheimer sent an email to supporters attacking "Tea Party Rep. Scott Garrett" for "an absolutely abysmal record when it comes to women's issues."

But you won't find any discussion of that in today's story from Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson, who omits the Tea Party label altogether.

In the past, Jackson has called the race solely based on how much Garrett and his challenger raised before the election.

Fires, crime

Sykes' Local section for Bergen County readers is so thin she had to pad it with crime stories (L-2 and L-3), two photos of minor fires (L-3 and L-6), a long Dean's List and a story on City Council candidates in Paterson's 3rd Ward (L-6).

Artery clogging

Readers who can't enough artery clogging saturated fat should check in with Staff Writer Elisa Ung, the paper's chief restaurant critic and overeater.

Today, Ung praises the versatility of the grilled-cheese sandwich, especially when it is stuffed with bacon and short ribs or slathered with butter (BL-1 and BL-2).

Home delivery

The Record's dysfunctional home delivery operation failed today to bring me the back copies I asked to be held during a week-long vacation.

Instead, the carrier wrote a note on the plastic bag, apologizing and saying he would deliver them on Wednesday.

Editors gaze into crystal balls, ignore our messy present

This morning, Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, between Main Street and the railroad tracks, remained a one-lane street -- just one of the many spots city plows missed after the snow stopped falling on Saturday night.

On Main Street in Hackensack, between Berry and Passaic streets, parking was banned this morning, above and below, until the city could clear all of the snow in front of parking meters.

Lavash City, an Armenian restaurant, and other businesses on this block of Main are lucky to have a rear parking lot for customers.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's editors are so bored with our dysfunctional state government and the blizzard of 2016 they are already looking into the future.

On Page 1 today, Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson and Staff Writer James O'Neill are gazing into crystal balls on November ballot questions and the weather for the rest of the winter.

On the Local front, the moronic Road Warrior, John Cichowski, continues to ignore blizzard dangers -- even as the death toll mounts -- and referees a pissing match over whether residents are obligated to clear fire hydrants of snow (L-1).

On the first Business page, Staff Writer Joan Verdon delivers a breathless report on a German discount supermarket chain that isn't expected to open stores in the U.S. before 2018 (L-8).

Snow clearing

The snow stopped falling Saturday night, but pedestrians continue to encounter third-world snow clearing in Hackensack and many other towns, where bus stops, corners, turn lanes, parking meters and crosswalks remain covered or barricaded today.

On the Local front, the editors published an image rarely seen in the Woodland Park daily -- a Hackensack bus stop blocked by a snowbank (L-1).

On Sunday and Monday, reporters visited a couple dozen towns, but pretty much ignored the amateurish job turned in by municipal crews -- as The Record has done for decades. 

Snow job

One example was reporting from the front lines in Teaneck by resident and Columnist Mike Kelly, the veteran reporter whose work appears regularly on the front page. 

Here is an excerpt from his hard-hitting report in Monday's Local section:

"By noon Sunday, Teaneck's main business district along Cedar Lane was buzzing with traffic and pedestrians."

Kelly probably could have described Cedar Lane the same way on any Sunday, given the large number of Orthodox Jews in town who are forbidden from shopping on Saturday.

He also noted "mounds of snow" were "left at the end of [residents'] driveways by snowplows that worked through the night to clear town streets."

Apparently, Kelly didn't venture very far, because he missed the poor job the snowplows did on Cedar Lane, where only one of two travel lanes was clear between the Hackensack line and River Road on Monday morning.

Wrong headline

Even though a number of people died from shoveling snow, carbon-monoxide poisoning and hypothermia over the weekend, Monday's local front carried an upbeat headline and sub-headline:

Postcards from a wintry land

North Jersey
worked hard
in storm, but 
played, too

This is what a block on Main Street in Hackensack looks like after the snow was cleared from in front of parking meters.

The bus stop at Euclid Avenue and Main Street, where you can board NJ Transit buses to the city, remained buried under snow this morning, including the city provided bench.

Ditto for the bus stop across the street from Sears on Main Street.

Governor Christie

Wow, would you look at all of the ink on Page 1 today criticizing Governor Christie for leaving New Jersey on Sunday and returning to New Hampshire in his futile campaign for the GOP presidential nomination (A-1).

I can't recall headlines this big or similar criticism when he did a number of things as governor -- from cancelling new Hudson River rail tunnels in 2010, waging war on teachers and other members of the middle class, and executing more than 500 vetoes so far to stop bills on gun control and a host of other issues.

Burger King

An editorial today on the response to the blizzard doesn't question why employees of Burger King in Hackensack didn't call police when an elderly New York woman told them she was afraid to drive home in the storm on Saturday afternoon, and planned to park in their Hackensack Avenue lot (A-8).

Police Director Mike Mordaga says in a news story on A-6 today the body of the unidentified woman, 78, was found in her gold Cadillac on Monday morning.

The Burger King had closed at 5 p.m. on Saturday, and didn't reopen until Monday morning.

On Spring Valley Avenue in Maywood, near the Hackensack border, a woman was forced to walk on the pavement this morning, only inches from passing cars on a street that is too narrow for all the traffic it carries in even the best of weather.

The corner of Main Street and Johnson Avenue in Hackensack.

'Vintage Christie' is liar, thief and N.J.'s worst nightmare

The Bergen County Courthouse complex in Hackensack is a huge construction zone as work continues on a new Justice Center, above. Meanwhile, garage parking is free for attorneys, jurors and visitors until ticket machines become operational, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record is describing Governor Christie's string of insults and verbal attacks on Tuesday as "a vintage version" of the politician.

A Page 1 story today claimed his speech to business leaders and other appearances recalled the Christie "who rose to national fame hurling invective at his adversaries and dressing down supporters, if they strayed from the path."

A pubic relations firm couldn't have said it better.

But Editor Martin Gottlieb and Staff Writer Dustin Racioppi are supposed to be journalists who level with readers on the front page.

If they did that, they would remind us "vintage" Christie is the candidate who told a big lie to get elected -- that he would lower local property taxes and force towns to regionalize to save public funds.

"Vintage" Christie is the mean-spirited governor who killed the Hudson River rail tunnels -- the biggest expansion of mass transit in decades -- then stole leftover funds to fix roads and bridges.

"Vintage" Christie is the GOP bully who cut funding for state worker benefits, vetoed a tax surcharge on millionaires and used money earmarked for environmental cleanup to balance the state budget.

In short, "vintage" Christie is the worst governor in state history.

2016 election

So-called Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson already has started to cover the 2016 contest between Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, and Democrat Josh Gottheimer, a Microsoft executive from Wyckoff (A-3).

As he has done in the past, Jackson is expected to call the election on the basis of who has raised the most money.

Litigious lawyers

For a rare story on lawyers screwing lawyers, as opposed to clients, see the first Business page (L-9).

Roper & Twardosky LLC of Totowa filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors, including lawyers who assisted the firm and say they are owed from $497,000 to $2.8 million each.

Governor Veto kills 24 bills, runs N.J. farther into ground

This Daily News front page from Jan. 9, 2014, is proving prophetic as Governor Christie's poll numbers sink, and he desperately vetoes bills on voter access, gun laws and other measures that don't play well in conservative states with early primaries. Even as Christie's presidential ambitions go down in flames, The Record's coverage has been unfailingly upbeat.

Editor's note: Today's post has been expanded to include commentary on more of today's edition, as well as the lead story on Monday.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie won his second term with the lowest turnout ever in a gubernatorial election in New Jersey, so making it easier for people to vote threatens him and every other conservative.

But The Record's coverage of his veto of the Democracy Act and 28 other bills awaiting his signature couldn't be more upbeat (A-1).

Christie clears
Assembly bills
from his plate

Today's lead headline on Page 1 is surprisingly bland, containing a bunch of meaningless numbers instead of telling readers the governor vetoed early voting or a tightening of gun laws.

Editor Martin Gottlieb also continues to politicize every measure passed by the state Legislature by reporting them in terms of Democrats against Republicans.

Gottlieb and his lazy local assignment editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, never bother to interview residents on how they feel about the bills that were vetoed.

The latest vetoes probably bring Christie's total close to 450 since he took office in early 2010 after bamboozling voters with a promise to lower local property taxes.

Readers shouldn't hold their breath for Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin to call for Christie's resignation, as Ellen Stein of Closter does in a letter to the editor today (A-8).

Underwhelming

Road Warrior John Cichowski engages in fear mongering today with a column on the lack of "safety reforms" in a bill "to fix the nation's road and rail system[s]" (A-1).

Readers have to plow through several long paragraphs jammed with numbers before getting to the top concern, lowering the legal age "for driving big rigs across state lines" to 19.5 from 21.

Cichowski has got to be kidding. 

He knows the challenges facing older drivers like himself are a far bigger problem in every town and city in New Jersey, and the rest of the nation, and likely kill more people.

He's just too lazy to report on any of the programs available to seniors to hone their skills behind the wheel.

Alzheimer's disease

Dementia is the general term for a decline in mental ability, such as memory loss, severe enough to interfere with daily life, and Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia.

So, the lead paragraph of another Page 1 story is incorrect in reporting on a new law governing "group homes for patients with Alzheimer's and dementia" (A-1).

Catsgiving

The upcoming Thanksgiving holiday always dramatizes the continuing hunger problem in North Jersey, so why are Sykes and Sforza wasting so much of the Local front on hungry feral cats in the Meadowlands (L-1)?

Municipal news goes missing today.

Monday's paper

Herb Jackson's front-page column on Christie's refusal to fix the state's broken Transportation Trust Fund was a rare critical look at how the GOP bully has sold his soul to the devil, in this case the radical Americans for Tax Reform (Monday's A-1).

"It's easy to understand why Christie is offering solutions in New Hampshire to Washington's problems and saying little about Trenton's problems," Jackson says.

"... He signed a pledge from Americans for Tax Reform after he became a presidential candidate, saying that he would not raise taxes." 

So, that means the simple logic of drivers paying higher gas taxes to fix the wear and tear on the roads they use is sacrificed to Christie's conservative principals.

New normal is baseball, crime, animal news and politics

The entrance to Costco Wholesale's bigger store in Teterboro during a preview party on Tuesday night. The store opened for business on Wednesday morning. The old warehouse store in Hackensack will reopen next year as a Costco Business Center catering to small businesses, but open to all members.

Costco offers organic and non-organic produce at low prices.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record must be so tired of the news business.

That's the only possible conclusion judging from the last three days of Gottlieb's lazy, inconsequential front pages:

Baseball and animal news, a Teaneck man charged with killing his mother and brother, and ignoring the issues in presidential and congressional races to report on fundraising.

Today's paper, for example, goes over in great detail how much Governor Christie has raised in his quixotic bid for the White House (A-1).

Then, on A-3, a long story reports Rep. Scott Garrett's fundraising has slowed.

Garrett, a seven-term conservative Republican from Wantage in Sussex County, represents a good chunk of Bergen County.

Staff Writer Herb Jackson, the paper's so-called Washington correspondent, who wrote today's story on Garrett, has written far less about issues.

In fact, Jackson has called previous Garrett elections solely on the basis of the congressman's fundraising ability.

Local news?

The only Hackensack news today involves police wounding a murder suspect who "confronted officers with a large knife" (L-1).

Residents who want to know why their property taxes are so high would like the paper to look into inflated school and administrative salaries, and why the Board of Education pays lunchroom aides at two schools $22 an hour.

The principal of the high school is paid more than $172,000 a year, just a few thousand less than Christie.

Between the bread

A rave informal dining review of Bogie's Hoagies in Hawthorne would be far better if the critic reported whether the chicken, beef and ham used in the sandwiches are naturally raised (BL-16).

But I guess Staff Writer Elisa Ung was distracted again by her raging obsession with dessert, including "the fudgiest brownie, served in a dangerously generous chunk" and an "enormous chunk of bread pudding, studded with cranberries and chocolate pieces."

When it comes to sugar, this woman is out of control.

This is yet another review from outside Bergen County, which Ung seems to be neglecting for some reason.  

Thursday's paper

Thursday's A-2 corrected two major errors, but I had to rescue my Sports section from the recycling bin to look at another major boo-boo.

A Record reader says Sports Columnist Steve Popper erred when he reported Lamar Odom was found unconscious Tuesday in "a Las Vegas brothel."

The reader noted:

"As all of the news sources showed he [Odom] was at the bunny ranch, which is 60 or so miles away. Actually, prostitution is illegal in Las Vegas. Every other news source has the right location."

Sun glare blamed

A second school crossing guard was injured critically by a driver who may have been blinded by sun glare.

Thursday's L-1 story doesn't name the driver who knocked down the Westwood senior, a retired engineer, or whether any charges will be filed.

Nor is there any reporting on whether car manufacturers can produce a windshield that cuts down on glare.

Wednesday's paper

On Wednesday's A-1, The Associated Press story on the Democratic debate reported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' comment on the media-manufactured controversy over Hillary Clinton's emails.

"The Secretary is right," Sanders said of Clinton. "The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails."

Voters want to discuss "the real issues," Sanders said, reiterating a message The Record and other media continue to ignore.

Best headline

The headline in The Record on Wednesday's L-6 was good, but the one in an email from the Hackensack Daily Voice site was better.

First, The Record:

"Man attempting suicide

survives being hit by train"

But the Daily Voice did a tabloid turn on the events over a Jerry DeMarco byline:

"Hackensack man hit by train

 loses arm, walks home"