Trump's anti-women, anti-black rhetoric will never prevail

On Wednesday night in Las Vegas, GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump showed how truly ugly he is during the third and final debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton, who was the clear winner, above and below, though you won't see that reflected in The Record's Page 1 coverage today.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In anti-women and anti-black comments on Wednesday night, GOP White House hopeful Donald J. Trump again showed he is a truly ugly, unapologetic male chauvinist pig.

His attacks during the final presidential debate ranged from calling Democrat Hillary Clinton a "nasty women" to pledging to appoint right-to-life justices to the Supreme Court to denying reports from women that he groped and kissed them against their will.

In a parting shot designed to appeal to his racist supporters, the wacko billionaire claimed electing Clinton would be the same as returning our first black president to office. 

Today's coverage

Clinton said Trump "thinks belitlling women makes him bigger" (A-4).

"He goes after their dignity, their self-worth," she said.

His "trickle-down economics on steroids," as Clinton called it; his getting away with not paying federal taxes; his business losses of nearly a billion dollars in one year -- all show his economic plan is a sham.

"We have undocumented immigrants paying more in taxes than a billionaire," Clinton said (A-1).

Kelly on Kelly

Columnist Mike Kelly appears to have set a record with his Page 1 profile of Bridget Anne Kelly, Governor Christie's former deputy chief of staff and a defendant in the Bridgegate trial.

This is not only more than he has written about any one person, but it certainly eclipses anything the editors have published about Clinton's long public service and her policy positions in the presidential campaign (A-1 and A-6).

Kelly's largely sympathetic portrait of the defendant, who grew up in Ramsey, clashes with her being portrayed as a central figure in the George Washington Bridge lane closures to punish Fort Lee's Democratic mayor for not endorsing the reelection of Christie.

No one knows how Bridget Kelly, who is scheduled to testify before a federal jury, will try to explain away her infamous email to Christie crony David Wildstein at the Port Authority:

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

Zisa editorial

An editorial claims Hackensack taxpayers will have to shoulder a $3 million payment to former Police Chief Ken Zisa because of the "mistakes of their city fathers" (A-10).

One so-called mistake was not having Zisa's back pay "accumulating in an account," but the editorial doesn't list any others.

Although all of the charges in a Bergen County grand injury indictment against Zisa have been dropped, the editorial neglects to mention no court or jury has ever said the former chief didn't commit a crime.

Stale news

The front page on Wednesday carried a stale headline.

"Hackensack plans

 $3M payment to Zisa" 

Eye on The Record already reported the payment on Oct. 5, and the Woodland Park daily's John Seasly followed with his own report two days later.

The news is that the City Council on Tuesday night proposed a $3 million appropriation raised through selling bonds "to fulfill a court-mandated payment" to Zisa (A-1 on Wednesday).

Seasly continues to ignore plans by Zisa and other members of his family's political dynasty, which ruled Hackensack for decades, to run a slate and try to regain power in next May's municipal election.

Zisa allies have long controlled the city's Board of Education.

Christie critic

Staff Writer John Cichowski is the latest staffer to pile on Christie since the fatal Hoboken train crash, revelations in the Bridgegate trial, and the biggest bugs up the veteran reporter's ass -- computer breakdowns and long lines at Motor Vehicle Commission offices.

His Road Warrior column on L-1 today breaks years of silent acquiescing to Christie's anti-mass transit policies, and refusal to raise the gas tax to pay for road and rail improvements.

Cichowski even blames Christie for rising traffic deaths this year "after three decades of decline" (L-2).

Columns such as Cichowski's ring hollow in view of The Record being the only major daily paper in the state that didn't call for the GOP thug to resign after he endorsed Trump.

Whole Foods

On Wednesday, retailing reporter Joan Verdon was incorrect in saying the new Closter Whole Foods "will have features not found in other stores, including a juice bar and coffee stand."

The Whole Foods in Paramus has both.

She also omitted mentioning that Costco Wholesale has expanded its organic and natural-food selection far more than the Whole Foods competitors she lists: Fairway, Trader Joe's, Walmart and Target.

Editors bury Christie's role in fatal NJ Transit train wreck

In this photo from Pancho Bernasconi, train personnel inspect the lead car of the NJ Transit train that crashed and jumped the platform on Monday morning at the Hoboken Terminal, killing one woman and injuring more than 100 others.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record today buries readers under an avalanche of words from more than a dozen reporters assigned to cover Thursday's fatal train crash in Hoboken.

No one can absorb this many news stories and columns about the same event, especially when little was done to edit out all of the repetition, and replace that with answers to several crucial questions (A-1, A-6, A-7, A-8 and L-1).

And it's unclear just how many readers will search out Mike Kelly's column on A-7, where the banner headline declares:

"The deadly consequences of neglect"

Even if they do find the column, Kelly as usual buries the lead, this time in the fifth and sixth paragraph:

"You could sense the defensiveness in Governor Christie ... during a news conference ... not far from the wreckage.

"After all, it was Christie, boasting to Republicans of his tax-cutting prowess as he ran for president, who blocked a proposed increase in the state gasoline tax. The new revenue would help" pay "for rail-safety upgrades ...."

Then, Kelly notes Christie dodged a question on whether an automatic braking system -- which federal officials have advocated for 46 years -- could have slowed the commuter train from Bergen County before it crashed.

Readers have to plow through numerous paragraphs of background on previous train crashes before getting to the last paragraph:

"We live with an outdated rail system and a government that is too slow to repair it," Kelly writes with the impact of a wet noodle.

Gets off light

Christie gets off easy today, having fought mass transit improvements since he took office in 2010.

He cancelled an earlier project to build two new Hudson River rail tunnels, and grabbed more than $1 billion in leftover funds to fix roads and bridges, allowing him to avoid raising the low gas tax.

He also cut state aid, forcing NJ Transit to raise fares and cut service; and he's looted the agency's maintenance budget.

Holes in stories

From all accounts, the three-car train and locomotive were traveling about 30 mph, instead of 10 mph, when they entered the station, failed to slow and crashed.

That doesn't seem to justify the screaming banner headline on Page 1 today:

"High speed into chaos"

"Chaos" is a good word to use when describing the scene in the Woodland Park newsroom whenever the editors have to cover a big, breaking news story.

They've shown time and again they aren't up to it.

Today, the name of the woman killed on the platform by falling debris appears on A-6, but for some reason the story doesn't say Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, 34, of Hoboken leaves her husband and their 18-month-old daughter, as reported by other news media.

Today's extensive coverage also is missing information on the makeup of the train -- three passenger cars that were being pushed by a locomotive.

A news story and the Road Warrior column on L-1 conflict on whether the engineer was operating the train from the lead passenger car or from the locomotive pushing the passenger cars or were there two engineers on board? 

And Staff Writer John Cichowski, the so-called Road Warrior, should be ashamed of himself for including so many gory details on the injuries suffered by De Kroon, the wife, mother and innocent bystander who died on Thursday morning. 

Local news?

There is more Paterson news in the local-news section delivered to Bergen County readers than from any other community.

If you are a community activist, you have to have a school named after you before The Record will cover you.

That seems to be the lesson from an L-1 story on Paterson school activist Hani Awadallah.

Staff Writer John Seasly, who is assigned to Hackensack, hasn't covered a single Board of Education meeting, and didn't write a word about Tuesday's City Council meeting, which he attended.

Who is confused?

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung bestows 3 stars out of 4 (Excellent to Outstanding) on Aquarius Seafood Restaurant in Fort Lee, but calls the dim sum service "confusing" (BL-14).

"We found a language barrier at dim sum," Ung claims, "which may frustrate the 30 percent of the customers who are not Chinese and makes this restaurant hard to recommend to those with no knowledge of the cuisine."

Dim sum and tea are hardly new to North Jersey and especially not to Fort Lee, where Silver Pond Seafood Restaurant served wonderful dumplings and other delights in the same Main Street space for decades.

And if necessary, Aquarius will give you a menu that lists the nearly 50 dim sum in English and Chinese.

Fish story

Where Ung should have deducted a half-star or more, she just warns readers to ask about the price of whole live fish before ordering it.

After years of watching the owners of Greek fish houses in Bergen County rip off customers by charging for fresh whole fish by the pound, the Chinese owners of Lan Garden in Ridgefield and now Aquarius in Fort Lee are getting in on the action.

Ung was shown the whole live bass she ordered -- "wriggling ... in the net, shaking water everywhere and scaring many people nearby" -- but not told about the $28-per-pound price.

Nor was it listed on the menu.

That kind of dishonesty shouldn't be rewarded by a restaurant reviewer, especially one who is on an expense account. 

Bridgegate trial testimony so far: Christie, Christie, Christie

The cover of today's New York Post sums up testimony by Bridgegate trial star witness David Wildstein, a crony Governor Christie appointed to a powerful position at the Port Authority, owner and operator of the George Washington Bridge.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Despite Governor Christie's denial -- repeated on Tuesday -- the weight of the evidence in the Bridgegate trial places him at the center of the plot to punish the mayor of Fort Lee in September 2013.

Christie wasn't indicted in the George Washington Bridge lane closures -- five mornings of gridlock designed to retaliate against a Democrat who refused to endorse the GOP thug's re-election.

Still, only his sworn testimony before a federal jury would effectively answer the accusations from prosecutors and David Wildstein, described by The Record today "as the admitted mastermind of the plot" (A-1).

Wildstein pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against two Christie allies who are on trial in Newark, but the judge will consider a reduced sentence only if the former Port official tells the truth.

On Tuesday, Wildstein said he and his boss, defendant Bill Baroni -- then deputy executive director of the Port Authority -- looked forward "to telling Christie of the traffic jam and unheeded pleas for help from their target," Mayor Mark Sokolich (A-1 and A-4).

They did so at the 9/11 ceremony on Sept. 11, 2013, as attested to by a photo of the trio that shows Christie laughing.

Two of three local access lanes to the bridge were shut down from Sept. 9, 2013, the first day of school; to Sept. 13, 2013.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Cortes asked Wildstein if he and Baroni were bragging to the governor.

"Yes," Wildstein testified, "... I was pleasing our one constituent. I was happy that he was happy" (A-4).

Other news?

Usually, Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi's gee-whiz photos of non-fatal accidents end up on L-3 to fill holes in the local-news report.

But today, his Page 1 photo captured the aftermath of a crash of a large SUV that rolled backward, hit a utility pole and pulled down electric wires -- all of this after a woman parked and got out of the vehicle on Van Schaik Lane in Wyckoff, leaving her 2-year-old son inside.

"The mother did not wish to be identified," the photo caption says of the seemingly irresponsible woman.

Clinton won debate

After not committing to either Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald J. Trump after their first TV debate, an editorial today says Clinton "commanded" the stage (A-8).

"One candidate prepared to talk about the issues, while the other was prepared to talk about himself."

"Hillary Clinton obviously won Monday's debate in a rout," said NYTimes.com Op-Ed Columnist David Leonhardt.

Local news

In a rare story about Hackensack, Staff Writer John Seasly reports that city officials celebrated the start of construction on a new Performing Arts Center (L-1).

Under that is the obituary of J. Herbert Leverette, 87, a Korean War veteran who was elected Hackensack's first black council member in 1965.

Christie's mean GOP spirit is looming over the front page

Governor Christie at the Republican National Convention, where he said he has been wacko racist Donald J. Trump's friend for 14 years.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On Page 1 today, The Record's chief medical writer again lets Governor Christie off the hook for trying to sabotage President Obama's health-care law in New Jersey.

And today's centerpiece on a young woman -- the first in her family to attend college -- is another in an occasional series, Muslims are Just Like You and Me, the paper has been running since Christie sought to bar all Syrian refugees from New Jersey (A-1).

I can't recall the last time Staff Writer Lindy Washburn included background information on how Christie refused to set up a health-care exchange in New Jersey when the federal Affordable Care Act took effect a few years ago (A-1).

That meant tens of thousands of residents, along with consumers in more than 30 other states with Republican governors, were thrown onto the overburdened federal exchange.

Next year, the number of New Jersey insurers will dwindle to two from five in 2016, Washburn reports, further limiting choice and raising premiums.

Local news?

A radical proposal to move the start time to "as late as 8:30" at Tenafly High School merits a front-page brief and a full story on the Local front today (L-1).

A story about Tenafly's school board appears on L-5.

Hackensack readers are racking their brains for the last time they saw a story about their schools or school board.

Apparently, Staff Writer John Seasly, who covers the city, is stretched thin just attending City Council meetings.

Today, Seasly reports the council hired Ted Ehrenburg as city manager to replace David Troast at the end of the month (L-5).

Ehrenburg, 59, of Hackettstown, a former police chief and business administrator, will be paid $170,000 a year.

Obits, crash photos

Eight days of coverage marking the 15th anniversary of 9/11 -- ending on Monday -- sucked the energy out of the Woodland Park newsroom, judging from all the filler in the local-news section today.

A pair of rollover crash photos on L-3 from ambulance-chasing Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi have readers saying gee whiz.

A third crash photo from the talented photographer plugs a hole on L-6.

Half of L-5 is taken up by obituaries of Sam Iacobellis, an obscure aerospace engineer, and Stanley Sheinbaum, the "liberal lion of Los Angeles." 

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

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

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

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

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

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

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

Governor Veto

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

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

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

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

Ex-Chief Zisa

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

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

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

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

More hearings

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

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

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

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

Sloppy editing

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

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

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

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

Proposed 14.3% drop in sales tax is good deal for consumers

Broken chairs blocking access to the pumps at a shuttered gas station on Passaic Street in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

It's been apparent for years that readers of The Record often see important issues with far more clarity than all-seeing, all-knowing editors, columnists and reporters.

On Friday's editorial page, a letter to the editor took Columnist Charles Stile to task for getting the math wrong on a proposed hike in the gas tax to pay for road, bridge and rail repairs in exchange for a cut in the sales levy.

"The reduction in the sales tax would have been from 7 percent to 6 percent," Joe Kennelly of Ramsey wrote. "This is not a 1-cent break, as Stile heralds in the first paragraph of his [July 1] column.

"It would have been a 14.3 percent drop in the sales tax," Kennelley says of a plan pushed by Governor Christie and rejected by the state Senate.

"The 23-cent increase [in the gas tax] increase would be less on a percentage basis, based on today's oil prices and ultimately [have] much less impact to most consumers," his letter said.

"Certainly, most of us pay far more on items that are taxed by sales tax than we pay for gasoline."

Endless politics

The Ramsey man's letter also highlights how The Record and other media rarely deal in issues and whether a proposal is good for New Jersey or the nation.

Instead, every plan is examined in terms of partisan politics -- as is clear once again on Page 1 today -- in a gross disservice to readers.

On the proposed gas tax-sales tax deal, nearly every story has talked in terms of Christie vs. the Democrats who control the state Legislature, and no one but Kennelly has mentioned that consumers would save more money overall.

The Record also has ignored the environmental benefits of higher gasoline prices and improved rail service -- no surprise from a newspaper that depends so heavily on advertising revenue from car dealers and manufacturers, as well as oil companies.

Local news?

As further evidence that Staff Writer John Cichowski has completely lost it, see his Road Warrior column on the Local front today.

He reports a Hackensack woman's E-ZPass makes her trips across the George Washington Bridge "so deliciously convenient" (L-1).

The lead local story today reports on Saturday morning tractor-trailer accidents on Route 287 in Oakland that injured no one.

Staff Writer John Seasly, normally assigned to cover Hackensack, mined his sources to find out one of the trucks carried beer (L-1).

Meanwhile, environmental reporter James M. O'Neill's entertaining story with photos on a vintage baseball game in River Edge was played inside the section, even though it is a far better read than a report on truck accidents or Cichowski's idiotic column (L-3).

The headline was a good one, too:

"A baseball game with no gloves,

and the umpire wears a top hat"

Cupcakes

Given all the readers struggling to control their intake of sugar, the headline on Staff Writer Elisa Ung's column on the Better Living front today might as well read:

"Diabetes makes a sweet return to relevance"

Gannett deal

"The Record is a North Jersey institution," Staff Writer Kathleen Lynn wrote in her story reporting the sale of the Woodland Park daily to the Gannett Co. of McLean, Va.

"Founded in 1895, it has been owned by four generations of the Borg family, starting in 1930."

Still, I have not seen a single letter to the editor commenting on the sale of this "institution" since Lynn's story ran on Thursday's front page.

And the account that appeared on NorthJersey.com on Wednesday afternoon also doesn't have any comments.

Is censorship at work here?

Or, maybe readers just don't care.

Filmmaker blasts Trump and his 'political Ponzi scheme'

A Bruce Springsteen lookalike leading the B-Street Band, which was billed as "The Original Springsteen Tribute Band" on Wednesday night at a concert for cancer survivors, caregivers, family and friends at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns is describing racist Donald J. Trump's mean-spirited presidential campaign as "a political Ponzi scheme."

In a scathing attack on the presumptive Republican nominee, Burns told Stanford University graduates on Sunday that "as a student of history, I recognize this type."

"We see nurtured in his [Trump's] campaign an incipient proto-facism, a nativist anti-immigrant Know Nothing-ism, a disrespect for the judiciary, the prospect of women losing authority over their own bodies, African-Americans again asked to go to the back of the line, voter suppression gleefully promoted, jingoistic saber rattling, a total lack of historical awareness, a political paranoia that, predictably, points fingers, always making the other wrong."

On Monday's A-9, The Record of Woodland Park ran an Associated Press report on Burns' commencement speech in Palo Alto, Calif., but the story didn't contain a single word of his attack on Trump, whose name he never mentioned.

Trumping Trump

Speaking of "bitterly contested" elections in the past 216 years and their "clearly qualified candidates," Burns turned to this presidential campaign and said:

"One is glaringly not qualified. So before you do anything with your well-earned degrees, you must do everything you can to defeat the the retrograde forces that have invaded our democratic process, divided our house, to fight against, no matter your political persuasion, the dictatorial tendencies of the candidate with zero experience in the much maligned but subtle art of governance....

"A person who lies easily, creating an environment where truth doesn't seem to matter; who has never demonstrated any interest in anyone or anything but himself and his own enrichment; who insults veterans, threatens a free press, mocks the handicapped, denigrates women, immigrants and all Muslims; a man who took more than a day to disavow a supporter who advocates white supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan; an infantile, bullying man...."

Media reports said Burns' attack on Trump lasted a full 7 minutes. Feel the burn.

Today's paper

Spurred by the massacre of 49 people inside a gay dance club in Orlando, Fla., gun-control advocates picketed the Glen Rock office of Rep. Scott Garrett, the Tea Party crackpot from Wantage (L-3).

"He really is radical when it comes to defending ... the NRA [National Rifle Association]," said a spokeswoman for New Jersey Citizen Action.

Meanwhile, a new TV ad assails Garrett's anti-gay stance and his opposition to same-sex marriage.

Democrat Josh Gottheimer, who is opposing Garrett in the November election, has called the Republican a Tea Party radical, but The Record prefers to describe him as a "North Jersey conservative" (L-3).

Lawyer's take?

Staff Writer John Seasly reports a Hackensack woman who suffered permanent spinal injuries when her car was rear-ended by an uninsured driver from Englewood won't get anywhere near the $1.2 million a jury is recommending (L-6).

"What she's got is Allstate's $250,000 [uninsured motorist benefits]. The rest is sort of gone," her attorney, Thomas Dinan said.

That's not all that will be "gone."

Apparently, Seasly is unaware the woman's lawyer can ask the judge to approve fees and expenses up to one-third of any damages, so Gerri Koch might only receive about $167,000.

City Council rebukes school official who claimed he cut tax

Hackensack Board of Education President Jason Nunnermacker (he's the one with the double chin) hiding from the camera at Tuesday night's City Council meeting, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Hackensack Board of Education President Jason Nunnermacker was being dishonest when he claimed at a public meeting that school officials "cut taxes for the average homeowner by $214," city officials said Tuesday night.

Near the end of a long City Council meeting, Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino said Nunnermacker "had absolutely nothing to do" with potential property tax cuts from a citywide reassessment of home values.

Apropos of nothing, Nunnermacker rose to speak at the May 3 City Council meeting and declared:

"On the superintendent's behalf, we cut taxes for the average homeowner by $214 -- under my presidential leadership." 

(A week later, Nunnermacker announced at a school board meeting that Superintendent Karen Lewis had been suspended with pay for reasons he didn't disclose.) 

Cites revaluation

On Tuesday night, Canestrino, speaking for the mayor and council, said the citywide revaluation is the "sole reason" some homeowners could see a total cut of about $400 in city and school taxes.

School taxes make up 44% of the total property tax bill.

Canestrino noted the reassessment lowered the value of one-third of the homes in the city, one-third stayed the same and one-third went up.

She also noted the school board approved a $4.2 million hike in the tax levy that a tiny minority of registered voters approved in the April 19 election.

The $79 million tax levy supports an overall budget of $104 million, higher than the city's own. The hike in the city tax levy was $2.1 million -- half of the board's increase.

The Record didn't bother covering the issues or the nine candidates in the school board election or report on the budget in any detail.

Councilwoman Deborah Keeling-Geddis, right, again led the city's African-American community in criticizing officials for the embarrassing Lt. James Prise promotion. Councilman David Sims, second from right, left the meeting to take care of a personal matter before Keeling-Geddis read a statement and audience members, including clergy, spoke.

Lt. James Prise

Staff Writer John Seasly of The Record covered Tuesday night's City Council meeting, but his story in the Local section today doesn't report any of Canestrino's comments about Nunnermacker (L-1).

Nor does Seasly report that City Councilwoman Deborah Keeling-Geddis again led members of the city's African-American community in criticizing officials for promoting police Lt. James Prise to captain, only to return him to his original rank when it was learned he failed the oral portion of the state civil service exam.

Prise was the city's first black police lieutenant and was heralded as its first black captain at a March 8 ceremony in City Council Chambers.

City Manager David Troast said Prise's promotion was "provisional" pending the results of the oral exam, but he still thinks he was the right choice to lead the Police Department after the retirement of Police Director Mike Mordaga.

In response to comments from the audience that the City Council should issue a public apology to Prise, Canestrino and Mayor John Labrosse said officials have apologized a number of times, but that The Record hasn't reported any of them.

Censorship

A front-page story today reports that Bergen County had one of the state's 191 "apartheid schools," or "schools where 1 percent or less of the student population was white," according to a 2013 Rutgers University report.

But even though a Record reporter added material to the story from The Associated Press, that district isn't identified (A-1).

"Apartheid schools" certainly would fit the elementary and middle schools in Englewood, where desegregation efforts in the last decade have focused only on Dwight Morrow High School.

Over the years, Dan Sforza and other Record reporters assigned to Englewood have routinely ignored the city's dysfunctional school system.

Then, Sforza spent many years as a local editor who assigned reporters to cover stories in Englewood before he was promoted to managing editor this year.

Staff Writer Mathhew McGrath, who covers the city now, has written about education, but never reported the city's elementary and middle schools have few white students nor has he asked the superintendent what, if anything, he intends to do about that.

Even if cleared in Bridgegate, Christie still is biggest loser

This front page ran in the Daily News in January 2014, and proved prophetic. The News, Star-Ledger and other newspapers have covered Governor Christie and his administration far more honestly than The Record of Woodland Park.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Since Governor Christie took office in early 2010, New Jersey has become a laughing stock.

And a couple of months ago, Christie's endorsement of fellow Muslim-hater Donald Trump for the GOP presidential nomination prompted the editorial boards of seven major New Jersey dailies to call for his resignation.

"He has answered every crisis with neglect during his disastrous second term," The Star-Ledger noted on March 3, calling on him to leave office for "New Jersey's sake."

The state's biggest newspaper listed the state's fiscal crisis as second worst in the nation, including Atlantic City on the brink of bankruptcy, a mass-transit system in disrepair and an infrastructure fund fast running out of money.

The Woodland Park daily was the only major New Jersey paper that continued to give Christie the benefit of the doubt, filling its column recently with upbeat assessments of his selection as Trump's transition chief -- in the unlikely event the billionaire racist is elected in November.

"Make America Hate Again" is one critic's take on Trump's message.

By his side

Today and Thursday, The Record ran self-serving statements from Christie that all but absolved him in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal less than two months before he was elected to a second term in 2013.

The Record has done exhaustive reporting on the scandal, and now takes credit for leading other media companies in getting federal prosecutors to release a list of "unindicted co-conspirators" that was kept secret after Christie's close aide and crony were charged with conspiracy.

Two of three access lanes to GWB upper-level tool booths were closed in the week of Sept. 9, 2013, as political retribution against Fort Lee's Democratic mayor, supposedly for not supporting the governor's reelection campaign.

A second list "is expected to offer the broadest portrait yet of who knew about the conspiracy but did not report it" (A-1).

Worst governor ever

Whether one or both lists are released today and whether Christie is on them is irrelevant in view of his mean-spirited rule of New Jersey, and his war on the middle and working classes.

For a hands-on governor to claim he didn't know what his closest aides and cronies were doing is preposterous, and he long ago was convicted in the court of public opinion.

No matter what happens in Bridgegate, Christie's reign has been disastrous for the state and its residents.

He is the biggest loser, and we are the victims of his personal ambition.

Today's paper

I've seen some terrific headlines in The Record recently, but the one over the GWB scandal today is just ridiculous:

"Seeking
clarity in
political
morass"

Readers have no clue from the main or sub-headline what "political morass" the headline writer is referring to, and it could very well be the deadlock in Congress or the State House.

Of course, a big problem is the huge story on GWB repairs that is displayed next to the scandal story, even though the project doesn't get under way until next year (A-1).

Infrastructure stories such as this are a poor choice for Page 1, but Editor Deirdre Sykes is desperate, because she can't inspire her transportation reporters -- Paul Berger, Christopher Maag and John Cichowski -- to cover the actual commuting crisis in North Jersey.

Rare victory

Another Page 1 story today marks a rare victory over the Christie administration's poor environmental policies (A-1).

The state is dropping plans to "bring large-scale development to Liberty State Park" in Jersey City.

Hackensack police Lt. James Prise, second from right, at the March 8 ceremony in City Council Chambers with his wife and children.

Hackensack news?

Staff Writer John Seasly has done a poor job of covering Hackensack, but he has been all over the embarrassing public ceremony in March to recognize the promotion of the city's first black police lieutenant to captain, another first for an African-American.

Less than a month later, Lt. James Prise was returned to his original rank after he learned he had failed part of his state civil service exam.

Now, Councilwoman Deborah Keeling-Geddis, who also is black, issued a public apology and said Prise "did not deserve to suffer this indignity" (L-1).

Today, Seasly reports her statement "angered the mayor and deputy mayor, who accused her of political maneuvering and of going against the lieutenant's wishes."

Poor coverage

Seasly disappointed Hackensack residents by not covering the issues in the April 19 school election or the Zisa family's attempted political comeback by backing three of the nine candidates.

The election deserved attention, because only about 1,300 of 20,000 registered voters usually cast ballots.

This year, only 895 of them approved a $79 million tax levy to support the $104 million school spending plan, bigger than the city's own budget.

School taxes make up 44% of the total bill in Hackensack.

Voter apathy, apparent in Hackensack's local elections, can be traced to The Record's irresponsibly poor coverage of the city it once called home.