Did you catch a big laugh line at Ferriero corruption trial?

More urban renewal in Hackensack. On Thursday, buildings were being demolished on Main Street near Mercer Street, above and below, to make way for a 14-story residential-retail project.

The new building at 150-170 Main St. will have 382 apartments, the biggest such project so far in the city's downtown redevelopment, and 7,500 square feet of ground-floor retail.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On a front page dominated by the Iran deal and political corruption at home, Joe Ferriero's defense attorney inadvertently cracked a one-liner that has readers of The Record rolling in the aisles.

According to a paraphrase by Staff Writer Peter J. Sampson, the lawyer told jurors at his corruption trial in Newark that Ferriero "was simply a guy trying to make a living" (A-1).

Federal prosecutors claim the Hackensack lawyer "once used his position as head of the Democratic Party in Bergen County to enrich himself through a series of bribery and extortion schemes" that allegedly netted him  more than $1.7 million.

That's not a living; it's a killing.

And defense lawyer Michael Baldassare also found himself in the unenviable position of telling jurors that Ferriero won't testify in his own defense, as he promised at the beginning of the trial.

That is sure to damage the defendant.

Menendez case

Meanwhile, The Record continues defending Sen. Bob Menendez, who, along with a wealthy Florida eye doctor, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to a federal bribery indictment (A-1).

How else can you interpret the stupid main headline?

"Friendship under fire"

It doesn't sound as if any of The Record reporters on the Menendez case have spent much time in a federal courthouse, and that is a big weakness in the coverage.

Defense attorneys are quoted extensively making excuses for Menendez, but federal prosecutors weren't asked to comment.

Sampson, a veteran federal courthouse reporter, is covering the Ferriero trial or he would have been assigned to the Menendez case.

Menendez is referred to as "an accused criminal," not as a defendant (A-8).

And it's hard to see how one allegation can be called "friendship."

"New Jersey's senior senator tried to help [Dr. Salomon] Melgen keep $9 million that Medicare said he overbilled the government" (A-8).

Local news?

The resignation of  Hackensack Councilwoman Rose Greenman, who claims to be a victim of "discrimination," is one of the few municipal stories in today's thin Local news section (L-1).

It must be great to be head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes or her deputy, Dan Sfroza, who pull down fat paychecks in return for filling Local with Law & Order news and non-fatal accident photos.

The view from Moore Street, above and below, opposite the old headquarters of The Record at 150 River St.

One of the buildings slated for demolition housed Main Dish, a restaurant at 152 Main St., where Naturally Good operated for many years, attracting employees of The Record before North Jersey Media Group and its flagship paper abandoned Hackensack in 2009.

Editors fail us miserably -- again

In August, there were several signs of change on Hackensack's Main Street, including Main Dish Restaurant, which replaced Naturally Good, above, and plans by a famous Hoboken deli to open a branch not far from the county courthouse, below.

After years of ignoring the epidemic, The Record's editors put two stories about obesity on Page 1 today.

New research links soda and other sugary drinks to the obesity epidemic -- something all of us have known for years (A-1).

And our obese governor has reverted to acting like the prosecutor he once was, threatening to impose fines on people who speak the truth about the state's faltering economy (A-1).

The governor is in denial about his failed business and no-tax policies -- just as he is in denial about his increasingly poor health and weight. 

Editor Marty Gottlieb also is in denial about the many lazy, incompetent sub-editors and columnists he inherited when he took over in late January.

The Sykes Curse

The so-called Local news sections today and Friday are dominated once again by court and Law & Order stories.

Two days after former Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa was sentenced for official misconduct and insurance fraud, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes continues to ignore ordinary city residents and their opinions about the legal saga.

Friday's coverage of the sentencing hearing on Thursday was filled with quotes from lawyers, experts, officials and Zisa himself (A-1). 

Zisaville dispatch

Inside, Staff Writer Mike Kelly gives the arrogant Zisa a platform to portray himself as "a victim"  (A-8 on Friday).

But all the veteran columnist does is try and fail to satirize "the Zisa-as-victim-storyline." He doesn't have the balls of most columnists to put the claim in perspective.

Indeed, readers expect Kelly to call Zisa's preposterous "victim" claim what it is:

A joke, a fraud, the most ridiculous thing he has ever heard from a former police chief and former assemblyman who knowingly broke laws he was sworn to uphold.

Failed columnist

Kelly being objective and more he said/she said reporting are the last things we need when it comes to Zisa and others who abuse their power.

But Kelly is a failed columnist. All he can do is push around words, and fill up space with some of the clunkiest prose known to journalism.

The editors continue to disappoint readers by showcasing Kelly and other tired columnists. 

Bad news bear

Friday's front page had a double dose of bad news for Christie:

State unemployment edged up to 9.9% -- the highest in decades -- and an "ANALYSIS" revealed that Roche Group's CEO refused to take a call from the GOP bully, who was trying to persuade the pharmaceutical giant to open a new research center in New Jersey.

In the Garden State, the company, which is closing its former headquarters on the Clifton-Nutley border, will forever be known as "Roach." 

Dissing Hackensack

In an editorial on Hackensack in Friday's paper (A-22), The Record says:

"We cannot see what people are excited about in a city that should have experienced the same downtown growth seen in communities like Westwood these past decades." 

Of course, the editors have completely ignored new stores and restaurants on the city's Main Street, in keeping with a seeming embargo on news outside of Zisa and related turmoil on the school board.

But the biggest problem is one The Record has never acknowledged:

The wholesale abandonment of Hackensack by the daily newspaper and North Jersey Media Group in 2009, when Publisher Stephen A. Borg scattered many hundreds of employees to the wind.


Road Worrier, food warriors

On the front of Friday's Local section, failed Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski rewrites "a new State Police report" on road deaths (L-1).

In Friday's Better Living tabloid, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung concluded her lukewarm appraisal of the refurbished Sessions Bistro in Maywood this way:

"Personally, I'd love to revisit in a few years ...."

Now that she has damned the place with faint praise, doesn't Ung know Sessions may not last that long? 

Also on Friday, a Better Living piece by free-lancer Jeffrey Page makes readers wonder if he really is the best person to be writing about budget restaurants?

In his Eating Out on $50 review of Mama Fina's in Elmwood Park, Page shuns the Filipino fish dishes, eats only pork and then stuffs his face with dessert.

Is he allergic to seafood? Why does he spend only "a shade over $33" of his $50 budget?