Christie's signature achievement is ruled unconstitutional

The Pathmark in the Home Depot Shopping Center in Hackensack closed in April 2011 and hasn't been replaced. That means tenants of an apartment complex next door have to get into their cars to go food shopping.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The pension "reform" Governor Christie signed into law in 2011 was declared unconstitutional today by the New Jersey Supreme Court.

The Record, especially political Columnist Charles Stile, has invoked that law repeatedly in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election as showing Christie's so-called bipartisanship.

But the high court ruled that progressively higher payments into the strapped pension system for seven years violated the constitution by creating new long-term debt, North Jersey.com reports.

"In New Jersey, voters must approve new debts by referendum," Associate Justice Jaynee LaVecchia wrote for the majority.

The GOP bully has balanced his last two budgets by cutting $2.4 billion from pension funding he had promised, and vows to reduce a $3.1 billion payment to $1.3 billion in the coming budget, which must be signed July 1, The Record's Web site reports.

But voters are certain to stop Christie from doing so next year, if the Democratic-controlled state Legislature succeeds in getting a proposal for guaranteed pension funding on the ballot.

The New Jersey pension system represents 770,000 public workers and retirees, including teachers.

Voodoo economics

To balance his budgets, Christie has repeatedly used cuts in pension payments, health services for women and other middle- and working-class programs.

At the same time, he has repeatedly vetoed a tax surcharge on millionaires, refused to raise the low gasoline tax and grabbed mass transit funds to fix roads and bridges.

In short, Christie is the worst New Jersey governor in history, and experts say he doesn't have a ghost of a chance at getting the GOP presidential nomination, if he decides to seek it.

Big victory for U.S., big defeat for N.J.

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The Record's large staff guarantees one story for each Ho-Ho-Kus resident.

A huge defeat for the people of New Jersey is buried by all the Osama bin Laden reaction news in The Record today.

Governor Christie has put all the pieces in place to remove the last minority member of the state Supreme Court in September after getting rid of the only African-American justice last year.

Incredibly, the story on A-3 and a political column on L-1 today portray a deal on court appointments as a victory for Democrats -- ignoring the resulting loss of both minority members.

Christie dumped the only black on the court; Editor Francis Scandale dumped the paper's only black columnist. 

Christie is poised to replace the only Hispanic on the court; Scandale busted the paper's only Hispanic columnist to reporter before he left in disgust.

Oh, the triteness!

Page 1 of the Woodland Park daily supposedly is for the best the paper has to offer -- not for the hackneyed words and phrases Mike Kelly has been pushing around for years.

Check out some of the columnist's gems:

"Jackhammers rattled. Cement mixers crunched gravel." He has these on a save/get key for any column on Ground Zero reconstruction. 

"Amid the syncopated din...." Is a conductor orchestrating the work?

"A day of passions that seemed to switch back and forth like wiper blades." Am I reading the Road Warrior?

More big flaws

I couldn't read any more, so I looked at the A-1 photos. 

The one with Kelly's column looks posed, and the one at the top of the page -- of President Obama and his national security team -- seems to have an incorrect caption.

TV news reported time and again the president and his team were watching live video of the raid on Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. 

The Record's caption says they are "getting updates on the mission."

The lead front-page story with that photo -- headlined "How we got bin Laden" -- is from The Washington Post, but doesn't mention what day the raid took place.

Second-class Muslims

A much better choice for the front page -- in place of Kelly and his leering image -- would have been the L-1 story on North Jersey Muslims hoping they'll no longer be viewed as terrorists.

Besides Kelly's lame column, the stories by the local staff, the editorial, cartoon and Op-Ed columns -- all under the misguided direction of Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes -- are just overload. 

Who could -- or wants to -- read all of this?

The Woodland Park daily just piles on top of all the coverage readers saw on TV late Sunday night and all day Monday. And it comes hard on the heels of all the nauseating coverage of the royal wedding.

One man, one story

The few non-Bin Laden stories in Local include one rich man's rant about a solar panel on the telephone pole outside his Ho-Ho-Kus bedroom (L-3).

Maybe if he took care of his wife's needs in the bedroom, he wouldn't  be looking out the window so much. Sykes and Staff Writer Evonne Coutros should know better than to pass off this nonsense as municipal news.

Do shield laws protect bloggers?

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Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has heard oral arguments on whether a blogger is protected by the same shield laws afforded journalists. Here is a link to the story and related stories on NJ.com:

Do shield laws protect bloggers?

Getting it all wrong on Page 1

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Then-Gov. Christie Whitman frisking a suspect in 2004. The Record's "Political Stile" columnist today actually calls her one of  "Jersey's groundbreaking heroines," right up there with Molly Pitcher, Clara Barton and Althea Gibson.

Parting leader pays up

"Pays up." Doesn't that sound as if Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney owed a debt or faced a fine, and paid it? 

But that's not the case, as you learn in the drop headline and story on Page 1 of The Record of Woodland Park today -- he gave big raises to non-union employees as one of his parting shots before he leaves office. And what's with the awkward "parting leader"? Do you really need the word "parting"? Just call him what he is: "Dem pol spends big."

Also, if McNerney has the power to give the 3.5 percent raises to about 200 employees, doesn't incoming Republican County Executive Kathleen Donovan have the power to rescind them? Staff Writer Michael Gartland, who has been reporting on all the political cronies being hired by the defeated Democrats, doesn't even ask Donovan that question.

As if the lead head isn't bad enough, the headline on the second A-1 story -- on DWI arrests -- is about as inaccurate as they get. Although the graphic and text show drunken-driving arrests were down 3 percent in 2009, the headline declares:

Penalties aren't reducing DWIs

Well, something is reducing DWI arrests, and the headline should have said that. The story says "drunken-driving arrests last year were the fewest recorded in the past decade."

Breaking ranks?

Columnist Charles Stile appears to be breaking ranks with all the Governor Christie apologists at The Record, but his L-1 "Political Stile" column is so poorly written and so poorly organized today, it's hard to tell just what he is getting at.

His lead paragraph says the woman Christie nominated to replace John E. Wallace on the New Jersey Supreme Court could be a heroine "for the next generation of New Jersey girls if she ever joins" the court, becoming its fourth female member.

What he doesn't do is mention Wallace or criticize Christie for not naming a black man or woman to replace the court's only African-American justice, who was denied lifetime tenure by the governor, in defiance of decades of precedent. Then, Stile lists Christie Whitman, one of the worst governors ever, as among "groundbreaking Jersey heroines."

At this point, Stile veers  off and starts attacking two  female Republican senators -- who back the nomination of Anne Patterson to the court -- for refusing to help overturn Christie's veto of $7.4 million for family planning clinics, which serve poor, uninsured women.

He blasts Christie as "the party's brook-no-dissent leader." C'mon, Charlie, you can do better than that.

Another bad head

On L-3, a story on Hackensack residents finally returning to their Prospect Avenue apartments more than five months after they were evacuated carries a real puzzling headline:

Residents return to scene of garage collapse

It's probably time to acknowledge the news copy desk's sharp decline in quality and accuracy since copy editors from the Herald News replaced veteran Record copy editors, who left when Publisher Stephen A. Borg merged the two news staffs. 
 

We have mandatory insurance now

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The Richard J. Huges Justice Complex in Trenton, seat of the Supreme Court.

What's all the fuss on the front page of The Record today about the constitutionality of mandatory health insurance in 2014? Automobile insurance has been mandatory for decades, though you won't see anything about that in the Associated Press story. Is that unlawful, too?

Another issue not raised in the lead story is whether parents who do not buy health insurance are endangering the welfare of their children.

Another ass-slapper

Even if you don't question Editor Francis Scandale's decision to put a big photo of football fans on the front page, you'll wonder why the news copy editor mentioned Viking or Vikings three times in three sentences.

How many asses did Scandale slap in the news meeting Monday afternoon in Woodland Park after ordering layout editors to put that photo on A-1? 

Here is how Scandale's peculiar male editor-bonding ceremony goes:  "I got the Giants on the front again, Gary." (Smack!) "I got football on the front again, Randy." (Smack!) "I got rabid fans on the front again, Ron." (Smack!) 

The three stories on Page 1 are process stories -- a federal judge's ruling on health-care reform that doesn't change anything, despite the AP's attempt to create a crisis atmosphere; a stalled bill to provide more access to defibrillators and an upcoming state referendum on sports betting that flies in the face of federal law and Christie administration policy. My eyes are glazing over.

On A-2, two embarrassing errors are corrected.

No municipal news

Has head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes ever produced a Local section before today that is so completely devoid of municipal news? Readers get a mix of police and court news, two local obituaries, a sob story and other tripe.

The major L-1 story reports suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa, his ex-girlfriend and two others pleaded not guilty in Superior Court to official misconduct charges. 

Zisa's attorney, Patricia Prezioso, is the law partner of Bruce Rosen, who has represented North Jersey Media Group, which publishes The Record, and Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg.

Wrong-way Stile

The Political Stile column on L-1 has Staff Writer Charles Stile foaming at the mouth over New Jersey Supreme Court Associate Justice Roberto A. Rivera-Soto being paid for not doing his job, but Stile himself is getting paid for not doing his.

He not only calls the justice "Soto-Rivera," an error picked up by the news copy editor who wrote the incorrect last names under the L-1 photo.

But he fails to identify John E. Wallace, the justice bounced by Governor Christie in May, as an African-American or report that the woman the governor tried to replace him with is white or that some observers called Christie's decision racially motivated.

In a Page 1 story on Saturday, Staff Writer John P. McAlpin also failed to report that Wallace is African-American and was the court's only black member.

Ford, DuPont rule New Jersey

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Five years after The Record unleashed a million blanks at Ford Motor Co. pollution of a close-knit community in North Jersey, the Woodland Park daily resumes firing more meaningless Page 1 salvos at the slow pace of the cleanup.

But none of the words and photos in the paper, or videos on northjersey.com, even hint at the real story: How Ford, DuPont and other corporate polluters are far more powerful than government, courts, prosecutors and the media.

That's the clear lesson of Ford's continuing impact on Upper Ringwood residents in Ringwood and DuPont's failure to clean up pollution in Pompton Lakes, another story The Record has been telling in recent months. These companies and others seem to rule the state and nation.

Editor Francis Scandale was aiming for a Pulitzer Prize with the original Ford stories, labeled "Toxic Legacy," but missed by a wide margin. This latest effort will merely reinforce that failure.

Lead reporter Mary Jo Layton and Staff Photographer Thomas E. Franklin, who produced "Toxic Landscape: Ringwood Five Years Later," leave a few angles unexplored.

One big question is why the prominent lawyers who filed suit against Ford didn't hold out and bring the case before a jury -- which, even in the absence of a scientific link between pollution and residents' illness and death -- would likely have returned a verdict ordering the automaker to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

Instead, according to what I gleaned from northjersey.com video, lawyers feared Ford would declare bankruptcy, so rushed into a settlement of a measly $12.5 million. Residents recently picked up checks ranging from $4,368 to $34,594. 

But Ford was the only Big Three automaker to reject a government bailout and now is earning hundreds of millions in profit.

Isn't it likely the lawyers -- from Robert F. Kennedy's and Johnny Cochran's firms -- were working on a contingency basis, and were eager to cut their losses after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on behalf of the residents? They gave up hope of getting a substantial share of a really big payout.

On the other A-1 story today, check out northjersey.com for the bloodthirsty comments of readers reacting to the suicide of swindler Bernard Madoff's older son. 

Judge who?

I couldn't find a follow-up today, a day after Scandale led the paper with state Supreme Court Associate Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto's protest over a temporary replacement for John E. Wallace, a Democrat who was bounced by Republican Governor Christie. 

The Record's slanted story Saturday blunted his protest by leading with calls for the judge's ouster and failed to quote any legal experts supporting his position or mention that Wallace is African-American. Great job by Staff Writer John P. McAlpin.

What did Christie violate? From a Star-Ledger editorial in April:

"Since the state Constitution was drafted after World War II, governors of both parties have reappointed justices without regard to ideology. The idea is that a justice should feel free to decide cases on the merits, without fear of losing his or her seat on the bench as a result."

John's warts, Elisa's stomach

Determined not to leave the office and report on commuting problems, Road Worrier John Cichowski -- Editor Deirdre Sykes' pet -- delivers another L-1 column on snow or ice on vehicle roofs, ensuring growth of the warts on his ass from all the hours he spends in front of the computer.

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung was too busy stuffing her face with cookie contest loot to write "The Corner Table," her restaurant column for today's Better Living section.

On the Opinion front, Mike Kelly delivers a forceful column for a change -- slamming the GOP for blocking passage of the federal health care bill for 9/11 workers.

Better research needed

Kevin DeMarrais, the Your Money's Worth columnist on the Business front, often leaves out important information, as he does today on which merchants offer free shipping. He omits one of the biggest, Lands' End. 

In a column he did some time ago on credit cards that impose a foreign-currency transaction fee, he forgot to mention Capital One doesn't charge such a fee, usually 2% to 3% of each purchase.

Asian breakthrough

Travel has an entertaining piece from a Los Angeles Times writer visiting Paris for the first time -- a refreshing break from the usual stories boasting of cheap everything and transcendent experiences or retelling every klutzy move by perpetually jet-lagged Travel Editor Jill Schensul.

And a photo of a family of Asian travelers appears for the first time in many weeks on the all-white Page T-3 -- The Record on the Road photo feature.

More 'responsible journalism'

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The editors at The Record of Woodland Park love politics, and they want  their readers to love it, too. But most readers are turned off by politics and the telling of so many stories by what the Democrats, Republicans, Tea Baggers or other groups think. 

Still, the lazy, incompetent editors know no shame and don't hesitate to cover Page 1, as they did today, with a story on Jon Corzine's contributions to fellow Democrats, complete with an elaborate graphic. "Corzine closes his wallet" is the headline. Who -- with the exception of Democrats who received his largess -- cares?

Why not devote the paper's resources to reforming a system that allows only the rich to run for office? I guess that wouldn't be the kind of "responsible journalism" espoused by North Jersey Media Group. Apparently, the Borgs like the idea that only rich and powerful people like themselves get elected.

Then, the editors squander more of the front page on a sensational story about pedophile tourists in Thailand, burying the shocking news that protesters in Greece killed three bank employees.

Another story the editors try to minimize quotes a powerful senator saying he won't hold a confirmation hearing for King Chris' nominee to replace the only black justice on the state Supreme Court. Ha, ha, ha.



On the front of Local, Columnist Mike Kelly inadvertently indicts head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and exposes the weak reporting of the team that was chasing allegations against Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa, who has been suspended with pay.


Kelly says a private investigator (working for an attorney who represented a Hackensack police officer) was the source of the allegations that Zisa covered up an accident involving his then-girlfriend, and that he informed the Bergen County prosecutor. Why didn't The Record's reporters get to this investigator first?

Why downplay North Jersey news?

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This morning, readers picked up The Record of Woodland Park, hoping for detailed coverage of last night's Hackensack City Council meeting on the suspended police chief, and the latest on Governor Christie's drastic state aid cuts and his unprecedented attack on the judiciary.


All those stories are here, but how they were played tells you volumes about the desperation of the lazy, incompetent editors to sell papers.


The noisy, packed meeting in Hackensack is promoted at the bottom of Page 1 -- which several days ago was almost completely devoted to the arrest of Police Chief Ken Zisa -- but the story gets pushed back to the Local front. Also squeezed to the margins of the front page are a proposed 74% cut in state library funding and the constitutional crisis over Christie's rejection of state Supreme Court Justice John Wallace, who is African-American.


So what's the big news today? The inept, would-be Times Square bomber is talking to investigators (and paint is drying on houses all over North Jersey). Is this really such a big deal? Look at that terrific photo. Six investigators, some of them on their cell phones, on a porch in Connecticut. Wow. A real prize winner, if I ever saw one. 

I guess this is an example of the "responsible journalism" practiced at North Jersey Media Group.

Are the editors trying to minimize Christie's slash-and-burn campaign? Why not finally give voice to Hackensack residents on Page 1 after a virtual blackout on any city news outside the Police Department for many, many months?

Look at the high court decisions the governor criticizes: affordable housing and special aid for school districts to ensure a thorough-and-efficient education. Both benefited minorities, and the justice Christie rejected is the only black on the court. See a pattern there? 


Except for the Hackensack Council meeting story on the front of Local, there is no news from Hackensack, Englewood or Teaneck.


As for coverage of the council meeting itself, there was way too much background information and not enough on what happened at the meeting. An editorial on A-12 -- citing conflicts in Bergen County -- calls for the state Attorney General's Office to take over the Zisa investigation.