Editors finally acknowledge issues, not politics, matter most

Cartoons from John Cole on Meryl Streep's criticism of President-elect Donald J. Trump , above, and Rick McKee on President Obama's legacy, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Though many months too late, The Record deserves credit for launching a series on "15 issues important to North Jersey residents" that could be affected by the administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump.

No matter that "Trump Tracker" echoes "Christie Tracker." 

That was the Matt Katz series on our very own GOP bully, Governor Christie, that ran for a couple of years on WNYC-FM, the New York and New Jersey public radio station.

And readers also know that if the Woodland Park daily and all of the other news outlets across the country had been focusing on issues during the campaign, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election would have been far different.

Instead, the news media delighted in repeating every sensational, unsubstantiated charge against Democrat Hillary Clinton, and ignoring her decades-long service to families ad children.

Five-part series

Today's "Trump Tracker" installment focuses on immigration, train transportation and health care (1A, 8A and 9A).

Editor Rick Green doesn't explain why the transportation segment leaves hundreds of thousands of New Jersey bus commuters out in the cold (8A).

The other issues -- including homeland security, education, taxes, the environment, social-safety net and infrastructure -- are scheduled to run through Thursday, the day before the inauguration (8A).

Politics as usual

Sadly, it's politics as usual at the bottom of Page 1 today, with yet another Political Stile column on Christie:

"Christie leans left in N.J., 
but keeps door open on right"

Readers also are keeping their bathroom doors open, in case they get the sudden urge to throw up.

Local news?

On the Local front, Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski appears to be telling drivers they have two and a half months to "read, eat, drink, groom themselves and use hand-held devices to ... talk, text or find their way" before an April police crackdown (1L).

In Opinion, an editorial notes Paterson remains "among New Jersey's most violent places" despite an overall drop in crime (2O).

"Homicides held steady at 19, the same as in 2015, while the number of rapes increased" to 57 from 42, according to the editorial.  

The editorial is incorrect in saying rapes "increased from 42 to 57 percent." 

A year ago, another editorial on the overall drop in crime credited Police Director Jerry Speziale while letting him off the hook on curbing gun violence and the drug trade. 

Today's editorial doesn't even mention  Speziale or the undercover state police troopers who have been helping Paterson police.

Korean food crawl

The Better Living cover on a Korean food crawl in Palisades Park should have been labeled, "For carnivores only" (1BL and 3BL).

By using Robert Austin Cho, owner of a Korean barbecue restaurant, as her guide, Staff Writer Sophia Gottfried largely omitted all the great non-meat dishes -- heart-healthy seafood, tofu and vegetables -- served in Korean restaurant in Palisades Park and neighboring Fort Lee, which isn't even mentioned.

And with Cho in tow, Gottfried also managed to keep the secret of the vast majority of Korean restaurants -- they serve low-quality beef and pork raised on harmful antibiotics and growth hormones to boost their bottom lines.

Fewer stories?

Since the November redesign of The Record, many readers have complained there are fewer stories in the paper.

There was a good reason for that on Saturday, when an upbeat Page 1 story explained how teenagers are coping with life in crime-ridden Silk City:

"Paterson students
outsmart crime
through use of 
technology"

The story reported these geniuses developed "a cellphone application that would send an alert to school security staff if students diverted from their normal route home from school."

If readers turned to the continuation page (Saturday's 4A) and read the story to the end, they found the entire story was repeated -- all 23 paragraphs.

How's that?

On Saturday's Local front, this headline puzzled many readers:

"Hospital
manager
gets 6 
months"

But the story had nothing to do with the sentencing of a human to jail or prison.

"Manager" referred to a company that manages Bergen Regional Medical Center in Paramus, and the "6 months" is how long its contract has been extended.

This is high-school level journalism, plain and simple.

For that, you can thank the payroll-slashing Gannett Co. -- owner of seven New Jersey dailies -- and the morons employed in a centralized Neptune design center.

News media always delight in exploiting political divisions

The easiest way to ruin a beautiful day is to try to drive through downtown Englewood, where construction and a blocked lane slowed traffic today at Palisade Avenue and Dean Street, above and below.

This afternon around 1, as the temperature reached a comfortable 75, one Englewood police officer directed traffic as two others leaned against a traffic-light repair truck that blocked a through lane, bullshitting. Now, residents know one reason why the city's property tax bills are so high.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

After the nation's first black president took office in 2009, the racially inspired gridlock in Congress was evident to everyone.

And the news media couldn't have been more delighted, replacing any reporting about issues and what's good for the country with story after story about our political divisions.

A year later, Republican Chris Christie was sworn in as New Jersey's governor and faced a state Legislature controlled by Democrats.

Would he compromise? Fuggedaboutit!

The GOP bully unilaterally cancelled expansion of rail service under the Hudson River, and began vetoing every bill in sight -- from a tax surcharge on millionaires to hikes in the minimum wage to using tax money to purchase open space.

Again, the news media were delighted to report all of the conflict, and The Record's Charles Stile wrote column after column explaining Christie's every word, belch and fart in political terms -- even as the vetoes topped 500 and set a record.

Clinton v. Trump

Today, Columnist Mike Kelly repeats a frequent theme of his column -- that allegedly we are no longer united, as we supposedly were after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on America (A-1).

And once again he points to "an increasingly polarized presidential campaign."

But that's nothing new, just as the media's relentless focus on politics in the nation and New Jersey isn't new, and likely won't end in the foreseeable future. 

9/11 ceremonies

Today's front page, Local front and Better Living cover are dominated by stories related to the 15th anniversary of 9/11.

That's eight straight days of coverage, but I didn't seen anything on the hijackers who lived in Paterson, and obtained phony I.D.'s and licenses in the weeks leading up to the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Hysterical N.J. gas-tax opponents don't deserve equal time

In Hackensack, the exterior of the Bergen County Justice Center is nearing completion as work continues on the covered pedestrian bridge to the courthouse, below, near the medieval ramparts of the old county jail. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Koch brothers -- oil billionaires who back right-wing candidates in a war against the middle class -- are financing a campaign to stop a gas-tax increase in New Jersey.

The crackpot New Jersey chapter of Americans for Prosperity, which is backed by the evil brothers, urges drivers to say "no to a crazy new gas tax," a Page 1 story in The Record reports.

Staff Writer Christopher Maag actually devotes his second paragraph to the group's ridiculous ad showing "a father stealing things from his kids, including the family dog Sparky to pay for a gas-tax increase" (A-1).

The story is the latest to reflect how The Record allows wealthy special-interest groups, polls and politics to shape its reporting on important public issues.

Maag gives undue weight to hysterical anti-tax opponents without ever citing the logic of drivers paying a higher gas tax to fix roads and bridges, and to improve mass transit.  

Solar farms

The first paragraph of today's solar farm story claims "the projects could depress the price of solar credits that some homeowners rely on to pay off their rooftop ... arrays" (A-1).

But nowhere does Staff Writer James M. O'Neill mention that PSE&G has placed a floor of $400 under each credit a homeowner uses to repay the utility under its solar-loan program.

That compares to the average of $220 the reporter cites in his story. In 2010 and 2011, a so-called SREC fetched as much as $650.

Ruben Enukashvili

There are few details in the story about driver Christine Ko, 20, and how she killed pedestrian Ruben Enukashvili on Sunday night, allegedly while drunk (A-1).

Was the 86-year-old Georgian native in a Fort Lee crosswalk when he was struck by Ko's car? Is she a liquor store clerk in Fort Lee or her hometown of Ewing? Was she working that night?

Ko, who is charged with vehicular homicide, a first-degree crime, also received motor vehicle summonses.

John Walton

A story on another fatality -- the death of a 101-year-old driver who grazed a firetruck and crashed into a Paterson firehouse -- doesn't say whether former firefighter and Pearl Harbor survivor John Walton suffered a medical emergency (L-1).

Walton, who crashed on Sunday, died in the hospital on Tuesday. 

A photo of the accident and a seven-paragraph story appeared on L-6 in Monday's paper.

But for some reason, the reporter didn't identify the driver or give his age, reporting only that he was "elderly."

The man was taken to a hospital after receiving "emergency medical treatment" from firefighters, according to the story.

Staff Writer Linda Moss even interviewed Deputy Fire Chief William Henderson, who witnessed the accident but apparently didn't know or didn't tell her who Walton was.

Today's obituary reports Walton was Paterson's oldest living war veteran.

Editors: Syrian refugees aren't demons Christie claimed

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

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

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

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

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

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

Heavy editing

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

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

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

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

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

Dictatorial rule

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

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

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

Hackensack news

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

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

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

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

County lawman quits as pedestrian-death probe drags on

Hue D. Dang, 64, was walking in or near this Jackson Avenue crosswalk in Hackensack last March 9, when she was struck and fatally injured by an unmarked car driven by John C. Straniero, a detective sergeant in the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office. Hackensack police investigated, but brought no charges against him in her death. 

Dang was struck only blocks from her apartment on Hudson Street in Hackensack. This photo shows markings left by investigators, and the woman's blood staining the pavement, right. At the urging of Eye on The Record, the Union County Prosecutor's Office took up the investigation, which still is open.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office detective sergeant whose car struck and fatally injured a Hackensack woman has retired.

John C. Straniero, then 49, apparently was driving to his home in Wayne last March 9, when he started to turn right on Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street in Hackensack, near Route 80, and struck Hue D. Dang, 64.

The Vietnamese-American woman, who was carrying plastic grocery bags, was pronounced dead at a hospital less than an hour after the 4:45 p.m. accident.

After Hackensack police cleared Straniero of any wrongdoing, Eye on The Record contacted the state police and Attorney General's Office, which asked the Union County Prosecutor's Office to investigate further.

That probe is ongoing, a spokesman for the office said this morning, but he would not discuss why it is taking so long.

See: Union prosecutor to review Hackensack death

Single story

The Record published a single story about the accident on March 11, but Staff Writer Stafanie Dazio didn't mention the crosswalk or whether the woman was in it when she was hit.

When asked this morning, Maureen Parenta of the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office said Straniero had retired.

Parenta, the prosecutor's communication director, wasn't available later in the day to provide any details.

The victim's family has filed a notice that it intends to sue the detective in her death.

The report filed by Hackensack police shows the approximate location of the unmarked car and the woman after she was struck on Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street. But the diagram is at variance with markings on the pavement made after the accident.

Local news?

Readers looking for local or even regional news on Page 1 of The Record strike out again.

Unless they're as consumed as reporters are with how Governor Christie will do at the Iowa Caucuses on Feb. 1, local readers threw away their money today.

The headline over Charles Stile's boring political column contains the phrase "turn silent," leading many readers to wonder when the burned-out reporter will do just that (A-1).

For the second day in a row, Local reads more like a police blotter, with a couple of court stories thrown in, than a section devoted to news of Bergen County towns. 

The lead story is about more gun violence in Paterson, and Bergen readers are cheated even more by six other Passaic County stories, both long and short (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

Editors pause from sugar-coating Christie's record in N.J.

Rush-hour traffic moving slowly on Route 4 east in Paramus this morning, where the delay at the George Washington Bridge ballooned to 90 minutes around 8 a.m., twice the normal wait. Yet The Record has not called on the Port Authority to expand bus service into Manhattan as one way of easing traffic congestion at the Hudson River crossings.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie has seized on the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris to generate fear among Americans and resuscitate his dying campaign for the GOP presidential nomination.

And The Record has turned away from sugar-coating his mean-spirited war against the middle class in New Jersey to help sound the theme that Christie has been tough on terrorists.

Editor Martin Gottlieb again puts a Charles Stile column on Page 1 to report -- for the third day in a row -- how the governor will benefit from the endorsement of the New Hampshire Union Leader.

Three stories on the same endorsement sound suspiciously like Gottlieb and Stile are in the GOP bully's pocket.

Stile calls right-wing publisher Joseph W. McQuaid a "political kingmaker," even though all but one of the GOP candidates who have received the New Hampshire newspaper's blessing since 1988 lost their bid for the nomination or the White House.

Syrian refugees

We know The Record is reluctant to cross Christie, but a non-profit group has called his bluff by quietly moving a family of seven Syrian refugees into a Paterson apartment (A-1).

They join thousands of law-abiding Syrians, both Christian and Muslim, who have settled in Silk City in the past century.

The only other "news" on Gottlieb's front page today is more drivel about Rutgers University's football team, a subject that doesn't deserve equal billing with Christie's shameless fear mongering and racism (A-1).

Local news

A story on the Local front reports the last of several hikes approved in 2011 goes into effect on Sunday at the George Washington Bridge and other crossings, raising the cash toll to $15 and the peak E-ZPass toll to $12.50 (L-1).

But Staff Writers Christopher Maag and Shawn Boburg don't tell readers about the significant discounts available to drivers of all-electric and hybrid cars or those who carpool.

They also don't point out that the Port Authority refuses to expand bus service into Manhattan, because adding another express lane into the Lincoln Tunnel would displace drivers and reduce the toll revenue the agency depends on (L-6).

Sadly, this story puts a positive spin on the toll hike instead of challenging the agency's unwillingness to address mounting traffic congestion.

Far more scrutiny of Christie on trail than he got in Trenton

The senior round-trip fare on an NJ Transit express bus to Manhattan from Hackensack is one of the biggest travel bargains around.

These NJ Transit buses outside the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel are among hundreds parked in New Jersey during the day, awaiting the afternoon rush hour. Then, they'll be driven bumper-to-bumper through the tunnel to the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, causing huge delays for home-bound commuters.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's scrutiny of Governor Christie on the presidential campaign trail is unprecedented, especially when you compare the coverage to his years in Trenton.

The GOP bully has been in office since early 2010, but it wasn't until this year -- in his second term -- that the editors bothered to add up the hundreds of vetoes he has used to get his way with the state Legislature's Democratic majority.

Still, Staff Writer Charles Stiles, among the first to promote the governor's presidential ambitions, wrote one upbeat column after another supporting Christie's claim of being a compromiser who was able to work with Democrats.

Isn't it rich?

Yet, as today's front-page analysis shows, most of Christie's initiatives have hurt the middle class, and he has completely failed to fund the pension system for state employees or back a tax to pay for road and bridge repairs (A-1 and A-10).

Even in the wake of the attacks in Paris, touting his years as U.S. attorney prosecuting terrorists rings hollow in view of all the time he has spent out of state, and the mess he has made in Trenton. 

"Spending in the state budget has grown every year. So have New Jersey's high tax bills for homeowners ...," Staff Writer Salvador Rizzo reports deep on the continuation page. "Private-sector job growth has been among the slowest in the country." 

Out of the bubble

The Record's local editors gave reporters a rare assignment on Wednesday: Ask people what they think about an issue.

Three reporters worked on today's Page 1 story to gather reaction to Christie and other governors who want to keep Syrian refugees from coming to their states.

But they quote only two people, both immigrants, and report on only one Syrian refugee, who arrived in 2013.

On Tuesday, a story included an interview with another Syrian refugee who moved to Paterson.

About 75 Syrian refugees have moved to the state since January.

Shouldn't The Record make some attempt to report if any of them have acted in a way to justify Christie's racism and xenophobia?

Local news?

The lead story on the Local front today reports the estate of Mahwah Public Works Director Ed Sinclair is seeking $20 million in a lawsuit, claiming officials "caused his death through stress" (L-1).

There is no mention of Sinclair's obesity, and the challenge facing his lawyer to prove he died from being fired and reinstated, and not from a condition related to his tremendous weight.

On Aug. 13, Cliffview Pilot.com reported Sinclair, 57, died of a massive heart attack, but that isn't mentioned in The Record today.

The Sinclair suit is only one of the crime and court stories that dominate the local-news section today.

Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza were so desperate for local news they had to run a story on Comcast dropping a sports network (L-3).

In our unusually diverse state, Christie demonizes Syrians

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

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

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

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

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

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

Silk City

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

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

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

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

Local news

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

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

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

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

On news we really need, the editors fail us time and again

Hackensack is being rocked again by partisan politics as Democrat Jason Nunnermacker seeks a vacant seat on the City Council in the Nov. 3 special election. Nunnermacker and four other allies of the Zisa family political dynasty ran unsuccessfully for council in 2013, when a reform slate of mostly Republicans swept into office. The Record has largely ignored the partisanship evident at City Council meetings, such as the Sept. 1 meeting shown below.

In a campaign mailing sent to residents last week, Nunnermacker, right, portrays himself as a fiscal conservative, but doesn't mention he is president of the Board of Education, which this year approved a runaway $106.88 million spending plan that exceeds the city's own.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Few readers of The Record outside Hackensack -- and thousands who live there -- know or care that four candidates are running for a vacant City Council seat in a special Nov. 3 election.

The Woodland Park daily has carried two stories about the candidates, but neither account explored the bitter partisan politics that exploded after a reform slate swept into office in 2013.

Nor has The Record examined the candidates' statements at an Oct. 15 debate at Temple Beth El that drew fewer than 20 city residents, whose written questions were subject to censorship by the event moderator.

Hackensack news?

You can search today's Sunday edition in vain for any news about Hackensack, Bergen County's most-populous community, or the county's biggest school district.

One of the candidates is Democrat Jason Nunnermacker, an attorney and an ally of the Zisa family political dynasty who ran unsuccessfully in 2013 with four others.

Nunnermacker is president of the city's free-spending Board of Education, yet he is running for council on a platform that stresses fiscal conservatism.

The Record also hasn't asked Nunnermacker how he can seek a seat on the very council he is suing on behalf of Debra Heck, the former city clerk.

Former City Clerk Debra Heck charges in a 2014 federal lawsuit City Council members illegally retaliated against her and drove her out of her job because of her romantic relationship with a political foe of the administration, Board of Education attorney Richard Salkin, shown at a Sept. 1 meeting.

Apathy galore

One thing Hackensack is famous for is voter apathy, whether it is in the April school board and school budget election or the May council election every four years.

The board's $106.88 million spending plan this year was approved by fewer than 1,000 of the city's 20,000 registered voters.

There is no way to tell how much of the apathy can be traced to the way The Record covers or doesn't cover elections, especially how the editors focus on politics and ignore issues. 

Today's paper

Once you get past the Sunday edition's ho-hum front page, there isn't much to interest local readers (A-1).

Animals lovers will be overjoyed to know there is an annual dogs and cats pre-Halloween fashion show in Manila (A-2), as well as an annual Halloween Dog Parade in Manhattan (A-3).

For more Halloween news, see the Local front on downtown Paterson's Fright Festival (L-1), as opposed to the festival of gun violence in some of Silk City's poorest neighborhoods.

Mike Hyman

A moving local obituary on 6-foot-4 Mike Hyman of Hackensack skirts the issue of why his loved ones and co-workers apparently did or said nothing as his waist ballooned to 53 inches (L-1).

He died of a heart attack "related to his diabetes" at 54, Staff Writer Jay Levin reports.

Business news

On the Business front today, Bree Fowler of The Associated Press argues the only successful car companies are profitable, even though some of the biggest have killed thousands of people with defective products or fouled the environment (B-1).

Fowler doesn't mention that General Motors Co. and the former Chrysler Corp. had to be bailed out by the Obama administration.

In her negative reporting on electric car maker Tesla, she emphasizes the company has never made a profit, but doesn't mention its cars are the world's safest and cleanest.

Nuisance?

Columnist Mike Kelly argues drones "have become like wild geese -- numerous and a nuisance, not to mention a potential danger" (O-1 and O-4).

Of course, you have to wonder why he hasn't written a column about a real nuisance and a huge potential danger -- all of those private business jets and small planes buzzing Hackensack, Teaneck and other towns on the way to and from Teterboro Airport.

Those planes impact the quality of life in North Jersey far more than drones and geese combined.

I guess all readers can hope for is more poop from Kelly.

Food coverage

Better Living continues to cover celebrity chefs like Rachel Ray, TV personalities and cookbooks, while generally ignoring nutrition and a healthy lifestyle (BL-1).

For example, a promotional piece on chicken wings sold by A&S Foods in Wyckoff doesn't say whether they are organic or from birds that were raised without antibiotics (BL-2).

Tabloid news

Murder and mayhem were the order of the day on Saturday's front page.

Weren't the editors wrong to devote 90% or more of the lead A-1 story on Saturday to murder suspect Arthur Lomando's "troubled past," and so little to the victim, Suzanne Bardzell of Midland Park, a teacher and single mother of two?

How many more stories on the front page will falsely claim the seizure of heroin and cocaine will put a "major dent" in the region's street trade, as does Saturday's A-1 story from Paterson?

Governor Christie added to his anti-environment record with a lawsuit to block President Obama's Clean Power Plan (Saturday's A-2).

Saturday's Local section is dominated by sensational Law & Order news generated by the police reporter and staffers assigned to the courts (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

On Page 1: Christie on trail, Mets, local trial -- readers yawn

The sign, visible to drivers on Route 4 east, went up in late July, but this walk-in urgent care center didn't open until Oct. 5. Patients presumably will get coupons for use at the Popeyes fast-food restaurant next door.

A vintage Volkswagen Microbus parked in the lot this morning carries the CityMD logo, but it's not known if patients will be transported in it.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Even the preview of a sensational Teaneck murder trial below the fold today can't save The Record's front page from being one of the dullest in memory. 

What's new about our absentee governor doing a good imitation of a chameleon on the presidential campaign trail or a sports columnist desperately trying to interest readers in the Mets (A-1)?

The real news about Governor Christie is buried -- a new poll turns even more thumbs down on the GOP bully (A-6).

The debate among Democratic presidential contenders won't be a contest (A-1).

But it will affirm to many voters that all is not lost, despite conservative control of Congress, the National Rifle Association and a Republican Party that seems intent on destroying the middle class.

Local news?

The Local front isn't any gift to readers, either.

A county road-salt plan is all the Hackensack news today, but if that doesn't interest you, there is plenty of parking news from Paterson and Passaic city (L-1 and L-2).

Local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza were so desperate they had to run a large, gee-whiz photo of downed utility poles and wires on Routes 1 and 9 on the fringe of the circulation area (L-1).

There are four other items from Paterson on L-2 and L-3 besides the story on the Local front about a parking garage proposal for the Great Falls.

Eye on The Record 

will return later this week