Christie is returning to familiar role of screwing New Jersey

A view of the Navesink River from the Oyster Point Hotel in Red Bank.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Deirdre Sykes' obsession with partisan politics continues to dominate The Record's front page even as Governor Christie is back at his old job of screwing New Jersey.

A major story about the GOP bully led Saturday's paper, reporting he opposes the latest plan to resolve the crisis over funding statewide road, bridge and rail improvements.

Insider deals

On Monday, another front-page story on politics reported Christie's "national prospects" have improved once again with rumors he could become Donald J. Trump's attorney general, if the wacko racist is elected to the White House.

Christie might be hoping to get the same kind of lucrative contract he steered to John Ashcroft in 2007, when the governor was the U.S. attorney for New Jersey and Ashcroft was his former boss in the U.S. Justice Department.

As the Star-Ledger reported, the former attorney general's D.C. law firm was poised to collect $52 million in 18 months to monitor a $311 million settlement Christie won to end a probe into kickbacks by leading manufacturers of hip and knee replacements.

Christie also handed lucrative contracts to other lawyers who served as monitors:

David Samson, his mentor and "father figure," whom Christie later appointed chairman of the Port Authority; and Debra Yang, one of the lawyers who led the "internal investigation" into the George Washington Bridge lane closures.

That whitewash of his role in the September 2013 lane closures in Fort Lee cost New Jersey taxpayers more than $10 million.

More conflict

Today's lead story emphasizes dissension and protests at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia that USA Today compares to last week's meeting of Republicans (A-1).

But Sykes must have gone home early, because readers can't find a word of first lady Michelle Obama's inspiring speech to get out the vote for Hillary Clinton, who will be formally nominated  for president tonight.

Sure, a photo of the first lady appears on Page 1 (where the caption misspells her first name), but the speech must have been given too late for The Record's early deadlines.

The decision over a decade ago to move printing of the paper to Rockaway Township -- more than 30 miles from the heart of the circulation area in Hackensack -- means The Record often misses such late-breaking news while generating clouds of pollution from diesel-powered delivery trucks tearing up Route 80.

Back to Camden

Instead of the first lady's speech, the front page carries two inconsequential columns from Staff Writers John Cichowski and Mike Kelly.

The big news on the first Business page is the expected Aug. 5 opening of a "luxury" movie theater in Fort Lee where tickets will go for $19 to $24 (L-7).

The Better Living section also promoted the theater and its restaurant on Sunday.

I guess the Woodland Park daily is hoping to land big advertising contracts from both.

Will Hackensack residents benefit from flight-path change?

Malcolm A. Borg, chairman of North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, shared ownership of this private jet with real estate mogul Jon F. Hanson, a family friend who has been identified in media reports as chief fundraiser for Chris Christie's successful gubernatorial campaigns.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The flight-pattern change for small jets using Teterboro Airport could bring relief to Hackensack homeowners fed up with round-the-clock aircraft noise.

But in today's front-page story in The Record, Staff Writer Paul Berger focuses on reaction from municipal officials along Route 17 -- the new route chosen by the Federal Aviation Administration "to provide relief for the Hackensack University Medical Center area" (A-1).

The medical center "area," of course, includes Prospect Avenue high-rises, where some residents fear using their terraces in warm weather because corporate jets come so close on their approach to Teterboro.

Aircraft noise

In fact, homeowners in Hackensack's Fairmount section, Teaneck and nearby towns have been hounded by the roar of corporate jets and other aircraft noise around the clock for decades, in what is a major quality of life issue The Record has largely ignored.

Residents can't invoke anti-noise ordinances or enforce an overnight ban on flights because federal laws governing corporate jets supersede all state and local statutes.

Mayor sounds off

The quote of the day today is from Mahwah Mayor Bill Lafloret, who complained the FAA didn't bother to send him a notice about the new Route 17 flight path, which will be tested for six months starting on April 4:

"So now we have to sacrifice our quality of life in Mahwah for the 1-percenters of private corporate jet customers trying to duck into Teterboro. It's unacceptable" (A-8).

One of those 1 percenters is Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, chairman of North Jersey Media Group, who co-owned a private jet with real estate mogul Jon F. Hanson, a confidant of Governor Christie's.

Rail strike?

There isn't a single reference to Christie in today's Page 1 story on a possible shutdown of NJ Transit rail operations on Saturday (A-1).

Staff Writer Christopher Maag reports "no indications of compromise" from the state's mass transit agency or the unions whose members have been working without a contract for more than five years.

Rather than mediate, the GOP bully went on vacation this week to celebrate his 30th wedding anniversary, and the sixth year of his war on the working and middle classes in New Jersey.

Meat-centric reviews

If you don't eat meat, there is little to interest you at the two halal restaurants recommended in today's Informal Dining review (BL-1 and BL-16).

Staff Writer Elisa Ung does praise "a bonus for vegetarians" at Juicy Platters -- "basmati rice, fragrant with turmeric and cumin," made with vegetable broth.

Still, Ung doesn't mention whether Juicy Platters in Fair Lawn or Kebab Platters in Clifton offers fish or egg dishes for non-meat eaters or anyone who is dying for some relief from the onslaught of kebabs, gyro and hamburgers in North Jersey. 

Christie, Ferriero spun webs of influence in high places

Room for two cars? On Euclid Avenue in Hackensack and on many other two-way streets in North Jersey, plows left snow that sets up potential collisions between vehicles. A few blocks away on Anderson Street, bus riders wait in the cleared driveway of a rental car business because a snowbank continues to block the bus stop itself.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Two Page 1 stories in The Record today trace the webs of political influence spun by Governor Christie and Joseph Ferriero, a onetime power broker in Bergen County.

Staff Writer Shawn Boburg leads the paper with details of how United Airlines started a direct flight to South Carolina for then-Port Authority Chairman David Samson, a Christie appointee who is often described as the governor's mentor (A-1).

Samson, a former state attorney general, has a vacation home in Aiken, S.C.

"United Airlines was in regular negotiations with the Port Authority and the Christie administration during Samson's tenure over ... expansion of ... service to Atlantic City and the extension of the PATH train to Newark Liberty [Airport]," Boburg reports (A-1).

The story was picked up this morning by WNYC-FM, the New Jersey and New York Public Radio Station.

Boburg also traces the ties to Christie's new transportation czar, Jamie Fox, a former lobbyist for United Airlines and a close friend of Samson's.

Joseph Ferriero

Below the fold, Staff Writers Herb Jackson and Jeff Pillets report on the expected testimony of James Dausch, formerly a top Mills Corp. executive seeking approvals for a massive shopping and entertainment complex then called Xanadu.

Dausch is expected to testify in the federal racketeering trial of Ferriero, who once headed the Bergen County Democratic Party (A-1).

Jackson and Pillets report on newly public documents that "provide rare snapshots of a host of power players in New Jersey," including state legislators and congressmen, and campaign donations to them.

A key figure was Teaneck attorney M. Robert "Bob" DiCottis, who "helped the company [Mills Corp.] put together a team of consultants and navigate state politics" (A-7).

Ferriero is accused in part of extorting monthly $35,000 payments from Mills Corp., which is now defunct.

Christie junkets

Recent revelations of how Choose New Jersey, a corporate group, paid for Christie's foreign travel finally has knocked Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin off of his stump, admitting, "I was snookered" (A-11).

In his Opinion column, Doblin says:

"The latest revelations about the governor's trade trips -- lavish excursions funded through a non-profit governed by people with close ties to Christie and whose companies do business with or are regulated by the state -- blow the man-of-the people reformer image out of the water."

When readers catch their breath, they undoubtedly will wonder why it took Doblin more than five years to cut through all of the GOP bully's P.R. and B.S.

And why the journalist-cum-lapdog is allowed to write both an opinion column and help determine the paper's editorial policy on Christie's reign in New Jersey.

Jon F. Hanson

The Woodland Park daily still has not revealed the ties between real estate mogul Jon F. Hanson, one of Christie's chief fundraisers, and the Borgs, who own
North Jersey Media Group, which publishes The Record.

Last month, Publisher Stephen A. Borg announced that NJMG had turned to Hanson in a sale-leaseback deal involving the company's printing plant on 16.67 acres of land in Rockaway Township.

Borg said the agreement was with a fund sponsored by the Hampshire Cos. of Morristown, but didn't mention that Hanson is its chairman and founder or that his father, Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, and Hanson had jointly purchased a private jet in 2011.

The printing plant at 100 Commons Way is assessed at $24,991,500, and the land is assessed at $1,979,600, Rockaway Tax Assessor Mark Burek said today.

Those assessments equal about 93 percent of the total value.

On Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, drivers are thankful the street isn't heavily traveled.

Bridge news

Another Page 1 story today reports on emergency repairs to two Route 46 spans (A-1).

But there is no mention of any of the Route 4 bridges cited in recent Road Warrior columns by staffer John Cichowski, the irresponsible reporter who tried to panic readers into believing they are unsafe.

Black history

Today's front page also appears to mark the first in a series of stories that will appear during Black History Month (A-1).

I couldn't find any Black History Month stories in the first five days of February, with the possible exception of a Thursday story on the homeless in Paterson.

When February is over, The Record will return to its usual policy of reporting mostly negative news about African-Americans, and the only way a black person can get on Page 1 until next year is if he or she is a suspect in a crime.

'Overpriced' Italian

The 80-seat dining room of Momento Italian Grill in Tenafly is "graciously decorated" with a crystal chandelier "dripping from the ceiling," Staff Writer Elisa Ung says in her lukewarm review (BL-14).

Ung, the paper's chief restaurant critic, sampled Momento's American rack of lamb -- which isn't likely to have been naturally raised -- but reports that it "arrived overcooked."

The price is an exorbitant $42.95.

In her data box, she explains the restaurant offers "value for the better items, otherwise can be overpriced."

That leaves Simply Vietnamese as one of the few reasons to eat out in Tenafly.

Food warehouse flier is more gripping than front page

The Main Street entrance to the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack. Today's front page of The Record is dominated by the possible closing of another building that has far less architectural or human significance.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record must be pretty desperate for news, judging by a story on the possible closing of the Izod Center that covers three-quarters of Page 1 today. 

You'll find more interesting reading in the flier from the International Food Warehouse on Essex Street in Lodi (one of today's inserts).

A story on A-3 today reports overnight PATH service won't be cut, but The Record has ignored the Port Authority's refusal to expand rail and bus transit to ease increasing traffic congestion at the Hudson River crossings.

Readers speak out

Two letters to the editor reacted negatively to Governor Christie's State of the State address (A-10).

But the only opinion piece on the speech is from Carl Golden, a former Record reporter who went on to work as the mouthpiece for two of Christie's Republican predecessors (A-11).

Clifford Hamblen, a retired Ridgefield Park police officer, objected to Christie calling pensions an entitlement or "something that is given to you, such as a welfare payment or a grant" (A-10).

Hamblen said he "earned" his pension over 30 years, and paid "a larger percentage of my salary into it over time."

An entitlement, he wrote, is Christie spending millions of taxpayer dollars to insulate himself from blame in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal.

Andrew Abraham of Teaneck calls Christie "an ambitious bully who cares only for himself and little for the people he is supposed to serve" (A-10).

Weak editorials

The Record's editorials, on the other hand, have been only mildly critical of Christie and have barely taken notice of what probably is his record number of vetoes since he took office five years ago, including killing a tax surcharge on millionaires.

Could the Woodland Park daily's editorials be influenced by North Jersey Media Group Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg's close friendship with the governor's chief fundraiser, Jon F. Hanson?

A fund sponsored by Hanson's Hampshire Cos. just made a sale-leaseback deal for NJMG's Rockaway printing plant.

Brain teasers

A follow-up to the minor accident involving Bergen County Executive James Tedesco leave at least one question unanswered (L-3).

Tedesco was driving a county owned vehicle and dropping off his chief of staff, Michele DiIorgi, at her car Tuesday evening when the official was involved in a 4-vehicle crash on Route 17 in Rochelle Park.

Why didn't DiIorgi meet Tedesco at the county offices in Hackensack, and car pool to Trenton from there?

On the same page today, readers must fill in the blanks left by a caption for a photo showing a six-car crash on Route 208 in Fair Lawn.

The local assignment editors have devised this method of brain teasing -- incomplete stories and photo captions -- to help readers avoid dementia.

Unfortunately, that hasn't worked with at least one staffer, Road Warrior John Cichowski.

Borgs rely on Christie ally in sale of Rockaway plant

Some visitors to the Bergen County Courthouse on Main Street in Hackensack park at Costco Wholesale, 80 S.River St., to avoid the $5 fee at the temporary lot leased from North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The sale-leaseback deal with a close Borg family friend is the latest chapter in the troubled history of North Jersey Media Group's Rockaway Township printing plant.

On Friday, Stephen A. Borg, publisher of The Record, announced an agreement with a fund sponsored by the Hampshire Cos. of Morristown, but not that family friend Jon F. Hanson is the real estate companies' founder and chairman.

Hanson and Christie

Hanson, 77, a close friend of NJMG Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, also is Governor Christie's adviser on casino and sports development projects.

The real estate developer has received extensive and favorable coverage in the Woodland Park daily, though Staff Writer John Brennan never discloses Hanson's ties to the Borgs.

But in June 2014, The Guardian newspaper reported a joint venture that included Hanson's Hampshire Cos. was awarded a $105 million tax incentive in 2013 by the Christie administration for a hotel and office project in Paterson.

The Guardian said Hanson is one of Christie's chief fundraisers, and both men served as top fundraisers for the presidential campaign of George W. Bush in 2000.

The newspaper said Hanson's ties to Christie also extend to insurance giant Prudential, where the businessman retired from the board of directors in 2011.

Later that year, the company received a $250 million tax incentive from the state Economic Development Authority to move its offices a few blocks.

Hanson and Mac

In 2011, Eye on The Record reported Hanson and Malcolm Borg purchased a private jet from a woman who was later featured in a Business page story in The Record:

"A Web site listing recent sales by Freestream Aircraft Ltd. says a Citation Excel was 'exclusively purchased on behalf of Mr. Malcolm Borg and Mr. John Hanson,' though Hanson's first name is misspelled.

"The price isn't given, but Freestream sells jets that cost $10 million to $50 million.

"Borg discusses the process of buying the plane in this testimonial about Rebecca Posoli-Cilli, president of Freestream's U.S. office in Hackensack:

'Rebecca’s sales team, but especially Rebecca, was the best thing that happened to us when my friend and I decided to sell our 1984 Citation III and upgrade into a late-model Citation Excel. She had the patience of Job in dealing with me, the lead partner, in the acquisition of our Excel. Without her, we would not have made the great choice we did. She found us a plane with 1100 hours that was 95% equipped with everything desired; she took care of all the pre-buy inspections and details; and she negotiated the upgrades to our avionics with Duncan Aviation. 

'Without Rebecca, my friend [Hanson] and his family and my family and I would not be enjoying the wonderful convenience of having our own jet at our disposal. She was simply incredible on all counts, and I recommend her to any potential airplane purchaser without reservation.' 

• Malcolm A. Borg, Managing Partner – Trio Air Holdings, LLC

Rockaway plant

The Rockaway printing plant was built during a recession in the early 1990s as Malcolm Borg sought to extend The Record's reach into Morris County.

But when the elder Borg sought a loan to buy another daily newspaper, banks told him he was overextended.

The plant began printing other newspapers, including USA Today and the Irish Echo, and became a big profit center.

After Stephen Borg took over as publisher of The Record and Herald News in 2006, the four-color presses in Hackensack were worn out, and he moved the printing of those dailies to Rockaway, enabling him to lay off more than 50 pressman.

According to NJMG, the printing plant produces the company's two daily newspapers, more than 40 of its community newspapers and also prints USA Today, Greater Media Newspapers, Gannett Westchester-Rockland Newspapers and the New Jersey Herald.

Decline in quality

The move to Rockaway, a major downsizing of the staff in 2008 and the abandonment of Hackensack in 2009 appear to have contributed to a precipitous decline in the quality and accuracy of local journalism at The Record.

Today, for example, an A-2 correction notes a story on Friday identified Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn as village manager.

That's a really stupid mistake, but typical of the sloppiness since Liz "Queen of Errors" Houlton was promoted to six-figure production editor. 

The front page often reads like a national paper, thanks to Editor Marty Gottlieb, a former bigwig at The New York Times.

And the Local section reads more and more like a police blotter, as many of the stories in today's edition show, thanks to the laziness and incompetence of Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza (L-1 to L-6).

Today's paper

Typical of media hype and exaggeration is today's Page 1 headline comparing the killings of newspaper editors, police officers and hostages in Paris to the 2011 attack on America:

France 
grapples
with its
own 9/11

In two long front-page stories remembering Brendan Jordan, The Record makes no attempt to find out whether improper maintenance caused the freak collapse of a folding bench that fatally injured the 7-year-old in a New Milford school on Wednesday.

Borg family's interests trump civility at public meetings

Richard E. Salkin speaking at Tuesday night's City Council meeting in Hackensack. Salkin doesn't identify himself as the attorney for the city's Board of Education, which is allied with the Zisa family and the local Democratic Party that lost the 2013 municipal election. A frequent critic of the current council, he is usually quoted in The Record without that title, the same "anonymity" the paper accords to members of the losing council slate.

The five-member City Council with City Attorney Thomas P. Scrivo, left, and City Manager David R. Troast, front.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Borg family's progress on selling 19.7 acres near downtown Hackensack to a developer dominates The Record's Local news section today.

Staff Writer Todd South, who covered Tuesday night's City Council meeting, wrote a story that ignores unanimous passage of an ordinance governing public comment.

The "Rules of Order" were introduced on Nov. 25 after critics of the council -- principally those who lost the 2013 municipal election -- launched one abrasive attack after another against officials for just about every hire and proposal they made, including a downtown performance space.

Many of the attacks were reported in The Record without identifying the critics as Zisa family allies and members of the local Democratic Party, which lost the 2013 municipal election to a slate of reformers led by John P. Labrosse Jr., who is now mayor.

The weekly Hackensack Chronicle reported what happened at a Nov. 10 council meeting The Record didn't cover:

"Another incident in which the First Amendment right was brought into question took place at the Nov. 10 council meeting, when resident [and Board of Education Attorney] Richard Salkin, who is a vocal critic of a number of the council members, in particular of councilwoman Rose Greenman, referred to her as a "sociopath."

"This allegation drove Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino -- who was presiding over the meeting in the absence of the mayor -- to say she will not tolerate name calling.

"I'm not going to tolerate that," she said. "Address people with respect, that's all I ask. We are respecting you, respect us back."

Profit motive

The 150 River St.  parcel and adjacent property is the former headquarters of North Jersey Media Group and its flagship daily newspaper, The Record, which prospered in Hackensack for more than 110 years.

Publisher Stephen A. Borg abandoned Hackensack in 2009, moving The Record's newsroom to a nondescript office building overlooking Route 80 in Woodand Park.

A few years earlier, Borg moved the printing of The Record and Herald News to a printing plant in Rockaway Township, and ordered a major downsizing of the staff in 2008. 

Those two decisions seemed to set into motion a precipitous decline in the quality of editing and reporting at a newspaper still referred to as "The Bergen Record."

The 19.7 Hackensack acres are expected to fetch $20 million or more.

City study

On Tuesday night, the City Council approved a study to determine whether the NJMG parcel should be declared as an "area in need of redevelopment," a designation that could entitle any developer to tax breaks for up to 30 years, The Record reports (L-1).

The lead paragraph of the story says the property, two blocks east of Main St. in Hackensack, is 20 acres, but the second paragraph calls it a "19.7-acre site."

Labrosse, the mayor, said any development would have to include a walkway along the Hackensack River and a park where the USS Ling submarine is tied up on NJMG property.

Hackensack's Venice

A Walmart Super Center was rumored for the 19.7 acres a couple of years ago, and then gazillionaire Fred Daibes of Edgewater proposed a mixed-use residential and retail development, but that fell through.

Apartments wouldn't seem suitable for what former employees recall as a property prone to frequent flooding that claimed the cars of more than one staffer.

I can recall one storm that surrounded the 150 River St. building with so much water the managers pressed into service newspaper delivery trucks to pick up employees from higher ground a block away.

See a previous post:

Borgs prepare to screw Hackensack again

CIA torture

It's hard to tell who is more upset by the CIA's "brutal interrogation program" after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on America (A-1).

Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the harsh interrogation techniques a "stain on the nation's history."

But the media are playing up incidents that occurred more than a decade ago before reforms instituted by President Obama.

Could CNN and other media outlets really be upset they've been denied sensational YouTube videos of CIA operatives decapitating suspected terrorists?

Where is the New Jersey news?

Image via Wikipedia

According to the 2000 Census, New Jersey was the most densely populated state in the U.S.

There's only one New Jersey story on The Record's front page today -- an attack on Governor Christie's funding proposals for the nearly bankrupt Transportation Trust Fund. And like the story reporting his plan on Friday's front page, this one completely ignores the taxes that once fed the fund, and why he refuses to raise them. 

By hiding the debate over the traditional funding method for road and transit projects, the Woodland Park daily seems to be marching to the beat of the governor's drummer -- as it has in so many other selectively reported news stories, columns and editorials since the Republican bully took office about a year ago.

At the link below, you can find the information The Record withholds on taxes that have fed the state Transportation Trust Fund since it was set up in 1985. The official site says the state's gasoline tax, one of the three funding sources, is among the lowest in the United States.

Transportation Trust Fund Authority

I guess Editor Francis Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes were so eager to avoid a repeat of their awful coverage of the post-Christmas blizzard that they sent everyone out to cover Friday's short snowfall, and ended up with no other New Jersey news for A-1 -- except for a minor accident on Route 80 in Woodland Park, conveniently close to the office.

All readers get are stories on fluoride and massive bird and fish kills in other parts of the country.

A six-column auto dealer's ad appears in the middle of L-1 again today. Boy, is that jarring. The gas-guzzling German luxury cars it promotes are the kind favored by the Borg family, which continues to live extravagantly during the recession.

On Page L-8 Friday, President and Publisher Stephen A. Borg announced the Rockaway printing plant will get more than 20,000 solar panels and cut its electricity costs in half. 

But Borg said nothing about whether he, big sister Jennifer A. Borg and the father they've pushed aside, Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, will trade in their low gas mileage sedans and SUVs for all-electric Nissan Leafs. 

Sykes keeps you guessing

Two reporters labored over the fire death of a 48-year-old Park Ridge woman the other day -- it led the Local section on Wednesday -- but neither thought to ask if she smoked, and the clueless editors back at the office were on autopilot.

Today, a story on L-3 reports smoking was the cause of the fire.