What you see when you're not driving and stuck in traffic

Glistening in the afternoon sun, VIA is a new residential building at West 57th Street and West Street in Manhattan, as seen from aboard a Hackensack-bound NJ Transit bus on Boulevard East.

After the blizzard, uncleared snow had drivers improvising a new form of angle parking along Boulevard East.

Looking from West 42nd Street, there were plenty of seats available for a sun bath last week in this Times Square pedestrian plaza in Manhattan.

At the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, the first-floor bathrooms are being renovated, and commuters can look forward to the opening of a Jamba Juice, next to Starbucks, below.

These National Guard members were carrying only sidearms on Jan. 21.

Navigating Bergen County's antiquated street system, drivers spend precious minutes stuck behind other vehicles making turns, aggravating air pollution, because turn lanes are as few and far between as competent transportation reporters and columnists at The Record of Woodland Park.

This morning on Route 4 east, thousands of insane commuters ignored mass-transit alternatives and chose the crapshoot of driving into the city, usually alone. From 50 mph, 60 mph and 70 mph, traffic came screeching to a halt near Jones Road in Englewood -- my exit.

Huge mass-transit gains may come too late to bust traffic

Replacing the Port Authority's antiquated midtown Manhattan bus terminal, above; a $3 billion overhaul of New York Penn Station, and new tunnels and tracks to double the capacity of trains from New Jersey to Manhattan are among plans to expand mass transit in the metropolitan area. A story on Page 1 of The Record today reports that "with any luck," [new tunnels, tracks and bridges] "should be completed in the next 20 years."

Meanwhile, backward-looking residents of Tenafly have rejected the extension of NJ Transit's zero-emissions Hudson-Bergen Light Rail to their wealthy borough, meaning the new line would end at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Englewood.

Editor's note: I wrote that today's story on the new Hudson River rail tunnels project is by Christopher Maag, the transportation reporter. But the takeout is by Paul Berger, and it's not clear whether he replaced Maag on the beat.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record has ignored growing traffic congestion in North Jersey and at the Hudson River crossings for more than a decade.

Meanwhile, editors, reporters and columnists haven't addressed mass-transit crowding, including the lack of rush-hour seats on buses and trains, or challenged officials to expand capacity.

Some of these same reporters have written front-page stories on "highways of the future," and focused almost exclusively on opposition to the extension of NJ Transit's Light Rail to Bergen County.

Bigger, better

Now, Staff Writer Paul Berger reports the new Gateway tunnel-and-rail plan is far superior to the ARC project that Governor Christie killed in 2010, and will give many North Jersey commuters a coveted "one-seat ride" into Manhattan (A-1).

Of course, all of these grandiose plans ignore the Port Authority's continued refusal to expand the single reverse bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel during the morning rush or operate it in the afternoon.

And traffic congestion certainly will get worse before it gets better, aggravating air pollution and leading to tens of millions of dollars in lost productivity.

Hospital deal

The front page today also carries another story on a bill requiring Hackensack University Medical Center and other non-profit hospitals to contribute to their host communities in lieu of property taxes (A-1).

HUMC and other hospitals fear more lawsuits, like the one Morristown filed, leading to a landmark state Tax Court decision that raised doubts about their century old property tax exemptions.

None of the stories by Staff Writer Lindy Washburn have said whether the bill, if it becomes law, would prevent Hackensack and other towns from filing lawsuits like the successful one against Morristown Medical Center.

That case was settled, and the hospital agreed to pay $15.5 million over 10 years.

Compare that to the $690,762 HUMC would be assessed under the proposal in the state Legislature.

Second look

Freelancer Michael J. Feeney's upbeat profile of Anthony Hutchinson -- Englewood's "healthy juice man" -- spent a good deal of time describing his celebrity clients, but contained no prices (Better Living cover on Wednesday).

Maybe, the suggestion is that ordinary people can't afford Hutchinson's fresh-pressed vegetable and fruit juices.

Still, readers welcomed the rare focus on health and nutrition from Food Editor Esther Davidowitz.

Opposite the continuation of Feeney's article on Wednesday was a recipe for Breakfast Tacos with 4 slices of artery clogging bacon from clueless freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson of Upper Saddle River.

Drivers took commuting columnist hostage 12 years ago

An NJ Transit bus on Main Street in Hackensack. In a dozen years of writing the Road Warrior column for The Record, Staff Writer John Cichowski has largely ignored bus and train riders, and in the process, racked up more errors than any reporter past or present at the Woodland Park daily.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In a front-page headline today, The Record's editors admit that drivers have been allowed to hijack a column that was aimed at all commuters when it was launched 25 years ago:

"Keeping drivers in the loop"

And John Cichowski, the reporter who turned his back on bus and rail users, is still writing the column today, a dozen years after he took over from the original Road Warrior, Jeffrey Page.

This Page 1 anniversary column also is flawed by the photo of a highway project that was completed about 15 years ago, and an awkward sub-headline.

I'm sure the drowsy copy editor who write the sub-headline was looking for "delays" instead of "holdups," which was two meanings (A-1).

Dissing seniors

Besides ignoring mass-transit users, Cichowski has spent little time reporting on the challenges facing his contemporaries, older drivers who mistake the gas pedal for the brake pedal with often fatal consequences.

If there is retraining available to seniors or other programs to improve their driving skills, readers haven't seen it in the Road Warrior column.

Shaky reporting

Chichowski made so many errors he inspired one Record reader to set up a Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers in an attempt to correct what the newspaper refused to set right.

And because Cichowski's reporting has been so shaky readers are questioning some of what he says today:

"It took nearly a decade to get E-ZPass to work correctly," the reporter claims, without ever elaborating anywhere in his overlong column (A-1 and A-10).

He also takes credit for a column that stopped "four mornings of horrific traffic jams" at the George Washington Bridge in September 2013 (A-10).

But Cichowski, a lazy reporter who rarely leaves the office, doesn't tell readers that he was tipped off by Publisher Stephen A. Borg, whose friend called from the bridge to complain about being stuck in traffic.

Shortcuts

Cichowski's chief weakness is relying on the eyes and ears of his readers, and publishing hundreds of their emails as the basis for many of his columns.

Their only motive is to see their names in print, and their observations and knowledge of driving laws and regulations are even shakier than Cichowski's.

Among his other failures as a journalist is his refusal to embrace mass transit as a way of cutting traffic congestion and reducing air pollution.

EV charging

A story on the Local front today doesn't tell owners of plug-in hybrids and pure electric cars how much they will have to pay to gain access to chargers in Englewood's municipal garage (L-1).

Nor does the story report on the rate of charge or whether the electricity is free. 

With employees of a Mercedes-Benz dealer using the spaces from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, public access will be limited.

Guessing game

A caption on L-1 identifies only one of the four people whose faces are clearly visible in the photo, which runs with a story on Englewood's hometown sports heroes.

Stories or photos from Closter, Mahwah, Tenafly, Maywood, Clifton and Woodland Park also appear today.

But there is nothing from two of the biggest towns in the circulation area, Hackensack and Teaneck.

Editors, reporters hold themselves apart from you and me

The Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan on Friday. The Record today continues to play catch-up on the sad state of mass transit between northern New Jersey and New York City.

The Eighth Avenue entrance to the bus terminal.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The commute for North Jersey residents who work in Manhattan has been a "nightmare" for many years, not just the "week" you see on the front page of The Record today.

Even in the absence of electrical failures and equipment breakdowns, rush-hour seats on NJ Transit trains have been at a premium for years, and the packed Penn Station waiting room is standing room only and has inadequate air conditioning.

Today's Page 1 story on rail problems doesn't even mention the long list of grievances filed by NJ Transit bus riders stuck with the dysfunctional midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal.

Fare hikes

"Some riders found the delays especially hard to take because NJ Transit's board members voted ... to increase fares by 9 percent and cut service ... to fill a $56 million hole in NJ Transit' budget," writes Christopher Maag, the paper's transportation reporter (A-6).

But Maag omits any mention of Governor Christie's annual cuts in state aid to NJ Transit.

Christie also issued a statement from Iowa "indirectly" blaming President Obama "for failing to bring congressional and state leaders to the table to hammer out financing for a new tunnel under the Hudson River" (A-6).

Of course, Staff Writer Melissa Hayes, who is in Iowa covering the GOP bully's bid for the GOP presidential nomination, was too sheepish to ask him why he didn't call such a summit in 2010 instead of suddenly cancelling new Hudson River rail tunnels.

Instead, Maag again politicizes mass transit by noting, in one of the great understatements of the month, "Democrats and some transit riders found Christie's statement at odds with his own record" [unilateral cancellation of the tunnels in 2010, not 2011, as The Record reports].

No surprise. The reporter is at the beck and call of Editor Martin Gottlieb -- a Christie apologist from across the Hudson -- and assignment editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza.

SUV-loving editors

In decades of assigning reporters, Sykes and Sforza have insisted they cover every board meeting held by NJ Transit, but never to actually ride buses and trains, and assess the service.

Sforza himself covered transportation, but spent most of his time writing about "highways of the future" that will never get built, while ignoring defective NJ Transit buses with screeching rear brakes.

And when he became a local editor, Sforza assigned a reporter to write a number of long stories attacking NJ Transit's proposal to extend light-rail service to Englewood  and Tenafly.

Front-page news?

Is a new policy to close a 24-hour Walmart in Teterboro at midnight really Page 1 news or are the editors again merely pandering to a big advertiser?

Staff Writer Melanie Anzidei drew the short end of the stick, and actually was sent out to interview shoppers at 2 a.m. Friday.

This is a non-story, because the Garfield Walmart -- 4.5 miles away -- will continue to operate 24/7.

Poor George Nwokocha, a Hackensack man who bought bikes for his sons early Friday.

"It will be a longer trip for us," said Nwokocha, as the reporter, no doubt, pleaded for something more dramatic (A-6).

Poor example

Even before Christie set a poor example for a governor, he embodied an unhealthy lifestyle and terrible nutrition, all of which was ignored by the media as he blew up to 400 pounds, as estimated by late-night comedian David Letterman.

Today, Christie is shown in Iowa after trying a bacon-wrapped fried Oreo (A-3). Back in New Jersey, his aides issued a statement ordering residents to eat bread.

Gottlieb is covering the GOP presidential campaign better than he is the fallout from Christie's policies here in the Garden State.

On Friday, Gottlieb ran on A-3 what should have been A-1 news: 

A Senate panel approved a bill that would prohibit the governor from using taxpayer money to pay for his political activities outside New Jersey.

Speziale story

I got a kick out of the story on L-2 today about Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale being pulled off of a flight to Puerto Rico in a dispute "related to oversized carry-on luggage" at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Look at how much sympathetic ink Speziale gets here.

Yet, the editors have refused to comment on his running of the Police Department, which seems unable or unwilling to stop gun violence in Silk City.

How many innocent youngsters have to die in the streets before someone takes a hard look at the job Speziale isn't doing in Paterson?

At least seven stories in today's Local section, including the big photo package on the cover, are from outside Bergen County.

Evidence mounts of Christie's pivotal role in Bridgegate

Traffic on Center Street in Fort Lee crawling toward Main Street on Monday, when construction on Main made driving in the borough an ordeal, as it has been on so many days in the past two years.

A digital sign on Main Street warned motorists of similar disruptions through Friday.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I'm betting the 1.5 million pages of evidence federal prosecutors won't make public show Governor Christie had a pivotal role in the George Washington Bridge political-retribution scandal.

Indeed, the GOP bully could be one of the unindicted -- and as yet unidentified -- co-conspirators mentioned in today's Page 1 story in The Record.

There is a lot more negative news on Christie in today's paper, but you won't find it on A-1, where it belongs.

Joke's on us

Editor Martin Gottlieb used precious front-page space to recap the stupid jokes that closed out David Letterman's late-night TV career (A-1).

Letterman's 6,028th and last show on Wednesday night upsets only insomniacs and workers stuck in crappy night jobs, like the luckless copy editors in the old Hackensack newsroom.

On A-4 today, readers can find stories on an attempt to stop Christie from developing the Liberty State Park waterfront in Jersey City, and on a favorable legal opinion from his appointee on disclosing gifts from Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones and other friends.

Mass transit

More on Christie can be found on A-20 today, where an editorial finally calls on the worst governor in New Jersey history to "make mass transit a priority," noting in an understatement that he hasn't done so since taking office in 2010.

For years, The Record has reported negatively on the extension of light rail to Bergen County, and ignored the need to expand both bus service to Manhattan and the PATH commuter rail system (A-3).

The editors also allowed Road Warrior John Cichowski to stray far from his role as a commuting columnist, and almost exclusively cover problems associated with driving and drivers.

Now, the editorial declares, "Mass transit needs public subsidies; there isn't anyway around that fact.

"Taking commuters off highways is a boon for  commuters in cars as well as for commercial truckers."

Correction

On A-2 today, Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza acknowledge that after decades of covering similar local stories, they don't have a clue which Ho-Ho-Kus board will hear a large-scale housing plan on June 4.

In Local -- the section edited by Sykes and Sforza --the death of that vicious German shepherd at the hands of a Wyckoff cop three weeks ago gets better play on L-1 than the L-6 obituary of jazz music executive Bruce Lundvall, 79, also of Wyckoff.

Low gas prices

An Associated Press story reports low gas prices in early 2015 didn't boost the economy, as the media predicted they would (L-9).

Of course, the clueless wire-service reporter, Christopher S. Rugaber, doesn't bother exploring whether low gas prices encouraged people to drive more.

That would have worsened air pollution, increased traffic congestion and discouraged owners of gas-guzzlng SUVs from switching to more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Columns, debates, what-ifs -- another boring front page

Gasoline is still under $2 a gallon at this station in Teaneck.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

BORING!!!!!

Despite all his accomplishments at The New York Times, Editor Martin Gottlieb continues to bore readers of The Record of Woodland Park.

I can't imagine a duller front page for a Sunday edition than the one I'm looking at today.

Not one, but two tedious columns. A news story about a U.S. senator I never heard of, a Republican named Corker. And a story on a Teaneck doctor who "interviews pilots about their health."

Corruption

If readers bother plowing through the lead Page 1 column on former Bergen County Democratic chief Joseph Ferriero and U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, they will search in vain for an opinion from the burned-out reporter who has been churning out this kind of crap since 1988 (A-1).

Gottlieb must think all you have to do to have a column is add a dated thumbnail photo of Mike Kelly's shit-eating grin.

But readers look to Kelly for an opinion about the corrupt campaign-finance system and whether he believes greed led Ferriero and Menendez to violate the public trust. (See editorial on O-2 today.)

You won't find any opinions in his overlong column, just a rewrite of all that has appeared so far on the corruption charges against the two men and the "profound questions" they raise.

Local news

At least today's Local section actually found municipal news to report: 

Three stories about Englewood -- two by a weekly reporter -- but only one each from Teaneck and Hackensack.

Hackensack Police Director Mike Mordaga told Staff Writer Todd South a police captain filed a lawsuit only after he was passed over for a promotion to top commander (L-1).

Commenting on the suit by Capt. Thomas Salcedo, Mordaga says "he's broken no laws and that the department has followed all rules and guidelines."

Mordaga also said Salcedo was named in several lawsuits filed by police officers who were under his command, and all were settled by the city.

Trucks, litter

Road Warrior John Cichowski once again explores the irrelevant with today's column on highway litter (L-1).

Most drivers are slobs. What can you do? 

His previous column was on tractor-trailers that used residential streets. Wow! 

Hey, Cichowski, there are way too many cars clogging our streets and highways. 

You should be writing about the sorry state of mass transit and other commuting topics, but you're too lazy for that, and your editors are too stupid to notice.

Healthy eating

John Petrick was a feature writer in the old Hackensack newsroom who got on somebody's shit list and was exiled to cover the Passaic County Courthouse in Paterson.

He worked there for several years, and did a terrific job covering trials and indictments in the busy courthouse.

Now, he's back writing features. Today, he has finally awakened to the trend of people trying to eat healthy when they go out to restaurants (BL-1).

But Petrick doesn't explain why Elisa Ung, the paper's chief restaurant critic, is always making a pig of herself, gorging on enormous cuts of questionable beef and artery clogging desserts.

As for Ung, her column today again takes the focus off of restaurants serving low-quality food at high prices, such as those steakhouses she loves (BL-1).

What revolution?

Sadly, the "retail revolution" reported on today's Business section cover has nothing to do with the return of real customer service (B-1).

Bus station story on Page 1 is full of heat, but no light

Workmen were so repulsed by the design of this Woodland Street house, on the East Hill of Englewood, they abandoned the site.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's coverage of mass transit in the past decade or more has been decidedly negative, and today's front-page story on a new bus station in Manhattan is no exception.

Who can forget the anti-light rail stories penned by onetime transportation reporter Tom Davis?

Or the editors ignoring the lack of rush-hour seats on NJ Transit trains in recent years, and refusing to call on the Port Authority to add a second reverse bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel.

Staff Writer John Cichowski transformed the Road Warrior commuting column into a pulpit for drivers, running hundreds of emails from crackpots whose only interest is to see their names in print.

Now, transportation reporter Christopher Maag is tackling a proposal for a midtown Manhattan bus station with a maximum of controversy and a minimum of intelligence (A-1). 

It starts with the headline:

"A busload of cash"

The minimum cost of $7.5 billion stands alone in the story without any information on how much the Port Authority might be able to land in federal grants or what air rights sold to apartment or office developers might fetch.

There is nothing here on how many cars expanded bus service would take off the road, reducing pollution and boosting worker productivity.

The bi-state agency's midtown Manhattan bus terminal hasn't worked for years. The only solution is to replace it, and The Record should get behind the proposal.

In one of his first major acts in office, Governor Christie killed new Hudson River rail tunnels, setting back expanded train service a decade or more.

No one expects Christie to come out in favor of the Port Authority spending billions on a new bus station, but at least the GOP bully should stay out of the way.

The agency isn't tax supported, and will use grants, toll money and fees from airports and seaports to pay for the new terminal.

Hiding heroin

Among all the Law & Order stories the editors used to flesh out today's Local news section, the one about a male suspect hiding 40 bags of heroin in his sock caught my eye (L-2).

Today, Cliffview Pilot.com carried a similar story, but with a spin only former Law & Order Editor Jerry DeMarco could put on it:

"A pregnant Pennsylvania woman accused of stashing 89 folds of heroin in her vagina during a traffic stop [on Route 208 in Glen Rock] was due in court tomorrow...."

See: Summons, no bail for pregnant woman


Sloppy editing

The first paragraph of a story on the main Business page reports Tesla Motors sells "$100,000 luxury vehicles" (L-7).

But later, the story reports the all-electric cars sell for $71,000 to $140,000.

Maybe the reporter and editor averaged the price of different versions of Tesla's Model S.

More sketchy and flawed reporting on driving, mass transit

In Fort Lee, construction of the massive Hudson Lights retail and residential project has spread to Lemoine Avenue and Main Street, above and below, closing nearby streets and disrupting downtown traffic. Meanwhile, across the street, the Plaza Diner is being renovated and expanded, but hasn't set an opening date.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's editorial today on the proposed $1 billion-plus expansion of New York Penn Station to benefit New Jersey commuters is unequivocal:

"Commuters need to get from point A to point B: everything else is negotiable" (A-8).

The editorial even acknowledges "the ongoing conversion of the Farley Post Office into Moynihan Station that will improve access to Penn Station tracks."

One-station focus

Two long front-page stories on Monday and Tuesday failed to mention the Moynihan Station Project, perhaps to make the situation for NJ Transit rail users seem more dire.

If readers thought Staff Writer Christopher Maag said nearly all he could possibly say about plans for Penn Station South on Monday, Tuesday's long follow-up was a surprise.

In fact, the follow-up read like an elaborate clarification and revision of his earlier cost estimates and how the project supposedly is at a standstill.

Broken numbers

As weak as The Record's mass transit reporting has been, Road Warrior John Cichowski's incessant focus on drivers can't hide the veteran reporter's inability to accurately report basic state police data and other numbers he uses with abandon. 

On Tuesday, two Road Warrior columns appeared -- Cichowski's take on the bankrupt state Transportation Trust Fund (A-1) and his lame explanation for why Sunday morning's icy conditions caused so many accidents (L-1).

If not drivers, who?

The paper's reporting and editorials on the trust fund have failed to emphasize the irrefutable logic that drivers who cause wear and tear on roads and bridges are the ones who should pay for repairs through higher gasoline taxes.

That's especially true of one driver from Clifton whose Tweet was published on Tuesday's A-1:

"$31 to fill up my monster gas eating car. Not bad at all."

Drivers of hybrid cars and other fuel-efficient vehicles wouldn't even notice a 10-cents-a gallon gas tax hike, and would gladly pay it in return for smoother roads and safer bridges.

More sloppy reporting

Today, I received an evaluation of Cichowksi's Jan. 13 column on annual state police road fatality statistics from the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers, citing his foot-in-mouth disease:

We're safer, but Road Warrior is killing facts

On pedestrian deaths, Cichowski quoted state police data, but used the wrong figure for five of the six years he cited.

The Facebook critic also noted:

"In trying to protect pedestrians and reduce their fatalities, which was the most in 18 years in 2014, the Road Warrior gave out the simple advice that drivers should 'never, never' talk on the phone when driving.

"Unfortunately, the Road Warrior failed to advise pedestrians of the more important and widely publicized advice that they should never, never talk on the phone when crossing the street."

There were many other problems with the column and the abysmal lack of editing and fact-checking, including:

• Cichowski said driver and pedestrian deaths fell to their lowest level in "several decades," but to be correct, he should have written "seven decades."
• "The county’s pedestrian death count was so large that it doubled its driver death count, a highly unusual occurrence."

But what the reporter should have written is that pedestrian deaths at 24 were double the 12 driver deaths.

Sweet tooth

Restaurant Critic Elisa Ung's obsession with artery clogging desserts is well-known, but today, Better Living celebrates the achievements of Jessica Marotta, a young pastry chef at Local Seasonal Kitchen in Ramsey (BL-1).

Food Editor Esther Davidowitz, who wrote the profile, gives Marotta far more space than she does to Michael Ventura, a chef who has a healthier message:

"I don't use a lot of cream or butter because people have changed the way they eat" (BL-2).

Of course, many readers who are watching their cholesterol are waiting for confirmation from the all-seeing and all-knowing Davidowitz that it is actually possible to cook delicious food without using butter or cream.

Restaurant business

Tuesday's Better Living front appeared to be an inside look at the restaurant business, but a lot was missing.

Staff Writer Steve Janoski interviewed chefs and owners at only high-end restaurants, and didn't discuss the shockingly low hourly pay for tipped workers such as servers (BL-1).

The restaurants exploit servers, then put the burden on customers to tip well to help provide those workers with a living wage.

Nor did the reporter make any attempt to tell readers just how much more naturally raised food would cost a restaurant over food raised with pesticides, antibiotics and other additives.

Janoski interviewed Christine Nunn, chef-owner of Picnic on the Square in Ridgewood, who seemed to be saying she makes less than $30 in profit on each table.

And why can't Nunn buy napkins and tablecloths for less than the $9,600 to $12,000 a year she pays a linen delivery service?

Clueless editors ignore dark side of low gasoline prices

Low gasoline prices may seem like a great development, but they bring with them many negatives, such as discouraging commuters from using mass transit and encouraging some drivers to hold onto their gas guzzlers.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Today's upbeat Page 1 story on low gasoline prices could have been written by the automobile dealers who advertise so heavily in The Record.

There is nothing here on how cheap fuel encourages more driving and aggravates air pollution and traffic congestion. 

There is nothing on how low gas prices discourage drivers from trading in their gas guzzlers for a more fuel-efficient car, as Joseph Christ did (A-1).

Sales of hybrid and emissions-free electric cars fall with falling gasoline prices, and bus and rail commuters may decide to start driving again and fight those colossal traffic jams.

Piecemeal correction

On A-2 today, the editors finally got around to correcting a second error in Thursday's A-12 photo caption.

A drowsy copy editor misreported on which hand Giants rookie Odell Beckham Jr. wore bracelets from a cancer patient and used to make his celebrated touchdown catch.

"It was his right hand," the correction notes, stating what was plainly visible to readers.

Political columnist is feeding Obama critics' racial animus

The Record today tries to assess President Obama's popularity in New Jersey while ignoring incompetent officials running the 70 towns in Bergen County. Why not report on the sad state of affairs in Englewood, above, where officials are standing by as the downtown holds a permanent going-out-of-business sale? 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I'm not sure what point political Columnist Charles Stile is trying to make on Page 1 today -- unless he's channeling all of the racists who still cannot get over the election of our first black president.

President Obama doesn't draw New Jersey crowds at a fundraiser?

So what?

His Affordable Care Act is drawing crowds of people without health insurance, despite Governor Christie's attempts to derail the federal law and The Record looking the other way.

Obama made billions available for Sandy relief only to see the incompetent Christie administration bungle the distribution and allegedly discriminate against minority homeowners.

And how many hundreds of millions in federal mass-transit funds did the GOP bully convert to road and bridge repairs after he killed the sorely needed Hudson River rail tunnels in 2010?

Editor Martin Gottlieb puts Stile on the front page frequently, but still doesn't get that the reporter's relentless focus on "politics" is a huge turn-off for readers.

Update

LOL.

Stile's column became another exercise in masturbatory journalism when Obama cancelled his New Jersey campaign appearance today to stay in Washington and discuss the Ebola outbreak with Cabinet members.

Lawyers always win

Two other stories on Page 1 today have bar associations cheering over the extra legal fees that are being generated by Bergen County's judge shortage, and the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal (A-1).

Letter writer Patricia Pures of River Vale, reacting to all of the front-page sports stories championed by Gottlieb, urges the editor to "please place this news where it belongs," in Sports.

"Or do not have a section for sports," she says (A-8).

Another stupid column

The befuddled Road Warrior still can't find his way to relevant journalism.

Today's column by Staff Writer John Cichowski isn't even about driving, let along commuting (L-1).

Also on L-1 today, a large photo shows one lane of a three-lane section of Route 4 east in Teaneck closed for a minor three-car accident.

Readers can see two cops bullshitting with two firefighters, but no fire and no injured motorists.

The photo over line overstates the effects of the crash:

CRASH TIES UP HIGHWAY

The photo and exaggerated over line are another example of the desperation of the lazy assignment editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, to fill their local-news section.

Breaking bacon news

Better Living continues to publish unhealthy recipes from clueless freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson of Upple Saddle River (BL-2).

Her Pasta with Tomato Bacon Sauce recommends well-salted pasta water, added sugar and eight strips of bacon for 8 ounces of pasta.

Jackson doesn't even recommend uncured bacon without harmful preservatives. Any old crap will do.

Leave it to Christie to slow mass transit, not expand it

Q

NJ Transit adds cars to its trains to handle increased ridership, but many platforms are too short to accommodate them, such as this one in New Brunswick.

If police are going to search commuters' bags, that would worsen an already agonizingly slow commute on weekday afternoons for North Jersey residents who catch buses at the Port Authority's antiquated midtown Manhattan bus terminal, above.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

When it comes to the overburdened mass-transit system, Governor Christie has been consistent, doing everything in his power to kill any attempt to expand it and speed the commute for hundreds of thousands of New Jersey residents.

At the same time, he's refused to raise the state gasoline tax (10.5 cents per gallon) -- the second lowest in the nation -- to revitalize the trust fund that pays for road and mass-transit improvements.

Today, The Record reports Christie joined New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in announcing plans for heightened anti-terrorism measures, including more police at mass-transit hubs (A-6).

On Page 1, Columnist Charles Stile again sounds like he is in Christie's pocket, peddling the ficiton our GOP bully has "bipartisan credentials" to burnish (A-1).

Legislative ignorance

Meanwhile, even the majority Democrats in the New Jersey Legislature are afraid of proposing a higher gasoline tax as the price dips below $3 a gallon.

Staff Writer Christopher Maag should have led his story on a Trenton hearing with the ridiculous remarks of Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver, D-Essex, a woman I have previously admired (A-3).

"...I'm worried about the average family with four kids and two SUVs that spends $140 a week filling up their tanks," Oliver is quoted as saying. "If the gas tax is increased, what's the impact on them?"

Oliver apparently knows nothing about cars, especially how SUVs use more gas and are not considered as safe as smaller vehicles, as well as how they contribute to climate change.

Any family concerned about high fuel costs certainly wouldn't own two of them, and would trade in at least one SUV on a far more fuel-efficient vehicle.

SUV owners also drive more aggressively and speed more than owners of smaller vehicles -- on the parkway and turnpike, they menace slower drivers -- and get away with it because of lax enforcement.

Page 1 today

The Times-like front page today holds little interest for residents of Hackensack and many other towns.

There is municipal news in the paper today as the Local section's assignment editors and reporters finally got to work on Wednesday.

But it's unclear what Staff Writer Todd South does between the Hackensack City Council meetings he has covered.

Just puzzling

The big photo on L-1 today shows a woman staring into her phone as two police officers survey the damage to a demolished Chevrolet Traverse in Ridgewood.

Staffer Tariq Zehawi didn't bother finding out whether the woman was given a summons or what caused the crash, and the Woodland Park newsroom apparently didn't care either.

The drive-by photo is another example of the trivial filler that has been used by the desperate Local editors for years.

Readers would prefer to see the talented photo staffs' enterprise work, even weather photos, than an endless procession of non-fatal crashes and rollovers and photo captions with no information.

Too little, too late

Many weeks after the start of utility work and other construction work on Route 46 in Little Ferry and local streets, what's the point of today's Road Warrior column (L-1)?

The only bit of useful advice from Staff Writer John Cichowski is buried: 

Check the Web sites of PSE&G and municipalities for road and street closures.

A couple of paragraphs would have sufficed.

Second look

The Wednesday food page in Better Living is a far cry from the Wednesday food section Publisher Stephen A. Borg folded not long after he took over.

Now, Wednesday's BL-2 is largely devoted to promoting restaurants and local chefs, such as Adam Weiss of Due, a Ridgewood restaurant that received 3.5 out of 4 stars and a rare Page 1 promo from The Record last week.

In COFFEE WITH THE CHEF, Weiss, who is 37, talks about his love for Twix bars, salting pasta water "like the ocean" and molten chocolate cake.

If the paper's older readers followed his example, they would end up in the hospital.

The Record always provides a pronunciation guide to the name of the pricey restaurant, Due ("do-ay") lest some might think it rhymes with "doo" as in doo doo.

The pasta recipe from clueless freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson on Wednesday's BL-2 includes a half-cup of artery clogging heavy cream and 4 ounces-plus of full-fat blue cheese.

Where do I throw up?