NJMG cuts off health insurance to retirees under 65

A 1,500-pound pumpkin is being displayed on Essex Street, near Summit Avenue, in Hackensack.By Victor E. SassonEditorThe Record's lead Page 1 story today and Wednesday reports on the cancellation of thousands of "bare-bones" health policies outlawed by the Affordable Care Act.Today's breathless account raises an alarm, noting some of the policies cost as little as $100 a year.But one student, Jhon Alzate, 20, is facing $1,000 in bills from two "emergency...

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The Record turns its back on the middle class

A reader of "Eye on The Record" calls jitneys the "McDonald's of mass transportation in North Jersey," referring to the low-wage workers who drive them. We'd all be better off if we patronized businesses that paid their employees a living wage and benefits, and boycotted those that don't, including McDonald's and Walmart.By Victor E. SassonEditorIn letters to the editor today, one reader called The Record's endorsement of Governor Christie "insane,"...

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Sandy, Chris, Marty, Charlie, John and Denisa

A jitney at Main and Thomas streets in Paterson, in front of Aleppo Restaurant. The jitneys appear every 5 minutes or so, providing more seats to and from New York than NJ Transit buses. Some argue the jitneys' success can be traced to the inability of the state public transit agency to meet the demand from commuters and others.By Victor E. SassonEditorThe anniversary coverage of Superstorm Sandy dominates Page 1 today and Sunday, and I challenge...

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Prosecutor's embargo spooks editors and reporters

For frustrated commuters, North Jersey has it all: Narrow, antiquated streets; bus and rail service with not enough seats; and exorbitant tolls. On Passaic Street in Hackensack, a major commuting thoroughfare, above, traffic backs up for nearly a block behind a bus that stopped near Summit Avenue. Passaic and Summit is a major bottleneck for another reason: No turn lanes on Passaic.By Victor E. SassonEditorYou don't have to be a police reporter or...

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Page 1 continues to burnish Christie's image

The construction site of a 222-unit luxury apartment building on State Street in Hackensack. It is the first project to break ground since the city adopted its Downtown Rehabilitation Plan in June 2012. What remains to be seen is whether tenants will patronize restaurants and shops on Main Street, which is pockmarked with vacant and shabby storefronts.By Victor E. SassonEditorIf I didn't know better, I'd think Governor Christie has recruited Editor...

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The right to bear arms and kill schoolchildren

A building on the 100 block of Main Street in Hackensack that once housed Lowits, above, is for sale, and a nearby merchant says he has heard the owners are looking for a developer to pretty much replace the entire block with an office building or high-rise. Lowits, a family owned, upscale men's clothing store, closed in April 2001. The latest business to flop there is Cafe Arabica. By Victor E. SassonEditorSchool shootings have become so commonplace...

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NJ Transit rail officials stop blaming the victim

The Midtown Bridge between Hackensack and Bogota, above, has been closed indefinitely for emergency repairs, borough police said today. The bridge was closed on Thursday, though I don't recall seeing anything in The Record.By Victor E. SassonEditorNJ Transit has stopped blaming the people who commit suicide by train.On Page 1 of The Record today, Staff Writer Jim Norman reports rail suicides are on the upswing, prompting the public transit agency...

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Trying to guess where North Jersey racists live

A new cafe is opening in the space on Sussex Street in Hackensack once occupied by John's Coffee Shop, above, and a sign on a storefront at 159 Main St. promises a new Indian restaurant, below.By Victor E. SassonEditorExtremism and racism were central to the doomed U.S. Senate campaign of former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, who called Newark "a black hole" and released a map with a city neighborhood labeled "West Africa." Now, readers of The...

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$850 is chump change to Hackensack real estate moguls

How many weeks or months has this storefront on the 200 block of Main Street in Hackensack been vacant? The sleepy shopping street is showing few signs of renewal, even though city officials have approved a downtown redevelopment plan.By Victor E. SassonEditorToday's Page 1 story in The Record has readers speculating about just who could have lost $850 on Main Street in Hackensack, and not even tried to recover the money.Staff Writer Hannan Adely...

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Booker and The Record are pissing off Democrats

The Statue of Liberty.By Victor E. SassonEditorI still haven't forgiven Newark Mayor Cory Booker for putting his personal ambitions ahead of the crying need to defeat Governor Christie, the GOP bully whose myth making is aided and abetted by The Record of Woodland Park.Fresh from his victory in the special U.S. Senate election, Booker greeted Christie enthusiastically at a supermarket groundbreaking in Newark on Thursday -- and The Record's columnists...

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Media's focus on political conflict turns off voters

The clubhouse at Liberty National Golf Course in Jersey City.By Victor E. SassonEditorThe shockingly low voter turnout in Wednesday's special U.S. Senate election -- less than 25 percent -- tells you one thing:When The Record and other media devote big chunks of Page 1 to the rantings of radical U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Tea Party crackpot Steve Lonegan, voters are turned off and don't even show up at the polls.How many times during the government shutdown...

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