Christie, arrogant staff are a bunch of greedy pigs

The Oritani Field Club on Camden Street in Hackensack was sold in July 2011, and is scheduled to close its doors at the end of 2015.By VICTOR E. SASSONEDITORFoul-mouthed Michael Drewniak -- Governor Christie's press secretary -- got a raise to $134,000 from $129,000, probably $500 for every time he used the F-word to describe a reporter who was digging too hard.Twenty-two other members of the GOP bully's staff got average raises of 23.1% -- this...

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For the hundredth time, could that possibly be right?

An NJ Transit train pulling into the new Anderson Street station in Hackensack on Tuesday morning. The door-less structure, below, opened at the end of March, but still has no sign. And The Record of Woodland Park has ignored it.By VICTOR E. SASSONEDITORPort Authority reporter Shawn Boburg doesn't seem to know much about the sources of the behemoth agency's revenue, judging from his front-page story in The Record today.The lead paragraph notes "the...

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2 hours of vandalism? Where were Teaneck cops?

William D. Hunt, the volunteer chief of the Moonachie Fire Department, isn't paid, but he gets to use this official SUV, shown in the driveway of his home on Prospect Avenue, between Euclid and Ross avenues, in Hackensack. I tried without success to reach the borough administrator to ask if it is proper for Hunt to use the Fire Department SUV to tow his boat, which is in front of the vehicle, as he was doing on Sunday.By VICTOR E. SASSONEDITORThe...

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Defense attorney, U.S. senator in Englewood parade

Famed criminal defense attorney Frank P. Lucianna (with white hair, center) marching today in Englewood's Memorial Day Parade arm in arm with U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (hidden). The Englewood-born Lucianna is 91. See Page 1 of The Record today for a lame Herb Jackson column on Booker that suggests voters should decide whether to reelect the Democrat based on his record as Newark mayor, not what he's done since he succeeded the late Frank R. Lautenberg...

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North Jerseyans are beached by all that shore news

A homeless woman stopping to do a little housekeeping on West 34th Street, near Sixth Avenue, in Manhattan on Friday night.By VICTOR E. SASSONEDITORPage 1 of The Record's Sunday edition delivers a shore outlook story like every one I've read or edited in the past 30 years.Even Staff Writer Christopher Maag was pulled off his Hackensack beat to write a sidebar on how beach communities hit hard by Superstorm Sandy in late 2012 seem different now."Drive...

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LOL: Cops make Page 1 for enforcing traffic laws

A long, elaborate wheelchair ramp connects the Avalon luxury apartment complex on Hackensack Avenue in Hackensack with the Home Depot Shopping Center. The rent for a 483-square-foot studio is $2,165 a month, according to the Avalon Communities Web site. The apartments, built between two shopping centers, are perfect for shopaholics.By VICTOR E. SASSONEDITORThe Record's Dave Sheingold seems to have a bug up his ass that the annual police crackdown...

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NJMG retirees, employees have own pension woes

The Record's old headquarters on River Street in Hackensack, in a photo taken before North Jersey Media Group leased parking spaces to Bergen County, replacing those lost to construction near the courthouse.By VICTOR E. SASSONEDITORThe Record has been filled lately with bad news for the public employee pension fund, which has been raided by New Jersey governors who can't balance their budgets any other way.Now, Governor Christie is drastically cutting...

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Christie's budget hits middle class, spares millionaires

First Student school-bus drivers taking a break this morning in the outlying parking lots of Bergen Town Center in Paramus, above and below. On Tuesday morning, a heavy set woman appeared to be sleeping in the driver's seat of one of the buses, her arms folded across her chest, her head down and her eyes closed.By VICTOR E. SASSONEDITORYou've got to love the Trenton press corps, including The Record's reporters, for never challenging Governor Christie...

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Christie's latest broken promise breaks media backs

Hackensack Mayor John Labrosse, right, reads a proclamation at Tuesday night's City Council meeting, accepting an oil painting from Parisian-born artist Marius Sznajderman. The artist painted the winter scene of the old Masonic Temple from his apartment window at Atlantic and State streets in 1956. The building is slated to become the city's new Cultural Center. The artist was accompanied by his wife, Suzanne Messing, a onetime reporter...

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Kean's Rutgers speech ignores gridlock in Trenton

Spring has sprung in Hackensack.By VICTOR E. SASSONEDITORFormer Gov. Thomas Kean looks awfully pleased with himself in the photo on Page 1 of The Record today.And Staff Writer Mike Kelly heaps praise on Kean's message to Rutgers University graduates: "We need to restore the fabric of our society. Our country is becoming ... more and more divisive" (A-6).But Kean was referring to Washington, not Trenton, where a fellow conservative Republican,...

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This Sunday edition is one boring page after another

The directional signals, but not the brake lights, worked on this Sphinx jitney I was stopped behind in Ridgefield on Saturday. During the workweek, the jitneys relieve rush-hour crowding aboard NJ Transit buses heading for Manhattan, one of the stories ignored by The Record's clueless Road Warrior.By VICTOR E. SASSONEDITORThe Record's front-page today reports on gambling "competition" between North Jersey and New York State, even though expanding...

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