Editors were blind to rot in Christie's inner circle

Playground murals in Hackensack, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Is it believable that The Record is only now learning about vindictiveness and dishonesty among members of Governor Christie's inner circle?

Since he took office in January 2010, the Woodland Park daily has been in Christie's corner, calling him a "rock star" and wildly "popular," and in at least the past year, reporting obsessively about his White House potential.

Naive editors

Today, however, a harshly worded editorial demands an explanation from Christie on how members of his staff and cronies on the Port Authority pulled off a politically inspired traffic jam in Democratic Fort Lee, supposedly without his knowledge (A-11).

The editorial writer appears to be shocked that Christie appointees "gleefully" disparaged "public officials, first responders, the media, schoolchildren and pretty much anyone else who might be inconvenienced by the closures" of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in early September.  

NPR connects dots

This morning, National Public Radio reported that many of Christie's closest aides and appointees once worked for him when he was U.S. attorney in Newark or came from the state Attorney General's Office.

Michael Drewniak, his foul-mouthed media liaison, also was spokesman for Christie the corruption-busting federal prosecutor.

Delayed outrage

Referring to Christie's Port Authority appointees and his Trenton aides, today's editorial notes:

"The pure joy David Wildstein, Bill Baroni, Bridget Anne Kelly and Michael Drewniak display in either being unhelpful or actually destructive is sickening." 

Equally sickening is how everyone from Editor Marty Gottlieb to the paper's columnists and reporters have been in love with a politician everyone else refers to as  the "GOP bully."

Uphill battle

This was especially evident during last year's gubernatorial campaign, when state Sen. Barbara Buono's campaign couldn't gain traction with The Record because her fund-raising lagged far behind Christie's.

This despite Buono, a Democrat, documenting high unemployment, a lagging state economy and Christie's continuing war on the middle class.

In a column today, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin sounds naive when he says:

"But what I do not get is why [Governor] Christie did not know sooner" about a plan among four members of his inner circle "to create a traffic nightmare in Fort Lee" (A-18).

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In other news -- other sections -- there isn't much

Englewood would do better urging visitors to patronize downtown merchants and restaurants, not visit the city's Web site. The Record has consistently ignored whether Main Streets in Bergen County have recovered from the recession, focusing instead on national retailers who buy full-page ads in the Woodland Park daily, as the editors do on the Business front today.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Readers are in danger of overdosing on Bridgegate coverage in The Record today.

Nearly the entire front page and Opinion section -- editorial, columns and a dozen letters to the editor -- are devoted to the Christie administration's politically inspired plot to tie up traffic in Democratic Fort Lee (A-1, O-1 and ad nauseam).

Page 1 carries a story comparing Watergate and the Christie scandal, but the latter is referred to as "the George Washington lane-closure investigation" -- a clumsy stand-in for Bridgegate.

Road is clear

Since Dec. 1, the befuddled, error-prone Road Warrior, Staff Writer John Cichowski, has been limited to two pieces a week, compared to three or more since he took over and destroyed the commuting column more than a decade ago.

Readers breath a sigh of relief Cichowski doesn't have a column on the Local front today (L-1).

Obesity news

What they do find is a rare story on a support group for over-eaters after years of censorship by obese local editors (L-1).

A positive story on gadflies, including Hackensack's Kathleen Canastrino, now the city's deputy mayor, is in contrast to past stories and columns portraying them as crackpots and mentally unbalanced (L-1).

Funny business

As usual, local merchants get short-shrift in the Business section, which is chock full of stories about big retailers, small businesses in other states and a 4-page Wall Street Journal insert (B-1 to B-8).

Better Living is really unappetizing today with two columns by the unfunny Bill Ervolino, but no column from Elisa Ung, the restaurant reviewer who should join that over-eaters support group on the Local front (BL-1).

More Bridgegate

If you're looking for any non-Christie news on Page 1, all Editor Marty Gottlieb has is another sports column on Alex Rodriguez (A-1).

The first of two Mike Kelly columns on the widening Christie scandal appears on the front page, but it's artificial, as the headline clearly shows:

"Unlikely pair emerges as Christie adversaries"

What's "unlikely" about state Assembly members John Wisniewski and Loretta Weinberg, and haven't they been Christie adversaries long before Bridgegate?

Opinion front

Better is Kelly's second column on the Opinion front, where the reporter with the shit-eating grin says:

"This is Chris Christie's moment .... What happens in the coming months ... will likely determine whether his gubernatorial career will take him to the White House or the dog house" (O-1).

Still, Kelly is much too wordy and sorely needs editing -- a skill that appears to be lacking on the local assignment desk run so ineptly by Editor Dan Sforza or the copy desk under six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton.

'Not a bully'

Also on the Opinion front, a Bloomberg News columnist says Christie's "I am not a bully" will come back to haunt him, just as "I am not a crook" did for Richard Nixon (O-1).

Today's "Storm at the Port" editorial reveals The Record's anti-mass transit bias.

The bi-state Port Authority is described as "a vital organization that oversees bridges, tunnels and airports" -- completely omitting the PATH commuter rail system and bistate bus operations, including two terminals in Manhattan (O-2).

Misses the train

Staff Writer Shawn Boburg, who covers the agency, hasn't written a word about the crying need for a PATH expansion and the addition of a second bus-only lane into the Lincoln Tunnel.

I laughed when I saw the Margulies cartoon, but a Democrat like Jon Corzine isn't much of a consolation prize after more than four years of Christie, a Republican who is the worst governor in the state's history.

Corzine and Buono

The Jon Corzine billboard in the cartoon reminds me of The Record's highly critical coverage of every Democratic governor going back to James Florio (1990-94), and the adoring stories about Christie.

And given the outrage expressed in the letters to the editor (O-3), supporters of state Sen. Barbara Buono can only speculate about the outcome, if The Record and other media had uncovered Bridgegate in the nearly two months before the Nov. 5 general election.

Remember how one of the newly revealed e-mails between Christie's close aides and his Port Authority cronies referred contemptuously to schoolchildren delayed by the early September traffic jams as the kids of "Buono voters"?

Read More

Will a Christie White House bid be good for N.J.?

Hackensack officials have made no improvements to pedestrian safety on Prospect Avenue, which is lined with high-rises, since Jerome S. Some, 87, was struck and killed by a car as he crossed the street on Oct. 8 to attend a meeting at Bel Posto Restaurant, above. They haven't painted missing or faded crosswalk lines or added signs advising drivers of a state law requiring them to yield to pedestrians. 

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Readers were spared for only one day from the primping and preening of Governor Christie for a White House run in 2016 that dominates the front page of The Record today.

In the hundreds of thousands of flattering words that have been written in the past year, The Record's editors haven't tackled the angle that means the most to readers:

Will Christie's frequent absences from the state as he courts out-of-state conservatives, right wingers and Tea Party crackpots and their deep pockets be good or bad for the Garden State?

As we already know from a Page 1 story a few days ago, a Christie presidency -- as far-fetched as that sounds -- would elevate Lt. Gov. Kim Guadano, a non-entity who is the GOP bully's lap dog, to the Governor's Office.

Caused landslide

Today's front page also perpetuates the myth that Christie won a second term last week by a "landslide," even though he was chosen by a small minority of registered voters (A-1).

The Record reports last Tuesday's turnout was only 37.2 percent, a historic low (A-6). Two days ago, the Woodland Park daily said the turnout was 38 percent.

That means more than six out of every 10 voters were so apathetic -- so turned off by Christie's lies and The Record's obsession with politics over policy -- they didn't even bother to vote.

Satirist Bill Mahrer noted on his Friday night TV show Christie has caused "landslides."

Glaring typos

Notable typos in today's paper include an A-6 chart labeled "New York," not "New York City," for the mayoral contest won by Bill de Blasio.

Voter turnout in the city (24 percent) was even lower than in New Jersey, but don't expect The Record to explore the reasons for the apathy here or there.

Houlton error

Another bad typo appears on the Local front as Production Editor Liz Houlton, supervisor of the legally blind copy editors, laughs all the way to the bank with her six-figure salary.

Road Warrior John Cichowski assaults readers with a landslide of data today, but forgot to include the number of cellphone violations issued by police in Teaneck, second only to Paterson's 1,020 (L-1).

Road litter

If past columns are any guide, Cichowski is unable to accurately transcribe figures to his column from New Jersey's Administrative Office of the Courts, and many of his conclusions are flawed.

An even bigger problem is that cellphone, speeding and other violations for a 12-month period ended in May 2013 aren't compared to previous years.

So readers who believe enforcement has declined dramatically remain in the dark. 

And where are the numbers for the state police, who patrol such raceways as the New Jersey Turnpike and Route 80, which passes just below the nondescript office building where The Record's editors hide out every day.

Ignoring the homeless

The outpouring of support and offers of money to the formerly homeless James Brady leaves hundreds of homeless people in Hackensack out in the cold (L-1).

Brady, as a Page 1 story stated on Saturday, has been denied government assistance because he was awarded an unclaimed $850 he found on the street and didn't report it, according to a city bureaucrat.

Half the story

On today's Business front, Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais reports a reader who charges gasoline purchases and receives a 3 percent cash rebate or "what he pays extra for charging his purchase."

But there are still many gasoline stations that charge the same price for cash and credit purchases, including the new Wawa on Essex Street in Lodi and every station on the turnpike and Garden State Parkway.

Silence is golden

On the Opinion front today, former Record reporter Carl Golden claims Democratic challenger Barbara Buono "became bogged down in extraneous issues while largely ignoring Christie's vulnerabilities -- property tax control, job creation, economic growth."

But Buono's TV ads and other campaigning did emphasize the 400,000 out of work in the Garden State and the sad state of the economy under the no-tax Christie, among other economic issues, only to be ignored or see her message buried by The Record.

The Record has been running Golden column's for years, but as a press flunky for two former Republican governors, can anything he says be believed?

More Shoop smears

Also on O-1, Columnist Mike Kelly continues to smear the name of Richard Shoop, 20, the Teaneck man who committed suicide inside the Garden State Plaza in Paramus last Monday night or early Tuesday.

In Kelly's second column on Shoop -- who hurt no one but himself -- the burned-out reporter claims the Teaneck man's name "will unfortunately join a long list of young men" who killed many others at Columbine High School; a Newton, Conn., elementary school and other places I won't list.

Kelly could have been effective merely recounting his impressions of Shoop, who worked at Victor's Pizzeria, the Teaneck shop the reporter patronized.

Instead, he irresponsibly sensationalizes and exaggerates what happened at the Paramus mall and compares Shoop to mass killers.

Fat and food

There's no explanation why the proposed federal ban on trans fats hasn't been packaged with all of the Christie coverage (Editorial, O-2).

Readers familiar with Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung's obsessions with artery clogging meat and desserts will get a kick out of her reporting today on "a large selection of fresh fruit, vegetables and dairy products" at the Wawa in Lodi (BL-1 and BL-4).

In Travel today, a cover story about the island of Nevis from The Washington Post is accompanied by a list of hotels and restaurants with prices (T-4).

So, are readers to assume that when travel pieces by Editor Jill Schensul and other staffers are silent on prices that means they were comped by cruise lines, airlines and hotels in return for the publicity?

Read More

Will we get rid of Governor Christie sooner or later?

Except for a long article on how NJ Transit track assignments are made at Amtrak's Penn Station in Manhattan, above, The Record's transportation reporters apparently have never set foot on a train or bus during the rush-hour and reported on the quality of service, in contrast to the endless drivel and clueless advice for drivers from the paper's so-called Road Warrior, Staff Writer John Cichowski, also known as The Addled Commuter for all of the errors he makes.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The Record's front page today keeps up the drumbeat for Governor Christie as a Republican presidential candidate in 2016, leading many New Jersey residents to speculate on just when they will get rid of him.

The Woodland Park daily insists on calling the GOP bully's victory over Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono a "landslide" (A-1), though fewer than four of every 10 registered voters actually cast ballots, according to APP.com.

It may be more accurate to say "partial landslide" or "rock slide."

The Asbury Park Press Web site reports "turnout was expected to be well below 40 percent."

Mall cops

There isn't much else on Page 1 today except for the reopening of Garden State Plaza after an armed Teaneck man committed suicide there, and another silly column from Tara Sullivan, the Woodland Park daily's Vagina Monologue.

The big A-1 photo of two Paramus cops patrolling Garden State Plaza is an unintentional sight gag.

Are shoppers at the state's biggest mall supposed to feel safer with two police officers walking the beat? 

The officer with his hands in his pockets looks especially benign. Where are the automatic weapons and body armor?

Three embarrassing corrections appear on A-2 today.

Hackensack news

The Hackensack City Council and Board of Education continue their negotiations and war of words over a resource officer at the high school (L-3).

Council members have frozen out Richard Salkin, the board's attorney. The Record's story today incorrectly identifies Salkin as "city attorney."

Salkin also was the city's municipal prosecutor until a council reform slate booted him out of the job this year.

Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza needed another gee-whiz photo of an overturned car to pad today's local news report (L-3).

Spice route

Better Living brings us just what we need -- an Indian restaurant in Secaucus that has imported Manhattan's sky high prices (BL-1 and BL-3).

Not only that, but you have to drive on Route 3, competing for space with maniacal speeders and tailgaters.

There is no pronunciation guide for the restaurant's name, Dhoom, but I'm guessing this place is doomed.

Second look

On Wednesday's Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski reported on an accident four years ago in which a speeding driver nearly killed a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

The pickup truck driver was caught, thanks to a red-light camera, which Cichowski has repeatedly demonized in previous columns.

His Sunday column on a driver who complained of high towing charges failed to note the poor schmuck could have avoided the alleged ripoff by having his car jump-started at a nearby service area gas station.

The column, which broke a two-week silence, was filled with errors, says the concerned reader who set up a Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

Wednesday's column also misleads readers about pedestrian safety, which is improving in New Jersey.

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Thanks, Gov. Christie, for screwing up our Garden State

The Fairmount School, one of the polling places in Hackensack, where there was no waiting to vote on Tuesday afternoon. Only about 45 percent of registered voters statewide turned out on Tuesday, according to NJ.com.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Governor Christie easily won a second term on Tuesday, meaning our Garden State will surely go from bad to worse in the next few years.

Democrat Barbara Buono -- the state senator who was betrayed by the bosses of her own party, anti-feminist voters and The Record -- fought the good fight, and earned the respect of many state residents.

This election season also will be remembered for the cowardice of U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who put his personal ambitions above the crying need to get rid of the GOP bully.

And Democrats shouldn't forget that President Obama campaigned for the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, but only sent a get-out-the-vote e-mail to New Jersey that didn't even mention Buono by name.

From bad to worse

What's in store for New Jersey in Christie's second term? 

You won't find anything about that in today's edition of The Record, where election results appear on A-1, A-6, A-7, L-1, L-3, L-6 and L-7, and where an A-10 editorial wishes the rotund politician "good luck."

NJ.com reported only about 45 percent of registered voters cast ballots on Tuesday, suggesting that Buono also fell prey to the state's legions of apathetic morons.

Media hype

Today's front page also carries more exaggerated coverage of the suicide of Richard Shoop, 20, of Teaneck inside the Garden State Plaza (A-1, A-8 and A-9).

The CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley on Tuesday covered the mall suicide as part of a review of "mass shootings," even though Shoop reportedly "looked people in the eyes ... telling [them] not to worry, that they were not his target" (Page 1 of The Record).

Out of order

First let's review all the damage Christie has wrought, starting in 2010, when he dismissed the only African-American member of the state Supreme Court.

Christie's attempts to remake the court in his own conservative image have been thwarted by the state Legislature's majority Democrats, also known as the Trenton Men's Club, whose members refused to confirm the legal turkeys he nominated.


Railroads commuters

His then cancelled the Hudson River rail tunnels -- the biggest mass-transit expansion in decades -- and rubber-stamped higher tolls on the turnpike and at the Hudson River crossings.

That means drivers must sit in nightmarish rush-hour traffic jams for the privilege of paying as much as $13 to get to Manhattan, and other commuters can't find enough seats on trains and buses.

And Hudson River tolls will be going up again on Dec. 1.

Christie also has refused to replace retiring state troopers, leading to a dramatic decline in the enforcement of laws against speeding, tailgating and other reckless driving.

Christie also demonized teachers and state workers, but it remains to be seen just how much money will be saved by his so-called pension reforms.

However, he didn't stint on adding cronies from his years as U.S. attorney to his administration and to the bloated payroll of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

No-tax crackpot

Christie's refusal to raise taxes of any kind has left state finances in disarray, and the New Jersey economy still hasn't recovered from the recession -- only 50% of lost jobs have been restored, despite hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to wealthy business owners.

Local property taxes continue to increase, despite Christie's promise during the 2009 campaign he would lower them, and residents get little in return.

Rough ride

In a few days, I will drive over the same pockmarked street to deliver my quarterly taxes of $4,264 to City Hall in Hackensack, where the powers that be paved every block of Euclid Avenue except mine. 

State roads are in no better shape, because of Christie's refusal to raise the low gasoline tax and reinvigorate the Transportation Trust Fund, which pays for infrastructure repairs and mass-transit improvements.

A year after Superstorm Sandy, thousands of residents still can't return to their battered homes, but the news media boosted Christie's reelection by portraying him as a leader who can walk on water.

Introducing 'Vito'

He still claims the mantle of bipartisanship, even though his middle name is "Veto" and his big, fat mouth resembles that of Vito Corleone's.

On Tuesday, voters rejected Christie's veto of a hike in the minimum wage, and approved an increase to $8.25 on Jan. 1.

The Record's story reported opponents claimed automatic raises in the minimum wage would increase "employers' costs" (A-7).

I guess the reporter couldn't bring herself to translate that into what it really means: Greedy employers fear automatic hikes would cut into their record profits.

Shoop suicide

On WBGO-FM radio news, I heard Christie saying the Shoop suicide in Paramus raised the need to pay more attention to mental health issues.

Christie, who lagged behind other governors on tightening gun control, didn't even refer to the rifle Shoop stole from his brother.

Indeed, all of the people who voted for Christie should have their heads examined.

New Jerseyans face another four years of a mean-spirited politician who has already earned the reputation of the worst governor ever, hurting women, minorities and low-wage workers.

We can only hope he quits in 2016 and runs for president, setting himself up for the biggest humiliation of his life -- defeat by Hillary Clinton, a woman and a Democrat.

Read More

Will Romney nod be the kiss of death for Christie?

Wouldn't you rather have a woman with a solid 20-year legislative record running New Jersey than a macho, in-your-face GOP bully who is in bed with special interests and other members of the 1%?

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

A year ago, Mitt Romney suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of President Obama, but here he is today in The Record,  vouching for Chris Christie as "one of the very strongest" Republicans in a bid to take back the White House from the help (A-6).

The Romney endorsement came on Sunday as Christie and his Democratic challenger, Barbara Buono, continued to campaign, making a mockery of that morning's ridiculous headline on Page 1 of the Woodland Park daily:

Last shots of campaign

Both gubernatorial candidates will campaign today and tonight. The election is Tuesday.

Besides governor, voters will  choose state legislators, freeholders and other officials -- with little or no help on the issues from The Record and its bored editors and reporters.

Woman in name only

The main element on Page 1 today is a story that raises the horrifying possibility that Lt. Gov. Kim Guadano would become governor, if Chris Christie is reelected and resigns to run for president.

Guadano is often seen standing behind her boss -- in a throwback to the days before the women's movement gained so many rights.

A lawyer and former prosecutor like Christie, Guadano used last month's debate with Barbara Buono's running mate, Milly Silva, mostly to praise the governor (A-6).

What a non-entity.

Guadano has even less name recognition than Buono, the Democratic state senator with 20 years experience in the state Legislature.

Who is angry?

On Sunday, Christie said about Buono,  "I've never seen an angrier candidate" (A -6), suggesting the governor has never looked in the mirror.

Buono and the voters should be angry at Christie for telling the Big Lie about lowering property taxes, and for taking an ax to social programs to protect millionaires from a tax surcharge and funnel hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to wealthy business owners.

The headline on A-6 today -- "Attacks heat up in home stretch" -- completely contradicts Sunday's "Last shots in campaign," a reference to Saturday.

Buono noted Christie "went ballistic on a teacher" on Saturday (A-6) -- the day before Staff Writer Melissa Hayes' front-page blow job, which claimed Christie had changed his tone and was watching his big, fat mouth.

In a photo, a stern-faced Christie is seen wagging his finger at teacher Melissa Tomlinson, The Record reports today.

"I was shaking by the time we got done," Tomlinson said (A-6).

How did Hayes miss this Christie scolding of a constituent or did she simply ignore it to preserve the myth-making in her Sunday story?

Where is Deirdre?

The unexplained absence of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes is approaching a couple of months.

She may be out, but she isn't down, as readers can see from the major news from her hometown of Harrington Park that appears on L-2 today.

However, her deputy assignment flunky, Dan Sforza, still needed a Dean's List to pad today's local-news report (L-2).

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Local cross-dresser, idiotic headline and boring columnists

A moving truck from Philadelphia at the New Jersey entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel on Friday.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The most remarkable thing about Roger Bowne of Pompton Lakes -- a 6-foot-3 man who cross-dressed in public for 30 years -- is that The Record's local news editors apparently ignored him until he died.

His obituary is just about the only interesting bit of reading in today's Sunday edition, which is weighed down by leaden campaign coverage, an idiotic Page 1 headline and boring columns from Staff Writers John Cichowski and Mike Kelly (L-1 and O-1).

The headline over the front-page photos of Barbara Buono and Governor Christie declares:

Last shots of campaign

So, are readers to believe the GOP bully and his Democratic challenger are taking a day off from campaigning on Monday, the day before the gubernatorial election? 

Aren't the last salvos going to be fired then? What moron wrote that headline, and what supervisor approved it?

Forked tongue

The supposed big news is that Christie is watching his infamous tongue, but what is unreported in this so-called analysis is the foul, expletive-filled language he must use in private (A-1).

Can you imagine what he says about the homosexuals, low-wage workers and teachers he targeted during his first term?

The Record's coverage of the campaign has failed miserably by ignoring Christie's terrible record, including his inability to revive the state's economy after the recession or to keep his promise to lower property taxes.

He's just 'Roger'

The Bowne obituary mentions only one publication that paid any attention to the cross-dresser, the magazine Weird N.J., which featured him in a photo spread in 2009, when his "legend peaked" (A-4).

Of course, there are a number of freaks among the paper's local news editors, and that might explain why Bowne escaped notice until now.

Still lazy

After an absence of a couple of weeks, Road Warrior John Cichowski is back with another column that ignores the commuting woes of the majority and focuses on a driver's complaint, this time about towing charges (L-1).

The lazy columnist misses the biggest lesson here: Don't neglect regular maintenance if you plan to drive your car into the ground.

More Kelly crap

What's the point of Kelly's O-1 column about Cory Booker, who was sworn in on Thursday as a U.S. senator?

Harrington Park and Bergen County's other overwhelmingly white suburbs may have tolerated an occasional mixed-race family such as the Bookers, but they certainly don't deserve any medals for integration.

Virtually all of the county's minorities live in three communities, Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood.

That is no coincidence. Sadly, it the dark side of home rule The Record has ignored for decades.

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On Page 1: The Laurel and Hardy of right-wing politics

At Passaic Street and Summit Avenue in Hackensack, above, and at other intersections, crews are making curbs wheelchair accessible. What about improvements to ease the flow of traffic, such as turn lanes on Passaic, a notorious bottleneck? Don't hold your breath.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Today's Page 1 photo of Mitt Romney and Chris Christie -- a latter-day Laurel and Hardy -- runs with a story on a new book that exposes the dark side of right-wing GOP politics.

"Double Down: Game Change 2012" reveals the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that went into Romney's choice for a running mate in his ultimately failed bid to unseat President Obama last November (A-1).

Christie love affair

The book tackles subjects -- Christie's record, style and weight -- The Record's adoring editors and reporters have largely ignored in their effort to groom the GOP bully for a second term as governor, as well as a presidential run in 2016.

"The book makes fun of Christie's weight at every turn," according to the story, but it also reports on "the garish controversies lurking in the shadows of his record" (A-6).

Readers may be doing double takes, trying to recall when, if ever, The Record has discussed Christie's "spending as U.S. attorney, lobbying activities, steering contacts to donors and allies..., a 1994 defamation lawsuit" -- all deemed "a potential political nightmare," if Romney chose Christie as a running-mate.

Ignoring new poll

Another Page 1 story on the battle between Christie and Democratic challenger Barbara Buono reports in the first paragraph that "some polls" put the GOP bully ahead of her "by more than 30 points."

But that ignores this week's Fairleigh Dickinson PublicMind Poll that shows Christie's lead has narrowed to 19 points in the run-up to Tuesday's election, as reported by The Star-Ledger. 

Is The Record deliberately ignoring the Fairleigh Dickinson poll?

A-2 carries two more embarrassing corrections.

An editorial on A-9 urges a "no" vote on a constitutional amendment to raise the minimum wage -- a move Christie vetoed.

The Woodland Park daily claims it would "lock small businesses into automatic increases."

Small businesses? Are McDonald's and Walmart "small businesses"?

Utility pole update

The big Hackensack news today is the arrest of a 73-year-old man on charges of sexually abusing three children (L-6).

On the same page, a photo keeps readers abreast of North Jersey utility pole news, this time in Franklin Lakes.

The photo shows six PSE&G crewman repairing a downed utility line. No wonder our rates are so high. And where were they after Superstorm Sandy?

A Better Living cover story reports on the crappy food served at sports arenas, and the exorbitant prices paid by inebriated fans who can't get enough harmful animal antibiotics and growth hormones (BL-1).

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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. Sasson
Editor

The 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 room visits to treat a still-undiagnosed illness" (A-4).

What good is a health-insurance policy that socks a 
20-year-old you with $1,000 in bills?

Why is The Record portraying the cancellations as a bad thing, and as just another problem with federal health-care reform?

NJMG cancellations

And where are the stories about companies such as North Jersey Media Group cancelling health-insurance policies?

NJMG, which publishes The Record of Woodland Park, has informed retirees and their dependents under 65 that "we have decided to eliminate" medical benefits, effective Jan. 1.

This year, I have been paying $1,004 a month to cover my wife and son. I am covered by Medicare.

The letter notes "the Affordable Care Act now offers other choices," and even provides a telephone number (1-800-318-2596) to avoid the problem-plagued Web site, www. HealthCare.gov.

"In the Marketplace, you could be eligible for a new kind of tax credit that lowers your monthly premiums right away," according to the letter, which is signed by Thomas G. Heffernan, NJMG vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer.

Election issue

The Record has waited until five days before the gubernatorial election to report on the candidates' differences on controlling property taxes (A-1).

The story says property taxes have continued to rise despite Governor Christie's policy changes, but doesn't specifically remind readers the GOP bully promised to cut property taxes and realize other savings through consolidation of home-rule communities (A-1).

Christie broke both promises.

Democratic challenger Barbara Buono would use revenue from a so-called millionaires tax to provide more middle-class property tax relief (A-4).

An estimated $1 billion would be raised by a tax on the wealthy, including the Borg family, but Christie has vetoed it at least three times.

Shitting bricks

Did anyone read more than a few paragraphs of Mike Kelly's lame column on "two distinct portraits" of Newark, also known as Brick City (A-1)?

The front-page photo shows the "gleaming Prudential Center sitting alongside older brick buildings." 

Older brick buildings? Horrors. Check out Kelly's shit-eating grin in his dated column photo. 

Two embarrassing corrections appear on A-2 today.

On A-3, a photo of Christie almost makes overweight first lady Mary Pat Christie look petite.

Readers lost in valley

Endless coverage of the proposed Valley Hospital expansion in Ridgewood continues today on the Local front.

Considering that the hospital would add space without going outside its current boundaries, The Record should be ashamed of itself for giving so much space to opponents in the past several years (L-1).

Hackensack University Medical Center's many expansions virtually destroyed the surrounding neighborhood, but The Record didn't provide anything close to the kind of coverage we see in the Ridgewood controversy.

The Borg factor

Today, the hospital's ambulance service keeps many Hackensack residents awake, and its non-profit status inflates homeowners' nightmarish property tax bills.

Where are those stories?

In the past, the gentle handling of the medical center could be explained by the presence of  NJMG Vice President and General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg on the HUMC board.

But what is the excuse now? She left the board several years ago.

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