Front-page news, views from everywhere but North Jersey

Construction of a Justice Center on Court Street in Hackensack, above and below, seems to be moving as slowly some of the civil lawsuits filed in the Bergen County Courthouse.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With all of Paterson's troubles, why did Columnist Mike Kelly of The Record race down to Camden to assess whether it's the success story Governor Christie claims it is?

Christie has totally ignored Silk City, where gun violence took the lives of two innocent young girls last July and September.

And why did Editor Martin Gottlieb put Kelly's piece on Page 1, where the poor writing and lack of editing are even more embarrassing than the reporter's dated thumbnail photo, complete with its shit-eating grin.

Kelly's main character, Camden resident Clifton Bond, "pondered a landscape handcuffed by poverty and crime...." (A-1). 

"Pondered"? A "handcuffed" landscape? Is English Kelly's first language?

Stale Stile

Columnist Charles Stile has been known to write about Christie's White House ambitions as many as three times in a single week, as if he is on the GOP bully's payroll.

Today, for a change, his boring political column focuses on another Republican who wants to be president, Jeb Bush, younger brother of one of our worst presidents, George W. Bush (A-1).

Stile reports Christie raised funds for George Bush's 2000 campaign, but so did real estate mogul Jon F. Hanson, a close friend of the Borgs, who control  North Jersey Media Group, publisher of the Woodland Park daily.

You won't find any mention in The Record of Hanson raising money for W and for Christie himself, and Hanson wasn't identified in a recent story on his companies' role in a sale-leaseback deal for NJMG's Rockaway printing plant.

Vinnie Carzo

Also on Page 1 today is a heart-warming story about Vinnie Carzo, 20, a disabled Wanaque man who was made an honorary funeral director.

But you have to question the editor's decision to play this story on the front page when the obituaries of many prominent North Jerseyans are literally buried inside the paper.

Izod Center

If the 34-year-old Izod Center is expected to open "in a new form" in 2017, why has The Record made such a fuss over its closure, playing the news on Page 1 two days in a row?

Deep in the Izod story, Hanson -- Christie's sports and entertainment adviser -- is identified as a director of Yankee Global Enterprises, owner of the Yankees.

Legends Hospitality, a joint venture of the Yankees and Dallas Cowboys, provides concessions for the Prudential Center, the Newark arena that may see increased attendance after the Izod closing.

And, of course, Christie's friendship with the owners of the Cowboys is well-known.

Talk about a ruling class. No wonder Christie has repeatedly vetoed a tax surcharge on the Borgs and other millionaires.

Body in trunk

In Local, a photo on L-2 of investigators gathered around a body in the trunk of a BMW could be a scene from one of TV's popular CSI series.

The story says the victim, Jordan Johnson, lived in a luxury Fort Lee high-rise with his girlfriend.

But reporters make no attempt to explain whether Johnson was gainfully employed or how he had obtained a "large amount" of jewelry and cash stolen from the apartment.

Chilean sea bass

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung holds herself out as an expert on steaks and desserts, but she doesn't know much about fish and the potential for ingesting a lot of harmful mercury.

She complains the Chilean sea bass she was served at Matthew's Italian Restaurant in Clifton (2.5 stars) "was so grossly overcooked that it took some serious knife work to cut a slice" (BL-14).

But she should have said the real problem with the server describing the dish as "sea bass" is that "Chilean sea bass" or Patagonian toothfish has elevated levels of mercury not found in the much smaller fish. 

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Borgs embrace a downtown they abandoned in 2009

Plans for apartments on North Jersey Media Group's River Street property in Hackensack, once home to The Record, will likely involve an elaborate marketing campaign to attract tenants to a notorious flood zone with a view of a cement plant and, beyond that, the elevated roadway of the New Jersey Turnpike.

The major story in today's Sunday edition ignores why there are so many failed businesses in Englewood, above. The Record cites the small city as one of the Bergen towns that "believe ... adding rental apartments in their downtowns is the key to revitalizing their Main Streets." Rental  and condo buildings on Palisade Avenue in Englewood have done no such thing. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In the years after North Jersey Media Group pulled out of Hackensack in 2009, The Record carefully avoided reporting the impact on the city's already struggling downtown only two blocks from the old newsroom.

Today, readers will find more reporting on Hackensack and other Bergen downtowns than they've seen in years, but Teaneck's depressed Cedar Lane isn't covered (A-1).

The story is by Staff Writer Joan Verdon, the longtime retail reporter who has spent more than a decade promoting mall retailers and highway businesses.

Her premise is that officials in Hackensack and other downtowns believe adding rental apartments will translate into more shoppers and restaurant patrons, revitalizing their Main Streets.

That strategy has already failed in Englewood, where hundreds of units downtown and along Route 4 haven't completely revitalized Palisade Avenue, Engle and other downtown streets.

One issue Verdon doesn't address is high downtown rents, which a pharmacist cites as one reason he is closing his Ridgewood business after 32 years (L-2).

In 2009, Publisher Stephen A. Borg completed a major downsizing and the pullout of The Record from Hackensack, where the paper had prospered for more than 110 years.

The Borg family was responsible for the first wave of apartments in Hackensack when they sold a Prospect Avenue mansion to a high-rise developer.

The Whitehall at 280 Prospect Ave. was completed in 1960.

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The Borgs' hand-picked editor fiddles while N.J. burns

The Panera Bread Bakery-Cafe in Queensbury, N.Y., on July Fourth.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The front page of The Record today carries another so-called ANALYSIS, reporting the sad state of the New Jersey economy:

Governor Christie's "latest state budget," Staff Writer John Reitmeyer reports, contains more borrowing and more business tax breaks; higher property tax bills and no money for "transportation upgrades and open-space preservation" (A-1).

Why didn't this frank discussion of the mess Christie has made of the Garden State -- while catering to the rich -- appear before he vetoed the Democrats' budget proposal on June 30?

In a familiar story, Christie cut funding for women's health care, a tax-credit for low-wage workers and legal services for the poor, and delayed property tax relief to next year, according to a front-page story on July 1.

Silent endorsement

Yet the editorials that ran July 2 and 3 make no mention of the GOP bully's mean-spirited balancing of the state budget for the fifth year in a row.

Similarly, today's lead story on the woes of North Jerseyans struggling to rebuild their shore homes doesn't even attempt to assess whether Christie bungled federal Sandy aid, just as he tried to sabotage the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act in New Jersey (A-1).

Editor on vacation?

I've been on vacation out of state, but what is Editor Martin Gottlieb's excuse?

The onetime cub reporter for The Record went on to a stellar career at The New York Times, including a Paris posting, before he was hand-picked by the Borg publishing family to run their flagship daily paper in early 2012.

Not much has changed

The Brooklyn-born Gottlieb, 66, has been running the Woodland Park newsroom for nearly three years, but readers could be forgiven if the only changes they notice are longer stories, a relentless focus on politics and an even greater emphasis on front-page sports than his incompetent predecessor.

Readers are still ill-informed by a local-assignment desk filled with the same old, lazy sub-editors and stale, burned-out columnists that have been around for decades.

More lazy reporting

One of those lazy columnists appears on Page 1 today, trying to peddle a commuting story that affects only a few hundred people, if that (The Road Warrior, A-1).

Road Warrior John Cichowski and the paper's other transportation reporter, Karen Rouse, have labored in recent years to ignore growing mass-transit congestion, including a lack of rush-hour seats on trains and buses, and the delays faced by commuters trying to return to their North Jersey homes from the antiquated midtown-Manhattan bus terminal.

How does today's column on "a cheaper commute" over the George Washington Bridge benefit the vast majority of commuters, who are victims of Port Authority toll increases that amount to highway robbery?

Out of whole cloth

Cichowski is so lazy he will grasp at any straw as an excuse to write a column, such as his lame Page 1 effort on June 27 to tie the deaths of three men trying to fix a disabled truck on Route 287 to the average motorist whose car breaks down on a busy highway.

I pity the driver and passengers who follow his advice to stay inside a car with their seat belts on as trucks and other traffic flies by -- instead of getting the hell out of there.

The Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers notes that advice is definitely not posted on the AAA web site, aaa.com, as Cichowski claimed. 

Bankrupt section

Today's Business front story on mergers and acquisitions among community banks (B-1) makes no mention of Spencer Savings Bank assuming NJM Bank's deposits and loans, according to a letter sent to customers in late June.

The Business editors presumably are waiting for a press release.

The SMALL BUSINESS story today focuses on a restaurant in Conshohoken, Pa., not one in North Jersey (B-7).

Bring lots of dough

In Better Living today, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz and Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung continue their breathless promotion of expensive restaurants -- in a form of payback to those big advertisers (BL-2).

Food coverage has gone decidedly upscale in recent years, with no attempt to report on casual restaurants where four can eat for $50.

Lame local reporting

Today's Local front carries a story on Fort Lee trying to prepare for a steep rise in school enrollment (L-1), but no one has reported that Hackensack faces the same problem.

With hundreds of new apartments already built, under construction or proposed, the Hackensack City Council and Board of Education have yet to address the issue.

Dissing Hackensack 

Looking through the papers I missed since I left Hackensack on June 26 is a chore I'm trying to avoid, but the lead front-page element on June 29 caught my eye:

"Change isn't easy for Hackensack"

Is Columnist Mike Kelly responsible for this trite sentiment or does he tell readers where reform has come easily?

One look at his dated column photo -- with the same unflattering, shit-eating grin -- shows change doesn't come easy at The Record.

Negative spin

I saw Kelly at a Hackensack City Council meeting last month, and he has a nice head of gray hair. 

Isn't it time for The Record's editors to update his column photo, just as they did for TV critic Ginnie Rohan (BL-1)?

Kelly's column criticizing Hackensack's "unseasoned newcomers" is inaccurate and inflammatory, but it is typical of The Record's overwhelmingly negative coverage of the city it once called home.

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Christie will be gone when pension fund goes broke

The air is fragrant in Hackensack, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Today's front page "ANALYSIS" of the deepening state pension system crisis is good, but Staff Writer John Reitmeyer of The Record could be accused of burying the lead.

Readers who stick with his account -- which begins by saying "Governor Christie is following the well-worn path" of his predecessors by skipping payments -- might be shocked to see what awaits them on the continuation page:

"What all this means is that at some point in the future, according to experts, New Jersey's pension system, currently underfunded by an estimated $52 billion, could become simply too costly to keep afloat" (A-6).

That should have been the first paragraph on A-1 for crying out loud.

Derelict editors

Who was Editor Marty Gottlieb or one of his minions thinking of when they worked on this Page 1 story?

Certainly not public employees or even readers of the Woodland Park daily.

Readers also find out on A-6 the GOP bully basically told another lie: 

"Christie ... recently erroneously lumped [former Governor Jon] Corzine among the list of New Jersey governors who made no pension payments during their tenure."

Taxing readers

Now, Christie is facing a $1 billion budget shortfall, because he has refused, among other things, to impose a tax surcharge on millionaires or raise the low gasoline tax to fund road and mass-transit improvements.

Reitmeyer doesn't cite the conservative's inflexible no-tax policies or his past practice of balancing the budget on the backs of the middle and working classes.

In fact, the reporter doesn't even bother telling readers how many public employees are covered by the state's pension system or who they are.

Are they just bureaucrats in Trenton or are they teachers, police officers and firefighters -- in other words our neighbors?

The story says Christie is cutting his planned $1.58 billion pension contribution back to $696 million and, in the fiscal year that begins July 1, a $2.25 billion pension payment would now be just $681 million.

Christie also says he will "put forward new public worker benefit changes in the next few weeks" (A-6).

If I was a public worker who is already contributing more to my pension thanks to Christie, I'd really be worried.

Breathe deep.

Crash landing

Why was a pea-brained former sports reporter assigned to the story on the untimely demise of New Jersey multimillionaire Lewis Katz, killed in the "fiery crash" of a Gulfstream private jet on Saturday night (A-3)?

Staff Writer John Brennan reports "National Transportation Safety Board officials said it was too soon to discuss the cause of the crash."

They always say that less than two days after a crash, but there are usually only two possible causes: Pilot error or a mechanical problem.

Private-jet travel is one of the privileges of wealth, but Brennan doesn't even say whether it is safer to fly commercial.


The Borgs and Main Street

The Borgs' North Jersey Media Group has never had much affection for Main Street, judging by the abysmal lack of coverage of struggling downtowns in Englewood, Teaneck and other communities.

And Hackensack -- where The Record prospered for more than 110 years -- and its Main Street are still trying to recover from Publisher Stephen A. Borg's decision in 2009 to close the paper's headquarters on River Street, and move to the sticks.

Where money talks

Joan Verdon, the paper's retail reporter, writes almost exclusively about North Jersey's malls and highway retailers -- where the Borgs reap millions of dollars in advertising revenue.

You could think of this as journalism pay to play. Do merchants have to advertise in The Record to get coverage?

But the Business page on Monday carries a feature called "Main Street" that appears to be the editors' attempt to fool readers into thinking otherwise.

Today's piece is about North Jersey's pet-walking and pet-sitting businesses. Another recent "Main Street" feature reported on the maker of custom golf pants.

What a farce.

Teaneck police

The lead story in Local today is an upbeat report on the 100th anniversary of the Teaneck Police Department (L-1).

Staff Writer Jim Norman notes the onetime all-male force "now includes seven women, two of whom are lieutenants and two detectives."

But Norman fails to tell readers about the sordid period when women in the Teaneck department filed sexual-harassment lawsuits against their male superiors, resulting in legal fees and settlements that cost taxpayers many hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Are local assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza -- veterans who should be familiar with those suits -- deliberately slanting stories so as not to offend the Teaneck police?

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On Christie's GWB excuses, why did it take this long?

On a two-hour visit Friday to Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus -- where a gunman fired random shots and committed suicide last Nov. 4 -- I didn't see a single security guard inside the mall. A man wearing a safety vest and a shirt with a patch on his shirt helped shoppers cross the busy road near this unguarded entrance.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Did it really take nearly five months for The Record's editors to make a detailed case against what Governor Christie said he knew about the George Washington Bridge lane closures ordered by his aides, and how little he dug into it?

And why is this exhaustive examination of the "evidence" presented by Staff Writer Charles Stile, whose boring political columns are chiefly responsible for voter apathy in North Jersey (A-1 and A-6)?

Out of Stile

This should have been published as a news investigation, not as an opinion column by a writer who has been one of the biggest boosters of Christie's White House ambitions. 

No other credit is given for the column, so it isn't known whether Port Authority reporter Shawn Boburg or Staff Writer Melissa Hayes, who is assigned to follow the governor, worked on the project.

The bridge scandal broke open on Jan. 8, when The Record reported Bridget Anne Kelly, then Christie's deputy chief of staff, e-mailed David Wildstein, a Port Authority executive:

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

Wildstein, one of Christie's cronies on the bi-state agency that operates the bridge, responded to the Aug. 18 message: "Got it."

The result was four days of early September gridlock in Fort Lee, where Democratic Mayor Mark Sokolich had refused to endorse the GOP bully for reelection.

We're in a jam

Since then, all the key figures, including Christie, have stymied investigators by lawyering up, taking the Fifth, stonewalling or saying they don't remember anything.

And they are sticking you and me with their legal bills, which could total $2 million.

In return for their loyalty, Press Secretary Michael Drewniak and other members of Christie's staff got raises averaging 23%.

Isn't that hush money?

Afterthoughts

The Christie piece and another front-page story on the "resegregation" of Teaneck schools seem like afterthoughts amid all the coverage of a POW released in Afghanistan, and a bunch of foul-mouthed and foul-smelling pro hockey players (A-1).

The number of errors in the last two Sunday editions has declined dramatically in the absence of columns by Road Warrior John Cichowski.

The best story in today's Local section is the obituary for Jewish-Chinese community theater actor Edward B. Thom, formerly of Englewood (L-1).

Self-driving hype

On the Opinion front, a column by Edward Niedermeyer, an auto-industry consultant, oversells the significance of Google's self-driving car (O-1).

Like millions of hybrid and all-electric cars before it, the driverless car will make only small inroads into sales of gas-guzzling SUVs and ever-more-powerful performance and sports sedans.

In a masterful rewrite of previous columns, Staff Writer Mike Kelly bluffs his way through another piece on another disturbed gunman, who killed six and wounded 22 in California (O-1).

'Worst governor'

Letter writer Stephen Gigante of Hackensack hits the bull's-eye on Christie, who has proven such an elusive target for the editors (O-3):

"From the George Washington Bridge scandal, to violations of OPRA, to diverting Port Authority ... funds to the Pulaski Skyway, to the failure to make pension payments and to putting himself in commercials hyping Sandy relief [before last November's election], Governor Christie is ... becoming a footnote for the term 'worst Governor New Jersey has ever had.'"

Greed is good

The upbeat Business section cover story on the expansion of North Jersey hospitals outside their main campuses doesn't explore the impact of their tax-exempt status on municipal property taxes (R-1).

Most of Hackensack University Medical Center's 2.5 million square feet "on its main campus" in Hackensack is tax exempt, raising the levy paid by city residents.

HUMC has fundamentally altered the character of the neighborhood and makes a big demand on services, but gives little back to the city. 

If the hospital buys a building in another town, will that property be tax exempt as well? The story is silent on that angle. 

Flip side of news

Given The Record's superficial coverage of all of the foreclosures in New Jersey, today's Real Estate cover on Kevin Errico -- a Re/Max agent in Saddle River who "flips" empty homes for profit -- is really in bad taste (R-1).

But it is no surprise. 

Real Estate and The Record's Business section reflect the Borg family's enduring philosophy of putting profit ahead of journalism. 

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Are taxpayers footing huge Bridgegate legal bills?

The Modern, a 47-story residential building under construction in Fort Lee, overlooks the three George Washington Bridge access lanes at the center of Governor Christie's biggest crisis since he took office in 2010.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The print edition still hasn't hit my driveway, so I turned to NorthJersey.com for the latest developments in the Bridgegate scandal.

Everybody is hiring highly paid legal heavyweights to represent them, but I can't find a word about whether taxpayers are going to be stuck with the bills.

Governor Christie; Bridget Anne Kelly, the deputy chief of staff he fired; and David Samson, chairman of the Port Authority, have retained new counsel, presumably to defend their official actions.

Are we poorer?

So, does that mean we have to pay the bills? What about the outside lawyer representing the state Legislature's joint investigative panel?

Kelly sent an e-mail to one of Christie's cronies at the Port Authority in August, saying, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

The access-lane closures on the George Washington Bridge caused gridlock in the Democratic borough in what is widely viewed as political retribution for Mayor Mark Sokolich's refusal to endorse the governor's reelection. 

Borgs get richer

The Record's print edition was several hours late on Wednesday, even though local streets had been cleared of snow.

At 1 this afternoon, today's paper is nowhere to be found.

We can thank the cut-rate, rinky dink delivery system the Borgs have used for eons, exploiting low-wage workers who have to hold two or three jobs to make ends meet.

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A weird story leads an even weirder Sunday edition

NJ Transit's 8:59 a.m. local to Hoboken was about 12 minutes late arriving in Clifton on Friday, above, but the older rail car was warm, clean and had plenty of empty seats, below. The station also has a waiting room that allows commuters to stay out of sub-freezing weather.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

After you say gee whiz or who cares, The Record's odd Page 1 story today on David Wildstein purchasing Internet domain addresses leaves you high and dry.

Readers won't find any explanation in all those words, photos, graphics and headlines of what that means to them or anyone else (A-1 and A-6).

Wildstein, the Port Authority official who resigned after ordering mysterious lane closures at the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, bought the domains of Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono, his boss at the Port Authority and others.

But none of them apparently tried later to create their own domains, so why is this news?

Wildstein, a high school buddy of Governor Christie's, comes off sounding weird, even for a Republican political appointee and political junkie.

Wrong words

In another front-page story today, the many state and federal versions of Joan's Law are referred to as a "cadre" -- a word usually reserved for people (A-1).

There are no corrections on A-2 today, despite all the errors in the paper every day. Last week, four corrections and one clarification were published.

Police story

On the Local front today, the untold story of trigger-happy America is the apparent lack of trust in the police to safeguard us in our homes and businesses (L-1).

At a vigil in Teaneck for the 26 killed in Newtown, Conn., gun-rights advocate Josh Levy accused state Sen. Loretta Weinberg of trying "to take away our guns" -- all in the earshot of five township police officers Levy has no confidence in.

Ice age

Today's column by Road Warrior John Cichowski is among the many he has written about "dangerous" snow and ice on the roofs of trucks, even though the last death of a driver hit by flying ice occurred in 1997 (L-1).

There have been far more pedestrian victims of NJ Transit trains, but Cichowski and the paper's other transportation reporters haven't taken the agency to task for poor safety measures at stations or for failing to deploy police officers to keep people off the tracks.

Funny money

On the Opinion front, Columnist Mike Kelly is back with breaking news: "Money talks."

That goes without saying at The Record, which lavishes coverage on big mall advertisers and stiffs Main Street merchants, as well as publishing flattering stories about Borg family friends  and business associates.

Whether big city police departments will be able to use purchasing power to persuade gun makers to be socially responsible remains to be seen.

But one thing is clear: Kelly and all other members of the nation's media have failed miserably to influence the debate.

Readers' letters

On O-3, August De Falco of Lodi defends the job performance of Hackensack City Manager Stephen L0 Iacono, who has agreed to resign under pressure from the City Council.

Several years ago, Lo Iacono was quoted in The Record as saying Hackensack has taken only "baby steps" on implementing solar power and other alternative energy.

Today, not a single public building or school in Hackensack has a working solar-panel installation -- in marked contrast to neighboring Teaneck.

Hackensack also operates inefficient police and parking enforcement fleets with not a single hybrid or electric car, and allows numerous employees to commute to and from work in city owned vehicles.

All of this makes property tax bills higher than they could be.

Walks on water

In a letter seemingly aimed at Record editors, reporters and columnists who idolize Christie, reader Sidney J. Goodman of Mahwah asks, "What kind of politician would make spending cuts while preserving tax breaks for the wealthy"?

"It is unbelievable that Christie remains popular," Goodman writes, despite cuts in women's health care, legal services to the poor, environmental programs, and so on and so forth (O-3).

Second look

In his Wednesday Road Warrior column on closure of Fort Lee access lanes to the George Washington Bridge, Cichowski misquotes a Port Authority official testifying in Trenton  and contradicts his own Sept. 13 piece on the controversy.

See: Road Warrior's reporting fiasco at the GWB

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Borgs are selling the front page to highest bidders

Nov. 16, 2013: Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Why are shoppers desperate for a bargain and how big retailing chains do on Thanksgiving front page news in The Record today and every year around the holidays?

Does every advertising contract sold by the Borg publishing family include a clause guaranteeing news coverage to Macy's, Target, Walmart and the other retailers whose glossy fliers are keeping the Woodland Park daily afloat?

Mauling the reader

More than a decade ago, The Record created a retail beat, though the reporter wasn't identified as such in her byline.

What has followed are literally millions of words on the opening of new mall stores -- and the abject neglect of so many struggling downtowns --plus such probing journalism as quoting a maker of mattresses as saying his product is the best in all of sleepdom.

The play on words attempted in the Page 1 headline over today's centerpiece falls flat:

Buy, buy holiday

What about all of the pre-Christmas sales that will be chronicled on the front page in less than a month?

The first paragraph also raises the question of when most people eat Thanksgiving dinner. Isn't it early to mid-afternoon?

So, why does The Record report: 

"North Jersey shoppers showed they're willing to reschedule Thanksgiving dinner."

Apparently, that first sentence was based on an interview at the very end of the story with a 19-year-old Paterson man at Best Buy who said he didn't mind missing Thanksgiving dinner to get a good deal on a TV for his mother (A-6).

Puck you, editor says

If only the wealthy Borgs are really interested in how retailers are doing, why did Editor Marty Gottlieb think anyone would care how the pathetic Devils are doing on selling tickets in Newark (A-1).

The hockey team has managed to lift its ranking among 30 teams to 20th from 24th (A-8).

The story doesn't say a word on such factors as the cost of tickets and parking or  whether food and beer prices at the Prudential Center are exorbitant.

Spacey columnist

On the Local front today, Road Warrior John Cichowski is back with a compelling commuting issue:

Finding parking at the mall on Black Friday (L-1).

The silly column for "road warriors" appears just below two stories about the increasing number of people who can't afford to buy food five years after the start of the Great Recession.

Why aren't those stories on Page 1 today?

Record errors

On Wednesday, Cichowski scored a record 21 errors in his column on Monday's meeting of the state Transportation Committee in Trenton, according to a concerned reader.

Some of the mistakes were quotes that were made up, according to the reader.

As an example of the errors, the reader, in an e-mail to managers and editors, noted:

"Road Warrior indicated that Bill Baroni, a PA executive, managed to explain away an unannounced change in a George Washington Bridge traffic pattern that caused five days of gridlock in Fort Lee.

"As the committee chairman and majority of committee members made very clear, Baroni tried, but did not manage, to explain away or provide all needed documents and information about the unannounced change that only caused four days -- not five -- of gridlock."

To read the full e-mail, see the Facebook page for Road Warrior Blooppers:

Is the Road Warrior hard of hearing?

Local yokels

In today's Local section, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sfroza again fell flat on his face in attempting to fill the section with legitimate local news:

Check out the long, wire-service obituaries for Alfred Feld, Jane Kean and Ye Htut -- three more people you have never heard of (L-5).

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Borgs are getting fatter on backs of low-wage workers

The warm, cozy interior of the restored train station in Ramsey, above and below. The ticket window was closed permanently this year, but commuters can wait for trains out of the weather, as well as borrow something to read from the public library. Hackensack, a far larger community with far more rail users, hasn't had anything like this for many years.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Today's Thanksgiving edition of The Record is stuffed with the fliers of retailers who will further exploit their low-wage workers by opening on the holiday.

The Borgs are growing fatter on the profits generated by all that glossy advertising from Walmart and other big chains.

Of course, an editorial today doesn't bite the mouth that feeds the greedy publishing family, and holiday store and mall openings don't even rate a mention (A-22).

No free lunch

The photo of a plump turkey under the headings "Taking stock" and "Thanksgiving comes to North Jersey" reminds veterans staffers that the Borgs -- many years ago -- ended the tradition of laying a free Thanksgiving buffet for employees who work on the holiday.

Where are the Borgs gathering for their bountiful holiday meal -- in Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg's East Hill mansion in Englewood or in son Stephen A. Borg's $3.65 million McMansion in neighboring Tenafly, where the publisher counts all his money?

Addicts on A-1

On Page 1 today, annual "giving thanks" coverage has Superstorm Sandy victims in Little Ferry playing second fiddle -- below the fold -- to recovering addicts in Paramus (A-1).

Meanwhile, the majority Democrats in the state Legislature have asked Governor Christie to suggest changes to a bill that would allow illegal immigrants to pay lower, in-state college tuition and qualify for state financial aid (A-1).

Otherwise, they are asking Christie to veto the measure he says he opposes, as he has with so much other progressive legislation, including a modest hike in the minimum wage.

"When he was running for governor, he supported it," said Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, referring to the tuition bill. "Now that he is running for president, he does not" (A-10).

More lies?

Does Christie's stance on the measure give a lie to all that promotion in The Record of the GOP bully as bipartisan and a compromiser who can get things done?

On A-3, a story notes that many of the so-called illegal students in New Jersey were brought to the United States at a young age by their parents, and have been living here for decades. 

Local yokels

Even with several holiday and Law & Order stories, as well as news about the police, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza couldn't find enough local news to fill his section today.

For the three readers who know who Conrad Susa was, a long, wire-service obituary appears on L-5.

Check out the awkward headline on the Local front -- "Cop chief" -- for police chief (L-1).

What was wrong with the well-worn "Top cop"?

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Sports, politics and apologizing for Christie

You won't read anything in The Record about improvements to the local bus system, such as the NJ Transit "talking bus" stopping in front of the South Paterson Library and Community Center on Main Street in Paterson, above. The paper's transportation reporters, including Road Warrior John Cichowski, have been ordered to write only about drivers and cars to boost sales at automobile dealers, whose advertising is keeping the Woodland Park daily afloat. 

By Victor E. Sasson

Editor

The Record's front page today has a strong New Jersey focus, but glosses over all the damage wrought by Republicans in Trenton and the nation's capitol.

The lead story on campaign donations to Republicans in the Garden State begs the question of how many millions lobbyists for health insurance and medical device companies are spending to get the GOP to shut down the government (A-1 and L-7).

New Jersey lags

The Page 1 story on a Chinese company bringing 500 to 600 jobs to Wayne notes that "while the state of New York has regained all the jobs lost during the recession, New Jersey has regained only around 60 percent."

But it doesn't link that to Governor Christie's failed policies of giving businesses hundreds of millions in tax breaks, but denying low-wage workers a hike in the minimum wage.

Further evidence that The Record's editors and the greedy Borg family are in bed with the GOP bully is burying the story on the second debate between Christie and Democratic challenger Barbara Buono (A-6).

Buono made another good showing, but the editors hope to obscure how Christie's favors millionaires and corporations over the middle class and small businesses.

Super Toilet Bowl

The front-page story on the delayed Route 3 project appears aimed at the out-of-towners who will be attending the Super Bowl next winter, and to hell with North Jersey commuters who -- thanks to Christie -- face the triple hells of worsening traffic jams, rising tolls and an overburdened mass-transit system.

In Local today, a photo over line says a granite sculpture is the "New Focal Point in Town," but the caption doesn't provide an address for the Leonia sculpture garden (L-6).

An A-3 story makes readers wonder what Christie is hiding about his health as he campaigns for a second term, and why The Record hasn't obtained his records in the more than two years since his June 2011 asthma attack.

Second look

The Borgs are so desperate for advertising revenue they got Deputy Assignment Flunky Dan Sforza to run a story on Monday's Local front, purporting that Bergen County residents are driving up to Nanuet, N.Y., to shop at a new mall.

I wonder if Sforza -- in the interests of synergy -- will be asked to get off his ass, drive across the border and solicit advertisements from mall tenants.

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