A funny thing happened on my way to voting for Roy Cho

This morning, my vote for Roy Cho was signed, sealed and delivered to the Board of Elections in Hackensack

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I've been using mail-in ballots for a few years, but for security always deliver them by hand to the Board of Elections in the Bergen County Administration Building in Hackensack.

On Wednesday, I drove there around 11:30 a.m.. only to be told by a security guard to park in the employees garage -- the visitors lot was full because of a weekly farmers' market.

He told me I could park only on the fourth or fifth floor of the parking deck, and with speed bumps, it took a long time just to get to the third level.

That's when I turned around, and drove to Englewood, where I arrived late for my volunteer shift at the medical center.

This morning, my ballot and my wife's ballot, marked for Democrats Cory Booker and Roy Cho, the 5th Congressional District challenger, were signed, sealed and delivered to the Elections Board.

My ballot marked for Roy Cho.

'In striking distance'

Today, The Record tries to minimize a poll showing Cho, an attorney who lives in Hackensack, trails the incumbent by only 5 points.

The story was played on the Local front and focused on Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, one of the most conservative members of Congress (L-1).

Garrett has ignored the needs of his constituents to focus on staying in office. He is seeking a seventh term in the Nov. 4 election. 

Click on the following link to read about the poll:

Challenger in striking distance

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Goose-meat frank might even be considered 'gourmet'

Up close, the exterior color scheme of the incomplete American Dream entertainment and retail complex in the Meadowlands doesn't look half bad. But the old name, Xanadu, continues to appear on at least one sign, below.

 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If you're like me and didn't have a chance to read The Record today and Wednesday, you haven't missed much.

Two days in a row, Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson tries mightily to interest readers in the election pitting U.S. Senator Cory Booker against conservative Republican Jeffrey Who? of Leonia.

Trouble on wheels

Staff Writer John C. Ensslin covers Bergen County government so his knowledge of food presumably is limited.

On Page 1 today, he mentions Callahan's low-quality hot dogs and "gourmet" in the same story about a deal to allow food trucks to serve people in county parks.

Weenie lover

In a Second Helpings blog post today, the fine-dining Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung is beside herself about Rosie's Weenie Wagon setting up in Overpeck Park in Leonia.

Rosie's Sabrett franks are nothing special, just more mystery meat filled with preservatives, but she might want to pursue an agreement with state and county officials to reduce the park's population of geese.

This way, she could serve franks made from goose meat -- surely a lot more "gourmet" than Sabretts' beef hotdogs -- and help keep park sidewalks clear of droppings.

Worst governor

The story on Governor Christie being chosen as a "Father of the Year" makes no mention of when he'll receive an award for being the "Worst Governor of New Jersey" (A-1 and A-3).

Meanwhile, his former chief of staff was scheduled to testify before the legislative panel investigating last September's George Washington Bridge lane closures in Fort Lee (A-1).

Don't hold your breath for any revelations.

Apartment glut

On the Local front today, Hackensack reporter Christopher Maag exaggerates the impact of any delay facing the city in the development of Lot C, which is now a parking lot near Bowler City and the Ice House (L-1).

Lot C is only one piece of property where the city plans to allow apartment development, including nearly 20 acres along River Street owned by North Jersey Media Group.

One luxury complex is already open and another 200-plus apartments are under construction on State Street, a few blocks from City Hall.

Where the city will find room in its schools for children from all those new apartments hasn't been addressed.

 

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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 in the Senate.

The annual parade along Palisade Avenue passed City Hall, above. Participants included members of churches in the city, public and charter school students, Civil War and Revolutionary War reenactors firing their rifles or muskets, and overweight middle-age men riding and revving their loud motorcycles.  

The Englewood Corps of the Salvation Army.

Students from Dwight Morrow High School, above and two photos below.

A supercharged Auburn boat-tail speedster.

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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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JFK assassination, immigrant students and retail

Most but not all of the residents of Clinton Place in Hackensack took down their Halloween displays today, above and below. From the looks of The Record's front page today, you'd think a zombie editor was at work in the Woodland Park newsroom.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Look out, readers, it's the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy -- one of the saddest days in American history, right up there with the murders of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy.

Instead of exploring why we still have so much gun violence and such a strong racist reaction to President Obama, The Record's front page asks, "Where were you that day?"

The sub-headline uses this phrase: "JFK's assassination."

Doesn't that mean the assassination belongs to John F. Kennedy? If so, that is incorrect, another Page 1 screw-up missed by six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton. 

50 years ago?

Most of The Record's readers can't remember where they were 50 days ago, let alone a half-century earlier, so what's the point of this journalistic exercise?

The anniversary is on Nov. 22, so it's not clear why The Record is marking it today, 21 days early.

The only other stories on A-1 today are process stories -- the blow-by-blow on allowing illegal immigrant students to pay lower in-state tuition rates, and the public financing of the huge entertainment and retail complex called American Dream.

Is this Editor Marty Gottlieb's concept of breaking news or local news?

Booker and Buono?

The swearing in of Cory Booker as the state's first African-American U.S. senator is on A-3 today, but no one thought to ask him if he will be campaigning for Barbara Buono, the Democratic state senator who is an uphill battle with the GOP bully, Governor Christie (A-3).

In Local, Deputy Assignment Flunky Dan Sforza played trick or treat on readers again, and readers were tricked.

Eight Law & Order or court stories appear in the section.

Simply mediocre

Better Living has another lukewarm restaurant review from Staff Writer Elisa Ung, this time of Bistro du Saigon in Fort Lee (BL-10).

You know the place is forgettable when Ung spends the first half of the review talking about everything else but the food.

There are only two words you need to know to find great Vietnamese food in Bergen County: Simply Vietnamese, a BYO in Tenafly.

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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. Sasson
Editor

Extremism 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 Record can finally look at the vote totals for the Tea Party crackpot and winner Cory Booker, and amuse themselves with trying to find North Jersey's closeted racists.

Many of them are voters who complain Democrats are trying to take away their guns or who fall for the classic Republican big lie: lower taxes.

Racial backlash?

The belated town-by-town vote totals in Wednesday's special election show that Booker carried Bergen and Hudson counties, but lost Morris County to the GOP right winger (A-6).

Among the towns giving Lonegan more votes were Allendale, Alpine, Carlstadt, Emerson, Hasbrouck Heights, Mahwah, Montvale and Paramus.

But Lonegan lost his hometown, Bogota, as well as Englewood, Teaneck, Hackensack and Tenafly, where Publisher Stephen A. Borg lives in a $3.65 million McMansion.

Booker trounced Lonegan in Teaneck, where the vote total was higher than in Hackesnack, the most populous community in Bergen County, but one that is known for voter apathy and low turnouts.

Booker is New Jersey's first African-American senator, and one of only two blacks in that august body, but will he encounter the same racial backlash as President Obama has?

The Record's chart is confusing, with county vote totals listed before individual towns instead of after.

Local-news drought

What is the point of Road Warrior John Cichowski's column about Westwood's former traffic safety officer and his 250 DWI arrests (L-1)?

Today's thin Local section is missing Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood news, and an expanded local obituary, but Deputy Assignment Flunky Dan Sforza found room for another Dean's List (L-6).

Page fizzles

In Better Living, free-lancer Jeffrey Page's entertaining story about a "real seltzer" maker from Fort Lee doesn't tell readers how much the stuff costs -- likely because Page is hiding sticker shock (BL-1).

Instead of trying to scoop the competition or writing about a subject no one else has the courage to tackle, Columnist Mike Kelly rehashes "the lessons" of Booker's victory (O-1).

Kelly also is sticking with his dated, unflattering column photo and silly shit-eating grin. 

Forced busing

In a letter to the editor, Denise Black of Egg Harbor relates the atrocious service she received when she took an NJ Transit bus to Manhattan from Atlantic City, and then an extremely long line at the Port Authority Bus Terminal that resembled a "herd of animals" for the return trip (O-3).

That's funny. Why is a reader reporting on the quality of bus service and not The Record's transportation reporters, including Cichowski and Karen Rouse?

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Booker and The Record are pissing off Democrats

The Statue of Liberty.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

I 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 were all over the story. 

Charles Stile, the incompetent screwball who writes about politics, has two columns today on the so-called meaning of the election results, and how Booker and Christie "locked in a warm man-hug" (A-1 and A-6).

Stile doesn't explain how a "man hug" is different than a regular hug, and conveniently omits mention of all the damage Christie's conservative polices caused in Newark and the state.

Christie's cuts in state aid forced Newark to lay off more than 200 police officers, and he's vetoed everything from a hike in the minimum wage to the millionaires' tax to legislation allowing gay marriages.

Too many columns

So much for Christies' repeated claim to have worked with Democrats in the state Legislature, and The Record's endless reporting about "bipartisanship."

Meanwhile, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin claims in his column today that the good showing of Lonegan, the crackpot former mayor of Bogota, is a win for Republicans (A-23).

It didn't help that The Record used the word "passion" to describe Lonegan's extremism and racism in his campaign against Booker.  

Why two columns on the results of the U.S. Senate contest, and no town-by-town, county-by-county tally for the election?

Let's hope Booker uses his time before he takes his seat in Washington to campaign for Barbara Buono and help the Democratic challenger further expose Christie's war on the middle and working classes.

Suit settlement

In Hackensack news, Local reports a $495,000 settlement in a sex harassment suit filed against Construction Official Joseph Mellone and City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono (L-1).

Marcella Sbarbaro, a former clerk-typist in the Building Department, claimed that Mellone forced her to have sex under threat of losing her job, and that Lo Iacono allegedly did nothing to stop the harassment.

Thanks to Production Editor Liz Houlton, the "Queen of Errors," a sub-headline and text say the woman filed her suit in 2011, but later the story says Sbarbaro "sued the city in April 2010."

Another screw up is acknowledged in an A-2 correction today.

The L-1 story doesn't say when the settlement was filed, meaning Staff Writer Kibret Markos, the Bergen County Courthouse reporter, probably missed it while he covered the Hudson News inheritance battle full time. 

Sinking feeling

Staff Writer Elisa Ung's review of Pier 115 Bar and Grill in Edgewater gives readers a queasy feeling from the first paragraph.

When the first half of her appraisal discusses parking, the view and the beer selection, the overpriced food must suck.

You also have to wonder about Ung's concept of dinner when she actually orders a $19 pretzel.

Despite all of the problems she encountered, she insists the view of the Hudson River saves the place.

But the sad history of another waterfront restaurant in Edgewater, the Binghamton ferry boat, forever put to rest that canard -- or so I thought.

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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. Sasson
Editor

The 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 did Cruz claim "millions of Americans are being hurt" by the Affordable Care Act, and not a single reporter challenged the Canadian-born senator?

Booker victory

Today's front-page coverage of the election of Newark Mayor Cory Booker over Lonegan, 55 percent to 44 percent, was another close call for Democrats (A-1).

Readers who wonder how Lonegan got elected mayor of Bogota should meet a Teaneck woman who says she always finds the book she wants at the Bogota library, because no one in the town knows how to read.

But The Record has forgotten or ignores the $24 million Governor Christie squandered to keep Booker off of the Nov. 5 gubernatorial ballot, fearing the popular Democrat would help boost challenger Barbara Buono to victory.

Parents' plea

The Local front today is dominated by the campaign of  Emil and Manal Sous to get passage of a bill in the state Legislature dubbed "Michelle's Law" that would require drivers involved in fatal accidents to undergo blood and urine screenings for drugs and alcohol (L-1).

The driver of a car that struck and killed their daughter Michelle in front of her North Haledon home on March 17 was never charged with a crime or even issued a summons.

The parents' campaign seems reasonable, but The Record has for years reported pedestrian fatalities without ever asking whether criminal laws should be revised to make a driver pay for killing someone.

On too many occasions, drivers tell police they "didn't see" the pedestrian, and survivors have only civil lawsuits as recourse.

Bikes, not equality

On L-2 today, a story reports that Englewood is asking the state for money to install bicycle lanes city officials hope will lure cyclists to its struggling downtown for coffee or lunch.

It's hard to believe the wealthy city can't find $120,000 to create the lanes without state help, or that it even costs that much to paint parallel lines.

Maybe Mayor Frank Huttle III, who is married to a state assemblywoman, should be asking the state for help in desegregating its elementary and middle schools, not screwing around with bike lanes. 

News for the 1%

Staff Writer Kibret Markos continues to ignore everything else going on at the Bergen County Courthouse, one of the state's busiest, to cover the Hudson News inheritance battle (L-3).

In major Hackensack news, a man was arrested "on suspicion of setting fire to an apartment door" (L-3).

In a pitch to readers who have high cholesterol and are proud of it, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung obsesses over a "maple bacon doughnut" (BL-1).

Second look

In his Sunday column, Road Warrior John Cichowski provided eight "misleading or false answers" to 17 of his own questions about New Jersey roads -- that's nearly 50 percent.

In an e-mail to management, the editors and the clueless reporter himself, a concerned reader even pointed out Cichowski forgot his own extensive reporting on ways to cross the Hudson River without paying a toll or fare.

See the full e-mail on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Is John Cichowski really that stupid?

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Death of Jerome S. Some is linked to building renovations

On Saturday afternoon, a Hackensack police officer was on hand as three city firefighters used a hose to try and remove the blood stain left after Jerome S. Some was struck and killed by a small SUV as he was crossing Prospect Avenue on Tuesday night. Plywood covers the doors of Some's building, rear, during renovation of the lobby and other areas.

Pedestrian safety is a gamble on Prospect Avenue in Hackensack, above, where crosswalks are few and far between. The same can be said for signs advising drivers of the state law on yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks.

By Victor E. Sasson

Editor

Jerome S. Some would be alive today if renovations to his high-rise in Hackensack hadn't displaced members of the building's co-op board.

Some, 87, was crossing Prospect Avenue to a Tuesday night meeting of the board, on the second floor of Bel Posto Restaurant, when he was struck and killed by a small SUV.

Witnesses said the driver, Kathleen Gehm, 63, didn't see Some and didn't brake before the impact. She was charged with driving while intoxicated, police said.

Gehm is a nurse who is believed to have been on her way to her job at Hackendack University Medical Center.

On Saturday, Hackensack firefighters used a fire hose to try and remove Some's blood, which had stained the pavement in front of his building, the Eiffel Tower at 151 Prospect Ave.

There is no crosswalk between Some's building and Bel Posto, a fine-dining Italian restaurant with a sushi bar.

Pedestrian gamble

On Saturday afternoon, along the nearly 1 mile length of Prospect Avenue, between Passaic and Essex streets, I could find only four signs advising drivers of the state law requiring them to stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk.

Keep in mind Prospect is a busy street lined with high-rises and apartment buildings.

Two of those signs flank a crosswalk in front of the medical center, one is located at Beech Street and one is on Prospect between crosswalks where the street passes over railroad tracks.

One of the four signs on Prospect Avenue advising drivers to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks is near Beech Street, above and below, a busy intersection with stop signs, not the traffic light residents have been demanding for years.

Even when there are crosswalks on Prospect, they consist of two parallel painted lines in several cases, not the more visible painted cross-hatch.

Some, the founder and owner of Some's  Uniforms on Main Street in Hackensack, left a wife and four children ages 23 to 60.

Election follies

The Record's front page today continues the tradition of editors and reporters bored with the electoral process trying to persuade voters that nearly every contest is 

a horse race, defying the facts.

Voters weary of the endless discussion of politics and the absence of any real exploration of issues and what is good for New Jersey and the nation simply turn off and don't even go to the polls.

Look at the preview of the U.S. Senate election dominating Page 1 today, especially the preposterous headline over a Mike Kelly column on Steve Lonegan, the Tea Party crackpot who would add even more division to a dysfunctional Congress.

Which editor's twisted mind is responsible for using "passion" to describe Lonegan's racism and extremism?

Kelly, the columnist with the shit-eating grin, is so eager to avoid mention of Lonegan's shameless campaign against Newark Mayor Cory Booker he begins his piece with ancient history, something Lonegan did more than 30 years ago!

A-2 carries another embarrassing correction of a Page 1 story.

Another moron

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski has reached a new low: a quiz for drivers -- another royal F.U. to commuters who use the overburdened public transit system.

Kelly's failure as a columnist can be seen clearly on the Opinion front, which carries yet another dated, unflattering photo of the veteran reporter (O-1).

After detailing all of the millions of tax dollars that go into supporting football programs that cause "too many brain injuries in too many players," Kelly simply can't muster the courage to express the strong opinion that readers look for in a columnist.

Instead of saying emphatically that tax dollars shouldn't be used, all he can muster is: "It needs to be asked at some point why tax dollars should support it."

Doblin column

In a letter to the editor today (O-3), Paul White of Ridgewood questions the competence of Editorial Page Director Alfred P. Doblin, who started a column on Governor Christie and last week's debate with "three paragraphs on nonsensical questions concerning music" that "expose his usual bias" for the GOP bully.

White notes that during the debate with Democratic challenger Barbara Buono, "Christie displayed callousness toward the health of women, our cities, the middle and lower classes, and minority rights."

In view of that, why can't Doblin write a column without references to Broadway musicals and Hollywood films? That's so gay.

And as the editor who helps determine which candidates are endorsed by The Record, I don't think he should be writing an opinion column at all.

Let them eat cake

For yet another Sunday, the dessert-obsessed restaurant reviewer devotes her column, The Corner Table, to restaurants, not to the issues restaurant goers face (BL-1).

At least, Staff Writer Elisa Ung should stop pretending she is on the consumer's side and rename her column. 

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Is government shutdown motivated by GOP racism?

Several Hackensack Fire Department vehicles responding to a homeowner's call about a problematic gas stove lit up a street in the Fairmount section like a Christmas tree on Sunday night.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

I searched The Record today and Monday in vain for mention of Saturday Night Live's scathing satire about the roles of House Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Michele Bachmann in the government shutdown.

"It's our party. We can do what we want," the gay Boehner and slutty Bachmann characters repeat over and over as they take part in an orgy.

The Boehner character, his face glowing with the speaker's odd coloring, is shown kissing the bare chest of another man.

Click on the following link to see a video clip:

'We can do what we want'


No local reporting

I also haven't been able to find a report in The Record about all of the North Jersey residents hurt by the shutdown -- a GOP attempt to blackmail President Obama into delaying or "defunding" the Affordable Care Act.

The front page of today's paper is dominated by two news stories discussing state and federal politics, including another attempt to fool readers into thinking crackpot Steve Lonegan has any chance against Cory Booker  in the U.S. Senate race (A-1).

On TV news, I heard snippets about the shutdown affecting Head Start and the nutrition program known as Women, Infants and Children (WIC).

They're just folks

What the federal programs have in common is that they serve minorities, people of color who aren't exactly considered The Record's demographic.

The Woodland Park daily has devoted more space to Ridgewood residents complaining about the proposed expansion of The Valley Hospital within its own campus and the installation of tall utility poles than it has to Head Start, WIC or other government programs for the working class.

That's no surprise, considering the newsroom's lack of diversity and the white hacks writing news and feature columns.

This kind of editorial racism is being mirrored by congressional Republicans and Tea Party radicals who still have not gotten over the election of a black president.

What else can you conclude from the repeated attempts to derail health-care reform, which will give coverage to 30 million uninsured people -- blacks and whites?

Shoot 'em up

If today's front page doesn't bore you to death, check out all the Law & Order news Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza displays on the Local front and just about every other page of the section.

It's Sforza's way of telling blacks and Hispanics that getting arrested is a sure way of making the local news section he supervises.

Christie-Buono

Why isn't a rare column about issues in the Nov. 5 gubernatorial election on A-1 instead of L-1 today?

Isn't tonight's debate between Governor Christie and state Sen. Barbara Buono important enough?

How's your cholesterol?

The Better Living feature on a new french fries stand at Garden State Plaza in Paramus is indistinguishable from an advertisement (BL-1 and BL-3).

No byline or other staff credit appears with the text, which quotes the millionaire owner as gushing, "I love french fries; they taste amazing" (BL-3).

On the opposite page (BL-2), the photo of a ricotta-vegetable souffle looks like vomit.

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Finally, editors are focusing on the uninsured

Signs provide plenty of reading along River Street in Hackensack, where The Record prospered for more than 110 years before the Borg family's North Jersey Media Group abandoned the city for the sticks, precipitating a slide in local-news coverage that persists to this day.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

On Page 1 of The Record today, Editor Marty Gottlieb drops the filter of politics to focus on the people who have been living without health insurance.

For the first time since selfish Republicans again tried to derail the Affordable Care Act, the paper carries profiles of North Jersey residents who hope to find affordable health care. 

Now, where are the stories about the behind-the-scenes maneuvering by health insurance company lobbyists, and the millions of dollars in contributions flowing into the campaign accounts of Tea Party radicals and other conservative Republicans?

Lazy reporting

But lazy journalism still dominates the front page in another column citing polls that claim Democrat Cory Booker now holds only a 13-point lead over Tea Party crackpot Steve Lonegan in the U.S. Senate race.

Lonegan, you may recall, recently kept a straight face when he compared governing Newark to his years running tiny, dysfunctional Bogota. 

And what about all those polls predicting a close race between President Barack Obama and GOP candidate Mitt Romney last November, when, in fact, the Mormon was blown out of the water?

Politics are the refuge of scoundrels like Staff Writers Charles Stile and Herb Jackson, who don't have the stomach for covering the issues that affect voters.

Errors pile up

Staff Writer John Cichowski is another so-called journalist who refuses to do the legwork to cover the issues of most concern to commuters in his Road Warrior column.

On the Local front today, Cichowski acknowledges the column started 23 years ago this week, written by a different reporter, Jeff Page, but doesn't admit he's no Jeff Page, despite 10 years of trying.

Cichowski's laziness is well-known, including his refusal to cover mass transit or report on declining enforcement by the state police of speeding, tailgating and other reckless driving.

Morons define issues

The addled Cichowski also allows drivers to hijack the Road Warrior column, and spin exaggerated tales of problems -- from highway detours to glare to red-light cameras.

And Cichowski has committed so many errors and given so much inaccurate advice on road rules, toll discounts and other subjects that a reader in Hackensack started a Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

Local news? Nothing from Hackensack and Teaneck for yet another day.

More failures

On the Opinion front today, another failed columnist claims the health-care exchanges "flopped" after they went online last week -- even though consumers have three months to buy coverage (O-1).

Of course, it's Staff Writer Mike Kelly who flops, especially with the shit-eating grin evident in his dated column photo.

On the Better Living front today, the imbalance in food coverage is evident -- the challenges of feeding a family on assistance shares the page with Staff Writer Elisa Ung's obsession with dessert (BL-1).

Ung again goes far afield in The Corner Table column, which is supposed to be devoted to restaurant issues, by stuffing her pudgy face with a new line of scones, muffins and croissants at Starbucks.

Hotel promoter

What are readers to make of Travel Editor Jill Schensul's gushing cover story today on new hotel "amenities" (T-1)?

Here's another major travel piece without prices, suggesting Schensul was comped by the big hotel chains or she agreed to write the lavishly promotional copy to land more advertising for her pathetically thin, 4-page section.

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