Reporter John H. Kuhn set an example that few follow

On River Street in Hackensack, you can make one stop for cheap gasoline and even cheaper, low-quality hamburgers.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I seriously doubt that many of the reporters at The Record will read the obituary of John H. Kuhn on the Local news front today.

And if they do, it's unlikely they'll try to match the disabled reporter's energy or his insistence on going out into the field to cover a story (L-1).

"He [Kuhn] churned out many thousands of stories over 43 years, often four or more a day," Staff Writer Jay Levin says.

"In the newsroom and in the leafy, affluent towns he called his own, the longtime Norwood resident was known as Mr. Northern Valley."

Today, the bylines of some members of the staff appear infrequently, as they take it easy under the protection of their benevolent local assignment editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza.

Stories are longer, though often not complete, and many of them are done by telephone or are based on press releases.

At The Record of Woodland Park, local news is no longer a priority, and Law & Order and court stories often dominate the section called "Local."

Brendan Jordan

The coverage of Brendan Jordan's death in a New Milford school gymnasium on Jan. 7 is typical of how the local-news staff covers stories.

Today, 10 days after the 7-year-old was fatally injured by a falling bench, a front-page story reports a safety mechanism wasn't engaged and a backup safety device was missing, "according to a police report released on Friday" (A-1).

The staff didn't attempt to do any independent reporting or ask the obvious questions about maintenance before release of the police report.

And New Milford School Superintendent Michael Polizzi "declined to comment" on the report, firm in the knowledge The Record's reporters always take "no" for an answer.

A sidebar with comment from the boy's parents, Tyler and Veronica Jordan, also on Page 1, doesn't ask the obvious question:

Will the Jordans hire an attorney and file a lawsuit against the district that may ultimately force the superintendent and his maintenance staff to pay more attention to school safety?

Eye on The Record 

will return next week

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Killings of police are rare compared to minority deaths

Traffic is funneled into one lane in each direction during reconstruction of the Route 46 bridge over the Hackensack River, above. Last week, President Obama said as many as 1 million jobs would be created, if Congress authorized the rebuilding of the nation's roads and bridges, compared to a fraction of that number for completion of the Keystone Pipeline.

I was 11th on the line of commuters waiting for NJ Transit's 165 Turnpike Express to Hackensack and Westwood, scheduled to leave the bus terminal in Manhattan at 3:05 last Tuesday afternoon. By the time the bus came, the line doubled back on itself and grew to more than 40. Commuters are sitting on the floor, left, because the Port Authority provides few seats or other creature comforts for them.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

At the end of the long story leading Page 1 of The Record today, wire service reporters note "the last shooting death of an NYPD officer came in December 2011" (A-12).

The hard-luck editors who got stuck working on Saturday just slapped The Associated Press story into the paper.

They forgot to localize the deaths of two NYPD cops at the hands of a black gunman by bringing up Jersey City Police Officer Melvin Santiago, who was shot and killed by a black robbery suspect.

Santiago was killed last July 13, as Staff Writer Mike Kelly reported six days ago in an Opinion page column that drew praise from readers in two letters to the editor on Saturday's A-15.


Kelly's resume

Kelly's column was too long, especially because the reporter reminded readers what a great journalist he is -- the book he wrote on the fatal police shooting of a black Teaneck teen, the Ku Klux Klan resurgence he covered.

He said the killing of Santiago and other police officers by black gunmen should be made part of "America's racial conversation."

Of course, what Kelly didn't say is that the deaths of Santiago and the two NYPD cops on Saturday are relatively rare.

Far more numerous are the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown and all of the other minorities at the hands of white police officers who are guilty of racial profiling and abusing their authority.   

Elderly coverage

The Record's editors ignore Alzheimer's disease and the challenges facing older drivers, but assign Jay Levin to cover the elderly in his local obituaries and, as he does today, in his occasional story on a 90- or 100-year-old who still is alive and kicking (A-1).

What a terrific photo Herman Schnipper of Hackensack took of sailors at attention in 1945 on the deck of the USS Astoria (A-1). Too bad it is so small.

The much larger photo on A-1 today is one of shoppers at Westfield Garden State Plaza -- yet another example of how the editors prostrate themselves in front of big advertisers to the detriment of readers (Local front).

Food promotions

See the Better Living section today for heavy promotion of restaurants, cookbooks and small kitchen appliances (BL-2).

Hungry? Why not try Millie's "famous Pot-of-Balls"? LOL.

Saturday's paper

The "non-profit" Hackensack University Medical Center has obliterated the residential appeal of its Hackensack neighborhood and uses a lot of city services, yet pays no taxes on more than $180 million in property.

Now, Medicare is fining HUMC for not keeping elderly patients safe, according to a Page 1 story on Saturday.

Only Bergen Regional Medical Center in Paramus -- the former Bergen Pines -- did worse.

Well, at least Englewood Hospital and Medical Center is only about 7 miles away.

Putz Prize

In a letter to the editor on Saturday's A-15, Dave Tomney of Maywood commented on Kelly's Dec. 14 column on the slain Jersey City police officer, declaring the reporter will win the Pulitzer Prize.

Or, as former Breaking News Editor Jerry DeMarco would say, "Pull It, Sir" Prize.

No jail for bus driver

The crying need to jail drivers who kill pedestrians is apparent in a Local front story on Saturday.

A judge sentenced former NJ Transit driver Catherine Collier to probation after she was charged with vehicular homicide in the Sept. 27, 2012, death of Joseph Currier, 49, a Passaic man who was struck by her bus in a crosswalk.

Collier accelerated "and ended up running a red light before hitting Currier," according to prosecutors, but the former bus driver claimed at sentencing it was not her "intention for this to happen."

This story by Staff Writer Kibret Markos is filled with unanswered questions:

Why was Collier, 67, who was charged with vehicular homicide, allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge?

Judge Adam Jacobs sentenced her to a one-year suspended jail term, apparently for assault by auto.

The judge ignored the victim's mother, who said at sentencing, "I['d] like to see justice done for my son."

See this Facebook page for another instance where an NJ Transit bus driver killed a pedestrian:

Innocent People Who Lost Their Lives ...

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Imagine sick kids wearing hospital gowns to a party

The 5,500-seat auditorium of Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan on Sunday afternoon as ticket holders were being seated for the 2014 Christmas Spectacular starring the high-kicking Rockettes, a huge orchestra, dancing Santa Clauses and much more.

The lobby of Radio City, an art-deco masterpiece that opened on Dec. 27,1932, and was restored in 1999, including the replacement of all seats, carpeting and wallpaper, and the restoration of murals, including "Men Without Women" in the lounge outside the lower-level men's bathroom, below.

After the 90-minute show, we walked less than a block to see the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center and, frankly, we were underwhelmed. The tree is towering, as usual, but this year, they skimped on the lights. Even the smaller Christmas tree on Main Street in Hackensack makes a bigger splash. Imagine that.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

There are reporters at The Record who don't need editing, others who don't get editing and still others who should have their heads examined.

Veteran Jay Levin, who writes the local obituaries after many years of thankless duty on the night copy desk, is a reporter who doesn't need editing, as two of his pieces in today's Local section show (L-1 and L-6).

Levin is at the top of his game, in stark contrast to Road Warrior John Cichowski, a confused reporter who gets no editing and who has committed hundreds of errors, not to mention all the wrong advice he's given drivers, young and old.

Another veteran, Mike Kelly, also gets no editing, and the result is one long, rambling column after another as he pushes around thousands of words in search of a strong opinion, which the reporter doesn't seem to have.

Party for sick kids

Then, there is Linda Moss, a reporter who covers commercial real estate for The Record, according to her Twitter profile.

On Sunday, Moss was on weekend duty when she was assigned to cover the 30th annual holiday party of the Tomorrow's Children Fund for kids who have been treated at Hackensack University Medical Center for cancer and serious blood disorders.

There was so little real news in Monday's paper that I found myself reading Moss' story on the Local front all the way through.

I was shocked at a sentence on the continuation page (Monday's L-3)

A photo showed two of the cutest children you could imagine posing with Santa Claus at a Hasbrouck Heights hotel where the party was held:

"The girls and boys were dressed up in their nicest attire, not hospital gowns, for the party," Moss reported [italics added].

How many editors and copy editors saw that and allowed "not hospital gowns" to get in the paper? 

Where was Production Editor Liz Houlton, who supervises the news and copy desks and is paid six figures to keep such an inappropriate image out of the paper?

Did the children with cancer and blood disorders once attend the annual holiday party in hospital gowns? Why even mention them?

Covering advertisers

The Record's editors may be insensitive to children with cancer, but they bend over backwards to cover their biggest advertisers, such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, Victoria's Secret and other retailers (Page 1 today and Monday).

The local assignment editors also seem to be ordering more coverage of wealthy communities.

Monday's Local front was dominated by an article and photos about schools districts in Tenafly, Ridgewood and Glen Rock, all of which are reexamining their homework polices.

When is the last time you read a story -- any story -- about Hackensack schools?

Upscale restaurants

The Better Living cover story on Monday recommended eight "great" restaurants, but five of them are expensive.

You have to turn the page to find three that are moderately priced.

The recommendations come from Elisa Ung, the paper's restaurant reviewer, who is lucky enough to have The Record pay for all of those artery clogging steaks and desserts she eats so obsessively.

Maybe she would appreciate value, if she had to pay for some of that food herself.

Today's paper

The Record's coverage of the Affordable Care Act has been largely negative, echoing the complaints of such conservative Republicans as Governor Christie.

Staff Writer Lindy Washburn and her assignment editor also continue to obscure how Christie and Republican governors in 35 other states tried to sabotage what they labeled "Obamacare," a derogatory term The Record and other media love to use.

In more than a year of covering the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act, Washburn and the paper's other medical writers have never actually interviewed the people who applied for health insurance.

Today, The Record's lead story reports that North Jersey residents who bought insurance "came from towns that are rich, poor and middle class, as well as municipalities where a majority vote Republican" (A-1).

Imagine what Record reporters could find out, if they actually interviewed readers and other residents of North Jersey instead of endlessly quoting experts, pollsters and spin doctors, and examining the politics of every issue under the sun.

Red-light cameras

In a letter to the editor, Keith Remland of Lincoln Park says of red-light cameras:

"Their biggest plus is safety" (A-10).

Remland said in a few words what two Road Warrior columns tried to hide from readers as Cichowski foamed at the mouth over "Big Brother," and quoted critics of the $85 fines, which many cash-strapped towns welcome.

Women's news?

Did a male editor lay out L-3 today, hoping to package stories on two different women?

In the bottom right corner, a story about a substitute teacher facing more sex charges appears next to one on Ridgewood's second woman firefighter.

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Mounting errors cause John Borg to spin in his grave

One of the attractive properties available on Hackensack's sleepy Main Street, at the corner of Bridge Street, five years after the Borg publishing family abandoned the city. The Record's retail reporter, meanwhile, is probably preparing another story on big-box stores or malls.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Even the Page 1 story declaring the original owner of the Bergen Evening Record a "Bergen County Legend" contains a major error.

The Record's glib front-page headline -- "Indian chief to Mafia don" -- is part fact, part fiction (A-1).

Sure. It got me and other readers to turn the page and plow through the list selected by the county Historical Society.

But actor James Gandolfini only portrayed a "Mafia don."

The "Indian chief" is Oratam, leader of the Hackansacky Indian Tribe (A-8), but the story doesn't mention the chief's profile is prominently featured on Hackensack's official seal.

The official Hackensack seal.

John Borg

Today's story reports that John Borg, originally a stockbroker, "became the owner of the Bergen Evening Record, which 'exposed political scandal, despite kidnap and death threats,' the Historical Society said" (A-8).

Borg was the great-grandfather of Publisher Stephen A. Borg.

One has to wonder whether Stephen Borg will be remembered for cutting costs so relentlessly that he sacrificed accurate journalism.

The befuddled John Cichowski, who has written the Road Warrior column for nearly 11 years, has made more errors than the entire newsroom staff in Woodland Park, and few of them have been corrected.

Since a major downsizing ordered by Stephen Borg in 2008, Cichowski's column has rarely been edited or fact-checked -- despite Production Editor Liz Houlton, who is paid six figures to ensure just that.

Today's paper

Staff Writer Melissa Hayes has become so cozy with Governor Christie she doesn't even tell readers the age of Bridget, "his younger daughter" (A-7).

The Local staff knocked itself out getting all the details of a dramatic rescue by three state troopers who pulled a truck driver out of neck-high water in Overpeck Creek on Tuesday (L-1).

But there is not a word on how driver Lawrence Scherf, 66, crashed and burned his tractor-trailer on the New Jersey Turnpike in Ridgefield.

Was he speeding or did he fall asleep, as have so many tractor-trailer drivers recently?

I chuckled at one detail: "The troopers dropped their leather utility belts and jumped into water up to their necks" (L-3).

Utility belts? Surely, the reporter meant "gun belts."

Pardo and Rieck

The Associated Press writer who handled the obituary of announcer Don Pardo didn't think readers would be interested in how he lived to 96 (L-6).

And what moronic layout editor at The Record decided to bury Staff Writer Jay Levin's light-hearted treatment of cancer victim Jeffrey Rieck lampooning relatives in his own obituary (L-6)?

A famous Hoboken deli didn't last long in this Main Street storefront.

High rents on Main Street, low chances of success.

'No-raises recovery'

The Record's Business editors weren't about to send out reporters to interview workers on what Bloomberg News calls "the no-raises recovery" (L-7).

"Five years of economic expansion have done almost nothing to boost paychecks for typical American workers, while the rich have gotten richer."

That's certainly the case at The Record and North Jersey Media Group, owned by the wealthy Borg family.

Cory Nieves

On the Better Living front, the upbeat story about a 10-year-old CEO from Englewood leaves a couple of questions unanswered (BL-1).

If the fashion-conscious Cory Nieves has been selling hot cocoa, lemonade and cookies since 2009 to help his mom buy a car, why is she working for him and still taking the bus?

And Cory might want to rethink selling cookies, if he just looked around and saw all the kids his age struggling with obesity, a subject The Record has avoided for decades.

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Hackensack budget plan tries to fix past sloppiness

The Record again today incorrectly reports Hackensack attorney Richard E. Salkin, speaking at Thursday night's City Council meeting, above, was fired as city attorney in 2013 after a reform slate was swept into office in the municipal election. Salkin was fired as municipal prosecutor, but held onto a second job as Board of Education attorney. He was city attorney from 1989 to 2005. Jim Mangin, the city's chief financial officer, is at right.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

As a property tax payer in Hackensack, I was impressed by Chief Financial Officer Jim Mangin's budget presentation at the City Council meeting Thursday night.

Mangin is trying to repair all the damage to city finances during an eight-year reign by officials loyal to the discredited Zisa family.

Sloppy work

Still, Staff Writer Christopher Maag of The Record puts a negative spin on the budget plan, and commits at least two errors in the process (L-2).

In his first paragraph, the reporter says Mangin "introduced" the "latest version" of the city budget, but the agenda listed the CFO as giving a "budget amendment presentation."

The council has already introduced the budget, and on Thursday night, members voted to approve the budget amendment.

The $94.4 million proposal -- about $2 million higher than the previous budget -- calls for a tax levy of $3.3 million and a tax increase of 4.37% or $161.79 more on a home assessed at the $240,000 average.

Maag's second error, which he has committed before, is reporting that Zisa ally Richard E. Salkin was fired in 2013 as city attorney,  a job he held until 2005. 

Salkin was fired as municipal prosecutor.

Staff Writer Christopher Maag of The Record at Thursday night's City Council meeting in Hackensack.

Say what?

On Page 1 today, try to ignore the idiotic headline that leads the paper:

Obama opens door to Iraq

The big element on the front page is an entertaining feature on Jersey, the English Channel island for which New Jersey was named (A-1).

But Staff Writer Jay Levin missed a couple of opportunities in reporting on the state's 350th anniversary:

He doesn't compare the accents here ("Joisey")  and there.

Nor do we learn whether the island offers any fast food to compete with New Jersey's Texas weiners and rippers. 

Or, on the other end of the culinary scale, Levin doesn't tell us whether the island can match New Jersey's sea scallops, fluke, monkfish and lobsters.

More Christie B.S.

Also on Page 1 today, Staff Writer John Reitmeyer reports Governor Christie will say and do anything to ram through his drastic $1.6 billion cut in the state contribution to the public employees pension fund (A-1).

Pollster Patrick Murray, who was incredibly high on Christie before last November's election, is quoted as saying:

"We've kind of reached the Wild West of the Christie administration, where almost anything goes" (A-6).

As usual, foul-mouthed Press Secretary Michael Drewniak declined to comment on the pension issue, saving all of us from a string of obscenities.

Where are the jobs?

As if to punctuate what a mess Christie has made, the first Business page reports "New Jersey's job market continued to flat-line in May" (L-7).

Yet, The Record continues to support the GOP bully's adamant stand against higher taxes on the wealthy, preferring to see the latest budget balanced on the backs of the middle and working classes, as Christie has done since 2010 (A-18).

Fat lover

In Better Living, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung continues to misrepresent "quality ingredients," including beef and lamb (BL-16).

In her appraisal of Novu Restaurant in Wayne, she praises a pricey filet mignon ($39) and rack of lamb (also $39), even though both apparently were raised on harmful animal antibiotics and growth hormones.

Ung sounds like an ignoramus when she describes the filet mignon as "prime -- the highest quality grade," and claims the Colorado lamb "is regarded as "richer and more tender than the same meat from New Zealand or Australia."

The vast majority of prime beef in the United States is raised as quickly as possible on grain, antibiotics and growth hormones. 

Lamb from New Zealand and Australia is often grass fed and raised naturally without harmful additives.

Second look

In his Tuesday column, Road Warrior John Cichowski tried to scare readers by reporting drowsy truck driving is a growing trend when only five days earlier, he said exactly the opposite, according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

"At the beginning of his column, the Road Warrior tried to scare the hell out of readers by making it seem that the truck crash due to a sleepless driver, which killed comedian Tracy Morgan’s friend and injured Tracy, is a frequent, imminent, and growing trend.

"What makes his false assessment even scarier and more confusing is that the Road Warrior reported later in this very same column, as well as in his June 12 column, that related fatalities are rare and crashes are a declining occurrence.

"Road Warrior indicated that Sens. Menendez and Booker held a press conference to talk about reinstating truck-safety reforms that would have helped prevent the crash of the sleep-deprived truck driver that involved Tracy Morgan's limo.

"They actually only addressed revising proposed legislation based on safety reform changes that would have had absolutely no impact on preventing that accident."

See:

Drowsy Road Warrior goes off road again

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Local obit writer expands beat to the living

On Monday afternoon, the light was green at Passaic Street and Summit Avenue, a busy intersection in Hackensack without turn lanes, but no one moved, because they were stuck behind a turning vehicle. Good luck trying to reach the Bergen County department that could do something to fix the notorious bottleneck.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The New York World's Fair opened 50 years ago today in Queens? Who cares?

In a testament to how much newspapers love anniversaries as a way of ignoring current events, The Record's front page today carries a story about a New Milford man who is called  "a prominent collector of memorabilia from the 1964-65 exposition" (A-1).

But there's more: A long editorial on A-8 that waxes nostalgic over the smell of Belgian waffles.

The story is written by Jay Levin, whose regular beat is crafting obituaries -- life stories of local residents who have died.

Mayor for the birds

Another front-page story quotes Fair Lawn Mayor John Cosgrove complaining it will cost $20,000 to delay painting an aging water tower until "baby ravens hatch and fly away" (A-1).

But the story makes no attempt to explain why the job "already has been put off for more than two years" or say how much that cost taxpayers.

Sounds like Fair Lawn is another town that raises and collects property taxes and then shortchanges residents on services, whether it is repainting a water tower or repairing potholes.

If you car hasn't hit any potholes, you must be a shut-in like Road Warrior John Cichowski, whose premature pothole columns ran several weeks ago with no follow-up.

Big Hackensack news

Don't miss today's big local news -- a photo of a three-vehicle accident on Route 4 west in Hackensack that injured four, including a baby -- on the front of Local (L-1).

Two SUVs and a car were involved, but the caption doesn't say whether drivers of the gas guzzlers were speeding or tailgating or both.

The accident photo gets better play than a group of mayors pushing for extension of NJ Transit light-rail service to Englewood (L-1).

Streets in Fort Lee, above, and Leonia were closed Monday, but none of the work was to repair numerous potholes on Fort Lee's Main Street or Fort Lee Road in Leonia. See L-3 in The Record today. Other potholes have drivers cursing on Routes 4 and 17, and just about everywhere else.

Anti-light rail editors

The Record has run anti-light rail coverage for years, and the paper rolled over and played dead when Tenafly officials killed a plan to extend the electrified line to the borough, where wealthy residents believe they have a constitutional right to drive wasteful SUVs into the city. 

It's unclear whether Publisher Stephen A. Borg, who lives in a $3.65 million Tenafly McMansion, had anything to do with The Record's lukewarm support for light rail.

Even though Englewood officials say they will build new parking garages for light-rail users, the plan might be doomed by a required 50% state match for the $1 billion project.

As commuters know, Governor Christie hates mass transit, but he may be out of office when the extension from Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen is ready to be built (L-7). 

Greed isn't good

Hackensack residents who lived under the yoke of the Zisa family for decades might get a kick out of another Zisa, this one an author.

The Better Living cover reports Mike Zisa will sign his book, "The Early Investor: How Teens & Young Adults Can Become Wealthy," at the Ramsey Public Library on Wednesday night (BL-1).

That's refreshing: A Zisa who wants to help others become wealthy.

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Renewing the ugly battle with racism in Englewood

In what many commuters know as the "Passover Effect," there were plenty of seats available on NJ Transit trains to and from the city on Friday, and traffic in the region was mercifully light. Many commuters left the day before to celebrate the holiday with relatives out of state or took a long weekend. Passover begins at sundown Monday.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The front page of The Record today and Friday appeared to carry big local news for a change.

Editor Marty Gottlieb called for a large, black headline today to announce "the largest toxic cleanup in U.S. history," but downplayed that no part of the Passaic River in Bergen or Passaic counties is included (A-1).

On Friday, The Record announced that Hackensack had settled the last civil-rights lawsuit against Ken Zisa, the family's rotten apple, who stank up City Hall during his years as police chief and state assemblyman (A-1).

The cost to the city and taxpayers -- in legal fees and settlements -- was put at "more than $8 million," but the story doesn't say how much of that was covered by insurance.

More racism?

Still, the story that jumped out at me appeared on Friday's Local front, where Englewood's ugly school-desegregation battle was back in the news (L-1).

The small city has been struggling with segregated schools for nearly 30 years, and in 2002, Bergen County started a rigorous Academies program at Dwight Morrow High School to draw white students from outside Englewood.

But the proposal that is being denounced by some parents is to have "mostly minority Dwight Morrow students and more diverse Academies students attend classes in the same buildings" [italics added]."

Low-grade fever

The story doesn't raise racism as the possible cause of the opposition. 

In fact, the story reports the concern is "low academic achievement," as if poor grades are catching, like a cold.

Apparently, no effort is being made to integrate the lower grades in Englewood, which the Borg publishing family called home for many years, choosing, of course, to pay for private schools.

More screw-ups

Friday's paper also was noteworthy for two lengthy corrections on A-2, and an embarrassing production error on A-5, involving a broken photo caption in the story on the 50th anniversary celebration of the Civil Rights Act.

Maybe it's time for a typo in the paycheck of Production Editor Liz Houlton, who is paid six figures, despite all of the errors she and her staff miss.

Praise for Axia

In Friday's Better Living entertainment tabloid, Staff Writer Elisa Ung lavishes 3 stars (Excellent) on Axia Taverna in Tenafly, an expensive Greek restaurant that opened in 2006 (BL-18).

What did she wait eight years to visit the place?

Still, in her usual "let them eat cake" attitude, there is little about the origin of the food or how it was raised or grown.

"Though not cheap, you get quality for your money," the restaurant reviewer assures readers in the data box.

The fat lamb rib chops are from Australia and cost an astounding $40, but she doesn't say whether they are grass fed and free of antibiotics. Ditto for the Colorado loin chops.

A seafood clay pot ($26) apparently contained a single "pristine scallop."

And her description of the abysmally poor service during one of her visits, and the burned top of that seafood clay pot, makes you wonder why she didn't award Axia two and a half stars.

Inside journalism

Today, the paper pats itself on the back for winning a George Polk Award for its coverage of the political payback scandal involving lane closures at the George Washington Bridge (A-7).

Someone should buy a tie for Port Authority reporter Shawn Boburg, who looks like he just climbed out of bed for the photo on A-7.

I don't know who George Polk was, but his journalism prize is as flawed as all of the others, which should be awarded for a body of work, not just one series of stories.

For example, Boburg has had blinders on in his coverage of the Port Authority, ignoring the bistate agency's poor job of expanding mass transit and easing nightmarish traffic congestion.

Which reminds me that the silly wire service story announcing the Polk Awards claims two reporters who broke the Edward Snowden story weren't arrested at Kennedy International Airport, as feared.

But, the story said, "they were instead confronted by reporters and photographers before fighting through traffic" to receive the award in the city.

Of course, that usually is the case, but Friday was one of the lightest traffic days of the year, as I found out on two car trips, one to Manhattan and back, and the other to LaGuardia Airport.

Today's confection

The Record and Staff Writer Jay Levin also pat themselves on the back today for helping the Mortgage Apple Cake baker save her Teaneck home from foreclosure (L-1).

Levin's 2009 story about Angela Logan, based on a tip from a "mutual Teaneck friend," attracted hundreds of orders for her cakes, as he reports today in a story about a TV film airing on April 20.

That puts the spotlight on the Woodland Park daily's coverage of the foreclosure crisis in New Jersey, and whether the paper has fully exposed the roles of banks, real estate agents and Governor Christie.

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Break up the Port Authority and impeach Christie

Luxury apartments on Palisade Avenue -- among hundreds built in recent years downtown and along Route 4 in Englewood -- have done little to turn around the fortunes of local merchants and restaurant owners. Now, Hackensack hopes hundreds of new apartment tenants will revive its economically depressed Main Street.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

An editorial and a Margulies cartoon in The Record today continue to nibble away at the notion that Governor Christie caused four days of gridlock at the Fort Lee end of the George Washington Bridge.

The goal was to get back at the borough's Democratic mayor for not supporting Christie's re-election (O-2).

Why wait for the conclusions of three inquiries -- in the state Assembly and U.S. Senate, as well as by the Port Authority's inspector general -- to make fundamental changes in the imperious bi-state transportation agency?

And why wait for the GOP bully to export his war on the middle class to the national political arena and declare in the 2016 race for the White House -- a move The Record's adoring editors, columnists and reporters have been predicting for close to two years?

Dump Christie

Let's get rid of New Jersey's worst governor and the Republicans' Elephant Man now. 

Impeach Christie, who has used lies, insults, bullying and vetoes to get his way with the state Legislature's Democratic majority and to silence his critics.

Spin off PATH

And commuters would cheer breaking up an agency that serves as a patronage mill for Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Spinning off the PATH rail system and bistate bus operations is the only workable option amid increasing traffic congestion.

No agency that depends so heavily on bridge and tunnel tolls -- and which continues to raise them to fund its capital program -- can be expected to expand rail and bus transit, which are at capacity.

'Character flaws'

In a letter to the editor on Saturday's A-9, Christie supporter David B. Simpson of Tenafly draws parallels between Watergate and Bridgegate:

He notes Richard Nixon was driven from  office because of his "connivance in the coverup of a scandal and his pervasive vindictiveness toward those whom he saw as a political enemies."

"Christie's behavior in regard to the bridge issue is beginning to reflect similar character flaws," Simpson says.

This ramp to the George Washington Bridge's lower-level tollbooths from Fort Lee -- and the lower level itself -- remained clear during four days of so-called gridlock in early September, when two of the borough's access lanes to the upper level were closed by Governor Christie's cronies on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, purportedly for a "traffic study."

Silly columns

Today's paper carries boring columns from Staff Writers John Cichowski (L-1), Mike Kelly (O-1), Bill Ervolino (BL-3) and Elisa Ung (BL-1), who continues to praise chefs and ignore issues facing restaurant goers.

Travel Editor Jill Schensul has an endless column about her search for a lounge at the airport in Miami, another in a series of pieces where she portrays herself as a jet-lagged klutz (T-1).

Schensul never tells readers that airport lounges now admit so many travelers they resemble crowded bus stations.

Farewell, Barry

In Local, readers learn that Barry Honig, a conservative Republican councilman in Tenafly "departs the council today," but the story doesn't explain why (L-3).

Just when I thought Honig's opposition to extending light-rail service to the wealthy borough was short sighted, The Record reports, likely for the first time, that he is blind. 

Second looks

Three poorly edited briefs caught my eye on Saturday's L-6, raising more questions than they answered, thanks to the inattention of the assignment desk:

Readers don't know whether the primal urge to hunt or unhealthy animal fats killed Kenneth Bigert, 58, a Glen Rock man who was found dead in a wooded area in Mahwah.

The story appeared Saturday, and reported he was found "Saturday" near an old cemetery off Route 202.

Maybe, local obituary writer Jay Levin should try to unravel the mystery of the time element and cause of death.

Dead meat

Bigert was dressed in hunting clothes and carried a hunting license. It is poetic justice that he died, apparently before he could kill any animals?

The paper treats him like so much dead meat, never reporting whether he was a husband, father or son or what he did for a living.

Likely story

Police don't name the moron who claimed his 2007 Range Rover with $8,600 in DJ equipment inside was stolen after he left the engine running and went back into his house in Saddle Brook.

The pricey SUV likely has heated seats and an engine with fuel injection that doesn't require warming up.

Another Christie?

The third item carries this headline: "Wyckoff's new mayor is a Christie."

But it never says whether Douglas J. Christie is a Republican or related to the loud mouth who won a second term as governor on Nov. 5.

Storm coverage

On Saturday's Local front, how does Deputy Assignment Flunky Dan Sforza explain the absence of a "snow tale" from Teaneck, one of the biggest, most diverse communities in Bergen County? 

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