Today's edition lists more things Christie opposes

At Tuesday night's Hackensack City Council meeting, the audience included two members of the losing slate in last May's election; fired Municipal Prosecutor Richard Salkin; and sitting next to him, Lynne Hurwitz, who is said to have been the power behind the throne when the Zisa family ran the city that was derided as "Zisaville." Their presence and an occasional attack on the current administration is what is known as sour grapes with a vengeance.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Page 1 of The Record today reports a scramble to enroll for new insurance under the federal Affordable Care Act that Governor Christie did his best to sabotage in New Jersey. 

On A-3, Christie blasted the public employees union for disrupting the dog-and-pony show he put on in hard-hit Union Beach to hide how badly he bungled Sandy aid.

But Rutgers students wanted to know why $4.8 million in federal Sandy aid is going to the developer of a 240-unit high rise in New Brunswick, in exchange for providing 48 affordable units (A-3).

Christie opposes all other affordable housing in New Jersey.

SUV lover

And an editorial today reports the breaking news that "Governor Christie has shown little or no interest in promoting mass transit" (A-12).

That has been evident since the GOP bully took office in January 2010, but this is likely the first time the Woodland Park daily has actually stated it. 

Why is The Record showing such lukewarm support for finding the money to extend electrified light-rail service to Bergen County?

It appears to be part of a pattern of promoting commuting by car and ignoring all of the service problems encountered by NJ Transit bus and rail users.

Today's editorial notes "the crush at many gates inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal during the evening rush is unbearable" (A-12). 

But those strong words are based on angry letters from commuters, not on reporting by the lazy transportation editor and reporter or the clueless, car-centric Road Warrior.

Gridlock at Main and Anderson streets in Hackensack on Tuesday morning.

Anti-light rail stories

In fact, several years ago, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza guided then-reporter Tom Davis when he wrote at least two anti-light rail takeouts for The Record.

And in 2012 and 2013, The Record reported the exaggerated claims of Tenafly officials who opposed extension of light rail to their town, without bothering to seek rebuttal from NJ Transit.

More road kill

On the front of Local today, the addled Road Warrior foams at the mouth about dark highways.

Of course, the column he should be writing is one condemning poorly lit local streets, such as River Road in North Arlington, where a 74-year-old waitress was struck and killed by a car.

"The driver never saw her," a police captain told The Record (L-1).

When Jerome S. Some was killed crossing Prospect Avenue in Hackensack last October, a sister of the 87-year-old businessman told a reporter a street light was out.

That driver also said she didn't see Some, founder of a uniform company on Main Street.

Today's story about the death of Barbara Gangi, who worked the early shift at the Arlington Diner, says nothing about street lighting or whether River Road and other antiquated local streets in North Jersey are adequately lit.

Seeing red

For another view of Cichowski's  confusing, mistake-ridden Sunday column on red-light cameras, see the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Stopping the facts dead in their tracks

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Here's another snow job from the imperious editors

Courthouse Cafe & Diner opened recently near the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack, but the owner set his closing time for 4 p.m., when the city's quiet Main Street goes into hibernation.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Year after year, property taxes rise and the quality of snowplowing drops as municipal crews in Hackensack and other towns seem unwilling or unable to properly clear streets, crosswalks and bus stops.

In decades of covering winter storms, The Record has never sent out reporters to review how well or how poorly towns do on providing safe streets after a storm.

But today, a huge patch of the front page is devoted to a monster snow-melting machine and other measures in anticipation of bad weather for the Super Bowl in February.

That's next year -- in case you missed the whopper of an error in the first paragraph of today's story, which calls it "this year's Super Bowl."

The clueless John Brennan, a reporter who once covered sports, or one of his editors created the error, and six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton missed it.

As always, the joke is on the reader for thinking The Record is a serious local newspaper.

Christie follies 

Governor Christie's fiscal mismanagement and impractically strict no-tax policy on millionaires becomes clearer every day, as readers can see from today's A-1 story on Moody's Investors Services downgrading the state's $32 billion debt.

But the GOP bully, who is superb at managing the news, told reporters he had no comment and to get lost.

Native American news

The Local front carries a follow-up to Wednesday's Page 1 story on a new Hollywood film that smears the reputation of the Ramapough Mountain Indians  (L-1).

I cringed at Wednesday's story, which seemed to delight in repeating all of the racial slurs and insults hurled at the Ramapoughs in the past 200 years.

Given all the crap churned out by Hollywood, readers have to question why The Record and other newspapers devote so much space to movies and pretend to look at them critically.

The Record's Better Living entertainment tabloid on Fridays is top heavy with news of the movies, always devoting the cover to the latest trash from a director whose only goal appears to be outdoing other directors.

And what's with this kick for recreating and distorting the past, such as the Quentin Tarantino bloodbath called "Django Unchained"?

Hackensack news

Kathleen Gehm, 63, of River Vale has been cleared of a driving while intoxicated charge in the death of prominent Hackensack businessman Jerome S. Some, 87 (L-1).

As with so many pedestrian deaths, Gehm is apparently saying she didn't see Some before she ran him down on Prospect Avenue as he crossed the street to attend a meeting  at Bel Posto, a restaurant opposite his high-rise.

Building renovations forced relocation of the meeting to the restaurant.

Jerome Some's family members quoted in today's story weren't asked if they are going to file a negligence and wrongful death suit against Gehm. 

In a second Hackensack story today, officials say they are shutting down the city's Human Services Department for an anticipated annual savings of $400,000 a year (L-1).

Don't hold your breath, if you live in Hackensack and expect a property tax cut as a result.

Mentally defective

You have to wonder about the intelligence of some gun-rights advocates, such as Scott Bach of Newfoundland, a member of the National Rifle Association and head of a group of New Jersey rifle and pistol clubs (L-3).

Bach is criticizing Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop for suggesting gun manufacturers who want to do business with the city's Police Department commit themselves to gun-safety measures.

Bach -- who I doubt is related to the classical composer -- said the mayor joined the Marines after 9/11 and is the grandson of Holocaust survivors, then added this total non-sequitur:

"So you've got to wonder why he is not getting it."

Getting what? 

That we should all buy guns because another Hitler is set on exterminating 12 million more people or Muslim terrorists are going to fly planes into The Modern, the 47-story residential tower going up in Fort Lee?

Maybe Bach just doesn't have any confidence in the police to protect him from criminals and other trigger-happy elements in society.

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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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Editors scramble to catch up to big local story

These rules of conduct displayed on an NJ Transit local train to Suffern, N.Y., above and below, help explain why Governor Christie has such disdain for mass transit. The GOP bully surely would be thrown off the train if he tried his in-your-face, insulting behavior with other commuters.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The Record of Woodland Park continues to play catch up today on a big Hackensack story -- the untimely death of prominent businessman Jerome S. Some, who was killed crossing the street in front of his Prospect Avenue high-rise on Tuesday night.

Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza has struggled to keep up with the story since then, even following the lead of this blogger in reporting charges against the driver and interviewing the 87-year-old's survivors.

It doesn't seem possible for a daily newspaper, but here it is the fourth day after Some's death and Sforza is only now naming the poor man's widow, Diane Some, who is shown in a photo on the Local front (L-1).

The photo runs with a story on Friday's humor- and tear-filled funeral in Hackensack.

Local editor wilts

Running the local-news operation in the absence of his boss has exhausted Sforza, but the former reporter is doing a good job padding his report with Law & Order news, photos of minor fires and accidents (L-3 and L-4) and wire service obits of obscure people (L-5 and L-6).

Food crystal ball

What's the point of the Better Living cover story today on "the next big trends in cuisine" (BL-1)?

It's pretty clear the North Jersey chefs interviewed have at least one eye on the bottom line: 

Not one predicted that restaurants will be serving more organic and naturally raised or grown food, knowing that would cut into their profits.

Second look

It's hard to believe that Friday's front-page story on so-called apartheid schools in New Jersey completely omitted mention of Englewood's long-segregated public schools.

The elementary and middle schools in the white-ruled city certainly fit the profile: "1 percent or fewer of the students are white."

Maybe someone can explain to me how North Jersey Media Group Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, former publisher of The Record, could have lived on Englewood's East Hill for decades and allowed his newspaper to be so derelict in its duty to the city's minorities.

Of course, his children, Stephen and Jennifer, were considered too special to attend public schools. And now that they are running The Record, they have as much disdain for Englewood's public schools as their father.

Cashing in on 9/11

The Borgs refused to spend a few thousand dollars to remake the front page on Sept. 11, 2001, and relegated to a back page the iconic photo of firemen raising the American flag over the rubble of the World Trade Center.

But in recent years, Jennifer A. Borg, Esq., the paper's hotshot lawyer, has milked the photo for all of the damages she can win from people who violate NJMG's copyright.

On Thursday, an L-3 story in The Record reported NJMG is seeking as much as $150,000 in damages from Jeanine Pirro, a Fox TV personality, for such a violation.

A few years ago, a glossy 8-by-10-inch copy of Tom Franklin's famous photo was inserted into copies of The Record.

On the other side was an advertisement for a Ford dealer in Hackensack.

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Readers send out search parties for all that is missing

The NJ Transit rail transfer station in Secaucus isn't as imposing or as grand as stations of old, but it's a pleasant place to spend some time waiting for a train. You can hear the roar of traffic on the turnpike and imagine thousands of drivers inching their way toward Hudson River tollbooths, poisoning the air in the process.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Prominent Hackensack businessman Jerome S. Some met his untimely demise on Tuesday night, when an allegedly drunk woman in a small SUV ran him down in front of his Prospect Avenue high-rise.

Since then, information about the accident, charges against the woman, her identity and Some's survivors have been presented in The Record in dribs and drabs, and readers still have questions.

Today, another story about Some adds reckless driving to the driving while intoxicated charge reported on Thursday against the woman, who is identified for the the first time as Kathleen Gehm, 63, a registered nurse "through 2009" (L-1).

A reporter also interviewed Some's survivors for the first time, according to today's story, which names three sons ages 23 to 60, and a daughter, 55, but makes no mention of their mother or mothers.

Some, 87, founder and owner of Some's Uniforms on Main Street in Hackensack, would have been 64 when he fathered son Jason, 23, so readers are wondering if he remarried and, if so, was it to a younger woman?

Cone, no flowers

I drove by Some's high-rise today, the Eiffel Tower at 151 Prospect Ave., looking for a bouquet of flowers marking his death, but saw only a traffic cone.

He was struck and killed crossing the street to Bel Posto Restaurant, "running late" for a shareholders meeting of the building's co-op board -- another detail The Record adds for the first time today.

He was on the building's board, and all he gets is a traffic cone?

Safety concerns

Andrea Some, 55, his daughter, is quoted as saying street lighting is inadequate and there should be more crosswalks on heavily trafficked Prospect Avenue, especially at Bel Posto.

"Hackensack needs to take notice and make sure it doesn't happen to someone else," she said.

When will The Record get around to calling city officials and asking them about that?

Not pro Buono

On Page 1 today, readers find a story on the appearance of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Barbara Buono before The Record's mysterious "editorial board."

When Buono identifies Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, a Democrat who has endorsed Governor Christie, as one of the party bosses who is "hostile" to her vision for New Jersey, Staff Writer Melissa Hayes actually calls DiVincenzo for comment and push back (A-6).

Gee. When Chrisite appeared before the editorial board a week earlier, the story that ran on Page 1 last Friday didn't contain any rebuttal to anything the GOP bully said to back his bid for a second term. 

An editorial on A-20 today endorses Newark Mayor Cory Booker over Tea Party crackpot Steve Lonegan, whose racial animus has been clear since he entered the U.S. Senate race. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Four corrections

Four more corrections run on A-2 today, further evidence of a fine job by Production Editor Liz Houlton.

Local yokels

The crack Local staff spins an interesting story about the murder 0f Karen Splettstoesser, who is described as "a statuesque blonde" and a former model from San Francisco, but nowhere does her age appear (L-1).

Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza continues to do such a great job during the prolonged absence of his boss, Deirdre Sykes.

Readers are breathing a sigh of relief that Staff Writer John Cichowski's latest excuse for a Friday Road Warrior column is missing today.

The expanded local obituary today appears to have a punch line: A pastor's grandmother lived in the attic, surely the stuff of an Alfred Hitchcock movie (L-5).

Ung's judgment

I've started to question the judgment of Staff Writer Elisa Ung, The Record's main restaurant reviewer, who seems to be obsessed with only two food groups, meat and dessert.

Today, in her 2-star review of Choripan Rodizio, she claims the Hackensack grill restaurant is "less appropriate for anyone who wants anything other than meat" (BL-18).

I called the restaurant and was told that yes, it still offers two of the best salads I've ever had: Beets, String Beans and Boiled Egg, and Fresh Spinach, Pears, Walnuts and Blue Cheese.

Ung also slams the seafood, but I remember a terrific Filet of Sole Oreganata and crunchy shrimp with linguine.

What gives?

Cuban dilemma

On Thursday, Ung praised a Saddle Brook cafe's medianoche -- a Cuban sandwich made on sweet bread and pressed in a heated grill -- but a photo appears to show a burnt sandwich with unmelted Swiss cheese (BL-1 on Thursday).

She lists the ingredients of an authentic Cuban sandwich, but omits mustard.

Why did she bother? The best Cuban sandwiches in North Jersey are available at La Pola on Palisade Avenue and 54th Street in West New York.

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