The Big Turkey awards from 'Eye on The Record'

Construction or reconstruction continued on Tuesday in front of Starbucks Coffee in Hackensack, which is on the ground floor of the Alfred N. Sazari Medical Arts Building at 360 Essex St. Let's hope the doctors in the building have a better record than the company that built the sidewalks and parking lot, which seem to need repair every couple of years. The garage in another Sanzari medical building across Summit Avenue was closed for more than a year while repairs were made.

Editor's note: My copy of The Record was delivered about three hours late this morning, and weighed more than 4 pounds. Most of that was advertising, and the news, features and sports sections weighed only about 7 ounces. Today, I present Big Turkey awards to the paper's staff. Happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The first Big Turkey award goes to the biggest tom in the newsroom, Editor Marty Gottlieb, who seems intent on putting out a suburban edition of The New York Times, where he had a long, successful career.

That can be seen almost every day in front pages that mix soft and hard news; and international, national, state and local stories.

Page 1 stories and columns also have gotten longer in the style of The Times -- way too long, in many cases -- but the quality of the editing has declined dramatically

Gottlieb gets a second Big Turkey award for not cleaning house after he took over in January 2012 nor taking away column-writing duties from burned-out Staff Writers Mike Kelly, John Cichowski, Charles Stile, Bill Ervolino and other toms, each of whom get their own award.

Haggard hen

Production Editor Liz Houlton also gets a Big Turkey award for all of the serious errors that routinely appear in Cichowski's Road Warrior column -- and are never corrected -- as well as all of the corrections published on Page A-2.

The news editors, copy editors and page proofers under her supervision miss too many screw-ups to be taken seriously, and the paper's credibility suffers as a result.

Houlton also can be faulted for continuing to use outdated thumbnail photos for some of the columnists, including Kelly, whose unflattering shit-eating grin can be seen on Page 1 today.

Assignment turkeys

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, get Big Turkey awards for using the police blotter, court news and non-fatal accident and fire photos as crutches to fill pages that should have more local news on them.

The Record of Woodland Park is doing a better job of covering Hackensack, but not in identifying many critics of the current City Council as those who were thrown out of power and lost patronage in 2013.

Trenton turkeys

Stile, Staff Writer Melissa Hayes and other members of the Trenton staff each get Big Turkey awards for channeling Governor Christie, including his Reform Agenda, Jersey Comeback and Stronger Than the Storm public relations campaigns.

How many stories and columns on Christie's politics and his chances to win the GOP presidential nomination in 2016 are readers expected to stomach? 

In the process, these reporters and their editors have irresponsibly ignored how Christie rules by vetoes and bullying, not by the compromise he claims, and how he has wrecked the state economy. 

Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin also gets a Big Turkey award for using mass transit, but not blasting Christie for policies that have increased traffic congestion and tolls, and hurt train and bus service. 

Plump food hen

Staff Writer Elisa Ung gets a Big Turkey award -- this one pumped full of the harmful animal antibiotics she routinely ignores -- for her split personality.

As chief restaurant reviewer, her Friday columns are supposed to critically evaluate restaurants, but she devotes too many of her Sunday columns to promote wealthy owners and chefs who advertise in the paper.

(The Record's 2015 Dine Out Guide to local restaurants was produced by the advertising department, and the 72 glossy pages included only advertisers.)

The Corner Table column Ung writes should be renamed, if she isn't going to get serious about fighting for consumers on such issues as tipping, low food quality and high wine markup. 

Food Editor Esther Davidowitz and freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson each get a Big Turkey award for unhealthy weekly recipes that recommend large quantities of artery clogging butter and heavy cream.

Stephen A. Borg

Publisher Stephen A. Borg gets a Big Turkey award for allowing news coverage that promotes the fortunes of his biggest advertisers, including mall and highway retailers.

In the process, North Jersey Media Group and The Record abandoned Hackensack in 2009 and virutally ended coverage of that city's downtown, as well as other struggling Main Streets in Teaneck and Englewood.

The year before, Borg also enriched himself at the expense of employees, who were hit by the biggest downsizing in company history only months after he used an NJMG mortgage to buy a $3.65 million McMansion in Tenafly.

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Breaking news: Columnist reveals pigs are 'child-bearing'

One of the liveliest streets in downtown Hackensack is Banta Place, above and below, a single block between State and Main streets. On Main Street, opposite Banta Place, a developer plans to turn an old bank building into apartments.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Did Columnist Charles Stile actually write on the front page of The Record today that breeding pigs are confined to metal gestation crates for most of "their child-bearing lives"?

Yes, as unbelievable as that might seem.

The phrase is in the very first paragraph of his column about Governor Christie's expected veto of a bill that would ban the practice in New Jersey.

With his sights set on the White House, the GOP bully already vetoed the bill once before, so what is the point of today's column (A-1)?

Since 2010, Christie has shown as much regard for the middle and working classes in New Jersey as he has for pregnant pigs.

First Family

Maybe, Christie's piggish behavior and his overweight wife remind Stile of breeding pigs, given that their children are overweight, too.

Did nobody at the newspaper notice the words "child-bearing lives" in Stile's lead paragraph? 

Did anyone proof the front page before the paper went to press in far-off Rockaway Township?

Do Editor Martin Gottlieb, Stile's assignment editor, a copy editor and the copy editor's supervisor -- all of whom presumably read and edited the column -- think pigs have children?

Of course, Stile is not about to tell readers anything about the brutal practice of confining pigs to gestation crates.

For that you'll have to look at this video:

Crammed into gestation crates

Road hog

The editors put another pig on the front page today -- a 1962 Chrysler Newport, a shining example of the unsafe behemoths America produced when gas was really cheap.

In view of the climate-change crisis, you'd think The Record would praise a student who walked or biked to his high school or drove a gas-electric hybrid or all-electric car there.

Why haven't any of those students been on Page 1?

Here, Anthony Di Liberto, 17, of New Milford gets a lot of ink for driving a 2-ton car that probably doesn't get 10 mpg on premium and pollutes like crazy (A-1).

Hackensack news

Staff Writer Todd South, the reporter assigned to cover Hackensack, actually attended Tuesday night's City Council meeting, and makes a reference to the Nov. 10 meeting he didn't report (L-2).

But South is still keeping readers in the dark on the identity of "members of the public" whose repeated attacks have prompted officials to propose an ordinance to foster "civility and respect between the governing body and its very vocal critics."

Surely, South knows Richard Salkin, who is quoted extensively in today's story, is the attorney for the city's Board of Education, but he doesn't identify him as such.

Nor does South tell readers Salkin has a very sharp ax to grind: 

The former double dipper is an ally of the losing slate in the May 2013 election, and he was fired as municipal prosecutor by the new City Council.

Officers praised

South did a second story, reporting on the restraint shown by Hackensack Police Officers Edmund Meneses and Allan DeLeon when confronted by John Wolf, a suspect described in the story as "a 6-foot-5-inch, 250-pound black man with a knife" who wanted police to kill him (L-2).

With Ferguson all over the front page and other recent instances of New York City police killing black suspects, why wasn't this story on Page 1 today?

Oh, that's right, there wouldn't have been room for another column boosting the White House aspirations of our piggish governor.

The Zigelmans

A joint obituary for Rabbi Abraham Zigelman, 94, and his son, Dr. David Zigelman, 66, both of Fort Lee, suggests The Record missed or ignored the Nov. 7 death of the younger man (L-1).

According to Staff Writer Jay Levin, the doctor "died unexpectedly Nov. 7, possibly of a heart attack, his wife said."

Why "possibly"? No one knows for sure how a doctor died? Why was it unexpected, because the doctor led a healthy lifestyle and possibly was done in by stress?

Here is another example of how The Record continues to ignore heart disease, the leading cause of death for both men and women.

Loves animal fats

Just in time for Thanksgiving, freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson has just the recipe for turning leftover turkey into an unhealthy dish (BL-2).

Her Turkey Pot Pie needs only 10 tablespoons of artery clogging butter, 1 cup of whole milk and three-quarters of a cup of heavy cream.

Make sure you serve this with the telephone number of the local ambulance corps.

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Editors promote Kelly book, gas guzzlers, unhealthy food

An office building on Union Street in Hackensack, opposite John A. Earl Inc., has been torn down, and some residents believe apartments will be built there.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You'll have to read and read and read today's Page 1 column to find out what The Record's Mike Kelly means by "a new reality" in Israel, where four Jews were killed while praying in a synagogue.
In fact, the column is so poorly written and edited you'll have to turn to the continuation page and chose between two new realities he mentions:

The broken "trust" between Jews and Palestinians or "murders [that] seemed all too close and personal" (A-6).

The entire, murkily written column seems designed to promote a book Kelly wrote about a 1996 suicide bus bombing, which he mentions at the end of his overlong piece.

The book has been promoted by both (201) magazine and NorthJersey.com.

More Christie P.R.

Governor Christie's chances of getting the Republican presidential nomination get better play today (A-1) than the resignation of one of his closest advisers from a council that invests the state's $80 billion public employee pension fund (A-3).

An ethics complaint alleges Robert Grady allowed political contributions to Republican groups to influence investments.

Press hysteria

Instead of encouraging readers to take mass transit, The Record continues to scandalize the $1 lease between the Port Authority and NJ Transit, two public transportation agencies, for a commuter parking lot (A-1).

If NJ Transit had to pay $1.2 million a year for the land, the agency might have to raise fares.

Similarly, the business editors run a wire-service report noting "green cars" are the focus at the L.A, Auto Show, but no photos of Toyota's and Honda's emission-free cars are used on L-8.

Instead, an Audi with a 605-horsepower V-8 engine is featured.

Unhealthy recipes

Better Living editors continue to run the recipes of freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson, who specializes in turning healthy food like carrots and butternut squash into unhealthy dishes (BL-1).

All of her Thanksgiving recipes contain artery clogging butter or bacon (BL-3).

Second look

On Sunday, Road Warrior John Cichowski's column on a future form of mass transit was filled with errors, according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

"In his Sunday column, the Road Warrior provides a very dim-witted and mistake-filled report about the first ever, potential use by JPod Inc. of its privately funded, personal rapid-transit system with small overhead passenger pods in Secaucus.

"Road Warrior tried to convince readers that a JPod system designed to handle up to 1,000 passengers, at best, could have easily handled the crowds leaving MetLife stadium from the last Super Bowl.

"It would not have handled the large crowds since he forgot that he previously reported that there were 33,000 passengers that were trying to utilize the train system that day.

"Road Warrior claimed that construction for a JPod system would start no later than early next year since it would be easily approved by the Secaucus City Council.

"Secaucus administrators dispute his wild guess since no formal plans -- which are subject to reviews, delays and rejection by local, Meadowlands and state officials -- have been submitted.

Cichowski also described the system inaccurately as a "monorail." 

See: Road Warrior buries accuracy in Meadowlands

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Paper's obese editors long ignored our obese governor

A front-page "ANALYSIS" in The Record today credits four officials and declares that NJ Transit bus commuters no longer face long lines and delays in returning home from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan, above. Now, will the Woodland Park daily finally take notice of the shortage of rush-hour seats on NJ Transit trains?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In The Record's front-page story on Governor Christie's weight loss, experts note a candidate needs "to look like the part they are running for."

But the story never explains why Record reporters covering Christie's campaign in 2009 and his inauguration completely ignored his weight and whether he was fit to serve.

That may be because after working side-by-side with at least two obese editors in the newsroom, the reporters covering Christie didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

And that continued for years as only the national media tried to find out how much Christie weighed, and late-night comedian David Letterman guessed the GOP bully had ballooned to 400 pounds.

See this Eye on The Record post from 2011:

Guess how much Christie weighs 

Better or not?

A front-page story last Wednesday and another one today declare an end to long lines and afternoon rush-hour delays for NJ Transit bus riders leaving the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan (A-1).

But Jay Holahan of Teaneck says in a letter to the editor today:

"As a 25-year commuter, I don't recognize any immediate improvements ...." (A-13).

News or snooze?

Residents of Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and many other Bergen towns won't find anything about them in Local today.

The lead story in the section is a controversial proposal to replace Memorial Field in far-off Washington Township with artificial turf (L-1).

The local editors needed another Dean's List to fill their pages (L-2).

Poor food choices

Free-lancer Kate Morgan Jackson's list of a dozen "great food stores" for home cooks omits Whole Foods Market, Costco Wholesale and two of the best, Jerry's Gourmet & More and Balthazar Bakery, both in Englewood (BL-1).

Jackson appears unwilling to stray too far from her Upper Saddle River home.

On Wednesdays, the food blogger also supplies Better Living with unhealthy recipes, many filled with artery clogging cream and butter.

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Political columnist is feeding Obama critics' racial animus

The Record today tries to assess President Obama's popularity in New Jersey while ignoring incompetent officials running the 70 towns in Bergen County. Why not report on the sad state of affairs in Englewood, above, where officials are standing by as the downtown holds a permanent going-out-of-business sale? 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I'm not sure what point political Columnist Charles Stile is trying to make on Page 1 today -- unless he's channeling all of the racists who still cannot get over the election of our first black president.

President Obama doesn't draw New Jersey crowds at a fundraiser?

So what?

His Affordable Care Act is drawing crowds of people without health insurance, despite Governor Christie's attempts to derail the federal law and The Record looking the other way.

Obama made billions available for Sandy relief only to see the incompetent Christie administration bungle the distribution and allegedly discriminate against minority homeowners.

And how many hundreds of millions in federal mass-transit funds did the GOP bully convert to road and bridge repairs after he killed the sorely needed Hudson River rail tunnels in 2010?

Editor Martin Gottlieb puts Stile on the front page frequently, but still doesn't get that the reporter's relentless focus on "politics" is a huge turn-off for readers.

Update

LOL.

Stile's column became another exercise in masturbatory journalism when Obama cancelled his New Jersey campaign appearance today to stay in Washington and discuss the Ebola outbreak with Cabinet members.

Lawyers always win

Two other stories on Page 1 today have bar associations cheering over the extra legal fees that are being generated by Bergen County's judge shortage, and the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal (A-1).

Letter writer Patricia Pures of River Vale, reacting to all of the front-page sports stories championed by Gottlieb, urges the editor to "please place this news where it belongs," in Sports.

"Or do not have a section for sports," she says (A-8).

Another stupid column

The befuddled Road Warrior still can't find his way to relevant journalism.

Today's column by Staff Writer John Cichowski isn't even about driving, let along commuting (L-1).

Also on L-1 today, a large photo shows one lane of a three-lane section of Route 4 east in Teaneck closed for a minor three-car accident.

Readers can see two cops bullshitting with two firefighters, but no fire and no injured motorists.

The photo over line overstates the effects of the crash:

CRASH TIES UP HIGHWAY

The photo and exaggerated over line are another example of the desperation of the lazy assignment editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, to fill their local-news section.

Breaking bacon news

Better Living continues to publish unhealthy recipes from clueless freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson of Upple Saddle River (BL-2).

Her Pasta with Tomato Bacon Sauce recommends well-salted pasta water, added sugar and eight strips of bacon for 8 ounces of pasta.

Jackson doesn't even recommend uncured bacon without harmful preservatives. Any old crap will do.

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Editors turn every Christie move into a political stunt

Leonia is one of those Bergen County towns that doesn't get much coverage in The Record of Woodland Park. Dressing up the small business district along Broad Avenue is a sculpture garden, above and below.

Most of the businesses along Broad Avenue are owned and operated by Korean-Americans. Leonia borders Palisades Park and Fort Lee, both of which have even stronger Korean presences.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I've learned to ignore the lame political column Charles Stile has been writing since Governor Christie took office way back in January 2010.

But his Page 1 column in The Record today is hard to miss, especially because Editor Marty Gottlieb is using it in place of a news story on the special session of the state Legislature the governor called to fix the bail system (A-1).

This boring Stile column reads like all the rest:

The special session, Stile claims, could "polish up his resume for a likely run for president in 2016" (A-1).

"Some say the timing is good for Christie, who is trying to rebuild his image in the wake of the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal" (A-7).

Voter apathy

But on A-7, readers also find a news story on the special session that repeats much of Stile's column -- a real waste of space.

Stile and The Record avoid discussing how politics divide the nation and New Jersey, and how reporting like this simply turns off voters.

Christie was reelected last November in the lowest turnout of any previous gubernatorial election, but The Record always refers to it as a "landslide" and doesn't even mention the legions of disaffected voters.

Worst governor ever

Below the fold today, Staff Writer Scott Fallon reports that funding of open-space preservation is endangered by the poor state economy under the GOP bully.

But you have to read the entire story to get that message.

Today's editorial on anti-violence efforts by three North Jersey cities also is edited in a way to avoid placing blame on Christie for cutting state aid to poor cities like Paterson, resulting in the layoff of 125 police officers in 2011.

"Indeed," the editorial writer declares, "during the recent tenure of Mayor Jeffrey Jones in Paterson there was the feeling that, for whatever reason, the city's needs were not being heard by the powers that be in Trenton."

"For whatever reason"? What crap.

The quaint Borough Hall in Leonia.

New suicides? 

Another Page 1 story may cause more suicides on the George Washington Bridge among readers who learn a plan to build a 9-foot fence might take eight years -- twice as long as did construction of the span (A-1).

Imagine how many lives could have been saved if this fence was built during the years the Port Authority was diverting toll money to construction of One World Trade Center, with all of its delays and cost overruns.

It's hard to believe the fence won't be finished until 2022.

The story is by Staff Writer Christopher Maag, who has been neglecting his Hackensack beat.

Maag is thorough, but the story goes on and on like something you'd see in The New York Times, Gottlieb's old paper.

Hackensack news

With Maag writing about bridge suicides, the only Hackensack news today is another reporter's story on a lawsuit filed against the city by Patrolman Moise Flanagan (L-1).

Hackensack Scoop, a local blog, reported the lawsuit five days ago.

Lying to readers

If a recipe isn't healthy, The Record's editors don't see anything wrong with lying to their readers.

Clueless freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson's recipe for Chilled Fennel Soup calls for 4 tablespoons of butter filled with artery clogging saturated fat (BL-2).

Yet, Jackson writes of the soup, "with no cream whatsoever, it's as healthy as healthy can be."

OK. With no brains whatsoever, Jackson is as stupid as stupid can be.

On Broad Avenue in Leonia, retail space is being renovated behind a colorful barrier, above and below.

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Environmental, quality of life stories go below the fold

A center divider has been added to Bergen Turnpike in Little Ferry, near the entrance to a shopping center. It's not clear whether the new barrier is related to the elimination of the nearby Little Ferry Circle. The badly buckled, flood-prone entrance road to the shopping center and its lone tenant, a Korean supermarket, was repaved. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Saving heroin addicts from overdoses is a worthy cause, but it affects far fewer people than the environmental and quality of life news readers find below the fold of The Record's front page today.

And you've got to wonder why Editor Martin Gottlieb gave into Republican hysteria over Benghazi, and led the paper with the arrest of the suspected leader of the September 2012 attack, unleashing even more political debate (A-1).

Garfield Manager Tom Duch and Englewood Cliffs Mayor Joseph Parisi Jr. appear on the lower half of Page 1 today -- and Parisi is urging "compromise" on the height of the LG Electronics building on top of the Palisades (A-1).

The first paragraph describes "a 143-foot-tall office building." Why not give the number of planned floors or stories?

Lazy local editors

The local assignment editors are squandering an opportunity to examine whether such political dynasties as the Parisis of Englewood Cliffs and the Calabrese family of Cliffside Park are really running their towns in the best interests of residents.

That certainly wasn't the case in the decades Hackensack was run by the Zisa family, but the Woodland Park daily's exposes came too late and delayed reform.

Now, the paper runs stories filled with the sour grapes of Zisa family allies who find themselves out of power, including Lynne Hurwitz, the Democratic municipal chairwoman.

See no Christie

On A-3, a story on New Jersey residents paying the highest premiums for health insurance has been carefully edited to eliminate all mention of Governor Christie.

The GOP bully, as you may recall, refused to set up a state marketplace or even use millions in federal funds to promote the federal Affordable Care Act.

As a result, residents of New Jersey and 35 other states with conservative, anti-Obama leaders were thrown onto the clearly overburdened federal marketplace.

Minor controversy

On the Local front today, the big news is the Ridgewood Planning Board rejecting the expansion plan of The Valley Hospital, a story that is of interest to a small number of residents who live near the campus (L-1).

The first paragraph contains an extra word, testament to the careful editing found throughout the paper.

Readers who wonder why The Valley Hospital controversy got so much more press than the far larger expansions of Hackensack University Medical Center might consider the onetime presence of Jennifer A. Borg on the HUMC board.

Borg is vice president and general counsel of North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record.

She is listed as a board member on LinkedIn, which also says she serves on the hospital's Foundation Board and Advisory Committee, but that listing may be out of date. 

The Hurwitzes

Another L-1 story -- on the reappointment of Howard Hurwitz as the $136,000-a-year executive director of the Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority -- doesn't mention Lynne Hurwitz, his wife, who is receiving a state pension of $2,499.70 a month.

According to The Bergen Dispatch Web site, the pension is based in part on her annual salary of more than $97,000 as deputy chief of staff for Dennis McNerny, a Democrat who was then Bergen County executive.

Lynne Hurwitz, often called the power behind the Zisa family in Hackensack, lost her job when Republican County Executive Kathleen Donovan took over.

Critics said one of Lynne Hurwitz's duties was to water the plants in the county administration building.

More filler stories

Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza rely on police, court and related news to fill their thin local-news section, as they did on Tuesday.

They also run two wire-service obituaries of obscure people.

Not good for you

Someone should tell food blogger Kate Morgan Jackson of Upper Saddle River that it doesn't make sense to run a recipe for "squash sushi" filled with artery clogging goat cheese and then urge readers to "drizzle the teeniest amount of [heart-healthy] olive oil" over the rolls (BL-3).

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Editing out Christie's role in health-care problems

If you take the train, count yourself lucky to get one of NJ Transit's comfortable double-deckers, but find a seat on the lower level, above, to avoid cracking your skull on the upper level's low, poorly designed luggage rack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

As one of The Record's top reporters, veteran Lindy Washburn should know better.

In stories dating to at least July, Washburn and her unnamed assignment editor have been reporting on the lack of choice and the higher premiums facing New Jersey residents under Affordable Care Act reforms.

On the front page July 17, Washburn reported:

"In New Jersey, only four companies have announced plans to offer coverage through the federally run exchange. New York, by contrast, has 17 companies providing room for more competition."

But on July 17, the editors were reluctant to tell readers the reason was Governor Christie's refusal to set up a New Jersey exchange, in contrast to his Democratic counterpart in New York.

So, they politicized the blame by putting the words into the mouth of one of New Jersey's Democratic congressman, who was quoted on the continuation page:

"The absence of information was a frustration to U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews, a Haddon Heights Democrat, who blamed it on Governor Christie’s 'regrettable decision' to opt out of a state-run exchange."

Since then, stories on the problem-plagued roll-out of the Affordable Care Act in New Jersey have completely omitted Christie's attempt to sabotage federal reforms, such as the Washburn story on A-3 today.

Where is background?

In July, the GOP bully was running for a second term and it's understandable why The Record's adoring staff tried to sanitize the front-page story.

But now that he won the election and has set his sights on the White House, why don't The Record's editors and reporters level with readers?

What's missing on A-3 today is an essential ingredient in every newspaper story from time immemorial: background. 

Hyping the mess 

On Page 1 today, the inconvenience of closing Fort Lee access lanes to upper level tollbooths on the George Washington Bridge in September has been exaggerated into "a four-day ... traffic nightmare."

The truth is drivers using the lower-level on those days saw no delays, and a Fort Lee access lane to that level's tollbooths remained open.

Can't touch Borgs

The front-page story on incomes in Bergen and Passaic counties remaining well below the levels of 2000 doesn't include the Borg publishing family, whose great wealth has likely increased (A-1).

Another A-1 story on a $120,000 settlement for each of the three boys who filed suit after they were locked in a Fort Lee police van overnight doesn't mention that about $40,000 from each check will go to the plaintiffs' lawyers.

Police and court news

Three of the five stories on the Local front today make the page look like a police blotter (L-1).

On L-6, the obituary for Edward Oldziey, 90, of Wyckoff -- an architect who survived both terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center -- doesn't name the president who was the object of his anger in a letter published in The New York Times 13 days after 9/11.

Have a heart

The Record's Better Living section continues to use recipes from clueless food blogger Kate Morgan Jackson of Upper Saddle River.

Today, Jackson describes the surest way to turn heart-healthy sea scallops into an artery clogging, preservative-filled nightmare (BL-2).

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Bogota's Tea Party radical is headed for certain defeat

I saw few fellow U.S. Senate primary voters on Tuesday at the Fairmount School on Grand Avenue in Hackensack.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

If former Bogota mayor Steve Lonegan is elected to the U.S. Senate from New Jersey, he'd knock himself out trying to deny health insurance to tens of millions of Americans who are living and dying without it.

The Tea Party radical also would fight to give employers the "freedom" to create millions of jobs, The Record reports today in front-page stories on the victory of Lonegan and Newark Mayor Cory Booker in Tuesday's primaries.

Of course, Lonegan doesn't mention that wealthy business owners are prisoners of their own greed, refusing to cut their profits by hiring workers and spending money to insure them.

The conservative Republican rose to his level of incompetence as the three-term mayor of tiny Bogota, where he cut spending, but apparently was unable to lower property taxes (A-6).

Today's stories say Lonegan was state director of a Tea Party group, Americans for Their Own Prosperity, until March (A-1) or June (A-6).
 
Wealthy racist

The wealthy racist is wrong for North Jersey and wrong for America. Does anyone doubt Lonegan will fail now as he has in the past when seeking higher office?

I'm sure Governor Christie is happy, having thrown away millions on a special election to ensure Booker doesn't appear on the GOP bully's November ballot.

Finally, the Record's photo captions often raise questions in readers' minds -- such as who is that black man in the room of white Lonegan supporters, a hotel employee, a reporter (A-6)?

Or is that President Obama crashing the party? LOL.

Paving news

Anyone who bothers reading the Road Warrior column today could be forgiven if they think they've picked up a dry paving industry journal (L-1).

Staff Writer John Cichowski fabricates a debate over the merits of milling and "a super pavement mix," ignoring that speeders and runaway trucks are intent on killing  people whether the road is smooth or rough.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes indicates her staff is struggling to bring in local news by running a big photo of a downed traffic-light pole on L-1.

A story on L-3 reports the Hackensack Board of Education, a remnant of Zisa family rule, has named Robin E. Coles to a vacancy.

Coles is described as a parent who "is active in her church and community," but readers learn nothing about her views on education or what kind of job the city's dysfunctional school board is doing.

Wretched excess

Italian-Americans and other fettuccine lovers are heaving this morning as they scan a recipe for BLUE CHEESE ARTICHOKE PASTA (BL-1).

Clueless food blogger Kate Morgan Jackson recommends readers use 6 ounces of full-fat, artery clogging blue cheese, 1 cup of heavy cream and a half cup of butter to prepare a half-pound of fettuccine (BL-2).

She advises readers to warm the plates to keep the pasta hot during the ambulance ride to the emergency room.

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Our local newspaper is flying off the rails

Teaneck calls this patch of grass next to Route 4 a "park." Walkers and runners are advised to use gas masks.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Today's front page is filled with stories only Editor Marty Gottlieb of The Record, his sub-editors and his reporters care about.

Residents of North Jersey and, especially, of Bergen County are trying to stifle yawns as they rifle through today's edition for anything relevant to their lives.

On A-2, two more corrections appear, but for every two corrections, 10 errors go uncorrected by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, Production Editor Liz Houlton and her absentee copy editors.

Open questions

The story (A-3) and editorial (A-10) on the failed open-space referendum didn't answer obvious questions:

Does Governor Christie support dedicated funding to preserve land and buy flood-prone properties, and did he, in fact, call Republicans and ask them to vote down the bill?

Aching teeth

The simple-minded media's continued reference to "sugary drinks" confuses the public and even some journalists about New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's campaign against soda with super-sweet, high-fructose corn syrup, a trigger in the obesity epidemic (A-4).

Christie isn't the only one who disdains mass transit, as shown by another Road Warrior column on handicapped parking (L-1).

Given how many errors and omissions appear in Staff Writer John Cichowski's work, can anything he says today be trusted?

Bored editors

Sykes leads her Local section with a story on the "media throng" at the initial federal-court appearance of those cafones, Teresa and Joe Giudice, who face a 39-fraud indictment (L-1).

The TV bimbos also are featured in the biggest element on Page 1 today -- as readers wonder how they can indict Gottlieb, Sykes and other bored local editors on fraud charges.

After running a local obituary on L-1 on Tuesday, Sykes buries two more among the death notices today (L-6).

Better than butter

After a series of meat- and fat-heavy recipes from Upper Saddle River food blogger Kate Morgan Jackson, Better Living today runs one for SUMMER VEGETABLE RIBBONS (BL-1).

If you know what's good for you, substitute extra-virgin olive oil for the 2 tablespoons of artery clogging butter she recommends (BL-2).

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