Front-page news, views from everywhere but North Jersey

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

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

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

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

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

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

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

Stale Stile

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

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

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

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

Vinnie Carzo

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

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

Izod Center

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

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

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

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

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

Body in trunk

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

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

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

Chilean sea bass

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

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

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

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The right to bear arms claims another innocent victim

Did anyone go to work today? This is Summit Avenue in Hackensack at about 8:15 this morning, usually the height of the rush hour.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A 29-year-old mother of four died in a Walmart when her 2-year-old son reached into her purse "and her concealed gun fired," The Record reports today.

You'd think this story -- not just a brief -- would appear on Page 1.

But it got pushed aside by dry "process" stories -- one on the Affordable Care Act and the other on Democrats launching a futile attempt to override Governor Christie's Port Authority veto (A-1).

As it is, The Associated Press story on the mother's accidental death raises more questions than it answers, much like the stories edited by the paper's local assignment desk.

The story doesn't identify the woman, but says she "had a concealed weapons permit."

So, this another case of the so-called right of citizens to bear arms ending an innocent life.

What a great country. We have so many freedoms, including the right to die by gunshot.

More gun deaths

Just below that story, another Associated Press report says the number of law enforcement officers killed by firearms jumped by 56% this year (A-3).

That included 15 ambush deaths, including the fatal Dec. 20 attacks on two police officers in Brooklyn.

A-2 carries another embarrassing correction -- a name was misspelled in a story on the retirement of a Clifton deputy fire chief.

Christie veto

On A-8 today, an editorial urges the state Legislature to override Christie's veto of Port Authority reforms, but notes lawmakers have "failed to override a single Christie veto" since 2010.

What The Record has never reported in its overwhelmingly favorable coverage of the GOP bully -- including endless portrayals of him as a compromiser -- is whether he has set a record for vetoes by a New Jersey governor.

In a letter to the editor on A-8, Ted Noble of Wayne says there is enough evidence "to indict Christie for mismanagement of New Jersey."

Nazerah Bugg

Of all the 2014 local deaths recognized on Page 1 and the Local front today, the murder of a 14-year-old Paterson teen was among the most unjust.

Nazerah Bugg, an aspiring basketball player, was shot and killed on a street corner on Sept. 20, the victim of gang gunfire (L-1).

Her death followed the July murder of Genesis Rincon, 12, as she was riding her bike to a grocery store in Paterson.

Paterson police laid off 125 officers after Christie cut state aid to the impoverished city in 2011.

The Record has reported "mismanagement of the city budget" contributed to those personnel cuts.

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Bah humbug to racial stereotypes, sloppy reporting

On Tuesday afternoon, parents and children waited on a long line at Bergen Town Center in Paramus to pose for photos with Santa Claus, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You can add the war of words to the war between police and hardened criminals, such as the crazed gunman who murdered two police officers in Brooklyn on Saturday.

If you managed to get past all of Mike Kelly's cliches on Page 1 of The Record on Wednesday, his column repeats shocking stereotyping of black neighborhoods by an ex-cop the reporter has called his friend.

Kelly didn't interview Bernard Kerik of Franklin Lakes, the former New York City police commissioner who served three years in federal prison for tax fraud -- a crooked cop Kelly often referred to as "Bernie."

He just lifted Kerik's shocking comments from a Time magazine essay:

"We have labeled our nation's police as racists who target minority communities. That's a complete lie. Cops go to minority communities because that is where the crime is.

"They don't target minorities. They target crime.... People say it was racist. It's not. It's a statistical statement," Kerik is quoted as saying on Wednesday's A-4.

Of course, Kelly doesn't challenge Kerik's racial stereotyping or point out that police in Paterson and other cities fail miserably to protect the residents of minority neighborhoods, such as the innocent Silk City girls killed by gunshots in July and September.

Kerik and the reporter also conveniently ignore the many years of racial profiling by New Jersey State Police, who were accused of pulling over minorities for Driving While Black (DWB). 

The state paid $12.95 million to settle a lawsuit filed by three men who were wounded in a 1998 turnpike shooting and a fourth man who was driving their van.

The plaintiffs, three blacks and a Hispanic, alleged they were pulled over by troopers who racially profiled them. 

Sloppy reporting

A front-page story on drivers who unwittingly fill up at the most expensive North Jersey gas stations could have been written any time in the last decade (A-1 on Wednesday).

But Staff Writer Christopher Maag holds up one woman driver to ridicule by reporting she paid "fully a dollar more [per gallon] than the Costco gas station just a half mile away" in Wayne.

Maag apparently doesn't know Nicole Clarke of Little Falls would have to be a member of Costco Wholesale, paying a minimum annual fee of $55, in order to fill up at the warehouse store's gas station.

A photo of Clarke appears on Wednesday's A-6, and the caption notes she paid $2.99 a gallon to fill up her thirsty Honda Pilot on credit. Horrors!

This kind of sloppy reporting and editing continues to bewilder readers.

Dead man walking

The lazy local assignment editors have been using accident photos as fillers for years, but on Wednesday, the practice came back to bite them.

The photo over line declared, "Fatal accident in Elmwood Park."

But police wouldn't provide information, and the editors relied on UPS officials in reporting that "an unidentified driver was killed on Tuesday when his car collided with a UPS tractor-trailer."

Guess what? 

In what could only be called a Christmas miracle, the driver, Paul Massey of Saddle Brook, survived and was in critical condition on Wednesday, according to an A-2 correction today that quotes the Elmwood Park police chief, who appears to be no fan of freedom of information.

Is Massey a husband or father, employed or retired? How old is he? What does his family think of the report of his death?

Are you kidding? This was just filler. Nobody at the paper cares one way or another.

Christie arrogance

Once again, a letter to the editor today expresses what the editors refuse to recognize:

"I was a supporter of Governor Christie," says John Amicucci of Fair Lawn (A-20). "But as his time in office has grown, so has his arrogance toward his constituents."

Noting Christie's support for the Dallas Cowboys football team, Amicucci suggests the GOP bully run for governor of Texas.

A dry paper

Today's paper was delivered to my home in two plastic bags that were knotted closed.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, when rain was forecast, my papers arrived soaking wet. They also were in two bags, but they were left open.

I called for replacements both days.

Attorney Frank Lucianna marching in Englewood's Memorial Day Parade last May, as he does every year. The Record's Better Living section today carries a feature on Lucianna, 91, who has always felt a kinship with Louis Zamperini, the war hero and world-class runner who is the subject of the movie "Unbroken."

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Editors bury photo showing pain, deafeat of victim's family

The afternoon rush hour on Summit Avenue in Hackensack. The street has been repaved by Bergen County, but Prospect Avenue, which is lined with high rises, is still a rough ride of crudely patched pavement.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If you are the family of Nazareh Bugg, an innocent black teenage girl cut down by gunfire in Paterson, you won't get much respect from the editors of The Record, even though your pain and defeat is obvious for everyone to see.

Today, the photo of Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia Valdes is on the front page, where The Record reports Nazareh was killed by gunfire between two "groups" fighting for territory in Paterson's 1st and 4th wards last month (A-1).

But Nazareh's family also was at the carefully staged news conference. Where is their photo?

In the print edition, it's buried on A-8, the continuation page.

On NorthJersey.com, you'll have to scroll down to see their pain, resignation and defeat -- the photo runs below the photos of three suspects:

See: Editors bury black pain


We know The Record and other media are suckers for one of those carefully managed press conferences, where authorities try to convince the public they are doing a good job stopping crime.

But Nazareh's family and hundreds of other families in Paterson know that is so much official B.S.

Moronic mayor

Most Paterson residents want to give a swift kick in Mayor Joey Torres' rear-end.

Torres attended Tuesday's press conference and tried to explain to a reporter why he didn't make a public statement about Nazareh's slaying (A-8).

Why does The Record quote the moron at all?

Charity for Syrians

A disturbing story on banks thwarting U.S.-based charities and churches from helping Syrians during their devastating civil war doesn't mention any alternatives (A-1 and A-6).

Hand in Hand for Syria is a charity based in England, but you can make donations online:  

See: We only work inside Syria

Hackensack news

I don't envy Staff Writer Todd South, the new Hackensack reporter, who is trying to catch up to events that occurred long before he took over the beat.

His story on the fifth anniversary of the Bergen County homeless shelter on South River Street ignores the tremendous impact on the Police Department.

Attracted by three meals a day at the shelter -- the Housing, Health and Human Services Center -- the homeless continue to roam through the city, and many require transportation to Hackensack University Medical Center for care.

Police Mike Mordaga has asked hospital official to staff a room at the shelter in an attempt to cut down on those trips. 

A meeting of the City Council was scheduled for Tuesday night, but I don't see anything in today's paper.

Garrett challenger

Attorney Roy Cho of Hackensack met with The Record's unnamed Editorial Board on Tuesday to discuss his campaign to unseat Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, one of Congress' most regressive members.

Today, the story about Cho, who has the backing of both U.S. senators from New Jersey, appears on L-3, the same page often reserved for police and court news, and filler photos of non-fatal rollover accidents.

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Slain black Paterson teen gets the back of Marty's hand

The Oritani Field Club on East Camden and River streets in Hackensack will close at the end of 2015, and face the wrecking ball to make way for apartments or another type of development. On Thursday morning, four elderly men used the clay tennis courts, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Far be it for me to second-guess you, oh great Martin Gottlieb, whose cub-reporting years at The Record launched a stellar journalism career at The New York Times.

But, Marty, now that you've traded Paris for Paramus as editor of The Record for close to three years, what's going on with your cockamamie news judgment?

Do worthless white trash -- Joe Giudice isn't even a U.S. citizen -- really have more news value than the hundreds of people and 14 police motorcycle officers who turned out for the funeral of an innocent 14-year-old girl who was gunned down on Paterson's violent streets?

Greed party

On Page 1, Marty, you show the cheating and lying Giudices in a large photo after they were sentenced to federal prison, and a column by Virginia Rohan speculates on the future of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" (A-1).

You've allowed Rohan and her assignment editors to make the couple a huge spectacle in numerous stories in recent years, many of which appeared in the Local news section in place of legitimate news.

Rohan even refers to the woman as "Teresa," a newspaper style no-no. First names are reserved for teenagers and children.

Why not just call Teresa Giudice "bimba" and her husband "bimbo"? In the news story and column, I can't even find the name of the town where they live in a $3.9 million McMansion.

Nor is much made of the bimba being allowed to remain free until January.

No respect

Then, Marty, you make us question your highfalutin journalism credentials with photos showing the incredible turnout outside St. Luke Baptist Church in Paterson, and the grief shown by the family of Nazareh Bugg, 14, who was shot dead two weeks ago.

Why are these photos on the Local front and L-6, and not on the front page? 

Who could help but be moved to tears by the stricken look on the face, presumably, of Nazareh's mother as she is being helped out of the church?

For some reason, none of the relatives are identified in the photo captions. 

And you've got to love the Paterson police, the mayor and the white police director for pulling out all the stops for the girl's funeral, but doing little to prevent her death or the shooting death of another girl who had so much promise, Genesis Rincon, 12, on July 5.

Christie and pigs

Governor Christie's travels as head of the Republican Governors Association merit front-page play today, but his mistreatment of pigs is buried in a brief on A-3.

Last year, the GOP bully wallowed in manure as he vetoed the first attempt to regulate the size of crates for housing pregnant pigs on New Jersey farms "after political groups from Iowa ... applied pressure on the governor," the story reports.

Now, an Assembly committee has passed a second bill to address the cruelty of crates that are too small to allow pregnant pigs to turn around (A-3).

Three more embarrassing corrections appear on A-2 today.

Can she write?

Another story on A-3 raises a question about whether Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno can sign or veto bills as acting governor now that she has broken her elbow and wrist in a bicycle accident.

And if her injuries prevent her from signing bills into law, who can? The story doesn't address any of those issues.

Wouldn't it be great if her broken elbow and wrist meant that Senate President Stephen Sweeney or whomever is second in line as acting governor swiftly enacted a hike in the gasoline tax, a tax surcharge on millionaires and other measures to restore the state's economic health?

Ung strikes back

Well, there is plenty of room for Staff Writer Elisa Ung to turn around in her Woodland Park newsroom cubicle and in all of those restaurants she reviews.

But if you keep her waiting for a slice of pie, look out, as the owner and chef of Brigantine Seafood Eatery & Market found out today, when he got a lukewarm 2-star rating (BL-18).

Ung was upset, because on a busy Friday night, the service was slow, and she didn't get her Key lime pie until "almost two hours" after she and her companion sat down.

She sampled two appetizers and three entrees at that meal, but one of the prices is missing, more evidence of sloppy editing and proofing. 

On her first visit, she was upset her peach pie wasn't served warm.

You have to pity the woman, don't you?

The restaurant is "no frills," "bare bones" and "plain," and horrors, doesn't even use tablecloths, Ung reports, so she doesn't think the prices are justified by the fresh, wild-caught seafood served or the generous portions.

She describes "scallops" for $26.95, yet doesn't say how many she was served or whether they were those wonderful, large sea scallops landed in New Jersey.

From her description of the seafood and high level of preparation by Chef Alfred Ianniello, Brigantine Seafood Eatery is a must-visit for people who love fish.

Sadly, her obsession for artery clogging desserts blinds her to that simple truth.

Hackensack news

Hackensack Chronicle reports the City Council and Board of Education have agreed on having two police officers, one to patrol the high school and the other the middle school, until the 2018-19 school year.

The district has agreed to pay about $170,000 a year, and $60,000 to purchase and equip two patrol cars, the weekly newspaper says.

In today's edition, News Editor Jennifer Vazquez reports the agreement was approved at a Sept. 16 meeting, but I don't recall seeing the story in The Record.

Previously, the school district refused to pay $1 million for a school resource officer who was assigned to the high school starting in 2006, because city bureaucrats never sent out the bills.

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Law may bar Hackensack foes from getting on ballot

At the Hackensack Street Festival on Saturday, two women turned the Main Street pavement into their own private dance floor, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The 1923 law under which Hackensack's government was formed bars initiative and referendum, such as the proposal to return to partisan elections put forward by administration critics.

In what appears to be an attempt by Democrats to regain the power and patronage they lost in 2013, a group has proposed partisan City Council elections every two years, and allowing residents to introduce or repeal ordinances.

"Then what's the point of having a government?" said Teaneck Councilman Mohammed Hameedudin, the township's former mayor. 

The group, Hackensack Citizens for Good Government, is trying to get 4,000 signatures to put the proposed government change on the ballot.

But the 1923 Municipal Manager Form of Government law doesn't permit such a referendum, city officials say. 

The Council-Manager Form of government is said to be the most widely used form of government in the United States, despite limited use in New Jersey, including Hackensack.

I spoke briefly with group spokesman Ray Dressler on Saturday, when he was trying to gather signatures at the Hackensack Street Festival.

Dressler didn't say how many signatures he has on the petition, and nothing appeared in The Record today, a day after a long story on the group's proposed referendum. 

However, Dressler acknowledged the group is largely made up of Democrats while most members of the City Council are Republicans.

The aroma of shish kebab, above; fish balls, below, and other ethnic food tempted people strolling along Main Street.

Filipino fish balls ($2 a skewer) were served with a sweet or hot chili sauce.

The street menu of Citrus Cafe, one of the restaurants on Main Street.

Martial-arts students showing their form.

Unusually warm weather encouraged strolling.

People who attended the festival had to park blocks away, because shoppers parking was reserved for VIPs. This Upper Main Alliance lot on State Street remained largely empty on Saturday afternoon. Police officers were assigned to keep out residents and visitors.

Today's boring paper

When you have to flip back to The Record's Sunday Opinion section for something interesting to read, it makes you wonder what the editors were thinking when they made up Page 1 and the Local news front.

Brigid Harrison isn't even a staffer, but she exposes another one of Governor Christie's mean-spirited policies (O-1).

Lately, the opinions of this political science professor go against the tide of the largely positive coverage the GOP bully receives from the paper's Trenton staff and its fawning editorial writers.

In her second paragraph, Harrison notes "Christie's willingness to placate national conservatives in order to boost his shot at the GOP presidential nomination while defying the will -- or best interests -- of New Jerseyans."

To keep residents from seeing cuts in food stamps of up to $90 a month, states have increased heating assistance to qualify the hungriest citizens for a "Heat and Eat" program, Harrison says.

But New Jersey is among four states that have refused to do so, even though Democrats in the Legislature have urged Christie to allocate unused energy funds so 160,000 can avoid the food stamp cuts.

Jeeter Schmeeter

The Page 1 hysteria over Derek Jeeter's retirement continues today, and even Columnist Mike Kelly gets into the act on the Opinion front, where his outdated, shit-eating-grin photo defies readers.

The front-page story on street gangs in Paterson might engage readers, if Christie hadn't written off the city in 2011 and cut state aid, forcing Silk City to lay off 125 police officers and dismantle an anti-gang unit.

For the first time since the 2011 layoffs, The Record attributes them "to a combination of mismanagement of the city budget and cuts in state aid," while carefully omitting Christie's name (A-9).

Alzheimer's column

The Road Warrior column today is packed with numbers, percentages and other data from a poll on road safety and distracted driving (L-1).

Rewriting a poll is a real disservice to commuters, especially those who take mass transit, which Staff Writer John Cichowski has largely ignored in the 11 years he has masqueraded as the Road Warrior.

If the past is any guide, Cichowski, who exhibits symptoms of early Alzheimer's disease, wasn't able to accurately transpose most of the numbers from a press release.

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Read all about Paterson's deadly present, glorious past

The Bergen County Courthouse, the fifth such building in Hackensack since the city became the county seat in 1710, has a dome modeled on the U.S. Capitol. Unfortunately, this grand building, a new Justice Center going up nearby and all other county property is tax exempt, shifting a crushing burden onto residents and business owners.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Where is Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale, who grabbed headlines as Passaic County sheriff, the No. 2 cop at the Port Authority and police chief of a bankrupt town in Alabama?

In fact, why can't the Paterson police do anything to stop rampant gun violence, which took another innocent "young life" late Saturday night, according to a Page 1 story in The Record today?

Nazareh Bugg, 14, "was walking with friends along Clinton Street, less than a block from the basketball court she dreamed would be her way out of Paterson," the lead paragraph reports (A-1).

The Woodland Park daily says Paterson added police officers after the fatal July shooting of Genesis Rincon, 12, but still had "about 100 fewer than were employed before a 2011 layoff of 125 officers" (A-6).

Lousy reporting

Tomorrow, readers can expect Mike Kelly to write a front-page column, trying to find the "lesson" in the 14-year-old's death, and an editorial writer will wring his or her hands over gun violence in Silk City.

But don't expect the paper to report Governor Christie has the blood of Genesis and Nazareh on his hands, because his state-aid cuts forced the poor, largely minority city to lay off the 125 officers.

Officials in hiding

The paper's reporters couldn't even get Speziale to comment on Saturday night's shooting, and Mayor Joey Torres "could not be reached for comment."

"Paterson police issued a news release with few details," said the story, which was reported and written by three staffers and the editor of the Paterson Press.

This kind of reporting is pathetic, but typical of The Record since Publisher Stephen A. Borg took over and cut costs and veteran newsroom workers.

Purple prose

The story is written to hide its many reporting flaws:

"Soon after gunshots pierced one of the last nights of summer, 14-year-old Nazareh Bugg lay dying in the arms of a friend, as police arrived at the scene of yet another shooting that took the life of a North Jersey youngster" (A-1).

What moron wrote that? "North Jersey youngster"? 

North Jersey largely repudiates Paterson, Passaic and other communities filled with black and Hispanic residents, and racists in Saddle River and other wealthy towns aren't shedding any tears over the teen's death.

City's glorious past

On the Local front today, a story reports Cooper family descendants gathered on Sunday to celebrate Paterson companies that made thousands of diners (L-1).

But there is not a single reference to the city's violent and bloody present or how Christie, other politicians, Speziale and the police have turned their back on residents.

Update

The story was poorly edited, and the day of the shooting wasn't mentioned until the continuation page (A-6), where "late Saturday" appeared in a caption.

Like many readers I assumed it took place on Sunday.

In the text on A-6, the time of the Saturday shooting was given as 11:26 p.m.

Why was Nazareh and her friends allowed to stay out so late? The story is silent on that question.

Climate change

More than 300,000 people demonstrated in Manhattan on Sunday, demanding official action on climate change (A-1).

But North Jersey Media Group's objectivity on the issue is suspect, given all of the advertising revenue the publishing company reaps from automakers and dealers.

Fifteen years after Honda introduced the first hybrid car in America, consumer still have few affordable hybrid or all-electric cars to choose from.

Mass transit

Christie killed a pair of new Hudson River rail tunnels in 2010, "citing potential cost overruns," The Record reports today (A-1).

But Staff Writer Christopher Maag's detailed update on replacement tunnels and other mass-transit improvements continues to emphasize the high cost without giving equal time to the potential benefits.

The paper has done its best to ignore crowded trains, buses and midtown Manhattan's gridlocked terminal, as well as how little the Port Authority has done to expand mass transit.

Still, shouldn't every story on the high cost of new rail tunnels tell readers how many cars will be taken off the road, reducing gasoline consumption, pollution, traffic congestion and lost productivity, and put a dollar amount on the benefits? 

Feeling powerless

Crews have been tearing up streets in Hackensack and many other towns for several weeks now, but a story on the Local front today reports "first steps" in a plan to safeguard the power grid (L-1).

On L-3, a chart says the start date of gas-main replacement in Hackensack is "to be determined."

So why were Salem, State and other streets closed starting in August? Was other work being done?

And this afternoon, police had River Street, in front of The Record's mothballed headquarters, down to one lane in each direction, and a deep trench had been cut into the pavement.

As a service to readers, this story should have been reported earlier, and the local editors could have done a better job coming up with a schedule of the work to warn drivers. 

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Mean-spirited Christie keeps on dumping on Paterson

Recycling in Hackensack, above, and on the tony East Side of Manhattan, below.

In Manhattan, homeless men and women harvest recyclable cans and bottles left in front of apartment buildings, and get 5 cents for each one. A thousand cans or bottles translate into a $50 payday. The pink notices on posts advise residents to move their cars -- or risk having them towed away -- for a shoot by "The Good Wife" crew.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The morally bankrupt Christie administration won't give poor Paterson a break.

State troopers could put a stop to rising gun violence in the wake of state aid cuts in 2011 that forced the layoff of 125 police officers -- almost a quarter of the force.

And state grants might allow Silk City to borrow less than a planned $37 million to fill thousands of potholes in the county seat that plague residents and visitors alike.

Christie apologists

You'd think The Record's editors and columnists would call on Governor Christie to go to bat for the largely minority city.

But you'd be wrong, as demonstrated today by lame Paterson columns from Mike Kelly and John "Road Warrior" Cichowski (A-1 and L-1).

And Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin is worried not about children like Genesis Rincon, 12, who was fatally shot on a Paterson street, but about child refugees and schoolchildren who ride allegedly unsafe buses (O-2).

Deep-seated racism

Kelly, Cichowski and Doblin embody the institutional racism of the predominantly white Woodland Park newsroom -- the same stubborn bias shown by Christie himself.

If you doubt Kelly is capable of harshly criticizing Christie, take a look at his second column on the Sunday edition's Opinion front (O-1).

A "misfire" is Kelly's label for the veto of "a reasonable and minor change in state gun law" to reduce the capacity of magazines from 15 rounds to 10" -- the ones favored by mass killers.

He calls Christie's defense of the veto "pathetic," and accused the GOP bully of caving into the gun lobby to further his presidential ambitions.

Blaming the victims

But there is not even a hint of criticism of Christie in Kelly's overlong Page 1 column headlined with a rhetorical question that, as usual, the reporter never answers ("Can tragic death be catalyst for change?").

This is another long and winding column that generates heat, but no light -- lots of research, lots of irrelevant numbers, lots of interviews with the same old sources, even the number of college degrees and high school diplomas held by city residents.

No opinions

But, again, Kelly doesn't seem to have an opinion about what is happening in Paterson, as he does about guns, and doesn't blame anyone, let alone Christie, whom he finally mentions deep on the continuation page:

"Governor Christie's administration -- already pressed for cash itself and unable to make pension payments for state workers -- has given no indication [of] coming to the city's aid" (A-6).

Why hasn't  Editor Marty Gottlieb asked his Trenton staff to question Christie or his aides on why they apparently are doing nothing about gun violence and infrastructure problems in Paterson.

What pussies.

Pathetic sections

It's Sunday, but there is hardly any municipal news in Local, the section put out by the lazy, incompetent assignment editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza (L-1).

North Jersey's downtowns are dying, but the lead story on the Business cover today is about a Fair Lawn couple involved in a trademark dispute (B-1).

An enormous amount of space in Better Living is devoted to the bimbos on "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" (BL-1).

And Travel Editor Jill Schensul writes about owning a small island near Sardinia that costs $1.5 million euros (T-1).

Hey, let's take up a collection.

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