A fading Christie lacks the temperament to be president

On Saturday, The Record reported twice on the front page that Hackensack University Medical Center's mobile treatment unit for potential Ebola cases is "behind" a McDonald's on Essex and South Newman streets in Hackensack. But that's not the case. The hospital-owned lot is actually between the McDonald's and NJ Transit's Essex Street Station.

In today's paper, a front-page photo caption says the mobile treatment unit is "near a McDonald's." City officials want the hospital to move the unit, above. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

"Sit down and shut up."

With those words, Governor Christie dismissed another protester, even though everyone but The Record thinks the GOP bully has bungled the recovery two long years after Superstorm Sandy (A-3).

"Why isn't he [Christie] in Ship Bottom today?" protester Jim Keady of Spring Lake said. "Why isn't he in Ortley Beach, where people aren't back in their homes? He's got to finish the job."

Keady held up a sign -- "STAY IN NJ & FINISH THE JOB" -- an apparent reference to Christie's travels raising money for conservative politicians like himself who have been waging war on the middle and working classes. 

Well, is there really any chance Christie will even get the nomination, given his far-from-presidential temperament and his low approval ratings in New Jersey?

If he can't veto bills, he just tells his critics to shut up and sit down.

Voter apathy

He was elected to a second term last November, but the turnout was the lowest for any gubernatorial election in state history.

Christie won, because droves of voters stayed home.

In fact, none of the election coverage so far has addressed how much voters are turned off by the partisanship in New Jersey and Washington, and the Woodland Park daily's relentless focus on politics.

Take today's Page 1 column on the challenge to Rep. Scott Garret, R-Wantage, in the 5th Congressional District, which includes Bergen County (A-1).

Columnist Charles Stile and other staffers give the most coverage and credibility to the candidate who raises the most money, but never say why that is so important.

And this year, I haven't seen one analysis of the distorted and false attack ads big campaign money buys.

Even such an eminence as Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson left out damaging information about Garrett in the first front-page piece on the challenge posed by Democrat Roy Cho, an attorney who lives in Hackensack.

What The Record reported as Garrett's initial opposition to federal Sandy aid is now being called  "raising questions about the potential for wasteful spending" (A-11).

Wednesday's paper

High school football has such a grip on Editor Martin Gottlieb that he ran a two-year-old story about a Paramus Catholic player and his mother all over Wednesday's front page.

Gottlieb again led the front page with lots more on Ebola, even though not a single case has been confirmed in New Jersey.

Two more embarrassing corrections appeared on A-2.

In Wednesday's Better Living section, clueless freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson continues to recommend recipes that turn healthy ingredients into artery clogging nightmares (BL-2).

Her Lobster Frittata includes five whole eggs, a half-cup of cream, 2 ounces of cream cheese and 4 ounces of Swiss cheese.

Jackson should visit a hospital cardiac ward, and talk to patients who have had heart attacks from clogged arteries before she pushes another unhealthy recipe.

Third look

How can Road Warrior John Cichowski be so wrong about so many things in column after column, escaping even basic fact checking by his assignment editor, the copy desk and six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton?

In last Friday's column, which I discussed on Tuesday, Cichowski was relating the history of George Washington Bridge construction.

Then, the clueless transportation writer said:

"Until the Holland Tunnel was completed in Hoboken in 1927, the main method for drivers to get their cars across the Hudson River was by ferry...."

Of course, the New Jersey entrance to the Holland Tunnel is in Jersey City, not Hoboken.

And, of course, no correction appeared.

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Was Tony Soprano elected governor of New Jersey?

Welcome to New Jersey: With the Bayonne Bridge closed, people disembarking from a cruise ship at Port Jersey in Bayonne on Saturday faced a 30-minute delay in reaching the New Jersey Turnpike.

After the tollbooths, drivers passed an oasis of beauty next to the turnpike.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Readers with solar panels on their homes searched today's front page in vain for a clue to whether The Record's lead story on the state Clean Energy Program had anything to do with them (A-1).

If they managed to plow through all of the long, densely written paragraphs on A-1 without losing interest -- and that's doubtful -- they turned to the continuation page and saw a big photo of solar panels on a county building (A-6).

But why did Editor Marty Gottlieb think this is the first thing readers wanted to see today?

Staff Writer Jean Rimbach, the least productive reporter in the Woodland Park newsroom, worked on this expose a long time, but it is no easier to get into or understand, and whatever editing it might have received is invisible.

What it means

Has Rimbach's investigation uncovered another one of Governor Christie's failed promises or the well-known revolving door between government and industry?

And I can't see how any of this affects me as a homeowner who has solar panels on his roof or anyone else who took part in the Clean Energy Program.

I'm still getting free electricity more than six months out of the year, and I'm still earning monthly solar credits I can sell to Public Service Electric & Gas for cash.

Despite all of the talent Gottlieb has on his local photo staff, the former New York Times veteran keeps on running wire-service photos on Page 1, such as the silly one today of "pro-Russia protesters."

On A-2, the SHOT OF THE DAY is from Gaza City. Maybe, the real shot of the day is the majestic eagle on the Local front today.

Tony Soprano

A second piece on Page 1 today is clearly about another of the GOP bully's failed promises -- the incredible mismanagement of Superstorm Sandy aid (A-1 and A-7).

On Friday night, HBO satirist Bill Maher suggested Tony Soprano wasn't whacked in the final episode of "The Sopranos" in June 2007, he was elected governor of New Jersey.

After the belly laughs died down, that didn't seem so far-fetched, given how Christie has treated Sandy victims, bridge-and-tunnel Democrats in Fort Lee and other cities, commuters and the middle and working classes on whose backs he is about to balance another state budget.

White and black

Why did the local editors put David Peluso, a heroin addict from Mahwah, on the Local front, and bury a story about Kirk-Andeno Lawrence, 21, a promising college student who worked with an EMT unit?

Lawrence, of Paterson, committed suicide. He was black, as was the reporter who wrote the story, and the heroin addict is white. 

Did that have anything to do with placement of the respective stories?

Inflated salaries

Also on the Local front today is a piece by Staff Writer Hannan Adely on public relations consultants hired by a small number of towns, including Hackensack.

The city, which can't afford to repair potholes, is paying Thom Ammirato $78,000 a year -- a reward for his work as campaign manager to the Citizens for Change slate that swept last May's City Council election.

But Mayor John Labrosse, the top vote-getter, claims he didn't know Ammirato, the city's chief spokesman, already had a full-time public relations job with Bergen County's Republican administrator, plus a few other side jobs.

Ammirato's one-year contract with Hackensack expires in mid-July.

Newsroom changes

Meanwhile, Adely has been pulled off her Hackensack beat, and Kibret Markos has been assigned to the Passaic County Courthouse in Paterson after years of covering state Superior Court in Hackensack.

Staff Writer Peter J. Sampson replaced Markos at the Bergen County Courthouse, where there will a lot less second-hand smoke outside the main entrance the latter favored for his frequent smoking breaks.

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Medical writer echoes anti-Obama conservatives

Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Medical writer Lindy Washburn is a highly respected reporter at The Record of Woodland Park.

But she continues to portray the roll-out of the federal Affordable Care Act in wholly negative terms, playing into the hands of such anti-Obama conservatives as Governor Christie (A-1). 

Today, as she has done in past stories, readers can find only one positive paragraph deep in the text of the continuation page (A-8).

"To be sure, tens of thousands of New Jersey residents have successfully obtained insurance coverage."

Success stories?

But I can't recall Washburn reporting on applicants like me and a friend who not only bought policies, but who are saving money for coverage that is as good or better than they had before.

I'm saving $150 a month on policies for my wife and son, compared to what I paid North Jersey Media Group, my former employer.

And Washburn continues to omit important background information on how Christie and the governors of 35 other states refused to set up state exchanges, throwing tens of millions of applicants onto the federal exchange, HealthCare.gov, and in some cases, crashing it.

Christie also refused to spend $7.6 million in federal money to help New Jersey residents enroll in marketplace plans. 

In fact, Christie's sabotage of the Affordable Care Act and his administration's bungling of federal Sandy aid (A-1) can be seen as the same kind of political retribution the GOP bully is accused of in such Democratic strongholds as Jersey City, Hoboken and Fort Lee.

That borough was hit by four days of gridlock last September after members of Christie's inner circle shut down two of three local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge for a "traffic study."

But investigators believe the Democratic mayors of Fort Lee and other communities were the targets of retribution for not endorsing Christie for a second term.

Hackensack news

Hackensack residents find two stories on the front of Local today, including a report on the Bergen County prosecutor serving subpoenas on the three employers of Thom Ammirato, the city's chief spokesman (L-1).

Ammirato -- who is paid $78,000 a year for his Hackensack public relations work -- also is a full-time employee of Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan, who pays him $35,000 and benefits; and a part-time spokesman for North Arlington, where he is paid $21,600 a year.

North Arlington also has hired Stephen Lo Iacono, Hackensack's former city manager.

In the second Hackensack story, Kathleen Gehm, 63, of River Vale has been cleared of any wrongdoing in the death of Jerome Some, 87, who was struck and killed by her car as he crossed Prospect Avenue on Oct. 8 around 7:30 p.m.

Some, founder of Some's Uniforms on Main Street, left his building and was crossing the street to attend a meeting at Bel Posto Restaurant, because the meeting room in his high-rise was being renovated.

There is no crosswalk between his building and the restaurant, and Some's daughter said the street is poorly lighted. 

After the accident, firefighters were sent out to wash off Some's blood from the pavement, but no safety improvements were made on Prospect Avenue.

City's potholes

Prospect Avenue is lined with high-rises and is considered one of Hackensack's premier streets, but it is also lined with some of the city's worst potholes.

See previous post: Will Hackensack's DPW ever fill these potholes?

A city official I spoke with today said Hackensack doesn't have the money needed to repair Prospect Avenue, because of the fiscal mismanagement of the previous City Council, which was allied with the Zisa family.

He also noted the previous administration's practice of not paving streets in such higher income neighborhoods as Fairmount.

Important photo

Deputy Assignment Editor managed to squeeze in a gee-whiz photo of a sheered-off utility pole on Route 17 in Paramus, but as usual, the caption is devoid of any information about the cause or whether the driver received a summons (L-3).

What local news was held to get this photo into the paper? 

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N.J. Public Radio: Why is Christie so secretive?

The Modern, a 47-story apartment building under construction in Fort Lee, overlooks the Chris Christie Memorial Local Access Lanes to the George Washington Bridge, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

New Jersey Public Radio says The Record's top lawyer is calling the Christie administration the most secretive in decades.

Jennifer A. Borg is being quoted today in the report on WNYC-FM, whose Web site calls the story "Chris Christie's 18 State Secrets."

Matt Katz of New Jersey Public Radio reports:

"The release of subpoenaed documents that exposed the Christie Administration's involvement in Bridgegate show how the Governor's Office has been keeping its decisions and expenditures quiet despite laws that require official business to be made public. Here's 18 ways Christie and his officials have blocked access to information."

The big lie

On Jan. 19, 2010, the day Chris Christie was sworn in, the new governor pledged, "Today, a new era of accountability and transparency is here." 

But Borg, North Jersey Media Group vice president and general counsel, says the Christie administration has been "more secretive" than any other administration she has dealt with in the last 20 years.

Bridgegate e-mails

For example, Katz reports, Christie officials responded to The Record's request for correspondence on George Washington Bridge lane closures by saying none existed.

Only subpoenas from the Legislature were able to obtain e-mails from David Wildstein of the Port Authority, which runs the bridge, to Michael Drewniak, a former Star-Ledge reporter who is Christie's foul-mouthed chief spokesman and spin doctor.

The subpoenas found the Governor's Office "was intentionally or unintentionally violating the Open Public Records Act," Katz says. 

Three other "state secrets," Katz reports, are:

• How much taxpayers are spending on the lawyer representing Christie in various "abuse-of-power investigations."
• Who paid for a trip the governor took to Dallas last year.
• Christie's commissioner of community affairs, Richard Constable III, has ignored questions on why the state fired a $69 million contractor responsible for distributing $780 million in Sandy housing aid.  

Read the full report at the following link: 

Chris Christie's 18 State Secrets

Today's paper

The Record today is silent on the New Jersey Public Radio investigative report.

And there is nothing in the paper about a Star-Ledger report that the Democratic mayor of Belleville endorsed Governor Christie's election to a second term last year two weeks after the GOP bully personally pushed "his senior staff to provide a Sandy grant to build a senior citizen housing complex" in the town (see Sandy story on A-3).

A Star-Ledger editorial today charges Christie "used Sandy money as a political slush fund."

More good publicity

In fact, The Record today is wrapped in a special Super Bowl section, a testament to the power of the National Football League's publicity machine.

The upbeat, 8-page section crowds out any mention of the league's concussion crisis and the many brain-damaged pro football players who suffer dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

In contrast, today's Local section carries only three pages of municipal, police and court news, and three pages of death notices. 

Shafting commuters

The dominant Page 1 story today is about NJ Transit trademarks, but continues the Woodland Park daily's practice of ignoring the quality of bus and rail service or whether the agency can guarantee commuters a rush-hour seat (A-1).

In a front-page column, Charles Stile claims Christie "nearly leaped out of his shoes four years ago" at word New Jersey would get its first Super Bowl -- impossible for a man who weighed nearly 400 pounds (A-1).

On the Local front, a Turkish-born American citizen who was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually abusing a sleeping woman on a Phoenix-Newark flight says he will never complain about flying economy again (L-1).

On L-3, Rutherford joins Hackensack in canceling a Super Bowl-themed winter festival, citing a lack of sponsors -- more evidence the big game will have far less economic impact in New Jersey than predicted.

Food-shopping news

The Record's feature writers, including its star restaurant reviewer, rarely discuss the origin or quality of food.

For years, the paper's consumer columnist, Kevin DeMarrais, has compiled a  monthly survey of supermarket prices, though he continues to ignore organic and naturally grown or raised food.

On Wednesday's L-8, the first Business page, DeMarrais reported that Great American Seafood-brand frozen tilapia fillets are being sold in a bag with an American flag logo, but that the fish is farm raised in China, Vietnam and Thailand.

Though that kind of warning is welcome, The Record's Business section spends far too much of its time mindlessly promoting fast-food restaurants, supermarkets and other food businesses.

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