Boy's school death raises questions, possibility of lawsuit

Snow was falling this morning in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The death of Brendan Jordan, 7, in a New Milford school gymnasium accident probably will result in a lawsuit seeking answers to questions district officials deflected on Thursday.

The Record's Page 1 story and sidebar on how the boy was fatally injured by a falling "108-pound bench" raises a lot of questions the editors failed to answer, but those holes are typical of how the Woodland Park newsroom often bungles breaking news.

A wrongful death lawsuit likely will focus on whether the school district was negligent in properly maintaining "the in-the-wall storage system for ... cafeteria tables," which is shown in a front-page illustration.

But the boy's death raises larger questions on why New Milford and other districts build combination gyms and cafeterias when adding rooms to such schools as Berkley Street Elementary, where the boy was injured.

Did New Milford resort to this economy measure and put children such as Brendan in harm's way after taxpayers rejected a more expensive proposal for a separate gym and cafeteria more than 11 years ago?

There is nothing in The Record's coverage today that even addresses that question.

End home rule

Allowing residents to vote against school projects they fear will raise their taxes is one of the big negatives of home rule.

In fact, a poorly written editorial on A-18 today blasts "New Jersey's home-rule mentality, with its myriad of municipalities with overlapping services [that] drives up the cost of living in this state."

The editorial was listing factors that influenced German luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz to announce the move of its U.S. headquarters to Atlanta from Montvale.

But none of the news stories on Mercedes-Benz in the past few weeks even mentioned home rule's ruinous duplication of services, including nearly 70 police chiefs and 70 school superintendents in Bergen County alone.

Anti-union sentiment

In a letter to the editor today, Igor Shpudejko of Mahwah cites "politicians beholden to ... unions and environmentalists [that] have made the business climate in the state unfriendly" (A-18).

Maybe, Shpudejko can move to Atlanta with Mercedes-Benz.

In another letter, Jay Himelstein, who moved to South Carolina from New Jersey, praises anti-union "right-to-work" states in the South.

I say good riddance to Himelstein and Mercedes, because The Record has exaggerated the significance of the automaker's departure with the loss of up to 1,000 jobs -- a fraction of the 22,000 corporate positions in Montvale, Park Ridge and Woodcliff Lake.

Mercedes is keeping its regional headquarters in Montvale, and plans to open a training center there. 

And as part of the company's marketing effort, the flow of Mercedes-Benzes to VIPs, auto journalists and bloggers to use free for a weekend or week will continue unabated.

Newsroom massacre

The Record and other media claim the Paris newsroom killings are a blow to freedom of speech and an attempt to silence the press.

But the French journalists who were murdered, allegedly by a pair of Algerian brothers, might have exercised more intelligence and kept an eye on history when choosing targets to lampoon.

The publication called Charlie Hebdo has long drawn threats for its depiction of Islam, the official religion in Algeria, and its caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, according to The Record (A-7).

But given the brutal French colonization of Algeria from 1830 to 1962, the journalists should have chosen their targets more carefully.

Hackensack news

A story on the Local front today repeats an error that has appeared in the paper several times, calling Hackensack Board of Education Attorney Richard Salkin a "former city attorney" (L-6).

In the first paragraph of the story, Staff Writer Todd South quotes City Councilwoman Rose Greenman as claiming a zoning complaint against her was an act of "retaliation" by the mayor and deputy mayor (L-1).

But in providing background deep on the continuation page, South makes clear Salkin was the original source of the complaint (L-6).

Confusing, to say the least, and readers wonder whether South, encouraged by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes or her deputy, Dan Sforza, simply manufactured the story as an example of "continuing division on the council" -- a slate of reformers that ended decades of Zisa family rule (L-1).

Cramped trattoria

The small space and the lack of a parking lot probably means Trattoria Carpaccio will go the way of other failed restaurants that occupied a former antiques store on the ground floor of a Grand Avenue apartment building in Englewood (BL-1 and BL-12).

But in listing the restaurant's negatives, Staff Writer Elisa Ung complains, "And instead of a lively bar, Carpaccio customers must bring their own wine."

Why is The Record's restaurant critic bemoaning a BYO policy, the only alternative restaurant goers have to exorbitantly high prices for wine and other alcohol at places with liquor licenses?

I guess Ung is in favor of exploiting customers, if it lines the pockets of wealthy restaurant owners who advertise in The Record.

Readers should question where her loyalties lie, and whether it's time for her to move on.

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The Cuomos put Christie, Bush and Reagan to shame

The landmark Church on the Green in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

As tributes continue to pour in two days after the death of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, many readers are wondering why such a princely politician is so rare.

The Associated Press story on A-4 of The Record today compares Cuomo to FDR and Adlai Stevenson, claiming "liberals have lost one of their last, best champions."

That seems premature.

But even more troubling is the media's failure to compare Cuomo and his son, Andrew, the current New York governor, to Governor Christie and all of the other mean-spirited politicians whose sole mission seems to be protecting millionaires from higher taxes.

(The caption with today's A-4 story on Mario Cuomo shows "Matilda Cuomo, center," but there are a total of four people in the photo.)

Cuomo v. Christie

Andrew Cuomo, who took the oath for his second term on Thursday just a few hours before his father died, has governed his state far better than Christie has New Jersey.

The younger Cuomo said that since he took office, New York has turned a $10 billion deficit into a $5 billion surplus, expanded health care to cover 1.5 million more people and reversed gridlock and dysfunction in government by getting Republicans and Democrats to work together (Friday's A-4).

Instead of trying to get the two parties to work together, Christie simply vetoes any legislation passed by the Democratic majority, then has lackeys like Columnist Charles Stile portray the GOP bully as a "compromiser."

Friday's front page

Staff Writer Todd South, who is assigned to cover Hackensack, reported and wrote two strong stories, and they appeared on Friday's Page 1.

The centerpiece focused on Alon Millet, a 16-year-old Bergen County Academies student whose research promises to ease world hunger with faster-growing mung beans.

Once he's perfected that, let's hope Alon turns his attention to ending the flatulence caused by eating too many beans.

Todd's second story is on Rutgers University's Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, which has developed a program that focuses intensely on health care for combat veterans.

Contrast those two stories with the drivel from The Record's sports, news and transportation columnists that Editor Martin Gottlieb often plays on Page 1.

Eating in a stable

If the restaurant's name doesn't turn you off, then read the lukewarm review of Valley Stables in Oakland in Friday's Better Living tab (BL-12).

Staff Writer Elisa Ung complained about the "wild [G]ulf shrimp" in a pasta dish, reporting "they were rather thin and insipid, not any meatier or flavorful [sic] than your average farmed shrimp ($23)."

Does she expect wild shrimp, which are free of antibiotics and preservatives, to jump off her plate and into her mouth?

Maybe the menu misrepresented the shrimp in the dish. Did she ask the owner or chef? God forbid.

Food coverage

Thankfully, readers starving for intelligent food coverage don't have to rely only on Ung, as shown by an inspirational profile of Chef Vaughn Crenshaw of Hackensack.

Crenshaw, 29, executive chef at Ridgewood's Pearl Restaurant, grew up next to a crack house in Paterson and lived in a car as a teenager. 

Staff Writer Steve Janoski's feature on Crenshaw appeared on Wednesday's Better Living front.

The story continued on BL-3, opposite Coffee with the Chef, in this case, Filomeno Vuocolo of Cenzino in Oakland (which happens to be across the street from Valley Stables, the restaurant reviewed on Friday).

Vuocolo is another chef who offers nothing to the home cook, claiming that to prepare perfect pasta you must avoid using a metal strainer, because "once you use another metal, it changes the taste" (Wednesday's BL-2).

What is it about chefs and pasta? 

In a previous Coffee with Chef,  Adam Weiss of Due in Ridgewood urged home cooks to throw caution to the wind and salt pasta water "like the ocean."

Today's front page

The Record's news coverage focuses mostly on the young -- even though the vast majority of its readers are 50 or older -- a bias some critics have seen in North Jersey Media Group's promotion policies.

Today, Page 1 carries a long story on a couple's battle with an insurer on behalf of their autistic son. 

The story is by Staff Writer Stephanie Akin, whose byline has been scarce in the past few months.

Desperate editors

The Better Living editors were so desperate for food copy today, they ran a story about a restaurant in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, on the same page as two pet columns (BL-4).

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Upbeat story on Hackensack development ignores profits

Despite continued business failures in Englewood, above and below, where hundreds of luxury apartments were built downtown and on Route 4, Hackensack is pressing on with its plan to encourage apartment development on or near Main Street as a way of reviving the bigger city's struggling downtown.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Jerome J. Lombardo, CEO of C.J. Lombardo Real Estate Co. of Hackensack, certainly seems to have the ears of The Record's editors.

Today's upbeat story on plans for hundreds of new apartments in downtown Hackensack quotes Lombardo extensively in his role as chairman of the Upper Main Alliance, the business group that is pushing redevelopment (Local front).

But nowhere does Staff Writer Todd South report whether Lombardo and other downtown property owners have positioned themselves to profit from that redevelopment, and by just how much.

This isn't The Record's and South's first story on Lombardo and the struggles of downtown Hackensack.

But like the previous ones, this account makes no reference to Englewood, a smaller city only 6 miles away, that has failed miserably to revive its downtown through apartment development.

Who wrote the optimistic headline on today's Hackensack story, and why did the copy desk supervisor approve it?

"A brand new world downtown"

That's what Lombardo and other boosters are hoping for, but it's far from the reality today.

The story by South, who took over the Hackensack beat in September, also includes factual errors, namely the boundaries of the Upper Main Alliance's special-improvement district and calling Euclid Avenue a "street."

An empty storefront on Main Street in Hackensack.

Where's the fire?

If I lived in Glen Rock, I'd question why three police officers got to a house fire before firefighters (L-1).

Does Glen Rock have a professional department or rely on volunteers? The story doesn't say.

Port Atrocity 

The Record today carries yet another front-page story citing calls for reform of the behemoth Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (A-1).

Inside, a hand-wringing editorial notes Governor Christie has done nothing to control "salary excesses" at the bi-state agency (A-11).

The editorial doesn't mention that maybe it's just cops the GOP bully won't touch -- as in all the local police chiefs in North Jersey who make more than he does, and the 13 Port Authority officers whose total compensation exceeds the $289,000 annual salary of the agency's executive director (Friday's A-1).

Patronage mill

The Record doesn't seem to recognize the Port Authority has been immune to change, because it is an enormous patronage mill for Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as it has been for their many predecessors.

And the agency is not supported by taxpayers, but rather by fees from shipping companies and airlines, and tolls and fares from commuters. 

Port Authority police officers have abused overtime pay for decades.

Instead of expressing shock, the Woodland Park daily should level with readers on the corrosive power of politics and patronage.

And The Record and other media should acknowledge their selfish interest in keeping that controversy alive to "sell papers."

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Ethics, overtime abuses hide Port Authority's real failure

The Record's editors haven't bothered reporting on all of the unintended consequences of low gasoline prices and their impact on climate change: Cheap gas depresses the sales of hybrid and electric vehicles, and may prompt drivers to hold onto their gas-guzzling SUVs, aggravating air pollution. Those SUVs also take up more room on the road, worsening traffic congestion.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Critics refer to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey -- the behemoth bi-state transportation agency -- as the "Port Atrocity."

Today and Wednesday, The Record has published two front-page stories on overtime abuses by the agency's police officers and the many ethical questions surrounding its powerful commissioners.

But the agency's real failure is its refusal to expand mass transit (bus and rail), and reduce traffic congestion.

Even after the fourth toll hike in as many years on Sunday, few drivers are expected to leave their cars at home, because of limited mass-transit alternatives, including a gridlocked bus terminal in midtown Manhattan.

The Port Authority police have been tabloid fare for decades for collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime; there was nothing new in Staff Writer Shawn Boburg's A-1 story on Wednesday or today's editorial (A-18).

And ethical questions have hounded the commissioners for years before Governor Christie named a powerful lawyer who was his mentor, David Samson, to the chairmanship of the agency's board, which once met in secret before staging monthly public meetings (A-1).

Samson resigned in March after critics noted he cast votes that appeared to benefit his law firm.

Two more embarrassing corrections appear on A-2 today; Wednesday's A-2 also had a correction -- of a Page 1 story on state pension funds.

Local news?

The assignment editors are so desperate to fill their Local section almost anything goes.

One look at this stupid headline tells you no resident of Bergen and Passaic counties has the least bit of interest in whatever is being reported:

N.J. won't

allow

Barclays

at Izod

Huh?

On L-2 today, Staff Writer Todd South identifies Richard E. Salkin as "a former city attorney," when Salkin is the former municipal prosecutor.

On L-3, Glen Rock police appear to be informing burglars they have nothing to fear.

Capt. Jonathan Miller is quoted as saying that "if something seems out of the ordinary -- like a car parked that isn't normal -- please call the police so we can check it out."

Is Miller telling burglars that police don't routinely patrol neighborhoods?

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Borg family's interests trump civility at public meetings

Richard E. Salkin speaking at Tuesday night's City Council meeting in Hackensack. Salkin doesn't identify himself as the attorney for the city's Board of Education, which is allied with the Zisa family and the local Democratic Party that lost the 2013 municipal election. A frequent critic of the current council, he is usually quoted in The Record without that title, the same "anonymity" the paper accords to members of the losing council slate.

The five-member City Council with City Attorney Thomas P. Scrivo, left, and City Manager David R. Troast, front.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Borg family's progress on selling 19.7 acres near downtown Hackensack to a developer dominates The Record's Local news section today.

Staff Writer Todd South, who covered Tuesday night's City Council meeting, wrote a story that ignores unanimous passage of an ordinance governing public comment.

The "Rules of Order" were introduced on Nov. 25 after critics of the council -- principally those who lost the 2013 municipal election -- launched one abrasive attack after another against officials for just about every hire and proposal they made, including a downtown performance space.

Many of the attacks were reported in The Record without identifying the critics as Zisa family allies and members of the local Democratic Party, which lost the 2013 municipal election to a slate of reformers led by John P. Labrosse Jr., who is now mayor.

The weekly Hackensack Chronicle reported what happened at a Nov. 10 council meeting The Record didn't cover:

"Another incident in which the First Amendment right was brought into question took place at the Nov. 10 council meeting, when resident [and Board of Education Attorney] Richard Salkin, who is a vocal critic of a number of the council members, in particular of councilwoman Rose Greenman, referred to her as a "sociopath."

"This allegation drove Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino -- who was presiding over the meeting in the absence of the mayor -- to say she will not tolerate name calling.

"I'm not going to tolerate that," she said. "Address people with respect, that's all I ask. We are respecting you, respect us back."

Profit motive

The 150 River St.  parcel and adjacent property is the former headquarters of North Jersey Media Group and its flagship daily newspaper, The Record, which prospered in Hackensack for more than 110 years.

Publisher Stephen A. Borg abandoned Hackensack in 2009, moving The Record's newsroom to a nondescript office building overlooking Route 80 in Woodand Park.

A few years earlier, Borg moved the printing of The Record and Herald News to a printing plant in Rockaway Township, and ordered a major downsizing of the staff in 2008. 

Those two decisions seemed to set into motion a precipitous decline in the quality of editing and reporting at a newspaper still referred to as "The Bergen Record."

The 19.7 Hackensack acres are expected to fetch $20 million or more.

City study

On Tuesday night, the City Council approved a study to determine whether the NJMG parcel should be declared as an "area in need of redevelopment," a designation that could entitle any developer to tax breaks for up to 30 years, The Record reports (L-1).

The lead paragraph of the story says the property, two blocks east of Main St. in Hackensack, is 20 acres, but the second paragraph calls it a "19.7-acre site."

Labrosse, the mayor, said any development would have to include a walkway along the Hackensack River and a park where the USS Ling submarine is tied up on NJMG property.

Hackensack's Venice

A Walmart Super Center was rumored for the 19.7 acres a couple of years ago, and then gazillionaire Fred Daibes of Edgewater proposed a mixed-use residential and retail development, but that fell through.

Apartments wouldn't seem suitable for what former employees recall as a property prone to frequent flooding that claimed the cars of more than one staffer.

I can recall one storm that surrounded the 150 River St. building with so much water the managers pressed into service newspaper delivery trucks to pick up employees from higher ground a block away.

See a previous post:

Borgs prepare to screw Hackensack again

CIA torture

It's hard to tell who is more upset by the CIA's "brutal interrogation program" after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on America (A-1).

Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the harsh interrogation techniques a "stain on the nation's history."

But the media are playing up incidents that occurred more than a decade ago before reforms instituted by President Obama.

Could CNN and other media outlets really be upset they've been denied sensational YouTube videos of CIA operatives decapitating suspected terrorists?

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He's big news on the front page, misidentified in Opinion

Late for work? On the way to the gym on Tuesday morning, I encountered this driver, who blew through a stop sign in Hackensack, and drove well over the speed limit on Spring Valley Avenue. Here, I was stopped behind the driver on Summit Avenue in Hackensack. One sticker says, "I brake for UFOs." The peace symbol obviously doesn't signal the hippie driver wants to coexist peacefully with other motorists.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's Woodland Park newsroom can't seem to get its accuracy act together.

On Sunday's front page, Bergen County Democratic Chairman Lou Stellato was portrayed as so powerful he could "make or break" a candidate seeking to become New Jersey's next governor.

But in the Opinion section, a photo of Stellato flummoxed everyone from the lowly photographer who took it to the production editor who gets paid six figures to prevent embarrassing errors from getting into the paper.

Lou who?

OK. I wouldn't know Stellato, if I sat next to him on the bus. But he doesn't look anything like James Tedesco, the Bergen County executive-elect.

Yet, the photo of Stellato ran with a caption identifying him as Tedesco, even though Tedesco was correctly identified in a photo caption on A-10 of the same edition.

The editors didn't run a correction on A-2 until Tuesday:

"A caption on Page O-4 on Sunday misidentified a man greeting supporters of Bergen County Executive-elect James Tedesco last Tuesday night. Pictured was Democratic Chairman Lou Stellato."

The problem may lie in how the lazy editors, including Production Editor Liz Houlton, have always relied on staff photographers to provide accurate spellings and identifications of the people in their photos, and have often failed to check the accuracy of the information.

More errors

A second correction on Tuesday noted the paper was wrong in identifying the type of crude oil carried by tanker cars through Bergen County.

The crude is from North Dakota, not Canada, as the L-1 story reported on Monday.

Today, A-2 corrects the misspelling of "the surname" of a high school soccer player that appeared on Nov. 4. "She is Katey Samarro," the editors note.

Bus woes ease?

A Page 1 story today reports the Port Authority has made some changes to ease the delays home-bound North Jersey commuters were facing leaving the antiquated bus terminal in midtown Manhattan during the rush hour.

But the story doesn't address the difficulty of getting to the gridlocked terminal, if you take a North Jersey bus into the city in the late afternoon.

Christie's future

Marc Schaeffer of Wyckoff is a letter writer who provides a perspective on Governor Christie's White House ambitions the editors and reporters are unable or unwilling to provide (A-10).

"Imagine the exuberance of the opposition research teams," if Christie decides to run, Schaeffer writes.

"The first vulnerability that will be exposed is the illusion of the New Jersey economic recovery Christie has advanced."

"Then, they will turn to the cesspool of patronage, cronyism and alleged financial impropriety at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey..."

You get the idea. 

Schaeffer analyzes Christie's chances of success in a way you have never seen in The Record, where the GOP bully has received overwhelmingly favorable coverage since he took office in 2010 and began his war on the middle and working classes.

Dead at 57

The Record's obituary writers can't be bothered trying to explain why so many African-American men die in their 50s, as you can see in today's story on rapper Henry Jackson of Tenafly (L-1).

Korean War veterans passing St. Patrick's Cathedral during Tuesday's parade up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Korean New Yorkers who fought in Vietnam also marched in the Veterans Day parade.

Hackensack news

Staff Writer Todd South didn't have anything to report about this past Monday's City Council meeting.

But today, the Hackensack reporter has an upbeat story on a Veterans Day ceremony for the nearly 30 veterans who now work for Hackenack University Medical Center (L-3).

Like thousands of other residents, I thought about the hospital on Monday, when I made my quarterly property tax payment of more than $4,300 to the city of Hackenack.

How much smaller would it have been, if the non-profit but tremendously profitable hospital made payments in lieu of taxes to Hackensack or returned anything in kind, like a couple of patrol cars or paving Prospect Avenue, which is torn apart by ambulances? 

If South is looking for story ideas, the hospital's not paying taxes on more than $180 million dollars in property could be it.

He certainly can't rely on his lazy local assignment editors to wake up one day and suggest the story.

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Football brutality, boring Bergen politics, perverted priests

The Modern, the first of two 47-story residential towers approved by Fort Lee officials despite strong community opposition. The first tenants are expected to move in next month. A 2-bedroom apartment with indoor parking for two cars goes for about $5,000 a month.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

What a front page!

The ritualized brutality of two masturbatory Catholic high school football teams dominates Page 1 of The Record today -- for the third day in a row.

Bringing up the rear, below the fold, are perverted priests who make many readers glad they are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist -- anything but the Catholic parents of an abused boy (A-1).

The third major element is a boring Charles Stile column delving into Bergen County's politics and looking ahead to the next race for governor in 2016 (A-1).

Road kill

In Local, Road Warrior John Cichowski issues a rare report on Bergen County's antiquated road system that has absolutely nothing to do with commuting, traffic congestion and crowded mass transit.

His fist paragraph suggests the authorities should respond to complaints about drivers taking short cuts through quiet neighborhoods just like they do when a murder is reported (L-1).

Garrett must go

In Opinion, Columnist Brigid Harrison, who lost a house to Sandy, attacks Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, for sending out a campaign flier claiming he "worked to bring immediate relief to [Superstorm] Sandy victims" (O-2).

Of course, six days after the storm hit New Jersey on Oct. 28, 2012, Garret did no such thing, being the only member of the state's delegation who refused to sign a letter asking for federal disaster relief.

"You can't trust and respect someone who does one thing, and then claims to have done another because it is politically expedient," Harrison says.

Traveling music

Travel Editor Jill Schensul recently said she doesn't take free trips, but does negotiate a preferential "press rate."

"It's the way we have come up with to keep providing Record-generated stories, photos and insights rather than wire copy for our readers," Schensul told JimRomenesko.com, a prominent media blog.

But today and last Sunday, Schensul ran long wire-service travel stories in her 4-page section.

Today, the Los Angeles Times supplied nearly two full pages of text and photos about vacationing in Taos, New Mexico.

And on T-4, The Associated Press supplied a story on the Space Needle in Seattle.

Her sole contribution today is a long column on Paddington bears in London, whatever they are. (O-1).

Second look

On Saturday, a story on Thom Ammirato reported the former Hackensack city spokesman resigned as a communications consultant with the Bergen County Executive's Office (Saturday's Local front).

Hackensack reporter Todd South says Ammirato struck a deal with the Prosecutor's Office, which was investigating him.

Hackensack Scoop, a local blog, revealed the agreement on Friday.

Ammirato's $78,000-a-year contract with Hackensack was terminated on June 24. 

He had been a consultant and spokesman for Citizens for Change, which swept the May 2013 municipal election.

The cash-strapped city will not be hiring another spokesman anytime soon, a City Council member said recently. 

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Practicing jock-itching journalism with the best of them

Two stone horses outside P.F. Chang's China Bistro in Hackensack were painted pink on Thursday in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, above and below. For Chinese food, a better bet is Lotus Cafe, a BYO in the Home Depot Shopping Center just down the street.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Martin Gottlieb -- he's called "Marty" in The Record newsroom -- apparently is obsessed with sports, and he led the paper today and Friday with the rivalry between two jock-itching, ass-slapping high school football teams.

The chart on Page 1 today compares Don Bosco Preparatory High School in Ramsey and Paramus Catholic, revealing a possible racial filter in the acceptance policy of the former.

White students at Don Bosco make up 91.3% of enrollment, and Asians are only 1%. Blacks and Hispanics are 4.4% and 3.3%, respectively.

Does the sports rivalry really deserve this kind of coverage, especially on the front page?

No. This kind of tripe from Gottlieb has little general reader interest.

More corrections

Two embarrassing corrections on A-2 today include an attempt to repair a factual screw-up by the great Mike Kelly.

The veteran reporter drove 41 miles from his Teaneck home to do a column on alleged male-on-male sexual assaults by members of Sayreville's high school football team (Friday's A-1).

Friday's paper

The front page on Friday was wrapped in an ad for The Modern, a controversial, 47-story residential tower that was opposed by many Fort Lee residents.

Governor Christie is rumored to be considering renting a $2,500-a-month studio in the building as a field office for his team of dirty political tricksters, who have targeted Democratic mayors in Fort Lee and other communities.

Christie hopes to get a studio overlooking local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge.

Booker v. Bell

Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson continued to try and interest readers in the limp challenge to Sen. Corey Booker, D-N.J., who is seeking a full term on Nov. 4 (Friday's A-2).

In Friday's Local section, Staff Writer Todd South finally came through with a story from Tuesday night's Hackensack City Council meeting (L-3).

Heart-attack news

The Record's model for restaurant reviews is broken, as you can see from Friday's appraisal of Allendale Steakhouse in the Better Living tab (BL-20).

If Staff Writer Elisa Ung had to lay out $84.95 for the porterhouse for two from her own salary, she might have investigated whether the beef, finished with butter, was pumped full of harmful animal antibiotics and growth hormones.

But The Record paid for this double heart attack on a plate. And the service sucked, too; yet she gave the place 2.5 stars.

That porterhouse is listed as costing $85.95 in the dizzy reporter's data box on the same page -- a dollar more than in the text.

The prime beef used is the highest USDA grade, Ung reports, but she doesn't tell you that cut also is the fattiest, most artery clogging available. 

The restaurant serves frozen lobster tails, and the only fish available is swordfish, which has a high mercury content. 

Steer clear of this place, if you know what's good for you.

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Front page is dominated by day old, gee-whiz crime news

A half-dozen TV news trucks set up shop on Wednesday morning in Paramus, above and below, across from the Route 4 west strip mall where break-ins ended with a police officer shooting a suspect in a fleeing car. The story all over the front page of The Record today appears more than 24 hours after he died in a hospital.

All eyes were focused on crime-scene trucks from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and Sheriff's Department that were parked in the strip mall lot.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

As a property tax payer in Hackensack, I've been searching The Record for a story on what happened at the City Council meeting I wasn't able to attend on Tuesday night.

Staff Writer Todd South was at the meeting, but I couldn't find anything on Hackensack in the paper on Wednesday or today.

In today's Local section, there are reports about council meetings in Paramus and Teaneck (L-3).

I guess I forgot the advice of local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza:

They tell readers to get involved in town affairs, because the editors can't be counted on to report local news.

Look to blog

The editor of a local blog, Hackensack Scoop, did attend Tuesday's meeting and reports three property owners have filed a legal challenge to the city's major downtown redevelopment initiative.

The redevelopment plan, launched by the previous administration and the Upper Main Alliance, a property owners group, is designed to increase ratables, which the cash-strapped city desperately needs.

Hackensack has spent millions defending lawsuits filed against former Police Chief Ken Zisa, who is under house arrest after he was convicted of official misconduct and insurance fraud.

And the county seat is being denied tens of millions of dollars in property taxes by tax-exempt entities, including Hackensack University Medical Center, a non-profit, and Bergen County.

Suspect killed

Three of the four stories on Page 1 today are a complete waste of time.

Even though the incident dominated TV news on Wednesday night, The Record devotes most of Page 1 today to the police shooting of a fleeing suspect, who died in the hospital (A-1).

Gee whiz. Look at that great photo of bullet holes in the windshield of the suspect's car from the gun of a police officer he tried to run down, but who was thrown onto the hood of the car.

The story doesn't say when this happened, but suspect Miguel Reyes, 20, of Manhattan died in a hospital at 5:25 a.m. Wednesday, more than a day ago.

Waste of space

And The Record continues to crank out copy on the cheap white trash who call themselves Teresa and Joe Giudice nearly a week after they were sentenced to federal prison, but allowed to stay free for Christmas (A-1).

It's not a surprise or newsworthy that a woman who pleaded guilty to mortgage and bankruptcy fraud (did that include lying on forms?) now claims she was "shocked" the judge sentenced her to prison. 

And really, who cares that a Franklin Lakes golf course is closing? Does this story really belong on Page 1?

What a mockery.

Oust the GOP

All of this trash in the paper distracts readers from the awful job performed by our public officials, including Governor Christie and Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, a Tea Party icon.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said the other day it was "a mistake" for Christie to kill the Hudson River rail tunnels in 2010 -- something that every North Jersey commuter knows as well.

In a letter to the editor today, Carl N. Oerke of River Edge figures Garrett's "votes and actions, especially in regards to shutting down the government, have cost this country almost $24.5 billion" (A-18).

"The only job Garrett is protecting is his own ...," he writes. "He is filling his campaign coffers while the middle class suffers."

Hey, there is an election on Nov. 4, and Garrett is seeking a seventh term in the 5th Congressional District, which includes Hackensack, Fair Lawn and most of Teaneck.

Disregard all the nonsense about mall crime, reality TV and golf courses for the wealthy The Record is peddling, and get out and vote.

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