Local weather: Now you see it, now you don't

A Toyota SUV and a Toyota sedan collided on Tuesday afternoon at Euclid Avenue and Linden Street in Hackensack, above and below, at an intersection where drivers often run stop signs.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The record-setting, bone-chilling plunge in temperatures was front-page news on Tuesday, but today, editors of The Record try to hide the local-assignment desk's lackluster coverage.

The lazy assignment editors in the Woodland Park newsroom apparently instructed reporters to stay inside and try to cover the story by telephone (L-1 and L-2).

Cold shoulder

That must why there isn't a single interview with a commuter, such as the dozen people shivering as they waited in line on Tuesday morning on Prospect Avenue in Hackensack for an express bus to Manhattan.

Or a photo of Verizon repairman raising a low-hanging wire outside a home on Euclid Avenue in Hackensack or working outside anywhere else in North Jersey.

Instead, Editor Marty Gottlieb's front page today delivers an astounding three stories on national, state and Bergen County politics (A-1).

At 8:30 on Tuesday morning, the outside temperature in Hackensack and Paramus was a bracing 5 degrees.

More Christie spin

Gottlieb continues to give Page 1 play to Governor Christie's latest B.S., portraying his GOP bullying as "bipartisan compromise."

The story by Staff Writer Patricia Alex, who covers higher education for The Record, isn't much different than past accounts, starting in 2010, that regurgitated Christie's fictional "Reform Agenda," "Jersey Comeback" and "Stronger Than the Storm."

Those political marketing campaigns were designed to hide Christie's war on the middle class, as does the current one, which ignores all of the vetoes he has used to stymie the majority Democrats in the state Legislature.

Perspective

A letter to the editor from Richard Cerbo of Hackensack serves as a counterpoint to a recent story on the city's plan to encourage apartment development downtown in a bid to revive Main Street (A-10).

Cerbo, son of a former mayor, notes "builders, developers, investors and commercial property barons" will benefit most of all.

"That's how business is done, but not once in the story was there any mention  of helping those left out, including the homeless, the unemployed, the elderly and the sick," Cerbo said.

He noted Hackensack already has "an urban feel" and that more development would add more traffic and quicken "the deterioration of the city's quality of life."

Relief for whom?

In a related story, the Hackensack City Council on Tuesday night unveiled a measure offering tax relief to developers and others "who build or make improvements in the 39-block Upper Main Street Rehabilitation Area" (L-1).

The proposal appears designed to benefit members of a public-private partnership called the Upper Main Street Business Alliance who own or have purchased much of the property in the development district, and hope to cash in by selling it to developers.

Hackensack can ill afford to grant tax relief in a city where Hackensack University Medical Center, Bergen County and Fairleigh Dickinson University already own hundreds of millions of dollars in property that pays no property taxes, shifting the burden to homeowners and small businesses.

The Record also reported the hiring of Deborah Karlsson as Hackensack's new city clerk (Tuesday's L-2).

Sky is falling

On the Local front today, the befuddled John Cichowski, in his guise as the Road Warrior, compares the Christie-inspired George Washington Bridge traffic jams in September to:

The 1966 New York City transit strike, the 1969 snowstorm that paralyzed the five boroughs, a Chicago blizzard in 1979 and a Denver snowstorm in 1983 (L-1).

Smoking gun

Today, the Web sites of The New York Times and The Record are reporting the papers obtained e-mails showing that Christie's office was "closely involved," as The Times describes it, in GWB lane closures that caused traffic jams in Fort Lee, where the mayor is a Democrat.

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," Bridget Anne Kelly said in an e-mail to David Wildstein, a close friend of Christie's who had been appointed to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Kelly, a deputy chief of staff to Christie, gave the go-ahead for the lane closures about two weeks before they occurred, The Times reported.

Trial by fire

Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza -- in an apparent bid to deflect attention from readers' disappointment in local-news coverage -- managed to find a journalist with a real image problem: 

Former Fox 5 reporter Charles Leaf is on trial at the Bergen County Courthouse on charges he sexually abused a 4-year-old girl at his Wyckoff home three years ago (L-3).

Transit column?

Every major newspaper in New York has carried a subway column, but The Record has acted contemptuously toward NJ Transit bus and rail commuters.

In the past decade, the Road Warrior column has been devoted almost exclusively to drivers, and Staff Writer Karen Rouse, another transportation reporter, has never bothered to ride the buses and trains and report on the quality of service.

On Monday's L-3, Rouse reported on the progress of a turnpike widening project between Exits 6 and 9 -- about a hour's drive from Bergen County.

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Page 1 news: In winter, It's really cold in the Dakotas

In Hackensack this afternoon, there were few signs of what The Record predicted four days ago would be a "double-headed monster of a storm." 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

Editor

If the winter weather in North Jersey doesn't live up to The Record's dire predictions, Editor Marty Gottlieb always has a backup plan -- as Page 1 clearly shows.

How else to explain today's wire-service weather report from the Dakotas, Michigan and Missouri, and photos from St. Louis and Bismarck, S.D. (A-1 and A-6)?

Where are the North Jersey weather photos? Shouldn't the one on L-1 today be on the front page?

And why is the North Jersey weather story and a second local photo buried on L-6?

After all, Marty Gottlieb, you gave up Paris for Woodland Park and became editor of a local North Jersey daily. You're not at The New York Times anymore.

Borg monster?

On Thursday morning, hours before a 7-inch snowstorm hit North Jersey, a story in The Record predicted "near-blizzard conditions" and a "double-headed monster of a storm."

Nothing of the kind materialized, prompting readers to wonder if "double-headed monster" was, in fact, a subliminal reference to the spoiled Silver Spoon sibs running The Record of Woodland Park, Stephen A. and Jennifer A. Borg.

Head up asshole

On the Local front today, Paramus Mayor Richard LaBarbiera praised the borough Police Department for responding "professionally" to a gunman who invaded Westfield Garden State Plaza on Nov. 4 (L-1 and L-3).

What's professional about not responding in time to prevent panic among shoppers and employees, failing to disarm Richard Shoop of Teaneck and failing to prevent his suicide?

And what about the irresponsible lack of security provided by the wealthy Australian owners of the state's biggest mall?

Second look

On Sunday, an L-1 story on Fu King Smoke Shop is likely the first about Hackensack's Fairmount section in decades.

Staff Writer Hannan Adely describes Fairmount as "quiet," but residents there and in most other parts of Hackensack are annoyed around the clock by incredibly loud jet aircraft using Teterboro and Newark airports.

The smoke shop is on a part of Main Street that gets even less attention from The Record than the city's main shopping district between the courthouse and Sears.

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Break up the Port Authority and impeach Christie

Luxury apartments on Palisade Avenue -- among hundreds built in recent years downtown and along Route 4 in Englewood -- have done little to turn around the fortunes of local merchants and restaurant owners. Now, Hackensack hopes hundreds of new apartment tenants will revive its economically depressed Main Street.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

An editorial and a Margulies cartoon in The Record today continue to nibble away at the notion that Governor Christie caused four days of gridlock at the Fort Lee end of the George Washington Bridge.

The goal was to get back at the borough's Democratic mayor for not supporting Christie's re-election (O-2).

Why wait for the conclusions of three inquiries -- in the state Assembly and U.S. Senate, as well as by the Port Authority's inspector general -- to make fundamental changes in the imperious bi-state transportation agency?

And why wait for the GOP bully to export his war on the middle class to the national political arena and declare in the 2016 race for the White House -- a move The Record's adoring editors, columnists and reporters have been predicting for close to two years?

Dump Christie

Let's get rid of New Jersey's worst governor and the Republicans' Elephant Man now. 

Impeach Christie, who has used lies, insults, bullying and vetoes to get his way with the state Legislature's Democratic majority and to silence his critics.

Spin off PATH

And commuters would cheer breaking up an agency that serves as a patronage mill for Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Spinning off the PATH rail system and bistate bus operations is the only workable option amid increasing traffic congestion.

No agency that depends so heavily on bridge and tunnel tolls -- and which continues to raise them to fund its capital program -- can be expected to expand rail and bus transit, which are at capacity.

'Character flaws'

In a letter to the editor on Saturday's A-9, Christie supporter David B. Simpson of Tenafly draws parallels between Watergate and Bridgegate:

He notes Richard Nixon was driven from  office because of his "connivance in the coverup of a scandal and his pervasive vindictiveness toward those whom he saw as a political enemies."

"Christie's behavior in regard to the bridge issue is beginning to reflect similar character flaws," Simpson says.

This ramp to the George Washington Bridge's lower-level tollbooths from Fort Lee -- and the lower level itself -- remained clear during four days of so-called gridlock in early September, when two of the borough's access lanes to the upper level were closed by Governor Christie's cronies on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, purportedly for a "traffic study."

Silly columns

Today's paper carries boring columns from Staff Writers John Cichowski (L-1), Mike Kelly (O-1), Bill Ervolino (BL-3) and Elisa Ung (BL-1), who continues to praise chefs and ignore issues facing restaurant goers.

Travel Editor Jill Schensul has an endless column about her search for a lounge at the airport in Miami, another in a series of pieces where she portrays herself as a jet-lagged klutz (T-1).

Schensul never tells readers that airport lounges now admit so many travelers they resemble crowded bus stations.

Farewell, Barry

In Local, readers learn that Barry Honig, a conservative Republican councilman in Tenafly "departs the council today," but the story doesn't explain why (L-3).

Just when I thought Honig's opposition to extending light-rail service to the wealthy borough was short sighted, The Record reports, likely for the first time, that he is blind. 

Second looks

Three poorly edited briefs caught my eye on Saturday's L-6, raising more questions than they answered, thanks to the inattention of the assignment desk:

Readers don't know whether the primal urge to hunt or unhealthy animal fats killed Kenneth Bigert, 58, a Glen Rock man who was found dead in a wooded area in Mahwah.

The story appeared Saturday, and reported he was found "Saturday" near an old cemetery off Route 202.

Maybe, local obituary writer Jay Levin should try to unravel the mystery of the time element and cause of death.

Dead meat

Bigert was dressed in hunting clothes and carried a hunting license. It is poetic justice that he died, apparently before he could kill any animals?

The paper treats him like so much dead meat, never reporting whether he was a husband, father or son or what he did for a living.

Likely story

Police don't name the moron who claimed his 2007 Range Rover with $8,600 in DJ equipment inside was stolen after he left the engine running and went back into his house in Saddle Brook.

The pricey SUV likely has heated seats and an engine with fuel injection that doesn't require warming up.

Another Christie?

The third item carries this headline: "Wyckoff's new mayor is a Christie."

But it never says whether Douglas J. Christie is a Republican or related to the loud mouth who won a second term as governor on Nov. 5.

Storm coverage

On Saturday's Local front, how does Deputy Assignment Flunky Dan Sforza explain the absence of a "snow tale" from Teaneck, one of the biggest, most diverse communities in Bergen County? 

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First big snowstorm is followed by big snow job

Two unplowed Prospect Avenue street corners as they appeared this morning -- at American Legion Drive, above, and at Euclid Avenue, below -- are typical of the sloppy job performed by city trucks after Thursday's big snowstorm and every storm before that. 

Uncleared street corners are dangerous for both drivers and pedestrians.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The Record's storm coverage today makes it sound as if the hell Governor Christie has made of New Jersey is freezing over.

I like the Page 1 headline -- "Shovels and shivers" -- but are we really living through an "arctic blast"?

The first paragraph says we are experiencing "some of the coldest temperatures in at least three years [italics added]."

And the second paragraph reports "a major storm brought as much as 7 inches of snow" to most of Bergen and Passaic counties on Friday.

Help. I've fallen and I'm buried in snow.

No human dimension

Did you notice the short shrift given "several" poor schmucks who suffered heart attacks "while shoveling in the bitter cold"?

That's it? They are probably older residents, and we all know the editors hate seniors and think of them only as residents of nursing homes and other hard-luck types.

Pre-storm hysteria

Recall the nearly hysterical pre-storm story by Staff Writer Shawn Boburg that ran on Thursday's L-2:

"Near-blizzard conditions are expected this evening into Friday morning as a double-headed monster of a storm brings sub-zero wind chills, gusts up to 35 miles per hour and snow accumulation of up to 8 inches."

That "monster" must have melted under the brilliant sunshine that turned the snow-covered landscape into a winter wonderland.

On Thursday, Boburg quoted an Accuweather meteorologist, but much of his forecast and the "possibility of power outages" never materialized for the vast majority of North Jersey residents.

Local yokels

On the Local front today, readers learn Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza ordered "The Record's staff of reporters" to "hit the streets for stories from the first storm of 2014."

Those streets turned out to be in only 23 of the 90 or so towns in the circulation area, and the reporters simply ignored the kind of job municipal crews did to make the streets safe for drivers and pedestrians.

The Record has always treated NJ Transit bus riders like chopped liver, but the number of uncleared bus stops I saw today in Bogota, Teaneck and Hackensack -- including the one in front of Sears -- shouldn't be ignored.

Many were blocked by banks of snow like the one that tripped up head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, who fell on her well-padded posterior in the parking lot at The Record's old headquarters on River Street many winters ago.

Staff Writer Hannan Adely contributed two anecdotes from Hackensack, but didn't bother to stray far from Main Street (L-3).

Blame the editors

Covering snowstorms has been a struggle for The Record's assignment editors for decades. 

Each storm appears to be a new challenge for the some of the laziest editors in the Western Hemisphere. 

They fail miserably to inspire their newsroom staff to hustle and do the legwork reporters and photographers have to do to put themselves in the shoes of readers facing the dangers of a big storm, and its aftermath.

The media obsessively reported that the big snowstorm was the "first test" for Bill De Blasio, the new mayor of New York City, but isn't every storm a test for the so-called leaders of North Jersey's many communities? 

The Record's editor, former Timesman Marty Gottlieb, seems powerless to do anything about the paper's mediocre weather coverage.

Today's paper was delivered about 4 hours late, as was Friday's, a testament to the cut-rate system the Borgs have been using for decades.

Second look

The first Road Warrior column of the year continues to haunt readers, who realized that Staff Writer John Cichowski again contradicted one of his previous pronouncements.

Cichowski holds himself out as a big expert on driving issues, but he is, in fact, a bumbling idiot, as a concerned reader points out:

"The Road Warrior becomes more and more dangerous to his readers as he repeatedly spouts faulty and incompetent analysis and conclusions, along with his false and clearly mistaken information.

"1. False statements in Wednesday's column: 'If numbers of violations are any measure, enforcement crackdowns have demonstrated their effectiveness in making more people aware of the dangers of driving drunk and failing to fasten seat belts. These offenses [for driving drunk and for not wearing seat belts] each account for roughly DOUBLE THE NUMBER of summonses generated each year by the hand-held cellphone law.'

"CORRECT DATA - The forgetful Road Warrior reported in his Nov. 10 column that the annual number of tickets for driving drunk (38,375) or under the influence of drugs, DUI, was around HALF THE NUMBER of cellphone tickets (81,125), and further stated in that Nov. 10 column:

"'Although these figures represent LESS THAN HALF THE NUMBER of tickets issued for cellphone yakking, DUI — like the seat-belt violation — is considered serious enough to rate high-profile enforcement programs, mainly because substance abuse is considered a main cause of road fatalities.'

"Therefore, the Road Warrior's clueless conclusion that the number of violations are a measure of the effectiveness of an enforcement crackdown are totally BOGUS since DUI violations are only half the number of cellphone violations, even though there are regular enforcement crackdowns for DUI, but not for driving with hand-held cellphones."

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Wealthy Hackensack landowners tout failed strategy

This morning, residents of Hackensack awoke to a winter wonderland after a snowstorm that didn't come close to the "near blizzard" predicted in The Record's shrill report on Thursday -- part of the media's relentless weather hype. Some people who live on Euclid Avenue, above, found that neighbors with snow blowers had cleared sidewalks and driveways without waiting around for a thank-you.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

In The Record today, you'll find Hackensack real estate executive Eric Anderson smiling broadly in a photo on A-6.

And why not? 

As head of Alexander Anderson Real Estate Group, Anderson and other wealthy property owners on or near the city's Main Street stand to make a killing from the development of luxury apartments.

In a couple of years, Anderson will be able to pose for another photo showing him laughing all the way to the bank with no guarantee Hackensack will have seen the end of its economic doldrums.

No worries

In a breathless Page 1 account today, Staff Writer Hannan Adely reports that city officials and members of the Hackensack Main Street Business Alliance, including Anderson, envision "a modern downtown with high-rise apartments, first-floor stores, green plazas and fashionable facades" (A-1).

That sounds a lot like the hundreds of luxury apartments that have already been built in Englewood, where empty storefronts continue to dot that city's downtown, and where entertainers often play to row upon row of empty seats at the Bergen Performing Arts Center.

Hackensack city plows work in a cross-hatch pattern, leaving corners untouched and difficult to negotiate for both drivers and pedestrians. Banks of snow in front of uncleared bus stops force riders to stand in the street or balance precariously on top of the snow.

Stale news

News of the snowstorm that hit North Jersey was really stale when the paper was delivered today -- about 4 hours late.

The Record's Woodland Park newsroom is nowhere near a 24-hour operation, and early deadlines resulted in pathetically thin coverage.

An A-1 photo caption describing Route 4 on Thursday night refers readers to another photo and a short story on L-2.

The L-2 photo looks staged. 

It shows a woman near a stopped bus with its doors open on Route 3 in Clifton, but apparently it's not the one Abby Endifru of Belleville is waiting for.

This morning, residents started clearing sidewalks and driveways, and municipal crews did their usual sloppy job of plowing streets and crosswalks, and leaving bus stops behind banks of snow.

Lazy editors

But don't expect Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza and his lazy minions to suggest their reporters go out and rate towns on how well or how poorly they did in making streets safe for residents.

A story on the Local front reports a suspect smashed into two Hackensack police cars on Thursday afternoon, injuring two officers and "totaling" the vehicles (L-1).

But the one marked Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor shown in the big photo doesn't look anywhere near totaled.

Call an ambulance

After reading Staff Writer Elisa Ung's 3-star appraisal of such classics as fillet of sole with a brown-butter sauce and scallops "drenched in a vermouth cream sauce," I had to resist the urge to get my cholesterol checked (Better Living centerfold).

She describes the dishes served at Madeleine's Petit Paris in Northvale as "unabashedly rich," not unabashedly unhealthy (BL-12).

Ung also sampled artery clogging creme brulee, french fries, chocolate mousse and "big, puffed souffles."

Excuse me while I go and throw up.

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Will 'GWB mess' be Governor Christie's Watergate?

Less than 30 minutes after the 10 a.m. opening today, Costco Wholesale in Hackensack was besieged by shoppers panicked by radio and TV news reports of a big snowstorm, as well as what may turn out to be an inaccurate story in The Record's Local section this morning.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

John Wisniewski, the state assemblyman with the hard-to-pronounce name, is starting to sound like a Hebrew National hot dog commercial.

Grilled by Columnist Mike Kelly of The Record on who ordered The Traffic Jam That Ate Fort Lee back in September, the head of the Assembly Transportation Committee answered mysteriously:

"It came from a higher authority" (A-6).

First dog

We all suspect he is referring to Governor Christie, the Portly Authority whose flunkies have resigned in the wake of the Fort Lee-Port Authority brouhaha.

Would Christie's political retribution against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee -- by closing two Fort Lee access lanes to upper-level George Washington Bridge toll booths -- be such a big deal?

Given that the Hudson River flows under the bridge, will this be Christie's Watergate and so scandalous it will derail his bid for the White House in 2016?

Hardly. 

But The Record loves this story, even as it shies away from detailed reporting on a story with far wider implications: the GOP bully's mean-spirited policies and his mismanagement of state finances.

More hype

Kelly's Page 1 column today claims the lane closures led to "paralyzing gridlock" on four days in September, even though drivers using the lower level, as well as another Fort Lee access lane to that truck-free level, experienced no delays.

Since the first Road Warrior column on the Fort Lee mess, much of this reporting, especially when it appears on Page 1, is a waste of space.

That's especially true when The Record continues to ignore a far bigger story: Christie's well-known anti-mass transit stance and the Port Authority's refusal to expand bus service into Manhattan.

The Addled Commuter

Whether as the result of a hangover or advancing Alzheimer's disease, Wednesday's Road Warrior column confused a new parking garage for commuter buses in Manhattan with whether the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal needs to be renovated.

According to a concerned reader, who maintains a Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

"In his first column of the new year, Road Warrior John Cichowski refuses to heed the wishes of so many readers and continues on his merry way of delusional, false, over-exaggerated and clueless statements about past and future wishes for New Jersey and metropolitan area transportation issues and laws.

"The Road Warrior tries to make readers believe there is a New Jersey statute that specifically makes it a violation for drivers to be drunk while stopped in traffic.

"Drunk people in New Jersey are not allowed to operate a car, period. It does not matter whether the car is moving or stopped anywhere, or whether it is in the middle of the road or in a parking lot.

"Road Warrior indicated that $800 million had been proposed to renovate the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal, even though it contradicted The Record’s own report that the plan was for a new parking garage for buses that are now parked on the New Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel."

For the full e-mail to managers and editors, see:

 Readers prepare silver alert for John Cichowski

A modest proposal

If the Port Authority won't add a second express lane dedicated to commuter buses during the morning rush hour, the existing express lane can be revived during the afternoon rush for buses that were parked in New Jersey and must return empty to pick up passengers in Manhattan.

Now, they add to incredible congestion on the eastbound helix to the Lincoln Tunnel.

Reverse bus lanes don't reduce toll revenue from drivers who would otherwise be displaced by a second, eastbound bus-only lane.

Snowbound

Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza apparently has ordered Shawn Boburg, the reporter who covers the Port Authority, to ignore any story about the bistate agency's mass-transit operations.

Boburg's story on tonight's expected snowstorm appears on L-2, predicting near-blizzard conditions for North Jersey.

This morning, radio news reports predict blizzard conditions only on Long Island. 

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On the first day of 2014, lots of boring old news

At Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus on Tuesday, a security guard dressed in black refused to discuss how many security personnel have been hired since a gunman invaded the mall on Nov. 4 and fired random shots before committing suicide. This guard, who was helping shoppers cross a road, didn't appear to be armed with a gun. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The Record's first edition of the new year offers lots of stale old news.

Editor Marty Gottlieb leads the paper with yet another story about The Traffic Jam That Ate Fort Lee after Governor Christie's flunkies at the Port Authority closed access lanes to the George Washington  Bridge (A-1).

And there is yet another column from Staff Writer Charles Stile scrutinizing the impact of Christie's every action or inaction, every bite of food and every bowel movement on his White House aspirations (A-1).

Gottlieb sent a photographer to Times Square for the routine New Year's Eve image, but he couldn't find anyone from New Jersey in the crowd (A-1).

On A-4, a man from North Carolina -- not the Garden State -- is shown with a story about the Affordable Care Act.

Laughing out loud

On the Editorial Page, readers get their first belly laughs of the year from the Woodland Park daily's "editorial credo," which runs every Jan. 1.

The credo is signed by Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, the chairman of North Jersey Media Group, and son Stephen A. Borg, the president and publisher, who pushed his father aside several years ago; Editor Martin Gottlieb and Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin.

In the first paragraph, they renew their pledge to support policies on the Editorial Page that will improve life "in our region," not to mention the lives of the Borgs and their wealthy friends.

Ads dictate news

They also claim the newspaper's "cash register will not dictate the content of its news articles," despite volumes of evidence to the contrary that the editors lavish coverage on large mall retailers and stiff Main Street merchants. 

At least the Borgs acknowledge they guide the paper's "editorial policy," though they don't acknowledge steering news coverage to their rich friends, including real estate mogul Jon F. Hanson.

First dump of year

Road Warrior John Cichowski long ago ran out of his own ideas and opinions -- as well as any responsibility to report accurately on commuting issues.

So, it's no surprise he starts the new year pedaling more complaints from every crackpot driver who sends him an e-mail in hopes of seeing their names in print (L-1).

The Addled Commuter just doesn't understand that a long overdue expansion of mass transit -- not wider roads -- is the only viable solution to increasing traffic congestion.

Private school news

The huge spread on the Local front about a 9-year-old from Orange who attends an expensive private school in Englewood continues the Borgs' embargo on news of the city's public schools, including Dwight Morrow High School (L-1).

The elder Borg has lived on Englewood's East Hill for decades, but his newspaper and its "editorial credo" have had little impact on improving the city's largely segregated schools or its struggling downtown.

Same old news

Today, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza started the new year scrambling to fill pages with local news he didn't have, just as he did in 2013.

So, he ran another gee-whiz photo of a car, whose unidentified driver tried to climb a home's retaining wall just off Route 17 south in Waldwick (L-3).

Sforza leads Local today with a follow-up to the anticlimactic arrest of Joey Bariso of Lodi on charges he used a handgun to shoot his 85-year-old grandmother "several times as she slept on a couch."

Tuesday's story on the arrest of Bariso appeared two days after the fact, and ran on Page 1 over a second story on Christie failing to defend the state's stringent concealed gun law, which was upheld by an appeals court.

More brain fade

A major screw-up in another front page story on Tuesday wasn't corrected today -- more evidence of brain fade on the copy desk, which continues to labor under six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, the Queen of Errors.

The story on a shared services agreement between Montvale and River Vale reported incorrectly in the seventh paragraph that Montvale and "River Edge entered into the agreement over the summer" (Tuesday's A-6).

Tuesday's Local front carried a heartbreaking report on the funeral for Teia Gallo of Washington Township -- one of three African-Americans adopted by a white family -- who was stabbed to death, allegedly by her younger brother, Travis Gallo.

Van Lenten case

As of Dec. 16, lawyers for North Jersey Media Group and the estate of Peter Van Lenten Jr., as well as other defendants, filed 184 more pages of amended answers, motions, requests for default, certifications, affidavits of service and other legal mumbo jumbo.

Van Lenten, 47, of Pompton Lakes, former vice president of information technology for The Record and NJMG, died on April 28, 2010.

So, NJMG's litigious general counsel, Jennifer A. Borg, is going after Van Lenten's widow, Lauren, and son, also named Peter, though it's not clear how they can be held liable for what Van Lenten may or may have not done.

Enriching lawyers

The case is proceeding at the same snail's pace of most other civil litigation, serving only to enrich the lawyers involved.

NJMG is again using outside counsel, Pashman Stein, the Hackensack law firm that has been the subject of at least one favorable story in The Record's Business pages.

The suit, filed in April 2013, alleges Van Lenten conspired with outside computer and networking vendors and former employees to defraud NJMG.

Other named defendants include IC Systems Solutions and Computer Network Solutions. 

On June 14, the court entered defaults against defendants Philip Nolan and Nancy Nolan, who were identified as principals of one or both firms.

Lack of oversight

"Between 2001 and 2009, over $2 million was paid to [defendants] ICSS and CNS on false or inflated invoices," according to the suit.

But in the very next paragraph, the complaint acknowledges "shortly after [Van Lenten's employment was terminated in April 2009], NJMG began a review of the IT Department's purchasing practices under Mr. Van Lenten's leadership."

"That review lead [sic] to the discovery of the false and inflated invoices submitted by [defendants] ICSS and CNS," the suit alleges.

Is the lack of review during Van Lenten's tenure a major flaw in the suit, and if so, who at NJMG was responsible for failing to do that oversight?

The suit also alleges that from 2001 to 2009, NJMG paid [defendant] ICSS in excess of $1 million for temporary workers, many of whom were retired company employees, "at rates far in excess" of what they were making before they retired.

Porn allegations

In late 2011 -- in a footnote to the suit -- NJMG and the elder Borg settled a sexual harassment complaint filed by Tracey McCain, an Englewood woman who worked for Van Lenten.

McCain alleged that Malcolm A. Borg used company computers to disseminate pornography to Van Lenten and other managers and supervisors, knowing she would see them, because one of her jobs was to read and review her boss' e-mails.

The settlement was sealed by order of a Superior Court judge in Hackensack on Sept. 26, 2011, but likely involved the payment of money.

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