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| In 2015, Juliana Lopes Leite, a Brazilian actress-turned-lawyer, admitted she had an affair with Dr. Salomon Melgen, lower right, but claimed she had no idea the doctor's pal, indicted U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, pulled strings to get her a U.S. visa (photos by Getty Images, AP). |
THE RECORD LAID OUT DEFENSE
IN EXCRUCIATING DETAIL
-- HACKENSACK, N.J.
UPDATE: On Wednesday, a federal prosecutor told the jury U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez "sold his office for a life of luxury he could not afford."
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
Let's pretend a federal jury in Newark will find U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., not guilty of charges he used his office to benefit his co-defendant's personal and business interests.
We still wouldn't want Menendez to continue serving after Dr. Salomon Melgen "bribed" the state's senior senator with more than $700,000 in contributions to political committees that helped get him reelected in 2012.
There was more: A lavish lifestyle that included free flights on Melgen's private jet, vacations at his home in a Dominican Republic resort, golf outings and a stay in a luxurious Paris hotel suite.
Today, the jury heard opening statements in the corruption trial of Menendez and Melgen, an eye doctor who was found guilty at a separate trial in April of defrauding Medicare out of as much as $105 million.
News coverage
In the past two years, The Record of Woodland Park has published exhaustive coverage of Menendez's defense, reporting every ultimately unsuccessful motion to get the charges thrown out or delay the trial.
Menendez's defense team even appealed unsuccessfully to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Today's story by State House Bureau reporter Nicholas Pugliese reports Menendez faces "the biggest challenge of his political career" (3A).
There's no mention of the ethical standards a U.S. senator is expected to uphold, nor has anyone at The Record asked where Menendez is getting the hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees demanded by his attorneys.
Eating out
The payroll-slashing Gannett Co., The Record's new owner, ended weekly reviews of new restaurants in November 2016 as an economy move.
Why reimburse a reporter hundreds of dollars a week for meals at fine-dining and casual restaurants when a staffer can simply rewrite public-relations material on new restaurants?
Today, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz handles the rewrite chores for the Fall Restaurant Preview on the Better Living cover (1BL and 3BL).
She raves, "A slew of newcomers are set to open in our region," and shouts "hooray" for the ones that have "just opened."
Her briefs range from a humble falafel restaurant (Mamoun's in Fort Lee) to high-end seafood and Korean restaurants (The Hill in Closter and Gayeon in Fort Lee) to a food-court concession slinging mystery meat barbecue (Mighty Quinn's at Westfield Garden State Plaza).
Clams and bacon
In other food coverage, see a recipe from freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson for the surest way to ruin fresh clams, which are high in iron (2BL).
The clueless Jackson recommends making a clam soup with 4 slices of artery clogging thick-cut bacon, and a half-cup of half and half for an extra measure of saturated fat.
Just like that, she transformed a healthy dish into an unhealthy one.
Clams and bacon
In other food coverage, see a recipe from freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson for the surest way to ruin fresh clams, which are high in iron (2BL).
The clueless Jackson recommends making a clam soup with 4 slices of artery clogging thick-cut bacon, and a half-cup of half and half for an extra measure of saturated fat.
Just like that, she transformed a healthy dish into an unhealthy one.
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