Mother Nature is taking revenge for moves by oil industry to destroy our environment

Cartoons lampooning President Trump's half-hearted efforts on behalf of victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas from Jimmy Margulies, above, and Monte Wolverton, below. Margulies, the former editorial cartoonist at The Record of Woodland Park, has Trump referring to his election as "history making," and conceding "the storm was pretty strong, too."

Here, cartoonist Wolverton shows Trump dismantling Obama-era flood protection regulations just weeks before Harvey hit Texas in a bid to get infrastructure projects approved more quickly.

TRUMP'S BUDGET SLASHES

COASTAL PROTECTIONS

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Houston and New Orleans are major centers of the oil, gas and chemical industries, and both have been hit with superstorms that exposed massive failures by government officials to protect their citizens.

In fact, Mother Nature seems to be taking revenge for all of the environmental damage caused by those industries in their reckless pursuit of hundreds of billions of dollars in profit.

Refineries and chemical plants aggravate climate change, and cause widespread air and water pollution.

Meanwhile, auto emissions are linked to 53,000 premature deaths every year in the United States.

Equally as troubling is that most of the victims I've seen interviewed in Texas shelters were black and Hispanic.

On visits to Texas and Louisiana, President Trump's words of comfort ring hollow: 

He is loosening environmental regulations instead of enforcing them and cutting budgets, ensuring a repeat of the devastation all over the country.

Coastal flooding

In New Jersey, shore towns are struggling "to find ways to prepare for an increase in flooding and severe storm events," according to the American Littoral Society, a coastal-conservation nonprofit.

Many coastal communities have turned to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for expertise, coordination and funding to make the coast "safer and more resilient," said Helen Henderson, the society's Mid-Atlantic Ocean Planning manager.

But President Trump's spending plan would cripple NOAA and eliminate thousands of jobs by cutting funding by nearly $1 billion.

That's in addition to proposed cuts to the Department of the Interior, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce (where NOAA operates).

"Those cutbacks could be disastrous for the U.S. coast, both environmentally and economically," Henderson says.

Cartoonist Dave Granlund on the dark side of the recovery from Hurricane Harvey.

This cartoon from Steve Greenberg speaks for itself.

The Record

Hurricane Harvey was on the front page of my local daily newspaper, The Record of Woodland Park, for seven days, but the cleanup was demoted to 3A today.

On Aug. 26, a Saturday, readers were greeted with a banner headline on the front page below a story about NJ Transit, the state's beleaguered mass-transit agency:

"HARVEY SLAMS TEXAS"

That day's paper also ran a story on A-3 reporting two former associates of Governor Christie filed appeals of their November convictions and subsequent prison sentences for plotting the 2012 lane closures on the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee.

The "Harvey slams Texas" phrase appeared two days later in a sub-headline on Page 1.

EDWIN JOSEPH REITER

Ed Reiter

For decades, Ed Reiter was one of the faceless workers on The Record's copy desk in Hackensack (where the paper was headquartered before moving to Woodland Park in 2009).

That's where copy editors worked late into the night fact-checking news stories and columns; correcting spelling and grammatical errors, and trying to improve syntax and eliminate wordiness.

Reiter died on Aug. 24 in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. He was 79. His wife, Patricia, said the cause was multiple organ failure.

Coin writing

Between 1998 and 2002, he won four First Place awards from the New Jersey Press Association for Best Headline Writing, "reflecting his penchant for wordplay and puns," as one obituary put it.

Reiter left The Record in 2008, and at the time of his death was senior editor of COINage magazine.  

He also wrote a numismatics column for nearly a decade (1979-89) for The New York Times.

The Borg family and Gannett Co., the new owners, have virtually eliminated copy editors and the work they did at The Record, resulting in the low-quality print edition you've been reading for far too many years.

As Trump destroys our democracy, Page 1 buzzes with bees, sports, truckers in L.A.

STUCK IN HACKENSACK: A tour bus blocked two lanes of River Street today after the back of the vehicle got hung up as it was leaving the parking lot of the shuttered New Jersey Naval Museum and USS Ling, a World War II submarine that is itself stuck in the muck of the Hackensack River.

ABANDONED PLACES: A couple who got off the bus said they were on a tour of "abandoned places," including the submarine. They said the old headquarters of The Record, which the Borg family abandoned in 2009, wasn't part of the tour.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

The Russian election-meddling investigation continues to expand -- even as President Trump calls the actions of his own Justice Department "phony" and "sad."

The Liar-In-Chief also accused Deputy Attorney General Ron Rosenstein of leading a "witch hunt."

Given the non-stop madness, mayhem and alternative facts that have marked the Trump administration since Jan. 20, can a once-respected newspaper like The Record of Woodland Park continue to fill Page 1 with fluff?

Father's Day feature

Today's front page is an emphatic "yes."

There are three major elements, plus a photo referring readers to a heart-warming Father's Day feature about father-son and father-daughter restaurant teams (1A and 1BL).

As our nation's capital burns, Editor Richard A. Green buzzes about the unusually high mortality rate of honeybees in the Garden State.

The Record has never reported in any comprehensive way on heart disease, the nation's No. 1 killer, or the obesity epidemic.

Instead, Green and other editors prefer medical miracles or, as in the case of today's Page 1 sports column, a medical freak -- a retired coach with "idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis," an incurable disease.

Inexplicably, the third major story on Page 1 today focuses on a truck driver in the port of Los Angeles who takes home "as little as 67 cents a week," according to a USA Today investigation.

A story reporting Trump's tax-overhaul plan "is on life support" appears on Page 4A.

'National nightmare'

Way back on the Opinion section front, Columnist Mike Kelly says, "The national nightmare has struck the national pastime," an awkward reference to last week's shooting of a GOP congressman on a baseball practice field.

Why didn't Green -- who laid off more than 350 employees but spared Kelly and other veteran columnists -- run this gun-control column on Page 1?

Just the day before, Kelly's column demonizing Cuba for giving asylum to the killer of a New Jersey state trooper ran at the top of Page 1.

ON BORG-OWNED PROPERTY? When the Borg family of Englewood, Tenafly, Manhattan and the Hamptons sold North Jersey Media Group to Gannett Co. for more than $40 million last July, they retained nearly 20 acres along River Street in Hackensack to develop into apartments. The Borgs dispute the USS Ling is on their property, and a $1-year-lease was terminated in May 2016 by then-Record Publisher Stephen A Borg. The family claims the sub is stuck in the river, which they don't own.

TAKING A BREAK: Members of the tour group purchased food at the New Heritage Diner, and took shelter under a tree as they awaited the arrival of a heavy duty tow truck to free the bus.

Grocery 'earthquake'?

This morning, I braved the parking-lot puddles and potholes to go shopping for fresh fish, fruit, rice and other items at the H Mart in Little Ferry.

But I didn't see any signs of the "earthquake rattling through the grocery sector" predicted by an analyst in The Record on Saturday.

In a front-page story, the paper's retailing reporter claimed "traditional supermarkets" have a big reason to worry now that Amazon is expected to merge with Whole Foods Market, the dominant player in organic and natural food.

At the Korean supermarket, some of the prices were so low I can't imagine how Whole Foods or Amazon's online grocery service could possibly match them.

A 15-pound bag of Kokuho Yellow Label California-grown white rice was only $6.99, whole fresh wild-caught porgy were $1.99 a pound, and five bunches of scallions were 99 cents.

I munched my way around the store with free samples of fish cake, tofu, noodles, broiled fresh cod, fried mussels, sliced boiled octopus and other Korean food.

Try that at Whole Foods.

Do we need a bunch of big new supermarkets?

A virus is killing farmed tilapia

A box of 14 to 16 achingly sweet Ataulfo or Champagne Mangoes was $9.99 today at H Mart, 260 Bergen Turnpike, Little Ferry. 

Ex-Record staffer Jim Norman launches an online news site dedicated to Teaneck

A cartoon from Mike Luckovich of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Even if you're not thrown off the plane, flying United has been an ordeal since the airline cut legroom along with such amenities as free music channels.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Jim Norman, a former reporter for The Record of Woodland Park, has launched an online newspaper devoted to Teaneck, where he lives.

Norman, editor and publisher, calls the Teaneck Independent the township's "real newspaper."

Read more here.

Local news

Norman's venture should succeed, judging by the dramatic decline in local news in The Record since an initial newsroom downsizing in 2008.

That was followed in 2009 by the move of the paper and North Jersey Media Group to Woodland Park from Hackensack,where the Borg family had prospered for more than 110 years.

Gannett, which bought NJMG last July, has cut more than 350 jobs since November, and moved production of the redesigned print edition of The Record to Neptune.

That's the township on the Jersey shore, not the planet.

The Record: A letter contains sticker shock about my 7-day home delivery subsciption

A cartoon from Pat Bagley of the Salt Lake Tribune compares President Trump to a docile breed entered in the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show by shirtless Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Until I received a letter from The Record, I wasn't aware I am paying more than $100 a year for 7-day home delivery of the once-great daily newspaper I worked for until 2008.

That's $104 or 28 cents an issue, said a woman who took my call this morning after I was put on hold for more than 15 minutes and listened to music from the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra.

After June 4, my home delivery subscription will go up only 40 cents, to $104.40 (charged to my credit card at $8.70 a month), she said.

And there is no charge for access to NorthJersey.com, which is even more poorly edited than the print edition, if you can imagine that.

That's double the $51.48 a year I paid in 2010, when I still received a discount for being a former employee.

But the woman hastened to add the "regular rate" for 7-day home delivery is $457.60.

Why didn't I know how much I paid for the Woodland Park daily?

My account is enrolled in auto pay, and renews automatically.

The letter also informed me I "will receive 4 premium editions throughout the year, which will be charged at $1 each."

Idle boasts

While I was on hold, a recorded message played over and over again, touting The Record's "restaurant reviews," which ended last November with the departure of critic Elisa Ung.

Today's Better Living section contains not a restaurant review, but a story on "North Jersey's Best Chicken Sandwiches" (1BL, 10BL and 11BL).

If you don't eat poultry or meat, screw you, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz seems to be saying.

The message also boasted of "the best local news coverage anywhere" -- a patently ridiculous statement even when the Borg family owned the paper.

Today's paper

President Trump continues his assault on the news media and "fake news" after former Gen. Michael Flynn resigned as national security adviser (1A).

A long Page 1 story on the suspensions of the high school principal and nine other high-level district employees in Englewood never explains what is wrong with "more than 3,000 graduation credit and grade changes in the previous year" (1A).

Paul Berger, a transportation reporter who covers the Port Authority, continues to spend more time reporting on the woes of unarmed guards at the George Washington Bridge than he does on the commuters who are caught in horrendous traffic jams at the bridge and other Hudson River crossings (1A).

He also has ignored reporting on a quick fix for a lack of rush-hour seats on NJ Transit buses and afternoon delays at the midtown-Manhattan bus terminal:

More exclusive Lincoln Tunnel bus lanes (both in the morning and afternoon) on Route 495.

About one-third of the first Business page in the L-section was missing when we found our copy of The Record, which was tossed far from the familiar spot in our driveway today. The missing third of the page ended up in the A-section, next to the editorials.

Local news 

Governor Christie's White House dreams were dashed by the Bridgegate scandal, and now a Bergen County judge has cleared the way for an official misconduct complaint against him to proceed to trial (1L).

The GOP thug has tried to put Bridgegate behind him by launching a number of initiatives to address "the epidemic of addition" to prescription drugs (Thursday's front page).

Also on the Local front, Staff Writer John Cichowski continues to base his so-called commuting column on a small number of wackos who email him incessantly so they can see their names in print (1L).

Today's Road Warrior column celebrates Neanderthal drivers who disable such collision-avoidance systems as backup cameras, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring and lane-departure warnings.

Gannett editors ban African-American achievement from The Record's front page

Actress Melissa McCarthy made a surprise appearance on "Saturday Night Live" to deliver a hilarious send-up of White House press secretary Sean Spicer losing it time and again, above and below.

Here, McCarthy as Spicer uses a lectern to assault a reporter at the press briefing.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Before Gannett Co. bought The Record last July, African-American readers could expect Page 1 coverage of their achievements every February.

But five days into Black History Month, I haven't seen any mention of the annual observance on the front page or any page of the Woodland Park daily.

Instead, today's Sunday edition squanders precious Page 1 space on "sexting" and a column on one of the coaches in the Super Toilet Bowl.

With Gannett, as with former Publisher Stephen A. Borg in any month but February, one of the few ways blacks get on the front page is to be elected president, kill someone or commit some other horrible crime.

Court stops Trump

A federal appeals court early today denied a Trump administration request to immediately restore the travel and refugee ban after a Seattle judge blocked it (1A).

The State Department said it was restoring tens of thousands of canceled visas for travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, while the Department of Homeland Security "suspended" all actions for enforcing the ban, a front page story reports.

The Record's story refers to people who were affected by the ban as "foreigners" (1A).

Dictator Trump's many executive orders in his first two weeks have been greeted with horror, but they were also lampooned on "Saturday Night Live," "Real Time with Bill Maher" and other programs.

Maher said he believes Trump is "mentally ill," and that only the "sane Republicans" who control Congress can save the country.

On Jan. 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jews were stunned when Trump neglected to mention 6 million of their ancestors were slaughtered.

In the opening sketch on "Saturday Night Live," a cast member played White House senior counselor Stephen K. Bannon as the Grim Reaper, who is called "president." Actor Alex Baldwin, right, did his usual send-up of President Trump.

Terrorism debate

See Columnist Mike Kelly on the Opinion front today for a tedious discussion of the debate over whether Trump's travel ban was effective in keeping terrorists out of the country or unfair to refugees and other immigrants (1O).

The opening paragraphs scream "me, me, me" as the veteran reporter hits readers over the head with his credentials -- he researched a book on terrorism and studied "suicide bombing."

Isn't that impressive?

Food coverage

Food Editor Esther Davidowitz doesn't spend much time discussing heart disease, obesity and healthy food.

So, you might want to read a seven-paragraph story on 3L in Local today about Ridgewood firefighters who are shopping and cooking healthy with a grim statistic in mind:

Cardiovascular disease is cited in 45 percent of on-duty deaths of firefighters and, as one said, "diet can help that."

More typical was the Better Living cover story on Friday.

In place of a weekly restaurant review, editors ran a story on the Dumont Crystal diner, and a dish called "Dumont Police Sandwich" (Friday's 1BL and 10BL).

The ingredients are described as "hot roast beef, brown gravy, sauteed mushrooms, onions and fresh mozzarella," but the story doesn't warn readers all of that saturated fat from the cheese and the mystery meat is really bad for your heart.