Oh, how reporters are silenced by little Trump sound bites loaded with big lies

Joep Bertrams, a Dutch political cartoonist, offers this harsh assessment of President Trump's dispute with African-American pro football players who kneel during the national anthem to protest police brutality against blacks.

Freelance editorial cartoonist Milt Priggee shows Trump carrying a football with the message "Get those sons of bitches off the field," and suggests a title, "RUNNING OF THE ...." To complete it, add "BULL," as in bullshit.

 -- HACKENSACK, N.J.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This post has been updated with the war of words between President Trump and the mayor of San Juan, P.R., who says people are dying on her hurricane-ravaged island.  

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

If President Trump follows through on his promise to visit Puerto Rico next Tuesday, he would arrive nearly two full weeks after Hurricane Maria scored a direct hit on the island, triggering a humanitarian crisis.

Yet, Trump has been insisting officials in Puerto Rico have praised him for the federal recovery effort.

"Everybody has said it's amazing, the job we've done in Puerto Rico," Trump declared at one press conference this week. "We're very proud of it."

The New Yorker magazine asked, "How far away is Puerto Rico from Donald Trump's perspective?"

Trump -- sounding like a 5-year-old looking up at a huge wall map of the Caribbean -- said, "This is an island sitting in the middle of the ocean. And it's a big ocean, it's a very big ocean."

He added you can't "drive trucks" there.

At the same time, reporters on the island interviewed officials who beg for more help from the Trump administration.

Not 'good news'

For example, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz was incensed after a U.S. Homeland Security official described the recovery effort as a "really good news story" in terms of the limited number of deaths.

"This is, dammit, not a good news story," Ms. Cruz said on CNN. "This is a 'people are dying' story. This is a 'life or death' story.... This is a story of devastation that continues to worsen."

Of course, Trump lashed out at her, accusing her of "poor leadership."

Few reporters have noted that Trump's indifference to the suffering of 3.5 million Puerto Ricans -- as well as residents of the devastated Virgin Islands -- is directly related to their being U.S. citizens who don't have a voting representative in Congress and who cannot vote for president.

Tax break for wealthy

Now, Trump has already moved on to his so-called tax-reform initiative, which he calls "revolutionary."

"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity," he said, in another one of those little sound bites filled with a big lie.

For one thing, Americans would no longer be able to  deduct local property taxes or income taxes they pay to their state.

This would really slam New Jersey residents, who pay the highest property taxes in the nation.

But reporters who cover Trump sit there silently, taking notes or recording his inane comments for those maddening TV and radio sound bites designed to incense us.

Cartoonist R.J. Matson shows survivors of Hurricane Maria wondering when Trump will focus on the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico.

Positive spin

At my local daily newspaper, The Record of Woodland Park, Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson was determined to put a positive spin on Trump's tax plan.

But his lead paragraph on Page 1 today listed only three pluses:

"Working poor people could owe no income tax, filing a return could get much simpler and there would even be a new credit for caring for elderly relatives...."

In other words, you're screwed under Trump's proposal if you're not working and poor, you don't file your own tax forms, and your parents are dead.

Localizing stories

Also on the front page today, Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado, one of the few reporters in the newsroom who speaks fluent Spanish, managed to interview "several" New Jersey residents concerned about the safety of relatives in Puerto Rico.

For some reason, Alvarado didn't interview any of the thousands of Mexican-Americans who live in the city of Passaic after two major earthquakes hit Mexico this month, killing hundreds of people.

A story on 4A today appears under this awkwardly written headline:

"Chaos snarls aid
in Puerto Rico"

"Extreme difficulty
moving supplies"

On Wednesday's front page, readers were told:

"Puerto Rico faces
long road to recovery"

"Power, overtaxed federal
aid among many hurdles"

Tesla helps island

One of the companies helping to restore power in Puerto Rico is Tesla, the California-based maker of all-electric, zero-emissions luxury cars.

The company is sending hundreds of Powerwall battery systems that store energy generated by solar panels, and Tesla employees are helping to install them.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk also has personally donated $250,000 to the relief effort.

'Local foodies'

Also on Wednesday, the overwhelmingly older readers of the print edition of The Record stared in disbelief at photos of a couple the Better Living editors hold out as experts on the local food scene.

Ryan Konrad, 25, and his girlfriend, Candice Barrett, 23, are millennials who list Callahan's in Norwood as one of their three favorite restaurants.

Callahan's, which is infamous for deep frying low-quality hot dogs, serves the kind of food many older readers avoid at all costs.

Trump apologist

On Tuesday, Page 1 carried a Mike Kelly column on African-American pro football players who are protesting police brutality against blacks by kneeling during the national anthem.

The column was labeled "commentary," but if you slogged through his long and tedious recap of events the only opinions expressed are from the war veterans he interviewed.

Kelly himself doesn't have a word to say about Trump calling the athletes "sons of bitches" or whether he thinks the Black Lives Matter protests are credible.

The reporter, who has been banging out a Record column for about 25 years, is an apologist for Trump's divisive policies, and a critic of Barack Obama, our first black president, and Hillary Clinton.

Trump compares mothers of black athletes to dogs, ignores suffering in Puerto Rico

Cartoonist Randall Enos commenting on President Trump's harsh treatment of African-American pro football players who refuse to stand during the National Anthem, above.

This is from cartoonist Randy Bish. Trump says he's too busy with "this NFL mess" to deal with threats from North Korea that "a rocket attack against the United States is inevitable."

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I've updated this post with excerpts from letters to the editor of The Record, commenting on President Trump.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

President Trump is the undisputed King of Insults, but his bitter, racially charged attack on black pro football players is the lowest blow of all.

At another one of his campaign-style rallies on Friday, Trump said of players who kneel during the national anthem:

"Wouldn't you love to see one of those NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now? Out. He's fired. He's fired.'"

The phrase "son of a bitch" was loaded, given Trump's appearance on Friday in the Deep South, his appeal to racists, his defense of white supremacists; and the nation's history of slavery, when white owners deliberately broke apart black families.

A "bitch" is a female dog, so a son of a bitch is a bastard or an illegitimate child.

"Trump ranted about a wide range of issues as usual," Salon.com reported after the Friday night rally, "but singled out NFL players who have chosen to protest police brutality against blacks by not standing for the national anthem...."

Trump's Katrina

An opinion piece in The Daily Beast is calling the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico "Trump's Katrina."

"As a dam cracked in Puerto Rico, spreading fear across an already devastated island, Donald Trump was in Alabama, calling a black NFL player a 'son of a bitch,'" Joy-Ann Reid says.

"During a 90-minute rant that veered from incoherence to the raw belligerence we've come to know in the Age of Trump, the madman who is president went after sidelined NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick without calling him by name.

"Trump visited Texas, making a petting zoo of black evacuees and writing his name on a wall," The Daily Beast said.

Yet, Trump hasn't followed through on his promise to visit Puerto Rico, which was devastated by Hurricane Maria.

The likely reason is that Trump doesn't need the support of residents of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, also hit by the hurricane.

They are U.S. citizens, but they cannot vote for president.

Increasing traffic congestion in North Jersey is among the biggest untold stories in The Record of Woodland Park. Above, rush-hour traffic in Paramus moving sluggishly toward the George Washington Bridge on Monday morning. At Hudson River crossings, toll-booth waits of 60 minutes and 90 minutes are not uncommon.

Afternoon rush-hour traffic crawling along Route 80 west toward Paterson and Wayne. Delays aggravate air pollution and cut worker productivity.

The Record

Trump's racially charged attacks on black football players didn't make the front page of my local daily paper on Saturday, Sunday or Monday.

On The Record's front page on Sunday, the editors ran the first part of a three-part series on NJ Transit, the state's mass-transit agency.

But the series is a colossal waste of space, because no attempt is made to explain why the agency has been unable to provide enough rush-hour seats for bus and rail commuters in the past decade.

The main headline:

"WHERE ARE ALL THE ENGINEERS?"

That should have been:

"WHERE ARE ALL THE SEATS?"

Readers on Trump

In a letter to the editor published today on 8A, Karen Chase of Westwood comments on the war of words between Trump and North Korea, and the "double-dog dare you bombast at the United Nations."

She says "dangerous" heads the list of "negative adjectives" being used to describe Trump.

In another letter, Patricia Adubato of Nutley refers to Trump's retweet of an "edited video showing [him] hitting Hillary Clinton with a golf ball."

"Americans should not accept this behavior. It is time to wake up and hold Donald Trump accountable for his actions as president and leader of the United States."

In a third letter, Eleanor Peed of Park Ridge says:

"It is the height of hypocrisy when a draft dodger in the White House berates football players for exercising First Amendment rights."

Kelly on Clinton

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Columnist Mike Kelly continued to obsess over Hillary Clinton, asking coyly, What if she is right about Russian meddling in the 2016 election that she lost to Trump (Opinion front).

But Clinton is far from the only one to make those charges, so Kelly sounds out of touch with multiple investigations, including the main one by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and another by the U.S. Senate.

Governor's race

Staff Writer Dustin Racioppi continues to politicize the race to replace Governor Christie (1A on Monday).

His lead paragraph notes Democrat Phil Murphy overestimated the cost of his plan to offer tuition-free community college. His staff said the proposal would cost half of the $400 million cited by Murphy.

That sounds like a good thing, but Racioppi doesn't think so, saying the original estimate "undercut" the plan, and that it became "ideal campaign fodder" for his challenger, Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.

With only about six weeks until the Nov. 7 election, Racioppi continues to quote liberally from the Guadagno campaign's attacks on Murphy without doing any fact checking or asking for rebuttal from the Murphy campaign.

Nor has he reported where she stands on a host of crucial issues.

They include raising the minimum wage, taxing millionaires and wealthy corporations, restoring full funding to NJ Transit (which the Christie administration cut by more than 90%), and expanding bus and rail service.

Wegmans flops

Despite all the pre-opening hype in The Record, a total of only 200 people lined up for Sunday's 7 a.m. grand opening of the 108,000-square-foot Wegmans supermarket in Montvale (Local front on Monday).

Instead of running photos of crowded aisles, the Woodland Park daily had to stage photos of small groups of cheering customers and employees.

Fearing a repeat of the mob of 24,000 that showed up for the opening of another Wegmans in Hanover, Montvale's mayor warned shoppers not to camp out in the store's parking lot.

But only 400 to 500 people entered the store in the 15 minutes after the doors opened, the newspaper said.

The opening of a Wegmans in Bergen County is about a decade overdue.

And a new Wegmans in a town on the New York State border is a non-event for residents of Hackensack and many other parts of Bergen who are happy with a wide selection of supermarkets and warehouse clubs much closer to their homes.

'My favorite paper'

Bob Leafe, a professional photographer in Hackensack, has been using a community message board called HackensackNow.org to catalog numerous typos, errors and other production problems in The Record.

His well-read entries appear under this heading:

My favorite paper is not having a good day

Eating Out + Eating In: In chaotic times such as these, I hunger for comfort food

EATING OUT: An appetizer of crispy, fried falafel ($3) at Aleppo Restaurant in Paterson's Middle Eastern and Turkish shopping district.

I improvised a falafel sandwich with hummus, muhammara and Arabic Salad.

 -- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In stressful times, eating well and eating healthy is the best revenge.

I can't think of a better way to flip off America's industrial farms than to enjoy a hearty breakfast of organic eggs over organic whole wheat pasta in a red sauce with wild-caught sardines.

Our environment may be going to hell under President Trump, but in my small corner of the world, there is plenty of naturally raised or grown food to enjoy, and we buy and prepare as much of it as possible.

Fresh, wild-caught fish and Gulf Shrimp are widely available at stores big and small -- Costco Wholesale, Whole Foods Market and The Fish Dock in Closter, to name just a few -- so no one has to eat artificially colored farmed salmon or other farmed fish raised on harmful antibiotics.

When eating out, I take the most comfort from the small plates of Syrian specialties served at Aleppo Restaurant in Paterson, the closest I can get to the food my Sephardic Jewish mother (who was born in Aleppo) prepared when I was growing up in Brooklyn.

In second place is a Korean meal, but definitely not one with low-quality barbecued meat.

Instead, we go for a comforting soft-tofu soup surrounded by small dishes of spicy cabbage kimchi and other free sides.

Read:  A visit to Paterson with Aleppo on my mind

Read:  A 2016 visit to South Paterson

EATING OUT: At Aleppo Restaurant on Thursday, one of the great spreads begging to be scooped up with fresh pocket bread was Muhammara ($5) -- pureed sweet red peppers, hot pepper and chopped walnuts moistened with olive oil.

A simple plate of tasty Hummus ($5) was beautifully composed.

The Arabic Salad ($5) -- chopped tomatoes and peeled cucumbers -- was dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, parsley and fresh mint.

We started with a small bowl of Aleppo Restaurant's Lentil Soup ($3), which is served with a wedge of lemon.

Mohamed K. Jello, the chef-owner of the halal restaurant, is a devout Muslim, and customers are not allowed to bring alcoholic beverages with them. Aleppo Restaurant is at 939 Main St., at Thomas Street, in Paterson's South Paterson section, below. Phone: 1-973-977-2244.

TAKE-OUT: At Fattal's, 975 Main St. in Paterson, we picked up a package of the bakery's medium pocket bread ($1.50), Bulgur with Vermicelli ($2.99), Crushed Red Aleppo Pepper ($6.99 a pound), a large package of Bay Leaves ($1.60), and Fattal's Spinach and Cheese Pies ($10.19), below. Fattal's has its own parking lot. Website: Don't miss the cafe

At The Paterson Museum, 2 Market St., "Electric Valve" was one of the 16 designs in the "Paterson Echo-Chic" exhibit, made with recyclable, discarded or upcycled material donated by Paterson factories and other businesses. If you go, turn right at the end of the parking lot to find spaces reserved for the museum.

No visit to Paterson is complete without seeing the Great Falls, but Overlook Park, the traditional viewing spot, was closed. We strained to see what little water was falling on Thursday.

EATING OUT: AT BCD Tofu House, 1640 Schlosser St. in Fort Lee, spicy cabbage kimchi is one of the seven free side dishes served at lunch, including a small battered and fried croaker (not shown), above and below.

I ordered an appetizer of Kale and Veggie Dumplings ($6.12), center, and my wife chose Pork Soon Tofu Soup ($11.99), below, which came with rice and a whole egg to crack open and cook in the steaming broth.

You can order your soft tofu soup without hot red pepper or as spicy as you want. My wife chose medium spicy.

We also shared a  grilled Seafood Pancake made with rice flour, squid and other seafood, cut into wedges ($10.29). If you go to BCD Tofu House for a late lunch on a Saturday, as we did, try to arrive around 3:30 p.m. to avoid screaming children on top of the usual din of chattering customers and clattering plates, below. Website: Belly busting tofu lunch  

EATING IN: Fresh wild Atlantic Cod coated in Asian Indian spices, above, and Fresh Wild Sockeye Salmon, both from Costco Wholesale in Teterboro, have made preparing summer meals a snap. The wild salmon is ready in just 8 minutes when grilled on top of the stove, and the cod bakes in around 15 minutes in a preheated 400-degree oven, below.

I lined a large pan with parchment paper, and added fresh spinach drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil, serving pieces of cod coated in spices, fresh tomatoes, pitted black olives, capers, grated cheese and fresh lemon juice.

Cod & Vegetable Medley. Fresh wild Atlantic cod from Iceland usually sells for $7.99 a pound at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro.

Organic Whole Wheat Linguine from ShopRite in Paramus in organic red pasta sauce with wild-caught sardines and anchovies.

Two organic brown eggs from Costco Wholesale (2 dozen for $5.99) over leftover organic whole wheat fusilli in bottled pasta sauce with sardines and anchovies.

An omelet made with cage-free 100% Egg Whites and Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon, both from Costco, over leftover organic whole wheat fusilli, available for about $1.50 a pound at Whole Foods Market, ShopRite and Trader Joe's.

Also from Costco Wholesale, Fresh Wild Sockeye Salmon ($9.99 a pound) with prepared Basil Pesto, and fresh herbs from my garden, above and below.

A filet of about 2 pounds yields 7 or 8 serving pieces.

I use spray oil on a stovetop grill placed over two burners turned to a medium flame. I start the serving pieces skin side down for about 5 minutes, then flip them over for the remaining 3 minutes.

The week before, I served crisp-skin wild salmon over a Honey Mustard Sauce made with non-fat Greek Yogurt instead of mayonnaise.

Two organic eggs prepared with smoked wild salmon over leftover organic whole wheat pasta shells with sardines. A 1-pound box of the pasta, from Whole Foods Market in Paramus, sells for $1.49.

I added Costco's Basil Pesto and fresh chopped herbs from my garden after I plated the shells.

I buy Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro, where a 1-pound package has been selling for as little as $3.69.

A wild Gulf Shrimp & Vegetable Medley I prepared at home with organic kale from Costco Wholesale in Teterboro and shrimp from Whole Foods Market in Paramus, above and below. The Whole Foods fish-counter employee gladly deveined the shrimp.

Like the cod, the shrimp were ready in 15 minutes after I placed the pan in a preheated 400-degree oven.

Kirkland Signature Canola Oil Cooking Spray is now non-GMO. To avoid genetically modified vegetable oils, I have been using only olive oil in cooking and to dress salads. Two 17-ounce cans of the spray oil were $5.29 at the Costco Wholesale in Wayne, where I also purchased bottles of red wine. Kirkland Signature Malbec was $6.99 and Cotes du Rhone Villages was $6.89.

At ShopRite, Forest Avenue and Route 4 in Paramus, not only was this 3-pound bag of North Carolina Sweet Potatoes for $2.99 misplaced over a sign for Red Onions, the bag described the contents as both "YAMS" and "SWEET POTATOES." Yams are starchier, but sweet potatoes are low in calories and a great bread substitute, baked or mashed with extra-virgin olive oil and seasonings, including cinnamon and curry powder, below with leftover cod and homemade tzatziki.

At Costco Wholesale in Teterboro, Season-brand Plain Sardines in Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil (12 4.375-ounce cans for $11.99) are a better buy than 6 4.375-ounce cans of Skinless-and-Boneless Sardines in Pure Olive Oil ($9.99), even when they are sale for $6.99, as they were this month, below. I use three cans of sardines per pound of pasta, including the oil.

News media obsession with politics slowly tears our country apart, turns off voters

"I just want to help the institution reach its full potential," President Trump says at the United Nations. This is from Jimmy Margulies, onetime editorial cartoonist at The Record of Woodland Park.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

The loaded word, the dirty word of the last decade is "politics," and the news media love to use it liberally.

They know partisan politics and partisan bickering spark conflict and cause gridlock in Washington, and they use it in story after story as an excuse to ignore issues and what is best for the nation. 

But politics is a huge turnoff for voters, who have shown how apathetic they are by sitting out even the biggest national, state and local elections.

In the debate over repealing the Affordable Care Act, late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel said one of the sponsors, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, was lying about what is and isn't in the bill.

Cassidy shot back that Kimmel was politicizing the debate.

New Jersey

On Monday, The Record of Woodland Park, my local daily newspaper, could find room for only one issue -- taxes -- in its lead Page 1 story on the governor's race in New Jersey, but that was buried on the continuation page.

The headline: 

"MONEY, MORALS

AND THE ROAD AHEAD"

To politicize the story, party labels are used liberally -- "Democratic nominee Phil Murphy" and "Republican nominee Kim Guadagno" (the state's lieutenant governor), lead off the first two paragraphs.

Murphy is identified as a former banker and "finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee."

There is no discussion by Dustin Racioppi, the reporter who is assigned to cover Governor Christie, of what Murphy and Guadagno are proposing to do to repair all the damage the GOP bully did during in his two terms in office.

Christie's assaults on mass transit, the environment and state pension funds are well-known.

But Racioppi has been derelict in keeping up with the governor's nearly 600 vetoes. None of them is mentioned in Monday's scene setter.

Instead, Racioppi's stories on the campaign are full of politics, and he doesn't hesitate to describe proposals with loaded words, including "progressive" and "free-spending liberal." 

'Progressive'

On Tuesday, Racioppi assumed the role of spoiler in his lead paragraph on 3A, labeling Murphy's proposal to provide free community college in New Jersey "a progressive but costly proposal."

He doesn't let up, claiming in the third paragraph that Murphy "has been criticized for the price tags associated with his proposals."

Of course, readers don't find out until later Racioppi is indulging in politics, because he is referring to Republicans, including Christie, who vetoed a bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, calling the proposal "radical."

The governor also put the kibosh several times on bills to impose a tax surcharge on millionaires that would raise more than $1 billion a year.  

"The notion of states and the federal government offering free college has plenty of detractors, including the Republican governor Murphy is seeking to replace" in January, the reporter says.

"When Christie was running for president, he panned the idea as a 'typical liberal approach' that 'is wrong,'" says Racioppi, sounding like a puppet instead of a journalist.

'Free-spending liberal'

In a story on Wednesday reporting Barack Obama plans to host an event for Murphy, who was U.S. ambassador to Germany under the former president, Racioppi says:

"But for all of his money and support, Murphy faces a challenge on his Wall Street background and is frequently compared to [former Governor Jon] Corzine as a free-spending liberal whose proposal would put New Jersey on a path to economic ruin."

Of course, Racioppi doesn't mention Christie already accomplished that, balancing his budgets year after year with funds he stole from mass transit, cleaning up the environment, women's health initiatives, school-lunch programs and other areas.

And without doing any fact-checking, Racioppi channels a Guadagno campaign ad, paid for by the Republican Governors Association, which claims Murphy is "so out of touch, he's campaigning on a promise to raise New Jersey taxes by at least $1.3 billion a year ..., but New Jersey families can stop him this November."

'High and mighty'

Racioppi deliberately ignored an Aug. 18 NJ.com report that Murphy's $1.3 billion tax hike would be financed by millionaires, corporations and pot smokers: 

"Who pays for that 4 percent jump in spending? In short, the high and the mighty.

"The state's wealthiest will pay more in income tax, corporations would see tax loop-holes closed, and marijuana smokers would see their drug of choice become legalized -- and taxed.

"According to a Murphy spokesman, the proposed tax increases would raise roughly $1.3 billion a year, with a separate $80 million to $100 million with reforms that lower out-of-network health care costs."

Elaine D'Aurizio

Even though Elaine D'Aurizio was the first and so far only woman to write a column for The Record, the Woodland Park daily never profiled her in an expanded obituary after her death on Sept. 6. She was 76.

But tributes were posted on Facebook, including this one from former Law & Order Editor Jerry DeMarco:

"She took a 20-something wiseass who knew nothing about covering cops and told him what to do, what to say. More importantly, she taught by example. When that wiseass took heat, she told him not to change a thing for those folks (OK, she used saltier terminology). She made him feel smart, important, special. Sure, it's a cliche -- but those usually are truest: They don't make 'em like Elaine anymore. Haven't for a long time."

Also on Facebook, Patrick Reynolds, who works at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said: 

"RIP Elaine ...she did a story on Lincoln Tunnel ..Tunnel and Bridge Agents and how they saved a little boy who was choking on a hot dog while in rush hour traffic on the NY side of the Tunnel....I was a union shop steward at the time and a TBA as well...she met us at the Lincoln Tunnel and was amazed at the training and responsibilities these men and women had. The boy was unconscious when my guys got to him and worked for what seemed a lifetime and soon after they dislodged the hot dog and slowly brought him back. She was in tears while hearing the story from the TBA's who responded. The father was extremely grateful. As you know most of the times these stories don't have a happy ending. May she rest in peace." 

Scott McNiff, a police officer, commented:

"Oh no! She was a nice lady and an excellent journalist . She did a story on my father in her "Above and Beyond" column after he dove into the frozen Hudson River and saved a suicidal person, and then did a story on me in the same column a few years later for saving the life of a seven year old boy. I think we were the first father and son to be featured in the same column. I still have her story. She was a class act and will be missed. So sorry for the loss to the world of journalism as well as humanity."

Her eulogy was delivered on Sept. 9 at Our Lady of the Valley R.C. Church in Wayne by Stephen Smith, her nephew.

You'll find the full text in the comments section at the end of the post, but here is an excerpt:

"Elaine D’Aurizio was a journalist, and a good one. As a journalist she knew that a good story is in the human details not the platitudes. People tell us who they are in the little gestures and moments they share with us, the exchanges and small generosities that reverberate and stay with us.

"And that is also how she showed her love for all of us – in the details of knowing and empathizing with us."