North Korea summit may be a distraction from mountainous breasts Trump adores

Adult film star Stormy Daniels is suing President Trump so she can make, uh, a clean breast of her affair with the New York billionaire after Melania Trump gave birth to their son, Barron. Melania is the stormy weather forecaster in this sendup from cartoonist Dave Granlund.

Cartoonist Granlund satirizing the war of words between North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and President Trump over which leader has a bigger nuclear "button."

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

We've survived another insane week of the Trump presidency -- with visions of an adult film star's enormous, surgically enlarged breasts and a possible summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Donald J. Trump would be the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a North Korean leader in hopes of obtaining a nuclear-disarmament pledge.

But former President Jimmy Carter obtained a nuclear disarmament agreement with Un's grandfather in 1994, according to ABC News.

And in 2009, former President Bill Clinton also went to North Korea at a time when tensions were high over its nuclear program, and helped free two journalists.

Just a distraction?

Trump's visit isn't a sure thing, but he's got such a mess on his hands at home it may not matter.

And all the coverage of a possible summit is distracting from last week's real news:

The probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election is intensifying, and could result in an obstruction of justice indictment against Trump as one former aide after another is charged or cooperates with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

And details of Trump's affair with a big-breasted porn star starting in 2006, after son Barron was born, are spilling out even as she sues to be allowed to tell all, including "still images" of what satirist Bill Maher speculates is Trump's "junk." 

Meanwhile, many are asking why Trump isn't applying sanctions Congress already OK'd against Russian dictator Vladimir Putin for his war crimes in Syria, and his recent, Kim Jong Un-like boast of having "invincible" nuclear weapons that could destroy U.S. defenses.

See: Trump isn't the only cause of stress in our lives

See:'Do You Remember When Love Was King?'

These doctored photos of President Trump and Kim Jong Un, above and below, appeared on Twitter (@bornmiserable).

N.J. environment

As today's front-page story in The Record shows, the environment in North Jersey went to hell while Chris Christie was governor from January 2010 to January 2018.

Now, the Woodland Park daily's environmental reporters are spending all their time on toxic disasters in Pompton Lake and Edgewater, the latter just across the Hudson River from Manhattan.

"Elevated levels of  a chemical that can be harmful to humans ... has been wafting in the air from the Quanta Superfund site in Edgewater for nine months [italics added] as workers continue to entomb a century's worth of pollution on the property closely surrounded by homes and businesses, Staff Writer Scott Fallon reports.

If the foul-smelling, potentially harmful air has been present for nine months, why is The Record just writing about it now?

Dysfunctional Englewood

The small city of Englewood has been mismanaged for decades.

Just look at the segregated elementary and middle schools; and high property taxes, despite revenue from the owners of million-dollar mansions on the East Hill, a small industrial area and hundreds of new apartments downtown and along Route 4.

Now, The Record leads today's Local front with a story under this headline:

"Englewood's 'dire' finances

 to be studied"

In the same sentence that quotes the "city manager," Englewood is referred to as a "borough" (1L).


Copy editors wanted

Readers eyes are rolling at another Mike Kelly piece that keeps them guessing on the meaning of the headline on today's Opinion front:

"It's time for a new plan

for Hudson rail tunnels"

Readers have to plow through thousands of words of background information on the Opinion front (1O) and the continuation page (4O) before Kelly reveals his solution in the last five paragraphs:

Appeal to the Port Authority to take over the project now that Trump has refused to fund the second attempt to replace the 100-year-old tunnels, which Christie initially killed in 2010. 

Six months in, Trump lurches from one disaster to another with no end to the lies

Jimmy Margulies, onetime editorial cartoonist at The Record of Woodland Park, and others are having a field day with President Trump's failure to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and, in the process, screw tens of millions who got health insurance under the law.

This gem is from cartoonist Rick McKee at The Augusta Chronicle in Georgia.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

The collapse of Republican efforts to overhaul health care puts President Trump's entire legislative agenda at risk, USA Today reports:

"Trump and aides have repeatedly said that their hopes for tax reform hinged on a new health care law, because it included changes to the tax code.

"Plans for an infrastructure bill, a budget plan and raising the debt ceiling may also be in doubt because of bruised feeling left over from the health care fight," USA Today reporter David Jackson says in The Record of Woodland Park (9A).

According to New York Times Op-Ed Columnist David Leonhardt, the No. 1 lesson to take from the collapse of the Republican health care bills is this:

"They have demonstrated that facts still matter and that the truth has some inherent advantage over falsehood," Leonhardt says.

The Times columnist reminds us "Trump, after all, won the presidency despite a constant stream of falsehoods" [and those tweeted and spoken lies continue unabated].

"He launched his political career with a lie about Barack Obama's birthplace and just kept on lying about almost every imaginable subject. He also admitted to being a sexual molester. He refused to release his tax returns.... And yet he was elected president.

"There was, and still is, ample reason for despondence."

Now, Trump claims President Obama's Affordable Care Act is collapsing, "when in fact it has mostly worked well -- and its flaws, while real, are eminently fixable through bipartisan legislation," Leonhardt reports.

A Record editorial today says "now's the time to work with Democrats" (10A).

Of course, the paper's Editorial Board could have and should have run that editorial every week since 2010, when Republicans won a majority in the House and the Tea Party ignited racial warfare against Obama.

Putin bromance

The latest legislative disaster comes not long after Trump jumped back into bed with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit.

Then, before The Times published them, Donald Trump Jr. released emails about his excitement over meeting during the 2016 presidential campaign with a Russian lawyer who promised to deliver "dirt" on Democratic Hillary Clinton.

And, remember, Trump took office on Jan. 20, just six months ago, and has already earned the title of worst U.S. president ever.

Local news?

On The Record's Local front today, two photos show the Englewood Night Market, but there is no mention the event was sponsored by a unit of Gannett Co.'s North Jersey Media Group, which publishes the paper.

Today's Better Living cover on dining near Grand Central Terminal -- from USA Today -- is aimed at people who live in New York State and Connecticut, and ride Metro-North Railroad.

Very little of the food shown on the cover, 2BL and 3BL is suitable for people who don't eat meat.

Next: Do auto media

 exist solely to sell cars?

Lock him up! Lock him up! Donald Jr. loved the idea of getting dirt on Clinton

"Dirty Donny Jr" is the title of this cartoon from Steve Sack of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

Editor's note: This post has been updated with the events of June 7, 2016. Were they a coincidence or a conspiracy?

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

"Donald Trump Jr. Makes the Russia Connection" is the headline on an editorial in today's New York Times.

"It's all there in the emails," the paper's Editorial Board says.

That's a reference to messages that set up a Trump Tower meeting between the younger Trump and a Russian-government attorney during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The Times broke the story on Tuesday, when an online report carried this headline:

"Russian dirt on Clinton? 'I love it,' Donald Trump Jr. said."

And instead of the "transparency" President Trump has attributed to his oldest son, The Times said Mini-Donald only released the incriminating emails after the paper's Washington Bureau gave him a deadline for comment.

Father and son

The president has denied knowledge of his son's meeting with the Russian lawyer.

But on June 7, 2016, the New York businessman promised a "major speech" attacking campaign rival Hillary Clinton -- just hours after son Donald set up the meeting to learn the compromising information on the Democratic candidate, according to several news media reports.

Was that a coincidence or a conspiracy?

Russian support

On Page 1 of The Record of Woodland Park, USA Today reports:

The emails "appear to back up the most damning revelation" by The Times "that Trump's closest associates and family members actively sought out information they knew was part of a high-level Russian government effort to support Trump's campaign."

In other words, when it comes to the Trump family, the fish stinks from the head down.

Lock Don Jr. up! Lock Don Jr. up! 

Isn't that what the Republican National Convention delegates thundered last July about Clinton, even without evidence she had committed a crime?

Local news?

The Record leads the local-news section today with a rare story on Englewood's struggling downtown (1L).

But we've yet to see any stories from Staff Writer Michael W. Curley Jr. on why the small city is one of the most mismanaged in Bergen County.

The only local news about River Edge is a story on the construction of a more modern McDonald's restaurant that will have touch-screen ordering.

Staff Writer Melanie Anzidei doesn't say whether owner Brian Hairston plans to improve the quality of the crappy food.

The big news in Bergenfield and Rutherford? New artificial turf fields (2L and 3L).

Stories on affordable housing in Cresskill and Montvale appear on the Local front and 3L.

As region chokes in traffic, The Record ignores our broken mass-transit system

Traffic congestion at Hudson River crossings has only worsened since July 2014, when these drivers inched up a Manhattan ramp to the George Washington Bridge on a warm Friday night.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Drivers have a special place in the hearts of the editors and transportation writers at The Record.

Road Warrior John Cichowski, who is supposed to be writing a commuting column, has spent more than 13 years fighting for drivers, raging against their every impediment -- from potholes to long lines at the Motor Vehicle Commission. 

Even as hour-long waits at Hudson River tollbooths have become the rule, Cichowski and The Record's editors ignore growing traffic congestion and the failure of government officials to expand bus and rail transit.

Typical of mass-transit coverage is today's front-page column about a couple who spend nine hours on trains every Friday night to go and have pizza for dinner (1A).

This past Monday, Cichowski ignored mass transit's potential for slowing climate change to reprint comments from readers who were upset that former Port Authority Chairman David Sampson got off without a jail sentence after pleading guilty to bribery.

He followed that on Wednesday with his first column ever on the long-delayed expansion of NJ Transit's electrified light-rail system to Bergen County.

The big news? A public hearing on a revised plan to add 10 miles of electrified rail service to downtown Englewood and terminate at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.

The first leg of NJ Transit's light-rail system was opened in 2000.

But Cichowski doesn't bother to comment on Tenafly's short-sighted refusal to bar extension of light rail to the borough, where residents believe they have a constitutional right to commute to Manhattan in a car or SUV. 

Local news?

The Record's Local news section is dominated today by another story from Paterson, where "a large African cat" was found roaming the streets (1L).

A large photo and story reports a fire in Passaic city displaced 10 residents (3L).

In education news, Wyckoff has decided against switching to full-day kindergarten (10L).

Free advertising

The Better Living centerfold today carries a gushing report about the expected opening of a new restaurant in far-off Ossining, N.Y., that tells you everything except how far the place is from Sing Sing Prison (10BL and 11 BL).

The story includes a large photo of Chilean sea bass, which even fish lovers avoid, because of its high mercury content.

I'm not sure what motivated Gannett to give this restaurant a million dollars worth of free publicity, but readers have come to expect little more than crumbs when it comes to food and restaurant coverage.

On Wednesday, the "Now Open" feature focused on a new pizzeria that is about as welcome as another Turkish restaurant in North Jersey.

Last Friday, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz was beside herself over "six appetizers we can't get enough of," including a spinach dip that looked as appetizing as a bread bowl brimming with vomit.

A small city's high property taxes get you ice-covered streets and segregated schools

Driving to Englewood just before noon on Wednesday was a bone-jarring experience on Forest Avenue, Lafayette Place, Tenafly Road and Demarest Avenue, all of which were covered with packed and broken snow and ice -- evidence that Department of Public Works crews and supervisors took the day off.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

As a resident of Hackensack, I'm used to paying high property taxes and getting little in return when a big snowstorm hits.

Two days after Tuesday's storm dropped about 12 inches of snow on Hackensack, my driveway remains blocked by in icy mound that formed after city plows pushed snow into my driveway when clearing my street.

That means I haven't been able to use my car, which is too low to get over the barrier. I was able to back my wife's Toyota, which has more ground clearance, over the mound, but just barely.

Still, when my wife drove me to Englewood just before noon on Wednesday, we found packed snow and ice still covering many streets -- forcing her to drive 20 mph or less.

On the way home after 4 p.m., even North Dean Street near Palisade Avenue in downtown Englewood was covered with ice.

Did Englewood Department of Public Works crews and their supervisors sleep in or take the day off?

Taxes and schools

Englewood homeowners pay some of the highest property taxes in Bergen County, but few whites send their children to public schools.

The elementary and middle schools are filled almost exclusively with black and Hispanic students, while desegregation efforts have been focused on Dwight Morrow High School.

Now, you can add incompetent DPW supervisors who leave streets icy -- endangering residents and visitors alike -- to the Englewood experience. 

Now, that's service

Today, I decided to call Hackensack's DPW and ask if a truck could be sent to clear my driveway, which was blocked a total of three times on Tuesday.

The woman was polite, but said crews were busy clearing snow all over Hackensack, and that it was unlikely one could get here. 

She took my address, and less than 30 minutes later two men in a Parks Department truck with a plow cleared my driveway.

A Hackensack Park Department truck and two workers cleared my driveway just before 2 this afternoon, above and below.

On the snow- and ice-covered incline at Demarest Avenue and Engle Street in Englewood, we got stuck behind three other vehicles as the driver of a Honda at the light spun his front wheels.

After 4 p.m. on Wednesday, North Dean Street, one of Englwood's premier shopping streets, was still covered with snow and ice.

At Main Street and Euclid Avenue in Hackensack on Wednesday, a woman walked in the street instead of using the sidewalk, because city crews didn't clear the corner and crosswalk, a scene repeated all over the city.

Euclid and Prospect avenues in Hackensack on Wednesday.

The Record

The Record wasn't delivered today -- that's three days in a row.

I called to get credit; Gannett raised the price of home delivery, but doesn't replace papers that it fails to deliver.

Today's digital edition lavishes Page 1 coverage on a face lift to The Shops at Riverside, the 40-year-old luxury mall in Hackensack.

The breathless account is by Staff Writer Joan Verdon, a veteran retailing reporter who probably is one of the 141 North Jersey Media Group employees who will be laid off by March 25.

News about one of the paper's biggest advertisers takes precedence over the mayhem caused by President Trump, who was sworn in less than two months ago.

And it looks like early deadlines prevented The Record from reporting federal judges in two states have blocked enforcement of Trump's latest travel ban targeting Muslims.