A front page filled with what-ifs

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A new city councilman in Englewood holds a day job at the state capitol in Albany, N.Y.

If you're trotting out an old story about higher education, why not dress it up with a misleading headline? Here's one on Page 1 of The Record of Woodland Park today:

New vision for funding state colleges

But in the fifth paragraph, Staff Writers Pat Alex and Elise Young report that many of the recommendations in a 134-page report "have been made by groups impaneled by [Governor] Christie's predecessors over the past two decades."

So the "new vision" is up to 20 years old? Editor Francis Scandale must have put this room-clearer on the front page, because the former Hackensack daily lionizes former Gov. Thomas H. Kean, who headed the latest panel. 

Most of the rest of A-1 today is filled with a long story on bills by North Jersey lawmakers that didn't make it through Congress. Why not report on what they accomplished?

Ignoring the obvious

The lead story in head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section reports a 48-year-old Park Ridge woman died in an apartment fire, but the two reporters who labored over it never say whether the victim smoked. Instead, we learn she was "a lovely woman, very pleasant."

Also on L-1, a huge story from Glen Rock, where Scandale lives, reports renovation of council chambers is finally complete. This is one in a series of infrastructure stories Sykes often uses as filler when her staff is unable to produce anything more legitimate.

The "2011 PEOPLE TO WATCH" series on L-1 is sending the wrong message to readers of Local. All of the people featured so far have been statewide figures, suggesting Sykes doesn't think anyone local is worthy of note.

Commuting councilman

On L-3, Staff Writer Giovanna Fabiano reports the chief of staff to the New York State Senate majority leader in Albany, N.Y., was sworn in as Englewood's newest councilman. 

The story doesn't say whether Michael Cohen's Englewood-Albany-Englewood commute is paid for by New York State taxpayers or how much quality time he'll be able to devote to his City Council duties.

There is no Hackensack news in Sykes' section today. A letter from a city resident raises an alarm about all the bonding city officials have been doing lately (A-10), though I can't recall seeing any of that reported in The Record.

See previous post on Alan Marcus lawsuit