Breaking news: Warmer weather ahead

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A map of halal restaurants in North Jersey that U.S. Navy Seals reportedly found in Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Did you hear the earth-shaking news? It's allergy season, The Record of Woodland Park reports in its lead story today. Tomorrow, the lead Page 1 story will look ahead to the arrival of summer.

It can't be too busy at the Bergen County Courthouse, if Staff Writer Kibret Markos had time to put together a detailed story with two sidebars on a nearly 20-year-old murder case (A-1). 

But he assumes readers have been following the story as closely as he has, so they have to turn to the continuation page to find out if the trial is over or not (A-6).

Osama bin Kelly

Pakistan's prime minister denies that any official was complicit in hiding Osama bin Laden (A-9).

Readers have yet to hear the same denial from Editor Francis Scandale, who seems to be protecting several incompetent reporters and columnists on his staff -- including John Brennan, Mike Kelly, John Cichowski and Bill Ervolino.

Adieu to Christie?

Many journalists are salivating over the possibility they'll able to lampoon Donald Trump, if he runs for president. 

Most New Jersey residents are hoping Governor Christie will follow Trump's lead, so the state can begin a healing process (A-10, L-1).

The big news from Hackensack today is the refiling of a sex-harassment suit in state court by a police officer who saw her claims dismissed by a federal judge (L-3).

Throwing vegetarians a bone

For several years, Better Living's carnivorous editors ran a single recipe for vegetarians on Mondays, and now the first full-fledged story quotes only those who eat meat occasionally (F-1). 

And during those years of token coverage, several vegetarians on the staff -- led by Travel Editor Jill Schensul -- must have been regarded as freaks, instead of as sources for a story on that lifestyle.

Kiss of death

Less than a month after Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung gushed about El Caney, the tiny Cuban takeout joint in Bergenfield is out of business. I saw a big "FOR RENT" sign on Monday.

Ung never explained why she devoted her entire Sunday restaurant column to this culinary pipsqueak or why she gave more ink to a takeout shack that had been featured a year earlier in the paper's own Marketplace column.

When I visited on April 22, El Caney was out of several menu items and had no whole fish. Portions were small.

Although the food was good, it didn't approach the quality of the many meals I enjoyed over the years at Migdalia's Cuban Cafe before the Bergenfield restaurant closed and the owner-chef moved to Miami.