Let's hope minority judge was packing heat

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Did Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor need a visa to visit New Jersey?

On her trip to New Jersey, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor must have brought a couple of bodyguards with her to ward off any attempt by Governor Christie to bounce the minority woman off the U.S. Supreme Court.

With all due respect, does her trite advice to Ramapo College graduates really deserve Page 1 play in The Record of Woodland Park today -- or did Editor Francis Scandale and his staff skip out Friday for a long weekend?

Is the college's president a quick-change artist? The A-1 and A-6 photos show Sotomayor with two different men -- one clean-shaven, one bearded -- but both captions identify him as Ramapo President Peter Mercer (he's the one on the front).

And don't you hate it when a photo shows someone laughing and doesn't explain why, as in the A-1 photos today and Friday? 

Contempt of court

Talk about justice delayed. Look at that contemptuous businessman in the photo at the bottom of A-1. He's defied attempts to clean up his Wayne dump site for more than 25 years. 

This is the kind of failure -- of government, the courts and the media -- that should lead the paper, not commencement speeches.

 Local yokels

A letter to the editor from Katherine Restaino Dick of Teaneck praises recently departed dress shop owner Lois Schulman, a merchant who cared about Cedar Lane and her customers (A-13).

The letter makes you wonder why The Record's municipal staff hasn't reported anything about Cedar Lane for several years.

In a story on "sexual enhancement" pills sold under the brand name Erection MD, Staff Writer Kibret Markos actually uses the phrase "without any hard evidence" (L-1).

Poor prospect for news

If you live in one of those Prospect Avenue high-rises in Hackensack, the only way to get coverage is to make sure your parking garage collapses (L-3).

Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado has completely ignored all the noise generated by ambulance sirens since Hackensack University Medical Center took over the service from the city Fire Department a couple of years ago.

Nor has she ever reported on the plight of high-rise residents who can't use their terraces in good weather, because of noise from business jets that seem to scrape rooftops as they head for Teterboro Airport.

Thanks goes out to head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her minions, including Dan Sforza and Rich Whitby, for another great Local section.