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Image via Wikipedia
T-Rex at a train station. Fossil fuel meets mass transit.
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Did Interim Editor Doug Clancy intend the lead story on Page 1 of The Record to be an expose of lawmakers steering federal dollars to their home districts? Is there really anything wrong with cranberry and blueberry research or laptops for Leonia police cars?
Aren't lobbyists a lot more corrupt than that? This story seems to celebrate how clever our lawmakers are, but doesn't explain why Congress can't get the big things done.
School daze
The upbeat charter school story at the bottom of A-1 minimizes the many hundreds of thousands of dollars taken away from public schools to fund the charters, and never fully discusses whether those districts are having to cut back as a result.
In a letter to the editor on A-13, Robert Singer of Teaneck asks a question the paper's editors should have asked lawmakers years ago:
"When will automobile drivers stop getting away with what amounts to murder? This is not just a traffic accident, and 'I just didn't see him' isn't good enough.... Maybe if more of these careless drivers were charged with vehicular assault or manslaughter and faced serious criminal consequences, the message would get out to pay attention to motorcyclists [pedestrians and other drivers] and to share the road."
Hackensack news leads the Local section, pride and joy of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, but it's not municipal news or anything about the city's struggling Main Street.
In fact, the L-1 story about a family crediting the Virgin Mary for saving them from carbon-monoxide poisoning belongs on the Religion page.
Sinking career
The major element on L-1 is a Mike Kelly column on the decline of the Binghamton ferryboat restaurant that recalls the reporter's own deterioration.
Does the headline really fit a boat that was launched in 1905 and served as a restaurant in the 1970s:
Grand vessel in fast decline
A story on animated dinosaurs coming to Laurel Hill Park in Secaucus actually includes ticket information, even though the exhibit isn't opening until May 26 (photos on A-1 and L-5, story on L-1).
It's amusing to see an animated Tyrannosaurus rex, which epitomizes fossil fuel, recognizing the importance of taking mass transit.
Burg in crisis
Even though there is no Hackensack or Teaneck news in the section today, Sykes found room for a story from her hometown of Harrington Park (L-7).
It seems one of the nine police officers is injured and can't work, precipitating a crisis or as the reporter puts it: "a new setback in manpower."
Although Sykes has virtually ignored Main Street businesses in Hackensack, Teaneck and many other towns, Better Living today has a feature on local holiday shopping in Englewood (F-1).
However, a wine bar called Grand Cru is the only eating place pictured. Publisher Stephen A. Borg and Vice President/General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg, his big sister, once invested in the place.
