Do we need all these police departments?

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A Page 1 story on jury trials lacks statistics to back up the lead paragraph.

If you need a good laugh, read The Record's front-page coverage today and Sunday on the 911 caller whose hoax led to a "tense standoff in a quiet Wyckoff neighborhood."


It seems a lone house cat held off 30 officers from two towns and the Bergen County SWAT team for three hours.


Tear-gar canisters were shot through two front windows, ending the crisis and souring the pet's milk.


I looked for an editorial on Page A-11 today questioning the need for 70 police departments in Bergen County alone or perhaps calling on Governor Christie to cap the ridiculous salaries and benefits of all those petty police chiefs, as he did for school superintendents. 


Nada.


'More and more'


The lead paragraph of Staff Writer Kibret Markos' story on A-1 today reports "more and more mistrials are being declared in New Jersey, and throughout the country," because jurors improperly research their cases on the Web.


But on A-6, he lists only four cases since 2009 that ended that way for that reason.


Does Editor Francis Scandale ever read the stories he puts on A-1?


Religiously frugal


On the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section, Orthodox Jewish parents will be prevented for at least another year from pulling off a scam on other taxpayers.


The Teaneck and Englewood parents had planned to open the Shalom Academy Charter School, which would be supported by school taxes they now pay to the two communities, even though they don't send their kids to public schools.


Now, they refuse to send their kids into minority classrooms. When the charter school opens, they'll actually be taking away funds from the public school children.


The black and Latino students are being taught to say "shalom" to programs that might be cut as a result.


Poor excuses


Hey, Columnist Mike Kelly, why should anyone sympathize with the commercial property tax problems of an antique-car dealer who can afford to live in Saddle River (L-1)?


Why isn't a story on a businessman who hopes to market a Turkish street food made from lamb intestines on the Business page (L-6)?


Oh, I guess Sykes' assignment editors couldn't find enough local news, from Hackensack and other communities, to fill the section. 


Local food


Today's Better Living cover story on "local" food is too narrowly focused.


Shoppers should be told organic strawberries flown in from Chile are far better for them -- because they aren't tainted with pesticide residue -- even though the locally grown strawberries may taste better.

See previous post: Second look at BCC stories

Christie again hits public schools

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Governor Christie's charter-school initiative is front-page news for a second straight day, but The Record of Woodland Park is downplaying how badly those 23 privately run schools will screw public-school students, especially in Englewood, an important community in Bergen County.

For example, you have to plow through today's story and turn to the continuation page (A-8) before you learn charter schools are supported by hundreds of thousands of tax dollars taken from public-school districts, which now face a 2% cap on spending increases.

Just take a look at the helpful definition of charter schools supplied by two veteran education reporters, Staff Writers Pat Alex and Leslie Brody. Not only is it on the continuation page, but it doesn't mention public funding of the charters -- until further down in the story, where the Englewood superintendent is interviewed.

Are we to assume Editor Francis Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes believe readers are so intimately familiar with education funding that the paper doesn't have to provide important background information high up in the story -- in this case, on Page 1?

Or is this and other stories slanted to put Christie's programs and policies in the best light possible, especially by minimizing how each charter school hurts public school students in the same district?

Oy vey!

In Englewood, the state approved a Hebrew immersion school that will serve students in that city and neighboring Teaneck, two communities with a significant number of Orthodox Jewish residents.

Richard Seagall, the Englewood superintendent, says only 15 families expressed an interest in the school, and that his district will be paying to educate children who are attending private schools now. 

"It's going to be a pretty big hit," he said of the money taken away from the Englewood public schools, which are predominantly black and Hispanic.

So, here's the scam: Orthodox Jewish families refuse to send their kids to public schools, but have to pay thousands in school taxes anyway. Then, on top of that, they have to pay $10,000 or more a year to send their kids to private Jewish days schools. Now, with the charter school, the public schools will pay for most of that private education.

The charter schools are another example of how Christie blows his wealthy supporters, while blowing off the middle and working classes.

Mac is livid

I'm sure Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg is cursing that there were no charter schools when he spent a fortune to send his spoiled brats, Jennifer and Stephen, to expensive private schools. What does he get in return: They pushed him aside and now run North Jersey Media Group, ignoring the journalistic standards that had been built up over so many decades. 

Look at all the crap on A-1 today. Why lead with a story on the $98,000 pension for the former head of a controversial Bergen County agency, if despite reforms, he was grandfathered in to receive benefits for life? Half a page on travel plans of Jets fans? Give me a break.

More rich folks

Why do most of the 2011 PEOPLE TO WATCH -- the series running on the Local front this month -- seem to be rich and famous, and live outside North Jersey? 

Sykes' pick today is builder Ara K. Hovnanian, who has coped with the depressed housing market by laying off nearly 75% of his workforce, not by cutting his and other executive salaries, nor by reducing his order of custom-made clothing.

His second home is listed as Locust, Monmouth County, a hamlet I have never heard of. Hmm. Is that locust, as in the insect that destroys crops? The Hovnanian story is paired with a six-column luxury auto dealer's ad above the fold.

The snow and freezing rain Tuesday morning proved a nightmare for pedestrians in Manhattan, many of whom slipped and fell. But there's nary a word of how North Jersey pedestrians fared in the photo caption with a weather photo on L-3 today.

Kitchen nightmare

If you count the thumb nail of the smiling food editor, a dozen photos and lots of directions in small type accompany a single recipe in Better Living today. Who besides a newspaper editor has all that time to spend in the kitchen?