We want more New Jersey news

Image by Katchooo via Flickr

Even if the editors of The Record of Woodland Park try to supply the local news readers want, they can't inspire their staff to report and write it. So they're stuck covering half of the front page today with international news, more of which appears inside. The reliance on international news tells you the editors are just desperate to fill space.


Sure, there are a lot of legitimate questions about Israel's response to a protest flotilla headed for the Gaza Strip, but the former Hackensack daily should devote its energy to improving the coverage of local, North Jersey and state news, especially the state budget crisis, and stop giving a pass to Governor Christie, who has mounted an unprecedented attack on the middle class.


The Page 1 story on DuPont hiding the danger of toxic solvents in groundwater could have been tied to the oil-well disaster in the Gulf, but wasn't. Even though the gushing oil hasn't been stopped, the editors have demoted the BP story to Page A-8. Readers are still waiting for the editorial condemning the company's incompetence and the failure of government regulation -- emotions that have been expressed for a couple of weeks on TV news.


Local has another long, detailed, breathless story about disciplinary hearings for Hackensack police officers, but nothing about the proposed city budget and tax hike. Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado apparently has been ordered by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes to ignore any Hackensack news not involving the Police Department or suspended Chief Ken Zisa.


I applaud Better Living for its profile of North Jersey's Fossil Farms, which has supplied naturally raised meat and poultry to restaurants since 1997, including the ostrich and bison burgers served by Fuddruckers. But food writers should have been telling us all along in their reviews which restaurants serve naturally raised food, and it would be helpful to many readers if the paper wrote about makets big and small that sell antibiotic- and hormone-free meat and poultry.