Crappy New Jersey™, local edition

On Wednesday, the Newark Star-Ledger had a front-page article, above the fold - the FBI arrested eleven local officials in Monmouth County, including three sitting mayors, for extortion, taking bribes, and related scurrilous behavior.

I'd like to show you this article, but I can't. I've serached the archives at NJ.com and the article won't appear. I tried searches (over the past seven days) for "Monmouth County", "FBI", "extortion", the date of the paper, and in a final desperate act, the name of one of the arrested mayors. Not only did I not get the article, the search for the person's name returned NO matches whatsoever. This is either horrible archiving or a trip down the memory hole. You will have to be content with this article culled from a Google search.

While the feds were running the suspects to ground, what was the state doing? Tackling tough, important issues of their own: video store late fees. Way to prioritize, gentlemen.

Just today there came a particularly Jerseyan twist to the Monmouth County proceedings. The Monmouth County prosecutor had been pursuing his own investigation, concerning zoning irregularities. The governor wants the attorney general to look into the possible conflict between the county and the feds. Not the corruption itself, mind you; just the subsequent spitting contest.