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	Thumbs-Up, Thumbs-Down The Phillyburbs March 27, 2011 http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/burlington_county_times_news/opinion/editorials/thumbs-up-thumbs-down/article_274b0d12-338a-5748-89cf-5a257c9c7d5b.html The week's highs and lows Thumbs-up To U.S. Catholic bishops, who last week renewed their 2002 pledge to remove all predators from the priesthood. The one thing the organization didn't do was slam the Archdiocese of Philadelphia over the grand jury allegations that it had knowledge about 37 dangerous priests and still kept them on the job. If, as the Rev. Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York and president of the bishops' group said, the No. 1 priority of the church is protecting children, then the bishops should have gone further and mentioned the Philadelphia Archdiocese in their statement. To the end of another mind-numbing season. The "Jersey Shore" Season 3 finale was broadcast last week. Enough said. To the addition of 7,500 jobs. New Jersey did add thousands of private sector jobs in February, but the state's unemployment rate went up, from 9.1 percent to 9.2 percent. But that's good news, too, the experts tell us. A rise in the unemployment rate means things are improving because "discouraged" workers have begun to re-enter the job market. Apparently, unemployment figures are often the last to improve in an economic recovery. OK - so a rise in the rate is good news and a drop in the rate also is good. Then we have to ask: What qualifies as bad news? Thumbs-down To a significant increase in overtime and salaries in Monmouth County. Our neighbor to the east paid out $13.9 million to county workers in 2010, an increase of $3.9 million over 2009. And 363 county workers earned salaries of more than $100,000 - there were only 279 in 2007. So much for cutting back in a down economy. I guess Monmouth County taxpayers not on the county payroll are the only ones doing that. To the loss of a legend. We lost another icon when Elizabeth Taylor died Wednesday. From her mesmerizing violet eyes to her scandalous romances, Taylor received more than her fair share of attention from the paparazzi, yet she still managed to outshine all the stars in Hollywood. Lindsay Lohan and her "celebrity" peers could have learned a lot about class from her (see Thumbs-up, Item 2). And although she was most famous for her many marriages, she was a two-time Oscar winner and raised awareness and millions of dollars through her work with the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.
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