The weekly newspaper that I criticized in my last entry for failing to check with police before referring to a local homicide as a possible hate crime has published a follow-up story in its latest edition.

The headline: "Searching for a break: Police say no evidence of hate crime in East Kingston homicide."

Gee, ya think?

The same headline could have been written a week earlier if the paper had bothered to check with authorities before simply repeating unsubstantiated speculation.

I hope the paper has learned its lesson about jumping to conclusions without first checking the facts.