The Record (Hackensack N.J.)

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- A Clifton High School history teacher accused of having sex with a 16-year-old is the latest in a crop of teachers to be arrested for sexual offenses involving students, including a Wood-Ridge teacher and coach charged as recently as last week.

Kristin Leone, 26, was arrested Monday evening for allegedly having sexual contact with a student in two encounters in April, including one on school grounds.

All of a sudden everyone remembers it.

Twist, turn. Twist, turn. Make a line; make a picture. Unhappy with the outcome? Shake it and start over again.

Since 1960 Etch A Sketch has been one of those classic toys that most everyone plays with in elementary school, then leaves behind.

And then, a verbal gaffe by a Mitt Romney strategist named Eric Fehrnstrom made the iconic red-framed toy the talk of the Republican campaign.

Spring training is finally here, welcome therapy to anyone who's been obsessing over the calendar since the Super Bowl. OK, Jeremy Lin has helped, but he's still no substitute for the sound of that first fastball detonating in a catcher's glove - as hopeful as the ice cream truck ringing its bell.

You want intrigue? Try the coming race in the AL East. Legal drama? Watch Ryan Braun squirm. You like rooting against the odds? Put your money on Johan Santana.

There are a million reasons to be locked and loaded for the coming baseball season. Here's our top 12 for '12:

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- New Jersey has agreed to permit more bear-hunt opponents at one of its key check-in sites for a planned protest Saturday and allow a member of the group to photograph a carcass as it's weighed.

The settlement came as the parties appeared Thursday before a state Supreme Court justice as part of an appeal by the Animal Protection League of New Jersey. Judge Barry Albin encouraged the two sides to hash out a deal instead of moving forward with the process, an attorney for the animal rights group said.

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- It has become nearly as ubiquitous in a locker as a bat or glove, nearly every player in every Major League clubhouse has an iPad. But while some may use it to catch the latest episode of "Breaking Bad" or shop for fishing gear for the offseason, there are a number of players using it for work -- and still working on it now.

LODI, N.J. -- The police chief recently proved that no one who double-parks is safe from a ticket.

Chief Vincent Caruso ordered an officer to give his wife a ticket after she double-parked while dropping off their 5-year-old son at school on Tuesday. And it's not the first time: He ordered another officer to ticket her car two years ago after she forgot to move it for street cleaning.

A California couple with a 2-year-old daughter is awakened late at night by heavily armed police storming their home after a false report of a shooting.

A Texas family is stunned when officers with automatic weapons respond to their house expecting a drug-fueled murderer who is demanding $50,000 in exchange for hostages.

And a Wyckoff, N.J., neighborhood is put on lock-down as the Bergen County SWAT team shoots tear gas into what proves to be a home occupied only by a cat.

In each case, the people who wound up in the crosshairs were actually victims of a dangerous and increasingly common hoax known as "swatting," so called because a bogus emergency call prompts the response of a SWAT team.

It is typically perpetrated by young, savvy computer hackers who exploit the limitations of the 911 emergency system and advances in computer technology to cover their tracks, experts and law enforcement officials say. They do it for bragging rights or revenge, but it costs taxpayers and puts innocent people at risk, experts say.