Kid gloves in the Valley

The Daily News is out with another of its occasional softball features on Bert Boeckmann, the Valley car dealer and major advertiser who helped the paper secretly bankroll the early stages of the secession drive a couple of years ago. This time, we learn in the headline (at least on the Web) that he is a "tireless philanthropist, political potentate and very fierce competitor." He is also too polite to interrupt the interview for a call from Arnold Schwarzenegger, proof of "both his power as a businessman and his old-fashioned values."

This attention to customer service and detail has served Boeckmann well over his half century in the car business.

OK then. On Sunday, though, the DN had a creative package using census data to look at the Valley's ethnic makeup. The #2 nation of national origin, after Mexico, was Germany. The main story and sidebars are online but I couldn't find the chart with all the good stuff.