The hearing scheduled yesterday was set to decide whether CL's creditors can declare their loans in default and take immediate possession of the company from CEO Ben Eason. According to Wayne Garcia, the hearing has been continued until March 11. Garcia says both sides in the case complained about the delay but worked together to develop a new timeline.
On Monday, the paper published Nigel Jaquiss' expose revealing that Portland Mayor Sam Adams, contrary to his earlier denials, confessed to having had a sexual relationship with 18-year-old Beau Breedlove in 2005. Adams, who was sworn in as Portland's first openly gay mayor on Jan. 1, apologized yesterday for lying and for forcing Breedlove to lie. Also caught up in the City Hall scandal is the Portland Mercury, which was pursuing the story along with WW. Former news editor Amy J. Ruiz was one of two Mercury writers working on the story; subsequently, Adams hired her to be his planning and sustainability policy adviser. "It never crossed my mind that [Adams] might have hired me to keep me quiet," Ruiz says. Adams says Ruiz earned the position on merit. "Amy was hired because of her smarts," he says. Meanwhile, Mercury editor Wm. Steven Humphrey says that the paper didn't sit on the story, but merely lost the race to the finish line to Jaquiss.
In a letter published in this week's New Yorker, Richard Karpel tells the magazine that Louis Menand was bizarrely off the mark when he claimed in his recent story on The Village Voice that "after 1970, the alternative press died out" when "mainstream publications moved into the field." Karpel writes: "The progenitors of the alternative press ... were founded by trailblazers so far out of the mainstream that forty years later even a scrupulous publication like The New Yorker seems to have forgotten that they exist," MORE: Texas Observer managing editor Brad Tyer weighs in on Menand's piece on his blog.
The Tulsa World agreed yesterday to drop Urban Tulsa Weekly and its editor and publisher Keith Skrzypczak from a libel suit filed last week against the publication and columnist Michael Bates, who remains the lone defendant in the suit. Executives from the World say the Weekly acknowledged it had published incorrect information about the daily newspaper's circulation in Bates' column. "We now understand the legitimate concerns of the Tulsa World and appreciate the chance to sit down with its representatives, review their information and correct the record," Skrzypczak says in a letter to readers.
The plot of Lynn Shelton's Humpday centers on two straight college friends who decide to make a movie for HUMP!, the real-life amateur porn contest produced each year by The Stranger. "It's about the limitations and occasional absurdity of straightness, specifically male straightness," Shelton tells The Stranger. "These two guys try to 'outdude' each other by trying to 'do' each other, which is kind of ironic." Salon critic Andrew O'Hehir says Humpday -- which found a distributor this week -- is an "early candidate for Sundance breakout hit." MORE: Read an interview with Shelton at IFC.com.
AAN headquarters will be closed Monday and Tuesday in observance of the Federal holidays.
The Tulsa World sued AAN member Urban Tulsa Weekly and columnist Michael Bates for libel yesterday, citing what it says was Bates' false claim that the World misled advertisers about the newspaper's circulation. In a Jan. 15 column, Bates alleged that a 2006 report by the Audit Bureau of Circulation "suggests the World was inflating its circulation by as much as 20 percent." Editor and publisher Keith Skrzypczak tells AAN News that the Weekly hasn't seen the suit yet. "We understand a lawsuit was filed yesterday afternoon, but as of right now, we have not seen a copy of the complaint, and we simply cannot comment on something we haven't seen," he says. "We will be happy to comment on the suit after we have had the chance to review the allegations. In the meantime, Urban Tulsa will be taking steps to talk to the Tulsa World to try to work toward a resolution of the matter." MORE: Slate columnist Jack Shafer says the World will regret the suit.
Washington's only alt-weekly is putting on a full-court press as the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama draws closer. The City Paper released a 120-page special inauguration issue this week that also featured "The Obama Reader," a 16-page insert from sister paper the Chicago Reader, which has been covering Obama since 1995. (The insert was also published in the Windy City.) Publisher Amy Austin says City Paper will be doing extensive online reporting over the next several days on its inauguration aggregation page. AAN members who want a web icon to link to the ongoing inaugural coverage should email Austin at aaustin (at) washingtoncitypaper.com.
