The readers of more than 70 alternative newspapers are being urged to spend at least $100 of their holiday money this fall at locally owned stores in their communities -- a move that could pump more than $2.9 billion into urban economies during this recession-plagued season. The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, the American Independent Business Alliance, and East Bay Express publisher Jody Colley helped develop the unprecedented project, and AAN helped line up 73 North American papers to participate. "If every one of the 17.5 million readers of these weeklies were to spend just $100 with local, independently owned merchants, the impact would be enormous," Colley says.
City Paper political columnist Brian Morton's first book, Political Animal: I'd Rather Have a Better Country, was published in October. It's a collection of columns he's written during his eight-year stint at the paper, in addition to a few unpublished pieces. In a Q&A with City Paper, Morton talks about politics, magic (he's a practicing magician), and the current state of political writing. "At the national level it has turned into theater criticism. It drives me crazy," he says. "Don't sit there talking about, 'This person seems like this or looks like that.' No, talk about their policies. It's funny every now and then to take a little cheap shot in a joke, but don't use that as the basis of a column."
The Reader's cover this week features an illustration of Barack Obama with the text "Don't Screw This Up." Editor Alison True writes the paper has heard from several callers who told her the paper was "assuming he'll screw up because he's black." True insists this isn't the case, and reiterates a crucial point: "No matter how jubilant some of us may feel about his election, the media's role isn't to cheerlead for elected officials," she writes. "We were addressing Obama as the person -- not the black person -- whom we've handed an important new job and letting him know that even though we put him there, we'll be watching." The Reader had a companion cover ready to go if McCain won with the text "Please Don't Die." To see these and more post-election alt-weekly covers, check out AAN's Flickr page. We've also assembled some pre-election covers. If your paper published an election-themed cover that isn't there, email it to Jon Whiten at jwhiten (at) aan.org.
The Albany alt-weekly's Halloween cover depicts Barack Obama as a vampire, holding a scantily clad and prostrate Sarah Palin, who has a spike through her heart. It caught the attention of the conservative website World Net Daily. "Can you imagine conservatives trying to do anything like this?" asks Albany resident Bill Dudek. Metroland art director John Bracchi tells World Net Daily that he was "just trying to combine Halloween with politics." The public response has been mixed, according to Bracchi, with people either loving or hating the image. He says negative emails had a common theme: "If you think this is funny, you have a warped mind, you're racist and sexist."
Former stripper Michelle Peacock was exonerated by a jury of all charges on Tuesday, the Nashville Scene reports. Peacock is seeking at least $25,000 in compensatory and punitive damages from reporter P.J. Tobia, the Scene, and its parent company in a defamation suit over an October 2007 story which cited an arrest report detailing the alleged prostitution.
Phil Busse, the former Mercury managing editor and one-time Portland mayoral candidate, was charged with misdemeanor theft for stealing McCain campaign lawn signs in Minnesota. Busse was in the state for a visiting professorship at St. Olaf College, and admitted his deeds in a Huffington Post blog last Thursday titled "Confessions of a Lawn Sign Stealer." He has since resigned from St. Olaf, the Oregonian reports. "I have no problems with taking personal responsibility for stupid actions," says Busse, who faces up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. "I certainly regret I took down the signs."
Adam Ebbin directed donations from "a clandestine group of wealthy, gay political donors" to defeat anti-gay politicians in Virginia in 2005, TIME reports in a story examining the group, known as "the Cabinet." AAN's former marketing director is the only openly gay member of Virginia's general assembly. Ebbin is also a former employee of the Washington City Paper, where he worked during the 90's with John Cloud, the author of TIME's story.
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