As chatter increases about a potential federal bailout of the foundering American automotive industry, Michigan's alt-weeklies are addressing the crisis. Lansing's City Pulse is "having some serious doubts about this bailout," adding: "Like giving spare change to an alcoholic outside a liquor store, it would be a waste to hand these companies $25 billion and expect everything to be OK." In Detroit's Metro Times, longtime columnist Jack Lessenberry takes a different tack, arguing that it would be "extremely foolish" to let the auto makers fail, and that it would lead to "something very like the Great Depression."
On the seventh anniversary of the event, the Weekly once again auctioned off a year's worth of cover art to fund a worthy cause. Last week's haul brings the total to date raised by the event to more than $78,000. The beneficiary of this year's auction has yet to be determined, but in the past the paper has funded causes like childrens' arts organizations and a work of public art.
Salt Lake Tribune columnist Sean P. Means says he doesn't "like that Savage and others have singled out Utah for their wrath" with a proposed boycott over the Mormon Church's support of California's ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage. But Means says he'd "rather engage Savage in this discussion," so he has invited him to come to Utah. Means says he'd even buy drinks for Savage and Salt Lake City Weekly founder John Saltas, who publicly dropped the "Savage Love" column last week, "to let the healing begin."
Joe Lance, who wrote the "Civic Forum" political column for Chattanooga's The Pulse until earlier this year, has entered the Tennessee city's 2009 mayoral race. "I have decided that the best way to encourage my fellow citizens to get involved in our local government is by asking them to allow me the honor of serving them as our next mayor," Lance says.
Last week, Creative Loafing asked a bankruptcy judge to authorize CEO Ben Eason to hire the investment banking firm that brokered the Reader/City Paper purchase to evaluate the company's business plan, seek new financing, and prepare the company to be sold if necessary, Atlanta Magazine's Steve Fennessy reports. Meanwhile, Eason's largest creditor, Atalaya Capital Management, asked the judge to lift the automatic stay that prevented CL from defaulting on its loan, arguing that the value of the company is falling with each passing day due to the bankruptcy filing and to "downward trends in the advertising industry." Eason tells Fennessy he stands by his decision to expand. "I think it's one of the smartest things we've done," he says. "I'd rather be navigating [the economic downturn] with Washington City Paper and Chicago Reader and [syndicated column] Straight Dope than without them." MORE: The Reader's Michael Miner weighs in, and City Paper consolidates its office into one floor.
Last week, "at the tail end of one of the few weeks in the past year in which we did not publish anything snarky about anybody, someone threw two gallons of paint on our front doors," Artvoice editor Geoff Kelly writes. "Seems a waste; we hadn't even earned it. Nonetheless, we were cleaning up all morning."
- Go to the previous page
- 1
- …
- 169
- 170
- 171
- 172
- 173
- 174
- 175
- …
- 968
- Go to the next page
