The athletics department of Ohio University is trying to turn over a new public leaf after articles in The Athens NEWS and Columbus Dispatch have exposed the legal problems of several student athletes as well as some of the department's staffers, the NEWS reports. The department is revising discipline policies and redoubling efforts to focus on academics for athletes. NEWS articles over the past year and a half have covered a bar fight, alleged drunk driving and horse-punching by staffers and students.

Continue ReadingAthens NEWS Helps Steer OU Athletics Back on Track

Shabiroon Jumaralli (pictured) and Jarrett Keohokalole, recipients of 2006 AAN Diversity Internship grants, contributed far more to their papers than their names and the cachet of diversity. For two months, Jumaralli served as sole staff photographer while Atlanta's Creative Loafing was filling the position. And Keohokalole proved a journalist of all trades at the Honolulu Weekly, where he distinguished himself in articles capturing the distinct flavor of island politics. Both interns applied their educations not just on the job but on the run, learning things, as Keohokalole put it, that you can't learn in a classroom.

Continue ReadingInterns Render Mission-Critical Assistance

Democratic congressional candidate and LEO publisher John Yarmuth seems to have gained some ground in his challenge to five-term Republican Rep. Anne M. Northup. A New York Times article indicates that the GOP stronghold of Kentucky's third Congressional District may now be less so. The Times observes that CQPolitics.com has downgraded the race from "Republican Favored" to "Leans Republican," while another poll gives Yarmuth a 48-47 point advantage over Northup. Northup's zealous support of the war in Iraq and the congressional-page scandal appears to have eroded Northup's voter base, the Times suggests.

Continue ReadingNYT Says Yarmuth Is Closing on GOP Incumbent