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The Washington Post reports that Santa Barbara News-Press owner Wendy McCaw has threatened legal action against three former employees and the Santa Barbara Independent. According to the Post, the alt-weekly received a cease-and-desist letter this week after it "published" a story -- originally written for the News-Press -- about a public protest against the daily. Reporter Scott Hadly, who wrote the article, quit the News-Press last Friday after his story was killed by the assistant publisher. Editor Marianne Partridge tells the Post that the Independent complied on the advice of its lawyers. (UPDATE: Independent Publisher Randy Campbell tells AAN News that he disagrees with the Post's characterization of the incident. He says his paper merely removed a PDF version of Hadly's story that had been posted on its Web site as a supporting document for the Independent's original reporting, which remains online.)