The former publisher of the Seattle Weekly will begin his new dual role in April. He succeeds Jane Levine, who will remain with the Reader but step aside from day-to-day operations after 10 years as its publisher and chief operating officer. Crystal will also serve as COO of Washington City Paper, the Reader’s sister publication in Washington, D.C. Crystal and Levine once worked together at Seattle Weekly, both as vice presidents.

Continue ReadingMichael Crystal to Become Publisher and COO of Chicago Reader

John Sugg wasn't too pleased to receive a call from an FBI agent telling him he was "all over the wiretaps" the agency had made of fired University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian. Judging from the cover of Weekly Planet Tampa, Sugg even feels a little defiant; he's not naming any confidential sources. The former editor of the Planet and now senior editor of Creative Loafing Atlanta is on the FBI's tapes because he's been covering the investigation of the accused mastermind of terrorism Al-Arian for eight years. In a story for the Planet, Sugg reflects on disclosures he's made about officials working on the government's case.

Continue ReadingFBI Wants to Know Alt-Weekly Reporter’s Sources
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Literary publicist Bev Harris sounded the alarm about the integrity of voting software after she discovered that Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., had an ownership share in Election Systems & Software, one of the big three companies that make electronic voting machines. She posted that revelation on her Web site, following it with other evidence that raised doubts about the reliability of vote-counting software. George Howland Jr. describes in Seattle Weekly Harris's evolution from Web advocate to media darling. He questions whether she and her allies will be successful or "like presidential candidate Howard Dean—an online tiger and an analog kitten."

Continue ReadingElection Reformer Takes Message from Web to Real World

King County Executive Ron Sims had to race ahead with his plan to challenge state law prohibiting gay marriage after the editor of The Stranger showed up at the courthouse on March 5 seeking a marriage license. Bob Young reports in The Seattle Times that gay marriage proponents wanted to have "hand-picked couples" challenge the law but feared the controversial author of the sex advice column Savage Love (pictured) might beat them to it.

Continue ReadingOfficials Didn’t Want Dan Savage to Be Marital Test Case
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Far more dangerous to Americans than the USA Patriot Act is the Bush administration's assault on another class of liberties, which Harvey A. Silverglate and Carl Takei define as "threshold rights." These include fair elections, the right of the accused to a public jury trial, separation of powers among the three branches of government, and the right to free expression. Once lost, the authors assert in The Boston Phoenix, "the only thing that stands between any of us and arbitrary imprisonment is the good will of the president, the attorney general, and the secretary of defense."

Continue ReadingWarning: After 9/11, Liberty May Never Be Recovered
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"When you're out there and you're living that fast life, you can never say what you wouldn't do," Falicia Blakely tells Mara Shalhoup in a jailhouse interview. Shalhoup reconstructs the events that led an 18-year-old to commit murder. The nude dancer was seduced by a club patron who bought diapers by the caseload for her baby and later insisted she sell herself to bring in cash. When her pimp made the ultimate demand, she delivered. The Creative Loafing Atlanta cover story is the first in a series.

Continue ReadingProstitute Says She Killed Three to Prove Love for Pimp