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Although they represented more than half of all paperback fiction sold in North America last year, romance novels have long been the object of ridicule among the East Coast publishing and critical establishments. But the "shockingly nice ladies" who attended a recent convention of the Romance Writers of America don’t care what anyone thinks about their love stories, and they will remind you that Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte were the best-selling romance novelists of their time. Alexander Zaitchik reports that the romance field has diversified in recent years -- with some subgenres like chick-lit and romantica starting to bump against the limits of the romance formula.

Continue ReadingThe Romance Writers of America Fight Back
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When a police-led quality of life initiative forced drug dealers off the streets, Philly hustlers didn't know what to do. Dealers argued over every corner, every $5, every baggie sold. Three North Philly peddlers decided to leave the narcotics trade behind and start selling T-shirts. Philadelphia Weekly's Steve Volk explores whether or not these guys are for real -- or just trying to position themselves for their next court appearance.

Continue ReadingStraight Out of North Philly

Eight months after Salt Lake City's alternative paper did a major expose of real estate fraud, the Salt Lake Tribune trotted out the same story and packaged it as original, Shane McCammon writes. An ethics guru tells McCammon, "I think most honorable organizations will give a nod to the original publication” but the Tribune's Terry Orme shrugs it off and says, “We always feel we do it better than other media outlets.”

Continue ReadingDaily Rewrites Salt Lake City Weekly Series
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NUVO's Fran Quigley traveled to an Kenyan hospital as the guest of the Indiana University School of Medicine, which for 14 years has worked with the hospital’s academic partner, Moi University College of Health Sciences. Since the IU-Moi program was first profiled in NUVO in May of 2001, the AIDS pandemic has passed the bubonic plague to become the worst health crisis in human history. The numbers are staggering: In sub-Saharan Africa, there are more than 30 million people infected with HIV, with as many as 6,000 people dying from the disease every day.

Continue ReadingEyewitness to the Pandemic
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For more than 40 years, cadets at the United States Air Force Academy have pledged to abide by a simple code: "We will not lie, steal, or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does." Westword's Julie Jargon talks to some cadets who recently were booted out of the academy just before graduation. They say that simple code is remarkably complex. "They claim that it's a moribund tradition with unevenly applied sanctions -- a fact that academy officials and members of Congress have known for years," Jargon writes.

Continue ReadingAir Force Academy Twists its Own Code

The Seattle Times has agreed to release the full text of depositions conducted in its lawsuit with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's owner, The Hearst Corp. The Times and Hearst had previously released only excerpts from the transcripts in the dispute over their joint operating agreement. Seattle Weekly yesterday made a court request for the documents. "The important thing is they are going to get released, and everybody's going to be able to have a closer look at how the JOA's been managed," Chuck Taylor, Seattle Weekly's managing editor, told the Post-Intelligencer.

Continue ReadingJOA Papers Opened at Seattle Weekly’s Request

Marc Schultz was grilled by FBI agents acting on a tip from someone who saw the dark, bearded freelance writer reading something "suspicious" in a coffee shop: After retracing his steps, Schultz remembered what he had been reading: a printout of an article from Weekly Planet (Tampa) -- Hal Crowther's "Weapons of Mass Stupidity." "(I)t seems like a dark day when an American citizen regards reading as a threat, and downright pitch-black when the federal government agrees," Schultz writes.

Continue ReadingFBI Questions Man Seen Reading Alt-Weekly Article