Monterey County Coast Weekly's Jessica Lyons writes about her little brother being deployed in the National Guard call-ups as the war with Iraq draws ever closer. The boy who kept Pound Puppies on a shelf and turned off a Winnie-the-Pooh lamp to go to sleep at night is now a 22-year-old man who has abandoned his nose ring and found George Bush. "To me, he's still a kid. He's not old enough to fight a war," she writes.
The idea for Letters from Missoula was born of letters from Missoulians addressing the issue of war with Iraq: letters addressed to the editor, letters addressed to politicians and copied to the Independent, and open letters variously addressed to Missoula, to Montana, to the United States, to the world at large. The issue of war brought out the best in letter writers: eloquence, gravity, clarity, and heartfelt emotion. Missoula Independent compiles the best of these letters and presents them as the heart of this week’s newspaper.
Attorneys for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio have filed a motion in U.S. District Court to prohibit anyone involved in a pending civil case against the sheriff's office from speaking to the media. The motion stems from critical articles by Phoenix New Times writer Robert Nelson, who called for an investigation after inmates savagely attacked a young drifter arrested in connection with the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl. The victim of the beating was exonerated of any involvement with the crime. The motion mentions Nelson more than a dozen times. "Reading the motion made me feel like Norah Jones at the Grammys," Nelson writes.
In an exclusive story, the San Francisco Bay Guardian's A.C. Thompson reveals new evidence that suggests Police Chief Earl Sanders hid crucial evidence in a high-profile murder case. Sanders, the city's first African-American police chief, and nine other cops were recently indicted on obstruction of justice charges for an alleged cover-up of police brutality. Despite this, Sanders "enjoys a storied reputation as a heroic, squeaky clean cop," Thompson writes. He reveals, however, that this cover-up may not have been Sanders' first.
"Although traditional media seems to be irrelevant to the lifestyles of the young, one segment of newsprint is connecting: the alternative weeklies," says Clay Felker, writing for The Deal.com, a publication for the M&A crowd. Felker, who invented the city magazine format and once owned and edited The Village Voice, says alt-weeklies that succeed have done so by appealing to a "smaller psychographic audience" than the city dailies. He also quotes an editor who says the Red Eyes of the world "will never work until the Tribune prints the word 'fuck' on the front page."
As a nation gears up for war, its tastes become more tawdry, Tricia Romano observes in The Village Voice. Bawdy striptease shows are springing up all over the city, providing eye-popping entertainment for the late-recession budget. Romano quotes historian Irving Zeidman: "Burlesque thrives on depression. Prettier girls are obtainable at burlesque wages, and the unemployed or indigent male reverts to simple and less expensive forms of entertainment." So it's plus ca change at the Va Va Voom and other New York City hot spots, where the new era of burlesque comes with a hip veneer of performance art chic.
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