John Powers calls Tim Rutten's coverage of the federal antitrust investigation of Village Voice Media and New Times a host of bad words, including "maladroit," "inflammatory," and "bumbling." He is delighted that Rutten was scooped on what he had considered his own story by David Carr of The New York Times. Then, in the unkindest cut of all, Powers concludes, "I actually found myself feeling sorry for the poor bastard."

Continue ReadingLA Weekly Blasts LA Times’ Antitrust Coverage

Two entrepreneurs are printing the first issue of The City Voice today, a weekly aimed at the city of Albany, N.Y., although they plan to distribute it in surrounding towns and even send 500 copies to Manhattan. "Whether there's room for this particular paper depends on what they do and how well they do it," says Stephen Leon, editor and publisher of AAN-member Metroland.

Continue ReadingNew Weekly Launching in Albany
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More than a thousand top U.S. military and government leaders and their guests are scheduled to gather this weekend in Washington, D.C., for a secretive tribal rite called the 103rd Annual Wallow of the Military Order of the Carabao, Ian Urbina writes in The Village Voice. The Wallow commemorates one of America's imperialistic triumphs -- "the bloody conquest of the nascent Philippine Republic a century ago in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War." Celebrating an ethos that concludes "peace is hell," the Carabaos may be looking forward this year to a new burst of American empire-building.

Continue ReadingThe Annual American Imperialist Wallow

That's what The Village Voice's Cynthia Cotts asks when she looks at the consent decree signed by Village Voice Media and New Times that settled an antitrust investigation of their agreement to close competing papers in Los Angeles and Cleveland. She suggests the settlement, which requires the companies to resell assets to groups attempting to start new weeklies, "might represent a violation of the First Amendment, the Fifth Amendment, and/or the prohibition on selective prosecution."

Continue ReadingNT-VVM Investigation: Does It Strike You as Fishy?
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The Rio Grande is becoming a river of effluent, yet the city of Albuquerque wants to pump more water from the already drought-stricken river, endangering fish and worrying farmers. The consequences could make the region's aquifer unusable in 35 years and cause the city to sink into the hole left behind. Weekly Alibi's Jeremy Vesbach looks at the problem and some possible solutions.

Continue ReadingAlbuquerque’s Water Wars

After only a year on the job, Jim Nesbitt steps down as editor of Riverfront Times, the St. Louis Business Journal reports. The business journal also reports other changes in staffing at the New Times paper in St. Louis, including canceling the column "Short Cuts" and making Associate Editor Randall Roberts a staff writer.

Continue ReadingEditor Leaving Riverfront Times
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In public health circles, it's called the Mexican paradox: despite high poverty rates and a lack of prenatal care, Latina women -- especially Mexican women -- have healthier babies than Caucasian or African-American women, Independent Weekly's Barbara Solow writes. However, that advantage goes away the longer they live here. So far, the cause is believed to be a combination of community and family support, healthy diets, high rates of breastfeeding and low rates of smoking and drinking during pregnancy. Public health experts are perplexed and studying this phenomenon to see what it says about American culture.

Continue ReadingLatino Mothers Have Healthiest Babies