The San Francisco Bay Guardian wins two first place awards in the National Newspaper Association's 2002 Better Newspaper Contest: Tali Woodward for Best Health Story, and Dan Zoll for Best Education/Literacy Story. Willy Stern of the Nashville Scene takes a first in Best Investigative or In-Depth Story or Series for his five-part dissection of The Tennessean.

Continue ReadingAAN Papers Take Three Firsts in NNA Contest
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Wilderness tourism in British Columbia is a $1.5-billion dollar business, but it puts wildlife at risk. Georgia Straight's Ben Parfitt looks at the degradation to the environment caused by hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world zipping around in Zodiacs looking at whales or skiing, hiking, snowmobiling and rafting. Many people, even some in the tourist industry, are beginning the see eco-tourism "as a snake swallowing its own tail," he writes.

Continue ReadingEco-Tourism Taking the “Wild” out of Wilderness

Pete Kotz, editor of the surviving alt-weekly in Cleveland, admits it's "bad form to dance on the grave of another. " Honesty, however, "runs by a less civilized code," Kotz writes of the deal between New Times and Village Voice Media last week that shuttered VVM's Cleveland Free Times and New Times Los Angeles. "The Free Times' death wasn't unexpected or sudden. It was long, slow suicide," Kotz says. And he charges David Eden, the editor, with turning the paper into "a barking poodle with no house training."

Continue ReadingSurvivor Rules Free Times’ Death a Suicide

Harold Meyerson reports that "after a bitter campaign that stunned many longtime Weekly workers," advertising and promotion personnel rejected unionization by a 15-13 vote. Meyerson says management's "campaign came straight from the pages of Union Avoidance 101" and calls the post-vote Weekly "a company with its nerves on edge. Ad reps don't speak to other ad reps; friends avoid friends."

Continue ReadingUnion Vote Leaves LA Weekly on Edge
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President Bush chose Cincinnati for his saber-rattling Oct. 7 speech because, he said, the city represents the "heartland of America." If so, then the thousands of protesters who greeted him show how divided the country is over war with Iraq. For what it's worth, Cincinnati CityBeat's Gregory Flannery estimates four times as many people demonstrated as attended the speech.

Continue ReadingWar Speech Sparks Large Protest in Cincinnati
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Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., has been labeled one of the 10 most obscure members of Congress, despite his chairmanship of the House Ethics Committee, a post most House members loathe. With only a few weeks until Election Day, he’s not campaigning, rarely speaks to the media, especially the Colorado Springs Independent, which he says has bashed him, Terje Langeland writes. Like many incumbents in “safe” seats across America, Hefley doesn’t have to leave Washington to please his constituents. He merely has to tote home the pork and reel in top rankings from the NRA and the Christian Coalition.

Continue ReadingEthics Chairman Hunkers down in Safe Seat