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For one year, Qwest has refused to pay the city of Portland, and other Oregon cities a "franchise fee' in return for the right to string its telephone poles across city streets. Yet Qwest sees nothing wrong with collecting this franchise fee from consumers, a fee that amounts to $6 million a year in Portland. Last month a U.S. magistrate ruled that Qwest owes the city the money, but the phone company still won't pay. As a result, this week Willamette Week is encouraging Oregonians to engage in civil disobedience and deduct the portion of their Qwest bill that represents the franchise fee. The paper even includes a handy form letter that readers can cut out.N

So a Catholic deacon, a Benedictine monk, a Greek Orthodox priest and a lawyer all walk into a hotel. No, this isn’t the Santa Fe Reporter's annual bad joke issue. These were the participants who joined the Reporter's editorial staff for a roundtable discussion of the national scandal involving the Catholic Church and pedophilic priests. Among the participants was the lawyer who brought suit about 10 years ago against New Mexico’s Archdiocese for victims alleging they were sexually abused by New Mexico priests. Those suits were eventually settled for approximately $50 million. Because New Mexico dealt with these issues in the early ‘90s, its Archdiocese has already instituted many of the measures other churches will likely now adopt, such as psychological screenings and AIDS tests.

In a six-article package, three female writers from The Village Voice ask what it's like to throw a punch? Hit the mat? Go long? Take a slap shot? Compete against members of the less-fair sex? Laura Conaway gets the dirt from women athletes. Plus: Alisa Solomon reports on corruption in women's collegiate sports, and Candace Rondeaux gives a preview of the upcoming fight over Title IX—a law that the National Wrestling Coaches Association says discriminates against men.

The Lakewood Church service is a glorious spectacle of marketing genius, a happy marriage of television know-how, motivational speaking and Jesus, Houston Press reporter Jennifer Mathieu writes. At a time when mainline Protestant churches are hemorrhaging members and are desperate to understand why, this self-described charismatic, nondenominational congregation has grown so rapidly since Joel Osteen took over that church leaders have ambitious plans to move the whole operation into Compaq Center in 2003. Some business and city government leaders aren't too happy about turning the public arena into a church, so Lakewood has come under a level of scrutiny that it is unaccustomed to, given that it has gone out of its way to avoid political involvement.