After talks to reconcile House and Senate versions of FOIA reform bills went nowhere, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, (D-Vt.), and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) yesterday presented a new version of their bill that would bring its financial issues in line with the House version, the AP reports. Talks between the House and Senate stalled over House rules preventing lawmakers from piling on debt to finance tax cuts or new spending programs. "We have a strong chance of Senate action on the bill this week, and I hope the House also will swiftly pass this legislation so the president can sign this important act before year's end," Leahy said in a statement.

Continue ReadingSenators Urge Passage Of Revised FOIA Bill

Taking a page from New York Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia, who famously read comics on the radio during the city's 1945 newspaper strike, Olbermann last week read a two-page Tom Tomorrow cartoon from The Village Voice out loud on Countdown. The comic, "Bill O'Reilly's Very Useful Advice for Young People, as Channeled by Vile Left-Wing Smear Merchant Tom Tomorrow," features 16 helpful hints for the "young generation." As far as we know, this is the only time the first-ever recipient of AAN's Molly Ivins Award has had the opportunity to reference his own penis size on air.

Continue ReadingKeith Olbermann Channels Bill O’Reilly, via Tom Tomorrow

Fifty alternative newsweeklies in the U.S. and Canada will publish stories this week to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol. The editorial package, conceived and shepherded by staff at Sacramento News & Review, includes a retrospective by author and environmentalist Bill McKibben commissioned by AAN, a look-back by Kyoto participant Ed Smeloff, a drubbing of ABC News Correspondent and global-warming skeptic John Stossel, and a look at the controversial views of Danish environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg. Many of the papers participating in the project are also contributing their own stories focusing on local climate-change issues. Sacramento News & Review Editor-at-large Melinda Welsh says the anniversary was "a chance to reveal to millions of alt-weekly readers how little distance we've traveled these last 10 years toward a solution to this giant problem we've created for ourselves and future generations." Links to Kyoto Protocol Anniversary stories may be found at kyoto.altweeklies.com.

Continue ReadingAlt-Weeklies Commemorate Kyoto Protocol Anniversary

"Certainly, the Weekly has accomplished the showy side of going green," says the magazine, referring to the paper's installation of 162 solar panels on its roof earlier this year, "but the Weekly also strives to be green below its roof." Among the small-scale green programs E&P highlights: having a staffer repair bicycles for employees to use in commuting, buying organic produce from the "Vegetable Fairy," and using soy ink. Early last year, the Weekly began calculating its entire carbon footprint, including energy consumption from employee commutes and work routes, with a "Green Team" convening monthly to review the efforts. When the paper repeated its calculation this April, the footprint was 16 percent smaller. "For us this has been a several-pronged initiative," Weekly owner and CEO Bradley Zeve says. "One is around energy, one is around supplies and material, and a third is around our consciousness."

Continue ReadingMonterey County Weekly Makes Editor & Publisher’s ‘Green Team’

A U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in reviewing a case it initially considered in May, reiterated on Monday its finding that Google can display thumbnails of copyrighted photographs in search results, the Los Angeles Times reports. Adult publisher Perfect 10 was arguing that Google violated copyright law by displaying its images in search results. The justices ruled that a larger public interest in searching for information amounted to a "transformative use" that trumped copyright claims. The decision overturns part of a ruling by the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, which had found that Google's thumbnails of Perfect 10's nude models constituted infringement, according to the Times.

Continue ReadingCourt Sides With Google in Fair Use Case