Mae Banner died on Friday after a long illness. She was 73 years old. "I was always impressed by how open-minded she was," says Peter Lesser, executive director of the Albany's Egg Center for the Performing Arts. "She appreciated all different types of dance from kids performances to avant garde and modern." In addition to her work at Metroland, Banner wrote for the Saratogian and Glens Falls Chronicle newspapers and taught sociology at the University of Tennessee, SUNY-Cortland and Skidmore College.

Continue ReadingMetroland Dance Critic Dies

Last week, the new board of the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) began freeing young inmates as part of the reform ushered in by the Observer's February investigation of sexual abuse at TYC prisons. TYC spokesman Jim Hurley tells the Dallas Morning News the agency plans on releasing 473 juveniles to family members or guardians. In what could be a sign of things to come, the attorney for one of the released prisoners plans on suing the state agency, the News reports.

Continue ReadingInmates Released from Youth Prisons on Heels of Texas Observer Story

The VVM "channel," which includes all of the paper's sites, was the 27th most popular online newspaper destination in February, according to a Nielsen/NetRatings report. VVM's sites had 5,205,000 pageviews; a unique audience of 1,377,000; and the average user visit lasted four minutes, seven seconds.

Continue ReadingVillage Voice Media Cracks Top 30 Newspaper Websites

The Scene's display advertising director Ginny Staggs has accepted the position of advertising director at The City Paper, a free Nashville daily. Staggs will be reunited with former Scene publisher and co-owner Albie Del Favero, who is publisher of The City Paper. "I had the good fortune of being able to hire her when I was running the Nashville Scene, so I guess now I could say good fortune strikes again," Del Favero says.

Continue ReadingNashville Scene Ad Director Leaves for Free Daily

Last week, L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo filed 16 counts against Meruelo Maddux Properties as a result of the firm's allegedly improper demolition of several buildings in 2005. The charges, which stem from an investigation by L.A. Weekly, include illegal disposal of hazardous waste, improper handling and disposal of asbestos and failure to provide documentation of its removal. The Weekly notes that the firm's chairman, Richard Meruelo, is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's largest campaign supporter and was not named in the complaint.

Continue ReadingAlt-Weekly Investigation Leads to Criminal Charges Against Developer

An unnamed industry source tells the Weekly's Steve Volk that a group led by Richard L. Connor is among the bidders for his paper. Connor, the editor and publisher of the Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., led a group of investors last year in the purchase of that paper from the McClatchy Co. "Another company frequently mentioned among industry insiders as a potential bidder is Times-Shamrock Communications," Volk says, but the company says it has "no involvement." Times-Shamrock owns AAN members Baltimore City Paper, Detroit's Metro Times, Orlando Weekly, and the San Antonio Current, among other publications. Village Voice Media and Philadelphia Media Holdings have also been named as companies interested in purchasing the Weekly.

Continue ReadingMore Potential Buyers for Philadelphia Weekly Named

In January, Dallas County Constable Mike Dupree (pictured) told the alt-weekly that he arranged to have his ex-lover arrested and deported to Honduras for his own protection, because the man was on the run from a deadly gang. Yet the Observer later revealed Dupree actually deported the man out of jealousy because he was dating a stripper. Subsequently, three other employees came forward with claims of sexual harrassment at the hands of the Constable. That led to an investigation by Dallas County, which last week was handed over to the Texas Attorney General's office, according to the Dallas Voice.

Continue ReadingDallas Observer Story Leads to Criminal Investigation of Constable