Journalist Maurice Possley claims that two of Fisher's columns about a Texas arson case were only slightly changed versions of articles he and Steve Mills wrote for the Chicago Tribune, according to New York Daily News gossip columnist Ben Widdicombe. The Long Island Press posted a response suggesting that Possley was seeking fame by exploiting Fisher's notoriety. The response concludes by thanking Possley "for creating the opportunity for us to document and remind ourselves about all the research Ms. Fisher puts into her columns."
Amy Gill's primary responsibility will be the association's aan.org Web site. She comes to AAN from the Gulf Restoration Network, an environmental advocacy nonprofit where she had been the director of operations. She was also previously a staff writer at Impact News/Southern Voice, a New Orleans-based GLBT weekly.
Amy Jenniges, a reporter for The Stranger, was denied a marriage license to legalize her relationship with her longtime lesbian partner. To make a point about the so-called sanctity of marriage, Jenniges' gay editor, Dan Savage, asked if he could get a license to marry her. Because the two met the man-woman criterion, the King County Clerk's office granted the license. Savage told Matt Markovich of KOMO 4 News in Seattle that he and the woman he doesn't love planned to stay married just 55 hours and 10 minutes in order to best Britney Spears.
Long-time General Manager Amy Austin was promoted to publisher of D.C.'s alt-weekly, taking over from Thomas Yoder, who also has responsibilities in Chicago with CP's sister paper. "I think we've gotten to the point now where this is just a mature, strong paper with not only a great person in Amy, but a good management staff under Amy," COO Jane Levine tells the Washington Business Journal.
Two New Times investigative series were selected as winners in the 2002 John Bartlow Martin Awards, sponsored by Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. First place went to "Fallout," a look at the U.S. Navy's radioactive legacy in the Bay Area by SF Weekly's Lisa Davis. Phoenix New Times staff writer Amy Silverman captured third place for her special series "Slammed," which exposed abuses in Arizona's juvenile justice system. Sandwiched between them was Katherine Boo, former managing editor of Washington City Paper, for her story in The New Yorker on welfare mothers.
Syndicated columnist Amy Alkon, Advice Goddess, has some advice for SUV owners: ditch that roadhog and get a life. From her home base in Venice, Calif., she began placing small printed cards on the windsheids of SUVs that read: "Road-hogging, gas-guzzling, air-fouling vulgarian! Clearly you have an extremely small penis or you wouldn't drive such a monstrosity. " Since she wrote up the campaign in New Times Los Angeles, along with the responses she's been getting to a telephone number printed on the card, the movement has spread. She's been written up as far away as Britain.
