US District Judge Lesley Wells this week dismissed in its entirety a suit brought against the Scene by Dr. Edward Patrick. Patrick had argued that a 2004 article by Thomas Francis falsely suggested his resume was misleading, his medical credentials were not valid, and that his board certification process was fraudulent. The doctor sought compensation for defamation, invasion of privacy by disclosure of private facts, and false light invasion of privacy, all of which were thrown out by the court.
Last week we reported that Vancouver alt-weekly Georgia Straight broke the story that British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell and his wife own shares of stock in mining giant Alcan Inc., which does business with the state-owned water utility. In fact, the article also appeared in Monday Magazine, an AAN-member paper that is published in Victoria, the seat of the provincial government. Russ Francis, who wrote the story, contributes to both papers. Blame Canada? No, blame Canada.com, the Web site of the National Post, which is where we found the partially erroneous story.
The New Democratic Party launched an attack on the head of the British Columbia's provincial government last week, based on information it learned in an article published in the venerable Vancouver alt-weekly, reports the National Post. In the article, the Straight's Russ Francis reported that Premier Gordon Campbell (pictured) and his wife own shares of stock in mining giant Alcan Inc., which does business with the state-owned water utility.
Newspapers in the Phoenix-based alt-weekly chain picked up seven of the 11 awards handed out last month in the under 150,000 circulation category of the National Association of Black Journalists' annual contest. Dallas Observer's Jim Schutze and Julie Lyons, Cleveland Scene's Thomas Francis and Riverfront Times' Jeannette Batz all were named first-place winners.
Washington City Paper leads the field with six nominations in the eighth annual awards contest, followed by the Dallas Observer with five. Among individual contestants, Thomas Francis of Cleveland Scene and Heather Swaim of OC Weekly are nominated twice. The order of finish in the contest will be announced June 6 at the AAN Convention.
