Westword staff writer David Holthouse won't face criminal charges for allegedly having a friend follow a man he accused of raping him when he was a child. The man and his wife had contacted police when they noticed they were being followed, but the case fell apart when they refused to help prosecutors, John Ingold reports in the Denver Post. Holthouse defended his decision to have the man followed in an interview with 9News reporter Paula Woodward.
Scott Myer, an attorney who advertises in L.A. Weekly, says his rates have doubled since the paper's owner, Village Voice Media, paid NT Media to eliminate New Times Los Angeles in 2002. Myer filed suit Friday, and his proposed class action could bring in other L.A. Weekly advertisers. In addition to asking to be paid damages and court costs, he would like to prevent the media company from hiking its ad rates.
Bob Grant, district attorney for Broomfield and Adams counties in Colorado, told the Denver Post's Sean Kelly Tuesday that David Holthouse's arrest was based solely on the suspicion that he followed an unnamed man over the weekend. The person Holthouse is accused of stalking is the man he says raped him when he was a 7-year-old. The 33-year-old Westword reporter is free on $2,500 bond.
The copying didn't go undetected because The Village Voice Online has too many readers in Canada. A former teaching assistant called the Toronto Star to point out that the narrative structure and phrasing in Prithi Yelaja's story about U.S. Army deserter Brandon Hughey reminded him of what he'd read in the New York City alt-weekly two days earlier. Star ombudsman Don Sellar reports that nearly a third of the Star article was rooted in a Village Voice story by Alisa Solomon. The remorseful Yelaja called Solomon to apologize.
John Sugg wasn't too pleased to receive a call from an FBI agent telling him he was "all over the wiretaps" the agency had made of fired University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian. Judging from the cover of Weekly Planet Tampa, Sugg even feels a little defiant; he's not naming any confidential sources. The former editor of the Planet and now senior editor of Creative Loafing Atlanta is on the FBI's tapes because he's been covering the investigation of the accused mastermind of terrorism Al-Arian for eight years. In a story for the Planet, Sugg reflects on disclosures he's made about officials working on the government's case.
