The cover of the Oct. 13 edition of Riverfront Times features an aerial photograph of 57 naked women arranged to form a peace sign -- an image meant to bring attention to an antiwar arts event in St. Louis, Mo., called "Peace Out!" According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, several businesses have removed copies of the alt-weekly from display shelves -- and at least one did so after a visit from local police. Riverfront Times editor Tom Finkel says, "We put it out there knowing it was a provocative image, but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that a police department would take actions to remove the publication from a newsstand."
At least five L.A. Weekly senior editorial and art department employees -- including veteran education reporter Howard Blume -- have filed grievances with management via the International Association of Machinists, the paper's bargaining unit, reports L.A. Alternative Press. Most are alleging that they're being pushed out of their jobs without adequate union process as specified in their contracts and only because they make some of the paper's top union salaries. These charges come on the heels of the September ouster of several veteran employees at The Village Voice, which, like L.A. Weekly, is owned by Village Voice Media.
New Times writer John Dougherty has filed 17 public records requests with Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Maricopa County, Ariz., Office -- and received nothing in return. So, when Dougherty ran into Lisa Allen MacPherson, public information officer for the sheriff's office, he asked her when the records would be produced. "Never," she replied, adding that her office did not recognize New Times as a legitimate paper. When Dougherty reminded her that all citizens have the right to review public records, MacPherson quipped, "So sue us!" The weekly filed suit in Superior Court on Sept. 23, asking that Arpaio and his office be ordered under Arizona law to produce requested documents.
Tele-Publishing Inc. filed suit Sept. 22 in U.S. District Court in Arizona against Andrew B. Sutcliffe and his Tucson-based company, Sutcliffe Associates. Last year Sutcliffe, who was the founding president of TPI, launched a personals service, known as SelectAlternatives, that competes against the service of his former employer. TPI claims that Sutcliffe and five AAN papers that use SelectAlternatives infringed on four patents it owns, which Sutcliffe co-invented when he was TPI's president. The publishing companies that own the five AAN papers are named as co-defendants in the suit. Sutcliffe has issued a response saying that the suit is without merit, and he promises to mount a vigorous defense.
Twelve former employees of the Cleveland Free Times have filed a lawsuit in Ohio against New Times and Village Voice Media, reports the San Francisco Bay Guardian. The suit is the latest fallout from an October 2002 deal between the two companies that shuttered Free Times and New Times Los Angeles. The deal led to a Justice Department antitrust investigation that culminated in a consent decree in which neither company admitted guilt. The suit alleges that the workers who lost their jobs when the two papers closed were terminated illegally; the lawyer who filed the suit is seeking class-action certification.
