The City Council of West Haven voted unanimously in favor of Councilwoman Gail Burns' proposal to limit how many news boxes can go on a block, and it was signed into law earlier this month. When space is an issue, "dailies get first dibs, then twice-weeklies, then weeklies and so on," according to the Advocate. The law seems to have been thought up, drafted and passed in haste, as Burns tells the Advocate no one did an inventory of the boxes, and no one bothered to notify any of publishers before the law was passed. "Anyone can attend a public hearing," Burns says. The law "flies in the face of the First Amendment," Advocate publisher Joshua Mamis says. "Plus, the prioritization is puzzling. Why would the town give preferential treatment to a publication owned by an out-of-state company that has over the years reduced its commitment to local news gathering?"
Last week, U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) said he would step down from the House Intelligence Committee after a FBI raid on his offices. The New York Times reports the investigation "involves accusations that he improperly used his influence as a congressman to engineer a land swap benefiting a business associate" -- accusations first revealed by New Times last October. In addition, the federal prosecutor who began the investigation was one of the eight U.S. Attorneys fired by the Bush administration last year. But as the Times notes, thus far documents released by the Justice Department "detail a handful of reasons" for officials' unhappiness with Paul Charlton, but do not mention the Renzi investigation.
Robert Meyerowitz will replace Tony Ortega, who transferred last month after he was named editor of the Village Voice. Meyerowitz served as editor-in-chief of the Anchorage Press from 1998 to 2003. According to a Village Voice Media press release, he also covered the civil war in Nicaragua, freelanced for VVM's Phoenix New Times, and briefly served as editor of the Honolulu Weekly. In an e-mail to Broward-Palm Beach staff, VVM executive associate editor Andy Van De Voorde says Meyerowitz received kudos from Anchorage's daily for "thoughtful and provocative journalism." He adds: "I believe that same description applies in spades to your own paper, and in that sense I think you will find Robert a kindred spirit."
As president of Plaza Mortgage, Martin Basroon was convicted for "conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud" and "interstate transportation of property taken by fraud" seven years ago, according to Gawker and court documents. His conviction and sentence were affirmed on appeal in 2002. Basroon was released from a federal prison in March 2005, and started working for the Press later that year. "He had a legal problem a number of years ago and that problem is behind him," Press president Peter Polimino tells Gawker. "That legal problem has nothing to do with his position at our company."
But the men aren't hiding from the law. Incredibly, they were ordered to sleep under that bridge by state authorities, New Times' Isaiah Thompson reported last month. Residency restrictions for sex offenders have complicated the task of finding suitable housing for some offenders, especially those who leave prison homeless. "Probation officers just don't know what to do with cases like this," a Florida Department of Corrections spokesperson tells New Times. The alt-weekly's report has kicked up a storm of follow-up coverage, including stories by CNN and the Associated Press. But as New Times Broward-Palm Beach reporter Bob Norman complains on his blog (referring specifically to CNN), it's "too bad they're too arrogant and unprofessional to say whose scoop it is."
Chet Hardin's topics "are provocative, contemporary and often important," judges for the Association's annual Better Newspaper Contest say. "It is hard to distinguish his hard news stories from features, and that's a great compliment," they write. AAN members were well-represented in the rest of the contest as well. Metroland won one additional first-place and one third-place award; the Ithaca Times received one first-place and one second-place as well as three third-place awards; and Syracuse New Times took home four first-place and two second-place awards.
Joseph William Watson III, a former staff writer for the Phoenix New Times, was arrested Friday in conjunction with the robberies of three Scottsdale, Ariz., beauty salons and as many as six other businesses, investigators tell The Arizona Republic. According to police, Watson confessed the crimes and told detectives he was driven to steal to cover gambling debt. Watson won two 2006 AltWeekly Awards, including a first-place finish for Feature Writing. "I'm in a state of shock," New Times staff writer Stephen Lemons says. "I knew Watson had been battling an obsession with gambling for some time, and I know he'd sunk low in the past because of it. But I had no idea he'd go so far."
Nick Thomas, who was most recently Associate Publisher at the New York alt-weekly, is the new publisher, according to a press release. In addition, as we reported last week, Jerry Portwood has been named the paper's new editor.
All the finalists in the "Newspapers: Local Circulation Weeklies" category were AAN members, but Todd Spivak came out on top for "Run Over By Metro." The prestigious awards, given by Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc., recognize the most outstanding watchdog journalism of the year. Judges said Spivak's "compelling and vivid narrative writing gives extraordinary power to the victims' stories and fuels the outrage over the agency's misconduct." The other finalists were Sarah Fenske of Phoenix New Times (for "Cracked Houses"), Dan Frosch of the Santa Fe Reporter (for "The Wexford Files"), and Matthew Fleischer of LA Weekly (for "Navahoax").
As we reported earlier this month, the alt-weekly's story on Anna Nicole Smith's "secret Native American love child" was indeed fake. Stephen Lemons, who wrote the story, tallies up the carnage this week, reporting that CBS News, Gawker and the New Zealand Herald were among the outlets that fell for it. And while the paper was offered $500,000 for photos of the non-existent baby boy at one point, Lemons notes that many of the paper's regular readers knew it was a hoax all along.
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