Chico State University won't distribute the paper's "Goin' Chico" edition (pictured) to incoming students because of an article, "The Party Rules," that one school official calls "really hurtful." Officials deny physically removing copies of the paper from racks, but News & Review editor Tom Gascoyne says the school "grabbed 5,000 issues and put them in a room." Gascoyne describes the article as "a satire and sort of a cautionary tale" about the school's drinking culture.
Reporter Stephen James is the first Californian to win a court case granting access to government information under Proposition 59, the state's open-records initiative approved by voters in November 2004. Hoping to write an article about parolees for Sacramento News & Review, he asked the California Department of Corrections for the names and addresses of recently released inmates. The department refused his request, citing privacy concerns -- even though its Web site states that an inmate's name, age, birthplace and other background information can be released to the public. A Superior Court judge ruled that the department must turn over the requested information.
Investigate reporter Gary Webb is remembered at Sacramento News & Review, where he had been on staff since August 2004. In a special feature, the paper compiles links to his articles, remembrances by friends and colleagues and retrospections upon his body of work. Webb is best known for his "Dark Alliances" series for the San Jose Mercury News and the subsequent (many contend unjust) virulent backlash against it in the mainstream press. A piece by Bill Forman and Melinda Welsh concludes with a transcript of a talk Webb gave in 1999, in which he tells his audience, "It's really kind of scary when you think about how capricious life is sometimes."
Gary Webb, an award-winning investigative journalist and Sacramento News & Review political reporter, was found dead in his home on Friday morning of apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head, reports the Sacramento Bee. Webb is best known for his work at the San Jose Mercury News, specifically a controversial series of articles called "Dark Alliances," which reported connections between crack dealers in South Central Los Angeles, the Nicaraguan Contra rebels and the Central Intelligence Agency. The News & Review hired Webb in August 2004 to cover politics and state government. He is survived by three children.
Sacramento News & Review president and CEO Jeff von Kaenel was sick of the Sacramento Bee offering advertisers huge discounts in Ticket, the daily's arts and entertainment weekly insert, reports Sacramento Business Journal. So he sent out 250 letters to Bee advertisers that weren't getting discounts -- that is, Bee advertisers that hadn't been poached away from the News & Review -- citing the cheaper rates and asking, "Are you paying this?" Von Kaenel tells SBJ that he sees the discounts as the Bee's attempt to "take us out," and that the daily is "engaging in practices I believe are suspect."
When the Boston Red Sox won the American League Division Series last year, rioters burned newspaper sidewalk distribution boxes near Fenway Park. Anticipating similar activity during this year's AL Championship Series, police asked papers to remove the boxes. "We are in full compliance," says Boston Globe spokesman Maynard Scarborough. "This is larger than the sale of our newspaper -- it's a safety issue." Boston's Weekly Dig is also in full compliance, although publisher Jeff Lawrence supports "an organized riot where fans can be allowed to burn the street boxes in special areas." He maintains the Dig would gladly allow fans to destroy the boxes if it would help the team. "The least we can do is lose money for the Red Sox to win," he says.
