In addition to having the much-discussed date of 6/6/06, yesterday was election day in California, but the San Francisco Bay Guardian's endorsements and coverage weren't available online for part of the day. Visitors to sfbg.com instead received an error message. On Daily Kos, blogger WonkyDonkey suggested that Republicans might have been behind the crash: "Am I just being too paranoid? Or is such paranoia well-justified given the measures we have seen Republicans will go to in order to win elections and subvert democracy?" The staff at the Bay Guardian quickly managed to get an election-day blog up on the site, but according to a post by Executive Editor Tim Redmond, the cause of the service failure was still unclear. "Maybe someone local who didn't want our endorsements available" was behind it, he wrote, or "maybe it's just one of those things; maybe it's ... SATAN!"

Continue ReadingBay Guardian Web Site Goes Down – Republican Conspiracy or Devil’s Work?

King Harris, managing editor of the San Luis Obispo weekly, was a television news anchor until two years ago. His April 13 cover story details the careers of seven anchors who have chosen to stay in the area despite opportunities elsewhere; the last profile is of Harris himself. He reveals that he "got into the business to tell stories about people" and was dismissed by a local station for being too "folksy."

Continue ReadingSLO New Times Editor Profiles TV Anchors, Including Himself

"I steered the paper in a populist direction, and viewed our job as to say what others could not, or would not," Sorg (pictured) writes in this week's issue. Sorg, who arrived in San Antonio five years ago and was named editor two years later, says she derived great joy working with the small editorial staff "to transform the Current into a credible, relevant, and indispensable publication -- one that offers the urgency of a newspaper and the context of a magazine." Satisfied that she accomplished what she set out to do, Sorg will continue to contribute to the paper as a freelance writer.

Continue ReadingLisa Sorg Steps Down as Editor of San Antonio Current

Jim Mullin (pictured) drew criticism for a Feb. 2 cover story containing a recipe for methamphetamine, but New Times General Manager Bob Rucker told the San Luis Obispo Tribune that the meth story didn't precipitate his resignation. "There was a problem knowing the audience," Rucker said. Until his resignation Friday, Mullin was working for the California weekly from his home in Miami Beach. He was previously the editor of Miami New Times, but resigned in 2005 shortly after the suicide of former city official Arthur Teele, whose alleged involvement with a transvestite prostitute was exposed in a Miami New Times cover story. (Unlike the Miami paper, SLO New Times is not part of the New Times/Village Voice Media chain.)

Continue ReadingSan Luis Obispo New Times Editor Resigns

Adam Clay Thompson has won the 2005 George Polk Award for Local Reporting, Editor & Publisher reports. Thompson, a senior writer for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, won for his series "Forgotten City," which exposed poor living conditions in San Francisco's public housing. The Polk Awards have been awarded by Long Island University since 1949.

Continue ReadingBay Guardian Writer Wins George Polk Award