Metro Silicon Valley and North Bay Bohemian report this week that Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband was a major beneficiary of military appropriations blessed by a subcommittee that she headed, parent company Metro Newspapers announced today in a press release. Feinstein (D-Calif.) approved billions of dollars in military construction expenditures awarded to two firms that were controlled by an investment group headed by the senator’s spouse, financier Richard C. Blum, according to the investigative story by Metro's Peter Byrne. The story "examines the many ways in which Sen. Feinstein committed repeated breaches of ethics as (the subcommittee) chairwoman or ranking member from 2001-2005," according to the release.
It its column "The Buzz," a Metro Silicon Valley competitor, The Wave Magazine, describes court documents related to an undercover investigation of unlicensed San Jose massage parlors that allegedly were being operated as brothels and employing illegal immigrants. The Wave suggests that "these houses of ill repute got the word out and drummed up demand by placing so-called 'escort' and 'massage' ads in alternative newspapers, including the Metro Silicon Valley." The Wave then quotes a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent as saying, "We do watch and monitor how those mediums are used to facilitate crime, one of those crimes being prostitution." The column goes on to discuss other incidents involving adult advertising at alternative weeklies.
The anniversary package takes a look back at how the San Jose alt-weekly got off the ground and highlights some of the paper's most talked-about articles. The issue is dedicated to the memory of Julia Smith, a founding member of the Metro staff who succumbed to cancer last Monday.
The dirty little secret of Silicon Valley governments is that they have been slow to embrace high-tech innovations, many produced by the 7,300 tech companies sitting in their backyards, William Dean Hinton reports for Metro Silicon Valley. In Santa Clara, you still have to view criminal records on microfiche, and there's no reliable search engine on the city of San Jose's Web site. The recognized leaders in E-government aren't on the West Coast but in cities like Nashville, Tenn., and Louisville, Mo.
Dan Pulcrano, publisher of Metro Silicon Valley, says he's never "seen someone so blatantly try and enter a market by expropriating a trademark and associating it with a knockoff product as we have seen with the current 'SurfMetro/The Wave' folks." Federal Judge Claudia Wilken has issued a preliminary injunction against SurfMet Inc. barring them from using the Metro name on their publication and Web site. Wilken told SurfMet that she may allow them to use the mark "if you want to use it to sell toothbrushes in Des Moines—maybe."
Two old friends and business partners, David Cohen and Dan Pulcrano, complete their amicable divorce, splitting their alternative and community newspaper businesses. Metro Newspapers’ plans no major changes immediately and hopes for $10 million in revenues this year, CEO Pulcrano says.
