In a blog post dated Feb. 28, Rall announced that he had raised $21,000 toward legal fees for a potential slander lawsuit against Ann Coulter. In February, Coulter said in a speech and a later column that "in response to the Muhammad cartoons, one Iranian newspaper is soliciting cartoons about the Holocaust. (So far the only submissions have come from Ted Rall, Garry Trudeau and The New York Times.)" Rall wrote in a syndicated column that he had received e-mails calling him "an anti-Semite and anti-American traitor."
According to The Register-Guard in Eugene, Ore., two brothers have been arrested in a series of 29 burglaries, including 12 at area churches and one at the Eugene Weekly. Editor Ted Taylor tells AAN that the burglars smashed the front door and a cash register during the December break-in, but only made off with change from a charity donation jar. "Jerry, the old homeless guy who camps in our carport every night, wasn't very useful -- he slept through the whole thing," Taylor reports. He also notes that the newspaper has "an ongoing campaign going against our local cops over excessive force and selective enforcement, but they showed up anyway and were very professional."
Rall, whose award-winning cartoons appear in many AAN papers, including the Village Voice and Washington City Paper, has reached another milestone: becoming a clue in the New York Times crossword puzzle. As noted by Editor & Publisher, the Jan. 20 puzzle featured the clue "editorial cartoonist Rall." On his blog, Rall said, "That really is kind of amazing to this boy from the Ohio burbs. On the other hand, it is a pretty damned hard puzzle."
Putting out a summer guide is not every alt-weekly staff writer's idea of a good time. To produce the Pacific Northwest Inlander's award-winning special section, editor and publisher Ted S. McGregor Jr. gathered his staff in a room and wouldn't let them out until they came up with some ideas that would make the guide not only fun to create but fun to read. This is the 29th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
Editor and publisher Ted S. McGregor, Jr., made an appearance this morning on the Al Franken Show, which was broadcast from the Inlander's hometown of Spokane, Wash. McGregor got a chuckle from the host, whose new book is called "The Truth (with jokes)," when he said his 13-year-old paper has proven that its readers want "the truth, with movie reviews." He also discussed alt-weeklies and their place in the universe, and gave a shout-out to his alt-weekly friends publishing in conservative towns like Colorado Springs, Cincinnati and Louisville. (To hear the interview, move the scroll bar on this podcast about four-fifths of the way through the show.)
The Pacific Northwest Inlander unveils its redesign today. Seattle designer Mark Evans, a familiar name among AAN papers, began the makeover last spring. Inlander Publisher Ted S. McGregor Jr. says the redesign is a signal the weekly is “not content to stand still.”
