When police raided the Denver offices of trueteenbabes.com last spring, a media circus ensued. The Arapahoe County sheriff went on TV to announce that officers had busted "perhaps the largest pornography ring in Colorado history." Hundreds of thousands of pictures of underage girls had been confiscated, investigators said, and the case could have "national and international implications." The chief suspect, James Grady, was charged with an astounding 886 criminal charges. But the media didn't have much to say a year later, when the case against Grady -- who turned out to know the law and the realities of Web commerce a lot better than the cops who busted him -- fell spectacularly apart. Westword staff writer Eric Dexheimer reveals that some of the same reporters who trumpeted news of Grady's arrest also played a key role in getting him busted in the first place.
The first Mexican Gray wolves put paws back on Southwestern soil in 1998 under a program headed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Today, around 40 of them roam throughout a roughly 5,000-square-mile area of eastern Arizona and western New Mexico, and that number is expected to reach 100 in seven years. Public support for the program has always been high, especially for those viewing it from a distance. But for many who actually live with the wolves, their view of the animals ranges from public nuisances on up to four-legged terrorists. Leo W. Banks examines problems in the wolf reintroduction program.
Susan Crichton, former ad director for Gambit Weekly and a beloved member of this trade association, died of cancer early Thursday morning at the age of 44. "She left our world as she lived in it, calm and graceful," says her husband, Russ Martineau, who is left to care for the couple's 16-month-old son, Cooper. Crichton was a key figure behind the success of both Gambit and the Alternative Newsweekly Network, which she helped to found.
"It's a newsroom in a lot of upheaval and unhappiness," Senior Editor Brian Parks tells Sridhar Pappu, who reports that the "rejiggering has only worsened an already troubled relationship between the staff and management." The complaints come from writers who have less space to write in and who felt left out of the redesign process. Voice Editor Don Forst says morale at the paper is fine and calls the implementation of the redesign "perfect." Pappu also reports that the Voice "had a pretax profit margin of 27.2 percent, according to an internal management source." (Second item.)
David Bernstein and Adam Reilly have both been hired to replace Seth Gitell, who left in May to become Mayor Tom Menino's press secretary, reports Boston Magazine's James Burnett. The double-hire also helps to address a vacancy created when Dorie Clark left the paper to serve as a spokesperson on Howard Dean's campaign. The Phoenix has been "a longtime incubator for well-known national political scribes," says Burnett, who lists Joe Klein, Sid Blumenthal, Michael Crowley and Ted Widmer among the paper's distinguished alumnus.
Nine years ago a high-school dropout and daily pot smoker attended his first Hempfest. That teenager, Dominic Holden, got involved and helped turn a backwater hippie smoke-out into the largest marijuana-law reform rally in the world; last year's crowd swelled to 175,000. Holden doesn't smoke pot anymore, but putting down the bong didn't quell his interest in drug-law reform in the slightest. Hannah Levin talks to the 26-year-old activist as he and his fellow organizers prepare for this weekend's Hempfest.
