A Village Voice records request and a series of articles last year have led to the indictment of Russell Harding, former president of the New York Housing Development Corporation. "Saying that the Voice's records request had spurred their inquiry, federal and city law enforcement officials described a laundry list of unchecked and high-powered abuses," the Voice's Tom Robbins writes.
Reports now suggest that the kidnapping of Utah's Elizabeth Smart was prompted in part by the polygamist views of her captors. And as Phoenix New Times staff writer John Dougherty reports in the first installment of a special investigative series, polygamy is alive and well along the Arizona-Utah border. In fact, a five-month investigation by Dougherty reveals that the state of Arizona has sat idly by for decades as young girls--some even younger than the 14-year-old Smart--have been forced into illegal polygamous marriages.
In 1988, the No. 3 law enforcement officer in Thurston County, Wash., was accused by his own children of sexual assault and Satanic ritual abuse. Paul Ingram, "hypnotized and brainwashed," began to confess to the crimes in the following months. He "remembered" belonging to a cult of judges, doctors and lawyers who sexually abused children and sacrificed more than 25 babies. Ingram eventually pleaded guilty to six counts of third-degree rape and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. There was never any physical evidence of such crimes, and the case was debunked by psychologists, forensic anthropologists and investigative reporters. Tom Grant looks into the twisted tale and concludes the case was a witch hunt from the beginning. Ingram, who will soon be released from prison after serving his sentence, is even now labeled a sex offender -- highly likely to re-offend.
He won the Congressional Medal of Honor for saving the lives of 23 American soldiers in Vietnam. Now, Northern California peace activist Charlie Liteky thinks it's likely that U.S. bombs will fall on Iraq, and when they do, he'll be there to help the Iraqi people. Sacramento News & Review's Melinda Welsh talks to Liteky, who has journeyed from priest to war hero to human rights activist, and his companions from Voices in the Wilderness.
MetroBEAT Editor Chris Haire hits an anti-war protest in Greenville, S.C., which is, if not the heart of Bush County, at least its gall bladder. What he finds is a protest that lacks focus and passion. Also of interest, MetroBEAT News Editor James Shannon momentarily discards his left-leaning ways and takes an objective view of the case against Iraq. "It is not a matter of technical violations, but rather an aggressive campaign to thwart the spirit and letter of the law that provides for the inspections," Shannon writes.
Pam White creates a world in which romance novels and feminism co-exist, Westword's Michael Roberts writes. White writes steamy romantic fiction as Pamela Clare. On the other hand, "White is an area journalist known for passionately advocating on behalf of women and members of indigenous communities, and for taking contentious stances without regard to political correctness," Roberts says. White finds nothing inherently contradictory in her two roles. She tells Roberts her novels "are very pro-woman. They're about a woman discovering what she wants in her life and fighting for it."
