A name change and other moves for the Dayton, Ohio, alt-weekly are designed to attract new readers, recover the old and stabilize the bottom line, Publisher Kerry Farley tells AAN News. Among the changes are a renewed focus on suburban issues and a more conservative editorial voice designed to appeal to suburban movers and shakers, Farley says. "It's better to be in a room full of people making decisions than outside with a picket sign," he says.
"This Modern World" by Dan Perkins (a.k.a. Tom Tomorrow) has won the RFK Journalism Award for Cartoon for the second time (the first was in 1998). The cartoon, carried by many AAN member papers "showcases multilayered satirical commentary on economic inequality in the United States, as well as the inaction of the politicians who have the power to change it," the awards announcement states. "Perkins’ body of work also addresses subjects such as access to health care and the gradual erosion of civil liberties in today’s post-9/11 world."
Missoula Independent's Andy Smetanka goes down under to explore the lure of "health mines," where multitudes go to breathe radioactive radon -- for their health. Health mine habitues claim cures for everything from lupus to tennis elbow from exposure to this "noble gas," which the EPA has labeled second only to cigarette smoke as a leading cause of lung cancer. “People will try anything,” Pat Lewis, owner of the Free Enterprise health mine tells Smetanka, “and when you have your health, it’s hard to relate to those who don’t.”
Anna Ditkoff goes to the back bar of the Hippo Club, awash with taffeta and sequins as contestants in the Miss Gay Maryland pageant grimly apply makeup and breasts. "It's worth everything to be crowned Miss Maryland," one contestant tells her. The 19-year-old Maryland pageant is considered one of the toughest and most prestigious on the road to Miss Gay America, in New Orleans this year.
Gregory Flannery says it took about 30 seconds for him to be arrested in a March 20 peace march in Cincinnati. "That's how long my feet were embedded on a Fifth Street crosswalk before a police officer ordered me to move. I declined, and he charged me with obstructing official business," he writes. Flannery says his five hours in the slammer were worth it, even though, "Handcuffs hurt the wrists and the shoulders. Jail is boring."
Akron Beacon Journal Columnist David Giffel declines the title of "worst columnist" because he claims an archenemy, Dave "Coondog" O'Karma, stuffed the ballot box. "When I asked Scene editor Pete Kotz how many votes I'd received, he admitted, `We never counted the votes.''' Giffel writes. The winner was selected on the basis of the staff's favorite nominating letter, which termed Giffel's writing "unoriginal, unimaginative and shallow."
Chris Lydgate of Willamette Week, Laura Laughlin of Phoenix New Times and David Martin of Cleveland Scene win national Unity Awards in Media, competing against media powerhouses like TIME Magazine and the Wall Street Journal. Unity Awards in Media, administered by Lincoln University in Missouri, recognize "accurate exposure of issues affecting minorities and disabled persons."
Even in blue-collar Cleveland, the sport commonly known as "ultimate fighting" takes place on society's fringes. It's not uncommon for competitors to break their hands on their opponent's skull. To avoid oversight by the state's athletic commission, promoters don't even pay the men who step into the ring -- or cage -- to beat the living hell out of each other. Yet the carnage continues -- and the sport's popularity grows. As Cleveland Scene staff writer Kevin Hoffman reports, the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization is slowly attempting a rebirth across the nation, hoping to woo a whole new generation of bloodthirsty fans.
