Despite the Bloomberg administration's unprecedented refusal to allow war protesters to march in New York City, peace activists insist that hundreds of thousands of people will assemble within sight of the United Nations on Saturday, urging the Security Council to pursue further weapons inspections in Iraq, not war. The U.N. protest is only one of hundreds around the world set for this weekend, which organizers estimate will drawn more than a million people in "a global uprising against President Bush's push for war." In a Village Voice exclusive, Sarah Ferguson looks at New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's "Orwellian logic" in labeling the protests a security risk.
A battle is brewing in Greenville, S.C., over creating a county holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. In one corner, those opposed to granting "another government holiday to celebrate civil rights," in the words of one City Council member. In the other, Greenville native Jesse Jackson, who held one of his signature peaceful protests after a recent council meeting to urge city leaders to join the rest of the United States in honoring the slain civil rights leader. Will the hometown boy make good, or merely drive the community farther apart? MetroBEAT looks at the controversy from both sides in two articles: "Judgment Day" by James Shannon and "Who's the Boss" by Chris Haire.
Award-winning investigative reporter Willy Stern drops his usual expletive-laced style in favor of a cap and gown in this 8,500-word essay on the role of lawyers in investigative journalism. Stern concludes that corporate ownership of the media has resulted in timid editors, tepid reporting and lawyers who play it safe at all cost. "In the eyes of many investigative reporters, these changes have weakened the historic, watchdog role of the press in American society, and present a new and substantive threat to the press freedoms embedded in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution," Stern writes in an essay originally intended for inclusion in an academic collection.
Nowhere in America does a hometown brewery -- in this case, America's largest -- have such a statistical vise grip on local beer consumption as Anheuser-Busch has in St. Louis. Whereas Miller Brewing is lucky to carve out a 50 percent market share in its hometown of Milwaukee, A-B manages 70 percent of the St. Louis area market without having to resort to shameless gimmickry or price-slashing. That said, thanks to a combination of factors -- chief among them an attitudinal migration toward working-class chic among twentysomething hipsters that's steadily infiltrating watering holes nationwide -- subpremium "anti-brands" such as Pabst Blue Ribbon and Miller High Life are enjoying an underground comeback of sorts. Riverfront Times' Mike Seely takes a two-fisted look at the new drinking ethos.
A battle is raging within the ranks of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Should the group stick to maintaining gravestones and the like -- or devote itself to fighting for the right to display Confederate symbols everywhere from schools to statehouses? "I think who wins will be a straw in the wind about how the white South is interpreting its past and setting its agenda for the future," offers UNC Professor Harry Watson, the director of the Chapel Hill-based Center for the Study of the American South.
