The case involves the alleged rape of one mental patient by another mental patient on a Phoenix-area psych ward, but it's taken the government to really make things crazy. Phoenix New Times staff writer Paul Rubin reports that Maricopa County prosecutors are charging a man with the rape - - while private attorneys hired to defend the county in a civil case are arguing that, in fact, the rape never happened. And taxpayers are paying for both sides. All quite schizophrenic.
The Sacramento Kings’ popular center is using the same sign language Serbs used to terrorize Muslims. And the NBA star is OK with that, even if some basketball fans aren't. To many its meaning is obvious: three points. But not to all. "Muslims and Croats in America and Europe, will read it as a symbol of hate, intimidation and terrorism - -as recognizable and despicable to them as the strong-arm salute of the Nazis," Cosmo Garvin writes in the Sacramento News & Review.
Tom Finkel, editor of City Pages (Twin Cities) until mid-2002, returns to his hometown of St. Louis and to New Times as the new editor of Riverfront Times. He replaces Jim Nesbitt. Before taking the position to Minneapolis, Finkel was managing editor of Miami New Times. "I'm thrilled to be able to move back to my hometown and be a part of the Riverfront Times," Finkel says. He starts March 3.
John Powers calls Tim Rutten's coverage of the federal antitrust investigation of Village Voice Media and New Times a host of bad words, including "maladroit," "inflammatory," and "bumbling." He is delighted that Rutten was scooped on what he had considered his own story by David Carr of The New York Times. Then, in the unkindest cut of all, Powers concludes, "I actually found myself feeling sorry for the poor bastard."
Two entrepreneurs are printing the first issue of The City Voice today, a weekly aimed at the city of Albany, N.Y., although they plan to distribute it in surrounding towns and even send 500 copies to Manhattan. "Whether there's room for this particular paper depends on what they do and how well they do it," says Stephen Leon, editor and publisher of AAN-member Metroland.
More than a thousand top U.S. military and government leaders and their guests are scheduled to gather this weekend in Washington, D.C., for a secretive tribal rite called the 103rd Annual Wallow of the Military Order of the Carabao, Ian Urbina writes in The Village Voice. The Wallow commemorates one of America's imperialistic triumphs -- "the bloody conquest of the nascent Philippine Republic a century ago in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War." Celebrating an ethos that concludes "peace is hell," the Carabaos may be looking forward this year to a new burst of American empire-building.
That's what The Village Voice's Cynthia Cotts asks when she looks at the consent decree signed by Village Voice Media and New Times that settled an antitrust investigation of their agreement to close competing papers in Los Angeles and Cleveland. She suggests the settlement, which requires the companies to resell assets to groups attempting to start new weeklies, "might represent a violation of the First Amendment, the Fifth Amendment, and/or the prohibition on selective prosecution."
Ron Williams and Monte Paulsen, former publishers of Metro Times and Casco Bay Weekly, respectively, have gone New Age with their new venture, Dragonfly. The company they operate part time owns small magazines in Chicago, Los Angeles and Vancouver. "When many of us started alternative weeklies, we spent three or four nights a week out listening to music and drinking beer," Paulsen tells AAN News. "I loved this part of my life. I’m very rarely out that late anymore. I probably spend more of those hours in meditation, yoga."
