John Heaston told the Omaha World-Leader that he is buying the AAN-member Omaha Reader from the family of the late Alan Baer. Heaston helped to found the Reader before selling his stake in 1999 and later starting up the competing Omaha Weekly. The two papers will merge and, "for now," will be called the Omaha Weekly Reader, according to Heaston.
Prosecutors investigating the New Times-Village Voice Media deals in L.A. and Cleveland have scheduled depositions in Los Angeles beginning the first two weeks of January, according to The Los Angeles Times' Tim Rutten. "Sources with firsthand knowledge" tell Rutten that the probe has focused increasingly on whether the deal "influenced both advertising rates and the amount and quality of local news in both cities." Rutten also reports that those who have been questioned say "prosecutors appear keenly interested in fashioning a remedy, perhaps by way of a settlement, that would restore competition to both cities' alternative press markets."
Eight years ago, Georgia lawmakers decided that children of a certain age who commit one of seven crimes are no longer children. Instead, they would be handed to the adult court system; a juvenile judge would have no say. If convicted, they would have to serve at least 10 years alongside adult murderers, rapists and molesters. Unlike the adults, they would never become eligible for parole. All has gone according to plan. That's exactly what many feared. Mara Shalhoup looks at the consequences of the controversial law.
Several months ago, the Portland police, without getting a search warrant, poked through the garbage of a fellow officer that they were investigating. They did so because, they argued, trash is public once the can gets to the street. They used evidence found in the garbage to indict the officer. Testing the "garbage is public" thesis, Willamette Week searched through the trash of Portland's police chief and a couple of other public officials -- and they aren't happy.
Fifty years ago, monks who chose to get away from it all to get closer to god opened a monastery in the middle of nowhere. Thanks to urban sprawl, "it all" is now poised to be their next-door neighbor. Matt Coker wonders if Sri Ramakrishna’s followers can stop the bulldozers in their once-quiet canyon.
In an important ruling on Internet publishing, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed a Virginia prison warden's lawsuit against The Hartford Courant and the New Haven Advocate. The court ruled that articles posted on the papers' Web sites were not aimed at a Virginia audience. The decision reversed a lower court's ruling that the warden could sue in his home state "because that is where he claimed his reputation was damaged," E&P reports.
After a dismal 2001, alternative newsweeklies are looking at year over year gains in sales, publishers tell AAN News. National ad sales are still languishing at the two main networks and at individual papers, but local display and classifieds are taking up most of the slack. In fact, the economic pinch has made some AAN papers take stock and get tougher, John Ferri reports.
