Our City Weekly of Clarksville, Tenn., twice an applicant for AAN membership, has fallen victim to the "War on Terrorism," which has emptied this military town of a third of its population, says Publisher Jan Massey. In its seven-year history, Our City survived a direct hit by an F-4 tornado, embezzlement by an employee, and aggressive competition from a Gannett-owned daily newspaper. Its last issue was Aug. 28.
John Anderson's Amtrak odyssey started with a dream of seeing America "from the rolling level of a train car, solidly planted on earth," he writes in Miami New Times. The Sunset Limited Orlando to Los Angeles dream unravels in packed train stations, derailments, mysterious delays, moving backward, prefab muffins, broken air conditioning and finally a two-day forced layover in San Antonio with Julie the computer.
Portland's "club-crawl" music festival rebounded this year from 2001, when terrorism dampened national spirits, The Oregonian reports. Richard Meeker, publisher of Willamette Week, MusicfestNW's main sponsor, estimates that attendance and revenue rose 20 percent to 25 percent. "I think it's a great thing that we've been able to grow this event this much, even in this economy," Meeker tells the daily. The bulk of the proceeds go to First Octave, a non-profit music education program.
"George Bush and John Ashcroft used the Sept. 11 tragedy to shred the Bill of Rights and begin the greatest period of political repression since the McCarthy era," Executive Editor Tim Redmond writes in the San Francisco Bay Guardian. "The greatest enemy to the American way of life may not be al-Qaeda or its foreign sponsors. The greatest threat may be our own government.," he writes.
"Because I am most decidedly not a politician, I am best qualified for political office," says John Sugg, senior editor, Creative Loafing Atlanta, in announcing his candidacy for the 7th Congressional District. Sugg, who is running a write-in campaign as a Whig, says fellow journalists shouldn't question his political activism. "Your bosses have neutered real journalism by creating the cult of objectivity -- passionless journalism that is beholden to the status quo." Sugg is challenging "ho-hum" Democrat Mike Berlon and John Linder, "a water-carrier for the most corrupt elements of corporate America," he writes in his "Fishwrapper" column.
