The Tennessean reports that Joe Sullivan, publisher of Knoxville, Tenn.'s, Metro Pulse, wrote a withering profile of GOP gubernatorial candidate Van Hilleary without disclosing that he had made a $2,500 contribution to Hilleary's primary opponent's campaign. The profile was also published in the Nashville Scene. Sullivan tells the Nashville daily he is a political activist and sees nothing inherently wrong with the two roles -- journalist and contributor. Nashville Scene Editor Bruce Dobie, however, says he wouldn't have run the article had he known about the contribution.
Michael Frattini allegedly pistol-whipped a man outside a restaurant; he spent one night in jail. His friend Willie Beasley took the gun away and threw it in the street; he's going to prison for almost four years. Gabrielle Banks of the San Francisco Bay Guardian looks at Operation Triggerlock, a well-intentioned law that lets police go around a liberal D.A., federalize crimes and send young men to jail for "ridiculously long times."
California's Proposition 21, a result of the state's recent get-tough-on-crime kick, allows prosecutors unprecedented power to drag mentally retarded minors into the adult court system and demand the harshest penalties. Sacramento News & Review's Cosmo Garvin follows one such case: a 15-year-old autistic boy with an IQ of about 60 who is being tried in adult court for attempted premeditated murder.
