“The Family” is taking on new meaning in Spokane, Wash. The Local Planet Weekly reports that the Cowles family, developers of River Park Square mall in downtown Spokane, has filed subpoenas in the long-running legal battle over the public-private partnership established to remodel the mall and adjoining parking garage. The Cowles family also owns Spokane’s daily newspaper, The Spokesman-Review, as well as the local business journal and NBC television affiliate. The subpoenas target political opponents, including The Local Planet Weekly and anyone who helped with its AAN first-place award-winning story, "All in the Family," which details the Cowles family's conflicts of interest.
Biff Baker blew the whistle on abuse in the U.S. missile-defense program. Then, he got fired. "The national missile-defense system is supposed to protect America against a nuclear attack. Biff Baker's job was to protect American taxpayers against getting ripped off by the agencies and contractors developing the system. When he did his job too well, he says, he was fired," reports Colorado Springs Independent's Terje Langeland. "Now, federal investigators are looking into Baker's allegations that agencies working on the missile-defense program are engaging in fraud, waste and abuse."
Jane Dalea-Kahn, former LA advertising director for Vogue magazine, has been named publisher of New Times Los Angeles, New Times announced today. She replaces Jim Rizzi, who "will be leaving New Times after contributing many years of work toward the company's growth in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver and Phoenix," the company says in a news release. Josh Cooperman, formerly a sales executive for Clear Channel radio powerhouses KFI and KLAC, joins the paper as retail sales director.
Annalee Newitz, culture editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, joins nine other reporters from around the world in the 2003-03 class of Knight Science Journalism Fellows. Newitz is also author of the syndicated column, "Techsploitation," which she describes as "rants about high tech media and everyday life." She founded the online publication Bad Subjects in 1992. In 1997 she co-edited "White Trash: Race and Class in America," a small-press best seller.
