The not-so-holy behavior of Catholic priests and its cover-up by the church is nothing new. At least that's what Cincinnati CityBeat's Gregory Flannery says as he chronicles his own experiences as a youth in seminary school. Flannery vividly and explicitly describes the sexual abuse that plagues the Catholic church. "I have seen crimes against children, vice behind the walls of a powerful institution and the betrayal of ancient ideals," Flannery writes. "But telling secrets always feels dirty, and the feeling doesn't diminish simply because some secrets deserve to be told."
David Comden, group publisher of the renamed Southland Publishing Inc. (formerly Ventura Newspaper, Inc.), says San Diego is a “big-boy market.” The purchase of SLAMM, a San Diego music biweekly, gives Southland a chance to play in the big boys’ lot. Comden says it’s likely SLAMM will be transformed into a AAN-style alternative newsweekly.
Bob Norman, a staff writer for New Times Broward-Palm Beach, recently took home the 2001 Livingston Award for national reporting for his investigative series "Admitting Terror." The series revealed how incompetence and a skewed set of priorities at the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service helped set the stage for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Norman's recognition is the latest notch in New Times Media's belt in what they are calling a "banner year."
The city's multitudes are returning to the primordial waters to worship, creating wonder for both believers and beholders and headaches for officals trying to balance religious freedom with safety and environmental concerns, The Village Voice's Eric Baard reports. "The insulted waters of New York City are again sacred passages, as they once were to Native Americans for millennia," Baard writes. "Thirty years after the 1972 Clean Water Act, raw sewage no longer pours into vital waterways, and industrial pollution has largely been checked. We are witnessing the ecological resurrection of our rivers and bays ... People are coming down to the water again to see rare birds, to kayak and to swim. And responding to an ancient call, they're coming down to the water to pray."
Willamette Week columnist "The Nose," a.k.a. Mark Zusman and John Schrag, says AANies can party hardy, but may be suffering from a deep malaise. Ads are down and that strikes fear deep in the hearts of publishers of all stripes. "The alties have gotten more scared and less idealistic," the column sniffs. "One wag told the Nose that these two developments are not unrelated. 'Hey, schmuck,' he fondly told me, 'when times get tough, ideals are always the first to go.'" The Nose duo placed second in the column-writing category of this year's Alternative Newsweekly Awards.
