Andy Newman, editor of Pittsburgh City Paper, interviews John Backderf, "known to everyone but his mother simply as Derf." Derf's comic strip "The City" strip appears in more than 50 AAN member papers. Newman asks Derf about two comic books he just published, one called "My Friend Dahmer" about being high school pals with serial cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer and another about working on the back of a garbage truck.
Under a settlement with the city, Bay Area newspapers have agreed to let the city erect pedmounts in high-traffic areas. Problem is, a subsidiary of media conglomerate Clear Channel Communications will control those pedmounts, who gets to use them and what's advertised on the back. "The idea of giving Clear Channel exclusive control over newspaper distribution -- and ad space on the back of the news racks -- in the city is extremely troubling," the San Francisco Bay Guardian writes.
You wouldn't think this could still happen, especially in one of Atlanta's rapidly gentrifying hip neighborhoods -- Little Five Points. But apparently racial hate is still alive and well in Atlanta. Three white supremacist drifters from California allegedly jumped two African-American brothers and beat them savagely. Creative Loafing Atlanta got the story first. Mara Shalhoup talked to the young men's mother and eyewitnesses and then tipped the author of Georgia's hate crime law, state Sen. Vincent Fort. The three alleged assailants are charged with aggravated battery and reckless conduct, and the police are investigating it as a hate crime. "It's horrendous," police spokesman Lt. John Quigley tells Shalhoup.
Bill Carey, a contributor to the Nashville Scene, will be moving to Knoxville this September to become editor of Metro Pulse. He will replace current Editor Jesse Mayshark, who is moving to New York. Metro Pulse also has a new managing editor, Scott McNutt, who has been the alt-weekly's monthly humor columnist. Mayshark, who is getting married this summer, says he wants to return to writing and reporting.
