Syndicated columnist Amy Alkon, Advice Goddess, has some advice for SUV owners: ditch that roadhog and get a life. From her home base in Venice, Calif., she began placing small printed cards on the windsheids of SUVs that read: "Road-hogging, gas-guzzling, air-fouling vulgarian! Clearly you have an extremely small penis or you wouldn't drive such a monstrosity. " Since she wrote up the campaign in New Times Los Angeles, along with the responses she's been getting to a telephone number printed on the card, the movement has spread. She's been written up as far away as Britain.
For one year, Qwest has refused to pay the city of Portland, and other Oregon cities a "franchise fee' in return for the right to string its telephone poles across city streets. Yet Qwest sees nothing wrong with collecting this franchise fee from consumers, a fee that amounts to $6 million a year in Portland. Last month a U.S. magistrate ruled that Qwest owes the city the money, but the phone company still won't pay. As a result, this week Willamette Week is encouraging Oregonians to engage in civil disobedience and deduct the portion of their Qwest bill that represents the franchise fee. The paper even includes a handy form letter that readers can cut out.N
Will Swaim now oversees all of OC Weekly’s business operations and editorial content in a promotion announced recently by Village Voice Media CEO David Schneiderman. Swaim, who once wanted to be a priest but became a punk rocker instead, is “the spiritual and intellectual leader” of the alt-weekly, Schneiderman says.
Kristen Lombardi of the Boston Phoenix is singled out by CJR for her coverage of the story of pedophile priests being shielded by the Catholic hierarchy. "Her prodigiously reported pieces documented the sorry history of Geoghan's career, as well as the still sorrier protection of that career, and too many others like it, by the church and by Cardinal Law," CJR writes.
So a Catholic deacon, a Benedictine monk, a Greek Orthodox priest and a lawyer all walk into a hotel. No, this isn’t the Santa Fe Reporter's annual bad joke issue. These were the participants who joined the Reporter's editorial staff for a roundtable discussion of the national scandal involving the Catholic Church and pedophilic priests. Among the participants was the lawyer who brought suit about 10 years ago against New Mexico’s Archdiocese for victims alleging they were sexually abused by New Mexico priests. Those suits were eventually settled for approximately $50 million. Because New Mexico dealt with these issues in the early ‘90s, its Archdiocese has already instituted many of the measures other churches will likely now adopt, such as psychological screenings and AIDS tests.
