During Hitler's reign, Germany became IBM's premier foreign customer. What role did the company play in automating the Nazi death machine? "IBM and the Nazis jointly designed, and IBM exclusively produced, technological solutions that enabled Hitler to accelerate and in many ways automate key aspects of his persecution of Jews, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and others the Nazis considered enemies," Edwin Black reports in The Village Voice. "Custom-designed, IBM-produced punch cards, sorted by IBM machines leased to the Nazis, helped organize and manage the initial identification and social expulsion of Jews and others, the confiscation of their property, their ghettoization, their deportation, and, ultimately, even their extermination."
A new fortnightly arts and entertainment paper, the Wave, is ready to cross swords with the already warring San Francisco Bay Guardian and SF Weekly, Dan Fost of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Both Bay Guardian Editor/Publisher Bruce Brugmann and SF Weekly Editor John Mecklin are dubious about the Wave's chances, Fost says. Also, Featurewell syndicate signs Mother Jones.
After a devastating drop in advertising sales in January, the first-quarter of 2002 is beginning to look better at the two major alt-weekly advertising networks. AWN’s Executive Director Mark Hanzlik projects a first-quarter sales decline of 37 percent, up from a more than 70 percent drop in January. Ruxton President and COO Michele Laven has also has seen a slight rebound.
Four Utah news organizations, including Salt Lake City Weekly, have sued Gov. Mike Leavitt alleging he is illegally destroying official e-mails. The governor routinely destroys his e-mails after three days. City Weekly Managing Editor Christopher Smart tells E&P the demand that Leavitt save official records is "common sense and reasonable. ... It's clear we don't seek to know about his personal communications."
Wounded Phoenix police officer Franklin Brown Jr. received his department's Medal of Valor and was selected as one of the nation's "Top Cops" by the National Association of Police Organizations. But when the awards were handed out last October, Brown was conspicuous by his absence. His own department had asked that the award be put on hold, while it investigated whether Brown had faked an attack by “unknown assailants” and actually shot himself. Today, the police department isn't saying much about Brown, but in an exclusive interview with Paul Rubin, staff writer for Phoenix New Times, Brown is saying plenty. The result: a fascinating look at a mystery in the Arizona desert.
Former Metro Pulse Editor Coury Turczyn announces plans to start a new Web-based archive of alt-weekly writing, to be called PopCult. Meanwhile, Sweeping Features announces its closing and with it the demise of the syndicated “doubleCross” puzzle. Meanwhile, Featurewell picks up Mother Jones.
