Populist firebrand and former Dallas Observer columnist Laura Miller received 48.8 percent of the vote in yesterday's mayoral election in Dallas, and now faces a runoff against Tom Dunning, a well-connected businessman. Miller's campaign stressed a return to basics: fixing potholes, building parks and improving the police department.
Michael Sigman, president and publisher of LA Weekly/OC Weekly, has been asked to leave by Village Voice Media. His last day is Jan. 25. In other developments, three other AAN member papers have asked top managers to leave, including Eugene Weekly, Willamette Week and C-Ville Weekly.
Keith Kelly reports in today's New York Post that Russ Smith discussed selling his paper to Taki Theodoracopulos, one of its well-heeled columnists, for $5 million. (In a letter to Jim Romanesko's Media News, Smith said Kelly's story is "wrong.")
The Sacramento News & Review published a thorough examination of the murder of Myrna Opsahl a week before Sacramento DA Jan Scully made four arrests nearly 27 years after the fact. Opsahl was shot in a 1975 bank robbery in Carmichael, Calif., linked to the Symbionese Liberation Army -- they of the Patty Hearst kidnapping fame. For years, Opsahl's son has called the evidence against the leaders of the SLA overwhelming. Yesterday, DA Scully announced the arrest of Sarah Jane Olsen, Emily Harris, Richard Harris and Michael Bortin. Police have a warrant to arrest a fifth suspect, James Gilgore. While the murder has received considerable media attention over the years, the N&R's story was the last major examination of the case before the arrests.
The 1963 murder of 15-year-old Patricia Ann Rebholz has haunted residents of an experimental suburb called Greenhills for nearly 40 years. At last it seemed justice and closure might come with the trial of the girl's boyfriend. But the trial ended last month with an acquittal. Jeffrey Hillard of Cincinnati City Beat unravels the tangled story and its long-lasting consequences.
