The Pacific Northwest Inlander unveils its redesign today. Seattle designer Mark Evans, a familiar name among AAN papers, began the makeover last spring. Inlander Publisher Ted S. McGregor Jr. says the redesign is a signal the weekly is “not content to stand still.”
Angela Coffel is the first woman ever jailed in Missouri as a violent sexual predator. Riverfront Times' Geri L. Dreiling looks at the story and concludes that evidence of Coffel's sexual violence is virtually non-existent. One expert concluded "because of her childhood sexual abuse, as well as her highly chaotic and abusive home life, Angel uses sex as a way to gain acceptance and affection." In a court "war of experts" that cost state taxpayers $20,000, another witness said, "There appears to be one piece of data that is driving this, which is the fact that Ms. Coffel has a positive HIV status." Coffel has one shot, at a hearing this August, to win a second chance. If she loses, she could spend the rest of her life in solitary confinement in a state mental facility for sexual predators.
The American Journal of Public Health has released results of a five-year study of tobacco advertising and promotions in alternative newsweeklies. It concludes that tobacco companies are using the entertainment sections of the alternative newsweekly industry to target young adults. The study tracked tobacco ads and promotions over five years in the San Francisco Bay Guardian and the Philadelphia City Paper. From 1994 to 1999, tobacco-related advertising jumped from single digits to more than 300 a year in each paper. "These efforts appear to be bearing fruit; smoking rates are increasing in this age group," the authors write.
