Former City Newspaper typesetter Gloria La Riva is running for president, the Rochester, N.Y., alt-weekly reports. La Riva, who worked at City in the late 1970s, is on the ballot in 12 states as the Party for Socialism and Liberation candidate. Former San Antonio Current staffer Kat Swift also mounted a presidential run this election cycle, aiming for the Green Party nod. She ultimately endorsed the Green nominee Cynthia McKinney.

Continue ReadingAnother Alt-Weekly Alum Aims for the Oval Office

Gambit publisher Margo DuBos and her husband, political editor Clancy DuBos, will be honored with the Anti-Defamation League's A.I. Botnick "Torch of Liberty Award" at a Dec. 14 dinner in New Orleans. "Under the direction of Margo and Clancy, Gambit has won scores of local, regional and national awards for innovative, incisive and robust journalism," the letter from the ADL reads. "The weekly's editorial positions reflect the ADL's commitment to equal opportunity and opposition to bigotry in any form."

Continue ReadingGambit Weekly Publisher, Editor Receive Anti-Defamation League Award

Travis Lupick was one of five recipients of the Seeing the World through New Eyes fellowship, which was established by the Jack Webster Foundation and the Canadian International Development Agency. He will visit Latin American in early 2009 to experience firsthand reporting from developing countries. The fellowship was open to British Columbia-based journalists 30 years old or younger or in their first five years of journalism, and winners were selected by a jury of professional journalists.

Continue ReadingGeorgia Straight Writer Wins Fellowship

In the eighth installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, the Dallas Observer's Megan Feldman talks to St. John Barned-Smith about her award-winning feature on Central American migrants who make often-deadly 1,500-mile trips on freight trains to make it to the Mexican-American border. Feldman went to Mexico to immerse herself in the experience of these immigrants, and also was able to tell the story through one person who had made the journey and ended up in the Dallas area. She says the most challenging aspect of reporting the story was finding that source: "In Dallas, there's a particularly harsh backlash against immigrants, and on the other side of that, there's a very high level of fear among the immigrants, so it took a long time to find someone who'd be willing to tell their story."

Continue ReadingHow I Got That Story: Megan Feldman

Calling Michelle Peacock's defamation suit "a masterpiece of minimalism," the On Point blog from Courthouse News Service notes that the paper has little to worry about. "[Peacock] won't be able to gloss over the common-law privilege which protects reporters from liability when they fairly and accurately report the information in a public document," On Point reports. "In commenting on Peacock's alleged mid-afternoon handjobs, the Nashville Scene didn't say anything that was not in the police reports. So the privilege clearly applies."

Continue ReadingOpinion: Nashville Scene is Protected from Former Stripper’s Lawsuit

Atlanta Magazine's Steve Fennessy reports that during Wednesday's bankruptcy proceedings, Creative Loafing's lenders "fired a shot across the bow" at CEO Ben Eason, "saying in court papers that the bankruptcy filing was a gambit by Eason to preserve control of the company and 'dodge' the lenders' 'bargained-for rights to have a say in corporate governance.'" The lenders, Atalaya Funding and BIA Digital Partners, filed a motion (pdf) to reverse the earlier court injunction against them, which prevented them from seizing CL's assets. However, according to Washington City Paper, the judge struck down that motion on Wednesday. "It was a legal maneuver they were doing to get more control," Eason says. "When we filed the bankruptcy, there was a concern that Atalaya or BIA might use the collateral as a part of the bankruptcy to come in the backdoor and use the shares to basically foreclose on the shares and function as the board of directors." MORE: Former Creative Loafing (Atlanta) publisher Michael Sigman weighs in.

Continue ReadingCreative Loafing Bankruptcy Battle ‘Getting Testy’