An article by the Kansas City alt-weekly alleging that Board of Public Utilities officials have racked up excessive meal and entertainment expenses has resulted in an internal ethics commission investigation, according to the local ABC affiliate. The Nov. 30 article, by Pitch reporter Justin Kendall, details how BPU administrators spent $15,000 on meals and entertainment in 2004 and 2005 -- including alcohol tabs at numerous sporting events. The story breaks during a time of public anger over the rising price of electricity and water in Kansas City. The BPU Ethics Commission is scheduled to review the allegations next month.
In an impassioned speech at the Georgetown University Law Center, incoming Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont marked the 40th anniversary of the passage of the Freedom of Information Act and promised to improve transparency of government during the 110th Congress. The senator cited Texas Republican colleague John Cornyn as a strong ally in the fight to change the climate created by the Bush Administration, which has shown a "dangerous disdain for the free press and the public." Leahy says one of his priorities for the committee will be "to continue efforts to strengthen and improve our open government laws."
Victoria Williams returns to her campus newspaper after a highly productive four-month stint at the Oklahoma Gazette, AAN News reports. Williams says she found the freedom to write more in-depth stories at the alt-weekly a much needed break from the strictures and pressures of the daily newsrooms she worked in during earlier internships. Among the highlights of Williams' work for the Oklahoma weekly was her feature on a joint project linking female craft artists in Kenya to Oklahoma merchants. Established in 2001, the AAN Diversity Internship program awards four annual grants of up to $2,500 to talented young journalists of color.
After two decades in a ramshackle Durham house on Hillsborough Road, the Independent Weekly is moving up and out. "We've done it all from our drafty old patchwork quilt of a house, where our back-issues archive is a bathtub, our only meeting room is also known as the lobby and no one is that surprised to find mouse droppings in a drawer now and then," writes a slightly wistful Jennifer Strom in this week's paper. The Indy will produce next week's issue during its move to the third floor of the renovated Venable Tobacco Co. warehouse in downtown Durham.
New numbers released by Nielsen Media Research show ad spending for the first three quarters of 2006 up 5.1 percent over the same period last year. Increases are spread across most major media sectors, including the Internet, national newspapers and top television markets. Growth remained flat or decreased for several other media, including local newspapers, however. "As consumers continue to make the Web a part of their daily media mix, so do advertisers," a Nielsen spokesperson tells BrandWeek.
Joann Hardy Carranza, a frequent contributor to AAN listservs, has stepped down after six years as general manager at the Arizona weekly. "She's already missed around the office," writes Weekly Editor Jimmy Boegle. "Her newspaper-biz knowledge helped keep the lights on and the checks clearing." Carranza leaves the weekly to join her husband in a family business venture.
Citing the alt-weekly's five-month investigative series into repeated abuses and systemic failures on the part of Wexford Health Services, Governor Bill Richardson has ordered a termination of the company's $27 million contract to provide medical care within New Mexico's prison system. Richardson's spokesperson confirms the decision to axe Wexford was made based on the Reporter series. "They're done," spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos told the weekly. "We expect to have a new provider in a reasonable amount of time."
Bill Lueders' "Cry Rape," which details the sexual assault of a woman and her hellish ordeal navigating the Madison justice system, has been covered by more than 100 media outlets around the world, reports the Capital Times. The author and his subject also appeared last night on FOX News' "Hannity and Colmes" show. The woman's attorney tells the paper that he has also received a preliminary contact from a representative of Oprah Winfrey's production company. A second printing of "Cry Rape" is due in stores this week.
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