Grant Daniel Pick, 57, died Feb. 1 of a heart attack. Editor Alison True tells the Chicago Tribune: "There was a generosity of spirit that was typical of him no matter what he was writing about." Pick "produced stories on topics ranging from religion to transgender individuals," and won a Peter Lisagor Award for exemplary journalism from the Chicago Headline Club, the Tribune reports. A story he wrote about Uday Hussein's hypnotist is set to run in Friday's edition of the Reader.

Continue ReadingChicago Reader Staff Writer Dies

In an article in this week's edition of SF Weekly, Editor John Mecklin suggests that the San Francisco Bay Guardian is facing financial problems brought about largely from the purchase of a new office building, and that these problems might be behind the Bay Guardian's suit against SF Weekly, East Bay Express and New Times, Inc. In order to counter the suit's claim that New Times' Bay Area papers are discounting ads below cost, Mecklin offers accounts of the Guardian engaging in those very practices.

Continue ReadingSF Weekly Attributes Lawsuit to Bay Guardian Miscues

Nil Hira Saptahik and its English-language edition, Blue Diamond Weekly, officially launched on Jan. 21. The papers will give a "voice" to minorities, including gays and lesbians, and will cover sensitive issues like HIV/AIDS, reports UK Gay News. "The aim is to bring the voice of oppressed communities to public attention and to sensitize the public at large on the issues that have been marginalized in Nepali society," says Sunil Babu Pant, founder of the Blue Diamond Society. The publications are a joint venture of the society and the British Embassy in Kathmandu.

Continue ReadingNepal’s First Alt-Weeklies Launch

Tom Nattell, 52, an alt-weekly contributor and lifelong activist, succumbed to cancer on Tuesday. "By day, he worked most of his adulthood as a research scientist," reads an Albany Times Union article that preceded his death. "Nights and weekends, [he] was tear-gassed, arrested and imprisoned" for standing on "the front lines of seemingly every issue of social justice that washed up the Hudson." Given only months to live, he was "keeping a daily journal, practicing yoga, e-mailing friends, railing against President Bush" and finding peace where he could. In his most recent column for Metroland, Nattell wrote: "This column . . . has provided some solace for me during these recent difficulties, and I appreciate having had the opportunity to share my thoughts with you over the years."

Continue ReadingMetroland Columnist Was Preparing to Die