AAN News
Pataki's Magic Bullet Mathnew
New York is mired in the biggest budget
shortfall in its history. Village Voice writer
Sydney H. Schanberg says Gov.
George Pataki put political gain way
ahead of the pain this fiscal hemorrhage
will cause, especially for the state's
poorest residents. "The scandal-tinged
governorship of George Elmer
Pataki is now caught in its biggest
scandal of
all — how he, apparently to ensure his
election to a
third term last year, kept from the voters
the gravity
of the state's financial situation and thus
worsened
the crisis by not taking early emergency
measures to
deal with it," Schanberg writes.
LA Weekly Writer Heading to Stanfordnew
Sara Catania, staff writer at LA
Weekly, is one of 12 journalists awarded
John S. Knight Fellowships at Stanford
University for the 2003-04 academic year.
During their stay at Stanford, the Knight
Fellows design independent courses of
study and participate in special seminars.
Catania will pursue her interests in
mental illness and criminal law.
Stanford University news release |
04-30-2003 10:11 am |
Industry News
Rent a Patientnew
The patients, recent immigrants from countries such as Mexico and Vietnam, are bused in from Arizona for procedures ranging from circumcisions to colonoscopies at a string of California clinics. Every single operation is unnecessary, part of a shocking new health-care scam in which perfectly healthy patients voluntarily go under the knife (or scope) -- and, thanks in part to state laws that force insurance companies to pay claims promptly, everybody involved gets rich. As Paul Rubin of Phoenix New Times reports, it's not always easy money.
Three AAN Writers on Livingston Award Finalist Listnew
Lisa M. Collins (Metro Times), Mara Shalhoup (Creative Loafing Atlanta), and Jason Sheehan (Westword) are among the 60 finalists for Livingston Awards this year. The Livingston Awards, the nation's largest all-media, general reporting prizes, award three $10,000 prizes for Local, National, and International Reporting to journalists under the age of 35. The winners will be announced June 17, 2003.
Livingston Awards news release |
04-28-2003 3:37 pm |
Industry News
The Beer That Alts Made Famous?new
The Washington Post examines the revival of "retro chic" Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. Buried about halfway through the story is the line, "Print ads are relegated to the bargain bin of weekly alternative papers." Who's chugging Pabst (and presumably reading alt-weeklies)? Snowboarders, indie filmmakers, "suited-up young Republicans, faux cowboys and dead-serious blue-collar drinkers," Bret Schulte writes. Of course, AAN papers are so hip they were writing about this phenomenon months ago.
The Washington Post |
04-28-2003 12:47 pm |
Industry News
When The Bombs Hit Homenew
Imagine that your hometown was being bombed and all you could do was watch. Imagine that your 17-year-old son was questioned by government agents who appeared at your door. That’s what the last month has been like for one family of Iraqi-Americans who left their closest relatives in Baghdad. Chrisanne Beckner talks to three Iraqi women as they watch their homeland being blown to bits.
"Company of the Year" Trades Workers for Profitsnew
Stream International in Kalispell, Mont., specializes in providing call center services for a variety of brand-name computer makers, Internet providers and other high-tech firms. Last year, when Stream was named Montana's Company of the Year, Gov. Judy Martz told an applauding audience that, "Stream is a strong global company committed to its employees." David Madison reports that two weeks ago, Stream demonstrated its commitment by laying off a third of its Kalispell workforce while expanding north of border, where its Canadian employees make even less than
those in the U.S.
Seattle Weekly Gets the Scoop, If Not the Creditnew
"'We told you so' is hardly an endearing newspaper motto, let alone the breakfast of champions, but sometimes it's all we little guys have," says Seattle Weekly Editor Knute Berger, explaining why he felt it was necessary to toot his papers' horn for its coverage of mismanagement at the local PBS affiliate. Berger says that when the president of the station was forced to resign last week, the Seattle Times implied that its impending investigation was the reason.
Seattle Weekly |
04-24-2003 5:47 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Editorial
From Radical Islamist to Leftist Academicnew
Mohammad al-Madani was born into wealth in Saudi Arabia, where he became immersed at an early age in the extreme Islamist teachings of the Wahhabi sect. But al-Madani didn't end up a jihadi, or even a Muslim. Instead he became a popular college professor, teaching a radical leftist critique of American imperialism at a small community college in Seattle. Sandeep Kaushik traces al-Madani's odyssey and the lessons it holds.
Former Employee Says Owner of Memphis Paper a Plagiaristnew
Plagiarism at the Tri-State Defender was much more extensive than previously reported, according to the Memphis Flyer, and it may have been perpetrated by the African-American newspaper's current owner, Tom Picou. Last week, Picou told the Flyer that the fraud was committed by an unpaid freelance writer whom he never met in person. This week his former managing editor says she "would stake [her] life on it" that Picou himself was the plagiarist. Most of the stories were lifted straight from the pages of alternative newspapers owned by New Times and Village Voice Media.
Memphis Flyer |
04-23-2003 3:11 pm |
Industry News
Comic Book Culture Grows Up and Leaves a Generation Behindnew
Although characters from comics and graphic novels have never been more prominent in pop-culture consciousness, the comic book audience is graying. Competition from video games, movies and the Internet makes it difficult for comics to compete for 11-year-old attention spans, and publisher policies, cultural preconceptions and unsuitable content have consigned comic-book culture to specialty stores that appeal primarily to 30-something geeks. Scott Renshaw says comic books "have been a gateway drug for a passion for storytelling and for love of reading" and mourns the potential loss of a culture that is in danger of becoming an anthropological footnote.
The St. Paul Attorney Who Has Made Life Miserable for the Vaticannew
Jeff Anderson has filed over 200 lawsuits against religious organizations, a majority of them sex-abuse complaints against the Catholic Church. Working in a "litigious blur," this recovering alcoholic has become the go-to guy for both clergy-abuse victims and reporters searching for the big picture on the unfolding scandal. Is he a wisecracking ambulance chaser with a reputation for hunting priests or a tireless champion of the bullied, obsessed with exposing monsters cloaked in piety? David Schimke reports.
