AltWeeklies Wire
Co-Opting the Media: White Supremacist Code Printed Nationwidenew
James von Brunn, the accused shooter at the Holocaust Museum on Wednesday, is 88 years old. His age is no accident: "88" is white-supremacist code for "Heil Hitler." In printing his age, news outlets around the world have printed the white-supremacists' message.
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
06-12-2009 |
Crime & Justice
FairPoint's Finances Are Failing Fastnew
Two major safety valves in the financial house of cards that is New England's largest landline telecommunications service provider blew last week, leaving FairPoint Communications in a position of significant weakness, even as the company admits that its financial picture will worsen in the short term.
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
03-12-2009 |
Policy Issues
Kill Your Antennanew
The DTV transition doesn't affect you. And we shouldn't be doing it anyway -- we should get all the spectrum back from the TV companies and use it to extend internet access to everyone.
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
01-14-2009 |
Media
Will FairPoint Run Out of Money?new
The Wall Street meltdown could really burn telephone customers in northern New England -- one of their phone company's largest lenders just went belly up.
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
09-17-2008 |
Business & Labor
Trying Out a 'Sonic Cannon'new
Watch out for police agencies in your area seeking to buy LRADs -- long range acoustic devices. They're not nearly as benign as cops make them out to be.
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
07-17-2008 |
Civil Liberties
FairPoint's Phone-Line Takeover is as Bad as Regulators Fearednew
The Verizon-FairPoint merger, in which a North Carolina-based little-phone-company-that-could spent $2.3 billion of mostly borrowed money to take over the northern New England operations of one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, has been more disastrous than even we thought.
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
07-03-2008 |
Business & Labor
A Night in Guantánamonew
I'd volunteered to spend the night in the replica cell (which is modeled on the ones at Gitmo) because we've all heard stories about unlivable conditions at Gitmo but can't come close to imagining what it must be like.
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
06-12-2008 |
Civil Liberties
FairPoint Deal Specifics Get Weirdernew
A FairPoint exec says it's "misleading" to say that the company wouldn't give workers raises for seven years. But the company expects 4 percent of all workers -- including new hires -- to leave after the first year, leaving plenty of cash to pay for raises.
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
11-21-2007 |
Business & Labor
Tags: business & labor
No Raises For Seven Yearsnew
That's just one way FairPoint plans to pay for its buyout of Verizon's Northern New England operations. (Another way? Assuming gasoline prices will stay constant through 2015.)
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
11-15-2007 |
Business & Labor
Tags: business & labor
Government Secrecy is Fine with Maine's Attorney Generalnew
A man widely believed to be interested in becoming Maine's next governor, Democratic Attorney General Steven Rowe, is refusing to defend the state's Freedom of Access Act from a court ruling that would destroy the state's open-government law almost entirely.
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
10-11-2007 |
Policy Issues
Tags: public policy issues
Congressman to Protesters: Go Directly to Jailnew
Maine's First District US Representative Tom Allen, a Democrat, has activists arrested when they demonstrate at his offices; Senator Susan Collins, a Republican, lets them stay.
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
10-04-2007 |
War
Tags: war & peace
Enjoy the Air Show -- You Paid For Itnew
Let's move beyond the $320 million in aircraft you have bought, and the roughly $12 million in annual salaries you're paying for the people whose entire, year-round, full-time jobs are to use those aircraft to show off the military prowess of the United States by, um, flying really really fast very close to the ground.
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
09-13-2007 |
War
Tags: war & peace
Internet Disconnectnew
As Verizon unloads its landlines in rural parts of the country, local officials are missing an opportunity for real economic development: fiber-optics.
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
08-23-2007 |
Policy Issues
Tags: public policy issues
Live Earth Side Tripsnew
There's a (relatively) nearby place to each Live Earth concert where you can actually see the effects of global warming, and we have links to webcams where you can see the real effects of human innovation on our big blue marble.
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
07-03-2007 |
Environment
Tags: environment
How Far Should the Drug Legalization Movement Go?new
Peter Christ wants to legalize all drugs. And Jonathan Leavitt wants Christ's message to sway lawmakers into relaxing medical-marijuana laws. But Leavitt may have the wrong guy, and Christ may have the wrong message.
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
04-20-2007 |
Drugs
Tags: Drugs
