AltWeeklies Wire
Is American Family Legal Plan Duping Minnesota's Elderly?new
An agent told Florence Carlson that her money would be much better off at American Family Legal Plan. In fact, if Carlson didn't buy a living trust with American Family before she died, the costs of estate taxes and probate fees could suck thousands of dollars from her savings.
City Pages (Twin Cities) |
Erin Carlyle |
02-17-2010 |
Children & Families
Whose Fault Is Scott Lee Cohen? A Reporter Becomes a Scapegoatnew
One hard look at the permanent record of the Democratic Party's new nominee for lieutenant governor — a look that might have been more profitably taken a week before the primary rather — and all voices rose as one. Why do we even have this useless office?
Chicago Reader |
Michael Miner |
02-16-2010 |
Politics
Lisa Loomer's 'Distracted' Tries a Twist on the Old Theme of Addictionnew
Over the last half century or so, the family that self-medicates has become a trope of American literature. Hell — it's become a trope of America, and our theater's been the source of some of its most potent expressions.
Chicago Reader |
Tony Adler |
02-16-2010 |
Theater
Books Explore the Games Behind the Olympic Gamesnew
This penetrating analysis by Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, a Toronto sociologist and activist, remains a classic for how thoroughly it exposes the secrecy, elitism, hypocrisy, corruption, and lack of accountability of what she calls the “Olympic industry”.
The Georgia Straight |
Charlie Smith |
02-16-2010 |
Nonfiction
China Dominates Olympic Pairs Figure Skating in Vancouvernew
The best athletes in any sport are praised for making the difficult appear easy — as Mario Lemieux did while gliding past opponents. But figure skaters also have to make what they do look like something profound, sincere, wrapped up in a moment of genuine emotion.
The Georgia Straight |
Brian Lynch |
02-16-2010 |
Sports
Sheriff's Detention Officers Unnecessarily Terrorized a Psychotic Inmatenew
Eric Vogel was a seriously mentally ill Phoenix man who died (of a heart attack, officially) in December 2001, a week after a violent incident with the jailers at the now-closed Madison Street Jail. The civil case was filed by Vogel's survivors.
Phoenix New Times |
Paul Rubin |
02-16-2010 |
Civil Liberties
Nepotism, Cronyism and Turmoil at the Housing Authority of Maricopa Countynew
It started with the boss' brother. Doug Lingner had been executive director of the Housing Authority of Maricopa County for just two months when he hired his brother to repair a carport at the agency's Seventh Street complex. Total cost: $2,000.
Phoenix New Times |
Sarah Fenske |
02-16-2010 |
Politics
As Haitians Rebuild, a Photographer Captures the Catastrophenew
I never expected to see what I saw in Haiti. The amount of destruction was unimaginable. The whole scene was a sensory overload. There were thousands of people in the streets, some with open head wounds and broken limbs.
New Times Broward-Palm Beach |
Michael McElroy |
02-16-2010 |
Disasters
Invisible Ink: Polanski's Political Thriller Evaporates
It's a big deal when Martin Scorsese and Roman Polanski both release mystery thrillers in the same week. Coincidentally, Shutter Island and The Ghost Writer are mutually set on islands and both begin with the arrival of a boat coming directly into the frame.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
02-15-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: The Ghost Writer, Roman Polanski
UNC Stutter-Steps on its Way to Becoming Coal-Freenew
UNC will go carbon neutral, which means it will balance any carbon dioxide emissions with an equal amount of reductions or offsets, officials say. But according to the university's current climate plan, that won't happen until 2050.
INDY Week |
Joe Schwartz |
02-12-2010 |
Environment
On the Late Molly Ivins and Her Crusade Against Corporatized Americanew
My old Columbia classmate Molly Ivins has been gone for three years now. Things have slipped fast since her funeral. Even Molly, with her keen nose for mendacity, might be amazed by the ethical dry rot that's eating away at the business of news.
Games, Games, Go Away: Activists Protest the Vancouver Olympicsnew
Formed in Vancouver, the Olympic Resistance Network began mobilizing with the slogan “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land.” Stolen, because most of the territories in British Columbia were never settled with treaties, like the rest of Canada.
Montreal Mirror |
Roxane Hudon |
02-12-2010 |
Sports
Montreal Photojournalist Chronicles the Plight of Indian Climate Refugeesnew
François Pesant has had a busy 2010. The 34-year-old Montreal photojournalist arrived back home on Tuesday, Jan. 12, from five months in India and Sri Lanka. That same day, the 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti, destroying Port-au-Prince. He left five days later.
Montreal Mirror |
Patrick Lejtenyi |
02-12-2010 |
Art
The Artvoice Guide to Sex from A to Znew
Abstinence: This may be news to some, but teenagers like to bone. Shocking though it may be, this has remained a relative constant throughout history. Still religious and moralizing forces, buoyed by federal funding, conspired to make the 2000s the "decade of naivete" when it came to teen hormones.
Art Collector and Preservationist Brooks Buxton Aims to Save Vermontnew
J. Brooks Buxton’s foreign acquisitions — among them 19th-century albumen photographs from the Middle East, Chinese ceramics and a Paleozoic-era trilobite from what is now Morocco — mingle with American paintings, decorative arts, heirloom furniture and books.
Seven Days |
Pamela Polston |
02-12-2010 |
Culture
