AltWeeklies Wire
Tough Titties: Lowry Beall Stares Down Breast Cancernew
At 27 she found a lump. At 29 she had a bilateral mastectomy. At 30 she's trying her damnedest to be a badass cancer survivor.
Charleston City Paper |
Stephanie Barna |
10-07-2009 |
Housing & Development
Are Sea Lions Too Cute to Shoot?new
As the number of sea lions in San Francisco explodes, the creatures have bitten and bumped swimmers, poached fishermen's catches, sunk boats, and damaged docks. Many would like to see the nuisance creatures banished, but the potential for a public relations disaster is high.
SF Weekly |
Ashley Harrell |
10-07-2009 |
Animal Issues
How Today's Pot Debate is Like the Fall of Prohibitionnew

Law-enforcement maverick Norm Stamper noted "striking" parallels between Prohibition of a bygone era and today's drug debate. "Major difference? It took us only 13 years to end the former" over "essentially identical" reasons: violence, overdose deaths on bad "bathtub gin," public health and revenue.
San Diego CityBeat |
John R. Lamb |
10-07-2009 |
Drugs
Survivor of Ohio's Latest Botched Execution Reveals Breathtaking Incompetencenew

Romell Broom achieved a macabre notoriety this past month when he became the first man to survive his date with the needle. The eyes of the world are on Ohio now, and many are questioning our death-penalty apparatus.
Cleveland Scene |
Damian Guevara |
10-07-2009 |
Crime & Justice
Obama is More Hoover than FDR

It's 1933. This time, however, Hoover got reelected. Can we hold out until 1937 for a president who understands that we need 10 million new jobs, and that we need them yesterday?
An Inside Look at the G20 Summit and the Police State That Surrounded Itnew
The phrase "lockdown" doesn't quite get to the core of how militarized and contained Pittsburgh really was throughout the two-day G20 Sept. 24 and 25.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Matt Stroud |
10-06-2009 |
Civil Liberties
Can the Colectivo Tonantzin and the ACLU Beat One City's Anti-Day-Laborer Ordinance?new
The Colectivo has concentrated on fighting for the rights of day laborers in a county that has seen cities pass increasingly stringent ordinances against them. And few are more adamant about running jornaleros out of town than Orange, the Colectivo's new target.
OC Weekly |
Gustavo Arellano |
10-06-2009 |
Business & Labor
Homeland Security Wants Eminent Domain Over a Vermont Farm at the Bordernew
The federal government may invoke the doctrine of eminent domain to appropriate as much as 10.5 acres of the Rainvilles' cropland, which an impact study calls "negligible." Brian Rainville, son of farm owner Clement Rainville, says those acres are essential to the small dairy farm's livelihood.
Seven Days |
Lauren Ober |
10-05-2009 |
Housing & Development
Cuba's Black Market Moves Online with Revolico.comnew

On an island where selling almost anything on the street, over the airwaves, or in the newspaper is forbidden by the socialist constitution, Revolico offers tens of thousands of items. Legions of Habaneros shop on the site every day, making it the most obvious crack yet in the foundation of Fidel Castro's Cuba.
Miami New Times |
Tim Elfrink and Vanessa Grisalez |
10-05-2009 |
International
Philly's Journalists Won't Return to 1989new
It wasn't difficult to see this coming: Brian Tierney's "Keep It Local" campaign to retain control of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News apparently applies only to ownership -- not to the employees of those newspapers.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Joel Mathis |
10-05-2009 |
Media
Meet the Rebel Economists Who Predicted the Financial Collapsenew
The economics profession has been dominated by the disciples of the late free-market guru Milton Friedman and others of the Chicago School, so named because of their prominence on the faculty of the University of Chicago. But for decades, there has been an overshadowed (and at times bitterly ridiculed) alternative group of economists who have long been warning that the Neoclassical orthodoxy was missing the boat and leading us astray.
New Mexico's Youth May be its Best Chance for Transforming its Economy -- and Futurenew
Many on the local frontlines of the green-jobs movement believe the chasm between rhetoric and reality is growing. They say the state's best hope for transformation -- environmental and economic -- may lie with its youth.
Santa Fe Reporter |
Laura Paskus |
10-01-2009 |
Environment
The Resurrection of Ted Haggardnew

The former New Life pastor talks about the scandals that led him to the brink of suicide, the disconnect between his preachings and practices, and his prospects for creating a new ministry back in Colorado Springs.
Colorado Springs Independent |
Bill Forman |
10-01-2009 |
Religion
How ACORN Foresaw the Foreclosure Crisis in 2001new

The grassroots group helped Oakland pass a tough anti-predatory lending law that would have halted the housing crisis before it started. Then subprime lenders started making campaign contributions in Sacramento.
East Bay Express |
Robert Gammon |
09-30-2009 |
Economy
Build Stuff ... Then Leave Afghanistan
Now it's time to fight the war for hearts and minds the way it ought to have been done from the start -- instead of hostile troops, Afghanistan needs civil engineers.