AltWeeklies Wire
Idaho Government Seeks Coverage via News Feeds and Social Networkingnew

What is the affect of media consolidation and changes in the industry on government agencies? What does it mean for agencies if their meetings are not covered? Some have turned to their own forms of outreach, including "Twitter-ganda."
Boise Weekly |
Nathaniel Hoffman |
04-09-2009 |
Media
The Science of Profanitynew
Timothy Jay, PhD, is a goddamn expert, and in a newly published study he alleges it's a fucking tragedy that so many academics don't give two shits about how and why we curse.
Boston Phoenix |
Chris Faraone |
04-09-2009 |
Education
The 'Boston Globe' Crisis Leaves Times Co. Speechlessnew

The Boston Globe usually buries its own woes deep inside the paper, but it played the current union showdown with front-page, above-the-fold headlines on both Saturday and Sunday.
Boston Phoenix |
Adam Reilly |
04-09-2009 |
Media
Congress Votes Down a NAFTA-Mandated Trucking Programnew

After years of political shell games on Capitol Hill, yet another push to unleash Mexican trucks across the United States has been quashed.
Tucson Weekly |
Tim Vanderpool |
04-08-2009 |
International
Barack Obama, Torture Enabler
Why does it take a Spanish prosecutor to enforce American laws against torture?
Maui Time |
Ted Rall |
04-08-2009 |
Crime & Justice
The Bizarre Case of the People vs. Steve Rocconew
Former Orange Unified School District trustee Steve Rocco claims that a secretive cabal is the real power behind Orange County government. Now he stands accused of stealing a bottle of Heinz ketchup from a Chapman University cafeteria.
It's Easy for a Homeowner's Payments to Fall Through the Cracksnew

Nancy Perez discovered that the worst thing to happen to her home was not a fire, but mismanagement among the mortgage servicers -- the companies charged with collecting monthly payments -- on her $76,000 loan.
Houston Press |
Craig Malisow |
04-08-2009 |
Economy
JROTC Is Under Fire in S.F. Schoolsnew

It has been a quintessential only-in-San Francisco battle -- the military ambassadors playing the rogues, and the lefty progressives as the establishment -- and one that will not die.
A Proposed Cold-Storage Facility Has French Quarter Folks Calling Fowlnew
The Port of New Orleans and a local neighborhood group are at odds over the port's efforts to renovate the Gov. Nicholls/Esplanade wharves into a cold storage facility that uses anhydrous ammonia to blast-freeze packages of chicken, which will then be shipped up the Mississippi River.
Gambit |
David Winkler-Schmit |
04-08-2009 |
Housing & Development
Broken Marriage: A Timeline of the Landmark Hotel Tragedynew
Charlottesville's Landmark Hotel started as a $30 million project that even the Board of Architectural Review could love. Now, only Mother Nature is working on the skeletal tower that stands as a sardonic reminder of the times.
C-Ville Weekly |
Will Goldsmith |
04-08-2009 |
Housing & Development
Free Speech Is Unchained with the 2009 Muzzle Awardsnew
Usually it's a good thing to receive a free t-shirt and get your name in the paper, but not if you're a winner of a Muzzle Award from Charlottesville's Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.
C-Ville Weekly |
Wistar Watts Murray |
04-08-2009 |
Policy Issues
The U.S. Border Patrol Is Getting Lost in the Weedsnew
Border Patrol officials contend that an invasive plant called carrizo cane is blocking their view of the river and of Mexico. The patrol is proposing to spray herbicide along the river from a helicopter to wipe out the cane, angering residents and dividing Laredo's City Council.
The Texas Observer |
Melissa del Bosque |
04-08-2009 |
Immigration
The Strange and Scary Story of the North Central Texas Fusion Systemnew

Fusion centers arose amid post-9/11 efforts to get local and state law enforcement involved in anti-terrorism. The meteoric rise of this confoundingly complex and patchwork system has scary implications for privacy and civil liberties.
The Texas Observer |
Forrest Wilder |
04-08-2009 |
Policy Issues
Curtis Severns Is Serving 27 Years for an Arson He Almost Certainly Didn't Commitnew

Over the past 15 years, many unscientific assumptions about how fire spreads have turned out to be wrong. Using newer methods, an arson expert has helped exonerate dozens of people wrongly convicted of arson. He believes Severns was railroaded.
The Texas Observer |
Dave Mann |
04-08-2009 |
Crime & Justice
Colorado Springs Assembles Emergency Plan to Save Olympic Committee Projectnew
Until funds were produced to renovate the Olympic Training Center, the USOC wouldn't sign a lease for its new Colorado Springs office building. And until the USOC was in, the city wouldn't go millions into debt. This charade couldn't go on forever. And the city has decided to end it.
Colorado Springs Independent |
J. Adrian Stanley |
04-07-2009 |
Economy