AltWeeklies Wire
Big Oil in Little Richmondnew
Back in 2004, the Chevron Corporation proposed a billion dollar "Energy and Hydrogen Renewal Project" at its 2,900-acre Richmond, Calif., refinery. Critics worry that the renovations will end up fouling the air in the already-blighted Richmond neighborhoods downwind of the refinery, and have taken up arms to halt the project's progress.
East Bay Express |
Anna McCarthy |
07-10-2008 |
Business & Labor
Mobile Home Park Residents Caught in Catch-22new
Since the Homestead Village case began, some residents and affordable housing advocates have begun to ask whether the old park could be fixed up and restored as a place where people of modest means can continue to live, if not in grand style, then at least in very comfortable surroundings. Depending on the Raleigh City Council's decision, Homestead Village could add to the junk pile, or it could turn out to be a preservation success story.
INDY Week |
Bob Geary |
07-10-2008 |
Housing & Development
Death of 17-Year-Old Pregnant Farm Worker Incites Campaign Against Trader Joe'snew
The California Division of Industrial Relations has opened an investigation of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez's death and her employer, Merced Farm Labor. But activists connected to the case want to send the message even further, to stores like Trader Joe's that market products made with cheap or exploited agricultural labor.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Amanda Witherell |
07-10-2008 |
Business & Labor
Virginia Criminalizes Salvia, Nobody Noticesnew
At midnight July 1, Salvia Divinorum, the mind altering Mexican plant whose use by teenagers has been sweeping the nation (or so says some media), officially became illegal, giving some Virginians out there a cool, new, felony-level, drug-using past.
C-Ville Weekly |
J. Tobias Beard |
07-09-2008 |
Drugs
The Russian Mob Comes to Town with a New Scam: Medical Identity Theftnew
The ease with which Alexandr Shcherbakov and at least one other Russian in Portland bilked the feds illustrates in part why healthcare costs are soaring. "Medical identity theft is the new frontier for organized crime," says Alex Johnson, a former FBI agent who investigates fraud for Regence BlueShield.
Willamette Week |
Nigel Jaquiss |
07-09-2008 |
Crime & Justice
Gay Couples from South Carolina Hear Wedding Bells in the Golden Statenew
When California began issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples after the state's Supreme Court invalidated the prohibition against same-sex weddings, it opening up marriage licenses to folks from any state. South Carolina's gay and lesbian couples are taking advantage of the opportunity.
Charleston City Paper |
Greg Hambrick |
07-09-2008 |
LGBT
The San Diego Zoo Hopes to Help Companies Mimic Naturenew
The biomimicry unit would connect educational institutions and companies with the zoo's vast collection of plants and animals, along with the zoos expertise. Zoo CFO Paula Brock sees biomimicry as both a way to help the world move toward a greener future and bring a different kind of green into the zoo's coffers.
San Diego CityBeat |
Eric Wolff |
07-09-2008 |
Animal Issues
Does Charlottesville Have a Gang Problem?new
Gunplay and violence in the city's poorest neighborhoods: Are they the work of turf thugs, copy cats, or real-life gang bangers -- and once a shot is fired, what difference does it make, anyway?
C-Ville Weekly |
Scott Weaver |
07-09-2008 |
Crime & Justice
An Amateur Photographer Follows the Obama Trailnew
While many people started following the election much earlier, I began to literally follow it in August of 2007. The Democrats were invading Soldier Field. I had just started working at my school newspaper and had begun my senior year at Columbia College. I decided to try and use whatever swagger this position offered me and try to get into the big debate.
Chicago Newcity |
Tim Hunt |
07-09-2008 |
Media
Rampant Foreclosures Have Torn the Very Fabric of Northeast Ohionew
In this young century, we've focused our collective attention elsewhere while market forces battered the vulnerable like a hurricane. And the subprime mortgage explosion was the economic Katrina; Northeast Ohio the Gulf Coast.
Cleveland Free Times |
Dan Harkins |
07-09-2008 |
Economy
Baltimore's Bail Bonds Industry Is Huge, Complicated, and Largely Unregulatednew
Law professor Doug Colbert estimates that bail bondsmen statewide make between $100 and $150 million each year. It's a system that Colbert would like to see reformed -- with a supervised release program for nonviolent and minor offenders taking the place of the current system, where it all comes down to cash and who can pay it.
Baltimore City Paper |
Christopher Landers |
07-08-2008 |
Crime & Justice
One Exoneree Finds Purpose in Advocacy, Closure in ID of Perpnew
Ken Wyniemko spent nearly a decade behind bars for a rape. His most pressing concern was surviving. His second was proving his innocence. He succeeded at both.
Metro Times |
Sandra Svoboda |
07-08-2008 |
Crime & Justice
How a Throwaway Idea at the Barkley Ad Agency Became the 'Sonic Guys'new
The campaign was supposed to last just four months, from September 2003 to the beginning of a new campaign in January 2004. Five years later, the campaign is still going and has become a pop-culture phenomenon. The commercials have given the quirky drive-in an identity and made Sonic as recognizable as McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's.
Turning Bikes into Wheelchairs for Some of the World's Neediest Peoplenew
Some students and recent graduates of Caltech and the Art Center College of Design have found a way to turn simple mountain bikes into inexpensive, effective and potentially lifesaving wheelchairs for disabled people in the world's poorest countries.
Pasadena Weekly |
Joe Piasecki |
07-08-2008 |
Education
Students Connect with Those Touched by the Horrors of Warnew
UCSB Students who sign up for RS-155 find that it’s neither a history class nor a religion class, but an emotional journey through the psyche and experiences of real live veterans.
Santa Barbara Independent |
Ben Preston |
07-08-2008 |
War
