AltWeeklies Wire
Allan Parmelee, the Inmate Who Won't Shut Upnew
Parmelee spends his days in a cell, carefully hand-printing lawsuits, motions, records requests, and legal appeals on a pad of lined paper. Known to fellow inmates as the "jailhouse attorney," he's filed dozens of lawsuits in state and federal courts.
Seattle Weekly |
Laura Onstot |
07-07-2008 |
Crime & Justice
Florida's Last Sexual Surrogatenew
Though most psychologists no longer view surrogate therapy as radical, the practice is rare these days. Dozens of surrogates were spread across the country in the 70s and 80s, but today there are fewer than 30 licensed practitioners. And there is just one certified surrogate working in Florida: Catherine.
Miami New Times |
Michael J. Mooney |
07-07-2008 |
Sex
Many Immigrants Abandon Accomplishments to Start Anew in Americanew
Many highly educated Philadelphians from other countries are stuck working dead-end jobs for minimal pay. Their stories may surprise you.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Alli Katz and Erica Palan |
07-07-2008 |
Immigration
What's Being Done, or Left Undone, When Soldiers Come Home with Problems?new
Hundreds of local soldiers are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of them on extended tours and second or third deployments. The longer the wars continue, the higher the probability of more cases like Matthew Sepi's.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Damon Hodge |
07-07-2008 |
War
Tags: Iraq, PTSD, veterans, Afghanistan, murder, mental illness, war & peace, combat trauma, Matthew Sepi
Iowa Dispatch: After the Floodnew
It goes without saying that these floods are double-edged swords. But unlike, say, wildfires that destroy houses in California or tornadoes that level mobile homes in Arkansas, there are compelling reasons why everybody should take an interest in last month's Iowa floods.
Murder on Sheppard Air Force Base?new
Four months ago Blanca Luna was found stabbed to death in her room on the base. Her family still doesn't know who killed her or why -- or what the military knows about it.
Chicago Reader |
Kari Lydersen |
07-07-2008 |
War
Fighting for Green Technologies ... and Some Venture Capital, Pleasenew
The flow of capital toward alternative energy and other green technologies has risen from a trickle to a torrent which last year equaled tens of billions of dollars. Much of that money comes off one street in Silicon Valley, and the Bay Area has already become a green tech hub. But the Southland is also a potential center of the emerging industry. We looked into a few of the mad scientists hoping to do well, do good, and do the hustle.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Nathaniel Page |
07-07-2008 |
Environment
With His Gun-Case Majority Opinion, Scalia Proved He's a Fraudnew
This man who claims to have studied the Constitution his entire life and to have dedicated his professional career to upholding the document exactly as it was written has, through some of the clumsiest legal verbiage ever put down on paper, shown his true stripe, that of an opportunist laying in wait.
Tucson Weekly |
Tom Danehy |
07-03-2008 |
Crime & Justice
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
N.C. Governor's School Under Pressure from Anti-Gay Groupnew
Tanya Olson, whose elective course on sexuality drew the ire of the Alliance Defense Fund, was denied a teaching position at Governor's School this summer after six years there.
Pride & patriotismnew
The fight for the right to serve
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Scott Freeman |
07-03-2008 |
Civil Liberties
Mass Gun Laws Now Target for Debatenew
Good news, Bostonians: you can own guns! The bad news: so can your weird neighbor.
Boston Phoenix |
Kim Liao |
07-03-2008 |
Civil Liberties
Tags: civil liberties
Taking a Shot at the Supreme Courtnew
This past week's Supreme Court ruling, invalidating Washington, DC's handgun ban, demonstrates just how far afield "movement conservatism" has taken our country.
Boston Phoenix |
Editorial |
07-03-2008 |
Civil Liberties
Your Friendly Neighborhood War Profiteernew
Across Minnesota, from the Twin Cities to the smallest rural towns, are often-scrappy companies with a handful of employees who work contracts from the low thousands to the low millions. Some estimate the number of companies doing defense-related business in the state at numbers as high as 2,000.
City Pages (Twin Cities) |
Jeff Severns Guntzel |
07-02-2008 |
Business & Labor
Chronic Underfunding is Leading Rural Schools to Desperate Measuresnew
Most rural districts are graduating more students than they are enrolling because of the declining and aging population in outstate areas. Because Minnesota funds schools on a per-pupil basis, declining enrollments can affect small schools disproportionately. But schools still have to heat the buildings; they still have to staff the school. And rural schools often have higher transportation costs.
City Pages (Twin Cities) |
Beth Walton |
07-02-2008 |
Education
