May 9, 2008

Alt-Weekly Photographer: I Was Assaulted While Shooting Concert

Source: Riverfront Times

Freelance photographer Nichole Torpea says she was snapping photos for Riverfront Times at a My Chemical Romance concert in St. Louis on Saturday when she was assaulted by a member of the band's security team. According to Torpea, she was taking pictures in the balcony when a man grabbed her arm, led her through a door to a stairwell and forced her to the ground. "I had no idea what was going on," she says. "He had no ID and wouldn't tell me who he was. He kept saying, 'You know what you did. Give me the fucking camera.'" He took her camera, but returned it a few minutes later after deleting all the images on the memory card. When the band learned about the incident, they offered to make amends by flying Torpea and her boyfriend to their show tonight at New York's Madison Square Garden. She initially had some misgivings about the offer but ultimately decided to let bygones be bygones. "Last weekend was pretty crappy," she says. "So if they're going to make it up to me with a good weekend, I can't complain."

May 9, 2008

Random Lengths News Publisher Named 'Peacemaker of the Year'

Source: San Pedro Neighbors for Peace & Justice Press Release

The local peace group San Pedro Neighbors for Peace & Justice has named James Preston Allen 2008 Peacemaker of the Year "in recognition of the consistent coverage by his paper of the peace community, for his critical editorials and for the newspaper's hard hitting exposes of the lies and war profiteering of the war on Iraq and Afghanistan," according to a press release.