The New Years Issue -- January 2006

Lots of good things happened with this issue. After hearing so many people say we needed a new cover style, we burst into our new format with the fabulously-popular “I Want To Spy On You” cover that is turning into a pop-culture phenomenon. The focus of our cover article, “Where Have All The Patriots Gone?” explored the view of an alien nation called the United States from inside a foreign capital called The White House. It is a disturbing view. On the local scene, our coverage of the Ashland Fiber Net (“AFN”) imbroglio brought the townspeople of Ashland up to speed on the bandwidth business, why it's good to be in it, and why under no circumstances should we sell our precious Internet security blanket to a corporate suitor. We gave front-page coverage to Jefferson Public Radio's “friendly takeover” offer to the City, and provided a financial X-ray of Charter Communications, Paul Allen's toy cable company, which has competed unfairly with AFN through predatory pricing in hopes of hammering the City into selling AFN. Charter stock has fallen from $1.35 a share to $1.15 since we published, but we take no credit. Charter is worthless, and AFP predicts it will be delisted by the end of 2007. A hell of an issue.

 » Click here to download newyear.jan.2006.pdf.