This week's edition of Editor's Note on the road comes from New Orleans' Warehouse District, as my vacation winds down and I head back to Tucson. The Association of Alternative Newsmedia conference wrapped up on Saturday with events including the organization's annual meeting, where two new publications were inducted, including former-editor Jimmy Boegle's Coachella Valley Independent (congrats again, Jimmy!). I know I've said this before, but the AAN Awards ceremony (which included a daiquiri handed to each winner as they came to the podium) reminded me again of the great work coming out of the hundred or so publications in the organization. If you have some spare time (after reading our paper, obvs), check out this year's award winners, available on the AAN website (altweeklies.com).
One note from traveling across the country the last two weeks—if you're ever heading anywhere in North America, it's worth checking to see if there's an alt-weekly in the city you're visiting. I've used the Best-Ofs from the places we've rolled through as guides of what to eat, drink and do and they've been a great help in getting a feel of what people who love their city find essential about where they live. Eventually, I'll create a page on our site with links to all those guides, but until then, Googling "Best of (city name)" will usually get you to the right place.
This week's cover story by Mari Herreras is surely set to be a conversation starter (that might be an understatement), considering the subject matter, people involved and the emotions the Mexican-American studies controversy inevitably sparks. I'm writing this on Tuesday and I've already received two emails seemingly trying to cut the content of the story off at the pass, so we'll see how this goes. I know Mari has poured a lot of effort and energy into this article and I have the utmost respect for her reporting ability, so I have full confidence in the piece itself. It'll just be interesting to see how I'm referred to in Three Sonorans once the issue hits newsstands. If I remember correctly, I was "White Editor" before, but I can't seem to find DA Morales' New Year's Eve "retirement" manifesto from last year to doublecheck. Something to look forward to, I suppose.
