Barney’s On the Beat

Fired: Randy Alcorn, the newspaper’s veteran chief financial officer, was canned Monday, a major loss to a paper already staggering under lost circulation, defecting advertisers, and ongoing controversy.

Alcorn said he had planned to resign anyway, deeply discouraged that the paper had degenerated into a “propaganda campaign and petty vindictiveness” instead of dealing with the serious problems of running a daily newspaper. But, he told me, owner Wendy McCaw made “a pre-emptive strike,” firing him Monday afternoon because “we didn’t see eye-to-eye and she wasn’t comfortable with me.”

Barney’s On the Beat

Jimmy’s Bar: A few hundred feet from the tourist and college hangouts of downtown State Street, a cozy bar offered sanctuary to a merry band of locals. I use the word “offered” because Jimmy’s closed recently, to the laments of the regulars: a postal worker, a PR woman, and other assorted residents of good cheer.

Real Legal Eagles

Legal Aid helps; News-Press protests; Aldo’s donates; Rose steps down; Aceves wins, Cox calls; coffee talk; Ellen owns; Bush brother benefits; Bill Gates buys; Brooks Firestone sings

On the Beat

Levy Bankrupt: Bill Levy’s timeshare commercial project at the foot of State Street was something few wanted except for Levy, his investors, and the City Council (after Levy, his friends, and his family made big donations to some councilmembers).