ATTRACTIVE FEATURE ON IRANIAN FEMALE JOURNALIST/OBAMA'S CURRENT EXPRESSIONS/ARTS CULTURE FROM LAS VEGAS/NEWSPAPERS CHARGING ONLINE'S CONTENTS, ETC...

Parents of captive U.S. journalist heading to Tehran
Roxana Saberi, an Iranian American from North Dakota, has been locked up for more than two months. Her parents are flying to Iran in an effort to win her release.
By Ramin Mostaghim and Borzou Daragahi
April 4, 2009
Reporting from Tehran and Beirut -- The parents of an Iranian American journalist being detained in an Iranian prison were scheduled to arrive in Tehran this weekend to help secure the release of their daughter, who has been locked up for more than two months.

Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old onetime beauty queen and Northwestern University graduate, is being held in Tehran's Evin Prison on unspecified charges. Her Iranian American father and Japanese American mother left their Fargo, N.D., home for Tehran after their attempts to gain her freedom from afar failed.

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Saberi has been in regular telephone contact with her parents, said her lawyer, Abdul-Samad Khorramshahi, who last met with her on March 18.

"I found her in low spirits, as I had promised her she would have been bailed out before beginning of the [March 20] Persian New Year," he said in a phone interview.

An Iranian judiciary official told reporters a month ago that Saberi would be released in days. U.S. officials said they handed Iranians a letter on the sidelines of a conference Tuesday in the Netherlands requesting the release of Saberi, Iranian American student Esha Momeni and former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared during a trip to Iran two years ago. Iran's Foreign Ministry has denied the receipt of such a letter.
Iranian officials said Saberi was arrested after continuing to work as a journalist even though her official credentials had been revoked. She told her father she was detained after buying a bottle of wine, illegal but generally tolerated in the Islamic Republic.

But the length and nature of her detention suggests she may be facing more serious security charges. A judiciary official said last month that she was arrested because of unspecified "illegal activities" on a warrant issued by Iran's Revolutionary Court, which frequently tries cases of espionage and national security.

Other detainees in similar circumstances have faced grueling interrogations -- aimed at ferreting out their connections to Iranians and the motives for their actions -- but were not subjected to physical abuse.

Khorramshahi, the attorney, said he and Saberi's parents would go to court again today to try to get permission to visit her in Evin. "But I am not sure that there will be any success," he said.

Human rights groups have condemned Iran for holding Saberi without formal charges, as required by Iranian law.

"The constitution of Iran guarantees free speech, yet the government continues to detain journalists without charge for doing their jobs," Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "In fact, Iran continues to be one of the biggest jailers of journalists worldwide."

Iranian authorities dismiss such accusations, saying the West has launched an ideological war against Iran by using allegations of human rights violations to pressure it on other disputes, such as the fight over its nuclear program and its support for militant Arab groups fighting Israel.

National Public Radio, the BBC and Fox News issued a statement last month calling for Iran to release Saberi. More than 10,000 people worldwide signed a petition, organized by the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York advocacy group, calling for her release.

"We are very deeply concerned by the circumstances of Roxana Saberi's detention," Mohammed Abdel Dayem, the group's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, said in a March 25 statement. "She continues to be held without charge, while officials have offered shifting reasons for her detention."

daragahi@latimes.com

Mostaghim is a special correspondent.

Las Vegas: Portrait of a struggling arts scene
Artist Ed Dominguez mixes his paints at his Las Vegas studio, Cob4lt Blu3.

By Ashley Powers
April 4, 2009
Reporting from Las Vegas -- The painter was the first artist to move to the downtown corner. His neighbors included a strip club, the Little White Wedding Chapel, a Thai barbecue joint and red neon heralding the Tod Motor Motel.

Others might have shunned the gritty storefront near Las Vegas' embryonic arts district, but here, Ezequiel Lee Orona could grasp a decades-old dream for $900 a month. The painter opened 3rd Street Revolution gallery in January 2007, as Las Vegas wooed artists with promises of renewing its downtown and bringing culture to a city of sequins and kitsch.
But the arts district remains a largely unfinished canvas. And like so many other problems in this town, the recession is partly to blame.

On a recent morning, Orona, 59, admired his 900 square feet through tendrils of Basic cigarette smoke. Canvases popped with Crayola-bright colors and mixed-media works incorporating a tattered American flag and a radiator cover. He's sold only two or three pieces this year and thinks the entire arts scene is scouring the couch for quarters.

"I think Vegas is becoming the Emerald City or some damn thing," he grunted. "When you pull back the glitter and the lights and the glamour, people are really hurting."
Downtown Vegas attracted Orona with the same sales pitch that other cities have used in recent years: Arts groups, galleries and lofts could reinvigorate even decaying communities. But the economic downturn has endangered cultural endeavors in nearly every state, according to the nonprofit Americans for the Arts.

The Alabama Shakespeare Festival canceled a production of "Les Miserables." The Phoenix Center for the Arts discontinued most education programs. Even New York's famed Metropolitan Museum of Art cut staff.

In Vegas, the arts push was about more than moving real estate. The city had already found wealth through blackjack and slot machines, but like many nouveau riche, it was mocked as tasteless and unrefined. As the population boomed, civic leaders hoped Vegas would find its soul -- through art.

"That's what people say: The one thing Las Vegas lacks is culture. No one says we need another casino, and no one says we need another bar," says Wes Isbutt, who in 1992 opened the Arts Factory a few miles north of the Strip. The former crematory houses 17 galleries and is the hub of the city's nascent arts district.

Isbutt and others prodded city bigwigs to support the fledgling 18-block district, which is mainly devoted to antique shops and visual artists. As part of a larger downtown redevelopment push, the city began sprucing up the area's landscaping, lighting and streets -- along with adding public art -- in hopes of attracting artists and patrons. In 2002, locals launched First Friday, a monthly gallery showcase whose attendance has grown from 300 to 10,000. The city helped support that too.

In recent years, about half a dozen upscale condo projects were planned nearby. Storefronts, including Orona's, opened just beyond district boundaries.

Then the economy tanked, and Las Vegas became a poster child for economic malaise. Two of the region's cultural mainstays -- the Las Vegas Philharmonic and the Nevada Ballet Theatre -- are hurting financially. In February, the Las Vegas Art Museum, which relied almost completely on private money, closed.

But hopes were still high when Orona moved into the neighborhood. He was soon followed by Ed Dominguez, 42, who sold his home in Phoenix and opened Cob4lt Blu3, an airy space with oil paintings whose subjects range from Strip casinos to Catholic nuns.

Last year, sales halted for about five months, and he ran through thousands of dollars in savings. Still, he balked at scaling back prices or closing shop. "This is it. This is my life," he says. "That's why I can't let it go for nothing -- it's a part of me."

Already the portrait of a starving artist -- he mixes paints in red plastic cups -- Dominguez gave up his sole indulgence: CDs of electronica music. A friend suggested he offer paintings suburbanites might like in their living rooms: geometric motifs in tangerine, green and brown.

Dominguez has sold only five paintings this year, just enough to scrape by, but is optimistic an interior designer he recently met could order up to four more. "I'm dangling on hope right now," he says.

In 2008, more than 30 of 170 galleries and studios in Las Vegas went out of business, said Carol Meyer, a city business licensing supervisor. Six more closed this year. In recent months, Isbutt cut rent 15% for some Arts Factory tenants (they start at $1.25 per square foot), and he has seen a higher rate of turnover among them.

Only two of the proposed condo towers opened, says Dick Geyer, neighborhood association president, and many owners intended to flip their units, not live in them as civic leaders had hoped.

"It's never not been a baby arts district," says Naomi Arin, who runs a contemporary art gallery downtown. "It's never taken hold. It's never grown up."

Orona fears it never will. This morning, he mopped the storefront, which smelled of paint thinner and linseed oil. He's wanted a gallery since he lived near Fresno as a young artist inspired by Cesar Chavez. Now, with his hair starting to whiten and his forehead creased, he works part-time as a security guard.

He stubbed out a cigarette and considered his options, including renting out part of the gallery. "I could try to make art for the masses," he said. "But what's that? A T-shirt?"

He showed off a creation inspired by the first round of bank bailouts. He took a toilet found by a homeless man, spray-painted it gold and stuck nails to the seat, pointed ends up. "I wanted the title to be: 'Have a Seat, American Taxpayers, the President Will Be Right With You,' " Orona said.

Passers-by have stopped to gawk, but no one has offered to buy it.

ashley.powers@latimes.com

JOURNALISM IN THE AMERICAS

Murdoch Says Newspapers Must Charge for Online Content

Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp., said papers must find a way to charge for online content to replace the declines in ad revenue, Market Watch reports.
Murdoch owns one of the few U.S. newspapers that charges for online content, The Wall Street Journal. Speaking at a conference in Washington, D.C., Murdoch said the Journal's online policy is "not a gold mine, but it's not bad," Reuters reports.
Using The New York Times as an example, Murdoch said The Times has one of the most popular U.S. newspaper websites, but still cannot cover its costs with online ads. The paper is involved in a semi-public debate about whether it should try charging readers for some or all of its online news and commentary. It canceled an earlier experiment, "TimesSelect."
By Yinka Adegoke
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch, whose media company News Corp owns one of the few U.S. newspapers that makes people pay to read its news on the Web, said more papers will have to start doing the same to survive.
Murdoch, who bought The Wall Street Journal and its parent company Dow Jones & Co in 2007, said online advertising, which most U.S. publishers hope will offset ad revenue declines at their print divisions, will not cover their costs.
"People reading news for free on the Web, that's got to change," said Murdoch speaking at The Cable Show, an annual cable television industry event, in Washington, D.C.
Murdoch pointed to the Journal's main rival in the United States, The New York Times, as an example. The Times has one of the most popular U.S. newspaper websites, but still cannot cover its costs with online ads, he said.
Murdoch's newspaper empire includes the New York Post, the Times of London and other papers in Britain and Australia, which are available online for free. The Journal had been charging for access for years before News Corp bought it.
His comments come as the Times holds a semi-public debate about whether it should revisit charging readers to get some or all of its news and commentary online. It canceled an earlier experiment, "TimesSelect", to charge for columnists and similar content because it made more money from ads.
The Journal charges readers for access to its website, which Murdoch said was "not a gold mine, but it's not bad". When he first took over the paper, News Corp and Dow Jones executives considered making the site free, but determined it would be better to keep charging for most, but not all, content.
As online ad revenue growth stumbles and in some cases falls, publishers are being forced to rethink whether charging for access is possible, or whether readers would simply stop going to their websites. Continued...
Time is running out. Some U.S. publishers like Tribune Co have filed for bankruptcy. Others, including Hearst Corp and EW Scripps Co, have been shutting down big city dailies. Still others are furloughing employees, cutting pay and buying out or laying off thousands of workers.
Even as they cut costs, publishers are looking for ways to get more people to read -- and pay for -- journalism.
Murdoch also told Cable Show attendees that News Corp is investing with partners in a new portable device to let people read electronic versions of their daily papers.
News Corp is investing in a reading device similar to Amazon.com's Kindle and Sony Corp's Reader but with a larger screen for reading newspapers, Murdoch said.
Newspapers like Pearson PLC's Financial Times and Gannett's USA Today are working with a Mountain View, California company called Plastic Logic on newspaper-specific reading device expected to launch early next year.
Murdoch did not clarify if it was the same technology and the company did not return calls seeking comment.
Murdoch also addressed concerns among newspaper publishers that search engines like Google Inc and Yahoo Inc help users to find stories by aggregating links to newspapers websites and blogs -- but then wrest ad dollars from them that they think should be theirs.
"The question is, should we be allowing Google to steal all our copyright... not steal, but take," said Murdoch. "Not just them but Yahoo."
Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt is expected to discuss this topic when he speaks at the Newspaper Association of America's annual conference in San Diego next week. Continued...


G20 Protesters Use Twitter and Social Networking Sites to Organize Demonstrations
G20 summit Protests aren’t just taking place on the streets around the Bank of England; they are also taking place online, with many demonstrators using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to organize, mobilize and publicize campaigns, The Daily Telegraph reports.
Twitter, in particular, has been heavily used by G20 protesters. During the Put People First march last weekend, a caped “superhero”, calling himself Megamouth, used a loudspeaker to shout out messages that people had posted on his Twitter page.
CNN reports that police are also using social networking sites like Twitter to gain intelligence about protesters, such as the number of demonstrators to expect, and their causes.
BBC technology blogger Rory Cellan-Jones provides links and examples of several other ways social networking sites have been present and recording the G20 summit, including Flickr, bloggers and this Web site where students recorded the day's events with their mobile phones. The Telegraph provides more links to AudioBoo, which has on-the-spot interviews with demonstrators outside of the bank and hundreds of YouTube videos.


(Contents collected from various news services as complementary issue by :Editor/Publisher of The Muktidooth)