The Man from Primrose Lane lived a lie and died a millionaire. By Phil McIntyre The door was unlocked, even though the dead man inside was a notorious recluse. Patrolman Thomas Sackett stepped inside. It was June, 21st, 2008. Minutes earlier, sixteen-year-old William Beachum had phoned 911 to report that the old man who lived [...]
Like all good revolutions, ours started in a bar. A year ago, we met inside the Spitfire Saloon at the edge of Cleveland, on West 117: the bar’s owner, Stosh Burgess; former Free Times marketing guy, Ray Leonardi; former Free Times classifieds sales leader, Alice Leslie; and me, a guy who had written [...]
New Stories by Local Authors! Trail of Blood, By Lisa Black 867-5309: A Love Song, By David Giffels The Properly Accessorized Kitchen, By Erin O’Brien An Excerpt from Under Glass, By Jen Hirt THE CRACK, By Scott Lax An Excerpt from Tales From the Road, By Neil Zurcher Untitled, By Judith Monsour Spring [...]
It’s Never Been Cooler to Be a Lima Loser You either love it or hate it. And if you hate it, you probably don’t get it. Glee. On the surface, it’s a show about a group of sappy-sweet highschoolers obsessed with 80’s ballads, competing in a show choir from a podunk Ohio town. [...]
29 Years After Her Murder, Tina Harmon’s Killer is Finally Revealed. For about a year, I have been the spokesman for the family of a young girl who was savagely murdered in 1981. Girl’s name is Tina Harmon, a twelve-year-old tomboy of a girl from Creston who smoked cigarettes and one day went to the [...]
How much is good journalism worth? This is a question being considered by publishers across the country who have yet to find a way to spin gold from the interwebs. How much is good journalism worth in Akron? We’ll soon see. On Friday, March 5, the members of the Akron Beacon Journal Newspaper [...]
Dad’s Cancer Spurs Daughter to Action Against Harshaw UNTIL A FEW MONTHS ago, Tracy Reinoso rarely paid attention to the news or participated in politics – having only registered to vote in 2005 at the behest of her Cuban-born husband. “I grew up in a small farming community near Wooster,” the slender, 46-year-old mother of [...]
Independent Exclusive: Zanotti Gambled with J. Kevin Kelley By James Renner Contrary to his public denials, The Independent has learned that Issue 6 architect, former Mayor of Parma Heights, and county-transition executive committee member Martin Zanotti took trips north to gamble with county corruption figure J. Kevin Kelley and several other local politicians. [...]
HERE’S THE DEAL. Get comfy. . .this might take a while. Let me chat-you-up about an issue that pushes a whole bunch of hot buttons for all the wrong reasons. I’ve given it a lot of thought, maybe you haven’t. Maybe . . . just maybe, you will. Same-sex marriage was a tough [...]
In the quiet, early-morning hours of January 14, a faint orange glow danced in the window of a tudor mansion on West Market, in a tony section of Akron that sees little real crime. The glow became more brilliant and gray smoke soon began billowing into the night sky. Around 2:40 a.m., a [...]
