Urban News

, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- (NEW YORK) -- The New York Post reports that Los Angeles is about to get another major daily newspaper, courtesy of former Mayor Richard Riordan's frustration with the Los Angeles Times.

The paper said Riordan has been getting ideas from New York Observer owner Arthur Carter, and even tried to hire away Observer editor Peter Kaplan to run things in L.A.

"I am looking for a managing editor right now," Riordan told the paper. "I have the business side put together really well. I have joint operating agreements that will take care of training, circulation and marketing."

The billionaire -- who lost the Republican primary for California governor to William Simon in March -- said his new paper will focus on local news, features and columns about the media, including the Internet.

"It will be a weekly -- I think you have to evolve into a daily," said Riordan, "but we won't be politically correct, not one ounce of political correctness."

Actually, Riordan said his paper will conduct a campaign of sorts against political correctness.

"When the L.A. Times pulls their P.C. stuff, we'll call 'em on it!" he said. "When they pull their liberal spin and distort the news, we'll call 'em on it!"

Riordan said he and his investors are committed to putting out a paper a minimum of five years, targeting "the 100,000 wealthiest homes in L.A." at first, and then expanding to 200,000.

(BRIDGEPORT, Conn.) -- A 31-year-old convicted prostitute faces sentencing in November after pleading guilty this week to federal charges of arranging for her 9-year-old daughter and 11-year-old niece to have sex with Philip Giordano, the former mayor of Waterbury, Conn.

The woman, whose identity is not being disclosed in the interest of protecting the children, has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in their case against Giordano -- who also reportedly conducted a long-running affair with the woman. She told authorities he is the father of her son.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) -- While city election officials counted tens of thousands write-in votes in the mayoral primary Wednesday, most political pros were putting incumbent Mayor Anthony Williams in the winner's circle -- based on a Washington Post exit poll on Tuesday that showed Williams easily winning re-nomination over his main challenger, Willie F. Wilson.

The paper said Williams appeared to be riding a wave of optimism that the District of Columbia was heading in the right direction -- even though his primary campaign was so disorganized that he failed to make the primary ballot and had to rely on a write-in campaign. Election officials said Tuesday night that 91 percent of the votes cast Tuesday were write-ins.

Williams told the paper the result on Tuesday "speaks to the voters' affirmation of what we've done for the last four years."

(NEW YORK) -- According to a report in the New York Times, a transit advocacy group has found that nearly one in three pay phones in the city's subway stations don't work.

The Straphangers Campaign said a similar survey last year found that four out of five subway phones worked. Neysa Pranger, who oversaw the study, said the situation needs to be addressed.

"We are living in an era when people want to have the best communication possible, particularly during times of emergency," said Pranger. "When you are in a subway station, oftentimes that's your only line out."

Pranger's crew looked at 789 pay phones at 100 randomly chosen subway stations in June and July. The most common problems among the 31 percent of the broken phones were: no dial tone, coins not returned and blocked coin slots.

A New York City Transit spokesman said the agency is working with Verizon -- which operates all 4,000 pay phones in the subway stations -- to try to fix the phones. But a spokesman for Verizon questioned the Straphangers' study.

John Bonomo said the company's own monthly surveys show a failure rate of just 12 percent in subway station pay phones.