Signs of the times 

Over the years, Creative Loafing has published more than 1,000 cover stories, including regular "special" editions such as the hugely popular annual Best Of Charlotte issue, a host of Summer Guides, and issues devoted to Food, Music, Fall Arts Previews or Lust Lists. Those special issues complement the paper's regular weekly take on what's really going on in Charlotte, usually exemplified by the cover story. Here are 50 favorite CL cover stories, listed in chronological order, that represent some of the paper's best journalistic work.

July 25, 1987: "Hope In Optimist Park" by John Grooms. Habitat for Humanity launched an inspiring project that brought former President Jimmy Carter to town and built 30 houses in Optimist Park. Our story included an interview with the former president. Not bad for a brand-new publication.

Feb. 6, 1988: "Women's Music" by Jerry Klein. A report on the local lesbian community and an upcoming concert by singer Chris Williamson. The story set off a vicious anti-gay campaign by Rev. Joe Chambers, while the Observer editorialized that we should never have brought up the subject to begin with. Issues swirling around the acknowledgement of homosexuality would resurface more times in Charlotte than we could imagine possible.

Sept. 30, 1989: "Night of the Living Hugo" by John Rodgers, writing under the pen name Xavier Ashe. Rodgers produced a remarkable firsthand report of one of Charlotte's wildest nights. How? At the height of Hurricane Hugo, the city's greatest natural disaster, he decided to take a long walk and look around. We republished the story on the 15th anniversary of Hugo, September 22, 2004.

Oct. 28, 1989: "Unexamined Issues of the Myrick Campaign" by John Grooms & John Schmidt. One of our most talked-about articles ever, this is the only one on the list that wasn't a cover story per se. In the middle of a mayoral campaign in which Myrick was touting her moral superiority to her opponent (he had admitted to prior cocaine use), we published court records that proved that Mayor Myrick had, in fact, broken up her husband Ed's first marriage.

May 19, 1990: "Reasonable and Prudent Killing?" by Philip Rutledge. An investigation into the death of Sidney Bowen, the black former mayor of Bolton, N.C., killed by highway patrolman Alfred Morris, who received light treatment by then-prosecutor Mike Easley.

July 4, 1992: "Women In Rock" by Fred Mills. This roundtable discussion with four Charlotte women rockers was the first time Charlotteans had looked at, and taken seriously, the thoughts, goals and problems of some of our top female musical artists.

Jan. 30, 1993: "Fortified Wine Tasting" by the "CL Wine Tasting Task Force." We were still getting comments years later about this story, in which a group of writers compared various varieties of rotgut. At the time, City Council was considering a bill to ban the sale of the stuff at convenience stores.

May 29, 1993: "Speed Metal Rules!" by Frye Gaillard. A thorough and insightful look at how Charlotte became the heart of stock car racing country.

Nov. 6, 1993: "Violence In Charlotte". Near the end of a brutal year, CL published a special issue which featured a series of stories by Frye Gaillard, Vance Cariaga, the late Debra Warlick, and John Grooms, looking at the reality and causes of, and possible solutions to, the surge of violence in Charlotte.

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April 2, 1994: "Welcome to Charlotte!" Subtitled, "Final Four Fans, we'll do anything to impress you," the cover featured the nighttime skyline of New York City. The entire issue was a hilarious spoof of Uptown boosters' breathless rush to create an illusory "entertainment zone" on Tryon Street for college basketball's Final Four. Strangely enough, someone took all our papers out of our Uptown boxes. Hmmmm.

June 11, 1994: "Karen Graham At The Crossroad" by Frye Gaillard. A subtle portrait of pro-life activist Graham, at a point when she was reconsidering the battle against abortion. This story went against CL's liberal stereotype, and its complex picture of the issue displeased some progressive supporters. Which, frankly, was just too bad, because Gaillard's story was beautifully written, thoughtful journalism.

Sept. 17 and Sept. 24, 1994: "Charlotte's Suburban Virus" by David Walters. A special (as in, the only time we did it) two-consecutive-cover-stories series, in which urban planner/professor/columnist Walters examined the problems engendered by Charlotte's sprawling growth, and offered ideas to work toward a more livable city that's not so dependent on endless car commutes.

Jan. 14, 1995: "Don Swan 1956-1995". A tribute to a friend and associate, the late Don Swan: photographer, actor, filmmaker, comic dynamo and invaluable Loafer.

His untimely passing left a hole in Charlotte's creative fabric.

Feb. 25, 1995: "Nowhere To Run" by Debra Warlick. An extraordinary report of one woman's story of being beaten, kidnapped and held at gunpoint by her husband -- and then finding out that the legal system would see to it that her problems had just begun.

Sept. 30, 1995: "The Charlotte Infamy Tour." A tongue-in-cheek tourist's guide to the dark side of Charlotte history, featuring the sites of some of the city's most infamous incidents, from a police killing of striking streetcar workers to Jim Bakker freaking out under his attorney's couch.

March 16, 1996: "Angels In America" by Perry Tannenbaum. CL's exclusive interview with Tony Kushner, the man who wrote the Pulitzer-winning play that launched a wave of homophobic reaction and community-wide debate over the arts.

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May 8, 1996: "Free Press, Inc." by Vance Cariaga. An in-depth look at how the corporate journalism of the 1990s undermined our access to information. And to think it's only gotten worse.

March 18, 1997: "Rush to Judgment" by Jerry Klein. An in-depth report pinpointing police mistakes in the investigation of the Kim Thomas murder. The case enthralled the region in the 1990s, and led to the arrest of her husband, Dr. Ed Friedland. Klein's story pointed to another possible suspect, Marion Gales, who was later successfully sued by Friedland in a wrongful death civil suit.

July 19, 1997: "TransMission" by Jane Grau. Racecar driver J.T. Hayes won over 300 regional and national championships in go-kart, midget, and sprint racing. He briefly competed at the NASCAR Winston Cup level, and then had sex reassignment surgery, becoming Ms. Terri O'Connell.

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Nov. 22, 1997: "JFK, Dallas and High School Football" by John Grooms. An award-winning personal essay on the writer's experience when his high school's football team played for the state championship on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Aug. 15, 1998: "She Covers the Waterfront" by Amy Rogers. The first local media profile of one of the area's most dedicated environmentalists, Catawba Riverkeeper Donna Lisenby, who spends her time monitoring the region's liquid lifeline and fighting those who pollute it.

Oct. 24, 1998: "Chasing A Ghost" by Sam Boykin and John Grooms. Rumors ran through the Charlotte media that former City Councilman and County Commissioner Hoyle Martin, an avid homophobe, had a gay son. Our story looked at how several local media outlets, including CL, feverishly chased after a rumor that finally proved to be untrue.

Dec. 11, 1999: "McWorkers" by Sam Boykin. An inside look at Labor Ready, a company that provides temporary workers for manual labor jobs. The company rakes in hundreds of millions each year, but barely pays its workers minimum wage. The writer went "undercover" and discovered a subculture of people living in the woods and barely scraping by on their meager wages.

Feb. 11, 2000: "Leslie Price: On Her Own" by Sam Boykin. CL talked to Leslie Price about her future, after her highly publicized lawsuit against Charlotte Hornets owner George Shinn. Price met Shinn in 1997 while she was in a drug treatment program. A few days later, Price alleged, Shinn forced her to perform oral sex. Shinn, married at the time, claimed the sex was consensual. The jury rejected Price's suit, but Shinn's reputation was already beyond repair.

Aug. 19, 2000: "Homegrown: Clamping Down On NC's Cash Crop" by Peter Eichenberger. An examination of ongoing drug war skirmishes, including "Operation Bladerunner" which sought to eradicate North Carolina's illegal, highly profitable crop. During that week, a young waitress was pulled over and her car searched after an Iredell County cop spotted a copy of the CL issue, which showed -- gasp! -- a pot leaf on the cover, in the backseat.

Nov. 18, 2000: "Different Strokes" by Sam Boykin. Dispelling the myth that Charlotteans are nothing but a bunch of uptight banker types, this story looked at local swingers -- married couples that swap partners for sexual excitement and variety. The idea of such "open relationships" confounded many, intrigued some, and disgusted others.

May 23, 2001: "The Human Face of Piedmont Courts" by Sam Boykin. City leaders and media were discussing the future of crime-ridden Piedmont Courts as if the people who lived there were interchangeable thugs. We talked to residents and got a full, multi-dimensional view of life on the economic margins in Charlotte.

July 11, 2001: "Howdy Neighbor!" by Tara Servatius. Subtitled "Mecklenburg's 376 registered sex offenders -- who they are, where they live, and what they did," this was CL's first listing of the area's sex offenders. We caught hell for it, but our thinking was that women and children's safety trumped concerns about the offenders' privacy.

July 25, 2001: "Lost In the Shuffle" by Tara Servatius. Robin Hester, a blind AIDS patient, desperately needed housing, but Charlotte Housing Authority was in such disarray, they couldn't even tell her whether she was on their waiting list or not. This was CL's opening salvo in a series of stories on CHA dysfunction that ended with the canning of director Harrison Shannon.

Sept. 12, 2001: "Homegrown Health Hazard" by Sam Boykin. Long before today's Cliffside power plant controversy, CL ran this great piece of reporting, the first local story on the environmental and health problems being caused by Duke Energy's coal-fired power plants. Look again at the date of the issue, however, and you'll understand why the story was practically ignored at the time.

Nov. 14, 2001: "Unprotected" by Tara Servatius. CL looked into the incompetent prosecution of what was supposed to be an open-and-shut rape case. A conviction should have been a no-brainer, but a no-brainer prosecutor caused a Not Guilty verdict that shocked even veteran court observers.

March 13, 2002: "Right Sex, Wrong Body" by Sam Boykin. A look at some members of Charlotte's transgender community, folks whose mental perception of their own gender is inconsistent with their physical body and/or sex. The story showed a group of people who, beneath the labels and misconceptions, were, as one female-to-male transsexual said, "just trying to live life to the fullest."

April 19, 2002: "It's A Crapshoot: What You Haven't Been Told About Charlotte's Sewage Spills" by Tara Servatius. This story, about a scandalously feeble enforcement system that let violators get away with spilling millions of gallons of raw sewage into the area's waters, raised a stink -- especially from the county's PR folks who denied there was even a problem. Later, when County Manager Harry Jones proclaimed he wouldn't send the county's response to CL, the Commission had to set him straight.

May 22, 2002: "Hunks on Wheels" by Misty Herrin. Way ahead of the national curve, Herrin celebrated the fact that NASCAR had become dominated by "hot young things" like Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Matt Kenseth, drivers who attracted new female fans to the sport.

Sept. 4, 2002: "City at Risk" by Tara Servatius. A remarkable investigation, done in collaboration with reporters from the New York Daily News, that made it clear just how vulnerable the Charlotte region is to a disastrous attack on its nuclear plants -- no matter what plant owners tell the public about the thick walls around the reactors.

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Oct. 16, 2002: "The Amazing Story of the Fabulous Moolah" by Sam Boykin. A surprising, charming look at the life of television's first woman wrestling star, now 80 and still operating a wrestling school in Columbia, S.C.

Jan. 29, 2003: "Taken For A Ride" by Tara Servatius. If only someone downtown had listened: A simple investigation revealed that the two firms advising Charlotte Area Transit officials on our transit plan, and helping to design it -- Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas and Parsons Transportation Corp. -- are directly responsible for projects widely regarded as the biggest transit debacles in the nation's history.

Feb. 26, 2003: "Man of Mystery" by Sam Boykin. David Race Bannon wrote a book in which he claimed to be a former member of Interpol who killed bad guys while hunting down child pornographers and terrorists all over the world. Other local media fell for his story, but CL exposed Bannon as a publicity-craving fraud.

Feb. 4, 2004: "Dose of Their Own Medicine" by Tara Servatius. This story detailed the harassment of alternative medical practitioners by the N.C. Medical Board. It was the first installment of CL's ongoing look at the practices of a board that protects its own members, even when those members have killed patients, but tries to hound competitors out of business.

April 28, 2004: "Flawed Priorities" by Tara Servatius. This national award-winning story (first place for education reporting from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies) pointed out that CMS' plans for improvements to poorer schools skipped the most important factor in a child's education: good, experienced teachers.

July 7, 2004: "Holy Wars" by Frye Gaillard. As conservative Christianity garnered the headlines, Gaillard told the story of religion's enormous influence on Charlotte public life, and profiled leading liberal, conservative and middle of the road preachers and churches.

Sept. 29, 2004: "Big Brother In Your Car" by Tara Servatius. The government and car companies have amazing, futuristic, hi-tech plans for your automobiles and highways that could save your life. Unfortunately, they could also wreck any normal concept of personal privacy.

Feb. 23, 2005: "Thousand Dollar Baby" by Samantha Gellar. Playwright Gellar told the personal story of "how I fought my way through college" and became perhaps the only English major to take part in Tough Woman competitions.

March 2, 2005: "School Choice Consequences" by Tara Servatius. An intensive and ingenious study of census statistics, our story revealed how white parents' school choices, and the resulting shifts in demographics, are rapidly changing the region.

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April 6, 2005: "The Agony & the Ecstasy" by Sam Boykin. We still get comments about this story, two years later. Boykin's in-depth story and photos revealed the world of Charlotte's fetish underground and turned the city on its ear. This story led to a 2006 Maxim story by Boykin, "Our Mom Is a Dominatrix."

June 15, 2005: "Queer Eye for the Big Guy" by Karen Shugart. If the Church says you can't be gay and Christian -- and you know you're both -- what do you do? Subtitled "They're Christian. They're Gay. Get Used To It," CL's article looked into the predicament of gay and lesbian Christians in Charlotte and its effect on their faith.

Nov. 30, 2005: "Sexual Fantasies" by John Grooms. An overdue study of the strangely repressed, 1950s-style world of CMS health education.

Feb. 1, 2006: "Party Politics" by Karen Shugart. Amid widespread accusations of racism in Uptown clubs, CL looked into the racial divide that often dictates the character of the clubs, their clientele, and their music.

May 10, 2006: "Tracy's World" by Tara Servatius. This stunning tale of a family-run prostitution ring included interviews with the pimps' "girls." It simultaneously revealed a brutal, exploitive side of city life, and led to discussions of CL's classified ad policies.

Nov. 22, 2006: "Casualties of War" by Karen Shugart. A beautifully reported story about a grieving mother who's searching for the truth behind her soldier son's mysterious death in Iraq.

More from CL's past

• CL celebrates 20 years By Matt Brunson
• John Grooms' life and times at CL
• Charlotte music from 1987-1992 By Fred Mills
• Quotes from longtime readers
• Read our very first issue!