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 Entrance to newspaper headquarters in Los Angeles | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Owner | Metropolitan News Company |
| Publisher | Roger M. Grace and Jo-Ann W. Grace |
| Editor | Roger M. Grace |
| Founded | 1901; 124 years ago (1901) |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
| Country | United States |
| Circulation | 2,500 (as of 2002[1]) |
| ISSN | 0897-2281 |
| OCLC number | 7024015 |
| Website | metnews |
Metropolitan News-Enterprise, also known asMetNews orMet News,[2][3] is a dailylegal newspaper published inLos Angeles, California.[4]
TheEnterprise newspaper was founded in 1901 and theMetropolitan News in 1945.[5] The two newspapers merged to becomeMetropolitan News-Enterprise in 1987.[5] The newspaper's co-publishers are lawyers Roger Grace and Jo-Ann Grace, a husband-and-wife team.[6]
MetNews is well known for its thorough coverage of judicial campaigns in the Los Angeles area.[6][7][8] For example, in 2008 the newspaper determined thatWilliam Daniel Johnson, a candidate forLos Angeles County Superior Court, was "a white supremacist who has advocated the deportation of non-whites from the United States."[8][9]
The newspaper began honoring selected legal professionals as "Persons of the Year" in 1983.[10] Since then, honorees have includedVictor E. Chavez,Tani Cantil-Sakauye,Steve Cooley,George Deukmejian,Ronald M. George,Mildred Lillie,Dan Lungren,Stanley Mosk, andDeanell Reece Tacha.[2][10]
In 1992, the newspaper filed a lawsuit against the presiding judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging that the judgefalsely imprisoned three employees for distributing a parody memorandum supposedly signed by the judge.[11] In turn, the judge countersued the newspaper fordefamation.[11][12] After appeals, the lawsuit by the judge was eventually decided in favor of the newspaper; in 1994, the newspaper received $40,000 in a settlement for its lawsuit against the judge.[12][13]
MetNews sued theDaily Journal Corporation, whose chairman isCharlie Munger, in 1997 forpredatory pricing.[14] In specific, the allegation was that theDaily Journal sold legal notices by companies such asFannie Mae at a price below cost.[14][15] In 2000, the case was resolved in favor of theDaily Journal.[15]
In 2002,Los Angeles County District AttorneySteve Cooley obtained asearch warrant to locate evidence at the newspaper's offices that a law firm had paid for an advertisement concerning a recall petition.[1] The search closed the offices for three hours.[1] Experts on theFirst Amendment to the United States Constitution characterized the situation as "troubling" and "inappropriate."[1]Editor & Publisher magazine used terms such as "boneheaded" and "inexcusable" to describe the "newsroom raid."[16] The newspaper filed a lawsuit against Cooley, which was settled with a payment of $40,000 and an agreement that Cooley's office would take measures to comply with thePrivacy Protection Act of 1980.[17]
To fill vacancies inCalifornia courts of appeal, theGovernor of California submits names to theState Bar of California for confidential evaluations prior to formally nominating them. In August 2009, the newspaper reported that the State Bar had ratedChuck Poochigian "not qualified" for a state appeals court because he lacked legal experience.[18][19] The leak occurred before GovernorArnold Schwarzenegger nominated Poochigian,[19] and the State Bar was unable to determine the source of the leak.[20]
In addition to theMetropolitan News-Enterprise, the Metropolitan News Company publishes the:
A tribute to Dean Tacha will appear in a special issue of the MetNews...
Roger and Jo-Ann Grace, who are both attorneys, laughed about... all the candidate ballot fights... that they've seen over the years. As editor of the Metropolitan News-Enterprise... Roger has written about the ins and outs of candidate ballot shenanigans for years
newspapers such as The Times and the Metropolitan News-Enterprise interview the candidates and make endorsements
[William] Johnson was a candidate for Los Angeles Superior Court judge... Johnson's racial beliefs were finally exposed by the Metropolitan News-Enterprise
