{"id":16212,"date":"2016-10-12T12:00:43","date_gmt":"2016-10-12T17:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/?p=16212"},"modified":"2016-10-12T10:55:13","modified_gmt":"2016-10-12T15:55:13","slug":"moab-city-mgr-sues-zephyr-we-need-your-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/12\/moab-city-mgr-sues-zephyr-we-need-your-support\/","title":{"rendered":"MOAB CITY MGR. SUES ZEPHYR–WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"moab-backbone\"<\/a><\/p>\n

MORE THAN EVER…WE NEED YOUR HELP…<\/b><\/p>\n

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On September 20, Moab’s City Manager Rebecca Davidson and her housemate Tara Smelt filed a lawsuit<\/a> against me, The Zephyr,<\/i> and four citizen co-defendants from Moab, Utah and Kemmerer, Wyoming. Davidson accuses us of “defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress,” and “intentional interference with economic relationships” of Smelt\/Tayo Inc. Since then, Davidson has been terminated by the City of Moab, though not ‘for cause,’ and received an $82,000 severance. So far, neither the Council nor the Mayor have uttered one word in defense of their own citizens or this publication.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Their specific allegations against The Zephyr<\/i> stem from last November when we initiated an investigation into the controversy stemming from actions by the City Council and its new City Manager. We spent hundreds of hours gathering documents, conducting interviews, filing FOIA and GRAMA requests in Moab and Kemmerer, requesting and reviewing reports from the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, and assembling that mass of information into an accurate, comprehensive and fact-based 14,000 word article, “What’s Past Is Prologue.”<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

We stand by every word of it.<\/p>\n

My co-defendants are being sued simply for expressing opinions at public meetings<\/i> and on a Facebook page called “Citizens for Transparency in Local Government.” We believe the purpose of this lawsuit is to intimidate and squash open discussion and debate, and even to silence, perhaps permanently, this publication.<\/p>\n

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The Zephyr<\/i> relies heavily on the support of our readers and we don’t know how long this process will last or how expensive it will be. We have operated on a shoestring for almost 30 years, but we’ve never needed your backing like we do now.
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Thanks for reading…<\/p>\n

Jim & Tonya Stiles<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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PLEASE KEEP THE ZEPHYR AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT ALIVE.<\/b><\/p>\n

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP…<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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JOIN THE BACKBONE<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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WHEN YOU JOIN THE BACKBONE or RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP,<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
you’ll receive a complimentary signed copy of BRAVE NEW WEST
\nby Jim Stiles or a DVD of the documentary film, “Brave New West,”
\nfrom High Plains Films. (Let us know which you prefer)<\/div>\n
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And if you send us a good head & shoulders photo of yourself, Stiles will cartoon you for the Backbone and send the original to you with the book.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/i>
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One year Backbone membership: $100<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Three years: $275
\nLifetime: $1000\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
(NOTE: You can also support The Zephyr with smaller contributions…follow the link below)\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
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You can use your credit card through PayPal at our web site:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u00a0http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/advertise\/indexnewz.htm\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Or we still take checks:<\/i><\/strong><\/div>\n
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PO Box 271, Monticello, UT 84535<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Thanks…<\/p>\n

\u00a0 VISIT THE HOMEPAGE HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

And find us on:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MORE THAN EVER…WE NEED YOUR HELP… On September 20, Moab’s City Manager Rebecca Davidson and her housemate Tara Smelt filed a lawsuit against me, The Zephyr, and four citizen co-defendants from Moab, Utah and Kemmerer, Wyoming. Davidson accuses us of “defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress,” and “intentional interference with economic relationships” of Smelt\/Tayo Inc. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16212"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16225,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16212\/revisions\/16225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}