National Public Radio's Ari Shapiro is moving from the Justice Depatment to the White House, a move he announced in a tweet and on his Facebook page: "It's official! As much as I've loved covering Justice for the last 5 years, I'm about to be NPR's newest White House correspondent." Shapiro will replace Don Gonyea, who is being named national political correspondent after a decade on the White House beat. Shapiro will join Scott Horsley on the White House beat, although NPR's Capitol Hill reporters are also expected to rotate through the White House. Slated to join NPR's White House team in the next couple of weeks, Shapiro will likely become the only member of the White House press corps who has been featured singing on a CD and at the Hollywood Bowl.  In 2009, Shapiro was featured on the new release by Pink Martini called Splendor in the Grass where he sings But Now I'm Back. The eclectic Shapiro--who was named to the Advocate's 40 Under 40 in 2009 and to Out magazine's Out 100 in 2008--has long been considered one of NPR's rising stars, who is often called on to be a fill-in host for Morning Edition and Weekend Edition. The first NPR reporter to be named correspondent before turning 30, his coverage at the Justice Department has included reporting on DOJ scandals during the Bush administration, the treatment of enemy combatants, and problems with the justice system in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Freelance writer Matt Siegel submitted an article entitled "Business Before Pleasure," to Advocate.com, where it lived, happily published, as a "Health Exclusive" for all of 8 days before it was mysteriously pulled down without explanation. Could the website, owned by a parent company that also owns multiple gay porn magazines, have stepped in to protects its other interests when the controversial piece had too many people talking? (more...)