Chicago newspaper about the
homeless and other
relevant social issues, though they try to cover other news and events. The paper employs only the homeless and
poor unemployed, who have to prove only that they are
clean from
drugs and
alcohol addiction. This gives them the chance to
scoop the major papers in the city on certain events, like when the Chicago
Police Department was evicting and jailing hundred of homeless a few years ago from their camps on the
heat vents on lower
Michigan avenue.
It is up to the vendor to sell his papers; most peddle them on the streets or just inside the subways. It currently sells for $1.00; $0.25 goes back to the paper to cover publishing costs, and the vendor keeps the other $0.75.
There were enormous benefits to going to high school in the middle of downtown Chicago. You get to meet Kenny the Streetwise Vendor, who would have been a great guy if it weren't for the crack, or the other regulars who sing or dance or do any number of other things to sell to you.
Unfortunately, the drug testing created the problem of other, roving gangs of homeless, who'd steal the papers; they tell you to always look for the vendor I.D. before you buy the paper now.