Minnesota’s Jewish paper goes biweekly: After nearly a century in business, Minneapolis-based weekly the American Jewish World is switching to a biweekly production schedule. Founded in 1912 as the Jewish Weekly to “tell  the Jewish story and to be a catalyst for Jewish unity and cultural vitality” (it got its current name in 1915), the paper has been hard hit, like many community papers, by the recession. Anticipating a long-term downturn in advertising, publisher and editor Mordecai Specktor — only the fifth person to hold that position in the paper’s history — writes that the new schedule begins May 1. “The plan is to publish on a biweekly basis and deliver a more substantial newspaper to our loyal subscribers,” he told me in an email. He says he’d like to improve the paper’s website, but first he’s getting ready to announce publication of the annual AJW Community Guide, a directory of Jewish business and services, which will be published on the site and, in November, in print.  (A bit of trivia: Someone well-versed in the struggle to make media sustainable is involved with the publication: MinnPost founder Joel Kramer is Specktor’s partner and a board member on the paper’s parent organization, Minnesota Jewish Media, LLC.)

N.D. journalist sentenced in Iran: Journalist Roxana Saberi, a North Dakota native, was sentenced to eight years in prison for espionage by Iranian authorities. The 31-year-old, who was born to an Iranian father and Japanese mother in Fargo, has lived in Iran for six years, where she’s done reporting for National Public Radio and the BBC, among other outlets. Saberi’s father says that Roxana testified that her “earlier confessions were not true and she told me she had been tricked into believing that she would be released if she cooperated.” With pressure from the Obama administration, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged the top prosecutor in Tehran to review the case.

Happy B-day, TCDP: The Twin Cities Daily Planet is turning three and celebrating at a community happy hour, May 1 at Bedlam Theatre.

In the days leading up to the Republican National Convention, a series of police raids led by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office resulted in the arrest of eight people for allegedly conspiring to disrupt the political gathering. On Wednesday the individuals were each charged with a single count of “conspiracy to commit riot in the second degree in furtherance of terrorism.” The criminal complaint details a far-ranging plot by members of the RNC Welcoming Committee that included plans to kidnap delegates, attack cops with urine and molotov cocktails and ultimately bring the convention to a halt.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. A ninth individual was also arrested earlier this week and is named in the criminal complaint, but has not yet been charged. All but the latter suspect have been released on $75,000 bail.

Yesterday afternoon attorneys for the alleged co-conspirators held a press conference to rebut the charges. They portrayed the allegations as a trumped-up plot hyped by confidential informants who had a financial incentive to exaggerate the potential violence. “The most outrageous allegations made by the authorities are not supported by any evidence other than the statement of the confidential informants,” said attorney Bruce Nestor. “They’re not supported by the evidence seized.”

In one instance, for example, officers seized what was purportedly a police shield and cited it as evidence of the group’s ill intents. “We have the Sheriff displaying a single plastic item that he claims was a shield, as if one shield was going to protect demonstrators from 3500 armed riot police who have projectile-tear-gas weapons,” said Nestor.

The trio of lawyers also charged that police are utilizing terrorism fears to circumvent First Amendment rights. “All they do is they label people as terrorists and anarchists, and at that point what people are actually saying and the content of their views has no meaning anymore,” said attorney Jordan Kushner. “What they do is they dehumanize people, they stigmatize them and in the process cut off what they’re saying.”

Kushner compared the case to the treatment of the Chicago Seven in 1968 — all of whom were ultimately acquitted of conspiracy charges. “Of course that made complete fools out of the government,” he said. “When the evidence comes out in this case it’s going to be the same thing. It’s going to be about politically opportunistic, abusive, cynical people in power who are abusing the law to suppress political dissent and suppress political organizing.”

Three of the defendants — Luce Guillen-Givins, Robert Joseph Czernik and Max Jacob Specktor — were present at the press conference but did not answer questions from reporters. However, two of the defendants’ parents did comment on the charges.

Mordecai Specktor, father of Max (pictured together) and editor of the American Jewish World newspaper, stated that his son was held in solitary confinement for two days before being released on bail. “The criminal complaint here is farfetched, overblown, outrageous,” he said. “I encourage all the journalists here to look into the specifics of this complaint and see where the truth really lies.” Specktor then put his arm around his son. “This is your domestic terrorist,” he said. “Take a good look. I don’t believe it at all. Give me a break.”

The other defendants are Nathanael David Secor, Erik Charles Oseland, Monica Rachel Bicking and Garrett Scott Fitzgerald.