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Agenda: Ann Arbor's Newsmonthly 

Agenda Publications, P.O. Box 3624, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Subscription: $10/yr.

Here's a refreshing break - a new alternative community paper that isn't saturated with ads or columns extolling the latest hot movies, raw fish delicacies, good deals on PCs, or nifty fashions born on t.v. cop shows. 

Agenda describes itself as "non-aligned." That's fine. Ideological alignment inevitably leads its adherents to embarrassing positions. "Dogs run free - why can't we?" to quote a past master who has forgotten the implications of his own question. 

Agenda runs freely through a gamut of issues, with its position not "aligned" but clearly committed: to peace, economic justice, responsive government, and citizen initiatives toward rational public policy. The lead story in the September '86 issues concerns the crisis in family farms; other front-page pieces focus on the involvement of academia in lethal research ("Is Your Professor Building the Bomb?") and an Ann Arbor activist's campaign toward a seat in Congress. The issue also features a local calendar and an informative guide to local community resources in various ares, such as labor, peace & disarmament, science, and "progressive religion." 

The paper, edited by Ted Sylvester and Laurie Wechter, carries advertising, but the ads are not the paper's reason for existence, as too often seems the case in current community papers. Agenda is a winner so far - put it on your agenda (back issues are available) if you're interested in seeing how well a progressive community paper can be done.

-Grant Burns