It's been a rewarding few weeks on the Seven Days international news desk. Back in March, I broke a story about four Vermonters who are suing the Bush administration for permission to visit their families back in Cuba.

Last week, amid a fair amount of media coverage, the Vermont plaintiffs finally got their day in federal court. Among the news outlets to pick up that story was a Havana newspaper, ("La noticia fue publicada primero por el periódico Seven Days...") marking the first time that Vermont's largest weekly has gotten a shout-out in the Cuban press.

Then, shortly after I wrote a couple of stories (here and here) about Burlington Telecom's effort to yank Al Jazeera English off the air, I got a phone call early one morning from Richard Gizbert, a former ABC News reporter who now works for Al Jazeera International in London. Gizbert told me he was sitting 3000 miles away reading my "little story" about his global news network and wondering how he might go about covering a local town meeting on the issue for his international media watch program, "Listening Post."

I helped the G-Man line up a local film crew, though there's still no word on when that piece will run. According to the Giz, the Hillary and McClellan stories, (and now Obama) have sucked all the oxygen out of the room.Then, just this week the NYC-based media watchdog group, FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), got wind of the Burlington Telecom dustup. As a result, I recorded a short interview this afternoon with Peter Hart, who produces  "CounterSpin," FAIR's nationally syndicated radio show.

I'm told a podcast will be available online as Friday morning here.Geezum crow! Castro, Al Jazeera and now the left-leaning FAIR? Bet my FBI file is getting thick...