] The San Jose Mercury News reports that "Gary Webb, a
] former Mercury News investigative reporter, author and
] legislative staffer who ignited a firestorm with his
] controversial stories, died Friday in an apparent suicide
] in his suburban Sacramento home. He was 49."
]
] The Mercury News says that "Webb, an award-winning
] journalist, was ... perhaps best known for sparking a
] national controversy with a 1996 story that contended
] supporters of a CIA-backed guerrilla army in Nicaragua
] helped trigger America's crack-cocaine epidemic in the
] 1980s.

Hacker Con circuit speaker Richard Thieme gives some personal comments on the passing of investigative journalist Gary Webb. Maybe of interest...