Columnist out at St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch fired columnist Sylvester Brown, or he quit -- it depends on who you ask.

Brown said he was put on paid administrative leave March 27 after a trip to Washington, D.C. The paper says the trip was paid for by an East St. Louis group Brown was writing about; Brown says he happened to be in D.C. at the same time as the East St. Louis group because he was working on a book deal.

Brown has set up a blog.

The paper published a note, but has otherwise been pretty quiet about the whole thing.

Unreleated: Michael Miner of the Chicago Reader's News Bites says the Post-Dispatch's Bill McClellan could be the best local newspaper columnist anywhere.