The Town That Burned Itself Down
For 18 months, Coatesville, Penn., was besieged with an improbable number of arsons. But who started the fires – and why?
The Straight Dope
An interview with David Simon, creator of The Wire.
American Murder Mystery
An investigation into rising crime rates in small American cities. Is a lauded antipoverty program to blame?
Held by the Taliban
NYT journalist David Rohde’s alternately terrifying and absurd first person account of his kidnapping en route to an interview in Southern Afghanistan and the subsequent seven months he, along with his translator and driver, spent in captivity in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
Russia's Crime of the Century
How crooked officials pulled off a massive scam, spent millions on Dubai real estate, and killed the author’s law partner when he tried to expose them.
Church Burners
Early last year, 10 churches were torched in East Texas. The culprits? Two Baptist teens having a crisis of faith.
After the Tsunami: Nothing to Do but Start Again
On the unlikely survival (for the second time) of Kamaishi, Japan.
Into the Valley of Death
The 20 soldiers in Second Platoon try in vain to hold down a strategic outpost in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, “among the deadliest pieces of terrain in the world for U.S. forces.”
Brotherhood
On Sebastian Junger’s War and the documentary Restrepo by Tim Hetherington, who was killed in Libya yesterday.
Kiki Kannibal: The Girl Who Played With Fire
The rise, fall and stubborn survival of a teenage Internet celebrity who discovered that the real world can be a very scary place.
Tavi Says
A profile of 14-year-old fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson.
How to Build a Universe That Doesnt Fall Apart Two Days Later
Time is speeding up. And to what end? Maybe we were told that two thousand years ago.
On the shortcomings of both reality and fiction.
This Tech Bubble Is Different
“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.”
The "Pedophile's Paradise"
An investigation into the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in Alaska Native villages.
Heroin.com: Selling Junk Online
How Craigslist dealers do business in New York City.
Dr. Kush
How medical marijuana transformed California’s pot industry.
The City of Broken Men
Nearly every American soldier injured in Iraq or Afghanistan is treated—for a few days at least—at a single hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.
Obama’s Young Mother Abroad
In 1967, Stanley Ann Dunham took her 6-year-old son, Barry, on an adventure to Indonesia. An excerpt from A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother.
The Coming Storm
What overcrowded and swelling Bangladesh can tell us about how the planet’s population, more than 1/3 of which live within 62 miles of a shoreline, will react to rising sea levels.
Blocking the Transmission of Violence
A profile of CeaseFire, a group of “violence interrupters” attempting to prevent street shootings by treating them like an infectious disease.
Best Article Crime World Religion
Rajneeshees in Oregon: The Untold Story
Twenty-five years ago, a guru from India showed up in rural Oregon with 2,000 followers. Here’s what happened next: they legally turned their multi-million dollar ranch into an incorporated city, imported homeless people to swing local votes, poisoned hundreds and attempted to assassinate the state’s U.S. attorney.
-
Part 1: 25 Years After Rajneeshee Commune Collapsed, Truth Spills Out
-
Part 2: Thwarted Rajneeshee Leaders Attack Enemies, Neighbors with Poison
-
Part 3: Rajneeshee Leaders Take Revenge on The Dalles’ with Poison, Homeless
-
Part 4: Rajneeshee Leaders See Enemies Everywhere as Questions Compound
-
Part 5: Rajneeshees’ Utopian Dreams Collapse as Talks Turn to Murder
The Grand Tour
We ate in our own restaurants, stayed in our own hotels, and hired our own guides. We moved through a parallel Paris—and a parallel Rome, Milan, and so on.
The reporter takes a whirlwind guided bus tour of a Europe with a group of Chinese tourists.
Jeff Bridges Makes a Decision
On what you do when you can do whatever what you want.
2011 Pulitzer Prize: Investigative Reporting: Weak Insurers Put Millions of Floridians at Risk
Despite no hurricanes in five years, Florida insurers are demanding yet more money from homeowners. At the same time, the capital that insurers have on hand to pay claims has shrunk. One reporter spent a year trying to figure out why.
2011 Pulitzer Prize: National Reporting: The Wall Street Money Machine
A series on how some Wall Street bankers, seeking to enrich themselves at the expense of their clients and sometimes even their own firms, at first delayed but then worsened the financial crisis.
