James Frey is starting a publishing company, paying young writers (very poorly) to reverse engineer a Twilight-esque hit.

A “reckless” fracking company, poisoned springs, and a family forced to buy water at Walmart.

A medical device company experiments on humans.

Creation of a fast food phenomenon.

Apple vs. Google vs. Facebook vs. Amazon.

How does a company that sells youth learn to grow up?

On a company that provides fake paparazzi, pretend campaign supporters, and counterfeit protesters on demand.

Why did Casper sue a mattress blogger?

On the personal genetic sequencing company 23andMe and why their long time term strategy is collecting spit, not cash.

The absurd scale of McDonald’s’ economics suggests a company more like a commodity trader than a chain of restaurants.

At this volume, and with the impermanence of the sandwich, it only makes sense for McDonald’s to treat the sandwich as a sort of arbitrage strategy: at both ends of the product pipeline, you have a good being traded at such large volume that we might as well forget that one end of the pipeline is hogs and corn and the other end is a sandwich. McDonald’s likely doesn’t think in these terms, and neither should you.

On the road with the band:

Axl Rose is carrying on like an Apache. He stormed into his home state for a concert and compared the fans there to prisoners at Auschwitz. He showed up two hours late for a New York show and launched into a tirade against his record company and various other institutions, including this magazine. He steamrolled into St. Louis, and before he left town, a riot had broken out. During an encore in Salt Lake City, he got ticked off because the Mormons weren't rocking and said, "I'll get out of here before I put anybody else to sleep." Then he did.

Note From the Editors: As we were reporting this story, Newsweek Media Group fired Newsweek Editor Bob Roe, Executive Editor Ken Li and Senior Politics Reporter Celeste Katz for doing their jobs. Reporters Josh Keefe and Josh Saul were targeted for firing before an editor persuaded the company to reverse its decision. As we continued working on the story, we were asked to take part in a review process, which, we ultimately learned, involved egregious breaches of confidentiality and journalism ethics.

Saul is a Longform contributing editor.

The author boards the Costa Atlantica for several days of line dancing, burlesque and buffets as part of the cruise industry’s new foray into China.

The story of Asa Earl Carter, aka Forrest Carter, the best-selling author of The Education of Little Tree, an autobiographical novel about “communion with nature and love of one’s fellow man.” He was also a Klansman, penning the famous George Wallace line, “Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!”

When David Sneddon disappeared hiking around western China, officials chalked it up to a drowning. A decade later, it appears he had been kidnapped and taken to North Korea.

Medicine, the company says, can also be a tasty snack.

The agriculture industry has known for 40 years that using antibiotics can create superbugs. Only one company has taken the science seriously.

How a young Afghan trucking-company owner became spectacularly rich.

An industry responds to the recession by rebranding the carrot as anything but vegetable.

How YouTube went from ubiquitous to profitable; and where it goes next.

How the media company failed to create “a safe and inclusive workplace” for women.