The U.S. Department of Justice investigates the Blackwater founder’s new firm.

On the overstated effect of the Santa Ana winds on human behavior and the understated impact of climate change on LA’s seasons.

The fabled venue where the Replacements, Hüsker Dü, and Prince emerged.

A veteran with PTSD takes on the fighter jets that fly above his sanctuary on the Olympic Peninsula.

The world’s richest prisoner interviewed from the Siberian prison colony he calls home.

A profile of computational biologist Eric Schadt, the guy who’s figuring out what comes next after the Human Genome Project.

A reporter recounts her weekend as an undercover Juggalette.

A blow-by-blow account of Howard Unruh’s slow, deadly walk through Camden, New Jersey – filed an hour before deadline.

On the increasing tension between the pleasant, thoughtful indie rock of car commercials and those who insist on something weirder.

Inside the world of special operations weather technicians, “the Department of Defense’s only commando forecasters.”

A profile of Jim Henson before the release of the first Muppet movie.

An investigative look at the killing of Trayvon Martin.

On the Mexican drug cartel accused of laundering money with race horses.

How two Italian teenagers hacked the Soviet space program and may have heard the dying breaths of a lost cosmonaut.

A travelogue through the contradiction-rich and predominantly Muslim Southern Thailand.

“I have drunkenly sexually assaulted or raped women—the exact number of which I am currently determining.”

Computer programming once had much better gender balance than it does today. What went wrong?

A tale of missing money, heated lunchroom arguments, and flaxseed pizza crusts.

Cycling through relapse and recovery, and the industry that enables both.

Whenever the black dress came out, Jessica Weisman’s mother knew she was “going after the Jewish people again.”

On the bohemian poet’s hidden career as a prolific copywriter.

A profile of the comedian, who died Tuesday.

The story of imprisoned boxer James Scott, who contended for the light heavyweight title by staging fights inside Rahway prison.