What seems like a slam-dunk case against a mass murderer exposes widespread prosecutorial misconduct in Orange County.

“In this scene, set at a government dacha, they are joined by their American counterparts at the State Department for a daylong picnic that grows increasingly informal, involving drinks, flirtation, a guitar jam and (spoiler) contact between two spies. At times in my new job, I feel like a spy myself, and one with a shaky cover. I don’t have a good answer for how I got here.”

Inside the Republican Party’s bizarre, tumultuous 2015.

Why “the legal equivalent of outer space” continues to exist, fifteen years after 9/11.

The making of the drone.

A profile of new Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

Meet John Zerzan, arguably the most influential anarchist in America.

Vengeance, abuse, and the strange double standards of death penalty politics.

What America owes those it takes in.

The political history of Planned Parenthood.

We know that certain programs can help prevent gun deaths among black men. No one in Washington seems to care.

An interview about Black Lives Matter and the last 18 months of activism in America.

Inside a movement.

A conversation about leadership, Grantland, regret, and the President’s favorite conspiracy theories.

On the history of political polls, which have become more influential and less reliable over time.

How $100 million in cuts created chaos in Florida’s mental hospitals.

Five Vietnamese-American journalists were killed on American soil between 1981 and 1990. The prime suspects? Members of the National United Front for the Liberation of Vietnam, a group of former military commanders from South Vietnam.

In what will likely be his last political act, Willie Nelson declares war on corporate marijuana.

On Republican consultant John Weaver and the art of political seduction.

On the ground with a young Texas doctor who travels the state to provide abortions.

The possibilities and limits of investigative reporting.

The hectic life of Gloria Steinem.

An oral history of the disaster:

Someone said to me, or maybe I read it, that the problem of Chernobyl presents itself first of all as a problem of self understanding. That seemed right. I keep waiting for someone intelligent to explain it to me.

The dangerous corporate ethos of former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, who is on trial after an explosion at one of his mines killed 29.

The sudden emergence of Bernie Sanders.