Longreads

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images For the past

PLUS: The Petition to Save the Post Office Now AND: The American Post Office's Painted History Published in the February 2013 issue The letter is mailed from Gold Hill, Oregon. The eleven hundred…

Extra Medium / flickr This week, many Americans are braving holiday travel to spend time with family and loved ones. Here are five great longreads on religion to make for interesting travel…

Under federal regulations, sick elephants must get prompt medical care and a veterinarian's okay before performing. Neither occurred, and at showtime Kenny trotted out to the center ring. He…

MichaelScherer wrote this profile over half a decade ago, but with America's debt just downgradedand some blaming the GOP's anti-tax stancethere's never been a better time to read about Grover…

Fourteen months after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded 50 miles southeast of Venice, La., killing 11 men and setting off the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, Transocean, the company that owned and ran the ill-fated 32,600-ton vessel, finally issued its official account of what happened and why. It produced a report on June 22 of no fewer than 854 pages, divided into two volumes, and spared no detail. The bottom line, though, isn’t complicated:It was BP’s fault.

Last May, US Representative Newt Gingrich stood in the well of the House to rebut charges made by Speaker Tip O'Neill. For months, Gingrich had been harassing the Democrats in evening speeches broadcast over C-Span, the cable channel that carries House sessions.

Illustration: Steve Brodner. Click here for a larger version of this illustration.