Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle users, you can also get them as a Readlist.
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1. Who Gets a Public Defender?
Steven Hsieh | Pacific Standard | Nov. 18, 2015 | 10 minutes (2,679 words)
In St. Louis, Missouri—where someone can qualify for food stamps but not a public defender—hundreds of the city’s poorest are left without a lawyer.
2. On Pandering
Claire Vaye Watkins | Tin House | Nov. 23, 2015 | 20 minutes (5,132 words)
“I wrote Battleborn for white men, toward them. If you hold the book to a certain light, you’ll see it as an exercise in self-hazing, a product of working-class madness, the female strain. So, natural then that Battleborn was well-received by the white male lit establishment: it was written for them.” Claire Vaye Watkins, in Tin House.
3. The Serial Swatter
Jason Fagone | New York Times | Nov. 26, 2015 | 27 minutes (6,814 words)
How internet trolls are using our over-militarized police to harass people, and why it’s been difficult to stop.
4. Beyond Gun Control
Lois Beckett | Pro Publica | Nov. 26, 2015 | 22 minutes (5,546 words)
Lois Beckett of ProPublica investigates why a successful program to combat gun violence has gone underfunded and ignored.
5. Don’t Cry for Tracy Morgan
Michael Paterniti | GQ | Nov. 26, 2015 | 13 minutes (3,413 words)
Michael Paterniti interviews Tracy Morgan. “One time I was walking up the stairs with my son, who was always right there with me… and I almost fell backwards. I was just learning how to walk, and he grabbed me and took me upstairs, and I started crying. He said, ‘What’s wrong, Dad?’ And I told him, ‘I remember when I carried you.’ And when my dad was dying of AIDS, I carried him.”
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