Longreads

My First Time: A Political Novice Runs for Office I ran for Congress in Maryland’s 8th District because I thought the government was spending too much money. I had no idea how much I’d be spending, or what I’d have to show for it when the ballots were counted. My rookie stats — 2,242 votes, […]

The Mystery Of Erica Blasberg: Why Did the LPGA Golfer Take Her Own Life? “Did I push her too hard?” [her father] Mel asks, his voice cracking slightly. “That question will haunt me for the rest of my life. Every world-class athlete has to give up their childhood to some degree. They’re given a special […]

From 1948: Pearl Harbor in Retrospect nprfreshair: “Pearl Harbor struck a country satiated with war’s alarms. True, we had put through the draft and had actually reached the shooting stage with German submarines. But as a people we were still talking of war, without really accepting its imminence. Then, into our national complacency, came a […]

Don Blankenship: The Dark Lord of Coal Country During the 1980s, the company injected more than 1.4 billion gallons of slurry underground — seven times the amount of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico during the BP disaster this spring. According to the lawsuit, Massey knew that the ground around the injection sites was […]

Unauthorized, but Not Untrue: The real story of a biographer in a celebrity culture of public denials, media timidity, and legal threats Presidential wrath has its niggling little consequences. After almost 30 years as a contributing editor for Washingtonian magazine, I was suddenly removed from the masthead. The editor said he disapproved of my Bush […]

Do Ask, Must Tell: Turkey’s military doesn’t just discriminate against gays — it humiliates them To seek exemption, therefore, many gay men have to endure pseudo-scientific tests designed to appraise both their homosexuality and the extent to which it might render them “unfit” for service. “Parts of the test I took included having to draw […]

Since Beating that Left Student in Coma, His Father Has Kept a Constant Vigil Ken quit his job running a health club in Loudoun County to care for his only son. Every day, he brushes Ryan’s teeth and bathes him, administers 50 medications, feeds him through a tube attached to his stomach, changes his catheter, […]