Anatomy of an Afghan War Tragedy
Nearly three miles above the rugged hills of central Afghanistan, American eyes silently tracked two SUVs and a pickup truck as they snaked down a dirt road in the pre-dawn darkness. The vehicles, packed with people, were 3 1/2 miles from a dozen U.S. special operations soldiers, who had been dropped into the area hours earlier to root out insurgents. The convoy was closing in on them.
Sober Traveling: AA Roadside Assistance for a Recovering Alcoholic
My goal for this trip in the winter of 2008 is to drive from California to a conference in Florida and back, attend AA meetings in seven states and see how they differ — and how they don’t. I have two fears: that a low-budget camping trip is dangerous for a lone woman and that I’ll end up hating the AA I find outside my local group. Without the one place I’ve felt most at home the last 28 years, where would I be?
In Haiti, a Relationship Built on Adversity
An American journalist is drawn into a friendship with a Haitian deported from the U.S. years ago. Each time a catastrophe strikes, Jean is there to help him. But life between the big-news disasters is another level of tragedy.
How Bell Hit Bottom
In 1993, 39-year-old Robert Rizzo arrived in town trailing the vague whiff of scandal. For a time he seemed like the man the working-class city needed — until he became an ‘unelected and unaccountable czar.’ “Rizzo and seven other Bell leaders past and present are charged with looting more than $5.5 million from one of the county’s poorest municipalities. It is a hydra-headed scandal that has spawned seven federal, state and county investigations and transformed a forgotten suburb into a synonym for rogue governance. It has resonated as a morality tale in which Rizzo is cast as a greed-crazed, cigar-chomping puppet master who cheated his way to an $800,000 salary and a 10-acre horse ranch.”
Mike Penner, Christine Daniels: A Tragic Love Story
The Los Angeles Times sports journalist lived most of his life wanting to be a woman. He discovered too late that he wanted his wife even more
Rags brought riches to Guess co-founder Georges Marciano, but now he faces ruin
Convinced that some employees stole from him, Marciano initiated lawsuits that backfired when a judge instead ordered him to pay the accused employees hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
Dorsey High’s football program is about more than athletics
Under Coach Paul Knox, football offers a haven from the streets where players can learn to break free of tackles, on field and off.
An Iranian couple’s revolution
Both were members of the Basiji elite, the hard-line Iranian militia. Over time, they took different paths, one embracing feminism and the other mellowing, then turning back to the use of force.
A body larger than life
As a comic, Billi Gordon used his girth to get laughs. Now it’s imprisoning him, but he plans a breakout.
A Killing in the Desert – A deadly interrogation in Iraq
A U.S. soldier who lost two of his men questions a suspected insurgent about the attack. Afterward, a slain, naked Iraqi — and the truth about what befell him — are left behind in a dark culvert.