First Do No Harm
Georgeanne Mumm’s surgeon emerged from the operating room with welcome news for her worried family. He had removed her cancerous kidney, he said, and her outlook looked good. The surgeon failed to mention, however, that he also had accidentally removed part of her pancreas, having mistaken it for a tumor. Nor did he mention that he had in-advertently cut the blood flow to her spleen, damaging it irrevocably. Only an emergency operation by another doctor the next day kept Georgeanne from dying right then and there.
How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam
While expertise in counterterrorism training may be in short supply, money for it is not. Each year the federal government directs billions of dollars (no one knows exactly how much) in terrorism-related training grants to state and local governments. These funds cascade down into myriad training programs like the one at Broward College, where instructors ply their trade with only minimal supervision.
The Closing of the Marijuana Frontier
California is not just deciding whether pot should be legal. It’s determining the shape of a major new American industry.
The Agnostic Cartographer
How Google’s open-ended maps are embroiling the company in some of the world’s touchiest geopolitical disputes.
Revisionaries
How a group of Texas conservatives is rewriting your kids’ textbooks.
Big Bother
How a million surveillance cameras in London are proving George Orwell wrong.
Confessions of a Sweatshop Inspector
Presidential candidates are calling for tougher labor standards in trade agreements. But can such standards be enforced? Here’s what I learned from my old job.
Jail Break
How smarter parole and probation can cut the nation’s incarceration rate.
Winning the Good War
Why Afghanistan is not Obama’s Vietnam.