“A youthful obsession with Dorothea Lange’s ‘Migrant Mother’ turns to frustration over how its subject, Florence Owens Thompson, an Indigenous woman, has been misperceived.”
California
Inside California’s Brutal Underground Market for Puppies: Neglected Dogs, Deceived Owners, Big Profits
“Buyers are often fooled into thinking they’re supporting reputable, local breeders, but are instead fueling a trade in which some puppies are born and raised in horrific conditions.”
The California Beach Town Awash in Poop
“A sewage crisis in San Diego County reveals the unpolluted truth about the U.S.-Mexico border.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring stories by Willa Köerner, Robyn Ross, Ariel Sabar, Julian Lucas, and Dan Moore.
How to Start a Professional Sports Team, Win Games, and Save the Town
“After the A’s announced they were leaving Oakland, a pair of lifelong fans set out to do something audacious: start a beloved pro baseball team of their own. Remarkably, they pulled it off. Now the Oakland Ballers need to survive.”
It’s Oil That Makes LA Boil
“I never knew I lived in an oil town until I went looking for the concealed infrastructure of fossil fuel production.”
Rebuilding the Maze
“After a crucial section of a California freeway collapsed, this formidable construction boss pulled off one of the fastest, riskiest, most high-stakes reconstructions in U.S. history.”
The Case of the Missing Chacmools
“Geoffrey Gray investigates the writer’s bizarre cult and finds himself entangled in a web of murky financial dealings, sex, possible foul play—and one death-defying supernatural being.”
Lessons From a Mass Shooter’s Mother
“A decade after her son committed a massacre, Chin Rodger is on a quest to help prevent the next tragedy.”
An Ambulance, An Empty Lot and a Loophole: One Man’s Fight for a Place to Live
“He sees himself as many Angelenos do: in the gray area between homeless and homeowner.”
