March 20, 2018

Set deep in the Valley of the Sun, the lush and sprawling ‘megapolis’ has a problem – the rivers

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February 13, 2018

The Sackler Drug Rehab Facility, unlike the prestigious Sackler art galleries of New York and London does not exist. Yet.

If lawyers have their way, however, or public opinion pricks a few consciences, it may soon.

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February 13

The morning of Nov. 9, 2016, found Kate Ranta sobbing under her quilt. She had taken to bed in her modest Alexandria, Va., apartment the night before, when it became clear which way the presidential election was going.

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January 22, 2018

Nan Goldin lights a cigarette and takes a puff. “My dealer came here 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I was one of his best customers.” 

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January 4, 2018

Abdullahi Yusuf was having an identity crisis. Culturally marooned between home life with his traditional Somali parents and immersion in his everyday American school life in Minnesota, the Muslim teen gradually found his way to terrorist propaganda online.

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December 22, 2017

Cheyenne Mangold’s hands shook ever so slightly as she reached with a long metal instrument to catch hold of what looked like the cervix. The medical student was attempting, for the very first time, the rudiments of performing an abortion.

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November 7, 2017 "This idea might be comical if it were not so dangerous,” says Dr Cheryl Hudson, a lecturer in US political history at the University of Liverpool, of the higher education minister, Jo Johnson’s, recent demand that all British universities guarantee free speech on campus or face fines.

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November 1, 2017 In the heat of the 2016 election campaign, George Papadopoulos was a jet-setting political operative on the rise.

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October 15, 2017 The atmosphere in the Tribeca Grill was convivial. The mix of diners came from finance, film, media consulting or marketing, with a smattering of well-behaved tourists.

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September 14, 2017 Marisol Conde-Hernandez has been out and proud as an undocumented Latina ever since she can remember, growing up in New Jersey. Now she wants to be the first undocumented immigrant in the state to be allowed to register as a lawyer.

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September 25, 2017

Nick T thought he’d reached bottom when he dived into the dumpster next to his home at 3am to root out a porn DVD he’d hurled in there in self-disgust at his compulsive masturbation habit, brought it in, cleaned it off, made use of it then tossed it back out. He did that three times that night.

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July 17, 2017

Ed Tilousi knelt down next to the crystal-clear turquoise creek. The only sounds were the gurgling of the current and the sawing of cicadas in a pecan nut tree as the hot sun made the red rock canyon walls towering above him glow.

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June 16, 2017

By the time Marshall Carpenter’s father broke down the barricaded door of his son’s apartment and physically ripped him away from his electronic devices, the 25-year-old was in a bad way. He could not bear to live a life that didn’t involve hours upon hours of uninterrupted screen time.

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June 7, 2017

When it finally became clear that Moonlight had won the 2017 Oscar for best picture, nowhere were the cheers more intense than at a small community arts center in one Miami neighborhood.

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May 7, 2017

The huge airship had circled three times around the Empire State Building. It was on its way to land in New Jersey. From her home in southern Pennsylvania, Libby Magness Weisberg watched the Hindenburg glide by.

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February 15, 2017

Andrew Newman always pays his taxes, even if he hates what the government is doing with them. But not this year. For him, Donald Trump is the dealbreaker. 

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November 14th, 2016

Secret Facebook groups become focus of resistance in Trump era, catch eye of Hillary Clinton.

Some say they now want to run for office. Others plan to write to their local mosques to express solidarity with American Muslims and refugees, or to start preparing for the midterm elections in Congress. They are organizing in secret Facebook groups they consider safe spaces with tongue-in-cheek titles like Pantsuit Nation and Bitches For Hillary – not just to mourn but to mobilize.

“This is a huge wake-up call,” said Meghan Myszkowski, 36, of Donald Trump’s win last week.

Myszkowski, a single mother and who runs a social media agency in Pasadena, California, is a member of several invitation-only Facebook groups where disappointed voters – particularly women – are pledging to ignite a novel liberal comeback in the US.

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December 6th, 2016

Women flocking to take self-defense classes across America after Trump’s election victory stirs fears for safety.

Self-defense seminars and conflict resolution classes see a surge in demand from people who worry they may be targeted and want to protect themselves

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December 8th, 2016

Eat, pray, love in the USA: meet the young man planning to break records by visiting all of America’s national parks sites in one trip – interview.

Mikah Meyer is making a record-breaking attempt in a battered Hyundai his father left him when he died, hoping to highlight parks for gay people and millennials.

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November 6th, 2016

Texas climate scientist and evangelical Christian on a mission to convert global warming cynics, save planet.

As a climate scientist and an evangelical Christian, Katharine Hayhoe is well placed to reach a skeptical audience – even if that means braving hate mail.

While most US climate scientists live amid constant controversy, Hayhoe believes she is enduring an acute level of abuse because she reaches parts of the population many of her peers cannot reach.

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October 30th, 2016

Wisconsin university campus rattled after student arrested, suspect of being serial rapist – amid federal probe.

The University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus is reeling from news that a student was charged with crimes against five women, including sexual assault and false imprisonment, during his two years at the school.
The 20-year-old student, Alec Cook, has been arrested and appeared in court on Thursday, charged with 15 crimes against five women, including sexual assault, strangulation and false imprisonment. His modus operandi, according to police and prosecutors, was to befriend fellow students and eventually entrap and viciously attack them, while keeping notebooks detailing his alleged targets.

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October 27th, 2016

How squirrels and swingers crossed paths in Colorado. Guess which group caught the attention of law enforcement?

Kendall Seifert’s chief passions in life are squirrels and swingers. Or, to put it another way, wildlife and wild sex.

For the last few years he has maintained this unusual combination of interests, protecting the former while promoting the latter, running a wildlife rescue center and a swingers club in Colorado – on the same premises. Or he did.

Seifert, 53, is due up in court on felony charges in November after the state raided his business in Littleton, near Denver, and put a stop to the controversial side of his activities.

That would be squirrel rescue, apparently. His animal sanctuary has been shut down. His swingers club, Scarlet Ranch, is still going gangbusters and currently revving up for “the biggest Halloween party ever”, he told the Guardian.

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October 2nd, 2016

“The heartache is still there. I take one day at a time.”

Aaron Esh Jr is only 23, but he carries the weight of the terrible events of a day 10 years ago. On 2 October 2006, in a one-room school house deep in Pennsylvania Amish country, he was the oldest student present. A local man burst in, tied up 10 girls and shot them.

Five died and five survived.

For a long time, Esh wrestled with himself, tormented by the idea that he could somehow have saved his classmates. He still struggles with the memories.

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October 16th, 2016

Real clowns warn of fakes, felons stealing their “ancient art” as hysteria sweeps the nation after child abduction scare.

Police are pleading for end to evil clowns, a Clown Lives Matter march was called off, and schools are banning clown costumes while some stores are sold out.

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September 20th, 2016

Lesbians riding wave of newfound visibility, fame, awards as “out” stars are a hit at Emmys.

Sarah Paulson, Kate McKinnon and Jill Soloway win awards, as gay women credit social media, changing attitudes and new TV platforms for advances.

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September 17th, 2016

Denise Juneau of Montana, who is running to become the first Native American woman in Congress, faces an uphill battle – but ‘underdog is where I like to be’.

In the 2016 elections, Denise Juneau is both a trailblazer and an underdog. She is relishing both roles. If the Democrat causes an upset in November and wins Montana’s only seat in the House of Representatives, she will become the first Native American woman ever to serve in Congress.

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September 11th, 2016

The death toll among those sickened by the toxic dust and ash of Ground Zero will within as little as five years exceed the number of people killed on the day of the 9/11 attacks, experts say.

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September 11th, 2016

Merita Zejnuni was working nearby when the towers fell. It wasn’t until 2009 that she began treatment – but ‘I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me’.

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In the majority of US states, the law not only fails to protect women who have conceived out of rape, but in many cases it is forcing them to share parental responsibilities with their attackers. - Interviews with the mothers fighting for justice.

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August 6th, 2016

“I thought I was the only one”. Rape victim speaks out after her prep school admits students were abused by staff.

Anne Scott broke a 25-year silence to go public last year, and this week the St George’s School agreed to pay compensation to victims. Joanna Walters speaks with her in the first in-person interview since the settlement.

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July 21st, 2016

Bruce Castor was selected to run AG’s office while Kathleen Kane faces perjury trial and raises the ire of advocates for sex abuse victims.

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July 4th, 2016

Welcome to Quincy, the town vying to be named Most Patriotic in America – and the home of those famous donuts.

The city produced two presidents, not to mention John Hancock, and on the Fourth of July, a state lawmaker is making the case for an official designation.

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June 26th, 2016

Feminist leaders tell their sisters not to retire, to guide new generation of activists still in search of equality.

In 1950, Muriel Fox applied for a job with the world’s largest public relations firm, in New York.

“We don’t hire women writers,” she was told.

Months later, she got her foot in the door. In 1956, she became the youngest vice-president of Carl Byoir and Associates. Then she was told she couldn’t progress further, because corporate chief executives “can’t relate to women”.

Fox joined the vanguard of the modern feminist movement, helping millions of women. Famously, she composed a letter that Betty Friedan, first president of the National Organization for Women (Now) and author of The Feminine Mystique, sent to President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, helping persuade him to extend his federal affirmative action order mandating equal opportunities in employment to cover gender as well as race and religion.

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June 25th, 2016

As worried Poles and Frenchmen look on, expats and tourists digest Brexit, a Euro 2016 exit and a full English breakfast at Legends in Midtown Manhattan.

he football was predictable. Nil-nil at half time, little drama. The politics were a different story, shock still reverberating from the Brexit vote among fans of all stripes at an ex-pat pub in New York on Saturday.

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May 8th, 2016

In an upstairs room at the Stonewall Inn in New York, drag legend Lady Bunny paused her stream of filthy jokes and Adele parodies just long enough to tell her audience: “This is ground zero for LGBT rights in this country – and the world.”

Most did not need telling. They may have been too young to have taken part in the 1969 uprising that began when lesbian and gay patrons fought back during a police raid, but they were acutely aware of the place in history that the bar enjoys.

So is Barack Obama. According to reports, the president is poised to declare the tiny, railed garden opposite the inn and some surrounding streets a national monument, in tribute to the struggle for gay equality that began there, then turned into a worldwide movement.

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June 3rd, 2016

Canadian bros who get their kicks posting about their illegal stunts at national parks and monuments – now wanted.

Authorities in Yellowstone national park are urging a group of Canadian men accused of tramping off trail and dabbing in a delicate hot spring to turn themselves in, after images were posted on social media of their reported antics there and across a string of American “national treasures”.

Federal warrants have been issued in Wyoming for the arrest of the four friends, who market themselves under variations of their Vancouver-based clothing and entertainment brand High on Life.

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May 16th, 2016

As more women are throwing down the cloak of anonymity, experts point to unprecedented trend of going public but misogynistic backlash continues.

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The first things you notice are the smell of freshly fried cod and the fact that the men serving it up are wearing kilts.

It’s only afterward that you notice the waiters are carrying not just trays of food – but pistols, too.

You’re tempted to ask: “Is that a gun in your sporran or are you just pleased to see me?” Actually, these guys wear their firearms neatly tucked into their waistbands, or in side holsters amid the tartan folds.

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Almost seven years ago, a troubled 11-year-old girl reported that she had been raped — twice — in her Northwest Washington neighborhood. Despite medical evidence of sexual assault, records show that no suspects were arrested and the cases were given only sporadic attention by the police . Instead, in the second case, the police had the girl, Danielle Hicks-Best, charged with filing a false report.

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For more than a decade before his death David Bowie seemed to disappear. Beset by ill health after an on-stage heart attack in 2004, he largely withdrew into a life at home in New York, becoming a ghost in the city where he had lived for a quarter of a century.

Yet as the world comes to terms with his death this week, admirers are digesting a remarkable late burst of creativity, a dramatic 18-month flourish capped by an apparently exquisitely well-crafted exit.

At 69, Bowie reasserted himself both as a musician – Blackstar, the album released two days before his death, is topping charts around the world – and as a questing creative figure whose vision is still playing out on the New York theatre stage.

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Oklahomans don’t blink when they hear warnings about tornadoes, drought or ice-storms. Earthquakes, however, catch their attention.

Increasingly tied to tremors shaking the west, fracking for natural gas is creating alarm and division around western states that until recently enjoyed a boom in jobs and revenue.

In Oklahoma, seismologists have warned that significant temblors last week could signal a larger, more dangerous earthquake to come in a state where drilling is destabilizing the bedrock.

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Brooklyn bad boy Martin Shkreli has never been far from controversy and that’s just the way he likes it, normally.

The 32-year-old became a Wall Street gambler at 17, received his first lawsuit at 24, was worth an estimated $100m shortly after turning 30 – and at this year achieved the title of “the most hated man in America”.

When the banker-turned-pharmaceutical-entrepreneur acquired his latest title, felony suspect, and felt the cold steel of federal handcuffs on Thursday, he may have been the only one who was surprised.

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Ashleigh Wade liked to refer to herself on Facebook as her boyfriend’s “pregnant girlfriend”. The couple posted sonogram images, boasting of their forthcoming baby girl, and had set up a registry for friends to buy them baby gifts.

Wade, 22, had recently reconnected with a childhood friend in New York, Angelikque Sutton. Sutton was pregnant, too, and expecting a girl imminently, around the same time as Wade was understood to be due.

But last month, Sutton, also 22, who was about to marry her long-term boyfriend and the father of their unborn child, died a bloody death in her Bronx apartment, stabbed and cut open, with the baby ripped from her abdomen. Police found the placenta and a knife on the floor inside the apartment and Wade outside, screaming that the baby was hers.

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Two towns that are home to a polygamous sect went on trial last week in Phoenix, Arizona, in a case that revolves around claims of religious liberty and discrimination – reaching back two centuries to a problem posed by the founders of the US: what kind of wall separates church from state?

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Eleven-year-old Paige Cheney’s freckled face furrowed slightly as the late afternoon sun began sinking behind the playground on the army base she calls home.

“When I miss him most, I turn on my favorite radio station and it soothes me. They talk a lot about peace. The other night they were talking about grace. It helps,” she said.

The person she misses is her father, Major Todd Cheney, who is on his third deployment in the “war on terror”, serving once in Iraq and now on a second tour in Afghanistan.

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It’s a long way from Rwanda to the Hamptons, in every sense. But on Friday afternoon the two will be connected when a pack of underdogs finally get their props in a tale of unlikely triumph against the odds.

The Uncondemned, a new documentary debuting at the Hamptons international film festival, will reveal the mystery witnesses who testified from behind a curtain to bring about the world’s first-ever conviction of rape as a war crime in Rwanda.

It will also show how young US lawyers nailed one of the trials of the century in a rare victory they hope will spur similar prosecutions.

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As the sun comes up, the crack pipes come out. A woman shields her face behind the frame of a store’s roll-down security shutter and a moment later a cloud of thick, pale smoke puffs into the morning air. The short, scorched glass pipe is visible as she takes a hit from a packet in her palm.

Five paces further on, the scene is repeated by someone else.

A dozen men are slumped on the next block, awash in trash and scraps of pizza crust.

And around the corner a woman is sitting on a strip of cardboard. She looks less wrecked than the others – clean hair, a trace of eye-liner, pearly white teeth, a black cotton dress – but, she said: “I’m smoking – right now. Crack.”

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Where were you when #piggate broke? Did you squeal with laughter and disbelief? Did you shamefully recall some embarrassing youthful memories of your own?

Public reaction to Lord Ashcroft’s claims about David Cameron has ranged from shrieks to mere shrugs, but the story also offered a fresh glimpse into the mystique of the elite. Whether harmless or destructive, such rites take place in social contexts that are breeding grounds for unbridled behavior.

“Most social groups have some sort of entry procedure – but some are more bizarre than others,” said Dominic Abrams, professor of social psychology at Britain’s University of Kent, in a beautiful piece of academic understatement.

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Cid Isbell hadn’t been nervous about the seven-hour operation until the day before he went into the hospital. But once he made it to his San Francisco hotel room, he began burning sage for good vibes.

“Advanced surgery for female-to-males has been way behind male-to-female until now,” Isbell said. “The surgeons always told me, ‘it’s easier to make a hole than a pole’ but now we’re catching up.” And catch up he did.

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Two things were missing Saturday night from the strip of rough-and-ready bars that sits directly opposite the elegant, colonial-style buildings of the prestigious University of Virginia.

The blood on the pavement outside the Trinity Irish bar, which had spilled from the head of popular 20-year-old student Martese Johnson amid St Patrick’s Day revelries last Tuesday, had been washed away.

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When Shannon Schieber moved into an apartment on a quiet, pretty little street inPhiladelphia to pursue a doctorate at the prestigious University of Pennsylvania Wharton Business School nearby, she didn't know that a serial rapist was stalking single women in the area.

Neither did the police. Eight months later the man broke into her home in the middle of the night, raped the 23-year-old, then choked her to death as she put up a tremendous fight.

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In Steubenville, a small, struggling former steel town on the bank of the OhioRiver, the last five days of an excruciating rape trial and the months leading up to it have been racked with angst and division.

But at issue for many residents was not the specifics of the case alone: whether two stars of the town's much-loved high school football team raped a drunken teenage girl during a night of wild parties.

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With a metallic slam, the cage door shuts and is locked behind him, and a young man sits down, thick wire mesh a few inches from his back and bulletproof glass right in front of his cheekily handsome, scrubbed face.

He picks up a chunky telephone receiver attached to the wall, which is wired through to the visitor sitting on the other side of the glass.

"Hello."

This is death row in Texas and the condemned man is Michael Perry, who is now about to become famous or, perhaps more likely, infamous in a documentary about capital punishment by prominent film-maker Werner Herzog.

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When astronomy lecturer Dr Andy Young is not researching what happens to hot gases after they fall into black holes, he is usually on a late-night or pre-dawn train.

For while he works at Bristol University, his wife, Dr Zoe Leinhardt, works at Cambridge and lives there with their three-year-old son, Jude. They are happily married, but to get good jobs in their fields they have been forced to live apart for the last two years and travel long hours to see each other and keep the family together.

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