The Best Stories You've nEver Read #28
A Time to Kill, and a Time to Heal. Click here to read Yuval's story.
Here is the story of Yuval, an Israeli pediatrician who saves the lives of Palestinian children. But Yuval has another job. He's an attack helicopter pilot who rains death and destruction on suspected terrorists and their hideouts in Gaza. The Washington Post's Laura Blumenfeld tells Yuval's story. Click on the link above to read it.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #27
American Imports, Chinese Depths. Click here to read Loretta Tofani's special report.
While we were all concerned about what Chinese products, particularly toys, were doing to our families and children, Loretta Tofani, a 1983 Pulitzer Prize winner and international correspondent, developed a different angle. What were these products doing to the Chinese workers who were making them? She found that many were dying or suffering from debilitating illnesses. Solving this problem isn’t nearly as simple as it sounds. Take note of Tofani’s nuanced approach as her story swings between a compassionate look at the plight of Chinese workers and a sophisticated appreciation for what it takes to drive the Chinese and American economies. Her work was funded in part with a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #26
Gerald Boyd: The Jackie Robinson of the New York Times.
This week's installment concerns St. Louis native and former Post-Dispatch scribe Gerald Boyd who went on to become managing editor of the New York Times. He was fairly described as the Jackie Robinson of the Times but his career went down in flames in the wake of the Jayson Blair affair. He died of lung cancer a year ago. Now in a riveting and nuanced account, New York Magazine's Jeff Coplon tells Boyd's story.
--Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #25
Los Angeles Times photographer Luis Sinco took a picture in Iraq three years ago that captured the nation's attention. It came to be known as the "Marlboro Marine," a battle weary soldier with a cigarette dangling from his lips. What's happened to that soldier since then? It's not a pretty picture.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #24
Nude photos on phone throw former NFL star for a loss. What happens when the cheering stops in the NFL? , Well, if you are former all pro Tyrone Hughes of the New Orleans Saints and other teams you become a hall monitor at a Dallas high school in the hope that maybe, just maybe, they'll let you coach and add a $3,000 stipend to your $19,000 salary.
But then something awful happens. A kid steals your cell phone. He sees that you've got nude pictures on it. Instead of the kid getting nailed, you get canned because you threatened the kid to get the phone back... or so it's alleged. And once you were making $2.6 million a year and driving a Jaguar.
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #23
What Killed Baby Lucas?: Lisa Mullenax and her husband, Alejandro Mendez Vargas lost their three-month old baby, Lucas, in 2002. But that doesn't begin to describe their nightmare. Alejandro was accused of killing the child by shaking him. The prosecutor announced he would seek the death penalty As it turned out there was considerable evidence to show that Lucas had died of a rare blood disorder and that the hospital reporting the alleged abuse had overlooked it. Even so, the prosecutor kept after Vargas though it offered to reduce the charges to time served and asked only for a no contest plea. Vargas faced a difficult decision. Should he accept the plea bargain even if he is innocent? This is a heart-wrenching tale well told by Tom Avril of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #22
It was just one of those adult education courses -- a French class. But now Kathleen Diamond's course is in its 30th year with almost all of the same students, many in their 80s and 90s.Kathleen is thinking about saying finis, but hasn't yet. ."We would miss it," one of her students says. "It's become terribly important in our lives." Read Brigid Schulte's moving story in the Washington Post.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #21
Many years ago the U.S. government encouraged a practice of having the children of unwed mothers on Indian reservations adopted off the reservation. Those children ended up in the hands of whites, some of whom would mention to their kids ... you have some Indian blood in you.... That made those children curious and sent them looking for their roots. In a moving story, Curt Brown of the Minneapolis Star Tribune tells of a homecoming on the White Earth Indian Reservation in northwestern Minnesota.
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #20
Robert Henke wants to make a huge contribution to mankind by building an earthquake probe that can predict the way soils will react in a seismic event. Unfortunately, the effort over 25 years has created a quake of its own. He lives alone in a tiny one-bedroom apartment, having lost his wife and his home, having spent $1 million of his mother's fortune, and having his 17-year-old son face a prison term. Read Gadi Dechter's account of Henke's Ahab like quest in the Baltimore Sun.
Gadi was nice enough to write me a detailed note about how she got this story. If you'd like to read it, click on "Read more" below:
-- Dick Weiss
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #19
You've heard of the sensitive racial problem called "driving while black" when police officers unfairly focus their attention on African-American motorists. Now read New York Times reporter Solomon Moore's account of "reporting while black" in Charlotte, N.C. Moore went to Charlotte to learn more about the city's effort to crack down on gang violence. The problem is that it's tough for the police to distinguish between gang members and people like Moore. Moore also found that neighborhood residents treated him with little respect.
-- Dick Weiss
