Articles

The Wild True Story of the Bruce Lee Statue Heist

—Daily Beast

The world’s first statue honoring the martial arts superstar became a beloved symbol of hope in fractured Bosnia, until it mysteriously went missing earlier this year…..read more

The Truth is out There

—Atavist Magazine

A father’s disappearance, dark family secrets, and the hunt for Bigfoot….read more

California’s Monuments Men and Women

—Alta

During wildfires and other natural disasters, art and artifacts often get left behind. Colonel Kirk Sturm and his team aim to rescue these cultural treasures….read more

The American Heiress Who Risked Everything to Resist the Nazis

—Smithsonian

When the fascists took power in Austria, Muriel Gardiner helped refugees and others in need, and never stopped…read more

The Congresswoman Who Survived and Served

—Elle

Rep. Jackie Speier endured a shooting, a miscarriage, harassment, and unfathomable loss—channeling it all into public service. Now, after nearly 15 years in Congress, she’s moving on…..read more

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Of Murder and Motherhood

—Marie Claire

Their children are gone—two of them murdered, one missing and charged with the killing of another—but these moms of the Bakersfield 3 are united in their fight for justice and answers….read more

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The 20th Century History Behind Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

—Smithsonian

Smithsonian top 10 stories of 2022

Included in a Flipboard curated collection

During WWII, Ukrainian nationalists saw the Nazis as liberators from Soviet oppression. Now, Russia is using that chapter to paint Ukraine as a Nazi nation…read more

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Inside the Global Cult of Al Capone

—Smithsonian

A recent auction of the Chicago gangster’s mementos testifies to his enduring appeal—and the thorny nature of collecting items owned by criminals…read more

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Michaela’s Shadow

—Alta

Society for Features Journalism Excellence-in- Features 2022 winner

In the beginning, Sharon Murch would stand at her door waiting for her nine-year-old daughter, Michaela. Waiting for Michaela to call. Waiting for Michaela to return from the Rainbow Market, where she had gone to buy candy with her best friend, Trina, on November 19, 1988. Waiting for Michaela to walk up the street. Waiting for Michaela to appear in the back seat of a police cruiser. Waiting for Michaela to come home….read more

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A Sensational Murder Case That Ended in a Wrongful Conviction

— Smithsonian

It seemed New York City had its own Jack the Ripper. In April 1891, the mutilated body of Carrie Brown, a former self-styled actor, turned up in what the New York Times called a “squalid” lodging house of “unsavory reputation.” The fame that eluded her in life found her now, with the newspapers eagerly serving up lurid details, factual or not. Brown supposedly once recited a scene from Romeo and Juliet atop a saloon table. Her penchant for quoting the bard, coupled with her age—she was 60—earned her the nickname “Old Shakespeare.” …read more

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From Kyiv to Kentucky

—Longreads

I punched a series of numbers into a cordless phone, waited for a prompt and then punched a dozen or so more. Before Skype there was PennyTalk. The phone card saved you money, not time, requiring the input of a long account number, followed by an equally long password, and a no less extensive foreign phone number. At present I was using the cumbersome process to my advantage, trying to figure out how I would break the news to my Ukrainian fiancé that he would be joining me not in California, but in Kentucky.…read more

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The Man Without A Name

— Vox

Robert Ivan Nichols simply disappeared from his average, 1960s Midwestern life — until, using DNA, sleuths uncovered the truth. But were they digging where they shouldn’t have been? …read more

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The Organ Transplant Story You Don’t Hear

—Longreads

His arms are covered with the sticky gunk left after bandages come off. There is a blue bruise on the inside of his right forearm. A long plastic tube enters a hole near his belly button. When it’s not in use, James “Bo” Calvert tucks the tube that he uses for dialysis into a spandex “bra” that circles his chest.

Calvert has stage 4 kidney disease, which means his kidney function is only 15 to 30 percent. There are six stages of chronic kidney disease — stage 4 is the last stage before end-stage renal disease (ESRD), when the kidneys cannot filter waste and excess fluid from the blood. At this point, you need a transplant or dialysis to stay alive.

Calvert has had both…read more

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My Brother’s Killer is Now My Friend

—BBC

One of BBC’s Best Big Reads of 2017

Denise Taylor had just graduated from college when her brother Bo was murdered. For years she struggled to come to terms with the loss. Then she spent more than a decade trying to get her brother’s killer out of prison…read more

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She Sleeps in the Front Seat, Her Son Takes the Back

Best of Alta 2018

—Alta

Naomi Lender hits the trunk of her 2000 Ford Taurus with her fist. It pops up to reveal everything she and her teenaged son Amram will need in the next few days: an electric kettle—for something warm to drink in the morning—a water
filter, to purify the water they get from a hose, and bags of food and clothes. She takes a box of fish sticks from a cooler at her feet and heads across the parking lot of Jewish Family Service of San Diego to an outdoor patio
where a small group has gathered…read more

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A Homecoming Racked With Guilt and Shame for Guatemalan Migrant Children

—Al Jazeera America

They arrive without shoelaces—Ana with her long hair, Juan with his nervous, darting eyes and Adan with his anger. Because they are children and are traveling alone, they are escorted from the airplane to a cordoned-off section
of the main building at the Guatemalan air force base at La Aurora international airport. The government psychologist assigned to watch over them tells them they are lucky: Their shoelaces were taken before they left the United
States, but at least they weren’t handcuffed…read more

(A three-part series)

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A Soviet-Era Mind-Set at the Market

—New York Times

We were enjoying a late-morning cup of coffee in one of the outdoor cafes of Banska Bystrica, preparing to head home, when my mother suggested that we buy some berries. In Slovakia, strawberries are a summer treat, and my mother was
excited to buy them for my kids. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that in California, where I live, we eat berries year round…read more

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Rim Fire: Prisoners Helping to Battle Massive Blaze

—National Geographic

On their third day on the job fighting the California Rim Fire, Alan Jackson and his team were near Groveland, a small town just outside Yosemite National Park in central California, cutting containment lines. “It was so smoky nobody could see nobody,” says Jackson. “You couldn’t see where you were driving…” read more

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To Fight Pollution, He’s Reinventing The Mongolian Tent

—National Public Radio

It takes the taxi driver three tries to find the neighborhood and at least another three wrong turns on narrow unpaved roads before he locates the company’s front gate. Each time he gets turned around the driver reaches for a cell phone. On the other end of the line Odgerel Gamsukh directs the driver to Gamsukh’s garage door business. Neither man seems bothered by the multiple interruptions and resulting delay. Mongolians are used to it taking a little extra time to get around, especially in the ger areas of Ulaanbaatar…read more

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Married Off in Mozambique

—Al Jazeera America

Olinda dropped out of school after giving birth to her first child. She was in the seventh grade. Like many girls in this village in southern Mozambique, she had hopes of becoming a teacher; now, she wishes the same for her daughter…read more

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