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The Boxer, the Murder, and the Hard Fall from Grace
Evans Quinn was a local legend in rural Bluefields, Nicaragua, an immensely talented heavyweight who fought his way out of poverty. Then he lost some fights, returned home, and got into a feud that turned deadly.
Corporations Are Cashing in on California's Prison Overcrowding Crisis
California is being forced by the courts to move inmates out of its overcrowded prison system, which is just another opportunity for the people who make money from incarceration to cash in.
How Much Will the Defense Industry Make from a Missile Strike Against Syria?
Even as diplomats work on a last-ditch effort to get Syria to hand over its chemical weapons to international authorities, the US gearing up to launch missiles if Obama gives the order. But just how expensive are those missiles?
The Trickle-Down Economics of Nicaragua’s Drug Trade
When the Bluefields and the rest of Nicaragua's Caribbean Coast was a hub for cocaine traffic, violence went up and most of the profits went to unscrupulous kingpins—but the extra money was also a boon to many poor residents.
A Brief History of the US Government Spying on Its Citizens
The NSA’s surveillance of the internet and the phone records of millions of Americans isn't not the first time US government has taken an Big Brotherly interest in its citizens. The feds have been tapping into the private lives of Americans without...
Public Schoolteachers' Pensions Are Partially Funded by Private Prisons
Retirement funds for public school teachers (as well as other government employees) in several states have a combined $90 million invested in Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group, one of the largest private-prison companies in the...
Who’s Getting Rich off the Prison-Industrial Complex?
Many of America's prisons are run by for-profit corporations, so clearly some people are making lots and lots of money off the booming business of keeping human beings in cages. But who are these people? Using some publicly available data, I came up...
Alabama’s Strip Clubs of Death
Most of the time, shootings in strip clubs are rare occurrences, the result of a drunk who’s thrown out of the club and comes back with a gun for revenge. But in Alabama the strip-club murder rate is completely out of control. Curious to see the sites...
The Former Civil Rights Activist Who Created the Right to Bear Arms
Don Kates is a Yale-educated lawyer who started his legal career fighting for civil rights in the South during the 1960s. A few years later, however, he ended up at the NRA, defending the Second Amendment and inspiring many of the gun rights mantras...
Kat Stacks Is a Real American Hero, Bitch
A former prostitute turned loudmouth rap groupie seems like an unlikely poster child for the immigration movement in the US. But not only has Kat Stacks become a symbol for undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children, her story is so...
Is Burma’s Anti-Muslim Violence Led by “Buddhist Neo-Nazis”?
“Buddhist neo-Nazi” sounds like a contradiction in terms, but Dr. Muang Zarni, a Burmese human rights activist, says that the 969 group, which is responsible for much of the anti-Muslim violence in the country, is using tactics and rhetoric right out...