BackstoryEnvironment The Backstory: Sheila Kaplan She’s uncovered suppressed scientific reports on Great Lakes pollution and toxic FEMA trailers and sniffed out the ways Sarah Palin’s environmental policies may help create “special needs kids” in Alaska. Here Sheila Kaplan talks about how to cultivate sources and follow a document trail. Sheila KaplanDecember 1, 2009
InvestigationWorld How the US Funds the Taliban Defense contractors in Afghanistan use federal funds to pay off suspected insurgents not to attack US supply convoys. And this payola may be a major source of funds for the Taliban. Aram RostonThe NationNovember 30, 2009
InvestigationJustice Low IQ Prisoner Faces Execution Bobby Wayne Woods has an IQ of 70, but he’s about to be put to death by the State of Texas, despite a 2002 Supreme Court ban on such executions. Renée FeltzThe Texas ObserverNovember 24, 2009
InvestigationHealth, Politics Sick Joke Multimillionaire Rick Scott is behind an aggressive campaign to derail health care reform. But his chain of Florida clinics, Solantic, faces a wrongful death suit and charges of racial discrimination. Tristram KortenFolio Weekly (Florida)November 24, 2009
InvestigationWorld Ghanaians Caught in Local Gold Rush With sound investments scarce, the price of gold is skyrocketing and gold mines are upping production — at the expense of African lands and waters. Anna Boiko-WeyrauchMarketplaceNovember 24, 2009
InvestigationPolitics The Democrats’ New ‘Family Values’ Key Congressional players behind the Stupak amendment, which would bar health plans from covering abortion, are members of a secretive evangelical group, The Family. Jeff SharletSalon.comNovember 10, 2009
InvestigationJustice, Politics The Bitter Tears of Johnny Cash As singer Johnny Cash built ties with the American Indian movement, the record industry lashed out — and the FBI began to surveil him as a radical. Antonino D'AmbrosioSalon.comNovember 9, 2009
InvestigationBusiness, World Typhoid, Tyranny and Tax Havens Fiji Water is marketed as “green,” but the company has a sweetheart deal with Fiji’s military dictatorship that allows it tax-free access to a lush aquifer, while locals live without potable water. Anna LenzerThe Independent (UK)November 8, 2009
InvestigationWorld Peru: Hunt Oil Contract to Reignite Amazon Uprising? President García’s legislative decrees, promulgated in 2008 to ready Peru for the new U.S. free trade agreement — would open indigenous lands to oil drilling, logging, and resource extraction as never before. Bill WeinbergNACLANovember 2, 2009
InvestigationEnvironment The Last Breakup What does global warming look like in the tiny frozen town of Eagle, Alaska, nearly lost to massive floods? Ted GenowaysMother JonesNovember 1, 2009