Articles

The Fake Crisis over Lawsuits: Who’s Paying to Keep the Myths Alive?

Over the past two years, the average media consumer would be under the impression that the nation is awash with lawsuits, greedy trial lawyers and out of control juries eager to punish corporate America with million-dollar verdicts. The airwaves and newspapers have been

Stephanie Mencimer June 1, 2004

On The Americana Road Again

As a photographer and writer I have spent nearly 30 years crisscrossing the continental United States in search of unique and typical examples of roadside and Main Street architecture and design. In traveling over 100,000 miles in a long series of marathon automobile

John Margolies July 15, 2003

Disease: Shrimp Aquaculture’s Biggest Problem

A mass of gulls hung like kites in the clear air above a shrimp farm in Sonora, Mexico. The birds indicated a situation familiar in every country where shrimp are grown. “Birds are the first sign of disease,” said Jose Reyna, a technical

Paul Molyneaux June 19, 2003

America’s “Give While You Live” Philanthropist

“I can testify that it is nearly always easier to make $1,000,000 honestly than it is to dispose of it wisely.” – Julius Rosenwald, 1929 Listen to a National Public Radio broadcast and chances are you’ll hear programs supported by the Ford Foundation

Diane Granat June 16, 2003

Secret Land Swaps Taxpayers Help Finance I

Fred Ruskin wants thousand of acres of national forest land in Northern Arizona to build a shopping center, subdivisions and other developments that assure his family’s financial fortunes. Most of it is desert scrub where cattle graze and people horseback ride, target practice,

Ken Olsen June 13, 2003

Gateways of India’s Globalization

Globalization is hardly a new force affecting India. To think so is to ignore a diverse and pluralistic long-standing civilization that was shaped by a long list of “invading” (globalizing) cultures that became what we now know as India. The previous globalizers of

David Wells June 9, 2003

Choosing Servility To Staff America’s Trains

He was a black man in a white jacket and sable hat. He only recently had stepped out of the cotton fields, and now was stepping onto one of the locomotives that had symbolized freedom to slavehands like him. He lit the candles

Lawrence Tye June 9, 2003

Murdering Women For Entertainment

In the last decade alone, movie-makers have raped, murdered and mutilated more women than all the serial killers combined. Worse yet, they went about it and continue to do so with the same sadistic enthusiasm as the monsters they pretend to revile. Directors

Rita Kempley June 9, 2003

The Curse of Cancer

Kevin Webster couldn’t go outside to play in the snow, his favorite thing to do. A fever and lung congestion kept the active two-year old inside. Cathy Webster, who admits she is overprotective, thought it was just a routine January cold as her

Diana Campbell May 21, 2003

Coming Out Party: Haitian-American Women Step Out From Behind The Scenes and Into U.S. Politics

Marie St. Fleur makes her way to the podium, zigzagging between the banquet tables, tossing a wave here, touching a few outstretched hands there, smiling like she’s buoyed by the warm applause and the giddy expectation coursing through the Miami hotel ballroom. SIDEBAR

Marjorie Valbrun March 25, 2003

Refugee Foster Care in Mississippi — When Cultures and People Clash

Refugee Foster Care in Mississippi — When Cultures and People Clash (Note: The names of the Sudanese youth in foster care were changed because of foster care privacy rules.) It was a simple misunderstanding. The article in the small Catholic Diocesan newsletter in

Donatella Lorch March 19, 2003

How Long Will It Last?

The timing hardly seemed fortuitous. On May 1st, only 24 hours after a controversial referendum in Pakistan, which allowed General Pervez Musharraf to extend his Presidency for an additional five years — and, in the process, stripped away the country’s last façade of

Mary Anne Weaver February 27, 2003

Millennial Men: The Product of Mass Marketing, Technology and Testosterone

Mick Jagger had it wrong: You can always get what you want. These days all our desires are gratified instantly. Seven-Eleven has become 24-seven. The Sabbath is for shopping and Christmas comes every day. There’s everything to do, but little of it matters

Rita Kempley February 27, 2003

Of Birds and Bombs

I never thought I would ever want to return to Dalbandin, a little desert town of some five thousand people in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. It is one of the least memorable places I have ever been, situated uncomfortably in the middle

Mary Anne Weaver February 27, 2003

“The Monkey’s Head”

Does a New Mexico museum have looted and smuggled artifacts in its collection? It’s among the best collections of pre-Columbian art anywhere. In a gallery at the Palace of the Governors museum in Santa Fe, N.M., dimly lit and hushed but for a

Roger Atwood February 26, 2003

The Dichotomies in Indian Women’s Lives

For every truth you find in India, the opposite is equally true. This well-worn cliché is doubly true when looking at the lives of Indian women. Indira Gandhi’s rule as Prime Minister of India, for example, was a triumph for women in leadership,

David Wells January 31, 2003

Stopping the Pillage

In Peru, villagers mobilize against the looters who ransack ancient sites A lean man in his 50s with skin burnished from a lifetime working in sugar cane fields, Gregorio Becerra remembers the days when his father used to bring home ancient ceramic pots

Roger Atwood December 24, 2002

Michael Neufeld, curator of the Enola Gay exhibition. (Photo by Julia M. Klein)

Tremors from the Enola Gay Controversy: An Argument for the Postmodern Museum

WASHINGTON — Sitting in his book-lined office at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, Michael Neufeld talks bitterly about his role as the much-maligned curator of the most infamous museum exhibition never mounted. Michael Neufeld, curator of the Enola Gay exhibition. (Photo

Julia Klein December 10, 2002

A Judge in Coal Country

In the coal business, lawsuits are as common as roof falls and black lung disease. They’re part of doing business. Charles H. Haden II, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Charleston WV. (The Charleston (WV) Gazette) At first blush, the West

Rudy Abramson November 21, 2002