A High Profile Conviction in Doubt & Superb Local Reporting
It's difficult to get answers in The British justice system. Also, exemplary reporting of a tragic event in Maine.
Featured Articles
Did the U.K.’s Most Infamous Family Massacre End in a Wrongful Conviction?
Unsurprisingly, our first featured article on a Monday is from The New Yorker. If you like reading true crime stories, you should add this to your list - you'll need some dedicated time. In this almost novella-length feature, we learn about Jeremy Bamber's conviction for the murder of his family and the possibility of his innocence after nearly 40 years in prison.
Bamber broke down frequently when he talked about his parents. He told me that he often relives childhood memories to ease the loneliness of prison—learning to swim in the river with June, raiding Nevill’s pockets for lemon sherbets and riding beside him in the family’s old Morris Oxford. “I’m trying to find the feeling of love that I had at certain times,” he said, and began to cry. “That emotion when Mum wraps you in her arms.”
The 48 hours of confusion, chaos and fear after Maine’s deadliest mass shooting raise questions about police training
This is not the type of article I would normally recommend here, let alone feature. However, I really think this one deserves special recognition for its quality of reporting, especially considering this is a local newspaper owned by a non-profit. From the incredible photographs to the well-done map visualization, it sets an example of how a tragic event like this should be reported. I recommend reading it on a desktop browser.
Schools were closed. Entire towns went under lockdown. As the search for the killer stretched into Friday evening, residents were forced to confront the possibility that he would never be found — that he’d slip unseen into the endless woods of northern Maine.
Other Recommended Reading
Taking The Climate Killers To Court
As climate disasters escalate, a bold legal movement is emerging to hold fossil fuel companies accountable. This article on The Level explores the concept of climate homicide, where advocates seek justice for those lost to climate-related events. It uses scientific research to establish a direct link between corporate emissions and these deaths. It's a superb read if you want to keep up with developments in this area.
The first challenge, he says, is establishing the causal chain between a fossil fuel company’s conduct and climate-related deaths. To do so, you have to show beyond a reasonable doubt that a company’s emissions contributed to climate change, which caused a climate-related disaster, which led to someone’s death.
Did the Early 1990s Break American Politics?
In this book review in The Nation, David Klion discusses the book When The Clock Broke by John Ganz. The book draws parallels between the political and social upheaval of the early 1990s and today. Klion feels it ends abruptly, and you may or may not agree with some of the arguments, but this review is worth looking at.
The tech boom that would buoy Wall Street through the next few decades hadn’t fully begun, and the national mood was one of omnidirectional rage. It was an ideal environment for demagogues.
Transcript: What happens when manufacturing goes away?
I’m a little bummed that this wasn’t an article, but even the transcript is a good read. As the host Soumaya Keynes and Amy Goldstein, author of "Janesville: An American Story," talk about the book, they explore the profound impact of the GM plant closure on the community of Janesville, Wisconsin, in 2008. After reading this, I added the book to my reading list, and I’m sure you’ll be tempted to do so too.
. . .losing work is a very, very hard experience. And I think one of the things I learned is that falling out of the middle class is very different than having been poor all along.
Read the transcript or listen to the episode on Financial Times
The Later Years of Douglas Adams
Adams had a big impact on my teenage years, and if I like reading today, his work might be one of the biggest reasons. He, on the other hand, had a complicated relationship with writing. This article is a thoughtful look at this almost universally beloved author who both embraced and resisted the very craft that brought him fame.
Once you’ve tasted mass adulation, modest success can have the same bitter tang as abject failure. There are artists who are so comfortable in their own skin, or in their own art, or in their own something, that this truism does not apply. But Douglas Adams, a deeply social creature who seemed to need the approbation of fans and peers as much as he needed food and drink, was not one of them.
