A Mobster, a Family and a Crime That Won't Let Them Go New York Times Dan Barry, "This Land" columnist for the New York Times, draws on his Providence Journal work covering the mob a quarter-century ago to look up 80-year-old ex-con Ralph DeMasi - and his story takes an unexpected turn. After decades in prison, DeMasi thought he would live out his last years in freedom. Then the police made a break in a cold case. Now he has a new charge on his long rap sheet: murder. The 'Shadow' Universe of Political Nonprofits Washington Post In the 1980s, David Horowitz completed his transformation from progressive to conservative activist and started a new charity, the Freedom Center. Through it, he has helped cultivate a generation of political warriors, some now in the Trump administration. But even Horowitz has doubts about the IRS rules that make his nonprofit and others like it across the political spectrum possible. "A charity should be something that helps everybody," he says. Tariffs Spell Trouble for Trump Country Center for Public Integrity An analysis by the Peterson Institute of International Economics shows that the biggest losers in Trump's proposed tariff and trade policies are likely to be some of the counties that backed him heavily at the polls. Nigeria: Booming Music Scene Benefits Pirates New York Times In Nigeria, the Afrobeat boom and demand for music is lining the pockets of a generation of music pirates. The losers are the artists behind the latest tunes. But the piracy problem is so ingrained that even music thieves worry about rip-offs of their rip-offs. These 11 People Watch Every Movie, Especially the Gross Bits Wall Street Journal Before movies hit the American audience, they pass by the eyes of a team of 11 film raters. For Hollywood, the stakes are high: the gang of 11's decision can be the difference between the coveted PG-13 rating, or an audience-limiting R rating. And for the raters, every day is a rollercoaster of sex, drugs, and violence. Investigative Classics: Fall of an Oregon Kingpin Willamette Week (2004) Investigative Classics, a weekly feature spotlighting past masters of the reporting craft, this week features the work of Nigel Jaquiss of the Willamette Week. He won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting for exposing former Oregon Governor Neil Goldschmidt's sexual relationship with an underage teen while he was the mayor of Portland in the 1970s. |