The Last Aquifer: Who Owns the Water Beneath the Plains
The Ogallala is the largest aquifer in North America and it is going dry. Four states, one underground river, and a century of agreements that nobody can agree on. A two-year investigation into the future of Western water law.
14 Counties Without a Doctor
In 14 counties across the rural Midwest, there is no physician within the county line. We spent six months talking to the people who live there, and the nurses, paramedics, and county commissioners who are trying to fill the gap.
The Confession of Margaret Kessel
An aging woman in eastern Oregon writes a letter she will not send. A fiction drawn from first-person reporting; published with the knowledge and consent of the subject, who asked only that we wait until she was ready. She was ready in October. This is the letter.
After the Fire
Notes on a pattern in America's smallest parishes. Four incidents over two decades. A youth challenge program called the Gauntlet, email-delivered, escalating, never the same twice. Four leaders who left ministry under unclear circumstances. An indeterminate number of people who will not talk about what happened. A reporter who has been trying to write this story for four years.
What Happens After the Factory Closes
Seven years after the Crestfield packing plant shut its doors, we returned to the town it used to support. What we found was not a ghost town. It was something harder to explain.
The Eighth-Grade Graduation: Schooling at the Edge of the Map
In seven rural districts, eighth grade is as far as the local school goes. After that, students choose: board in town, drive an hour each way, or stop. A year spent following three families through that decision.