Public Housing

In the fall of 1871, Chicagoans knew they were due for the “big one”—a massive, uncontrollable fire that would decimate the city. It had been bone-dry for months, and a recent string of blazes had nearly outstripped the fire department’s already scant resources. Then, on October 8, a minor fire broke out in the barn of Irishwoman Kate Leary. A series of unfortunate mishaps and misunderstandings along with insufficient preparation and a high south-westerly wind combined to set the stage for an unmitigated catastrophe.

After a shooting in a seedy London public house in 1945, the female killer was never found – never even identified – by the local police. Six years later, Scotland Yard is asked to investigate another murder. No other senior officer being available, Philip Bryce takes on the case himself. It soon becomes likely that this murder was probably committed by the woman who shot the man in the pub years before. Bryce, assisted by DS Lomax and a new officer, DC Firth, look into both matters. Their hunt requires them to involve police in other cities in both England and Scotland. Not everything ...

Pete's ever-seeking spirit gallops on the foul stench that wafts from the Dump and torments the good people of Staten Island. But Pete's had his fill of outer-borough provincial life and is gunning for a promotion. To land the new gig, he's got to impress the man downstairs. He needs a couple of big scores and lucky for him, Staten Island is oozing with potential for evil.

The automobile was one of the most miraculous inventions of the 20th century. It promised freedom, style, and utility. But sometimes, rather than improving our lives technology just makes everything worse. Over the past century cars have filled the air with toxic pollutants and fueled climate change. Cars have stolen public space and made our cities uglier, dirtier, less useful, and more unequal. Cars have caused tens of millions of deaths and injuries. They have wasted our time and our money.

Much ink has been spilled in recent years talking about political divides and inequality in the United States. But these discussions too often miss one of the most important factors in the divisions among Americans: the fundamentally unequal nature of the nation's housing systems. Increasingly, important life outcomes—performance in school, employment, even life expectancy—are determined by where people live and the quality of homes they live in. Fixer-Upper is the first book assessing how local, state, and national housing policies affect people and communities.

Charged follows the story of two young people caught up in the criminal justice system: Kevin, a 20-year-old in Brooklyn who picked up his friend’s gun as the cops burst in and was charged with a serious violent felony, and Noura, a teenage girl in Memphis indicted for the murder of her mother. Bazelon tracks both cases - from arrest and charging to trial and sentencing - and with her trademark blend of deeply reported narrative, legal analysis, and investigative journalism illustrates just how criminal prosecutions can go wrong and, more important, why they don’t have to.

I have a confession to make. It was only after I was in the presence of my girlfriend's dad that I felt like a man for the first time. But a smaller man. A man who could submit to another man. Something about that thought makes me feel really manly. I can't explain it. I can't talk to anyone about it. If Amy knew that she’d throw a fit. Me and Amy are getting close now. So close I'm accompanying her to Pensacola for her family's beach trip this summer. After we arrive, as Amy and her mom catch up in the house, I find Mr. Patterson on the beach. He looks overjoyed to see me again and says ...

I just can't seem to get it up when I'm with my girlfriend. I have no idea what's wrong with me. My stepdad recommends me to a doctor who specializes in this kind of sexual dysfunction. He says Dr. Deon is known to fix problems like erectile dysfunction right up. I arrive at my consultation to meet the famous dark-skinned Black doctor. He shakes my hand and we make long lasting eye contact. I feel a twinge in my pants--a reaction to his strong, firm, dominant grip. I've never felt that with my girlfriend. My stepdad was right. My problem is getting better already. But the consultation has ...

La crisis de vivienda existe y no podemos seguir ignorándola. Nuestras ciudades son cada vez más inhabitables: cada vez más caras, más distantes, más precarizadas y con menos servicios. Miles de personas están preocupadas por su imposibilidad de adquirir unavivienda en propiedad o, incluso, en arrendamiento. Sin embargo, esta problemática sigue siendo percibida como una preocupación individualizada y no como el problema estructural que realmente es.

Drawing upon 25 years of experience rep­resenting Black youth in Washington, DC’s juve­nile courts, Kristin Henning confronts America’s irrational, manufactured fears of these young peo­ple and makes a powerfully compelling case that the crisis in racist American policing begins with its relationship to Black children.

With Lexa still fused and the wedding coming up fast, it’s up to Marty to find a solution to a problem that just gets harder and harder. After crossing the line once, he can barely resist her, and constantly fights to keep his depraved, primal urges in check. Luckily, Marty and Lexa have a sorceress in their pocket. They consult with Maze, bringing her home in her miniaturized state and approaching the curse from a new angle. Unfortunately, the fuel for Maze’s magic has to come from somewhere. Marty’s lust becomes a lifeline back to their old lives, but will things ever be able to ...

While media attention focuses on famous philanthropists such as Bill Gates and Charles Koch, thousands of donors are at work below the radar promoting a wide range of causes. David Callahan charts the rise of these new power players and the ways they are converting the fortunes of a second Gilded Age into influence. He shows how this elite works behind the scenes on education, the environment, science, LGBT rights, and many other issues - with deep impact on government policy.

The technology of fracking in shale rock - particularly in the Permian Basin in Texas - has transformed America into the world's top producer of both oil and natural gas. The US is expected to be "energy independent" and a "net exporter" in less than a decade, a move that will upend global politics, destabilize Saudi Arabia, crush Russia's chokehold over Europe, and finally bolster American power again. Or will it? Investigative journalist and bestselling author Bethany McLean digs deep into the cycles of boom and bust that has plagued the American oil industry for the past decade....

Nineteen-year-old Archie Baldwin just moved home after flunking out of his first semester of college. Too much hooking up sand not nearly enough studying. Most of his days are spent applying for jobs he’s under-qualified for and staring out the window at his hot older neighbor, Mr. Million, who does his yard work shirtless every morning. When Archie learns Mr. Million is looking for extra help in the yard, he jumps on the opportunity for extra money. But when Mr. Million takes Archie to the backyard on his first day, Archie finds Mr. Million is out for much more. A boy to help out in the ...

Over the last few years, in response to videos demonstrating the brutal and often deadly tactics of law enforcement officers, calls to "defund the police" have increasingly rung out across the world. But this is not a trendy new movement: Black activists have been sounding the alarm on the dangers of policing for decades. Time and again history has watched as officers respond to minor calls with escalation, wrongful arrests, and even murder. Yet policymakers continue to fund and endorse reform programs that have proven ineffective at curbing these actions.

Who really owns your hospital, your job, your home—or even your 911 call center? How Private Equity Will Break America is a hard-hitting investigation into the shadow financial empire quietly reshaping the American economy. From bankrupt retail giants to crumbling nursing homes, the story is the same: private equity firms use borrowed money to buy companies, strip their assets, cut essential services, and extract profits—leaving workers, communities, and taxpayers to deal with the fallout. In gripping, evidence-driven prose, this book exposes how private equity infiltrates nearly every ...

The first major bioterror event in the United States - the anthrax attacks in October 2001 - was a clarion call for scientists who work with “hot” agents to find ways of protecting civilian populations against biological weapons. In The Demon in the Freezer, Richard Preston takes us into the heart of USAMRIID, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, once the headquarters of the US biological weapons program and now the epicenter of national biodefense.

The United States is embarking on a medical revolution. Supporters of personalized, or precision, medicine—the tailoring of health care to our genomes—have promised to usher in a new era of miracle cures. Advocates of this gene-guided health-care practice foresee a future where skyrocketing costs can be curbed by customization and unjust disparities are vanquished by biomedical breakthroughs. Progress, however, has come slowly, and with a price too high for the average citizen.

The United States bills itself as the land of opportunity, a place where anyone can achieve success and a better life through hard work and determination. But the facts tell a different story - the US today lags behind most other developed nations in measures of inequality and economic mobility. For decades, wages have stagnated for the majority of workers while economic gains have disproportionately gone to the top one percent.

President Bill Clinton gives us his views on the challenges facing the United States today and why government matters - presenting his ideas on restoring economic growth, energy, job creation, financial responsibility, resolving the mortgage crisis, and financial responsibility, and offering a plan to get us "back in the future business".