Amazonia

The elevator doors part, and Mikayla Miles joins a trio of clean-cut executives on the way up to the ninth floor. It's 8 p.m., and the businessmen, still in their suits, cease chatting to stare at the dimpled, green-eyed blond. A muscular 220 pounds, she towers over them at six feet, four inches tall. The top of her head nearly grazes the elevator entrance.

A stocky gentleman with a blue striped tie and a Jay Leno chin scans her from top to bottom. Then he flashes a younger colleague a wide-eyed look and mouths the word wow.

Mikayla doesn't notice. She steps off the... full story >>

Soldier Suicides

As mourners trickled out of Lubbock's Resthaven Memorial Park in the gray chill, Andrew Velez stayed behind. He stood among the gravestones and watched his brother's coffin laid low in the winter ground.

Cutting a sharp figure in his Army uniform, his dark eyes and soft-featured baby face set hard and unreadable, he asked his sister to remove some ribbons from his lapels. Then he knelt above his brother's grave, bowed his head, extended his arm and dropped the tokens into the hole.

For as long as Andrew could remember, he and his brother and sister had been inseparable;... full story >>

Drop Boards Not Bombs

Aspen is about as far as you can get from Baghdad. There are no suicide bombings, no power outages, food shortages or military checkpoints in this upscale enclave. But there is a skatepark, and Llewellyn Werner points to it as he explains why his project has the potential to transform Baghdad from a volatile war zone into a shining hub of Middle Eastern commerce and tourism.

Werner is sinking a million dollars into this venture, with millions more in the pipeline. Because in addition to increasing security and stability in the ancient metropolis, he believes that over the next... full story >>

Soldier Suicides

They buried the first brother the day before Thanksgiving. As mourners trickled out of Lubbock's Resthaven Memorial Park in the gray chill, Andrew Velez stayed behind. He stood among the gravestones and watched his brother's coffin laid low in the winter ground.

Cutting a sharp figure in his Army uniform, his dark eyes and soft-featured baby face set hard and unreadable, he asked his sister to remove some ribbons from his lapels. Then he knelt above his brother's grave, bowed his head, extended his arm and dropped the tokens into the hole.

For as long as Andrew could... full story >>

Invasion of the Amazon Women

The elevator doors part, and Mikayla Miles joins a threesome of clean-cut executives on the way up to the ninth floor. It's 8 p.m., and the businessmen, still in their suits, cease chatting to stare at the dimpled, green-eyed blonde. A muscular 220 pounds, she towers over them at six feet four inches tall. The top of her head nearly grazes the elevator entrance.

A stocky gentleman with a blue striped tie and a Jay Leno chin scans her from top to bottom. Then he flashes a younger colleague a wide-eyed look and mouths the word wow.

Mikayla doesn't notice. She steps off... full story >>

Skate or die: Life with the MN Roller Girls

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, there's something you need to know about me: I'm a klutz.

I'm about as athletic as a wall. I stumbled into writing after being cut from the softball, volleyball, basketball, swimming, and cheerleading teams all in the same year. I have been known to trip over my own feet and occasionally walk into glass doors. The last time I roller skated was in junior high.

But I'm obsessed with the Minnesota Roller Girls. If I were a lesbian, I'd want to date one. They have fun, bold names like Dixxxie Wrect (say it out loud), a killer... full story >>

Police State: How the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency Turned All Local Authorities Into La Migra

Alexis Estrada-Garcia of Guadalajara, Mexico, must have been surprised when the officer asked for her identification. She was just a passenger in the vehicle the officer had pulled over one evening in late February and probably did not think she was doing anything illegal.

But there is a seat belt law in this state, and Estrada-Garcia was not wearing one. That violation triggered a more obscure law, one that says a vehicle passenger suspected of violating any traffic law is obligated to show a valid ID to police.

Estrada-Garcia did not have identification, and off to jail... full story >>

The Unsolved Murder of Ernie Brasier: A Clayton attorney's death nearly two years ago continues to mystify police and colleagues

Just after 10 p.m. on December 19, 2006, the pot-bellied corpse of Ernest F. Brasier arrived at the St. Louis County morgue. Brasier had been working late at his office in Clayton, and police said he appeared to have suffered a heart attack. Surveying the body, a coroner's investigator noticed a wound above the 57-year-old lawyer's left ear.

Obscured by Brasier's gray hair, the wound turned out to be a tiny hole, just three millimeters wide. Investigator Joe Lebb ordered an X-ray, which revealed a bullet lodged in Brasier's brain.

"It was not until the body came here... full story >>