The Week’s Best Longreads: The Daily Beast Picks for March 17, 2012
From a story about an NSA spy center to the tale of a missing computer programmer, The Daily Beast picks the best journalism from around the Web this week.
The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)
James Bamford, Wired
In a story that should strike fear in the hearts of all privacy-seeking Americans, James Bamford examines an expansive new facility the National Security Agency is building in Bluffdale, Utah. Its purpose: to collect a ginormous amount of data and crack the ultimate encryption.
Foxwoods Is Fighting for Its Life
Michael Sokolove, The New York Times Magazine
The 6.7 million–square–foot Foxwoods Casino is in big trouble. Its owners, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, mismanaged the giant casino’s expansion, and it now sits $2.3 billion in debt. A new CEO—Foxwoods’s seventh since 2007—hopes to guide the unsteady ship into calmer waters.
Where’s _why?
Annie Lowrey, Slate
Where in the world did a mysterious and beloved computer programmer go? A writer—in her journey to learn to code—explores the disappearance of _why.
‘We Have No Choice’: One Woman’s Ordeal with Texas’ New Sonogram Law
Carolyn Jones, Texas Observer
The brutal realities of Texas’s new sonogram law torment a woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy.
Good Riddance to Al-Shabab
Laura Heaton, Newsweek
Citizens of Somalia’s Baidoa are so ecstatic the radical Islamist group Al-Shabab has fled, they don’t even mind being occupied by the Ethiopians—yet.
About Longreads
Every week, we pick the best long-form journalism from the newest magazines and journals.
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