Longreads

The Daily Beast’s Best Longreads, Jan 5-11

Exiled oligarchs, towns without wi-fi, and small town heroin. The Daily Beast picks the best journalism from around the web this week.

Remote ControlBy Julia Ioffe, New YorkerCan an exiled oligarch persuade Russia that Putin must go?

The Town Without Wi-FiBy Michael J. Gaynor, WashingtonianThe residents of Green Bank, West Virginia, can’t use cell phones, wi-fi, or other kinds of modern technology due to a high-tech government telescope. Recently, this ban has made the town a magnet for technophobes, and the locals aren’t thrilled to have them.

To the Office, With LoveBy Jennifer Senior, New York MagazineWhat do we give up when we all become freedom-seeking, self-determining, autonomous entrepreneurs? A lot, actually.

Mainline StreetBy Sean Flynn, GQWhat does it take for heroin to grab hold in the small, remote towns of America? Consider the case of Laramie, Wyoming. Five years ago, it had no heroin problem whatsoever. Now there’s a bustling trade. How does this happen? How does heroin become a business? Well, like any business, it starts with one man and an entrepreneurial dream.

The murder that has obsessed ItalyBy Tobias Jones, The GuardianOn 26 November 2010, Yara Gambirasio, 13, went missing. Three months later her body was discovered in scrubland nearby. So began one of the most complex murder investigations in Italian history, which will reach its climax later this year

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