Longreads

The Daily Beast’s Best Longreads, March 28, 2014

From the interpreters we left behind to fend for their lives in Iraq to a creepy unsolved murder in Waco, the Daily Beast picks the best journalism from around the web this week.

The Interpreters We Left BehindPaul Solotaroff, Men’s JournalAs our troops pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan, we’re abandoning fixers and translators to the dangerous countrymen who view them as traitors. Asylum in the U.S. could be their last hope. If only we’d let them in.

Renewables Aren’t Enough. Clean Coal is the Future.Charles C. Mann, WiredIt will be at least a hundred years until we can entirely covert to renewable energy. We have to clean up coal—fast.

Being Raped in a Bankrupt CityEmily Orley, BuzzFeedWayne County, Mich., the region where Detroit is located, has been riddled with problems for decades. But when a massive backlog of rape kits was discovered, a few mighty voices decided to work on changing the way sexual assault is viewed and how victims are treated.

The Murders at the LakeMichael Hall, Texas MonthlyIn 1982, a brutal triple murder shook the city of Waco and became one of the most confounding criminal cases in Texas history—one that still haunts those who have tried to solve it.

Inside the Barista ClassMolly Osberg, The AwlMaking coffee in gentrifying Brooklyn isn’t a service job—it’s an elaborate cultural performance.

This Man is the Future of WestboroCaitlin Dickson, The Daily BeastSteve Drain was Fred Phelps’s closest disciple inside Kansas’s rabidly anti-gay Westboro Baptist. But did he orchestrate the excommunication of the church’s late founder?

To send suggestions for future editions, email david.sessions@thedailybeast.com. For more great longreads, visit our friends at Longreads.com.