New York Times Magazine, May 4 The cover story examines a new theory that suggests the best way to battle “the stubborn core of violence in American cities” is to treat it like an infectious disease. Such an approach aims to “shift how we think about violence from a moral issue (good and bad people) to a public health one (healthful and unhealthful behavior).” One aspect of this method is deploying ex-felons and gang members who have “prestige” to find and “talk down” potential killers before they act. Unlike other programs that use former gang members to fight crime, this one “doesn’t necessarily aim to get people out of gangs—nor interrupt the drug trade. It’s almost blindly focused on one thing: preventing shootings.”… A piece considers each of the presidential candidates’ plans for the coming Social Security and Medicare crisis: “[W]hile differing in the details, all seek to alleviate the entitlement problem by stimulating individual savings.”
Texas Monthly, May 2008
A piece investigates the Lone Star State’s abstinence-only sex education policy. Texas receives more federal money than any other state for abstinence-only education—and it also has the highest teenage birth rate. The state’s devotion to abstinence programs can be explained by the State Board of Education’s influence over health textbook contents. The board once requested that a publisher “erase the clitoris from a drawing of the female anatomy and reduce the size of the penis in a drawing of the male anatomy,” and, more recently, eliminated any mention of condoms in favor of “the mysterious phrase ‘barrier protection.’ “… In a column, Paul Burka asks whether Texas has gone blue after record Democratic turnout in the primaries. The answer depends on whether the voter surge “represent[s] … a permanent allegiance to the Democratic party or a temporary liaison formed during a hotly contested presidential primary between two candidates with large and enthusiastic constituencies”
Economist, May 3 A piece on anti-drug ads notes that a blunt campaign that “suggest[s] that meth users can expect to contract HIV, beat their mothers and end up in prison” may have helped to reduce meth use in Montana by 45 percent. … An article says the conflict between Barack Obama and his former pastor Jeremiah Wright is “a generational struggle for control of black politics.” Wright’s generation “thrived in part by playing to the resentments of their black supporters,” while Obama’s peers “want to get beyond racial polarization and enter the political mainstream.”… A piece reports on the latest Japanese suicide method, which involves gas made “by mixing toilet-bowl cleaner with bath salts” and can harm “bystanders and would-be rescuers” because of its toxicity. The article suggests that “suicide might be less common if, rather than force people to endure lifelong shame, Japanese society began to allow its people second chances.”
Time, May 12 The cover package is the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people. The Dalai Lama, Vladimir Putin, and Barack Obama win the top three spots (with Hillary Clinton and John McCain coming in fourth and fifth). George W. Bush is seventh, but he beats Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who clock in at 21. … Video game designer Sigeru Miyamto topped the reader-generated poll, with Korean pop star Rain beating Stephen Colbert for second place. … An op-ed on Miley Cyrus’ controversial Vanity Fair shoot probes the “artsy/skanky gap” between those “who shrugged off the photo and those who saw it as an assault on common decency.” Part of the intense reaction is because Disney has marketed the Hannah Montana star as “offering a safe harbor” to parents. When they see “Cyrus’ bedroom eyes or Internet pictures of her flashing her bra, they feel … baited and switched.”
Paste, May 2008 The cover story is a reflection on “life, art and solitude” by Death Cab for Cutie lead singer Ben Gibbard. He writes from a cabin in Big Sur, Calif., where he traveled to “commune with his idol Jack Kerouac’s spirit” and write songs. He says, “If you tell certain people that you like Kerouac, they assume that’s all you read, like you don’t know anything else about literature. I recognize all the things that people dislike about the way he writes. … But those books were there for me at a very important point in my life.”… In a special section on baseball and music, a short article looks at the connection between black baseball players and musicians during the time of the segregated Negro Leagues. The piece says the athletes and entertainers shared a special bond because they “traveled the same highways, stayed in the same safe havens and socialized in the same nightspots.”
Must Read
The New York Times Magazine cover story corrects a blind spot in recent media coverage, revealing that though overall homicide rates have declined, murders in urban areas have increased—by as much as 54 percent in Oakland.
Must Skip
Though it provides compelling vignettes of its victims and Moldova’s dismal economy, The New Yorker piece on human trafficking offers little fresh information on the trade.
Best Culture Piece
A Wired article considers the mystery of memory and explores an algorithm that helps people learn by using recent research discoveries about forgetting.
Best Politics Piece
A Portfolio report exposes the Department of Defense’s alarmingly untidy financial records.
Best Summer-Themed List
Paste nominates the 10 best baseball songs.
