Crime Report Manipulation Is Common Among New York Police, Study Finds JUNE 28, 2012 An anonymous survey of nearly 2,000 retired officers found that the manipulation of crime reports — downgrading crimes to lesser offenses and discouraging victims from filing complaints to make crime statistics look…

JUNE 27, 2012 Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a senior staff meeting in Washington. Jessica Dimmock/VII, for The New York Times On May 3, the day after an artful deal to end the diplomatic crisis over Chen Guangcheng, China’s now-famous dissident, unraveled spectacularly, Hillary Rodham…

Eli Lake So now it’s official: United States soldiers have been hunting down al Qaeda affiliates in Somalia. When the White House confirmed earlier this month what has long been an open secret, most of the ensuing chatter focused on the need for greater transparency about the expanding war on…

In early February, Marisa Holmes, a 25-year-old anarchist who had been one of the core organizers of Occupy Wall Street, was contacted by an assistant of Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield – yes, that Ben and Jerry – looking to set up a conference call. Over the course of Occupy’s long winter…

Jun 25th 2012 Most readers of this blog are familiar with the path-breaking work of Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff on financial crises. Fewer have heard of Luc Laeven and Fabian Valencia, but they too have contributed richly to the raw material of crisis economics. Labouring away at the…

What compels you to shoot? That was the question David Alan Harvey asked his students during a workshop last year in Brooklyn. We all have our reasons — if not our obsessions — flashes of realization that come through the viewfinder and into our hearts. For Zun Lee, one of the students, the answer…

Cocaine Incorporated JUNE 15, 2012 One afternoon last August, at a hospital on the outskirts of Los Angeles, a former beauty queen named Emma Coronel gave birth to a pair of heiresses. The twins, who were delivered at 3:50 and 3:51, respectively, stand to inherit some share of a fortune that Forbes…

Middle East

Crime 1 Dead, Several Wounded In Ottawa Shooting The shooter remained at large, police in Canada's capital city said. Queer Voices Michigan Man Killed, Cannibalized By Grindr Date, Police Say Kevin Bacon's remains were discovered last month at the home of Mark Latunski after the two met online.…

Republicans turned against the individual mandate after supporting it for two decades. Illustration by Nishant Choksi On March 23, 2010, the day that President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, fourteen state attorneys general filed suit against the law’s requirement that most Americans…

Series: The Drone War Last month,a “senior administration official” said the number of civilians killed in dronestrikes in Pakistan under President Obama is in the “single digits.” But lastyear “U.S. officials” said drones in Pakistan killed about 30 civilians in justa yearlong stretch under Obama.…

In Romney and Obama Speeches, Selective Truths JUNE 19, 2012 Mitt Romney, in Cincinnati, and President Obama, in Cleveland, offered contrasting views on the economy during appearances last Thursday. Kirk Irwin for The New York Times, left; Doug Mills/The New York Times To listen to Mitt Romney tell…

At a Halfway House, Bedlam Reigns JUNE 17, 2012 TRENTON — Most of the attacks happened inside the supply closet. Away from workers or security cameras. A dark space that Vanessa Falcone tried desperately to avoid. Ms. Falcone was an inmate at the Albert M. “Bo” Robinson Assessment and Treatment…

Crackdown on Migrants Tugs at Soul of Israelis JUNE 18, 2012 Israeli immigration inspectors questioned Africans at a crowded apartment in a neighborhood in south Tel Aviv where many sub-Saharan immigrants live. Abir Sultan/European Pressphoto Agency TEL AVIV — One by one, immigration inspectors…

The report on past job performance has morphed into a driver of future job performance, essentially mucking up the thing it’s measuring.

Familiar Faces Offering Advice, Idealism and Humor JUNE 16, 2012 UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, AUSTIN Robert M. Gates, former defense secretary Marsha Miller/The University of Texas at Austin, via Associated Press Alongside the statesmen, tycoons and artists who addressed the class of 2012 at commencement…

Uncle Ray’s Dystopia JUNE 8, 2012 IF you’d wanted to know which way the world was headed in the mid-20th century, you wouldn’t have found much indication in any of the day’s literary prizewinners. You’d have been better advised to consult a book from a marginal genre with a cover illustration of a…

Editors’ Note: The introductory paragraphs of this post appeared in similar form in an October, 2011, column by Jonah Lehrer for the Wall Street Journal. We regret the duplication of material. Here’s a simple arithmetic question: A bat and ball cost a dollar and ten cents. The bat costs a dollar…

Jestina Clayton braids the hair of her daughter, Esther Clayton, 5, at her home in Centerville, Utah. Clayton and the Institute for Justice have filed a federal lawsuit seeking changes to Utah's hair-braiding regulations. Jim Urquhart/Associated Press Jestina Clayton grew up in a village in Sierra…

Barack Obama won 52.9 percent of the popular vote in 2008 and 365 electoral votes, 95 more than he needed. Many naturally concluded that prejudice was not a major factor against a black presidential candidate in modern America. My research, a comparison of Americans’ Google searches and their voting…

To Singers, Ad Sounds Too Familiar JUNE 7, 2012 A Volkswagen ad uses a soundtrack that the band Beach House says purposely imitates one of its songs. Fans of the band Beach House became excited last month when a new advertisement for Volkswagen was broadcast in Britain. The spot tells the story of a…

The militarization of cyberspace has been under way for more than a decade, but only in the last few years have the telltale signs appeared suggesting that the United States is erecting a new digital wing of its permanent national-security state. Three years ago, for example, came the birth of the…

New research shows how easy passwords can be to crack Language Johnson Jun 6th 2012 YOU might wonder what the point of choosing a safe password is. After all, whether your password is 12345 or k3^&gHi]0%"N£l@2!Bc9, a would-be hacker still has to go through all the possible permutations to find it,…

JUNE 5, 2012 Student-led protests continued Sunday in Montreal, though an emergency law appeared to be aimed at reducing their scope and frequency. MONTREAL — Until recently, the daily student protests that have clogged the streets of Montreal since late February did little to win public support for…

By having the case reargued, Roberts put the liberals in a box and transformed the decision’s impact on political campaigns. Illustration by Barry Blitt When Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission was first argued before the Supreme Court, on March 24, 2009, it seemed like a case of modest…

Editors’ Note: Portions of this post appeared in similar form in an October, 2011, post by Jonah Lehrer for Wired.com, in an August, 2008, column by Lehrer for the Boston Globe, and in his previously published book “Imagine.” We regret the duplication of material. Humans are a daydreaming species.…

Mystery of Big Data’s Parallel Universe Brings Fear, and a Thrill OUT THERE JUNE 4, 2012 Elwood H. Smith Not long ago, a woman in Tacoma, Wash., received a suggestion from Facebook that she “friend” another woman. She didn’t know the other woman, but she followed through, as many of us have,…

Ben Gurion Airport I am an American citizen. I went to American schools my entire life, graduated from an American university and work as an architect in New York City. Why was this happening to me? It all started with a simple question. “What is your father’s name?” “Bassam.” “Okay, please wait a…

Let’s (Not) Get Physicals JUNE 2, 2012 FOR decades, scientific research has shown that annual physical exams — and many of the screening tests that routinely accompany them — are in many ways pointless or (worse) dangerous, because they can lead to unneeded procedures. The last few years have…

We speak with the men and women who made one of the best TV shows of all time. Photos Courtesy of HBO | Licensed to Alpha Media Group 2012 Ten years ago this month, The Wire premiered on HBO and… almost nobody cared. The Baltimore saga of cops and dealers, junkies and politicians, poverty and hope,…

Expert Issues a Cyberwar Warning JUNE 3, 2012 MOSCOW — When Eugene Kaspersky, the founder of Europe ’s largest antivirus company, discovered the Flame virus that is afflicting computers in Iran and the Middle East , he recognized it as a technologically sophisticated virus that only a government…

Florida's "stand your ground'' law has allowed drug dealers to avoid murder charges and gang members to walk free. It has stymied prosecutors and confused judges. • It has also served its intended purpose, exonerating dozens of people who were deemed to be legitimately acting in self-defense. Among…

It's been a moronic spring. But did it have to be? That J.P. Morgan Chase trader known as the "London Whale"—could he have been caught by a keener-eyed boss? How about the Secret Service scandal—would more astute overseers have spotted the signs? And the Pope's butler—nobody saw that coming? Across…