Alyssa Katz walks us through the complexities of the unfolding foreclosure crisis and explains how she identified a new breed of profiteers, ready to gain from others' loss.

A.C. Thompson on how it took him a year and a half to uncover a hidden story from the days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans — armed white vigilantes attacked African Americans fleeing the floodwaters with a nod and a wink from the local police

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, is infamous for his zeal against illegal immigration. David de la Fuente, who was in Arpaio's notorious Durango Jail and contracted acute pneumonia during his jail stay, died soon after his deportation to Mexico.

It was a Ugandan member of parliament who introduced the bill that would penalize homosexuality with life imprisonment or death, but the idea traces back to a secretive American evangelical movement known as The Family.

In 2009, in a tightening race against an African American opponent, Mayor Bloomberg paid $1.2 million to a political operative to do "ballot security," often a ruse for voter suppression. He disguised the payment as a donation to The Independence Party — and then failed to report it.