North Dakota takes a cue from Norway‘s prison system. — By Dashka Slater Late one night in October 2015, North Dakota prisons chief Leann Bertsch met Karianne Jackson, one of her deputies, for a drink in a hotel bar in Oslo, Norway. …

NaProTechnology promises miraculous results and has received the blessing of Medicaid, insurance companies, and the Catholic Church. Can it really deliver? — By Kiera Butler When Catherine was in her late 20s, she and her husband decided to start a family. She had always assumed it would be easy — her friends seemed to get pregnant without even trying. But after three years, she still didn’t have a baby. A fertility specialist…

The freshman senator is determined not to let criminal justice reform die on the vine. — By Jamilah King Democratic up-and-comer Kamala Harris visited just about every corner of California during her successful 2016 campaign to take over Barbara Boxer’s seat in the US Senate, and she’s kept it up somewhat since taking office. …

He turns it into a great story — about them. — By Michael Mechanic When Kwame Alexander talks, you can sense something irrepressible just under the surface — laughter, maybe, or swagger — dying to burst forth. It’s the same vibe the 12-year-old protagonist of his Newbery Medal-winning 2014 novel-in-verse, The Crossover, exudes on the basketball court. Alexander, 48, was a…

And is it safe? — By Jenny Luna Recently, some of my colleagues got strangely obsessed with “beer-can chicken.” Since it seemed like no one had actually made the dish, I volunteered to give it a whirl. It’s also called “drunk chicken,” “chicken on a throne,” or “beer butt chicken” and some people swear that…

And it’s particularly bad news for farmers. — By Tom Philpott I n the spring of 2011, Georgia’s fruit and vegetable growers faced a crippling drought. But it wasn’t for lack of rain; rather, their supply of farmworkers had dried up almost overnight. Typically, migrant pickers made their way north from Florida’s winter tomato fields into Georgia to…

And it’s particularly bad news for farmers. — By Tom Philpott I n the spring of 2011, Georgia’s fruit and vegetable growers faced a crippling drought. But it wasn’t for lack of rain; rather, their supply of farmworkers had dried up almost overnight. Typically, migrant pickers made their way north from Florida’s winter tomato fields into Georgia to…

15 years later, the detention camp has become a place where time is lost. — By Noor Zafar Last month, I took my first trip to the US military detention camp at Guantánamo Bay to visit Sufyian Barhoumi. As a military handler drove me and my colleagues from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) down the winding road from the ferry landing to the camp…

New complaints about a private facility with a record of poor medical care. — By Bryan Schatz. “I was close to dying, you know? And for nothing, for nothing,” said Manfred Grimm. When we spoke on the phone, the 51-year-old German national was being held in the Adelanto Detention Center, a Southern California immigration prison run by the private prison company GEO Group. A…