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He Made Millions Off Porn. And Killed to Keep It That Way

Meet Michael Thevis, the 'Scarface of Sex'

(Newser) - In 1970, Michael Thevis fatally shot a former employee turned rival peep machine manufacturer in an Atlanta warehouse filled with dildos and dirty magazines. Decades later, an imprisoned Thevis, self-made millionaire and so-called "Scarface of Sex," would give a piece of advice: "Make as much money as...

Steve Jobs Really Didn&#39;t Want Apple to Make the iPhone
Steve Jobs Really Didn't Want
Apple to Make the iPhone
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Jun 18, 2017 6:33 AM CDT

Steve Jobs Really Didn't Want Apple to Make the iPhone

And more from the 'secret history' of the iPhone

(Newser) - Steve Jobs really didn't want Apple to make a phone. Not only was the Apple CEO wary of dealing with mobile carriers, he was worried smartphones would only ever be popular with the "pocket protector crowd." After increasing pressure from employees, Jobs finally agreed Apple could make...

Spies Suspect Russian Assassins. Cops Say 'Nothing to See Here'

Inside the 'ring of death on British soil'

(Newser) - BuzzFeed calls it "one of the most disturbing geopolitical trends of our time": Russian security services or mafia groups assassinating the country's enemies in the UK and British police refusing to do anything about it. According to a two-year investigation by the news site, US intelligence has...

Trucker Worked 16-Hour Days for as Little as 67 Cents a Week

And there are hundreds, if not thousands, like him

(Newser) - Imagine working a 100-hour week and when payday comes around being told by your employer you owe money. That's a real possibility for hundreds—if not thousands—of truck drivers—many of them poor immigrants who don't speak English—working the ports of Los Angeles. USA Today —...

They Didn't Kill Her. So Why Were They Convinced They Did?

Found innocent years ago, the Beatrice Six remain unsure

(Newser) - Years after being exonerated for the rape and murder of a 68-year-old woman in Nebraska, Debra Shelden catches herself starting to describe the crime scene. “I don’t remember what I did at the crime ... because I wasn’t there, apparently.” The Beatrice Six are a unique case...

Inside an Unimaginable Sports Tragedy
Inside an
Unimaginable
Sports Tragedy
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Jun 11, 2017 3:00 PM CDT

Inside an Unimaginable Sports Tragedy

A heartbreaking look at Brazil's Chapecoense

(Newser) - Last November, 71 people died when a plane carrying a Brazilian soccer team to the biggest game of its history crashed into a mountain in Colombia. Only three players for Chapecoense—known to fans as Chape—survived. Nineteen died. A heartbreaking deep dive into the tragedy by ESPN brings the...

Meet the Man Who Kills Stock Values for Fun and Profit

If Andrew Left writes about a company, its stock drops 10% on average

(Newser) - Andrew Left made $280,000 in two hours by short-selling stock in a Chinese real estate company, then publishing claims the company was committing accounting fraud. Shortly after the 2016 election, Left issued a series of tweets about a company called Express Scripts, accusing it of inflating drug prices; the...

HIV Rate Could Hit 50% for Gay and Bisexual Black Men in US

HIV rate for gay, bisexual black men in US higher than any country in world

(Newser) - In 1981, the very first report on AIDS detailed five cases in gay white men. It left out a sixth case: that of a gay black man. The doctor behind the report now says that exclusion "might've made a difference." The HIV rate in gay and bisexual...

He Hits the Gym 360 Days a Year and Can&#39;t Stop
He Hits the Gym 360 Days
a Year and Can't Stop
longform
Jun 6, 2017 12:03 PM CDT

He Hits the Gym 360 Days a Year and Can't Stop

Luke O'Neil writes of his 'exercise bulimia' in 'Esquire'

(Newser) - You've heard of bulimia. But exercise bulimia? Thus the headline on Luke O'Neil's piece in Esquire : "Most People Will Never Understand My Eating Disorder." Think of it this way: A person with bulimia feels the need to purge by vomiting. For those with exercise bulimia,...

The Poaching of the World&#39;s Ancient Trees
Poachers'
New Target: 
Ancient Trees
longform
Jun 4, 2017 3:30 PM CDT

Poachers' New Target: Ancient Trees

This natural resource is centuries in the making, and the black market is thriving

(Newser) - When Colin Hepburn, member of the activist group Wilderness Committee, was walking through the woods in May of 2012 in Canada’s Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park, he came across the remains of an 800-year-old cedar tree. It had stood at almost 200 feet, and it was gone, cut off at...

Bogus Self-Esteem Movement Was Really Born in 1986


Don't Blame
'Snowflakes,'
Blame the
'Self-Esteem
Craze'
in case you missed it
Jun 3, 2017 9:30 AM CDT

Don't Blame 'Snowflakes,' Blame the 'Self-Esteem Craze'

A California lawmaker started a task force, and the idea took over US schools

(Newser) - Millennials are sometimes derided as sensitive "snowflakes" who have an inflated sense of self-worth. If so, don't blame them, blame the "self-esteem" movement that took over American classrooms in the 1980s and '90s, complete with mirrors engraved with phrases such as "You are now looking...

WVa's Residents Are Taking ODs Into Their Own Hands

Some neighbors are filled with contempt for addicts; others just want to help

(Newser) - Opioid addicts are using and collapsing in public in increasing numbers—their way of ensuring they won't OD and not be found until it's too late, Margaret Talbot explains in the New Yorker . "This is survival to them," she writes. "They're struggling with using...

Ex-Caterpillar Employee May Collect $600M as Whistleblower

If the IRS reclaims what it thinks it's owed from the company

(Newser) - You've likely never heard of the name Daniel Schlicksup, and it's a safe bet that Caterpillar Inc. wishes it never did, either. The 55-year-old is a former accounting executive at the world's biggest maker of bulldozers, and as a long feature at Bloomberg explains, he just might...

In Monopoly&#39;s Origins: a Warning About Landlords
In Monopoly's Origins:
a Warning About Landlords
LONGFORM
May 28, 2017 3:05 PM CDT

In Monopoly's Origins: a Warning About Landlords

Board game was meant to show the dangers of dog-eat-dog capitalism

(Newser) - You might think of Monopoly as a board game version of Capitalism 101, but its origins are rooted in anti-landlord sentiment, worries about wealth inequality, and an obscure economist. In the late 1800s, Henry George argued in favor of a tax on "land value" that would prevent landowners from...

Nut Thefts Are Big Deal in California
Thieves Are Getting
Nuts in California
LONGFORM
May 26, 2017 5:35 PM CDT

Thieves Are Getting Nuts in California

Nut thefts are apparently a big deal in California

(Newser) - Since 2013, more than 35 truckloads of almonds, walnuts, and pistachios, worth a combined $10 million, have disappeared in California. In an extensive look at efforts to crack the case, Peter Vigneron at Outside reveals a story that is, well, nuts. It turns out stealing nuts, which are worth a...

Little-Known Billionaire's Job: Making Cheese for Our Pizza

You've probably never heard of James Leprino, the 'Willy Wonka of cheese'

(Newser) - You've likely never seen a photo of James Leprino, a 79-year-old reclusive billionaire in Colorado who runs Leprino Foods, a cheese and dairy manufacturing company. But that business is actually an empire—its website says it's the "world's largest producer of mozzarella"—and though Leprino...

The World Is Built on Sand, and We&#39;re Running Out
The World Is Built on Sand,
and We're Running Out
Longform
May 25, 2017 5:26 PM CDT

The World Is Built on Sand, and We're Running Out

Use of sand 'greatly exceeds natural renewal rates'

(Newser) - Like sand through an hourglass, time is running out for the world's, uh, sand. The New Yorker takes a nitty-gritty look at sand—a topic that is both less simple and more bleak than one would think. In industrial circles, sand is known as aggregate, a category that also...

Tenants Shocked to Learn Their 'Slumlord' Is Jared Kushner

Kushner Companies makes life hard for thousands of renters in multiple states

(Newser) - They nickel and dime down-on-their-luck tenants for small fees and hound former tenants for unpaid rent. They drag their heels on fixing plumbing or cleaning up black mold. They post late-rent notices in public areas where neighbors can see them. One woman calls them "slumlords." And they—various...

Pain Is Only the Beginning of a Lightning Strike


Pain Is Only the
Beginning of a
Lightning Strike
LONGFORM
May 23, 2017 12:01 PM CDT

Pain Is Only the Beginning of a Lightning Strike

Survivors detail a litany of unexplained effects: Charlotte Huff

(Newser) - "If you've ever put your finger in a light socket as a kid, multiply that feeling by a gazillion throughout your entire body." According to Justin Gauger, that's what it feels like to be struck by lightning. Because 90% of people hit by a lightning strike...

There Was a Reason She Couldn't Recall Being Molested

Inside a case of wrongful conviction

(Newser) - "Why don't I feel like I've been molested?" It's not a question a child should ever ask of herself, but it was one Katie Spencer found herself contemplating during her middle school years. Her father, Ray, was serving two life sentences for molesting her; her brother,...

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