Stories
Stories about America’s mental health crisis
‘What if Yale finds out?’
Suicidal students are pressured to withdraw from Yale, then have to apply to get back into the university.
An autistic teen needed mental health help. He spent weeks in an ER instead.
Zach Chafos languished for a total of 76 days in a Maryland ER waiting for a psychiatric bed – part of a growing mental health treatment crisis for teens across the country.
A suicidal son, an iconic bridge and the struggle to keep people from jumping
Dozens of people have leaped to their deaths from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge since it opened in 1952. Cheryl Rogers fought to keep her son from becoming one of them.
‘Is this what a good mother looks like?’
After struggling to get treatment for her mentally ill son, a mother’s act of desperation — giving up custody.
Stories of survival
She lost her trans son to suicide. Can a Kentucky lawmaker make her colleagues care?
Eight weeks after the death of Karen Berg’s son, Henry, she’s fighting a flood of anti-transgender bills in the Kentucky Senate
She survived a White House lightning strike. Could she survive what came next?
She lost her twin to suicide. A prevention walk helps her keep living.
A trans woman joined a sorority. Then her new sisters turned on her.
A 21-year-old University of Wyoming student was looking for community. Instead, she faced death threats, a federal lawsuit and an attempt to kick her out.
Stories on pandemic mental health
For months, he helped his son keep suicidal thoughts at bay. Then came the pandemic.
Cries for help’: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic
Pandemic worsening transgender mental health to alarming levels
Burned out by the pandemic, 3 in 10 health-care workers consider leaving the profession
Stories on the coronavirus
Why Americans are numb to the staggering coronavirus death toll
A mass-casualty event every day: Inside the dark winter of covid-19 in America
Coronavirus modelers factor in new public health risk: Accusations their work is a hoax
Trump is breaking every rule in the CDC’s 450-page playbook for health crisis
Narrative stories
Covid killed her husband. Now it’s taking the only home her kids have ever known.
To escape Afghanistan, these brothers were forced to choose whose family to save
He took his wife and kids to Afghanistan one last time. Now he can’t get them out.
The accused spy knew stealth was crucial from his work on submarines. He surfaced anyway.
Stories on health
‘Miraculous’ stem cell therapy has sickened people in five states
America’s new tobacco crisis: The rich stopped smoking, the poor didn’t
Stories on science
What separation from parents does to children: ‘The effect is catastrophic’
Rebel developers are trying to cure our smartphone addiction — with an app
Tenacious new breed of gun researchers are determined to break cycle of mass shooting
‘I’m constantly asking: Why?’ When mass shootings end, the painful wait for answers begins.
Stories from America
The Day After Election: ‘There are two Americas now.’
Inside the Republican creation of the North Carolina voting bill dubbed the ‘monster’ law
Troubled. Quiet. Macho. Angry. The volatile life of the Orlando shooter.
Rahm Emanuel, crisis manager for two presidents, now embroiled in crisis of his own
Stories on Obama
What the world looks like, when you look like Obama
A monk in Laos, dreaming of America, waits for Obama
Life after the first
Being first is never easy. Living with the label can be just as hard.
Obama’s China visit gets off to rocky start
Chinese officials scream at White House press, argue with Susan Rice, almost fistfight over access
The Obama effect: An education in hope and change
Stories on China’s secretive cops and courts
The Wronged Officers Club
A Chinese tale of abuse and a craving for justice
Blog: Days after we interviewed these former cops, Chinese authorities arrested two of them
Ex-police officers in China protest by attempting suicide
Armed and Dangerous
China ends its ban on officers carrying guns, and a string of suspicious shootings follows
Blog: Newly armed police in China say they fear their guns as much as public
Escape from Execution
In China, a rare criminal case in which evidence made a difference
Party Justice
How the secretive, powerful agency in charge of investigating corrupt Chinese officials works
Stories of parenting in a Communist state
To talk, or not, about Tiananmen
Witnesses to Tiananmen Square struggle with what to tell their children
One Child, One Death
Parents’ pain is magnified by China’s one-child rule
An Education in Corruption
Parents bribe to get students into top schools, despite campaign against corruption
Left Behind
China’s ‘left-behind children’ reflect toll of labor migration
Stories from China
Mining for baseball diamonds
MLB enters the world’s largest market, but turning China on to America’s pastime is a tough sell
Dark U.S. politics plays well in Beijing
‘House of Cards’ finds avid audience in China
An interview with a president
Taiwan’s Ma Ying-jeou, plans to expand relations with China
Love, Lies & Loyalty
A fallen official’s trial turns into soap operatic affair
The reclusive designer refashioning China’s first lady
Clash of party titans
China’s President Hu seeks to exert influence long after he leaves power
Communist officials learn lessons in cronyism at China’s party schools
The Tale of Tai Lake
Sullied waters tell story of divergent forces at work in China’s push for environmentalism
The fundamentals of Freud come into fashion in China
Through online sessions, U.S. psychoanalysts train their Eastern counterparts
Stories of the world and national security
Egypt’s facebook revolution faces identity crisis
Xi visits Iowa where the diplomatic equivalent of love is in the air
Global race on to match US drone capabilities
U.S. offers incentives to lure Burma into reform
Negotiations over dissident Chen Guangcheng offer rare glimpse into how China operates
Suspect in Fort Hood, unassuming on the surface, but roiling within
A Complicated Relationship
A U.S. congressman’s love and fear of Muslims
Stories of faith
Serving his country, testing his faith
After the Fort Hood shootings, a Muslim American soldier battles on friendly ground
Soul-Searching on Facebook
For Many Users, Religion Question Is Not Easy to Answer
In the midst of crisis, a bedrock of faith
Seminarians still devoted to scandal-scarred vocation
Need a blessing with that bread?
Preacher offers shoppers something they never bargained for
Sense of Sanctuary Lost As Church Attacks Spike
String of Shootings Includes Md. Death
Just a Closer Walk With Thee
Friars Trudge 300 Miles and Find Kindred Souls On the Way
Stories from suburbia
Let There Be Light
Christmas Display Rivalry, 12 Years Strong, Is Both Bond and Balm
Life Lost, a Plan Derailed, a Fiancee Left in Limbo
In the Army, There’s No Form to Verify Love
Caught in Time’s Currents
In the Twilight of Life, Md. Man Fears His River Is, Too
So That’s Why the Grass Is Greener
Septic Tanks Hold Surprises, Some Odious, for New Exurbanites
Stories from Los Angeles & Baltimore
Satan Wood Drive name bedevils these poor souls
It’s hardly the road to perdition, but some fed-up Columbia residents are ready to say ‘To heck with it.’
He’s still ho, ho, holding on
Grand marshal SpongeBob SquarePants might soak up more attention, but Santa Claus is the mainstay of Baltimore’s annual Thanksgiving parade.