Mother Jones Magazine Cover : September + October 2014

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  • Cover Story
  • The NRA’s Murder Mystery

    One court sent him to prison for shooting a woman. Another set him free over bad police work. Was the NRA’s top lawyer railroaded—or a “bad guy with a gun”?

  • FEATURES
  • Mothers in Arms

    Can Moms Demand Action do to gun extremists what MADD did to drunk drivers?

  • Survival of the Richest

    Income inequality is worse now than in ancient Rome.

  • Tragedy of the Common Core

    How a nerdy, bipartisan education reform effort freaked out both the tea party and the teachers’ unions.

  • The Great Frack Forward

    Ravenous for energy, China calls on Halliburton to go after shale gas.

  • The Chevron Communiqués

    A trove of secret cables show how Hillary Clinton’s State Department sold fracking to the world.

  • Notebook
  • Judicial Restraints

    Judicial Restraints

    Young, pregnant, scared, alone—and in front of a hostile judge

Contributors

1 Dana Liebelson convinced some tight-lipped Silicon Valley programmers to talk about the future of “deep learning” (“Do Androids Dream of Electric LOLCats?”).

2 Molly Redden (“Judicial Restraints“) reports frequently on reproductive rights issues; last year she broke the story of morning-after pills’ ineffectiveness in women weighing more than 165 pounds.

3 Dave Gilson searched municipal archives and visited crime scenes in South Bend, Indiana, to unearth a gun rights crusader’s dark past (“The NRA’s Murder Mystery“); he also assembled this issue’s chart package on inequality (“Survival of the Richest“) with graphics by 4 Mattias Mackler, who says he would rather own a fat cat than be one.

Tim Murphy is on board with any education reform that promises to get rid of cursive (“Tragedy of the Common Core“).

5 Jaeah Lee and James West survived four weeks, 12 cities, and some 70 bowls of noodles while reporting in China (“The Great Frack Forward“).

Mariah Blake (“The Chevron Communiqués“) blames global warming for keeping customers away from—and sapping the profits of—her family’s just-sold New Mexico ski hill; the story’s art is by 6 John Ritter, who lives in western Pennsylvania, above the well-fracked Marcellus Shale.

Dana Liebelson Dave Gilson
Molly Redden
Mattias Mackler Jaeah Lee
John Ritter