The Week's Best 'Pacific Standard' Stories

Another week, another batch of great stories. As has always been the case, we reported on plenty of stories centered on social justice issues around the world. That means major, headline-grabbing hostilities like the Ammon Bundy-led showdown in Oregon, or the escalating tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia; as well as the more secretive conflicts—the vast web of Medicare fraud, and the public-private partnerships that have come to shape modern policing. And hey, we even threw in a story about cops getting drunk.

Here are this week's best Pacific Standard stories:

• "Glitch in the Machine," by Joe Eaton
  The government unleashed Big Data to shut down Medicare fraud. Why isn't it working?

• "Growing Up With White Paranoia: Persecution vs. Privilege," by Lyz Lenz
  As a home-schooled child in an Evangelical household, I watched as Waco roiled 90 miles away. Unlike black protestors, white fringe groups have the privilege of picking their fights.

• "Inside the Police-Industrial Complex," by Jacqui Shine
  At the 2015 convention of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, a view of the public-private partnerships that have come to shape modern policing—and to complicate questions of reform.

• "America's Saudi Liability," by Cameron Hood
  Saudi Arabia's execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr demonstrates that Riyadh is able to act with growing impunity in the Middle East. It also signals a potentially dangerous shift in American-Saudi relations.

• "You Are Now Under the Influence," by John Stillman
  At a police academy, future officers learn to test drivers' intoxication levels by testing the legal limit themselves.