The year’s best reads from msnbc

The new msnbc.com has become a destination for the big stories, the stories that matter — deeply reported and richly presented.

Here are some of our favorite longreads — click through to read the whole collection. 

How America’s harshest immigration law failedby Benjy Sarlin 

Alabama tried to kick out its undocumented immigrants with the harshest law in the country. Two year’s later, the law’s in ruins and the immigrants remain.

Mitch McConnell to voters: Please ‘like’ meby Jane C. Timm

It’s conservatism in the digital age and McConnell is determined to own it, one meme at a time.

‘I’m showing my son mercy’ by Irin Carmon 

Ending a wanted pregnancy was always going to be painful. But living in the most “pro-life” state made it far worse. 

Urban farming takes hold in blighted Motor Cityby Jane C. Timm

In a city with too much abandoned, derelict, and ruined space, Detroiters are fighting back with one of the country’s largest urban agriculture movements.

America’s new hunger crisisby Ned Resnikoff

Millions of Americans fell victim to food insecurity when the Great Recession hit in 2009, but didn’t benefit from the economic recovery. And the worst may be yet to come.

Bulldozing homes and civil rightsby Adam Serwer

A New Jersey town decided that crime made one neighborhood–home to many black and Latino families–irredeemable, and set out to destroy it. The residents fought back, and the case appeared headed to the Supreme Court.

Mental health care after Newtownby Suzy Khimm

More than 35 states have increased funding for mental health, but research and services took a hit from sequestration’s budget cuts.

Will Supreme Court decide companies can own human genes?by Geoffrey Cowley

Dr. Jonas Salk didn’t miss a beat when Edward R. Murrow asked him, in a 1955 television interview, who owned the patent on the polio vaccine. “Well, the people ,” Salk replied. “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”

In black Sanford, a place to gatherby Trymaine Lee 

Sanford’s black community wait together to learn George Zimmerman’s fate. 

 

The right-wing plot to split a school board by Zachary Roth

In Beaumont, Texas, a racially charged feud over the school board offers a window into how minorities will fare with a badly weakened Voting Rights Act.