MinnPost Picks: on mill towns, the swollen Great Lakes, and investigating addiction treatment

“The Murder of Mill Town, USA” Splinter I recently fell down a rabbit hole of reading about labor organizing, class, and race among textile workers in North Carolina. My dad's side of my family were Fieldcrest workers almost until the company went bankrupt in the early 2000s. This story is about Cannon Mills before it merged with Fieldcrest, about the towns of Kannapolis (where my dad worked for the later part of my childhood), China Grove, and Concord; and about the relationship of these towns to the company and to the larger stories of labor and race and class in North Carolina. — Jonathan Stegall, user experience engineer "She spent more than $110,000 on drug rehab. Her son still died," Vox Vox has launched a series investigating addiction treatment in America, an industry it describes as "largely unregulated, shockingly ineffective, and ruinously expensive." It begins with the story of Kim Blake and her husband, who drained their retirement savings and college funds for both sons in an attempt to help in their son Sean's recovery. — Corey Anderson, creative director “Summer on the Swollen Great Lakes,” The New York Times Water levels have been high across much of the Great Lakes this year, causing damage and threatening wildlife. The New York Times drove around Lake Michigan to get a firsthand, comprehensive look at a problem that could become more common thanks to climate change. — Walker Orenstein, workforce and environment reporter "The Commuting Principle That Shaped Urban History," CityLab Thirty minutes. That's how much time people think is a reasonable amount of time to get to work. But what happens when transportation technology makes the trip faster? This CityLab article by Jonathan English looks at how cities grew outward as residents could travel farther in that 30 minute time frame. — Peter Callaghan, state government reporter

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MinnPost Picks: on mill towns, the swollen Great Lakes, and investigating addiction treatment

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MinnPost Picks: on mill towns, the swollen Great Lakes, and investigating addiction treatment