Kashi Ashram: Claims of Rape, Child Abuse, and Kidnapping

The night the dark-haired guru declared herself greater than God, the chanting started at dusk.

Scores of sweaty followers squeezed around a platform and closed their eyes. Their features slackened, and they rocked to a rhythmic mantra echoing inside the cramped hall. Before them, sinking into an ocean of pillows, was Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati: the guru. In the candlelight, her gold-wrapped wrists and white teeth glowed like fire. She was the one who could swallow their pain and make it vanish.

A hush settled over the room. "When the Christ first came to me," she called out in ... full story >>

Lyndon Baty and the Robot That Saved Him

If he has his act together, Lyndon has already powered on in the copy room by the time the bell for first period rings, and has already begun the long, slow trek down the school's single hallway, arriving at his first class, chemistry, before the tardy bell rings five minutes later. But he was a little slow getting going today, so by the time he arrives at Mr. Deville's room — it's the one farthest from the copy room, if that buys him any sympathy — the door is already shut, and the halls of Knox City High are mostly empty.

Since he doesn't have arms he can't turn the ha... full story >>

Dr. Bang Bang has the cure for what ails Denver's derby dolls

It's nearly 10 p.m. on a Wednesday night, and the Denver Roller Dolls have just finished a punishing scrimmage. The warehouse where they practice smells like a damp locker room as the skaters peel off their knee and elbow pads, wrist guards, bandages and braces.

While a few discuss a late dinner and drinks, others are groaning, nursing the old injuries — or new ones — that are common in roller derby. That's where Dr. Bang Bang comes in.

See also: Photos: See the gruesome roller derby-related injuries fixed by cover girl Dr. Bang Bang

A no-nonsense blocker... full story >>

Open Season: Do Laws Against Animal Crushing Videos Violate Free Speech?

Never mind what you see; it's what you hear that gets you first.

A shrill whine from the cat, no doubt frustrated by the fact that its rear paws are duct-taped together. The front paws are also taped but separated; it all keeps the cat in place, right there on clean yellow tiles.

Sitting in a simple wooden chair, clad in black bra, short-shorts, and heels, smoke from her cigarette curling up past the yellow masquerade mask shielding half her face, is Cruel Meshalette. Or, as she's known in the federal indictment, Ashley Nicole Richards. On her necklace is a cross.

An... full story >>

Kashi Ashram: Claims of Rape, Child Abuse, and Kidnapping

The night the dark-haired guru declared herself greater than God, the chanting started at dusk.

Scores of sweaty followers squeezed around a platform and closed their eyes. Their features slackened, and they rocked to a rhythmic mantra echoing inside the cramped hall. Before them, sinking into an ocean of pillows, was Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati: the guru. In the candlelight, her gold-wrapped wrists and white teeth glowed like fire. She was the one who could swallow their pain and make it vanish.

A hush settled over the room. "When the Christ first came to me," she called out in ... full story >>

Flip-Flopping John McCain Is No Political Profile in Courage

It wouldn't be a John McCain town hall without occasional off-color humor.

"There was a poll, a poll that had to do with favorability," the 76-year-old U.S. senator tells the crowd of about 300 in Oro Valley, a mostly white enclave just north of Tucson.

"Members of Congress ranked in this poll — on favorability — just below colonoscopy," comes the Henny Youngman-esque punchline.

Some adults chortle. A few groan. The high school kids of Basis Charter School, where the town hall is taking place on a weekday afternoon, look nonplussed.

Shuck and Jive: Drakes Bay Oyster Company Forces a Redefinition of Environmentalism

Photograph by Gil Riego Jr.
Oysters courtesy of Waterbar.

On a map, the rambling 2,500-acre inlet known as Drakes Estero looks like a chicken foot, its bony fingers pointing north from the larger Drakes Bay. In person, the estuary is strikingly beautiful: calm water protected from ocean waves by sand spits at its mouth, flanked by headlands and low, grassy hills dotted with cattle and a few trees tough enough to withstand the wind. It's also an ecological jewel, a stopping point for dozens of species of migrating birds, host to a thriving eelgrass population, a favor... full story >>

All Politics Is Racial: The tiny north-county hamlet of Vinita Park puts a new spin on the old adage

The first time JaCola Williams saw the mayor was when he drove his golf cart, the one with "City of Vinita Park" painted on the side, up her family's dead-end street. It was a steamy July day in 2010, and Williams, a pretty, slender teenager just a few days shy of her eighteenth birthday, was sitting in her pajamas on the porch with her younger sister, killing time. The girls watched curiously as the man in a suit stopped in front of their house.

"Anybody need a summer job?" he asked.

As it happened, Williams had been struggling to find work. Her mother was sick, she had a t... full story >>

Dark Clouds: Embedded with Minnesota's misfit fans

It’s not quite noon, and the Nomad World Pub is getting rowdy. Minnesota’s most diehard soccer fans — some of whom have already been here for hours — are knocking back pints of Surly Furious and shots of Jameson. There’s an oversized Jenga game in the middle of the pub, and someone keeps tooting a miniature trumpet.

These are the Dark Clouds, the loyal supporters of Minnesota United FC, the state’s second-division soccer club.

“DARK CLOUDS!” Jim Oliver, a big fellow dressed in all black and wearing a beard fit for a viking, bell... full story >>