The Lake that Disappeared, and other stories

Folks,

Below, a selection of some stories I'm particularly proud of that have been published in the past couple of weeks. Thanks for reading.

1. Sometimes Lakes Do Just Disappear

One spring day in 1927, two New York City real estate speculators drove upstate to Dutchess County with a couple of girls and had a bit to drink.

Before they got home again, they had bought half of Amenia, an old upstate mining hamlet ringed with dairy farms. By summer, they were selling bungalows on the shores of a mill pond they had renamed Lake Amenia. They hired a retired cycling superstar to organize games and built a dancehall to attract flappers.

It didn’t last. Today, there’s nothing left, not even the lake itself. This past summer, I went upstate to find out where it all went.

2. Charity's Tax Filings Are a Mess. Here's Why That's a Problem

This was supposed to be a story about the money that Jewish charities spend on outside lobbyists.
 

That’s something you’d like to know, right? How the $26 billion Jewish charity industry uses its massive financial resources to influence government, and how much it’s paying to do it?
 

Turns out I can’t tell you. That’s because the tax returns that charities file are a huge mess. So instead, this is a story about charities making themselves unaccountable by filling out their tax forms incorrectly.

3. The Nazi Hunters and the FBI

It was October of 1990, and the Nazi hunters at the United States Department of Justice were furious at the FBI.

Best,
 

Josh