Longreads Best of 2017: Local Reporting

We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories.

我们要求作家和编辑在不同类别中选择一些他们今年最喜欢的故事。

Here is the best in local reporting.

这是当地最好的报道。

Sarah SmarshWriter covering socioeconomic class, politics, and public policy for The New Yorker and Harper’s online, The Guardian, Guernica, and many others.

莎拉·斯马什 (Sarah Smarsh) 为《纽约客》、《哈泼斯在线》、《卫报》、《格尔尼卡》等杂志撰稿，报道社会经济阶层、政治和公共政策。

## The #MeToo Movement in Kansas (Hunter Woodall, Kelsey Ryan, and Bryan Lowry, The Kansas City Star)

## 堪萨斯州的#MeToo 运动（亨特·伍德尔、凯尔西·瑞恩和布莱恩·洛瑞，《堪萨斯城之星》）

While the spotlight falls on sexual-misconduct allegations in the nation’s centers of power — Washington, New York, Hollywood — reporters across the country localized the revolutionary #MeToo moment on their own turf, including often overlooked and unglamorous places like my home state of Kansas.

尽管人们的注意力集中在美国权力中心——华盛顿、纽约、好莱坞——的不当性行为指控上，但全国各地的记者都将革命性的#MeToo时刻定位在自己的地盘上，包括经常被忽视和平淡无奇的地方，比如我的家乡堪萨斯州。

When I opened my morning newspaper to this lengthy feature on alleged sexual misconduct at the Kansas State Capitol, I was struck by the tenacity of the reporting in a digital-media era rife with emotional, partisan opinion pieces.

当我打开早报，看到这篇关于堪萨斯州议会大厦涉嫌性行为不当的长篇专题时，我对在充满情感和党派观点的数字媒体时代的坚韧报道感到震惊。

Kansas City Star reporters Hunter Woodall, Kelsey Ryan, and Bryan Lowry spared neither side of the aisle as they hounded male legislators and gave voice to women who were previously silenced.

《堪萨斯城星报》记者亨特·伍德尔 (Hunter Woodall)、凯尔西·瑞安 (Kelsey Ryan) 和布莱恩·洛瑞 (Bryan Lowry) 不遗余力地追捕男性立法者，并为之前被压制的女性发声。

As a personal essayist who began as an investigative reporter, I hold no writing in higher esteem than that which does the hard work of digging for obscured facts, without which a million think pieces could never exist.

作为一名出自调查记者之手的个人散文家，我对辛勤挖掘模糊事实的文章最为推崇，没有这些事实，一百万篇思考文章就不可能存在。

This single installment of the ongoing coverage of the statehouse scandal quotes some fifteen interviewed sources: four female former interns (two named and two anonymous), two male Democratic representatives, a male intern-program director, two university spokespersons, a female Republican senate president, a male Republican house speaker, a female former Democratic staffer, the male director of the legislature’s human resources department, a second Republican state senator, and a male Democratic house minority leader.

本期正在报道的州议会丑闻引用了约 15 名接受采访的消息来源：四名女性前实习生（两名指名，两名匿名）、两名男性民主党代表、一名男性实习生项目主管、两名大学发言人、一名女性共和党参议员主席、一名男性共和党众议院议长、一名女性前民主党工作人员、一名男性立法机关人力资源部主任、一名共和党州参议员和一名男性民主党众议院少数党领袖。

This last source, a Democratic candidate for governor in the state’s crowded 2018 gubernatorial race, is some liberals’ best hope to defeat far-right candidate Kris Kobach.

最后一位消息来源是民主党候选人，参加该州拥挤的 2018 年州长竞选，他是一些自由派击败极右翼候选人克里斯·科巴赫的最大希望。

Even if the reporters’ own politics might be liberal, as journalists do perhaps lean, they didn’t allow the legislator a pass, giving readers not just his statements but also when he “tried to change the topic,” “refused to answer the question” and “demanded to know” whether he’d been accused of harassment.

即使记者们自己的政治立场可能是自由派的，正如记者们可能确实倾向于的那样，他们也不允许立法者通过，不仅向读者提供他的陈述，还向读者提供他“试图改变话题”、“拒绝回答问题”和“要求知道”他是否被指控骚扰的信息。

This is local reporting at its finest and bravest — government watchdogs shining a light where secrets might live.

这是最优秀、最勇敢的地方报道——政府监管机构照亮了可能存在秘密的地方。

This is the work of a free press that sets its society free, no opinion required.

这是自由媒体的工作，它让社会自由，不需要任何意见。

Gustavo ArellanoFormer editor-in-chief, OC Weekly, contributor to Curbed LA.

Gustavo Arellano OC Weekly 前主编，Curbed LA 撰稿人。

## Orange County’s Informant Scandal Yields Evidence of Forensic Science Deception in Murder Trials (R.

## 奥兰治县的线人丑闻提供了谋杀审判中法医学欺骗的证据 (R.

Scott Moxley, OC Weekly)

斯科特·莫克斯利 (Scott Moxley)，《OC 周刊》

My former colleague at OC Weekly, R.

我在 OC Weekly 的前同事 R.

Scott Moxley, is the most underrated investigative reporter in the United States.

斯科特·莫克斯利（Scott Moxley）是美国最被低估的调查记者。

His work at the paper over the past 21 years has resulted in a six-year prison sentence for our former sheriff, the end of congressional and state assemblymen’s careers, and the freeing of at least three people wrongfully convicted of crimes.

过去 21 年里，他在该报的工作导致我们的前警长被判处六年徒刑，结束了国会议员和州议员的职业生涯，并释放了至少三名被错误定罪的人。

Last year alone, six murder convictions covered by Moxley were overturned.

仅去年一年，莫克斯利报道的六起谋杀罪就被推翻。

And he continues.

他继续说道。

In December, Moxley published this blockbuster exposé in which forensic scientists switched their conclusions to help prosecutors win shoddy murder cases.

去年 12 月，莫克斯利发表了这篇轰动一时的揭露文章，其中法医科学家改变了他们的结论，以帮助检察官赢得伪劣谋杀案。

It was the latest Moxley blockbuster in the so-called “Orange County Snitch Scandal,” which saw prosecutors and sheriff’s deputies use jailhouse informants to illegally get information and win cases.

这是莫克斯利在所谓的“奥兰治县告密丑闻”中最新的一则重磅炸弹，检察官和警长副手利用监狱线人非法获取信息并赢得案件。

Moxley’s work proves again the value in local news, and especially in the alt-weekly world.

莫克斯利的作品再次证明了当地新闻的价值，尤其是在另类周刊领域。

Long may Mox reign!

愿莫克斯统治万岁！

Katie HonanFormer DNAinfo reporter

凯蒂·霍南（Katie Honan）前 DNAinfo 记者

## Dignity In Danger (Kristin Dalton, Staten Island Advance)

## 尊严处于危险之中（克里斯汀·道尔顿，史泰登岛前进）

In February, the Staten Island Advance published a multimedia package focused on the borough’s developmentally-disabled adults.

二月，史泰登岛进步组织发布了一个多媒体包，重点关注该行政区发育障碍成年人。

“Dignity in Danger” is a well-reported piece of advocacy journalism, featuring the stories of those struggling, as well as the response of the city and state.

《危险中的尊严》是一篇报道详尽的宣传新闻，讲述了那些挣扎的人的故事，以及城市和州的反应。

It was compassionate journalism that held officials accountable for their lack of support.

正是富有同情心的新闻报道让官员们对缺乏支持负责。

What made this piece of local journalism stand out to me was how comprehensive it was.

这篇当地新闻对我来说之所以引人注目，是因为它的全面性。

For any local paper struggling to keep audiences and stay on top of what’s happening, it was an impressive project on an often-overlooked subject.

对于任何努力留住读者并掌握最新动态的当地报纸来说，这是一个关于经常被忽视的主题的令人印象深刻的项目。

For their coverage, the Advance also dug into their archive of their coverage of the Willowbrook State School, where hundreds of developmentally-disabled children were abused for decades.

为了进行报道，《进步报》还挖掘了他们对威洛布鲁克州立学校的报道档案，该学校数十年来有数百名发育障碍儿童遭受虐待。

It says a lot about local journalism to have people on staff to recognize that and have the familiarity with a place’s history.

让工作人员认识到这一点并熟悉一个地方的历史，这充分说明了当地新闻业的情况。

Simon BredinEditor-in-chief, Torontoist

西蒙·布雷丁 (Simon Bredin) 《多伦多人》主编

## Where the Small Town American Dream Lives On (Larissa MacFarquhar, The New Yorker)

## 小镇美国梦的延续（拉里萨·麦克法夸尔，《纽约客》）

After the presidential election, there was a sudden vogue for profiles of small towns in the grips of despair.

总统选举后，绝望中的小镇形象突然流行起来。

So it was a pleasure to read Larissa MacFarquhar’s feature about Orange City, Iowa, and its “pure, hermetic culture.” MacFarquhar’s article is a delight for many reasons, not least its depiction of the endearing eccentricities of the town’s Dutch heritage.

因此，很高兴阅读拉里萨·麦克法夸尔 (Larissa MacFarquhar) 关于爱荷华州奥兰治城及其“纯粹、封闭的文化”的专题报道。麦克法夸尔的文章令人愉悦的原因有很多，尤其是它描述了该镇荷兰传统的可爱怪癖。

The author clearly grasps the centripetal and centrifugal forces at work, driving some townspeople away and luring others back.

作者清楚地抓住了向心力和离心力的作用，驱赶了一些城镇居民，又吸引了另一些城镇居民回来。

But what makes the article profound is the way it describes Orange City’s sense of place, which inspires a loyalty among the residents critical to the town’s continued success.

但这篇文章的深刻之处在于它描述奥兰治城的地方感的方式，这种方式激发了居民的忠诚度，这对于该镇的持续成功至关重要。

James Ross GardnerEditor-in-chief, Seattle Met

詹姆斯·罗斯·加德纳西雅图大都会大学主编

## A Washington County That Went for Trump Is Shaken as Immigrant Neighbors Start Disappearing (Nina Shapiro, The Seattle Times)

## 随着移民邻居开始消失，支持特朗普的华盛顿县受到动摇（尼娜·夏皮罗，《西雅图时报》）

Voting has consequences, as story after story in the wake of last November’s surprising electoral outcome has endeavored to show.

正如去年 11 月令人惊讶的选举结果之后的一个又一个故事所竭力表明的那样，投票会产生后果。

Yet to my mind, few if any of the attempts to explain the Trump voter have landed.

但在我看来，解释特朗普选民的尝试几乎没有成功。

This one does.

这个可以。

That’s because Nina Shapiro doesn’t let her sources off the hook.

这是因为尼娜·夏皮罗并没有放过她的消息来源。

The people in this story say they didn’t know they were voting so cruelly, but their friends and neighbors — arrested or deported or both — nevertheless paid the price.

这个故事中的人们说，他们不知道自己的投票如此残酷，但他们的朋友和邻居——被捕或被驱逐出境，或两者兼而有之——仍然付出了代价。

Shapiro, to her credit, is able to find the humanity amid the folly.

值得赞扬的是，夏皮罗能够在愚蠢之中找到人性。

Bethany BarnesEducation reporter for The Oregonian

贝瑟尼·巴恩斯《俄勒冈人报》教育记者

## Overlooked (Cary Aspinwall, The Dallas Morning News)

## 被忽视（卡里·阿斯平沃尔，《达拉斯晨报》）

Praise for journalism has a standard repertoire.

对新闻业的赞扬有一套标准的曲目。

The old chestnuts include “shine a light” and “give voice to the voiceless.” Cary Aspinwall’s investigation for The Dallas Morning News truly earned such appraisal.

老栗子包括“照亮一盏灯”和“为无声者发声”。卡里·阿斯平沃尔对《达拉斯晨报》的调查确实赢得了这样的评价。

Aspinwall looked where no one else was looking and showed her readers the human face of a problem that wasn’t being considered.

阿斯平沃尔看到了其他人没有看到的地方，向她的读者展示了一个未被考虑到的问题的人性面孔。

Her investigation revealed that more mothers are going to jail in Texas, and that no one pays attention to what happens to their children when they do.

她的调查显示，德克萨斯州将有越来越多的母亲入狱，但没有人关注她们的孩子入狱后会发生什么。

“Overlooked” is deftly told through an intimate portrait of five sisters:

《被忽视》通过五姐妹的亲密肖像巧妙地讲述了：

The voices of these children are rarely heard — which is why the five Booker sisters agreed to tell the story of their mother’s arrests and their own abandonment by the criminal justice system.

这些孩子的声音很少被听到——这就是为什么布克五姐妹同意讲述她们的母亲被捕以及她们自己被刑事司法系统抛弃的故事。

They told it over months, chatting in a bug-infested apartment complex, sharing Flamin’ Hot Cheetos at a QuikTrip, trying tacos near the juvenile courthouse, driving almost three hours to visit their mother in prison.

他们在几个月的时间里讲述了这一切，在虫子出没的公寓大楼里聊天，在 QuikTrip 上分享火烈鸟热奇多，在少年法院附近尝试炸玉米饼，开车近三个小时去监狱看望他们的母亲。

Aspinwall’s extensive survey of mothers in jail gives readers a chance to hear perspectives we almost never hear.

阿斯平沃尔对监狱里的母亲进行了广泛的调查，让读者有机会听到我们几乎从未听到过的观点。

Her shoe-leather reporting to find people who could speak to the problem makes the data she found meaningful and personal.

她寻找能够解决问题的人的皮鞋报告使她发现的数据变得有意义和个性化。

Julia WickFormer editor-in-chief, LAist

Julia WickLAist 前主编

## Behind a $13 shirt, a $6-an-hour worker (Natalie Kitroteff and Victoria Kim, The Los Angeles Times)

## 一件 13 美元的衬衫背后，是一名时薪 6 美元的工人（Natalie Kitroteff 和 Victoria Kim，《洛杉矶时报》）

Natalie Kitroeff and Victoria Kim’s damning exposé nails how fast fashion giants like Forever 21 avoid liability for wage theft violations at the factories where their clothes are made.

娜塔莉·基特罗夫 (Natalie Kitroeff) 和维多利亚·金 (Victoria Kim) 的揭露揭露了像 Forever 21 这样的时尚巨头是如何快速逃避其服装制造工厂克扣工资违规行为的责任的。

The piece, which explains how the retailer “avoids paying factory workers’ wage claims through a tangled labyrinth of middlemen,” has national and international implications.

这篇文章解释了该零售商如何“避免通过错综复杂的中间商向工厂工人支付工资”，具有国内和国际影响。

It is also very much a local story.

这在很大程度上也是一个当地的故事。

Garment workers making $6 an hour “pinning Forever 21 tags on trendy little shirts” in stifling factories right here in Los Angeles.

在洛杉矶令人窒息的工厂里，服装工人“在时髦的小衬衫上别上 Forever 21 标签”，每小时挣 6 美元。

Although most manufacturing has migrated overseas, L.A.

尽管大多数制造业已迁移到海外，洛杉矶

still holds onto a small production niche, which is largely staffed by underpaid, immigrant workers.

仍然保留着一个小生产领域，其中大部分由工资低的移民工人组成。

(Little-known fact: Southern California is the nation’s garment manufacturing capitol).

（鲜为人知的事实：南加州是美国的服装制造之都）。

Forever 21 itself is a Los Angeles-based company and an immigrant story: It was founded in Los Angeles in 1984 by a couple who had emigrated from South Korea.

Forever 21 本身是一家总部位于洛杉矶的公司，也是一个移民故事：它由一对从韩国移民的夫妇于 1984 年在洛杉矶创立。

Kitroeff and Kim’s piece masterfully illustrates the layered steps behind the production of every garment, explaining labor law and humanizing the lives and wage claims of workers.

Kitroeff 和 Kim 的作品巧妙地阐释了每件服装生产背后的分层步骤，解释了劳动法并使工人的生活和工资要求人性化。

Their reporting offered a powerful indictment of a massive retailer — and our own complicity every time we buy that $13 shirt — drawing much-needed attention to worker abuses in our own backyard.

他们的报道对一家大型零售商提出了强有力的控诉——以及我们每次购买那件 13 美元衬衫时的同谋——引起了人们对我们自家后院虐待工人行为的急需关注。

Michelle LegroSenior editor, Longreads

Michelle LegroLongreads 高级编辑

## Lawrence Tabak’s reporting on Foxconn in Wisconsin for Belt Magazine

## Lawrence Tabak 为 Belt Magazine 报道威斯康星州富士康

It began as a shady deal with a big promise: Wisconsin taxpayers would give Foxconn $3 billion to open a plant that would provide 13,000 jobs, ostensibly for locals.

它一开始是一项带有重大承诺的阴暗交易：威斯康星州纳税人将向富士康提供 30 亿美元，用于开设一家工厂，表面上为当地人提供 13,000 个就业岗位。

Belt Magazine’s Lawrence Tabak has been following the deal for months: He tracked down workers at a Foxconn plant in Indiana and discovered that the quality of these jobs was low for locals, and that management favored Taiwanese nationals in management, and also relied on undocumented workers hidden during ICE raids.

《Belt》杂志的劳伦斯·塔巴克（Lawrence Tabak）几个月来一直在关注这笔交易：他在印第安纳州一家富士康工厂找到了工人，发现这些工作对当地人来说质量很低，而且管理层在管理上偏向台湾人，而且还依赖在 ICE 突击搜查期间隐藏的无证工人。

In a series of stories, he explained step-by-step how governor Scott Walker was taken in by Foxconn’s deal and sold it to the state legislature:

在一系列故事中，他一步步解释了州长斯科特·沃克(Scott Walker)如何被富士康的交易所欺骗，并将其出售给州立法机构：

The proposed plant combined everything that an ambitious Republican governor could want.

拟议的工厂结合了一位雄心勃勃的共和党州长可能想要的一切。

Not only a lot of jobs, but manufacturing jobs.

不仅有很多工作岗位，还有制造业工作岗位。

Never mind that these were not the sort of jobs that would revive the Rust Belt, let alone jobs that would employ a significant number of Wisconsinites.

别介意这些工作不会重振铁锈地带，更不用说会雇用大量威斯康星人了。

Tabak’s reporting was journalism in action, even making its way to the Wisconsin State Senate, “which used Belt’s reporting in railing against Foxconn’s heavy reliance on H-1B visa holders for skilled positions at its stateside facilities.”

塔巴克的报道就是新闻报道，甚至还传给了威斯康星州参议院，“参议院利用贝尔特的报道来谴责富士康在其美国本土工厂的技术岗位上严重依赖 H-1B 签证持有者。”

Tabak also did one of the best man-on-the-ground reports that had nothing in common with the kind of parachute reporting on Trump voters that was so reviled this year.

塔巴克还做了最好的实地报道之一，与今年受到如此谩骂的针对特朗普选民的降落伞报道毫无共同之处。

Staking out an apple orchard next door to the proposed plant in Racine County, he asked the workers there what they thought of Foxconn and it’s promise of jobs.

他在拉辛县拟建工厂旁边的一个苹果园里监视，询问那里的工人们对富士康及其就业承诺的看法。

The workers of Apple Holler saw only environmental pollution on the horizon, and the betrayal of what this area of Wisconsin does best, and has always done best: agriculture.

Apple Holler 的工人们只看到了即将到来的环境污染，以及对威斯康星州这一地区最擅长且一直以来最擅长的农业的背叛。

Ethan ChielContributing editor and fact checker, Longreads

Ethan ChielLongreads 特约编辑兼事实核查员

## How Peter Thiel and the Stanford Review Built a Silicon Valley Empire (Andrew Granato, Stanford Politics)

## 彼得·泰尔和斯坦福评论如何建立硅谷帝国（安德鲁·格拉纳托，斯坦福政治）

Campus politics is local politics par excellence, and while Peter Thiel may be mediocre at his secondary pursuits, like investing and vampirism, he is by all accounts an excellent right-wing campus political operative.

校园政治是典型的地方政治，虽然彼得·蒂尔在投资和吸血鬼等次要追求上可能表现平平，但众所周知，他是一位出色的右翼校园政治人物。

Thiel has spent nearly three decades trying to trigger libs at his alma mater, Stanford, not least by continuing to support the Stanford Review, a conservative publication he founded as an undergraduate in the late ‘80s.

蒂尔花了近三十年的时间试图在他的母校斯坦福大学引发自由主义，尤其是继续支持《斯坦福评论》，这是他在 80 年代末作为本科生创办的保守派出版物。

Andrew Granato really got the goods in his smart, even-handed account of how Thiel has cultivated the Review as both a source for hires and business associates and a way to try and keep his own, largely contrarianism-based sense of politics alive at a liberal university.

安德鲁·格拉纳托（Andrew Granato）在他聪明、公正的描述中真正得到了好处，他讲述了泰尔如何将《评论》培养为员工和商业伙伴的来源，并试图在自由大学中保持他自己的、主要基于逆向主义的政治意识。

It also serves as a reminder that Silicon Valley is very much a place and not just a metonymic device.

它还提醒我们，硅谷在很大程度上是一个地方，而不仅仅是一个转喻手段。