LUNCH BREAK READS

A Texas patrol officer talked his chief into an ICE partnership, and within a year the town's police had handed over the equivalent of 10% of its residents.
Part 2 of yesterday's Everest story follows the body climbers called Green Boots and the brother who wanted it hidden.
One fake publisher took $48 million from 800 authors, and a fraud reporter sat in on a scam book club to see how the rest of the industry works.
Nearly every study on the peptide Joe Rogan swears by traces back to one Croatian pharmacologist, and the FDA may approve it anyway.

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01 • 35 Minute Read

ProPublica

Francesca D’Annunzio and McKenzie Funk

A Texas Cop Signed on to Help ICE Deport His Neighbors. It Tore the Town Apart.

Ingram, Texas, where local police joined ICE’s 287(g) program

Last October, a patrol officer named Jaron Alexander answered a noise complaint at a baptism party in Ingram, Texas, a town of 1,900 that is about 45% Latino and was rebuilding from a deadly flood. Weeks later, at his suggestion, the police chief enrolled Ingram in ICE’s 287(g) program, which pays local officers to act as immigration agents. Within a year, Ingram’s police had handed over people equal to 10% of the town, many caught in stops for minor traffic violations, and Alexander earned nearly $19,000 from ICE. One stop took the husband of Joanna Martinez, a woman from that party, two weeks after their daughter was born. Latinos fled, businesses lost customers, and even Trump-voting employers rebuilding after the flood complained. Alexander and his chief deny targeting Latinos. He says the family separations trouble him and that he has let about 10 people go, but the choice of who stays remains his.

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02 • 22 Minute Read

BBC	Rachel Nuwer

Death in the clouds: The problem with Everest’s 200+ bodies

Yesterday, I shared Part 1 of this 2015 story about an Indian climber killed on Mount Everest. Here is Part 2. For nearly two decades, climbers on Everest’s north side stepped over the legs of a corpse in neon boots near the summit. The body, believed to be Tsewang Paljor, an Indian climber killed in a 1996 blizzard, is one of more than 200 left on the mountain because recovering them is costly and endangers the Sherpas who do it. Paljor’s brother found photos online of climbers calling him “Green Boots” and prayed their mother never would. In 2007, Ian Woodall, who had stayed with a dying American climber named Francys Arsentiev in 1998, spent five hours lowering her body out of view. The brother asked Woodall to do the same for Paljor, but the trip would cost about $70,000. Then in 2014, Paljor’s body disappeared, possibly moved by the Chinese officials who manage that side, who won’t discuss it. His brother called it a relief. Yet climbers keep coming, and the cave may not stay empty for long.

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03 • 17 Minute Read

The Dial

Snigdha Poonam

The Lucrative World of Literary Scams

Illustration for a story on scams targeting authors

An email invited Snigdha Poonam, a journalist who covers fraud, to discuss her seven-year-old book on young Indians with a Seattle life-drawing group, then asked for a “contribution fee.” She played along, joining a Zoom call where about 20 people with white profile pictures asked questions in West African accents. Fake book clubs are one of many flattery-driven schemes aimed at authors, and writers’ groups report a surge since generative AI arrived. U.S. prosecutors say a fake publisher called PageTurner, run from Philippine call centers, took more than $48 million from 800 authors. In Pakistan, about 1,000 firms run sites posing as publishers, staffed by young graduates using American names who upsell authors, including retirees, for months. A Danish novelist paid about $100,000 before her “editor” admitted the company was in Karachi. Former workers say the dollar’s value against the rupee made the guilt easy to shrug off.

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04 • 25 Minute Read

The Atlantic

Tom Bartlett

Is There Anything BPC-157 Can’t Cure?

Illustration for a story on the peptide BPC-157

At a biohacking conference in Austin in May, a vendor offered free sips of BPC-157, an unapproved peptide that podcasters like Joe Rogan tout for everything from sore knees to ulcers. The research behind it, more than 200 papers mostly on rats, nearly all carries the name of Predrag Sikirić, a 72-year-old Croatian pharmacologist convinced it heals almost anything. He says the body makes it naturally, but a leading computational biologist found no match in protein databases, and Sikirić says his proof is unpublished. Results from a human safety trial in Mexico were never published either. Some users report emotional numbness, which he dismisses. In June, FDA scientists called the evidence thin. Weeks later, an advisory committee newly stocked with wellness-industry figures recommended letting pharmacies make it anyway, and with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a peptide fan, overseeing the FDA, approval looks likely.

Unlocked for LBR Readers →

A Texas cop answered a call at a baptism party. Then he brought ICE to town.

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