In partnership with
LUNCH BREAK READS
MONDAY, MARCH 16, 2026 | Sponsored by | Morning Brew |
|---|
Happy Monday, Lunch Club!
We have an interesting selection of stories today, from true crime to weather weapons:
In Walker County, Alabama, a mentally ill man spent 14 days naked and freezing in a jail cell while guards jeered. He died. Twenty of the sheriff's employees have been federally indicted and the sheriff is asking voters for a third term.
In 1978, Ralph Coleman shot and killed his wife, son, and niece during a PTSD-fueled breakdown after Vietnam. His surviving daughter forgave him. He died in prison last year, still waiting on clemency. His story is told alongside the lawyer who spent her career trying to free him.
The Black Forest's signature spruce trees are being wiped out by bark beetles and drought. For families who have farmed the same valley for 30 generations, the landscape, and the knowledge that came with it, is disappearing.
The researchers at HAARP in Alaska study the ionosphere. They also field calls blaming them for every hurricane, earthquake, and suspicious aurora on the planet. A journalist visited to see what it's like to do boring science under permanent conspiratorial siege.
Good lunch, good reads.
Brett
01
USA Today
Will Carless and Gina Barton
In January 2023, Anthony "Tony" Mitchell, a man in a severe mental health crisis, was locked naked in a freezing concrete cell at the Walker County Jail in Alabama. For 14 days, guards denied him water, medical care, and basic dignity. He died of hypothermia and sepsis, his body temperature at 72 degrees. Twenty of Sheriff Nick Smith's employees have since been federally indicted; 13 have pleaded guilty. One said plainly: "We killed him." Smith, who ran his office directly above the cell, remains in power, is running for a third term, and has not been charged.
02
Rolling Stone
Joseph Bien-Kahn
In 1978, Ralph Coleman shot and killed his wife, his son, and his niece in Sacramento, the product of a decade-long undiagnosed PTSD spiral after Vietnam. His daughter Kimberly, 13 and the lone survivor, forgave him. Coleman spent 46 years incarcerated, becoming the name plaintiff in a landmark class action that forced California to overhaul mental health care in its prisons. He died in December 2024, never freed. His story is told through his daughter and through the author, whose mother spent her career trying to get him released before her own death.
The 15-Minute Retirement Plan
Retirement savings face two quiet threats: cash flow gaps and inflation eroding purchasing power over time. The 15-Minute Retirement Plan helps investors with $1,000,000 or more account for both and build a portfolio designed to last the distance.
03
Longreads
Kendra Atleework
The Black Forest's iconic spruce trees, the ones carved into cuckoo clocks, harvested for centuries, and replanted by generations of farming families, are dying. Climate change has made most of the region uninhabitable for spruce: bark beetles emboldened by drought and heat have devastated stands that took 200 years to establish. Writer Kendra Atleework, a Californian who moved to Germany, traces what this means for the forest and for families like the owners of a 477-year-old farmstead inn in Simonswald, whose accumulated knowledge of the land is becoming obsolete faster than it can be replaced.
04
The Atlantic
Kaitlyn Tiffany
HAARP is a University of Alaska research station with 180 radio transmitters that study the ionosphere. It cannot control weather, contact aliens, or cause earthquakes. Yet it has been blamed for all of these things, plus hurricanes, wildfires, and a suspicious Iowa snowstorm. Writer Kaitlyn Tiffany visited the facility, where staff field bomb threats, follow-up calls after every global disaster, and questions about a neighbor's cancer. The director now avoids press releases to keep attention down. The station is being renamed, partly to escape a decade of conspiratorial baggage attached to four letters.
Lunch Break Reads is supported by our great readers. If you enjoy the newsletter, consider buying me a cup of coffee.
Wake up to better business news
Some business news reads like a lullaby.
Morning Brew is the opposite.
A free daily newsletter that breaks down what’s happening in business and culture — clearly, quickly, and with enough personality to keep things interesting.
Each morning brings a sharp, easy-to-read rundown of what matters, why it matters, and what it means to you. Plus, there’s daily brain games everyone’s playing.
Business news, minus the snooze. Read by over 4 million people every morning.