LUNCH BREAK READS

Ten years after a gunman walked into Comet Ping Pong, the Atlantic revisits the restaurant, the conspiracy, and the man who thought he was rescuing children.
Jan Grue spent his childhood dreaming of a genetically corrected self. Now a startup is selling parents the chance at a "best baby".
In Northampton, Massachusetts, Democrats outnumber Republicans 18 to 1, and neighbors are calling each other fascists.
Election lawyer Cleta Mitchell holds no government job, yet the White House briefed her before Trump's July address.

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The Atlantic

Ross Andersen, Kaitlyn Tiffany, and Charlie Warzel

Looking Back at the Pizzagate Conspiracy 10 Years Later

Illustration for The Atlantic's Pizzagate anniversary series

The Atlantic is out this week with a three-part series commemorating the 10-year anniversary of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory that led to Edgar Maddison Welch's shooting at Comet Ping Pong, a D.C. pizza restaurant. First, The Long, Weird Tale of Comet Ping Pong by Ross Andersen tells the story of the restaurant at the center of the conspiracy. Then, Kaitlyn Tiffany looks at the legacy of the conspiracy itself. Lastly, Charlie Warzel profiles the shooter, Edgar Maddison Welch, who thought he was saving tortured and abused children in the basement of the restaurant.

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02 • 16 Minute Read

The Guardian

Jan Grue

Would you pay to have the 'best baby'? Liberal eugenics and the troubling quest for human perfection

Illustration for the Guardian's essay on liberal eugenics

At three, Jan Grue was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, and as his muscles weakened through childhood, he dreamed of a genetically corrected version of himself. That image returned when a startup called Nucleus Genomics advertised in New York's subway that parents could have their "best baby" by screening embryos for traits like height and intelligence. Grue argues this is eugenics in a consumer form, driven by parental choice rather than state coercion. Selecting for some traits always means selecting against others, he writes, and the new ideal looks like a perfect worker, with disability as the thing to avoid. His own story complicates the dream. A genetic test later showed he never had SMA but a rarer condition unlikely to draw a cure, and losing that hope left him feeling his life was truly his own. Grue argues for building societies that accommodate imperfection rather than engineering better people.

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03 • 15 Minute Read

The Washington Sun

Ellie Silverman

In a Western Massachusetts Town, Everyone Is Someone Else's Fascist

Main Street in Northampton, Massachusetts

An Instagram post zoomed in on the feet of Gina-Louise Sciarra, mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts, and mocked her ankles as swollen from "carrying the water of imperialism." In this town of 30,000, Democrats outnumber Republicans 18 to 1, yet fights over school funding, a $43.3 million Main Street redesign, and a stalled homeless services hub have turned vicious. Critics call Sciarra and her allies fascists and liars. In January, her husband yelled at a school committee critic in a grocery store, then apologized at a public meeting. A former council member who is suing the city over her censure has vowed to retake City Hall and oust the mayor. Officials on several sides have installed security cameras, and many have stopped running. Residents who agree on nearly everything now fight with the insults and tactics of the president they loathe. Sciarra's critics say pleas for civility only dismiss dissent, and online, many say she deserves what she gets.

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04 • 45 Minute Read

ProPublica

Doug Bock Clark

How Cleta Mitchell Turned Trump's "Big Lie" Into a Movement

Portrait of election lawyer Cleta Mitchell

Before President Trump's July primetime address questioning American elections, the White House gave a private preview to election lawyer Cleta Mitchell and her network, though she holds no government job. Mitchell, 76, started as an Oklahoma Democrat who championed the Equal Rights Amendment, switched parties in 1996, and became a leading Republican election lawyer. After joining Trump's 2020 call pressing Georgia's secretary of state to find enough votes to reverse his loss, she built the Election Integrity Network, a grassroots group pushing stricter voting rules, and helped steer more than $70 million to allied groups. Her SAVE Act, requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register, became Trump's top legislative priority, and her allies fill key administration posts. Yet courts and moderate Senate Republicans have blocked much of her agenda. Critics, including some allies, say frustration is driving her to urge ever more drastic federal action before the midterms. Mitchell says she only wants honest elections.

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He opened fire in a D.C. pizzeria. He thought he was saving children.

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