Your weekend must reads📰
A nationwide effort to process forgotten rape kits has produced frustratingly few criminal convictions. As hope becomes harder to find in America, we went looking for it − in towns named Hope. And a new reality show puts Mormon women in the spotlight, and not everyone is happy about it.
👋Rise and shine! John Riley here. It's time for some weekend fun − and some great reads from Paste BN.
And hey: It's almost fall! 🍂 Happy autumnal equinox to all who celebrate. (Sunday is the big day.) Here's a guide to enjoying the wonderful fall foliage.
America tested 100,000 forgotten rape kits. Justice remains elusive.
Since 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice has given out more than $350 million in grants to clear sexual assault evidence backlogs. Officials promised the money would put rapists behind bars and give victims long-awaited answers. Instead, a yearlong Paste BN investigation found, the testing of 100,000 kits and has led to just 1,500 convictions – with more than a third coming from two places. ⚖️Why have so few rapists been put behind bars?
- Follow up: Did you have a rape kit done? How to find out what happened to it
- Visual story: Rape kit program's progress has been rocky
There's Hope in America − you just have to look for it. We did.
We went searching for hope. In Hope. From Maine to Alaska, we reported from towns named Hope about the state of a nation that to all appearances is divided, angry and fearful about its future amid a ferocious election year. We found challenges everywhere, from the economic to the existential. 🗺️ A sense of alarm seems to be the sentiment that most unites us.
- Hope, Maine: Preserving the past to make way for the future
- Hope, Arkansas: Bill Clinton put it on the map. Where is it now?
- Hope, Michigan: A tale of two places, one recovering from an epic disaster
- Hope, Alaska: 'The most romantic town in the universe'
- 5 reasons for hope: What we learned from our travels
Mormon women tell all about 'The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives'
Is "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" − Hulu's No. 1 show − an accurate portrayal of the Mormon community? It depends on who you ask, Mormon women say. One member of the show's cast thrust the group into the spotlight with a sex scandal after she shared in a video that she partakes in "soft-swinging" – limited sexual contact – with other couples. Mormon women who spoke with Paste BN say tales like these exist in the broad, diverse community, but it's far from the whole story. 📺
Keep scrolling: There are more great stories below.👇 See you next week!