The 5 Best Long-Form Stories We Read This Week

The Jersey Shore, migrant workers, Amazon's move to Northern Virginia and more

Atlantic City tourists
Not everyone in Atlantic City is thrilled about the summer's tourism influx. (Found Image Holdings/ Corbis via Getty)
Corbis via Getty Images

This week may have been about the summer solstice — the kickoff to the season and the longest day of the year — but for a few of the internet’s most consistent sources of quality journalism, it was about a transgender woman’s acceptance at Goldman Sachs, the Italian mafia’s new frontier, the future of “superjobs,” Amazon’s new home and Atlantic City natives’ least favorite thing.

Goldman Sachs
One employee shared her story of being transgender at Goldman Sachs. (Ramin Talaie/ Corbis via Getty)
Corbis via Getty Images

A kinder, more accepting investment firm

It probably wouldn’t surprise most people to learn that industries like finance and their big players like Goldman Sachs used to allocate company dollars to strip clubs and didn’t bat an eye to blatant sexual harassment. It might, however, grab the attention of many to learn that Goldman has led the charge among financial institutions to be more accepting and even warm towards transgender employees. The New York Times profiled one such woman’s story this week.

Italian mafia
The Italian mafia is reportedly forcing migrants into slave labor. (Joe Raedle/ Getty)
Getty Images

The mob, migrants and your food

Who picks your food and who profits from it? At The Guardian, Tobias Jones and Ayo Awokoya took a long look at slave labor in Italy. Migrants do all the work, the mafia reaps the profits and the consumer hardly knows any better.

The Atlantic looks at what happened to a Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared five years ago. (Photo by Fabrizio Gandolfo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
LightRocket via Getty Images

The airplane that just vanished

It was five years ago that a Malaysia Airlines flight piloted by one of the airline’s most seasoned captains took off from Kuala Lumpur and disappeared in the Indian Ocean. William Langewiesche at The Atlantic explores what exactly happened to the flight carrying 227 passengers.

Amazon headquarters
Amazon finally landed on Virginia for its second home. (Getty)
(Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty)

How Amazon got the North Virginia

When Amazon was deciding — in a nauseatingly long and painfully publicized process — where its new HQ2 would land, Northern Virginia’s chances were middling at best. The man in charge of the Commonwealth’s bid even told Luke Mullins at Washingtonian magazine that he thought to himself, “we’re dead.” This is how they pulled it off.

Atlantic City tourists
Not everyone in Atlantic City is thrilled about the summer’s tourism influx. (Found Image Holdings/ Corbis via Getty)
Corbis via Getty Images

Atlantic City fights back

This week officially welcomed the summer (finally) and with it, the beginning of a season-long battle between beach town residents and the hordes of people who flock to their neighborhoods in droves. People who live in Atlantic City know the deal. They aren’t thrilled with the projects their elected officials have approved in order to attract even more people to their doorsteps, and they’re gearing up to do battle. Britta Lokting at Curbed took a look at what they’re doing to fight back.

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