Courtesy: Cities of Asylum/Pittsburgh

The North Side of Pittsburgh was once blighted, but at least one neighborhood block has been transformed. Sampsonia Way is a sanctuary for writers from around the world who have been threatened with persecution, imprisonment or death in their native countries. A telecomm executive moved there in 1980 and eventually purchased four more two-story row houses on the block, whose expressive facades give voice to their literary tenants who stay for two-year residencies. The program is part of an international project called Cities of Asylum. George Packer reports for The New Yorker.

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New Yorker: A Safe Street in Pittsburgh

Legendary Chicago author Studs Terkel, who died last year at the age of 96, was tracked by the FBI for 45 years. The agency suspected him of being a communist. Terkel, a tireless chronicler of the working class who supported the civil rights movement, won a Pulitzer Prize for The Good War: An Oral History of World War II in 1985. The FBI kept a file on him from 1945 to 1990, and over the years accumulated a 269-page dossier. The agency is required to release certain documents about a person upon death. The 147 pages made available were obtained by the City University of New York’s NYCity News Service.

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NYCity News Service: FBI Tracked ‘Working’ Man Studs Terkel

Read FBI file on Studs Terkel

More coverage:
Chicago Tribune: FBI tracked Studs Terkel for decades, documents show
Chicago Tribune: File shows FBI watched writer Terkel for decades
NYT: Arts Beat: FBI Kept File on Studs Terkel
LATimes: Studs Terkel and the FBI

More about Studs Terkel:
NYT: Studs Terkel, Listener to Americans, Dies at 96
NYT: He Gave Voice to Many, Among Them Himself

President Obama with his niece Sevita. Courtesy: The White House

President Obama’s diverse family is spread around the world. His remarks at a Nov. 16 town hall meeting in Shanghai captured his unique background: “In my own family, I have a father who was from Kenya; I have a mother who was from Kansas, in the Midwest of the United States; my sister is half-Indonesian; she’s married to a Chinese person from Canada. So when you see family gatherings in the Obama household, it looks like the United Nations.” Early next year his half brother, George Obama of Kenya, is publishing his autobiography. New York magazine assesses how the president’s far-flung relatives are responding to having the leader of the free world in the family.

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New York: The Obama Diaspora

The New Oxford American Dictionary announced its 2009 Word of the Year is “unfriend.” The verb means “to remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.” Bloggers, social networkers and commenters across the Internet wondered why the choice wasn’t “defriend.” Every year as the holidays approach, the dictionary names its word of the year. Other contenders were related to technology, news and politics, and the environment, and included “hashtag,” “sexting,” “birther,” “death panel,” “ecotown,” “green state” and “brown state.” Oxford’s lexicographer’s monitor the evolving vocabulary of the English language and choose a word that is both a reflection of the year’s trends and is likely to have lasting cultural relevance. “Hypermiling,” which means “to attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one’s car and one’s driving techniques,” was the 2008 selection (never heard of it). Previous year’s words included “locavore” (heard of it, never use it); “carbon neutral” (commonly used); and “podcast” (commonly used by regular people).

Coverage:
‘Unfriend’ is New Oxford dictionary’s Word of the Year
CNN.com: Dictionary word of the year: Unfriend

Listen to NPR interview:
ATC: Dictionary Picks ‘Unfriend’ as Word of the Year

Read Oxford blog:
Oxford Word of the Year 2009: Unfriend

Like inmates throughout the country, South Carolina prisoners play a lot of cards. Often the decks they use feature victims of unsolved crimes. The South Carolina Department of Corrections started selling the cards about a year ago in prison canteens for $1.72. More than 10,000 decks have been sold. Each card includes a photo and the basic facts of a case, along with a toll-free number to call and report tips. The cards were created by Tom Lucas whose 29-year-old son was killed in 2003. The murder remains unsolved. The theory behind the cards is that prisoners know a lot of criminals and are aware of crimes that have never been prosecuted. Tips prompted by the cards have yet to solve a case, but have resulted in a number of viable leads that are being pursued.

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NYT: In Prison, Playing Just to Kill Time and Just Maybe to Help Solve a Murder