Read these: Chasing A-Rod, Rumsfeld’s war, Snowden’s sidekick, more

Here are some of the best reads, long-form journalism and investigative reports you may have missed from the week past.

USA Today examines FBI data, police records and media reports to understand mass killings in America and the people, weapons, circumstances and motivations behind the bloodshed.

The New York Review of Books offers an inside look at the political history of Donald Rumsfeld from the presidencies of Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush to the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Despite background investigations that revealed wrongdoing, incompetence or poor performance, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department hired dozens of officers with histories of misconduct, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The Atlantic examines the case of a vigilante accused of killing pedophile sex offenders that has divided a small community in the shadow of Washington state’s Olympic Mountains.

The Center for Investigative Reporting finds that a beating at a California developmental center by a nursing assistant who allegedly stomped a patient unconscious has gone unpunished after years of delays.

Clergy molestation claims threatened Cardinal Roger Mahony’s ambitious plans for America’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese from the start of his quarter-century-plus tenure as archbishop of Los Angeles, according to an in-depth report by the Los Angeles Times.

A motivational speaker who served two years in prison for negligent homicide following the 2009 deaths of three followers in an Arizona sweat lodge is trying to get back on the self-help circuit, reports the Verge.

Outside Magazine profiles an amateur athlete who drowned at a Walk the Plank water obstacle during an endurance race last year and examines the lack of safety measures in adventure sports.

The San Diego Reader uncovers heavily redacted State Department documents that cite security gaps and risky practices at a sewage plant along the Mexican border.

BuzzFeed reports that more women are coming forward with accusations of rape and sexual assault in a global online movement that reflects a dramatic reversal of a near-universal consensus not to make victims’ identities public.

The New Yorker takes a deep dive into the search for the next blockbuster insomnia drug. With 60 million prescriptions written for sleeping pills each year in the U.S., the financial stakes couldn’t be higher.

An investigative reporter tracks the origin of her T-shirt to India and gets chased from the factory by thugs. Mother Jones reveals how thousands of women are lured to garment factories with the promise of earning a dowry.

Rolling Stone tells the story of Glenn Greenwald, the reporter who broke the story of the year when he published details of mass surveillance by the U.S. based on classified document disclosed by Edward Snowden.

BuzzFeed explains how the financial crisis facing historically black colleges forced Grambling State University players to boycott a game to protest the poor state of a football program that has struggled through prolonged losing streaks, shoddy athletic facilities and lengthy bus rides to distant away games.

New York magazine looks at the epic battle between Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez and major league baseball over the largest drug scandal in the sport’s history.

The poster boy for the movement to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy forbidding gay soldiers from serving in the Armed Forces now wonders what to do with the rest of his life, American Prospect reports.

In the wake of the unbridled success of Angry Birds and Clash of Clans, Tech Crunch looks at how Finland has become the global gaming capital with dozens of studios hoping to develop the next big hit.

Business Insider dissects the ambitious plan for a mile-long, 25-story floating city that would have its own support infrastructure, self-sustaining economy and 10,000 residents.

Motherboard looks back at the still unsolved hacking case that targeted Chicago television stations in the 1980s and the intriguing history of broadcast signal intrusion in the U.S.

The Los Angeles Times explores the smallest museum in New York, located inside a refurbished elevator shaft. The founders hope to expand next year -- into another elevator shaft.