9 Feature Stories You Can't Miss This Week: Worries, Worship, And Water, Water Everywhere

This week for BuzzFeed News, John Lingan dives deep into the $360 billion bottled water industry. Read that and these other great stories from BuzzFeed and around the web.

1. What Does the World's Most Perfect Water Taste Like? — BuzzFeed News

Photograph by Jon Premosch for BuzzFeed News

For 25 years, the self-proclaimed "Oscars of Water" have been held in the tiny West Virginia town of Berkeley Springs. At a pivotal moment when the bottled water industry is booming but the national narrative is all about drought and environmental ruin, the stakes for perfecting the taste of nothingness have never been higher. Read it at BuzzFeed News.

2. The Death Treatment — The New Yorker

Photograph Courtesy of Tom Mortier for The New Yorker

Rachel Aviv travels to Belgium, where euthanasia is legal not only for those with terminal illnesses, but psychological ones as well. Does the law represent a progressive step toward allowing death with dignity, or is it sanctioning suicide in cases where it could be avoided? Read it at The New Yorker.

3. In an Unmarked Grave, a Baby's Untold Story — BuzzFeed News

Photograph by Kieran Kesner for BuzzFeed News

A 2-month-old infant girl died while she was in the care of America’s largest for-profit foster care company. Aram Roston uncovers how, in the aftermath, state officials tried to keep details of her death secret. Read it at BuzzFeed News.

4. The Child Preachers of Brazil — The New York Times Magazine

Photograph by Sebastián Liste/Noor Images for The New York Times

Samantha M. Shapiro meets Brazil's youngest — yet startlingly influential — evangelists. "Alani’s parents say she performed her first miracle at 51 days old...'By the time she could speak, she could preach, and she was already being seen as a miracle worker.'" Read it at The New York Times Magazine.

5. Preying on Prisoners — The Marshall Project

Illustration by Hannah Barczyk for The Marshall Project

Alysia Santo investigates how Texas, the state with the most instances of prison sex abuse, is failing to penalize prison staffers who abuse inmates. "Since 2000, the state prison system’s inspector general has referred nearly 400 cases of staff sex crimes against inmates to prosecutors...prosecutors refused to pursue almost half of those cases." Read it at The Marshall Project.

6. How In Touch’s Duggars Coverage Has Changed Tabloid Journalism — BuzzFeed News

In Touch

In Touch comes from a long line of publications that split their time between titillating half-truths and rigorous investigative journalism. Anne Helen Petersen wonders: Is the magazine the last gasp of the American tabloid tradition — or its future? Read it at BuzzFeed News.

7. The Internet Is Looking for Who Designed This Cup. What Does Springfield Have to Do With It? — Springfield News-Leader

Photograph by Nathan Papes for News-Leader

For years, the ubiquitous "Jazz" design on disposable cups has inspired t-shirts, car paint jobs, and fan pages. After an anonymous redditor wondered who was behind the brushstrokes, Thomas Gounley finally found the answer in small-town Missouri. Read it at Springfield News-Leader.

8. How I Came to Jesus on Global Warming — BuzzFeed News

John Ritter for BuzzFeed News / Pope: Getty Images

The pope recently told his followers to accept the reality of global warming. But the papal encyclical won’t immediately change skeptics’ minds. Take it from Dan Vergano — he used to be one. Read it at BuzzFeed News.

9. Meet the Gay Mormon Men (and Their Wives) Beseeching SCOTUS to Save 'Traditional' Marriage — Talking Points Memo

Talking Points Memo

Danny Caldwell is an openly gay Mormon man who is married to a woman and believes marriage equality is a threat to "traditional" marriage. James Ross Gardner goes to Utah to find out why. Read it at Talking Points Memo.

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