The Week in Reads is a new feature that collects the standout work published by msnbc reporters throughout the week.
A broken system failing America's most forgotten childrenby Trymaine Lee
How a jumble of public, private and federal school systems overlap but rarely ever bolster the prospects of America's most forgotten children.
Maya Angelou, radical activistby Adam Serwer
Long before Barack Obama draped the Presidential Medal of Freedom around her shoulders, Angelou was an activist.
Phil Robertson and the GOP's outreach problem
"Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson, whose remarks on homosexuality and race made him a cultural lightning rod, spoke at the Republican Leadership Conference.
Does gun control have new life?
There were renewed calls for stricter gun laws last weekend following 22-year-old Elliott Rodger’s shooting rampage in the southern California college town of Isla Vista. But even after Newtown -- which took the lives of 20 children -- Congress was unable to pass a gun control bill. How is this time any different?