It's traditional to accentuate the positive during the holiday season. But after a miserable year that saw many of the good things in life swallowed whole by the nation's economic collapse, it somehow seems more appropriate to find comfort in dark places. In Kansas City, an ex-con named Mark Smith has created a sensation with "Midtown Miscreant," a popular blog on which he writes about the city's most forlorn neighborhoods. In Smith's world, there is both humor and a strange solace to be found in the nether regions of the urban jungle, where the perpetually less fortunate always find a way to survive, even in the midst of brutal recessions. That's why our reporter joined Smith for an unforgettable tour of one city's holiday blights--and why this week we recommend, "A Miscreant's Christmas," by Pitch staff writer Justin Kendall.

As the nation prepares to enforce a draconian new passport law that will make Americans visiting Mexico and Canada "show their papers," one group of people is taking a special hit: Mexican-Americans who were born in this country but delivered by midwives. Because of a history of sloppiness, and sometimes fraud, with birth certificates signed by midwives, authorities are forcing many Latinos to scour through their personal histories, desperately searching for proof of citizenship. As staff writer Chris Vogel of the Houston Press reports, even Americans with long histories of military service are being subjected to Soviet-style scrutiny as part of the government's efforts.