Moonshine Goes Legit, the Dirty Business of Food, and Saving Koalas

A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.

Now that The New York Times pay wall is live, you only get 20 free clicks a month. For those worried about hitting their limit, we're taking a look through the paper each morning to find the stories that can make your clicks count.

Top Stories: Super PACS are dominating the Republican race, raising more money than the official campaigns of the candidates they support. Poland is leading a wave of Eastern European countries facing up to their Communist past and holding former officials accountable.

Science: Already seeing declining numbers, koalas are being devastated by chlamydia, which makes females infertile and reduces the population further. Scientists claim they have grown a living plant from the fruit of an extinct arctic plant that was frozen in the ground for 32,000 years. As our eyes age, "less and less sunlight gets through the lens to reach key cells in the retina" which throws off our circadian rhythm and leads to other health problems in older people.

Books: The author of The American Way of Eating looks at how our food is made, by working undercover on farms, at Applebee's, and Wal-mart, at "the bottom rungs of the food industry." Former Senator Russ Feingold has a new book about the days following the September 11 attacks and how they changed the way the government works.

Politics: Political ads are now taking advantage of ad targeting on the web to reach specific groups of voters.

World: Another look at the presidential candidacy of mad Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.

Health: Despite their tendency to do so, most endurance runners don't need to eat during their runs and may be making things worse by doing so.

Arts: Brief interviews with the directors of the Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Language Film. A new law in California allows parents to take over struggling schools, and Hollywood has already made a tearjerking movie based on it. Singer Rufus Wainwright debuts his first opera, "a tasteful, well-intentioned, ultimately mystifying failure."

U.S.: Some illegal moonshine makers have joined the legit world as "micro distilleries".

New York: A 92-year-old judge still hears cases at the Queens Supreme Court despite officially retiring 20 years ago and not getting paycheck for the last several years.

Opinion: The government should not be trying to interpret Islam in the hope that young Muslims will listen to them and not their religious leaders.

Business: Taser (the company behind the stun guns) is now making a tiny clip-on camera that can record two hours of video of whatever a police officer is seeing.

Sports: Avalanches claim even experienced skiers who can't resist the thrill of "backcountry" skiing.

Photo Gallery of the Day: Timothy Dolan's trip to Rome where the Pope elevated him to the role of Cardinal.