Martin Schneider writes:
A new issue of The New Yorker comes out tomorrow. A preview of its contents, adapted from the magazine’s press release:
In “The Rubber Room,” Steven Brill goes inside a facility where New York City teachers who have been accused of misconduct, or, in some cases, incompetence are required to spend each day—for which they receive full pay—while they await arbitration. Under the terms of the city’s contract with the teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers, teachers with more than three years’ seniority are guaranteed a job for life and cannot be fired unless they are “charged with an offense and lose in the arduous arbitration hearing,” Brill writes. Teachers can sit idle in these facilities, commonly referred to as “Rubber Rooms,” for as many as five years.
In “Perfect Match,” Burkhard Bilger profiles tennis’s Bob and Mike Bryan, “the best doubles team of their generation,” and examines the evolution of doubles tennis.
In “Useless Beauty,” Nick Paumgarten visits Governors Island in New York Harbor and explores the battle over how to develop it now that it is back under New York’s control.
In Comment, Laura Secor looks at the history of coerced confessions and show trials in Iran, and explains why such tactics are ineffectual today.
James Surowiecki asks if the public’s resistance to Obama’s health-care-reform plan is psychological.
Paul Simms sends a corporate memo about restructuring in one’s personal life.
Elif Batuman chronicles the rise of comedy traffic schools.
Elizabeth Kolbert explores extreme experiments in low-impact living.
James Wood examines attempts to defend God from the new atheists.
Alex Ross notes a recent return to improvisation in bel-canto opera.
Anthony Lane reviews Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock and The Baader Meinhof Complex.
There is a short story by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya.

Martin Schneider writes:
A new issue of The New Yorker comes out tomorrow. A preview of its contents, adapted from the magazine’s press release:
In “The Untouchable,” Ben McGrath examines Michael Bloomberg’s campaign for a third term as Mayor of New York. “After seven and a half years in office, Bloomberg, who is now sixty-seven, has amassed so much power and respect that he seems more a Medici than a mayor,” McGrath writes.
In “Plugged In,” Tad Friend examines the state of the electric-car industry, by profiling Elon Musk, the colorful chairman, C.E.O., and product architect of Tesla Motors.
In Comment, Hendrik Hertzberg takes note of our foundering state governments, and asks if one of our largest states, California, has become ungovernable.
Alec Wilkinson explores the world of competitive free diving.
In Shouts & Murmurs, Amy Ozols offers a cure for hangovers.
David Sedaris reflects on his childhood and a trip to Australia.
Alex Ross examines depictions of fictional composers in literature.
Sasha Frere-Jones looks back at Leonard Cohen’s career in music.
Peter Schjeldahl visits the exhibit “Augustus Saint-Gaudens in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”
David Denby reviews Inglourious Basterds and Julie & Julia.
There is also an excerpt from The Wild Things, Dave Eggers’s new adult novel based on the storybook by Maurice Sendak.

Martin Schneider writes:
A new issue of The New Yorker comes out tomorrow. It is a double issue. A preview of its contents, adapted from the magazine’s press release:
In “Travels in Siberia–II,” Ian Frazier’s trip by car across the vast expanse of Siberia continues, from the Continental Divide to the Pacific Ocean.
In “The Price of the Ticket,” John Seabrook looks at the changes in the live-music industry and the financial complications that have caused many insiders to agree that the business of live music is “dysfunctional.”
In “The Courthouse Ring,” Malcolm Gladwell looks at Harper Lee’s classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, and reëxamines its central character, Atticus Finch, and his attitude toward race.
In Comment, Kelefa Sanneh writes about reverse racism in the wake of the recent controversy over Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,’s arrest
In The Financial Page, James Surowiecki asks why government attempts to aid troubled borrowers have failed to turn the foreclosure crisis around.
In Shouts & Murmurs, Zev Borow offers a guide to summer sun protection.
Judith Thurman explores the collaboration between Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter in the “Little House on the Prairie” books.
Alex Ross discovers new innovations in digital sound.
Nancy Franklin watches VH1’s Lords of the Revolution and Woodstock: Now and Then.
Anthony Lane reviews Cold Souls and Not Quite Hollywood.
There is a story by Sherman Alexie.