David Goodman ("Breaking Ranks") is a Mother Jones contributing writer whose most recent story for the magazine, "Class Dismissed" (May/June 2004), reported from Oregon on the antitax revolt that is crippling public schools. Along with his sister Amy Goodman, the host of the radio and TV show "Democracy Now," he is the author of the best-selling book The Exception to the Rulers.

Jeff Riedel ("Breaking Ranks") jumped at the chance to meet and photograph U.S. soldiers for this story, saying that "these voices need to be heard." His photography appears regularly in GQ, Vogue, and Vanity Fair.

Lou Dubose ("Justice DeLayed") is the former editor of the Texas Observer, where he followed the career of George W. Bush. He has cowritten two Bush books with Molly Ivins, Shrub and Bushwhacked; he is the coauthor, with Jan Reid, of the just-published The Hammer: Tom DeLay: God, Money, and the Rise of the Republican Congress.

Todd Gitlin ("The Great Media Breakdown"), a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University, is a contributing writer for this magazine. He is the author of several books about the media and social activism, including his latest, Letters to a Young Activist.

Paul Roberts ("Over a Barrel") is the author of The End of Oil and a regular contributor to Harper's Magazine, for which he has written about the timber industry, the auto industry, and the destruction of the Florida Everglades.

Bill McKibben ("One Roof at a Time"), a contributing writer to the magazine who often writes about sustainability, is an enthusiastic participant in the renewable-energy revolution. He recently installed solar panels on his Vermont house, and one of his earlier Mother Jones stories, "It's Easy Being Green" (July/August 2002), was inspired by his purchase of a gas-electric hybrid car.