It's tough to find a foreclosure sign in Bismarck, N.D. Banners announcing "Now Hiring" are much more common. Over at the mall, the Scheels sporting-goods store is so busy on weekends that some shoppers have sworn to go only during the week. Want to make jokes about North Dakota Sure, the state's got three times as many cattle as people, and a typical day in January is a balmy 20°F. But the folks who live here, unlike those ...

On a typical day, few of the hundreds of thousands of people who flow past the Liujiayao Bridge in southern Beijing give any notice to Su Lianzhi. But on March 23, the 53-year-old fruit vendor became the cause of thousands of passing commuters. Around 11AM, as Su and her family were trying to make a few sales, a white van swooped in. At least 10 men jumped out and began confiscating the family's fruit and three-wheeled cart. "My mother ...