Hussain Sujel (right) laughs with a customer at his corner store in Montreal, Quebec. Photo: Myriam Rafla and Moe Ments.

The first round of submissions for our Assignment Wired project are in, and we’re impressed by the efforts of those who submitted. Every participant put in the time to photograph their corner store and write an accompanying story with quotes and research — no small feat.

We summarize a select number of submissions below, along with advice for each. We also choose three submissions for editing and image processing so that readers can get an idea for our process and what effect...

An information-technology administrator has pleaded guilty to crippling his former employer’s network after FBI agents traced the attack to the Wi-Fi network at a McDonald’s restaurant in Georgia. The administrator was caught after he used his credit card to make a $5 purchase at the restaurant about five minutes before the hacks occurred.

Jason Cornish, 37, pleaded guilty Tuesday in New Jersey to crippling the network of Shionogi, a subsidiary of a Japanese pharmaceutical company that has offices in New Jersey and Georgia. Cornish apparently hacked the company after a friend of his was fired...