Trump stirs outrage as 1/3 of American soil on the southern border is occupied for military expansionism
Orange no-entry signs posted by the U.S. military in English and Spanish dot the New Mexico desert, where a border wall cuts past onion fields and parched ranches with tufts of tall grass growing amidst wiry brush and yucca trees. The U.S. Army has posted thousands of...
Trump celebrates gulag-like conditions for immigrant detainees during visit to “Alligator Alcatraz”
The new immigration detention center at an isolated airstrip in the Florida Everglades that Donald Trump visited on July 1 was heralded by Republicans as a potential model for other states to aggressively ramp up detention and deportation efforts. Trump, Department of...
Latino activists adopt “smartphone journalism” as a witness strategy to ICE’s unchecked state power
By Allissa V. Richardson, Associate Professor of Journalism, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism It has been five years since May 25, 2020, when George Floyd gasped for air beneath the knee of a Minneapolis police officer at the corner of 38th Street...
Why White people are triggered by seeing Mexican flags at immigration protests more than other Americans
By Edward D. Vargas, Associate Professor, School of Transborder Studies, Arizona State University; Jason L. Morín, Professor of Political Science, California State University, Northridge; and Loren Collingwood, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of...
From pulpits to plantations: The moral imperialism of Wisconsin’s role in the annexation of Hawaii
On July 7, 1898, President William McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution, formally annexing the Hawaiian Islands into the United States. Widely criticized by Native Hawaiians and later condemned by the U.S. government itself in a 1993 congressional apology, the...
A forgotten federal housing program once built entire communities to meet the needs of America
By Eran Ben-Joseph, Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) In 1918, as World War I intensified overseas, the U.S. government embarked on a radical experiment. It quietly became the nation’s largest housing...
Historic Forest Home Cemetery celebrates 175 years as Milwaukee’s beloved and enduring Silent City
Beneath the sweeping canopy of century-old trees and towering monuments, Forest Home Cemetery celebrated its 175th anniversary on June 25. The evening gala featured a keynote address by celebrated historian John Gurda, who has spent decades chronicling Milwaukee’s...
Podcast: A “Deep Dive” into 175 years of memory and legacy at Milwaukee’s Forest Home Cemetery
The Deep Dive podcast by Milwaukee Independent takes a closer look at the stories that matter most, uncovering the layers of complexity behind today’s pressing issues. From groundbreaking research to critical social movements and the intersection of local and global...
Systemic collapse: Why local news dies when journalism follows money over community need
By Abby Youran Qin, Ph.D. candidate at School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison Why did your hometown newspaper vanish while the next town over kept theirs? This isn’t bad luck. It’s a systemic pattern. Since 2005, the United...
Milwaukee veterans inspired by visit to Hero Street as a national model of Latino military remembrance
A group of Latino veterans and community leaders from Milwaukee made a solemn and inspirational visit on June 28 to “Hero Street, U.S.A.” in Silvis, Illinois, a one-and-a-half block neighborhood known for the many Hispanic residents who served in the U.S. military during World War II and the Korean War.
Public Health: Abortions have increased in the U.S. as desperate women turn to pills and travel
Abortion is slightly more common despite bans or deep restrictions in most Republican-controlled states, the legal and political fights over its future are not done yet. It is now been two and a half years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and opened...
Maternal Mortality: Review committees are quietly fighting to save mothers amid political turmoil
Efforts to reduce the nation’s persistently high maternal mortality rates involve state panels of experts that investigate and learn from each mother’s death. The panels, called maternal mortality review committees, usually do their work quietly and out of...
