Wisconsin DNR Secretary Preston Cole retires after a 35-year career dedicated to public service
Governor Tony Evers announced on November 18 that Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Secretary Preston D. Cole would be retiring from the Evers Administration on November 23 after a long and dedicated 35 year career in public service. “Preston has been an...
Carbon Budget: Why reducing deforestation is vital to protecting biodiversity and slowing climate change
By Tom Pugh, Reader in Biosphere-Atmosphere Exchange, University of Birmingham and Senior Lecturer, Lund University Humanity injects an almost incomprehensible 42 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide CO₂ into the atmosphere every year. The majority of this comes from...
How the government can encourage the public to use clean energy without subsidizing just richer people
By Eric Hittinger, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Rochester Institute of Technology, Eric Williams, Professor of Sustainability, Rochester Institute of Technology, Qing Miao, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Tiruwork...
Angry crowds across China protest Xi Jinping’s “zero COVID” lockdown policy in unprecedented rebuke
Protesters angered by strict anti-virus measures called for China’s powerful leader to resign, an unprecedented rebuke as authorities in at least eight cities struggled to suppress demonstrations November 27 that represent a rare direct challenge to the ruling...
Lessons Unlearned: Schools were failing to adequately serve students of color even before COVID
By Adriana Villavicencio, Assistant Professor of Education, University of California, Irvine National test results released in September 2022 show unprecedented losses in math and reading scores since the pandemic disrupted schooling for millions of children. In...
Zombie Virus: Scientists reanimate 50,000 year-old microbes released in thawing Siberian Permafrost
As our world continues to warm up, vast areas of permafrost are rapidly melting, releasing material that have been trapped for up to a million years. Included are uncountable numbers of microbes that have been lying dormant for hundreds of millennia. To study these...
Targeting civilian power supply earns Russia the “state sponsor of terror” title as winter’s chill begins to bite
By Jonathan Este, Associate Editor, International Affairs Editor Large areas of Ukraine, including the capital, are now without power much of the time. And still Moscow persists with its strategy of targeting Ukraine’s power supply. It’s hard to argue – as the Kremlin...
Volodymyr Karplyuk: Irpin needs to be heard as the city faces both problems and progress with recovery
Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau, Anthony Blinken, Olaf Scholz, Bono from U2, Mario Draghi. About 100 world-famous people have visited Irpin over the past 9 months. Destroyed, but unconquered Irpin has become an attractive photo zone for foreign guests and a symbol of...
Zdyrko Yaroslav: My journey across Ukraine to report on the war with a photojournalist from Milwaukee
“Without the help of the Milwaukee Independent’s editorial team for the project Reports From Ukraine, I would not have been able to take a single photograph. Very heartfelt thanks is due them. Yaroslav Zdyrko provided security, logistical support, and was our...
Holodomor Memorial Day: Honoring Ukrainian victims on 90th anniversary of Stalin’s genocide and famine
The observation of Holodomor Memorial Day on November 26, a solemn time to remember the Ukrainian people who were victims of Stalin’s genocide by famine, takes place against a backdrop in 2022 that parallels the cruelty of 90 years ago. Following the playbook of...
Mariupol’s Holodomor Memorial destroyed by occupation troops to further erase Ukrainian history
Russian occupiers of Mariupol dismantled the Monument to the Victims of Holodomor in late October, the Famine of 1932-33 created by dictator Joseph Stalin that claimed the lives of millions of Ukrainians. The current Russian regime has asserted...
Irpin officials say foreign philanthropic foundations have used the city’s suffering as a PR stunt
In a recent interview with the Polish publication “Gazeta Wyborcza,” the Mayor of Milwaukee’s Sister City detailed his frustration with foreign foundations that toured Irpin with promises of help for its reconstruction, only to used the visits as a...
