Science over fiction: Why funding cuts to NIH will hit pro-Trump rural areas of red states hardest
By Prakash Nagarkatti, Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, University of South Carolina; Mitzi Nagarkatti, Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, University of South Carolina The National Institutes of Health is the largest federal...
Milwaukee Independent reaches 80 Gridiron Awards after earning 9 more with 2 for Korean diaspora series
The Milwaukee Press Club, the oldest active press club in America and known for honoring excellence in the field of journalism, announced the winners of the 95th Annual Gridiron Awards on May 9. Milwaukee Independent earned nine awards for its 2024 submissions,...
Chemical analysis finds mislabeled tattoo inks contain ingredients that can cause serious allergies
By John Swierk, Assistant Professor, Chemistry, Binghamton University, State University of New York Tattoos are an incredibly common form of permanent self-expression that date back thousands of years. Most tattoo artists follow strict health and sanitation...
Flawed assumptions about cultural tattoos used to deport Venezuelans under Trump’s gang crackdown
By Beth C. Caldwell, Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School The United States deported 238 Venezuelan men on three flights to El Salvador on March 15, claiming that they were members of the Tren de Aragua gang that originated in Venezuela. Immigration officials...
Parade of Denial: Russia exploits 80th anniversary of VE Day to honor a war it worked with Hitler to start
While most of the democratic world solemnly marks VE Day, as the Victory in Europe Day and end of World War II on May 8, the Kremlin will again stage its annual May 9 military parade across Red Square. It is a performance designed not to commemorate, but to control a...
Echoes of Yalta: How Stalin got what he wanted in Poland and now Putin could get in Ukraine
By Wendy Webster, Professor of Modern Cultural History, University of Huddersfield As Britain celebrated Victory in Europe (VE) Day on May 8, 1945, the Polish airmen of RAF 305 Bomber Squadron captured a starkly different sentiment in their diary. “‘Victory!’ every...
Medieval threat to democracy: How Putin is pushing Russian revisionism by whitewashing Ivan the Terrible
By Dina Khapaeva, Professor of Cultural Studies, Georgia Institute of Technology Beginning in September 2025, Russian middle and high school students will be handed a new textbook titled “My Family.” Published in March 2025, the textbook’s co-author Nina Ostanina,...
Parents are turning to ride-hailing apps now that schools are cutting bus service for children
Ismael El-Amin was driving his daughter to school when a chance encounter gave him an idea for a new way to carpool. On the way across Chicago, El-Amin’s daughter spotted a classmate riding with her own dad as they drove to their selective public school on the...
Order to reopen Alcatraz seen as a political stunt to provoke public trauma amid mounting policy failures
Donald Trump’s order to reopen Alcatraz Island as a functioning federal prison was met with widespread confusion, logistical warnings, and backlash from legal experts and local leaders on May 5. But beyond the practical hurdles of rebuilding a long-defunct...
Arbitrary cuts by DOGE has reduced critical weather forecasting data as states endure tornado season
With massive job cuts, the National Weather Service is eliminating or reducing vital weather balloon launches in eight northern locations, which meteorologists and former agency leaders said will degrade the accuracy of forecasts just as severe weather season kicks...
Beloved Japanese retail chain Daiso expected to open its first Wisconsin ¥100-style store in Kenosha
Daiso, a popular Japanese discount retailer, is preparing to open its first Wisconsin location at Southport Plaza in Kenosha, offering local residents and visitors a wide range of low-cost household items, stationery, beauty products, and more. The store is scheduled...
Personal sacrifice: Japan’s slow progress toward equality for women in the workplace and society
By Linda E. White, Professor of Japanese Studies, Middlebury For centuries, women entering marriage in Japan have been bound by the Confucian notion of personal sacrifice for the good of the family, and that has extended to their names. Encouraged by a sexual double...
