Arrest of North Korean tech spy in China signals diplomatic rift as Pyongyang expands ties to Moscow
By Linggong Kong, Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science, Auburn University Chinese authorities in the northeastern city of Shenyang reportedly arrested a North Korean IT specialist in late April 2025, accusing him of stealing drone technology secrets. The suspect,...
The post-DEI era is forcing founders of Black-owned brands to adapt their hopes and business plans
The co-founders of a company that makes lip products for darker skin tones no longer hope to get their line into Target. A brother and sister who make jigsaw puzzles celebrating Black subjects wonder if they need to offer “neutral” images like landscapes...
Increased anxiety and depression across all groups of Americans linked to “everyday discrimination”
By Monica Wang, Associate Professor of Public Health, Boston University People who most frequently encounter everyday discrimination, those subtle snubs and slights of everyday life, are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression. In addition, that finding...
A remedy for destroying Black neighborhoods is fulfilled after a long struggle generations later
Leslie Knox was a young girl in the 1960s when her Detroit-area city was accused of destroying neighborhoods to get rid of Black residents. Decades later, the retired nurse has returned to Hamtramck, settling into a new two-story home on Gallagher Street and watching...
U.S. cities explore how land reparations can address generational harm from racism and colonization
By Sara Safransky, Associate Professor, Department of Human and Organizational Development, Vanderbilt University; Elsa Noterman, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, Queen Mary University of London; Madeleine Lewis, Doctoral Student, Department of Human and...
Public safety blackouts surge as U.S. utilities try to avoid fires, lawsuits, and catastrophic damage
By Jay L. Zagorsky, Associate Professor Questrom School of Business, Boston University Are you prepared for when the power goes out? To prevent massive wildfires in drought-prone, high-wind areas, electrical companies have begun preemptively shutting off electricity....
A Field of Flags 2025: Memorial Day salute honors every Wisconsin resident killed in action since 1848
The sixth annual Field of Flags returned to the War Memorial Center to honor every resident of Wisconsin killed in action since it became a state in 1848. Hundreds of volunteers installed the Field of Flags during the week of May 19, despite two days of rain delays....
May 25, 2020: Remembering when George Floyd’s murder ignited Milwaukee and the nation five years ago
The cellphone footage from Minneapolis, showing a police officer’s knee pressed into George Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds, circulated within hours. By the evening of May 25, 2020, the video had become a visceral symbol of racial injustice, provoking...
Blaming the victim: How Trump’s war on justice in 2020 radicalized the response to Black Lives Matter
When George Floyd was murdered beneath the knee of a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, 2020, the nation erupted in a wave of protests not seen in a generation. What could have been a reckoning, a moment for political unity and moral clarity, was instead hijacked,...
From MLK to MAGA: White grievance continues to roll back civil rights five years after George Floyd
Five years after the killing of George Floyd ignited a nationwide reckoning on race, the civil rights landscape in America has shifted not toward justice, but toward retraction. What began in 2020 as a global cry for systemic reform has, by 2025, become a cautionary...
Milwaukee Independent reflects on third anniversary of its first assignment to cover the war in Ukraine
Three years ago, almost to the day on May 20, a team of journalists from Wisconsin crossed into Ukraine during the early phase of Russia’s full-scale invasion. It was the first time any news outlet from the state had reported directly from within Ukraine after the war...
A review of public spaces outside Judge Dugan’s court shows factual contradictions in FBI’s affidavit
Questions are mounting over the criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan, who was arrested April 25, 2025, at the Milwaukee County Courthouse and charged with obstruction and concealing a...
