Physicists have discovered a surprising new “Island of Inversion” in a place no one expected: among nuclei where the number of protons equals the number of neutrons. For decades, these strange regions—where atomic nuclei abandon their usual orderly structure and become strongly deformed—were thought to exist only in highly neutron-rich isotopes far from stability. But experiments on molybdenum isotopes revealed that molybdenum-84 behaves dramatically differently from its close neighbor molybdenum-86, even though they differ by just two neutrons.
Asteroids with tiny moons may be quietly trading material across space. Images from NASA’s DART mission revealed faint streaks on the moon Dimorphos—evidence of slow “cosmic snowballs” drifting from its parent asteroid, Didymos. The discovery provides the first direct visual proof that sunlight can spin asteroids fast enough to shed debris that lands on nearby companions. It also shows that near-Earth asteroids are much more active and constantly reshaped than scientists once believed.
Researchers have uncovered a surprising molecular chain reaction in the brain that may play a role in some forms of autism. The study suggests that nitric oxide, a tiny signaling molecule normally involved in fine-tuning communication between brain cells, can sometimes trigger a cascade of changes inside neurons. When nitric oxide activity rises, it can alter a protective protein called TSC2, weakening an important cellular brake and allowing the mTOR pathway, which controls growth and protein production, to become overactive.
Solid-state batteries could be safer and more energy-dense than today’s lithium-ion technology, but finding materials that allow ions to move quickly through solid electrolytes has been difficult. Researchers developed a machine learning pipeline that predicts Raman spectra and identifies a distinctive low-frequency signal linked to liquid-like ion motion inside crystals. This signal appears when rapid ion movement temporarily disrupts a crystal’s symmetry. The approach could dramatically speed up the discovery of superionic materials for advanced batteries.
A sweeping new study from Northwestern University reveals that scientific fraud is no longer just the work of a few rogue researchers—it has evolved into a global, organized enterprise. By analyzing massive datasets of publications, retractions, and editorial records, researchers uncovered networks involving “paper mills,” brokers, and compromised journals that systematically produce and sell fake research, authorship slots, and citations.
Scientists studying 1,300 golden retrievers have uncovered genetic clues explaining why some dogs are more anxious, energetic, or aggressive than others. Remarkably, several of the same genes linked to canine behavior are also tied to human traits like anxiety, depression, and intelligence. The discovery suggests dogs and humans share biological roots for emotions and behavior. Understanding these links could help owners better interpret their pets’ reactions and even improve training and veterinary care.
New research suggests seabird guano helped transform the Chincha Kingdom into one of the most prosperous societies in ancient Peru. Chemical clues in centuries-old maize show farmers fertilized their crops with guano gathered from nearby islands, dramatically boosting yields in the desert landscape. The resulting agricultural surplus fueled trade, population growth, and regional influence.
Scrolling on your phone while sitting on the toilet might be doing more harm than you think. A new study found that people who use smartphones during bathroom visits had a 46% higher risk of hemorrhoids compared to those who don’t. Researchers discovered that phone users tend to spend significantly longer on the toilet, often getting distracted by news or social media, which may increase pressure on anal tissues.
Credibility is central to the criminal justice system.
Who is telling the truth? Who do jurors and judges believe?
A year ago, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 News and Wisconsin Watch published the Milwaukee County district attorney’s list of law enforcement officers with integrity violations, allegations of dishonesty or bias, and past criminal charges.
It was the first time the full list had been made public.
Prosecutors must share information about witness credibility, including that of police officers, with defense attorneys. Then the attorneys decide if they want to try to raise those credibility concerns in court.
Often called the “Brady/Giglio list” because of landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases, the list is meant to help ensure people get a fair trial and prevent wrongful convictions.
Since the list was published last year, local defense attorneys say they’ve noticed prosecutors giving more frequent Brady notifications. But they argue that Milwaukee County’s criteria of what gets an officer on the list remains too narrow – excluding officers who should qualify – and that there is still too much inconsistency among county prosecutors about when and how they share Brady material.
District Attorney Kent Lovern said his office has always fulfilled its legal and ethical obligations, but he acknowledged making changes to improve the list’s accuracy. The most significant was appointing two executive staff members to help maintain the list.
Some examples: an officer wrongly described as involved in a custody death, another listed for a criminal case that had been expunged, and others listed with the wrong agency. A handful of officers were deceased.
A new list, released in October 2025, did not have those kinds of problems.
“We put more eyes on the list that were beyond my two eyes,” Lovern said, adding: “We think that’s enhanced, at least, the information, making it as current as possible.”
In the last year, the District Attorney’s Office added 13 officers and removed two. Most of those officers were added because of internal, not criminal, investigations, and about half remain employed with their agency, according to public records.
For Caitlin Firer, a defense attorney, the public list has served as a backstop.
“If I’m watching a body camera and it’s striking me as something’s not right, I will run that officer’s name on the Brady list,” she told TMJ4 News, later adding: “It’s a resource now where we see those names, and we know they’re on the Brady list.”
Last year, the city’s largest police union, the Milwaukee Police Association, criticized the district attorney’s decision to release the list and news organizations’ decision to publish it. Others in policing praised the transparency.
“We’re given so much more credibility and respect when we take the stand as opposed to the average citizen,” said David Thomas, a Maryland-based policing consultant and expert.
The Brady list, he said, “goes to the very question of integrity.”
District attorney’s office using same strict criteria to add officers to the list
What has not changed is the strict criteria used to get an officer on the list.
Officers are added only if they have a pending criminal charge, a past conviction or an internal investigation “that brings into question the officer’s integrity.”
Experts told the Journal Sentinel last year the policy appeared improperly narrow and omitted other potential Brady material, including when a judge finds an officer not credible.
Lovern stood by that practice. His office still does not track those judicial decisions, commonly known as adverse credibility rulings.
“Credibility determinations, which are frequently made by courts, don’t constitute judgments of untruthfulness,” he said in a recent interview.
When prosecutors are weighing whether to call an officer to testify, it makes sense to distinguish between overt dishonesty and credibility rulings, said Rachel Moran, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, in an interview last month.
But an officer who was found not credible in court still belongs on the Brady list, she said.
“An officer who has misstated information in his police report, that’s exculpatory regardless of whether the officer intended to do it,” Moran said.
With long internal investigations, it can be years before an officer lands on the list
If an officer is referred to prosecutors for a potential criminal charge, he or she is placed on the Brady list immediately.
But when it comes to internal investigations, police departments often notify prosecutors at the end of the process, if an officer is found to have broken any department rules.
That can leave a gap.
Milwaukee police officer Eian West was added to the list in 2025, two years after he and three other officers came under investigation for their response to two domestic violence calls days apart that involved the same couple.
The officers were accused of failing to make mandatory arrests or file prompt reports, despite the woman saying the man had threatened her with a gun and tried to set her on fire, according to department records.
West and another officer went to the second call, on April 11, 2023, after two witnesses reported a man beating a woman in a front yard. The officers called her an ambulance.
Later that day, the woman woke up in the hospital and called Police District 4, prompting a sergeant to send two different officers to reinterview the woman and file a report.
Two days after that, the woman had a miscarriage.
Internal affairs asked West why he waited until his next shift, on April 12, after the other officers had been dispatched, to write his report. West’s report also listed the woman as the suspect and did not document the fact that she lived with the man, which is one of the elements of domestic violence, according to a summary from internal affairs.
West maintained he “was not trying to cover up that he was sent to a battery (domestic violence) and did not file it,” police records show.
Still, the officer agreed that he had violated the core value of integrity because he was not completely honest and accurate about all relevant facts in the case, the records say.
The domestic violence calls took place in April 2023. Internal affairs interviewed West that July. But the internal investigation did not end until 2025, and only after that was West added to the Brady list.
During those two years, prosecutors did not know his integrity was under question in an investigation that ultimately resulted in a 20-day suspension.
Since prosecutors did not know, they could not disclose it to defense attorneys.
Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman acknowledged it sometimes takes years to complete internal investigations, depending on the complexity.
“We are not trying to delay for delay’s sake,” Norman said in an interview. “It is unfortunate that we have a number of investigations on our plate.”
More urgent internal investigations, such as police shootings, can take priority, and the department must respect the officers’ due process and collective bargaining rights, the chief said.
Angel Johnson, a regional attorney manager with the State Public Defenders Office in Milwaukee, said that the office’s clients also have rights.
“If there’s an officer that has credibility issues and they’re going to testify in a proceeding against my client, (my clients) have the same right to due process,” she said.
Why some officers were removed from the Brady list
The Brady list is fluid.
As officers come on, others come off.
Kenton Burtch and Elric Erving, both of the Milwaukee Police Department, were removed in the last year.
Erving was investigated for disorderly conduct in 2019. No criminal charges were filed, and his name came off the list, Lovern said.
Burtch was accused of improperly filing his time card and claiming an estimated $1,700 he was not owed. He was demoted from sergeant and suspended for six days.
He appealed to the city’s Fire and Police Commission, which found the situation was a mistake related to the officer’s remote work arrangement and confusion over how to handle it. The commission overturned his discipline, finding “no indication or evidence of intentional misconduct,” and restored his rank.
Because of that, Lovern said, his name came off the list.
In the past, Lovern has removed officers who complete deferred prosecution agreements or who win appeals to get their jobs back.
Some defense attorneys have argued that officers should only rarely, if ever, come off the Brady list.
“Once you’re placed on the Brady list, if you continue to testify in court, you should not be removed,” Johnson said.
As of September 2025, the list had 217 entries involving 190 individual officers. The district attorney’s office released the list in October in response to a public records request. Reporters filed records requests to gather more information about new individuals on the list. Some of those requests remain pending.
In the months since, the list continues to change. For example, the district attorney’s office added a Milwaukee officer recently charged with accessing sensitive license plate data for personal reasons, despite tagging the purpose of his searches as “investigation.”
It was not the first time the officer, Josue Ayala, had been accused of dishonesty on the job, with one defense attorney even telling a federal prosecutor that Ayala exaggerated so much that it seemed to be a “compulsion,” the Journal Sentinel previously reported. Ayala has since resigned.
Defense attorneys continue to rely on media reports, decisions from the city’s Fire and Police Commission and civil lawsuit judgments to identify officers with questionable credibility – and that’s a problem, Johnson said.
“It should be happening from the DA’s office, but we are still finding ourselves doing that legwork and it’s not our obligation or ethical duty to do so,” she said.
This story is part of Duty to Disclose, an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 News and Wisconsin Watch. The Fund for Investigative Journalism provided financial support for this project.
This story first appeared in PA Local, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA taking a fresh, positive look at the incredible people, beautiful places, and delicious food of Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here.
URBANA, N.Y. (WENY) — A Dansville man is facing felony charges after New York State Police say he accepted a $10,000 deposit for home construction work and never completed the job.
New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill paid a visit to the site in Phillipsburg to announce a $1.2 million state grant to fund repairs for a permanent fix.
The Pa. Public Utility Commission has released an advisory suggesting enhanced cybersecurity measures as cyber attack attempts on critical infrastructure become increasingly probable.
Login
