Michael Luo

2 weeks ago | newyorker.com | Michael Luo

They were proud citizens of a country that did not want them. It was Independence Day, in 1895, in San Francisco’s Chinese quarter. Men with long braids who were dressed in traditional Chinese attire hobnobbed inside a building on Clay Street that was decked out in bunting and American flags. The men, who were all born in the United States, and spoke fluent English, were helping to inaugurate a new organization, the Native Sons of the Golden State.

Mar 7, 2025 | rsn.org | Michael Luo

In 1885, white rioters murdered dozens of their Asian neighbors in Rock Springs, Wyoming. A hundred and forty years later, the story of the atrocity is still being unearthed. The town of Rock Springs sprouts out of a vacant landscape of sandstone cliffs and sagebrush in southern Wyoming. It is a fading former mining town, where herds of deer now meander through the streets. A century-old sign overlooking the railroad tracks downtown reads “Home of Rock Springs Coal.” The mines closed decades ago.

Mar 6, 2025 | newyorker.com | Michael Luo

In today’s newsletter, the 1885 massacre in Rock Springs, Wyoming—and its frightening echoes today. Plus:• “Severance” fetishizes the office• London is a local-news desert• How many immigrants will die in U.S. custody? Only one man’s face is clearly visible in the photograph. He is wearing a brimmed hat, an oversized coat, and boots. He seems to be mid-stride, with one foot in front of the other, as though he’s walking out of the frame.

Mar 3, 2025 | businessandamerica.com | Michael Luo

On a chilly morning this past July, a small group bearing shovels, trowels, brushes, and other tools gathered in the park and began digging into the topsoil. In the course of several days, they excavated a series of neat squares, eventually carving out a chamber about a metre deep. They removed the dirt with buckets and poured it onto rectangular screens to be sifted. Curious neighbors wandered by.

Mar 3, 2025 | newyorker.com | Michael Luo

The town of Rock Springs sprouts out of a vacant landscape of sandstone cliffs and sagebrush in southern Wyoming. It is a fading former mining town, where herds of deer now meander through the streets. A century-old sign overlooking the railroad tracks downtown reads “Home of Rock Springs Coal.” The mines closed decades ago. In the late nineteen-eighties, workers began filling the honeycomb of underground tunnels beneath the town with a cement-like grout, to prevent cave-ins.