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ICE detains Hopkins public health researcher as agency expands airport arrests

A Johns Hopkins public health researcher and former Fulbright scholar was detained by immigration agents while boarding a domestic flight this week, the university confirmed, as the Trump administration ramps up immigration enforcement efforts at airports.

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Jul 30 • 6:37 PM EDT • Health • thebanner.com
Billy V Live: Hear the latest in Hawaii Entertainment from the artists themselves

Get the latest in Hawaii entertainment on Billy V Live!

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Jul 30 • 6:12 PM EDT • Entertainment • hawaiinewsnow.com
Exclusive: Disney Insists That Cursed Kingdom Hearts Art Was Not AI-Generated

A joint statement from Disney and Square Enix says the odd-looking cover art for The Kingdom Hearts Collection [I-III] was the result of "human error."

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Jul 30 • 3:14 PM EDT • Technology • gamespot.com
Netflix Sued For $105 Million After Hard Drive of Unreleased Nicolas Cage Movie Was Stolen From Its Office

The lawsuit faults Netflix for losing a drive that contained a copy of World War II thriller 'Fortitude.' The company maintains it's not responsible for the loss of the movie, which it says was delive...

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Jul 30 • 2:20 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
After Hobbes vs Rousseau: Politics must move beyond human nature

Since the great debate between Hobbes and Rousseau, our political theory has been organised around a single question: is human nature essentially good or essentially corrupt? Graham Harman, the philosopher behind object-oriented ontology, argues that this is simply the wrong question to be asking. The real forces governing our collective fate - climate change, artificial intelligence, geography, and pandemics - are non-human; therefore, questions about human nature are not the central ones. Instead, Harman proposes a politics reorganised around our relationship to non-human objects and environments, in which quasi-government institutions incentivise and deter actions with the aim of extending the survival of the human race. “It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” This has become one of the most popular phrases among twenty-first-century intellectuals. Often misattributed to Fredric Jameson, it has been warmly embraced by such influential authors as Slavoj Žižek and the tragically departed Mark Fisher, and has fueled the notion that the major problem with the political Left is that it simply needs to become more speculative and creative. Naturally, this is never a bad idea in any human pursuit. But what if the political distinction between Left, Right, and Center itself results from a failure of imagination? SUGGESTED READING Hobbes vs Rousseau: are we inherently evil? By Robin Douglass This particular division has been with us only since the summer of 1789. During the simmering prelude to the French Revolution, it referred originally to the physical position in the National Assembly of radical figures on one side and loyal monarchists on the other. These positions are linked with two entirely different camps of modern political theory. On the Left we find a series of authors ranging from the moderate (Locke) to the supercharged (Rousseau) to the truly radical (Marx), all of them contending that exploitation of the many by the few justifies revolutionary overthrow of the existing order. On the Right they are countered by the likes of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Schmitt, a group of thinkers convinced that corrupt human nature can be tamed only by force. In the words of the Nazi supporter Schmitt: “One could test all theories of nature and state and political ideas according to their anthropology and classify these as to whether they consciously or unconsciously presuppose [humans] to be by nature evil or by nature good.” This is the division we continue to face today, even in the daily retail politics of Western democracies.___Our species has regularly proven itself capable of both the noblest gestures and the most scathing cruelties, making it hard to define us as essentially either emancipatory or brutal in our aims.___The most refreshing feature of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s 2021 book The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity was their awareness that the forced choice between Rousseau and Hobbes (as they put it) is no longer sufficient. Our species has regularly proven itself capable of both the noblest gestures and the most scathing cruelties, making it hard to define us as essentially either emancipatory or brutal in our aims. Far from being stationed “beyond good and evil,” we seem to be fully entangled with both. We are not naturally good or evil, Graeber and Wengrow contend, but naturally experimental and imaginative. They rest their case on the archaeological record, which seems to bear witness to numerous episodes of seasonally shifting governments and festivals, which vacillate in the same society (even in the same year) between the egalitarian and the dictatorial. Such praise of political experiment makes a good fit with the generally anarchist position defended by these authors. Yet it is also what I find most disappointing in their position. Although they are right that the forced choice between Hobbes and Rousseau falls short of what our new situation requires, the authors simply replace it with praise for the human being as a political tinkerer and performer. In other words, they give us just another theory of human nature, one that would not have been out of place in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. What other options might we have?___The time is ripe for a retheorization of politics on the basis of something other than human nature… We are not just alienated and limited by objects, but also empowered and unleashed by them___One fresh approach would be to treat politics within a broader framework than human nature, given that the polis does not exist in a vacuum filled exclusively with people. When Bruno Latour went to observe the baboons of Kenya with the San Diego anthropologist Shirley Strum, they jointly concluded that these primates were more socially interdependent than our own species. Each baboon is so reliant on the dynamics of the group that they find themselves locked into constant surveillance of their potentially dangerous peers. The group structure turns out to be inherently volatile. Humans, by contrast, are able to stabilize their societies to a large degree through the mediation of inanimate objects. Although one’s position in society may seem to fluctuate over time, considerable stability is produced through such items as apartment keys, wedding rings, and identification cards, all of them serving to secure us a place distinct from that of our fellows. The Italian philosopher Maurizio Ferraris has written at length about the crucial role of documents in establishing social relations, making him a hero among notaries in his country. Proper names and license plates cement our position amidst other humans, as do symbolic achievements such as graduation from a top university or distinguished wartime service with its various medals and ribbons. None of this is found among baboons, despite their closeness to us on the evolutionary tree: after all, we did share a common ancestor just 25 to 30 million years ago. SUGGESTED VIEWING The goodness paradox With Richard Wrangham The time is ripe for a retheorization of politics on the basis of something other than human nature, whether understood in the manner of the Left or of the Right. We are not just alienated and limited by objects, but also empowered and unleashed by them. But initially, it is true, we face non-human things primarily in the form of constraints. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to form a human civilization underwater, deep underground, atop Mount Everest, or in outer space. Human dependence on the non-social background takes on subtler form in discussions of political geography, especially unloved on the more idealistic Left. Consider the luckless position of Poland during World War II, sandwiched between Hitler on one side and Stalin on the other. By contrast, note the good fortune of the United States in not having a military peer positioned on any land border. Anglo-American geopolitics, since the writings of the American naval commander Alfred Thayer Mahan and the British geographer Sir Halford Mackinder, has been wedded to the notion that one or more liberal offshore naval powers should prevent any authoritarian “heartland” regime from gaining effective control of Eurasia. That remains the case whether the opponent is the impatient Napoleon, the swashbuckling German Kaiser, the villainous Hitler, the murderous Stalin, or the industrial juggernaut Chinese. In their current Foreign Affairs article “Heartland vs. Rimland,” Michael Beckley and Hal Brands analyze the current and coming state of the world on the basis of these same rather durable principles. In recent years a similar outlook has been embraced, in inverted form, by the Putin-loving Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, an icon of the Rightist intellectual underworld. For Dugin, the Anglo-Saxons are an evil force bent on destroying the spiritually superior people of the land: much like Athens in its failed war with Sparta, or Carthage in its eventual collapse against Rome. But the shared notion on both sides is that any strategy that fails to take geography into account is likely to end up as a defeated form of excessive optimism.___When dealing with environmental degradation, then, we are doing business with forces that promise dire effects on our species as a whole.___More striking for us today than geography is the non-human object called climate, which threatens rimland and heartland equally. Even if we contend that humans are one hundred percent responsible for triggering the climate crisis, it remains non-human in the sense of being an independent force beyond our effective control. In a major work published just before his death in 2002, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, the American paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould noted the tendency of evolutionary theorists to focus too closely on the fate of individuals in view of their successful or failed adaptation to circumstances. With climate change, however, we confront a force that goes well beyond the scope of any individual life. Whereas Richard Dawkins extended evolutionary questions downward from individuals to the sub-individual gene, Gould pushed it upward, speaking of entire species or clades as impacted by environmental change. The asteroid that struck the Yucatán 66 million years ago is only the most famous example of this sort. In the wake of that catastrophe, large animals needing abundant supplies of food were at a fatal disadvantage by contrast with the smaller birds and mammals of the planet. When dealing with environmental degradation, then, we are doing business with forces that promise dire effects on our species as a whole. The effect is to shift our attention away from individual beings towards the survival of the group.In the United States in particular, the COVID-19 pandemic sparked considerable backlash among those who asserted a nearly absolute degree of individual freedom. In California I encountered those who demanded that their businesses be allowed to reopen, that it was enough to cover their mouths but not their noses, or that they should have the right to enter any public area despite refusing vaccination. Yet public health is probably the clearest argument against libertarianism, which often merely asserts the autonomy of individuals against any claims of the commons. In normal times the individual is worth defending; under conditions that threaten the survival of part or all of our species, compulsion may be our only resort, as with perfectly reasonable blackouts and rations in wartime. To rebuild human society under the constraints of climate change will be one of the great challenges of the century to come, as will our improvised grappling with artificial intelligence. Such phenomena pose existential risks for humanity, and leave far less room for tolerance of individual brattiness. Cases are mounting of devastating wildfires caused by arson. Recently it was reported that there is even a website where one can bet on the location of coming wildfires, raising the specter of deliberate blazes set to collect on wagers. The death penalty has steadily lost support in a world where many stress the infinite value of human life. But if we focus instead on entire ecosystems, those who purposely burn the forests may begin to look worse than serial murderers.___The politics of the future may be splintered by disagreement over such topics as how to manage our environing background and how to permit or restrict the entry of new objects into the political sphere.___So far I have spoken of force, authority, and punishment: measures sure to have greater appeal to those who identify with what we know as the Right. But other implications of the post-anthropocentric world are likely to have different backers. If non-human objects are seen as structuring political space, it stands to reason that they can no longer be introduced solely by the pace of technical breakthrough. Fields ranging from cybernetics to energy will demand increased politicization once they are reconceived not just as products of individual human investment, but as renovations of collective political geography. This need not involve world government, with its inherent risk of tyranny, but may involve quasi-governmental enforcers of prestige along the lines of a less corrupt FIFA or International Olympic Committee, punishing deviant states not with violence but with less tangible incentives.Politics will never lose its historic links with conflict and faction. But rather than factions aligned by differing theories of human nature, the politics of the future may be splintered by disagreement over such topics as how to manage our environing background and how to permit or restrict the entry of new objects into the political sphere. This will prove just as incommensurable with the modern Left/Right spectrum as a globe is with a two-dimensional map.

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Jul 30 • 8:00 AM EDT • Politics • iai.tv
Novant Health operations impacted from Forsyth County water main break

Novant Health has shifted some clinics to virtual visits and paused elective surgeries after a major Forsyth County water main break.

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Jul 29 • 1:25 PM EDT • Health • wxii12.com
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Former Genesco Inc. chairman William S. 'Bill' Wire II dies at 94

In addition to business community leadership, Wire served on boards of more than a dozen nonprofits, including the YMCA and PENCIL foundations

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Jul 29 • 1:18 PM EDT • Business • tennessean.com
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Grant Thornton to acquire CBIZ for nearly $3 billion

The all-cash, private equity-backed deal is poised to establish the largest accounting and professional services firm outside of the Big 4.

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Jul 29 • 10:30 AM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com
How to get presale tickets for Jon Stewart, Pete Davidson’s 9/11 comedy benefit at MSG

"NYC Still Rising After 25 Years" will raise money for organizations supporting the 9/11 community.

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Jul 29 • 10:05 AM EDT • Entertainment • syracuse.com
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Grant Thornton to acquire CBIZ for nearly $3 billion

The combination would establish the fifth-largest accounting firm in the U.S.

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Jul 29 • 9:58 AM EDT • Business • crainscleveland.com
Florida sixth grader Naboshree Santra developed biodegradable soilshade balls designed to reduce evaporation and retain moisture; the 11-year-old is now competing for a $25,000 science prize

An 11-year-old schoolgirl from Oviedo, Florida, has created a simple tool to help farmers save water during dry weather. Naboshree Santra, a sixth grader at Jackson Heights Middle School, made special soilshade balls that break down naturally.

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Jul 29 • 8:52 AM EDT • Science • timesofindia.indiatimes.com
'Demon cavefish' discovered under WWII chemical weapons facility in Alabama

Introducing demon cavefish (Demogorgonichthys arcanus); the rare eyeless predators that have been hiding in plain sight below a military base for decades.

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Jul 29 • 8:21 AM EDT • Science • livescience.com
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Employee Spotlight: Samuel Hogue III Builds a Legacy of Service…

Your home base for all City of Toledo services, information, and more.

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Jul 29 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • toledo.oh.gov
IPL's business value soars above $20 billion, says report

The business value of the Indian Premier League, the world's richest Twenty20 series, has soared more ​than 11% to $20.6 billion this year, according to U.S.-based ‌investment bank Houlihan Lokey.

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Jul 29 • 2:57 AM EDT • Business • reuters.com
76ers Lineup Projected to Cost Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey

The Philadelphia 76ers assembled enough scoring talent to pursue a championship, but their new lineup presents a numbers problem. LeBron James, Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and V.J. Edgecombe all require shots, and a new projection identifies Brown and Maxey as the players facing the largest sacrifices. Casino.org Canada estimates that Brown and Maxey […] The post 76ers Lineup Projected to Cost Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey appeared first on HEAVY.

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Jul 28 • 4:53 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
George Norcross donates $100 million to Cooper University Health Care

George E. Norcross III is making a $100 million gift to Cooper University Health Care, the largest single philanthropic donation in the Camden-based

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Jul 28 • 9:32 AM EDT • Health • newjerseyglobe.com
India’s 'looksmaxxing' economy: More science, more spending, fewer taboos

What’s in your latest beauty haul?

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Jul 28 • 8:45 AM EDT • Science • timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Politics & Power: Voting rights, election fears & the battle for Congress in 2026 midterms

A former White House attorney is warning that a series of executive actions — from changes to voting rules to the removal of election oversight officials — may be laying the groundwork for unprecedented federal intervention in the upcoming midterm elections.

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Jul 28 • 8:35 AM EDT • Politics • news4jax.com
Ally Financial marketing chief Andrea Brimmer to speak at UM-Flint Business Summit

The University of Michigan-Flint will host keynote speaker Andrea Brimmer of Ally Financial at its third-annual Business Summit on Aug. 25.

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Jul 28 • 8:29 AM EDT • Business • news.umflint.edu
Sugar Land commits to life science

Sugar Land is betting on life science, landing two life sciences expansions this year.

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Jul 28 • 7:20 AM EDT • Science • axios.com
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Behind the Curtain: The 6 stages of political surrender

Watch how the language shifts, stage by stage, for signs of whether recent socialist wins are an anomaly, or the start of something bigger and broader.

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Jul 28 • 5:44 AM EDT • Politics • axios.com
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George E. Norcross III to Donate $100 Million to Cooper University Health Care/MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper in Honor of His Parents, George E. Norcross Jr. and Anne Carol Conner Norcross

George E. Norcross III to Donate $100 Million to Cooper University Health Care/MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper in Honor of His Parents, George E. Norcross Jr. and Anne Carol Conner Norcross Three Generations of Norcross Family Members Have Dedicated More Than 50 Years to Cooper Gift Is One of the Largest in New Jersey and[...]

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Jul 28 • 4:42 AM EDT • Health • insidernj.com
After World War II, a few snakes reached Guam; they now number up to 30,000 per square mile, and scientists found 19,000 hidden genetic changes

After World War II, a small number of brown tree snakes somehow made it to Guam, likely hidden in cargo, and the island has been dealing with the consequences ever since. Today, the snakes are so widespread that in some parts of the U.S.

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Jul 28 • 3:24 AM EDT • Science • timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Palmetto Sports Daily: Panthers wrap first week of training camp, ‘It Just Means More’ turns 10

On today’s episode of Palmetto Sports Daily, the crew discusses Panthers EDGE Nic Scourton going down with a knee injury, and Stephen Garcia speaks to WIS on his progress during SEC Media Days.

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Jul 27 • 6:39 PM EDT • Sports • wistv.com
Fall Coaches Kick-Off 2026-2027 Season on Fall Sports Media Day

Wheeling, W. Va. - Since the Wheeling Men's Golf team finished up NCAA DII National Championship play in May, the Wheeling University Athletic Department has been preparing for the start of the 2026-2027 season. Monday would serve as the unofficial kickoff of the 26-27 campaign, when all the Wheeling Fall Sports Coaches came together for the second annual Fall Sports Media Day. Each of Wheeling's 10 fall sports programs were represented by their seven head coaches, as they previewed the action to come this season.

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Jul 27 • 1:24 PM EDT • Sports • wucardinals.com
Sporting KC Weekly Schedule: July 27

Sporting Kansas City II News: The official source for all SKC II news, photos, videos, highlights, and more.

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Jul 27 • 12:41 PM EDT • Sports • sportingkc.com
TotalEnergies to Appeal Court Order to Adapt Business to Climate Goals

TotalEnergies is appealing a French court ruling that held it responsible for climate change, joining Shell in a growing string of climate lawsuits.

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Jul 27 • 11:30 AM EDT • Business • oilprice.com
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Clemson scientists launch international food security partnership during visit to Nigeria

The partnership will expand research collaboration, graduate education and international engagement between Clemson University and IITA in Africa.

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Jul 27 • 8:01 AM EDT • Science • news.clemson.edu
Yoshi-P Warns Final Fantasy VI, VIII and IX Remakes Would Need 5 Installments, As Square Enix Teases Final Fantasy XVII

Yoshi-P warns Final Fantasy VI, VIII, and IX remakes would need up to 5 parts, while teasing Naoki Hamaguchi for Final Fantasy XVII

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Jul 27 • 7:19 AM EDT • Technology • wccftech.com
Hubble finds four hidden stars just 65 light-years from Earth that astronomers could never see before

Astronomers have directly detected four previously hidden white dwarfs orbiting nearby red dwarf stars, solving a long-standing observational challenge and improving our understanding of how close binary star systems evolve. The newly confirmed stellar remnants lie within 20 parsecs (around 65 light-years) of the Sun and had remained concealed because their faint light was overwhelmed by the much brighter glow of their companion stars.

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Jul 27 • 3:10 AM EDT • Science • timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Splash and Science Day Camp III—new location at Buttonwood

Kids can splash in the stream and learn about local waterways during a summer day camp offered by Buttonwood Nature Center. The Splash & Science day camp will be offered […]

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Jul 26 • 6:44 PM EDT • Science • fcfreepresspa.com
WATCH: Patrick Mahomes connects with rookie standout at training camp

Check out this video of rookie RB Emmett Johnson catching a pass from Patrick Mahomes at Chiefs training camp.

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Jul 26 • 6:02 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Corey Heim wins NASCAR Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Corey Heim wins the Brickyard 400 on Sunday, July 26, 2026, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. See photos of Corey Heim from Brickyard weekend.

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Jul 26 • 5:37 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Arizona Cardinals give Jacoby Brissett his raise

The Arizona Cardinals have given Jacoby Brissett a raise.

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Jul 26 • 3:16 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Aubrey Plaza prepares to welcome baby with candid pregnancy photo and new stroller

Aubrey Plaza and Christopher Abbott are brushing up on their stroller skills as they prepare to welcome their first child together.

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Jul 26 • 11:47 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
Chris Evans explains how filming ‘Doomsday’ was like making the first ‘Avengers’ in 2011 (exclusive)

‘Avengers: Doomsday’ star Chris Evans sits down with EW for an exclusive Comic-Con interview, where he explains why making the movie gave him the same feels as filming ‘The Avengers’ in 2011.

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Jul 26 • 9:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
2 meteor showers peak on the same night this week ‪—‬ how to get the best views, despite a near-full moon

The Delta Aquariids peak on July 30-31, kicking off "meteor season," though bright moonlight will likely limit views.

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Jul 26 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • livescience.com
YWCA to sponsor WWII piano entertainment July 31

The Victory Vertical Project uses descriptive vignettes accompanied by piano music in many styles-classical, popular, boogie-woogie, jazz and movie soundtracks-to bring to life

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Jul 26 • 7:05 AM EDT • Entertainment • muddyrivernews.com
Timeline: Key dates from Hawaii’s political bribery case

In a 30-page indictment handed down Friday by an Oahu grand jury, the state Department of the Attorney General alleged a wide-ranging conspiracy involving Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke and four others: Tobi Solidum, Ryan Yamane, Ford Fuchigami and Leo Asuncion Jr.

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Jul 26 • 6:05 AM EDT • Politics • staradvertiser.com
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries kicks off 100 days till midterms with affordability agenda

The stage is in battleground Pennsylvania.

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Jul 26 • 6:01 AM EDT • Politics • wsls.com
Seahawks Issued Intriguing Najee Harris Take Amid Training Camp

The Seattle Seahawks head into the 2026 NFL season as the defending Super Bowl champions, but they still have a few concerns as they try to repeat. One of the biggest questions surrounds the team’s running back group.Kenneth Walker III departed in free agency this offseason, signing with the Kansas City Chiefs, while Zach Charbonnet […] The post Seahawks Issued Intriguing Najee Harris Take Amid Training Camp appeared first on HEAVY.

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Jul 26 • 4:22 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Boy, 11, Overcomes Fear of Rejection to Launch Trash Bin Cleaning Service — and Now Business Is Booming

Ashton Meyer, an 11-year-old from Ontario, Canada, turned trash bin cleaning into a booming business. He plans to expand the business — which has since gone viral — into other seasonal services.

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Jul 25 • 3:04 PM EDT • Business • people.com
Bethesda Officially Confirms Brand-New Detail About The Elder Scrolls 6

In a recent statement, Bethesda's Todd Howard confirms a new feature fans can look forward to in The Elder Scrolls 6.

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Jul 25 • 8:33 AM EDT • Technology • gamerant.com
LeBron James Joins 76ers: Impact on Eastern Conference Power Rankings

After weeks of speculation, LeBron James has finally announced his team for the 2026 NBA season. The league’s all-time leading scorer will be joining the Philadelphia 76ers for his 24th year. James will be joining the likes of Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and the newest Sixer, Jaylen Brown.

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Jul 25 • 8:33 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
‘E pluribus unum’ is not a slogan. It’s a choice

Like two sides of a coin imprinted with the nation’s motto, “e pluribus unum” — out of many, one — America’s political factions are cast in opposition, but they are intrinsically bound together as parts of a larger whole. From the beginning, the United States has aspired to build a more perfect union. When our founders […]

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Jul 25 • 6:45 AM EDT • Politics • missouriindependent.com
He topped IIT-JEE with AIR 1, turned down Computer Science, chose Physics instead — today his discoveries are taught around the world

For most IIT aspirants, securing an All India Rank (AIR) 1 in the IIT-JEE is the ultimate dream. It is often seen as a passport to the country's most sought-after engineering branches, lucrative careers, and global opportunities.

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Jul 25 • 5:55 AM EDT • Science • timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Bullpen inconsistencies drop Washington Nationals 3-2 vs. Arizona

Another late inning run handed the Washington Nationals a series opening loss at home, this time a 3-2 finish against the Arizona Diamondbacks

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Jul 24 • 9:55 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Oahu grand jury hears evidence in state’s political corruption probe

Hawaii Department of the Attorney General investigators and prosecutors are presenting evidence to an Oahu grand jury today in their criminal public corruption investigation that has ensnared Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke and some of her supporters.

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Jul 24 • 8:07 PM EDT • Politics • staradvertiser.com
Trump swings back toward diplomacy in escalating war with Iran

After threatening a “massive attack,” the president said his envoys were talking with Tehran but left open the possibility of a sharp military escalation.

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Jul 24 • 6:35 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
With LeBron James, 76ers’ Playoff Hopes Are No Longer Tied To Joel Embiid’s Health

By signing LeBron James, the 76ers are no longer as reliant on center Joel Embiid, who has sustained numerous injuries in his career.

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Jul 24 • 1:52 PM EDT • Health • forbes.com
Super Bowl LXII will be played on February 13, 2028
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Jul 24 • 10:42 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
BP nears deal to sell solar business to Kuwait-backed consortium, FT reports

BP is ​in advanced talks to sell ‌its solar business, Lightsource, to a consortium backed by Kuwait's sovereign wealth ​fund, the Financial Times ​reported on Friday, citing people familiar ⁠with the matter.

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Jul 24 • 9:00 AM EDT • Business • reuters.com
Warhorse Studios trademarks Kingdom Come Salvation

Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II developer Warhorse Studios filed a trademark for “Kingdom Come Salvation” in Europe on July 23.

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Jul 24 • 8:10 AM EDT • Technology • gematsu.com
If PlayStation kills physical media, it should "get rid of the hardware" too, says the creator of popular RPG series Disgaea

Disgaea creator Sohei Niikawa has strong thoughts on Sony's planned move away from physical media.

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Jul 24 • 5:07 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net
Pacific Pulse: Dr. Jan Prins, author of 'Biomechanics: The science behind the strokes'

Dr. Jan Prins is a member of the faculty at the University of Hawaii, where he directs the Aquatic Research Laboratory. He was also the swimming coach

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Jul 24 • 4:23 AM EDT • Science • hawaiinewsnow.com
Billy V Live: The latest in Hawaii entertainment news

Billy shares exclusive interviews with Hawaii entertainers and gives you the latest in entertainment news!

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Jul 23 • 6:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • hawaiinewsnow.com
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The Latest Policy Issue: Sports Prediction Markets

House Agriculture Committee examines regulatory gaps in sports prediction markets. Learn how federal oversight is evolving for this booming industry.

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Jul 23 • 2:34 PM EDT • Sports • legis1.com
Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner can't remember why he green-lit Kingdom Hearts

This comes after Eisner left a panel on new video game company Delphi Interactive.

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Jul 23 • 12:28 PM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net
House again passes resolution seeking to halt military action in Iran as some Republicans defect

The House has narrowly passed a resolution to halt U.S. military action in Iran, sending a warning to President Donald Trump for the second time as the war has escalated and the future of the conflict is increasingly uncertain

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Jul 23 • 10:33 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Trump adds condition to nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, throwing pact into doubt

Saudi Arabia would need to normalize relations with Israel as a condition of a nuclear deal with the U.S., President Donald Trump said.

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Jul 23 • 9:17 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Nine-Year-Old RefluXFS Linux Flaw Gives Local Users Root on Default RHEL Installs

CVE-2026-64600 lets local users overwrite root-owned files on reflink-enabled XFS systems, preserving metadata and persistent root access after reboot

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Jul 23 • 4:04 AM EDT • Technology • thehackernews.com
Senate Health Committee Votes on CDC, HHS, and Labor Nominations

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee meets in executive session to vote on Erica Schwartz to be director of the CDC, Sean Kaufman to be Health and Human Services assistant secretary, and Keith Sonderling to be secretary of Labor.

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Jul 23 • 12:00 AM EDT • Health • c-span.org
Seedy K’s Ville Report: La Familia III

For reasons soon to be explained, this can’t be called a GameCap. I had every intention of covering it normally. Running box score on the MacBook. Notepad in hand. Then, at 4:52, I got a call from my ex-, with whom I’m better friends than ever. Even when we were together. It was granddaughter — […]

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Jul 22 • 8:53 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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5 Free Agents the 49ers Should Target Before Training Camp
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Jul 22 • 8:40 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Hawaii health officials warn of keiki fruit pouch recall

The Hawaii Department of Health is alerting residents to a recall for select Pumpkin Tree Peter Rabbit Organics Banana & Strawberry pouches for kids sold at Target.

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Jul 22 • 8:34 PM EDT • Health • staradvertiser.com
Atlanta Braves Reveal Michael Harris II Change Before Padres Game

The Atlanta Braves are currently taking on the San Diego Padres in a four-game series. After losing to the Padres on Tuesday, the series is now 1-1. For game three of the series, Atlanta has activated pitcher Martin Perez, and the Padres will roll with Michael King. Ahead of the Padres, the Braves revealed their […] The post Atlanta Braves Reveal Michael Harris II Change Before Padres Game appeared first on HEAVY.

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Jul 22 • 7:16 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Business remains open as GoFundMe surpasses $300

Car crashes into Bradenton dog daycare; owner works to rebuild.

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Jul 22 • 6:45 PM EDT • Business • mysuncoast.com
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ENTERTAINMENT: New exhibits show watershed, ‘Fish Guy’ paintings

Discover free art exhibitions, engaging events, and community celebrations in Little Rock from now until October.

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Jul 22 • 6:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • arkansasonline.com
Padilla Leads Tri-Caucus in Introducing Sweeping Health Equity Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), along with Senators Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Representatives Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.-25), Robin Kelly (D-Ill.-02), and Grace Meng (D-N.Y.-06) announced the reintroduction of the Health Equity and Accountability Act (HEAA) of 2026, bicameral legislation that would address health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities as well […]

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Jul 22 • 4:33 PM EDT • Health • padilla.senate.gov
Scientists found a 2,865-pound predator from before dinosaurs ruled Earth; now 2,000 ordinary people are helping reveal its skeleton

A huge fossilised skeleton weighing 1,300 kilograms (2,865 pounds) that was found in southern Poland is currently being chipped out of solid rock by a group of more than 2,000 public volunteers.

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Jul 22 • 3:36 PM EDT • Science • timesofindia.indiatimes.com
DIII Management Council approves amendment to guidelines on reinstating student-athletes who commit sports-betting violations

At its meeting this week, the Division III Management Council approved an amendment to the Division III Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement sports-betting guidelines. The council’s action would allow for penalty reductions for a student-athlete who commits a sports-betting violation, provided it is the student-athlete’s first violation, the violation does not involve integrity concerns and the student-athlete engages in appropriate clinical evaluation or support.

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Jul 22 • 2:30 PM EDT • Sports • ncaa.org
Meet the Western states making the case that money isn't political speech

Who should have more power — the people or corporations? For legislators in Hawaii and Montana, the answer is most definitely the former.

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Jul 22 • 10:01 AM EDT • Politics • seattletimes.com
Scientists attach cameras to whale sharks, capturing how the world’s biggest fish hunts like never before

For decades, marine scientists have watched whale sharks (Rhincodon typus), the world’s biggest fish, from boats and while snorkelling. They could only catch glimpses of the world’s largest fish gliding through tropical waters.

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Jul 22 • 5:08 AM EDT • Science • timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Devonian’s Phase II/III Thykamine paediatric study secures Health Canada approval

Devonian Health Group has received authorisation from Health Canada for its CTA to begin a Phase II/III study of Thykamine cream to treat mild-to-moderate atopic dermatitis in paediatric patients.

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Jul 22 • 4:57 AM EDT • Health • clinicaltrialsarena.com
Panera founder and Cava chairman Ron Shaich bets $100 million on Level99, bringing his restaurant industry playbook to entertainment

Act III Holdings doubles its stake in Level99 after the Disney Springs opening, betting restaurant-industry category discipline can build a dominant player in entertainment.

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Jul 22 • 3:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • fortune.com
Police Dismantle Kratos Phishing Kit Built to Steal Microsoft 365 Sessions and Bypass MFA

Authorities seize 200 Kratos servers and arrest its alleged developer and operator; investigators estimate 15,000 campaigns ran monthly.

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Jul 22 • 2:38 AM EDT • Technology • thehackernews.com
Inside science's 'forbidden experiment': Why scientists kill 9 million sea lampreys every year in the Great Lakes of America

At the June meet-and-greet organised by the GLFC, half a dozen sea lampreys posed for the cameras at the Capitol. One of them even sucked on the palm of Representative Bill Huizenga, as per a CNN report.

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Jul 22 • 1:57 AM EDT • Science • timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Bengals Get Alarming Joe Burrow Message Before Training Camp

The Cincinnati Bengals put all their chips on the table to end their playoff drought this upcoming 2026 season. After signing free agents Jonathan Allen, Boye Mafe, and Bryan Cook, Cincinnati then made the blockbuster trade for Dexter Lawrence II. After three straight seasons of missing the playoffs, the Bengals made aggressive moves to show […] The post Bengals Get Alarming Joe Burrow Message Before Training Camp appeared first on HEAVY.

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Jul 22 • 12:57 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Katie Porter ‘done for now’ with politics, will become book influencer

The former Democratic congresswoman plans to offer "book recommendations, book ideas and author content.”

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Jul 21 • 4:00 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Rangers Sports Network presented by Progressive Receives Five 2026 Lone Star Sports Emmy® Award Nominations

Arlington, Texas — The Texas Rangers and Rangers Sports Network presented by Progressive (RSN) are proud to announce that RSN has been nominated for five 2026 Lone Star Sports Emmy® Awards, including a Special Achievement Award for Sports Excellence. A full list of nominations can be found below: - Special

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Jul 21 • 3:45 PM EDT • Sports • mlb.com
Thoughts on Design: Design Evanston reviews indoor youth sports facility proposal

On July 1, Design Evanston professional members participated in a Project Review of the indoor youth sports facility proposed for 2722 Green Bay Road by

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Jul 21 • 2:51 PM EDT • Sports • evanstonroundtable.com
Rich Paul on LeBron James decision: ‘Nobody knows nothing’

If you are waiting for LeBron James to make his free agency decision, you might want to get comfortable. The basketball universe is waiting for James to decide where he will play the final year(s) of his NBA career after leaving the Los Angeles Lakers at the end of the 2025-2026 season. There are several…

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Jul 21 • 1:30 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Piitch-timer gamesmanship triggers scuffle between Pirates, Yankees

New York Yankees shortstop Jose Caballero triggered a benches-clearing scuffle with the Pittsburgh Pirates through manipulation of MLB's pitch clock.

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Jul 21 • 10:15 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
In 2025, US scientists poured 16,500 gallons of lye and bright pink dye into the Gulf of Maine, the first federally approved attempt to reverse the ocean's rising acidity

On an August morning in 2025, a research vessel in the Gulf of Maine released 16,500 gallons of sodium hydroxide (lye) into the ocean while a plume of bright pink dye spread across the water's surface. To onlookers, the vivid pink patch looked alarming.

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Jul 21 • 6:15 AM EDT • Science • timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Analysis | Democrats are going through it in Wisconsin

It has been some week for Wisconsin Democrats. Here's why the upheaval matters.

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Jul 21 • 5:27 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Aboriginal people harvested channel millet for thousands of years, and scientists have now found the native grass carries 12 copies of each chromosome

Seen from the air, Channel Country in outback Australia looks like a vast, living tapestry. A web of rivers and creeks fans out across more than 280,000 square kilometres of desert, creating one of the world’s last truly free‑flowing arid river systems.

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Jul 21 • 3:39 AM EDT • Science • timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Britain Politics

Britain’s King Charles III welcomes Andy Burnham, left, during an audience at Buckingham Palace, London, where he invited the leader of the Labour Party to become Prime Minister and form

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Jul 20 • 5:19 PM EDT • Politics • daytondailynews.com
Leadership Conference: Business Improves When Employees Feel They Matter

Matthew Emerzian urges business leaders to make human connection a priority, saying strong workplace cultures begin by letting employees know they are important.

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Jul 20 • 4:50 PM EDT • Business • hawaiibusiness.com
The One Thing I Hate About Almost Every Jeep Since 1941

I’m so obsessed with Jeeps that I studied engineering to become a Jeep engineer, then I became a car journalist who has basically been writing about his Jeep projects for over a decade; recently, I assembled a WWII Jeep from scratch. It’s a deep, deep obsession, but it’s not a blind one; I know Jeeps […]

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Jul 20 • 3:55 PM EDT • Technology • theautopian.com
Will a new Trump rule kill the US edge in science?

Grantmaking would be decided by political appointees instead of experts

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Jul 20 • 11:58 AM EDT • Science • theweek.com
Trump scores own-goal as World Cup overflows with politics

TOI correspondent from Washington: Spain won the World Cup but Donald Trump nearly stole the moment of glory.

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Jul 20 • 11:24 AM EDT • Politics • timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Sporting KC Weekly Schedule: July 20-25, 2026

Sporting Kansas City II News: The official source for all SKC II news, photos, videos, highlights, and more.

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Jul 20 • 10:15 AM EDT • Sports • sportingkc.com
Shaky political "science": breakdown of the peer review process

[This article is the latest in our “Shaky Political Science” series. In our 38 page report, “Shaky political ‘science’ misses mark on ranked choice voting,” released in December 2025, we examined over 40 studies focused on ranked choice voting (RCV). Many of these studies suffered from puzzling research methodologies, poorly constructed surveys, unrealistic simulated elections, cherry picked data and faulty analyses that often were contradicted by results from real-world elections (a link to our full paper is here). Here are links to the first four articles in our series: the first one summarizing the overall results of our report; the second one analyzed a study co-authored by University of Minnesota academic Larry Jacobs, which was one of the most error-prone of all the research we reviewed in our report; a third article showing an admirable example of two political scientists holding two other political scientists accountable for their flawed, sloppy research; and a fourth article that analyzed seven studies sponsored by New America’s political reform program that deployed flawed methodology based on “simulated” elections instead of real-world elections, which when combined with some basic misunderstandings of RCV, produced odd and misleading results]. In this fifth article in our “Shaky Political Science” series, we examine two flawed studies on the impact of RCV on voter turnout authored by San Francisco State University professor Jason McDaniel. McDaniel’s research in these two papers stands out for its puzzling methodology, inadequate and cherry-picked data, and faulty analyses that not only misunderstands ranked choice voting but reflects a basic misunderstanding of politics in general. The first of the McDaniel studies actually passed through a peer review process and then was subsequently published by the Journal of Urban Affairs, despite its obvious errors. It is perplexing that a jury of peer political scientists did not catch the errors and send it back to McDaniel for a rewrite or outright rejection. This calls into question the credibility of the peer review process itself. The peer review process is supposed to represent the intellectual pinnacle of the profession – a way for academics to certify the quality of each other’s work, and to act as a check against sloppy research. In the case of the McDaniel study, the peer review process failed. Yet his flawed study has been cited dozens of times by other political scientists in their own flawed works — an unvirtuous circle of academic research. Here is the first Jason McDaniel study that we analyzed: “Writing the Rules to Rank the Candidates: Examining the Impact of Instant-Runoff Voting on Racial Group Turnout in San Francisco Mayoral Elections,” by Jason McDaniel, 2016, Journal of Urban Affairs. This study covered San Francisco’s use of ranked choice voting (RCV) in mayoral elections, purporting to show that RCV reduces voter turnout overall, increases voter errors, and has a negative impact on “marginal populations,” i.e. racial minorities, mainly as the result of the alleged complexity of RCV asking voters to rank candidates and having to be familiar with multiple candidates and related dynamics. McDaniel reached these conclusions by examining five San Francisco mayoral elections taking place in odd years (i.e. where there are no federal or state races on the ballot) from 1995 to 2011, comparing three earlier non-RCV races (in 1995, 1999 and 2003) with the later two RCV races (in 2007 and 2011). Only two RCV races were studied, and as McDaniel acknowledged, only the contest in 2011 was “competitive” (that contest in 2007 was the first mayoral election using RCV, and incumbent mayor Gavin Newsom won easily in the first round of counting, earning 74% of first choices and far ahead of the second place candidate who had just 6.3% of first choices). Yet even the allegedly competitive contest in 2011was won by an incumbent with a landslide margin of nearly 20 points. No other elections were studied by McDaniel, even though San Francisco elects 17 other offices besides mayor with RCV, including the 11 seats on the Board of Supervisors (the name for the city council) in even years, and six other citywide offices in odd years. Previous academic research has found that competitive elections can stimulate greater voter involvement and higher turnout. For unexplained reasons, this study ignored at least 34 other RCV races between the years 2004 to 2011, many of which were very competitive and had high voter turnout. Instead, McDaniel’s analysis based its conclusions on data from only a single, marginally-competitive mayor’s race using RCV. These 2007 and 2011 mayoral elections were the only two RCV elections that McDaniel used as the sole basis for his small data set to determine the impact of RCV on voter turnout. Despite having no meaningful data to inform his study, McDaniel nonetheless concluded that RCV lowered turnout when compared to the previous three mayoral non-RCV elections using two-round runoffs. Then, using the same inadequate database of San Francisco elections, McDaniel also found that “Instant-runoff voting is associated with a significant decline in Black voter turnout and White voter turnout…On average, Black voter turnout decreases by 18 points and White voter turnout decreases by 16 points …” But how could he credibly arrive at that conclusion when his study was based on voter turnout in two RCV contests that were not even remotely competitive? Beyond that, McDaniel tacitly admits that the key determining factor driving Black voter turnout was not RCV vs non-RCV elections, but the presence of a viable Black candidate. McDaniel wrote, “Black voter turnout was about 17 percentage points higher for the two elections that featured an African American candidate compared to the three elections that did not” — but one of those three elections did not use RCV. The same dynamic was present for White voter turnout, in which higher turnout was not correlated with RCV vs non-RCV elections, but the presence of a viable White candidate. Beyond that, McDaniel’s voter turnout results, whether correlated with the race of the candidates or RCV vs non-RCV elections, showed no clear patterns. In his Figure 1, he shows low Asian voter turnout in the non-RCV elections in 1999 and 2003 when there was no viable Asian candidate running, but in the 2007 mayoral election using RCV, there is still no viable Asian candidate, yet Asian turnout increases dramatically. For Latinos, voter turnout is virtually the same in 1999 (no viable Latino candidate, non-RCV elections), 2003 (leading Latino candidate, non-RCV elections), 2007 (no viable Latino candidate, RCV elections) and 2011 (leading Latino candidate, RCV elections). Meanwhile White voter turnout increased dramatically from a low in the 2007 mayoral election, in which the leading candidate was a white incumbent, to the 2011 election in which there were no leading white candidates that finished any higher than sixth place with 5.6% of the vote. Clearly other factors were determining voter turnout than either the race of the candidates or RCV vs non-RCV elections. Despite these inconsistent findings, McDaniel boldly marches forth to render conclusions about the impact of RCV on different groups of racial voters, even though his conclusions are not remotely supported by his data. This looks like the worst kind of “data cherry picking” to cover up a puzzling conclusion based on a poor data set involving only two RCV elections, neither of which were remotely competitive. McDaniel’s cherry picking didn’t stop there. In calculating voter turnout for the three non-RCV mayoral elections in 1995, 1999 and 2003, he failed to mention that in each of these years there was a two-round runoff election, with a first round election in November in which no candidate garnered a winning majority of the vote, followed by the decisive runoff in December. So there were two non-RCV elections in each election year. But McDaniel only decided to include one of the two elections in his data set, apparently the December runoff in each year (which had higher turnout in two out of the three mayor’s races, and lower turnout in the third). So he ignored the November 1995 election, the November 1999 election when turnout was only 45 percent, and the November 2003 election when turnout was only 45.7 percent. This is flawed methodology based on blatant cherry picking, since McDaniel simply omitted three elections worth of data that did not fit within his frame. His study should never have made it through a peer review process, and it is an embarrassment to political science that not only was it approved for publication, but it has been uncritically cited by dozens of other political scientists. Share A “study” without wider context or credible data Lacking a data set that included even a single competitive RCV mayoral race, McDaniel declared that RCV lowered voter turnout in 2011, when turnout was 42.5 percent. But he also ignored -- or did not realize -- that voter turnout in mayoral elections during 2011 had sharply declined in all big cities, including far more steeply in nearby Los Angeles and other cities. In fact, San Francisco’s election in 2011 had the second highest turnout of any mayoral election in the nation’s 22 largest cities from 2008-2011. Was 2011 just a particularly low turnout year all across the country, perhaps because the country was still reeling from the aftermath of the housing market collapse in 2008-2010? McDaniel ignored this factor and did not search for alternative explanations beyond his flawed thesis. Furthermore, while McDaniel suggested that RCV leads to more “overvotes” – which is an invalidated ballot in which a voter, in either a non-RCV or RCV race, makes a mistake and selects two candidates for a single choice – he failed to address that in the June 2012 US Senate primary contest, which used the typical “one-choice” plurality method and did not use RCV, there was more than five times as many overvotes in San Francisco and Oakland than in the RCV mayoral elections in those cities. Additionally, turnout had been significantly higher and more representative in RCV elections for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors races -- that McDaniel didn’t even bother to study -- as compared to previous “delayed two-round runoffs” for those offices, often higher by as much as 40% in the RCV races. Perhaps the most surprising irony was that an earlier study co-authored by McDaniel (Overvoting and the Equality of Voice under Instant-Runoff Voting in San Francisco by Francis Neely and Jason McDaniel, 2015, California Journal of Politics and Policy) found that overvotes are often more common in lower-income precincts, but that the pattern of overvoting is similar in both RCV and non-RCV contests. Wrote Neely and McDaniel: “[Overvote] errors appear to be a function of complexity in general and not IRV per se…. the pattern of overvoting is similar in both IRV and non-IRV contests…Even among votes cast in a top-of-the-ticket race like U.S. Senate, overvoting occurs in an uneven fashion” (IRV, or ‘instant runoff voting,’ is another name for ranked choice voting in single-winner contests). So McDaniel not only contradicted his own conclusion in his earlier study with Neely, but the earlier study had been an important corrective for one of the most frequently made mistakes made by anti-RCV political scientists – a continual failure to provide crucial context by pairing a comparative analysis of real world RCV elections with an analysis of real world plurality or other electoral methods. Unfortunately McDaniel’s earlier study does not get cited much by other researchers, and McDaniel did not even cite it in his own flawed study analyzed above. Incredibly, McDaniel cherrypicked McDaniel, even as his flawed study has been cited dozens of times. Despite being a textbook example of poor political “science,” featuring both inadequate as well as cherrypicked data, the shelf life of McDaniel’s study has been extended endlessly by other political scientists and media outlets who have cited it uncritically. Equally troubling, the Journal of Urban Affairs put this paper through its peer review process and published it despite its numerous flaws. McDaniel gets it wrong, Part II Not content with producing one shoddy, confused paper, McDaniel produced another one a few years later, here is the link: Electoral Rules and Voter Turnout in Mayoral Elections: An Analysis of Ranked-Choice Voting by Jason McDaniel. San Francisco State Univ. (McDaniel, 2019). In this paper, McDaniel extended his previous flawed research focused on San Francisco, about voter turnout and voter impact, to multiple RCV cities through the 2018 elections. In his data set he included San Francisco, Minneapolis, St Paul, Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro and Santa Fe. He then compared their turnout in mayoral elections to non-RCV cities, and to mayoral elections in those cities held before first RCV usage, and concluded “a significant decrease in voter turnout of approximately 3–5 percentage points in RCV cities after the implementation of RCV.” But he replicated many of the same mistakes as his first study presented above. While in this study McDaniel attempted to distinguish between various factors, such as odd year vs. even year elections, competitive races vs. noncompetitive, contests with open seats and other factors, the analysis is superficial and inadequate. He attempts to incorporate so many often-conflicting variables that his conclusions are once again unsupported by the actual data, and ultimately unconvincing (this second study never underwent a peer review process). For example, McDaniel declared that for RCV cities “in elections that are more competitive than average (margin of victory less than 20%), there is no significant RCV effect on voter turnout.” Yet McDaniel is a professor in a city, San Francisco, in which the 2018 special election using RCV to fill a mayoral vacancy was exceedingly close, decided by a margin of only one percentage point, and resulted in the second highest turnout in San Francisco history for a mayoral election. Illustrating the complexity involved in assessing the critical factors in turnout, that special election was held on the same election day as federal and state offices, which tends to boost turnout. Yet more voters participated in that RCV mayoral election than voted on the same day in the non-RCV primary for governor in which former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom was running. Even more puzzling, in this study McDaniel inaccurately cited his own previous study from 2015 with Neely. McDaniel wrote, “Neely and McDaniel (2015) examine individual ballot image files within a natural experiment, and find higher rates of ballot errors in RCV elections compared to non-RCV elections” (emphasis added). However, we quoted from that 2015 study several paragraphs above, and in actual fact Neely and McDaniel actually concluded the opposite -- that the pattern of overvoting – which is the most common form of ballot error – is similar in both RCV and non-RCV contests. McDaniel also ignored the fact that in Bay Area RCV elections held in even years – at the same time as federal and state elections, when turnout is highest -- the “undervote” (that is, the dropoff in ballots cast for governor or mayor) has declined, which contradicts his thesis that the act of ranking ballots in RCV elections is too complex and presents a barrier for certain demographics of voters. To his credit, McDaniel actually acknowledged another contradiction in his own paper, which found a negative RCV turnout effect in some odd-year elections but not others, admitting that “may present a challenge to the theory that increased complexity [from RCV] will have a marginal negative effect on voter turnout.” But he tried to wallpaper over that contradiction by blaming it on an unlikely source -- bad election administration. McDaniels wrote, “This would suggest that the negative impact of RCV on voter participation may be alleviated by high quality election administration,” without presenting any data or even anecdotes to support such an unfounded theory. While competent election administration of any election, whether RCV or non-RCV, is crucially important, there is no credible research that supports the far-fetched notion that the quality of election administration has much of an impact on voter turnout in US elections, whether using RCV or otherwise. Upgrade to a $5 subscription The unvirtuous circle of academic research It is puzzling how McDaniel’s first study could have survived the peer review process for the Journal of Urban Affairs. The mistakes in McDaniel’s first study above should have been obvious to anyone with a basic understanding of ranked choice voting as well as elections in general, and elections in San Francisco specifically. It undermines faith in the credibility of the peer review process to think that a jury of peer political scientists did not catch the egregious errors and reject McDaniel’s sloppy research and paper. And it remains a black mark on political science that this thoroughly discredited study has been cited dozens of times by other researchers. Indeed, in our research paper it became apparent that many political scientists cite each other’s flawed research to pad their list of citations and to legitimize their own flawed research, creating an unvirtuous circle of political science. More broadly, McDaniel’s voter turnout studies, like other studies evaluating RCV’s impact on turnout, lacked a recognition that no credible opinion or research can claim that RCV increases voter turnout merely because so many voters are excited to vote for their favorite candidates instead of “lesser evil” candidates without worrying about spoilers. Instead, with respect to turnout, the advantage of RCV has always been that, in most places where it has been used, it has eliminated a pre-November primary or post-November runoff, which usually saw about half the turnout of the November general election. This is especially true during even years when there are state and federal elections on the ballot which substantially drive turnout more than local contests. Any study that does not adequately account for this non-November primary/runoff vs November general election dynamic, or odd year vs even year election factors, is simply not credible. Both of McDaniel’s studies largely failed on those grounds. Steven Hill and Paul Haughey Share Upgrade to a $5 subscription Thanks for reading DemocracySOS…your digital portal for the pro-democracy movement. Subscribe for only $5 per month to receive full benefits and to support our work. Subscribe

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Jul 20 • 9:29 AM EDT • Science • democracysos.substack.com
Science can serve dark as well as light

I’m not sure how many of you are watching “Star City,” Apple TV’s spin-off of its “For All Mankind” program (2019-present), but it’s one of the better sci-fi series I’ve seen in a while, with an impressively dark political message. (Some light spoilers below.) For the uninitiated, “For All Mankind” presented a slightly tweaked history of the U.S. space program in which it was the USSR that landed on the Moon first in 1969, and shortly thereafter put a woman cosmonaut on the lunar surface. This sparks an ongoing space race that, in the original series, yields a lot of benefits for humanity. President Nixon’s insistence on a female astronaut corps to compete with the Soviets boosts the feminist movement of the 1970s and the ERA passes. New fuels generated for the space program create clean and cheap energy around Earth. There are also some darker changes — the USSR is thriving well into the 2000s, there are terrorist counter-technology movements around the globe, laborers on Mars work in nightmarish conditions and organize strikes and riots, etc. the @smotus report is a reader-supported publication. To support this work, please become a paid subscriber. Subscribe That show offers glimpses into the subtle ways this Earth is different. Teddy Kennedy never went to Chappaquidick because he was racing back to Washington to deal with the space program crisis; he gets elected President in 1972. John Lennon survives his early 1980s shooting but Pope John Paul II does not. The Apple Newton succeeded. Pretty much the whole of season 4 is a setup for an Al Gore joke. Again, mostly, the vision that “For All Mankind” presents is a positive one, with technology advancing many human interests. “Star City” goes in a very different direction. This spin-off show is about the same set of events but from the Soviet perspective. As we meet them, the team of scientists and cosmonauts responsible for the lunar landing are still basking in their hero status, but their program is embedded deep in the Soviet security state of the late 1960s. Everyone’s apartment is bugged. Whole teams of clerical staff spend their days transcribing recordings of people’s lives. People in the program, including respected cosmonauts, are regularly arrested. An incredibly menacing Colonel Lyudmilla Raskova (Anna Maxwell Martin) forces confessions and tortures and kills, expressing little more than annoyance in the process. Meanwhile, the space program’s highly respected Chief Designer (Rhys Ifans) has a vision for the program that he knows the government will not approve. He insists that they need to think past the Moon to focus on colonizing the solar system, starting with Venus. (This is a rough parallel to the Americans’ pivot to Mars in the original show.) He essentially builds a secret space program within the space program, calculating that the government will embrace the mission after it has succeeded. (As an aside, I’m not sure why the Venus obsession, as a successful mission can’t produce the biggest public relations payoff: a cosmonaut standing on the surface holding the Soviet flag. Anyone standing on Venus would be immediately crushed by the 92-bar atmosphere and then cremated in the 900°F temperatures. But in a country with no free press perhaps the visual payoff was less valued.) But the overall vision is that the technological advances have only amplified the most fearsome aspects of the Soviet system. The state is paranoid (but not incorrect) about American spies and does monstrous things to protect its secrets. People are terrified to trust each other. Classic banality-of-evil figures order people to harm those they care about; those people comply rather than get shot. Others are forced into criminal behavior to protect loved ones. We’re reminded all the time these days of what happens when a government despises science. It manifests in the defunding of schools, the elevation of fossil fuels as the rest of the world pivots to solar, outbreaks of measles and diarrhea, etc. But “Star City” offers a vision of a bad government that likes science. It’s not encouraging. It’s not yet clear if there will be a season two of this show. But I strongly recommend season one. It’s both thoughtful and gripping. Share

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Jul 20 • 8:04 AM EDT • Science • smotus.substack.com
Scientists have found an ancient sea worm with jaws made from a mysterious 'bio-metal' never encountered before, a discovery that could rewrite what we know about nature

Imagine you’re playing “20 Questions” and you start with the classic opener: “Animal, vegetable, or mineral?” Most of the time, a sea worm would be an easy answer: animal. But one particular marine species, the ancient and still-living bristle worm Perinereis cultrifera, complicates that simple choice.

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Jul 20 • 6:47 AM EDT • Science • timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Opinion: Atlanta Black businesses are under threat. Here’s how to save them.

Black entrepreneurs should be able to thrive in Atlanta, but the price of commercial rents is driving businesses out. The Staying Power Toolkit will help turn the tide.

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Jul 20 • 6:00 AM EDT • Business • ajc.com
A Quebecer noticed a strange circular pit on Google Maps while planning a trip; scientists have now confirmed it is a 390-million-year-old meteorite impact crater

In late 2023, amateur astronomer Joël Lapointe was doing something very ordinary: Mapping out forest roads for a summer road trip in Quebec. While zooming around northern regions on Google Maps, he spotted something that looked anything but ordinary.

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Jul 20 • 5:52 AM EDT • Science • timesofindia.indiatimes.com
A day in the life of celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis

Giada De Laurentiis is a chef, author, restaurateur, and entrepreneur. She loves cooking dinner for her family and doing her 30-minute night routine.

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Jul 20 • 5:05 AM EDT • Technology • businessinsider.com
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A day in the life of celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis

Giada De Laurentiis is a chef, author, restaurateur, and entrepreneur. She loves cooking dinner for her family and doing her 30-minute night routine.

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Jul 20 • 5:05 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
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An asteroid shattered near Jupiter’s gravitational gateway 800 million years ago; scientists say the debris may have bombarded Earth for 150 million years

A massive asteroid that broke apart around 800 million years ago may have sent a huge number of rocky fragments towards Earth, the Moon and Mars, according to a new study led by researchers at the Southwest Research Institute.

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Jul 20 • 4:04 AM EDT • Science • timesofindia.indiatimes.com