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Photos: Nationwide protests target AI data centers

Humans First, a conservative-led nonprofit, organized nationwide protests against AI data centers on Saturday.

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Jul 18 • 4:31 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
Samsung's Galaxy Watch 9 just leaked in full, and it's not the chip that stands out

A health feature buried in the marketing images might be the bigger story here.

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Jul 18 • 11:36 AM EDT • Technology • phonearena.com
Samsung brand ambassador accidentally reveals Galaxy Z Fold 8

The Fold 8 looks adorable in a new video.

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Jul 18 • 10:29 AM EDT • Technology • phonearena.com
Hunter Biden shares his painful road to recovery and fight against political scrutiny

NPR's Scott Simon asks Hunter Biden about his addiction, treatments, and political notoriety.

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Jul 18 • 7:42 AM EDT • Politics • npr.org
High-Signal Publisher
Marco Bassetti on why global entertainment still depends on local culture

In an age when viewers can drift from TikTok to Netflix to YouTube within minutes, the World Cup remains a rare thing: a live event that can capture the attention of a huge, simultaneous worldwide audience. Banijay Live, part of Banijay Entertainment that is behind hit TV franchises including "MasterChef," "Big Brother," and "The Traitors," is producing the tournament's closing ceremony on July 19 at the New York New Jersey Stadium. Marco Bassetti, its chief executive, says earning that kind of global attention is harder than ever — and keeping it depends on understanding local culture.

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Jul 18 • 6:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • reuters.com
Where seniors are targeted by scams in 2026. ‘Business imposters’ among CT’s top scam.

ationwide, reports involving older Americans were less likely than those involving younger age groups to cite either scam type.

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Jul 18 • 5:40 AM EDT • Business • courant.com
Warren Buffett's message to investors: Be careful

Warren Buffett called out widespread gambling on stocks and the huge amounts being spent on AI. He also discussed his Alphabet wager.

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Jul 18 • 5:14 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
4 Georgians named in record $6.5B health care fraud takedown

Four Georgians were named in a nationwide health care fraud crackdown involving alleged schemes totaling $6.5 billion.

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Jul 18 • 5:04 AM EDT • Health • savannahnow.com
Indiana Finally Gets Anticipated Final Answer on 5-Star Recruit

After months of battling to land one of the best players in the nation, Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti comes through again with an incredible achievement.The Hoosiers have been in a recruiting battle for five-star standout wide receiver Monshun Sales. Indiana was going up against schools like Alabama, Texas, LSU, and Ohio State.Ultimately, at […] The post Indiana Finally Gets Anticipated Final Answer on 5-Star Recruit appeared first on HEAVY.

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Jul 17 • 6:59 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
‘Extremely frustrating:’ Alpharetta businesses fed up with years-long Highway 9 construction project

The project includes widening Highway 9 to four lanes.

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Jul 17 • 6:56 PM EDT • Business • wsbtv.com
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Canada wildfire smoke map: Health risks as poor air quality hits the Midwest and northern states

More than 100 million people nationwide are under air quality alerts due to wildfire smoke.

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Jul 17 • 6:21 PM EDT • Health • nbcnews.com
High-Signal Publisher
Ranking Member Markey, Senator Hirono Reject Trump’s SBA Policy Proposal that Harms Underserved Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

Letter (PDF) (Washington, July 17) – Ranking Member Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) submitted a comment letter to the Small Business Administration (SBA) opposing a proposed rule change by Trump’s SBA to the 8(a) Business Development Program that would harm underserved small business owners and entrepreneurs. The 8(a) Business Development Program was created by Congress more than 50 years ago to level the playing field for small business owners and entrepreneurs who have faced discrimination in starting and operating their businesses. The SBA’s proposed change ignores the existence of historic discrimination that minority and underserved small businesses have faced and continue to face. In the letter, the lawmakers wrote, “SBA’s proposed rule ignores present-day barriers that entrepreneurs from minority and underserved communities face. Discrimination is not dead; minority entrepreneurs continue to face reduced access to contracting opportunities and capital, as well as racial threats and targeting, including unequal treatment, refusal by others to work with minority-owned firms, being called racial slurs, and bias in the workplace. These barriers lead to wide underutilization of, and less revenue for, minority-owned businesses compared to majority-owned businesses, as supported by decades of disparity studies. The proposed rule diminishes the history of systemic racial and ethnic discrimination in the United States by claiming that remedies for discrimination create discrimination in and of themselves.” The lawmakers continued, “The program has always been open to anyone who can prove they have experienced prejudice or cultural bias in education, employment, entrepreneurship, and other facets of our society. Nonetheless SBA has moved forward with the proposed rule. It lacks a reasoned basis, purporting that the federal government has discriminated against White Americans, but offering no substantive qualitative or quantitative data or research in support. If the examples provided in the proposed rule are the only basis for what constitutes discrimination to the agency, they are woefully insufficient. The final rule must provide strong evidence that there is discrimination against White individuals and show how the rule is narrowly tailored to address it. The record remains devoid of evidence of discrimination against White individuals on the basis of race.” Ranking Member Markey is fighting to protect federal programs that address historic discrimination against small business owners from minority and underserved communities, and for a small business agenda that ensures economic opportunity for all. In June, Ranking Member Markey released a statement condemning the SBA’s proposed changes to the 8(a) Business Development Program. Also in June, Ranking Markey released a new report highlighting Trump’s drastic reduction in federal contracting dollars awarded to American small businesses, including minority-owned small businesses. In February, Ranking Member Markey, alongside Senators Hirono and Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Representative Ayanna Pressley (MA-7), introduced the Strengthening Place-based Access, Resources, and Knowledge (SPARK) Act to spur entrepreneurship and increase access to capital and resources for underserved entrepreneurs nationwide. Ranking Member Markey previously held a field hearing in Roxbury, Massachusetts, to discuss how government and the private sector can come together to make entrepreneurship more accessible for underserved communities. Earlier in February, Ranking Member Markey secured funding with the Appropriations Committee for Small Business Development Centers, Women’s Business Centers, SCORE Chapters, and Veterans Business Outreach Centers and provisions to rein in the Administration’s attempts to eliminate programs that support women, veterans, and underserved entrepreneurs. In January, Ranking Member Markey sent a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to oppose rule changes that would gut protections against discriminatory lending practices that harm small businesses. In December 2025, Ranking Member Markey sent a letter to SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler expressing significant concerns with the SBA’s overly burdensome request and unclear guidance for extensive financial documentation over the holidays, as a part of their sweeping attempts to dismantle the 8(a) Business Development Program. In July and December 2025, Ranking Member Markey sent letters to the SBA Administrator demanding answers about the Trump administration’s efforts to limit economic opportunity for American entrepreneurs, including immigrants. In May 2025, Ranking Member Markey sent a letter to the SBA Administrator rejecting President Trump’s FY 2026 budget proposal and calling on SBA to immediately release funding for the entrepreneurial development programs, which include programs like the Women’s Business Centers and the Veteran’s Business Development Centers that support underserved small business owners. In April 2025, Ranking Member Markey introduced the New Start Act of 2025 to establish a five-year pilot program providing grants to support entrepreneurial development training for currently or formerly incarcerated individuals. In February 2025, Ranking Member Markey sent letters to the SBA Administrator and Government Accountability Office (GAO) condemning President Trump’s war on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) policies and asking how the SBA intends to implement Trump’s anti-DEIA executive orders. ###

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Jul 17 • 5:23 PM EDT • Business • sbc.senate.gov
Samsung’s redesigned Z Fold 8 with a wide display just leaked

The leak also includes some of the foldable’s specs.

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Jul 17 • 11:52 AM EDT • Technology • theverge.com
Trump regulator orders Kalshi to defy Michigan court – escalating battle over prediction markets

The Trump administration took an extraordinary step this week to escalate its nationwide efforts to prevent states from regulating prediction markets, where users can trade on real-world events like sports, politics and pop culture.

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Jul 17 • 11:52 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez drops out of the governor’s race

Rodriguez’s exit, which comes in the wake of campaign finance issues, shakes up an already wide open Democratic primary in the battleground state.

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Jul 17 • 11:26 AM EDT • Politics • nbcnews.com
High-Signal Publisher
The Directors: Two leaders in data science have a warp speed vision for AI, with cancer clinical trials leading the way Knudsen and Thoelke: “It’s actually solving for bottlenecks and challenges that we’ve been unable to overcome for so long”

The United States has a translation problem. Scientific breakthroughs in oncology are accelerating, but clinical trial infrastructure hasn’t kept pace. The solution: Speed up clinical trial enrollment by using AI to reduce costs and eliminate bureaucratic red tape. Tasks that ordinarily require hours of manual work for each patient in a single study can now […]

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Jul 17 • 10:58 AM EDT • Science • cancerletter.com
Lettuce at Taco Bell in 5 states confirmed as a source of diarrhea-causing parasite

Federal health officials have identified lettuce from Mexico served at Taco Bell locations across five U.S. states as a source of the widespread outbreak of diarrhea-causing parasite cyclospora.

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Jul 17 • 9:58 AM EDT • Health • pbs.org
Genesee Co-op FCU joins statewide small business lending initiative

Genesee Co-op Federal Credit Union joins Inclusiv Business Forward to expand affordable small business loans in Rochester and across New York.

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Jul 17 • 9:30 AM EDT • Business • rbj.net
Only Cooper Cousins Until Penn State Football

We’re exactly 50 days away from Penn State kicking off its 2026 football season against Marshall, and today we’re honoring a person who is widely expected to help anchor the offensive line. After seeing playing time mainly on special teams as a freshman, Cooper Cousins saw action on the O-line as a sophomore last season, […]

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Jul 17 • 7:03 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Google just inadvertently revealed the Pixel 11a

The Pixel 11a is under development, and this clue confirms it.

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Jul 17 • 5:50 AM EDT • Technology • phonearena.com
Opinion: Burke’s second act should benefit all of Cleveland

Creating a human-scale resident neighborhood at the Burke Lakefront Airport site would provide direct and wide-ranging benefits for Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, writes economist James Trutko.

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Jul 17 • 5:45 AM EDT • Business • crainscleveland.com
In heated Minnesota Senate primary, barrage of political ads is omen of more to come this fall

In a closely contested battle for DFLers in the U.S. Senate primary, candidates and their backers are spending big on advertising. They’re bringing their case to every available screen they can find.

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Jul 17 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • mprnews.org
World leaders meet in D.C. to discuss left-wing political violence

Leaders from roughly 60 countries gathered in Washington, DC, to discuss what top Trump administration officials are calling an urgent threat: far left terrorism.

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Jul 17 • 4:43 AM EDT • Politics • npr.org
High-Signal Publisher
Scientists discovered a plastic-eating fungus in the Amazon rainforest that survives without oxygen and could one day help tackle landfill waste worldwide

Deep within the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest, scientists discovered a fungus with an extraordinary ability that could offer new clues in the fight against plastic pollution. Known as Pestalotiopsis microspora, the fungus can break down polyester polyurethane, a widely used type of plastic, and use it as a source of carbon.

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Jul 17 • 2:12 AM EDT • Science • timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Democrats Split on Israel and the Politics of Data Centers

House Democrats are divided on sending U.S. aid to Israel. Plus, the backlash over AI data centers fuels local and statewide moratoriums.

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Jul 16 • 8:07 PM EDT • Politics • kqed.org
Population-Wide CRC Screening Programs May Reduce Health Inequities

After launching an organized CRC screening program in Hong Kong, socioeconomic disparities have narrowed but persist among certain groups.

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Jul 16 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • medscape.com
Iceberg lettuce investigated as possible source of cyclosporiasis outbreak

Nearly 7,000 cases nationwide are confirmed or under investigation, according to the CDC. Michigan has accounted for the bulk of cases so far.

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Jul 16 • 5:51 PM EDT • Health • nbcnews.com
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'This was one of the most arduous expeditions I've ever done': Scientists confirm that 15-mile-wide pit found on Google Maps is ancient meteor crater

Joël Lapointe was using Google Maps to plan a camping trail through Quebec's Côte-Nord region when he stumbled across a large indentation. Now, scientists have confirmed that the pit was indeed a meteor impact crater that dates back roughly 390 million years.

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Jul 16 • 12:54 PM EDT • Science • livescience.com
Air Quality is at ‘Hazardous’ Levels. What Does That Mean for Health?

People exposed to smoke spreading from Canadian wildfires are at risk of a wide range of health problems.

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Jul 16 • 12:29 PM EDT • Health • nytimes.com
Students show progress in science across Alabama

Alabama students made strong gains in science and improved in all three tested subjects in eighth grade, according to preliminary statewide test results presented Tuesday (July 14).

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Jul 16 • 11:33 AM EDT • Science • thealabamabaptist.org
Suno scraped YouTube, Deezer to train its AI, hacked code reveals - potentially strengthening UMG and Sony’s

The code was obtained by a hacker who breached Suno and shared it with 404 Media.

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Jul 16 • 10:34 AM EDT • Technology • musicbusinessworldwide.com
How wildfire smoke affects air quality and your health

Coming up at 9 a.m. on Thursday, MPR News guest host Kelly Gordon talks about how air quality is monitored and forecast and the health risks of breathing wildfire smoke.

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Jul 16 • 10:00 AM EDT • Health • mprnews.org
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Alabama students post large science gains, overall eighth-grade scores improve

Alabama students posted strong gains in science, improved eighth-grade achievement and higher ACT scores, according to preliminary statewide assessment results presented Tuesday.

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Jul 16 • 9:35 AM EDT • Science • alreporter.com
As fires burn, Boundary Waters businesses confront lost peak season

After days spent evacuating campers from the Boundary Waters as wildfires spread, outfitters and tourism businesses are beginning to consider the financial fallout. With the wilderness closed during the height of the summer season, many are facing mounting cancellations and an uncertain future.

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Jul 16 • 8:57 AM EDT • Business • mprnews.org
Youth sports have turned into a five-figure-a-year commitment for many parents

But they’re willing to make sacrifices — and deals — to keep their kids playing

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Jul 16 • 8:00 AM EDT • Sports • marketplace.org
ESPN’s wide receiver ranking delivers another slight to DeVonta Smith

League executives, coaches and scouts left DeVonta Smith off ESPN's top 10 ranking, which reminds everyone that the Eagles are still undervalued.

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Jul 16 • 5:25 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Trump's Iran notice aims to reset war powers clock amid growing political risks

The Trump administration's notification to restart the war with Iran aims to reset a 60-day clock for military action, but questions are mounting about public support as midterms approach.

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Jul 16 • 4:43 AM EDT • Politics • npr.org
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Bills Claim Recently Cut Jets WR Off Waivers Before Camp

The Buffalo Bills have claimed a former New York Jets wide receiver off waivers before training camp. The post Bills Claim Recently Cut Jets WR Off Waivers Before Camp appeared first on HEAVY.

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Jul 16 • 12:05 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Pre-order page for HTC VIVE Eagle smart glasses reveals release date before it's taken down

HTC's VIVE Eagle smart glasses are coming to the US although a pre-order listing on Amazon was removed from the site.

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Jul 16 • 12:00 AM EDT • Technology • phonearena.com
Dave & Buster’s moves further into nightlife with nationwide rave series

Dave & Buster’s is teaming with Brownies & Lemonade on a nationwide rave series, bringing surprise DJs and multi-genre dance music lineups to seven U.S. cities through December.

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Jul 15 • 7:40 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Giants Rivals Feature 2 of NFL's top-10 Wide Receivers

The New York Giants are ecstatic to see A.J. Brown leave the NFC East. CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens each landed on the list of the top-10 wide receivers, which was voted on by 70-plus scouts, coaches and executives and compiled by ESPN's Jeremy Fowler. The Giants went 1-1 against Dallas last year, and nearly swept the the Cowboys if not for the Cowboys' furious, last-minute comeback.

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Jul 15 • 6:08 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
House vote exposes Democrats’ widening divide over Israel

The symbolic vote showed how far Democratic politics on Israel have shifted, as progressive candidates turn anger over Gaza and U.S. military aid into a campaign issue.

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Jul 15 • 4:51 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
The States Try to Topple WarnerMount…Thus Begins the Local Antitrust Era

(Welcome to the “Most Important Story of the Week”, my bi-weekly strategy column analyzing the most important (but often not buzziest) news story of the last two weeks. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. Please subscribe.) Well, it looks like it’s time for another strategy column. Can I finally avoid writing about M&A? No, it seems I cannot. Admittedly, I’m a week early with this column, since I usually put it out every other week. But this news couldn’t wait. This will make three “Most Important Stories” in a row with a merger or acquisition as its centerpiece. First, Roku-Fox (an acquisition), then Comcast-NBCUniversal (a divestment!), and now the State AGs and the WGA’s lawsuits against Paramount’s pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery (antitrust). M&A is usually the “most important” topic any given week, simply because a giant company merging or breaking up (or preventing those outcomes) can have the biggest impact on the streaming board. If you think about these companies as players in a game, changing the number of players is one of the biggest changes you can make. I shouldn’t really complain, either, since this lawsuit is very good news for customers and suppliers (econ speak for talent, workers and indie studios in Hollywood). So let me answer some questions about this potential trial, along with (shudder) making some heavily caveated predictions. I’ll also look at whether Hollywood must consolidate, whether or not the states can win, trouble at X-Box, Netflix’s YouTube binge, and more. Plus, I have five images that visualize this merger and the harm, including three brand new data looks you’ve never seen before. Subscribe Most Important Story of the Week - Can The States and the WGA Stop Hollywood’s Consolidation (Crisis)? If every other newsletter and news outlet is writing about the same story, I try to avoid writing about it as well, but I can’t ignore a story this consequential. The story of the last year was the fate of Warner Bros. Discovery, and this development potentially extends that saga into 2027. As I tried to figure out my angle, I realized, like my last column, I’m again faced with a series of questions. These questions, though, are much more forward-looking. Will the states win? Will the WGA win? If so, what happens to Warner Bros. Discovery? Either way, will this chill the market for future mergers? So you know what that means: predictions. About the future, no less, the hardest thing to predict.1 Just remember: nothing here comes with a guarantee. And the more confident someone is in their predictions, the less you should trust them. This situation is incredibly fluid, nuanced, uncertain and tenuous. So let’s try to explain what may happen. Question: Why File this Lawsuit? I’ll admit, a few months back, I was fairly pessimistic about the fate of this lawsuit. Rumors had started bubbling up that the state Attorneys General (in particular California) wanted to settle with either some minor divestments (usually CNN) or behavioral remedies. And that tracked for me: the states usually settle lawsuits, like the recent John Deere right-to-repair suit. Yet, they plan to fight this. (As they did the LiveNation-Ticketmaster monopolization trial and the Nexstar-Tegna merger.) Honestly, that also makes a ton of sense. Frankly, this move is just good politics for these State AGs. Most are still running for higher and higher office in blue states—some folks have emphasized that only Democratic AGs joined this suit, but given the Ellison/Trump ties, and fears of retribution, that tracks—and a high profile case like this will help them move up the electoral ladder, especially since Paramount and its leadership (the Ellisons, father and heir) have sided with the other side of the political aisle. That makes them unsympathetic to Democratic voters and Hollywood workers in particular. Why did this lawsuit happen? In addition to the very real concerns about industry consolidation, this is why. That said, I don’t think we would have seen this lawsuit for Netflix and Warner Bros., simply because they’re more sympathetic and aligned with Democrats. But those consolidation concerns are real. The “town”—meaning Hollywood and such—really is seeing the damage of mergers on this industry. That’s why the WGA also filed its own lawsuit in defense of workers as well. (Wildcard: What about Europe? Will they try to stop the deal, too? There have been some rumors out of the UK they may try to fight the deal, and UK enforcers just stopped a Getty Images-Shutterstock tie up, so there is precedence. This argument could go either way, though. On one hand, the EU doesn’t need to step in, cause they states are handling it. On the other hand, this could make the EU’s case easier. Just imagine if both sides coordinated. I’ll simply say, “We’ll see!”) Question: Will The State AGs or the WGA Win? Can the state AGs play David to Paramount-Skydance’s Goliath here? That’s really the whole thing, isn’t it? If you know this result, you could make a lot of money. When things are uncertain, it’s tempting to shrug and say, “Eh” meaning it’s a 50/50 proposition. I wouldn’t, though. When in doubt, you should expect that the merging parties succeed. AT&T did successfully buy Warner Bros., after all, and Disney bought Fox without any challenges. Many judges are extremely sympathetic to mergers, and I’d bet the state AGs get a judge who will allow the merger. (Even Obama-appointed judges often allow mergers.) As I understand it, we’ll see two main attacks. First, theatrical films. The AGs are arguing that, when it comes to share of box office and the number of both “wide releases” and blockbuster (or “tentpole”) films, the merging parties will have over 27% market share. Now, the Supreme Court once ruled from on high that any merger that exceeds 30% is presumptively illegal, but that’s guidance, not an ironclad bar. Still, the states will have to argue that this is close to having too much power, and with that power, this will likely further worsen the theater/studio splits in particular. Indeed, as Matthew Stoller pointed out, “just five studios are responsible for 95% of all blockbusters; if this merger goes through, then Paramount and Disney will control 60% of that.” So yes, movie studios will be very concentrated after this merger. Want me to visualize some of that? Well, here’s the share of films that grossed over $200 million at the domestic box office since 2022. (Note: this isn’t all films released in over 3,000 screens, but it is a good look at market power.) First, here are the 43 films by studio: Notice all the blue (Disney), orange (Universal), and purple (Warner Bros)? Yeah, those studios are powerful, and this combines Paramount with one of them. Here’s the look by studio and share of the films that grossed over $200 million: Now, if you look at that and also think, “Huh, should we break up Disney?” I’m with you. I’ve seen some folks poo-poo this idea that this is a real category, but it is! For an upcoming article, I’ve been pulling data on the share of top 100 films at the box office as a share of total box office, and it’s massive. Here’s the chart: (This analysis looks at The-Number’s top 100 films and total domestic box office each year.) To be clear, tentpoles make up 80.7% of the box office each year, so I do think it’s a genuine market. (To be clear, films grossing over $50 million make up 80% of the domestic box office, and films grossing over $100 million make up 64.1%.) I mean, the top 100 films at the box office make up 95% of each year’s grosses. Worse, the combined studios will likely cut output to flex that market power. Everyone can just look at what happened to Disney and Fox to see the precedent. (With fewer films, the remaining theaters have to give more for those few films that remain.) Here’s an image I’ve used a lot, the share of wide-release films from Disney and Fox over time: The AGs will also argue that this consolidation will also impact the cable industry. In this case, the consolidation is actually worse, but that environment is…complicated. Paramount will argue that the cable industry is shrinking. That said, predictions that cable will “go to zero” also don’t look very well supported by the data, as the declines are shrinking, meaning “cable” or “vMVPDs” will likely stabilize at some point. Can the state Attorneys General win on those two main arguments? I honestly don’t know. Again, I’d bet no, since history in general supports that, but it depends on the judge/jury and how they interpret the arguments. Notably, Paramount won’t face accusations about monopoly power in other areas, like streaming, news, sports rights, or vertical integration. I tend to disagree with leaving out sports rights, but I also see the appeal for a simpler case. The states also aren’t really pushing novel theories about labor harm either, which should help. (By the way, Sean McNulty at The Ankler wrote a great run through of potential options, and Capitol Forum also wrote a great paper on theatrical consolidation. Both these pieces predated the lawsuit. Matthew Stoller is also out with his analysis of the pros and cons of the case too.) In some ways, the WGA’s case is even stronger. Quoting Sean McNulty’s summary: “The WGA is citing WARNAMOUNT as crossing a 30% market share in multiple sectors, a number that the Supreme Court has precedent for deeming “presumptively anticompetitive” in a market. According to the WGA numbers, WARNAMOUNT would have represented: - 35% of film writing jobs between 2021 and 2024 - 36% of TV writing projects between 2022 and 2025 - 38% of overall deals between 2021 and 2024” Notably, antitrust enforcers did win recently in the Penguin-Simon & Schuster merger by focusing on labor impact, so don’t count this thinking out. (Wildcard: Will the states try to get a jury trial? Most likely no, they’ll let a judge handle it. If I’m them, though, I’d try to put this in front of a jury. Juries tend to understand monopoly power in a more realistic way than judges faced with legions of economists.) Question: What if They Win? What if They Lose?

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Jul 15 • 4:48 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com
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Trump drops political bomb on Minnesota Republicans with Lindell endorsement

President Trump’s endorsement of Mike Lindell is a five-alarm fire for many in the GOP. The MyPillow CEO is widely seen as the worst candidate to take on U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

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Jul 15 • 2:47 PM EDT • Politics • startribune.com
Carteret Community College offers transfer to App State health science program

A new statewide transfer agreement between our state’s community colleges and App State now makes a seamless transfer path for Health Science majors.

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Jul 15 • 11:16 AM EDT • Science • witn.com
Delaware Rolls Out Self-Service Sports Betting Kiosks Statewide

Delaware has installed self-service sports betting kiosks at all 89 Sports Lottery retailers and its three casinos, adding prop bets, parlays and live wagering.

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Jul 15 • 10:47 AM EDT • Sports • rg.org
Carter Center Weekend Raises over $3 Million to Advance Peace and Health Worldwide

The 2026 Carter Center Weekend raised more than $3 million in donations and auction sales to support the Center’s mission of waging peace, fighting disease, and easing human suffering around the world.

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Jul 15 • 10:28 AM EDT • Health • cartercenter.org
Flutter Entertainment (FLUT) Stock Still Looks Like A Bargain Despite Earnings Risks

Flutter Entertainment stock is coming off a steep share price decline over the past year while valuation checks still lean cheap, and that contrast is now front and center for investors watching renewed interest following high profile buying from Michael Burry. Over the last 12 months, Flutter Entertainment shares have fallen 63%, which puts the focus squarely on whether the current price already reflects the recent pain. Michael Burry’s long position and the wider debate around how tighter...

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Jul 15 • 10:12 AM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com
Maine School of Science and Mathematics adds outreach leader

The Maine School of Science and Mathematics is a statewide STEM-focused high school that offers an advanced college-preparatory curriculum.

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Jul 15 • 9:21 AM EDT • Science • mainebiz.biz
Best international shows to stream in 2026

For six weeks, soccer made the U.S. the center of worldwide celebration. Keep the post-World Cup blues at bay by watching these 15 international series.

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Jul 15 • 6:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
Why Annual Reviews bought Underline Science

Richard Gallagher and Jernej Masnec discuss AI, conferences and the future of scholarly communities worldwide

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Jul 15 • 4:25 AM EDT • Science • researchinformation.info
Motorola's brand-new Edge 70 Max flagship is exquisitely affordable and impressively feature-packed

Powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor and equipped with blazing fast magnetic wireless charging, Motorola's latest Galaxy S26 Ultra rival is fully official... in India.

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Jul 15 • 4:08 AM EDT • Technology • phonearena.com
House passes bill to make daylight saving time permanent

Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Bowling Green, is among those backing a bill to make daylight saving time permanent nationwide.

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Jul 14 • 7:41 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumnews1.com
WV Among Least Affordable for Health Insurance Nationwide
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Jul 14 • 6:14 PM EDT • Health • wchstv.com
Georgia political leaders push back on upcoming Trump address

Speculation is rampant that the president will use the speech to air allegations of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, reportedly taking direct aim at the legitimacy of sitting Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

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Jul 14 • 5:52 PM EDT • Politics • fox5atlanta.com
Michigan health officials urge residents to avoid bagged lettuce as Cyclospora outbreak tops 3,300 cases

Michigan health officials are urging residents to avoid bagged lettuce and salad mixes while investigators work to identify the source of a cyclospora outbreak that has sickened thousands of people in the state and more than 5,000 nationwide.

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Jul 14 • 4:57 PM EDT • Health • clickondetroit.com
New York becomes first state to freeze new AI data centers in move critics warn could drive away jobs

Dem Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the nation's first statewide moratorium on new AI data centers while officials develop new environmental standards.

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Jul 14 • 4:56 PM EDT • Business • foxbusiness.com
Every Galaxy Z Fold 8, Z Flip 8, and new Galaxy Watch leaks in official renders

No more secrets as Galaxy Z Fold 8, Z Flip 8, and the new Galaxy Watches leak ahead of their premiere.

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Jul 14 • 3:44 PM EDT • Technology • phonearena.com
47 revelatory hours with Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced

To review this month’s supposed remake of 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, I must first correct the record. Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced isn’t a game about pirates (and assassins) in the 18th century Caribbean. Sure, sure, that’s what the trailers would have you believe. They’ve go their clips of Edward Kenway swinging his swords and steering his pirate ship into cannon-blasting combat against British frigates. Is Resynced truly a pirate game? Of the 47 hours I spent playing Resynced over the past few weeks, I will admit I spent maybe 44 (?) of them collecting plunder with Blackbeard, drinking rum with Anne Bonny and debating the pros and cons of the lawless pirate-run settlement Nassau with Benjamin Hornigold. I may in fact have spent dozens of hours sailing to remote islands, reading treasure maps, opening messages left in bottles, sinking the odd Man o’ War with a well-timed broadside, collecting sea shanties for my crew, befriending a pet monkey, and hunting whales. I am nevertheless neither so Gullible nor so Narrow-Minded as to call the magnificent Resynced a “pirate remake.” Oh no. Forget any reviews of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced you may have read. Forget what you yourself may have played, if you’ve spent any time with the game since its launch. What Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is really about I’m here to give you the scoop (spoilers for Resynced’s Animus menu lore, which many players are probably not going to see): Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, the new game whose development was led by Ubisoft Singapore, is set in the year 2096. It’s about a societal split, about revolution, about an old Assassin’s Creed adventure repurposed in the series’ distant future as propaganda or samizdat. It’s about the overheated future of 2096, essentially conquered by the series’ well-established nefarious Templar-run company Abstergo. (In this future, Abstergo is, among other things, remaking a 2013 pirate movie called Devils of the Caribbean, but this time in VR. The VR version will be backed by a marketing plan that involves AI influencers, a 10,000-avatar “metaverse premiere event” and that manufacturing of memes aimed at “50 million VR nodes.” See what I mean about Abstergo being evil?) Resynced is about a late 21st-century population mollified by the widespread use of Abstergo’s Animus devices which let people experience the lives of historical figures culled from “genetic memories.” It’s about an insurgent faction of Assassins. And it’s about a plan to wake the population into revolutionary fervor by showing them the memories of 18th century pirate Edward Kenway, who—as depicted in the original Black Flag and again in Resynced—gradually comes to an understanding about the Assassins of his day and their centuries old fight for freedom. Resynced is also about an AI developed within the late 21st-century Animus, called Ego. It has found a way to alter genetic memories, to create and show Animus users false ones. The game is about Ego’s efforts to tell the people experiencing Edward Kenway’s memories that Kenway was wrong, that fighting against order is folly, that we should crave a world where “compliance is rewarded with power.” Who are we in this game? We’re an unnamed Animus user in 2096 who experiences Kenway’s journey virtually. At four moments during Kenway’s exploits in the Caribbean our virtual jaunt can be interrupted for 10-15 minutes, as we explore Animus “rifts” where Ego explicitly tries to tell us how wrong Kenway was. None of this is what 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was about, of course. That was a different game, even if you also spent dozens of hours pirating as Kenway in that game, across missions and a map that’s been faithfully reintroduced and rebuilt for Resynced. The 2013 Black Flag was about you playing as an unnamed researcher newly hired in 2013 by Abstergo Entertainment, the video game development wing of the Templars’ evil-corp. In that game, you were assigned to use the Animus to dive into the genetic memories of Desmond Miles, a man who died in Assassin’s Creed III and who was descended from a long line of Assassins (and at least one Templar) whose adventures were featured across the prior AC games. In 2013’s Black Flag, your mission was to plumb the Edward Kenway experience for material that Abstergo could use in productions such as the motion picture Devils of the Caribbean, though the Templars had some ulterior motives for the assignment. Resynced is therefore not a remake of 2013’s Black Flag. It’s a sequel. It is a new game about a new exploration of Edward Kenway’s pirate/assassin journey, set 83 years after the framing sequences of the original game. Resynced provides a new narrative framework that, thanks to the concept of an AI that wants to alter historical memories, arrives with creative justification to tweak a now-classic 13-year old game. That makes Resynced, already a hot seller, a tantalizing hint of where Ubisoft could go with a line of Assassin’s Creed remakes. They could remake the first game, the Ezio games, even the recent ones set in ancient Egypt and Greece. And for each, they could not just modernize the graphics and controls but expand and alter their sequences of events to use them as reference points for a conflict set in the late 21st century, as rival factions try to weaponize historical memories. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, even when that work consists of ravings about Assassin’s Creed’s modern day plot, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe A story most players will probably miss If you didn’t know any of this, I’m not surprised. If you played the game and still didn’t catch it, I’m not a bit shocked. If Ubisoft has no plans to do more of this, I won’t fall down. Almost all of what I’ve described is optional and missable in Black Flag Resynced. I nearly missed it myself, as I planned for a breezy playthrough of an old Assassin’s Creed favorite. Instead, I found myself in a 40+ hour hunt for the “real” story, buried deeper in Resynced than any gold-filled chest. The story of 2096 is Resynced’s meta-story, told in two remote pockets of the game: 1) four optional playable “rifts” that players may find as they proceed through Resynced’s pirate fantasy , 2) in dozens of text files tucked three menus deep in the game’s barely-interactive Animus hub. Assassin’s Creed games have almost always had a meta-story about people in the 21st century (usually matching the game’s release year) and their connections to the main history portions you play. Those meta-stories have always been squeezed into the margins, though seldom as severely and as, uh, graphiaclly simple, as in recent games. Back in 2013, the modern-day exploits of you as an Abstergo Entertainment employee were prominent. They were portrayed via first-person portions that occasionally interrupted the third-person Kenway experience and could be explored for hours, complete with their own missions, side quests and puzzles. Resynced’s 2096 story—of Assassin “Watchers” vs. Abstergo/Tempar goons, of rogue AIs, of panicking scientists, of a woman wondering why her Animus-addicted husband is muttering about Mary Read (“What does he mean by Assassins?”), of a fight for the population’s hearts and minds via varying interpretations of Edward Kenway’s life choices—is mostly told through unlockable text files. The files are interesting. Offered via diary entries, intercepted chats and news reports, they present varied perspectives of a world in crisis. One set works as a narrative puzzle as it reveals the Rashomonic interpretations of a massacre, or was that a successful Assassin hit? Another favorite reveals the rising bitterness of a person who, through Edward Kenway’s journey, now shakes at the ignored evil around him. One surmises that Ubisoft is averse to putting the Assassin’s Creed’s meta-story in the way of more marketable pirate playgrounds and ninja/samurai epics. Instead, we get a better-than-nothing text-in-menus approach introduced in 2025’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows. In Shadows, players unlocked the meta-story text files largely via time-gated missions that called on the user to kill X number of enemy type Y, clear three enemy castles, re-win a three-phase fighting tournament, and other grinds. Time restrictions on accessing these missions and unlocking the files meant it could take players months to access the full story in-game. But even in the most hardcore Assassin’s Creed hangouts, the fanbase instead seemed to throw up their hands rather than grind to keep up. In Resynced, Ubisoft has shown some mercy, diminishing the amount of new text files that are tied to timed grinds. Now, most of the text-based 2096 lore are associated with “data file” collectibles that players can find in the world. That includes a batch of written entries that explain a historical link between the feudal Japan era in Shadows and the piracy adventures in Black Flag. Players who explore a lot will find dozens of data files, though the game does not appear to offer any in-game tracker for finding each one. You just need to keep looking for them. As of this writing, I have most of them, but not all. I can’t find any full guide for them online. And even Ubisoft’s optional $5 microtransaction that reveals lots of items in-game does not appear to reveal the locations of the text files (at least the official description omits them from its collectibles list). That’s not a huge bother, because tracking the data files down compelled me to re-explore the waves and islands of Black Flag. That was a thoroughly pleasant task to do for the first time in a dozen years. I expect many players, though, will be content to wait for the files to be reproduced in an online AC wiki somewhere, the easier to read on a web page. It may not seem enticing to play a video game in order to gradually unlock pages of text to read. Why not, you may ask, just read a book, where they put the pages in order? For one, they’ve not tucked this latest installment of Assassin’s Creed’s meta saga in a book. I also enjoy the unordered delivery, the dawning comprehension of a story about 2096’s desperate people and questionable tech, which I glimpsed first at its middle, then the end, then the front, then other moments in between1. I am also enamored with the idea of the Assassin’s Creed games I’ve previously played, including Black Flag, being repurposed for an information war. The ideas in Resynced’s meta-story, which builds off characters and ideas in Shadows’ chunks of text, are strong. The potential of where they could go with it is exciting. As for the pirate stuff? Looks great, controls pretty well, is fun to play and oh so speedy in terms of how much of a good time you can have with each sit-down. It never gets old to chase a new shanty page across a rooftop, bombard a fort with upgraded mortars or use a diving bell to explore sunken wrecks (hats off to the team at Ubisoft Barcelona that worked on the underwater portions in Resynced; that team is now facing layoffs, such is the misery of modern gaming and oft-troubled Ubisoft). New pirate missions in Resynced involving new ally characters are brief, dramatic and add more to Edward’s story, even if the gameplay perks they provide barely enhance the gameplay. A new denouement for high-class pirate Stede Bonnet is affecting; a new hunt for Blackbeard’s treasure is a welcome extra moment. A new epilogue to hunt down a pirate killer, on the other hand, over-complicates Kenway’s character. The ending credits remain my favorite of any game I’ve ever played. Black Flag provides great source material. The revisit is well-made and a great sign of what could be. It is offered in a different wrapper that hints at an opportunity for more interesting remakes to come, should Ubisoft choose to pursue such treasures—and as we brace to resist or comply with an Abstergo future. 1 The messages that Edward Kenway finds in bottles tell another out-of-order story, one about a man reckoning with the strange memories and voices he’s heard in his head since he was a boy. That tale was also in the 2013 game and develops into one of Black Flag’s most compelling character arcs. In Resynced, it has lost its climax, because the bottle story previously paid off in the halls of the first-person Abstergo Entertainment, which is exclusive to the older game. An altered resolution, written by the 2013 game’s lead writer is fine, doesn’t invalidate the 2013 version, but makes for an inferior final note.

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Jul 14 • 3:17 PM EDT • Technology • gamefile.news
Ravens Reportedly Keeping Tabs on Stefon Diggs

The Baltimore Ravens are among the teams that are reportedly keeping tabs on free agent wide receiver Stefon Diggs.

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Jul 14 • 3:04 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Fender escalates Stratocaster copyright fight, taking aim at Yamaha

Fender, the ​U.S. maker of the iconic Stratocaster electric guitar played by Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, has widened ‌its legal campaign to defend the guitar's design with a notice letter sent to Yamaha , the Japanese company told Reuters.

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Jul 14 • 1:11 PM EDT • Technology • reuters.com
Galaxy Z Fold 8 shows off wide redesign alongside Ultra, Flip, and Watch 9 in new leak [Gallery]

New leaks show off the wider Galaxy Z Fold 8 alongside its tall Ultra sibling, the Flip 8, and Watch 9 too.

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Jul 14 • 12:20 PM EDT • Technology • 9to5google.com
Apple releases the first iOS 27 public beta

Also, iPadOS 27, watchOS 27, macOS 27 and tvOS 27 public betas. The previous beta versions were for developers only, this one is widely available.

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Jul 14 • 12:10 PM EDT • Technology • gsmarena.com
GOVERNOR MEYER LAUNCHES DELAWARE COMMERCIAL CORRIDOR INITIATIVE TO SUPPORT SMALL BUSINESSES

Governor Matt Meyer joined Delaware Division of Small Business Director CJ Bell to launch the Delaware Commercial Corridor Initiative (DCCI), a new statewide program designed to help small businesses improve their storefronts, buildings and operations while revitalizing Delaware's downtown and commercial districts. The initiative pairs targeted grant funding with capital from lending institutions to drive visible improvements. Through DCCI, the Division of Small Business will invest $4.5 million in state Strategic Fund dollars to help existing brick-and-mortar small businesses make property and equipment improvements that strengthen their businesses and improve the appearance of commercial corridors.

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Jul 14 • 12:04 PM EDT • Business • news.delaware.gov
NSF awards 12 new Regional Innovation Engines to fuel research, jobs and economic growth nationwide

The U.S. National Science Foundation announced it awarded the newest NSF Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) awards to 12 U.S. teams across 20 states. These NSF Engines will build and scale…

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Jul 14 • 12:00 PM EDT • Science • nsf.gov
CBS Sports names Florida one of college football's biggest wild cards

Florida enters Jon Sumrall's first season with one of the widest ranges of outcomes in college football, according to CBS Sports.

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Jul 14 • 11:46 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
REELSHORT AND WWE® PARTNER TO BRING ORIGINAL LIVE-ACTION MICRODRAMA TO FANS WORLDWIDE

LOS ANGELES, CA — July 14, 2026 — ReelShort, the world's leading microdrama platform, and WWE, the global leader in sports entertainment, today announced a partnership to produce an original live-action microdrama, marking the first collaboration between a major sports and entertainment brand and a microdrama platform.

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Jul 14 • 10:15 AM EDT • Entertainment • corporate.wwe.com
Vanderbilt Health statement about its ongoing commitment to patients and families of Williamson County

Vanderbilt Health has been proud to partner with Williamson Health for more than a decade in delivering a wide variety of adult and pediatric services and in the immediate term we look forward to continuing our current joint operations, including our pediatric ED and inpatient services, as conversations with Williamson Health evolve.

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Jul 14 • 9:43 AM EDT • Health • news.vumc.org
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The new currency of global health aid: data

As the U.S. reshapes its foreign assistance strategy, countries receiving health funding are sharing access to medical information.

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Jul 14 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • marketplace.org
New York to impose country’s first statewide moratorium on data centers

New York will block the construction of any new large data centers for up to a year so the state can create a new set of rules.

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Jul 14 • 7:36 AM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Solis Mammography opens 2 new imaging centers

On top of two other centers opened in Florida earlier this year, Solis now operates 15 locations across the Sunshine State and over 170 outposts nationwide.

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Jul 14 • 6:03 AM EDT • Business • radiologybusiness.com
Hochul enacts first statewide data center moratorium

Her executive order will pause the permitting process for up to a year to evaluate environmental impacts.

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Jul 14 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • ny1.com
49ers’ Brandon Aiyuk Gets Brutal Commanders Prediction

Former NFL wideout T.J. Houshmandzadeh issued a blunt prediction to the San Francisco 49ers’ Brandon Aiyuk. Over the last few weeks, Aiyuk has been on a tirade on social media with several videos explaining his side of the story while attacking the Niners.Nonetheless, after attacking the 49ers, Aiyuk then transitioned to shots at Washington Commanders […] The post 49ers’ Brandon Aiyuk Gets Brutal Commanders Prediction appeared first on HEAVY.

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Jul 13 • 10:26 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Family seeks answers months after Chicago business owner dies in ICE custody, 1 of dozens nationwide

While some ICE detainees have since been deported, or after legal fights returned home to Chicago, one man will never return home.

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Jul 13 • 9:13 PM EDT • Business • abc7chicago.com
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Building the tools behind the science

An industry application scientist reflects on the invisible labor behind widely used lab techniques, and how iterative testing, troubleshooting and cross-team collaboration turn new technologies into practical tools for the scientific community.

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Jul 13 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • asbmb.org
NSF Won’t Fund Research Involving Chinese Scientists

The National Science Foundation will bar U.S. colleges and universities from collaborating with many Chinese scientists and other entities on the federal government’s restricted parties lists.

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Jul 13 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • insidehighered.com
China Expels Former Politburo Member Over Graft and Sex Charges

China expelled former Politburo member Ma Xingrui from the ruling Communist Party, accusing him of a wide range of offenses including corruption, abuse of power and trading political favors for sex.

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Jul 13 • 8:00 PM EDT • Politics • bloomberg.com
Notre Dame's Leonard Moore Is Every Wide Receiver's Nightmare

Cornerback Leonard Moore is an absolute shutdown artist for Notre Dame, and he'll be the same for the team that takes him early in the 2027 NFL Draft.

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Jul 13 • 7:15 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Public Betas For iOS 27, macOS 27 And More Apple Platforms Are Now Available

Try the new Siri AI and system-wide performance improvements.

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Jul 13 • 4:45 PM EDT • Technology • engadget.com
The Quintessential Trump-era Politician

In 2020, I wrote an article about collaboration and collaborators. The title was History Will Judge the Complicit, and it started with the story of two famous East Germans, Markus Wolf and Wolfgang Leonhard, who both landed in East Berlin just after the end of the war. Although they came from very similar backgrounds, the former stuck with the regime, eventually becoming its spy boss; the latter, horrified by the brutal reality of Soviet-style communism, escaped. By way of juxtaposition, I also wrote about Lyndsey Graham and Mitt Romney. These two men also made very different decisions when confronted by Donald Trump’s assault on the ideals that they had both grown up believing: A glance at their biographies would not have led many to predict what happened next. On paper, Graham would have seemed, in 2016, like the man with deeper ties to the military, to the rule of law, and to an old-fashioned idea of American patriotism and American responsibility in the world. Romney, by contrast, with his shifts between the center and the right, with his multiple careers in business and politics, would have seemed less deeply attached to those same old-fashioned patriotic ideals. Most of us register soldiers as loyal patriots, and management consultants as self-interested. We assume people from small towns in South Carolina are more likely to resist political pressure than people who have lived in many places. Intuitively, we think that loyalty to a particular place implies loyalty to a set of values. But in this case the clichés were wrong. It was Graham who made excuses for Trump’s abuse of power. It was Graham—a JAG Corps lawyer—who downplayed the evidence that the president had attempted to manipulate foreign courts and blackmail a foreign leader into launching a phony investigation into a political rival. It was Graham who abandoned his own stated support for bipartisanship and instead pushed for a hyperpartisan Senate Judiciary Committee investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son. It was Graham who played golf with Trump, who made excuses for him on television, who supported the president even as he slowly destroyed the American alliances—with Europeans, with the Kurds—that Graham had defended all his life. By contrast, it was Romney who, in February, became the only Republican senator to break ranks with his colleagues, voting to impeach the president. “Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office,” he said, is “perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine.” In the wake of Graham’s unexpected death on Saturday, I wrote about him again. He was, in many ways, the quintessential politician of Trump’s Washington, a man who shifted 180 degrees. Graham had been a fervent American patriot, proud reserve officer and military lawyer; he became one of the most important defenders of a president who believes soldiers are “suckers and losers” and shows no respect for law of any kind. As his politics changed, his language grew coarser and his behavior grew worse: He urged Israel to “level the place” in Gaza, and insulted the Danish prime minister in Munich, prompting a colleague, Senator Elissa Slotkin, to issue an apology. Here’s an excerpt from the article, which you can read in The Atlantic (gift link here) Like his close friend John McCain, Graham believed that America should stand at the center of a broad democratic alliance. The few times I met him were in that context, at the Munich Security Conference or at other European-American gatherings, which he once attended with great regularity. He also took seriously the practice of American democracy at home. In a 2014 conversation with The Atlantic, he described himself as a pragmatic politician who eschewed populist slogans. “I know Washington is broken, but what’s broken about it is everybody yelling and nobody trying to fix it,” he said. “I’m trying.” When Donald Trump first appeared in U.S. politics, Graham recognized him immediately for what he was: the spokesman for an alien ideology, one radically different from the idealistic patriotism that Graham had practiced and preached since childhood. Trump privately mocked the military that Graham loved as nothing but “suckers and losers.” He put falsehoods, cynicism, and personal greed at the center of his politics, while expressing disdain for transparency, accountability, and democracy itself. In 2015, Graham described Trump as a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” who should “go to hell.” Also as a “nutjob.” When Trump won, Graham understood, as did so many others, that he would have to make some important choices. For a while, he went silent. In the spring of 2016, I saw him at one of those conferences in Europe. He seemed too depressed to speak. But then, like many other Republicans—and, more important, like many other people who have lived under political occupation or experienced radical regime change—he made the decision to abandon his previous ideals, to bury the patriotism that was once so important to him, and to become, instead, a loud, opportunistic collaborator. As I wrote in 2020, it’s very hard to look in to anyone’s heart and to understand their motivations from the outside. But it does seem that Graham had a deep need to be relevant, to be in the game, to be a player, at any cost. And that, rather than any particular achievement, is what he will be remembered for. Continuing to monitor conflicts of interest, ostentatious emoluments, outright corruption and policy changes that will facilitate outright corruption. (Read my original article, Kleptocracy Inc and check out the SNF Agora Institute chart) June 27 Trump diverted funds from more than 900 projects nationwide—including safety upgrades at national parks—to finance beautification projects around Washington, including $700,000 used to fix a White House walkway. June 28 After a years-long Department of Justice investigation into Abbott Laboratories over its management of a baby formula facility where potentially deadly bacteria turned up enough evidence to criminally charge the firm, top department officials instead opted for a financial penalty—illustrating the department’s move away from strict corporate enforcement under the Trump administration. June 29 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stacked the Defense Policy Board—which is charged with providing independent national security recommendations to the Office of the Secretary of Defense—with Trump allies, including tech billionaire Marc Andreessen, who has invested in defense contractors like OpenAI and SpaceX, after purging the panel last year. Trump purchased between $1 million and $5 million worth of stock in Axon—which makes about 90% of US tasers—two weeks before ICE solicited bids for a $220 million taser contract. The White House unveiled limited-edition US passports for America’s 250th birthday, featuring a portrait of Trump overlaid on the Declaration of Independence. June 30 Trump made around $1.2 billion from his various crypto companies last year, including more than $500 million from World Liberty Financial and $600 million from sales of his meme coin. Trump is considering issuing 250 pardons to commemorate America’s 250th birthday. These are expected to be largely doled out through the Office of the Pardon Attorney’s informal network of intermediaries. White-collar defense attorneys say they can typically win pardons for clients for $2 million. Last year, Trump administration officials awarded a no-bid contract worth up to $500 million to Clark Construction for the White House ballroom—negotiations in which the president was directly involved. July 1 The Amazon MGM Studios documentary about Melania Trump earned the First Lady more than $10 million. Trump made hundreds of individual stock purchases worth as much as $12.8 million the day before his announcement pausing “Liberation Day” tariffs for 90 days sent the S&P 500 soaring nearly 10%—one of the largest single-day gains ever. Mar-a-Lago and Trump National Doral saw record surges in revenue during Trump’s first year in office, earning $77.5 million and $121.9 million respectively, compared to average annual revenues of $25 million and $75 million during Trump’s first term. Entities across the Persian Gulf paid more than $300 million to Trump’s businesses last year, including $263 million from the sale of half his stake in World Liberty Financial to a firm backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a top UAE royal and brother of the country’s president. Kash Patel failed to properly disclose his stock purchase of a Department of Justice contractor, MicroStrategy, worth up to $250,000 last year, despite laws requiring disclosure within 45 days of the trade. July 2 Trump has been directing administration officials to steer more government contracts—so far worth more than $2.4 billion—to Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin aerospace firm, after Amazon gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, donated to the White House ballroom project, and reached a $40 million deal to license a Melania Trump documentary. Alongside the billions he made from cryptocurrency last year, Trump earned millions of dollars from real estate licensing fees, including $21 million from organizations in the UAE and $9.2 million in Saudi Arabia, along with smaller sums from merchandise sales, including $4.7 million from Trump Watches and $35,920 from 45 Guitar, a guitar brand endorsed by the president. House Democrats accused consultants tied to the Trump administration of financial fraud, alleging they gave prospective donors to America250—the bipartisan committee created by Congress to celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial—the banking and routing numbers for Freedom 250, the White House’s fund for events like the UFC cage fight. Democrats also allege that Freedom 250’s CEO traveled to the World Economic Forum in Davos to solicit donations from foreign government officials and business leaders. The Trump administration’s proposed rollback of gun regulations would lift the prohibition on mailing handguns to individuals, a significant win for GrabAGun—the direct-to-consumer firearm retailer on whose board Donald Trump Jr. sits and in which he holds a 1.1% ownership stake. GrabAGun currently must rely on a middleman to transfer firearms to customers. Trump’s financial disclosure revealed that he made more than 21,000 securities trades during his first year back in office, growing his investment account to at least $858 million across stakes in around 1,600 companies, compared to the 13 total trades Joe Biden made during his entire presidency. July 4 Nearly 1 million people who bought the president’s meme coin—Trump Coin—collectively lost $3.8 billion on the token, while he walked away with $636 million. July 6 Shares of Dell closed up 4.4% after Trump recommended people buy the firm’s computers during a speech announcing the launch of Trump investment accounts for children, boosting the more than $1 million worth of shares the president owns in the company. July 9 Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh named crypto investor and Trump ally Marc Andreessen to a task force aimed at modernizing the Federal Reserve, including rethinking its approach to inflation—a key factor keeping interest rates elevated. Palm Beach International Airport has officially changed its name to Trump International Airport—a move that will require Florida to pay royalties to the president’s family for licensing his name. I was there a few months ago, during a trip to Barcelona. The sculptures were a revelation, I’d never seen so many together before. Each one has its own personality. Enjoy the good weather, if you are lucky enough to have it. History Will Judge the Complicit The Quintessential Politician Autocracy Inc Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe

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Jul 13 • 4:19 PM EDT • Politics • anneapplebaum.substack.com
Missouri governor signs wide-ranging bi-partisan healthcare bill into law

A bipartisan healthcare bill with several provisions promoting maternal health in Missouri was signed into law Monday by Gov. Mike Kehoe.

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Jul 13 • 3:50 PM EDT • Health • missouriindependent.com
With Platner out, Democrat Jordan Wood relaunches U.S. Senate bid

A former congressional chief of staff, Wood, 36, said he knows how Washington works and has spent more than a year explaining his positions on federal issues to Maine voters.

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Jul 13 • 2:03 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Lindsey Graham Was Once Named the 'Guardian of Small Business.' These Are the Defining Moments of His Legacy

The senator helped shape policies that lowered corporate tax rates, playing a key role in the wider business landscape.

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Jul 13 • 12:07 PM EDT • Business • inc.com
Business Monday: Hawaiʻi Island resident creates a new app to streamline hiring process nationwide

Jessica Cockrell of Hilo has launched ShiftPass, an innovative app that aims to ease the hiring process in the short-term and improve career possibilities for Hawaiʻi residents in the long-term.

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Jul 13 • 11:00 AM EDT • Business • bigislandnow.com
Four small businesses to compete in finals of Verizon’s Small Business Super Pitch

Selected from a nationwide competition, four businesses will make live pitches to judges including soccer legend and entrepreneur Carli Lloyd, then head to the FIFA World Cup 2026™ FinalNEW YORK, July 13, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Friday, July 17, 2026, days before the world’s top two soccer teams battle for the FIFA World Cup 2026™, a different kind of high-stakes championship is taking place just minutes away. Four American small businesses will gather at the Antique Loft in Hoboken, NJ to g

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Jul 13 • 9:30 AM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com
Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced Performance Benchmark Review

Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced breathes new life into the classic with modern graphics, gameplay improvements and full ray tracing support. In our performance review, we examine its graphical fidelity, VRAM usage, upscaling options, and how well it runs across a wide range of modern GPUs.

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Jul 13 • 9:23 AM EDT • Technology • techpowerup.com
NEW DATA: Ohio Small Businesses Rank Similarly to Businesses Nationwide

Labor quality is a more challenging issue in Ohio than nationwide.

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Jul 13 • 9:11 AM EDT • Business • nfib.com
FOX Business anchors reveal wildly overpriced popular products

FOX Business anchors discuss products they believe are widely overpriced. Answers include bottled water, Dyson hair dryers, luxury handbags, and McDonald's value meals, sparking a lively debate about quality versus cost among the panel.

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Jul 13 • 8:32 AM EDT • Business • foxbusiness.com
Q&A: New research questions the science behind cry~it~out sleep training

New JMU research is challenging one of the most widely accepted parenting practices in the U.S.: cry-it-out sleep training

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Jul 13 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • jmu.edu
Arkansas’ tick season appears worse than usual, state public health veterinarian says

Data from the Centers for Disease Control indicate 2026 is a bad year for the tick bite-avoidant nationwide. The same is shaping up to be true in Arkansas.

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Jul 13 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • arkansasadvocate.com
Waze is rolling out new and improved features right now for its iOS and Android apps

Waze adds some new and improved features that might make driving less of a chore.

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Jul 13 • 5:00 AM EDT • Technology • phonearena.com
Minneapolis business owners seek delay in Lyndale Avenue construction

Business owners in Minneapolis’ Uptown neighborhood are seeking to delay a planned construction project along Lyndale Avenue, as a deadline to use federal funding for the project approaches.

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Jul 13 • 5:00 AM EDT • Business • mprnews.org
Warriors Get Significant Good News on LeBron James Pursuit

The Golden State Warriors are now widely viewed as co-favorites to land LeBron James, with only the Cavaliers standing in their way. The post Warriors Get Significant Good News on LeBron James Pursuit appeared first on HEAVY.

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Jul 13 • 12:58 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
AI fueling startup boom across the United States

Nationwide, economists say we’re seeing a business formation boom that's closely correlated with AI’s growth.

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Jul 12 • 11:17 PM EDT • Business • ibj.com
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Where you live could shape your dementia risk, massive study finds

Researchers analyzing data from more than 214,000 people found that dementia risk factors differ widely across countries, challenging the idea of a one-size-fits-all prevention strategy. At the same time, they uncovered surprisingly consistent patterns that could help shape smarter, more targeted public health efforts.

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Jul 12 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Disney spotlights American businesses powering its magic in nation’s 250th year

From Alaska cruise tours to parade floats, Disney is spotlighting the American companies helping power its guest experiences nationwide.

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Jul 12 • 5:47 PM EDT • Business • foxbusiness.com
Don’t give up on the Galaxy Z Flip series just yet, Samsung!

Dear Samsung, please don't let the Galaxy Z Flip 8 be the last of its kind.

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Jul 12 • 5:37 PM EDT • Technology • phonearena.com
Details on Galaxy Z TriFold 2 and Samsung’s sliding phone leak as release dates shuffle around

Samsung is working on two very exciting foldables, the Galaxy Z TriFold 2 and a sliding phone. Industrywide complications are making the release dates of these phones unpredictable, however.

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Jul 12 • 10:36 AM EDT • Technology • phonearena.com
At Family Science Night, Wonder Comes Before Answers.

BAR HARBOR—Family Science Night isn’t really about science. It’s about wonder. It’s about watching a five-year-old realize that the tiny creature under a microscope is a real living thing. It’s about a teenager discovering that the scientist explaining genetics or regeneration isn’t much older than they are. It’s about parents seeing curiosity spread across a child’s face the way excitement spreads across a crowd at a Fourth of July parade. For one evening, families realize that the laboratory isn’t some secretive place where knowledge is hidden behind white coats and closed doors. They learn that the lab is a place their neighbors work, their friends’ parents work, and it becomes a place where questions matter more than answers. It’s a place where wonder is the origin for knowledge. At the lab, children learn that it’s okay not to know. Adults remember that they once asked “Why?” about everything. Scientists are reminded why they fell in love with discovery in the first place. There are experiments, games, obstacle courses, and demonstrations, of course. But those are really just invitations—to touch, to explore, to laugh, to make mistakes, and to ask one more question. In a world that often rewards certainty, Family Science Night celebrates curiosity. And perhaps that’s its greatest gift. Long after the microscopes are packed away and the experiments are over, what families take home isn’t just a few new facts about biology. They take home the feeling that discovery belongs to everyone—that science isn’t something happening somewhere else by someone else. It’s simply what happens when people are given permission to wonder. A Family Science Night at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory is one of those rare community events where children and adults can experience science as something they do, not just something they read about. Hands on discovery allows hands-on learning and joy. Real scientists, some local, some scientist-interns (but still scientists) just in college make science real, approachable, and exciting. And there, complex ideas like forever chemical-filtration, DNA and so much more become not complex. Instead, they become fun. Summer fellows are challenged to explain cutting-edge biomedical research in ways a first-grader—and their grandparent—can understand. Past activities have explored gene expression, kidney function, axolotl regeneration, worms, microplastics, and phytoplankton through games and creative demonstrations. Though it’s called family night, you can also see adults going from station to station, exploring, learning together across ages. Family Science Night reflects the laboratory’s broader mission of breaking down barriers between researchers and the public, helping people understand how scientific discoveries relate to everyday life and the health of Maine’s environment. Family Science Night transforms a world-class research laboratory into a giant interactive classroom, where curiosity is encouraged, questions are celebrated, and families discover that science isn’t just something that happens in a lab—it’s an adventure anyone can join. About MDI Biological Laboratory For more than 125 years, MDI Bio Lab has been a center for training and research in comparative biology. In the last two decades its biomedical research has focused on aging, regeneration, and environmental toxins. The Laboratory houses 11 research groups staffed by an international team of world-class scientists and graduate students. It also leads a statewide network of colleges, universities and research institutions that collaborate to provide training, research experiences and financial support to help young Mainers play a bigger role in today’s biomedical revolution. Located on Maine’s rugged coast, the Laboratory’s 100+ acre campus houses research facilities, cottages and dorms that house visiting scientists and students. It is also home to MDI Bioscience, a subsidiary working to design innovative techniques to speed the drug discovery process. LINKS TO LEARN MORE NIH INBRE MDI BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY Photos: Carrie Jones and Shaun Farrar/Bar Harbor Story HELP SUPPORT THE BAR HARBOR STORY When we started The Bar Harbor Story, we didn’t know if anyone would read it. But you showed up. You shared. You sent tips. Now—over 400,000 views every month later—it’s clear: people here care about their community and each other. We’ve kept everything free because news should never be out of reach, but every one of our stories takes time to write, and your support keeps The Bar Harbor Story going. If you value our work, please consider a paid subscription, a founding membership, or a sponsorship. It truly helps us cover one more meeting, tell one more story, shine one more light. Even $5 a month makes a difference. Click here to become a one-time supporter now. Thank you so much for being here. Founding member information can be found here. Have questions about sponsorships? Just send Shaun an email at sfarrar86@gmail.com, he’d love to hear from you. Subscribe Share Bar Harbor Story Share Leave a comment

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Jul 12 • 8:18 AM EDT • Science • barharborstory.substack.com
Soaring costs and end of tax credit leads 17,000 Minnesotans to drop MNSure health coverage

This year, 17,000 Minnesotans have dropped the health insurance they had purchased in the Affordable Care Act marketplace known as MNSure, as insurance premiums soar and a tax credit that many people use to help defray the cost of ACA insurance expired.

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Jul 12 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • mprnews.org