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This Undrafted Free Agent is 'Worth Monitoring' for Eagles

The Philadelphia Eagles defense is loaded, but the Eagles have always found spots for talented, undrafted diamonds in the rough. Rookie undrafted free agent Deontae Lawson has the potential to be that, since Eagles Wire called him a candidate to potentially start at some point during the 2026 NFL season. Lawson projected as a sixth- or seventh-round draft pick by Lance Zierlein of NFL.com, yet he went unselected among the 257 players chosen in Pittsburgh in April.

Jul 23 • 4:13 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

As expected, Seahawks place Zach Charbonnet on PUP list

Charbonnet to PUP was always a formality.

Jul 22 • 1:55 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Preparation drives long-term business growth

One of the things I enjoy most about working with New Hampshire business owners is hearing what they’re building toward. Whether it’s growth, succession or greater stability, our conversations are almost always about the future.

Jul 21 • 5:29 PM EDT • Business • nhbr.com

Sports and politics: No longer strange bedfellows

Sports has always billed itself as above petty indifferences, something that brings people together on the sanctity of the playing field. FIFA, the guardian of the soccer World Cup pledges to ensure accessibility to everyone, promising that each athlete will receive a reception that is “safe, welc...

Jul 21 • 12:53 PM EDT • Politics • peoplesworld.org

Once Upon a Time in Space: Politics Always Wins

Join the space exploration journey as the Mir’s reign in space comes to an end with the arrival of the International Space Station.

Jul 21 • 12:15 PM EDT • Politics • azpbs.org

The AI Backlash Companies Can’t Ignore | AI & Business for July 21

Plus, China’s latest AI advances, always-on transcription and the perils of big AI contracts.

Jul 21 • 12:00 PM EDT • Business • wsj.com

Lucky Strike Entertainment Unveils Brand Refresh for AMF, Honoring an American Classic Families Have always Loved

RICHMOND, VA - July 21, 2026 - Lucky Strike Entertainment (NYSE: LUCK) today announced the launch of a refreshed identity

Jul 21 • 10:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • roastbrief.us

Boom in business for Wilkesboro as racing fans visit town

“The speedway has always been kind of a glimmer of hope, even when it was closed,” said Lee Huygens, Hampton Inn Wilkesboro.

Jul 20 • 9:00 PM EDT • Business • spectrumlocalnews.com

Y! Sports Biz: The grass is always greener

The turf war between the NFL and its players rages on...

Jul 20 • 11:59 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

🏈 Y! Sports Biz: The grass is always greener

The turf war between the NFL and its players rages on...

Jul 20 • 11:59 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.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

Jul 20 • 9:29 AM EDT • Science • democracysos.substack.com

Highway 57 expansion project progress reactions differ between residents, business owners

Progress always comes at a price. For Jackson County residents—that price is the presence of orange traffic cones and changing lane patters.

Jul 19 • 7:06 PM EDT • Business • wlox.com

Michael Harris II's Breakout Is Confirmed Two Ways, Not One

Fresh off the All-Star break, Michael Harris II went full highlight reel this weekend. If you're a Harris owner, you might expect another hot half, but you might be better off treating this weekend as a stepping-off point to trade for a more reliable asset. Statcast, always a downer, is a lot less impressed than conventional wisdom.

Jul 19 • 4:44 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Eagles schedule preview: Panthers

Cats don’t always land on their feet

Jul 19 • 1:23 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

In 1970, Soviet scientists began drilling into the Kola Peninsula and eventually reached 12,262 metres — creating the deepest vertical borehole humans have ever made, yet barely scratching the surface of Earth’s crust

I had always filed the Kola Superdeep Borehole under facts that sound impressive but do not tell you much: the Soviet Union drilled 12,262 meters into the

Jul 19 • 10:11 AM EDT • Science • scienceblog.com

Best things to buy at Costco, from executive member and dietitian

I'm a registered dietitian with a Costco executive membership. I always buy frozen blueberries, rolled oats, and ground turkey in bulk for easy meals.

Jul 19 • 9:14 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

Eagles Can Only Trade Jalen Carter Under One Condition

If the Philadelphia Eagles planned to trade Jalen Carter, though I don't want to say that it absolutely would be the worst move ever, I think it's important to recognize that first-round picks and draft assets aren't always as promising as they seem.

Jul 18 • 11:28 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

DREAMTEAM

RUARIDH McCONNOCHIE, THE FORMER BATH, ENGLAND, ENGLAND SEVENS AND GREAT BRITAIN SEVENS WINGER, CHOOSES THE BEST XV HE HAS PLAYED WITH OR AGAINST… 1. Beno Obano – I’ve always thought Beno has been criminally underrated at international level. Everyone sees his power, but his hands and footwork are exceptional for a prop. He’s been a […] The post DREAMTEAM appeared first on The Rugby Paper.

Jul 18 • 9:59 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Frozen for years, this tiny animal miraculously springs back to life - Futura-Sciences

Siberia’s Secret Super-Survivor In a remote corner of the world, where only the boldest humans venture and always with layers of insulation, a small amphibian takes coexistence with extreme cold to a whole new level. Deep within the boreal forests of Siberia—imagine endless spruces and a carpet of snow that...

Jul 18 • 3:00 PM EDT • Science • futura-sciences.com

Trader Joe's items for easy meals and desserts, from recipe developer

As a recipe developer, I shop at Trader Joe's for things to make easy meals and desserts. I always buy the store's super-firm tofu and Zhoug sauce.

Jul 18 • 9:14 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

For Singer Judy Collins, A 'Farewell Tour' Doesn't Necessarily Mean 'Goodbye'

Despite the way her 50-city tour is being promoted, the singer admitted, “I’m always working, because I love to work, and it makes me feel happy.”

Jul 18 • 8:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • huffpost.com

Democrats and the siren call of socialism

The political pendulum continues to swing, though its arc these days seems far more volatile and exaggerated. While there have always been outliers and more extreme actors on the political spectrum, the pendulum for many years was more of a steady, often predictable metronome. The country would experience periods of ascendancy on the left, followed […]

Jul 18 • 7:00 AM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com

Our Decade of Political Progress

I had covered the 2016 election as a blogger — and written about the candidates for Congress, including Montana’s Denise Juneau. But that election was Donald Trump’s first wave and not the historic moment we all expected. But the thing is, one thing always leads to another, and every loss builds a framework for the […]

Jul 17 • 6:58 PM EDT • Politics • nativenewsonline.net

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. ###

Jul 17 • 5:23 PM EDT • Business • sbc.senate.gov

Spotting Winners: Flutter Entertainment (NYSE:FLUT) And Consumer Discretionary - Casino Operator Stocks In Q1

The end of the earnings season is always a good time to take a step back and see who shined (and who didn’t). Let’s take a look at how consumer discretionary - casino operator stocks fared in Q1, starting with Flutter Entertainment (NYSE:FLUT).

Jul 17 • 2:33 PM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com

Star Trek's William Shatner will headbang with music legends at Riot Fest 2026

From captain of the Enterprise to heavy metal headliner.

Jul 17 • 11:15 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

Permanent daylight savings is bad for Americans’ health—here’s what science says could be better

More sunlight in the evenings doesn’t always equate to better health

Jul 17 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • scientificamerican.com

Permanent daylight savings is bad for Americans’ health—here’s what science says could be better

More sunlight in the evenings doesn’t always equate to better health

Jul 17 • 6:00 AM EDT • Science • scientificamerican.com

Spotting Winners: Flutter Entertainment (NYSE:FLUT) And Consumer Discretionary - Casino Operator Stocks In Q1

The end of the earnings season is always a good time to take a step back and see who shined (and who didn’t). Let’s take a look at how consumer discretionary...

Jul 16 • 11:36 PM EDT • Entertainment • stockstory.org

Asked & Answered at PTTOW! Entertainment: The $3 Trillion Question Driving the Future of Entertainment

LOS ANGELES, July 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The entertainment business has always run on separation. On February 25, 2026, PTTOW! pulled that...

Jul 16 • 1:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • markets.businessinsider.com

The ’Gay’ Attacks on Lindsey Graham Are All About Politics

Was Lindsey Graham gay? As the author of a book about the history of gay Washington, D.C., it’s a question I’ve been asked frequently for years, and even more so since his sudden death last weekend. The South Carolina Republican’s lifelong confirmed bachelorhood, vocal intonation, and Southern dandy demeanor (if not sartorial choices) prompted many to conclude that he was, as they say in that part of the country, “light in his loafers.” Graham’s repeated attestations to the contrary had zero effect on those invested in the narrative that he was. Only about the matter of J. Edgar Hoover’s rumored cross-dressing (for which there is much circumstantial but no direct evidence) am I questioned more. Whenever I’ve been asked to speculate upon Graham’s sexuality—and speculate was all that I or anyone else could do—I always answered the question honestly. While my personal sense is that Graham was probably gay, as a journalist and a historian I cannot rely on my intuition to make factual assertions. (Gaydar hasn’t yet been scientifically perfected.) Given the absence of any known female or male romantic interests, Graham may very well have been a heterosexual unlucky in love. He might also have been asexual. Barring the highly unlikely postmortem emergence of a personal diary or some other unassailable evidence attesting to Graham’s innermost yearnings, we will never know the answer. As is depressingly the case these days when a public figure dies, a chorus of voices reveled in Graham’s passing, many of them making light of his presumed homosexuality.

Jul 15 • 7:30 PM EDT • Politics • thefp.com

4 Devices You Should Always Connect To 5GHz Wi-Fi (And 4 That Can Stay On 2.4GHz)

Not every device needs 5GHz Wi-Fi. Some gadgets benefit from faster speeds, while others perform better on reliable 2.4GHz connections.

Jul 15 • 10:02 AM EDT • Technology • bgr.com

Always.bank launches new digital platform + business hub in downtown Birmingham

🏢 NEW DOWNTOWN WORKSPACE: Always.bank launched a digital banking platform and opened BasePoint, a new downtown Birmingham office space combining small business banking with coworking areas.

Jul 15 • 9:45 AM EDT • Business • bhamnow.com

Fort Pierre couple’s love of math, science, engineering still inspiring South Dakota youth

For Gary and Connie Grittner, investing in young people has always been about creating opportunities that can change the course of a life. Gary knows this firsthand. As a young teen, he attended a summer science camp that sparked his own interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). That experience led him to pursue his doctorate in chemistry and reinforced his belief that exposing students to STEM at an early age can shape their futures. [ ](https://www.thedakotascout.com/p/alleged-cryptocurrency-conman-released) [ Alleged cryptocurrency conman released pending fraud trial ](https://www.thedakotascout.com/p/alleged-cryptocurrency-conman-released) Jonathan Ellis · 11:03 AM [ Read full story ](https://www.thedakotascout.com/p/alleged-cryptocurrency-conman-released)

Jul 14 • 4:13 PM EDT • Science • thedakotascout.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.

Jul 14 • 3:17 PM EDT • Technology • gamefile.news

macOS Golden Gate Public Beta: 10 Features to Try First

macOS 27 Golden Gate is available to public beta testers as of this week, which means you can try out Siri AI and the other changes coming in the update before it launches this fall. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We don't recommend betas for devices that serve a critical function, and it's always best to test on a secondary device.

Jul 14 • 2:10 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com

Why This Thursday Is One of My Favorite Political Anniversaries of the Year

When I think of it, I always return to a certain Senate hearing exchange.

Jul 14 • 1:31 PM EDT • Politics • esquire.com

Google revamps image search for its 25th anniversary with more images and more AI

The new Google image search will use your "unique interests" to create an always-updated gallery.

Jul 14 • 12:28 PM EDT • Technology • arstechnica.com

Should Value Investors Buy PENN Entertainment, Inc. (PENN) Stock?

Here at Zacks, our focus is on the proven Zacks Rank system, which emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find great stocks. Nevertheless, we are always paying attention to the latest value, growth, and momentum trends to underscore strong picks.

Jul 14 • 9:40 AM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com

How the 20th anniversary iPhone will provide a 'single slab of glass' look

Former Apple design chief Jony Ive always described his long-term vision for the iPhone design as “a single slab of...

Jul 14 • 9:39 AM EDT • Technology • 9to5mac.com

Politics & Power: Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical calls on Catholics to put human dignity first in age of AI

Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, challenges Catholics — and the world — to think carefully about how artificial intelligence is reshaping human life. Catholic leaders across the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond say the message is clear: technology must always serve people, not the other way around.

Jul 14 • 9:05 AM EDT • Politics • news4jax.com

World Cup continues to delight us

When the World Cup rolls around every four years, I settle in. Greece didn’t qualify and I always had my doubts about the U.S. squad, so I quickly adopted Cape Verde as my team. I wasn’t alone, which is why it was impossible for me to fully get on the bandwagon and buy their jersey. […]

Jul 13 • 8:00 PM EDT • Sports • minotdailynews.com

A heart for health

Albany High retiree Mary Kelly has a heart for health that expands beyond her professional responsibilities. Not only did she serve the City School District of Albany for over 23 years as a nurse, she also has been a faithful supporter of our food pantry here at Albany High! Since June 2022, Kelly has given a monthly donation to the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York specifically designated for Albany High. Thanks to Kelly and other individual donors and partner organizations, our students and their families can have access to nutritious food, free of cost at the Falcon Market. As someone who raised three boys, she knows how hard it can be to keep one’s shelves stocked at home. “I remember when they would sit down, three teenagers, eating a box of cereal a piece as a snack,” Kelly reminisced with a laugh. “Who can afford that nowadays?” Known affectionately as Nurse Kelly throughout her career in the district, she served our students at the elementary, middle and high school levels, and was stationed at Albany High from 2019 until her retirement. By caring for students day in and day out, Kelly was keenly aware of the negative impact of food insecurity on the lives of young people. This is what motivated her to take a proactive step towards improving access to nutritious food for our students and families. Kelly’s generosity is a way to carry on the memory of her youngest son, who passed away in 2019. “The kindnesses that I do are always in his memory,” Kelly shared. On behalf of our Albany High staff, students and families, we thank Nurse Kelly for her incredible support and wish her all the best during her retirement. For more information about how to support the Falcon Market with in-kind or financial donations, please contact Joey DiPiazza at jdipiazza@albany.k12.ny.us.

Jul 13 • 11:32 AM EDT • Health • albanyschools.org

Mark Madden: Fans keep paying for sports’ biggest bait-and-switch

“The customer is always right.” That’s a business model to adhere to. But sports have chosen one provided by circus impresario P.T. Barnum: “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Sunday’s game between the Pirates and Milwaukee was supposed to be a classic pitching matchup: Paul Skenes vs. Jacob Misiorowski. Misiorowski

Jul 13 • 9:25 AM EDT • Sports • triblive.com

The One Healthcare Goal That Could Change Everything

A cross-sector goal—making sure every American always knows the date of their next primary care appointment—could be transformative in its impact.

Jul 13 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • forbes.com

Pokémon Go at 10 and the millions still trying to catch 'em all

Michael Steranka, vice president at the mobile game's owner Scopely, says it has always been about bringing people together.

Jul 12 • 8:07 PM EDT • Technology • bbc.com

Staycations with kids: always book a hotel with a pool, no rules

I take staycations with my kids a few times a year. I make sure our hotel has a pool and go on 'vacation mode,' even if we're just a few minutes away.

Jul 12 • 7:17 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

This underrated Samsung feature is the first thing I set up on any new Android phone... except Pixels

Your favorite apps are always a swipe away.

Jul 11 • 11:06 AM EDT • Technology • androidcentral.com

‘Politicians have always been schemers’: upheld conviction fails to dent Le Pen’s popularity

Presidential bid by leader of far-right National Rally has no shortage of supporters in scenic Montargis

Jul 11 • 4:00 AM EDT • Politics • theguardian.com

The world's highest-dwelling mammal is smaller than your hand

At the top of a 6,739-metre Andean volcano, where the air is thin, temperatures are almost always below freezing and humans struggle to survive, a tiny leaf-eared mouse has made itself at home — dining on toxic plants.

Jul 11 • 4:00 AM EDT • Science • cbc.ca

Is Chase Rate Always Bad

Jul 9 • 3:56 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Games are almost always cheaper in shops, says new report, just as Sony announces an end to PlayStation discs and brings retailers' futures into question

Why are people angry at Sony's decision to stop making PlayStation game discs? Well, the price of games, for one thing.

Jul 9 • 9:51 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net

Learning from London: ASU business students get experience in a top sports market

Since lacing up her first pair of cleats at age 3, Brianna Lucey has dreamed of a career in soccer. "I played at nearly every level and always wanted to experience football in England. I grew up watching every season — even the games that aired at 4 a.m.," she said.

Jul 9 • 8:00 AM EDT • Sports • news.asu.edu

Lane Johnson’s longevity remains crucial to Eagles’ title hopes

At 36 years old, Lane Johnson continues to prove that elite offensive linemen don't always follow the NFL's aging curve.

Jul 9 • 4:05 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

ABC24 Memphis

ABC24 Memphis (WATN-TV) & CW30 News Right Now work to tell stories that matter to your family and stories that celebrate life in Memphis and the Mid-South. We invite you to subscribe to our channel and to visit us on our website, https://www.abc24.com. If you have questions or news tips you can always reach out to us at newsdesk@abc24.com. Thanks for watching!

Jul 8 • 5:57 PM EDT • Health • youtube.com

Students Connect NASA Science With Indigenous Knowledge to Study Coastal Erosion

For the Pleasant Point Passamaquoddy Reservation, or Sipayik, the ocean has always been a teacher. Situated in what is known as Downeast Maine, along the shores of Passamaquoddy Bay, generations of Indigenous people have lived along the coast, learning from the tides, the land, and their elders. But today, the shoreline is changing more rapidly. Coastal erosion is slowly taking land away. Land that already holds a history of loss.

Jul 8 • 5:04 PM EDT • Science • science.nasa.gov

Small Business Spotlight: Business blooms beyond bouquets

BUSINESS: The Busy Bloom OWNERS: Amanda and Walter Adkins ADDRESS: 708 S. 17th St., Wilmington EMAIL: thebusybloomco@gmail.com WEBSITE: thebusybloomco.com PHONE NUMBER: (910) 742-0790 YEAR FOUNDED: 2024 NO. OF EMPLOYEES: 4 WHAT IS THE BUSY BLOOM? AMANDA ADKINS: “The Busy Bloom is a flower shop with a spin – a creative experience shop located in Wilmington’s Cargo District. Founded in 2024 by husband-and-wife team Amanda and Walter Adkins, we offer fresh flowers, botanical teas, a build-your-own bouquet bar, candle-making experiences, gifts, workshops, wedding florals and event services. Our mission is simple: to make flowers accessible, approachable and enjoyable for everyone – not just for special occasions.” WHY DID YOU START THE BUSINESS? AMANDA ADKINS: “The Busy Bloom was born from a lifelong connection to flowers and a desire to create meaningful experiences for people. After doing my own wedding florals and after years of working in healthcare management, I found myself returning to gardening and floral design as a creative outlet and source of healing. The loss of my mother-in-law, who always shared flowers from her garden, inspired me to pursue floristry full-time. My husband encouraged me and built a small flower cart for us to grow, and fast forward to now, two years later, it has grown into a community-centered business focused on bringing joy, connection and creativity through flowers.” WHAT KIND OF GROWTH ARE YOU HOPING FOR? AMANDA ADKINS: “We’re focused on sustainable growth that allows us to continue serving our community while expanding creative experiences. We hope to grow our wedding and event services, expand our educational workshops and creative programming and become a destination where people can gather, create and connect. We’re also passionate about creating opportunities that showcase floral design as an art form, such as our Fleur Couture fashion show and other community collaborations.” WHAT PAST EXPERIENCE HAVE YOU HAD WITH STARTING/WORKING IN BUSINESS? AMANDA ADKINS: “Before opening The Busy Bloom, I worked as a clinical manager in healthcare and spent years building leadership, operations and customer service skills. I’ve also worked in education and nonprofit programming, teaching people about nature and local ecosystems. Along the way, I designed flowers for weddings and events on the side, gradually turning a passion into a business. Walter has years of welding and construction experience, combined with entrepreneurship and a drive to own his own company. …The Busy Bloom has been a journey of combining creativity with entrepreneurship alongside my husband ... learning every step of the way.”

Jul 8 • 9:28 AM EDT • Business • wilmingtonbiz.com

Teenagers Confronted by Armed Man While Promoting Their Small Business: ‘Always Ready to Shoot’

In a viral video, an unidentified man pulls a handgun on three teens who were going door-to-door promoting their car detailing business. Pinellas County deputies told 10 Tampa Bay News that they are i...

Jul 7 • 5:30 AM EDT • Business • yahoo.com

Painful periods aren't always normal. Why it could be endometriosis

Here's what to know about endometriosis, what causes it and how it is commonly treated.

Jul 7 • 5:01 AM EDT • Health • usatoday.com

Cowboys success in 2026 hinges on the health of a handful of players

Avoiding injuries is always going to be important.

Jul 6 • 4:00 PM EDT • Health • sports.yahoo.com

Giannis Antetokounmpo releases tribute video to Milwaukee as trade to Miami becomes official: 'Milwaukee will always be my city'

Jul 6 • 2:46 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Atletico Madrid agree deal to sign PSG’s Lee Kang-in

Atletico Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain have struck an agreement for the transfer of Lee Kang-in (25), according to a report from RMC Sport. Lee joined PSG from Valencia back in 2023 but has always ...

Jul 6 • 8:20 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

These 5 Android apps are so good, I'm surprised they're free

Free Android apps almost always have some catch. These don't — no paywalls, no subscriptions, not even ads.

Jul 6 • 6:30 AM EDT • Technology • androidauthority.com

It’s the Summer of Sports and Politics

Sports has always been a battleground for political discourse. Lately it’s been driving policy, too.

Jul 6 • 5:12 AM EDT • Politics • notus.org

He was Trump’s boyhood friend. Now he’s pushing Trump to declare a ‘national emergency’ and seize control of the midterms

In Peter Ticktin’s world, there always seems to be a conspiracy or cover-up lurking.

Jul 6 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com

Erosion of the common good in our national health care system

I have always felt secure about the role our state and federal governments have in supporting and promoting our health care delivery system…until now.

Jul 6 • 12:01 AM EDT • Health • ctmirror.org

Pete Crow-Armstrong gets 2nd straight All-Star nod

The stage for Pete Crow-Armstrong was always going to be big. It’s hard not to be, when you’re the centerpiece of the 2021 trade that forced Cubs fans to say...

Jul 5 • 1:09 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Moment of Science: Bald Eagles

It may have a bright yellow beak, but it'll always be known for the "red, white and blue". Let's fly through the high and lows of the bald eagle's history in America. 🇺🇸🦅

Jul 4 • 4:10 PM EDT • Science • 13abc.com

The Steam Machine Has Its Own ‘Red Ring Of Death’

History doesn’t always repeat itself, but it often rhymes, as one Steam Machine owner discovered a familiar fatal error alert

Jul 4 • 12:30 PM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com

7 Small Habits That Make a Big Difference for Your Back Health

Back pain doesn't always require a big fix. Here are seven small daily habits that can make a real difference for your back health, according to experts.

Jul 4 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • realsimple.com

988 Colorado Mental Health Line to visit SLV

‘Community Roadshow’ is traveling to rural areas to build awareness and take stock of local needs

Jul 3 • 4:34 PM EDT • Health • alamosacitizen.com

The best sporting events on TV this weekend

If you’re reading this then you’re probably well on your way to enjoying a relaxing holiday weekend. The Fourth of July always delivers a wide array of sporting entertainment to watch and this year comes with the added bonus of…

Jul 3 • 3:20 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Culpeper Police Department

Our business offices and administrative services will be closed today, July 3rd in observance of the 4th of July holiday. We will reopen Monday, July 6th at 8 A.M. As always, our officers remain on...

Jul 3 • 11:11 AM EDT • Business • facebook.com

Founder shares AI lesson after foreign Fable access returned

A UK founder said losing access to Anthropic's Fable AI model taught him to always have a backup plan when building with AI.

Jul 3 • 5:17 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

Bigger fireworks, bigger politics: The fight over America's 250th

Presidents have always shaped Independence Day. Critics say this year’s celebration is different in scale, funding and politics.

Jul 2 • 8:49 PM EDT • Politics • nbcwashington.com

Scientists Sound the Alarm: Antarctic Discovery Is More Disturbing Than Anyone Feared - Futura-Sciences

The Frozen Continent Is Changing Faster Than We Thought Antarctica has always been a tough nut to crack for scientists. Its complex and sometimes baffling phenomena have long made it mysterious, and recent findings suggest its influence on our planet’s climate could be much greater than we thought. In September...

Jul 2 • 1:00 PM EDT • Science • futura-sciences.com

The 20 things in sports I only wish I could declare independence from this year

Wait, is this one of those "hit pieces" the online babies are always whining about?

Jul 2 • 12:31 PM EDT • Sports • chicago.suntimes.com

STEM isn't always welcoming to diversity. A California college program aims to curb that

A state-funded program is trying to diversify the sciences by providing mentors, relationship-building, stipends and more.

Jul 2 • 11:00 AM EDT • Science • calmatters.org

Minor League Update: Rookie Leagues

Whenever I give updates on minor league stats, I’m always conflicted about how many players to include. Some of it is time management-related. Obviously, if I cover every conceivable player, it will take me time I sometimes don’t have. But I also am not particularly interested in writing 5,000 words for one of these either. […]

Jul 2 • 8:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Too Big? Jones Explains Poatan’s ‘Perfect Storm’

Jon Jones has a bit of experience with moving up to Heavyweight. “Bones” ruled the 205-pound roost for many, many years before finally making the leap in 2023. He teased a Heavyweight jump for much of that span, but Jones has always been a careful decision-maker in regards to his MMA career and (nearly) undefeated […]

Jul 2 • 3:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Should Value Investors Buy Accel Entertainment (ACEL) Stock?

Here at Zacks, our focus is on the proven Zacks Rank system, which emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find great stocks. Nevertheless, we are always paying attention to the latest value, growth, and momentum trends to underscore strong picks.

Jul 1 • 9:40 AM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com

Are Investors Undervaluing Inspired Entertainment (INSE) Right Now?

Here at Zacks, our focus is on the proven Zacks Rank system, which emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find great stocks. Nevertheless, we are always paying attention to the latest value, growth, and momentum trends to underscore strong picks.

Jun 30 • 9:40 AM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com

Netflix and Superheroes Are Having a Rough Stretch on Streaming....

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) I have a quick prediction before we start today’s article: You might see this data in future news articles. Not my specific charts or analysis, but the core trend I’ve been monitoring—Netflix is having a lackluster Q2—will become inescapable. Often, folks want to know “What does the data say?” Well, that’s what it says. I haven’t seen this analysis hit the trades really yet, but I have a feeling some other outlets are going to start making this case soon. Remember, you read it here first. You probably have read about the problems facing superhero films at the box office this weekend. Well, this week, I explore whether superheroes are dying on TV as well! And the data says: definitely maybe! We have a lot to cover in today’s Streaming Ratings Report, which covers the two weeks of 18-May and 25-May. Today, I’m just looking at TV, like Netflix’s disappointing Q2, superhero shows underwhelming, a few TV shows dropping off the charts, The Pitt finally ending its epic run on the viewership charts (and whether “view counts” change its status as one of the biggest shows of all time), all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. Tomorrow, I’ve got a great rundown of the film side of things. Let’s dive right in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, Showlabs, TV Time trend data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of May 18th to May 31st, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Television - Netflix’s Q2 Slump Continues Having analyzed streaming ratings for going on half a decade, I have learned to trust my gut, but I’m always relieved when I can find actual data to back it up. For example, after a string of very popular shows like Stranger Things, Bridgerton, The Lincoln Lawyer and The Night Agent came out, week after week, in January and February, my gut wondered if Netflix had enough new and returning TV shows to sustain them throughout the year. Since then, Netflix’s post-March slate of shows has not impressed me. This week seemed to feature a potential new hit, but then, like a classic Duffer Bros. TV show, there was a twist. I speak of The Boroughs, Netflix’s latest (and last) Duffer Bros. produced show. The pitch is “Stranger Things with older actors”. And it topped the Nielsen charts: With just two weeks of viewership, The Boroughs would have been a top 25 debut show last year: But here’s the twist: Netflix has already cancelled The Boroughs! What happened? Likely a few things. First, the show didn’t do as well globally as it did in the US. As What’s on Netflix showed, it lagged behind several other shows that got cancelled. Second, its completion rate was likely low; after an initial burst of interest, it quickly dropped off on the Samba TV and Luminate charts. Third, the Duffer Bros. left Netflix for Paramount, and that may have factored into Netflix’s decision here. (Though I tend to believe that if a show is doing well, Netflix would have kept greenlighting seasons.) Still, just because I can explain why Netflix may have cancelled this show doesn’t mean I’m justifying it. In particular, as I’ve noted before, Netflix is losing a lot of their bigger shows as they reach their natural ends, and they need to replace those shows. This show had the hallmarks of a big new genre show, and it’s their biggest hit of the last few months (in the US at least), but now it’s done. Netflix’s other show this week—The Four Seasons, the second season of the “hit” show from last year—definitely disappointed. Its sophomore season had about half the viewership of the first, only 12.7 million hours. It also only had a two week run on Samba TV, and its numbers were all down on Luminate too. In other words, even with two successes, the Q2 slump for Netflix looks real: I could add to the list of disappointments: Both Lord of the Files and Man on Fire had short runs on the Nielsen charts. Running Point’s sophomore season also opened to about half its viewership, similar to The Four Seasons. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’s second season—see below—didn’t even make any of the three viewership charts I track, unlike the first season. Netflix is absolutely having a dismal second three months of 2026. If this Nielsen data is any indication, and I think it is, I think this will show up in Netflix’s engagement report, and maybe even their financial outcomes. And the rest of June doesn’t look much better. We have two hit shows coming back—Sweet Magnolias, one of their quietest big shows, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, a big hit for them in 2024—but the other big swings are limited series crime thrillers i.e. no future season potential. Like I said above, sometimes when I uncover a juicy nugget like this, other outlets end up writing very similar articles mimicking the data without credit. We’ll see if that happens this time! Share Television - The State of Superhero Shows on Streaming When I first heard the pitch for Spider-Noir—a Sony TV show on Prime Video that binge-released eight episodes first on MGM+ then on Prime Video two days later—I had my doubts. It’s a live-action Spider-Man show set in the 1930s, starring Nicholas Cage, based on a cameo of a character in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. No, seriously, that’s the pitch. That could either go terrifically well or horribly wrong. Great because, Spider-Man. He’s the biggest superhero we have. I’ve seen tracking numbers that put the new _Spider-Man: Brand New Da_y as the blockbuster of the year and initial pre-sales back that up. And yet this Spider-Noir pitch feels very esoteric. (Also, the eight-episode binge release feels very “Amazon copying Netflix” again.) So what’s the data say? And what does this say about the future of superhero shows?

Jun 29 • 5:43 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

Ethics panel clears Gallego as Luna declares, 'Once a creep, always a creep'

The Senate Ethics Committee dismissed sexual misconduct and campaign finance allegations against Sen. Ruben Gallego after finding no evidence.

Jun 29 • 2:02 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com

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While circus artists don’t always fit the mold, Aerial Arts Hawaiʻi has become a safe space for youth and adults who are ready to take on a challenge.

Jun 29 • 11:00 AM EDT • Business • bigislandnow.com

Comcast CEO on media business spin off: 'Our philosophy has always been to invest for growth'

Comcast chairman and co-CEO Brian Roberts calls CNBC to discuss the company's decision to spin off their media business.

Jun 29 • 9:21 AM EDT • Business • cnbc.com

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They made a name for themselves!The World Cup, even more so with 48 teams, is always an opportunity to discover new players, but also to allow others to truly make themselves known to the general publ...

Jun 29 • 8:22 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

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Yankees general manager Brian Cashman is almost always aggressive when he believes in his team.

Jun 29 • 6:00 AM EDT • Sports • nytimes.com

At Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas, fear is always in season

Your nightmare awaits at the AREA15 year-round attraction.

Jun 29 • 2:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • lasvegasmagazine.com

Jodie Sweetin praises “Better Call Saul ”actor cast as dad in “Full House ”pilot, but Bob Saget was always 'first choice'

Saget was engaged to cohost CBS' "The Morning Program" when he got the call for "Full House," which led to his absence in the original pilot.

Jun 28 • 9:45 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

I found a hidden Google Maps feature that made my Pixel's always-on display useful

A hidden Maps trick worth turning on

Jun 28 • 8:00 AM EDT • Technology • androidpolice.com

GTA 6 could be the final death knell for physical media

But you can always collect empty boxes.

Jun 28 • 3:00 AM EDT • Technology • creativebloq.com