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Chappell Roan brings out Christina Aguilera at L.A. benefit concert

The pop star brought her old hits — and a surprise appearance by Christina Aguilera — to the first night of her Super Graphic Spectacular fundraiser at the Shrine Auditorium.

Oct 22 • 3:33 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com

A Typography Geek Pointed Out Something About The Space Shuttle Discovery And Now I Can't Unsee It

Even though I was born in the Apollo Era, barely, the spacecraft that I think had the most influence on my childhood had to be the Space Shuttles. I remember poring over diagrams and drawings of the shuttles in National Geographic foldouts, where they even took my attention from the Forbidden Nipples seen on some of the […]

Oct 22 • 8:00 AM EDT • Technology • theautopian.com

AI as the next political divide

We have a guest post today from our friends at Focaldata, with whom we have done polling before. They have been doing a lot of work on attitudes towards AI and how this is affecting politics on both sides of the Atlantic. In this post, they explore exclusive new polling – with a whole set of fascinating charts on how voters’ views are developing and why. In particular, the authors explore why the debate is currently so much more polarised by party in the US than in the UK, to the benefit of the Democrats. Subscribe Focaldata HQ is located in Shoreditch, east London. To access the office from the Shoreditch High Street Overground station, you have to walk under the bridge at Braithwaite Street. We mention this not as a navigational aid, but because the posters above caught our eye over the summer. Since June, the area has been the centre of a fiercely contested debate around the construction of a data centre on the Truman Brewery estate on Brick Lane, less than 200 metres from our office. It was one of the first ‘US-style’ protest movements around AI data centres the country has seen, and may not be the last. These protests served as the catalyst for our forthcoming report, examining whether AI could become the next political divide on both sides of the Atlantic. We wanted to understand what was driving the emerging politics of AI and whether the dynamics at play in the US offer clues as to how the British debate will evolve. Over the last month, we polled 3,851 people across the UK and US about their views on AI. Our research found striking similarities between the two countries: for instance, both electorates are evenly split on their views towards AI development, with just over a third in favour (37% in each country), a similar number opposed, and the remainder somewhere in the middle or unsure. Statistically speaking, there is no difference in overall sentiment towards AI between the UK and US. Under the hood, demographic patterns also look largely the same in the two countries, with millennials, degree holders, full-time workers and those who describe themselves as financially comfortable more pro-AI than the rest of the country. Despite this convergence in overall attitudes, there is a striking divergence in how much of a politicised issue AI has become. In the US, attitudes are increasingly split by political affiliation and the issue has become the latest front in the seemingly interminable culture war, playing a role in the upcoming midterms. This stark political polarisation of AI has not happened in the UK – at least not yet. In what follows, we test several hypotheses for why the two countries are so far apart on a political basis. Understanding which hypothesis is correct will give us an indication of where the British dynamics go next.

Oct 22 • 4:43 AM EDT • Politics • samf.substack.com

National Color Graphics purchases new press

Spokane-based National Color Graphics Inc. has become the first commercial printer in the U.S. to install the Fujifilm Revoria Press PC2120, an advanced digital printing system designed to expand color capabilities, automate production, and improve efficiency.

Oct 22 • 3:00 AM EDT • Business • spokanejournal.com

Trump’s billion-dollar grant cuts jeopardize Tulane public health research

President Donald Trump has terminated billions in federal science and research grants since 2025. As a result, global health research and job stability at Tulane University’s Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine are in jeopardy. Since 2025, the Trump administration has frozen or terminated $177 billion in grants on health equity,...

Oct 21 • 11:27 PM EDT • Health • tulanehullabaloo.com

Haverhill, Southern New Hampshire Chambers Plan Joint Business After Hours

The Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce is joining with the Southern New Hampshire Chamber of Commerce for Business After Hours next week at Wicked Sticky Designs. Members of the two chambers will network; get a behind-the-scenes look at Wicked Sticky Designs, producer of wide format printing, vehicle wraps, fleet graphics, banners and decals; and enjoy

Oct 21 • 11:00 PM EDT • Business • whav.net

Prime Video drops trailer for Muhammad Ali biographical series ‘The Greatest’

Prime Video has released the official trailer for “The Greatest,” an upcoming biographical drama chronicling the life and legacy of boxing legend Muhammad Ali. The series follows Ali from his early years as Cassius Clay in Louisville,

Oct 21 • 8:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • bigcountrynewsconnection.com

Xbox follows in PlayStation's footsteps, introducing AMD FSR 4.1, targeting better graphics and performance on Series X/S

Xbox Series X and Series S are getting a new AI upscaling technology comparable to PlayStation's QSSR.

Oct 21 • 10:13 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net

NED and Partners Launch October 30 Coalition, Issue Global Call for Release of Political Prisoners

NED and partner organizations announce the formation of the October 30 Coalition and released a joint statement to rally support for political prisoners and champion their freedom.

Oct 20 • 11:36 AM EDT • Politics • ned.org

Voices: Jamey Taylor, Chief Information Officer, Dragonfly Health

This article is sponsored by Dragonfly Health. As hospice and post-acute care organizations look to reduce complexity across care delivery, technology is

Oct 20 • 10:19 AM EDT • Health • hospicenews.com

SBA urges Iowans to nominate their favorite small business for an award

There are all kinds of small businesses in Iowa that we can’t do without, from diners and donut shops to tailors and auto mechanics, and it’s time to recognize those merchants that make our lives better. Ryan Lincoln, the Iowa district director of the U.S. Small Business Administration, says the agency is taking nominations for […]

Oct 20 • 7:00 AM EDT • Business • radioiowa.com

Rogers argues El-Sayed is vulnerable with 2 traditionally Democratic blocs as Obama heads to Michigan

Mike Rogers argues Abdul El-Sayed may lose Black and Jewish voters in Michigan's Senate race during a Sean Hannity town hall on key demographics.

Oct 20 • 12:03 AM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com

Letter to the Editor - Defeat Article 10 – It Is Bad Business For Westford

Michael Furman, Westford Resident Defeat Article 10 – It Is Bad Business For Westford Let me start out with a disclaimer. I am a member of the CPC (Community Preservation […]

Oct 19 • 11:30 PM EDT • Business • westfordcat.org

Joint Statement for the International Day of Political Prisoners on October 30

On the International Day of Political Prisoners, the October 30 Coalition and NED release a joint statement urging support for political prisoners and those championing their freedom.

Oct 19 • 5:57 PM EDT • Politics • ned.org

Xbox Series X will offer identical graphics to the base PS5 in Grand Theft Auto VI

Social media is buzzing about user XGREEN's claim that the Xbox Series X console will supposedly offer better value for money.

Oct 19 • 4:48 PM EDT • Technology • en.gamegpu.com

Morning Download: Nevada-San Jose State football game to air live on NSN

On weekday mornings, Nevada Sports Net will recap three big headlines of the day in its Morning Download. Read below for today's topics.

Oct 19 • 11:17 AM EDT • Sports • nevadasportsnet.com

See your patient population more clearly with the UNOS SDOH Report

The UNOS Social Determinants of Health Report helps transplant programs better understand the social and economic factors affecting their patient populations through center-specific data and regional, peer and national comparisons. These insights can help programs identify trends, support quality improvement and advance more equitable access to transplantation.

Oct 19 • 11:03 AM EDT • Health • unos.org

“A valid entertainment” – Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez (adapted by Lucas Nine)

What we have here is a graphic version of about a quarter of Mariana Enriquez’ debut short story collection, Things We Lost in the Fire. If you have even a cursory knowledge of Enriquez (via Things…

Oct 19 • 4:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • bookmunch.wordpress.com

[Graphic News] Korean children rank high in skills, low in health and well-being

South Korean children ranked 27th overall among those in high-income countries, placing among the highest in academic skills but near the bottom in physical and

Oct 19 • 4:00 AM EDT • Health • koreaherald.com

[Graphic News] Korean children rank high in skills, low in health and well-being

Korean children rank high in skills, low in health and well-being 한국 어린이, 역량은 상위권·건강과 웰빙은 하위권 South Korean children ranked 27th overall among those in high-inco

Oct 18 • 9:00 PM EDT • Health • koreaherald.com

Streaming’s Biggest Show Returns…and a Buzzy Genre Struggles

(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.) Obviously, the big news of the week (if not month) is Netflix letting go of executive Bela Bajaria, their chief content officer. I’m going to cover this in my next “Most Important Story of the Week”, but I also have a data angle that I might publish before then. (Too much news this month, am I right?) But first, I have a bonus Streaming Ratings Report issue for you. Today’s article is a bit of a grab bag of topics I’ve wanted to write about, but couldn’t squeeze into the (already very long) Streaming Ratings Report issues. The NFL drives huge viewership numbers, so I’ve got a look at that. A whole bunch of TV shows returned to the traditional broadcast channels, and I have thoughts. And I have a quick look at adult animated shows, since a couple flopped earlier this month. Plus, the Emmys aired earlier this month, and we got some fun data bout how popular those nominated shows are and why I’m not optimistic about the show’s future. That’s a lot, so let’s dive right in. Subscribe Sports - Football Remains the King of Streaming Over the last two Streaming Ratings Reports, I sorta ignored the biggest “show” each week. (I was tempted to say “piece of content” but I know that word bugs folks.) In my database, I call these “specials”, and they sure are special. I speak of the king of American TV: football!!! Streaming football is back and, unlike some other sports, it routinely dominates all viewership. Probably the best way to show this is to update one of my favorite graphics, the “40 Million Hour Club”1 since football games have joined that club each week they’ve premiered: (Yep, that’s the data through 28-Sep, the first four weeks of the season. As a reminder, I take the average minute audience provided by Nielsen, factor out a percentage of linear TV viewers in home markets, and multiply the run time by the three-hour runtime.) Again, the numbers are huge. Let’s start with Netflix. They grabbed the rights to the bonus opening week NFL Kickoff game (which was on YouTube last year) and it put up 18.5 million viewers on average. That nets out to 47.4 million hours of estimated streaming hours. That’s good! Though, notably, it’s well below Christmas Day games from previous years. Compared to other streamers/broadcasters, that’s a bit of a mixed result. On one hand, Netflix’s 18.5 million average is about what YouTube claimed last year, though Nielsen used a bespoke methodology at that time, so I trust this viewership figure more. So that’s good. (The game also shifted from a Friday to a Thursday and that could have helped the viewership as well.) And Netflix continues to best Prime Video in total viewership—as you’ll see next—though Netflix has had much higher-profile (opening week and Christmas Day) games. NBC/Peacock’s opening game the night before averaged 25.1 million average viewers, which is just much bigger than Netflix (or Prime Video). That’s the big caveat to all streaming viewership records: even in success, they can’t compete with traditional linear TV. Previously, I called this my “hierarchy of viewership”, and the data keeps supporting that thesis. The downside for NBC is that this game’s viewership was down compared to previous years, though it may be a counting issue. Here’s a great chart from Sports Media Watch: Indeed, looking at all the opening week games across all windows, Netflix still lags the other primetime windows, but does well compared to the afternoon games: I saw a few folks make the case that streamers still lag traditional broadcasters in reach, and I’d add they really lag compared to “broadcast plus streaming” options like NBC/Peacock, ESPN/Disney+ and CBS/Paramount+. The best data I saw for this came from Samba TV, who charted reach through the 2025 season, and, wow. (Samba TV’s numbers are historically lower than Nielsen’s, so don’t compare their household figures to Nielsen’s hours, but use them as a proxy for the relative reach of the streamers.) The good news is Prime Video is NOT having a down year. Their opening Thursday Night Football game reached 18.6 million viewers (about what Netflix got), but that’s a high for Prime Video on Thursdays and the biggest Thursday night game since 2015. The TNF games the weeks of 21-Sep and 28-Sep continued this streak, getting 43.1 (16.8 million average viewers) and 42.5 total hours (16.6 million average viewers), which were both up from last year. Still, that continues the (typical) season slide: (For those new-to-streaming-football-numbers folks, the viewership declines for Thursday Night Football as the year goes along.) Overall, it appears as if Prime Video is now part of the “football habit”, be it for customers at home or out at places like bars and restaurants. And its viewership is slowly catching up to broadcast. One last chart shows this. Last season, Nielsen started adding out-of-home viewership to the charts, so I try not to do season-to-season comparisons as I did for the first few years. And while Nielsen added Big Data viewing this year, I’m going to compare the last two seasons. Here’s that chart, which shows the season-over-season gains: When it comes to streaming football, we have to keep a few seemingly contradictory thoughts in our head… First, streaming doesn’t come close to matching broadcast’s reach and, thus, viewership. Second, even with that gap, football is still the biggest “thing” on streaming. It’s very, very popular. Third, while some methodology changes have likely helped Prime Video’s numbers, their viewership does appear to be growing. Lastly, yeah, the NFL started the season off poorly, with week one dragging down the numbers in year-over-year comparisons. However—and again, methodology changes may have helped this—the viewership grew compared to previous seasons over the next couple of weeks. So football is still king. On streaming and off. Television - Adult Animation Continues to NOT Make the Streaming Charts In the last two reports, two adult-animated shows whiffed: Netflix’s animated comedy, Dang! Paramount+’s Sega-video-game-inspired fantasy/comedy, Golden Axe. Neither made the charts, but that’s usually the case for animated shows. I mean, here’s literally every animated show that’s made the Nielsen Original charts since the start of 2025: And one of those shows is G_abby’s Dollhouse_! A kids show! The problem with charts like this is that they don’t give you a sense of how many shows miss the charts. Netflix had at least eleven animated flops, including comedies like Big Mouth (a show everyone assumed was popular in the pre-Streaming Ratings Era), Long Story Short, Haunted Hotel, Mating Season, Strip Law, and Alley Cats, and action shows like Blood of Zeus, Castlevania: Nocturne, Devil May Cry, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, and Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Prime Video had at least six animated misses, two in the same universe (Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss), three more comedies (#1 Happy Family USA, The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy and Kevin) and an action show (The Mighty Nein). Disney+ had MCU and Star Wars animated misses (Eyes of Wakanda, Marvel Zombies, Star Wars: Visions, Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, and Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld) but I can’t tell how many of those shows were geared towards adults. HBO Max had Harley Quinn and Hulu had Solar Opposites. None of these shows made the charts! That’s a lot of misses! If I remade the chart with all those misses, here’s how it would look: Listen, I know the counter arguments. First, it’s cheaper to produce animated shows than live action. Fair enough, but with viewership this low, even that cheaper price point starts to not matter. Second, just look at the acquired charts. Hit animated comedies can generate viewership for years! Shows like The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, and Bob’s Burgers do really, really well. Fair enough, but streaming has failed to recreate the dynamic that Fox has mastered so well. That’s a problem for streaming still. Television - Emmys! The annual Emmys broadcast was a few weeks ago, and I’ve got data on how the nominees performed on streaming, plus hot takes on this year’s viewership (and the big news about the broadcast’s, er, streamcast’s future). We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… The top Emmy-nominated shows… ...why I’m worried about the future of the Emmys telecast... ...the pros of broadcast television ...and the cons... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. Coming Soon! Next week, we’ve got a double issue (since the weeks of 21-Sep and 28-Sep were so light), but then I’ll be all caught up after a deluge of streaming ratings data from Nielsen in September. In the meantime, I’m going to try to take a look at Netflix’s stats to explain why Bela Bajaria is out. But even light weeks give me plenty to talk about. The Great British Baking Show returns to Netflix and Apple TV has a buzzy new star-studded comedy. And Netflix has a controversial-but-appears-to-be-popular new game show. Plus big films like Toy Story 5, Backrooms and The Breadwinner head to streaming. And is East of Eden a hit? After that, The Kardashians return to Hulu, Prime Video has a reboot of Carrie, and Netflix has a horror show, Below. Disclosure Day heads to Peacock, The Housemaid heads to HBO Max_,_ a new Ben Affleck film, Animals, lands on Netflix, and Apple TV has a new John Cena action film based on, checks notes, Hasbro’s Matchbox toys. Okay. Longterm, some interesting TV production news. HBO Max ordered How to Survive Without Me, starring Kaley Cuoco, Joshua Jackson, Ray Romano and Rita Wilson, for fifteen episodes! I love that some streamers (or, at least, HBO Max) are finally ordering TV shows with more than eight episodes. In less wise production news, Landman does not appear to be coming back this year, since it just started production. Frankly, I don’t love this (get your shows out on time) but Landman is so popular, I doubt it matters.

Oct 18 • 3:59 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

ASUS Makes Its First Intel Arc Card, a 32 GB Arc Pro B70 Under the UGen AI Brand

ASUS has listed the UGen Arc Pro B70 32 GB on its website, which makes it the company's first Intel Arc graphics card. ASUS sat out both the Alchemist and Battlemage consumer generations, and its last Intel discrete card was the passively cooled Iris Xe DG1-4G from 2021. Interestingly, ASUS files...

Oct 17 • 9:27 PM EDT • Technology • techpowerup.com

ASUS returns to Intel graphics cards after five years with Arc Pro B70 32GB

ASUS has introduced its first Intel graphics card since the DG1 in 2021. The new Arc Pro B70 features 32GB of GDDR6 memory and targets professional AI workloads.

Oct 17 • 12:19 PM EDT • Technology • videocardz.com

Intel confirms Razor Lake-AX for 2028 with 700 TOPS AI performance

Intel's Razor Lake-AX will target humanoid robots in 2028. Earlier leaks linked the processor to 16 or 32 Xe3P graphics cores and on-package memory.

Oct 17 • 8:10 AM EDT • Technology • videocardz.com

ASUS Finally Builds An Intel Arc Graphics Card After Two Generations On The Sidelines, And It’s The Full 32 GB Big Battlemage Arc Pro B70

ASUS is releasing its first Intel Arc graphics card, which is powered by the Big Battlemage GPU, and aims at the lucrative AI segment.

Oct 17 • 7:40 AM EDT • Technology • wccftech.com

Springfield public health pioneer Fred Swan honored with lifetime achievement award

A longtime Springfield public health leader is being recognized for decades of service to the community.

Oct 16 • 10:37 PM EDT • Health • wwlp.com

'AI slop' or a boost for business?: How online AI promos are changing jobs in Sarpy County

As small businesses turn to generative AI for labels, menus and advertising, an Omaha-area graphic designer says the technology is reducing opportunities for human creatives.

Oct 16 • 6:20 PM EDT • Business • 3newsnow.com

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter & a New ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos Poll, Sunday on “This Week” with Co-anchor Martha Raddatz

Energy Secretary Chris Wright & Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter will be on "This Week" airing on Sunday, October 18.

Oct 16 • 5:57 PM EDT • Politics • abcnews.com

Here’s why Nathan Fielder’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary earned an R rating for ‘graphic nudity’

Someone bares it all in “You Can See Everything.”

Oct 16 • 1:45 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

‘Magic Mike’ Star Shares Graphic Photos From Secret Health Battle

The actor, whose marriage to Sofía Vergara ended during the 7-year struggle, says he lost 60 pounds in just a few weeks.

Oct 16 • 1:03 PM EDT • Health • thedailybeast.com

Nvidia is no longer a PC gaming company. Get used to it

The disappearance of the GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card shouldn't come as a surprise, because PC game fans are no longer Nvidia's audience—AI companies are.

Oct 16 • 8:00 AM EDT • Technology • pcworld.com

Attacks on health care in the West Bank (Since 1 January - 30 September 2026)

Infographic in English on occupied Palestinian territory about Health and Safety and Security; published on 16 Oct 2026 by WHO

Oct 16 • 4:03 AM EDT • Health • reliefweb.int

Attacks on health care in the Gaza Strip (Since 1 January 2026 - 30 September 2026)

Infographic in English on occupied Palestinian territory about Health and Safety and Security; published on 16 Oct 2026 by WHO

Oct 16 • 3:33 AM EDT • Health • reliefweb.int

Last Call for 10.15.26 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics

A digest of the day's politics and policy while the bartender refreshes your drink.

Oct 15 • 6:01 PM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com

California students post gains in math, science and English in 2025-26

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California students made gains across key academic and success measures during the 2025-26 school year, with test scores rising in English, math and science while the statewide graduation rate reached a record high of 87.9 percent. For the first time, the state released assessment results and California School Dashboard data together to give families and educators a more complete picture of student performance.English language arts scores increased 0.5 percentage points to 49.3 percent of students scoring proficient or advanced, while math scores rose 1.1 percentage points to 38.4 percent. Science showed the strongest improvement, jumping 3.3 percentage points to 36 percent of students scoring proficient or advanced.The statewide chronic absenteeism rate dropped 1.1 percentage points to 18.3 percent. The suspension rate declined to 2.8 percent, marking the third consecutive year of improvement."At a time when California continues to focus on accelerating learning and closing opportunity gaps, these results provide important evidence that our sustained investments are making a difference," Gov. Gavin Newsom said. "The continued progress we are seeing is a testament to the hard work of students, families and educators across the state—and we will continue working to build on these gains."The percentage of students prepared for college and career increased to 55.2 percent, up 2 percentage points from the previous year. More than 54 percent of graduates completed coursework required for admission to University of California and California State University systems, an increase of 0.9 percentage points."California has made important strides in expanding student supports and opportunities, but the pace of academic improvement reminds us that our work is far from finished," State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said.Eighth grade students posted the strongest score trends in both English language arts and math. Science performance improved across all tested grades, with the strongest gains at the high school level.African American students demonstrated larger-than-average improvements across English, math and science. Hispanic or Latino students showed larger-than-average improvements in English and math, with positive math score trends across all grades.Students who were socioeconomically disadvantaged made gains across all 3 subjects, including larger-than-average improvements in English and math. Students who were homeless continued to demonstrate gains across grades, with particularly strong improvements in math."We are encouraged to see students making gains across all 3 major assessments and are especially encouraged by the progress of African American students, Hispanic or Latino students, socioeconomically disadvantaged students and homeless youth," said Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the California State Board of Education.The progress comes as California's public school system undergoes significant demographic change. Statewide school enrollment declined to approximately 5.73 million students in 2025-26, nearly 500-thousand fewer students over the past decade.The number of students with disabilities increased approximately 25 percent over the same period, from about 680-thousand to more than 850-thousand students. Graduation rates increased across nearly all student groups, including notable increases for American Indian or Alaskan Native students at 4.3 percentage points and students with disabilities at 3.7 percentage points.In Downey Unified School District, the rate of students demonstrating proficient or advanced grade-level knowledge increased by 2.1 percentage points in English, 2.8 percentage points in math and 4.7 percentage points in science. The district aligned graduation requirements with college admission expectations and invested in inclusive special education practices, expanded career technical education and expanded learning opportunities."The gains Downey Unified is seeing in student assessment results and on the Dashboard are the result of years of focused, consistent work across the district," Superintendent Roger Brossmer said.In Exeter Unified School District, proficiency rates increased by 4.6 percentage points in English, 2.3 percentage points in math and 3.6 percentage points in science. The district placed a strong focus on phonics and the science of reading, particularly in kindergarten through second grade."The gains Exeter Unified is seeing in student assessment results and on the Dashboard are the result of having great people who are focused on the right work, and great students who want to do well," Superintendent Melanie Dorough said.Union Elementary School District saw proficiency rates increase by 1.5 percentage points in English, 2 percentage points in math and 4 percentage points in science. Teachers regularly analyze state and local assessment data to guide instruction, supported by strong core instruction and early literacy strategies."Union Elementary School District's achievement gains reflect a focused, data-driven approach to meeting the needs of every student while fostering a strong sense of belonging, safety and connection," Superintendent Carrie Andrews said.The California Department of Education is examining local results to better understand strategies and conditions associated with stronger student outcomes. The state has made significant investments in recent years, including literacy and math coaching, tutoring, expanded learning opportunities, community schools and universal transitional kindergarten.

Oct 15 • 1:54 PM EDT • Science • actionnewsnow.com

How This Zombie Foot is Helping Scientists Fight Stingray Strikes

Warm El Niño waters are driving an increase in stingray injuries. These labs are devoted to understanding what’s going on under the surface.

Oct 15 • 9:19 AM EDT • Science • yahoo.com

Neeley releases album ‘Hungry Dogs’

Randon Neeley, a regional recording artist about to graduate Eastern Kentucky University, released his debut album “Hungry Dogs.”

Oct 15 • 12:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • news-graphic.com

Historical records from Preston County highlight notable figures in politics, science, arts and athletics

KINGWOOD, W.Va. — Historical public records, municipal documents and biographical archives detail the lives of prominent individuals who were born in or established residence within Preston County, West Virginia.

Oct 15 • 12:00 AM EDT • Science • wvnews.com

Historical records from Preston County highlight notable figures in politics, science, arts and athletics

KINGWOOD, W.Va. — Historical public records, municipal documents and biographical archives detail the lives of prominent individuals who were born in or established residence within Preston County, West Virginia.

Oct 15 • 12:00 AM EDT • Politics • wvnews.com

Last Call for 10.14.26 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics

A digest of the day's politics and policy while the bartender refreshes your drink.

Oct 14 • 6:00 PM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com

DementedFX seeks investigation after city officials entered facility without permission

A well-known local attraction is responding to Holyoke Mayor Joshua A. Garcia’s public response to the city’s decision to stop operations of the haunt’s Cube experience.

Oct 14 • 5:24 PM EDT • Business • wwlp.com

How the Zelda Ocarina of Time remake changes the classic game’s script

At the start of the iconic 1998 Nintendo 64 game The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, our playable hero Link wakes up in his tree cabin, heads outside and is greeted by his friend Saria. “Yahoo! Hi, Stotil!" she says. In other people’s copies of the games, she might say “Hi, Link!” or “Hi, Brick!” or use whatever other name the player was allowed to input when first launching the game. The more important point is that she starts with a “Yahoo!” In Nintendo’s 2011 remake of Ocarina of Time for the 3DS handheld, Saria greets Link with that same word. But for the 2026 Switch 2 re-remake of Ocarina of Time, out November 5, Saria’s salutation has changed: “Hello, Link!” she exclaims. There’s no “Yahoo” to be heard. Last month, in an official Nintendo video preview, Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma described the remake as a “faithful interpretation using modern technologies.” Faithful means the gameplay hasn’t changed much. Dungeons, quests, and just generally what you do in the game doesn’t seem to have changed, not based on what Nintendo has shown nor the hour of the game I played in New York City a couple of weeks ago. The graphics have been overhauled. The controls have been tweaked. Players can now manually control the camera and make Link jump with the press of a button, both notable differences from the original 1998 design. But Link’s journey appears to take the same path, with the same obstacles in its way. The remake’s biggest alteration to Ocarina of Time that I’ve spotted so far just might be the script. About the game’s story, Aonuma said in September, “We’ve added quite a lot of new dialogue for the characters, so that their personalities shine even more.” Earlier this month, I played a chunk of the Ocarina of Time remake at a Nintendo showcase. In the game’s earliest moments, I made a point of talking to characters and recording what they said. I found the script to be more colorful, more natural in its phrasing, more careful to establish its characters, and certainly more wordy even with the removal of that one “Yahoo!”. I’ve got some very early-game examples, so you can judge the new writing for yourself.

Oct 14 • 11:32 AM EDT • Technology • gamefile.news

Are Tarrant Latino voters a swing group for 2026 midterm elections?

Latino voters have swayed between Democrats and Republicans.

Oct 14 • 9:16 AM EDT • Politics • kera.org

Are Bank Lobbies Still Relevant?

Local banking leaders say technology is changing the way customers use their banks — and their lobbies By Deborah Jeanne Post [caption id=attachment_11109 align=alignright width=300] Steve Gorczynski is M&T Bank Central New York regional president.[/caption] When was the last time you entered the lobby of your bank? If it’s been a while, you’re part of a trend of eschewing the lobby in favor of ATMs, drive-thrus, online banking and remote deposit. A 2025 study performed by the American Bankers Association revealed that only 9% of consumers use bank branches as their preferred way to do banking and 76% prefer mobile banking. The trend away from the lobby reflects consumer behavior in other areas of doing business, including online shopping instead of perusing the mall, ordering fast food at a kiosk, not at the counter and selecting curbside pick-up rather than walking into the restaurant. Consumers want convenience and going in the lobby adds another layer to the task. It also places consumers face to face with one or more representatives of the business, something less favorable to people feeling burned out from interpersonal interactions. Nixing or at least minimizing the size of the lobby isn’t necessarily negative for banks. Fewer people passing through their doors reduces overhead for building maintenance, staffing and furnishing. Greater reliance on virtual banking can mean closing brick and mortar locations and hiring fewer staffers to cover roles like teller and lending officer. “Our focus is on meeting customers where they are and giving them flexibility in how they bank,” said Steve Gorczynski, M&T Bank Central New York regional president. “While many everyday transactions can be supported digitally and through ATMs, branches remain important for more complex financial needs, offering face-to-face guidance and a more personal banking experience.” Talking with a commercial lender or working on a home mortgage are two examples where meeting face-to-face is more desirable for many people. They can receive immediate feedback to questions and can possibly reach their goals more quickly. But there’s little need to have a large seating area, long counters and numerous tellers for routine banking that’s quicker to handle virtually. Online banking can also help people on the go more readily complete banking tasks such as depositing checks, transferring funds among accounts and checking balances. [caption id=attachment_11135 align=alignright width=300] Tina M. Stephens is the vice president branch administration for Fulton Savings Bank.[/caption] “The traditional bank lobby is certainly being evaluated by most institutions today, as the typical large, open and cavernous spaces do not necessarily meet the needs of today’s customers,” said Tina M. Stephens, vice president branch administration for Fulton Savings Bank. “Traditional lobbies often bisect traditional teller stations and customer service areas, which adds confusion, especially for the demographic who routinely use online banking and only access the lobby for customer service needs.” Despite the rollback in physical locations across the industry, Fulton Savings Bank began modernizing its six branch offices in Oswego and Onondaga counties about three years ago and have finished four offices so far in Baldwinsville, Fulton, Constantia, and Phoenix. “We made the decision to build a new branch across the street from our current office in Brewerton which will be completed by the end of 2026, and we will begin the retrofit of our Central Square office in early 2027,” Stephens said. “Our efforts specifically address where we think customers will be in the next three to five years and have greater flexibility to make changes out into the future.” The bank may be onto something, as numerous reports state that screen-weary Gen Z young adults crave more in-person interactions than virtual ones. If the pendulum continues to swing in that direction, it’s hard to see all physical bank areas disappear, even if they change somewhat. Fulton Savings Bank has also consolidated its teller and customer service representative areas to larger “universal banker” areas, where the bank representative can address all customer retail needs. A one-stop-shop experience appeals to busy banking customers who want to perform a few different banking tasks in one visit. Stephens also said that Fulton Savings Bank made additional technology and security enhancements and created flex spaces to accommodate bank meetings throughout the two-county branch footprint. At Solvay Bank, Elizabeth Lavier, vice president marketing and communications manager, lauded digital and online services as convenient and flexible for managing finances; however, “technology is not meant to replace what matters most: the relationships behind every account that have always been at the heart of community banking,” she said. “Even in today’s digital-first world, people of all ages still value the opportunity to sit down with a trusted banker for personalized guidance. We understand that some of life’s biggest moments call for more than a screen.” Lavier views digital banking as another way for the organization to serve customers rather than a replacement for branches, tellers and lenders, which tend to serve customers better for transactions like buying a first car, purchasing a home, saving for a child’s education, or planning for retirement. “Those conversations, built on understanding, experience and personal guidance, are what community banking is all about,” Lavier said. “At the end of the day, banking is about more than transactions. It’s about helping our customers achieve their goals and being there for them every step of the way. By combining the convenience of digital banking with the care, commitment, and personal service of a local community bank, Solvay Bank offers customers the best of both worlds.” Are Paper Checks Destined to Disappear? With the ubiquity of debit cards, online payments, virtual checks and peer-to-peer payment platforms like Venmo, Zelle and PayPal, will paper checks become passe? “In my view, paper checks are unlikely to disappear in the near future,” said Tina M. Stephens, vice president branch administration for Fulton Savings Bank. “They continue to serve a practical purpose by providing a clear paper trail and tangible proof of payment.” According to the American Banker, a leading trade publication that covers the banking and financial industry, in 2024, checks accounted for 65% of all payment fraud losses. Paper checks should be phased out, according to the publication. “The phrase, ‘The check’s in the mail’ probably sounds strange to younger people because the era of paper checks is rapidly drawing to a close. Put bluntly, checks are an expensive, insecure legacy that is a drag on the U.S. economy. Rather than wait for them to vanish slowly, the pragmatic choice is to strategically accelerate the transition to paperless payments.”

Oct 14 • 8:23 AM EDT • Business • oswegocountybusiness.com

Mom-and-Pop Business Owners Grapple with Harsh Times

Report shows small business owners in NYS less optimistic about the economy. Taxes, inflation, labor costs and competition from larger businesses are major concerns right now, they say By Aaron Gifford [caption id=attachment_11067 align=alignright width=300] Ashley Ranslow is director for New York state at The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).[/caption] Owners of mom-and-pop businesses in New York state have been less optimistic lately than their peers in other parts of the country, a recent report indicates. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), based on a survey of 11,000 of its members in the Empire State, reported that taxes, inflation, labor costs and competition from larger businesses are major concerns right now. “Indeed, while taxes are a major problem in New York and the United States overall, New York small businesses notably are struggling more with the state’s onerous, multi-level tax burden,” Ashley Ranslow, NFIB’s director for New York state, said in the July report. Compared with surveys of business owners in other states, far fewer New York respondents rated their businesses as in excellent or good health. The report also said labor costs here are about 25% higher than the national average and are the “single most important problem” facing businesses. One respondent to the New York-specific survey complained that too much red tape, taxes and laws that restrict high-yielding companies have stifled their operation’s growth. Others said high disability and workers’ compensation insurance costs, alarming increases in utility rates and excessive building regulations are discouraging. Statewide, New York has a gross domestic product of $2.53 trillion (third in the nation, followed by Texas, $2.90 trillion; and California, $4.25 trillion), a per capita income of $90,500 (sixth) and an unemployment rate of 4.6% (34th). There are 2.4 million small businesses that employ 3.9 million people. [caption id=attachment_11112 align=alignright width=451] Member of the Greater Liverpool Chamber of Commerce gather at one of the several functions the chamber organizes monthly. “Everyone in this business community encourages each other to shop local. Everyone just wants to see each other succeed,” says Megan Wilmot, the chamber director[/caption] “New York state boasts one of the largest, wealthiest and most diverse cities in the world — and that’s still only about half the state’s population,” the report said. “In other words, the state is both its iconic city and so much more — geographically, demographically, economically. But New York is not without its challenges, challenges that include notably high taxes and other weaknesses that impact the small business environment,” it said. The report includes an optimism index that compares responses from New York (NFIB) members with those of their peers in other states across several categories. This ranges from plans to increase employment to expectations for higher sales, to plans to increase inventory or expand. The scores for Empire State business owners were lower in most categories, but they did score higher than the national average in noting that they have current employment openings, and that they are hopeful that the economy will improve. “The metrics so far paint a picture of a state with a series of challenges for small businesses, from a slightly below national average Optimism Index to a more seriously below national business health to very substantially below national Employment Index. What is going on with businesses that are creating these differences?” the report stated. In Central New York, the regional labor force comprises nearly 398,000 workers. The median household income here is $71,463, and the gross domestic product for the region last year totaled $61.3 billion, according to the CenterState CEO economic development and research organization. About half of the region’s labor force works for small and mid-sized businesses, although the number of people employed in that sector has decreased by 7% since 2010, according to CenterState’s 2026 economic forecast report. “While record-high employment in large-scale enterprises provides a strong foundation for Central New York,” the report says, “the long-term health of communities depends on a thriving small business sector to serve as a stabilizer.” Area employers identify several barriers to Central New York’s anticipated growth, including lack of specialized or skilled workers, government regulations, unaffordable housing options and long-term construction disruptions. In the city of Syracuse, the number of jobs in retail trade decreased by 1,500 or 4.7% between July 2025 and this past July. By contrast, the number of jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector increased by 2.5% or 700 jobs, in the same annual period, according to the New York State Department of Labor. Still, there’s plenty of interest for new businesses across Central New York. U.S. Census figures show that the number of applications for new businesses in all four counties increased significantly in the past 20 years. In Cayuga County, there were 324 applications in 2005 compared to 470 last year. In Madison County, the number increased from 385 to 480; Onondaga County, from 2411 to 4132; and Oswego County, from 553 to 836. Downtown Cazenovia is exemplary of Madison County’s trend: In the past year, the village welcomed a bait shop, a thrift store, a vitamin infusion center, a pizzeria, a Pilates studio and an Italian restaurant. A candy store is scheduled to open on the main drag in the months ahead. Oswego’s list of interesting new businesses in the past year includes a bubble tea shop, a hot dog eatery in Fulton, a specialty grocery store that features New York state products in Mexico, a beauty and esthetics studio in Hannibal and a hardware and farm supply store in Sandy Creek. In Onondaga County, the Liverpool area has also enjoyed a steady stream of new shops and eateries in recent years. That suburban community is unique in that, unlike neighboring communities, most of the restaurants are family-owned and not part of a national chain. [caption id=attachment_11116 align=alignright width=300] Megan Wilmot is the executive director of the Greater Liverpool’s Chamber of Commerce.[/caption] Megan Wilmot, executive director of the Greater Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, said independent business owners in her community maintain a strong sense of pride in holding their own against national companies. The chamber helps boost morale with red carpet events, ribbon cuttings, coffee hours and five-year anniversary celebrations for participating businesses. “We have built such a strong community,” Wilmot said. “Everyone in this business community encourages each other to shop local. Everyone just wants to see each other succeed.” In Syracuse, the downtown retail occupancy rate last year was about 82%, a slight improvement from 2024, according to the Downtown Syracuse Committee’s most recent annual report. Buildings with the largest amount of vacant space included The Galleries, One Park Place, and Equitable Towers, though not all of those spaces are designated for retail use. New businesses that opened in downtown Syracuse last year: Better with Time Clothing, Dakshin Curry & Biriyani, Havana Tattoo Society, Milano Bean Café, Miss Daisy, Pausa Coffee, Sweets for Babe, The Society CNY and Yafah Beauty Studio. The Destiny USA mall’s occupancy rate decreased from 80% in 2023 to 72% by the end of 2024, according to Integra Realty Resources. That leaves more than a quarter of the mall’s retail space vacant. “Looking ahead, the retail market is expected to see minimal rent growth, with vacancy rates likely remaining stable in community and neighborhood centers but continuing to rise in enclosed malls,” Integra’s report said. “New construction activity is low and redevelopment plans for former malls like Shoppingtown and Great Northern are still in the planning stages. The proposed Micron chip plant may spur development, but challenges remain in finding co-developers for large-scale projects.” Nationally, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce expects that small businesses will remain resilient and see their sales and revenues eventually improve. That organization, in a recent national survey, found that 25% of small business owners expect the economy to improve in 2027, while 45% indicated that they plan to increase employment in the next 12 months. And 69% said they believe their small business is in good shape and 70% said they are comfortable with their current cash flow. Thirty-one percent of small businesses reported raising their prices in July and 28% are planning to raise their prices within the next three to four months, the report said. Twelve percent indicated that this is a good time to expand their business. “Small business owners voice optimism for future revenues and hiring,” the report said. “High costs continue to be a wet blanket on reinvestment.” The NFIB reported in July that Main Street, despite gas price hikes, “is OK … for now.” Its small business economics trend report said sales across the country have been strong compared to last year, but continued inflation and higher prices from mom-and-pop establishments are causing some “cracks” to show. “If costs stay this high for much longer, reduced investment will have a tangible economic impact,” the report said. “The status quo is OK, but the outlook? The outlook is uncertain.”

Oct 14 • 8:23 AM EDT • Business • oswegocountybusiness.com

102526 Protein Health graphic

Click here to view this image from NOLA.com.

Oct 14 • 2:30 AM EDT • Health • nola.com

Why experts are urging parents to prepare kids for possible livestreamed execution

Graphic video could be clipped, copied and pushed into children’s social feeds even if the original stream is restricted.

Oct 13 • 3:00 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org

Triune Entertainment Presents a Playful Production of "Finding Neverland"

Triune Entertainment Presents a Playful Production of "Finding Neverland"

Oct 13 • 2:22 PM EDT • Entertainment • princewilliamliving.com

Comparing Off-World Rover Driving Distances

This infographic illustrates the distances driven by various rovers on the surface of Earth’s Moon and Mars. Of the vehicles shown, the NASA Mars rovers

Oct 13 • 1:56 PM EDT • Science • science.nasa.gov

The GOP’s young-men blues: how this demographic could thwart the midterms

A key MAGA voting bloc has gone conspicuously quiet

Oct 13 • 1:02 PM EDT • Politics • theweek.com

Nvidia RTX 5090 Reportedly Dead, but It's So Expensive That It Doesn't Really Matter

While the RTX 5090 was already hard enough to get at a reasonable price, new leaks suggest that Nvidia is flat-out discontinuing its flagship graphics card.

Oct 13 • 10:35 AM EDT • Technology • ign.com

Beyond Buzzwords: How Sutter Leaders Create Healthcare’s Blueprint

By Matthew Murphy, Vitals contributor What does meaningful transformation look like inside a healthcare system, and what lessons can it offer the rest of the industry? In a series of recent podcast conversations, Sutter Health leaders shared how they’re tackling some of healthcare’s biggest challenges, turning new ideas into action and creating a blueprint for […]

Oct 12 • 7:43 PM EDT • Health • vitals.sutterhealth.org

Last Call for 10.12.26 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics

A digest of the day's politics and policy while the bartender refreshes your drink.

Oct 12 • 6:00 PM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com

Oct. 12 "Colorado Chamber Office Hours": Three gubernatorial candidates discuss business issues

Colorado's gubernatorial candidates discuss business issues such as regulatory reform, transportation funding and affordable housing.

Oct 12 • 3:52 PM EDT • Business • tsscolorado.com

M5 Pro MacBook Pro vs Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra: Compared

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra uses Nvidia graphics in a bid to take over from the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro as a productivity favorite. Here's how the two powerful notebooks compare.

Oct 12 • 1:22 PM EDT • Technology • appleinsider.com

Nvidia reportedly ends GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card production

Nvidia has reportedly stopped manufacturing the GeForce RTX 5090, including the D variants made for the Chinese market.

Oct 12 • 12:17 PM EDT • Technology • gamesindustry.biz

I Had To Know Why Verity’s Sex Scenes Featured Graphic Words Over Them

Oct 12 • 8:31 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

KINGPIN Says a Connector Dispute With NVIDIA Derailed EVGA's Last Flagship Card

Vince "KINGPIN" Lucido has blamed NVIDIA for the troubled launch of the EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti KINGPIN, the last graphics card to carry his name. In the first video on his new Overclocking Kingpin YouTube channel, the overclocker said he wanted the card to have two 12VHPWR power connectors,...

Oct 11 • 8:52 AM EDT • Technology • techpowerup.com

Health and Safety at the Villain Arts Tattoo Festival in Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE--The City of Milwaukee Health Department spent an afternoon inspecting over 300 artists at the Villain Arts Tattoo Festival in Milwaukee. MHD is

Oct 10 • 7:28 PM EDT • Health • wtmj.com

Care Starts Here: Self-care Strategies for World Mental Health Day

Small, intentional acts of care can support our mental wellbeing, strengthen our resilience and help us be more present.

Oct 10 • 10:00 AM EDT • Health • mentalhealthfirstaid.org

Chappell Roan reveals Tinashe, MUNA and more for LA benefit shows

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Chappell Roan has revealed the lineup for her upcoming Super Graphic Spectacular benefit concerts in Los Angeles, with Tinashe, Lola Young, MUNA and Caroline Polachek among the

Oct 9 • 3:58 PM EDT • Entertainment • recorderonline.com

Late-night snacking may affect liver health

New research led by Oregon Health & Science University suggests you should think twice about indulging in a late-night snack if you'd like to preserve liver health.

Oct 9 • 3:30 PM EDT • Health • news-medical.net

More Than Crew Room Politics. Our Careers Are on the Line.

This week, former Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones published an opinion piece questioning whose interests the Teamsters are really representing as they continue to push back on the Union Pacific/Norfolk Southern merger. Read on to hear his logic.

Oct 9 • 12:57 PM EDT • Politics • smart-union.org

Pharmaceutical innovation: a strategic investment in health and growth

Governments around the world are confronting increasingly common challenges: how to drive economic growth, address demographic changes and productivity pressures, and how to strengthen national resilience. Investment in health is fundamental to achieving these goals, and medicines and vaccines are central to this effort. We are at the cusp of the next golden age in...

Oct 9 • 10:47 AM EDT • Health • ifpma.org

The Witcher 3 Remastered's New Patch Adds Highly Requested Graphics Fix

Bloom begone

Oct 9 • 6:13 AM EDT • Technology • polygon.com

Last Call for 10.8.26 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics

A digest of the day's politics and policy while the bartender refreshes your drink.

Oct 8 • 6:00 PM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com

Arts and Entertainment lineup for Oct. 9-19

Note: for a complete list of calendar events from around Garfield County and the Roaring Fork Valley, go to http://www.postindependent.com/entertainment/community-calendar/. Embervine: A Night of ’70s, ’80s and ’90s Hits What: Bring your friends and your...

Oct 8 • 4:59 PM EDT • Entertainment • postindependent.com

Iowa Business Council survey shows postive outlook on state's economy

The Iowa Business Council (IBC) has released its third quarter Economic Outlook Survey that gauges the outlook for the next six months. IBC President Joe Murphy says it’s based on a 100 point scale. “Our overall survey score was 64.91 index points, so just under 65 points, relatively flat, virtually no movement on the overall […]

Oct 7 • 4:07 PM EDT • Business • radioiowa.com

Meet the 2026 Contingent Faculty Award Winners for Excellence in Scholarship, Teaching, or Leadership in the Profession -

The Award for Excellence in Scholarship, Teaching, or Leadership by Contingent Faculty recognizes scholars who have made significant contributions to the field of political science without the support of tenure-track employment. This award is sponsored by APSA’s Committee [...]

Oct 7 • 2:00 PM EDT • Science • politicalsciencenow.com

Meet the 2026 Contingent Faculty Award Winners for Excellence in Scholarship, Teaching, or Leadership in the Profession -

The Award for Excellence in Scholarship, Teaching, or Leadership by Contingent Faculty recognizes scholars who have made significant contributions to the field of political science without the support of tenure-track employment. This award is sponsored by APSA’s Committee [...]

Oct 7 • 2:00 PM EDT • Politics • politicalsciencenow.com

Brownsville Projects Carry $41.1 Billion in Estimated Investment

Four Cameron County projects carry a combined estimated investment of $41.1 billion, according to a county-branded graphic Dan Garcia, a Pittsburgh-based energy infrastructure attorney with Steptoe & Johnson PLLC who identifies Brownsville as his hometown, shared on social media.

Oct 7 • 9:45 AM EDT • Business • texasborderbusiness.com

Local Farms and Food Businesses Receive Nearly $500,000 in Grants to Help Make Metro Chicago Food System More Equitable - Cook County Department of Public Health

Today, Cook County Department of Public Health launched Building Healthier Communities 2030, suburban Cook County’s Community Health Improvement Plan. The plan was announced together with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County Department of Public Health, community organizations, healthcare providers and cross-sector partners. Building Healthier Communities 2030 serves as both a collective vision and a practical roadmap that will guide public health efforts across suburban Cook County through 2030.The plan aligns with President Preckwinkle's Policy Roadmap and reflects a shared commitment to advancing health equity through coordinated, community-informed action.

Oct 6 • 3:38 PM EDT • Business • cookcountypublichealth.org

Local Farms and Food Businesses Receive Nearly $500,000 in Grants to Help Make Metro Chicago Food System More Equitable - Cook County Department of Public Health

Today, Cook County Department of Public Health launched Building Healthier Communities 2030, suburban Cook County’s Community Health Improvement Plan. The plan was announced together with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County Department of Public Health, community organizations, healthcare providers and cross-sector partners. Building Healthier Communities 2030 serves as both a collective vision and a practical roadmap that will guide public health efforts across suburban Cook County through 2030.The plan aligns with President Preckwinkle's Policy Roadmap and reflects a shared commitment to advancing health equity through coordinated, community-informed action.

Oct 6 • 3:38 PM EDT • Health • cookcountypublichealth.org

Hell Is Officially Breaking Loose For The Gaming Industry Thanks To AI

Viral games like Minecraft inside Elden Ring, PS5 emulators, and recent jailbreaks do not bode well for Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo

Oct 6 • 2:30 PM EDT • Technology • polygon.com

Michael Douglas recalls conversations with Rob Reiner about having sons with ‘serious drug issues’

In his new memoir, Michael Douglas recalled conversations with Rob Reiner about having sons with ‘serious drug issues.’ Douglas’ son Cameron previously served a seven-year prison sentence for drug possession. Reiner’s son Nick wrote a semi-autobiographical film about his addiction.

Oct 6 • 11:46 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

TOLEDANO: Stop listening to pop stars for your politics

Celebrities should not be exiled from political life, but the line between speaking up and telling people how to vote is one worth holding.

Oct 6 • 9:24 AM EDT • Politics • vanderbilthustler.com

Misericordia University to Host Healthcare Symposium with Presenting Sponsor Geisinger

Misericordia University’s College of Health Sciences and Education, with Geisinger as Presenting Sponsor, will host the 2026 Healthcare Symposium, “Connected Care: Aligning Education, Innovation & Community Health,” on Friday, Oct. 23, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Lemmond Theater on the University’s Dallas campus.

Oct 5 • 11:10 AM EDT • Health • misericordia.edu

Lawrence brothers take on missing ’90s stars in graphic novel, ‘The Lawrence Brothers Detective Agency’

Joey Lawrence and his brothers, Matthew and Andrew, take on missing ’90s stars and nostalgia prisons in the new graphic novel, ‘The Lawrence Brothers Detective Agency.’

Oct 5 • 11:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

Science Corp. Announces Long-Term (36 Months) Results of PRIMA BCI Clinical Trial Showing Durable Vision Restoration in Blind Patients Suffering from Geographic Atrophy

Science Corporation, the neural engineering and brain-computer interface (BCI) company, today announced long-term (36 months) followup data from its pivotal ...

Oct 5 • 10:00 AM EDT • Science • businesswire.com

Yale School of Medicine On the Science of Childhood Anxiety, Say, Anxiety Disorders Are the Most Common Mental Health Challenges In Youth

Credit: Matt Bradbury October 5, 2026 - By Isabella Backman - Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health challenges in youth. Left untreated, they can disrupt the lives of both children and their families. The good news is that with intervention, most children will overcome these conditions. Across Yale School of Medicine, scientists are working to understand anxiety at every level, from common anxious behaviors to molecular biomarkers in the brain. They are using their findings to develop and disseminate new evidence-based treatments for childhood anxiety. Today, the go-to treatment for childhood anxiety disorders is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This is a form of psychotherapy that teaches children skills for confronting anxious thoughts and helps them practice managing situations that cause anxiety. While it is the gold-standard treatment backed by considerable scientific evidence, up to 50% of children will not see sufficient benefit from CBT alone. Wendy Silverman, PhD, Alfred A. Messer Professor in the Child Study Center, co-directs the Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program alongside Eli Lebowitz, PhD, associate professor in the Child Study Center. One of their main interests is learning how to improve outcomes beyond CBT. “We’re developing cutting-edge, research-based knowledge that can reduce the suffering that anxiety causes children and their families,” says Silverman. Changing parent behavior YSM experts are investigating how to improve CBT outcomes for children by involving the parents. Silverman’s research has uncovered two main components of parent intervention that improve childhood anxiety: not enabling children to completely avoid the things that make them anxious and taking steps to enhance their autonomy. Parents may unintentionally reinforce their child’s anxiety by allowing them to avoid what makes them anxious. They also may unintentionally limit the children’s sense of autonomy by being overly intrusive. “One of the things that we take pride in is that we’ve focused on trying to understand what parents need to do, and to test our ideas and see if changing the parents’ behaviors is enhancing the effects of CBT,” Silverman says. “Our findings thus far suggest that they do." As much as CBT can be helpful, it can also be challenging to get one’s child to do the necessary steps for CBT to work. This is one important reason why Lebowitz created a novel intervention program for parents named Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE). Existing intervention programs often teach parents to act as therapists for their child, such as training them on how to practice breathing exercises. “It makes sense, but this doesn’t work very well in practice,” says Lebowitz. “And part of the reason, I think, is that it’s not easy to get your kid to do things, especially if they’re not excited about doing it.” SPACE is unique because it focuses entirely on parent involvement and changing parental behavior—children are not involved in the sessions. For example, parents learn how to use supportive messages that convey confidence that their child can tolerate and manage distress. “It might sound like a parent saying to a child, ‘I get that this is really hard for you, but I know that you can handle it,’” Lebowitz says. The program also works with parents to identify the ways in which they are accommodating anxious behaviors. “We’ll pick one thing that parents are doing that is an accommodation and help them make a detailed plan for how they’re going to change that,” Lebowitz explains. Treating Anxiety in Children and Adolescents Much of the existing research on SPACE has focused on parents of children under age 14. Ongoing studies are now exploring its use with parents of older teens. “Both anxiety and accommodation can interfere with normative developmental shifts during the teen years, including increased autonomy and individuation from parents,” says Rebecca Etkin, PhD, associate research scientist in the Child Study Center. “In this sense, SPACE may be particularly well-suited for anxious teens and their parents. We want to see whether it is effective during this distinct developmental window.” Unfortunately, many families in need of CBT face barriers, including limited availability of services and geographic constraints. One way to improve access is digital interventions. Silverman and her team are developing an evidence-based digitized intervention program for parents that they can access directly from their computer or smart phone. “The work we’re doing will be one of the very few parent interventions that is digitized and importantly tested for effectiveness,” she says. Creating interventions for anxiety-related challenges Silverman and Lebowitz recently received a generous gift to develop and test other interventions that help parents reduce other child anxiety-related behavioral and emotional difficulties, such as restrictive eating and unexplained somatic symptoms. One of these projects in particular focuses on understanding the risks of social media and its potential benefits, including offering a sense of connection. “A lot of research has focused on the idea that social media is harmful and the less of it the better,” says Lebowitz. “But we actually see is that this is not quite right—there are negatives, but there are also positives. So, we’re trying to get a little bit more nuanced of a picture.” The team is working with teens with social anxiety and their parents over an extended period to better understand their social media habits and how their anxiety levels affect engagement with different platforms. The teens will answer questions sent to an app on their phones about mood and social media usage in an effort to capture emotional responses as they unfold. “We hope to develop interventions that can help make the best of social media while protecting against the more problematic effects,” Lebowitz says. The brain’s role in anxiety Researchers are also testing therapies to address anxiety at the neurological and molecular levels. In collaboration with Dylan Gee, PhD, professor of psychology in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Hilary Blumberg, MD, John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatric Neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine, Lebowitz and Silverman are using brain imaging to identify changes in a child’s brain before and after parents enroll in SPACE. In one study, children viewed anxiety-inducing images while undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); the researchers conducted scans with and without the children’s parents nearby. Before SPACE, children’s brains were better able to activate the regulatory circuitry needed to turn off an anxious response when their parents were nearby. But after SPACE, children could activate this circuitry even without the parent around. “As parents work on gradually reducing some of their accommodations, you can see a child get better at regulating their own fear system in the brain,” Lebowitz says. “It’s remarkable.” Research into the molecular underpinnings of anxiety can also inform new childhood anxiety treatments. In a recent study, Lebowitz, Silverman, and Flora Vaccarino, MD, Harris Professor in the Child Study Center, discovered that a protein known as fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) could be protective from the toxic effects of stress. FGF2 levels in children and their parents were linked to the children’s risk of developing anxiety and depression, the study showed. The findings could help explain why some children who are exposed to early life trauma such as poverty or abuse are more prone to developing mental health disorders. And FGF2 could be a target for treatment. “This is very novel because it starts to give a clue to what is the molecular chain that connects those lived experiences to the actual psychological outcomes,” Lebowitz says. New ways to study and treat childhood anxiety Michael Crowley, PhD, associate professor in the Child Study Center, collaborates with Silverman and Lebowitz to study the role that attention plays in development and maintenance of childhood anxiety. There is a large body of research that shows that anxious children, like anxious adults, are prone to focus on threatening stimuli such as angry faces compared with neutral faces. This has led to innovative interventions that involve attention retraining. The idea is that if experts train children to look away from threatening stimuli, it may reduce their anxiety—especially children with social anxiety who are most prone to attend to threats. The researchers have just completed a clinical trial for attention retraining with 10- to 14-year-olds with social anxiety disorders and are currently analyzing the findings. Besides this innovative attention retraining research, as Crowly notes, “I like to design tasks that are engaging to kids,” Crowley says. “My goal is to assess something without the kids knowing what we are assessing.” With this goal in mind, Crowley has created a virtual game, named Boom, to study threat processing in children with anxiety disorders. The game is similar to that of hot potato—the child and three digital players take turns virtually passing a ball to each other’s gloves. At some point, the ball turns into a bomb, and as the bomb lands in each player’s glove, the outline of the glove turns yellow. The goal is to avoid having the bomb go off in your glove. What isn’t obvious is that the game is designed to measure different types of threatening stimuli, both ambiguous and direct. In the game, the direct threat occurs as the bomb is traveling towards your glove. The ambiguous threat is the yellow outlined glove as it is unknown where the bomb will travel next. While children play the game, Crowley’s team measures their brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG). The researchers have discovered that in kids with anxiety, the brain reacts more strongly to ambiguous threats than it does in their peers, but less strongly to direct threats. They believe that the initial abnormally large brain response to not knowing where the bomb is going impairs the brain's ability to properly respond when the threat is actually traveling the child’s way. “The brains of children with anxiety are unable to differentiate between threats you need to do something about and those that are not your problem.” Michael Crowley, PhD, develops innovative games for studying anxiety in children and adolescents.Credit: Matt Bradbury Based on these insights, Crowley hopes to study whether interventions like attention training could restore appropriate threat processing. Crowley’s team is also working on a test called the Balloon Risk Avoidance Task, which evaluates risk-taking and avoidance behaviors. It features a digital balloon that is full of air and about to burst. Kids have six seconds to let air out of the balloon. The more air they let out, the less risk they face that the balloon will pop. But at the same time, the balloon becomes less valuable as it deflates. “The more air you keep in the balloon, the more points you get,” Crowley explains. So far, the researchers have found that when the balloons pop unexpectedly, teens with social anxiety show distinct brain responses. Studying these responses can help psychologists understand the underlying pathways driving the various manifestations of anxiety. The genetics of anxiety When Thomas Fernandez, MD, associate professor in the Child Study Center and of psychiatry, was still in training, there was a lot of excitement about understanding the genetics associated with autism spectrum disorder. Since then, scientists have identified around 250 genes associated with autism. The genetic contribution to anxiety disorders, on the other hand, has historically received less attention. Anxiety is less heritable than autism, but the genetic contribution for anxiety disorders that emerge in childhood may be higher than for anxiety disorders overall. While scientists estimate the heritability of anxiety disorders in general to be around 30% to 50%, some studies suggest higher heritability for certain childhood-onset anxiety presentations. “I saw firsthand how researchers in the field went about finding vulnerability genes for autism,” Fernandez says. “So, we’re using a very similar playbook for childhood anxiety.” “I saw firsthand how researchers in the field went about finding vulnerability genes for autism. So, we’re using a very similar playbook for childhood anxiety.” Thomas Fernandez, MD Associate Professor In the Child Study Center and in Psychiatry Now, Fernandez and Emily Olfson, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Child Study Center, are studying children and their parents to identify genetic changes that are present in the child but not the parents, known as “de novo mutations.” “All of us have some de novo mutations—maybe about 50 to 100 sprinkled throughout the genome,” Olfson says. “But when they occur within the coding regions of genes, they can be really disruptive.” Previous research shows that people with autism have higher rates of damaging de novo mutations than the general population. In 2022, Olfson, Lebowitz, Silverman, and Fernandez published a study on 68 children and their families that found that children with anxiety had similarly high levels of these mutations. Studying de novo mutations can help point the researchers to where they should be looking for genes associated with anxiety. “The end game is using the genes to steer us toward the right part of biology that we can then target to come up with better treatments,” Fernandez says. Building on those findings, the team is now studying more families to better understand how these de novo mutations, along with other genetic and environmental factors, shape pediatric anxiety disorders. They recently received a National Institutes of Health grant to enroll 750 new families over the next five years. Olfson is the principal investigator, with co-investigators Lebowitz, Fernandez, Silverman, and Shuangge Steven Ma, PhD, department chair and professor of biostatistics at Yale School of Public Health. Neurodevelopment, Risk Genes, and Mental Health Conditions - The Olfson Lab Joel Gelernter, MD, Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry, is interested in how different anxiety disorders differ genomically. “We are studying social phobia, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder, working to understand why people differ in their risk to these specific anxiety disorders and evaluating various risk factors,” he says. Gelernter was recently involved in one of the largest studies to date of the genomics underlying anxiety disorder. The study included around 122,000 people with anxiety disorders and around 730,000 without. It found that some genetic differences associated with anxiety were linked to signaling that helps reduce overactivity in the nervous system. Many anxiety medications available today work by targeting this process. “It’s nice when the biology that you get out of a large genome-wide study ratifies things that we already know because that can help increase confidence in further findings from the study,” Gelernter says. Uncovering the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders John Krystal, MD, Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor of Translational Research and chair of the Department of Psychiatry, is interested in the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), of which anxiety is a major symptom. In the late 1980s, Krystal’s team discovered that the drug yohimbine activated symptoms in patients with PTSD. “This was the first time we could link a specific biological mechanism to the symptoms of PTSD,” Krystal says. At the time, he adds, this finding was highly controversial. “A lot of people felt that PTSD was a purely psychological syndrome that didn’t have an underlying biology.” Since then, Krystal has dived deep into understanding the neurobiology of PTSD to learn how to better treat it. His team is evaluating the use of ketamine and psychedelics. These would be among the first treatments to be developed specifically for PTSD. They may also be applicable for other disorders including anxiety disorders, Krystal adds. An important gap in PTSD treatment is the absence of biological tests that inform how to best help patients manage their PTSD symptoms. A doctor doesn’t diagnose cancer based on how they feel. Rather, they use tests of the biology of the cancer to determine the best course of treatment. “And we can’t do that in any psychiatric disorder other than Alzheimer’s disease,” Krystal says. “But now we are building a foundation for this approach to the treatment of anxiety disorders for the first time.” Source: Yale School of Medicine

Oct 5 • 6:44 AM EDT • Science • goldrushcam.com

Women and underrepresented minorities have higher tenure-track placement rates in the political science job market

What actually lands a PhD student a tenure-track professorship? A new study suggests a candidate's publication record, research field, and demographic identity are much stronger predictors of hiring success than the prestige of their university.

Oct 4 • 10:00 AM EDT • Science • psypost.org

The Amazing Work By Valve's Timur Kristóf On Improving Old AMD GPUs On Linux

Over the past year Timur Kristóf of Valve's Linux graphics driver team has made multiple very nice improvements to the AMDGPU kernel driver for enhancing support for old (GCN 1.0/1.1 era from a decade ago) graphics cards so that they can better handle Linux gaming and other tasks

Oct 3 • 2:56 PM EDT • Technology • phoronix.com

TLFF 2026 winners announced

Twelve Lions Film Festival wrapped up another year at The Kentucky Theatre Sept. 25-27 with a variety of films from around the state, country and world.

Oct 2 • 12:25 PM EDT • Entertainment • news-graphic.com

New Huntsville Shoppers Seek Experiential Retail, Community Connections

Huntsville’s growth is undeniable, and its thriving retail market clearly reflects this progress. As demographics across the metro area continue to evolve,

Oct 2 • 7:00 AM EDT • Business • huntsvillebusinessjournal.com

WNMU School of Business Reaches Record Enrollment, Earns Top Statewide Rankings

Enrollment at the Western New Mexico University School of Business reached an all-time high this semester with 348 declared majors. The historic record…

Oct 2 • 2:00 AM EDT • Business • wnmu.edu

Last Call for 10.1.26 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics

A digest of the day's politics and policy while the bartender refreshes your drink.

Oct 1 • 6:00 PM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com

Rutgers Experts Available to Discuss Implications of Proposed 2030 Census Changes for Research and Public Health

A proposed Census Bureau rule could change the demographic information collected through the 2030 Census — eliminating questions on race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation — with potential implications for population health research and the use of Census data. The Census Bureau has invited the public to comment on this proposal by October 13, 2026. Rutgers experts available to discuss the proposed changes include Cristine Delnevo, Director of the Rutgers Institute for Nicotine and

Oct 1 • 3:50 PM EDT • Health • newswise.com

Sony brings AI graphics upscaling to the regular PS5

It will be available today in two games.

Oct 1 • 12:53 PM EDT • Technology • theverge.com

Scientists, fishermen want feds to keep funding deep-ocean observation system

New England scientists and fishermen are urging the Trump administration to continue funding the Ocean Observatories Initiative — a network of hundreds of buoys and gliders that collect data from remote parts of the ocean. The National Science Foundation began quietly dismantling the deep-ocean observation system last summer, until the effort was blocked by the U.S. Senate

Oct 1 • 12:20 PM EDT • Science • nenc.news

Hands-On With QSSR: AI-Driven Upscaling for the Standard PS5

Plus: further details from Sony's graphics R&D team.

Oct 1 • 12:04 PM EDT • Technology • digitalfoundry.net

Emergent Names Tom Shelburne Head of Business Development, North America

Five-time Emmy Award winner to bring company’s browser-native broadcast graphics to market

Oct 1 • 11:07 AM EDT • Business • tvtechnology.com

Gears of War: E-Day Performance Benchmark Review

Gears of War: E-Day is a prequel set 14 years before the original game. Built on Unreal Engine 5 with RTX Mega Geometry, DLSS 4.5, FSR 4, XeSS, and ray tracing, we examine graphics quality, VRAM usage, upscaling options, and how it performs across a wide range of modern GPUs.

Oct 1 • 8:55 AM EDT • Technology • techpowerup.com

Apple Stores Receive 'Do Not Open' Boxes Ahead of Smart Home Products Launch

Apple Stores around the world are preparing to install new product presentations starting on Thursday, October 8. Apple retail stores received confidential boxes earlier this week featuring "Do Not Open Until October 8" stickers on them. They are believed to contain new visual merchandise, which enables workers to update labels, graphics, and product layouts in stores around the release of new products.

Oct 1 • 7:59 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com

Mostly, Health Insurers Maintain Medicare Advantage Markets For 2027

Health insurers in privatized Medicare Advantage are for the most part maintaining their 2027 geographic footprints after a multi-year period of retrenchment.

Oct 1 • 7:00 AM EDT • Health • forbes.com

Trump loses favor with crypto fans who call him out for cashing in

The president’s 2024 campaign leaned into crypto to attract young men, a demographic that is deserting Republicans in the midterms.

Oct 1 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com

September Monthly Review: Health MCP Guy?

For all the time I spend talking about APIs and data exchange, this newsletter has had embarrassingly little interoperability of its own. It’s old-school SaaS, baby - UI or bust. Not all of that is my fault! Substack, for all its popularity, is (as mentioned before) really frustrating as my system of record. The primary user it optimizes towards is the reader, whose attention feeds the app, the Notes feed, and the recommendation network that Substack is actually selling. Health API Guy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe They’re falling into the same trap that Medium once sprinted into, albeit at a much more glacial speed. Younger generations may not remember (or never knew) it, but Medium once lured publications like The Ringer and Signal v. Noise onto its platform, only to lose them as it rebuilt itself around a paywall and an algorithmic feed. Substack’s original pitch circa 2020 was the antidote (you own your list), but every new feed feature chips away at it. I get it: writers are generic supply in the eyes of the Substack product team. Generic supply follows demand, so the consistent pressure on the PMs is to generate demand, which leads to every product cycle going toward discovery (Notes, recommendations, the app, live video). The end result lackluster author tools (laggy and broken analytics are truly crippling) all despite the premium price point. The archive is where it crosses from authorial gripes to actual reader impact, though. Across Substack and LinkedIn, I’ve published 1,218 posts and nearly 900,000 words since 2018. Substack’s native search can see only the 464 posts that live on Substack, and even there it’s woefully inadequate at surfacing relevant content (even for the guy who wrote it)! Readers have the same problem, writ large. Ask the Archive Fixing search (for both my readers and my own use) turned out to be extremely non-trivial, unfortunately: There’s no public API for readers to access content RSS exists for new content notification, but it only carries the 20 most recent posts and cuts paid ones off at the preview The only Substack MCP is an admin tool for analytics The export exists for authors, but it’s painfully awkward and slow. So I built something to work around that: the Health API Guy MCP. It’s a private MCP server holding the full text of everything I’ve written across Substack and LinkedIn. Add it to Claude or ChatGPT as a connector and you can ask things like: It pairs keyword search (for acronyms and case names, of which we have many) with semantic search. Every post is also labeled by topic, form, and court case, so you can pull a lawsuit’s (or multiple cases’) entire docket across Substack and LinkedIn in one query: Hail, Healthapiguyhydra This is also a bit of me eating my own cooking. I’ve spent the year arguing that headless healthcare is arriving and that developers want primitives over abstractions. Last week in Hail, Benihydra, I watched Salesforce plug its platform into Claude and bet that the records underneath outlive whatever interface sits on top: Salesforce must believe that the Hydra’s immortal head is the records, permissions, and business logic (in that they will survive whatever happens to the interface). It felt a bit hypocritical to keep my own archive behind a Substack search bar. The archive is the body. Substack is one head, and now whatever tool you might use is another. Will the EHRs follow my lead? Probably not imminently, but one can hope! Why Founding Members Only The MCP is available to Founding Member subscribers. A few reasons: It costs money and time to run. Hosting, the database, Clerk usage and AI compute for search and labeling are significant operational costs (that increase with usage). Substack gives me no way to automate access. There’s no API to check whether someone is a paid subscriber, so every user is manual operations for now. It’s a beta. We’ll need to improve things and parts will break. I’d rather they break for a small group of dedicated readers who will tell me about it. The Founding tier deserved a real benefit. Until now it was mostly a generous tip. Now it comes with something. If you’re already a Founding Member, reply to this email with the address you’d like provisioned. If you’re not and want in, upgrade here. Larger teams (such as companies) can get access too: group subscriptions at the Founding tier come with the group discount. The admin for the subscription can reply with the list of addresses to provision. Get 20% off a group subscription Pricing Founding membership is now a flat $200 a year, replacing the old suggested $150 that readers could adjust. Existing Founding Members will have access grandfathered in at their previous rate. Month in Review Articles Published Make Networks Dumb Again (Sep 11): AI is making old analog networks cheaper to use and flooding them with machine traffic in the process. A plea for agent-native rails with the intelligence at the endpoints, and for Washington to drag them to ubiquity. Interoperability, Unbuttoned (Sep 29): Interoperability is a series of workflows in a trenchcoat, and this post finally takes the trenchcoat off. A color-coded map shows which provider workflows went digital, which are fragmented, and which still run on fax. Video Content Antitrust’s System of Record Problem (Sep 3): The FTC’s investigation into Epic prompted a ninety-minute webinar, now posted with chapters and a smoothed transcript. We get into why market definition, missing B2B share data, and the SSNIP test leave antitrust poorly suited to systems of record, plus why information blocking may be doing more than any pending lawsuit. The Information Exchange: Cerner Milking Edition (Sep 18): This was so fucking fun. Ryan Tucker, Ryan Brickner, Brad Thorson, and I try an Around the Horn format, complete with points, penalties, and a mute button. We debate whether Oracle Health is dead, who would actually buy Cerner (IBM enters the chat), p(Doom), and why the front desk still hands you a clipboard. Regulatory Ask Not What Your Network Can Do (Sep 23): CDC’s RFI on public health data intermediaries lists use cases already served, unevenly, by eCR, lab reporting, IZ Gateway, and syndromic surveillance. The real opportunity sits in one question about AI: a network that can handle the next emergency without another interface project. Court cases Particle v. Epic: The Naughty Schoolteacher (Sep 4): After a summer-long vigil, the answer on Epic’s early summary judgment bid is two paragraphs and a remedial assignment. Particle advances to the next grade, and market definition gets another year of discovery. The Epic Discovery Files (Sep 8): Texas’s motions to compel arrive with a 251-page appendix of requests, objections, and meet-and-confer letters with Cravath. Inside: Epic using generative AI for document review, denied interoperability requests in scope, and Noerr-Pennington raised against lobbying discovery. Epic v. Health Gorilla: “Working as Designed” (Sep 9): Epic wants nothing to do with the data breach MDL, and explaining why puts fresh discovery on the public docket. The spiciest allegation: Health Gorilla told GuardDog to scrub its law firm business from its website instead of cutting off access. Veeva v. Epic: Legal Bypass Surgery (Sep 15): Veeva asks the Wisconsin Supreme Court to skip the Court of Appeals, while law professors and three policy groups line up as amici. Meanwhile, Epic’s lawyers apologize for another round of citation errors, including a quote that never existed. Texas v. Epic: Behind the Black Bars (Sep 17): The court portal served up Epic’s unredacted filings, revealing a $5 million document review budget and the AI workflow behind it. Also inside: the 200-plus company names Texas wants searched, and one very expensive Zoom invitation. OpenEvidence v. Doximity: Consequences Will Follow (Sep 25): OpenEvidence tells the court it will not comply with a discovery order, and its own lawyers at Quinn Emanuel say they won’t defend the choice. Add years of Slack reported unrecoverable, and Rule 37 sanctions come into view. Health Tech Keeps Choosing Violence (Sep 28): Doximity moves to end OpenEvidence’s case, Epic asks Texas to show its work, and a sleepy Audacious Inquiry patent fight sprouts antitrust and information blocking counterclaims. The main event is a long-sealed Cognizant v. Infosys ruling that hints where system of record antitrust claims can survive. EHRs One Verb for Oracle Health (Sep 14): Oracle’s earnings call quantifies every data center to the decimal point, while Oracle Health gets a single verb: “accelerate.” Panning the few healthcare mentions turns up an agentic care management system, a research-to-care ledger play, and the question of whether healthcare gets Larry’s patience. Epic’s Forretress Under Siege (Sep 30): Judy Faulkner tells a panel Epic paused hundreds of projects to harden its software and calls it a “shame,” while a spokesperson insists the roadmap hasn’t changed. Project Glasswing, a Pokémon-branded QAN sprint, and a trove of Jodel grievances reconcile the two Epics and preview the Jevons paradox coming for all software. Industry Analysis Scanning for a Network (Sep 1): Scan.com raises $220M to build the imaging network labs never got, speedrunning Zocdoc’s consumer-to-B2B pivot. Its wedge to network density may be the most American one available: personal injury litigation. The Front Desk Wants the Damn Whole Building (Sep 16): Hello Patient buys Converse Health, pushing its AI front desk into referrals, chart work, and prior auth. The copilot categories keep blurring, and your distribution partner is still your final boss. Cross-industry Comparisons A Different Patchwork Quilt (Sep 10): Healthcare loves to envy open banking, but the US version has no mandate, a toll booth at Chase, and data quality problems of its own. The grass isn’t greener; it’s another American patchwork quilt, and perhaps a worse one. Hail, Benihydra (Sep 21): Salesforce brings its platform into Claude, Slack, and its own agent, inviting the interfaces that might replace it. Cut off one head and more grow back, so long as the records underneath stay put. Living on A Trade Secret Prayer (Sep 22): Six credit unions are suing Fiserv, the Epic of core banking, by claiming their own member records as trade secrets. Banking has no Cures Act, so its lawyers reach for legal alchemy that healthcare has already tried. Other News None this month External Media Nabla Accelerate NYC: I kicked off fall conference season at Nabla’s Accelerate event in New York, where Delphine Groll opened by asking the room to picture the company it wants to become and the one it doesn’t. I liked her framework of bureaucracy, fear, and ego as the blockers. I also love vendor conferences/events in general - different vibe than industry biggies. Healthcare 101 with Nikhil Krishnan: I briefly guest lectured Out-Of-Pocket’s Healthcare 101 class. Appreciated Nikhil’s takeaways cover whether AI doctors can query HIEs, why healthcare’s data-liberation rules beat most industries’, and the hi-res graphic is in the comments. HCN: Epic Probed by the FTC: I joined the HCN guys to talk through the FTC’s investigation into Epic. Cedric’s new hairdo was an unexpected plot twist. The episode also covers MFN drug pricing, healthcare M&A and Eli Lilly’s acquisition streak. Fall Conferences: At eHealth Exchange’s Annual Meeting in Austin on Oct 27, I’ll moderate a panel on the tensions between AI, HIEs, and timely patient access with Jean Ross (Primary Record), Therasa Bell (Kno2), Byron Crowe (Doctronic), and Michael Marchant (Freenome). Here’s the rest of my schedule if you want to meet up: CommonWell (Redwood Shores, CA): Oct 13-14 Will be participating in a fun Jeopardy event Open@Epic (Madison, WI): Oct 20-23 Will be enjoying Verona, Willy Street, and other local adventures eHealth Exchange and Sequoia Project (Austin, TX): Oct 27-29 Yeehaw HLTH (Vegas): Nov 15-18 Groundhog Day, Venetian Edition RSNA (Chicago): Nov 30-Dec 2 See me at “Governing AI in Breast Imaging: What Health Systems Are Actually Doing” Digital Health Counsel 2026 AI Summit (Seattle): December 2-3 Will likely be speaking to a bunch of lawyers about information blocking Posts I Liked ChatGPT’s Epic integration: game changer or nothing burger?: Joshua Liu, MD offers five thoughts on OpenAI’s Epic launch, starting from the point that it rides the same open APIs available to anyone. He argues read-only access leaves ordering to Art and the ambient startups, and asks why HCA is piloting it alongside Commure. He’s sorta a must-follow at this point - consistently excellent, thought-provoking takes. Epic, Lilly, and the Discovery pass: Seth Chaney reads Epic’s first major Discovery deal (with Eli Lilly), as well as its revised developer terms on commercial displays, as the pipe finally opening between EHRs and pharma. Life sciences and health continue to collide. Scott Rossignol on EHR payer platforms and ePA fees: Scott argues the top ambulatory EHR vendors are turning the prior auth mandate into a per-member-per-year toll on payers, for an API whose operating cost has nothing to do with covered lives. His fix is two lines of regulatory text: put the CRD/DTR/PAS certification criteria in the Base EHR definition, and bring payer-facing ePA connectivity under § 170.404’s cost-based fee rules. It’s a good solution. Health API Guy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe

Oct 1 • 4:36 AM EDT • Health • healthapiguy.substack.com

Baystate Health appoints chief of emergency medicine for future Mercy Hospital

Baystate Health has appointed Dr. Daniel Shaw as chief of emergency medicine at the future Baystate Mercy Hospital, the health system announced Wednesday.

Sep 30 • 9:37 PM EDT • Health • wwlp.com