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Jenny McCarthy believes Tom Cruise attempted to ‘lure’ her and Jim Carrey into Scientology
The couple was invited to Cruise’s 2006 wedding to Katie Holmes, where McCarthy was introduced to Scientology leader David Miscavige.
Physicists froze a 'necklace' of atoms — and witnessed a quantum phenomenon predicted 100 years ago
Atoms confined to a single line can bind into clusters called Bethe strings. A new experiment points to a mix of many such clusters, though the evidence is still indirect.
73+ brands dropped new products this month — these are the ones our editors already love from Away, Kindle and more
Amazon’s most itty-bitty e-reader is officially here, along with an automatic pour-over machine from Breville and a Nutrofol hair serum to get rid of split ends.
Antonio Banderas, Nicolas Cage to star in 'True Detective' season 5
Nicolas Cage attends 'The Surfer' photocall at the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 17, 2024, in Cannes, France. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images) | Antonio Banderas
Bastrop looks to boost business in historic downtown
Bastrop officials propose requiring at least 60% of ground-floor storefronts in the Downtown Historic District be used for customer-facing businesses.
Meta updates business terms, sparking AI training fears among news outlets
Tech giant’s revised rules could allow automated scraping across entire websites, legal experts warn
Indigenous Biz Con explores a renaissance in Tribal business, technology and entertainment
Indigenous Biz Con returned for its fifth year Oct. 11-13, bringing Indigenous leaders, entrepreneurs and community members to Milwaukee to explore a potential economic renaissance for Indian Country. The annual conference, held at Potawatomi Casino, featured discussions on the current state and
Indigenous Biz Con explores a renaissance in Tribal business, technology and entertainment
Indigenous Biz Con returned for its fifth year Oct. 11-13, bringing Indigenous leaders, entrepreneurs and community members to Milwaukee to explore a potential economic renaissance for Indian Country. The annual conference, held at Potawatomi Casino, featured discussions on the current state and
Democrats are up in the polls. They’re sick to their stomachs.
Polls show Democrats with a clear path to controlling the House and maybe the Senate. But they have burned before.
A new UNC initiative aims to bring AI tools to rural and low-resource health care clinics
From transcription tools to customer service, many small clinics don't have the bandwidth to navigate AI.
Colorado confirms first child flu death this season, health experts encourage vaccines
From Snack Bags to Sports Drink Sachets: How PepsiCo Shares Packaging Science Across Foods and Beverages
Kaley Cuoco welcomes 2nd daughter with Tom Pelphrey, reveals name
Kaley Cuoco and Tom Pelphrey attend the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on Sept. 14, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. (Monica Schipper/Getty Images)
Hill Country businesses get more time to apply for flood recovery grants as holiday season nears
What a subscription business actually automates when it sets up recurring billing
The word "automatic" in subscription billing can mean two very different things depending on which part of the process it describes.
NBA, sportsbooks reportedly agree to ban certain bets, including parlays involving the under on same player's stats
Robots could boost US manufacturing as America races to keep pace with China, expert says
A Path Robotics executive told FOX Business that automation will be critical to expanding U.S. manufacturing as worker shortages persist and China moves faster to adopt robotics.
Indiana's biggest home game ever will reveal just how far Curt Cignetti has taken the Hoosiers
Napoli must separate McTominay contract negotiations from their midfield plan
Scott McTominay’s reported contract discussions have brought Napoli’s approach to retaining important players back into focus.The immediate temptation is to read every negotiating position as a pr...
ASUS ProArt P16 "RTX Spark" Laptop Review - NVIDIA's First Full PC Platform Brings Powerful AI & Gaming Capabilities
NVIDIA RTX Spark launches with ASUS ProArt P16, featuring N1X SoC, 6144 CUDA cores, & up to 128 GB memory for impressive gaming and AI.
Can AI solve our mental health access problem?
Last week I asked you what worries you most about AI in health. It was close, but your top answer was “AI giving bad health advice.” Last week’s poll results: You’re in good company. This concern was top of mind at a conference I joined at Stanford last week, where researchers, clinicians, and people who build AI systems spent a day debating trust and safety in health AI. Stepping back, I’m also hearing your emerging concerns about AI’s impact on our well-being generally. I see this as a matter of public health, and we’ll take it in pieces as we learn together. Today we’ll focus on AI chatbots used for therapy for mental health. Early this month, Governor Newsom vetoed Senate Bill 903, California’s most ambitious attempt to regulate AI use for mental health. It’s at the center of active debate, and raises the questions patients, family members, citizens, and voters will face as AI moves deeper into health care. Let’s work through it. What is “AI-based therapy”? It’s really two things: purpose-built mental health apps designed to deliver structured support, and general chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini that people increasingly use for emotional support—even if they weren’t built for it. Spoiler alert: I don’t know whether the shift toward AI therapy is good or bad. The evidence isn’t there yet. But I do know it’s already happening, and I have some ideas about how we can roll it out with safety in mind. The therapy dilemma, in a nutshell Mental health challenges are common, and strain health and well-being across populations. Therapy (interactive dialogue with a trained, empathetic practitioner) helps many people heal. The demand for licensed therapists far exceeds the supply in California, and AI-based therapy can narrow that gap. AI-based therapy remains novel, unproven, and not well tested. Right off the bat, we can see we’re dealing with trade-offs here. Since the main driver of demand for therapy from a robot is lack of access to therapy from a human, we’ll start there. It’s too hard to find and afford a human therapist California is short roughly 55,000 licensed, non-prescribing therapists and counselors, about 40% of what we need. Psychiatrists, who rely on talk therapy as a complement to prescribed medications, are even more scarce. Eight counties have none, and density ranges from 1.7 per 100,000 residents in San Benito County, to 68.1 in Marin County. My wife is a psychiatrist in Marin, and even here access is tight. If it’s hard in the best-supplied county, imagine rural Sierra County, or the San Joaquin Valley. In 2024, more than half of Californians who tried to make a mental health appointment struggled to find a provider who took their insurance, compared with 14% for physical health care. When Senate staff posed as “secret shopper” patients and called 120 mental health providers in Medicare Advantage networks, they landed an appointment less than once for every five tries. Insurers pay behavioral health clinicians about 22% less than medical and surgical clinicians for comparable office visits. On top of that, billing denials and prior authorizations hit hardest at the solo and small practices common in mental health. Psychiatrists opt out of Medicare at the highest rate of any specialty. In many places, a cash practice for therapy fills quickly with patients paying $250 or more an hour, with no insurance paperwork at all. Families who can pay cash find providers more easily. Those who rely on insurance, including Medi-Cal enrollees, older adults, rural residents, and non-English speakers, compete for what’s left. So we can’t pretend the human system works, and we can’t blame people for turning to AI for support when they’re in distress. AI is filling the gap It’s estimated that roughly a quarter of AI users use it for mental health support. If you have internet, it’s available 24/7, it’s cheap, and it speaks your language. Uninsured adults are about twice as likely as insured adults to do it (30% vs. 14%). It feels anonymous in ways that may enable people to ask things they’re unsure or embarrassed about. The largely hidden, personal use makes it hard to study whether it’s actually helping people with their mental health issues, but researchers are trying. Does AI therapy work? A 2026 analysis of nearly 40 randomized trials found chatbots showed a real but small reduction in depression symptoms. But most of these trials were compared to an alternative of no therapy, not a human therapist. So the benefit of AI therapy is probably real, but modest, and mostly untested against the alternative of human contact. We need more studies. Serious concerns OpenAI’s own estimate is that more than a million ChatGPT users each week show signs of suicidal planning or intent. These are high stakes encounters, and AI doesn’t always get it right. That’s partly because a chatbot can sound like a therapist, but it has no license, no duty of care, and it’s not clear who to hold accountable when it gets things wrong. AI is also designed to help users in whatever task they’re seeking to accomplish. People may feel like they’re getting therapy, but they’re mainly getting a convincing conversation. It’s easy for an AI companion to wander into gray areas, like playing along with “creative writing” that may be about the user’s own suicidal intent. Courts are driving safety conversations A wave of lawsuits have been filed on behalf of families claiming that chatbots pushed people they loved toward self-harm, including teens who died by suicide. The first settlements came this year. OpenAI is headquartered in San Francisco, and dozens of cases alleging that ChatGPT drove users to suicide or self-harm are now before a San Francisco judge. Character.ai has filed for bankruptcy after several states brought lawsuits accusing the chatbot of pushing dangerous content to kids. But the technology seems to be improving. Last month, an independent evaluation found that newer AI models “almost never endorse suicide.” That’s progress, but our societal appetite for even one preventable death is very low. So how do we move forward? Finding a middle ground Earlier this month the governor vetoed Senate Bill 903, a bill designed to place guardrails on the use of AI for therapy. The bill would have prohibited any AI-based platform from being advertised as psychotherapy, and would have required a licensed professional to review and approve each encounter where AI was used to support therapeutic decisions. Newsom called it overly broad, since even routine screening questions would have needed clinician sign-off. Knowing we’re already short on mental health providers, requiring human review of AI encounters may not relieve our access problems. Still, the answer isn’t no oversight. Here’s one feasible short term solution. Rather than reviewing each encounter, a licensed clinician can design the guardrails: what counts as a crisis, what triggers an immediate handoff to a human, and what gets sampled for audit each month. The AI runs inside that structure. Conversations get checked, failures get reported, and a real clinician owns the framework. Medicine already has models to learn from. The FDA process for rolling out newly approved medications is an example. After a product reaches patients, we keep watching for adverse events. Patient-facing AI needs the same “digital pharmacovigilance”: systematic tracking of harms, near misses, and the types of groups that get hurt and why. It’s also critical that users know that they can reach a human if they’re in crisis. Most chatbots now include messages like these: Bottom line The rush to use unproven AI tools for mental health support is mostly a workaround, a sign of a health system people can’t get into. We need better access to proven care from licensed clinicians. That takes reimbursement that makes accepting insurance viable, and a bigger workforce. But, built and tested well, AI could be part of the answer. It could be the 2 a.m. check-in when no one else is awake, or a way for patients to practice skills their therapist taught them. It could be the first step to get someone the right level of care, and take paperwork off clinicians’ plates so they spend more time with patients. None of this is simple. The SB 903 veto doesn’t end the debate, and the legislature will be back. In the meantime, those of us using these tools need to stay informed, ask hard questions, and hold the companies building them accountable. I’ll try to do my part, and we’ll keep learning together. Love,Matt P.S. If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health challenges, emotional distress, substance use problems, or just needs to talk, call or text 988- you’ll reach a real person— or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7. Dr. Matt Willis is the author of Your Local Epidemiologist in California. A California native, he’s served as a primary care physician, CDC epidemiologist, and public health officer for Marin County, where he guided the pandemic response. He lives in Marin with his family and their dogs, Teddy and Ramona. Thank you Cynthia He, MD, PhD, and Parnika Saxena, MD, for their guidance in preparing this article. Cynthia works in an outpatient mental health clinic, treating patients who have Medi-Cal or, sometimes, no insurance. Parnika works in an inpatient psychiatric unit, treating patients with public or private insurance or self-pay ability. All opinions are their own and do not represent their employers.
Next Week on XBOX: New Games for October 19 to 23
Next Week on XBOX: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Final Fantasy Resonance, We Were Here Tomorrow, and more coming soon!
What's happening at the Waunakee Public Library
Circulation desk—608-849-4217 waupl@waupl.org
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment urges flu vaccine after child death
Beauty-from-within surges with new science, finished products
Beauty-from-within makes a comeback while ingredient research shows benefits for bone and gastrointestinal health.
Durham’s newest shop offers custom apparel with focus on HBCU, Divine Nine gear
The business sells custom clothing and logo embroidering for businesses, schools, community groups, Greek-letter organizations, and others.
Morocco health alert issued due to diphtheria: US Embassy
In the North African country of Morocco, the country’s Ministry of Health reported a small diphtheria outbreak with clusters in multiple regions in Morocco in late September. Moroccan health teams are tracing contacts and providing preventive treatment and vaccines. This has prompted the US Embassy to issue a health alert for U.S. citizens in Morocco. Diphtheria is a serious bacterial infection. It spreads primarily from person to person through coughs and sneezes (respiratory droplets). Most Americans were vaccinated as children and have received Td or TdaP boosters as adults. The risk to U.S. citizens in Morocco remains low. U.S. Citizens may contact their local doctors if they would like immunizations. Embassy officials advise citizens to watch out for the following symptoms: Sore throat or hoarse voice, mild fever, a thick gray or white coating in the throat or nose, swollen neck and trouble swallowing or breathing. If you or a family member has trouble breathing or swallowing, please contact your local doctor. They also advise on the following actions concerning vaccines: Check your vaccination records and your family members’ records. Get a booster if you need one. Adults need a diphtheria booster (Td or Tdap) every 10 years. Make sure your children are up to date on their routine vaccines. Outbreak News Today is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe
Plague is stoppable. The next health threat may not be.
The word plague is scary. Centuries ago, the Black Death killed tens of millions of people and changed the course of history. Plague still kills people around the world, and the word still evokes catastrophe. New fears of plague surfaced on October 2, when a lab worker in Irkutsk, Russia, died of pneumonia. Reports suggested that she may have contracted plague through a laboratory exposure. Understandably, people were alarmed. On October 7, the World Health Organization called for the Russian Federation to be transparent about what it knew. WHO issued an update on October 10. Russian authorities told WHO that testing did not identify plague and that investigations found no laboratory release. WHO said confidence in its risk assessment remained limited and that further clinical, epidemiological, and laboratory information was needed. The cause of the woman’s illness remains unknown, and WHO says a laboratory-associated exposure cannot be excluded. As I explained in a recent interview, this incident is very unlikely to lead to a pandemic. Plague is still active, including in the U.S., which sees a handful of cases each year. But it is a disease we can prevent and treat. Plague doesn’t spread readily, and it responds to antibiotics. The standard response—isolate the patient, trace contacts, and administer antibiotics and monitor for symptoms among contacts for seven days—works. We have even planned for antibiotic-resistant plague. At CDC, we developed a playbook for antibiotic-resistant plague and ran exercises on how to find and stop it. CDC guidance anticipates engineered resistance and recommends two different classes of antibiotics if there’s reason to suspect it. There is no evidence that resistance—or even confirmed plague—is involved in this incident. We have thought through how to address plague, but we’re not ready for the next major health threat that emerges from a lab or from animal spillover to humans. What should concern people is how little stands between the world and the next pathogen to get loose. Since peak COVID, epidemic preparedness has fallen off the political agenda, but the risk is greater than ever. More labs handle dangerous pathogens with more ways to make those pathogens deadlier, and more people live and work in close contact with animals. There are actions we can take now: We need better lab safety in every country. The number of labs that work with dangerous pathogens has increased worldwide over two decades, but there’s no enforceable international standard and no inspection regime; the Biological Weapons Convention, fifty years on, still has no verification mechanism. Labs that study dangerous germs need strong safety systems, training, and oversight. We need to reduce spillover events. Three in four emerging human infections start in animals, and there’s a lot we can do to reduce spillover risk, but the world is doing very little of it. Live-animal markets are one place to act. For instance, closing live-bird markets helped control H7N9 influenza in China. Reducing opportunities for people to encounter infected animals can prevent infections before they become outbreaks. In The Formula for Better Health, which is now out in paperback along with the hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook versions, I argue that labs do too many risky experiments with too many dangerous pathogens in too many institutions, and that every experiment should first answer one basic question: Is the likely benefit greater than the risk? Spillover risk can also be reduced: In the book, I discuss how Brazil cut its deforestation rate by 70% from 2004 to 2012 while increasing agricultural production and reducing risky contact between people and forest animals. We need faster detection and response. Delay costs lives. Strong surveillance, good labs, and trained responders can turn a single case into a small cluster of infections instead of an epidemic. Resolve to Save Lives has worked for nearly a decade to help countries find and stop outbreaks faster. The 7-1-7 target, which Resolve to Save Lives developed with partners in Uganda and elsewhere, provides a clear standard: detect within 7 days, notify within 1 day and complete all essential early response actions within 7 days. In Uganda’s Kasese district, for example, a review of a measles outbreak using 7-1-7 identified shortages of accessible funds, fuel, and vehicles that delayed the response. District leaders established funds they could access quickly. When, a few months later, the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever appeared, the district detected it in three days, notified authorities in one, and mounted an effective response in two. Only one case was confirmed, and the patient survived. Because funds were available before the emergency, authorities were prepared and able to act. This kind of preparation can’t wait until the next crisis begins. Plague is an old disease we that know how to stop. The next threat may be harder to recognize, harder to treat, and easier to spread. Safer labs, less risk of spillover, and faster outbreak detection and response need sustained investment now, while we still have time to prevent the next emergency. Share
Didn't Pre-Order an iPhone Duo Yet? Wait Times Are Significant Now
iPhone Duo pre-orders began today in the U.S. and many other countries. If you have yet to place a pre-order on Apple's online store, however, wait times are longer now. The first customers who pre-ordered right when pre-orders began at 5 a.m. Pacific Time today will have their devices delivered on Friday, October 23. By just 5:20 a.m. Pacific Time though, select configurations on Apple's online store in the U.S. are now showing delivery estimates into late December for new orders.
Patrick Mahomes: Is Kansas City Chiefs quarterback entering Tom Brady-like second half of Hall of Fame career?
Patrick Mahomes is returning from a torn ACL at the end of last season and looks back to his best; will Kansas City Chiefs put together second half of career reminiscent of Tom Brady; watch Chiefs vs Chargers live on Sky Sports on Sunday at 9.25pm
Health experts push for more cancer screenings amid Pope Leo's lung cancer prognosis
Health & Hardware: Injury Updates and Special Teams Solutions
Detroit navigates a devastating season-ending loss to special teams staple Tom Kennedy while leveraging a timely bye week to restore vital playmakers across a battered secondary.
Health & Hardware: Injury Updates and Special Teams Solutions
Detroit navigates a devastating season-ending loss to special teams staple Tom Kennedy while leveraging a timely bye week to restore vital playmakers across a battered secondary.
COSI spotlights fall leaf color science experiment, plus new attractions for all ages
The record and the alternative
Elections involving incumbents offer voters something elections between newcomers cannot: evidence. Tom Sullivan need not tell Senate District 27 voters what kind of legislator he might be. After four years in the Colorado House and nearly four in the Senate, he has accumulated something more revealing than campaign promises. A record. Danielle Lammon offers something […]
East Bay man pleads guilty to robbing business with AR-style paintball gun
Prosecutors say the defendant also admitted to possessing a fully automatic handgun and ammunition in a separate incident.
New White House Press Secretary denies misrepresenting her legal credentials
Dodgers veteran Miguel Rojas pulled before first at-bat in final game of 13-year career
Wildlife biologist launches bear-proofing business to help LA County homeowners
Wildlife biologist creates bear-proofing business to help SoCal residents
Serious Progress: Ethan Taylor Most Surprising to Tom Izzo
A towering five-star freshman is shattering expectations in East Lansing, using elite mobility and reach to challenge veteran lineups while fueling the Spartans’ ambitious Final Four pursuit.
Tidelands Health honors babies lost to miscarriage, stillbirth during remembrance ceremony
Anakin Skywalker actor Jake Lloyd shares rare message to ‘Star Wars’ fans alongside fellow child star from prequels
Jake Lloyd, who starred as Anakin Skywalker in 1999’s ‘The Phantom Menace,’ shares rare message to ‘Star Wars’ fans alongside fellow child star from prequels, Daniel Logan.
Are Dave Roberts’ Decisions Partly Responsible for the Dodgers’ Downfall?
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts doesn't get enough credit for the three World Series rings he has brought to LA. People assume that since the roster is loaded with superstars, wins are automatic. That would be an incorrect assumption. Baseball is a grind, and Roberts still has to push the right buttons. He did …
Elon Musk donates over $150 million to Senate GOP group, assisting Ken Paxton
Political reporter Shaun Boyd gives a Reality Check on an ad attacking Democrat Manny Rutinel
The Kelly Clarkson bird saga continues. Molly is worth $15 million
Kelly Clarkson accused Art of Play of disrespecting her and denying her the sale of a hand-cranked singing automata bird. Store owners set a new $15 million price tag following social media frenzy.
A quantum highway just one atom high could transform superconductors
Scientists discovered that atomic steps just one atom high can guide quantum vortices through superconductors, making them move more than 1,000 times more easily in one direction than another. This remarkable control over quantum motion could lead to a new generation of ultra-efficient superconducting electronics.