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'I'll stand in front of the bulldozers': Veterans protest Trump's arch

Since President Donald Trump first began talking about building a Triumphal Arch in Memorial Circle, it’s been met with criticism from the public, lawmakers and even veterans

Oct 1 • 5:10 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

'I'll stand in front of the bulldozers': Veterans protest Trump's arch

Since President Donald Trump first began talking about building a Triumphal Arch in Memorial Circle, it’s been met with criticism from the public, lawmakers and even veterans

Oct 1 • 5:10 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

Pennsylvania health workers bring vaccines to communities amid measles outbreak

Pennsylvania is seeing its worst measles outbreak since 1991 as health workers bring MMR vaccines to community clinics.

Oct 1 • 3:29 PM EDT • Health • nbcphiladelphia.com

How GTA 6's Jason and Lucia Have Evolved Since 2023 In Pictures

GTA 6 officially releases next month, so we're taking a look at how the game's two protagonists, Jason and Lucia, have evolved since their 2023 reveal.

Oct 1 • 3:09 PM EDT • Technology • ign.com

Cape Cod restaurant hit with threats and fall in business after hosting Republican fundraiser

Ed Medeiros, who owns Montano’s Restaurant, says he’s faced abuse and threats since the event

Oct 1 • 2:35 PM EDT • Business • yahoo.com

How Mainers are weighing the pay-to-play allegation involving Susan Collins

Tom McShane of Windham will likely split his ticket in November. He likes a Republican candidate running for his legislative district but plans to vote for Democrat Troy Jackson for Senate, although reluctantly since his first choice dropped out. His choice in the Senate race is irrespective of the recent corruption allegations against incumbent Republican […]

Oct 1 • 2:28 PM EDT • Politics • mainemorningstar.com

What to know about the U.S. Senate race to replace Sen. Dick Durbin

Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who has served alongside Gov. JB Pritzker since 2018, faces Don Tracy, the former chair of the Illinois Republican Party.

Oct 1 • 1:29 PM EDT • Politics • wbez.org

FEAR IS BIGGER THAN EVER… AND ZERO LATENCY VR HAS THE SCIENCE TO PROVE IT

/PRNewswire/ -- Zero Latency VR, the world's largest and most innovative immersive VR network, is celebrating a double Halloween anniversary: three years since...

Oct 1 • 1:00 PM EDT • Science • prnewswire.com

Bills' Greg Rousseau named AFC Defensive Player of the Month

This marks the first time a Bills defender has been awarded the honor since Jordan Poyer won it in Dec. 2017.

Oct 1 • 12:04 PM EDT • Sports • spectrumlocalnews.com

A Decade of Bernie Sanders’s Transformation of America

It’s been ten years since Bernie Sanders’s first presidential run — a run that transformed the Left and our sense of the possible in this country. It should be remembered as one of the most consequent...

Oct 1 • 10:08 AM EDT • Politics • yahoo.com

As private equity, politics and prediction markets reshape sports, is the press box up to the task?

Sports journalism has sometimes been called the ‘toy department,’ since it was known for less serious reporting. But the sports page has an opportunity to take on a real watchdog

Oct 1 • 9:04 AM EDT • Politics • kdhnews.com

Science or strategy? Researchers call for transparency over the Anthropocene rejection

Since its introduction in 2000, the concept of the Anthropocene—the idea that human activities are the major driver of Earth systems—has become highly influential throughout society, including in culture, ...

Oct 1 • 9:00 AM EDT • Science • phys.org

Miley’s New No. 1 Shows How Much The Album Business Has Changed For Her

Miley Cyrus’ 'Bass Persuades' debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 61,000 units, giving her a sixth leader and first since 2013.

Oct 1 • 8:45 AM EDT • Business • forbes.com

Redpath comes in for Bath's game with Exeter

Bath make seven changes for the visit of Exeter as they prepare for their first home game since June's Prem semi-final defeat.

Oct 1 • 8:02 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Good science requires much more than evidence

Empiricists believe that scientific theories are true only if they make correct empirical predictions: if we can't verify these predictions, then there is no reason to expect that they tell us anything about reality. However, Professor of Philosophy at King's College David Kyle Johnson argues that this is mistaken. In response to Bas van Fraassen, who has written on this subject for the IAI, he argues that we have many reasons for believing a theory to be true, such as it being parsimonious and having large scope — qualities which have been used throughout the history of science as criteria for judging theories. In 2024, Princeton philosopher Bas van Fraassen wrote a short article for IAI News entitled “Science Does not Describe Reality: The Limits and Benefits of Explanation.” At the time, I was working on two projects (a science book and a Great Course) that, when completed, would (among other things) defend science’s ability to describe reality. I wanted to write a response to van Fraassen, but the projects demanded too much of my attention. But now that those projects are complete, I am in a position to explain the objections to van Fraassen’s thesis. Summarizing van Fraassen’s argumentIn a nutshell, his argument is this: What scientists do is make predictions based on theories and then invite others to test to see whether those predictions are borne out. “If theory T is right, result R should happen in experimental condition C.” Many think that running an experiment that shows that R happens in condition C is proof that theory T is true (and should be believed). But, van Fraassen argues, that R happened in condition C is only a reason to think that R happens in condition C. That’s the only observable, or empirical, result we can actually see, so that is all that we are really justified in believing. (The underlying theory that made that prediction still may or may not be true.) That is why he calls those who accept his position “empiricists.”Before I explain what is wrong with this position, let me explain what it gets right. What van Fraassen Gets RightFirst, a theory correctly predicting the results of an experiment is not, strictly speaking, “proof” that the theory is correct. The basic line of reasoning is this:If the theory T is true, result R should happen. Result R did happen. Thus, theory T is true.In other words:“If T then R. R. Thus, T.”This is a deductively invalid, fallacious mode of reasoning, called “affirming the consequent.” Those premises do not guarantee that the conclusion follows. “If I am in Pennsylvania, then I am in the USA. I am in the USA. Thus, I am in Pennsylvania.” Clearly that argument doesn’t guarantee its conclusion; neither does the above argument.However, science is not a deductive method of reasoning; it is an inductive one. And inductive arguments merely try to raise the probability of their conclusion, not “prove” them for certain. Thus, the fact that an experimental result doesn’t prove a theory is true is irrelevant; it’s not supposed to. That is not what scientific reasoning is about.___If the hypothesis that something exists clearly provides the best explanation for what we can observe, then the belief that it exists is what is rational.___Second, it’s also true that a single experimental result doesn’t provide enough justification to believe that a theory is true. Scientists do not come to a consensus about whether a theory is true by looking at a single experiment; they look at all the evidence to determine where the preponderance of evidence points. The mere fact that I am in the USA raises the probability that I am in Pennsylvania, but not nearly enough to conclude that I am in Pennsylvania. However, if I am also regularly encountering people wearing Eagles and Phillies hats and seeing advertisements for Founding Father tours, I probably am. In the same way, a theory successfully predicting the outcome of one experiment is not enough to conclude that it is true; but if a theory makes a wide variety of predictions that are all vindicated by multiple experiments, performed by many different groups and people, all actively trying to prove the theory false (which is what good scientific experiments are designed to do)—that is a good reason to conclude that the theory is true. In other words, if you repeatedly try to prove something false but can’t, that is a very good indication that it isn’t. The problem of underdeterminationIn reply, those whom van Fraassen calls “empiricists” often point to the “problem of underdetermination.” For any given theory that makes successful predictions about what happens in experimental conditions, there are countless other possible theories that make exactly the same predictions—and since they do, the experimental evidence in question is just as much reason to accept any of those theories as it is to accept our original one. Thus, the argument goes, we have no way of knowing whether our original theory is true, or one of the other “predictively equivalent” theories is true. SUGGESTED VIEWING How Occam's Razor changed the world With Johnjoe McFadden As an example of underdetermination, philosophers often offer this example. The evidence of fossils seems to provide reason to conclude that the universe is quite old; ancient fossils are what the “ancient universe” hypothesis predicts. But it’s also possible that God created an ancient-looking universe 200 years ago, complete with a “fake” fossil record for us to find, to make it look old. The existence of fossils is what that theory predicts too. So, the argument goes, the fossil record can’t be used as evidence that the universe is ancient; the fossil record supports the “200-year-old ancient-looking universe” theory just as much. The problem of underdetermination points out that, for any theory with supporting evidence, we could invent another completely different theory that predicts exactly the same evidence, and thus undermine that evidence’s ability to support the original theory.But this “argument from underdetermination” betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what scientific reasoning is and how it works. To explain, let me use another rather strange (but very real and commonly discussed) philosophical thought experiment called “The Grue Problem.” The “Grue” ProblemSuppose I want to know what color emeralds are, so I observe a few, see that they all appear green, and form the theory that “all emeralds are green.” I thus predict that the next 100 emeralds I find will also appear to be green. And let’s say that happens, and so I thus conclude that my theory that all emeralds are green is true. Now, one might rightly point out that I don’t know for sure that all emeralds are green—I have not seen them all. Maybe some I haven’t found yet are blue. Fair enough. After all, we used to think that all swans were white, until we found some black ones. But let’s say that I go on a quest and collect every emerald in the universe—and, for the sake of the argument, let’s say I can do this, and can even know that I have every one of them. So, I collect them all, look at them all, and verify that they all appear green. Can’t I now rightly conclude that all emeralds are green?Inspired by the problem of underdetermination, a friend might argue that I cannot.Sure, they all appear green now—but there could be another kind of color called “grue.” Something is grue if it is green up to a certain point in time, but then spontaneously turns blue. And there could be an infinite number of “shades” of grue. Something that is one shade of grue will turn blue at noon today, but something that is another shade of grue will turn blue at noon tomorrow, etc. So yes, the emeralds appear green now; and since they haven’t turned blue yet, they are not some “past” shade of grue. But they might be some “future” shade of grue (e.g., they may turn blue at noon tomorrow). And since all future shades of grue are consistent with “being green up to this point in time,” the evidence you have is completely consistent with the notion that all emeralds are some future shade of grue, rather than green. Indeed, that they would appear green until now is what the “some future shade of grue” hypothesis predicts. So, we have just as much reason to conclude that all emeralds are some shade of grue as we do to conclude that they are green.You’re probably thinking “It’s not equally possible that the emeralds are grue; they are obviously green.” You are right! But explaining why your instinctive reaction to my friend’s argument is correct will help inform why van Fraassen’s “empiricist” is wrong and science actually does describe reality.The main mistake my friend makes is in thinking that the “empirical evidence” (of all the emeralds appearing green) is (or even should be) all I am using to draw the conclusion that all emeralds are green. It is not. I am also considering known facts about how colors typically work; things don’t usually change color, and when they do, they don’t do so suddenly, without cause, and all at once. So, even though the simple evidence of the emeralds all appearing green up to this point is consistent with them being some future shade of grue—that is even what the grue hypothesis “predicts”—it is still exceedingly unlikely that they are. The hypothesis that they are green is much more likely. Understanding science refutes the problem of underdetermination The misunderstanding about science that the “empiricist” pointing to “the problem of underdetermination” makes is similar to the one that my friend made. Science is not just about considering experimental evidence; in fact, it’s not even just about considering empirical evidence. As Ernan McMullin and many other philosophers of science have pointed out, the inference that makes science is “inference to the best explanation” (sometimes called “abduction” or “retroduction” by McMullin). While, depending on the circumstances, scientists use many different kinds of reasoning, science as a whole is, simply put, the process of considering multiple competing explanations and comparing them to certain criteria—explanatory criteria (the kinds of things explanations must be and do, by definition, to be a good explanation)—to see which explanation is the best.And these criteria do not deal only with empirical results. Yes, successful predictions raise the probability of a hypothesis, but it’s also the case that the more new assumptions a theory makes, the less likely it is to be true; every new assumption presents an opportunity for the theory to be false. (The fewer assumptions a theory makes, the simpler or “more parsimonious” it is said to be.) Likewise, the more existing evidence a theory contradicts, the less likely it is, because in order for a theory to be true, every piece of evidence it contradicts has to be somehow faulty. (The fewer established theories a new theory contradicts, the more “conservative” it is said to be.) And, obviously, the more something explains, the better explanation it is. (This is called having “scope.”) If a theory raises unanswerable questions, it’s not expanding our understanding, and thus is not wide-scoping. Scientists consider all these things when deciding which theory to accept, because the theory that adheres best to these explanatory criteria is most likely to be true.___the mere fact that a theory’s predictive success is why it “sticks around” or “becomes accepted” in the scientific community is not a reason to be skeptical about its truth.___The reason the grue hypothesis is no good is because it invents an entirely new kind of color—not just a new shade, but an entirely different category of color (a different way colors work)—and thus is not parsimonious. It raises unanswerable questions about how and why emeralds would just spontaneously change from green to blue (and thus does not have wide scope). And it contradicts what is already well established about how color works (and thus is unconservative).The theories that the problem of underdetermination points to do the same thing. Yes, the theory that God created an “ancient-looking universe” (complete with an ancient-looking fossil record) two hundred years ago is also consistent with the empirical evidence (of a fossil record) that presently exists; but that theory is monumentally unparsimonious (it requires many extra assumptions about infinite entities) and not wide-scoping (it raises unanswerable questions about why God would do such a thing). So, I can rationally conclude that it is false.Indeed, the history of science includes many examples of theories that were rejected because they lacked parsimony and/or scope, even before their falsity (and the truth of their competing theory) was confirmed by observation. As I point out in my book, geocentrism was rejected by the scientific community because it lacked parsimony, almost 200 years before the observation of parallax confirmed that the Earth moves around the sun. And the continuum theory of matter was completely rejected by 1860, because it couldn’t explain chemical reactions or organize matter into a periodic table, even though the experiments that eventually confirmed atomic theory weren’t even proposed until the 1870s. Solving the best of a bad lot problemIn response, the “empiricists” are likely to object, this time pointing to the “best of a bad lot” problem. “We have no reason to conclude that an explanation that has been shown to be better than others is true because we have no guarantee that the true theory was among those that we were considering.” If you have a “lot” (a collection) of poor explanations, even the best one is not true.The responses to this problem, however, are numerous. Peter Lipton argues that the set of hypotheses that scientists consider are not just randomly selected and thus unlikely to contain a theory that is true; they use existing knowledge to home in on what is most likely to be true. A doctor trying to explain abdominal pain is not going to bother wondering whether demons are causing it; they are going to stick with things like appendicitis and kidney stones, because they are most likely. Further, despite its name, inference to the best explanation is not just the process of comparing hypotheses and accepting the best one; we also want one that is a good explanation in its own right. If it’s not, we are going to keep looking until we find an explanation that is. And while that process does not guarantee that we will come across the exact truth, it’s very likely that the theory that emerges as the best will be at least approximately true, and thus we will be justified in believing it. And lastly, as I point out in my book, although many theories not based in scientific evidence (like geocentrism and continuum theory) have been completely overturned, science almost always progresses by the refinement of scientifically established theories—not their replacement. (Although our sun is not the center of the universe, heliocentrism was our first step in understanding the Earth’s true place in the universe.) So even if a theory we accept today may not be completely right, accepting it is a step on the journey toward the complete truth. The example of atomic theoryNow, it’s worth pointing out that most empiricists are not skeptical of all scientific theories; they are only skeptical of the ones that hypothesize the existence of “unobservables.” It’s not like they think that round Earth, heliocentrism, and germ theory are just useful (but untrue) “instruments” for making predictions about how to most efficiently navigate the seas, predict planetary motion, and treat diseases. They admit that the Earth actually is round, that the planets revolve around the sun, and that germs exist and cause disease. These facts and entities can be observed; the theories that suggest they exist are true. It’s only when theories start hypothesizing the existence of unobservables—like electrons, or quantum fields—that can’t be observed directly, that we should start doubting the theories’ truth. And to be fair to van Fraassen, in this published work, he doesn’t really say that we should doubt the truth of such theories. Only that scientific reasoning does not rationally force us to accept them as true. Skepticism, or agnosticism, he argues, is warranted. SUGGESTED READING Science is based in metaphor By Andrew Reynolds But the history of atomic theory throws a monkey wrench into that argument. Atoms used to be unobservable; again, scientists first accepted the theory that they exist because it had such grandiose explanatory power. But then atoms were seen with electron microscopes. They thus moved into the category of the observable. But this didn’t substantially change anything about what scientists were justified in believing; it certainly didn’t change any “atomic skeptics’” minds. It just confirmed what everyone already knew! If the hypothesis that something exists clearly provides the best explanation for what we can observe, then the belief that it exists is what is rational. The fact that the thing itself is not technically observable does not make doubting its existence rational.What’s more, the atoms were seen with an electron microscope. But electrons are themselves unobservable. How can an electron microscope reveal an atom if electrons are not real? This leads us to what is famously known as Hilary Putnam’s “miracle argument.” It’s (not) a miraclePhilosopher Hilary Putnam’s miracle argument is somewhat famous. Basically, he argued that a scientific theory being able to repeatedly make successful predictions—even about unobservables—without being at least approximately true would require a “miracle.” In other words, it would be such an improbable occurrence that it could not rationally be believed—the better explanation for why scientific theories about unobservables make the right predictions is because the unobservable entities and structures they hypothesize exist.Van Fraassen has addressed this argument. Indeed, in his original article, where he references Alison Gopnik’s point about orgasms not being “necessary for procreation” even though the desire for orgasm “drives the creation of progeny,” he is pointing to his own argument about how organisms are not naturally selected by evolution to get true beliefs; to the extent that belief-forming processes are selected for, the ones that are selected are the ones that are useful for survival—not the ones that produce true beliefs. In the same way, van Fraassen argues, scientific theories are accepted, not because they are true, but because they aren’t falsified; they make successful predictions; that’s what makes them “stick around.” So, the fact that they make successful predictions (and thus became accepted) is not a reason to think they are true.This argument is similar to C. S. Lewis’s “argument from reason,” which he used to argue against evolution: “The truth of evolution undercuts our ability to know that it is true.” Lewis’ argument famously failed; Elizabeth Anscombe, by Lewis’s own admission, demolished Lewis in a debate on the topic, and I have explained elsewhere why modified versions of the argument fail as well. In short, it’s because it fails to recognize that a belief-forming process can make an organism more likely to survive because it reliably produces true beliefs. It is therefore not the case that beliefs generated by naturally selected belief-forming processes are automatically false or unjustified.In the same way, the reason a theory “sticks around” could be because it’s not falsified, because it “makes correct predictions.” But the reason it makes correct predictions is most likely because it is true. (In pointing this out, I am echoing the arguments of Musgrave, Lipton, Psillos, and Kitcher, who refuted van Fraassen’s argument and analogy long before his 2024 article.) It would be a huge coincidence that it could do so without being true. And that is the point of Putnam’s miracle argument. Thus, contrary to van Fraassen’s suggestion, the mere fact that a theory’s predictive success is why it “sticks around” or “becomes accepted” in the scientific community is not a reason to be skeptical about its truth. ConclusionLet me close by saying something about the fact that empiricists don’t doubt the truth of all scientific theories, just the ones that hypothesize unobservables. In today’s society, this theory is dangerous to espouse publicly. The nuance between being skeptical about all of science, and just the highly technical theories about unobservables, is guaranteed to be lost to the average reader. And there is so much unjustified skepticism and doubt about the findings of science and experts that a headline like “Science Does Not Describe Reality” could easily fuel the anti-science movement, worsen climate change denial and cause the next pandemic.This is why I believe it was important to still respond to van Fraassen’s article, a full two years after he wrote it. Not only, as I have argued, does it represent a philosophically inaccurate view of how scientific reasoning works and what scientific reasoning can do, but it is a dangerous view to boot. It should thus be rejected.

Oct 1 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • iai.tv

Is 'time a healer' for O'Neill over Celtic future?

Will Martin O'Neill still be in charge when Celtic resume Premiership action away to Motherwell on 11 October? With O'Neill having said he would consider his future when Celtic headed into the international break on the back of three successive defeats - two of them to Rangers - there has been precious little from the club since. Chief executive Michael Nicholson's message of support nine days ago, which was tucked away in the club's annual accounts statement, hinted at O'Neill staying put.

Oct 1 • 7:17 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Political climate has so soured for GOP, even Mississippi Democrats are hopeful

A Democrat hasn’t won a Senate race in the state since 1982, but a young district attorney has a message for party officials and donors: “If we try, we win these voters.”

Oct 1 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com

What The PENN Entertainment Bears Got Right, And Where It Is Playing Out Again

If you backed PENN Entertainment on the promise of ESPN integration and riverboat-to-land projects transforming the business, the ride since last autumn has been rough. For PENN Entertainment shareholders, the loss over the past year was 23.5%, including dividends. If you were weighing a purchase in late September 2025, with analysts split between upbeat ESPN-led growth and caution over regulation, debt and weak Interactive economics, which of those specific assumptions most clearly missed...

Oct 1 • 5:17 AM EDT • Entertainment • simplywall.st

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

Case Mgmt Profiles – Broward Health Imperial Point – Claudia Wenger, RN

For Claudia Wenger, RN, case management is about seeing the whole picture and helping patients and families find their way forward. A nurse since 1990, Wenger spent years at the bedside, gaining experience throughout the hospital on medical-surgical floors, the ICU and emergency room, before transitioning to case management 20 years ago. That clinical experience […]

Oct 1 • 1:03 AM EDT • Health • southfloridahospitalnews.com

Memorial Healthcare System Announces Leadership Promotions at Two Hospitals

Memorial Healthcare System has announced two leadership promotions, naming Felicia Turnley CEO of Memorial Hospital Miramar and Stephen Demers CEO of Memorial Hospital West. Turnley currently serves as CEO of Memorial Hospital Pembroke, while Demers has served as CEO of Memorial Hospital Miramar since 2023. Both leaders bring extensive healthcare leadership experience and a strong […]

Oct 1 • 1:01 AM EDT • Health • southfloridahospitalnews.com

John Cunha, DO, FACOEP, Appointed Permanent Chief Medical Officer of Holy Cross Health

John Cunha, DO, FACOEP, has been named the permanent Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Holy Cross Health. Dr. Cunha brings more than 20 years of clinical and administrative experience to this role. Since joining the Holy Cross Emergency Physician Group in 2006, he has served as Vice Chair of the Emergency Department since 2016 and […]

Oct 1 • 1:01 AM EDT • Health • southfloridahospitalnews.com

History a factor in Nebraska softball’s next games against Omaha

Nebraska softball has won its first two games of their season against Kansas and is set to play against UNO for the first time since April. The Huskers face Omaha on Sunday, Oct. 4, at Bowlin Stadium.

Oct 1 • 1:00 AM EDT • Sports • dailynebraskan.com

Man City scandal risks damage to Premier League's booming brand

The Premier League has won a lengthy legal battle with Manchester City over financial impropriety, but the consequences could leave lasting damage for a league that has long since become the envy of world football.But the damage may not be limited to City alone with an entire era of the Premier League now under a cloud.

Sep 30 • 11:08 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

UTD political science professor Robert Lowry dies after battle with cancer

Robert C. Lowry, a professor of political science in UTD’s School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, died Tuesday night after battling cancer since last spring, according to professor Thomas Brunell. Lowry joined UTD in 2006 and previously served as associate head and head of the Political Science Program and director of graduate studies. He...

Sep 30 • 11:01 PM EDT • Science • utdmercury.com

White Sox pounce early, finish sweep of Astros for first playoff series win since 2005

Houston ace Hunter Brown was lifted after getting just two outs and wasn’t helped by a sloppy defense, which committed two first-inning errors.

Sep 30 • 9:59 PM EDT • Sports • houstonpublicmedia.org

Open Thread: Colorado Avalanche vs. LA Kings (8 p.m. MT)

I think we will do open threads a little differently this year, now that the new SB Nation app offers real-time updates! We will still drop the need-to-knows here (lineups, where to watch/listen, etc.), but we’ll keep it brief early and update as the game progresses! It’s been 127 days since the Colorado Avalanche last […]

Sep 30 • 9:00 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Kevin Huerter Has Been Fighting the Kyle Korver Label

Kevin Huerter has heard the same comparison since college, and he says Detroit is where he finally answers it. #Pistons

Sep 30 • 8:20 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Pennsylvania confirms fifth measles-associated death as US outbreak grows

Cases have more than doubled since August as a dispute with federal health officials over the death count continues.

Sep 30 • 7:31 PM EDT • Health • aljazeera.com

49ers Emerge as Potential Trade Destination for Cardinals Veteran

The San Francisco 49ers need pass-rush help after losing Nick Bosa for multiple weeks to a calf injury. Even before losing him, the Niners likely still needed help, since Bosa is their only reliable edge rusher. San Francisco did sign veteran defensive end Matthew Judon to the practice squad. Nonetheless, the Niners are rolling the […] The post 49ers Emerge as Potential Trade Destination for Cardinals Veteran appeared first on HEAVY.

Sep 30 • 7:30 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Looking at the Ugly Side of the Paramount-Skydance Merger...And How I’d Fix It

A Message from Our Sponsor Certified Fresh with 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, FX’s Adults is an ensemble comedy series about a group of twenty-somethings in New York leaning on each other to navigate love, work, friendship and family. Don’t sleep on “The Sitcom of the Moment” - Awards Buzz All Episodes now streaming on Hulu on Disney+. Watch The Teaser Trailer... (Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industr(Welcome to the “Most Important Story of the Week”, my bi-weekly strategy column analyzing the most important (but often not buzziest) news story of the last two weeks. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. Please subscribe.) Before we dive in, I wanted to congratulate Broadcast Now for being the first to report that Netflix’s How to Get to Heaven from Belfast has been cancelled. (I saw this in a write-up by Kasey Moore of Whats-On-Netflix.) More importantly, I wanted to note that, as of yesterday, none of the other trades had reported the news yet. I have half a guess that eventually one of them will report this. Anyways, it’s time to take a break from my deluge of streaming ratings reports to continue my analysis of the Paramount Skydance Warner Bros. Discovery (PSWbD) saga. As I noted last week, a lot of times when folks use the (sometimes cliched) “the good, the bad and the ugly” framing for an article, “the ugly” section is just more bad. Or very, very bad. In this case, yeah, I do think it’s ugly. In more than one way. Unfortunately, we’re only going to have time to tackle one of those ways today: the ugly pile of debt to finance this deal. (In a future article, I may cover the entire process for how it went down, which was very, very ugly.) Last issue, I explained why I liked this deal in a vacuum. Unfortunately, “vacuums” don’t exist outside of space. Let’s dive in. Subscribe Most Important Story of the Week - The Ugliness of the Paramount/Warner Bros. Merger More than one person sent me a note speculating that the big problem with Paramount Skydance buying Warner Bros. Discovery is the “Warner Bros.” portion of the deal. In fact, that’s a take I read a lot about Warner Bros., ever since they caught Netflix’s, and then Paramount-Skydance’s, eye. In short, multiple companies (Time, AOL, AT&T, Discovery) have bought and then regretted buying Warner Bros. Since it’s nearing Halloween, you could almost say it’s like the folks think WB is cursed! It’s a haunted studio—like the town of Derry in movie studio form—and whoever takes possession of it will fall into misery! Yet...I just don’t like that story, because it doesn’t explain the “why” behind why those deals fell through. Especially when Warner Bros. has continued to succeed as a TV and film studio in the intervening two decades. Lord of the Rings? Harry Potter? Game of Thrones? Everything HBO? Considering it never fully owned a broadcast TV channel, this media company has done pretty well. So what went wrong? Well, in recent years, companies bought Warner Bros. instead of the other, smarter option. Explaining POCD (And Applying It to Mergers & Acquisitions) As I explained last issue, one of my favorite frameworks is the POCD tool for evaluating venture capital investments: People Opportunity Context Deal The bar to invest as a VC is high. (Or I might say “was” since cheap interest rates made life easier last decade.) You review a thousand prospectuses, get pitched by a hundred, and invest in the ten best, with the hopes that one of those ten would pay for the rest. That means every element of a deal needed to pay off: you needed the right people running the companies, who could capitalize on the right opportunity, in the context of an industry that was ripe for disruption. If you could then not overpay, you could make some money in a smart deal. The analogy isn’t perfect here, but close enough. For a merger or acquisition to work, you need the combined company (which is the opportunity) to make more than the price you need to pay (which is the deal). Note: the people and context still matter, but with M&A, it’s a little more straightforward: does the opportunity exceed the cost? And usually with Warner Bros., it hasn’t. If you want to find out the single biggest mistake made by the Warner Bros. suitors over the last few years (and my simple fix) become a paid subscriber. I’ll also touch on who I think Paramount-Skydance could (shockingly) consider buying next, TBD, and more. Sign up here.

Sep 30 • 6:41 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

Business owners and residents ready for major Capitol Drive construction project to end

A four-mile stretch of Capitol Drive in Waukesha and Milwaukee counties is in its final weeks of a resurfacing project that has frustrated drivers and businesses since March.

Sep 30 • 6:02 PM EDT • Business • tmj4.com

Puka Nacua expected to play against Eagles

Nacua has not played since Week 1

Sep 30 • 5:33 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

More Than a Game: How Baseball Became a Classroom

Since 2012, Resolution Copper and the Arizona Diamondbacks have worked together to create opportunities for Arizona youth, educators and communities. What started with Science of Baseball has grown into teacher workshops, hands-on STEM experiences, youth baseball clinics, Tribal youth programming and community recreation.

Sep 30 • 4:47 PM EDT • Science • resolutioncopper.com

Disney Entertainment TV Comms Chief Naomi Bulochnikov-Paul Departing

She has been with the company since 2017.

Sep 30 • 4:18 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

Disney Comms Executive Naomi Bulochnikov-Paul Departing

She has been with the company since 2017.

Sep 30 • 4:18 PM EDT • Entertainment • hollywoodreporter.com

Sandhills Community College Small Business Center expands to Moore and Hoke Counties

Small Business Center Director, Laura Kinsman. Photo provided by: SCCSandhills Community College (SCC) is launching a redesigned Small Business Center model that expands no-cost entrepreneurial support across Moore and Hoke Counties. Rooted in the College’s commitment to strengthening small businesses and entrepreneurship as drivers of economic growth, the enhanced model is led by recently appointed Small Business Center Director, Laura Kinsman. The model also includes two new Senior Business Advisors who will provide trusted expertise, stronger community connections, and individualized guidance to entrepreneurs and business owners throughout the region.Kinsman brings a unique perspective to the director’s role as both a local business owner, operating in downtown Southern Pines, and a former Moore County educator. “Her combination of education, business ownership, leadership, and community involvement make her a great fit for the Small Business Center and the work we are continuing to build across Moore and Hoke counties,” said Taylor L. McCaskill, senior director of Workforce Development & Corporate Partnerships in a press release.Kinsman is an active member of the Southern Pines Business Association and has been connected to the Sandhills Small Business Center since the beginning of her entrepreneurial journey. She looks forward to building on that experience by strengthening the Center’s partnerships and expanding its connections throughout the community.She will lead the Center's efforts to support entrepreneurs and business owners throughout Moore and Hoke County and be the connector to the North Carolina Community College System Small Business Center Network operations. The Center offers no-cost, confidential one-on-one counseling, practical workshops, and connections to the resources and partners that help local businesses start, grow, and create jobs.A key part of this new approach, only offered at SCC, is a network of Senior Business Advisors, experienced professionals who will provide individualized guidance in areas such as business planning, finance, marketing, operations, growth strategy, and problem-solving. These advisors will serve as trusted partners to entrepreneurs and business owners, helping them turn ideas into action, overcome barriers, strengthen existing businesses, and pursue new opportunities. This one-on-one counseling is available at no cost, ensuring that high-quality business support is accessible to entrepreneurs at every stage.Senior Business Advisor for Hoke County, Kenna Parks. Photo provided by: SCCKenna Parks has been named the senior business advisor for Hoke County. She is a business professional, entrepreneur, and educator who brings a unique combination of academic training and real-world business experience. She earned her Master of Business Administration (MBA) in 2017 and has built her career around entrepreneurship, marketing, business development, and helping others turn ideas into sustainable opportunities.Senior Business Advisor for Moore County, Katrin Henderson. Photo provided by: SCCAs a military spouse, she has successfully launched and operated businesses across five states, giving her firsthand experience in adapting to diverse markets, building new customer bases and understanding the importance of global reach in today’s business environment. Over the last decade, her areas of focus include business planning, marketing strategy, branding, customer development, financial preparedness, operational planning and connecting entrepreneurs with educational programs and community resources.Parks brings an especially valuable perspective to business advising because she is an entrepreneur herself. She is the owner of Glamo Society Bridal & Formal Wear in Raeford, N.C., giving her firsthand experience with the realities of launching, operating, marketing and growing a small business. She understands that entrepreneurship extends far beyond developing a great idea; it requires strategy, financial awareness, adaptability, strong customer relationships, and consistent execution.Katrin Henderson will serve as the senior business advisor for Moore County. Thriving in hospitality and retail, Henderson has enjoyed positions in Food & Beverage Management and Retail Management in various fine dining and retail establishments in the area, before opening her own children's shop in 2015, in the Village of Pinehurst. She is a native of Moore County.Quickly immersing herself in this new world of small business ownership, Henderson joined various boards and committees, including President Elect of Pinehurst Business Partners and Event Chair for the Holly Arts & Crafts Festival. She also partnered with local organizations such as Moore County Economic Development and Moore County Chamber of Commerce and Sandhills Community College Small Business Center in events and educational opportunities. In 2026, Henderson sold her shop and now offers full-time support to both new and seasoned entrepreneurs through freelance consulting mentorship and the SCC Small Business Center program.The Small Business Center team is passionate about making business resources more accessible, and ensuring entrepreneurs know they do not have to navigate business ownership alone. Through their work with SCC, they are committed to building meaningful relationships with local businesses, community organizations, and industry partners while helping entrepreneurs move from idea to strategy, strategy to action, and action to sustainable growth.“Sandhills Community College believes deeply in the power of small business and entrepreneurship because strong local businesses create jobs, spark innovation, generate investment, and strengthen the communities we serve,” said McCaskill in press release. “Through this new Small Business Center model, Sandhills is building a stronger ecosystem where entrepreneurs can connect, grow, and thrive, while helping drive long-term economic vitality throughout our region.”To learn more about the Center's services or to schedule a consultation, please contact Kinsman directly at kinsmanl@sandhills.edu or 910-695-3938.

Sep 30 • 3:46 PM EDT • Business • bizfayetteville.com

A Democrat hasn’t won a South Carolina Senate seat since 1998. A pediatrician thinks she can change that.

Sep 30 • 1:39 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com

WNBA turns in best regular-season viewership since 2000

The WNBA continues to bring in new fans.

Sep 30 • 12:37 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Ken Griffin’s $3B Carnegie Mellon plan turbocharges Miami transformation

Since leaving Chicago in 2022, Griffin has taken dramatic steps to make his presence felt in Miami.

Sep 30 • 12:08 PM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com

Lil Nas X Announces New Single, Shares Inspirational Voicemail He Received After Mental Health Rehab Stint: ‘Don’t Give Up, Never Give Up’

The first update from the "Montero" star since June ends with him holding up a sign that reads "World's Greatest," the title of his single due out on Thursday (Oct. 1).

Sep 30 • 12:05 PM EDT • Health • yahoo.com

Djokovic wins first match since Wimbledon in China

Novak Djokovic beats Nuno Borges at the China Open to secure his first win since reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals in July.

Sep 30 • 11:02 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Steven Spielberg's 'Disclosure Day' Returns Atop Weekly U.K. Home Entertainment Sales Chart Through Sept. 30

Universal’s Disclosure Day returned atop of the Official Film Chart, the weekly U.K. home entertainment sales chart through Sept. 30, for the first time since reaching No. 1 in August. Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson and Colman Domingo, the sci-fi thriller has been on the sales … Continue reading "Steven Spielberg’s ‘Disclosure Day’ Returns Atop Weekly U.K. Home Entertainment Sales Chart Through Sept. 30"

Sep 30 • 11:01 AM EDT • Entertainment • mediaplaynews.com

Iowa Football: Numbers To Know Ahead Of Ohio State

This will be just Ohio State's third trip to Kinnick Stadium since 2010.

Sep 30 • 10:45 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Cyber Insurance Adoption Surges Among Mid-Market Businesses While Small Firms Lag Behind

Mid-market business cyber insurance purchases jumped 34 percentage points since 2024 even as small businesses remain stalled at 42% adoption, according to Nationwide survey.

Sep 30 • 9:50 AM EDT • Business • riskandinsurance.com

Paxton making 'very risky' move by declining to debate Talarico

Every Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Texas since 2002 has agreed to at least one debate. One expert says it’s a very risky move to pass up the opportunity to make up ground with James...

Sep 30 • 9:48 AM EDT • Politics • houstonchronicle.com

Donor dashboard illuminates utility sector political contributions

A new dashboard from the clean energy coalition Mass Power Forward reveals that current Massachusetts lawmakers have received over $223,000 in campaign donations from high-level utility employees since 2002.

Sep 30 • 9:09 AM EDT • Politics • wwlp.com

Retired early and sold our house; traveling the world in our 50s

My husband and I sold our house and belongings and retired earlier than planned. We've been traveling the world ever since, and have no regrets.

Sep 30 • 9:07 AM EDT • Technology • businessinsider.com

Demanding schedule will gauge Hearts progress

With the domestic season on pause, it is time for Hearts to take a breath and reflect on what has been a whirlwind start to the season. For new head coach Wouter Vrancken, there was precious little time to settle in before the European qualifiers arrived in mid-July. Since then, Hearts have played 15 matches in just 61 days with a record of six wins, four draws and five defeats.

Sep 30 • 9:03 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

With the Sox and Cubs both in the playoffs, sports bars are busier than ever: ‘It’s great for everyone’

For the first time since the shortened 2020 season, both of the Windy City’s baseball teams have nabbed a spot in the Major League Baseball postseason. Fans across Chicago, from the North Side, South Side and beyond, are ecstatic. No one, however, is more eager than the local sports bars. “It’s amazing,” said Carolyn Mitchell, who owns Mitchell’s Tap. The White Sox and the Cubs had their first ...

Sep 30 • 6:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Xbox’s Millennial C.E.O., Asha Sharma, Isn’t Playing Around

“I think the industry will require disruption,” said Asha Sharma, who has overseen layoffs and divested studios since inheriting Microsoft’s flailing video game division.

Sep 30 • 5:00 AM EDT • Technology • nytimes.com

'Revolutionary scenario' - German women's Bundesliga mulls play-offs

The German women's Bundesliga is considering introducing play-offs for the championship, promotion and relegation after launching the sale of media rights for the first time since announcing a split from the German Football Federation. The split will fully come into force at the start of next season and the Bundesliga has issued TV rights tenders including a "revolutionary scenario" featuring play-off games for the first time.

Sep 30 • 4:48 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Liverpool handed golden opportunity to finally unleash £34m star

Liverpool spent a lot of money trying to upgrade their first-team squad in the summer. Bradley Barcola was obviously their marquee signing of the window and, since he's only been a Liverpool play for ...

Sep 30 • 4:40 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

State health officials back mental health first aid training at colleges, universities

By Skye Crawford Key Takeaways: When she was growing up in rural southeastern North Carolina, Alicia Freeman saw people whose mental health and substance use concerns went untreated because her area had very few resources to help them. Freeman, who’s been at UNC Chapel Hill since 2019, said watching her community members struggle is part […]

Sep 30 • 4:00 AM EDT • Health • northcarolinahealthnews.org

Bayern hold talks with Olise over his public image

Michael Olise has made headlines not only for his performances on the pitch but also for his unusual public appearances since joining Bayern Munich from Crystal Palace in 2024.The 24-year-old tends to...

Sep 30 • 3:29 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Tom Cruise, Alejandro G. Iñárritu Talk Digger at Academy Museum

“I was very successful since I was a kid,” Cruise told a packed Academy Museum screening. With his latest film, the actor, and Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, are putting that star power to the test.

Sep 30 • 2:47 AM EDT • Business • hollywoodreporter.com

‘He Could Be a Cheaper Option’ — Sports Media Expert Theorizes ESPN May Be Planning to Replace Troy Aikman With 3-Time Pro Bowler

The longest-standing broadcast partnership in NFL history may be approaching a crossroads, and one media analyst has floated three-time Pro Bowler Greg Olsen as a possible option for ESPN if Troy Aikman departs. When Troy Aikman, the on-air partner of Joe Buck since 2002, revealed on the “Sports Media with Richard Deitsch” podcast that he has not signed a contract extension with ESPN, rumors swirled.

Sep 30 • 1:35 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Ryan O’Reilly’s Future With Nashville Predators Uncertain

While there has been a lot of change with the Nashville Predators this summer, there could be more this season.Veteran forward Ryan O’Reilly is entering the final year of a $18 million deal and may not be part of the leadership corps sometime this season.He has been an assistant captain for the franchise since his […] The post Ryan O’Reilly’s Future With Nashville Predators Uncertain appeared first on HEAVY.

Sep 30 • 12:33 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

UMich computer science no longer requires specialized applications

Data provided shows a declining number of computer science major declarations at the University since 2023.

Sep 29 • 11:55 PM EDT • Science • michigandaily.com

Science begins for Smile

On 23 September, the European-Chinese Smile mission was declared ready to start revealing how Earth responds to the wind of charged particles from the Sun. This follows a busy in-space commissioning period since the spacecraft launched on 19 May and reached its target orbit for science operations on 20 June.

Sep 29 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • esa.int

With no FEMA funding, program supporting LA fire victims set to sunset

Since the fires, CORE has helped 904 households, has hundreds of active cases it’s working on, and hundreds more on a wait list

Sep 29 • 7:53 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

With no FEMA funding, program supporting LA fire victims set to sunset

Since the fires, CORE has helped 904 households, has hundreds of active cases it’s working on, and hundreds more on a wait list

Sep 29 • 7:53 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

UK business morale hits 17-month low, Lloyds says

British firms turned the least confident since April 2025 in September, according to ​a Lloyds survey on Wednesday that also ‌showed executives' view of the global economic outlook darkened as the Iran war pushes up costs.

Sep 29 • 7:02 PM EDT • Business • reuters.com

Why Neon put a Korean-language thriller in 1,500 US theaters

LOS ANGELES — Director Na Hong-jin’s action movie “Hope” opened in 1,500 U.S. cinemas this month, marking the biggest domestic theatrical footprint for a Korean-language film since the Academy Award-winning

Sep 29 • 3:45 PM EDT • Entertainment • recorderonline.com

'Chaos and uncertainty'

If you had the impression that the saga over Manchester City's 115 charges was almost over, think again. Two years since the hearing began, the Premier League has confirmed that City have been found guilty of all charges related to breaches of its financial rules between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons. City have said they are "innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League" and would pursue "appeal avenues open to it, on the basis that the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe."

Sep 29 • 1:56 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Jasmine Crockett’s PAC released new endorsements. Talarico is still not on the list.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett has stepped back from Texas’s high-profile Senate race since losing the Democratic primary in March.

Sep 29 • 12:00 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com

Kon Knueppel Opens Up About New Hornets Teammate Naz Reid

Kon Knueppel has barely worked with Naz Reid on the court since Charlotte's LaMelo Ball trade, but he likes what he has seen from his new teammate.

Sep 29 • 8:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Ukraine’s Academy of Sciences warns against Russian cooperation after attack

The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine has urged the international scientific community not to “restore or legitimise institutional cooperation with Russian state scientific and educational structures,” after a Russian drone hit its Presidium building in central Kyiv, killing at least two people and injuring several others. The drone strike took place in the early afternoon on September 28 while staff were working.The academy called the strike, one of several Russian attacks on Ukraine’s capital using jet-powered drones in recent days, an act of terrorism. “It is a strike [. . .] on the very idea that knowledge, research, and the search for truth should serve life, not its destruction,” it said in a statement.The academy thanked the global scientific community for its solidarity following the attack and warned against any temptation to normalise scientific relations with Russia.“Science cannot exist outside of moral responsibility. There can be no ‘ordinary scientific cooperation’ with a state that kills people and destroys scientific institutions of another country,” it said.“We urge not to create opportunities for Russian state institutions to return to the international scientific community as if nothing happened. There can be no ‘science beyond politics’ when science is attacked with weapons.”After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Europe almost entirely cut institutional ties and joint programmes with Russian science, although personal academic contacts are still ongoing.Related articlesRussia widens targeting of European research centresHow geopolitical rifts cut scientific collaborationThe European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA), for instance, continues to exclude the Russian Academy of Sciences from its network.ALLEA condemned the latest attack as a “barbaric act” and part of a broader “systematic targeting of Ukraine’s scientific and cultural infrastructure.” This is a “deliberate attempt to erase the conditions under which free inquiry, knowledge, and democratic life are possible,” it said in a statement.Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, more than 4,650 educational institutions across Ukraine have been damaged, and a further 423 have been destroyed, according to ALLEA.National academies across Europe joined ALLEA in condemning the attack. “Science is about the pursuit of knowledge for the benefit of humanity, so this is an attack on civilisation itself,” said Paul Nurse, president of the UK’s Royal Society.Attacks on scientific, university and cultural institutions “are attacks on the foundations of society and constitute a clear violation of international law,” wrote the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.The presidents of the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine also released a joint statement condemning the attack and pledging to continue to support the Ukrainian research community.The targeting of the Ukrainian academy prompted outcry from European leaders. “Today, science became a target for Russia,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on social media.“These strikes are the latest illustration of the Russian regime’s hostile contempt for science and truth,” said French President Emmanuel Macron.

Sep 29 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencebusiness.net

The Beclowning of Scott Bessent

One iron law of current politics is that nobody who associates themselves with Donald Trump emerges with a shred of credibility. For some, that’s not a big loss — it’s not as if anyone respected Pete Hegseth even before he decided that the key to military success in an age of drones and AI was more testosterone. For others, however, the costs are real. I’m old enough to remember when Marco Rubio was widely considered a reasonable, thoughtful politician. Right now, however, my candidate for the biggest loser is Scott Bessent, the Secretary of the Treasury. Bessent started out with significant reputation to lose: When Trump selected him, this was the headline in the Financial Times: Jason Furman, Barack Obama’s chief economist, described him as a “credible Treasury secretary who has a real understanding of the global economy”. But Bessent has now transformed himself into the Baghdad Bob of bonds. Three weeks ago, after intervening (for reasons that remain somewhat unclear) to support the Japanese yen, Bessent boasted about his ability to move markets and dared investors to bet against his, declaring “I am the house now.” He then tried to push long-term interest rates down, buying 30-year U.S. Treasuries in a move some have compared to paying down part of your mortgage by running up your credit card balance. Here’s how that’s going so far: To get some perspective on how high interest rates have gone, here’s a longer-term perspective: We haven’t seen interest rates this high since the fading days of the dotcom bubble. Why are interest rates hitting new records? The backdrop, as I argued in last Sunday’s primer, is the huge AI-driven investment boom; more on that next week. But the immediate cause of the latest interest rate spike was Trump’s rejection of an Iranian proposal to end the war. This rejection sent crude oil prices, which for a while had fallen considerably, shooting back up: It’s notable, by the way, that oil prices remain high even though a significant amount of oil is now being shuttled through the Strait of Hormuz by night, on smaller vessels. That’s an interesting story, which has a lot to do with the fact that oil from the Hormuz shuttle runs must be transferred to larger vessels before being shipped to markets in Europe and Asia; around 15 percent of the world’s large crude carriers are now parked off the coast of Oman, waiting to be tanked up. This is creating a shipping crunch: But that’s a topic for another day. For now, the point is that with oil still high and refined products, especially diesel, still close to record levels, inflation will remain elevated. And this in turn means that the Federal Reserve will keep short-term interest rates high, an expectation that is feeding into longer-term rates. Hence Bessent’s bond-market humiliation. The truth is that Bessent might not have been able to get interest rates down even in the best of circumstances. But he certainly won’t get anywhere as long as Trump keeps believing that he can somehow convert his Iran debacle into a triumphant victory. And Trump will keep believing that as long as he is surrounded by sycophants who tell him what he wants to hear. Sycophants like, for example, Scott Bessent, who is predicting the imminent collapse of the Iranian economy, possibly within two weeks. Bessent is right to say that the embargo on Iranian oil exports is placing the country under great economic strain. But his implicit prediction that this will quickly produce a deal that Trump can call victory looks no more plausible than his boasts about the bond market. The big question now is, why would anyone with a reputation to lose work for Donald Trump? As the beclowning of Bessent shows, joining the Trump team won’t just damage your reputation; it will utterly destroy it.

Sep 29 • 7:10 AM EDT • Politics • paulkrugman.substack.com

Florida seeks input for first science standards revamp since 2008

The big story: For the first time in years, Florida is revamping its science standards. The conversation about what’s proposed is coming to Hillsborough County this evening.

Sep 29 • 7:02 AM EDT • Science • yahoo.com

Florida seeks input for first science standards revamp since 2008

A roundup of Florida education news from around the state

Sep 29 • 7:02 AM EDT • Science • tampabay.com

Sony to skip CES 2027 for first time since expo's inaugural event in 1967

Decision made as Sony shifts focus to "entertainment, intellectual property, and technology geared to support creators"

Sep 29 • 6:15 AM EDT • Technology • gamesindustry.biz

Jeopardy! Bar League is coming to Green Bay, and Ben Chan is hosting

For the first time since its national rollout last year, the weekly Jeopardy! Bar League is coming to Green Bay. You just might recognize the host.

Sep 29 • 6:08 AM EDT • Entertainment • greenbaypressgazette.com

Miami (Ohio) has big MAC money, bigger ambitions. Can it climb the college sports ladder?

The RedHawks have been in the Mid-American Conference since 1947. Amid college sports changes, they goals of making a leap. Here's how.

Sep 29 • 5:30 AM EDT • Sports • nytimes.com

Pirates get first winning season since 2018

It was a winning season despite no playoffs for the Bucs.

Sep 29 • 5:17 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Opinion | Kansas Hasn’t Elected a Democrat to the Senate Since 1932. Adam Hamilton Could Change That.

This campaign could be a compelling model for Democrats.

Sep 29 • 5:03 AM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com

BVB players continue to shine on the international stage

Daniel Svensson has long since established himself as a full-back in the Swedish national team. On Monday evening, he once again played the full 90 minutes for the Scandinavians in their second UEFA N...

Sep 29 • 4:55 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Japanese business presence in China down nearly 30% from peak in 2012: survey

The research found 1,221 new Japanese entrants in China since the last survey in 2024, but that was still less than during Covid-19.

Sep 29 • 3:00 AM EDT • Business • scmp.com

Keenum stars for Bears on first start since 2023

Veteran quarterback Case Keenum throws for two touchdowns and rushes for another as the Chicago Bears beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL.

Sep 29 • 2:41 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Chicago Bears 27-7 Philadelphia Eagles: Case Keenum drives Bears to three touchdowns in first NFL game since 2023

Case Keenum pushed Chicago Bears to 27-7 victory against Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night, as the backup quarterback made his first appearance since 2023; watch Steelers @ Browns on Thursday Night Football live on Sky Sports from 12.05am on Friday

Sep 29 • 2:08 AM EDT • Sports • skysports.com

China’s Wang Yi delivers high-level warning to Japanese business delegation

The top diplomat urged Tokyo to learn from historical lessons, in highest-ranking official reception since bilateral relations soured in November.

Sep 29 • 2:00 AM EDT • Business • scmp.com

Jahmyr Gibbs, Amon-Ra St. Brown Make NFL History

Detroit Lions stars Jahmyr Gibbs and Amon-Ra St. Brown became the first teammates since 1962 to each score at least five touchdowns through three games.

Sep 28 • 9:28 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

President Trump, his family and his businesses have made large amounts of money since he returned for a second term

Sep 28 • 9:16 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com

President Trump, his family and his businesses have made large amounts of money since he returned for a second term

Sep 28 • 9:16 PM EDT • Business • cnn.com

The Entrepreneurial Community Editorial: The Science of Lollygagging

Lollygagging was once a humble pastime practiced by children avoiding chores and adults who suddenly developed hearing problems when someone mentioned yardwork. We have since professionalized it—and government may have perfected it.

Sep 28 • 8:31 PM EDT • Science • tuscaloosathread.com

Ranking Member Markey: SBA Administrator Loeffler, Trump Administration are Refusing to Answer to America’s 36+ Million Small Businesses and Workers, Leaving Main Street Behind

Loeffler canceled her scheduled Sept. 30 appearance before the Senate Small Business Committee, has not appeared before SBC in more than a year (Washington, September 28) – Ranking Member Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) today released the following statement after Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Kelly Loeffler canceled her scheduled Wednesday appearance before the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. Administrator Loeffler has not appeared before the committee in more than a year and has consistently refused to provide substantial answers to committee members in person, in writing, or via requested briefings. In June, Ranking Member Markey led every Democratic member of the committee in calling on Administrator Loeffler to appear before the committee to answer for the Trump administration’s cruel attacks on American small businesses, entrepreneurs, and workers. The Democratic lawmakers still have not received a response from Administrator Loeffler. “It is unacceptable that Administrator Loeffler chose to cancel her appearance before the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. The Trump administration is once again ignoring the more than 36 million American small businesses, entrepreneurs, and workers who drive our economy and enrich our communities by refusing to answer questions about this administration’s reckless economic policies. It has been more than a year since Administrator Loeffler has appeared before our committee and answered questions from both Democrats and Republicans. Since then, the Trump administration’s attacks on Main Street have only worsened. “Small businesses are facing record high gas and diesel prices, skyrocketing healthcare costs, and never-ending uncertainty from Trump’s trade war with the world. Trump has terrorized Main Streets across the country with violent ICE raids, destroying families, communities, and local economies. Meanwhile, Administrator Loeffler and the Trump SBA have been in a Witness Protection Program, ignoring the Pain on Main Street that they have created. They have chosen to make drastic cuts to SBA funding and essential, bipartisan programs, including the closure of the SBA office in Springfield and removal of the SBA office from Boston; directly attacked immigrant small business owners and destroyed the promise of the American Dream; and proposed shortsighted small business size rules that would benefit billion-dollar businesses over actual small businesses. “It’s clear that Administrator Loeffler, President Trump, and their CEO billionaire buddies want to turn the Small Business Administration into the Big Business Administration, tear down our economy, and abandon Main Street. If that is indeed this administration’s goal, Administrator Loeffler must answer to the millions of small businesses, workers, and families in Massachusetts and across the country that this administration is leaving behind.” ###

Sep 28 • 5:57 PM EDT • Business • sbc.senate.gov

VMAs 2026 Tally Biggest Audience Since 2015 With 8.4 Million Viewers on CBS and MTV

MTV’s Video Music Awards returned to Los Angeles with a bang, bringing in its biggest audience since 2015.

Sep 28 • 5:47 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

Bobby Kotick’s lawyers sent me a bad email (and later apologized)

The message I had received was unsettling—for a moment. Then it was just really confusing. Back on January 20 of this year, at 5:15pm ET, I received an email with the subject line “Legal Correspondence re Bobby Kotick.” It was from the law firm Clare Locke, a firm I’d heard had been emailing reporters in recent years about their coverage of Kotick, the former, longtime CEO of Activision Blizzard. The letter was threatening. A lawyer from the firm introduced themselves as “defamation counsel to Bobby Kotick.” They issued a “demand” that I “correct” a Game File article I’d published a week prior. The article that had irked them had been a scoop of sorts. I’d written about a a 2022 lawsuit brought by a Swedish pension fund, AP7, over Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard. The suit wasn’t news, but I was first to review and report about Kotick’s extensive pushback to the fund’s claims. The pension fund’s core contention was that the sale had been rushed by Kotick to avoid the consequences of sexual misconduct scandals swirling around the company in 2021. (He’d not been accused of misconduct himself in those suits, to be clear.) As I wrote at the time, Kotick had denied the allegations of the rushed sale. Beyond that, Kotick used a December 2025 reply to the Swedish fund’s lawsuit to assign blame for those workplace scandals, the bad press and even for the AP7 lawsuit. I’d found Kotick’s arguments novel and newsworthy. Across nearly 3,000 words, I explained Kotick’s take: that a Swedish gaming company was behind the Swedish fund’s lawsuit (the Embracer group; they denied it); that the Microsoft-Activision deal was not rushed and was secured at what Kotick felt history had proven to be an optimal price for shareholders; that he believed a conspiracy of people at unions government agencies, PR firms and the media had spun up claims of widespread workplace misconduct at Activision Blizzard in 2021. The article gave context for all of this, letting readers assess the claims and weigh their credibility. As I’d later write to Kotick’s lawyers: I would be surprised if you could point to any news article about Bobby Kotick in the last five years that has spent more of its wordcount articulating his point of view. He is welcome to do an interview with Game File any time. Nonetheless, there they were in my inbox that Tuesday evening: Clare Locke, the law firm that secured a $787.5 million settlement from Fox News over false statements about voting machines. They were emailing me, threatening that failure to comply with their demand could support a claim of “actual malice,” a legal standard for libel. Unless… Unless, they said, I added a key paragraph to my article. This was a paragraph that I already knew Kotick’s lawyers had been emailing reporters about for at least a year, and it was a paragraph that was already in my article. The paragraph they wanted is from a 2023 settlement that California’s Civil Rights Department struck with Activision Blizzard. The settlement had closed a two-year-old lawsuit over alleged sexual discrimination at the game maker. The paragraph basically said that claims of systemic or widespread sexual harassment—or of execs like Kotick tolerating such behavior—had never been proven. I’d already seen proof that Kotick’s lawyers had pushed for the settlement’s language to be added to reports about 2021 sexual discrimination and misconduct lawsuits brought against Activision Blizzard by California and, separately, by the U.S. federal government (both suits were since settled). I knew that Kotick and his lawyers felt that the California settlement language should be mentioned in the same breath as references to an article he hated and denied, a November 2021 Wall Street Journal article claiming Kotick knew “for years” of sexual misconduct at Activision Blizzard. So, in the Game File article that Clare Locke emailed me about, in the interest of ensuring I was being fair and balanced regarding the person I was covering, I had already included the following excerpt from the California settlement [emphasis added in bold]: (Kotick has repeatedly pushed back against that November article in the Wall Street Journal, citing among other things, language from a court-approved consent decree as part of Activision’s 2023 $54 million settlement over the California suit. It states: “no court or any independent investigation has substantiated any allegations that: there has been systemic or widespread sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard [or] that Activision Blizzard senior executives ignored, condoned, or tolerated a culture of systemic harassment, retaliation, or discrimination.”) On the evening of January 20, I was incredulous. How do you write a four page legal threat about a week-old article and miss this? While scrambling to also make my kids dinner, I wrote a lengthy reply to Clare Locke’s lawyers, basically asking them to cool it with the threats and to start making sense. In part, I wrote: I hope you can understand why I am having trouble understanding what you’re asking for, when the statement you’re demanding to see in Game File’s article already appears in Game File’s article. Actual malice, as you know, refers to a reckless disregard for the truth. I’m not sure what your argument is when my article already states your client’s position. Here is where I should remind you, the reader, that I am an independent journalist. I publish on Substack, and have availed myself of the Substack Defender program that provides writers on the platform with legal support. But I’m no Wall Street Journal or New York Times, nor even IGN or GameSpot when it comes to such things as, well, having a legal department. There are more fun things for me to do as an independent journalist than writing back to a powerful law firm representing a very rich person. On the evening of January 20th, I was just trying to cook some pasta, broccoli and chicken nuggets for hungry twins. Nevertheless, I wrote back to them. Two hours later, I got a reply. Summarizing: A lawyer for Clare Locke said they’d “reviewed an incomplete version” of my article and they “apologize for the confusion.” (My guess: Someone didn’t read past the piece’s paywall, even though they’d had a full week to scrounge up the funds to do so. What I’d published above the paywall was balanced, as was what came after.)1 That was almost that, but something about the situation bothered me. The letter had been marked “confidential.” I hadn’t agreed to that, and I disliked the idea that powerful people on the beat that I cover would act like they could unilaterally control what I might tell my readers about. On the morning of the 21st, having already gotten the powerful law firm to back off, I oh-so-wisely re-approached them with just one more thing. I thanked them for clearing things up the night before but noted that I’d never agreed to keep their letter confidential. I’m all for agreeing with a source to keep things off the record, but that’s the thing. We have to agree. You can’t just declare it. I’m not bound by that. I wrote to Clare Locke’s lawyer and said, in part: I trust the matter is resolved. It was disappointing to have to spend less time with my kids last night in order to address your legal letter. Family time’s precious. I will add, for clarity’s sake, that, while your letter stipulated that it was confidential, I did not agree to those terms. In the future, should you wish to communicate with me confidentially, I am happy to agree to classifying our communication as “off the record” prior to the actual communication—as is standard with any professional journalist. The firm’s lawyer replied, not directly addressing the confidentiality issue but asserting that the matter was resolved. Why I didn’t write about this until now In May, I told this story on an episode of Simon Parkin’s podcast My Perfect Console, but I held off on sharing it directly with Game File readers. I held off to avoid stepping on the toes of another reporter, the journalist Mikhail Klimentov. He’d interviewed me in the spring of 2025 about an investigation he was working on regarding Bobby Kotick lawyers pressing the media to add the California settlement language to stories referencing the 2021 lawsuits. And about how some outlets had changed their stories and how some simply deleted them. Initially, I was a third-party source for Klimentov’s reporting, providing on-the-record context about the state of the games media. I’d heard about the letters but hadn’t put the time into pursuing the story. I thought it was interesting, and I was glad he was covering it. When the outlet that Klimentov was going to run his reporting in dropped the story, I began talking to him about potentially publishing his reporting on Game File. This was tentative. Then, in January, when I got my own Clare Locke letter, I told Klimentov that I didn’t think it would make sense for me to publish him, not with me now being part of the story. I had my own version of this situation to tell. But I wished him well and said I’d refrain from telling my tale until he could get his reporting out there. Last Friday, Klimentov finally ran his investigation, in a nearly 48-minute video report for People Make Games. It covers various Clare Locke letters, how media outlets reacted to them and what to make of all this. His video weighs the merits of Kotick’s request and looks at some of the articles that were changed (one of which had a glaring error). I highly recommend watching it: (Note, I did some editorial consulting for a People Make Games video last year but nothing to do with this report.) While many outlets haven’t left any public evidence that they updated their Kotick coverage at Kotick’s counsel’s request, at least one has. Back in October 2025, the mainstream outlet Reuters applied the most transparent article update I’ve seen. On the 3rd of the month, they published an article about the state of the Swedish pension fund’s lawsuit. Days later, they added this: In an October 7 letter sent after publication of this article, Kotick’s defamation counsel disputed claims of widespread harassment at Activision. “Not a single investigation, court finding, verdict, or ruling ever concluded that there was any merit” to the allegations of widespread harassment at Activision, Tom Clare and Nick Brechbill of Clare Locke wrote. I’ve never added a statement to my article on Game File, because none was needed. Not for fairness’ sake, nor to meet any demands of Kotick’s lawyers. I’ve nevertheless wanted to be transparent with Game File readers. If someone powerful is questioning my reporting, is threatening a lawsuit over it… if that threat is part of a pattern involving other games media outlets and if, in my case, the whole thing ran into a ridiculous ditch, I want you to know about it. I also share this as a real example of how I handle threats to Game File. I stand up for my own reporting, even when it’s not comfortable to do so. (In that same category of standing up for the work I do, I’ll point to an incident in late August. Asocial media post I published to X/Twitter regarding reporting I did about Take Two and GTA VI was hit by bogus copyright claim by a firm working for the publisher. I pushed back and got it reversed; even while a bigger games media outlet let themselves be censored. This is the other reason I’m sharing this story: To emphasize that dealing with threats from powerful people is one of the costs of covering the video game industry independently and as fearlessly as possible. This is where you come in. Your support, through free and paid subscriptions (sign up here!), can help me keep doing that. It can ensure that I’ve got the back-up I need. And it can help make fiascoes like this even less of a worry, so I can spend my evenings dealing with more important things, such as making sure I steam the kids’ broccoli just right. 1 That pension fund lawsuit I wrote about in January has all but gone away. In May, the fund and Activision Blizzard owner Microsoft agreed to settle. Lawyers for the fund brokered a $250 million settlement for former Activision Blizzard shareholders. In the settlement, the fund’s lawyers changed their rhetoric. Where once they’d questioned the meaning of the California settlement language, they adopted a version of it for themselves. Several weeks ago, while seeking to get a court to sign off on the terms of the settlement, they proposed their fee for their work in the case: $60 million.

Sep 28 • 4:13 PM EDT • Technology • gamefile.news

Jazz Fest hits all the right notes

The Hyde Park Jazz Festival, in existence since 2007, has been a welcome repository of a wide variety of jazz sounds. This year was no exception.

Sep 28 • 4:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • hpherald.com

iPhone 18 Pro First Impressions: What Do You Think So Far?

It's been a little over a week since the iPhone 18 Pro models launched, and we want to hear from MacRumors readers. What do you think of Apple's newest iPhones? If you upgraded from an older phone, was it worth it? What about upgrading from an iPhone 17 Pro? What problems are you running into? Anything you love so far? MacRumors readers have already been sharing early opinions on the MacRumors forums, and there are interesting discussion threads to read through.

Sep 28 • 3:26 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com

Pennsylvania measles cases cross 900 as outbreak grows

Sept 28 () - Pennsylvania's measles outbreak continued to worsen, with 68 new infections reported since Wednesday ‌last week, bringing the total to 903 on ‌Monday, health department data showed, as th...

Sep 28 • 2:32 PM EDT • Health • yahoo.com

Shawn Levy Inks Overall Deal With Disney’s 20th Television

The producer and director, who recently finished the next 'Star Wars' film for Disney, has been based at Netflix since 2017.

Sep 28 • 12:33 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

Shawn Levy Signs Overall TV Deal at Disney

The producer and director, who recently finished the next 'Star Wars' film for Disney, has been based at Netflix since 2017.

Sep 28 • 12:33 PM EDT • Entertainment • hollywoodreporter.com

What to Expect as Raptors Training Camp Opens

Toronto's most anticipated offseason in years turns into actual basketball on Tuesday, when Raptors training camp opens at Université Laval in Quebec City. The roster is set, Kawhi Leonard is back in a Raptors uniform for the first time since 2019, and training camp opens with a longer list of real storylines than this franchise …

Sep 28 • 12:19 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com