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Virginia hemp businesses to file court injunction to stop new restrictions on CBD products
“We just need time to sort through that, so there’s not this devastating ripple effect that impacts not only business owners and their employees but all the vendors that work with them,” said Barbara Biddle, owner of District Hemp in Northern Virginia.
House narrowly passes short-term funding bill to avert government shutdown
The vote sends the stopgap, known as a continuing \u200bresolution, to the \u200bSenate.
House Narrowly Passes Stopgap Spending Bill, but Shutdown Fight Looms
Republicans managed to push through legislation to fund the government through Dec. 4. But with Democrats opposed, the stage is set for a broader battle.
House passes bill to fund the government until after midterm elections
Senate appropriators are working on a different version of a stopgap bill with the aim of attracting some Democratic support.
Federal civil rights agency moves to stop requiring demographic data collection after 60 years
The Trump administration is moving to toss aside a 60-year-old requirement for tens of thousands of private sector employers to submit workforce demographic reports each year to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws in the workplace.
Apple Reportedly Planning to Wind Down 'iPhone Upgrade Program'
After launching a new "Apple Upgrade" program next week, Apple plans to stop accepting new iPhone Upgrade Program sign-ups, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. It remains to be seen if existing iPhone Upgrade Program members will be able to remain enrolled in the program beyond their current terms, or if they will be migrated to the Apple Upgrade program at some point.
Piitch-timer gamesmanship triggers scuffle between Pirates, Yankees
New York Yankees shortstop Jose Caballero triggered a benches-clearing scuffle with the Pittsburgh Pirates through manipulation of MLB's pitch clock.
Munson Army Health Center Open House: Discover Your Medical Home at Fort Leavenworth
FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kansas -- Whether you're new to Fort Leavenworth or have been part of our community for years, we invite you to join us for the Munson Army Health Center Open House, Wednesday, Aug. 12. Stop by anytime from 1 to 3 p.m. to meet the healthcare professionals who support Soldiers, families, retirees and other eligible beneficiaries. Learn about the many services available to help you stay healthy, mission ready and informed.
Jaguars LB Ventrell Miller Named as Breakout Candidate
After overcoming a career-threatening injury, the hard-hitting linebacker is poised to anchor Jacksonville’s defense, stepping into a starting role fueled by elite run-stopping grades and surging coverage potential.
‘The Odyssey’ Doesn’t Stop: Epic Bound For Best Monday YTD Stateside With $17M+
EXCLUSIVE: Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey continues to dominate the box office, fueling a Monday that’s estimated to be $17.5 million. If those figures stick, that will be the best Monday year-to-dat...
Story itching get back to red-hot Red Sox, hopes for August rehab
BOSTON – Watching his Red Sox teammates dramatically change the narrative after what once looked like a lost season has only increased Trevor Story’s desire to rejoin his teammates on the field. The first key step for the veteran shortstop – who hasn’t played since May 14 due to surgery
UFC Freedom 250 Fails to Knock Out The Ratings
(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) If UFC fans wanted one image to say, “Hey, Paramount+ is crushing it with their UFC rights deal,” I could provide that image. Here it is: (Reminder: this is my creation of the Nielsen Top 30, since Nielsen doesn’t combine the lists or include sports. I take all three lists and combine them. Some streaming TV shows probably have higher ratings than many of the films on this list.) Look at that! UFC Freedom 250 is number one! It topped the Nielsen “Top 30” list for shows and films that made the top ten the week of 15-June. So if you’re a UFC fan or supporter of Paramount+, that’s the good news for you this week. This program topped the ratings charts for one week. Everything else is bad news, or at least a huge caveat to that story, which I’ll explain today in the first part of this week’s Streaming Ratings Report—for the weeks of 8-June and 15-June—which is a double issue since I’ve been writing on a bunch of topics recently. UFC Freedom 250 is one of the biggest streaming events of the year, and super relevant to Paramount+’s strategy, so it merited its own article. Let’s dive in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of June 8th to June 21st 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Check Out My Interview on UFC 250 at MMA Draw After you read this article, if you want even more thoughts on UFC and Paramount-Skydance/Paramount+, I did a written interview with MMA Draw. They asked me to answer some questions about UFC Freedom 250, and I was happy to chat with them. Find it here: [ The MMA Draw Newsletter Did Paramount really overpay for the UFC? What the data tells us so far If you know the history of American television, you also know that combat sports is often a leading indicator of the future… Read more a day ago · 10 likes · 1 comment · Nate Wilcox and Zach Arnold ](https://www.themmadraw.com/p/did-paramount-really-overpay-for?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web) I never thought I’d need a combat sports newsletter in my life, but the good folks at MMA Draw publish an excellent one on UFC, MMA, pro wrestling, boxing and more, analyzing both the sports themselves and the politics, economics and antitrust issues that impact them. Check the article and their newsletter out! Paramount+ Has Its Best Sporting Event of All Time…But Was It Worth It? Before we look at the UFC Freedom 250 data in particular, let’s talk about what we can’t say. Namely, let’s start with the lack of comparisons. First off, I’d love to put a chart out comparing this fight to past UFC fights on Paramount+…but we don’t have the data. This is the first time we’ve gotten Nielsen data about a Paramount+ UFC fight. As far as I can tell, Paramount provided data for the first fight, but it was a proprietary datecdote (saying it had “an average minute audience” of 5 million “views”) and then, for two fights, we got the linear viewership numbers when they aired on CBS, but no streaming data. Everything else was crickets. We also can’t compare this fight to other fights/combat sports on streaming, in particular the MMA and boxing, because Netflix also didn’t use Nielsen to track those events, opting for TVision and VideoAmp, respectively. (This isn’t Paramount’s fault, but does still suck.) We also can’t compare to UFC’s fights that used to be on ESPN+, since we don’t have any data for that, plus Disney+ didn’t have marquee fights. The comparisons would not be apples-to-apples. Can we compare to past Pay-Per-View fights? Absolutely not. The comparisons would absolutely NOT be apples-to-apples. That didn’t stop Paramount+, though, who bragged that their UFC events have reached drastically more people than past PPV fights. Duh. Sorry, but I gotta make this point again. A basic tenet of economics is that the cheaper something becomes, the more people consume or buy it. That’s Econ 101. (Sometimes pundits call things “Econ 101” that are actually like Econ 210 or even PhD-level economics, but no, this is really like first or second class basic economics.) Yet I still see one analytics firm consistently say that more people watch films on streaming than PVOD proves streaming which means that the streaming window is more valuable than the PVOD window. No, it’s not! Same thing here. Pay-Per-View events back in the day could be really, really, really expensive! So whole groups of people pitched in to buy them. That increased the perceived value of, say, the Mike Tyson fight. Or a UFC numbered event. So yes, the fact that Paramount+ makes numbered UFC fights essentially “free” if you’re already a Paramount+ member means consumption will go up. Obviously. Same for Netflix and their boxing matches. They’re talking about fights that used to cost consumers, in some cases, $50 in 1996…which is over $100 in today’s dollars. Over 1.6 million people paid that to watch the Tyson-Holyfield fight! Again, streaming is essentially “free”. Or $10 to $20, depending on what streamer we’re talking about and what tier you’re on. No wonder more people are “watching”. (Plus, Nielsen’s out-of-home viewing also helps these numbers.) UFC Freedom 250 Did Well…But I Have A Lot of Worries So what can we compare the fights to? Well, the good news is Nielsen put out that the fight averaged 7.0 million viewers for UFC Freedom 250, which is a solid number for a fight. We also know the length, at roughly 4 and a half hours. (I saw different run times, but this seems to be the consensus considering it started at 8 pm, had a delay and then finished after midnight on the East Coast. If you assume a shorter run time, then yes, the total hours viewed would go down.) That means I have the two numbers needed to add this to my Nielsen database. And then…I can compare this viewership to the NFL: And, uh, not great. But also within striking distance, mainly because the runtime for this event was so long. I’d also add that this event had viewership equal to a regular season NFL game on streaming, but if anything, it was more comparable to an NFL playoff or Super Bowl-esque event. And you can compare viewership to the top football games on broadcast, cable and streaming, and it’s not impressive at all: We can also compare it to other sports that week, including the NBA Finals and start of the World Cup: Again, not great. The NBA generated roughly four times as many average viewers each game for its NBA Finals. The World Cup has similarly big numbers. Also, that’s just a tiny fraction of the 25 most watched sporting events each week. The NBA, NHL and FIFA World Cup had many, many more games racking up hours. We could also compare this to other streaming programs to get an idea of “is this a good investment?” and here is how it ranks compared to other top Paramount+ programs: The worry here? Well, unlike scripted programming, which has rewatchability, older fights/sporting events have very little library value. Very, very few people are rewatching these fights, especially years from now. Paramount has also released datecdotes bragging about their subscriber numbers. Earlier this year, they claimed that the first UFC fight on Paramount+ brought in 1 million subscribers. Then, in their quarterly earnings report, they only ended up with 700K subs. Not great! They claimed they dropped lower-value international subscribers, but that’s why I tend to discount subscriber additions when they’re leaked to the press.1 I expect we may see a bump again for UFC Freedom 250, but I’d caution using subscriber growth so soon after these events to judge the success, since new subs with high churn (see Peacock) aren’t great either. Also, analysts often want to attribute all subscriber growth to their favorite/pet show, and that just doesn’t make sense. The biggest caveat for UFC Freedom 250 and Paramount’s very first UFC marquee event is that these could be high watermarks for the sport. UFC Freedom 250 had an incredible amount of earned media coverage compared to most UFC fights. I mean, it had wall-to-wall national news coverage in the lead up to the event. (The first fight also had a lot of promotion from Paramount since it was first.) Other fights could reach this bar—say the Conor McGregor return to the Octagon—but they’ll be fewer and far between. Was This Deal Worth It? All to ask: is this Paramount deal worth it? In this case, I think the UFC Freedom 250 numbers are more distracting than helpful. This fight did well and compares well to other top sporting events. But we know that the first marquee event was at least a third smaller, if Paramount’s own data is to be believed. And it’s likely the other fights are much, much, much smaller. And then you get to the paycheck that Paramount-Skydance paid. FIFA’s World Cup cost about the same for Fox, but clearly generated multiples more total viewership. (Though it’s only every four years.) The NBA is much more expensive, but until the playoffs, they likely didn’t pay for itself. Even still, Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video likely overpaid. So, in that context, the NBA may be an overpay that makes the UFC look not so bad. But two overpays don’t make an underpay, to paraphrase the old cliché about wrongs and rights. And looking at UFC Freedom 250 as the likely ceiling of MMA on Paramount+, Paramount-Skydance likely paid too much. Share 1 I would love regular reports on subscriber additions by programs, but as is, it’s mostly leaked or rumored in haphazard ways.
Whoopi Goldberg calls out ‘stupidity of men’ in ‘The Odyssey’ analysis
Whoopi Goldberg said ‘The Odyssey’ highlights ‘the stupidity of men’ during an interview with Christopher Nolan, Matt Damon, and Anne Hathaway on ‘The View.’
‘Mercenary’ Cowboys Defender Called Logical Fit for Multiple Contenders
Bleacher Report's Kristopher Knox called Cowboys edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney a logical fit for Patriots and Seahawks in free agency. The post ‘Mercenary’ Cowboys Defender Called Logical Fit for Multiple Contenders appeared first on HEAVY.
Paramount's WBD deal is on pause after judge orders merger delay
A judge issued a temporary restraining order stopping Paramount Skydance's acquisition of WBD after a lawsuit by California and 11 other states.
What does 'The Odyssey' translator Emily Wilson think of Christopher Nolan's film?
If someone knows the text, it's Emily Wilson.
Yankees Birthday of the Day: Red Kleinow
Kleinow was among the earliest Highlanders backstops and witness to one of the game’s most famous pitches.
Sankey: SEC breakaway talk over college bill 'honest conversations'
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said he continues to have conversations with Congressional leaders about the Protect College Sports Act but stopped short of saying whether all their suggested changes need to be implemented for the conference to support it.
‘Leopoldstadt’ is a ‘must-see’
In the fall of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Court Theatre presented what it called a “Deep Dive” into “Leopoldstadt,” Tom Stoppard's epic work about a blended Viennese
Reacts Results: The bandwagon doesn’t stop here
Somebody needs to get Tetairoa McMillan to run a Hooked on Phonics program for local youth
Shaky political "science": breakdown of the peer review process
[This article is the latest in our “Shaky Political Science” series. In our 38 page report, “Shaky political ‘science’ misses mark on ranked choice voting,” released in December 2025, we examined over 40 studies focused on ranked choice voting (RCV). Many of these studies suffered from puzzling research methodologies, poorly constructed surveys, unrealistic simulated elections, cherry picked data and faulty analyses that often were contradicted by results from real-world elections (a link to our full paper is here). Here are links to the first four articles in our series: the first one summarizing the overall results of our report; the second one analyzed a study co-authored by University of Minnesota academic Larry Jacobs, which was one of the most error-prone of all the research we reviewed in our report; a third article showing an admirable example of two political scientists holding two other political scientists accountable for their flawed, sloppy research; and a fourth article that analyzed seven studies sponsored by New America’s political reform program that deployed flawed methodology based on “simulated” elections instead of real-world elections, which when combined with some basic misunderstandings of RCV, produced odd and misleading results]. In this fifth article in our “Shaky Political Science” series, we examine two flawed studies on the impact of RCV on voter turnout authored by San Francisco State University professor Jason McDaniel. McDaniel’s research in these two papers stands out for its puzzling methodology, inadequate and cherry-picked data, and faulty analyses that not only misunderstands ranked choice voting but reflects a basic misunderstanding of politics in general. The first of the McDaniel studies actually passed through a peer review process and then was subsequently published by the Journal of Urban Affairs, despite its obvious errors. It is perplexing that a jury of peer political scientists did not catch the errors and send it back to McDaniel for a rewrite or outright rejection. This calls into question the credibility of the peer review process itself. The peer review process is supposed to represent the intellectual pinnacle of the profession – a way for academics to certify the quality of each other’s work, and to act as a check against sloppy research. In the case of the McDaniel study, the peer review process failed. Yet his flawed study has been cited dozens of times by other political scientists in their own flawed works — an unvirtuous circle of academic research. Here is the first Jason McDaniel study that we analyzed: “Writing the Rules to Rank the Candidates: Examining the Impact of Instant-Runoff Voting on Racial Group Turnout in San Francisco Mayoral Elections,” by Jason McDaniel, 2016, Journal of Urban Affairs. This study covered San Francisco’s use of ranked choice voting (RCV) in mayoral elections, purporting to show that RCV reduces voter turnout overall, increases voter errors, and has a negative impact on “marginal populations,” i.e. racial minorities, mainly as the result of the alleged complexity of RCV asking voters to rank candidates and having to be familiar with multiple candidates and related dynamics. McDaniel reached these conclusions by examining five San Francisco mayoral elections taking place in odd years (i.e. where there are no federal or state races on the ballot) from 1995 to 2011, comparing three earlier non-RCV races (in 1995, 1999 and 2003) with the later two RCV races (in 2007 and 2011). Only two RCV races were studied, and as McDaniel acknowledged, only the contest in 2011 was “competitive” (that contest in 2007 was the first mayoral election using RCV, and incumbent mayor Gavin Newsom won easily in the first round of counting, earning 74% of first choices and far ahead of the second place candidate who had just 6.3% of first choices). Yet even the allegedly competitive contest in 2011was won by an incumbent with a landslide margin of nearly 20 points. No other elections were studied by McDaniel, even though San Francisco elects 17 other offices besides mayor with RCV, including the 11 seats on the Board of Supervisors (the name for the city council) in even years, and six other citywide offices in odd years. Previous academic research has found that competitive elections can stimulate greater voter involvement and higher turnout. For unexplained reasons, this study ignored at least 34 other RCV races between the years 2004 to 2011, many of which were very competitive and had high voter turnout. Instead, McDaniel’s analysis based its conclusions on data from only a single, marginally-competitive mayor’s race using RCV. These 2007 and 2011 mayoral elections were the only two RCV elections that McDaniel used as the sole basis for his small data set to determine the impact of RCV on voter turnout. Despite having no meaningful data to inform his study, McDaniel nonetheless concluded that RCV lowered turnout when compared to the previous three mayoral non-RCV elections using two-round runoffs. Then, using the same inadequate database of San Francisco elections, McDaniel also found that “Instant-runoff voting is associated with a significant decline in Black voter turnout and White voter turnout…On average, Black voter turnout decreases by 18 points and White voter turnout decreases by 16 points …” But how could he credibly arrive at that conclusion when his study was based on voter turnout in two RCV contests that were not even remotely competitive? Beyond that, McDaniel tacitly admits that the key determining factor driving Black voter turnout was not RCV vs non-RCV elections, but the presence of a viable Black candidate. McDaniel wrote, “Black voter turnout was about 17 percentage points higher for the two elections that featured an African American candidate compared to the three elections that did not” — but one of those three elections did not use RCV. The same dynamic was present for White voter turnout, in which higher turnout was not correlated with RCV vs non-RCV elections, but the presence of a viable White candidate. Beyond that, McDaniel’s voter turnout results, whether correlated with the race of the candidates or RCV vs non-RCV elections, showed no clear patterns. In his Figure 1, he shows low Asian voter turnout in the non-RCV elections in 1999 and 2003 when there was no viable Asian candidate running, but in the 2007 mayoral election using RCV, there is still no viable Asian candidate, yet Asian turnout increases dramatically. For Latinos, voter turnout is virtually the same in 1999 (no viable Latino candidate, non-RCV elections), 2003 (leading Latino candidate, non-RCV elections), 2007 (no viable Latino candidate, RCV elections) and 2011 (leading Latino candidate, RCV elections). Meanwhile White voter turnout increased dramatically from a low in the 2007 mayoral election, in which the leading candidate was a white incumbent, to the 2011 election in which there were no leading white candidates that finished any higher than sixth place with 5.6% of the vote. Clearly other factors were determining voter turnout than either the race of the candidates or RCV vs non-RCV elections. Despite these inconsistent findings, McDaniel boldly marches forth to render conclusions about the impact of RCV on different groups of racial voters, even though his conclusions are not remotely supported by his data. This looks like the worst kind of “data cherry picking” to cover up a puzzling conclusion based on a poor data set involving only two RCV elections, neither of which were remotely competitive. McDaniel’s cherry picking didn’t stop there. In calculating voter turnout for the three non-RCV mayoral elections in 1995, 1999 and 2003, he failed to mention that in each of these years there was a two-round runoff election, with a first round election in November in which no candidate garnered a winning majority of the vote, followed by the decisive runoff in December. So there were two non-RCV elections in each election year. But McDaniel only decided to include one of the two elections in his data set, apparently the December runoff in each year (which had higher turnout in two out of the three mayor’s races, and lower turnout in the third). So he ignored the November 1995 election, the November 1999 election when turnout was only 45 percent, and the November 2003 election when turnout was only 45.7 percent. This is flawed methodology based on blatant cherry picking, since McDaniel simply omitted three elections worth of data that did not fit within his frame. His study should never have made it through a peer review process, and it is an embarrassment to political science that not only was it approved for publication, but it has been uncritically cited by dozens of other political scientists. Share A “study” without wider context or credible data Lacking a data set that included even a single competitive RCV mayoral race, McDaniel declared that RCV lowered voter turnout in 2011, when turnout was 42.5 percent. But he also ignored -- or did not realize -- that voter turnout in mayoral elections during 2011 had sharply declined in all big cities, including far more steeply in nearby Los Angeles and other cities. In fact, San Francisco’s election in 2011 had the second highest turnout of any mayoral election in the nation’s 22 largest cities from 2008-2011. Was 2011 just a particularly low turnout year all across the country, perhaps because the country was still reeling from the aftermath of the housing market collapse in 2008-2010? McDaniel ignored this factor and did not search for alternative explanations beyond his flawed thesis. Furthermore, while McDaniel suggested that RCV leads to more “overvotes” – which is an invalidated ballot in which a voter, in either a non-RCV or RCV race, makes a mistake and selects two candidates for a single choice – he failed to address that in the June 2012 US Senate primary contest, which used the typical “one-choice” plurality method and did not use RCV, there was more than five times as many overvotes in San Francisco and Oakland than in the RCV mayoral elections in those cities. Additionally, turnout had been significantly higher and more representative in RCV elections for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors races -- that McDaniel didn’t even bother to study -- as compared to previous “delayed two-round runoffs” for those offices, often higher by as much as 40% in the RCV races. Perhaps the most surprising irony was that an earlier study co-authored by McDaniel (Overvoting and the Equality of Voice under Instant-Runoff Voting in San Francisco by Francis Neely and Jason McDaniel, 2015, California Journal of Politics and Policy) found that overvotes are often more common in lower-income precincts, but that the pattern of overvoting is similar in both RCV and non-RCV contests. Wrote Neely and McDaniel: “[Overvote] errors appear to be a function of complexity in general and not IRV per se…. the pattern of overvoting is similar in both IRV and non-IRV contests…Even among votes cast in a top-of-the-ticket race like U.S. Senate, overvoting occurs in an uneven fashion” (IRV, or ‘instant runoff voting,’ is another name for ranked choice voting in single-winner contests). So McDaniel not only contradicted his own conclusion in his earlier study with Neely, but the earlier study had been an important corrective for one of the most frequently made mistakes made by anti-RCV political scientists – a continual failure to provide crucial context by pairing a comparative analysis of real world RCV elections with an analysis of real world plurality or other electoral methods. Unfortunately McDaniel’s earlier study does not get cited much by other researchers, and McDaniel did not even cite it in his own flawed study analyzed above. Incredibly, McDaniel cherrypicked McDaniel, even as his flawed study has been cited dozens of times. Despite being a textbook example of poor political “science,” featuring both inadequate as well as cherrypicked data, the shelf life of McDaniel’s study has been extended endlessly by other political scientists and media outlets who have cited it uncritically. Equally troubling, the Journal of Urban Affairs put this paper through its peer review process and published it despite its numerous flaws. McDaniel gets it wrong, Part II Not content with producing one shoddy, confused paper, McDaniel produced another one a few years later, here is the link: Electoral Rules and Voter Turnout in Mayoral Elections: An Analysis of Ranked-Choice Voting by Jason McDaniel. San Francisco State Univ. (McDaniel, 2019). In this paper, McDaniel extended his previous flawed research focused on San Francisco, about voter turnout and voter impact, to multiple RCV cities through the 2018 elections. In his data set he included San Francisco, Minneapolis, St Paul, Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro and Santa Fe. He then compared their turnout in mayoral elections to non-RCV cities, and to mayoral elections in those cities held before first RCV usage, and concluded “a significant decrease in voter turnout of approximately 3–5 percentage points in RCV cities after the implementation of RCV.” But he replicated many of the same mistakes as his first study presented above. While in this study McDaniel attempted to distinguish between various factors, such as odd year vs. even year elections, competitive races vs. noncompetitive, contests with open seats and other factors, the analysis is superficial and inadequate. He attempts to incorporate so many often-conflicting variables that his conclusions are once again unsupported by the actual data, and ultimately unconvincing (this second study never underwent a peer review process). For example, McDaniel declared that for RCV cities “in elections that are more competitive than average (margin of victory less than 20%), there is no significant RCV effect on voter turnout.” Yet McDaniel is a professor in a city, San Francisco, in which the 2018 special election using RCV to fill a mayoral vacancy was exceedingly close, decided by a margin of only one percentage point, and resulted in the second highest turnout in San Francisco history for a mayoral election. Illustrating the complexity involved in assessing the critical factors in turnout, that special election was held on the same election day as federal and state offices, which tends to boost turnout. Yet more voters participated in that RCV mayoral election than voted on the same day in the non-RCV primary for governor in which former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom was running. Even more puzzling, in this study McDaniel inaccurately cited his own previous study from 2015 with Neely. McDaniel wrote, “Neely and McDaniel (2015) examine individual ballot image files within a natural experiment, and find higher rates of ballot errors in RCV elections compared to non-RCV elections” (emphasis added). However, we quoted from that 2015 study several paragraphs above, and in actual fact Neely and McDaniel actually concluded the opposite -- that the pattern of overvoting – which is the most common form of ballot error – is similar in both RCV and non-RCV contests. McDaniel also ignored the fact that in Bay Area RCV elections held in even years – at the same time as federal and state elections, when turnout is highest -- the “undervote” (that is, the dropoff in ballots cast for governor or mayor) has declined, which contradicts his thesis that the act of ranking ballots in RCV elections is too complex and presents a barrier for certain demographics of voters. To his credit, McDaniel actually acknowledged another contradiction in his own paper, which found a negative RCV turnout effect in some odd-year elections but not others, admitting that “may present a challenge to the theory that increased complexity [from RCV] will have a marginal negative effect on voter turnout.” But he tried to wallpaper over that contradiction by blaming it on an unlikely source -- bad election administration. McDaniels wrote, “This would suggest that the negative impact of RCV on voter participation may be alleviated by high quality election administration,” without presenting any data or even anecdotes to support such an unfounded theory. While competent election administration of any election, whether RCV or non-RCV, is crucially important, there is no credible research that supports the far-fetched notion that the quality of election administration has much of an impact on voter turnout in US elections, whether using RCV or otherwise. Upgrade to a $5 subscription The unvirtuous circle of academic research It is puzzling how McDaniel’s first study could have survived the peer review process for the Journal of Urban Affairs. The mistakes in McDaniel’s first study above should have been obvious to anyone with a basic understanding of ranked choice voting as well as elections in general, and elections in San Francisco specifically. It undermines faith in the credibility of the peer review process to think that a jury of peer political scientists did not catch the egregious errors and reject McDaniel’s sloppy research and paper. And it remains a black mark on political science that this thoroughly discredited study has been cited dozens of times by other researchers. Indeed, in our research paper it became apparent that many political scientists cite each other’s flawed research to pad their list of citations and to legitimize their own flawed research, creating an unvirtuous circle of political science. More broadly, McDaniel’s voter turnout studies, like other studies evaluating RCV’s impact on turnout, lacked a recognition that no credible opinion or research can claim that RCV increases voter turnout merely because so many voters are excited to vote for their favorite candidates instead of “lesser evil” candidates without worrying about spoilers. Instead, with respect to turnout, the advantage of RCV has always been that, in most places where it has been used, it has eliminated a pre-November primary or post-November runoff, which usually saw about half the turnout of the November general election. This is especially true during even years when there are state and federal elections on the ballot which substantially drive turnout more than local contests. Any study that does not adequately account for this non-November primary/runoff vs November general election dynamic, or odd year vs even year election factors, is simply not credible. Both of McDaniel’s studies largely failed on those grounds. Steven Hill and Paul Haughey Share Upgrade to a $5 subscription Thanks for reading DemocracySOS…your digital portal for the pro-democracy movement. Subscribe for only $5 per month to receive full benefits and to support our work. Subscribe
‘The Odyssey’ cast go behind the sacking of Troy
‘The Odyssey’ cast go behind the sacking of Troy, filming inside the wooden horse, and the moment that surprised Matt Damon.
AMC Entertainment Attracts More Than 4.3 Million Moviegoers Worldwide as THE ODYSSEY Delivers the Biggest Opening Weekend for an R-rated Film Across AMC’s U.S. Circuit Since 2024
LEAWOOD, Kan., July 20, 2026--AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AMC), the largest theatrical exhibitor in the United States and the world, today announced that more than 4.3 million moviegoers attended AMC Theatres in the United States and ODEON Cinemas internationally from Thursday through Sunday, led by the opening of Christopher Nolan’s THE ODYSSEY.
What really happens at a GLP-1 retreat? I went to find out.
There’s a lot to consider before starting or stopping a GLP-1 medication. This wellness retreat lays it all on the table.
Can Arizona Republicans Stop Feuding Long Enough to Win Back the State?
Some Republicans fear the party is poised to repeat past mistakes by nominating candidates in Tuesday’s primaries who are viewed as too extreme to sway moderate voters.
Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link may have been cancelled, but that hasn't stopped footage of Keyblade-wielding astronauts from leaking online
A year has passed since the game was canned, but this new snippet shows it's not lacking in wackiness.
Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 leak reveals 5,000 nits display, IP69K rating, and more
Samsung cannot seem to stop leaks of its upcoming devices. A new leak has revealed nearly all the key improvements the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 will bring. The wear
‘The Odyssey’ storms the globe in record-breaking $264 million box office premiere
Christopher Nolan whipped up a serious squall at the box office this weekend, with his ‘Odyssey’ adaptation shattering a ‘Dark Knight’ record with $264 million in its global premiere.
How to Stop Google Maps From Displaying Your Home to Strangers
A straightforward privacy request to Google can remove your home from Street View entirely. Here's the step-by-step process.
Not Greek to them. Scholars question Christopher Nolan\'s \'The Odyssey\'
Greek translator Emily Wilson finds the release of Christopher Nolan's film “The Odyssey” both gratifying and unsatisfying. Her 2017 translation of Homer's epic has surged in popularity. Nolan even cited
Cowboys Called ‘Logical Landing Spot’ for $118 Million Free Agent
Bleacher Report's Kristopher Knox called the Dallas Cowboys a logical landing spot for free-agent inside linebacker Bobby Wagner. The post Cowboys Called ‘Logical Landing Spot’ for $118 Million Free Agent appeared first on HEAVY.
Christopher Nolan's 'Odyssey' debut breaks major box office record
Is Christopher Nolan the most reliable director working today? With his latest film, the Oscar winner has pulled off a feat that few filmmakers can.
AP Entertainment SummaryBrief at 12:53 p.m. EDT
Not Greek to them. Scholars question Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey'
Not Greek to them. Scholars question Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey'
Greek translator Emily Wilson finds the release of Christopher Nolan's film "The Odyssey" both gratifying and unsatisfying.
Not Greek to them. Scholars question Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey'
Greek translator Emily Wilson finds the release of Christopher Nolan's film "The Odyssey" both gratifying and unsatisfying.
Not Greek to them. Scholars question Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey'
Greek translator Emily Wilson finds the release of Christopher Nolan's film "The Odyssey" both gratifying and unsatisfying.
Not Greek to them. Scholars question Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey'
Greek translator Emily Wilson finds the release of Christopher Nolan's film "The Odyssey" both gratifying and unsatisfying.
Congress Must Stop Enabling Trump's Crypto Corruption
With the CLARITY Act, Washington is cashing in on the crypto industry. Americans will pay the price.
In tight Senate race, Talarico and Paxton discuss border security during campaign stops in "critically important" South Texas
A pollster and political science professor at Texas A&M's Bush School said that the candidates' visits to South Texas highlight the region's importance this year.
Victor Marx reflects the unsettling nature of today politics
Victor Marx barely won, but his victory delivers a strong statement about the nature of today's politics. It shows what happens when a party stops seriously competing and instead indulges its fever dreams.
Dazzling Dozen: Red Sox Can't Stop Winning
Boston is on one of those streaks that simply ceases to make total sense.
Bernie Sanders dismisses Haley Stevens, says Michigan race is against the 'billionaire class'
Sen. Bernie Sanders says Michigan's Democratic Senate primary isn't about Rep. Haley Stevens but whether the billionaire class can stop El-Sayed.
Here's the real reason KFC stopped going by Kentucky Fried Chicken nearly four decades ago
How the ‘famously’ phoneless Christopher Nolan gets in touch with actors
Matt Damon is revealing how the ‘famously’ phoneless Christopher Nolan reached out to him about starring in ‘The Odyssey.’
Inside my surreal 4 a.m. 70mm Imax screening of 'The Odyssey'
I joined the sold-out 4 a.m. 70mm Imax screening of Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' in London. It was a scene.
'The Odyssey' sails towards a record-breaking opening weekend
Christopher Nolan's epic is already crushing at the box office.
These 16 Democrats Voted to Stop Israel Aid. AIPAC Took Action.
After 103 Democrats voted to eliminate aid to Israel, the lobbying group closed off online donations for more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers it had endorsed.
Where Was ‘The Odyssey’ Filmed? All About the Surprising Destinations Featured in Christopher Nolan’s Movie
Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ was shot across five European countries. Here’s everything to know about where ‘The Odyssey’ movie was filmed.
Why KFC stopped calling itself Kentucky Fried Chicken — and the myths that still won't die
The 1991 name change from Kentucky Fried Chicken to KFC sparked wild myths, but the real reason involved declining earnings and the word "fried."
A Guide to All 'The Odyssey' Characters, Mythical Creatures, Gods and Goddesses
‘The Odyssey’ includes several characters, mythical creatures and gods portrayed by Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland and Zendaya, among others. Here’s a complete guide to all the characters in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey.’
How Christopher Nolan weaponized Matt Damon's persona for 'The Odyssey'
What if Odysseus isn't the hero the songs sing about?
'Just stop burning fossil fuels.' Scientists stress that our smoky skies only have one true fix
Smoky skies in Toronto have led to new scrutiny of government efforts to fight fires and manage forests. But scientists say the realistic way to tackle the smoke is fighting climate change itself.
MLB Bans AI Dugout Tech After Ottavino Alert
MLB blocks AI on dugout iPads to stop strategy cheating, a move former reliever Adam Ottavino helped trigger.
The Odyssey to Gracie Abrams: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
Matt Damon dons the sword and sandals in Christopher Nolan’s epic, while the LA singer-songwriter shares more arena-friendly scream-along anthems
Smoky skies didn’t stop Festa Italiana as crowds filled Freedom Hill County Park in Sterling Heights
Festa Italiana continued at Freedom Hill County Park in Sterling Heights despite hazardous air quality across southeast Michigan caused by smoke from Canadian wildfires.
Cinematic ‘The Odyssey’ does right by by Homer’s poem
Christopher Nolan and all-star cast tame a sprawling story for the screen
‘The Odyssey,’ ‘Heartstopper Forever,’ and ‘The Vampire Lestat’ finale top this week’s Must List
See EW’s top pop culture picks for the week, including Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey,’ ‘Heartstopper Forever’ on Netflix, and ‘The Vampire Lestat’ finale on AMC.
The Odyssey Fans Say The Movie Needs An Epilepsy Warning
Christopher Nolan’s latest film has one segment that fans are warning new viewers about
Christopher Pang has more fun playing the jerk in Hulu’s ‘The Season’
Everyone wants to be the hero. Christopher Pang, however, would rather be the guy audiences love to hate.
Trump cites national security to stop offshore wind development. Here's what to know
President Donald Trump's administration has worked to stop offshore wind development on the grounds that it's a national security risk since late last year.
Apple, Google must stop profiting off AI nudify apps, San Francisco AG says
Official estimates Google and Apple likely made millions in nudify app fees.
“Heartstopper” stars still haven’t seen “Heated Rivalry”: ‘We probably have very similar experiences’
Kit Connor and Joe Locke know it’s “terrible” that they haven’t seen the spicy hockey romance.
Christopher Nolan Handpicked Himesh Patel for The Odyssey. Then He Put Him Through Hell.
The 35-year-old star had already worked with the director on ‘Tenet,’ but the conditions and experience went way further on the massive new adaptation of Homer’s epic tale. He says it was all worth it.
After ‘Heated Rivalry’ mania, a very adult ‘Heartstopper’ is here
(CNN) — It takes less than 10 minutes of watching the new “Heartstopper Forever” movie on Netflix to realize this is not the same tenderhearted romance to which audiences were
San Francisco Demands Apple and Google Delete AI ‘Nudify’ Apps From App Stores
The City Attorney’s Office sent the tech giants cease-and-desist letters this week telling them to stop profiting from 13 “face-swap” apps that are overwhelmingly used to target women and girls.
Every Christopher Nolan movie ranked, including ‘The Odyssey’
Nolan’s 13 films changed the ambitions of the blockbuster. Here’s how "The Odyssey" and all the rest stack up.
Does stopping GLP-1s make you gain the weight back? What the science says
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Sister Cities Celebrated 40 years at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center
Welll...The smokey air didn't stop a global celebration today.The decc was filled with culture... Food... And community tonight...As "Sister cities" hosted its first-ever dock and dine event.The nonprofit also celebrated
UK’s Enviropods summer camp gives middle schoolers a look at weather science careers
The summer camp tour was designed to visit areas impacted by natural disasters in recent years. The stop in Perry County comes nearly four years after the devastating 2022 flood.
Matt Damon calls Ben Affleck ‘one of the great loves of my life’
Matt Damon said that his BFF Affleck — whom he called ‘one of the great loves of my life’ — had an overwhelmingly positive reaction to ‘The Odyssey’: ‘He didn’t stop talking for an hour.’
GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen Insists Sony Killing Physical Discs 'Doesn't Matter at All' Because Video Game Sales Make Up So Little of His Business
GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen has sparked a fiery debate in the gaming community after remarking that sales of physical games are “totally irrelevant" to his business.
GameStop CEO Says Games Are "Irrelevant" To Company
In a new interview, GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen says that games and software are "irrelevant" to the company's business.
GameStop CEO Says Physical Games Don't Matter
Ryan Cohen also claims that if GameStop and eBay merged it could create a $1 trillion business
GameStop CEO Says Physical Video-Game Sales Are ‘Irrelevant’ to Business
GameStop Corp. Chief Executive Officer Ryan Cohen dismissed concerns about the demise of physical discs for video games, insisting that those sales make up a small part of the company’s overall business and reiterating that his long-term strategy is to focus on gaming collectables and purchasing e-commerce giant eBay Inc.
Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' review: An ambitious swing that hits
Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" has a surreal quality that didn't resonate with me until I started dreaming about it.
What to Stream: 'Heartstopper Forever,' 'Lucky' and Steve Lacy
A new album from Steve Lacy and the conclusion of the “Heartstopper” series are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.
Conor McGregor Says Max Holloway Fight Should Be No Contest
UFC superstar Conor McGregor says that the result of his fight against Max Holloway at UFC 329 should be overturned to a No Contest.McGregor was stopped just 69 seconds into the main event of UFC 329 when his knee gave out on him, and referee Mike Beltran stepped in and called an end to the […] The post Conor McGregor Says Max Holloway Fight Should Be No Contest appeared first on HEAVY.
Reese Witherspoon gushes about reunion with ‘Legally Blonde’ and ‘Freeway’ costar Alanna Ubach: ‘She’s my girl’
Reese Witherspoon couldn’t stop talking about her love for ‘Legally Blonde’ and ‘Freeway’ costar Alanna Ubach as she promoted their new show ‘Lucky.’
Chico City Council approves entertainment zones for downtown and Meriam Park
CHICO, Calif. - Chico City Council voted 6 to 0 to approve an ordinance creating entertainment zones in downtown Chico and Meriam Park.The ordinance, taking effect September 18, 2026, will allow customers to carry approved alcoholic beverages and walk around outside within those designated areas."I feel like the downtown could use all the help it could get right now," said Celeste Cramer, general manager of Downtown Chico Business Association. "In the other areas where they have been doing the entertainment zones and throughout California, it has increased their sales. They haven't seen an increase in violence, or tickets, or anything like that. It's a good thing to try out."Numerous other cities around California such as Redding, Sacramento and San Francisco have put their own entertainment zones into effect and have had success.Action News Now stopped by both designated locations and spoke with organizers and bar owners."I'm super excited, I think this is an opportunity for us," said Scott Baldwin, owner of Argus. "We can get a booth at the farmers market. You can order a cocktail from that booth and then we'll have it ready for you at the door as you walk through. Think of it as a picnic situation. You can grab some tacos, you can get a Kentucky Buck. You can sit down anywhere in the entertainment zone and enjoy Argus outside of Argus."Chico's Chamber of Commerce hosted community stakeholder meetings and community engagement sessions to tailor the ordinance to the city's needs as a university town and rural area.The ordinance will allow people 21 and older to walk around with open containers of alcohol within the entertainment zones as long as they have a wristband, stamp or another visible marker showing they're allowed to do so."To us it's more than an ordinance," said Jen Rothenwander, marketing manager at Meriam Park. "It's an opportunity to invest back into the community, and to continue to do what Chico does well – which is to create the spaces for people to stick around and gather, and shop and spend."The Meriam Park entertainment zone will be enclosed by Springfield Drive, Alcott Avenue, Notre Dame Boulevard and E. 20th Street.The Downtown Chico entertainment zone will span mostly from Highway 32 to Lost Park.Chico Chief of Police Billy Aldridge spoke with Redding Police and was informed they had zero problems with their entertainment zone.Chief Aldridge endorses the ordinance in Chico. freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: "actionnewsnow-com_blox_yup-rectangle-one", slotId: "actionnewsnow-com_blox_yup-rectangle-one", targeting: { "pos": "yup-rectangle-one" } });
‘The Odyssey’ reviews: What critics are saying about Christopher Nolan’s take on the epic
Before you watch ‘The Odyssey,’ see what critics are saying about the new Christopher Nolan epic.
Residents ask Hillsborough to stop funding Israeli business nonprofit
The Florida Israel Business Accelerator has helped nearly a dozen Israeli businesses open offices in Hillsborough County.
Lionel Messi fuels Argentina’s stunning late rally past England into World Cup final
With two late, heart-stopping goals, Argentina caught and passed England in the World Cup semifinal, winning 2-1 in yet another miraculous, come-from-behind triumph.
The States Try to Topple WarnerMount…Thus Begins the Local Antitrust Era
(Welcome to the “Most Important Story of the Week”, my bi-weekly strategy column analyzing the most important (but often not buzziest) news story of the last two weeks. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. Please subscribe.) Well, it looks like it’s time for another strategy column. Can I finally avoid writing about M&A? No, it seems I cannot. Admittedly, I’m a week early with this column, since I usually put it out every other week. But this news couldn’t wait. This will make three “Most Important Stories” in a row with a merger or acquisition as its centerpiece. First, Roku-Fox (an acquisition), then Comcast-NBCUniversal (a divestment!), and now the State AGs and the WGA’s lawsuits against Paramount’s pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery (antitrust). M&A is usually the “most important” topic any given week, simply because a giant company merging or breaking up (or preventing those outcomes) can have the biggest impact on the streaming board. If you think about these companies as players in a game, changing the number of players is one of the biggest changes you can make. I shouldn’t really complain, either, since this lawsuit is very good news for customers and suppliers (econ speak for talent, workers and indie studios in Hollywood). So let me answer some questions about this potential trial, along with (shudder) making some heavily caveated predictions. I’ll also look at whether Hollywood must consolidate, whether or not the states can win, trouble at X-Box, Netflix’s YouTube binge, and more. Plus, I have five images that visualize this merger and the harm, including three brand new data looks you’ve never seen before. Subscribe Most Important Story of the Week - Can The States and the WGA Stop Hollywood’s Consolidation (Crisis)? If every other newsletter and news outlet is writing about the same story, I try to avoid writing about it as well, but I can’t ignore a story this consequential. The story of the last year was the fate of Warner Bros. Discovery, and this development potentially extends that saga into 2027. As I tried to figure out my angle, I realized, like my last column, I’m again faced with a series of questions. These questions, though, are much more forward-looking. Will the states win? Will the WGA win? If so, what happens to Warner Bros. Discovery? Either way, will this chill the market for future mergers? So you know what that means: predictions. About the future, no less, the hardest thing to predict.1 Just remember: nothing here comes with a guarantee. And the more confident someone is in their predictions, the less you should trust them. This situation is incredibly fluid, nuanced, uncertain and tenuous. So let’s try to explain what may happen. Question: Why File this Lawsuit? I’ll admit, a few months back, I was fairly pessimistic about the fate of this lawsuit. Rumors had started bubbling up that the state Attorneys General (in particular California) wanted to settle with either some minor divestments (usually CNN) or behavioral remedies. And that tracked for me: the states usually settle lawsuits, like the recent John Deere right-to-repair suit. Yet, they plan to fight this. (As they did the LiveNation-Ticketmaster monopolization trial and the Nexstar-Tegna merger.) Honestly, that also makes a ton of sense. Frankly, this move is just good politics for these State AGs. Most are still running for higher and higher office in blue states—some folks have emphasized that only Democratic AGs joined this suit, but given the Ellison/Trump ties, and fears of retribution, that tracks—and a high profile case like this will help them move up the electoral ladder, especially since Paramount and its leadership (the Ellisons, father and heir) have sided with the other side of the political aisle. That makes them unsympathetic to Democratic voters and Hollywood workers in particular. Why did this lawsuit happen? In addition to the very real concerns about industry consolidation, this is why. That said, I don’t think we would have seen this lawsuit for Netflix and Warner Bros., simply because they’re more sympathetic and aligned with Democrats. But those consolidation concerns are real. The “town”—meaning Hollywood and such—really is seeing the damage of mergers on this industry. That’s why the WGA also filed its own lawsuit in defense of workers as well. (Wildcard: What about Europe? Will they try to stop the deal, too? There have been some rumors out of the UK they may try to fight the deal, and UK enforcers just stopped a Getty Images-Shutterstock tie up, so there is precedence. This argument could go either way, though. On one hand, the EU doesn’t need to step in, cause they states are handling it. On the other hand, this could make the EU’s case easier. Just imagine if both sides coordinated. I’ll simply say, “We’ll see!”) Question: Will The State AGs or the WGA Win? Can the state AGs play David to Paramount-Skydance’s Goliath here? That’s really the whole thing, isn’t it? If you know this result, you could make a lot of money. When things are uncertain, it’s tempting to shrug and say, “Eh” meaning it’s a 50/50 proposition. I wouldn’t, though. When in doubt, you should expect that the merging parties succeed. AT&T did successfully buy Warner Bros., after all, and Disney bought Fox without any challenges. Many judges are extremely sympathetic to mergers, and I’d bet the state AGs get a judge who will allow the merger. (Even Obama-appointed judges often allow mergers.) As I understand it, we’ll see two main attacks. First, theatrical films. The AGs are arguing that, when it comes to share of box office and the number of both “wide releases” and blockbuster (or “tentpole”) films, the merging parties will have over 27% market share. Now, the Supreme Court once ruled from on high that any merger that exceeds 30% is presumptively illegal, but that’s guidance, not an ironclad bar. Still, the states will have to argue that this is close to having too much power, and with that power, this will likely further worsen the theater/studio splits in particular. Indeed, as Matthew Stoller pointed out, “just five studios are responsible for 95% of all blockbusters; if this merger goes through, then Paramount and Disney will control 60% of that.” So yes, movie studios will be very concentrated after this merger. Want me to visualize some of that? Well, here’s the share of films that grossed over $200 million at the domestic box office since 2022. (Note: this isn’t all films released in over 3,000 screens, but it is a good look at market power.) First, here are the 43 films by studio: Notice all the blue (Disney), orange (Universal), and purple (Warner Bros)? Yeah, those studios are powerful, and this combines Paramount with one of them. Here’s the look by studio and share of the films that grossed over $200 million: Now, if you look at that and also think, “Huh, should we break up Disney?” I’m with you. I’ve seen some folks poo-poo this idea that this is a real category, but it is! For an upcoming article, I’ve been pulling data on the share of top 100 films at the box office as a share of total box office, and it’s massive. Here’s the chart: (This analysis looks at The-Number’s top 100 films and total domestic box office each year.) To be clear, tentpoles make up 80.7% of the box office each year, so I do think it’s a genuine market. (To be clear, films grossing over $50 million make up 80% of the domestic box office, and films grossing over $100 million make up 64.1%.) I mean, the top 100 films at the box office make up 95% of each year’s grosses. Worse, the combined studios will likely cut output to flex that market power. Everyone can just look at what happened to Disney and Fox to see the precedent. (With fewer films, the remaining theaters have to give more for those few films that remain.) Here’s an image I’ve used a lot, the share of wide-release films from Disney and Fox over time: The AGs will also argue that this consolidation will also impact the cable industry. In this case, the consolidation is actually worse, but that environment is…complicated. Paramount will argue that the cable industry is shrinking. That said, predictions that cable will “go to zero” also don’t look very well supported by the data, as the declines are shrinking, meaning “cable” or “vMVPDs” will likely stabilize at some point. Can the state Attorneys General win on those two main arguments? I honestly don’t know. Again, I’d bet no, since history in general supports that, but it depends on the judge/jury and how they interpret the arguments. Notably, Paramount won’t face accusations about monopoly power in other areas, like streaming, news, sports rights, or vertical integration. I tend to disagree with leaving out sports rights, but I also see the appeal for a simpler case. The states also aren’t really pushing novel theories about labor harm either, which should help. (By the way, Sean McNulty at The Ankler wrote a great run through of potential options, and Capitol Forum also wrote a great paper on theatrical consolidation. Both these pieces predated the lawsuit. Matthew Stoller is also out with his analysis of the pros and cons of the case too.) In some ways, the WGA’s case is even stronger. Quoting Sean McNulty’s summary: “The WGA is citing WARNAMOUNT as crossing a 30% market share in multiple sectors, a number that the Supreme Court has precedent for deeming “presumptively anticompetitive” in a market. According to the WGA numbers, WARNAMOUNT would have represented: - 35% of film writing jobs between 2021 and 2024 - 36% of TV writing projects between 2022 and 2025 - 38% of overall deals between 2021 and 2024” Notably, antitrust enforcers did win recently in the Penguin-Simon & Schuster merger by focusing on labor impact, so don’t count this thinking out. (Wildcard: Will the states try to get a jury trial? Most likely no, they’ll let a judge handle it. If I’m them, though, I’d try to put this in front of a jury. Juries tend to understand monopoly power in a more realistic way than judges faced with legions of economists.) Question: What if They Win? What if They Lose?
Pensacola Navy vet with ALS urges Congress to extend military kids' health coverage
PENSACOLA, Fla. -- ALS has stolen nearly everything from him. His ability to walk, to hug his kids, to speak out loud and kiss his wife.Navy veteran christopher
THE ODYSSEY Review: Potent As Political Message, Flawed As Entertainment
Christopher Nolan's new film stars Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Benny Safdie, and a cast of thousands.
'The Odyssey' review: Christopher Nolan's new movie is an unexpected spiritual sequel to 'Oppenheimer'
Christopher Nolan makes Homer's material his own — and becomes an Oscar frontrunner in the process.
Is ‘The Odyssey’ Christopher Nolan’s best movie?
Is it possible that Christopher Nolan is only just now hitting his peak as a filmmaker with ‘The Odyssey’?
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Wednesday briefing: Do MPs have the will to stop mega-donors interfering in UK politics?
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Rochester sports complex indoor phase potentially on hold
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All-Star Game Discussion
Starting pitcher for the AL is Toronto’s Dylan Cease, the first Blue Jay to do so since 2009, when Roy Halladay did so. On the mound for the NL will be Cristopher Sánchez of the hometown Phillies. Weirdly, the last Phillies pitcher to start the All-Star Game was… Roy Halladay, in 2011. This is the […]
Trump administration orders ICE to suspend most vehicle stops after deadly shootings
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Christopher Nolan sparks fresh backlash after calling 'The Odyssey' criticism 'irrelevant'
Critics slammed Nolan's response to "The Odyssey" casting backlash involving Lupita Nyong'o, Elliot Page, and the film's modern language choices.
A look inside Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ by the numbers
Christopher Nolan's “The Odyssey” is an epic film, hitting theaters Friday. The Associated Press looks at the film, by the numbers. It runs 172 minutes, slightly shorter than “Oppenheimer.” The
Christopher Nolan Fans Will Stop at Nothing to See ‘The Odyssey’ in Imax 70mm, From Cross-Country Trips to Delaying Pregnancy
Nothing is going to keep Amber Connaghan, a 29-year-old tech editor who lives in the California desert, from seeing Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” on opening day. Connaghan bought her ticket over a...