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Maybee church festival to offer food, music and family fun
The Divine Grace Parish Fall Festival in Maybee will feature meals, music, games and family activities from Sept. 18-20.
OHA weighs approval of PeaceHealth's proposed behavioral health hospital in Lane County
The fate of PeaceHealth's proposed Timber Springs Behavioral Health Hospital is now in the hands of the Oregon Health Authority, as Lane County officials and co
Bill Simmons under review by Massachusetts authorities after admitting to proxy sports betting
Simmons, the founder of The Ringer, said Tuesday that it was a “lesson learned” after FanDuel voided his wagers.
Ocasio-Cortez says Trump's Mar-a-Lago should be near data centers
The New York Democrat suggested building an AI data center near the president's Mar-a-Lago resort.
Marijuana business owner charged with murder after Oklahoma explosion kills 2
Ryan Bassham, 35, turned himself in over the weekend after being charged with two counts of first-degree murder in last week's blast at Solos Extracts near Tulsa, Oklahoma, authorities said.
House censures GOP congressman over creepy behavior toward staff
An ethics panel said the Republican lawmaker showered staffers with lavish trips, expensive gifts, romantic poems and an ice cream deluge.
OHA reports new measles exposures at 3 Portland-area clinics, hospitals
Oregon health officials are warning people about new measles exposure sites at hospitals in Portland and Gresham.The Oregon Health Authority and Multnomah Count
Florida Politics: Hope Florida, Nixon-Moody debate?
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is set to host a forum with several huge names in the Florida Republican Party, such as Attorney General James Uthmeier and GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Byron Donalds. Meanwhile, Angie Nixon is throwing her hat into the ring, challenging U.S. Senator Ashley Moody to a public debate ahead of the general election. POLITICO Reporter and Florida Playbook author Kimberly Leonard joined FOX 35's Garrett Wymer live over Zoom to discuss what's new in Florida politics.
Michael Strahan and Pete Davidson's 9/11 connection runs deep
Michael Strahan opens up about leading a new ABC News special, "9/11: United We Stand - 25 Years Later," and meeting Pete Davidson when he was a kid.
Hours, tickets, things to see at 2026 Oregon State Fair in Salem
The 2026 Oregon State Fair continues through Labor Day, Sept. 7, at the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem. Here's what to know before you go.
Rocket boosts bid to woo UWM brokers with new program, referral bonus
UWM pushed back on Rocket’s effort, saying its rival's new program relies on cash incentives rather than technology and service.
Tennessee football, Olympic sports will wear First Horizon jersey patch
Tennessee football and Olympic sports will have an orange and white First Horizon Bank logo on their uniforms in the 2026 season.
US health authorities contradict state officials on measles-related deaths
Delta Fest returns to Jackson with focus on Deep South’s $270 billion boom
Delta Fest returns to Downtown Jackson for three days of discussions, networking and performances focused on economic growth across the Deep South.
Dialed Health Is Officially Live, with a Launch Centered Around Events
At its core, Dialed Health brings together three elements that have often been treated separately: recovery tools, community engagement, and event infrastructure.
Watch Louisiana Grandstand unveil plans for entertainment destination
Google Pics is a Canva rival, and it's now available for all
Google Pics is the company's Canva rival, and this AI-based image design app is now broadly available if you want to try it out.
How SBGA Helps Small Businesses Build Operations That Keep Up With Growth
. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses account for the vast majority of American companies and employ nearly half the private-sector workforce.
Democratic socialists' next hurdle: Winning over Black voters
DSA officials say their organizing is centered on economic concerns, from housing costs and food prices to stagnant wages.
LZ Sees Surprising Result in Search for Dark Matter
Key Takeaways Dark matter is the mysterious substance that accounts for the vast majority of matter in our universe. LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a world-leading dark matter detector and specializes in searching for WIMPs, or weakly interacting massive particles. A new LZ study found one particle interaction that is difficult to explain with known background processes and could potentially have been caused by a WIMP. LZ continues to run to see if additional data strengthens or weakens the hint of a dark matter interaction. For the better part of a century, people have been trying to understand dark matter. This invisible substance makes up roughly 85% of the mass in the universe but has never been directly detected. Determining exactly what it is remains one of the biggest questions about our world. Now, a new analysis from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment has recorded a single particle interaction that researchers have great difficulty explaining with known background signals from normal matter. The result does not yet meet the statistical threshold required to claim a discovery, but is the most compelling hint of dark matter reported by the experiment to date. LZ is an international collaboration of 250 scientists and engineers from 39 institutions. The detector is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and operates nearly one mile below ground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in South Dakota. The experiment uses 10 tonnes of ultrapure liquid xenon to search for dark matter and is optimized to look for WIMPs, or weakly interacting massive particles. The results were presented in a scientific talk at the 2026 TeV Particle Astrophysics conference in Japan. The paper will be released on the online repository arXiv and submitted to the journal Physical Review Letters. “We’re very intrigued to see this event in the data, in the region where we expect dark matter to show up and the competing backgrounds are very low,” said Rick Gaitskell, a professor at Brown University and the spokesperson for LZ. “With only one event, we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. We are not claiming to have seen dark matter. But we have seen something interesting that we want to share with the scientific community for their input.” The LZ collaboration studies experimental data in batches. In the new result, researchers analyzed 220 live days of data collected between March 2023 and April 2024. The collaboration had previously searched this dataset for faint signals from the simplest kinds of WIMP interactions. The new analysis searched for a broader range of possible WIMP interactions that could deposit more energy in the detector. LZ is particularly sensitive to such signals while also minimizing false positives. “This was a detailed study in a region we hadn’t explored within this dataset, and we spent months of additional effort to understand all the possible causes of background events,” said Sam Eriksen, a senior research associate at the University of Bristol in the U.K. and lead author of the study. “We understand our detector and the backgrounds so well that even a single outstanding event, like the one we found, is important. We expect dark matter events to be extremely rare, so only a handful could mark the first detection of WIMP dark matter.” If the anomalous event was caused by dark matter, the WIMP that generated it would likely have a mass of at least 200 GeV/c2 (gigaelectronvolts), or more than 200 times the mass of a proton. It would also suggest a specific type of interaction between WIMPs and ordinary matter beyond the simplest model. The LZ results have not reached “5-sigma” significance, the statistical threshold considered a discovery in physics. The new analysis is 2.6 sigma, meaning there is approximately a 0.5% chance that the event could be explained by known backgrounds. With additional data, researchers can test whether the finding continues to grow in significance or fades away. LZ has already accumulated the world’s largest dark matter dataset and will continue to accrue WIMP search data at SURF, substantially improving their search statistics. LZ searches for dark matter by looking for signature flashes of light from energy deposited in the detector. The collaboration leverages multiple methods to prevent or account for particle interactions caused by normal matter. This includes the mile of rock that shields the detector from cosmic rays from space, a water tank and outer detectors that protect the central detector from background neutrons, and a suite of computational tools that disentangle particle interactions and reject dark matter mimics. “Outlier events in the data are not unexpected, but they usually stand out as a background of some kind when you look at them deeper,” said Aaron Manalaysay, a physicist at Berkeley Lab and the chair of LZ’s Institutional Board. “This is the first example in any experiment I’ve worked on of an outlier that appears valid in every way. Of course, we’re still twisting our brains trying to think if there’s a rare background mechanism we could’ve missed, but it’s thrilling to wonder if this could be the first hint of a dark-matter observation.” LZ is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy and Nuclear Physics, and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science user facility. LZ is also supported by the Science & Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom; the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology; the Swiss National Science Foundation; the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics; and the Institute for Basic Science, Korea. Thirty-nine institutions of higher education and advanced research provided support to LZ. The LZ collaboration acknowledges the assistance of the Sanford Underground Research Facility. ### Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to groundbreaking research focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The lab’s expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Researchers from around the world rely on the lab’s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.
All the major entertainment venues opening in metro Phoenix
The year has had major entertainment openings already, including the Arizona Boardwalk Big Wheel and Harkins Theatres 4D experience with more to come.
I helped build Obama's 2008 campaign. Democrats aren't ready for 2026.
The most dangerous political misinformation of the 2026 midterm election may not go viral. You may never see it at all.
Lionel Richie hospitalized after Missouri tour stop: Report
Two months after postponing concerts due to health issues he experienced on stage, Lionel Richie has reportedly been hospitalized following a show.
Authority Acquisition Launches AI-Mediated Discovery System for Business Coaches
Authority Acquisition releases a multi-channel content marketing system to help experts and business coaches build a consistent presence across ...
Person taken into custody in Bethel Township after possible mental health crisis
A possible mental health crisis led to police temporarily shutting down roads in Bethel Township on Monday afternoon, authorities said.
Scott Wolf's ex-wife Kelley Wolf apologizes after divorce battle, arrest
Scott Wolf's ex-wife Kelley Wolf, who was arrested amid the couple's divorce, opened up about her mental health struggles in a new social media post.
Policy updates aim to expand small business opportunities at TPA
The Hillsborough County Aviation Authority Board has approved important updates to the Airport’s business opportunity programs, with a stronger focus on helping small businesses participate in airport contracting and concession opportunities. The Small Business Enterprise (SBE) Program will help qualified small businesses to compete for constr...
Risk of mosquito-borne viruses rises as EEE detected in Michigan horse
Michigan health leaders say there's a growing threat to humans and horses of mosquito-borne viruses after EEE was detected in two Michigan counties.
Half of women experience hair loss. Can this supplement actually help?
The brand behind URO Vaginal Probiotic is entering the hair wellness category with new supplement designed to help women experiencing hair thinning and shedding.
Pixel 11 owners say their phones are waking up without being touched
Some Pixel 11 users report the Lift to wake phone feature is overly sensitive, waking their devices at even small vibrations.
Sen. Ed Markey, Democrat, across decades in Massachusetts politics
Markey has served in Congress for nearly 50 years. Here he is in recent years.
2 members of the Board of State Canvassers put politics over voters
Former Secretary of State Ruth Johnson says Michigan board members unfairly blocked a voter ID ballot initiative.
Jeff Rehberger and the Business of Betting Big on Illinois
Jeff Rehberger looked at that landscape and saw something else: a regulated, scalable market that would reward whoever built the right infrastructure to operate inside it seriously.
House Republicans investigate DEA tactic blamed for fentanyl flood
The tactic allegedly permitted staggering amounts of deadly fentanyl to reach the streets as federal authorities sought to build bigger drug cases
House Republicans investigate DEA tactic blamed for fentanyl flood
The tactic allegedly permitted staggering amounts of deadly fentanyl to reach the streets as federal authorities sought to build bigger drug cases
Pensacola Interstate Fair 2026 music and entertainment lineup announced
There's a little something for music fans of all genres at this year's Pensacola Interstate Fair this year. Check out this complete list of acts.
Health advisory in effect at Miami-Dade beach, testing revealed bacteria
A water quality advisory is in effect at a Miami-Dade, Florida, beach after testing revealed elevated levels of bacteria in surrounding waters.
Hampton Social, 30hop among new Waukee Towne Center tenants
Waukee Towne Center has named its first wave of restaurants, stores and entertainment businesses ahead of a planned late-spring 2027 opening.
City and URA Announce $600,000 partnership to Renovate Façades
As part of Mayor O’Connor’s Main & Main initiative, he and the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh (URA) have announced a new $600,000 strategic investment in the East Ohio Street business district.
New Mexico Health Care Authority hosts news conference for Medicaid changes
Federal changes are coming to programs like Medicaid and SNAP in 2026 and 2027. The New Mexico Health Care Authority is hosting a virtual conference to help explain the changes
Sweet Corn Festival offers four days of free family entertainment
Festivalgoers can enjoy free entertainment throughout the Sweet Corn Festival Sept. 2-5 with acts for all ages.
Bluebird 5K Run on Labor Day raises awareness about suicide prevention
Tallahassee's Bluebird 5K race on Labor Day honors those lost to suicide and raises up stories of hope and mental health recovery.
Launch family fun center bringing arcade, trampoline park to Davis Hwy soon
A new 31,000-square-foot family entertainment center will offer Pensacola food, a trampoline park, dodgeball, a ninja course and much more this fall.
Health First expands in Brevard with new ER and hospital upgrades
Health First is hiring for Brevard County's first freestanding emergency room while expanding its hospital network.
Big Knob Grange Fair celebrates 84th season on Sept. 1-5
Livestock events, exhibits, food, live music and more are planned at the 84th Big Knob Grange Fair on Sept. 1-5 in Rochester.
Democrats fought Trump's bill. Why back part of it now?
Your Pixel's built-in PA system is finally easy to find in Android 17 QPR2 Beta 4
Android 17 QPR2 Beta 4 makes Pixel's Voice broadcast feature easier to enable, eliminating the need to jump through hoops.
This new North Jersey vet has unlimited visits for a monthly fee
Snoots in Clifton has unlimited visits for dog and cat care. Family Care Physical Therapy opened in Butler. PayMore Electronics is in West Orange.
How AOC is upending norms around motherhood and political candidacy
Ocasio-Cortez, 36, who became the youngest woman to be elected to Congress in 2018 at age 29, has not ruled out a run for president in 2028.
Canada's retaliatory tariffs poised to hit Michigan manufacturing
Canada's retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods could constrain about $1.5 billion worth of Michigan exports, according to a Detroit News analysis.
Amazon Business is free to join: Is it worth it for your business?
Amazon Business gives companies access to business-only pricing, purchasing controls and millions of products. Learn who it's for and how to sign up for free.
Ontario premier urges thaw in US-Canada trade war: ‘We’re best friends.’
Ontario Premier Doug Ford seeks a trade deal with the U.S. despite a heated public feud with the president.
Here's a look inside Epicenter's Downtown Memphis office
Non-profit consulting and coaching group Epicenter has helped hundreds of businesses get off the ground. Here's how they do it.
Dolly Parton honored at Redford Theatre with 'Steel Magnolias' screening
Fans remembered her not just for her music but for her kindness and efforts to make the world better.
Dolly Parton fans treated with tribute movie
The Redford Theatre featured a showing of Steel Magnolias in honor of the late singer
Trump says 'Meet the Press' host Kristen Welker will be reported to FCC
President Donald Trump sharply criticized Kristen Welker, the moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press," after abruptly exiting an interview with her earlier this year.
From 'Sinners' to 'Stranger Things': Your guide to Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights
Your guide to Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights 2026: What to see, where to scream and how to survive.
The art of balancing formal business communication with authenticity
Senior Staff Writer Anna Mammarelli writes that professionalism need not come at the expense of personality.
Colorado Sues EarnIn For “Immoral, Unethical, Oppressive and Unscrupulous” Business Practices
Hey all, Jason here. When this hits your inbox, I should be en route to the airport — not to go anywhere myself, just to pick up my better half. I must admit, it’s been strange to be home alone (well, with two dogs) for two weeks! Really lets me “optimize” to spending more time on reading/writing/working, whether that’s healthy or not! Looking forward to getting back into a (somewhat) more balance routine. Subscribe or Support by Upgrading Compare Notes With the People Who Built Modern Fintech Partner content: Remitly CEO Sebastian Gunningham. Increase founder Darragh Buckley. Linda Du, Co-founder & President at Valon. They’ll unpack the decisions behind building and scaling major financial products: what they got right, what broke, what they would do differently, and how AI and new infrastructure are changing the operator playbook. Most events tell you where fintech is going. NerdCon puts the people who built the present in the room and asks them what comes next. Expect an operator-led conversation grounded in real products, real trade-offs and lessons earned the hard way. Fintech Business Weekly readers save 20% on Regular tickets with code FBW20 before standard pricing ends September 11. Meet the Builders Things To Know & Other Good Reads Advent and Stripe Abandon $50 Billion Pursuit of PayPal (Bloomberg) Trump Family’s New Crypto Bank Is Backed by Abu Dhabi Sheikh (Wall Street Journal) The multiplying risks of financing data centres (FT) Let the Bond Market Speak (Wall Street Journal) Did we waste a crisis? Modest proposals to reform deposit insurance. (Fintech Takes Banking) Untangling Guggenheim: How Private Credit Built Its Own Universe (Net Interest) The Hater’s Guide To Circular Financing — Part One (Ed Zitron) Fiat Ventures Rebrands to FGV Capital, Announces $35M Oversubscribed Fund II (BusinessWire) Socure Announces Strategic Growth Investment at $5.2B Valuation and Acquires Agentic Operations Platform Fravity (Socure) Listen: When Consumer Protection Disclosures Work Too Well (Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast) Colorado Sues EarnIn For “Immoral, Unethical, Oppressive and Unscrupulous” Business Practices When Andreessen Horowitz led EarnIn’s $39 million Series B in 2017, Alex Rampell, a partner at the storied venture capital firm, described EarnIn’s small-dollar advance product as “free,” relying on “entirely on voluntary contributions instead of fees.” Rampell favorably compared EarnIn’s approach to typical payday loans, writing, “Payday loans historically have had the potential to be a slippery slope for consumers into financial distress: opaque systems and steep fees that are hard to repay and set individuals back further than where they started. For many Americans living paycheck to paycheck, that kind of slide into debt can be extremely difficult to recover from.” But EarnIn’s product — which, the company says, isn’t a “loan,” legally speaking — ends up being anything but free for most users. While it is technically possible to take a no-fee advance from the company, most users incur “Lightning Speed” (instant funding) fees and/or ostensibly optional tips that combined can equate to annualized percent rates that can reach over 1,000%. With an average term of 9.77 days, even fees and tips that are small on an absolute dollar basis are equivalent to high APRs on an annualized basis. A lawsuit filed last week by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser against EarnIn describes the company and its product and business practices quite differently than Andreessen’s Rampell; “EarnIn’s business practices are unfair because they are immoral, unethical, oppressive and unscrupulous,” the complaint, filed in District Court in Denver, Colorado, says. EarnIn’s marquee product, Cash Out, isn’t a loan, the company says, as Cash Out is not “[f]orward [l]ooking” because “[t]he money is transferred based on earnings to date,” does not carry a mandatory fee to access funds, and is “non-recourse,” meaning EarnIn cannot pursue recovery from users who don’t repay advanced funds. EarnIn is sometimes referred to as an “Earned Wage Advance” service. Though, unlike some others in the broader category, EarnIn does not integrate with employers’ payroll or time and attendance systems. Rather, EarnIn attempts to verify a user’s income and employment, by examining direct deposit transaction data in their linked external bank account, by using GPS location and Bluetooth data to estimate a user’s time spent at work, if they work in a fixed location, and/or by having a user provided a work email address. While repayment is theoretically optional, as EarnIn would have no recourse, such as reporting non-payment to the credit bureaus or a collections agency, this is anything but clear to users of the EarnIn app, Colorado’s complaint argues. During the process of taking a Cash Out, users must agree to a preauthorized debit of the amount advanced, plus any expedited funding fee and/or tips. Though users technically can revoke this ACH authorization, the fact that they have this right isn’t presented to users during the Cash Out process, but rather is included in linked terms and conditions few users are likely to actually read. And users who do wish to revoke their ACH authorization must do so three or more days before the scheduled transaction date by emailing EarnIn’s customer support. Similarly, EarnIn’s marketing claims that it carries “no interest” and “no mandatory fees” is technically true, but is not the reality for many of the app’s users, the Colorado complaint argues. Further, EarnIn has extensively marketed to users the ability to “access your pay today,” to get “instant” funds, and to get funds “the same day you work” — when, in reality, this speed of access was only possible by paying the additional, undisclosed Lightning Speed fee. The Colorado complaint highlights this contradiction specifically, noting: EarnIn tells consumers that they can ‘Make any day payday with EarnIn’ and that there no ‘hidden’ or ‘mandatory fees.’ For a consumer to access their pay on the same day requested, they would have to pay the Lightning Speed fee. In the fine print of the advertisement EarnIn discloses that ‘[f]ees apply to use Lightning Speed,’ a direct contradiction to the larger text of the advertisement, and a fact that would not be immediately understood by a consumer as ‘Lightning Speed’ is not defined nor explained. Like other small-dollar lending services, rather than explicitly charge interest, EarnIn collects a markup on the optional Lighting Speed fee, which, given the nature of the transactions, many users opt for, as well as offering users the option to leave “tips.” EarnIn leverages either Real-Time Payments (RTP) rails or push-to-card via debit rails if a user opts for the optional Lightning Speed. But while these capabilities cost EarnIn, on average, $0.075 or $0.20 per transaction, respectively, EarnIn charges users significantly more. Initially, EarnIn charged as little as $1.99 for Cash Outs up to $24. But EarnIn has hiked these fees multiple times, and now charges $4.99 for Cash Outs up to $75 and $6.99 for those over $75. According to the Colorado complaint, EarnIn leverages “dark patterns” to manipulate users and to make it more difficult to avoid tipping. Examples of these “road blocks” highlighted in the complaint include: As of 2023, in the EarnIn app, a consumer attempting to get a loan under the default settings had to make at least eighteen separate taps to complete the transaction and reduce the tip to $0. There is an alternative method to leave a $0 tip, via the “Custom tip” feature, but EarnIn made this option difficult to access by visually deemphasizing it and positioning it near devices’ “home” button. Using language and imagery such as “Tip to pay it forward,” “Your generosity supports the service + helps,” “Your tips make a difference,” and “[t]he APR for this cash out is 0%. Your tips help support us.” While Lightning Speed and tipping are, in theory, both optional, in practice, users nearly always ended up paying something. According to the Colorado suit, users were charged either a tip or an expedite fee for more than 92% of transactions, with an average APR of nearly 388%. And, although the advances are “non-recourse,” EarnIn successfully collects on nearly all transactions — 99.18%, according to the complaint, which, Colorado argues, “demonstrat[es] that EarnIn’s advances function as high cost loans, not voluntary payments.” The share of EarnIn users incurring fees — despite the product being marketed as 0% APR — is hard to reconcile with Andreessen investor Rampell’s favorable description of EarnIn vs. “opaque systems and steep fees” associated with payday loans, which, Rampell says, can be “extremely difficult” for borrowers to extricate themselves from. According to Colorado’s suit, EarnIn’s Cash Out product “trapped many consumers in extreme cycles of high-cost reborrowing.” The suit gives an example of one consumer in the state, who took out a whopping 1,151 loans, paying a total of $4,038.50 in Lightning Speed expedited funding fees on loans that averaged the equivalent of 1,421% APR. Another Colorado user, the suit says, took out 1,033 loans, paying $8,561.22 in tips and fees at an average APR of 1,539% . These types of usage patterns demonstrate “the severe and repeated financial harm caused by EarnIn’s illegal lending model,” the Colorado complaint argues. In aggregate, from January 2023 through July 2025, EarnIn extended 3.1 million loans to 56,778 users in Colorado — an average of nearly 55 transactions per person during the time period. EarnIn lent more than $300 million and collected more than $16 million from Colorado users in Lightning Speed fees and in tips. Ultimately, the Colorado complaint argues that “EarnIn’s Cash Outs are loans under Colorado law, and EarnIn’s contention that its product is not a loan based on its disclaimer of any legal repayment obligation lacks any real-world significance given how the Cash Out transactions actually operate in practice.” Colorado further argues that “EarnIn was not working with companies here in providing consumers with funds but acted as a third-party lender and charged illegally high rates, used deceptive design strategies to extract some charges, and trapped consumers in repeat borrowing. Colorado will continue to stand up for consumers and hold companies accountable when they violate our credit laws or attempt to evade them through misleading practices.” Colorado’s suit alleges EarnIn assesses finance charge in excess of that permitted by Colorado law, that EarnIn failed to make legally required disclosures to Colorado borrowers, that EarnIn made supervised loans to consumers without obtaining the requisite license, that EarnIn violated the state’s Deferred Deposit Loan Act, that EarnIn engage in unfair and deceptive trade practices, and that EarnIn made false or misleading statements concerning price. The suit seeks a court order enjoining EarnIn from violating relevant Colorado laws, for EarnIn to refund amounts charged in excess of state law, fees, costs, and penalties, and other relief the court deems to be just. Fintech Business Weekly is made possible by the generous support of paying subscribers — bringing you independent analysis of banking, fintech, and crypto without fear or favor. You can support my work by becoming a paying subscriber if you aren’t already. Paying subscribers enjoy: access to the entire archive of nearly six years of newsletters extended versions of the weekly newsletter, with additional content and analysis and (for founding member tier) quarterly personal 1:1 fintech Q&A / strategy calls with me, tapping into my unparalleled knowledge of the intersection of banking and fintech and experience working in the sector, including helping to launch Goldman Sachs’ retail bank Marcus Support Fintech Business Weekly You can also support Fintech Business Weekly by sponsoring a newsletter or podcast, putting you in front of 93,000+ of the most influential decision makers in banking, fintech, and crypto. Learn more about sponsor opportunities or request a media kit by dropping me an email. Q2 Quarterly Banking Profile: Five Quick Takeaways The FDIC released its quarterly banking profile, which is always worth a read, for the second quarter. The profile provides an aggregate snapshot about the overall health of the 4,238 institutions whose deposits are insured by the FDIC, who, collectively, hold more than $26 trillion in assets and saw a total net income of more than $90 billion in the second quarter. Net income was up 12% vs. Q1 2026, with lower provisions and realized gains on securities helping to drive the improvement, somewhat offset by increases in non-interest expense and applicable income taxes. Overall net interest margin was basically flat quarter over quarter (up 1 basis point vs. Q1 2026), though community banks saw NIM grow by 10 basis points, to 3.81%. Unsurprisingly, given that interest rates haven’t changed, unrealized losses on securities changed little, edging up slightly to $326.7 billion vs. $325.1 billion in Q1 2026. Aggregate credit quality has remained benign, with asset quality actually improving slightly in Q2. Overall, institutions reported a 9 basis point decline in their past-due and non-accrual rate, to 1.44%. Net charge off rate also declined by 2 basis points, to 0.57%. And finally, the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund stands at $161.1 billion, making the DIF reserve ratio 1.48% — above the statutory minimum of 1.35%, but still below the designated target reserve ratio of 2%. [Paid Subscriber Exclusive] Nissan Withdraws ILC App, State Associations Plan BankChain Alliance, FDIC Defines “Unsafe or Unsound Practice” For First Time Automaker Nissan withdrew its application to charter a Utah industrial loan company and its corresponding application to the FDIC for deposit insurance last week, on August 19th. Nissan’s application had been outstanding for more than a year, as it originally applied in June 2025. Recent applications to the OCC to form national banks have been decisioned, one way or the other, substantially more quickly than has historically been the case.
Omni-liberalism: Why you should hold this framework in politics
Views staff writer Logan Walters examines “omni-liberalism" and argues for approaching policy with flexibility and skepticism.
Modern medicine failed her. She turned to toad venom instead
An increasing number of people are turning to complementary and alternative medicines, and the terms are evolving. Here's what's going on.
Reclaiming your kid's childhood from their screens starts here
There is a particular kind of silence parents know well: a room full of children, together but apart, each looking down at a screen.
Opinion/Guest column: More home health aid, better care for all in MA
Our state needs more clinicians to choose careers in home health so that we can improve outcomes for patients and bring down costs.
Can't sleep? Here's what causes insomnia and how to treat it
Insomnia can be a nightmare. Here's what you can do about it.
State probing two grants to American Arab chamber after money goes missing
The State Budget Office is reviewing at least two state grants given to the American Arab Chamber of Commerce amid allegations of unaccounted funds.
A fifth-grader in Kansas City clicked ball-and-stick atoms together in science class and asked her teacher if she'd made a real molecule — he photographed it, sent it to a chemistry professor, and at ten years old she became co-author of a published paper on a structure nobody had ever described
A ten-year-old's casual question about her chemistry model kit led to a published paper describing a molecular structure that had eluded professional scientists for decades.
3 states battling new measles outbreaks. What to know
Measles outbreaks are growing across the US during the nation's worst year for cases in decades. Here's what health officials want you to know.
Democrats project unity, talk Trump at convention
The Michigan Democratic Party convention offered a chance to come together following a divisive primary and focus on defeating Trump's picks.
Multiple baby goats had rabies at North Carolina mobile petting zoo, attendees urged to contact local health officials
Several baby goats at a mobile petting zoo in North Carolina were infected with rabies, and authorities are asking anyone who had contact with the animals to reach out to health officials.
Untested in court, Trump's new tariffs on Canada raise legal questions
The president’s Section 338 tariff authority has never been used, let alone tested in court.
Integrated pollution and carbon mitigation delivers major health and economic cobenefits in China
Synergistic mitigation of air pollutants and greenhouse gases is crucial for achieving clean air and carbon neutrality, but quantitative evidence of sectoral and regional health co-benefits in China remains limited. Authors develop an integrated Energy-Economy-Air Quality-Health framework coupling CEEPA, GAINS, and a province-level health module to simulate fourteen policy scenarios from 2020 to 2050. Coordinated strategies reduce CO2 and pollutants (SO2, NOX, PM2.5) by 75% relative to 2020, avoiding more than 500,000 premature deaths by 2050 and yielding monetized gains of 1.07 trillion CNY. Health benefits concentrate in industrially dense and populous provinces, with near-term PM2.5 reductions driven by pollution control and long-term improvements reliant on decarbonization. The integrated approach achieves a benefit-to-cost ratio of 1.42, lowering abatement costs by 11% relative to pollution-only measures. These findings highlight the value of coordinated, sector- and region-specific strategies for simultaneous climate mitigation, air quality improvement, and public health protection.
How to visit Beachyville, Caseville's homemade shed shopping mall
A family business in Caseville full of unique and quirky art is attracting visitors from around the world.
Camden County native to compete in upcoming season of 'Survivor'
Gloucester City native Aalyiah Puglia competes in the upcoming season of "Survivor."
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The Literacy Crisis Reaches Dog-Bear Science
“New analysis of more than 300 bear encounters suggests our canine companions often increase odds of conflict and rarely serve as early warning systems many recreationists assume,” reads a subhead in Mountain Journal. The thing is, that study reaches no such conclusion. But you have to read beyond the abstract to understand that. Mountain Journal is not alone. Let’s look at a brief list of takeaways published elsewhere just to establish that none of them seem to know how to read science. Wes Siler’s Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Here’s CBC: “A new peer-reviewed study, The Canine Conundrum: Is a Dog a Help or Hindrance in Bear Country?, dug into conflicts similar to what the video depicts, by analyzing 326 reported human-bear conflicts from 1901 to 2023 involving dogs.” “The study found 54 per cent of conflicts were started by dogs. In the encounters researchers included in the study, five people and 56 dogs were killed, and 170 people were injured.” “Lana Ciarniello, an independent researcher who co-authored the study, said researchers found when a person goes hiking with at least one other person, the odds of a negative bear encounter decrease by 50 per cent.” “However, when a dog is involved, the chances of a negative bear encounter increase because ‘a dog really adds a chaotic factor into the mix of recreation,’ said Ciarniello.” Again, the study finds no data supporting that conclusion. “Hiking with your pet dog may make you feel safer in bear country—but a hiker’s recent encounter and a new study prove that the numbers don’t add up,” writes Backpacker, which is now part of Outside. The numbers don’t add up to support this take. There’s plenty more examples, but all are equally dumb, so I’ll stop there. How did so many people get this so wrong? Three reasons: 1) the study is published behind a paywall, with only the abstract freely available. 2) the methodology sets out to create work relevant to a hyper-specific audience, not the public. And 3) the dataset studied is almost absurdly limited and doesn’t bear (get it?!) comparison to wider information. Let’s work through all three. The Problem is Money I understand the irony, since I’m writing about this on a subscription-model newsletter, but information wants to be free. The study is published by The Wildlife Society and costs $16 to access. Reprinting it is specifically prohibited by the terms of use, so I can only share snippets and my conclusions with you here. Having worked as a journalist for 24 years, I can report with some authority that journalists are both lazy and cheap. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that much of the material you’re seeing written about this study is drawn from the freely-available abstract (above) only, and not a deep dive into its methodology or data. And that’s a problem, because abstracts are where researchers are able to break from their numbers and editorialize their opinions about conclusions. So what’s getting reported isn’t based on numbers, it’s based on an opinion designed for a specific audience, not the general public. Hell yeah ladies, kick that bear’s ass. The Methodology is Designed to Support a Predetermined Conclusion One of the biggest issues with the science that everyone likes to cite about bear spray’s efficacy is that no one understands that study was designed for a specific audience, looking for a specific answer. And since that audience is not the public, and our safety was not the question being asked, its conclusion is rendered irrelevant to our needs. Yes, I’m talking about Efficacy of Bear Deterrent Spray in Alaska, which was created by Tom Smith and Stephen Herrero, two of the same scientists who put together this dog-bear conflict analysis. In the spray study, the purpose was to present relevant agencies with the information they needed to issue their field workers with bear spray. As such, incidents where people were unable to access the spray or similarly failed to get it deployed in time were excluded from the results, and only incidents they deemed successful were included. Could a ranger roll down their vehicle’s window and scare a bear away from a dumpster by spraying it? Turns out the answer was yes, and that was good enough for the purposes of that study. The sample size of actual bear attacks—the thing you and I would want bear spray to provide a solution to, was too small to draw conclusions from, and didn’t indicate success in that role. Is a Dog a Help or Hindrance in Bear Country? has similar limitations. “Insights provided here are intended to help wildlife managers create effective guidelines regarding the presence of domestic dogs in bear habitat,” is explained clearly by the study’s text. To conduct the study, Smith and Herrero went looking for publicly available reports of dog-bear conflicts: “All incidents included in our analysis involved at least one bear, one dog, and one person who was at immediate risk of injury (e.g., not in a protective structure such as a cabin or vehicle), injured, or killed,” explains the report’s methodology. Why is that a problem? “We recognize that data used in this study are biased in that people generally only report adverse interactions with bears, not benign ones. Consequently, we assume that for the most part, people and their dogs pass through bear country without incident.” As was the problem with the bear spray study, people are drawing conclusions here from a study that was never intended to be relevant to the general public. The Smith-Herrero database famously excludes Alaska’s Defense of Life and Property records, which are elsewhere considered the largest and most authoritative source on human-bear conflict. The Dataset is Absurdly Limited A 2009 study conducted by the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife estimates that each year there are at least 43,000 documented complaints of human-bear conflict across North America. Is a Dog a Help or Hindrance in Bear Country? Examined those reports for years ranging from 1901 to 2023, and only managed to find 326 such incidents that met the criteria explained above. Let’s do some quick math, poorly. 43,000 incidents x 122 years = 5,246,000 total incidents of documented human-bear conflict. Smith and Herrero were only able to find 326 incidents that met their criteria for dog+human+bear+risk or occurrence of injury. That means there’s a 0.006 percent chance that the study’s conclusion—that dogs make bear encounters more dangerous—even gets a chance of occurring. And remember, that’s only in documented conflicts. There’s no way to know how many people across North America run into a bear in any given year without any conflict, but it’s probably safe to assume that the total number is well in excess of 43,000. And, dig deeper into the study and you can find further restrictions that skew its conclusions even more. “While the people involved in these incidents did not report the level of training their dogs had received, it is our assumption that most were untrained companion dogs as opposed to well-trained bear dogs, such as Karelians and livestock guardian breeds that have proven to be significant aids in bear country,” the study’s methodology explains. And that’s a problem, because an ongoing study here in Montana is finding that the simple presence of a Kangal like our youngest dog Teddy can reduce visits to private property from grizzly bears by 87.8 percent. In addition to being a badass, Teddy is also a companion animal. And in my admittedly limited sample size of the three dogs currently present in our living room, she’s no more effective than her mutt brothers. Plenty of people own a dog capable of deterring bears, even if they didn’t set out to own a bear dog. The real purpose of this study appears to be a recommendation that leashes are mandated and recreationists pursue training in their deterrent of choice. But that doesn’t make for sensational headlines. Are There Any Real Takeaways Here? Let’s throw some numbers around, just to try and get our hands around what the larger picture might look like for bears and dogs here. The American Veterinary Medical Association estimates that 42.6 percent of American households own a dog. The Canadian Animal Health Institute says roughly 35 percent of households in Canuckistan own a dog. In an attempt to create the worst possible result for dogs, let’s run with that 35 percent number. And given that outdoorsy and rural people are more likely to both own a dog, and have bear encounters, let’s just make a giant assumption and apply that number to those 43,000 conflicts documented annually. If 35 percent of 43,000 human-bear encounters involve a dog, then we can assume that at least 15,050 dog-bear conflicts are occurring annually in North America. 15,050 x 122 = 1,836,100. Smith and Herrero were only able to find 326 incidents that met their human, dog, chance or occurrence of injury criteria across 122 years. And only 170 documented human injuries. So, with all the obvious caveats about these numbers in no way describing reality beyond narrow study parameters, what they actually found is that your risk of injury if your dog tangles with a bear is only 0.009 percent. I’ll take those odds next time I’m hiking my dogs in bear country. Top photo: “Superintendent Horace Albright, eating pancakes with bears, at Lake Lodge, Yellowstone National Park.” NPS. A journalist with more than two decades of experience working around the world, Wes Siler is here to cut through the outrage and disinformation to bring you the factual, insightful, actionable reporting you need to understand what’s going on. Upgrading to a paid subscription supports this reporting, and buys personal access to Wes, who will help you save money on gear, plan outdoor adventures, and prepare for real life, and who promises he’s less salty in real life than he sometimes comes across as on the Internet. Wes Siler’s Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe
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