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Padres Face A Prove-It Series Against Yankees This Weekend
The San Diego Padres have dropped out of the third wild-card after a rough road trip, and they have a big homestand.
New York Yankees at San Diego Padres: Series Preview
The Yankees continue their road trip as they visit a playoff hopeful.
Angels Open Road Trip Behind Ryan Johnson Against Pirates
The Los Angeles Angels had a terrible homestand, but they're hoping to get it together on the road.
Portland Trail Blazers' Season Opens With a Gauntlet
The Blazers will be on the road for a majority of the first two months of the season, and the competition is fierce.
Sony's PlayStation disc plant is losing 10 percent of its volume in 2028, not 90
Sony’s PlayStation disc plant is losing 10 percent of its volume in 2028, not 90 Sony won’t license disc pressing to anyone else, Microsoft does, and a former PlayStation boss thinks that’s the whole problem. When Sony DADC chief Dietmar Tanzer spoke with an Austrian broadcaster in July about PlayStation disc production at the Thalgau plant, a number of press outlets misunderstood the report, writing that production would fall to a tenth of current levels. It won’t. Sony DADC confirmed to Game this week that the figure is a 10 percent decline, not a decline to 10 percent. “To clarify and avoid any misleading information: in that statement Dietmar anticipated an overall product volume decline by 10 percent, not a decline down to 10 percent,” a spokesperson with Sony DADC told Game. That figure covers 2028. Tanzer didn’t put a number on the years after, and the spokesperson declined to comment further. What we do know is that on July 1, PlayStation announced that physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028 and that the transition has no impact on games that have already released in disc format or will be releasing in disc format prior to that month. “So, there will be reorders going to the market after January 2028,” the Sony DADC spokesperson said. “For details around that I would ask you to liaise with the PR team from PlayStation, as we can’t speak or comment on their behalf.” PlayStation officials did not respond to questions about reorders or other disc-related matters. But I did recently speak with Shawn Layden, Game Industry Strategic Advisor and former chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios, who called a future without physical PlayStation discs “depressing, but solvable.” then added, “I think.” The chief hurdle to third-party manufacturing of collector’s editions or any other version of a PlayStation game disc is that Sony owns the proprietary process to press those discs, Layden said. “And unless they decide or determine a way to license that to some of these bespoke disc manufacturers, there’s no way to make it happen,” he said. Layden was careful to add that he understands the concept but doesn’t have “line of sight on the particulars.” “Depressing but solvable, I think.” — Shawn Layden Microsoft already licenses replication to outside plants. Xbox discs are pressed by manufacturers Microsoft certifies as Authorized Replicators, a term defined in its publisher agreements, with the approved list set at the company’s sole discretion and Microsoft retaining the right to halt manufacture. The structure is still in place today: publishers select an Authorized Replicator in Partner Center and submit a bill of materials created with a Microsoft representative. Sony, by contrast, presses PlayStation discs through Sony DADC, its own manufacturing subsidiary. No one I spoke with said they were in discussions with Sony about doing that, and PlayStation hasn’t responded to questions about whether it would be open to a licensing deal. There is an obvious reason Sony might not want to. Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad pointed it out on the day of the announcement: it’s a platform-led decision, he wrote, designed to cut costs, eliminate the resale market, and drive all revenue through the PlayStation Store. The math is not subtle. On a $70 third-party game sold through the PlayStation Store, Sony keeps $21. Sold at retail, Ahmad says, it earns about half that. Licensing disc replication to an outside manufacturer might not be worth it. And even if it were, it seems unlikely that such a deal would come from boutique companies like iam8bit, which sells collector’s editions of video games. “We would absolutely love to find a way forward to continue making physical PlayStation games,” said Jon Gibson, co-owner and co-creative director of the company. “We are big believers in giving humans the option to truly own media. If we can play a role in helping make that a reality for the future of PlayStation games, count iam8bit in!” If it were to happen, it would most likely be with a company like Conectiv Supply Chain Solutions, a Memphis-based manufacturer of optical discs and vinyl records that also runs third-party logistics, fulfillment and distribution for packaged media. The company, which was formed in 2025 when Los Angeles private equity firm Variant Equity Advisors purchased Vantiva’s Supply Chain Solutions division, traces its lineage back to Technicolor. When it sold the division, Vantiva described the business as having served video game creators for more than 25 years. Conectiv is also buying, not shrinking. Last month it acquired SDS, the distributor for Universal and Warner Bros. home entertainment, consolidating those studios’ packaged-media pipeline from pressing plant to retail shelf. I reached out to Conectiv and its CEO, but haven’t heard back. Layden pointed to music and books in our discussion about the ongoing value of physical media. “No one ever saw the comeback of cassette tape,” he said. “And vinyl didn’t so much come back. The flame went down, the fire’s dying, but the ember was always there, and it just kind of came back. Much like the book business. We thought we’d all be on Kindles right now. “I believe that physical media is crucial and important. One of the things that makes us gamers, one of the core game mechanics, going back to the beginning of time, is collecting stuff. “Did you get all the diamonds in Crash Bandicoot? Did you get all the stars in Mario? And we like to collect our games. And we have a game shelf. And we put all our boxes up there. And if you’re super hardcore, when you buy a game, you buy two copies, right? One stays in the shrink wrap, and you play the other one. What happens to that important cultural part of the gaming world? You know, we buy the steelbook and the three-disc Final Fantasy set and the figurine and, you know, you can’t download any of that. “What happens to that?” And Layden believes it shouldn’t have been a revenue question for PlayStation. “This was a core thing to the experience of our most devoted fans,” he said. “Yeah, it’s fan service. Why would we take that away? Well, we can’t afford to. It’s already 120 bucks, you know, limited edition special purchase onyx box version of whatever, and those sell at a higher rate than the box selling at $69.99 does. So yeah, the market has said they will continue to buy them. You’re just saying you just don’t want to make them anymore.” Layden said he was recently talking with someone about these sorts of business decisions and how they’re made. Too often, he said, it’s all about the financials and nothing else. “OK, we can do this and save this much money, or we can invest this to look at that outcome, or we can do this and have this happen over there, or move this team to Sri Lanka,” he said. “But each one of those, someone also has to have a ledger there saying, ‘OK, what is the brand impact from that move?’ “Iif you can’t resell it, do you really own it?” — Shawn Layden “If we do that, dollars and cents work out. I get it. That’s just math. But what’s the brand impact? Are people going to say, ‘Good move, you guys?’ Or are they going to say, ‘We hate you guys. Quit doing that.’ And sometimes they say, ‘We hate you.’ Then you take a note and say, OK, how much of that can we live with? How much ‘we hate you’ is OK. And when does it go over the line? “I see a lot of companies making decisions which, objectively speaking, I don’t know what the dollar end of that was for you, Mr. Company, but your brand value just dropped 30 percent. So I hope it was worth it.” Of course, shifting to a digital-only model for games raises other issues beyond simply wanting to collect. The biggest is ownership. Layden pointed out that once you go to a streaming-only or download-only model, it’s just a digital footprint on a hard drive. “What does ownership mean anymore?” he said. “It’s a genuine question. Well, in fact, it’s not even a question anymore. It’s like you are shifting the model from ownership to accessibility. “And what’s always been true, which people forget, is you’ve never been able to sell your iTunes library. And you can’t sell your PlayStation download library. So if you can’t resell it, do you really own it?” The touching tribute found in the credits for Star Wars Zero Company. Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy Interview and Hands-On with a Minoan Masterpiece Star Wars Zero Company hands-on: Attack Astromechs, permadeath, and delightfully fatal Rube Goldberg tactics Control Resonant opens up as you get stronger — and as characters start trusting you
Lancaster County public sales: Sept. 4, 2026
Martin & Rutt Auctioneers LLC, of New Holland, conducted a public auction of real estate Aug. 25 for Kenneth L. and Linda H. Zimmerman at 1024 Green Hills Road, Birdsboro.
Has Flutter Entertainment (NYSE:FLUT) Fallen Far Enough To Look Cheap?
Flutter Entertainment’s share price has undergone a sharp reset over the past year, yet broader valuation checks still suggest the stock screens as inexpensive. This puts recent price weakness in contrast with a more constructive read from its fundamentals-based metrics. The share price has fallen 65% over the past year, indicating a major reset in investor expectations for Flutter Entertainment. Regulatory clarity around U.S. sports prediction markets, including the New Jersey petition...
CVS Health Ventures looks beyond healthcare for its next bets
CVS Health Ventures has evolved from a $100m venture unit into a broader investment platform combining financial discipline with a mandate to drive strategic change across CVS Health.
Victoria County to weigh mental health facility, road work and airport upgrades
Victoria County commissioners are set to take up construction, transportation, public-health and student-veteran funding items during a special meeting Tuesday, Sept. 8.
Planning your college sports road trip? Here are the 20 stops to take for 2026-27
The Athletic's 20 must-see college sports events this year.
Jensen's Reborn Sports Car Debuts With Nearly 1,000 Horsepower And A Manual
For now, it's just a prototype, but the 960-horsepower Interceptor GTX previews Jensen's future road cars.
Liverpool XI vs Ipswich Town – Predicted lineup and team news
Liverpool arrive at Portman Road looking to end a winless run stretching back to April, having taken just two points from their opening two matches this season.Andoni Iraola’s side sit 13th after dr...
Ipswich Town vs Liverpool – Predicted lineup and team news
Ipswich Town go in search of a first Premier League win over one of the division’s traditional heavyweights when Liverpool visit Portman Road on Friday.Gary O’Neil’s side sit 12th after two matc...
Diamondbacks expected to get Corbin Burnes back during Royals series
PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks are expected to get reinforcements in their starting rotation during their next road trip, and the return of a former National League Cy Young Award winner. Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro expects right-hander Corbin Burnes to join the rotation and make his first start of 2026 against the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday.
New method allows scientists to follow gene activity over time in the same cells
Researchers at MIT and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard invented a “cellular self-reporting” approach to make living cells share their own transcriptomes, so that scientists can analyze them without killing the cells.
Wellington football blanks Westwood for first shutout since 2024
Wellington stayed unbeaten with a 26-0 road win over Westwood as Jay'lan Tyler rushed for 117 yards and the Wolverines posted a rare shutout.
‘The orange cone is our mascot’: Business share impacts from Huntoon construction
Businesses shared how a Huntoon Street road project has impacted them.
Businesses expect business boom with Cousinz Fest
Hampton Roads Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina News, Weather, Traffic and Sports.
What the Tech: Road trip entertainment
if you're one of the millions who'll be hitting the highways over the Labor Day weekend, you probably have a lot on your mind. Keeping people in the backseat entertained
NASCAR Rules Forced Ford to Sell a Street Car It Couldn't Actually Build. The Engine Didn't Fit, So Every Boss 429 Left the Line and Got Cut Apart by Hand
People are talking about the Ford Mustang's mysterious off-roading cousin again. Is it real? Is it finally happening?
St. Louis Cardinals vs Los Angeles Dodgers Game Discussion Thursday
The St. Louis Cardinals will enter the gauntlet again Thursday night as it’ll be game 3 against the Dodgers in Los Angeles. Quinn Mathews will start for the Cardinals going up against the formidable Tarik Skubal for the Dodgers. First pitch scheduled for 9:10pm central time at Dodger Stadium and the game broadcast will be […]
Five Things presented by Compass Minerals: Sporting travels to face FC Dallas
Sporting Kansas City hits the road this weekend to take on FC Dallas at Toyota Stadium down in Texas on Saturday night. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. CT and will be available to stream on Apple TV, while the game will also be broadcast locally on the radio via
Baptist Health scoops up Coconut Creek Kohl’s store for $54M
Baptist Health South Florida dropped $53.5 million on a Kohl’s department store in Coconut Creek. The retailer, led by CEO Michael Bender, sold the 92,700-square-foot stand-alone store at 6950 North State Road 7 for $577 per square foot. Kohl’s acquired the 8.2-acre property for $14.8 million in 2008, soon after the store was built. Last year, the company announced plans to shutter 27 stores in underperforming locations, though no additional closure announcements have been made since then. The store is still open, and plans for the site are being evaluated, a Baptist Health spokesperson told the South Florida Business Journal. […]
Farage senior aide filmed suggesting way to avoid donations law
A film broadcast by Channel 4 shows senior Reform UK figures discussing donations with an undercover reporter.
Top employees for data center company eyeing Yellowstone County made matching political donations before announcing plans
The Quantica employees gave the same amount to the same candidates and on the same days in 2024.
September in the Neighborhood: Star Trek science, shop local artisans, picnic at Peirce Mill
To boldly go... Sept. 8 is the 60th anniversary of the day the first episode of Star Trek aired. Sept. 9 is the day our Broad Branch Road neighbor, the Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory, is inviting us over for a Star Trek-themed lecture on the worlds among the stars, and how the science of
Apple’s big roadmap for new Mac and iPad models revealed: report
A new report from Omdia offers fresh details on Apple’s roadmap for new Mac and iPad models in the years ahead. Here’s what it says is coming.
Scorpions postpone all 2026 tour dates, citing 'unforeseen circumstances'
The Scorpions are getting off the road for the rest of the year due to “unforeseen circumstances."
Palantir Expands PwC Strategic Alliance to Scale Enterprise AI Across Core Business Operations
The expanded collaboration targets enterprise AI deployment, M&A transformation and ERP modernization, giving Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) a broader route for embedding its platforms into complex corporate workflows.
Apple Reportedly Planning All-New MacBook Model Between Air and Pro
Apple may introduce an entirely new 13.8-inch OLED MacBook model in 2029, potentially creating a new product tier between the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, according to an updated product roadmap from research firm Omdia. The firm's latest roadmap sandwiches a new 13.8-inch MacBook between the projected time line for the Air and Pro models.
World Team Tennis Announces Broadcast Partnership with Versant’s USA Sports
A global media and technology company.
Television Academy and National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Announce Recipients of 2026 Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards
Emmys for Exceptional Achievement in Broadcast Technology to be Presented Oct. 14 in Los Angeles
Everything Announced At The September 2026 PlayStation State Of
Here's a quick play-by-play breakdown of PlayStation's latest broadcast. - Game Informer
Kustom Entertainment Provides Strategic Roadmap and Anticipated Operational Synergies for Pending Acquisition of TFL, LLC
Follow-up Release Details TFL’s Multi-Channel Revenue Streams, Expected TicketSmarter Alignment, Festival Integration, and Casino/Resort Expansion...
What a political win in Cherry Hill says about the power of Baltimore’s Black women voters
In Baltimore politics, all roads go through Black women — the city’s largest, most consistent voting bloc.
Euro zone overall business growth held steady in August, PMI shows
Growth in the euro zone's dominant services industry slipped to a two-month low in August though solid and broad-based demand kept overall private sector activity on an even keel, a survey showed on Thursday.
Dallas businesses, residents brace for road closures, security ahead of RNC midterm convention
Seminoles MBB Schedule Highlighted By SEC Showdowns
Coach Leonard Hamilton’s squad navigates a grueling non-conference slate featuring a fierce rivalry renewal with Florida and high-stakes road tests against powerhouse Tennessee and Houston programs.
The Case for Factions
A broad range of views on democracy to help break the stalemate caused by partisan conflict.
Cape Girardeau coffee shop closure highlights small business struggles
The owner of The Groundabout announced on social media Monday that all four of its shops are closing, including its cafe on Broadway in downtown Cape Girardeau. Other downtown business owners said the closure reflects a troubling trend and pointed to a lack of foot traffic in the area.
Broadcom forecasts quarterly revenue below estimates
Broadcom forecast quarterly revenue below Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, signaling intense competition could hamper gains from its custom processors.
It’s official: Cuba finally authorizes Cubans living abroad to own private businesses
The new legal framework published in the Official Gazette is the deepest overhaul of the island’s private sector since small and medium enterprises were legalized in 2021.
Wednesday, September 2nd: Texas Roadhouse, Humane Society of Eastern Carolina, Entertainment Report, Be Our Guest: Main & Mill Oyster Bar & Tavern
Eastern Lifestyle
Cook County Department of Public Health Launches Building Healthier Communities 2030, a Community-Driven Roadmap to Advance Health Equity Across Suburban Cook County - Cook County Department of Public Health
Today, Cook County Department of Public Health launched Building Healthier Communities 2030, suburban Cook County’s Community Health Improvement Plan. The plan was announced together with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County Department of Public Health, community organizations, healthcare providers and cross-sector partners. Building Healthier Communities 2030 serves as both a collective vision and a practical roadmap that will guide public health efforts across suburban Cook County through 2030.The plan aligns with President Preckwinkle's Policy Roadmap and reflects a shared commitment to advancing health equity through coordinated, community-informed action.
NOAA Fisheries Outlines Science-Based Reforms to Boost American Seafood Production
NOAA Fisheries has released a set of agency-level reform priorities designed to advance science-based fisheries management and strengthen American seafood competitiveness, following input from more than 700 stakeholders and building toward a broader interagency America First Seafood Strategy expected in the coming…
FSU vs. New Mexico State was most-watched sports broadcast in history of The CW
Tomahawk Nation, a Florida State Seminoles community
Blaze breaks out at Big Flats business complex. What we know about fire
An alarm went off around 3 a.m. Wednesday at 1250 Schweizer Road in Big Flats, home of several businesses, drawing many fire departments.
Charlize Theron reveals 1 sweet memory from ‘Mad Max: Fury Road,’ hints at Tom Hardy rift
Charlize Theron spoke about a sweet memory from ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ amid a reported rift with actor Tom Hardy, which she also hinted at on stage.
30 Years of ‘Joe B. and Locker’: Monumental Sports Network Celebrates Capitals Broadcast Duo’s Milestone Season, Announces 2026-27 Capitals Local Broadcast Schedule
MNMT to broadcast 70 regular season and four preseason games, with a special celebration event planned for Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin at upcoming Capitals game
Yahoo Sports and Apple TV Team Up to Bring “The Cooligans” to a Live MLS Alternate Broadcast
NEW YORK (Wednesday, September 1, 2026) – Yahoo Sports and Apple TV are teaming up this season to deliver an alternate broadcast for select live Major League Soccer (MLS) matches, bringing fans a new way to experience the action with Yahoo Sports experts Alexis Guerreros and Christian Polanco of “The
W.R. and Yvonne Robbins College of Business and Entrepreneurship announces 2025–2026 Teaching, Research, and Service Award nominees
Each semester, Fort Hays State University’s W.R. and Yvonne Robbins College of Business and Entrepreneurship (RCOBE) recognizes outstanding faculty and staff members by nominating individuals who demonstrate excellence in teaching, research, and service. These nominations reflect the college's commitment to recognizing the many ways faculty and staff contribute to student success, academic excellence, and the university's broader mission.
This environment is antagonistic to local business
Last week, The News-Gazette reported on a real estate covenant gumming things up for a potential locally owned and operated pharmacy in Urbana. As you may recall, both the Walgreens and CVS on Philo Road ...
ATLAS publishes first paper on Public Engagement with Science
You can’t exactly take the ATLAS experiment on tour. At 7,000 tonnes and buried 100 metres underground at CERN, it’s not easy to move. So, for more than a decade, the ATLAS Collaboration has found another way to bring the experiment to people around the world: live, interactive virtual visits with the scientists who work on it. In a recent paper published in the European Physical Journal Plus, the ATLAS Collaboration documents the evolution and impact of its flagship Virtual Visits programme. The paper is the Collaboration’s first publication focused specifically on science education, communication and outreach. It traces the programme from its beginnings as an experimental outreach effort in 2010 through its growth into a global programme – connecting classrooms in the Amazon, schools in the Himalayas and even a research station in Antarctica. Drawing on data collected between 2019 and 2025, the paper examines the programme’s reach and impact. Global reach, local connection Figure 1: World map showing the number of virtual visits across participating countries from 2019 to 2025. Cooler colours (purple and blue) are used for countries with fewer visits, and warmer colours (red and orange) for countries with more visits. (Image: ATLAS Collaboration/CERN) The core mission of the ATLAS Virtual Visit programme is to connect audiences worldwide with particle physicists and engage them in accessible discussions about cutting-edge research. While visiting CERN in person is an unforgettable experience, financial and logistical barriers can make such a trip difficult for many students and public groups. Video conferencing has allowed the Collaboration to break down these barriers: between 2019 and 2025, the Collaboration hosted 698 virtual visits, engaging tens of thousands of participants across nearly 70 countries (see Figure 1). Interactivity is central to the programme. Far from simple one-way broadcasts, Virtual Visit audience members are encouraged to engage in conversation with the scientist(s) hosting the visit. Most hosts are volunteers from the ATLAS Collaboration, who bring their diverse scientific expertise, language skills and cultural backgrounds to each visit. Where possible, audiences are paired with volunteer scientists who share their native language and cultural background, making it easier to engage, ask questions and connect with the hosts. Between 2019 and 2025, Virtual Visits were held in 19 different languages. The core mission of the ATLAS Virtual Visit programme is to connect audiences worldwide with particle physicists and engage them in accessible discussions about cutting-edge research. Constant evolution Figure 2: The number of ATLAS Virtual Visits organised annually since 2019. (Image: ATLAS Collaboration/CERN) The ATLAS Virtual Visit programme has continuously evolved to enhance the visitor experience. Early sessions were hosted directly from the ATLAS Control Room before transitioning in 2014 to a dedicated space in the ATLAS Visitor Centre, equipped with modern videoconferencing technology. In 2019, the ATLAS Collaboration expanded the programme’s reach, introducing live Virtual Visits from the experimental cavern during year-end maintenance stops and long LHC shutdowns. These exclusive sessions take participants beyond the ATLAS visitor platform, offering real-time, up-close views of the towering detector. When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted in-person gatherings worldwide, demand for virtual engagement surged. The ATLAS Collaboration adapted rapidly by introducing Open Virtual Visits streamed via Zoom and YouTube, allowing individual science enthusiasts and families to join live guided tours. Figure 2 shows that the programme reached a peak of 155 visits in 2021 and has since maintained around 100 visits per year, demonstrating sustained engagement beyond the pandemic-driven increase. More than just a tour Beyond participation numbers, the paper highlights the positive impact on participants and educators. Teachers report successfully integrating Virtual Visits into their physics curricula, sparking sustained curiosity and in many cases inspiring students to pursue STEM studies and careers. Feedback received also highlighted how the direct dialogue with ATLAS scientists has given students an authentic and personal perspective on particle physics, helping them connect what they learn in the classroom with the people behind ATLAS research. Looking ahead, the programme will continue to evolve with new technologies and communication platforms. The goal is simple: to give even more audiences the opportunity to engage directly with particle physics and make fundamental science open to all. Learn more Breaking barriers: the impact of ATLAS Virtual Visits in science communication (Eur. Phys. J. Plus 141, 874 (2026), arXiv:2601.22457, see figures) ATLAS Virtual Visit Dashboard Register for an ATLAS Virtual Visit
Sen. Cotton: College sports bill has support; ‘rules of the road’ needed
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Tuesday (Sept. 1) that he believes the Senate could pass a college sports “name image and likeness” bill. He made the comments while visiting...
August Monthly Review: ChatGPT In Epic
Death, taxes, another frontier lab healthcare launch inspiring truly insane LinkedIn takes. As much as I want to stay away, I repeatedly am the crewman unplugging his ears whenever we pass these sirens. So it’s not the first and probably not the last time we dial up the typewriter rather than tie ourselves to the mast. The full blow-by-blow timeline: Health API Guy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe The End of the Standalone PHR (Jan 8): ChatGPT Health arrives for consumers, at the time powered by b.well. I was bullish on the approach in that the best way for the PHR to finally solve distribution was to meet consumers were they already are (i.e. When Horizontal Meets Healthcare (Jan 9): OpenAI for Healthcare puts out the shingle for enterprises, with SharePoint ingestion standing in for the EHR integration the product actually needed. Another One: Anthropic’s Healthcare Debut (Jan 16): Claude's version, on HealthEx rails instead of b.well, with Agent Skills for FHIR development as the one true vertical-specific investment. ChatGPT for Clinicians: The Trap Sprung (Apr 24): OpenAI filled in the missing GTM middle with a free product for verified clinicians, effectively peeling the enterprise wrapper off ChatGPT for Healthcare and taking the PLG fight directly to OpenEvidence. OpenAI’s Second Attempt at Health (Jul 31): a relaunch of their patient specific app, now branded Health in ChatGPT, where the privacy partition came out, the connectors thinned, and b.well disappeared in favor of first-party FHIR work against a smaller network Beyond a Shingle So what was announced now? Today, we’re introducing a new electronic health record integration that brings authorized patient context from Epic into ChatGPT for Healthcare, along with the Healthcare Public Data plugin for direct, structured access to official healthcare datasets like PubMed, DailyMed, and CMS Coverage. Together, these capabilities bring ChatGPT closer to the systems and sources healthcare teams trust, while supporting the controls and compliance healthcare work requires. The core portfolio is unchanged from prior announcements we delineated and discussed (aside from the relaunch of patient-facing). Since trade publications still seem to be confusing them by using the wrong names: Enterprise sales motion: ChatGPT for Healthcare Protecting their core product / PLG: ChatGPT for Clinicians Consumer/patient-facing product: Health in ChatGPT So really, this is a feature release (specifically for ChatGPT for Healthcare when it comes to EHR integration). What’s cool about it, though, is that we are moving beyond just putting out a shingle. Everything in the January enterprise launch was horizontalizable: Horizontal tech companies thus generally start verticalization with their “putting out a shingle phase”. Telling the world you’re open for business as a horizontal tech company reliably attracts early inbound interest from buyers who are already trying to force-fit horizontal tools into domain-specific workflows and are eager for any signal that the vendor intends to support their use case more directly. Nothing was really vertical specific, which is exactly what you'd expect from the ultimate hypergrowth horizontal company dipping their toes into specific industries. But eventually you have to stop changing the sign on the door and start changing the product. Can you guess where the horizontal product was going to run out of road? This is the core dilemma writ large: verticalization requires differentiation, while scale economics of consumer and horizontal push toward unification. I’ve buried the lede so deep here it will be painful to some readers, but what should be shocking to no one is that my perspective is that EHR integration is the only path that meaningfully resolves this tension for ChatGPT for Healthcare. Integration with Microsoft Sharepoint is fine, but it is categorically insufficient for any product that hopes to influence clinical decision-making. SMART Money Well here we are, eight months later! Real vertical investment has begun, which surprised a few people. One friend in the industry messaged me: “Absolutely no way Epic gave ChatGPT API access.” Looking forensically at the announcements, the integration is notably read-only across appointment notes, laboratory results, medications, and specialist documentation. So while I’m not a betting man, I'd wager the house this is a SMART on FHIR launch: That sounds a lot like USCDI! The recommended path for the workflow they outline would be SMART on FHIR Their Health AI lead’s post is evocative of both standalone and EHR launch SMART, which another termed “ChartGPT” and “EHR Plugin” The implementation burden for SMART on FHIR is the lowest of the available integrative paths This is the team who literally did patient-facing SMART on FHIR with Epic last month Most importantly, if you’re a horizontal company, you generally still haven’t taken the full plunge and thus (overly) value reusability. SMART on FHIR is the logical compromise: healthcare-specific enough to matter, but standardized enough to reuse. Nobody Asked Judy Another friend asked “I thought they had to go to each health system, or did they go direct to Epic and now health systems opt in?” Given the trust paradigms in healthcare, this functionally cannot be Epic hoovering up all the data for OpenAI and shoving ChatGPT in their customers’ faces (or they would revolt). However, I do believe the aforementioned terrible coverage by TechCrunch and other outlets is probably responsible for that question, given the 325 million reference. When using FHIR as a business associate to an Epic customer, there is no EHR gatekeeping to speak of, as that isn’t how fhir.epic.com works: You register an app You pick your APIs You test against the sandbox APIs You list as “Ready for Production” Hospitals pick your app You test and go live with them Bluntly, nobody had to say yes or no in Verona (nor were they given the chance). Vendor Services (their next developer tier up that I doubt OpenAI is using quite yet in this initial release) certainly has contractual paperwork that some resent, but even there, the twin pressures of mounting antitrust and information blocking make outright gatekeeping increasingly fraught. My friend’s sentiment is, to me, representative of a broader industry neurosis, perhaps a sort of scar tissue of prior eras: people assume the gate is still there and never actually try the door. There are certainly other ways Epic (and any EHR) can put its thumb on the scale, but they are not so dumb as to stand in front of a federally mandated API and play bouncer at this exact moment in time. So I think they can and probably should go deeper, as this release is at best parity and at worst behind vertical-specific competition. OpenEvidence did a basic SMART launch with Sutter Health in February, allowing for more convenient evidence search by providers. They then add patient-context (the equivalent SMART on FHIR flow to what we see here) when Cedars-Sinai went enterprise-wide in May. UpToDate has four distinct applications across deeper workflows like patient engagement listed in Epic Showroom and announced a partnership with Epic to power Art at UGM Abridge and other ambient scribes have invested deeply into the deepest bidirectional clinical copilot workflow with integrations well beyond SMART on FHIR. In that light, the “Who is OpenAI primarily targeting here?” is clear. This release brings them into striking distance of OpenEvidence, but not the others quite yet. They are the only one of the three you can reach without building something truly Epic-specific. When will they go further? Competition is a great motivator to overcome the horizontal demons and start building things that can’t be reused: not across industries, not across EHRs, maybe not past the customer you built them for. That’s the price of actually verticalizing. The question is if and when OpenAI will be willing to pay it. Month in Review Here is the monthly review. As a reminder, this is a regular round-up of the month’s posts and other content to surface things you may have missed across regulation, litigation, interoperability, and beyond. AI assistance is used in these bullet summaries so I can focus on articles. Articles Published: None this month Video Content: The Information Exchange: Standards-based Thruple Edition (Aug 14): Back to school for us too, with Brad reporting in from the CMS Health Tech Ecosystem’s one year anniversary in DC. We get into the January CMS-0057 deadline, the fall rulemaking reading list, and why enrollment still keeps most apps off FHIR. The Information Exchange: Epic Dúnadan Edition (Aug 25): A UGM roundup with Ryan Brickner joining for the first time to check our takes against what the building actually thinks. Rangers, Ergo sitting on top of EHI, and a down-market lineup that needs some cuts. Regulatory: Stacked Deck, Bad Hand (Aug 05): ONC’s website refresh took the entire HIT Policy Committee record with it, so I rebuilt the archive and went looking for the regulatory capture story everyone assumes is buried in there. Stacking the deck and winning the hand turn out to be very different things. The Sixth Generation of Patient Access (Aug 19): A quick catalog of the five generations of patient access we’ve layered on since HIPAA, and the two candidates now competing to be the sixth. One is planned. The other is the market routing around the plan entirely. Court cases: Three Cases Walk Into a Docket (Aug 06): Two surprise settlements cleared the board in a single week, and then Judge Maddox dropped ninety-four pages on Vyne v. Henry Schein. The sleeper is a DMCA holding that makes direct-to-database a considerably riskier business model. Epic v. Health Gorilla: Into the MDL (Aug 10): Nine class actions are headed to Miami, and the Panel signaled it wants to bring the case that spawned them along too. That would leave Epic arguing the requests were obviously fraudulent in one courtroom and unknowable in the other. Amazon v. Perplexity: Agents Are Legalized! (Aug 11): The Ninth Circuit vacated the injunction against Comet, holding that the user is the one accessing the servers rather than the company that built the agent. A real win for agentic access, and a much narrower one than the headline suggests. Veeva v. Epic: Come At Me, Bro (Aug 26): Epic’s response brief wants the dismissal affirmed and, unusually, wants the opinion published as precedent. Buried in it is Epic’s own description of what its non-competes actually prohibit, which current and former employees should read closely. EHRs: The Contract Epic Would Never Sign Today (Aug 04): A 1999 SEC exhibit catches Epic licensing nearly its entire product line, Tapestry included, to the company that became TriZetto. The marketing services menu attached to it is the part that will make you blink. Forecast from Verona (Aug 07): The Epic Almanac makes one argument six different ways: the AI is only as good as the networks behind it. Emmie headlines, Art’s context stack is the most ambitious part, and Penny finally gets an autonomous coding date on the calendar. Works With Epic MyChart (Aug 17): Epic’s first new Showroom category since the death of Workshop certifies hardware instead of software, badge on the box and all. Made for iPhone, but for blood pressure cuffs, and rough news for anyone selling the RPM stack sitting in between. UGM Hot Takes 2026 (Aug 20): Everyone else covered the AI announcements, so I went after Savvy deleting the payment gateway, Rangers as Boost with the timer removed, and a down-market lineup with too many entries. Plus the Health Grid tidbits I cannot help myself on. MyChart Central Grows Up (Aug 24): Device data and Emmie turn Epic’s identity hub into a full consumer platform, which is both a logical answer to ChatGPT and a bit of a mistake. It also happens to be the best scraping target Epic has ever shipped. Industry Analysis: The Wrong Yardstick (Aug 12): Vertical software keeps getting judged against Superhuman and Notion, which is the wrong bar entirely. Your user is comparing your product to a whiteboard and forty phone calls before lunch. Primitives vs. Abstractions (Aug 27): Developers want building blocks, systems of record prefer to hand out business logic, and both sides have a real case. There’s no test from the outside that separates the engineering reason from the competitive one, which is why this keeps ending up in court. Cross-industry Comparisons: The Two Kinds of Platform Power (Aug 18): Attention power and record power are different problems that keep getting handed the same regulatory toolkit. Congress’s latest swing at Big Tech shows both what’s possible and where it falls apart. The Dogs of (Platform) War (Aug 21): A CourtListener alert turned up a property management fight with healthcare’s exact shape and none of the Cures Act. Shell prospects, ghost accounts, a notetaker bot that came back to haunt someone, and a lawyer arguing both sides of the same theory in two states. Fractals All the Way Down (Aug 31): Yardi dominates property management right up until you zoom into one segment, where AppFolio owns it outright and Yardi doesn’t appear at all. Where you draw the line around a B2B software market is about to decide an awful lot of cases. Other News: If Judy Had the Courage (Aug 13): A short eulogy for the era when software was allowed to look insane: WinAMP, bold colors, and everything the grey chatbot era has taken from us. External Media: Portland Monthly Health Tech Meetup: Erin O’Brien channeled my own feelings - maybe it’s just because it’s August and beautiful, but the monthly edition of the PDX Health community meetup was a ripper. Make sure to reach out if interested to join for the next one. STAT’s Coverage of Epic This Month: Brittany Trang of STAT did a fantastic job of breaking the FTC investigation that’s been lurking, as well as UGM related coverage, so I had to give her her wish of a meme. Fall Conferences: I’m pumped to be kicking off my fall conference season in NYC at Nabla Accelerate next month, which Chrissy provided the link to apply for. Here’s the rest of my schedule in case you want to meet up: Commonwell (Redwood Shores, CA): Oct 13-14 Open@Epic (Madison, WI): Oct 21-22 eHealthExchange (Austin, TX): Oct 27 Sequoia Project (Austin, TX): Oct 28-29 HLTH (Vegas): Nov 15-18 RSNA (Chicago): Nov 29-Dec 3 Posts I Liked: HTI-6 Should Unbundle API Certification: Josh Mandel makes the case that HTI-6 should split (g)(10) into separate authorization and data certifications, so a PACS or a genomics platform can certify only the role it actually performs. Imaging is the urgent example, but the structure solves a much bigger problem. On implementing ePrior Auth with Epic: Scott Rossignol’s field notes from a live ePrior Auth build on Epic, including the two app registrations nobody warns you about and the CPT mapping problem waiting at the end. CMS-0057 implementations are going to be such a beast. Healthcare point solutions are starting to look a lot like streaming services: Spencer Dorn runs the cable-to-streaming arc against health IT and lands squarely on the bundling half of the cycle. Bundling can be good! It can also be bad! Life is nuanced. Health API Guy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe
Kat Dennings shares story of brutal 6-hour audition with Tom Hardy for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’
Kat Dennings had a brutal 6-hour audition with Tom Hardy for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road.’ Then he met her mom.
St. Louis Cardinals vs Los Angeles Dodgers Game Discussion Tuesday
The St. Louis Cardinals begin a long west coast swing as they’ll take on the Los Angeles Dodgers Tuesday night. The Cardinals are starting Michael McGreevy while the Dodgers are expected to start LHP Eric Lauer. First pitch scheduled for 9:10pm central time and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.
House adopts Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank’s resolution condemning socialism, mostly along party lines
The House on Tuesday approved a resolution sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank to condemn socialism in a largely party-line vote that the Colorado Republican characterized as a chance for lawmakers to “stand firm” against an ideology making inroads among Democrats. The nonbinding resolution, HR 1490, also included a call for the “enactment” of GOP-led […]
Ask the expert: Building a journal on workplace science
Frederick Morgeson, Eli Broad Professor of Management in MSU's Broad College of Business, explains the impact of an academic journal he established.
Rep. Seth Moulton targets Sen. Ed Markey in Massachusetts Democratic primary amid broader calls for generational change
The primary is crucial in heavily Democratic Massachusetts, and the winner will be expected to prevail in November's general election.
Sports Streaming Is Broken. Can DC Fix It?
I’m old enough to remember the “bunny ears” antenna – which my little brother and I would take turns holding to banish the static from 1980s NFL broadcasts on our black-and-white TV. The challenges of watching televised sports in 2026 are different. At home, you have to figure out where a given game ...
Off-Road Ford Mustang 'Baja' Shown Off At Dealer Meeting, Again
We first told you about the all-terrain Mustang back in 2023, when it was originally slated to come out sometime in 2026.
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.
Sioux Falls YPN announces Four Under 40 nominees
Fifty-five nominees have been announced for the 2026 Four Under 40 Awards from the Sioux Falls Young Professionals Network of the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce.
CT senior living facility changes hands for $68.25M
American Healthcare REIT purchased The Residences at Westport, at 1141 Post Road East, on Aug. 6, property records show.
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.
What We Learned from the First Leadership Louisiana Health Fellows Session - Leaders for a Better Louisiana
The strength of Leadership Louisiana has always been its ability to bring together accomplished leaders from different sectors and regions to learn from one another while developing a broader understanding of our state. The Health Fellows program extends that tradition by focusing on one of Louisiana’s most significant opportunities for improvement.
Preserving the Academy of Natural Sciences' Legacy and Collections for the Future
As part of this broader effort and following careful consideration, grounded in deep respect for the Academy’s extraordinary legacy, Academy and Drexel leadership have made the difficult decision to close the Academy’s museum as of September 30. While the museum will close, the Academy remains committed to public engagement and education, and work will continue to identify new and financially sustainable opportunities for the public display of elements from its collections and engagement with the natural sciences.
Who is Rob Bonta? The AG at the heart of some of the biggest legal battles in business
California’s attorney general is angling for broader changes to the social media industry after a massive settlement with Meta.
Hyundai Turns Performance Into a Bigger Business
(TestMiles) – Hyundai plans to grow N beyond seven models while Genesis Magma reaches for luxury buyers, turning speed into a broader brand strategy. Hyundai has spent years proving it can ma…
What Dyson’s First Toothbrush Says About Oral Care’s Beauty Era
The CameraJet toothbrush marks Dyson’s first step into the oral care category, which is undergoing a broader makeover.
Bennettsville construction projects bring detours, challenges for local businesses
Driving through Bennettsville has become a maze of detours, road closures and changing traffic patterns as crews work on major water, sewer and road projects th
Entertainment, logistics user buys 136,000 sq. ft. Staten Island warehouse, BRC says
The developer of more than 136,000 square feet of new warehouse space in Staten Island has sold the property, brokers with Bussel Realty Corp. announced Monday.
Florida orders removal of Flock cameras from state highways
The Florida Department of Transportation is revoking permits for automated license plate readers on roads in the state highway system.
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.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s business affairs chief stepping down
Ivan Capifali, the commissioner of the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, announced his departure internally to staff on Monday, according to two sources familiar with his decision.
Live Nation Urban Says It’s In The ‘Black Audience Business’
Live Nation Urban is building a broader business around Black audiences, creators, content, intellectual property and international expansion.
Science Applications International Q2 Earnings Call Highlights
Science Applications International (NASDAQ:SAIC) reported second-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue of $1.9 billion, up approximately 5% organically, as the company cited broad-based growth across its markets and stronger conversion of existing contract backlog into revenue. Adjusted EBITDA totaled $193 m
Religion, power and politics: what’s behind the violent attacks on Ethiopia’s Orthodox Tewahedo Church
Managing religious affairs in Ethiopia is crucial for national cohesion and broader peacebuilding processes.
Leigh Ann Brannon to lead Arkansas Broadcasters Association
The Arkansas Broadcasters Association has named Leigh Ann Brannon as the new Executive Director of the Association. She replaces Neal Gladner upon his retirement at the conclusion of the association’s...
Leigh Ann Brannon to lead Arkansas Broadcasters Association
The Arkansas Broadcasters Association has named Leigh Ann Brannon as the new Executive Director of the Association. She replaces Neal Gladner upon his retirement at the conclusion of the association’s...
Argonne takes AI on the road
Argonne's AI Roadshow brings cutting-edge artificial intelligence research to everyday community spaces, making science accessible, exciting and relevant to all.
Business Notes: New leader at Gloucester-Mathews Humane Society; $750K awarded for Norfolk rail project
See who’s getting promoted and which businesses are celebrating milestones in Hampton Roads.
Aboard the Mothership: Todd Graves’ past, present and future collide in original restaurant
In a crowded Highland Road restaurant, company owner and founder Todd Graves recapped the making of Cane's and goal to give back to the community in the future.
High Fertility Costs Push Americans Abroad For IVF Treatment
By LJ Dawson and KFF Health News HealthDay ReportersMONDAY, Aug. 31, 2026 (HealthDay News) — In the summer of 2024, Emilie and Justin Solomon found themselves on a top-secret mission in Greece. Their family and friends thought the adventure-loving couple was on another jet-setting vacation, but they ...
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.
Global Social Entertainment Market Consolidates Around Three Leaders, with Newborn Town Emerging as a Key Challenger
EQS Newswire / 31/08/2026 / 15:26 UTC+8In 2026, the global social entertainment industry is undergoing a significant reshaping. The growth model is shifting from broad-based user acquisition to deeper regional expansion, and from one-size-fits-all products to differentiated strategies tailored to s…
Why Paolo Banchero Needs to Have an Elite Year
With Desmond Bane joining a revamped roster, Orlando’s franchise centerpiece faces a defining crossroads to silence critics, master his shooting, and elevate the Magic into elite contention.
Pirates Series Takeaways: Offense Needed to Compensate, Griffin’s Looming Return
The Pirates’ lengthy nine-game road trip that spanned 11 days and three cities is finally over. After getting swept by […]
Trump says he will report NBC host to FCC for ‘rebuke or punishment’
The president’s latest in a string of threats against broadcasters followed a comment by Kristen Welker about “some mixed results” from his midterm endorsements.
Atlanta police officers injured responding to mental health call
Atlanta police officers were injured while responding to a mental health call on Forest Park Road, the agency confirmed.
Atlanta police officers shot responding to mental health call
Atlanta police officers were shot while responding to a mental health call on Forest Park Road, the agency confirmed.
North Carolina: Rabid baby goats at a mobile petting zoo prompts health warning
On Friday, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported confirmed multiple rabies cases in baby goats at a mobile petting zoo located in Iredell County. They were first notified of a potential rabies exposure among four baby goats at Farm Adventures in Harmony, North Carolina on August 27. The goats were most likely exposed to rabies by a skunk that had entered the pen where they were kept in late July. The NC State Laboratory of Public Health confirmed rabies viruses in three of the baby goats on August 28; a fourth goat was not tested but is also assumed to have been infected. Based on information gathered on August 28, it was determined that no other animals on the farm pose a risk of rabies exposure to people. Learn about rabies Anyone who had contact with baby goats from the Farm Adventures mobile petting zoo either at their location in Harmony, North Carolina, or at an off-site event, between July 28 and Aug. 27, 2026, may have been exposed while the animals were infectious. Impacted individuals should contact their local health department to determine whether medications are needed to prevent infection. Individuals are encouraged to call before visiting an emergency department or urgent care clinic to determine if treatment is needed and where it can be accessed. Known potential exposure dates and locations include: July 28: Jurney’s Assisted Living, 1942 Van Haven Drive, Statesville in Iredell County July 30: Private event in Mecklenburg County Aug. 1: Community Connections Back-to-School Bash, Breeden Amphitheater, 333 S. Main St., Lexington in Davidson County Aug. 6: Brookdale Peachtree, 2806 Peachtree Road, Statesville in Iredell County Aug. 8: Private event in Watauga County Aug. 9: Private event in Burke County Aug. 15: Masonic Picnic Grounds, 201 Poplar St., Mocksville in Davie County Aug. 16: Private event in Durham County Aug. 22: Private event in Iredell County Aug. 23: Private event in Durham County Rabies is a deadly disease that can spread from wild animals to pets and people, primarily through a bite, scratch or when infected saliva touches broken skin or mucous membranes. Human rabies infections are extremely rare in the United States. No human cases have been reported in North Carolina since 2011. Rabies is almost always fatal in mammals, including people, unless medications to prevent infections are given before symptoms develop. Symptoms can begin weeks to months after someone is exposed. Early symptoms are flu-like illness including weakness, fever or headache as well as a prickling or itching sensation where someone was bitten or exposed. In 2025, over 4,000 animals were submitted to the NC State Laboratory of Public Health for rabies testing, and of these, approximately 6% tested positive. In North Carolina the disease most often occurs in wild animals especially skunks, raccoons, bats and foxes. Outbreak News Today is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe
St. Louis Cardinals vs Pittsburgh Pirates Game Discussion Sunday
The St. Louis Cardinals wrap up their homestand before a long west coast swing as they’ll host the Pirates again on Sunday. Matthew Liberatore will give it a go for the Cardinals while the Pirates will start Braxton Ashcraft. First pitch is set for 1:15pm at Busch Stadium and the game broadcast will be available […]
UK science breakthroughs are being exploited overseas, minister says
Chris McDonald says British discoveries are being developed abroad because start-ups cannot find enough investment or laboratory space at home
Journalism Matters: Business community mostly silent on 5-acre plan
There are a couple of hundred businesses, give or take, depending on how broadly you draw the circle around the “generational opportunity” at least some of us have attached to the dusty, dystopian 5.25 acres abandoned for a decade now at the corner of Kearns and Bonanza. You’ll forgive me, I think, for thinking I’d […]
Arsenal at Aston Villa Premier League Preview: Full Steam Ahead
Arsenal take to the road for their first big hurdle of the season as they face Aston Villa
Streaming Your Favorite Shows and Movies on the Road Is a Nightmare. I’ve Found the Perfect Solution, and You Already Own It.
Just don’t forget the remote!
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. 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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.