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From The Sports Desk: The U.S. lost, but also saw return of star Christian Pulisic
The Americans may have lost their final group stage. But Pulisic, who had been nursing a calf injury, returned to action. He’s back just in time for the start of the knockout round.
Whole Hog Politics: It was voters, not Senate Republicans, who forced Trump’s hand on Iran
The early returns are in, and we can pretty safely say that Americans like the peace with Iran but strongly dislike the war that it ended. The truce is shaky, with hour-by-hour challenges that seem...
Dems put on blast over poll that shows record-low patriotism in US: 'Tear our society apart'
Rep. Harriet Hageman raises alarm over Gallup poll showing just 17% of Americans were "very proud" of their country, a record low in 25 years.
Justices Clash on Whether Race Played a Role in Trump’s Bid to Deport Haitians
The split mirrored one that has long divided Americans: how seriously to take the president’s loose, provocative and sometimes ugly remarks.
Making Our Own Luck
We are cross-posting a piece that former NIH official Kris Willis wrote for Macroscience. Kris is now the President and Founder of the Woodley Park Institute, for which I’m a board member. Picking winners or hedging bets? Federal science agencies have long wrestled with the question of how to ensure their billions of dollars of grants and contracts result in maximum benefits for Americans. On the surface, it might seem that a goal-oriented, interventionist style of management would be the best policy: prioritize our most pressing problems and distribute funding accordingly.This top-down strategy creates a unique hazard, though: bad choices can send resources in the wrong direction, resulting in slow progress that impedes the delivery of tangible benefits to citizens. Moreover, if decision makers pursue an applied advance when the underlying scientific principles remain poorly understood, they risk costly failures and a loss of support for the research enterprise at large. Examples include Nixon’s 1971 War on Cancer, undertaken on the premise that a cure could be achieved in less than a decade, the drive to build an operational commercial fusion plant by the mid-1990s, and the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, which failed to produce the effective treatments and prevention strategies promised by 2025. The contrasting laissez-faire approach is to hedge your bets. If the path to an advance is impossible to predict, then the wisest choice might be to distribute funding to as widely as possible. The main risk of this strategy is that spreading funding thinly may limit the resources available to the most promising research, resulting in the same negative outcomes as the interventionist approach: limited support for the most promising topics, slow progress, and delayed returns. In reality, at science agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, program managers navigate between these two extremes, setting some funds aside to target high-priority areas and using the rest to cover the widest possible range of meritorious proposals. This middle path seems like the most rational way to proceed, but it still requires making choices. How much should be set aside for high priority topics? What should those topics be? How should we define merit? Expert opinion can provide a helpful guide, but leading experts can have remarkably different opinions about what matters and what should be prioritized. Moreover, experts and administrators alike can be risk averse, giving an edge to high-profile, well-established concepts. What’s really needed is a data-driven framework to help guide decision-making, one that doesn’t simply repackage prestige or incumbency. Recognizing breakthroughs years in advance Many breakthroughs fail to attract funding or recognition at the earliest stages of development. Katalin Karikó, for example, spent years struggling to win grants for work on mRNA that would eventually win her and Drew Weissman a Nobel Prize. Similar stories can be told about Jim Allison’s groundbreaking studies leading to the development of cancer immunotherapy, Stan Pruisner’s demonstration that prions can self-replicate without DNA, or Robin Warren and Barry Marshall’s proof that Helicobacter pylori, not stress, causes ulcers. Yet at some point, the scientific community recognizes and responds to transformative breakthroughs like these. How does that change happen? And what if science funders could identify the areas that are on the cusp of a breakthrough? Those questions led my collaborators and me to study how scientists responded to past breakthroughs. Based on patterns in that data, we developed a means of predicting future breakthroughs, using biomedicine as a proof of concept. It’s worth taking a moment to describe how our approach works. Briefly, our prediction process begins by grouping the 18 million or so peer-reviewed papers in PubMed, the authoritative database of biomedical research, into roughly 50,000 unique topics. A small subset of these topics are so widely acclaimed as breakthroughs that they have been recognized with a major prize like a Nobel or a Lasker Award. We theorized that studying the development of these outliers over time, especially before they gained acclaim, was the key to identifying future instances of them. After defining topics, we chose 21 representative breakthroughs and asked what they looked like before they won prestigious prizes. To answer that question, we re-ran our topic-mapping algorithm repeatedly, winding back the clock one year each time, stringing together the years to follow the progress of each field as it grew and advanced. We found that in each case, the years leading up to a discovery followed a pattern: a burst of papers on a new, rapidly evolving topic, many of which quickly became influential. These characteristics—the percent of papers that are new, the percentage of papers that are brought in from other topics, and the influence of each individual paper—can all be measured separately for any given topic. Together, they act as a predictive signal that is detectable an average of five years before a transformative discovery is made, and up to thirty years before the discovery receives a major prize. Scanning the current research landscape for topics that display this signal allows us to predict what work will likely produce a future breakthrough. Each year we analyzed includes four or five signals, a number that appears to have remained constant across a twenty year time frame. In their classic work on the sociology of science, Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar established that the desire to participate in a major discovery is an important motivator for scientists as they consider whether they should take up (or abandon) a research problem. Although further work is needed, the simplest explanation for our results is that this behavior is widespread enough to detect at scale. A foundational advance, or something like it, draws the attention of scientists and causes them to change the direction of their research. They vote with their feet, staking their own reputation and careers by publishing on and citing the new idea. That upswell of interest is the foundation of our breakthrough signal. What kind of research does our model identify as a breakthrough? After building a model based on the patterns in our 21 preselected breakthroughs, we tested it by identifying all early signals of discovery from 1994 through 1997. Of the 18 signals we found in that time period, 17 can be traced forward in time to a breakthrough. Examples include super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (see the image above), the directed evolution of proteins and enzymes (Chemistry Nobel, 2018), and sequencing the human genome (National Medal of Science, 2008). The discovery of the role of leptin signaling in obesity is a particularly interesting case study. Around 1950, scientists noticed the existence of a type of lab mouse that suffered from a unique inherited form of obesity. When given the freedom to choose their own diet, these mice ate more than normal and preferred food that was high in fat. Researchers had few clues as to why the animals overate; early experiments pointed to the existence of a soluble ob factor found circulating in the bloodstream that regulated appetite, but its identity was unknown. In 1994, Jeffrey Friedman and colleagues identified and sequenced the ob gene, noting that the protein it encoded appeared to fit the profile of a circulating factor. A year later, a trio of high-profile publications demonstrated that ob was a hormone that regulated body weight and fat deposition by regulating appetite. One of these was co-authored by Friedman, who christened it leptin from the ancient Greek word for thin. Using our model, the data from 1996 make it clear this advance would become a breakthrough. Scientists had flocked to study the biology of the new hormone, generating the flurry of new papers and citations required to produce a signal. One of these demonstrated that serum leptin concentrations reflected the amount of adipose tissue in the human body, providing clinical validation of the earlier mouse studies. Before the identification of leptin, scientists were unable to point to a specific molecule that controlled appetite and adiposity, so that it was impossible to rule out non-physiological causes of obesity; its characterization fundamentally changed our concept of weight gain. In 2010, Friedman and fellow pioneer Douglas Coleman were awarded a Lasker for the discovery. Our work also identifies breakthroughs in clinical practice and behavioral and social sciences, even though these areas are less likely to draw the attention of major prize committees. One example that falls into this category is the introduction of endovascular aneurysm repair, a minimally invasive surgical procedure for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, a leading cause of death among Americans over the age of 65. Relative to the previous standard of care, it reduces in-hospital mortality by almost four-fold. In 2017, Timothy Chuter received the American College of Surgeons’ prestigious Jacobsen Innovation award for his multiple refinements to the technique. Another under-recognized breakthrough identified by our model is the development of standardized survey instruments to assess the quality of life for HIV+ patients. The antiretroviral cocktails introduced in the mid-1990s reduced AIDS mortality, but treatment came with serious side effects. The new evaluations showed that patients whose disease progressed had worse physical functioning than Americans with other chronic diseases, while those who were asymptomatic maintained a health-related quality of life on par with the overall US population. This evidence made it possible for patients and activists to argue that even in the absence of a total cure, and in spite of the side effects, alleviation of symptoms was a worthwhile priority for clinicians. My colleagues and I have failed to identify any significant recognition for the physicians and health policy experts who pioneered this advance, although in 2016, researchers called for the World Health Organization to set targets for good health-related quality of life as part of its framework to end the AIDS pandemic. From forecasting to funding How should science funders use our predictions? Any serious discussion of what we should do with this new capability needs to begin with an understanding of its limitations. We can’t (and shouldn’t) invest all of our resources in the small number of topics predicted to produce breakthroughs. Innovative new fields are born from existing ones; they rarely arise de novo. If funders don’t maintain a diverse portfolio, the breakthroughs of tomorrow will have no antecedents. Think of this as eating the seed corn, or killing the goose that lays the golden egg. There are also multiple goals of funding beyond basic scientific discovery, including translating discoveries into clinical practice, developing new technologies, supporting economic development, and training new scientists. The investments needed to accomplish these goals are likely different from those required to support emerging breakthroughs. Finally, we must be aware that we may not capture every instance of a breakthrough. The concept is fuzzy, and not every significant discovery is recognized with a major award. Further, breakthroughs are rare, meaning that our dataset is, by necessity, small. This makes formal estimates of accuracy challenging. Although our overall success rate appears to be high, any one signal may turn out to be a false positive. We found one apparent example: the development of the third generation COX-2 inhibitors, Vioxx and Celebrex, which were much celebrated in the early 2000s as effective but non-addictive pain relievers, meets all the algorithmic criteria of a breakthrough. Five years after it received FDA approval, researchers demonstrated that Vioxx was associated with serious cardiovascular complications, and the manufacturer voluntarily pulled the drug from the market. Celebrex remains available, although like other NSAIDs, it carries an FDA warning for increased cardiovascular risk. Decision makers who were overly focused on the breakthrough potential of this research might have wasted substantial resources nurturing an area that ultimately proved to be a failure—but so would those who relied on expert opinion at the time. That said, the potential benefits of funding the next mRNA vaccine or cancer immunotherapy years earlier than we might have are large. When we can’t assume the outcome of an action, it’s worth conducting an experiment. Can targeted support for areas that are poised to produce a breakthrough increase the return on scientific investment without cannibalizing future advances? With the necessary administrative infrastructure in place, conducting this experiment would be straightforward. First, identify all the breakthrough signals between 2018 and 2023, select half at random, and commit to a decade of investment. For biomedicine, a six year window should yield about 30 topics with the potential to produce a breakthrough. Providing strong support to half of these might be accomplished for $300 million a year. That’s roughly half of the recent annual budget of the NIH Common Fund or around 20% of the fiscal year 2025 budget for ARPA-H. After five years, then again at ten, compare to see which group — the one that was actively managed, or the control — produced more breakthroughs, and on what timescale. Although we used biomedicine as an example, the same experiment could just as well be run for physics, materials science, or any other discipline. Any attempt to undertake such an experiment should keep three points top of mind. First, we can predict the topic of future breakthroughs, but the people and vision for how to move the work forward are still important. In practice, this means success requires active program managers with the expertise to develop the science and the authority to do so, including by recruiting investigators. Second, we would be wise to learn from the failures of past attempts to fund transformative research. High among these are funding modestly repackaged work, confusing the genuinely novel with the merely unfamiliar, and relying too much on incumbent investigators. All of these risks can be mitigated by thoroughly and intelligently integrating high quality data into portfolio management. Finally, we need to have patience. Even with strong funding support, producing a breakthrough takes time. If supporting breakthroughs is the best way to nurture the birth of new fields, we also need to accurately describe and properly manage the other two stages, so that we invest wisely throughout the productive lifetime of ideas and divest once they reach the point of diminishing returns. We would benefit from more study of all of these phases, especially the transition from one to another. More research could answer questions like: When does a breakthrough become an established field? How do the availability of funding, the size and characteristics of the available workforce, and the accumulation of evidence that disagrees with prevailing models affect a field’s decline? Exactly how do old ideas give birth to new ones, and can we speed up the process? The more we understand about the dynamics of scientific progress, the better we can maximize the odds that our curiosity leads to results. I’d call that finding a way to make our own luck.
How open are Americans to socialism, after all?
Democratic socialists might be having their best year ever.
These Churches Are Putting Family Before Politics
Close to 70 percent of Black children in America are born to unmarried parents. Nearly half live with a single mother. Both figures are significantly higher than the national average and reflect the steep decline in marriage among African Americans since the 1960s.
Check politics at the door? Not at many workplaces, researcher says
When people think of workplace segregation, they usually think of race or gender. Yet Americans are also sorted at work by something employers rarely measure: how they vote.
Americans Are Not Buying White House’s Trump Health Claims
New polling shows what a majority of Americans really think of the explanations about 80-year-old Trump.
Supreme Court protects pesticides from some health claims in key Roundup case
The Supreme Court on Thursday restricted Americans’ ability to sue pesticide makers over alleged health harms stemming from their products. In a 7-2 ruling, the court held that some claims that pes…
Americans are struggling to pay for health care. Here's why.
Fewer than half of U.S. adults said they believed they could pay for health care, medical appointments and prescriptions,
New polls show Americans’ complicated feelings about the country, 250 years on
More than three-quarters of Americans think the country’s founders would be disappointed with the US today, according to a Gallup poll released this week – one of several new surveys spotlighting the public’s complicated feelings about the nation’s legacy as it approaches its 250th anniversary.
CMS projection: 90% of Americans will still have health insurance in 2034—when healthcare spending reaches $9T
Legislative changes, demographic shifts and growing demand will combine to drive national health spending to almost $9 trillion by 2034.
By Refusing to Sign a Bipartisan Housing Bill, Trump Made It Clear That He Doesn’t Care About Everyday Americans
What’s the president’s priority instead? Passing his voter-suppressing SAVE Act to keep his cronies in power.
Marquette poll: Few Americans paying close attention to America 250
President Donald Trump’s approval rating stayed the same as May at 38%.
Politics: What Donald Trump’s Defense Policy Means For Black Service Members
Black Americans serving in the U.S. military have long lived with a great contradiction. The country they’re fighting to protect is the same one that’s failed to serve and protect them.Despite this, Black Americans continue to enlist. There are over 350,000 Black active duty and select reserve members and more than 2.4 million Black veterans. That’s according to the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University.This year, Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has blocked or delayed the promotions of more than a dozen Black and female senior officers. He’s also dismissed several high-ranking Black and female officers, according to The Atlantic. This comes amid the second Trump administration’s aggressive rollback of programs and policies connected to diversity, equity and inclusion.Black military members have always battled discrimination. But for some, this is a step too far in the wrong direction. So, what does their future hold? And what does it mean for the U.S. military?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.
Top supplements Americans use are shifting from multivitamins to targeted health fixes
Dietary supplements are an excellent way to fill gaps in our nutritional requirements. From vitamins and macronutrients to gut-health probiotics, dietary supplements have helped people address deficiencies. ...
Affordability, not fraud, is why fewer Americans have health insurance
The “fraud, waste, and abuse” narrative has been seriously overworked, and does not fit the facts.
Follow the Money: Charting Private Health Insurance Cost Growth
Most Americans have health coverage through private (also called “commercial”) insurance. The prices for healthcare paid by private insurance are
The ‘tech neck’ time bomb: why 43 million young Americans could cripple U.S. health care within a generation
A spine surgeon warns that smartphone addiction is quietly deforming the spines of Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
Kenya’s health minister orders suspension of construction on a US-backed Ebola facility
Kenyan Health Minister Aden Duale has ordered the suspension of the construction of an Ebola quarantine center for Americans after he was held in contempt by a court that had halted the project.
Kenya's health minister orders suspension of construction on a US-backed Ebola facility
Kenyan Health Minister Aden Duale has ordered the suspension of the construction of an Ebola quarantine center for Americans after he was held in contempt by a court that had halted the project.
Freshcorn, Grahovac Named Academic All-Americans by College Sports Communicators - Texas A&M Athletics
COLLEGE STATION – Texas A&M relief pitcher Clayton Freshcorn and first baseman Gavin Grahovac were selected as Academic All-Americans by College Sports Commu...
Most Americans now 'insecure' or 'desperate' in getting, affording health care: Gallup
Fewer than half of Americans can consistently access and afford the health care they need for the first time in Gallup tracking.
Most Americans now 'insecure' or 'desperate' in getting, affording health care: Gallup
Fewer than half of Americans can consistently access and afford the health care they need for the first time in Gallup tracking.
Ford Fireworks bring Americans and Canadians together amid political tension
Workers cleaned up the waterfront and got ready to welcome a large crowd in Windsor as Canada and the United State prepared to hold the annual Ford Fireworks celebration.
Judge blocks use of database to check citizenship in voting
The judge ruled that the system aggregated Americans' sensitive personal data in a way that could result in voters being wrongly purged from voter rolls
Judge blocks use of database to check citizenship in voting
The judge ruled that the system aggregated Americans' sensitive personal data in a way that could result in voters being wrongly purged from voter rolls
Kenya's health minister found in contempt of court over U.S.-backed Ebola facility
Kenya’s Health Minister Aden Duale was found in contempt of court on Monday for failing to halt the construction of an Ebola quarantine facility intended for Americans, despite existing court orders.
The scale of Trump’s political blunder in Iran is coming into focus
The first major poll conducted since the Trump administration signed a memorandum of understanding shows Americans just want to be done with the Iran war.
Digital Health Tools Are Reshaping Healthcare in the United States
/PRNewswire/ -- At least 12 percent of Americans now communicate with their healthcare providers about appointments, test results, and ongoing treatments via...
1 in 3 Americans use chatbots for health advice. These 6 patients explain why.
Chatbots fueled by AI bear disclaimers saying they cannot dispense medical advice or diagnose conditions, but they still field millions of queries.
Rising Healthcare Costs Leave Many Americans Less Secure
By Deanna Neff HealthDay ReporterMONDAY, June 22, 2026 (HealthDay News) — A growing number of Americans are finding themselves priced out of the healthcare system. Only 49% of U.S. adults report being “cost secure,” meaning they can pay for the medical visits and treatments they need. That leaves ...
1 in 3 Americans use chatbots for health advice. These 6 patients explain why.
They say cost, speed and other considerations drove them to AI. They are also learning what to believe and what to take with caution.
Axios-Ipsos poll: Health affordability is shaping the midterms
About half of Americans say measures aimed at drug and insurance affordability will probably influence who they'll vote for.
Poll: Americans draw a new line in the betting bonanza sweeping over Wall Street
A plurality of Americans believe betting on election outcomes should be illegal, The POLITICO Poll finds.
How remote work, flexible schedules created a never-ending rush hour
Americans are using newfound flexibility to commute at weird hours, which means we're stuck in a never-ending rush hour.
250th birthday jitters: Americans see more peril than promise ahead
Most Americans say the signers of the Declaration of Independence would feel more disappointment than pride about the nation's democracy today.
Opinion | Are Boomers to blame for everything?
Three writers debate whether older Americans are holding on too long — or whether younger generations need to do more to claim their place.
The media has declared open season on Alexi Lalas
In the ever-growing genre of media criticism, few have ever been as soft a target as Fox Sports soccer analyst Alexi Lalas. It has seemingly become a once-every-four-years tradition. Fox will begin its World Cup coverage. Americans will rediscover everything they despise about the professional shit-stirrer. And a deluge of thinkpieces will follow, ripping the…
Rep. Jason Crow says he's worried "Americans are at risk" with Bill Pulte as acting DNI
Americans are paying thousands to flee states over politics — but experts say using specialized agencies is not worth it
Looking for help moving to another state for political reasons? There’s a real estate agency for that.
The Politics of Climate Possibility
Americans are far more likely to engage on climate change when they believe governments can deliver meaningful results.
Most Americans see hazing as a public health issue, APSU study finds
New research co-authored by an Austin Peay State University faculty member suggests parents, coaches, educators, alumni, and community members may be just as important to preventing it.
Science & Medicine: A San Antonio researcher is studying magnets and money to treat alcohol use disorder
Alcohol use disorder affects millions of Americans, but treatment options remain limited, and relapse is common. A UT Health San Antonio researcher is studying two unconventional approaches that he hopes could one day be combined into a single, more effective treatment.
What the Iran war cost the Pentagon, the economy
With an agreement signed, the US war with Iran is at a halt, at least for now, and President Donald Trump is telling Americans they have won.
Soaring household debt is a warning to the US economy: SocGen
Americans are borrowing more and saving less. That's created a major vulnerability in the US economy, SocGen is warning.
‘I literally was crying last night because I’m nervous about what I’m going to find out’: a record 51% of Americans aren’t ‘cost secure’ on health
Half of Americans couldn't reliably afford healthcare, before the Medicaid cuts even started.
The U.S.-Iran negotiations have been chaotic. But the confusion has only grown since the MOU was signed.
And it comes as Americans are increasingly down on Trump’s handling of the war the U.S. started with Iran.
Poll: Americans believe they aren’t being taught enough about democracy
A new NBC News poll shows that Americans remain committed to the nation’s founding ideals — but widely feel that schools are not adequately teaching what’s needed to sustain them.
Benton Harbor business celebrates Juneteenth, honors past civic leader
Juneteenth jubilees were held across our area as people came together to celebrate the freedom of African Americans.In Benton Harbor, one business found a speci
USA tops Australia to clinch spot in final 32
SEATTLE — Christian Pulisic’s injury absence didn’t hurt the Americans one bit. The U.S. national soccer team found a way to advance to the knockout round without the injured forward on the field, beating Australia 2-0 Friday for its second straight victory at the largest World Cup in history. “C.P. is a fantastic player — […]
USA tops Australia to clinch spot in final 32
SEATTLE — Christian Pulisic’s injury absence didn’t hurt the Americans one bit. The U.S. national soccer team found a way to advance to the knockout round without the injured forward on the field, beating Australia 2-0 Friday for its second straight victory at the largest World Cup in history. “C.P. is a fantastic player — […]
Obama encourages people to not give in to despair in current political climate
Former President Barack Obama speaks at the opening of the Obama Presidential Center, imploring Americans not to give in to cynicism and despair in the current divisive political climate.
Bath House Cultural Center celebrates Juneteenth with food and live entertainment
Bath House Cultural Center. Photo by Renee Umsted. To commemorate the freedom of Black Americans on June 19, 1865, the Bath House Cultural Center will present "Juneteenth: Liberation in Motion!" on June 19 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The event will
Number of Americans who afford high-quality healthcare has dropped
Only about half of US adults could afford their healthcare and had access to quality care last year, according to new data.
How many Americans can afford high-quality healthcare? A new poll finds the number has fallen
Concerns about affording healthcare in the year ahead were also at a record high.
Supreme Court limits power of federal government to disarm drug users
The Supreme Court Thursday curbed the power of the federal government to disarm a frequent marijuana user, limiting the scope of a law enacted during the 1960s to keep weapons out of the hands of Americans who regularly use drugs.
How many Americans can afford high-quality health care? A new poll finds the number has fallen
A new poll shows only about half of U.S. adults could afford their health care and had access to quality care last year.
92 Percent of Wealthy Americans Are Changing Their Financial Plans Because of This Trend—and It’s Reshaping How Founders Exit
The long-term strategy of business owners is shifting. Here's why.
What 2026 Voters Are Saying To Business Leaders
Most Americans still fall somewhere closer to the middle, and the 2026 election will reflect that enduring electorate.
Republicans actually do have a healthcare plan, and it’s a good one
Republicans have an opportunity to tell a different story than the one Americans have believed about them.
Americans view Obama far more positively than Trump or Biden, CNN poll finds
As Barack Obama opens his presidential center, he does so as by far the most popular living president.
‘Different worlds’: Americans see a huge divide between haves and have-nots, new poll shows
A national NBC News poll finds 81% of Americans say there is more that divides than unites the wealthy and those who aren’t wealthy.
Exclusive: Trump administration ramps up effort to revoke citizenship from naturalized Americans
The Trump administration plans to file at least 250 denaturalization cases by October, significantly intensifying its effort to revoke citizenship from people naturalized in the United States, according to a senior Justice Department official.
How many Americans can afford high-quality healthcare? A new poll finds the number has fallen
New data from the West Health-Gallup Affordability Index shows that only about half of U.S. adults could afford their healthcare and had access to quality care last year.
Poll: Only about half of Americans say they can afford quality healthcare
New data from the West Health-Gallup Affordability Index shows that only about half of U.S. adults could afford their healthcare and had access to quality care last year.
How many Americans can afford high-quality healthcare? A new poll finds the number has fallen
Twannetta Weaver felt like she made the responsible choice when she enrolled in a high-deductible health insurance plan through her employer, an option that avoided high premiums and allowed her to sa...
Trump’s Iran agreement may be a dud, but he’s getting what he wants
Donald Trump insisted last month that he didn’t think about Americans’ finances when negotiating with Iran.
U.S. Adults' Ability to Afford Healthcare at a Five-Year Low
Fewer than half (49%) of Americans can afford needed care and medications, a five-year low. Younger, older and adults with chronic conditions are hit hardest.
Americans Struggle to Afford Quality Healthcare
Fifty-one percent of Americans could not consistently afford healthcare in 2025 – the largest share in the past five years, according to a new report from the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America. Every year since 2022, fewer and fewer Americans are considered “cost secure” when it ...
How Trump’s immigration crackdown puts Americans’ healthcare at risk
‘Ali’, from Afghanistan, is a ‘stellar’ doctor caring for patients in under-served West Virginia – but like many other foreign medics, his US future is now in peril
CNN poll: Political independents hit their highest level in a decade
Nearly half of Americans say they don’t consider themselves a part of either major political party, the highest level of partisan independence measured by CNN polling in more than a decade.
Americans agree that childcare is expensive. Democrats are running on it.
In a memo shared first with The 19th, three top Senate Democrats say Trump and Republicans have ‘taken a wrecking ball’ to childcare.
As Americans tuck into supplements like their health depends on it, specialized products are displacing multivitamins
Some of today’s most popular products promise better immune, adaptogenic, anti-inflammatory, gut, skin or joint health—or combinations of two or more of the above.
Independents are on the rise in American politics
CNN’s latest polling shows more Americans are identifying as independent voters, standing at 47% in this new CNN poll - the highest it has been in more than 10 years.
Former VP Pence slams Trump’s anti-weaponization fund: ‘Deeply offensive to millions of Americans’
Juneteenth event to highlight mental health resources, history in Upper Burrell
Mental health struggles for Black Americans often go overlooked, according to the Rev. Vincent Ponder of Community Baptist Church in the Lincoln Beach section of Upper Burrell. It’s why he wants to bring more resources, awareness and education to his community. Community Revitalization Mission of Service, a Lincoln Beach-based nonprofit,
Secretary Kennedy Joins Secretary Burgum to Launch GetActive.gov During Colorado ‘Take Back Your Health’ Tour
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. launched GetActive.gov, a new national resource to help Americans improve their health.
Listening to political opponents who share common values can ease polarization
Americans are more willing to engage with opposing views than popular narratives about echo chambers presume, and perceived common ground can help moderate positions.
Americans are living longer, increasing the need of geriatricians. Does Louisiana have enough?
As the baby boomer generation reaches older adulthood and average lifespans continue to increase, the number of geriatricians needed to meet demand is also rising. Here's where the data currently stands in each state.
The healthcare sector emerges as a lifeline for struggling job seekers
While millions of Americans are struggling to find jobs in a tough labor market, healthcare is emerging as a lifeline for career changers.
Poll: Young and old Americans are starkly divided on national pride and confidence in government
The latest NBC News poll tested Americans’ feelings about broad cultural issues shaping politics on the eve of the country’s 250th birthday.
Mapped: Where data centers are facing bans and moratoriums
Many Americans are resisting data centers across the country. Now, some lawmakers are responding with temporary moratoriums and outright bans.
Trump’s UFC 80th birthday bash looks to rescue his tarnished macho image
President Donald Trump’s birthday bash masks an increasing reality in his second term: Even as he tries to double down on his macho image, Americans don’t see him as much as the domineering totem of strength he wants them to.
SBA moves to revise 8(a) rules while preserving tribal, ANC eligibility
Details By Brian Edwards Native Contracting June 13, 2026 The U.S. Small Business Administration has proposed changes to its 8(a) Business Development Program that would eliminate race-based presumptions of social disadvantage for individually owned businesses while leaving eligibility standards unchanged for tribally owned enterprises, Alaska Native corporations and other Native entity-owned participants. In both the title and summary of the proposed rule published in the Federal Register, SBA emphasized that the changes only apply to individually owned firms and “do not impact entity-owned firms,” including tribes, Alaska Native corporation, Native Hawaiian organizations and community development corporations. The proposed rule, announced June 11, would require all individual applicants seeking admission to the 8(a) program to submit evidence demonstrating social disadvantage. Membership in a racial or ethnic group alone would no longer establish eligibility, according to the SBA. For Indian Country, the agency said eligibility standards for businesses owned by federally recognized tribes, Alaska Native corporations, Native Hawaiian organizations and community development corporations would remain unchanged. The proposal comes after the Department of Defense reaffirmed that participation by tribes and Alaska Native corporations in the 8(a) program is based on their political status under federal law rather than diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. In a May 28 letter to Alaska's Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael P. Duffey wrote that participation by federally recognized tribes and Alaska Native corporations in federal programs is “grounded in their political status as Native Americans, not DEI initiatives.” The SBA proposal follows a 2023 federal court ruling that found unconstitutional the program's rebuttable presumption that members of certain racial and ethnic groups were socially disadvantaged. SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said the proposed rule would establish a single standard for individually owned applicants by requiring evidence of social disadvantage. The 8(a) Business Development Program provides participating firms with business development assistance and access to federal set-aside and sole-source contracting opportunities. The program remains a major source of federal contracting revenue for tribal enterprises and Alaska Native corporations. Native-owned firms received $16.1 billion of the program's approximately $26 billion in federal contract awards during fiscal 2024, according to data previously reported by Tribal Business News. The proposal also arrives amid ongoing concerns from Native contractors about SBA administration of the program. In May, the Native American Contractors Association and 53 Native-owned businesses urged SBA to address delays in processing 8(a) applications, saying some reviews had stretched beyond regulatory deadlines and appeared to have stalled since August 2025. The proposed rule is open for public comment through July 13. The Federal Register notice does not reference tribal consultation or indicate whether SBA determined consultation was unnecessary because tribal eligibility standards are unchanged. The SBA has not announced when the proposed rule would take effect. The agency is expected to accept public comments before issuing a final rule.About The AuthorAuthor: Brian EdwardsBrian Edwards is associate publisher and associate editor of Tribal Business News and Native News Online. He is a longtime publisher, editor, business reporter and serial entrepreneur. Subscribe Today!Other Articles by this authorDefense Department reaffirms tribal, ANC eligibility in SBA 8(a) programTribal heritage projects eligible for up to $100K in federal funding through NPS programIHS launches tribal long-term care construction initiative with three projectsIḷisaġvik College acquires site for long-planned Utqiaġvik campus This article is available to paid digital subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
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