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\'Ghost Hunters\' star to speak in Millersville Friday night; here\'s how to get tickets
A “Ghost Hunters” personality will visit Millersville this week.
Fable: How We Built the Living Population
Fable’s Living Population is made up of over 1,000 hand-crafted NPCs, each with their own life and personality. In this feature - written by the Lead Game Designer- find out how it was made, how it works, and more.
Stephen A. Smith Apologizes for Lane Johnson Retirement Comments on Mental Health
ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith apologized Wednesday for his criticism of Lane Johnson's decision to retire this week after suggesting that the Philadelphia Eagles' tackle retired due to the team's struggles this season rather than the "personal and family priorities" and "mental health" reasons Johnson cited.
The New Friend AI Pendant Can Now Talk Back to You
Avi Schiffmann has a new version of his controversial AI companion. It’s more expensive, and you can’t change its personality.
Christy Carlson Romano says relationship with “Even Stevens” costar Shia LaBeouf was ‘like oil and water’
It wasn’t just their characters who had personality clashes.
Trump has asked Kimberly Guilfoyle, U.S. ambassador to Greece, to resign amid misconduct allegations
Guilfoyle, a former Fox News personality, was a top Trump campaign surrogate.
Andy Burnham and the rise of ‘aura farming’ in politics
Is “aura farming” the new political superpower? There are some days in TV news when you find yourself standing in the middle of a farm, surrounded by baby goats, trying to explain internet slang. Subscribe This was one of those days. There I was, in wellies, trying to unpack aura farming - a Gen Z term for carefully cultivating your image online so that you look effortlessly cool, authentic and charismatic. The trick, apparently, is that it can’t look like you’re trying too hard. Which, I’ll admit, felt slightly ironic as we filmed an entire report on a farm purely because the word farming is in the title. ‘Shaped by algorithms’ Whether you like it or not, politics increasingly feels like it’s being shaped by algorithms as much as manifestos. Take Andy Burnham. Since arriving at Number 10, he’s been impossible to miss online. One minute he’s out for a casual jog with Mo Farah. Next he’s announcing policy alongside TikTok high priestess Bus Aunty. His social media paints a very deliberate picture: less polished Westminster operator, more bloke from the North who just happens to be running the country. It’s not accidental. Burnham’s “King of the North”, New Order-loving persona has become part of a carefully constructed political brand. Authenticity is now something politicians work incredibly hard to make look effortless. But Burnham isn’t inventing this playbook. Like so many of us doomscrolling on an evening, he’s been influenced online. The digital strategy of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, pictured above right, has become a case study in viral political communication, and some of the people behind that campaign have recently been advising the Labour Party in Britain. Their message is simple: if you want to reach younger voters, you need to show up where they already spend their time. Embracing content creators And increasingly, that doesn’t mean traditional news interviews (awkward). It means speaking to content creators like Max from The Career Ladder, whose channels reach around 20 million followers worldwide. His interview with Burnham, pictured below, was posted almost immediately after he became Prime Minister. What struck me wasn’t just the audience size, but something Max told me afterwards: many people in the comments said they’d discovered Britain had a new Prime Minister through his interview. Think about that for a moment. Not through rolling news. Not through newspapers. Through a creator they were already following while scrolling. Share That’s a profound shift in how political information reaches people, one that’s been gathering momentum for some time. It also explains why politicians are embracing content creators and spending millions on digital marketing. Of course, this isn’t unique to one party. ‘Personality before policy’ In many ways, the right were quicker off the mark in building their aura online. Donald Trump built much of his political identity on social media. Nigel Farage remains one of Britain’s strongest political performers on TikTok. Politicians across the spectrum now understand that personality often reaches people before policy does. During a six-week UK general election campaign alone, overall digital ad spending routinely tops £11m. Share Channel 4 News Former Number 10 social media adviser Andrew Wong put it well when he told me that “vibes” can help someone get noticed, but they only work if they’re rooted in a genuine personality. Force it, and audiences spot it instantly. The bigger question is whether internet charisma can backfire on you - especially when you’re Prime Minister. Because behind Burnham’s carefully curated videos is a veteran politician with decades of Westminster experience. The spontaneity is produced. While the authenticity may be genuine, it’s managed. That’s not necessarily a criticism. It’s simply the reality of modern political communication. Aura farming alone is not enough to harvest change. But in the age of algorithms, winning attention may be the first battle. Subscribe Share Channel 4 News Leave a comment
Ex-Jet Damien Woody shares health scare months after ESPN exit: 'Please get your checkups'
Former NFL player and TV personality Damien Woody shared a surprising health update with fans in a recent Instagram post.
Tim Allen says 'personality problems' with onscreen sons has halted 'Home Improvement' revival
Tim Allen's plans for a 'Home Improvement' return has been made 'challenging' due to 'personality problems' with the actors who played his sons on the '90s sitcom.
Clavicular visits Syracuse to flex and smile
Clavicular is internet famous for looksmaxxing and his “bone-smashing” technique. There is no bone-smashing for personality, unfortunately.
If You Have a "Junk Room" at Home, Science Says You Likely Share These Surprising Personality Traits
You know that room. The one where the holiday decorations share shelf space with old textbooks, a broken lamp you keep meaning to fix, and three bags of clothes destined for donation – someday. You close the door when guests come over, maybe even lock it. Most of us treat that space like a guilty...
Family entertainment company WildBrain acquires Personality AI
TORONTO — Family entertainment company WildBrain Ltd. has acquired Personality AI, which uses technology to create interactive characters using generative AI.
Martha Stewart’s Business Manager Keep Questioning Her Spend on This One Guilty Pleasure
Martha Stewart will always splurge on this one thing… The businesswoman and TV personality admitted she always finds room in the budget for plants while speaking to Richard Christiansen about his new ...
Judge Judy retiring from on-camera TV after 30 years, son to take the gavel
Judge Judy is putting down the gavel after three decades on television. Judy Sheindlin, the 83-year-old television personality behind the long-running “Judge Judy,” is retiring from on-camera work …
Far-left attack backfires spectacularly as radical online personality whines after attacking female Trump aide
Aaron Rupar faces White House backlash after attacking a female press wrangler in a C-SPAN clip from President Trump's Ireland departure.
Silicon Valley Black business group gets first female president
The Silicon Valley Black Chamber of Commerce has made history by choosing its first female president — a longtime member with an empowering personality.
Jimmy Carter, entertainment personality dies
Former Nashville Entertainment reporter and Montgomery native Jimmy Carter has died.
Banijay Entertainment Launches Digital Sports Brand with Jamie Vardy Series
A new overarching digital sports brand to house bold, personality‑driven, social‑first sports entertainment formats
The rise and fall of 'The Hills' star Spencer Pratt's improbable campaign for Los Angeles mayor
Pratt, a reality television personality, was not able to pull off his latest venture — an improbable bid to become mayor of Los Angeles.
Pat Sajak makes rare appearance 2 years after retiring from hosting “Wheel of Fortune”
The television personality won an Emmy for his final season on the game show.
Pat Fitzgerald Delivers Epic Quotes After MSU Takes Down Toledo
Pat Fitzgerald earned his first win at Michigan State, then delivered several memorable lines afterward. From “scared money” to Spartan Stadium’s new “libations,” MSU’s new coach showed plenty of personality.
How to tell if you have a changeable personality according to science
We like to imagine ourselves as unfinished masterpieces. But is that wishful thinking?
The rise of Frank ‘The Tank’ Fleming and the big business of being mad at the Mets
The Barstool Sports personality built a following on Mets misery, and in this woeful season, his anger has resonated with Mets fans.
Late ‘Superman’ actor’s son Will Reeve reveals cancer diagnosis: ‘Raised to share one’s struggles’
Christopher Reeve’s son and ‘Good Morning America’ personality Will Reeve announced his testicular cancer diagnosis. ‘I was raised to share one’s struggles if, in doing so, that might help others.’
Maple Leafs Trade Gets Strong Reaction From Prominent Personality
On Monday, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets got together on a multi-player blockbuster move, with the principal pieces moving being Kirill Marchenko and Matthew Knies.Marchenko is on his way to Toronto and now has a six-year contract extension beyond this campaign, which was the final year of his deal. Meanwhile, Knies, who […] The post Maple Leafs Trade Gets Strong Reaction From Prominent Personality appeared first on HEAVY.
This surprising factor could reveal how compatible you and your partner really are, says science
According to a new study, scientists found that couples in romantic relationships share a taste in music more than they do personality traits and values.
Chivu: “A second half of grit, courage and personality”
A comeback draw, secured thanks to a superb second-half performance from Inter, who recovered from two goals down against home side Roma. The game at the Olimpico showcased great quality, but above al...
The Beauty Of Settled Science
Commenters convinced me I made a subtle mis-step in my framing of Psychology Research Is Mostly Fine. My framing emphasized that social priming studies had failed to replicate, but that many other subfields of psychology hadn’t. This naturally led commenters to point to failed replications in other subfields. Although none of these were as bad as social priming, few or none were entirely problem-free. Instead of emphasizing the difference between social priming and other subfields, I should have emphasized the difference between settled science and novel research. Here are some of my favorite psychology findings: The brain is sculpted by reinforcement learning, and a key driver of this learning is a prediction-error-based algorithm located in the nucleus accumbens and implemented through dopamine. Psychedelic drugs exert their effects through 5-HT2A receptors, pointing to a role for these receptors in some sort of construct like the balance between priors and new evidence. Certain cognitive functions are localized to certain brain areas (for example, impulse control to the frontal lobes; linguistic structure to Broca’s area, linguistic meaning to Wernicke’s area. But injure one of these areas, or render a certain function useless (eg a blind person having no more use for their visual cortex), and these mappings can gradually shift - suggesting that neurons are general-purpose compute whose specialization is a contingent fact about convenience and efficiency rather than a necessity. Most personality traits and general capabilities are about 50% genetic and 50% random, with little role for family environment or childhood history, with a few notable exceptions like partisan preference. Recent research complicates this story, but the further you go from this basic picture, the gnarlier the chains of indirect causation you require. Neurons fire together in “brain waves”, whose exact frequency corresponds with the character of consciousness; These divide neurons into natural subpopulations and linked graphs. The gamma rhythm corresponds surprisingly well to items in conscious awareness. GABA receptors seem to be involved in something like relaxation. By hitting different GABA receptors in different ways, you can modulate the exact type of relaxation you produce. Hitting GABA-A directly is too powerful and can cause dangerous levels of sedation, but allosteric modulation of GABA is an incredibly fruitful strategy that underlies drugs from benzos to barbituates to alcohol. If you know your GABA-A subunits, you can target specific subtypes of relaxation; for example, Ambien hits GABA-A1 and induces sleep. Memory divides somewhat fuzzily into bins of immediate-sensory, short-term, and long-term, with separate retrieval and storage functions, and separate systems for declarative vs. procedural learning. These can be harmed selectively, usually by hippocampal injury, so that some patients can remember their life stories but not form new long-term memories, or learn new skills like bike-riding but not new facts. The exact substrate of memory is unclear but seems to involve new synaptic connections between neurons in at least some way. The ability of modern psychology and psychiatry to treat mental illness is real but limited. SSRIs work for half or slightly fewer than half of patients; antipsychotics work with extreme side effects; benzodiazpines work but produce addiction and tolerance in many (not all) people. Most supplements are stuck in Poor Quality Study Replication Crisis Hell, but melatonin and l-theanine stand out as especially promising. Psychotherapy works with moderate effect size, but (with a few exceptions) seems to be more about the relationship with the provider than the details of the therapy itself. Mental hospitalization can sometimes defuse immediate crises but work less well than mental hospitals would like, with some studies showing overall negative effects. Schizophrenia is mostly genetic, but risk also increases with prenatal infection (especially rubella) and obstetric complications; there is suggestive evidence for roles of social stress and drug use (with psychedelics and marijuana making things worse, and nicotine if anything making things better). Bipolar and schizophrenia are so closely linked on a pathophysiological level that it seems like they might be the same disease; on the clinical level, they do seem to follow two separate courses/prognoses but can sometimes surprise clinicians by eg someone who seemed condemned to permanent schizophrenia unexpectedly recovering. The brain’s native reinforcement learning algorithms cash out in the phenomena of classical and operant conditioning; different reinforcement schedules reinforce at different levels, which can be exploited by bad actors to make especially compelling products (eg slot machines). None of these are immune to doubt. A few are speculative; one or two are genuinely unorthodox. But they’re all a step above one p = 0.049 paper that might not replicate. If they get overturned, they’ll be overturned by the same sort of genuine scientific shift that replaced Ptolemy with Copernicus or Lamarck with Darwin, not some sort of sordid discovery about someone entering random numbers into a spreadsheet. In 2008, Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote about The Beauty Of Settled Science: If you only care about scientific issues that are controversial, you will end up with a head stuffed full of garbage. The media thinks that only the cutting edge of science is worth reporting on. How often do you see headlines like “General Relativity still governing planetary orbits” or “Phlogiston theory remains false”? So, by the time anything is solid science, it is no longer a breaking headline. “Newsworthy” science is often based on the thinnest of evidence and wrong half the time—if it were not on the uttermost fringes of the scientific frontier, it would not be breaking news. Scientific controversies are problems so difficult that even people who’ve spent years mastering the field can still fool themselves. That’s what makes for the heated arguments that attract all the media attention. Worse, if you aren’t in the field and part of the game, controversies aren’t even fun. Don’t be embarrassed to read elementary science textbooks, either. If you want to pretend to be sophisticated, go find a play to sneer at. If you just want to have fun, remember that simplicity is at the core of scientific beauty [...] A steady diet of science news is bad for you: You are what you eat, and if you eat only science reporting on fluid situations, without a solid textbook now and then, your brain will turn to liquid. Psychology isn’t centrally the new paper in Annals Of Recently-Breaking News saying that an n=5 study showing that large portion sizes increase support for terrorism. Psychology is centrally ideas like brain waves, GABA receptors, reinforcement learning, twin studies, and connectionism. People who think differently are worrying too much about BREAKING NEWS!!!, and should stop. The key distinction isn’t “recent research in social psychology” vs. “recent research in cognitive/bio/behavioral psychology”, as my essay last week unfortunately implied. It’s recent research in general vs. the deposit of settled science, battle-tested hypotheses, and carefully-earmarked speculation. And part of the reason social priming in particular was such a disaster was that it defied that heuristic, building itself up over hundreds of studies until it approached or even entered the pantheon of settled science - before collapsing (5-HTTLPR was also sort of like this). This isn’t a claim that settled science is always right - Freud was “settled science” for a long time - just that there’s an intuitive distinction between the level of credence you should have in the existence of power posing vs. the existence of Broca’s Area. (I compounded this error by calling the last post “Psychology Research Is Mostly Fine”, which suggested I was talking about the new research rather than the settled science. I actually meant to distinguish between research-psychology-the-field vs. clinical-psychology-aka-therapy, but this framing unintentionally pushed against the point I wanted to make) Some commenters on the previous article understood this point, but challenged its weight. It’s very cool, they said, to know how many neurons are in which brain lobe, but the main way that Psychology affected their lives was through bad clickbait studies used to buttress dumb policies; some p = 0.049 study says that exposure to microaggressions makes minorities’ brains shrivel into raisins, and now their company has to implement punitive DEI or be sued for hazardous work conditions. I won’t dispute this as an accurate description of how the sausage gets made, but it’s worth examining the trains of thought that connect this observation to a campaign against psychology in general: The dumb woke psychology was wrong and bad, and I don’t have good heuristics for distinguishing dumb woke psychology from other psychology, so I’m going to assume it’s all wrong and bad. The dumb woke psychology was wrong and bad; it seems useful to punish/discredit psychology as a whole to assist my campaign against it, so for propaganda purposes I will try to discredit psychology as a whole. To people in the first camp, my response is: come on, your heuristics aren’t that bad. “Microaggressions makes minorities’ brains shrivel up like raisins” is in the woke category; “the hippocampal theta rhythm seems to be associated with both memory and pathfinding, suggesting an unexpected yet surprisingly compelling relationship between the two” is in the not-woke category, don’t play dumb here. To people in the second camp, my response is: deliberately exaggerated propaganda campaigns are bad and this is a confession, not an excuse. Inability to view science through anything but a political lens was what got us into this problem; doubling down on it is a temporary solution but a recipe for permanent disaster. If you pronounce entire fields of science to be acceptable collateral damage in your campaign against bad political actors, you will alienate not just scientists but patients, clinicians, and general lovers of truth. Instead, you can say the thing you mean - that woke partisans shouldn’t try to occupy and exploit the otherwise-noble science of psychology for their own political gain - and wage the same campaign with a halo rather than a comic-book-villain goatee. From the font of oracular wisdom that is Weird Sun Twitter: [ Vessel Of Spirit@VesselOfSpirit i love you all conditionally but i love the good part of you unconditionally. even if it becomes a very small part 2:11 AM · Jan 22, 2015 1 Reply · 5 Reposts · 29 Likes ](https://x.com/VesselOfSpirit/status/558084551772471298) This is how I feel about psychology1, too, but with a touch more optimism. The good part of psychology is enormous, a hoard of endless treasures. You just have to look past the headlines! 1 To play devil’s advocate - should one always be so magnamious? Astrology? Phrenology? These seem different in that their entire orientation was flawed from the start; they didn’t simply fail to find the correct constellation-personality connections, the whole project of searching for connections between constellations and personality was doomed from the start. More difficult might be asking the same question about education research, which is notoriously bad. I don’t know enough about education research to know if there’s some settled science of correct and enlightening results lurking in the background beyond the day-to-day froth of poorly-conducted and politically-motivated studies. I think if it’s 90% bad, 10% good, it’s correct to call it bad as a compact way of communicating a useful truth; I think psychology is better than that, but admit it’s a tough judgment call.
Scientists Find More Than 1,000 DNA Variants Linked to Personality Traits
More than one million genomes helped identify DNA variants linked to extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism and more. Researchers measured how those traits influenced how people lived.
‘1000-Lb Sisters’ Star Breaks Down in Emotional Health Update
The TLC personality shed tears after Dr. Eric Smith revealed the news.
Former BET host and media personality Angela Stribling dies at 58
Angela Stribling, radio personality and former host of several BET shows, has died. She was 58. Stribling’s husband, Ken Washington, announced the news in an Instagram post shared on her account and in a statement to her longtime Washington, D.C., radio station, WHUR 96.3, on Sept. 27. “It is with a broken heart that I […]
Cardi B Is Using Her Music, Her Business and Her Politics to Express Herself
A shape-shifter with talent and personality to spare, the rapper keeps finding new ways to express herself.
There Are 1,260 Genes That May Be Controlling the Outcome of Your Life, Scientists Say
These genetic variants aren’t a crystal ball, but they can predict personality traits and potential life outcomes.
Pat McAfee was right about Georgia football
The ESPN personality called his own shot on Saturday.
Iconic singer and controversial TV personality dead at 94: ‘Absolutely unforgettable’
She was one of a kind.
‘GMA’ personality Will Reeve shares emotional update on health after cancer diagnosis
‘Good Morning America’ personality Will Reeve gave an emotional update on his health after revealing his testicular cancer diagnosis: ‘I worried about being a burden,’ he explained on ‘GMA.’
Ample Entertainment to launch YouTube channel with designer Nate Berkus
Culver City-based prodco Ample Entertainment has struck a partnership with interior designer, author and TV personality Nate Berkus to launch a new YouTube channel, Nate Berkus Presents. The prodco says it’s ...
Stephen A. Smith's take on Lane Johnson's retirement reason stuns ESPN panel
ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith drew criticism for the way he addressed Eagles lineman Lane Johnson's decision to retire to address his mental health.
What's the 411?
We remember multimedia personality Angela Stibling. She worked for WHUR Radio in Washington D.C., and was a personality on BET. Her velvet voice and warm presence made her standout in
“Dancing With the Stars ”announces beloved late-night personality as newest competitor
The comedian joins Maura Higgins, Ciara Miller, and Jackson Olson in the season 35 cast.
What RTO personality type are you?
Every office has its RTO personalities: the coffee badgers, the midweek warriors, and the 5-day faithfuls.
Everyone Assumes DNA Shapes Your Personality. It Turns Out Something Else Is Doing Most of The Work
Written in genetic code.
Ciara Miller says “DWTS” did not show enough of her personality beyond Bravo’s “Summer House” scandal
Miller and her pro partner, Brandon Armstrong, were eliminated from the competition in week 4.
ESPN, Nick Saban turn 'College GameDay' into political propaganda
As Ted Cruz promoted the Protect College Sports Act on College GameDay, questions emerged about ESPN's role and motives.
WHUR’s Joe Clair Brings Men Together for Honest Conversation About Mental Health
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Saturday, June 13, 2026) — Dozens of men filled the event space at Macy’s Downtown Metro Center Saturday for Well-Dressed Well-Being: A Men’s Mental Health Check-In, an afternoon of powerful storytelling, healing, and honest conversations designed to break the stigma surrounding men’s mental health. Hosted by WHUR 96.3 afternoon personality, comedian, and community advocate Joe Clair, […]
Iconic singer and TV personality dies at 94: ‘Absolutely unforgettable’
A cause of death has not been reported.
Martha Stewart burns Meghan Markle with shady comment about her lifestyle show
Martha Stewart called out Meghan Markle’s lifestyle show, and her transition from actress to royal to TV personality.
Gary Vee’s VeeFriends finds its place in the comic industry at New York Comic Con
In 2021, entrepreneur and internet personality Gary Vaynerchuk, also known as Gary Vee, introduced his new project, VeeFriends, a media and entertainment
Popular College Football Personality Doubts Success For Syracuse Football
One of the most well-known college football personalities discussed the Orange this week.
The art of balancing formal business communication with authenticity
Senior Staff Writer Anna Mammarelli writes that professionalism need not come at the expense of personality.
Politics has become a personality contest. Voters need to look at the record instead
In the age of celebrity politics, judge leaders by actual results. Politics has become a personality contest. That is exactly why voters need to look past the sound bites, and at the record
Natalie Morales Joins Flow Space Women’s Health Summit in L.A.
Natalie Morales, award-winning journalist and TV personality, is joining the lineup of SHE Media’s Flow Space Women’s Health Summit this week. The Flow Space Women’s Health Summit will be held Thursda...
BCM to feature radio personality Dallas Wayne
BRISTOL — Join the Birthplace of Country Music Museum on Tuesday, Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. for their next Speaker Session featuring musician and radio personality Dallas Wayne.
OpenAI’s New Device Will Be Hockey Puck-Sized and Cost Over $300
A highly anticipated new device from OpenAI will have a unique look, complete with moving parts that help give it personality, and likely cost more than $300, according to people familiar with the matter.
Pumpkin disclaimer: personality not included
The scariest thing in the Halloween candy aisle may be that we actually need the fine print regarding faceless Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins.
Maria Bartiromo’s lawyer says she’s ‘still an employee at Fox’ despite network announcement
Fox News personality Maria Bartiromo’s lawyer tells EW she’s ‘still an employee at Fox’ despite the network announcing that she’s ‘no longer with’ the channel.
How Do Scientists Decorate Their Lab Space?
From cherished keepsakes to unexpected collectibles, researchers share the décor that brings personality to their laboratory and workspaces.
Angela Stribling death: TV and radio personality, and talented jazz singer
Pioneering BET host Angela Stribling has died. Stribling was also an accomplished jazz singer and radio personality, who lost a two-year battle with brain cancer.
Toronto Media Personality Brutally Rips Brady Tkachuk
For fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs who aren’t exactly fond of having to play against either one of the Tkachuk brothers, their schedule didn’t get any easier when it was announced that Brady Tkachuk had been traded from one key Atlantic Divisional rival to another.Brady Tkachuk, who was the captain of the rival Ottawa […] The post Toronto Media Personality Brutally Rips Brady Tkachuk appeared first on HEAVY.
Flo Anthony, pioneering Black entertainment journalist and television personality, dies at 74
From Page Six to television and radio, Anthony built a decades-long career covering some of entertainment’s biggest names.
Business Ethics Is a Discipline, Not a Disposition
What does a board director need beyond a moral character? Plenty, writes Ask an Ethicist columnist Vera Cherepanova, who says
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” personality Lucian Piane dies at 46
The music producer appeared in early seasons of “Drag Race” before publicly battling substance abuse and mental health issues.
Buccaneers news: Fans love Jon Gruden's broadcasting booth return
It was the first time in the last eight years that Jon Gruden returned to the broadcasting booth. The former football coach and media personality returned to the NFL booth for the first time since 2018, helping to call the Tampa Bay Buccaneers preseason game vs. the Kansas City Chiefs . Joining Ronde Barber in the booth, Gruden kept the atmosphere […] The post Buccaneers news: Fans love Jon Gruden's broadcasting booth return appeared first on ClutchPoints.
SPECIAL REPORT: Tough Business
A string of vacant restaurant buildings shows that many restaurants in the region are struggling — and several are closing By Stefan Yablonski [caption id=attachment_11132 align=alignright width=401] Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill on Route 31 in Clay closed its doors in April. It had been in operation since at least 2008.[/caption] By their nature, most restaurants have a limited life. An astonishing 60% go out of business within three years of opening, largely due to fundamental flaws in the planning of the operation. But even restaurants that experience years of success almost always face eventual closure. The restaurant business is very hard and because of both personal factors and external factors beyond anyone’s control, restaurants don’t last forever. For many restaurants, age is a big factor, according to Kenneth Walsleben, professor of practice, entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises at Syracuse University. “The owners have been at it for 20 or 25 years, if not longer, they want some time to themselves,” he said. Such was the case for Jocko’s Famous Ritz Diner in Oswego. Jocko Reitz bought the building in the late 1970s from Robert Shapiro. However, when he stepped away from the business, it eventually closed. [caption id=attachment_11142 align=alignright width=402] For nearly 80 years, Vona’s Restaurant passed through three generations of family in Oswego. It closed its doors on Dec. 31, 2025.[/caption] For nearly 80 years, Vona’s passed through three generations of family in Oswego. Vona’s Restaurant officially closed its doors on Dec. 31, 2025, when no family member wanted to take over. It is on the market. The Ruby Tuesday in Oswego operated for about two decades before permanently closing in April 2026. The restaurant faced multiple temporary health department closures in 2024 and 2025 due to persistent fruit fly and foundation pest issues. Management posted a final closure notice on the doors in mid-April 2026 and the building was put up for sale. The same pattern has been happening in Onondaga County. The big building once used by Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill on Route 31 in Clay remains empty, more than six months after the restaurant closed its doors in April. It had been in operation since at least 2008. [caption id=attachment_11130 align=alignright width=401] Ruby Tuesday in Oswego operated for about two decades before permanently closing in April 2026.[/caption] Just down the road from Smokey Bones, the popular Outback Steakhouse closed in August 2024. Another restaurant took its place, La Cocina Mexican Restaurant, but it closed shortly after. The building sits empty. Other very popular restaurants in the northern suburbs of Syracuse have recently closed. Among them, Fireside by the River in Baldwinsville and Primo Nestico’s Bistro Bar in North Syracuse. “I haven’t really paid attention to the Syracuse area. There has always been some turnover, but there probably has never been a tougher time to be a restauranter than now. It’s just brutal,” Walsleben said. In the first year, roughly 20% to 25% of restaurants close or change hands, according to the National Restaurant Association. [caption id=attachment_11122 align=alignright width=401] Outback Steakhouse closed in August 2024. Another restaurant took its place, La Cocina Mexican Restaurant, but it closed shortly after. The building sits empty.[/caption] “Depending on what statistics you look at, you’ll find that any business has a high mortality rate in the first year. That is just the nature of entrepreneurship,” Walsleben said. “There are certain ones that are getting hit hard while others are more fruitful. “And when you look at the restaurant industry you have to factor in labor which is a large part — typically a third of your expenses — and those costs are going up. And there is always turnover which means investing money to train people. Then you’ve got food costs, which is also a third of the typical restaurant budget. Since the pandemic labor has gone up 41%, food costs have gone up 35%. That’s a big tight squeeze righty there. That’s two-thirds of your budget that has gone up 35% to 40% in the last few years. And then the only way you can make that work is to raise the prices.” The National Restaurant Association reports menu prices are up 36% since February of 2020. In a survey released by the association, more than eight in 10 restaurant owners reported that their food, beverage and labor costs are now higher than before the pandemic. You have to deal with the reality of are the customers willing to pay for that? Walsleben added. Restaurants historically have very thin margins; their profit margin is about 5%. “You have a third that goes into food, a third that goes into labor and about 28%, 29% that goes into everything else — overhead, insurance etc. So that brings you down to your 5% leftover,” he said. “Everything is going up. Customer expectations are going up and people aren’t going to spend that much more. So, you have a tight squeeze here,” Walsleben continued. “Restaurants who use delivery apps, they pay a fee to those guys. Those guys don’t work for free. So, you can kind of see where the squeeze comes from.” Stuck in the middle There are pockets of opportunity; the two extremes of the market can make a profit. But the middle gets squeezed out. “If you are a low-end fast-food kind of place, there is room for that. People have changed their budgets. They are still going out, but they are not spending more,” according to Walsleben. “The high end remains positive. If you have a restaurant that brings a specific experience … a great food product or you are catering to high end customers who aren’t so budget conscious, those patrons are going to expect a high-end experience. They expect excellent food every time. They are expecting excellent service. If you can meet those expectations there is room for you at the top. It’s just the guys in the middle are getting the squeeze from both ends. Tough competition, customer expectations, costs are up. Menu items, you can’t raise the prices as much as you need to. That is why you are seeing a lot of restaurants baling out.” The ones that can adapt quickly are the ones who are doing OK. “Success is heavily dependent on the strength of a restaurant’s concept development and the planning of its execution. Eventually things aren’t always new. Things change. So, if you are in the restaurant business you have got to change your menu — keep things new, fresh and update your meals. It is very fickle industry. One year carbs are out, the next year berries are out. Everybody’s diet changes — constantly chasing the latest phase. You have got to adjust your menu and move with those modifications. If you have a static menu that you have used the last couple years that hasn’t changed except for the pricing, you’ve got a problem,” he said. A lot of times these buildings are singular purpose, he added. “You have a commercially viable kitchen and you got a seating area. There is not a lot of other businesses that cater to that type of a layout. So, it’s pretty common to see another restaurant slide in,” he said. One of the things a banker learns early on is you don’t lend money to restaurants … because they fail so quickly. It is very hard to predict who the winners will be. So, if you are a restaurant in addition to all the other challenges, it is very difficult to get loans, according to Walsleben. “You might work really well in the kitchen. But that doesn’t mean you are a great businessperson,” he said. “Restaurants can fail because the owner didn’t know how to manage things properly. There are a lot of challenges. “There is opportunity at the high end and the low end. But in the middle, that’s the death valley. There are just so many things working against you. You really need to have something that will pull people in and continue to pull people in because you to constantly have to change. Think about a theme and a product that is unique to the area people don’t travel that far these days you have to be able to deliver it in an innovative fashion and keep updating to keep people coming in the door.” Out of Business? How Fast? Do nine out of 10 restaurants fail in their first year, as commonly claimed? No. Survival analysis of 1.9 million longitudinal microdata for 81,000 full-service restaurants in a 20-year U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics non public census of business establishments in the western US shows that only 17% of independently owned full-service restaurant startups failed in their first year, compared with 19% for all other service-providing startups, according to ResearchGate. The median lifespan of restaurants is about 4.5 years, slightly longer than that of other service businesses (4.25 years). However, the median lifespan of a restaurant startup with 5 or fewer employees is 3.75 years, slightly shorter than that of other service businesses of the same startup size (4.0 years). What Makes a Restaurant Successful? Opening and maintaining a successful restaurant is not as easy as creating a great menu and serving excellent food. It takes more than that, according to local restaurant owners who have been in business for decades in the region. They all agree that there are some guidelines to running a successful restaurant. • Quality food: Successful restaurants know exactly what they serve and who they serve it to. Delivering the same great taste every single time builds loyal customers. • Smooth operations: Friendly greetings and attentive staff make guests feel welcome from the moment they walk in. Hiring staff for personality and training for skill ensures reliable, caring service. • Smart marketing: Exceptional food and experiences naturally get people talking and sharing online. Word of mouth can help entice customers. Consistent social media and targeted advertising brings in new and repeat guests also. The menu is what keeps patrons coming back to Mimi’s Diner in Fulton, located at 201 N. Second St. “We locally source our produce and our meats. Our chicken and biscuits is a popular, popular special,” said Richard Tagliareni, the third-generation owner and general manager. “It’s all homemade. We have consistently served quality food.” His grandfather started the business more than 55 years ago. Mimi’s is engrained in the community. They cater to the community and are very involved in everything from the schools to local events. The first Mimi’s Drive-In opened in Mexico. Then a second in Oswego and then Fulton. Fulton’s Mimi’s is the only one left. “The last couple of weeks have been kind of slower than normal. October is usually a busier month for us People will start coming back around again. Also, the price of gas is affecting some things,” Tagliareni added. “We try to keep our prices in line. You go out to eat, you’re going to spend about a hundred bucks or so for two people for dinner. You come here to Mimi’s you are probably for two people for dinner it’s between $50 and $60. We are trying to keep our prices in line. We did have to increase our prices a little bit but things are looking OK.” For the Press Box, 29 E. First St., Oswego, it’s also about great food and a family atmosphere. “Our sports bar and restaurant was established in 1984,” said Alison Canale Scanlon, manager. “I think putting the time into everything makes a big difference and treating people like family when they walk into your restaurant. That’s how we have always operated since 1984.” “It’s the family oriented aspect,” she added. “Consistency, quality and presentation of our food — that’s the secret to a successful restaurant. We try to be very consistent with it. We treat people like family when they come in; because we know how we want to be treated when we go to a restaurant. We treat people the same or better.”
Is it your personality or a psychological disorder? TikTok has answers.
Maladaptive daydreaming, obsessional jealousy and misophonia are now topics of study as social media trends force psychiatrists to rethink their diagnostic “bible.”
September 2026: Science history from 50, 100 and 150 years ago
A heavenly read; a 25-foot eye; a case of double personality
Mitchell Robinson Explains What Makes Jalen Brunson a Great Leader
Mitchell Robinson says Jalen Brunson’s focus and personality help set the tone for the defending champion Knicks.
Is Senesi a long-term starter for Spurs?
"He's comfortable playing in a possession-based team, reads the game very well and has the personality to thrive in a demanding environment," Roberto de Zerbi said on Marco Senesi after Tottenham signed the defender in June. Senesi was a big get for Spurs. It was expected Senesi would slot straight into De Zerbi's starting XI - and he did for the Premier League opener away at Brentford.
Lena Dunham welcomes her first baby via surrogacy
(CNN) — Actress and writer Lena Dunham and her husband Luis Felber have welcomed a baby daughter via surrogate.Writing in an op-ed published by Vogue on Wednesday, Dunham, 40, who is best known as the creator of hit TV series “Girls,” revealed that the couple’s first child had arrived 13 days late, before describing the moment of her birth.“I was so focused on our surrogate — in awe at her concentration, her period of quiet followed by what sounded like a roar — I forgot to look down until I heard our baby’s cry,” she wrote.“I saw her face, gasping just as she did. Her eyes, wide and unfocused, taking in the light and shadow, blinking rapidly.”Dunham said she was “bashful and dizzy with joy.”In 2018, Dunham revealed that she’d had a hysterectomy in an attempt to end the pain caused by endometriosis.Endometriosis is a common and often painful condition that happens when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus itself. It’s estimated to affect more than 11% of women between the ages of 15 and 44 across the United States.The surgery removed her cervix and uterus, meaning that she was unable to conceive naturally.On meeting her surrogate, Dunham wrote in the Vogue piece: “While I’ve been known to make friends quickly — airport terminals, veterinary offices — this was the quickest leap from first coffee to gynecological procedure I’d ever done.”Dunham said in the months before the embryo transfer date, as she “got to know our surrogate and to trust her,” she thought she would feel “jealousy” towards her, but she did not.“Instead, I felt a different kind of jealousy — toward said baby, for the chance to be tucked into someone who radiated such safety. I could just tell she knew how to steer an SUV in the snow,” Dunham added.The pregnancy came after “12 years circling the fertility drain,” Dunham wrote, and revealed how she dealt with the nerves of the intervening months.“Powerless and unable to feel the physical changes that signal a growing fetus, I horrified friends and family who adhere to the Jewish superstition prohibiting anticipatory purchases, and I started shopping,” said Dunham, before recounting her journey into the world of baby fashion.“I was looking for garments that allowed her personality to develop and express itself rather than announcing an identity she didn’t yet have,” she said.“She would be a person that we helped to dress, who made an impression on the world based on our choices, until she was old enough to do it herself.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.THE-CNN-WIRE (TM) & © 2026 CABLE NEWS NETWORK, INC., A TIME WARNER COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Overwatch D.Mon interview: Building D.Mon's kit, personality, and mecha fantasy
We interviewed Team 4 about everything D.Mon!
Propane Personality: Lucy Shaffer's path back to the family propane business
Lucy Shaffer, fifth-generation marketing and communications associate at Shaffer's Bottled Gas, shares her journey back to the family propane business.
BET host Angela Stribling dies after brain cancer battle
Angela Stribling, a former host of BET shows and radio personality, has died.
Celtics’ Jayson Tatum Makes Feelings on Mitchell Robinson Clear
Mitchell Robinson has been getting to know his new Boston Celtics teammates over the past few weeks.The veteran big man joined the Celtics earlier this summer, signing a three-year, $47.3 million deal. Robinson is well known for being a big personality, and it would appear that he’s already endearing himself to the rest of the […] The post Celtics’ Jayson Tatum Makes Feelings on Mitchell Robinson Clear appeared first on HEAVY.
Lynn Bartels, ‘Grand Dame’ of Colorado politics, dies
Lynn Bartels, a former Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post reporter celebrated for her dogged reporting, deep sources and infectious personality, has died.
Beloved TV personality dies at 58: ‘She was a sweet soul’
Angela Stribling, a pioneering BET personality and popular radio host, has died at age 58.
Emily Austin Keeps Finding Ways to Become One of Sports’ Most Talked-About Personalities
Emily Austin has figured out something most people in sports media spend years trying to learn. People remember her. The sports broadcaster and personality continues to build an audience across sports, entertainment and social media. Most recently, Austin made headlines after discussing a potential FIFA World Cup event appearance in New York. She has also…
Patriots Coach Jeremy Springer Announces Engagement To NBC Sports Host Kayla Burton
NBC Sports host Kayla Burton is engaged to an NFL coach. The popular Boston-based sports media personality announced her engagement to New England Patriots special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer. The two announced their big news in a joint Instagram post Monday, sharing photos from the NFL ...
‘Drag Race’ personality Lucian Piane dies at 46
‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ music producer and on-air personality Lucian Piane has died at 46, years after he publicly battled substance abuse and mental health issues.
Science Confirms 'Leisure Guilt' Is Real—and You're Likely Wasting Hours on It
A new study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin reveals that Americans spend a full 14 percent of their downtime worrying about productivity instead of resting.
'Dancing With the Stars' announces beloved late-night personality as newest competitor
'Dancing With the Stars' is dipping into the late-night pool for season 35, as the show announced this talk-show mainstay as the newest competitor to join Maura Higgins, Ciara Miller, and more.
NBC 5 to launch new live sports and entertainment show starring Lou Canellis
NBC 5 has announced it will launch Tonight with Lou Canellis presented by Toyota, a live, half-hour weeknight Chicago sports, entertainment, pop culture, and special guests program hosted by veteran Chicago media personality Lou Canellis.
Matthew Berry expanding beyond ‘Fantasy’ with new daily talk show on Roku Channel
Arguably the most well-known fantasy football personality, Berry is shifting from NBC Sports to hub Roku Channel's daily sports lineup.
Natalie Morales Joins Flow Space Women’s Health Summit in L.A.
Natalie Morales, award-winning journalist and TV personality, is joining the lineup of SHE Media's Flow Space Women’s Health Summit on Oct. 15.
Ann Widdecombe: the redoubtable Tory politician turned TV personality
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Everyone Wants to Be Around LSU Football
LSU football suddenly feels like the biggest show in college football. And Brooks Nader is the latest name to join the party. The model and social-media personality was around LSU’s massive season opener against Clemson, joining Livvy Dunne and Theo Von as part of the celebrity presence surrounding Lane Kiffin’s debut. Then LSU went out…
If You Constantly Rearrange Your Furniture, Science Says It Reveals Something Surprising About Your Personality
The room is clean. The dishes are done, the pillows are fluffed, and yet something feels slightly off. Your gaze keeps drifting to the same corner, the same angle, the same arrangement you have stared at for weeks. Then a quiet impulse kicks in – what if the sofa faced the other way? Ten minutes...
Meghan McCain slams Aidy Bryant’s ‘cruel’ impression of her on “SNL”
“I didn’t find it funny,” the conservative personality complained of her portrayal on the show back in 2018.
Egor Dëmin, Michael Porter Jr. Show Off Personalities in 2K
Michael Porter Jr. and Egor Dëmin brought plenty of personality to NBA 2K27’s “Deflected,” answering awkward questions, roasting teammates, and sharing some hilarious stories along the way.
Comedian Ron Bennington Recalls Early Symptoms of Stage 4 Colon Cancer: ‘Sick As I’ve Ever Been’
The radio personality is hosting a new podcast on SiriusXM, “Portcast,” where he interviews fellow comedians while in the hospital for chemotherapy.
‘Now the Worldwide Follower of Sports’ — Ex-ESPN Star Takes Aim at Network’s Massive Paydays for Pat McAfee, Josh Pate, Jason Kelce, and Co.
Dan Le Batard is no longer at ESPN, but he is still watching who the network is building around. The former ESPN personality questioned the company’s direction after listing names who have landed major roles or long-term agreements, including Pat McAfee, Josh Pate, Rich Eisen, Jason Kelce, Peter Schrager, Joe Buck, and Peyton and Eli Manning.
Rattlesnake bite venom is based on their personality
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Purple Row After Dark: Who’s your favorite current Rockie?
Is it the best player on the field or the personality that makes a fan favorite?
The rise of Frank ‘The Tank’ Fleming and the big business of being mad at the Mets
The Barstool Sports personality built a following on Mets misery, and in this woeful season, his anger has resonated with Mets fans.
Oct. 15: Why Feds Are Investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar and Why Science Journalist Cleo Abram is Optimistic about AI
Just weeks before the midterm elections, federal agents searched the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., seizing her phone and issuing around a dozen subpoenas, two people familiar with the DOJ investigation told NBC News. NBC News senior justice reporter Ryan J. Reilly explains how the move fits into a broader trend of the DOJ going after President Trump’s perceived political enemies and why it’s so unusual to launch this kind of probe right before an election. Then, Cleo Abram is a video journalist and the host of the widely popular YouTube series “HUGE* if true” and “HUGE* conversations,” where she looks at the potential and the solutions offered by science and technology. Cleo talks about why she’s still a tech optimist in light of growing AI doomerism and how her interviews with industry leaders have shaped her perspective on security and regulation. Lastly, we wade into the internet’s favorite controversy this week: singer and TV personality Kelly Clarkson’s social media fight with a Brooklyn shop over a mechanical bird. NBC News entertainment correspondent Chloe Melas spills the tea on the back-and-forth – and why the bird is now going for $15 million.
Television Host and Entertainment Journalist Josh McBride signs with WME and secures exclusive Acast partnership as The McBride Rewind podcast accelerates national growth
The McBride Rewind, the celebrity interview podcast hosted by television personality Josh McBride, has signed with WME for representation in all areas and entered into an exclusive partnership with Acast, expanding the show's reach as it continues to gain momentum in the entertainment podcast space.
Popular Syracuse Athletics Personality Accepts New Role in Professional Ranks
Sean Dorcellus is moving on, but where to?
“It’s Ridiculous” – Sports Anchor Issues Furious Response After Massive Brawl Erupts Between Fans In White Sox vs. Mets Game
KDKA-TV sports anchor and internet personality Bob Pompeani issued a scathing attack on a group of fans during the White Sox vs. Mets series finale at Guaranteed Rate Field on Sunday after a massive brawl erupted in the upper deck.
Your personality may be more genetic than scientists realized
More than 1,200 genetic variants have been linked to the Big Five personality traits, and many of the same variants are also associated with health, longevity, careers, income, and everyday habits. The findings reveal a surprisingly wide genetic connection between personality and life outcomes while showing that environment still plays a powerful role.
The Quintessential Trump-era Politician
In 2020, I wrote an article about collaboration and collaborators. The title was History Will Judge the Complicit, and it started with the story of two famous East Germans, Markus Wolf and Wolfgang Leonhard, who both landed in East Berlin just after the end of the war. Although they came from very similar backgrounds, the former stuck with the regime, eventually becoming its spy boss; the latter, horrified by the brutal reality of Soviet-style communism, escaped. By way of juxtaposition, I also wrote about Lyndsey Graham and Mitt Romney. These two men also made very different decisions when confronted by Donald Trump’s assault on the ideals that they had both grown up believing: A glance at their biographies would not have led many to predict what happened next. On paper, Graham would have seemed, in 2016, like the man with deeper ties to the military, to the rule of law, and to an old-fashioned idea of American patriotism and American responsibility in the world. Romney, by contrast, with his shifts between the center and the right, with his multiple careers in business and politics, would have seemed less deeply attached to those same old-fashioned patriotic ideals. Most of us register soldiers as loyal patriots, and management consultants as self-interested. We assume people from small towns in South Carolina are more likely to resist political pressure than people who have lived in many places. Intuitively, we think that loyalty to a particular place implies loyalty to a set of values. But in this case the clichés were wrong. It was Graham who made excuses for Trump’s abuse of power. It was Graham—a JAG Corps lawyer—who downplayed the evidence that the president had attempted to manipulate foreign courts and blackmail a foreign leader into launching a phony investigation into a political rival. It was Graham who abandoned his own stated support for bipartisanship and instead pushed for a hyperpartisan Senate Judiciary Committee investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son. It was Graham who played golf with Trump, who made excuses for him on television, who supported the president even as he slowly destroyed the American alliances—with Europeans, with the Kurds—that Graham had defended all his life. By contrast, it was Romney who, in February, became the only Republican senator to break ranks with his colleagues, voting to impeach the president. “Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office,” he said, is “perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine.” In the wake of Graham’s unexpected death on Saturday, I wrote about him again. He was, in many ways, the quintessential politician of Trump’s Washington, a man who shifted 180 degrees. Graham had been a fervent American patriot, proud reserve officer and military lawyer; he became one of the most important defenders of a president who believes soldiers are “suckers and losers” and shows no respect for law of any kind. As his politics changed, his language grew coarser and his behavior grew worse: He urged Israel to “level the place” in Gaza, and insulted the Danish prime minister in Munich, prompting a colleague, Senator Elissa Slotkin, to issue an apology. Here’s an excerpt from the article, which you can read in The Atlantic (gift link here) Like his close friend John McCain, Graham believed that America should stand at the center of a broad democratic alliance. The few times I met him were in that context, at the Munich Security Conference or at other European-American gatherings, which he once attended with great regularity. He also took seriously the practice of American democracy at home. In a 2014 conversation with The Atlantic, he described himself as a pragmatic politician who eschewed populist slogans. “I know Washington is broken, but what’s broken about it is everybody yelling and nobody trying to fix it,” he said. “I’m trying.” When Donald Trump first appeared in U.S. politics, Graham recognized him immediately for what he was: the spokesman for an alien ideology, one radically different from the idealistic patriotism that Graham had practiced and preached since childhood. Trump privately mocked the military that Graham loved as nothing but “suckers and losers.” He put falsehoods, cynicism, and personal greed at the center of his politics, while expressing disdain for transparency, accountability, and democracy itself. In 2015, Graham described Trump as a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” who should “go to hell.” Also as a “nutjob.” When Trump won, Graham understood, as did so many others, that he would have to make some important choices. For a while, he went silent. In the spring of 2016, I saw him at one of those conferences in Europe. He seemed too depressed to speak. But then, like many other Republicans—and, more important, like many other people who have lived under political occupation or experienced radical regime change—he made the decision to abandon his previous ideals, to bury the patriotism that was once so important to him, and to become, instead, a loud, opportunistic collaborator. As I wrote in 2020, it’s very hard to look in to anyone’s heart and to understand their motivations from the outside. But it does seem that Graham had a deep need to be relevant, to be in the game, to be a player, at any cost. And that, rather than any particular achievement, is what he will be remembered for. Continuing to monitor conflicts of interest, ostentatious emoluments, outright corruption and policy changes that will facilitate outright corruption. (Read my original article, Kleptocracy Inc and check out the SNF Agora Institute chart) June 27 Trump diverted funds from more than 900 projects nationwide—including safety upgrades at national parks—to finance beautification projects around Washington, including $700,000 used to fix a White House walkway. June 28 After a years-long Department of Justice investigation into Abbott Laboratories over its management of a baby formula facility where potentially deadly bacteria turned up enough evidence to criminally charge the firm, top department officials instead opted for a financial penalty—illustrating the department’s move away from strict corporate enforcement under the Trump administration. June 29 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stacked the Defense Policy Board—which is charged with providing independent national security recommendations to the Office of the Secretary of Defense—with Trump allies, including tech billionaire Marc Andreessen, who has invested in defense contractors like OpenAI and SpaceX, after purging the panel last year. Trump purchased between $1 million and $5 million worth of stock in Axon—which makes about 90% of US tasers—two weeks before ICE solicited bids for a $220 million taser contract. The White House unveiled limited-edition US passports for America’s 250th birthday, featuring a portrait of Trump overlaid on the Declaration of Independence. June 30 Trump made around $1.2 billion from his various crypto companies last year, including more than $500 million from World Liberty Financial and $600 million from sales of his meme coin. Trump is considering issuing 250 pardons to commemorate America’s 250th birthday. These are expected to be largely doled out through the Office of the Pardon Attorney’s informal network of intermediaries. White-collar defense attorneys say they can typically win pardons for clients for $2 million. Last year, Trump administration officials awarded a no-bid contract worth up to $500 million to Clark Construction for the White House ballroom—negotiations in which the president was directly involved. July 1 The Amazon MGM Studios documentary about Melania Trump earned the First Lady more than $10 million. Trump made hundreds of individual stock purchases worth as much as $12.8 million the day before his announcement pausing “Liberation Day” tariffs for 90 days sent the S&P 500 soaring nearly 10%—one of the largest single-day gains ever. Mar-a-Lago and Trump National Doral saw record surges in revenue during Trump’s first year in office, earning $77.5 million and $121.9 million respectively, compared to average annual revenues of $25 million and $75 million during Trump’s first term. Entities across the Persian Gulf paid more than $300 million to Trump’s businesses last year, including $263 million from the sale of half his stake in World Liberty Financial to a firm backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a top UAE royal and brother of the country’s president. Kash Patel failed to properly disclose his stock purchase of a Department of Justice contractor, MicroStrategy, worth up to $250,000 last year, despite laws requiring disclosure within 45 days of the trade. July 2 Trump has been directing administration officials to steer more government contracts—so far worth more than $2.4 billion—to Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin aerospace firm, after Amazon gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, donated to the White House ballroom project, and reached a $40 million deal to license a Melania Trump documentary. Alongside the billions he made from cryptocurrency last year, Trump earned millions of dollars from real estate licensing fees, including $21 million from organizations in the UAE and $9.2 million in Saudi Arabia, along with smaller sums from merchandise sales, including $4.7 million from Trump Watches and $35,920 from 45 Guitar, a guitar brand endorsed by the president. House Democrats accused consultants tied to the Trump administration of financial fraud, alleging they gave prospective donors to America250—the bipartisan committee created by Congress to celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial—the banking and routing numbers for Freedom 250, the White House’s fund for events like the UFC cage fight. Democrats also allege that Freedom 250’s CEO traveled to the World Economic Forum in Davos to solicit donations from foreign government officials and business leaders. The Trump administration’s proposed rollback of gun regulations would lift the prohibition on mailing handguns to individuals, a significant win for GrabAGun—the direct-to-consumer firearm retailer on whose board Donald Trump Jr. sits and in which he holds a 1.1% ownership stake. GrabAGun currently must rely on a middleman to transfer firearms to customers. Trump’s financial disclosure revealed that he made more than 21,000 securities trades during his first year back in office, growing his investment account to at least $858 million across stakes in around 1,600 companies, compared to the 13 total trades Joe Biden made during his entire presidency. July 4 Nearly 1 million people who bought the president’s meme coin—Trump Coin—collectively lost $3.8 billion on the token, while he walked away with $636 million. July 6 Shares of Dell closed up 4.4% after Trump recommended people buy the firm’s computers during a speech announcing the launch of Trump investment accounts for children, boosting the more than $1 million worth of shares the president owns in the company. July 9 Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh named crypto investor and Trump ally Marc Andreessen to a task force aimed at modernizing the Federal Reserve, including rethinking its approach to inflation—a key factor keeping interest rates elevated. Palm Beach International Airport has officially changed its name to Trump International Airport—a move that will require Florida to pay royalties to the president’s family for licensing his name. I was there a few months ago, during a trip to Barcelona. The sculptures were a revelation, I’d never seen so many together before. Each one has its own personality. Enjoy the good weather, if you are lucky enough to have it. History Will Judge the Complicit The Quintessential Politician Autocracy Inc Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe